Ronald.phillips

The notorious Emotet malware, in its return after a short hiatus, is now being distributed via Microsoft OneNote email attachments in an attempt to bypass macro-based security restrictions and compromise systems. Emotet, linked to a threat actor tracked as Gold Crestwood, Mummy Spider, or TA542, continues to be a potent and resilient threat despite attempts by law enforcement to take it down. A 

Editor’s Note: This review of Holy Shit! contains some spoilers

Ah, the portapotty, a corporeal nightmare of the modern world. What is more viscerally horrific than a giant plastic box with limited circulation in which one can not only smell but also see in lurid detail the combined blood, shit, and piss of several strangers? For those who would like to explore the depths of their fear regarding these claustrophobic contraptions, boy do I have a film for you. From the bowels of Lukas Rinker comes HOLY SHIT!, a German comedy-thriller about an architect stuck inside an upturned porta potty on an active demolition site. Clocking in at exactly ninety minutes, the film leans fully into the silliness of its premise, sprinkling droplets of campy toilet humor amidst cheek-clenching survival drama.

Largely a one-man show, HOLY SHIT! is carried by the performance of TV actor, Thomas Niehaus, who excellently portrays our doomed architect Frank. With one arm pinned down by a piece of metal scaffolding, Frank’s range of motion is severely limited as he gathers his bearings and attempts to escape. The suspense, though predictable, is revealed gradually through environmental context clues, occasional flashbacks, and ongoing narration of the site demolition by Horst, Frank’s business partner and (spoiler-alert) nemesis.

Horst and his continual monologue are certainly a highlight of the film, striking the comically evil tone of a Scooby-Doo villain. Played by Gedeon Burkhard (who viewers may recognize as one of the basterds from Tarantino’s iconic nazi-killing flick), Horst takes great drunken pleasure in counting down the minutes until the demolition, all the while diabolically taunting Frank and his efforts to escape. It’s a wonder none of the onlookers suspect anything with how pointed his comments are, but hey, this is not a film that demands such scrutiny.

Rinker’s camerawork is snappy and visceral, placing us firmly within Frank’s perspective as he uncovers new clues and struggles to maintain his sanity while managing the pain from his skewered arm. We learn more about Frank’s life, including his prioritization of work over his wife Marie, and his conflict with an environmental activist who opposed his latest architectural venture. His situation then begins to represent a purgatorial reckoning for his misdeeds, and Frank vows to make amends once he escapes. Psychologically aiding him is his subconscious, personified by a sardonic disembodied voice emanating from a toilet lid.

As the clock ticks on, his escape attempts become both more creative and more desperate. Rinker has a knack for finding physical humor and irony in Frank’s various attempts, which break up both the monotony and the relentless gore of the singular set piece. At Frank’s disposal are his watch, the contents of his briefcase, a pickaxe he conveniently finds in his pocket (perhaps, a staple item for architects?), his phone (which fell inside the toilet and is covered in shit), a tape measure, some soap, and a first aid kit attached to the wall of the porta potty. The action teeters on the edge of realism and situational convenience, with notable attempts involving a hungry rabbit roaming around outside the potty as well as the world’s most flammable pair of pants.

With Frank’s time (and my patience) rapidly wearing thin, the film builds plausible tension up until the cartoonish climax, which forgoes any remaining semblance of realism and opts fully for comedic shock value. Delivering twist after labored twist, Rinker seems determined to subvert expectations or cliches. Frank experiences some resolution regarding his relationship with his wife, and a modicum of vengeance is delivered to Horst, but despite this, the ending fails to provide the relief that survival dramas inherently demand when putting their viewers through so much pain. However, I can’t say that HOLY SHIT! is a complete waste. Indeed, my buttcheeks were sufficiently clenched. Let’s just hope that next time, Rinker remembers to not only flush the toilet but spray some air freshener too.

You can stream HOLY SHIT! on March 21st on SCREAMBOX on iOS, Android, Prime Video, Roku, YouTube TV, Samsung, Comcast, Cox, and Screambox.com.

The post [Movie Review] HOLY SHIT! appeared first on Nightmarish Conjurings.

As part of the press tour for his new film "Creed III" -- whose fight scenes bring the franchise into anime territory -- Michael B. Jordan listed his five favorite anime series on BBC Radio 1: "'One Piece,'" "Dragon Ball," "Naruto," "Bleach," and "Hunter x Hunter." These are all worthy picks, even though it "would take the average person over 957 hours ... to complete Jordan's top five anime recommendations," as Isaiah Colbert said at Kotaku. "One Piece" has lasted for over a thousand episodes. "Dragon Ball" remains one of the most popular anime ever. "Naruto" featured some of the wildest fight scenes in anime history, while "Bleach" at its best was just cool. "Hunter x Hunter" is messier, spanning two adaptations and a source comic that has yet to finish. But its creator Yoshiharu Togashi has over 3 million followers on Twitter, and his dedicated fans haven't given up on him yet.

These five shows follow a particular formula. Each is about a boy who wants to become the best at his chosen hobby. He overcomes challenges and makes friends while angling for the top. Eventually, he reaches a plateau, only to realize that even stronger foes lie in wait. This is the bread and butter of shonen anime and manga -- Japanese for boys' comics. It's a structure that makes perfect sense for a boxing film like "Creed III," which by its nature is all about overcoming the limits and fears of the body to win in the ring. But casual filmgoers may not recognize that Jordan's five favorites are linked by theme and publication history. All five started as comics published in Weekly Shonen Jump, the best-selling comics magazine in Japan.

Jump Start

Japanese publishing giant Shueisha launched Shonen Jump in 1968 to compete with Weekly Shonen Sunday ("Urusei Yatsura") and Weekly Shonen Magazine ("Hajime no Ippo.") It distinguished itself from the competition by what Takeo Udagawa, in his cultural history "Manga Zombie," calls the "Great Two" system. The first was "watertight contracts binding artists exclusively to the publication." The second was "comprehensive reader surveys." Each magazine carried a poll in which readers voted for their favorite comics and characters. If artists fared poorly, they had to change or face expulsion. That's not to say Jump was against racy or experimental material. One of its first big hits was "Harenchi Gakuen," a controversial sex comedy by "Devilman" creator Go Nagai. Per Mainichi Daily News, "school PTAs across Japan campaigned strongly against it." But the comic sold well, and kids wrote in to say their parents "were reading much raunchier stuff than [Nagai] was producing."

Jump had other successes in its early days, including the comedy series "Gutsy Frog" and the boxing saga "Ring ni Kakero." But it wasn't until the 1980s that the magazine truly erupted. Akira Toriyama's "Dr. Slump" was the most innovative comedy of its time and inspired a 1981 anime series that lasted for over 200 episodes. In 1983, "Fist of the North Star" combined martial arts with "Mad Max" costuming to phenomenal effect. Then came Toriyama's 1984 series, "Dragon Ball," the blueprint for all subsequent action comics published in the magazine. Its paneling, story structure, and stylized designs inspired a generation of artists. Toriyama himself would always prefer the anarchic "Dr. Slump" to the comparatively structured "Dragon Ball." But there was no doubt what Jump's readers loved best.

Slam Dunk

In the following years, Shonen Jump became a cultural force. 1990's "Slam Dunk" made Japanese teenagers want to play basketball. 1999's "Hikaru no Go" taught kids how to play Go. 2003's "Death Note" led to a moral panic when children started buying death notebooks of their own. Each of these comics inspired anime series that were similarly popular and remain influential today. Last year's "The First Slam Dunk," directed by the comic book's creator Takehiko Inoue, just won animation of the year at the Japan Academy Film Prize Association. A new live-action "Death Note" series is now in the works at Netflix, with the involvement of "Stranger Things" showrunners The Duffer Brothers. Even "Hikaru no Go" was adapted into a terrific Chinese drama in 2020.

Shonen Jump was also exported to the U.S. The very first English-language issue of the magazine was published in 2005, featuring popular series like "One Piece," "YuYu Hakusho," and "Yu-Gi-Oh!" Toonami propelled anime adaptations of "Dragon Ball Z" and "Naruto" to superstar status. Fans watched their favorite shows on television, bought the DVDs, and read collected volumes in the graphic novel section of Borders. (Or they pirated them, but that's another story.) Legal anime streaming became increasingly accessible and inexpensive through sites like Hulu, Funimation, and official YouTube channels. Crunchyroll especially became popular following its transformation from a pirate site to an industry-sanctioned streaming company in 2009. Today, Shonen Jump anime is among their most popular offerings. Crunchyroll listed "Jujutsu Kaisen" and "My Hero Academia" as the most-watched anime on its platform by folks in North America in 2020.

Web Comics

Shonen Jump has continued to evolve in recent years. A mobile app released in 2019 made thousands of issues accessible to readers for just $1.99 a month. While the price increased this year to $2.99 a month, it's still one of the best deals in comics. Many of Jump's biggest contemporary hits, such as "Spy x Family" and "Akane-banashi," hail from the web-based Shonen Jump+ branch rather than the magazine itself. The artist that best embodies the spirit of Jump+ is Tatsuki Fujimoto. While his series "Chainsaw Man" began serialization in the magazine, his debut "Fire Punch" was serialized in Jump+. Fujimoto followed the first part of "Chainsaw Man" with two Jump+ exclusive one-shots, "Look Back" and "Goodbye Eri." After a hiatus, the second part of "Chainsaw Man" has since been released on Jump+. Artists like Fujimoto have benefited from the looser content restrictions of Jump+, allowing for weirder and wilder material that might otherwise be out of place next to "One Piece."

Anime based on Shonen Jump properties have also changed. In the early 2000s, series like "Naruto" and "One Piece" ran for hundreds of episodes alongside the ongoing manga. Today, while some ongoing series like "Boruto" remain, others like "My Hero Academia" are made and released seasonally. The quality of each episode is relatively consistent, and in the case of "One Piece," exceptional. Films based on Shonen Jump properties have also been unusually successful in recent years. "Demon Slayer: Mugen Train" rode the popularity of its previous TV adaptation and the stresses of post-Covid Japan to become 2020's biggest film. While previous Shonen Jump films were non-canonical playgrounds for animators to go wild, "Mugen Train" was a canonical new installment based on manga material.

A Single Genre From A Single Publisher

Considering all this good news, you might question the headline: "A bigger problem? What bigger problem?" I have no bone to pick with Michael B. Jordan's taste. The five series he picked are five of the most successful entertainment franchises. But the manga and anime world has always been broader than Shonen Jump. The best-selling manga series of all time in Japan include "Golgo 13" (Big Comic), "Detective Conan/Case Closed" (Weekly Shonen Sunday), and "Doraemon" (CoroCoro Comic). Not to mention comics published in shojo (girls) magazines, like "Boys Over Flowers." The longest-running anime series in history is not "Naruto" or "One Piece" but "Sazae-san," a gentle family comedy that has aired 2,684 episodes as of January 2023. Shonen Jump remains a big player with many famous and artistically successful anime adaptations to its name. But it is not the only game in town.

By comparison, manga and anime fandom in the U.S. are cast in the image of Shonen Jump. Young millennials grew up watching "Naruto" and "Bleach." These shows have since become nostalgia icons due to careful marketing by companies like Crunchyroll and Toonami. The massive popularity of these series has also led younger audiences to seek them out as their first anime experiences. While some folks eventually move beyond Jump, many are satisfied to live in the house that "Dragon Ball" built. Evan Minto, the co-founder of the online manga service Azuki and an ex-Crunchyroll employee, recently commented on Twitter that "it's wild seeing so much stuff like this where anime basically means a single genre from a single publisher." This raises the question: is America in the middle of an anime boom or a Shonen Jump boom?

Attack On Jump

Before I raise anybody's hackles, I should add that many of the most popular anime abroad has nothing to do with Jump. "Attack on Titan," the series that inaugurated the legal anime streaming boom in 2013, began in the pages of Bessatsu Shonen Magazine. (Shonen Jump rejected his initial one-shot, which I imagine haunts the magazine to this day.) "Fullmetal Alchemist," which began my love affair with anime and manga, ran in Square Enix's Monthly Shonen Gangan. Not to mention "Sailor Moon," which remains a generational touchstone despite being poorly served over the past few years. Or "Pokémon," which is its own beast entirely.

Other mediums have inspired popular anime adaptations in recent years. Light novels, a vein of anime-inspired young adult fiction published in Japan, inspired anime franchises like "Sword Art Online" and "Monogatari." The web fiction site Shosetsuka ni Naro (Let's Become a Novelist!) has been highly influential recently due to high-profile adaptations of "That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime" and "Mushoku Tensei." Crunchyroll partnered with the Korean comics publisher Webtoon to adapt "Tower of God" and "The God of High School" in 2020. Meanwhile, the success of "Castlevania" on Netflix led to a glut of animated video game adaptations. One of these, "Cyberpunk: Edgerunners," walked away with anime of the year at Crunchyroll's 2022 Anime Awards.

Knights Of The Zodiac

Still, "popular anime" is inevitably cast in the mold of Jump: the boy hero who must train rigorously to become the best, make friends and overcome increasingly powerful foes. It doesn't help that anime streaming has a presentist bias. Ongoing series are heavily promoted, while older shows are allowed to sink into obscurity. Outside of "Fullmetal Alchemist" and the rare original series like "Cowboy Bebop," older shows that survive to be marketed to the next generation of anime fans inevitably hail from Shonen Jump. Meanwhile, in comics, bestseller charts are dominated by Jump's catalog. Nineteen of 20 entries in NPD Bookscan's 2022 top-selling manga list are from Shonen Jump. Four of the five manga volumes that made it to The New York Times's graphic books and manga list for February 2023 are Jump comics.

Shonen Jump is, of course, popular outside of the U.S. as well. Per Comics Beat, a 2022 consumer survey by GfK and Livres Hebdo included "One Piece," "Spy x Family," and "Naruto" among France's five most popular manga series of the year. The 1986 anime adaptation of "Saint Seiya," a series about heroes beating each other up while wearing mythological armor, remains a smash hit in Europe and South America. But Shonen Jump did not necessarily mark the beginning of anime fandom in these countries. It was instead 1974's "Heidi, Girl of the Alps," 1976's "3000 Leagues in Search of Mother" and others of their ilk that were first exported to foreign markets. These were not the exciting action series of today. Instead, they were children's stories dubbed into multiple languages as part of Nippon Animation's "World Masterpiece Theater" initiative.

Pressing Buttons

There are reasons to be nervous about Shonen Jump's grip on the imaginations of anime and manga fans abroad. The first and most pressing is the magazine's historical role in corporatizing manga production. In "Manga Zombie," Takeo Udagawa writes manga have always been "works of art and commercial products at one and the same time." Even so, the epochal success of Jump in the '80s represented something new: the mastery of manga as a commercial product, shifting the balance of the whole industry in the process. "The only expertise publishers now cared about was how to sell manga in greater volumes," Udagawa says. "What mattered was pressing the reader's buttons with pinpoint accuracy."

Another reason is that despite its significant female readership, Shonen Jump remains a sexist institution. In 2019, an anonymous Twitter user quoted HR from the magazine's publisher Shueisha. While a woman could be hired as an editor at Shonen Jump, the HR representative said, "You have to understand the hearts of boys." This sounds eerily similar to the words of former Ghibli producer Yoshiaki Nishimura, who told The Guardian that compared to women, "men ... tend to be more idealistic — and fantasy films need that idealistic approach."

Yet both statements are quaint compared to Jump's history. In 2020, "act age" writer Tatsuya Matsuki was charged with committing "a coerced indecent act on a female middle school student." In 2017, "Rurouni Kenshin" creator Nobuhiro Watsuki was charged with possession of child pornography. In 2002, Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro was caught paying a 16-year-old girl for sex. Not only has "One Piece" creator Eiichiro Oda continued to give Watsuki a platform, but Shimabukuro went on to publish popular series like 2008's "Toriko" in the magazine. Only Matsuki has so far been blacklisted.

Friendship, Effort, And Victory

The emphasis on "friendship, effort, and victory" in Shonen Jump inevitably stifle the type of stories that are told. Naruto and his friends might struggle with cruel authority figures in the same way that Deku and his friends discover the contradictions of the superhero world in "My Hero Academia." But these hierarchical systems are almost always proven correct in the end. Naruto learns that his father was the Fourth Hokage and that his journey to becoming Hokage is an act of inheritance rather than an underdog story. Endeavor, the father of Shoto in "My Hero Academia," is introduced as an abusive father only to slowly change his ways throughout the series. While men are allowed to be complex, women are rarely afforded that same privilege. With some exceptions, such as "Jujutsu Kaisen," the bar is on the floor when it comes to the handling of female characters in Shonen Jump comics.

Jump+ has allowed for comparatively varied storytelling. "Akane-banashi," for instance, has a rare female heroine for a Jump comic. The second part of "Chainsaw Man" follows the story of Asa, who is uniquely weird, off-putting, and relatable. (Kotaku's Sisi Jiang called her "the 'femcel' we need, not the one we deserve.") Even so, I can't help but worry about the potential reader who catches up with "Chainsaw Man" only to search in vain for similar comics on the Shonen Jump app that are comparably weird. Sure, Jump's website features "Dandadan" by former Fujimoto assistant Yukinobu Tatsu. Other unconventional titles, like "Takopi's Original Sin" and "Oshi no Ko," may be found on Shueisha's Manga Plus website.

A World Beyond Jump

But the world of manga is so much bigger than "Shonen Jump." You don't need to look that far afield to find comics in the vein of "Chainsaw Man." The work of Shuzo Oshimi, whose breakthrough "Flowers of Evil" was published alongside "Attack on Titan" in Bessatsu Shonen Magazine, is similarly preoccupied with adolescence, sexuality, and the apocalypse. Elsewhere, Weekly Shonen Sunday has been serializing Q Hayashida's "Dai Dark," which features grotesque monster designs and a quirky sense of humor "Chainsaw Man" fans might recognize. Hayashida's earlier series, "Dorohedoro," was adapted into an anime produced by "Chainsaw Man" studio MAPPA in 2020. All of these works are now available in translation for English-speaking audiences. They might not be available in a web app, but you may be able to find them at your local library.

The great strength of Japanese manga is its variety. There are comics about cooking, business management, and soap. There are award-winning series for children and adults filling every possible niche. Many of these do not sell as well as comics published in Shonen Jump or other heavy hitters of the manga industry. But many sell just enough to establish themselves as viable alternatives. Each small success empowers the business as a whole. This same dynamic can be seen in countries like France, where comics are treated as a medium rather than a genre. Shonen Jump is famous there, but they've also published avant-garde artists like Atsushi Kaneko. Not to mention that France has its share of comic legends, including Jacques Tardi and Manu Larcenet.

Death Note

By comparison, the comics industry in the U.S. was heavily damaged by the reign of the Comics Code Authority. It's only in the past decade that a varied, sustainable comics culture has grown up around graphic novels for middle-grade and young adult readers. Of course, these works straddle the boundary between art and commerce that Takeo Udagawa wrote about in "Manga Zombie." But they at least cover a wider range of subject matter and techniques than Shonen Jump. If today's manga publishers want to capture the heart of this new generation raised on Raina Telgemeier and Gene Luen Yang, they should be licensing series beyond the action comics that made Jump famous. Publishers like Seven Seas Entertainment and Denpa Books have been doing just that.

A comics and anime industry built on Jump and its ilk are on borrowed time. "Demon Slayer" and "Jujutsu Kaisen" may be entertaining works of commercial art in their own right. But the commercial and critical success of "Chainsaw Man" abroad indicates fans exist who want something spicier than the magazine's average. Should Shonen Jump fail to meet that demand, these viewers may very well cast Jump aside. The anime world, as well, stands on thin ice. Anime adaptations are as popular as ever, but original series are few and far between. Because conditions in the industry are so bad, there are not enough skilled animators to meet demand. A recent shortage of contract workers has led to several anime series this winter being delayed mid-season. An industry where smaller productions eat each other for resources while larger ones become stultifyingly conservative is no industry at all.

One-Inch Tall Barrier

For manga and anime to truly be viable abroad, they must thrive outside the walls of Shonen Jump. Thankfully, there are comparative examples to draw upon in the manga publishing industry. One of the most popular horror comics artists in the U.S. is Junji Ito, who has transformed from a cult artist to a publishing sensation. Viz has released so much of his back catalog to meet this demand that they've arguably diluted the appeal of his work. Not everything he's produced is at the same level as "Uzumaki," after all. But other publishers like Kodansha have capitalized on Ito's success by publishing work by other Japanese horror artists, including Masaaki Nakayama and Kanako Inuki. Even small publishers like Star Fruit Books have gotten in on the action, returning the likes of Hideshi Hino to print.

In a speech at the 2020 Golden Globes, "Parasite" director Bong Joon-ho said that "once you overcome the one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films." You could say the same for anime and manga. There is so much more on offer than just Shonen Jump. Sure, the app is convenient. I suspect the magazine's editors have more respect for the art form than their harshest critics admit. The best anime adaptations have enough great episodes to dissect for years. Not to mention that revisiting old favorites with friends can be fun in its own right. But Shonen Jump should be the beginning of your journey through the medium, not the end. Great wonders exist elsewhere. You just have to be willing to open the door and travel that world without roads.

Read this next: The Best Anime Of 2022, Ranked

The post Michael B. Jordan's Favorite Anime List Might Be A Sign Of A Bigger Problem appeared first on /Film.

The threat actors behind the CatB ransomware operation have been observed using a technique called DLL search order hijacking to evade detection and launch the payload. CatB, also referred to as CatB99 and Baxtoy, emerged late last year and is said to be an "evolution or direct rebrand" of another ransomware strain known as Pandora based on code-level similarities. It's worth noting that the use

2022 was the year when inflation hit world economies, except in one corner of the global marketplace – stolen data. Ransomware payments fell by over 40% in 2022 compared to 2021. More organisations chose not to pay ransom demands, according to findings by blockchain firm Chainalysis. Nonetheless, stolen data has value beyond a price tag, and in risky ways you may not expect. Evaluating stolen

A new study from the Department of Defense revealed that military pilots and ground crews experienced higher rates of certain cancers compared to the general population. Axios: Earlier military studies had not indicated that aviators were at higher risk, though the data has long been sought by those who raised alarm about the rates of cancer they observed among air and ground crew members, according to AP, which first reported the study. The study examined cancer rates among nearly 900,000 air and ground crew from 1992 to 2017. Overall -- compared to the general population after adjusting for age, sex and race -- aircrews saw a 24% higher rate of cancer of all types while ground crews saw a 3% higher rate of cancer of all types. However, both air and ground crews saw "lower or similar" cancer mortality rates for all cancer types compared to the general population.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This post is part of our Home Remedy Handbook, a tour of the landscape of home remedies from the iffy to the doctor-approved. Read more here.

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The planet is on track for catastrophic warming, but world leaders already have many options to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and protect people, according to a major new climate change report from the United Nations. NPR: The report was drafted by top climate scientists and reviewed by delegates from nearly 200 countries. The authors hope it will provide crucial guidance to politicians around the world ahead of negotiations later this year aimed at reining in climate change. The planet faces an increasingly dire situation, according to the report. Climate change is already disrupting daily life around the world. Extreme weather, including heat waves, droughts, floods, wildfires and hurricanes, is killing and displacing people worldwide, and causing massive economic damage. And the amount of carbon dioxide accumulating in the atmosphere is still rising. "Climate change is a threat to human well-being and planetary health," the report states. "There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all." But there are many choices readily available to policymakers who want to address climate change, the report makes clear. Those choices include straightforward, immediate solutions such as quickly adopting renewable sources of electricity and clamping down on new oil and gas extraction. They are also more aspirational ones, such as investing in research that could one day allow technology to suck carbon dioxide out of the air. The authors of the report are not prescriptive. No solution is held up as the "right" one. [...] The report lays out sobering facts about the state of the Earth's climate. The planet is nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than it was in the late 1800s, and is on track to exceed 5 degrees Fahrenheit of warming by the end of the century, it warns.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This post is part of our Home Remedy Handbook, a tour of the landscape of home remedies from the iffy to the doctor-approved. Read more here.

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Long-time Slashdot reader BonThomme shared this article from Axios: In a story in the Financial Times out Thursday, current and former Silicon Valley Bank employees cited the bank's commitment to remote work as one reason for its failure.... The banking industry has led the return to office charge for a while, and SVB was an outlier in its commitment to something different. The company's career site touted its flexible culture. "If our time working remotely has taught us anything, it's that we can trust our employees to be productive from wherever they work," the site says. The executive team at SVB was spread out around the country, with CEO Greg Becker at times working from Hawaii, according to the FT. Yet, SVB included remote work as a risk to its business in its 2022 annual report — in part because of the IT issues posed when employees are dispersed around the country, but also for productivity reasons. The FDIC, which now runs the bank, told staff they could continue working remotely — except essential workers and branch employees, per Reuters. Axios ultimately blames SVB's run 11 days ago on its panic-inciting public communications about needing to raise capital, combined with its oddly high concentration of tech clients and a portfolio of long-term U.S. treasuries as interest rates rose. "It's certainly possible that if more executives were working in closer proximity those missteps would've been avoided. But it's hard to really know." Yet they warn workplace policies could change simply because the Financial Times ran a piece blaming remote work. "Companies looking for a reason to bring workers back to the office may find it in this piece."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Since 1980, the weekly sketch show "Saturday Night Live" has produced eleven feature films based on its characters. "The Blues Brothers" was released in 1980 and remains one of our favorite "SNL" movies (though it's debatable how much of an "SNL" movie it is with no Lorne Michaels attached). It was another 12 years before another "SNL" movie came out, and it was worth the wait. The 1990s were the heyday for a proliferation "SNL" movies, beginning in 1992 with the beloved "Wayne's World."

The rest of the decade was hit or miss for "SNL" movies in terms of quality. We saw the return of Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtain in the heartwarming "Coneheads." Will Ferrell got his first leading role with "A Night at the Roxbury." There was an awful "Blues Brothers" sequel for some reason. And does anyone even remember they made an entire movie with Julia Sweeney's androgynous character, "It's Pat"?

"SNL" executive producer Lorne Michaels was seemingly out of the movie business at the end of the decade after the Tim Meadows film "The Ladies Man." But a 2009 Pepsi/"SNL" collaboration on a Super Bowl commercial led to the 2010 box office bomb "MacGruber."

Even after eleven movies, we're left with one "what could have been?" One of the show's most popular sketches from the 1990s would have seen Chris Farley, Adam Sandler, and David Spade starring in a feature length movie based on the so-called Gap Girls.

The Sketch Was Rooted In Reality

Whenever my wife jokes with me about eating too much, I growl in my best Chris Farley impersonation, "Lay off me, I'm starving!" The popular Gap Girls sketch featuring Farley, David Spade, and Adam Sandler is memorable enough to be quotable 30 years later. And it almost became "Saturday Night Live's" twelfth movie.

The sketch ran from 1993 to 1995 and had the trio of comedians dressed as women, portraying vapid Gap employees offering terrible fashion advice to customers. Their social lives and gossip took precedence over their jobs, leading to some hilarious moments.

David Spade created the sketch and shared where the inspiration came from while reminiscing with Sandler on his talk show "Lights Out With David Spade" in 2019. The comedian said:

"I wrote that mostly because I went to the Gap in Arizona on Christmas break and I was just standing there and [the employees] were like, 'You weren't in the folding meeting, we're all supposed to be in every folding meeting.' I'm like, there's a folding meeting? ... So I was basically gathering everything they really said and made us do it."

According to Spade, after he and Chris Farley made "Tommy Boy" and "Black Sheep," Lorne Michaels suggested that the popular sketch be made into a feature-length movie.

Unfortunately for all of us, it never happened. In an era where "SNL" was cranking out movies based on a lot less, the question is, why not Gap Girls?

Spade Barely Had Enough Material For The Sketches

Even though David Spade created the Gap Girls sketch, he also takes the blame for why it was never made into a movie. On a 2022 episode of his "Fly On The Wall" podcast, Spade revealed that material for the sketches was hard to come by, let alone enough for a full movie:

"Things [Gap Girls] had against it were me writing it, which was probably the first thing, and then I was running out of sketch ideas that were four minutes long. I remember we did one about 'Jeopardy' because 'Gapardy' just sounded like a funny name for a sketch, but there was no sketch [material]. So I go, 'If me, [Chris] Farley, and Adam [Sandler] are the contestants, it will be funny.'"

With that, sadly, the idea for a Gap Girls movie was permanently shelved. It's hard to know how the beloved sketch would have translated to the big screen. But you have to think that with the chemistry of Spade, Farley, and Sandler in the mid-1990s, it would have found a way to succeed. Taking the Gap Girls outside of the store, like a movie surely would have, often led to the most memorable sketches, including the Gap Girls at the food court.

Spade called Farley's "Lay off me, I'm starving!" moment when the other girls give Cindy a hard time about losing weight "one of my proudest moments of a line I've written, because he did it so great."

With Farley no longer with us and Spade and Sandler well past their "SNL" comedy days, all we're left with are the three seasons of sketches of the Gap Girls. And that leaves us, like, totally sad and stuff you guys, ugh!

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The post David Spade Almost Wrote A Saturday Night Live Gap Girls Movie With Chris Farley & Adam Sandler appeared first on /Film.

We don’t often cover documentaries here, but once in a while a film will cross our paths that it makes sense to discuss. Directors’ Steve J. Adams & Sean Horlor’s new film definitely fits that bill. An exploration of the ‘80s Satanic Panic in the US and Canada with the jumping off point of the wildly influential memoir, Michelle Remembers, Satan Wants You is both a chilling reminder of the era in which these stories were mainstream news and a warning that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. Michelle Remembers was co-written by Michelle Smith and Dr. Lawrence Pazder. It relays in gruesome detail Smith’s alleged ritual abuse at the hands of a Satanic coven in the early ‘60s. Smith recounts gory...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]

The 1994 romantic comedy "Sleep With Me" has largely been forgotten over time, but there's one moment thrown in there that people still remember pretty well. It's that scene where Quentin Tarantino's character gets to go on a drunken monologue about how the film "Top Gun" is actually a story about "a man struggling with his own homosexuality." It might sound ridiculous, but the character lays it out pretty convincingly: The other pilots represent "the gay man" and Maverick is someone who's always getting into trouble for not wanting to "play by the rules." The gay side wins out in the end, which is best shown in that final celebratory scene where Iceman says to Maverick, "You can ride my tail," and Maverick responds, "You can ride mine."

In an interview with Outstanding Screenplays, Tarantino explained how his scene in "Sleep With Me" came about:

"Well me and my buddy Roger Avery kind of — Roger did come up with it first, but back when we were at Video Archives we worked on it, we turned it into a routine that we did at parties. We did it at parties, we did it at gatherings, it was just this routine the two of us did together."

So, Tarantino had an informal stand-up routine at his disposal, one that came in handy on the set of "Sleep With Me" when he was told to improvise something for his scene at the party. "Well, I had that routine ready to go!" he said. "So I just did it and that became a thing." It resulted in a moment Tarantino describes as being "in the same vein" as his "Like a Virgin" monologue in "Reservoir Dogs," although it's safe to say that his "Top Gun" theory is a lot more compelling.

What Inspired The Theory?

Quentin Tarantino's scene in "Sleep With Me" has little to do with the rest of the film, but it sticks with people because, well, "Top Gun" is a surprisingly homoerotic movie. With the not-strictly-necessary shirtless volleyball scene and the "don't tease me"-type throwaway lines, it's not a surprise that a lot of gay men love it. In the 2016 essay, "Top Gun and the End of the Homoerotic Action Movie," film critic Nico Lang described the movie as having "emerged at a fleeting cultural moment in which the action movie could be both very straight — in that all of the characters ostensibly have sex with women — and incredibly gay." The article marvels at how, "Just six years prior to ['Pulp Fiction']'s release, a studio tentpole like 'Top Gun' could be both subtextually queer and yet completely oblivious of its explicit implications."

Even today in 2023, it's rare to see a big blockbuster movie be so comfortable with itself in this manner. For instance, 2015's "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" gave us a wholesome friendship between Finn and Poe. The film's creatives seemed to realize that a portion of the fanbase was interpreting their relationship through a queer lens, so they spent the next two sequels either keeping the pair separated or shoehorning in female love interests for each of them.

Meanwhile, the "Top Gun" creatives have shown a complete lack of defensiveness over potential queer interpretations of the film's characters. Producer Jerry Brookheimer has referred to Tarantino's interpretation as a perfectly valid interpretation, and the popularity of the rant seems to have had zero effect on how the sequel was written. The "Top Gun" movies might not be particularly progressive by most measurements, but the lack of overly-defensive "no homo" vibes is still refreshing to see.

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The post How Quentin Tarantino's Top Gun Rant In Sleep With Me Came To Be appeared first on /Film.

Garrett Morris was a man amongst brats during the first five seasons of "Saturday Night Live." The Juilliard-trained actor was 10 years older than his Baby Boomer costars, and came from the theater instead of comedy. Though he'd written plays, he had virtually no experience penning sketches, which placed him at an immediate disadvantage; ergo, as the series' inaugural season got underway, he struggled to find screen time.

One of the biggest issues was cultural. Morris was the only Black member of the cast. He couldn't relate to his colleagues' life experiences and vice versa. But there was another significant factor: these guys could be real jerks. This was partially a toxic outgrowth of the hyper-competitive atmosphere encouraged by producer Lorne Michaels. The superstar trio of John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, and Bill Murray were known behind the scenes as "the Bully Boys." They could generate their own material, and were so explosively funny that the writers, also desperate to get their work on the air, wanted to write for them.

Morris couldn't find his footing, and when he did hit on an idea that suited him, it often got nixed before rehearsal. On one occasion, however, when he felt he'd conjured a winning sketch, he watched in horror as another writer straight-up stole it.

The Theft Of White Guilt Relief Fund

During an appearance on Dana Carvey and David Spade's podcast "Fly on the Wall," Garrett Morris revealed that a staff writer, whom he would not name, took credit for a bit he'd written called "White Guilt Relief Fund." The sketch was a riff on commercials that try to shame people into making charitable donations. In this instance, the money would go toward assuaging the guilt of white people for their participation in the United States' racist system.

Morris took the idea to Tom Schiller, whose filmed "Schiller's Reel" segments had become a popular part of the show. This proved to be a mistake. As Morris told Carvey and Spade:

"Schiller goes over to the studio and tells it to another guy, whose name I will not call. That guy then writes it down as his idea. When I come over, it's written down and he's not even giving me credit for even contributing!"

Morris was incensed. He was about to confront the writer, who'd become a favorite of Lorne Michaels, when he was offered another role. "Look, I'm a Buddhist," said Morris. "So I don't believe in this or any person or God, but somebody really was in the works who stopped that because I was going to make a serious, serious mistake."

Morris Refused To Name The Culprit, But Dropped An Obvious Hint

Garrett Morris never named the writer, but he tipped his hand considerably when he called him a "Harvard wrestling star." Dana Carvey and David Spade knew right away that he was talking about Al Franken. "Franken has some ground game," said Spade.

Morris stuck with "SNL" until the original cast departed at the end of the fifth season, and scored a breakthrough recurring character with Chico Escuela, a retired New York Mets ballplayer with the catchphrase "Baseball been berry, berry good to me." Esquela became the sports anchor for the "Weekend Update," which probably saved Morris from Lorne Michaels' chopping block.

Tom Schiller and Franken have yet to discuss their role in allegedly stealing Morris' sketch. As for the myriad of indignities Morris suffered on "SNL," they're documented in heartbreaking detail in Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad's "Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live." Morris is a talented performer who deserved better than to get steamrolled by the Bully Boys.

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The post Garrett Morris Didn't Always Get The Credit He Deserved For His SNL Writing appeared first on /Film.

"American Born Chinese" is a great blend of a Disney Channel teen comedy and Marvel action, but with better visuals and more heart than most of the MCU's recent output.

Based on the acclaimed graphic novel of the same name by Gene Luen Yang, the show follows Jin Wang (Ben Wang), a Chinese American teen navigating a world of whiteness. Sure, he fits in fine with his soccer bros, but he also quietly stands aside as they mock the other kids of color, praying he isn't next, just as he brushes off any sign of discomfort as the school becomes obsessed with a TikTok trend mocking a sitcom with a racist Asian character.

Wang does a phenomenal job as Jin, following in the footsteps of the like of Hudson Yang or Frankie Muniz in giving a performance that looks perpetually stressed out and anxious, which only makes for some hilarious comedy. Unsurprisingly, Yin's entire world turns upside down when a teacher assigns him to spend time with the new student, Wei-Chen (Jim Liu), a dorky Taiwanese kid who openly wears robot shirts, brings manga to school and talks about anime and video games in public. 

Thankfully, the script avoids the lazy trope of the dorky loser foreigner. This is not "Perfect Strangers," and Wei-Chen is more than just a kid who reminds Yin of his roots. Instead, Jim Liu is the indisputable breakout star of the first two episodes that were shown at SXSW. Wei-Chen is full of confidence, he is funny and cool, and he can kick all sorts of ass, since he also happens to be the son of Sun Wukong, the Monkey King from "Journey to the West" — a hugely popular novel that has been adapted countless of times, and inspired the landmark anime "Dragon Ball."

A Badass Superhero Origin

"American Born Chinese" is not just a good coming-of-age story, but a rather good Wuxia-inspired epic tale of gods and mortals. The first episode opens with a scene of the Monkey King chasing his son, who has stolen his magical staff and run away. Director Destin Daniel Cretton takes the skills he gained from handling a big Marvel project like "Shang-Chi," but free from the constraints of a big-budget studio movie with ever-changing VFX and other issues, he delivers his most impressive action work to date.

This show looks as good as the best of the recent Marvel shows and films, if not better. The choreography is fluid, easy to follow, and just stunning, while the backgrounds and cinematography are awe-inspiring. As the second episode properly introduces the story going forward, there's a sense of this being something of a superhero origin story, and so far, it works.

It works not only because the fights are cool, but because — like the best Marvel comics used to be — the human drama is compelling. The narrative masterfully weaves together Wei-Chen's mythical adventure with Jin's earthly concerns. It is easy to be engaged by Jin's story, thanks to the careful attention to detail the show gives to creating authenticity. 

There is a specificity to the way Jin talks to his parents, the decoration in their family home, the choice of posters and books in Jin's bedroom, and the way he talks to his friends, all of which shows how much this kind of series has changed since the heyday of The Disney Channel. The microaggressions, bullies, and casual racism aren't relegated to a one-off "special episode," but are woven throughout the entire fabric of the show itself.

A Relatable And Funny Coming-Of-Age Story

Of course, what is a good Disney Channel-like teen show without some laughs? Showrunner Kelvin Yu (who wrote some of the all-time best "Bob's Burgers" episodes like "The Kids Rob a Train" and "Glued, Where's My Bob?") infuses the story with a fantastic sense of humor. "American Born Chinese" is very funny, and it is self-deprecating without being mean, broad without being dumb, and specific without being alienating.

When Disney+ was first announced, it rode on the promise that audiences would get their favorite franchises under one roof, that they'd get new streaming-exclusive "Star Wars" and Marvel shows and maybe movies. "American Born Chinese" is proof that the service can and should be much more. This is the kind of teen coming-of-age tale that couldn't have worked at any other point in history than today, and it could only be done justice in streaming. 

"American Born Chinese" premieres on Disney+ on May 24, 2023. 

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The post American Born Chinese Review: An Action Packed, Funny, and Relatable Coming-of-Age TV Show [SXSW 2023] appeared first on /Film.

"John Wick: Chapter 4" is set to debut in theaters next week, and in his review, /Film's Jacob Hall has already praised the film for adding to the franchise in a major way, with "more world-building, bigger action, and a deeper embrace of what its leading man does well." While the latest film reportedly tops the rest of the Keanu Reeves-led franchise in terms of creative and mind-boggling action sequences, it's also a project that has now become heartbreaking in the wake of today's news about the passing of franchise actor Lance Reddick. This afternoon, Reeves and director Chad Stahelski released a statement in which they confirmed that the new movie will be dedicated to Reddick's memory.

While it's surreal to think about in light of the sad news, /Film's Vanessa Armstrong actually spoke with Reddick recently about his turn in the new film, where he reprised his role as Continental hotel manager Charon. During the interview, Armstrong spoke with Reddick about how he perfected Charon's Kenyan accent, a story that traces back to early in the actor's career.

The Actor Had A Collection Of Accent Tapes

"It said 'African accent' in the script," Reddick recalled, in reference to 2014's "John Wick." He continued: "It didn't specify which one. And also remember, I didn't have a lot of time to prepare. I think I had less than a week between the time that I got the offer and the time that I shot my stuff in the first film." While he didn't know it at the time, in 2021 Reddick told Vulture that he "found out later that the role was kind of written for [him]." He was intrigued about the part, not because of the film's butt-kicking premise, but because he was excited by "the opportunity to play this quintessential gentleman with an African accent," as he told the outlet.

The actor had a tight turnaround from prep to shooting, but luckily, he kept what he called "accent tapes," recordings of voices he's done for past performances. "So I went through my accent tapes, and I tried a South African accent, and it didn't seem to fit," he told /Film. "Then I tried a Kenyan accent, and that seemed to really fit. The funny thing about that is that when I taped that Kenyan accent, that was for a film that I did [about] 25 years ago called 'I Dreamed of Africa.'" The movie in question was released in 2000 to little fanfare and was only the fourth movie on Reddick's resume. "I Dreamed Of Africa" told the true story of Italian writer and conservationist Kuki Gallmann, who moved to a Kenyan ranch in the 1970s.

'It Served Me In This'

Not only did Reddick keep records of his past accent work, but he apparently even included recordings of voice work he didn't end up using. As he told /Film, "I got the role [in 'I Dreamed of Africa'] before I got the script, and then once I got the script for that film, I realized that all my stuff was going to be in Swahili." The Kenyan accent then, as he pointed out, "wasn't really going to help" him. But it came in handy years later when he became the discreet and powerful purveyor of the assassin hotel where John Wick (Reeves) and his associates often find themselves.

The full circle moment wasn't lost on Reddick. "It's just really cool that I was able to use that from 20 years earlier, that accent, and it served me in this," he said. With news of his passing fresh on everyone's mind here at /Film, it's hard not to imagine all the voice tapes the actor should've been able to make — and to get upset thinking about how Reddick's career showed no signs of stopping. Regardless, we're thankful to Lance Reddick for taking the time to share the story with us, and for sharing so many great performances with the world over the past three decades.

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The post Lance Reddick Had Already Perfected Charon's Voice 20 Years Before John Wick appeared first on /Film.

There is no talk show guest experience like going on Adult Swim's "The Eric Andre Show." Andre, a surrealist prankster comedian whose antics regularly offend, does his best to terrify and torture his guests on the talk show from Hell. There have been some memorable interviewees who managed to get on the same weird, Dadaist level as Andre, like rapper Tyler, the Creator and skateboarder Tony Hawk, but no one expected "The Wire" star Lance Reddick to sit down in the stuffy warehouse and put up with the show's bizarre gauntlet. His appearance on the 2013 episode of the late-night series was pretty unexpected in and of itself, but his actions in the episode are even more surprising. Reddick not only punches Andre's desk and storms off, he then comes back dressed in rags with chains, a visor, and a Starfleet communicator badge on his bare chest. The actor always commits completely to a role, but it's truly wild to see him commit to a truly ridiculous comedy bit with the same passion. 

Reddick has died at the age of 60, and fans everywhere are posting the video of his appearance on "The Eric Andre Show" to honor his ability to absolutely nail every task he set himself to. In an interview with Jim Norton and Sam Roberts of the "Jim and Sam Show" on SiriusXM, Reddick explained how the whole bit came to be, and it makes the whole thing even more incredible. 

Giving The Host A Little Scare

Reddick explained that he got the offer to do the show and had never heard of it, so he went online to check it out and was understandably confused. For those who have not seen Andre's bonkers bits, it's sort of one-part "The Tom Green Show" and one part "Jackass," and most of the jokes are born out of pure absurdity. It's not the kind of thing actors of Reddick's stature tend to tackle, but he was intrigued. After talking to some friends and being convinced, he and Andre got on the phone to discuss bits. That's a pretty big deal for Andre, who likes to shock his guests, but apparently, Reddick was given a lot of control:

"I get there that day and all that stuff goes out the window. So then he decides, 'Oh, let's try this.' So that's literally in the dressing room, like I don't know, 15, 20 minutes before I'm supposed to go out there he pitches me this LeVar Burton thing. And he hands me some stuff, he said, 'Kinda say this stuff, but you can ad-lib too. So, and the moment — I mean, there was some crazy stuff that didn't even get on. Like, for example, at one point he had an exercise video on a television screen playing and he wanted me to be sitting in the chair kinda trying to do the exercises with the video. And the getting angry thing, he said, 'On the next take just get pissed off and walk away.' And then — I mean, to slam the desk, that was just spontaneous."

There are only a few times where Andre has seemed genuinely startled or frightened by his guest's reactions, but Reddick slamming the desk is definitely one of them. 

Next-Level Ad-Libs

After Reddick storms off, he comes back in a LeVar Burton-inspired get-up and goes on a wild riff, yelling about how he wants his own slave role. It's, uh, a lot, but Reddick viewed it as just another role to take on:

"I mean, I am a bit of a clown, so I love that kind of stuff. I mean, my background is traditional theater, not sketch comedy. So I'm always a little nervous about being asked spontaneously to improvise. But generally if I just kind of say — can you say swear words here? Okay great. So if I just, part of me says f*** it and just kind of jump off, I'm fine."

The initial idea and costuming were Andre's, but everything else was all Reddick. The swearing, the wild ad-libs (including "you need a new table" right after slamming it), and the pure intensity were the performer leaning into the wildness of the setting. Even "don't rainbow read me" was ad-libbed, and that's some seriously funny s***. Lance Reddick could do anything, and he will be deeply missed. 

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The post The Full History Of Lance Reddick's Unforgettable Eric Andre Interview appeared first on /Film.

Sometimes you read a headline that feels so impossibly off-balance with the world, you can't help but wonder if you're living in a simulation or the world's worst season of "The Truman Show." Today was one of those days, as we tragically lost Lance Reddick, one of the most remarkable figures in film and television. Reddick was best known for playing Cedric Daniels on the hit HBO series "The Wire," which led to a fruitful career playing other authority figures because no one on the planet can pull off a uniform quite like he could.

But Lance Reddick was so much more than a cool bald guy in a freshly-pressed suit with optional wire-rim glasses. The man was also a formidable presence in genre projects, both big and small. He was one of those performers who could elevate any story simply by being on screen, exuding an immeasurable amount of charisma that turned any character into an instant favorite. Whether it was a micro-budget horror movie that no one actually saw outside of a festival run or bringing to life characters in video games like "Horizon: Forbidden West," Reddick's fanbase spanned multiple generations and demographics. 

He was that damn cool.

A Staple Of Genre-Bending Indie Films

2014 was a huge year for Lance Reddick. He appeared in a small but mighty role in Riley Stearns' feature film debut, "Faults," before absolutely blowing everyone away as Major Richard Carver in Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett's cult hit, "The Guest." I caught the film in theaters, having had to drive nearly an hour away to do so, and immediately fell in love with the genre-bending thriller. But a moment that is forever etched in my brain was when Reddick shows up at the Peterson family home for the first time with an armed team, and there's a firefight. One of my fellow audience members, some random dude from Nowheresville, Ohio, erupted in his seat, screaming, "What a f***ing badass!"

God, was he ever right. Lance Reddick maintained a strong reputation as a force in independent genre films, later appearing in the grisly, weirdly underseen "Monster Party" as the leader of a group of recovering serial killers. He would often play roles of dominance, like Officer Carter in Nia DaCosta's debut feature, "Little Woods," or his hilarious turn as Pastor Mike in the comedy flick, "Faith Based." That was the magic of a guy like Lance Reddick. He could be given a character description of a dangerous military leader trying to subdue his own illegally failed experiment and turn him into a hero, or provide an empathetic approach to healing to people often viewed by society as nothing more than monsters, and have us rooting for his survival and success. No matter what the role called for, Reddick would have the audience enraptured.

A Terrific TV Presence

After his fantastic turn on "The Wire," Reddick appeared on the sci-fi series "Fringe" as Homeland Security Special Agent and head of the Fringe division, Phillip Broyles. While the role allowed Reddick to continue playing to his strengths as an authority figure, the world of "Fringe" dealt with parallel universes, alternate versions of characters, and unexplainable phenomena. The series always ran the risk of going off the rails given its otherworldly storylines, but Reddick expertly kept the show grounded and human. 

You'd be forgiven if you didn't recognize Reddick in the hit series "American Horror Story," as he completely transformed himself into Papa Legba, the Gatekeeper of the Spirit World. Based on the very real figure from the Haitian Vodou religion, the character appeared in the "Coven" and "Apocalypse" seasons, and Reddick was absolutely mesmerizing. These were seasons dealing with serial killers, witchcraft, a Frankensteined Evan Peters, and a Kathy Bates Terminator, but Papa Legba was the one giving fans nightmares. Grim Reaper, eat your heart out.

Most recently, Reddick took on a certifiable horror heavy hitter by tackling the role of Albert Wesker in the Netflix "Resident Evil" series. The show was tragically cut short after one season, but Reddick's handling of the character was universally praised. Wesker runs the risk of feeling like a stock, almost robotic '80s action villain, but Reddick completely transformed him into a deep, layered, and complicated figure. The show would not have worked without his inspired casting. And because Lance Reddick could do literally anything, he was also an absolute force on "The Legend of Vox Machina," the animated adaptation of the first campaign of "Critical Role." Reddick voiced the mad red dragon Thordak, striking fear into the hearts of anyone who crossed him.

A Blockbuster Badass

Lance Reddick delivered consistently great performances in films and TV shows across a multitude of budgets, and by all accounts, was an absolute delight to be around on set. It's this stellar reputation across the board that helped him gain roles in big-budget blockbusters (like the "White House Down" and "Angel Has Fallen"), but if they had a genre spin to them, he might as well have been a secret weapon. 2014 wasn't just the year of "Faults" and "The Guest," it was also the year of the first "John Wick." At the time, the Keanu Reeves action flick was supposed to be a cool, one-off picture, but has since blossomed into one of the most consistently kick-ass film franchises in history. Reddick has played Charon in all four "John Wick" films, and is also slated to posthumously appear in the spin-off, "Ballerina." 

Reddick reunited with "The Guest" director Adam Wingard when he was cast as Guillermin in "Godzilla vs. Kong," with his cameo appearance ultimately the result of necessary edits. But, considering Reddick is as captivating as always, I actively cheered when he showed up on the screen, as did plenty of others watching from the back of their truck flatbeds at the drive-in. There was no one like Lance Reddick and the world of genre entertainment is better because of his inclusion. There was no such thing as a mediocre Lance Reddick performance, even if the film or series had much to be desired. Sometime next year, things will be bittersweet when he appears in the Disney+ series "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" as the all-powerful God, Zeus. Reddick has consistently stolen scenes throughout his career, and a role like Zeus was a character finally big enough to match the worth of his gifts.Things just won't be the same without him.

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The post Lance Reddick Was Every Genre Project's Secret Weapon appeared first on /Film.

The world is mourning today as news has broken that actor Lance Reddick, star of a wide range of acclaimed projects including "Fringe" and the "John Wick" series, has died at the age of 60. With three decades' worth of iconic roles to be remembered by, Reddick's memory will surely live on a little bit differently for all of us, but there's one role more than any other that's become an integral part not just of his filmography, but of television history: that of Baltimore Police Lieutenant Cedric Daniels on "The Wire."

Reddick played Daniels for five seasons on David Simon's HBO show, which is often regarded as one of the best TV shows of all time. The show about Baltimore's street life and police department had a massive, sprawling cast of characters, yet Reddick's Daniels stood out from the crowd. Easier to root for than the protagonist McNulty (Dominic West), Daniels was often the assured moral backbone of a show about noble criminals and dirty cops. It's a role he was beloved for, and it was also one that he never stopped going on the record to share his love for, even going on fifteen years after it ended.

'It's An Iconic Piece Of History'

Speaking to GQ in 2019, Reddick assured his interviewer that he wasn't sick of talking about "The Wire" yet: "You know, it's an iconic piece of history and I feel very fortunate and proud of the work we did with that." He also talked about the unusual way the show gained viewers, becoming a phenomenon in other countries before it was big in America and adding to its audience over time as its seasons were released on home video.

"It's one of the only shows that I know of that got bigger and reached its widest audience not because of promotion or awards or just sheer popular appeal while they're on," Reddick mused. "'The Wire' didn't have any of those things, but it was so freaking good that it was able to succeed anyways." Despite now being regarded by many as 'the great American novel on TV,' "The Wire" was in many ways ignored upon initial release. The dense, mosaic-like drama only earned two Emmy nominations over the course of its run, and didn't win either of them. But it ultimately reached audiences that were passionate about it. 

"It came out right when DVDs and binging television shows started to become the rage," Reddick told GQ. "It really became a worldwide phenomenon through people sharing the DVDs all over the world." The actor noted that the show, which he points out was almost cancelled twice, was "huge in Sweden and the United Kingdom before it was big here," and says that everyone didn't really begin to talk about it until its final season.

'I Was Hoping I Wasn't Dreaming'

Despite his jam-packed schedule -- the actor did voice work on several ongoing series and will appear in major upcoming releases like the remake of "White Men Can't Jump," the Disney+ adaptation of "Percy Jackson and the Olympians," and the John Wick spin-off "Ballerina" -- Reddick often took the time to speak about "The Wire" in interviews. "To this day, it's the only pilot I've ever read that I thought, 'I have to be on this show,'" Reddick told The Hollywood Reporter in 2019. Remembering the moment he found out he got the part, the actor said, "it was the first time where something happened in my life where I was hoping I wasn't dreaming."

Fans of "The Wire" can find Reddick's testimony about his love for the show all over the internet, from the "That Scene With Dan Patrick" podcast, in which he talks about David Simon telling him about Daniels' 60-episode arc back in season one, to Entertainment Weekly's YouTube page, where he broke down the best episodes of "The Wire" via Zoom in 2020. He even confessed to Vulture that he figured he got his part in "John Wick" thanks to his turn in "The Wire" (it was actually "Fringe"). 

Over the years, Reddick continued to talk about "The Wire" with depth and obvious appreciation for the show that gave him one of his deepest and most appreciated roles. No matter how many other characters he took on, for a certain group of fervent TV fans, the actor was always and will always be Lieutenant-turned-Commissioner Daniels, the stalwart, no-BS guiding force behind "The Wire."

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The post Lance Reddick Never Got Tired Of Talking About The Wire appeared first on /Film.

"It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" fans are pretty die-hard, and love even the most unlovable episodes, but one that tends to come up again and again when debating the worst episode is "Frank's Brother," from season 7. 

The episode is almost entirely told via flashbacks and voiceover from Frank (Danny DeVito) and his brother Gino (Jon Polito), and their view of the past is pretty prejudiced and based in stereotypes, but one character they encounter is a real standout. Serious dramatic actor Lance Reddick, who starred in everything ranging from "The Wire" to the "John Wick" films, appears as Reggie, the owner of a Black jazz club in the 1960s that hires both Frank and Gino. Lance Reddick is one of those actors who shows up and immediately improves whatever he's been cast in, and in the case of "Frank's Brother," he turns the whole thing from a slightly cringey pastiche of 1960s and '70s crime cinema into a genuinely funny riff on certain kinds of Black characters from the period. 

I absolutely love "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" and there are parts of "Frank's Brother" that kind of work, but Reddick as the menacing, mustachioed Reggie held it all together. Reddick gets to play Reggie as an angry Blaxploitation-style club owner who calls his women his b****es, a Civil Rights radical, and a member of the Nation of Islam, going from one stereotype to another but playing them both with typical Reddick fierceness. "Frank's Brother" might be kind of a mess, but Reddick (and Reggie) are fantastic. 

Exposing His Funny Bone

In "Frank's Brother," Frank and Gino end up warring over a singer named Shadynasty (Naturi Naughton) because they both fall in love with her. The thing is that Reggie is also in love with Shadynasty (pronounced shah-die-nusty, if you're curious), but he keeps getting arrested as a result of all of the shenanigans happening in their club. Gino and Frank, meanwhile, are free men because they're white and aren't targeted by the police. They make a joke about "hey, it's the '60s" but, as the end of the episode shows, that kind of discrimination is still alive today. Reggie, for his part, is a strong and powerful man with a bad temper who ends up finding something to keep him going with the Black Power movement, even though he ends up separated from Shadynasty once more. 

Reddick's portrayal of the character is pitch-perfect, because the entire story is being told through Frank and Gino's eyes. The gang on "It's Always Sunny" tend to view the world through pop culture-tinted glasses, and their memories of the 1960s and '70s being so stereotypical and movie-like is pretty on-brand for them. Reddick leans into it, giving a performance that's both intense and absolutely hilarious. He manages to encompass numerous stereotypes and tropes in a single character, but plays it with such sincerity that the comedy of it actually works. 

Playing Silly Completely Straight

One of the best things about "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" is seeing normal people interact with the gang. Even when they're the memories of normal folks, they're still going to be shocked by the antics of the Paddy's Pub crew. Because the gang are so darn ridiculous, there are only a few other characters in their orbit that can be as ridiculous or the comedy won't work; every good jokester needs a straight man to play off of. Reddick's Reggie is one of the best to ever endure the nonsense of the gang -- or at least of its patriarch, Frank. Seeing the traditionally dramatic actor let loose and get weird with it is truly a shot of sheer joy in an otherwise muddled episode, and it's a shame we didn't get to see Reddick show off his comedy skills more often. 

Sadly, the actor has died at the age of 60, taking all of his incredible talents and presence with him. Reddick may be remembered for many of his more serious roles, but there will always be a special place in my heart for Reggie. "Frank's Brother" may be one of the worst "It's Always Sunny" episodes, but Reggie is one of the greats. 

Read this next: 12 Underrated Sitcoms That You Should Check Out

The post Lance Reddick Was The Best Part of The Worst Episode of It's Always Sunny appeared first on /Film.

Sam Neill, star of movies such as "Jurassic Park" and "The Hunt for Red October," as well as all around multinational treasure, has revealed that he has been dealing with cancer. According to The Guardian, the 75-year-old actor disclosed this information in his upcoming memoir, "Did I Ever Tell You This?" The good news is that Neill is currently cancer free and is in remission.

Per the outlet, Neill underwent treatment for stage-three blood cancer after noticing that he had swollen glands while promoting "Jurassic World Dominion" last year. He received a diagnosis of angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma and was treated with chemotherapy. That didn't totally do the trick and Neill is now taking a chemotherapy drug that he will receive monthly in perpetuity. But, most importantly, he is, at present, cancer free. The memoir, ultimately, started as a way for Neill to keep himself busy during a troubling time, although he didn't set out to write one. He explained:

"I never had any intention to write a book. But as I went on and kept writing, I realized it was actually sort of giving me a reason to live and I would go to bed thinking, 'I'll write about that tomorrow ... that will entertain me.' And so it was a lifesaver really, because I couldn't have gone through that with nothing to do, you know."

Just Pleased To Be Alive

With a career that dates back to the early '70s, Sam Neill has had a major presence on screen in both movies and TV for the better part of 50 years. Audiences around the world know him as Alan Grant from the "Jurassic Park" films, but that is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to his incredible career. Some of his pre-Alan Grant credits include "Dead Calm" and "Possession." He also starred in John Carpenter's cult classic "In the Mouth of Madness," the sci-fi favorite "Event Horizon," and the hit series "Peaky Blinders."

And that really is just scratching the surface, as Neill has more than 150 acting credits to his name. Well into his 70s, he has no desire to slow down, it seems -- cancer be damned. Speaking further, Neill explained that there were rough moments over the last year, but it all helped to lend some perspective:

"I can't pretend that the last year hasn't had its dark moments. But those dark moments throw the light into sharp relief, you know, and have made me grateful for every day and immensely grateful for all my friends. Just pleased to be alive."

"Did I Ever Tell You This?" is set to hit shelves on March 21, 2023.

Read this next: The Best Sci-Fi Movies Of 2022, Ranked

The post Jurassic Park's Sam Neill Was Treated For Stage 3 Cancer, But is in Remission appeared first on /Film.

Lance Reddick, the iconic actor playing in HBO's The Wire, John Wick and voicing Horizon's Sylens and Destiny's Zavala, has reportedly passed away at 60.

This sad news comes via The Daily Mail and TMZ with the latter reporting that law enforcement has told the outlet that the body of the American actor was found at his Studio City home earlier this morning. Although the cause of death is unclear, TMZ reports that it appears to be a natural cause. The Daily Mail writes that the actor posted a picture of himself with his dog on Instagram only yesterday.

Aside from playing in HBO's popular The Wire series, Reddick was known for portraying Phillip Broyles in J. J. Abrams' popular science-fiction TV series, Fringe. Fans will remember the iconic actor as Charon - the concierge at the Continental Hotel's New York City establishment - in the John Wick series. The actor was currently doing a press tour for John Wick: Chapter 4 ahead of the movie's debut next week.

As said, gamers will know Reddick was his role as Sylens in both Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West. Back in September of last year, the actor took to Twitter to seemingly tease a motion capture session for Forbidden West DLC - the Burning Shores expansion for Forbidden West was officially announced in December of last year.

Destiny players will remember Reddick from voicing Commander Zavala - the Awoken Guardian and current Titan Vanguard of The Tower.

In addition to the above roles, Reddick also did the motion capture and voice performance for Martin Hatch in Remedy's Quantum Break.

We'll update you as soon as more information about this tragic news comes in.

The post Lance Reddick, Destiny’s Commander Zavala and Horizon’s Sylens, Passes Away at 60, Report Claims by Aernout van de Velde appeared first on Wccftech.

With heartfelt horror master Mike Flanagan in charge, fans might finally get the adaptation of Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" novels that they've been wanting for decades now. In December, news broke that Flanagan now has the rights to the books -- and King's blessing -- along with plans to make a TV show version of the long-running literary property. While the project still seems to be on the distant horizon, Flanagan has since revealed to the Script Apart podcast (via Empire) that he's considering weaving in characters from another King book: "Doctor Sleep."

Flanagan directed an adaptation of King's sequel to "The Shining" in 2019, introducing viewers to a psychic cult called the True Knot and its leader, Rose The Hat (Rebecca Ferguson), along with a traumatized, grown-up Danny Torrance (Ewan McGregor). As King superfan Flanagan pointed out on Script Apart, there's plenty of precedent for overlap between "The Dark Tower" stories and other King properties. "The thing about the King universe is, it's all connected," Flanagan explained. "And the nexus point of those connections is 'The Dark Tower.'" He cited "Doctor Sleep" as an example of a story that might "seamlessly dovetail" into the upcoming adaptation.

'There Might Be Room For Danny Torrance'

Mike Flanagan noted that other Kingverse characters canonically appear in "The Dark Tower," including some with connections to the True Knot. "There's a character in The Dark Tower named Dandelo, who I think is a cousin of the True Knot, who's this emotional vampire but who feeds on laughter instead of fear," Flanagan pointed out. "But there's room in that world for the True Knot themselves, there's room for Rose The Hat. There might be room for Danny Torrance." The "Gerald's Game" director also mentioned Abra Stone, the shine-possessing girl played by Kyliegh Curran, as a character who would be "really interesting" as a Breaker: one of a group of psychics who appears in "The Dark Tower."

Lest fellow Stephen King aficionados worry that Flanagan is going off book here, he's right that "The Dark Tower" has connections to many, many other works by the horror maestro. Essentially a multiverse-spanning series, King himself has cited connections between the main villain of "The Dark Tower" and "The Stand" and his other most infamous villain, Pennywise. As Flanagan observed, "'Doctor Sleep' was written after 'The Dark Tower' was finished," which may well be the only reason the two don't have more crossovers.

We're Long Overdue For An In-Depth King Multiverse Adaptation

As is, though, Stephen King clearly had some overlap in mind when writing "Doctor Sleep." The book pulls a line directly from "The Dark Tower," when Danny Torrance says, "There are other worlds than these." As Mike Flanagan pointed out, his adaptation made the connection explicit, with Dick Halloran's ghost (Carl Lumbly) invoking a metaphysical concept from the other series when he says, "Ka is a wheel."

Hopefully, Flanagan's spin on the King multiverse will last longer than the previous attempt to fuse together several King-inspired stories: Hulu's great but short-lived series "Castle Rock." It doesn't even exist yet, but it's also safe to say the series will be better than 2017's unimaginative "The Dark Tower" movie, which Flanagan admitted "kind of salted the Earth for anyone else who wanted to plant something under the 'Dark Tower' banner for who knows how long."

Hollywood may not be chomping at the bit for another version of "The Dark Tower," but King fans certainly are, and Flanagan seems to be the perfect man for the job. "There's all kinds of stuff that could be amazing, if we're able to get that property on its feet," he told Script Apart. We can't wait to see it.

Read this next: All 59 Stephen King Movies Ranked From Worst To Best

The post Mike Flanagan Might Include Characters from Doctor Sleep in His Dark Tower Adaptation appeared first on /Film.

The following post contains spoilers for "The Mandalorian."

In the latest episode of "The Mandalorian," Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) has redeemed himself in the eyes of his sect's spiritual leader, the Armorer (Emily Swallow). Din, of course, became an apostate after removing his helmet, something the Mandalorians of his sect are forbidden to do once they don it in a ceremony we witnessed this season. To remedy his state, the Armorer told him he must bathe in the living waters in the Mines of Mandalore. Of course, she didn't think Din could do it, as the planet is supposedly still ruined after the events of the Night of a Thousand Tears. 

Though it is destroyed, the air is now breathable, and Din, Grogu, and Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff) travel to the mines. Their mission accomplished, they've returned to the Armorer's covert to have his status lifted. She graciously lifts Bo-Katan's as well, as she, too, bathed in the waters and has not removed her helmet since. Though Bo-Katan doesn't follow this sect's rules, the acceptance has clearly affected her, going by the way the scene was shot.

Since we first learned about the restriction on removing one's helmet (even in front of family), it's seemed harsh. It's only this sect that has the rule, and the Armorer isn't making exceptions for Din, no matter what he's been through. However, the Armorer has never seemed to be anything but fair, holding the line for her faith but not cruel to those who don't follow it in the same way. 

/Film's own Sarah Bea Milner recently spoke with Swallow about the show and asked her about the motivation behind her balance of strictness and support.

She Upholds What Is Sacred And What Is True

In addition to creating beskar armor and working on weaponry, the Armorer is the moral authority for the covert she runs. As we know, Mandalore was destroyed, and the people were scattered around the galaxy. We even got a touching scene where Mando teaches Grogu that, to be a Mandalorian, you must know navigation, so you're never alone. With their people spread out and away from their homeworlds, having someone who can keep the tradition alive becomes even more important. Swallow said: 

"I'd like to think she is somebody who upholds what is sacred and what is true. She's the one who's sort of been the heart and the soul of the Mandalorian people and reminding them what has held them together. The creed is something that many of them have felt not worth holding to, but through everything that's happened, it is the thing that has held most of them together, and it is the thing that has seemed most true to them."

This doesn't make her dogmatic, though. She's still open to hearing and learning, as she's shown several times. She accepts Grogu into Din's clan of two and assigns him to be Grogu's father when she learns of his feelings and his quest. She doesn't believe that Mandalore is accessible, so she tells Din that he cannot relieve his apostatic state but is willing to listen when he tells her about the traveler who reached the surface. When he returns, she shows no issue or resentment about being proved wrong. Not only that, but despite the things she'd said about Bo-Katan's beliefs and how they conflict with hers, she offers redemption to her without hesitation or even a request for it.

She Is Open To Listening

Swallow said as much, stating the importance of listening to opposing views:

" ... she is also somebody who I think wants what is best for her people and is open to listening. We talked a lot about that while we were shooting this season, about the importance of being willing to listen to conflicting ideas. If nothing else, I think the Armorer is willing to listen. That doesn't always mean she agrees, but she's not afraid to listen to opposing viewpoints. I think she knows that's an important part of dialogue and an important part of growth. She's not afraid of conflict."

Swallow says she's been approached about her treatment of Din at conventions when she says he's "a Mandalorian no more." People asked her how she could kick him out of the group. She explained: 

"I said, 'I didn't do anything to him.' That was a creed, that was an oath that he had willingly taken. Then he willingly made the choice to remove his helmet. When you make a choice, there are consequences. That doesn't mean that's a bad thing. We learn so much from going against decisions that we've made ... he maybe didn't fully weigh the pros and cons of that decision in the moment, but he knew there would be consequences."

Though the Armorer appears tough, she's merely telling him the consequences of his own choices. She doesn't condemn or ask others to do it for her. She's telling Din what he already knows; he broke the rules, and there's a price. She's not judging Bo for her choices either and says she can leave any time. She's a fascinating character, and I can't wait to see how she develops.

"The Mandalorian" is streaming on Disney+.

Read this next: Star Wars Characters That Are More Important Than You Knew

The post The True Motivation of The Mandalorian's Armorer, According to Emily Swallow [Exclusive] appeared first on /Film.

In the modern corporate IT environment, which relies on cloud connectivity, global connections and large volumes of data, the browser is now the most important work interface. The browser connects employees to managed resources, devices to the web, and the on-prem environment to the cloud one. Yet, and probably unsurprisingly, this browser prominence has significantly increased the number of

Welcome to the latest edition of The RPS Time Capsule, where members of the RPS Treehouse each pick one game from a given year to save from extinction while all other games fizzle and die on the big digital griddle in the sky before blinking out of existence. This time, we're turning our preservation mitts on the year 2012, a year absolutely stacked with some pretty stellar releases. But which ones will make the cut and be safely ensconced inside our cosy capsule for future generations? Come on down to find out.

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Oh Daddy Boy! Ricky, Julian and Bubbles celebrate St. Patty's day with green beer, green fuckin' flashy things, and a toast to snakes! Watch now at https://bit.ly/pad4-43 and the SwearNet app.

"Citizen Sleuth" is a darkly funny, engaging, and thrilling documentary about a true crime podcast that has all the fascinating twists and turns of true crime, while flipping the script and focusing on the voice behind the podcast. The documentary chronicles not a tragic death, but the rise and fall of a podcast dedicated to it, and the complicated ways its host became trapped in her own narrative.

The film deals with the tragic death of 20-year-old Jaleayah Davis in West Virginia back in 2011, a death that was ruled accidental but had some bizarre circumstances that gave rise to rumors about police corruption and lies from Davis' friends the night of her death. It is in these rumors that the true crime podcast, "Mile Marker 181" (after the final resting place of Davis' car) was born.

"Citizen Sleuth" follows the creator of "Mile Marker 181," Emily Nestor, as she tries to get to the bottom of the mystery, sees her podcast skyrocket in popularity, and eventually sees her world come crashing down.

Director Chris Kasick employs the same visual language of true crime for "Citizen Sleuth," with a moody, Philip Glass-inspired score and long, drawn-out establishing drone shots to create tension. This helps highlight the drama of the subject matter and all the twists and turns the story takes. 

Rather than just focusing on the death of Jaleayah Davis and the investigation, the documentary focuses squarely on Nestor investigating it, and also promoting her rising podcast at conventions and panels around town. The result is a fascinating look at the way podcasters who start on the sidelines of these big stories end up becoming intricately linked to their narratives.

A Thrilling Story

While the tragedy that birthed the podcast is horrible, the movie also has a darkly funny sense of humor. A lot of it comes from the subject, Emily Nestor herself, who acts like a mockumentary protagonist more than the Clarice Sterling detective she pictures herself as. Nestor is engrossing and hilarious, but she is also somehow both self-aware and oblivious to what she is doing. She asks herself important questions like whether it's fine to advertise on a podcast about a tragedy, and then struggles to come up with answers. Likewise, she doesn't seem to see a problem with her absolute lack of journalistic experience. 

This is the crux of "Citizen Sleuth," as it explores how these tragedies affect the people who make true crime, and in turn how they impact the subjects of their documentaries. At its best, the film interrogates the ripple effects Nestor's work has on herself, on the victim's family, and on the suspects. 

To the credit of the documentary, it doesn't set out to just mock Nestor's efforts or her podcast, nor does it follow it as completely true and valid. Instead, it shows why people would find Emily entertaining and the story thrilling (like the genre at large) before warning of the perils of the format. Like many podcasts and shows, Emily sees hers as a social crusade and a chance to get justice, but the film shows why that is a foolish and dangerous endeavor that quickly spirals out of control. 

"Citizen Sleuth" is a rare documentary that actually has a full character arc, particularly one that happens organically throughout the course of the film. We see the rise and fall of Emily Nestor, and her growth through the process of investigating a death. It is as fascinating to watch as the true crime shows that inspired Nestor. 

/Film Rating: 7 out of 10

Read this next: 15 Best Films Of The 1930s

The post Citizen Sleuth Review: A Compelling, Thrilling Documentary That Flips the True Crime Script [SXSW 2023] appeared first on /Film.

Three US government agencies have issued a joint warning to organizations about LockBit 3.0 ransomware attacks.

The post US Government Warns Organizations of LockBit 3.0 Ransomware Attacks appeared first on SecurityWeek.

Google's security research unit is sounding the alarm on a set of vulnerabilities it found in certain Samsung chips included in dozens of Android models, wearables and vehicles, fearing the flaws could be soon discovered and exploited. From a report: Google's Project Zero head Tim Willis said the in-house security researchers found and reported 18 zero-day vulnerabilities in Exynos modems produced by Samsung over the past few months, including four top-severity flaws that could compromise affected devices "silently and remotely" over the cellular network. "Tests conducted by Project Zero confirm that those four vulnerabilities allow an attacker to remotely compromise a phone at the baseband level with no user interaction, and require only that the attacker know the victim's phone number," Willis said. By gaining the ability to remotely run code at a device's baseband level -- essentially the Exynos modems that convert cell signals to digital data -- an attacker would be able to gain near-unfettered access to the data flowing in and out of an affected device, including cellular calls, text messages, and cell data, without alerting the victim. The list of affected devices includes (but is not limited to): Samsung mobile devices, including the S22, M and A series handsets; Vivo mobile devices, including those in the S16, S15, S6, X70, X60 and X30 series; Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 7 series; and connected vehicles that use the Exynos Auto T5123 chipset.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.