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It's hard to imagine a time before Jackie Chan was a certified action star, but in the early 70s, his international (and especially domestic) success was far from a sure thing. Hong Kong's film industry floundered for years after the untimely death of Bruce Lee, and for years the industry tried and failed to fill the void that Lee had left behind. Chan, a former stuntman who'd appeared in some of Lee's best work, was one such contender. He worked on several films with Lo Wei, (the mind behind classic Bruce Lee films like "The Big Boss" and "Fist of Fury") who tried to conform the fledgling star to Lee's own image. But it wasn't until Chan first partnered with director Yeun Woo-ping in "Snake in the Eagle's Shadow" that his trademark comedic style would begin to take shape.

Chan continued to hone that style in the Yeun-directed "Drunken Master." The 1978 film follows the cheeky know-it-all son of a martial arts master who, after a string of messy antics, is sent to study with his sadistic (and alcoholic) uncle. He eventually learns discipline, as well as an eccentric form of martial arts called The Eight Drunken Immortals. Not only did the film catapult Chan to stardom in Asia, but it was also one of the first films to successfully meld martial arts and comedy.

Perhaps most notably, "Drunken Master" had a hand in popularizing Drunken Boxing, a blanket term for martial arts styles that adopt "drunken" movements into the choreography. The Drunken Boxing on display in "Drunken Master" was actually created by Chan and Yeun. Apart from directing a number of films, Yeun is also a renowned fight choreographer in his own right, responsible for shaping the action of films like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "The Matrix." But for Chan, it wasn't enough to simply choreograph a realistically-"drunk" fighting style. He had to embody it as best he could, and he went to heady lengths to do so.

An Intoxicating Commitment

After nearly 60 years in film, Chan has become notorious for his commitment to his stunts, in many cases flouting his well-being to achieve the best results possible. It was no different for "Drunken Master." Chan recalled workshopping the choreography in the midst of production to the South China Post in 1998. Chan said, "When everyone was sleeping after shooting, I would go home and try things out in front of the mirror."

Chan would spend hours "just doing drunken things," searching for something that would give a real edge to the fighting style. "I kept thinking, how can I fight properly and look like I am drunk?" Chan admits that achieving the drunken final product was "difficult," but not impossible. Eventually, he found a solution that would translate to drunkenness on-camera:

I held my breath when I was punching – that made me feel very dizzy, like I was drunk ... That was tough to do, and I did it every day for three months. One day I held my breath for too long and fell over. I had to do it for more than one take, remember – the fighting scenes need 20 takes or 30 takes.

Chan's commitment obviously paid off in a major way. Not only did "Drunken Master" pave the way for a number of spin-offs (official or otherwise), but it cemented Chan as a certified action star in his own right, one whose style would not be contained under the shadow of Bruce Lee. "Drunken Master" is a perfect example of what can happen when risks are taken in film, even if Hong Kong's film industry did try to recreate the success of kung fu comedy soon after its release.

Read this next: The 15 Best Jackie Chan Movies Ranked

The post Jackie Chan Went To Dizzying Lengths To Perfect His Drunken Master Style appeared first on /Film.

When a horror movie has that "based on a true story" tagline, it automatically pricks up my ears — and unsettles me half to death. I don't care how or when or why the real-life story took place, just that it did. That makes all the difference. It is because of this that I truly hate to inform you that "The Hills Have Eyes" is one of those "based on a true story" horror films. Yeah, I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad, scary news.

Wes Craven, writer-director of the original 1977 film, opened up about the movie's sinister origins to Horror.com in 2006:

"Originally, it came from an article I saw in the New York library about the Sawney Bean Family. In the 1700s in Scotland I believe, there was an area that had road running through it from Scotland, and people thought it was haunted because people kept disappearing from that road. The story came out when a couple was attacked by these wild looking people, and one got away. He knew someone in the court, and they sent out an expedition which resulted in finding a cave along the English Channel."

While the 1977 film and Alexandre Aja's 2003 remake share key story components and tone, the early-aughts version upped the ante with one key difference. The homicidal family in Aja's movie are plagued by physical deformities due to nuclear testing in a mining town that was later covered up by the US government.

"We based all our descriptions and directions on real documents, pictures and footage that we found on the effects of nuclear fallout in Chernobyl and Hiroshima," Aja said in "The Making Of," a behind-the-scenes featurette about the movie. While that aspect of the film is certainly rooted in reality, the true story of Sawney Bean really encapsulates the dark spirit of both movies.

The Story Of Sawney Bean

According to legend, Bean was born in East Lothian, Scotland. His father raised him while working as a hedge trimmer and ditch digger. Though the son planned to follow in his father's footsteps for work, Bean ended up with 'Black' Agnes Douglas, a woman who shared his taste for human flesh and carnage. They began living in a cave together near the Galloway coast, which was far away from the world of normal folk — and that allowed for their cannibalistic tendencies to spawn.

The exact number of children and grandchildren the pair raised in the cave is unknown, but over the 25 years they called it home, it is believed they raised and cohabitated with nearly 50 family members. The clan, much like the families featured in the films, would make meals out of clueless travelers who unfortunately came across their hunting grounds. They would capture people by night and dismember their victims in the cave, before pickling, salting and eating the body parts.

It is alleged that the family murdered and ate upwards of a thousand human beings over the years without ever visiting any neighboring villages.

At one point, one of the family's victims escaped and lived — which prompted the King to send troops to find the cannibalistic group. According to Alexander Smith's 1719 book A Complete History of the Lives and Robberies of the Most Notorious Highwaymen, a man and his wife were attacked by the family during a journey on horseback. Sadly, the wife did not make it through the ambush.

The female cannibals cut her throat and fell to sucking her blood with as great a gust as if it had been wine.

This done, they ripped up her belly and pulled out all her entrails. Such a dreadful spectacle made the man make the more obstinate resistance, as expecting the same fate if he fell into their hands.

The monarch led a group of 400 men, according to the book, to the caves, where they found horrors beyond their comprehension.

Now the whole body, or as many of them as could, went in, and were all so shocked at what they beheld that they were almost ready to sink into the earth. Legs, arms, thighs, hands and feet of men, women and children were hung up in rows, like dried beef.

A great many limbs lay in pickle, and a great mass of money, both gold and silver, with watches, rings, swords, pistols, and a large quantity of clothes, both linen and woollen, and an infinite number of other things, which they had taken from those whom they had murdered, were thrown together in heaps, or hung up against the sides of the den.

From there, the family was taken into custody by the monarchy and executed for their crimes against humanity.

Craven's Connection To The Bean Story

Ahead of the film's original 1977 release, Craven spoke with ARROW about the Bean family — and even touched on the way they were executed and how their horrific actions mirrored society at the time:

"They did horrendous things to them. Broke them all on the wheel. Hanged the women in front of the men and then they dismembered the men. And I was so struck by how on the one hand you have this feral family that's killing people and eating them.

But if you look at it they weren't doing anything that much worse than civilization did when they caught them. And I just thought what a great kind of A/B of culture. How the most civilized can be the most savage and how the most savage can be civilized.

I constructed these two families as mirrors of each other. I found it very interesting to look at ourselves, to think of ourselves as having the capacity not only for great good, but for great evil."

Film writer John Wooley Wiley also discussed Craven's motives for updating the Bean family story to the modern-day in his 2011 book, Wes Craven: The Man and his Monsters:

Craven realized that by updating the Sawney Bean story to 20th century California, he would have the opportunity not only to comment on a cult society dwelling inside modern civilization, but also the chance to comment on that civilization's less-than-civilized retribution against the cannibals.

Read this next: The 15 Best '70s Horror Movies Ranked

The post The Hills Have Eyes is Actually Based On This Creepy Real-Life Story appeared first on /Film.

"It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the Road and, if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to."

Early in Peter Jackson's "The Fellowship of the Ring," Frodo (Elijah Wood) recalls this familiar old saying that his uncle Bilbo (Ian Holm) used to tell him during peaceful days at home in the Shire. We get to see those words of cautionary wisdom emphatically proven right as Frodo and his hobbit friends enter a far wider world than they ever knew in "The Lord of the Rings," but they remain just as true even thousands of years set in the past. Amazon's "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" finally debuted the first trailer for the series on Super Bowl Sunday, putting to bed any concerns about production values or the sense that the footage wouldn't vaguely "feel" like author J.R.R. Tolkien's material. The footage is packed full with stunning landscapes, an ensemble cast of epic fantasy heroes, and more than a few creatures of Middle-earth that'll likely raise more questions than answers.

Nobody has all the answers this early on, but we have plenty of educated guesses and informed speculation to help piece together all the disparate elements featured in the trailer. Let's dig into it!

Paradise On (Middle) Earth?

Sweeping vistas, a sprawling and idyllic city, and architecture that harkens back to the glory years of kingdoms in their prime. In retrospect, how else would a "The Lord of the Rings" trailer open? Right away, "The Rings of Power" both evokes and stays away from the entrenched version of Middle-earth that the Peter Jackson movies have embedded into pop culture. This location appears to be the bustling kingdom of Númenor, a legendary island nation off the western coast of Middle-earth that is populated by the race of Men and has turned into nothing but myth and memory by the time Frodo and Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) come onto the scene. This realm will feature prominently throughout "The Rings of Power," essentially serving as Tolkien's take on the Atlantis story and providing the stakes of what these characters stand to lose should evil return. The giant statue feels reminiscent of the two massive carvings glimpsed briefly in "The Fellowship of the Ring" called the Argonath, which depict the likenesses of Aragorn's ancestors Isildur (played by Maxim Baldry in this series) and Anárion (who may have been hinted at in one of the character posters). At the same time, this city is clearly at the height of its powers -- a far cry from the crumbled ruins that dominate the countryside throughout "The Lord of the Rings."

Though not directly connected to the Peter Jackson films, it's reassuring that the Amazon series seems to be aware of the looming presence of the Middle-earth movies that came before.

'Even The Smallest Person Can Change The Course Of The Future'

"Haven't you ever wondered what else is out there? There's wonders in this world beyond our wandering. I can feel it."

The opening narration in the trailer hovers over the landscape shots of Númenor and through unknown locales featuring the distinctive antler-bearing adventurers seen elsewhere in our recent first-look images of the series. (They have been described as "nomadic hunters wandering the fields of Middle-earth.") More importantly, we seem to be introduced to the woman behind the stirring speech -- actor Megan Richards' harfoot character, a precursor and ancestor to the hobbits we see in "The Lord of the Rings." Yes, Tolkien may have been a prolific talent and an accomplished linguist who invented entire cultures and worlds and languages from scratch ... but even he decided to name an entire species of hobbit based on their penchant for, well, "hairy feet."

Tolkien fans know that hobbits never played a major role in world events until a certain quartet were forced to do their part to destroy the One Ring, but "The Rings of Power" may have found a way to have its cake and eat it, too. As co-showrunner Patrick McKay put it, "One of the very specific things the texts say is that hobbits never did anything historic or noteworthy before the Third Age. But really, does it feel like Middle-earth if you don't have hobbits or something like hobbits in it?" The harfoots have been described as particularly adept at "secrecy and evading detection," allowing perhaps a few notable individuals to play significant roles in this series. As we'll later see, Richards' character here may find herself thrust into action in an even more dramatic way than Frodo ever was.

Meet The New Boss

The Galadriel we knew from "The Lord of the Rings," played with an otherworldly calm and serene aura by Cate Blanchett (well, for the most part), is not exactly the same Galadriel we'll get to know in "The Rings of Power." That's just what happens when you find out what someone was like when they were thousands of years younger, you know?

Played by Morfydd Clark, this version of the elf queen will take a far more active role in the story as leader of the Northern Armies. We've received hints that she's driven by a tragic backstory, involving both her brother Finrod and an ancient evil even more powerful than Sauron himself. Intent on never letting her people fall into complacency again, this more warrior-like Galadriel will likely be one of the few characters in the early going to realize that evil is on the rise again ... though in a different form than they might've expected. And yes, despite what some vocal complainers might say, it makes perfect sense and remains completely faithful to Tolkien lore that a "Lord of the Rings" series set during this period of history would predominantly feature a major female character like Galadriel.

Legolas Found Dead In Mirkwood

You thought Legolas (Orlando Bloom) surfing down a flight of stairs in "The Two Towers" or taking down multiple giant elephants (known as Mûmakil or Oliphaunts) in "The Return of the King" was impressive? You've likely seen nothing yet.

Meet the Silvan elf named Arondir, portrayed by Ismael Cruz Córdova and introduced with the hero shot to beat all hero shots. The arrow-wielding warrior is confirmed to play a large role in the events of the series, though with a romantic entanglement familiar to any fan of the original trilogy. Like the doomed romance between the mortal Aragorn and the undying elven princess Arwen (Liv Tyler), Arondir and a human woman named Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi) seem fated for a tragic love of their own.

Those familiar with only "The Lord of the Rings" or "The Hobbit" may be surprised by the lack of happy endings or typical "Good triumphs over bad" storytelling at work in this particular story, based on the appendices of Middle-earth history included at the end of Tolkien's "The Return of the King." Something tells me that Arondir's storyline -- an original character not found in the text, to be clear -- may play a part in setting that new tone.

Eye On The Sky

Like with any trailer these days, we must always keep in mind that the editing is likely set up in a way to purposefully mislead us. In the trailer, this shot of a gold-clad elf watching the skies comes immediately after a bright meteor streaks across the sky -- though we have no real way of knowing whether the two are actually linked or not. In any case, this character appears to be Benjamin Walker's Gil-galad, a legendary leader in the annals of Middle-earth history. He would eventually help form the Last Alliance of Men and Elves that attempts to overthrow Sauron in the opening prologue of "The Fellowship of the Ring," though here he will undoubtedly be portrayed as much younger, less wiser, and perhaps a little more brash than students of the novels may remember.

They Have A Cave Troll ... Thing

Once upon a time, Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit" trilogy was actually going to take the form of a two-part duology. And instead of Jackson returning to the helm (which he did somewhat against his will), none other than monster aficionado Guillermo del Toro himself was attached to direct. I've spent approximately every second since then daydreaming about what could have been with del Toro putting his own distinctive stamp on Tolkien's fairy tale-turned-prequel, and here we seem to get at least some feel for the creature design that the talented filmmaker may have opted for.

In a stark departure from the (relatively) grounded and naturalistic monsters that populated Jackson's movies, this one immediately strikes a far different tone and aesthetic. The unfortunate soul facing off against this foe appears to be Robert Aramayo's Elrond, another younger version of a character we've seen in "The Lord of the Rings" (played then by Hugo Weaving). This hints at his storyline in "The Rings of Power," where he's dispatched to the dwarves to help reforge an alliance between the two quarreling races. Clearly, he runs into some difficulty along the way.

Meteor Man!

So remember the meteor falling from the skies earlier? We seem to know what lies on the other end of that trajectory, and it's not a treasure chest full of gold. Instead, a mysterious man emerges from the fiery crater, met by a much smaller character in the foreground. This could either be Richards' harfoot character from earlier, or perhaps Markella Kavenagh's, bolstered by the fact that they've both been described to "encounter a mysterious lost man whose origin promises to be one of the show's most enticing enigmas." So who's the meteor man himself? Theories range from Tom Bombadil (the mysterious man who appears in Tolkien's "The Fellowship of the Ring" and was wisely cut from Jackson's movie) to perhaps one of the early warning signs that a certain Dark Lord is, indeed, on the rise again ... but could this actually be the origin of one of the wizards sent to Middle-earth to assist the people?

We only ever see Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and Saruman (Christopher Lee) during "The Lord of the Rings" (along with Sylvester McCoy's Radagast in "The Hobbit"), but readers know that their order also contained two additional "blue wizards" who disappeared during their travels abroad long before the events of the movies. Tolkien himself leaves much of their backstory and history a secret (even including their exact identities), but this could be a perfect opportunity to delve into one or both of these characters without departing too much from Tolkien's text. This is pure speculation on my part, though. This is clearly meant to be one of the early mysteries established in the series and we can't wait to see where this one goes.

Some Things Never Change...

What would "The Lord of the Rings" be without an epic battle or two? Though the series appears to have taken pains to define itself apart from the world-building and production design featured throughout Jackson's movies, this scene hews pretty close to what we've seen before.

Here, we get a classic sequence of elves and orcs in a fight for their lives, with the elves' bright and ornate armor juxtaposing against the sinister darkness surrounding their foes. This could very well be flashback scene depicting Galadriel's brother, Finrod, against the forces of Morgoth -- of whom Sauron, the big bad of "The Lord of the Rings," was only a servant. This First Age war may essentially serve the same purpose as the opening sequence in "The Fellowship of the Ring," which similarly depicted elven armies (led by a young Elrond) against Sauron's orcs, establishing the more ancient backdrop that informs the events of the present. Needless to say, this war probably doesn't end well or -- at the very least -- results in success at the highest possible cost.

A Hobbit's Touch

After a flurry of images that include glimpses of the dwarven Prince Durin IV (Owain Arthur), his princess Disa (Sophia Nomvete), a chained Arondir leaping into battle, and someone dramatically pushing Galadriel's hair away to reveal her elvish ears, the thrilling footage ends with the biggest money shot of them all ... two characters holding hands. Okay, as anticlimactic as that may feel, I actually loved this choice to end on a more emotional note rather than actually showing Sauron or blatantly teasing the forging of the Rings. The obvious size difference between the two once again points to a harfoot and, perhaps, that figure who emerged from the meteor. If he really is a wizard, even my cynical self would have his heart melt at the prospect of once again following the dynamic between a young lovable hobbit and their wise wizard mentor. If not, then consider me even more intrigued by whatever role this character will play throughout the course of the season.

The footage only contains the barest hints of the actual story of "The Rings of Power," but there's at least enough to begin getting a solid feel for what to expect in this coming adventure. Sauron and his Rings have been cleverly held back (for now), leaving us no choice but to focus our attentions on all the new and familiar characters who'll make up the sprawling cast of this new series.

"The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" will debut on Amazon Prime Video on September 2, 2022.

Read this next: 13 Fantasy Films That Never Got Sequels

The post Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Trailer Breakdown: Hobbits and Meteor Men and Trolls, Oh My! appeared first on /Film.

If you're a "Star Trek: The Next Generation" fan, you know the character of Guinan played by Whoopi Goldberg. She's the bartender and host of the Ten Forward aboard the USS Enterprise-D. Guinan is hundreds of years old, and from a race of "listeners" called the El-Aurian. It makes her the very best person on the Enterprise to go to for advice. Everyone has been in front of Guinan at some point, particularly Captain Jean-Luc Picard who considers her to be closer than family. She'll return in "Star Trek: Picard" season 2.

Goldberg got the job when her co-star LeVar Burton let the executives know that she was interested in being on the show. When she spoke to "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry, he rewrote the role of the Enterprise bartender for her. 

What you might not know is that the role is based on a real bartender, actress, and entrepreneur named Texas Guinan. 

From Showgirl To Movie Star And Back Again

Texas Guinan was born Mary Louise Cecilia Guinan in Texas on January 12, 1884, and was set on becoming an actress. She grew up on a ranch, learned to shoot and rope and ride horses. She attended the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago for two years, and then joined a "Wild West" show. She married John J. Moynahan in 1904 — but it only lasted for two years. (Guinan on "Star Trek" was married 23 times.) 

Texas Guinan moved to New York City to pursue her dream of performing and was often in vaudeville's "Gibson Girl" shows. Though she performed a lot, she was lured away by a talent scout and moved to Los Angeles in 1917 to be a movie star. The nickname "Texas" had by then become the name she was known by.

In Hollywood, she did a few films, primarily playing a female gunslinger, and ended up starting her own production company, Texas Guinan Productions in 1921. Unfortunately, it only lasted a year. At that point, Guinan moved back to New York and ended up signing at the Beaux Arts Hotel, where she managed to become the emcee of ceremonies — something women rarely did at the time. 

Hello Suckers!

What Texas Guinan is really remembered for, however, is her work in speakeasy clubs in the 1920s. She'd already gotten a reputation for saying, "Hello suckers," when people came in — and became famous for that line in the process. She moved from club to club for a while, but after meeting bootlegger and racketeer Larry Fay, she joined his El Fay Club. There, she sat on a stool in the center of the room with a whistle. She coined another phrase during that time, calling someone from out of town spending big a "Big butter-and-egg-man." (We'd probably refer to them as "weekend warriors" today.) 

The police closed the El Fay, and Guinan ended up at the Del Fay, then the Texas Guinan Club, the 300 Club, the Club Intime, and Texas Guinan's Salon Royale. Hey, you've got to stay ahead of the law, right? She didn't always manage it, though — getting arrested more than once for working and operating a speakeasy, but nothing stuck. 

In an interview with MyHarto, Goldberg mentions one of her famous catchphrases. Goldberg says, "He [Gene Roddenberry] wrote my character, Texas Guinan, she's based on, who had a great bar in New York in the '20s and she greeted everyone by saying, 'Hello suckers' ... So we couldn't do that to the extraterrestrials."

Texas Guinan returned to the stage and had her own review called "Padlocks of 1927," and made two more movies before taking her review on the road. France wouldn't let her perform the show there, so she decided to call it "Too Hot for Paris," and toured the Western United States and Canada. Unfortunately, she eventually contracted amoebic dysentery and passed away at the age of 49 in 1933.

Texas Guinan's life may have been significantly shorter than the "Star Trek" version of Guinan, but oh my, did she make the most of her life.

Read this next: 12 Awesome Sci-Fi Movies That Never Got Sequels

The post The Real Person Who Inspired Guinan on Star Trek appeared first on /Film.

It’s not your imagination—everything is more expensive than it used to be, but especially used cars. Once the safe harbor for folks without the savings and/or credit for a new vehicle, used cars are suddenly worth their weight in gold, and the internet is filled with horror stories of 2003 Camrys with 150,000 miles…

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It's Valentine's Day and love is in the air, and for everyone's favorite toilet-bowl-helmet-wearing lunatic, that love could be from someone of any gender. In an interview with Empire magazine (hitting newsstands February 17, 2022), "Peacemaker" creator James Gunn and star John Cena explained that Peacemaker's sexuality was something that developed naturally while making "The Suicide Squad." As I guessed earlier this week in an article titled "Peacemaker is the Messy Bisexual Hero We All Need," Peacemaker is interested in sex with just about anyone as long as they're a consenting human adult, and his budding bisexuality likely had something to do with his father's hatred of him. As a result, he turned to the androgynous sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll world of hair metal, finding peace in the jams. 

"Nah, He's Not Straight"

In the interview, Gunn digs back into his idea that the central relationship of "Peacemaker" season 1 is Peacemaker's relationship with Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks). He explains that she's his opposite in almost every way, and that Cena brought something different to the role than he had initially imagined:

"She is his polar opposite in so many ways, politically. She's a Black, gay woman. He's a white, straight -- nah, he's not straight [laughs] -- white, whatever-he-is male. And yet they really like each other. They have a lot in common. [...] Peacemaker is an interesting character because he's so f*****-up in so many ways, and then in other ways, he is kind of weirdly forward-thinking. John does improv all the time, and he just turned Christopher Smith into this hyper-sexualized dude that is open to anything sexually. I was surprised by that. But I thought, 'I guess it makes sense that this guy isn't one-dimensional.'"

Cena shared that his perspective was that Peacemaker had been brought up a certain way, but later realized that he was more open-minded than he had been raised. His time in prison served as a "period of experimentation" that opened his mind to other experiences. "Also," Cena says, "I view him as willing to do anything." Well, almost anything. There's one very specific no-go for Peacemaker according to Gunn, and it's a reasonable one: 

"We see in the show that he doesn't have any issues with sexuality. As long as you're not f****** animals -- that he's not into. But besides that, he's pretty open. And yet other things he's completely close-minded on."

Music As An Escape

"Peacemaker," at its core, is a redemption arc for Christopher Smith, aka Peacemaker. He's an unlovable jerk in "The Suicide Squad," but the events of that movie force him to change, and throughout the first season of "Peacemaker," we watch him grow into an empathetic adult. One thing that defines Smith is his love of hair metal and glam rock, which gives him an escape from the toxic masculinity of his upbringing. Gunn explains:

"I think the hair metal is actually kind of a beautiful thing about Peacemaker. It does have that cocky male swagger that he has, but hair metal is also a way he rebelled against his father. There're the androgynous aspects of it, and his dad probably called him all sorts of homophobic slurs because he was listening to it. But he owned it. It was his. Something that was outside the realm of his father. He loves that music and he's able to just escape into it and rock out and be okay. I think he's grateful to the music for that."

Peacemaker is defensive when Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) makes fun of the appearance of the band Poison, and this bit of background makes that moment make a lot more sense. His retort, "I believe their preferred pronoun is long live rock, and you are sounding awfully awesomephobic," is him defending his own sexuality as much as he's defending the band behind "Every Rose Has Its Thorn." 

One of the best things about Peacemaker's sexuality is that it's not shoehorned in or made explicit. Much like real life, his sexuality is just a part of who he is, and he expresses that in his own individual way. He truly is the bisexual hero we all need and deserve.

Read this next: The 15 Best Batman: The Animated Series Episodes

The post James Gunn Says Peacemaker Isn't Straight, In Case All the Sex With Men Didn't Make That Clear appeared first on /Film.

Thank goodness Bob Odenkirk is okay. When word reached social media about the comedian and "Better Call Saul" actor's on-set medical emergency last July, the world waited for what we hoped would be good news. A day later, official word came in that the actor was on the mend, and everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief. Now, as the AMC drama he stars in wraps production and nears the premiere of its final season, Odenkirk is speaking in detail about the harrowing event.

Odenkirk spoke to Empire Magazine about his heart attack, and though he highlights the good luck and skill that helped him survive it, the whole experience sounds downright awful. First, Odenkirk points out that he was extremely lucky the cast and crew weren't on location, and that he didn't go to his trailer during on-set downtime. Both are normal occurrences, but they would've meant Odenkirk would've been alone when the event happened. As is, he says, "it was me, Rhea Seehorn, and Patrick Fabian. And I just went down. I just had a heart attack."

A Very Close Call

The "Nobody" actor is very open about the details of his heart attack in this interview, and he says there's one thing he wants to clear up. In a conspiracy-rife time, apparently some fans started a rumor that his health scare was related to the COVID vaccine. "My God, what is wrong with people? Why are they so angry at normal science?" he points out, before explaining that the event was the result of a plaque build-up he had known about since 2018.

Normally, I'd feel bad that the culture of celebrity privacy invasion has gone so far that Odenkirk even has to explain these things. But I, like a lot of people who treasure the guy's affable personality and versatile talent, had a hard time sleeping when his status was unknown, so I appreciate hearing about the ordeal in his own words. I couldn't help imagining the worst. From Odenkirk's statements, it sounds like this day came pretty close to the worst.

Odenkirk says a former armed forces medic named Rosa Estrada performed CPR on him when he collapsed. "She did it right, she broke my ribs, the way you're supposed to," he says, before adding that three people ended up performing CPR on him for a total of 12 minutes straight. Meanwhile, the bystanders ran an AED device that jump-started Odenkirk's heart. Apparently, it only got back into rhythm on the third try. The actor seems totally optimistic, explaining that he ended up getting stents put in and is "doing great." I'll admit, this is a very overwhelming story to hear -- and I'm sure was even more overwhelming for his co-stars to witness. But above all else, I'm so happy the beloved actor is here to tell it.

"Better Call Saul" season 6 will premiere on Monday, April 18, 2022 on AMC. The April 2022 issue of Empire magazine will hit shelves Thursday, February 17, 2022.

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The post Bob Odenkirk Details How His Life Was Saved on the Set of Better Call Saul appeared first on /Film.

Shrunk reservoirs. Depleted aquifers. Low rivers. Raging wildfires. It's no secret that the Western U.S. is in a severe drought. New research published Monday shows just how extreme the situation has become. NPR: The Western U.S. and Northern Mexico are experiencing their driest period in at least 1,200 years, according to the new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change. The last comparable -- though not as severe -- multi-decade megadrought occurred in the 1500s, when the West was still largely inhabited by American Indian tribes. Today, the region is home to tens of millions of people, massive agricultural centers and some of the fastest-growing cities in the U.S. -- all in an area where there's less water available than there was in the past, partially due to human-caused climate change. "We have a society that's relying on there being the amount of water there was in the 1900's," said the study's lead author Park Williams, a bioclimatologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. "But now with the number of water molecules available to us declining, it really is time for us to get real about how much water there is for us to use." Williams looked at tree-ring data from thousands of sites to conduct the research. They sampled data collected from live trees, dead trees and wood beams preserved at Native American archeological sites. The tree rings gave Williams an insight into drought events dating back to the year 800 AD, around the same time Charlemagne was being crowned Emperor of Rome. He identified four other megadroughts in that time period, the most notable being a 23-year drought that ended in the late 1500's. There were hopes during a wet 2019 that the current megadrought was following a similar pattern, Williams said. "And then from summer 2020 through all of 2021, it was just exceptionally dry across the West...indicating that this drought is nowhere near done."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

One of the seminal games from the last generation of consoles ushers us into the next generation with it's sequel, Horizon Forbidden West.

It's not just football legends coming out of the woodwork on Super Bowl Sunday. Actor, former governor, and all-around badass Arnold Schwarzenegger made his debut as a Greek god in a BMW commercial tonight, and it's as ridiculous and fun as you'd expect.

In the visual, Schwarzenegger's Zeus finds himself exploited by his friends and family for his electrical powers (remember, Zeus controls lightning) after retiring to Palm Springs with wife Hera (played by Salma Hayek). He even accidentally causes a citywide blackout at one point when his powers short circuit after so much use.

Finally, he goes to take his tiny horse, Peggy — you know, Pegasus, the flying horse — out for a walk when he gets a jolt of electricity running through him, which restores his old god armor. "I thought you could use a pick me up," Hera tells him as she presents him with a new electric-powered BMW.

The visual ends as the pair drive down a Palm Springs street while singing along with "Electric Avenue" by Eddy Grant as it plays in the background.

In late January, Schwarzenegger first teased his appearance in the BMW commercial via Instagram, where he shared a photo of himself as Zeus on a promo poster. "February 2022," he captioned the image. Nearly a week later, he shared a teaser visual in which a barista has a difficult time pronouncing his name while trying to hand off his coffee.

The Art Of The Celeb Super Bowl Commercial

The commercial is a cute attempt at a quick story, which a lot of Super Bowl commercials tend to do. After all, the intention is not only to sell whatever product you're pedaling. The main objective for these brands is to stand out and be remembered as a highlight of the night, and using celebrity cameos are a great way to make that happen.

Similarly, Chevy used some cameos from "Sopranos" actors for their visual this year, Disney+ enlisted Awkwafina to push their expansive catalog that is only getting bigger, Anna Kendrick partnered with Rocket Mortgage, and Steve Buscemi (and a ton of other famous faces) starred in a Michelob Ultra commercial. Dolly Parton and Miley Cyrus even took part in a two-part T-Mobile short. The list goes on. I'm barely scratching the surface.

It's not that this is necessarily happening more than in any other year — it's an age-old tactic that marketing pros double down on during the most-viewed sporting event of the year — but there's something about this game's crop that feels almost nostalgic. Everything has been well-intentioned, light-hearted, and passionate so far, even when they've been on the cheesy side. Here's to (hopefully) a few more cameos to talk about. 

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The post Watch Arnold Schwarzenegger Play Zeus in a Super Bowl Commercial appeared first on /Film.

Let's get something straight: Godzilla, Marvel, and that tough guy who drinks martinis only have some of the most extensive cinematic universes because J.R.R. Tolkien's material has been taking the scenic route to the screen. The journey to shepherd and destroy the One Ring in the fiery pits of Mordor took three books and three movies to tell, and Peter Jackson told it well in the early aughts with "The Fellowship of the Ring," "The Two Towers," and "The Return of the King." But what if I told you (and what if you didn't pay attention to the preamble of that entire trilogy) that there were more rings? Most of the pop culture landscape knows the simple rhyme that Galadriel (played by an ethereal Cate Blanchett) relayed in "Fellowship": "One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them." That One Ring was smithed along with several others in Middle-earth during its Second Age, long before the events of the trilogy. Now, the other rings will get their time in the spotlight.

"The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" is a new series coming to Amazon's Prime Video this September, airing weekly episodes in 240 territories worldwide. Amazon already released a series of 23 (!) teaser posters, a trailer for the long-hyped series (the most expensive ever made, with a $465 million price tag for season 1) has just dropped during Superbowl LVI, and as Gollum would say, we wants our precious. The series follows the creation of the original rings of power -- three for the Elven-kings, seven for the dwarves, nine for the mortal men, all in addition to the One Ring proper -- through which the Dark Lord Sauron did his best to conquer Middle-earth. Check out the trailer below.

The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power Super Bowl Trailer

As dense as J.R.R. Tolkien's source material is, there's a ton of creative leeway for a story that covers the Rings of Power. The Second Age of Middle-earth is extensive, sprawling over 3,000 years and some change before the events of "The Fellowship of the Ring." Therein, you have the founding of familiar Tolkien locations Rivendell (by Elrond) and Lothlórien, the latter of which Galadriel leads eventually in 1530 (for scale, Frodo Baggins of the books and films was born a whole Age later, in 2968). Given that audiences are already familiar with Galadriel from the films, her narration brings a welcome, familiar point of entry for those wary having to do Marvel-level homework to enjoy the show. If anything, the writers' room should be doing the homework for viewers, and boy, is there plenty to pull from.

Tolkien covered some of the Second Age and stories of the Rings of Power in "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," specifically in Chapter Two's Council of Elrond. But those froggy enough to want the expanded version instead of the Wiki highlights you hear in the "Fellowship" adaptation (effective as it is) need look no further than Tolkien's "The Silmarillion." Its final essay, "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age," is self-explanatory, but you'll learn that the Rings' smithing was influenced by Sauron himself, with the aim of holding the elves and dwarves and men under his sway. It didn't pan out that way, battles were fought, and some hobbits were later inconvenienced down the line. As a series, there is so much room for creative, adaptive storytelling that fans should be jazzed for what's to come.

Royal Elf Galadriel is now played by Morfydd Clark, who wowed audiences in the title role of one of the most tonally striking horror films of 2019, "Saint Maud." Clark is joined by an ensemble cast including Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Maxim Baldry, Nazanin Boniadi, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Charles Edwards, Trystan Gravelle, Sir Lenny Henry, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Lloyd Owen, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, Leon Wadham, Benjamin Walker, Daniel Weyman and Sara Zwangobani.

"The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" arrives on Prime Video on September 2, 2022.

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The post The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Trailer: No One Ring Should Have All That Power appeared first on /Film.

Marvel lets loose with a trippy hellscape of a trailer for the Multiverse of Madness.

This past January, astronomer Bill Gray said that the upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket would collide with the Moon sometime in early March. As you might expect, the prediction set off a flurry of media coverage, much of it critical of Elon Musk and his private space firm. After all, the event would be a rare misstep for SpaceX.

But it turns out Elon and company are not about to lose face. Instead, it’s more likely that fate will befall China. That’s because Gray now says he made a mistake in his initial identification of a piece of space debris he and other astronomers dubbed WE0913A in 2015.

When Gray and his colleagues first spotted the object, several clues led them to believe it was the second stage of a Falcon 9 rocket that carried the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s DSCOVR satellite into deep orbit that same year. The object’s identification would have probably gone unreported in mainstream media if astronomers didn’t subsequently discover it was about to collide with the Moon.

“Back in 2015, I (mis)identified this object as 2015-007B, the second stage of the DSCOVR spacecraft,” Gray said in a blog post he published on Saturday that was spotted Ars Technica. “I had pretty good circumstantial evidence for the identification, but nothing conclusive,” Gray added. “That was not at all unusual. Identifications of high-flying space junk often require a bit of detective work, and sometimes, we never do figure out the ID for a bit of space junk.”

We may have never known the actual identity of the debris if not for NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer Jon Giorgini. He contacted Gray on Saturday to ask about the identification. According to Giorgini, NASA’s Horizons system, a database that can estimate the location and orbit of almost half a million celestial bodies in our solar system, showed that the DSCOVR spacecraft’s trajectory didn’t take it close to the Moon. As such, it would be unusual if its second stage were to stray off course then and hit the satellite. Giorgini’s email prompted Gray to reexamine the data he used to make the initial identification.

Gray now says he’s reasonably certain the rocket that’s about to collide with the moon belongs to China. In October 2014, the country’s space agency launched its Chang’e 5-T1 mission on a Long March 3C rocket. After reconstructing the probable trajectory of that mission, he found that the Long March 3C is the best fit for the mystery object that’s about to hit Earth’s natural satellite. “Running the orbit back to launch for the Chinese spacecraft makes ample sense,” he told The Verge. “It winds up with an orbit that goes past the Moon at the right time after launch.”

Gray went on to tell The Verge that episodes like this underline the need for more information on rockets boosters that travel into deep space. “The only folks that I know of who pay attention to these old rocket boosters are the asteroid tracking community,” he told the outlet. “This sort of thing would be considerably easier if the folks who launch spacecraft — if there was some regulatory environment where they had to report something.”

"The Walking Dead" never really ends. AMC's one-time ratings juggernaut is currently working its way through its multi-part final season, but the world of the show is set to live on in a spin-off titled "Tales of The Walking Dead." According to Variety, the upcoming series has just cast Daniella Pineda.

Pineda was most recently seen as bounty hunter Faye Valentine in Netflix's short-lived "Cowboy Bebop" adaptation. She'll also be featured in the upcoming film "Jurassic World: Dominion," reprising the role of paleo-veterinarian Dr. Zia Rodriguez. You may have also seen Pineda on The CW's "The Originals," in which she played Sophie Deveraux.

A Zombie Anthology

Pineda joins an already-announced cast for "Tales of the Walking Dead" that includes Parker Posey, Terry Crews, and "ER" actor Anthony Edwards, alongside "Hacks" actor Poppy Liu and comedian Jillian Bell. "Tales of The Walking Dead" is set to be an anthology series, so it's unclear which of these actors will share screen time with one another. The show will also reportedly include some characters from the original "Walking Dead" series.

A six-episode season of "Tales" was ordered last fall, and it's set to debut on AMC and AMC+ sometime this summer. It's the third major spin-off from the flagship series, following "Fear the Walking Dead" and "The Walking Dead: World Beyond." While neither of those have matched the massive response of the original, which broke cable viewership records during its prime, "Fear" has had a successful run and continues to chug along with seven seasons to date.

My first instinct as an erstwhile fan of the original series (I dipped out relatively early, along with my girl Beth Greene) is to write this new show off as a business decision rather than a creative one, but an anthology exploration of the world actually sounds interesting. Some of the series' best episodes have felt like self-contained stories, reaching emotional high points and pulling off a satisfying ending in just an hour. "Tales of The Walking Dead" seems like a great chance to exercise that talent, and -- if execs choose to -- to spotlight a variety of directors and writers as well.

"Tales of The Walking Dead" may end up being a creative standout within the franchise, but it still sounds like a move towards this once-thrilling franchise turning into an IP-generating machine. When the series was in development in 2020, AMC Networks COO Ed Carroll deemed it a "test kitchen" with episodes that could double as backdoor pilots for other spinoffs, per Variety. At least it'll be a test kitchen with a great cast.

"Tales of the Walking Dead" is set to premiere on AMC and AMC+ this summer.

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The post Daniella Pineda Joins Anthology Spinoff Series Tales of the Walking Dead appeared first on /Film.

Reuters reports: The White House is warning the chip industry to diversify its supply chain in case Russia retaliates against threatened U.S. export curbs by blocking access to key materials, people familiar with the matter said. The potential for retaliation has garnered more attention in recent days after Techcet, a market research group, published a report on February 1 highlighting the reliance of many semiconductor manufacturers on Russian and Ukrainian-sourced materials like neon, palladium and others. According to Techcet estimates, over 90 percent of U.S. semiconductor-grade neon supplies come from Ukraine, while 35 percent of U.S. palladium is sourced from Russia. Peter Harrell, who sits of the White House's National Security Council, and his staff have been in touch with members of the chip industry in recent days, learning about their exposure to Russian and Ukrainian chipmaking materials and urging them to find alternative sources, the people said. A "senior official" told Reuters, "We understand that other sources of key products are available and stand ready to work with our companies to help them identify and diversify their supplies." Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader schwit1 for sharing the story.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

France president Emmanuel Macron "has announced a 'renaissance' for the French nuclear industry," reports the Guardian, with plans to build at least six new reactors by 2050 and as many as 14, "arguing that it would help end the country's reliance on fossil fuels and make France carbon neutral by 2050...." Atomic energy provides about 70% of French electricity, and low-cost nuclear power has been a mainstay of the French economy since the 1970s, but recent attempts to build new-generation reactors to replace older models have become mired in cost overruns and delays. Presidential candidates on the right have supported more nuclear power plants saying France should have "sovereignty" over its electricity, while detractors on the left have warned of the cost and complexity of building new reactors. Environmentalists have raised safety concerns over radioactive waste that remains deadly for tens of thousands of years. Macron said French nuclear regulators were "unequalled" in their rigour and professionalism and that the decision to build new nuclear power plants was a "choice of progress, a choice of confidence in science and technology". He also announced a major acceleration in the development of solar and offshore wind power. He said France had no choice but to rely on renewables and nuclearand that the country would also have to consume significantly less energy in the next decades. He said he would seek to extend the lives of all existing French nuclear plants where it was safe to do so.... The French government lobbied hard and successfully to get the European Commission to label nuclear power "green" this month in a landmark review which means it can attract funding as a climate-friendly power source.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

ZDNet reports: Cyber criminals are increasingly targeting Linux servers and cloud infrastructure to launch ransomware campaigns, cryptojacking attacks and other illicit activity — and many organisations are leaving themselves open to attacks because Linux infrastructure is misconfigured or poorly managed. Analysis from cybersecurity researchers at VMware warns that malware targeting Linux-based systems is increasing in volume and complexity, while there's also a lack of focus on managing and detecting threats against them. This comes after an increase in the use of enterprises relying on cloud-based services because of the rise of hybrid working, with Linux the most common operating system in these environments. That rise has opened new avenues that cyber criminals can exploit to compromise enterprise networks, as detailed by the research paper, including ransomware and cryptojacking attacks tailored to target Linux servers in environments that might not be as strictly monitored as those running Windows. These attacks are designed for maximum impact, as the cyber criminals look to compromise as much as the network as possible before triggering the encryption process and ultimately demanding a ransom for the decryption key. The report warns that ransomware has evolved to target Linux host images used to spin up workloads in virtualised environments, enabling the attackers to simultaneously encrypt vast swathes of the network and make incident response more difficult. The attacks on cloud environments also result in attackers stealing information from servers, which they threaten to publish if they're not paid a ransom.... Cryptojacking and other malware attacks are also increasingly targeting Linux servers. Cryptojacking malware steals processing power from CPUs and servers in order to mine for cryptocurrency.... Many of the cyberattacks targeting Linux environments are still relatively unsophisticated when compared with equivalent attacks targeting Windows systems — that means that with the correct approach to monitoring and securing Linux-based systems, many of these attacks can be prevented. That includes cybersecurity hygiene procedures such as ensuring default passwords aren't in use and avoiding sharing one account across multiple users.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

I fixed .Net Framework 3.5 SP1 the following.

- remove msxml6 installer.
- extended kernel install checker.
- WIC install checker.

If you use old version extended kernel and note installed WIC,
you can download WIC for extended kernel from WLU.
 

America's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) "says that American companies should be extra wary about potential hacking attempts from Russia as tensions with the country rise," reports PC Magazine: Even if Russia doesn't invade Ukraine, it has often targeted the country with what Wired has characterized as "many of the most costly cyberattacks in history." Those attacks might not always be confined to Ukraine, however, which is where CISA's new Shields Up campaign comes in.... CISA says that it "recommends all organizations — regardless of size — adopt a heightened posture when it comes to cybersecurity and protecting their most critical assets." It also says that it's collaborated with its "critical infrastructure partners" to raise awareness of these risks. The agency wants everyone to "reduce the likelihood of a damaging cyber intrusion," "take steps to quickly detect a potential intrusion," "ensure that the organization is prepared to respond if an intrusion occurs," and "maximize the organization's resilience to a destructive cyber incident." CISA offers advice related to each of those focus areas on its website. Earlier this week CISA also added 15 "known exploited" vulnerabilities to its catalog, ZDNet reports, in products from Apache, Apple, Jenkins, and Microsoft: The list includes a Microsoft Windows SAM local privilege escalation vulnerability with a remediation date set for February 24. Vulcan Cyber engineer Mike Parkin said the vulnerability — CVE-2021-36934 — was patched in August 2021 shortly after it was disclosed. "It is a local vulnerability, which reduces the risk of attack and gives more time to deploy the patch. CISA set the due date for Federal organizations who take direction from them, and that date is based on their own risk criteria," Parkin said. "With Microsoft releasing the fix 5 months ago, and given the relative threat, it is reasonable for them to set late February as the deadline."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

(Welcome to Year of the Vampire, a series examining the greatest, strangest, and sometimes overlooked vampire movies of all time in honor of "Nosferatu," which turns 100 this year.)

Soon after my siblings and I reached adolescence, our mother made sure to give us a good old-fashioned cinematic rundown of the films that helped shape her own understanding of the world when she was around our age. Luckily for us, mom always had a penchant for the morbidly hilarious. MPAA ratings never factored into what she was willing to show us, meaning Sunday afternoons in the Keogan household would regularly consist of matinees of "An American Werewolf in London," "Jaws" (which is only rated PG!) and, most importantly, "The Lost Boys." The overt 70s/80s overtones of these films helped minimize their horrifying impact (though it was admittedly hard to swim in the local Jersey watering hole after watching "Jaws," despite all of my wisecracks concerning how "fake" the shark looked), and we were genuinely delighted to have a window into our mother's previously unknown filmic tastes — even if the more salacious elements of these movies were a bit awkward to process during early pubescence in her company.

Why "The Lost Boys" in particular struck such a cord — both for us and our mother — definitely has a lot to do with how emblematic it feels of that particular era of pop culture. Though it was released during Ronald Reagan's second term, the film is totally in touch with the acts of youthful rebellion that existed on the ostensible margins of the reactionary climate of the 80s. This probably has a lot to do with director Joel Schumacher's own identity as a gay man during the AIDs epidemic, an anxiety that imbues the film with a heavy sense of fraught, fractured homoeroticism between mortal-turned-vampire Michael (Jason Patric) and blood-sucking coven leader David (Kiefer Southerland). Additionally embroiled in the thrilling danger and inherent sex appeal of living outside of society's conventions, "The Lost Boys" solidified the notion that our mom was (and still is) a deeply cool person with taste to boot — making these movie marathons all the more special as bonding exercises while also serving as benchmarks for understanding a bygone era (at least for a few 11 to 13-year-olds during the late aughts).

What It Brought To The Genre

If we're getting into the nitty-gritty of "The Lost Boys" plot points, what makes the film such a unique foray into vampiric cinema is its sunny California setting. Traditionally, the settings for these stories have provenance in dark, dreary corners of the world — Transylvania, London, Germany — as these locations provide ample cover for vampires from the sun's smoldering rays. Yet the fictitious city of Santa Carla (standing in for Santa Cruz) which hosts "The Lost Boys" inverts the classic vampire story on two fronts: it gives credence to the idea that vampires can infest any given area despite its climate, while also asserting that these vampires have to compensate for a lot considering their daytime disadvantage. In fact, there's almost an anti-drab air of liveliness to the city of Santa Carla — the sunny beachside feel which permeates the day gives way to a light-soaked metropolis by night, dominated by the luminescence of the boardwalk which becomes inundated with young people during the evening hours.

However, the overwhelming influx of pedestrians to this area doesn't translate to a safe congregation in numbers. These vampires flaunt their metaphysical powers, ripping roofs off of cars while couples canoodle and picking off security guards like lambs awaiting the slaughter. The sheer power this translates to only heightens the tension between Michael and David, who play a game of cat and mouse that is additionally bolstered by their rival desire for empathetic vampiress Star (Jami Gertz). This love triangle soon turns treacherous, with David's younger brother Sam (the late, great Corey Haim) and mother Lucy (Diane Wiest) becoming targets for the vampiric gang's brutality. Fortunately for Sam, teenage comic book purveying brothers Edgar (Corey Feldman) and Alan (Jamison Newlander) Frog freelance as experienced vampire hunters — a necessity for survival when living in Santa Carla. Not so fortunately for Lucy, her new beau (and boss at the local video store) Max (Edward Herrmann) is actually the de-facto leader of the coven, hiding his affiliation and allowing David to pose as overlord.

By obscuring the role of an exsanguinating elder, "The Lost Boys" also cements itself as a vampire film explicitly centered on the seedy, youthful underbelly of vampirism, a trend that would continue with the release of Kathryn Bigelow's Oklahoma-set "Near Dark" three months later.

The Spoils Of Eternal Youth

The film's title in itself references a static state of adolescence, referring to the un-aging clan of boys from "Peter Pan" whose eternal youth has stunted their maturity, but dually grants them with an otherworldly power. Similarly, the band of vamps in "The Lost Boys" operate out of a malicious brand of masculinity generally reserved for boorish teenage boys, exemplified by their proclivity for petty vandalism alongside their unquenchable thirst for blood. Yet their constant evading of capture (or, perhaps more aptly, staking) signifies not only the supernatural origins of their abilities, but the power and privilege that men are trained to exercise from an early age. It's no coincidence that both David and Max are possessive of the women in their lives, nor that the violence they inflict upon a comparatively vulnerable community goes without reproach.

Perhaps this is also why the dynamic between Michael and David is so embittered yet twinged with erotic sentiment—in their inability to comprehend and embrace their attraction for one another, they are forced to detest each other in order to fit into the mold of patriarchal manhood which they've been all but indoctrinated into since birth. Particularly when the jealousy seeps in after Michael has sex with Star — who until that point had been "David's woman" — the two boys are locked into a death match due to their incapability of expressing mutual desire. For a group of guys who seem to wear nothing but leather ensembles and dangly silver earrings, one would assume that an assertion of queerness would come naturally, but alas.

The antics of Sam and the Frog Brothers are also a useful foil to the more sexually charged activities of Michael and the coven, as their singular focus on comic books and vampire hunting serve as a window into the pop culture preferences of youths during the late '80s. Though the unyielding grip of hormonal changes are just on the horizon, all these boys care about are rare Superman comics and staving off night stalkers. This gives "The Lost Boys" mass appeal among teenagers of all ages, while also serving as a veritable time capsule of what the youth was engaging with and responding to circa 1987.

A Pop Culture Sensation

Okay, I'll say it: "The Lost Boys" is probably not the greatest vampire movie of all time. But what it lacks in gore and ingenuity it more than makes up for in cultural longevity. It influenced the first cinematic chapter of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (where teenspeak and vampirism also converge) and inspired arguably the funniest bit in the undead mockumentary movie "What We Do in the Shadows." Hell, even the oiled-up saxophone player Tim Capello has garnered infamy from his 20 seconds of screen time in the film -- a veritable sex symbol who has become popular GIF fodder 35 years on.

"The Lost Boys" is also incredible for the glimpse it provides into the decade's star power, particularly when it comes to the then-duo of The Two Coreys (both of whom have experienced the bleak injustices Hollywood still perpetuates against child actors), Sutherland's stint as a teen heartthrob, the versatility of two-time Academy Award winner Diane Wiest, and even an early look at a glammed-up Alex Winter a few years before he'd rise to prominence for "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure." However, the young people don't necessarily have the last laugh in "The Lost Boys." Despite the family's success in defeating Max, David, and their vampire lackeys, it's grandpa (Barnard Hughes) who utters the unforgettable final line of dialogue in the film. After impaling the vampiric ringleader with a stake attached to his truck, he calmly declares to his blood-drenched daughter and grandsons, "One thing about living in Santa Carla I never could stomach: all the damn vampires."

So next time you're having dinner with your mom, dad, aunt, uncle or other tangential relative who came of age during the '80s, ask them about "The Lost Boys." Chances are you'll be able to grade them on a scale from "bummer" to "bats***" based on their reaction. The critics may not have loved this wing-flapping flick when it originally hit theaters during the sweltering summer of '87 — but then again, legacy critics tend to not have their fingers on the pulse of what constitutes "cool" among young people. But hey, we'll just have to wait and see what there is to say about the imminent reboot of "The Lost Boys" — maybe this time I'll be the stuffy adult who just doesn't "get it."

Read this next: The 20 Best '80s Horror Movies Ranked

The post Year of the Vampire: The Lusty Legacy of The Lost Boys appeared first on /Film.

Regardless of how you feel about "Game of Thrones" and how it ended, most can agree that Samwell Tarly was a good friend, a better scholar, and a truly solid character. Unfortunately, following to the backlash to the series' ending in 2019, the man who portrayed Sam had a hard time finding work. English performer John Bradley recently had a chat with NME about his upcoming appearance in Roland Emmerich's disaster film "Moonfall" and the Jennifer lopez-led rom-com "Marry Me." 

He also opened up about why he's been out of the public eye for a little bit, and it has everything to do with a little place called Westeros. It took Bradley more than two years to sign on for another role, in part because people had been so burned by the "Game of Thrones" finale, and in part because he wanted to try something new but people could only see him as Sam:

"Nobody seemed to want to take a chance on me and my confidence began to suffer. I wanted something different ... Every time you have a show as successful as Game of Thrones, loads of [similar characters] follow. But I thought: 'I'll resist them.'"

There were some offers for characters similar to Sam, as bumbling big-hearted best friends to protagonists, but Bradley wanted to prove he could play something completely different. While Sam is a lovable character who will do anything for the people he loves, he would also be terribly boring to play for the rest of Bradley's life. He's a sweet but goofy soul, which isn't exactly the meatiest role. But faced with offers for sidekick characters and not much else, Bradley began to wonder if the biggest role of his career was already behind him. "I was lucky enough to get that one thing," he told NME. "The chances of me getting another role [as big as] that seemed pretty outlandish."

Avoiding Typecasting And Negative Takes

Bradley recognizes that he was lucky to get a chance to be a part of something as huge as "Game of Thrones," though he did mention that he thinks people went a bit overboard with their response to the final season, and dnies claims that the cast and crew knew season 8 was going to turn out bad while they were making it:

"We genuinely wanted it to be great. We genuinely thought it was going to be great. We were really proud of it. We weren't arrogant enough to think: 'Oh we'll just put it out there and they'll swallow it'. We only ever wanted people to like it ... I was really disappointed. The fan reaction was so fierce and vociferous, when people think of 'Game of Thrones,' they have a sense of disappointment because they didn't like the finale. I'd like it to be seen as a complete body of work ... Those great moments are not going to be forgotten and they shouldn't be dimmed or taken away from because the ending wasn't to your liking."

While "Game of Thrones" had its ups and downs over the years and is coming back soon in the form of prequel spin-off series "House of the Dragon," most people do seem to remember it for the disappointing final season most. That's a shame, because, as Bradley says, there are many great moments to cherish throughout the low fantasy tale. It may have taken Bradley a while to find his footing after the failures of the "Thrones" finale, but at least he's back on the right track. Fans can check him out in "Moonfall" and "Marry Me," both in theaters now. 

Read this next: Single-Season '80s Sci-Fi And Fantasy Shows That Deserve A Second Shot

The post John Bradley Struggled to Find Acting Roles After Game of Thrones Ended appeared first on /Film.

Remember when more than 100,000 Social Security numbers of Missouri teachers were revealed in the HTML code of a state web site? The St. Louis Post-Dispatch's reporter informed the state government and delayed publishings his findings until they'd fixed the hole — but the state's governor then demanded the reporter's prosecution, labelling him "a hacker." In the months that followed, throughout a probe — which for some reason was run by the state's Highway Patrol — the governor had continued to suggest that prosecution of that reporter was imminent. But it's not. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports: A St. Louis Post-Dispatch journalist will not be charged after pointing out a weakness in a state computer database, the prosecuting attorney for Cole County said Friday. Prosecutor Locke Thompson issued a statement to television station KRCG Friday, saying he appreciated Gov. Mike Parson for forwarding his concerns but would not be filing charges.... Parson, who had suggested prosecution was imminent throughout the probe, issued a statement saying Thompson's office believed the decision "was properly addressed...." Post-Dispatch Publisher Ian Caso said in a statement Friday: "We are pleased the prosecutor recognized there was no legitimate basis for any charges against the St. Louis Post-Dispatch or our reporter. While an investigation of how the state allowed this information to be accessible was appropriate, the accusations against our reporter were unfounded and made to deflect embarrassment for the state's failures and for political purposes...." There is no authorization required to examine public websites, but some researchers say overly broad hacking laws in many jurisdictions let embarrassed institutions lob hacking allegations against good Samaritans who try to flag vulnerabilities before they're exploited.... A political action committee supporting Parson ran an ad attacking the newspaper over the computer incident, saying the governor was "standing up to the fake news media." Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader UnknowingFool for submitting the story.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A "shadowy hacker group" named Modified Elephant has been targeting people throughout India "for at least a decade," reports Gizmodo, "sometimes using its digital powers to plant fabricated evidence of criminal activity on their devices. That phony evidence has, in turn, often provided a pretext for the victims' arrest." They cite a new report from cybersecurity firm Sentinel One "illuminating the way in which its digital dirty tricks have been used to surveil and target "human rights activists, human rights defenders, academics, and lawyers" throughout India. The most prominent case involving Elephant centers around Maoist activist Rona Wilson and a group of his associates who, in 2018, were arrested by India security services and accused of plotting to overthrow the government. Evidence for the supposed plot — including a word document detailing plans to assassinate the nation's prime minister, Narendra Modi — was found on the Wilson's laptop. However, later forensic analysis of the device showed that the documents were actually fake and had been artificially planted using malware. According to Sentinel researchers, it was Elephant that put them there. This case, which gained greater exposure after being covered by the Washington Post, was blown open after the aforementioned laptop was analyzed by a digital forensics firm, Boston-based Arsenal Consulting. Arsenal ultimately concluded that Wilson and all of his so-called co-conspirators, as well as many other activists, had been targeted with digital manipulation.... According to the Sentinel One's report, Elephant uses common hacking tools and techniques to gain a foothold in victims' computers. Phishing emails, typically tailored to the victim's interests, are loaded with malicious documents that contain commercially available remote access tools (RATs) — easy-to-use programs available on the dark web that can hijack computers.... An entirely different group is believed to have conducted similar operations against Baris Pehlivan, a journalist in Turkey who was incarcerated for 19 months in 2016 after the Turkish government accused him of terrorism. Digital forensics later revealed that the documents used to justify Pehlivan's charges had been artificially implanted, much like those on Wilson's laptop.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Mozilla engineer Martin Thomson reveals they've been collaborating with Meta (formerly Facebook) on new technology that can measure "conversions" from advertising while still preserving privacy. The proposed new technology is called Interoperable Private Attribution, or IPA. IPA has two key privacy-preserving features. First, it uses Multi-Party Computation (MPC) to avoid allowing any single entity — websites, browser makers, or advertisers — to learn about user behavior. Mozilla has some experience with MPC systems as we've deployed Prio for privacy-preserving telemetry. Second, it is an aggregated system, which means that it produces results that cannot be linked to individual users. Together these features mean that IPA cannot be used to track or profile users. IPA is designed to provide a lot of flexibility for advertising businesses in terms of how they use the system. Cross-device and cross-browser attribution options in IPA enable new and more robust attribution capabilities, while maintaining privacy. The IPA proposal aims to ensure that all sites benefit from these features with the match key concept, which allows smaller players to access the greater reach of entities to cross-device attribution. "Advertising provides critical support for the Web," the blog post argues — and they've now proposed IPA to the World Wide Web Consortium's dedicated Private Advertising Technology Community Group, while calling their idea "still a work in progress."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Liliputing reports: When Valve's Steam Deck begins shipping to customers later this month, the handheld gaming PC will be running a Linux-based operating system called Steam OS. And that could give gaming on Linux a bit of a boost. While Valve's game client has been able to run on Linux for years, as of last month just over 1% of Steam users were running Linux (and fewer than 3% were using macOS, with Windows holding a 96% share). It'll be interesting to see if that starts to change once the Steam Deck hits the streets. And if it does, maybe we'll see more game makers add support for Linux... but one of the most popular games around isn't going to add Linux support anytime soon: Epic CEO Tim Sweeney says the company has no plans to port Fortnite to Linux. He says it's because Epic doesn't "have confidence that we'd be able to combat cheating at scale under a wide array of kernel configurations including custom ones," but it's an interesting take since Epic has already ported its anti-cheat software to support Mac and Linux devices including the Steam Deck.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Battery Organizer stores and protects your batteries so that you can always find what you need.

Linux 5.18 will not see a release until Spring 2022, but that is not stopping Intel from plans to support their new Software Defined Silicon (SDSi) mechanism in the open-source operating system. The new Intel SDSi will allow for Xeon processors to allow for features and updates to be installed directly to the processor immediately after purchase. Intel's Sapphire Rapids series chips will be the first processor for the company to offer this feature.

Intel's payable software-upgrading CPU feature to see Spring release in Linux 5.18 support

Twitter user Andreas Schilling notes that this is not the first time Intel has attempted to block computer processors' features behind a paywall. He notes that in 2010, Intel created a part to unlock higher clock speeds and increased memory cache for the Intel Core i3-2xxx series, also known as the Sandy Bridge family of processors.

Regarding SDSi:

It’s not the first time Intel is trying something like Software Defined Silicon. There was the Intel Upgrade Service in 2010 where Intel did add some higher clocks and additional cache to certain Core i3-2xxx (Sandy Bridge) SKUs.https://t.co/poCFbGT81D

— Andreas Schilling (@aschilling) September 28, 2021

Schilling notes that the feature was not a success and was halted by Intel.

During Schilling's tweet, Intel was in several discussions about initiating patches to enable SDSi functionality in Linux. Last year, at this time, Linux was in version 5.15. Now that we are coming into the horizon of Linux 5.18, Intel is prepared to launch the new feature in the upcoming kernel.

Hans de Goede, a seasoned Linux developer for Red Hat and several other hardware-related projects, states that "Assuming no major issues are found, the plan is to get this in before the 5.18 merge window."

What is Intel Software Defined Silicon (SDSi)?

Intel Software Defined Silicon (SDSi) enables extra silicon elements in current and deployed server processors through the software. Intel has not divulged its future goals facilitating its paywalled CPU software-upgradable measures.

User-selected Features Capabilities

Viewing the current information about Intel's SDSi program, it does appear to have its advantages without looking at the issue of having to pay for any features. Intel's Xeon processors are rich in features, such as support for as much as 4.5 TB of memory per individual socket, network virtualization functionality, Intel's Speed Select technology, as well as colossal SGX enclave size. And that is just the tip of the iceberg. Recently, the company began offering infrastructure as a service (IaaS), virtual machine density, liquid cooling, search capability, media processing, and more.

With its upcoming Xeon fourth-gen scalable 'Sapphire Rapids' processors, Intel will offer specialized variants of its Xeon chipset, such as:

• L- Large DDR Memory Support (up to 4.5TB)
• M- Medium DDR Memory Support (up to 2TB)
• N- Networking/Network Function Virtualization
• S- Search
• T- Thermal
• V- VM Density Value
• Y- Intel Speed Select Technology

Recognizing that not all users will need every option available, Intel chooses to offer specific features to their customers without adding further unusable options. Intel's third-gen Xeon series offers 57 variations, but each provides the same amount of efficient cores, TDP, and boost clocks. The only difference between the variations is manufacture-locked features. Instead of offering a vast number of processors, all with the same capabilities—with some features locked—the company plans to create a few processors so customers can choose their attributes and not have to worry about additional unused offerings. Also, Intel can limit the amount of cost due to creating multiple versions for users. Unfortunately, from a consumer standpoint, Intel is looking at this move to create a micro transactional plan for the upcoming chips. And, customers are not happy.

The Negative Impact of Pay-As-You-Need Features

When initially announced, the Internet was already abuzz about the impact of designing hardware with microtransactions. Gamers have already experienced microtransactions in leading games, unlocking new skins, more accessibility, and more for varying prices. Creating hardware with the same concept has a similar backlash that gamers experience.

Only a matter of time before you bring this to end user CPUs and we have to pay monthly to overclock or even pay per months of usage. You should be ashamed of yourselves as developers.

-Eric Kosovec, coder on GitHub

Between Intel SDSi and AMD PSB (which locks CPUs to platforms), it's a tough battle to choose which is the most retarded, anti-consumer feature.

— Danilo "18pF flip-flop" Cominotti (@dcominottim) February 10, 2022

That Intel SDSi thing rubs me the wrong way, in the sense that it's a precursor to the hypothetical future where I have to unlock the floating-point units on my desktop CPU with microtransactions

— meta (@eigenform) September 28, 2021

Outside of Intel choosing to allow consumers to pay for additional features on their chip, the negative impact it appears to be having is that the company is not disclosing a lot of information about the new process and even defending any of the backlash currently received.

Intel's new SDSi program will be available in Linux 5.18, available in Spring 2022.

Sources:

• Phoronix
• Tom's Hardware
• GitHub
• Lenovo
• Andreas Schilling
• Daniel "18pf flip-flop" Cominotti
• meta

The post Intel Wants Customers To Pay For Additional Features on CPUs After They’ve Purchased It by Jason R. Wilson appeared first on Wccftech.

The first season of Hulu's "Only Murders in the Building" was an absolute delight. Stars Steve Martin (who co-created the show with John Hoffman), Martin Short, and Selena Gomez are delightful to watch together as they bond over their love of true crime podcasts, and create their own to solve a murder in their fancy New York City building, the Arconia. I don't have to sell you on Martin and Short, but if you've yet to witness the joy that is Selena Gomez acting, you are missing out. 

If you haven't seen it, here's the deal: Charles Haden-Savage (Martin) was a famous '90s TV star and has a lonely, washed-up sort of life, despite his fancy address. Oliver Putnam (Short) was a Broadway director whose shows are fancifully extravagant, and he's not getting any work right now. Mabel Mora (Gomez) is a mysterious young woman renovating her aunt's apartment. When the building is evacuated one night after the fire alarm goes off, they realize they listen to the same podcast. That's just the setup, and the twists and turns are so clever and fun that you'll be ashamed of yourself for laughing so much at death. Sting even makes an appearance. He sings, too. 

The show was renewed, and the new cast members are being announced. Today we learned (via Deadline) that Michael Rapaport has joined season 2 of the series.

Sounds Like An Afternoon

Rapaport will play Detective Kreps, an investigator who is working on the latest murder in the building from the end of season 1. He joins new cast members Cara Delevingne ("Suicide Squad"), Shirley MacLaine ("Terms of Endearment"), and Amy Schumer ("Trainwreck"). Not only that, but Nathan Lane's Teddy Dimas (he of the good dips) will return, despite some dastardly dealings last season.

Delevingne is playing Alice, an art world insider. She's been booked as a series regular, so we'll be seeing a lot of her. No info yet on who Amy Schumer and Shirley MacLaine are playing but does it matter? Seeing them interact with Short, Martin, Gomez, and Lane is going to be as yummy as Dimas dips. 

Rapaport has been seen in "True Romance," "Boston Public," "Prison Break," "Justified," and he had a short run on "Friends," where he played Phoebe's cop boyfriend who shot birds. He'll also appear alongside Schumer in her new series "Life & Beth." 

One more fun item here: Andrea Martin ("My Big Fat Greek Wedding") hasn't been officially announced yet as of this writing, but Steve Martin tweeted a picture of her on the set.

Steve Martin said in the tweet, "On the set of 'Only Murders in the Building' season 2. Great cast surprises that are no longer surprises." Well, I was surprised! However, after this cast list, I will not be surprised by anyone else! 

Read this next: The 14 Best Bill Murray Movies Ranked

The post Only Murders in the Building Season 2 Adds Michael Rapaport as a Detective appeared first on /Film.

Microsoft Teams is the software giant's main offering in the work-from-home market, and the company has been tweaking it to be the best it can be. The tech giant has confirmed that, during internal tests, Microsoft Teams now takes up 50% less CPU and memory since June 2020.

Owners of Kingdom Come: Deliverance might want to head over to Steam, as The Amorous Adventures of Bold Sir Hans Capon DLC is now available as a free giveaway for those who do not already own it....