Tomorrow I’m leaving on a jet plane for a quickie getaway. I usually don’t take a proper summer vacation and this is really no exception – I’ll only be away for a little over 36 hours, which means I’ll be cramming a lot into a very short amount of time. I’m not a laying on the beach kind of vacationer anyway, but this is probably not the most relaxing way to be spending my time. But two days out of the office is still two days out of the office and I’m excited to explore a city that I’ve never been to before, even if it’s going to be 100 million degrees outside. So this will be the last post on the blog this week, though hopefully this trip will also generate a little content for next week.
But I couldn’t leave you without doing this week’s pop culture roundup. Even without any trailers in this edition, there’s still plenty of news to share from the world of pop. So while I try to finalize all my activities for the next two days, get yourself caught up on everything that you might have missed.
- Rihanna will play Marion Crane on the final season of Bates Motel.
- Did you catch the Breaking Bad Easter egg in last Sunday’s episode of Preacher?
- Lin-Manuel Miranda will tell Hamilton’s story on Drunk History.
- Renee Elise Goldsberry will star in the titular role of HBO’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
- Everybody loved Daveed Diggs – he’ll appear on Black-ish.
- More Black Panther news – Michael B. Jordan and Lupita Nyong’o will play villains and Danai Gurira has officially joined the cast.
- Temple of the Dog are reuniting for their first tour.
- Kristin Chenowth joined the cast of American Gods.
- Put a stake in them (ha!) – The Vampire Diaries to end after its eight season.
- The Rock has a bodybuilder show in development, not to be confused with the bodybuilding series from Arnold Schwarzenegger.
- Nicole Richie will join the cast of NBC’s new comedy from one of the 30 Rock writers.
- Teen Wolf is ending – series finale will be in 2017.
- Adele and Beyonce lead the pack of this year’s VMA nominations.
- Kid Cudi is coming to Empire as a potential rival for Hakeem.
- Samira Wiley will co-star in Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale.
- Eddie Redmayne gave out free wands at Comic-Con.
- Celebrities audition to play a young Han Solo:
- Alden Ehrenreich, who actually is playing Han Solo, has been signed for two more movies.
- Black Sails will end after its 4th season.
- Ghost Rider is coming to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
- Aladdin is coming to Once Upon A Time.
- Aquaman has found a new writer.
- Margot Robbie thought that Vanity Fair interview was weird too.
- Downton Abbey’s Lady Mary (aka Michelle Dockery) is headed to Netflix’s Western, Godless.
- Charlie Hunnam won’t be back for Pacific Rim 2.
- Roxane Gay and Ta-Nehisi Coates are co-writing a comic for Marvel.
- Kevin Smith gave some updates on the Mallrats TV series.
- The Russo brothers are working on a TV adaptation of the comic Deadly Class.
- Norman Reedus pranked his Walking Dead co-star Andrew Lincoln with glitter.
- The Game of Thrones showrunners pulled an intricate prank on John Bradley (Sam).
- A dude is facing jail time after trying the Seinfeld bottle deposit scheme.
- Colton Haynes has joined the second season of Scream Queens. So has Cecily Strong.
- John Crowley, the director of the intoxicatingly charming Brooklyn, will take on the Goldfinch adaptation.
- The Mystery Science Theater 3000 revival is headed to Netflix.
- Brie Larson is officially Captain Marvel.
- Sia will voice a character in the My Little Pony movie.
- Turn has been renewed for a fourth and final season on AMC.
- HBO won’t be bringing back Project Greenlight.
- Matthew Lillard will appear on Halt and Catch Fire.
- Kristen Bell and Rob Thomas want to do more Veronica Mars.
- The final movie from the Divergent series will air on TV rather that in the theaters. This will launch a TV series.
- Michelle Obaba dropped by Carpool Karaoke:
- Netflix has renewed Daredevil.
- Netflix is giving Voltron a second season.
- BoJack Horseman will be back for a fourth season.
- Here’s the cast of Netflix’s series Dear White People.
- Chance the Rapper is creating his own music festival in Chicago.
- Samantha Bee took on her own network (and won) after a sexist tweet.
- The second season of Netflix’s Stranger Things will be a sequel to the first.
- Rihanna, Selena Gomez, Kendrick Lamar, and Metallica will headline this year’s Global Citizen Festival.
- If you missed the great American Crime Story on FX, it will be streaming on Netflix.
- Katey Sagal will play Penny’s mom on The Big Bang Theory. Jack McBrayer will play her brother.
- The BBC is doing a six-part Les Miserables mini-series.
- Some Army of Darkness lore will find its way into the new season of Ash vs. Evil Dead.
- These parents are not fooling around with their Harry Potter-themed nursery:
- Jennifer Hudson will star in Adam Sandler’s next movie for Netflix.
- Fresh off the Boat will kick off its third season in Taiwan.
- A modern-day Auntie Mame is being adapted for Tilda Swinton by one of the co-writers of Bridesmaids.
- Rick Springfield will play a washed-up rock star that is a vessel for Lucifer on Supernatural.
- Ben Affleck’s standalone Batman movie is rumored to take place in Arkham Asylum.
- Kirsten Dunst will make her directorial debut in an adaptation of The Bell Jar starring Dakota Fanning.
- AMC has given Chris Hardwick a multi-year contract, so expect more aftershows.
- Alicia Silverstone will star in a TV Land comedy inspired by Kyle Richards.
- Max Landis is writing a Pepé Le Pew movie. Hopefully Pepé will have learned a little something about consent.
- Reports are that we shouldn’t expect a new James Bond movie until at least 2018.
- Control yourself Potter fans – Ginny and Harry reunited:
- Margot Robbie will produce and star in an adaptation of Bad Monkeys.
- Oprah will star in Ava DuVernay’s adaptation of A Wrinkle In Time.
- Chiwetel Ejiofor is in talks to star in the Netflix movie Come Sunday.
- Chekov won’t be recast in the next Star Wars movie after the death of Anton Yelchin.
- This review of Star Trek Beyond mocks Yelchin’s death.
- A guy pulled a gun on a kid that was kicking his seat during a Star Trek Beyond screening.
- Paul Feig is producing a film about supermodels stranded in a Chilean snowstorm.
- Jack White’s Third Man Records is launching one of their record players into the sky with a high-altitude balloon.
- The comedians participating in the 2016 Oddball Festival have been announced.
- The Just For Laughs festival has selected its “New Faces” showcase for 2016.
- Watch this makeup artist transform herself pretty convincingly into Ron Swanson:
- One Direction’s days may be numbered – Liam Payne is going solo as well.
- Look for a Family Guy movie in the next five years.
- Cooley High is getting a remake.
- Michael C. Hall will star in David Bowie’s musical Lazarus when it heads to London.
- Peter MacNicol lost eligibility for his Emmy nomination over 10 seconds of footage.
- Amanda Stenberg will star in the adaptation of the YA novel, Everything Everything.
- Haim has cancelled their European tour to finish their new album.
- The Jim Henson Company has joined the adaptation of Terry Pratchett’s Wee Free Men.
- Korn is apparently still around; their new music video features Sons of Anarchy’s Tommy Flanagan.
- TruTV renewed Impractical Jokers for a sixth season.
- Jennifer Lopez is making a dance competition show for NBC.
- The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation is auctioning off some of Leo’s items online.
- Back in the day, Tiffany Trump released a pop song.
- Here’s Idris Elba dancing on The Tonight Show:
- Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos are producing a reality show for Logo.
- RuPaul’s Drag Race will shantay, you stay for another season.
- Carly Chaikin from Mr. Robot is also a painter.
- Rita Ora will be the new host of America’s Next Top Model.
- Morgan Freeman said “Let there be a second season of The Story of God” and it was so.
- Here’s what’s coming and going from Netflix in August. And Hulu. And Amazon Prime. And HBO Now.
- Jon Gosselin is now a cook at T.G.I. Friday’s.
- David Spade will be the Roast Master at the Comedy Central Roast of Rob Lowe.
- Don Knotts’s hometown in West Virginia made him a statue.
- Some of the Fellowship of the Ring got back together:
- Japan has manufactured its last VCR.
- The first photos from Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard’s 2013 wedding were released.
- The Feds are investigating the investors in The Wolf of Wall Street.
- It had been quiet for way too long – Lindsay Lohan has some relationship drama.
- More drama – Rob Kardashian and Blac Chyna apparently had a blowout.
- Brandy’s lawsuit against her record label has been refiled.
- Gucci Mane admits to a history of drug addiction.
- Another Duggar kid is getting married.
- A fan was arrested after slapping Justin Timberlake in the face at a golf tournament.
- Zoe Saldana reveals that she has the autoimmune disease Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.
- Miranda Kerr and Snapchat co-founder Even Spiegel are engaged.
- TV psychic Miss Cleo has died at 55.
- Broadway mogul James M. Nederlander has passed away at 94.
- R.I.P. Marni Nixon, who provided the singing voice for the female leads in The King and I, West Side Story and My Fair Lady.
As always, we end with the mashups and supercuts……
- Floppy disks play “Seven Nation Army”:
- A look at how the Coen Brothers use the color green in their movies:
- The Greatest T-shirts in Film:
- Celine Dion tries her hand at musical impressions:
- Pokémon Go – Hollywood:
- Air New Zealand knows how to make an air safety video:
- Postmodern Jukebox takes on Aerosmith’s ”Dream On”:
- This is a pretty extensive Disney movie mashup:
- A metal cover of Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling”:
- And finally, the Game of Thrones season six blooper reel:
