ENTERTAINMENT

Amazon pokes fun at Alexa’s eerie omnipresence in its new Super Bowl LVI commercial starring actress Scarlett Johansson and Saturday Night Live’s Colin Jost. While Alexa can already follow commands with simple vocal instruction, the video imagines that Alexa can actually read minds. As the married couple goes about their daily routine, the device increasingly asserts itself into their interactions. When Johansson and Jost wake up in bed in the morning, Alexa places an order for some minty mouthwash. Later, when Jost is telling his wife a tedious story, Alexa turns on the blender to tune him out. Alongside debuting the game-day commercial, Amazon has introduced new features to Alexa to help amp up the at-home viewing experience. Users can ask, “Alexa, who’s going to win the Big Game?” to he...

Netflix is making a documentary about Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, a married couple who was arrested this week for allegedly conspiring to launder around $4.5 billion USD in Bitcoin. The couple was accused of getting the crypto from the 2016 Bitfinex hack, one of the largest attacks in Bitcoin’s history. The government has since recovered $3.6 billion. Scheduled to release in 2022, Chris Smith, who was behind Tiger King and the Fyre Festival documentary FYRE, will direct and executive produce. Nick Bilton, of Fake Famous, American Kingpin and more, will also serve as an executive producer. In its description of the upcoming documentary, which has yet to receive a title, Netflix said it follows “a married couple’s alleged scheme to launder billions of dollars worth of stole...

Amazon Studios is working on a live-action Blade Runner series, according to Deadline. Ridley Scott, the original director of the 1982 film, will executive produce the series, which is titled Blade Runner 2099. The series will arrive as a follow-up to the 2017 feature film sequel Blade Runner 2049, which was helmed by Denis Villeneuve. The project is currently in priority development at Amazon, and the company is fast-tracking scripts and working on solidifying production dates. Scott is in talks to direct once the series moves forward, according to sources via Deadline. The original Blade Runner, which stars Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young and Edward James Olmos, follows a fugitive group of bio-engineered synthetic humans as they escape to Earth while...

After an exceptional directorial debut with Get Out and his subsequent success with Us, actor-turned-director Jordan Peele is now working on his third project, titled Nope. The new film sees Peele team up with Universal Pictures once again, and its style will very much reflect his previous work, offering horror elements with social commentary. While he hasn’t revealed much about exactly what the plot of the movie will entail, a poster for the upcoming title spotlights a looming cloud in a dark and ominous sky over a small town, and the teaser itself showcases actors Steven Yuen, Daniel Kaluuya, and Keke Palmer all looking upwards with horrified expressions. For fans of the critically acclaimed director, Nope is slated to hit cinemas July 22. A full trailer is expected t...

Amazon has revealed the official first look images of its upcoming The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series, an adaptation from J.R.R. Tolkien‘s mythical world. The images were released on Vanity Fair as a part of the first-look feature that gives fans a glimpse of Middle-Earth. The series is set to take place in the Second Age of Middle-Earth, before the War of the Ring and the appearance of Frodo and Bilbo. The storyline follows the cast of characters as they confront the re-emerging and long-feared evil that hovers over Middle-Earth. The first look shows Ismael Cruz Córdova playing a silvan elf called Arondir wielding a flaming torch. Another image showcases Elrond and Galadriel reunited in the elven kingdom of Lindon, while another showcases the new character Halbrand portrayed...

Zack Snyder has now announced the full cast list for his upcoming Netflix sci-fi project Rebel Moon. Announcing the news over on Twitter, the Army of the Dead director welcomed Charlie Hunnam, Djimon Hounsou, Doona Bae, Ray Fisher to the cast list, which also includes the previously-announced Sofia Boutella. The film will also feature Jena Malone, Staz Nair, E. Duffy, Charlotte Maggi, and Sky Yang, with Snyder saying there’ll be even “more to come.” On top of revealing the new cast members, the director and Netflix also shared a handful of new concept art images of the upcoming project, showcasing a highly futuristic yet dystopian setting for Rebel Moon, combining elements from both the sci-fi and fantasy genres to create an almost Star-Wars–meets-Dune aesthetic. Indee...

Ryan Reynolds teams up with Free Guy director Shawn Levy for his next sci-fi action Netflix film. The streaming giant has released the teaser for Reynolds’ time-traveling film which sees his older self go back to his younger self to help him save the world. Netflix’s synopsis of The Adam Project states that Adam Reed, played by Reynolds, “accidentally crash-landing in 2022,” enlists his 12-year-old self on a world-saving mission. The whimsical and action-packed trailer sees Jennifer Garner portray Adam’s mom and Mark Ruffalo as the father. The series follows 2050 Adam to help him repair his crash-landed ship. Reynolds tells Vanity Fair, “The humor that Adam uses in the movie echoes certain aspects of my own life, which is that it’s a defense mechanism. It’s a defense mechanism from allowin...

A new form of Hideyuki Kikuchi’s Vampire Hunter D story will be brought to English readers. It has just been announced that the Vampire Hunter D: Message from Mars graphic novel has successfully reached funding goal on Kickstarter in just under two hours. Sitting comfortably at $315,000 USD in funding — over 10 times its goal of $30,000 USD — Vampire Hunter D: Message from Mars is led, for the first time, by an English team: Brandon Easton, Ryan Benjamin, and Richard Friend, and of course, Hideyuki Kikuchi. Vampire Hunter D takes place 10,000 years in the future on a post-apocalyptic Earth where vampires and monsters rule and humans are prey. D, a dhampir, sets out to right wrongs for the right price, and when he feels like it’s deserving. Message from Mars is the graphic novel adaptation ...

Netflix‘s latest Korean zombie series All of Us Are Dead has garnered international attention ever since its release. In a new interview with The Korea Herald, director Lee Jae-kyoo shared that he created the series with an expansive second season in mind. Lee intended on ensuring that the storyline of season one would set the events up for the following season, “including the introduction of the new races of zombies – immune and immortal. If the first season can be seen as having presented humanity’s survival, the next season can talk about the survival of zombies. I hope to present viewers with another season.” Elsewhere in the conversation, Lee discussed how his series adaptation differs from the original zombie webtoon of the same name by Joo Dong-geun, “In trying to make our series en...

Universal Pictures has dropped off the official trailer for Jurassic World: Dominion, the final installment in the latest Jurassic Park trilogy. The upcoming film is set in the present day, roughly four years following the happenings of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Dominion sees the return of Chris Pratt as Owen Grady, Bryce Dallas Howard as Claire Dearing, Daniella Pineda as Dr. Zia, Omar Sy as Barry, Laura Dern as Dr. Ellie Sattler, Sam Neill as Alan Grant and Jeff Goldblum as Ian Malcolm. Additionally, the movie welcomes newcomers DeWanda Wise, Mamoudou Athie, Dichen Lachman, Scott Haze and more. The almost three-minute trailer provides ample context for the finale film, which sees dinosaurs living and hunting alongside humans across the globe. “Humans and dinosau...

After teasing fans earlier this week, AMC has announced an official release date for the upcoming sixth and final season of Better Call Saul. The seven-episode Part 1 of Better Call Saul season six will premiere on April 18 at 9 p.m. ET on AMC and AMC Plus. Two episodes will release that evening, with additional episodes airing on a weekly basis. The second half of the season will then premiere this summer on July 11. Additionally, the company unveiled a first-look image from the upcoming season, which sees Bob Odenkirk in his role as the titular attorney. Better Call Saul was renewed for its final season in January 2020 prior to the premiere of season five. Season six was originally scheduled to air in 2021, though it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Aside from Odenkirk, t...