Celine Song takes her talents to the world of E-Sports
Do E-Sports players have complicated feelings about love? That's for Celine Song to decide in her new HBO drama, Damage.
While we know very little about the series as of this writing, it does have a logline, per IndieWire: 'A gaming prodigy joins the ranks of a professional E-Sports team, where she's taken under the wing of an older player with whom she shares a tragic past.' Song has remained tight-lipped regarding further details. 'I'd love to talk more about it when it's further along,' she told Variety.
While Song is on board to write, direct, and executive produce, she isn't the only buzzy name associated with the project. The Last Of Us' Craig Mazin is also on board as EP, as well as Jacqueline Lesko and Cecil O'Connor (Word Games), and David Hinojosa. The project is backed by A24, which distributed Song's past two films, Past Lives and Materialists.
This may seem like a departure for Song, but Materialists, which has its wide release this weekend, has already incited a heated debate about the boundaries of genre. 'When we see trailers for a movie like this, people just start calling it a chick flick—there's a very easy way that you can dismiss it,' Song said in a recent interview with The New York Times. 'I'm really interested in directly addressing the way that we completely dismiss matters of the heart. Not a single one of us actually can escape this problem, which is love.' It stands to reason, then, that we can't escape it even in our most escapist, virtual pursuits.
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Yahoo
33 minutes ago
- Yahoo
‘The Gilded Age,' ‘A Minecraft Movie,' Haim's ‘I Quit,' and the best to stream this weekend: June 20, 2025
Welcome to , your VIP guide to the best of pop culture for the weekend ahead, curated by the Gold Derby team of experts. (June 20-June 22) It has been more than a year and a half since The Gilded Age did the impossible and made us all care about competing opera houses. Now, the Emmy-winning HBO drama from creator Julian Fellowes is back for what might be its best outing yet. More from GoldDerby Jason Isaacs spills all the tea, a reappraisal of Britney Spears, and what to read this weekend: June 20, 2025 'Arcane,' returning from a 3-year hiatus, leads early Best Animated Program Emmy odds The 10 most Lynchian items at the David Lynch auction - and how much they sold for In Season 3 (premiering Sunday at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and Max), having won the battle for the Met, Bertha (Emmy nominee Carrie Coon) is poised to take over as the head of New York society while George (Morgan Spector) heads out west with the hopes of expanding his railroads to the California coast, a gambit that could revolutionize the industry and change the map forever. But those are not the only new happenings this season. Across the street, Ada (Emmy winner Cynthia Nixon) is now the lady of the Brook house following her marriage to the secretly wealthy Rev. Forte, a development Agnes (fellow Emmy winner Christine Baranski) struggles to accept despite the fact it's her sister's new fortune that has allowed them to keep their home. And it's a good thing they did, because Marian (Louisa Jacobson) and Larry's (Harry Richardson) sweet budding romance definitely benefits from close proximity. As ambitions skyrocket, new relationships blossom, and the future is seemingly on the doorstep, the third season of The Gilded Age is the awards contender to watch this weekend. And if opera isn't your jam, there are plenty of other options are available. Other prestige picks include: The Waterfront: Kevin Williamson's latest series returns to Wilmington, North Carolina, the filming location for his groundbreaking show Dawson's Creek, to tackle a new story. Inspired by true events, the family drama follows the Buckleys, a family who has ruled the town of Havenport for decades thanks to their fishing empire. But things aren't what they once were, and as matriarch Belle (Maria Bello) and adult son Cane (Jake Weary) attempt to keep the family business afloat while Harlan (Holt McCallany), the gruff family patriarch, recovers from two heart attacks, their shortsighted plans quickly spiral out of control. All eight episodes are now streaming on Netflix. The Buccaneers: The long-awaited sophomore season of Apple TV+'s period drama is here at last. Based on an unfinished Edith Wharton novel, the show follows a group of young American women who have entered London high society in the 1870s and made it their own. Following her marriage to Theo (Guy Remmers), Nan (Kristine Frøseth) is now the Duchess of Tintagel and wields immense power, while Conchita (Alisha Boe) as Lady Brightlingsea has become a heroine to a new wave of American heiresses. But while the culture clash that dominated Season 1 is no longer the show's focus, there is still plenty of drama to be had, as the women continue to grow up and experience life's many changes. The Season 2 premiere is now streaming on Apple TV+. Surviving Ohio State: And now for something much more grim. HBO's new documentary tells the horrific story of the victims of Dr. Richard Strauss, a physician at the Ohio State University who used his position and power to sexually abuse male student-athletes for two decades, and the ongoing fight to hold the school accountable. The nearly two-hour doc is based on Jon Wertheim's Sports Illustrated article "Why Aren't More People Talking About the Ohio State Sex Abuse Scandal," and expands upon the original 2018 reporting that exposed the scandal. It is now streaming on Max. Our top pick this week, video game adaptation A Minecraft Movie, is unlikely to win any Academy Awards, but it's probably going to dominate at the Kids' Choice Awards on Saturday. Kids simply love this movie. They love Minecraft, they love Jack Black, and they love memes, especially participatory ones that annoy older people — and the movie's 'Chicken Jockey' is the defining one of the year. It may not be funny to you, but Warner Bros. is laughing all the way to the bank with nearly a billion dollars in box office gross. Black stars alongside Jason Momoa, Danielle Brooks, Emma Myers, and Sebastian Hansen. The latter four play people who get sucked into the cube-based alternate dimension known as the Overworld, where Steve (Black) has been trapped for years. Together, they team up to stop the evil piglin Malgosha (that's 'pig goblin,' for the uninformed) from taking over the Overworld and try to escape back to the human world. If you haven't seen any footage, be forewarned: there are way more cubes than you're expecting. You've never seen a movie where everything on screen is the same shape before. It's now streaming on Max. If you do not yearn for the mines, here are some other new movies to watch on subscription streaming platforms or VOD this weekend: : The Hit Broadway Musical: Disney+'s latest filmed stage production is the theatrical adaptation of the hit animated movie from 2013. Frozen tells the story of princess sisters Elsa (Samantha Barks) and Anna (Laura Dawkes). Elsa, the older sister, is powerful but temperamental, while Anna is ordinary but reliable. When Elsa ascends to the throne, she runs away rather than face her responsibilities, plunging the kingdom into permanent winter. So Anna sets off on a journey to find her, saving the kingdom and discovering her own power along the way. The stage version has 12 new songs, plus the favorites from the movie, including the show-stopper 'Let It Go.' A note for the pedants in the crowd: While Frozen did run on Broadway from 2018 to 2020, this film is actually the West End production, which ran from 2021 to 2024. : Eiza Gonzalez and Aaron Paul star in this sci-fi head-trip from director Flying Lotus, who also composed the score (he's perhaps best known as an electronic musician, but he's starting to enter Rob Zombie territory as a musician-turned-distinctive horror filmmaker). Gonzalez plays Riya, an astronaut who wakes up on a ship with no memory of how she got there. All the other crew members are dead. The only living person is Brion (Paul), who says he has come to rescue her after receiving a distress call. She doesn't know if she can trust him, and as her memories start to come back, she isn't even sure if she can trust herself. It's a worthy entry to the space horror canon that's now streaming on Shudder. : There are some fun mash-ups happening in this Sony-produced Netflix Original animated musical action comedy. It follows a K-pop girl group called Huntrix who moonlight as slayers protecting their fans from evil, soul-stealing supernatural forces. When a boy band whose members are all demons in disguise becomes popular, the members of Huntrix — Rumi (voiced by Arden Cho), Mira (May Hong), and Zoey (Ji-young Yoo) — have to battle them. It's an anime-influenced madcap adventure, with a lead single performed by Jeongyeon, Jihyo, and Chaeyoung of the popular K-pop group Twice. : These days, there aren't a lot of theatrically released comedy movies whose primary goal is to make you laugh so hard you shoot Diet Coke out of your nose, but Friendship is a special movie. Tim Robinson stars as Craig, a socially maladjusted man who strikes up a friendship with his new neighbor, a charismatic weatherman named Austin (Paul Rudd). But Craig takes things too far, and his obsession with maintaining the friendship threatens to ruin both of their lives. It's the psychological, A24 version of a 2000s bromance comedy. Robinson is a one-of-a-kind comedic talent, but if you're unfamiliar with his voice, Friendship might not be the best introduction. It's a little dark and cringey. Watch his Netflix sketch show I Think You Should Leave first, then watch Friendship — now available to buy on VOD platforms like Amazon — and marvel at how writer-director Andrew DeYoung created the perfect vehicle for Robinson's unique abilities. Timed to the release of their fourth album, I Quit, the trio of sisters from the Valley have released the video for "All Over Me," which features Will Poulter, Nabhaan Rizwan, and Archie Madekwe. Rock band Wednesday has debuted "Wound Up Here (By Holdin On)," the second song off of their upcoming album, Bleeds, which is set for release on Sept. 19. Best of GoldDerby Everything to know about 'The Pitt' Season 2 Adam Brody, Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, and the best of our Emmy Comedy Actor interviews Kristen Bell, Tina Fey, Bridget Everett, and the best of our Emmy Comedy Actress interviews Click here to read the full article.
CBS News
an hour ago
- CBS News
Cubs legend Sammy Sosa returns to Wrigley Field after 20-plus-year hiatus
Legendary Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa returned to Wrigley Field for the first time in more than 20 years on Friday before Chicago's afternoon game with the Seattle Mariners. Sosa, who is set to be inducted into the Cubs' team Hall of Fame this year, arrived at the iconic North Side ballpark in a black SUV. He was greeted by owner Tom Ricketts, who embraced him in a hug as he exited the vehicle. Sosa became the face of the Cubs franchise where he played 13 seasons after coming in a trade from the crosstown White Sox in March 1992. A seven-time All-Star, Sosa hit 545 homers in 1,811 games with the Cubs and hit a franchise-record 66 in 1998 when he was named the NL's MVP. Sosa, now 56, played his final game with the Cubs at Wrigley on Oct. 2, 2004, when he homered and had two hits in an 8-6 loss to Atlanta. During his years with the Cubs, Sosa appeared to bulk up drastically and was a headliner in a generation of baseball's biggest names linked to performance-enhancing drugs. The Cubs traded him to Baltimore with cash in February 2005 for three players. Sosa appeared to acknowledge using performance-enhancing drugs in December when he released a statement saying he was sorry for mistakes, without specifying them. "There were times I did whatever I could to recover from injuries in an effort to keep my strength up to perform over 162 games," he said in the statement. "I never broke any laws. But in hindsight, I made mistakes and I apologize." On Friday morning, Sosa posed for photos with rising Cubs star Pete Crow-Armstrong outside the team's clubhouse and a video showed Sosa embracing manager Craig Counsell in his office before the game. "(Sosa) saw the wind blowing out today and planned this trip around a good day to be here," Counsell joked. "He asked to be in the lineup because the wind's blowing out." The Cubs honored Sosa with a video board tribute after the second inning. Sosa waved and bowed to fans from a suite during the presentation. In Thursday's 8-7 loss to Milwaukee, Crow-Armstrong went deep to set a new team record for reaching 20 homers and 20-plus stolen stolen bases the fastest, doing it in 73 games. Sosa had the old mark of 96, set in 1994. Counsell, who faced Sosa as a player, saluted the former slugger for his strength at the plate and long homers, as well as star power. "Probably the best thing, Sammy was a true entertainer," Counsell said. "I think when you're in this long enough, you realize that's part of this. "We're also here to entertain and I think Sammy was great at that."
Forbes
an hour ago
- Forbes
‘Jaws' New 50th Anniversary Release And Documentary Get Better With Age
Hollywood icon Steven Spielberg's Jaws was released 50 years ago today and quickly became the highest grossing movie in cinema history. The filmmaker's career, the summer blockbuster, and our modern obsession with sharks all owe their existence mostly to Jaws, and a new anniversary release (including documentary Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story) all prove it just gets better with age. American actor Richard Dreyfuss (L) and British actor Robert Shaw (1927 - 1978) hold ropes while ... More leaning off the back of their boat, 'Orca,' in pursuit of the giant Great White shark in a still from the film, 'Jaws,' directed by Steven Spielberg, 1975. (Photo by Universal Pictures/Fotos International/Courtesy of Getty Images) Jaws - Trial By Water Spielberg began shooting in May 1974 on Martha's Vineyard, insisting on real ocean locations for authenticity. The eight-week shoot ballooned to 159 days and the budget soared from $4 million to nearly $10 million. Every day brought new woes, as rough seas wrecked shots, boats drifted into frame, equipment failed, and the mechanical shark seldom worked as intended. There were actually three 'Bruces' built, but saltwater corroded their innards, causing one shark to sink and others to fall apart. 'We never fixed the shark, and it was a total disaster,' Spielberg later admitted of those early trials. Faced with constant delays and a creature that wouldn't cooperate, Spielberg improvised. He and co-writer Carl Gottlieb were rewriting nightly to work around the malfunctioning shark, slashing its screen time and letting imagination fill the gaps. Spielberg's ingenuity under duress helped transform a B-movie creature feature into white-knuckle Hitchcockian suspense. Yet during the shoot, Spielberg felt anything but confident. Morale was low among a crew stuck at sea for months, many far over schedule and far from home. The director himself was anxiety-ridden. He feared he'd be fired at any moment for the budget overruns and delays, so much so that he refused to leave the island even on weekends. 'If I left the island I was certain I would never come back,' he recalled. At one point, Spielberg even suffered what he thought was a heart attack on set. It was actually a full-blown panic attack, brought on by stress (as he reflects now, 'We didn't have words like PTSD then' to describe the toll). When the final scene wrapped, the 27-year-old filmmaker was convinced his career was over. Of course, Spielberg's fears proved unfounded. Instead, Jaws's torturous production forged a filmmaker. The young director's trials by water taught him hard lessons in resourcefulness and resilience. He emerged with a mastery beyond his years – a fact noted even at the time. Despite his youth, Spielberg 'showed a maturity behind the camera that belied his years,' one critic later observed of Jaws. In the decades that followed, Spielberg would never again face such a loss of control on set or such financial jeopardy. Jaws's success granted him creative latitude for life. But he also never forgot the experience, always saying Jaws made him a better director and helped exorcise some personal fears. Spielberg noted that perhaps Jaws was even his own fear of water incarnate. Five decades on, Spielberg participates fondly in 50th anniversary retrospectives, able to laugh about the nightmare shoot that minted his legend. As he says in the Jaws @ 50 documentary, making the film involved 'naive people against nature,' and it taught him 'you're gonna need a bigger boat' in more ways than one. Jaws Births The Blockbuster Before Jaws, the summer months were a Hollywood dead zone typically reserved for B movies or ignored entirely ('why go to the movies when the sun is shining?' as one writer put it). Jaws turned that wisdom on its head. Universal Pictures had boldly decided to market Jaws as a must-see summer event, even delaying its release to June so that 'people were in the water off the summer beach resorts,'producer David Brown noted. They blanketed television with millions of dollars worth of ads – an unprecedented blitz at the time – and plastered the now-famous image of a monstrous shark and swimmer on posters, paperback covers, and merchandise everywhere. Tie-ins ranged from Jaws-themed clothing to beach towels to hilarious toilet-seat covers. Jaws was everywhere before it even opened. The tagline 'See it before you go swimming,' was a dare that became a cultural catchphrase. The strategy worked beyond anyone's expectations. Audiences flocked to cinemas, especially the new multiplexes in shopping malls. Many returned for multiple viewings, bringing friends in tow. An event movie mentality was born. Jaws became the highest-grossing film of all time after a record debut and months atop the box office charts. By the end of that summer, the 'sleepy months' had become prime box-office real estate. As screenwriter Carl Gottlieb later observed, Jaws's release proved that selling a film 'as a phenomenon, as a destination' could yield massive returns. It's a lesson Hollywood would take to heart. Jaws - From Popcorn Hit to Classic On its 10th anniversary in 1985, Jaws was already enshrined as a pop culture icon that spawned imitators and its own lesser sequels, as audiences' appetite for sharks remained strong. Meanwhile, directors like James Cameron and John Landis were citing Jaws as formative, and products from toys to theme-park rides continued to rake in money and prove the films' continued popularity. At 10 years old, Jaws was demonstrating its generational staying power. The 25th anniversary in 2000 saw Jaws celebrated in fan circles and by a new generation of filmmakers. Although initially some critics turned up their noses at the film as low-brow entertainment for the masses, by 2000 Jaws was almost universally lauded and the film frequently landed on 'greatest movies' lists. The 30th anniversary in 2005 brought JawsFest to Martha's Vineyard: a large fan gathering that featured cast reunions, location tours, and panel discussions with Jaws scholars. Hundreds of fans descended on the little island. By the time Jaws's 45th anniversaries rolled around, society was locked down in the Covid pandemic's first year, terror gripping communities worldwide. And once again, Jaws proved its relevance. With indoor cinemas mostly shuttered, drive-in theaters sprang up across the country, and what was the top draw? Jaws, of course, sometimes in double features with Spielberg's Jurassic Park. You can read my own review for the film's 45th anniversary release here. Now, for the 50th anniversary this year, Jaws is getting the full treatment. Martha's Vineyard, forever synonymous with Amity Island, is hosting commemorative screenings, Jaws-themed concerts, and a 'shark in the park' event. The Academy Museum in Los Angeles has opened a special exhibit featuring the last surviving Jaws shark prop (restored to its former glory). Notably, there is the brand-new aforementioned documentary Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story. And of course, there is a 4K UHD special edition home release of Jaws for the 5oth anniversary, including the documentary, which I'll discuss more below. Jaws And Me Five Decades Later Jaws turns 50 the same summer I turn 55. Jaws is my favorite film, encompassing my feelings as a young wide-eyed child seeing it for the first time at a drive-in (talk about larger than life, especially for a small kid) and then rewatching it endlessly on TV and VHS until the tapes wore out. Much of my early years revolved around my love of comics and films, with Jaws, Taxi Driver, Star Wars, and Superman being among the biggest focuses of my attention and remaining long-lasting favorites and influences. In my teen years, I was more interested in music and other pursuits, and aside from a handful of films – including The Terminator, Aliens, Witness, The Right Stuff, Platoon, Die Hard, and Raising Arizona – mid- and late-1980s cinema is mostly something I rediscovered in college when I went back to see what I'd missed. In those first few years, Jaws represented a grounded realistic portrayal at immense scale, horrifying and thrilling and funny, at once seeming like ordinary everyday life and yet also mythic and consequential. My small mind grasped much of that, even if in simplistic and more limited form. But as I grew up, and as I watched more films and read more comics and spent more time on boats and in life itself, Jaws seemed to grow and take on new relevance. It revealed itself to me in different ways, and in turn helped me also think about its themes and the world in different ways as well. It is one of the films that most made me dream of making my own movies, and its been an immense influence on my own approach to dialogue, pacing, and sequencing when I write screenplays. I personally think of Jaws as primarily a suspense thriller with horror elements, rather than an outright horror movie, but I won't argue with anyone who puts it in the latter category. Interestingly, the extent to which it leans more toward thriller or horror often depends on which themes and perspectives are at the forefront of my mind and interpretations while viewing it, including any subtextual social relevance I bring into the screening. Mark Travers' excellent 50th anniversary piece about Jaws notes the way ambiguity enhances our fear by letting our own minds fill in the horror-blanks, so to speak. This is similar to the same reason I'm a fan of zombie films – they're less about the literal particulars of zombies than whatever the zombies come to represent in the minds of individual and collective viewers. Zombies are a metaphor for whatever terrifies and threatens us, be it pandemics or nuclear war or climate change or civil war, the living dead are an empty slate upon which we write our own nightmares. Jaws is a perfect early example of this, within a more refined context as Travers discusses. And the way the shark is more menacing and more terrifying when we don't see it speaks to a point Robert Patterson's Bruce Wayne makes during his opening narration in Matt Reeves' The Batman when he says that because he could be anywhere, scared villains see him everywhere. Jaws - The Legacy Lives On Half a century after it first made audiences cry and popcorn fly, Jaws remains a powerful force in pop culture. Its legacy is seen every year when summer movie season rolls around. Its DNA is present whenever a filmmaker holds back a monster reveal to build suspense or a blockbuster balances character moments with eye-popping thrills. Its cautionary themes about respecting nature, heeding warnings and science, and finding courage are as relevant as ever. And in the simple act of scaring people out of the water, Jaws achieved a kind of immortality that few works of fiction ever do. Modern viewers are still struck by how Jaws, despite launching an era of big-budget popcorn spectacle, remains a relatively modestly human-scaled thriller at heart. Compared to today's CGI-filled epics, Jaws was a mid-budget film that relied on character, suspense, and primal fear more than flashy effects. When the time for effects did come, the realism and selective use made them all the more impressive and scary. In fact, many argue Hollywood took the wrong lessons from Jaws, that studios focused on 'bigger boat' spectacle rather than what truly made the film great – its tight storytelling and craft. The real keys were suspense, relatable characters, and Spielberg's deft directing. Thus, while Jaws undeniably gave Hollywood a new formula for summer hits, it also stands apart from the very blockbusters it inspired. Jaws would thrive in any era. Indeed, the modern masterpiece Godzilla Minus One from writer-director-VFX Supervisor Takashi Yamazaki is heavily inspired by Jaws. The film reflects the best sort of inspiration from Spielberg's film, including the power of character-driven storytelling, suspense and anticipation, and a brilliant vision from its director. If you want a particularly great 50th anniversary of Jaws, the new 4K UHD edition and the gorgeous Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color make for a perfect pairing. Then watch the anniversary documentary Jaws @ 50 (either on the excellent physical home release, or when it runs on National Geographic/Hulu/Disney+) for insightful and revelatory conversations with cast and crew, including Spielberg's conversations about his own reactions and lingering traumas over the many years and decades after making Jaws. For Spielberg and the cast and crew, it probably seems astonishing that a film made under such duress could endure so powerfully. But perhaps it's precisely those challenges that made Jaws great, the creative solutions and on-the-fly brilliance born from chaos and necessity. Jaws transcended its humble 'summer thriller' origins to become a classic. Despite the great Roger Ebert's own glowing review, many of his contemporaries couldn't all see of its greatness, with many dismissing it as nonsense or mere shock entertainment. But time has vindicated Jaws. Today, it is firmly entrenched as a historic turning point in American cinema, dissected in film courses, and beloved by filmmakers and audiences alike. From its metaphorical depths exploring fear of the unknown and the perils of greed and hubris, to its lasting impact on filmmaking and pop culture, five decades on Jaws remains a timeless masterpiece reflecting changes in Hollywood and society, even as it continues to scare new generations out of the water.
