Image courtesy of Chicago ‘Star Wars’ Celebration.
The 2019 Chicago Star Wars Celebration has added eight new celebrity guests to the star-studded line up.
Joonas Suotamo (“Chewbacca,” Solo: A Star Wars Story), Sam Witwer (“Darth Maul,” Star Wars Rebels), Dave Chapman (“BB-8,” The Force Awakens), Greg Grunberg (“Snap Wexley,” The Force Awakens), Greg Proops (“Fode,” The Phantom Menace), Ian McElhinney (“General Dodonna,” Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), Orli Shoshan (“Shaak Ti,” Attack of the Clones), and Paul Kasey (“Ello Asty,” The Force Awakens) will all be joining the fun.
TVLine reports that Pedretti’s character will be named Love Quinn, an aspiring chef who meets Joe while she is experiencing grief over a personal loss.
You was originally on Lifetime but was moved to Netflix and became an instant success.
Production on the second season begins next month and is set to premiere later this year.
On January 29, SeaWorld Orlando’s critical care animal hospital received the first manatee of 2019 stressed out by the cold, signifying the wide-reaching effects of the plunging temperatures hitting the southern U.S.
Rescued by Florida Fish and Wildlife, Sea2Shore, and a local chapter of the Save the Manatee Club in Lake Griffin, the 725-pound male was exhibiting signs of cold stress and was taken to the park after a quick field assessment. Veterinarians gave immediate medical care including antibiotics and fluids.
Image courtesy of SeaWorld Orlando.
“Even here in Florida, local water temperatures are starting to drop below 68 degrees, which is the threshold for manatees to survive,” explained Jon Peterson, SeaWorld Orlando’s manager of rescue operations, in a press release. “Manatees need warm water, and when temperatures drop they are at a high risk of succumbing to the cold.”
“Our goal for this rescued manatee is to continue to rehabilitate him here at SeaWorld, and return him to the wild when water temperatures warm up,” said Peterson.
Last year, the SeaWorld Rescue team assisted with 72 manatees suffering from cold stress, entanglement, and other various ailments. They are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week year round to give life saving care to animals in need.
Variety has reported that Oscar Isaac is the latest star in talks to join the cast of the reboot of Frank Herbert’s epic sci-fi novel Dune. He will join a cast that includes Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Stellan Skarsgård, and Charlotte Rampling.
Photo Credit: Image Courtesy Chris White
The reboot is being helmed by filmmaker Denis Villeneuve (director of Arrival and Blade Runner 2049) for Legendary Entertainment. Villeneuve is co-writing the script with Eric Roth (co-writer of the latest reboot of A Star is Born and Munich) and Jon Spaihts (Doctor Strange and Passengers).
Isaac will be playing Duke Atreides, the father of Chalamet’s Paul Atreides.
Set in the far distant future, Dune tells the story of Paul Atreides, whose family assumes control of the desert planet Arrakis. The planet is the only source of the highly valuable and sought after “spice” – the element that makes space travel in this universe possible. After Paul and his family are betrayed, he flees to the desert taking shelter with the planet’s indigenous people, the “fremen.” The epic saga explores themes of religion, prophecy, colonization, war, politics, and man’s relationship to nature as Paul leads a rebellion to retake his family’s legacy and possibly fulfill a long awaited prophecy.
The Try Guys got their start on Buzzfeed, attempting a variety of new things for the sake of a video. In June 2018 they launched their own YouTube channel, and launched their own company. Since the launch they have posted 70 videos, with new videos every Wednesday and Saturday. The Try Guys have already done a few series on this channel, such as one on the effects of alcohol, marijuana and sleep deprivation on driving. They also have multiple stand-alone videos- a more recent one was the guys trying Instagram editing apps. As usual they went on the extreme side with editing, although they also highlighted some of what gives these applications such appeal.
Courtesy of The Try Guys
Keith Habersberger, Ned Fulmer, Zach Kornfeld, and Eugene Lee Yang make up The Try Guys. They all bring different strengths to the table and mesh together fantastically. For this book the chapters are on different parts of life that the reader may want to be focused in on. Each of The Try Guys had a specific chapter they spearheaded. Keith took on health, as he is known for his love of fast food and not working out. Ned worked on style, since he had not put a lot of effort into it previously. Zach had focus on love, he was the single friend for a long time and now aims to be the best boyfriend he can be. And Eugene took on the challenge of family, due to his own being somewhat unorthodox.
The Try Guys hope that their book can help people take small steps to improve their own lives. They have learned from their trying of new things and have some personal experiences to share.
I highly recommend their YouTube channel, The Try Guys. And be sure to check out their book- coming out June 18, 2019-titled The Hidden Power of F*cking Up. The book is available for pre-order now.
Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn. Image Courtesy IMDB.
Birds of Prey has released the first teaser trailer showing a brief glimpse of the characters, including a quick frame of Ewan McGregor. The only text that appears is “See You Soon.”
In an interview Robbie did with Collider she described it as an
“R-rated girl gang film including Harley, because I was like, ‘Harley needs friends.’ Harley loves interacting with people, so don’t ever make her do a standalone film. She’s got to be with other people, it should be a girl gang. I wasn’t seeing enough girl gangs on screen, especially in the action space. So that was always a big part of it.”
The Birds of Prey comic was created by Jordan B. Gorfinkel and Chuck Dixon and released in 1995; the first one was called “Black Canary/Oracle: Birds of Prey.”
Sarah Jeffery (left), Madeleine Mantock (center), Melonie Diaz (right) in Charmed. Image courtesy of IMDB
After its winter hiatus, Charmed was back last Sunday with the tenth episode titled “Keep Calm and Harry On.” In this episode, we see the sisters trying to find a way to get their whitelighter Harry (Rupert Evans) back from Tartarus. Harry was dragged there by Hunter (Constantine Rousouli) when Parker (Nick Hargrove) and the sisters were banishing him. Not at all surprising was the unwillingness of the elders to do anything to save him from being tortured by the bad memories of his past. Charity (Virginia Williams) went against the elders and helped the sisters with getting him back. By doing so, she risked losing being an elder herself. But, she did it for love, and once reunited they talk about the memories he saw and that his son is still alive.
Maggie (Sarah Jeffery) is trying to nurse her broken heart back together after finding out her boyfriend Parker is half demon. She does not know if she can trust her powers again, and decides she no longer wants to feel anything anymore.
Maggie’s solution was to cast a spell on herself to take away the hurt, but it took away all of her feelings- including her powers. Because of this, they did not work during a fight with Dante (Matthew Willig) – a guardian to Tartarus- resulting in her getting thrown there as well.
Macy (Madeleine Mantock) and Galvin (Ser’Darius Blain) talk about her being a witch, and he takes the news well because of his grandma. Growing up she spoke to him about demons and magic and his protection mark. They work together to find information about what their boss, Julia (Rya Kihlstedt), is up to and find DNA of humans and demons. Upon further investigation Galvin finds some shocking truth- Macy and Maggie share a father! So, who is Mel’s father?
Mel (Melonie Diaz) goes to the Arcana and asks Jada (Aleyse Shannon) for help in rescuing Harry and sees them trying to heal the women they broke out of Tartarus. They need more hellfire but do not have any more, so when breaking into Alastair’s (Craig Parker) to get a demon, she steals some for them. Jada thanks Mel by kissing her, and as they are kissing someone is taking pictures of them. It is a familiar face from Mel’s past. It is revealed to be Niko (Ellen Tamaki)!
This eleventh episode -titled “Witch Perfect”- is what you are thinking, one of the sisters joins an acapella group run by a demon.
Harry is still healing from being tortured with memories of his past, and during this time, he is writing everything he remembers about his previous life in a notebook. When he tries to help the sisters, he discovers that he is unable to use his powers. Troubled by these revelations, he confides in Charity that he does not think he can be the sisters whitelighter anymore.
Macy tells her sisters about the DNA test results, and they get upset and storm out not wanting to talk about it. Macy does a secret reveal spell, and a box containing letters between her mom and dad is one of the items that come to her. She reads the letters with Galvin and discovers that her father knew that Marisol was a witch and about Maggie also being his daughter, raising more questions.
Maggie, while trying to find something to help her move on from everything, joins the schools acapella group called The Hilltones. At the first meeting, she sees that Lucy (Natalie Hall) is a member as well and they catch up.
Their director Mr. Morales (Jaime Camil) is also the demon behind the songs the sirens sing. He is turning the Hilltones into sirens to kill the audience and collect their souls.
While on a mission at the bar, Mel hears Niko’s voice behind her, amd Niko introduces herself to her and says that she is a PI looking for Jada to get her away from a cult.
When Maggie texts her sister to help, Mac lets Galvin see the Book of Shadows and how it turns to the page they need by asking it. Harry explains that the siren is in a male form because gender is fluid and tells them to go, and that he will text them the spell they need to read as the power of three. As if letting Galvin see the book was not enough, he goes to fight the demon with Macy. Since Mr. Morales has already started on the audience and Galvin, they are already dead. Remembering the special tea, Maggie goes and gets it. Once Macy pours some in his mouth, Galvin comes back to life. What ends up saving the audience, is a mash-up of the two songs together making the siren song obsolete. And Galvin is the one who ends up vanquishing the demon after the sisters trapped it back in the pitch-pipe.
The episode ends with Maggie and Macy reading the letters she found in the box. They see a letter saying that if Macy ever found out what they did to bring her back from the dead, she would never forgive them.
Tinashe, Vanessa Hudgens, Mario, Jordan Fisher, Brandon Victor Dixon, Kiersey Clemons, Brennin Hunt, and James Leyva in Rent: Live (2019). Courtesy of IMDb.
The first time I watched Rent, I was sixteen years old. I remember it like it was yesterday. It was a Friday night, and I was at a slumber party with my new group of theater friends. There were six of us packed together in the living room of a friend’s apartment. Unlike my friends, I had never seen this musical. Rent was new to DVD, and everyone else had already watched it ten times.
Rent tells the story of seven artists struggling to follow their dreams during a time of social and political trouble. It offers an inspiring message of hope and friendship. And by the time I had finished watching it for the first time all those years ago, I realized that I had found my tribe and I found my voice that I had been looking for.
I am 29 years old now and am happy to report that we are still friends to this day. For every important moment that has occurred in my life, they have been there. And Rent is what brought us together.
On January 27, 2019, Fox aired Rent: Live!In honor of the musical’s 25th anniversary.
What can I say? I loved it! The casting was fantastic, and it was shot beautifully. I found myself getting so wrapped up in the performance that I forgot I was watching a show. Rent: Live! was an emotional and character-driven performance. The chemistry among the actors could be felt during every scene. The staging was incredible. Between the lighting and intricate stage setup, the cast and crew did an excellent job bringing the alphabet district of New York City to life.
The performance was nothing short of electric. In recent years, television networks have broadcast live versions of popular musicals, such as The Sound of Music and Hairspray. But I can honestly say that Rent: Live! is no doubt the best one to date.
But, as with any live performance, not everything was perfect. Cast member Brennin Hunt broke his ankle the night before the live broadcast. However, the show went on, with the network utilizing clips of a dress rehearsal for Hunt’s scenes, while providing live shots for the final scenes and the big finale.
While everyone was expecting a completely live performance, I can’t fault the network for their decision. No one expects to get an injury the night before a show. They could not postpone the performance, so they did what they had to do to make sure the show continued. And I respect the network’s transparency about the matter and their willingness to continue, knowing that there would be some backlash for doing so.
There were minor things that happened as well, like missed notes during musical numbers and microphones cutting out. Honestly, those two things did not bother me, especially knowing what we were seeing was not a complete live performance. From my own experience being on stage, things happen that are out of anyone’s control.
My biggest complaint of the night, however, was the audience. How do I put this lightly? They were annoying! They were screaming all the time! There was more than one instance when the actors were completely washed out by the audience and could not be heard during major musical numbers.
I understand that this is Rent. You will never not find me singing any of the musical numbers at the top of my lungs. But this was not a rock concert. This was a performance of a critically acclaimed musical. You would never see an audience act like that during a Broadway performance or in any theater hall anywhere. The experience was interactive, but the audience was too much to overlook and, frankly, distracting. Maybe that’s what the network wanted? I am not sure. But all of the good that happened outweighed the bad, in my opinion.
One of my favorite performances of the night was the opening scene of the second act. The camera pans from Mark — who recapped everything that had happened — to the life support meeting already in session. The camera rests on one of the group’s members. He is not doing well, and I could feel the darkness looming over them all. This is when we first hear “Seasons of Love,” lead by Keala Settle (The Greatest Showman) and accompanied by the rest of the cast. It was a breathtaking and emotional performance. I watched it three times.
Then Angel died, which is one of the most heartbreaking moments in the entire show. Not only is she one of the most beloved characters, but she is good and shows all of us how to love and how to treat others. During her funeral, as friends and loved ones were saying their goodbyes, I felt my heart breaking all over again with the performance of “I’ll Cover You (Reprise).”
But the moment that sealed the deal on this performance for me was at the very end. After the final scene, the cast gave a tribute to Jonathan Larson, the creator and composer of Rent. Larson passed away in 1996, hours before Rent‘s Broadway debut. He never got to see his vision come to life. But for 25 years that vision has been honored through every performance, keeping its spirit and central message of hope alive.
A wall that reads “1996 Rent 2019″ lifts to the ceiling. And standing behind this wall was the original Broadway cast, who joined the current cast on stage to perform “Seasons Of Love.”
I can’t think of a better way to celebrate 25 years of Rent than by honoring those who started it all.
Supernatural is back on Thursday with an all-new episode titled “Prophet and Loss.” After the heavy ending to the last episode, fans are on the edge of their seats to see how Dean’s plan is going to go down.
The CW has posted a short scene to their YouTube channel here:
Sam and Dean must figure out how to stop the bloodshed when Donatello who, in his current condition, is inadvertently scrambling the order of future prophets. Nick comes face to face with his past.
Tune into Supernatural Thursday at 8PM EST on The CW!
Walt Disney World Resort has announced that their Disney Skyliner Gondolas are undergoing initial testing. The gondolas are a part of Disney Skyliner, a new state-of-the-art system that will connect Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Epcot to four resort hotels: Disney’s Art of Animation Resort, Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort, Disney’s Pop Century Resort, and the proposed Disney’s Riviera Resort. Disney Skyliner is scheduled to open this fall.
The gondolas will be adorned with graphics based on Disney films, attractions, and characters. Some of these themes include “Coco,” The Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, “Frozen,” and more.
Stay tuned to the Disney Parks Blog to keep up to date on these developments! In the meantime, check out this video to learn more about the Disney Skyliner project.
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