Loved "Everything Everywhere All at Once?" Can't get enough of "The Flash" and "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" this month? Then this list is for you. We've compiled a non-exhaustive sampler of fiction about alternate universes and multiverses — from movies to TV to comics to books. It's a great starter kit if your media tastes run to asking: What if?
MOVIES:
Full StoryThe new blockbuster movie "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" was abruptly removed from cinema listings in more than a dozen Muslim-majority countries without explanation, apparently over the inclusion of a blink-and-you-miss-it transgender poster in the background of one frame.
Empire Entertainment, the Middle East distributor for the computer-animated Sony Pictures film, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Full StoryNine more women are accusing Bill Cosby of sexual assault in a lawsuit that alleges he used his "enormous power, fame and prestige" to victimize them.
A lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in Nevada alleges that the women were individually drugged and assaulted between approximately 1979 and 1992 in Las Vegas, Reno and Lake Tahoe homes, dressing rooms and hotels.
Full StoryPixar's "Elemental" conjures a diverse metropolis where the elements — fire, water, earth and air — live like ethnicities mostly ghettoized from one other. For fire and water, especially, mingling can be combustible. A bad splash could consume fire; a strong flame could evaporate water. This is the rare kids' movie where subway rides are actually more fraught with danger than in the real world.
"Elemental" is the 27th Pixar feature and the second from longtime studio veteran Peter Sohn ("The Good Dinosaur"). But in many ways, it feels like a spiritual sequel to the Disney Animation release "Zootopia," a likewise gleaming urban tower of anthropomorphized racial metaphors with occasional interactions with municipal bureaucracy.
Full StoryThe national tour of Broadway's "Tina — The Tina Turner Musical" makes its California debut this week, arriving as a poignant, posthumous celebration following the rock music icon's death last month.
"Tina" opens in Los Angeles at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre on Wednesday, steps away from her Hollywood Walk of Fame star and where she recorded for Capitol Records. It plays there until July 9, followed by two weeks at Segerstrom Center the Arts in Costa Mesa and stops in San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose later this summer.
Full StoryMore change is afoot at the Grammys. The Recording Academy announced Tuesday that three new categories will be added to the awards show in 2024: best pop dance recording, best African music performance, and best alternative jazz album.
In addition, two existing categories have been moved to the general field, which means that all Grammy voters can participate in selecting the winners: producer of the year, non-classical, and songwriter of the year, non-classical, the latter of which was first introduced this year.
Full StoryThe intimate, funny-sad musical "Kimberly Akimbo" nudged aside splashier rivals on Sunday to win the musical crown at the Tony Awards on a night when Broadway flexed its creative muscle amid the Hollywood writers' strike and made history with laurels for nonbinary actors J. Harrison Ghee and Alex Newell.
"Kimberly Akimbo," with songs by Jeanine Tesori and a book by David Lindsay-Abaire, follows a teen with a rare genetic disorder that gives her a life expectancy of 16 navigating a dysfunctional family and a high school romance. Victoria Clark, as the lead in the show, added a second Tony to her trophy case, having previously won one in 2005 for "The Light in the Piazza."
Full StoryThere are a lot of questions surrounding this year's Tony Awards — and not just about who might win.
The Hollywood writers' strike has left much of Sunday's telecast with unknowns. There will be performances from the nominated musicals, pre-recorded montages of the plays and acceptance speeches. Everything else seems up in the air.
Full StoryPrince Harry was back on the stand for a second day of cross-examination in a London court on Wednesday, the first British royal in more than a century to give evidence on the witness stand.
The younger son of King Charles III is testifying against a tabloid publisher for alleged illegal information-gathering, including phone hacking, alongside several other claimants.
Full StoryWith the "Transformers" franchise clearly at a crossroads, its latest protectors have turned to their deep bench of characters. But just adding more robots won't transform this tired series.
"Transformers: Rise of the Beasts" returns the franchise to its galaxy-wide self-importance after taking a nice detour with 2018's smaller "Bumblebee." We have a new cast of animal robots and a very evil enemy in the planet-eating Unicron, but they're not used right and the movie limps from fight to fight.
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