Eminem’s ‘MMLP2’: new single + tracklist inside

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Eminem’s ninth studio album The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (aka MMLP2) will include 16 tracks, featuring singles “Berzerk,” “Survival,” and his latest release “Rap God” (listen to the third single after the break, along with them music video for “Survival”). Skylar Grey, Rihanna, Kendrick Lamar, and Nate Ruess round out the record’s guest artists. Click after the break to view the tracklist. Above, eye the album artwork that is similar to 2000’s MMLP cover art–it features an image of Em’s now-boarded up Detroit home he grew up in.

Eminem performs on SNL November 2 and this will lead into MMLP2‘s November 5 release date. Continue reading Eminem’s ‘MMLP2’: new single + tracklist inside →

Kid Cudi announces ‘Man on the Moon III’ prelude EP coming soon

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Kid Cudi is riding high on his Cud Life Tour and during his stop in Dallas he dropped some major news regarding his next release. He announced that there will be a prelude EP that will lead into Man on the Moon III, still due out in 2015. “When I give you the release date it will be 24 hours before it’s released.” Interesting marketing move here; fans will feel a surge of anticipation and then hours later they’ll be listening to the new EP. I like it. He went on, “You don’t know when it’s gonna happen but it’s definitely gonna happen in the next three months.” Cheers to that!

Cudi says he’s been working on this EP with his WZRD collaborator Dot Da Genius and it will most certainly feature King Chip aka Chip tha Ripper. In a string of tweets he spilled that the track “Going to the Ceremony” will be on the record along with a never before released remix of his breakout single “Day N Nite” that he made with Dot the day after the original was cut. To hear a snippet of it he says to “Play the intro to A Kid Named Cudi and listen reaaaal close;” see if you can spot it here.

The untitled EP serves as a gap between Cudder’s last album Indicud and the third and final installment in the Man on the Moon trilogy. He says, in fact, that the EP will begin right where Indicud leaves off with “The Flight of the Moon Man” and it will serve as a “seamless connection” to MOTM3 when that comes out in the distant future.

Watch Cudi discuss his grand plan in a video embedded after the break.

[Via DatNewCudi] Continue reading Kid Cudi announces ‘Man on the Moon III’ prelude EP coming soon →

Ubisoft delays anticipated next-gen title ‘Watch Dogs’ to spring 2014

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If you’re in the market for the next-gen consoles coming soon from Microsoft and Sony, I’ve got some unfortunate news for you. Perhaps the most highly anticipated launch title, Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs, has been delayed to spring 2014. The open world action-adventure stealth video game with the ability to hack into countless devices around you (think Person of Internet the video game) was supposed to be release alongside the Xbox One and PS4; now it won’t hit those consoles or the current gen systems until springtime. Ubisoft Communications manager Gary Steinman explained the reason behind the delay in a blog post:

Our ambition from the start with Watch Dogs has been to deliver something that embodies what we wanted to see in the next-generation of gaming. It is with this in mind that we’ve made the tough decision to delay the release until spring 2014.

We know a lot of you are probably wondering: Why now? We struggled with whether we would delay the game. But from the beginning, we have adopted the attitude that we will not compromise on quality. As we got closer to release, as all the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place in our last push before completion, it became clear to us that we needed to take the extra time to polish and fine tune each detail so we can deliver a truly memorable and exceptional experience.

Understandable, sure, but it still stings.

Speaking of launch title delays, Sony has one of their own. The PS4 exclusive racing game Driveclub is also being pushed to 2014 because the developer team “requires more time in order to deliver on their vision.” Driveclub was supposed to come free to all PlayStation Plus subscribers as part of the Instant Game Collection; it will still come free to subscribers when it eventually releases, but for now Plus members will get platformer Contrast along with one called Resogun.

First look at ‘Paranormal Activity’ spinoff ‘The Marked Ones’

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Paramount is not releasing Paranormal Activity 5 this Halloween season; it’s being held until October 2014. Taking its place, however, is a PA spinoff called Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones. The found-footage spinoff, written and directed by franchise vet Christopher Landon, is a departure from the movies that come before it as it takes place in Oxnard, California and features a mostly Latino cast. This was done on purpose; the studio is targeting PA‘s Latino audience here. Fans of the franchise, though, will pickup clues sprinkled throughout the official trailer that tie this movie directly to the other ones: the Katie & Kristi tapes are mentioned, Kristi’s step-daughter Ali Rey (played by Molly Ephraim, last seen in PA 2) aids the new protagonist, and that demon-summoning triangle symbol is rampant throughout. The trailer, embedded above, says “this is only the beginning;” could this mean fans should expect more PA spinoffs set in the same demonic, found footage universe in the future?

Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones hits theatres January 2.

Fall TV updates: ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’, ‘The Crazy Ones’, ‘The Millers’ & ‘Mom’ get full season orders, ‘Ironside’ & ‘Welcome to the Family’ cancelled

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What does the FOX say? It says Brooklyn Nine-Nine is getting a full season order bringing its season 1 tally to 22 episodes. Though the Andy Samberg/Andre Braugher sitcom has been landing so-so-to-low ratings since debuting to 6 million viewers and a 2.5 demo rating, the network sees its potential to grow into a bonafide hit by not only granting it a full season but also giving it the plum post Super Bowl slot. When Super Bowl XLVIII ends on Sunday, February 2 it will lead into a “special one-hour comedy event” with new episodes of New Girl and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Ratings are guaranteed to spike and with any luck these FOX comedies will retain a chunk of its new viewers when things go back to normal after the Super Bowl.

B99 has had a string of fine half-hours since opening in September. Samberg’s wacky Jake Peralta and Braugher’s deadpan Captain Holt is a match made in comedy heaven, as is the supporting cast anchored by MVP Joe Lo Truglio.

Expect a season 2 renewal next; Fox entertainment head Kevin Reilly is a fan: “It’s exciting to see that both critics and fans love Brooklyn Nine-Nine as much as we do,” he said. “With Andy and Andre out in front of this incredible ensemble, it feels like this show is going to be around for a long time.”

CBS also made some major announcements this week. A trio of new comedies–The Crazy Ones, The Millers, and Mom–have all been picked up for full 22 episode seasons. The three shows, in that order, ranks as the top three freshman comedies on TV. David E. Kelley’s The Crazy Ones with Robin Williams and Sarah Michelle Gellar averages 13.71 million total viewers and a 3.6/10 in the adults 18-49 demo; Greg Garcia’s The Millers with Will Arnett and Margo Martindale averages 12.41 million viewers and a 3.2/09 rating; and Chuck Lorre’s Mom with Anna Faris and Allison Janney averages 7.98 million viewers and a 2.6/06 rating.

“We’re proud of CBS’s leadership position in comedy and excited to build on it with the back nine pick-ups of these three new comedies,” said Nina Tassler, CBS Entertainment President. “These series are creatively distinct, continue to improve each week and are led by strong showrunners, writing and production staffs, and feature amazingly talented casts.”

Unlike FOX and CBS this week, NBC was forced to clean off its axe and kill not one but two shows. Drama Ironside with Blair Underwood and comedy Welcome to the Family have been cancelled. Ironside will air its fourth and final episode this Wednesday and Welcome to the Family has been pulled from the schedule effective immediately. In their most recent airings, Ironside and Family produced meager 1.1 and 0.9 demo ratings in 18-49, respectively.

To fill in Ironside‘s Wednesdays at 10PM void NBC will air original episodes of Dateline and various specials until Dick Wolf’s Chicago Fire spinoff Chicago P.D. premieres January 8. Filling in Welcome to the Family‘s Thursdays at 8PM void are episodes of The Voice, SNL, Parks & Rec, Sunday Night Football, the live telecast of The Sound of Music, and The Sing Off. Dan Harmon’s Community returns to NBC’s schedule Thursday, January 2 with two new back-to-back episodes. Click after the break to view the full breakdown of the network’s Wednesday & Thursday plans.

And lastly there’s ABC. Though the alphabet network didn’t make any major pickups or cancellations this week, they did show support for struggling in the ratings but widely buzzed about sitcoms The Goldbergs and Trophy Wife. Both freshman comedies have received an order for three additional scripts each, a sign of confidence from the network. These shows deserve a full season order, and hopefully this move brings them one step closer to that goal. In their most recent outings, The Goldbergs attracted 5.1 million total viewers and a 1.6 demo rating and Trophy Wife landed 4.1 million viewers and a 1.3 demo rating. Like FOX did with Brooklyn Nine-Nine, let’s pray ABC can see past the low ratings and embrace the relatable creativity these shows have been producing. Continue reading Fall TV updates: ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’, ‘The Crazy Ones’, ‘The Millers’ & ‘Mom’ get full season orders, ‘Ironside’ & ‘Welcome to the Family’ cancelled →

TV reminder: Jonathan Rhys Meyers as ‘Dracula’ premieres Friday, October 25 at 10PM on NBC

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After successfully adapting Hannibal from the Red Dragon novel by Thomas Harris, NBC is looking to reimagine another classic monster previously made famous in the movies and originally by Bram Stoker in a book. Jonathan Rhys Meyers stars in Dracula, a 10-episode limited series set to debut on Friday, October 25 at 10PM.

The series introduces Dracula as he arrives in London, posing as an American entrepreneur who maintains that he wants to bring modern science to Victorian society. In reality, he hopes to wreak revenge on the people who ruined his life centuries earlier. There’s only one circumstance that can potentially thwart his plan: Dracula falls hopelessly in love with a woman who seems to be a reincarnation of his dead wife.

Nice setup, yeah? You’ll definitely want to jump after the break to watch a couple trailers and a behind-the-scenes look at the new drama; from the lineup of primed British actors to the elaborate sets, time-period wardrobe, and finely tuned choreographed action sequences, Dracula looks to be a fun, engaging, and highly stylized twist on the classic fanged Count. Continue reading TV reminder: Jonathan Rhys Meyers as ‘Dracula’ premieres Friday, October 25 at 10PM on NBC →

Tina Fey & Amy Poehler to return as Golden Globe hosts in 2014 & 2015!

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Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are locked in to host the next two Golden Globe Awards. Following their magnificent performance (which resulted in a ratings boost) at the 2013 show it’s no surprise that NBC and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association would ask for them back. Relive the magic here.

“Tina and Amy are two of the most talented comedic writer/performers in our business and they were a major reason the Golden Globes was the most entertaining awards show of last season,” said NBC’s alternative programming president Paul Telegdy in a statement. “We’re elated they wanted to host together again and that they committed for the next two years.”

The 2014 Golden Globe Awards airs Sunday, January 12 on NBC.

Ryan Murphy says ‘Glee’s sixth season will be its last, previews Katy/Gaga hour

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This week Ryan Murphy announced that the next season of Glee, the show’s sixth, will be its last. And with the unfortunate death of star Cory Monteith, Murphy and his writing team are forced to come up with a new ending for the musical dramedy.

“The final year of the show, which will be next year, was designed around Rachel and Cory/Finn’s story,” Murphy told the press at a Paley Center event honoring the FX network. “I always knew that, I always knew how it would end. I knew what the last shot was–he was in it. I knew what the last line was–she said it to him. So when a tragedy like that happens you sort of have to pause and figure out what you want to do, so we’re figuring that out now.”

Murphy says he has “a good idea” as to how he plans on properly ending the series. “I’m going to tell the studio and the network how after Cory’s unfortunate passing we can end the show that I think is very satisfactory. And kind of in his honor, which I love.”

When Glee returns with new episodes starting November 7, things get punched back into high gear and high energy; the new episode back is called “A Katy or a Gaga” and “it’s about the kids trying to figure out who they are as artists,” reveals Murphy. Following the Finn tribute episode, Murphy says he “wanted to do something that was maybe a little more inspirational, because that was so hard on the cast,” Murphy explains. “So we did something that [features] a lot of costumes, a lot of great set pieces.” Preview the new episode after the break.

Glee airs Thursdays at 9PM on FOX.

[Via TVLine 1, 2; EW] Continue reading Ryan Murphy says ‘Glee’s sixth season will be its last, previews Katy/Gaga hour →

‘Smash’s fictional Broadway show ‘Hit List’ coming to NYC

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NBC’s Broadway musical drama Smash is getting a new lease on life, but not in the way you might expect. No, NBC is not bringing the show back from the dead (it was cancelled after two seasons); season 2 showrunner Joshua Safran, along with Julia Brownell, Jennifer Ashley Tepper, and musical director Benjamin Rauhala are bringing the show’s fictional Broadway show Hit List to New York’s club 54 Below.

In December many of Smash‘s stars will bring Hit List to life, namely Jeremy Jordan (he played Jimmy Collins), Andy Mientus (Kyle Bishop), and Krysta Rodriguez (Ana Vargas); additional performers will be announced at a later date and here’s to hoping the show’s main star Karen Cartwright (aka Katharine McPhee) will be one of them. Watching Jordan and McPhee truly bring Hit List to life will be a boon for fans.

And here we have an actual logline for the seven time Tony-winning Broadway show within a show: “HIT LIST, a modern fable about identity and the price of fame, tells the tragic love story of a wannabe pop singer who transforms herself to become a star and the hidden songwriter she uses to get there – but at what cost?”

NYC’s 54 Below is hosting two performances on December 9 and the shows will include original songs made popular in Smash as well as additional songs from the drama’s composers (Drew Gasparini, Joe Iconis, Andrew McMahon, Benj Pasek & Justin Paul, Marc Shaiman & Scott Wittman, and Lucie Silvas) that were intended for Hit List but never made it to air. Tickets for the show were on sale at the venue’s website but unfortunately they sold out in minutes. I don’t know about you, but I’m keeping my eyes peeled for added performances.

[Via NYT]

Fill in Brody’s gap with ‘Homeland’ audiobook

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Brody was finally reintroduced into Homeland last Sunday after being absent from the first two hours of the new season. Viewers found him nearly fatally shot in the abdomen but he was saved by international colleagues of Carrie Matheson in Caracas, Venezuela. How did he get that gunshot wound? What happened between the time he left Carrie in the woods at the end of season 2 and his stay at the Tower of David? Executive producer Alex Gansa says the show won’t tell that story in flashbacks but there is a way for fans to be filled in.

Enter Homeland: Phantom Pain, a 30 minute audio book narrated by Brody’s portrayer Damian Lewis that reveals Brody’s untold story of crossing the border.

Emmy Award-winner Damian Lewis, who stars as Former Congressman and U.S. Marine Sergeant Nicholas Brody in the hit series Homeland, narrates this original Homeland story of Brody’s journey into exile. Picking up at the end of Season 2 after he has parted from Carrie at the border, Brody relates, in the form of a letter to Carrie, his desperate escape by sea and land as the world’s most-hunted fugitive. Guided off the grid by a former CIA analyst and a battle-scarred French mercenary, he stays in the shadows…both physically and emotionally. But wherever he goes and whoever he meets, he cannot stop thinking about Carrie.

“The audible book is specifically designed to tell that interstitial story,” Gansa told the New York Post. “There’s also a bit of interstitial information on the Season Two DVD, in which you see Brody at the border in the scene where he’s wounded.”

But why not include this backstory in the show itself?  “Our feeling was that it’s a fairly straight narrative line between Brody being dropped off [at the Canadian border] and how he got to Venezuela,” Gansa explained. “He’s been on Carrie’s underground railroad…and ran into some difficulty at a border crossing. Maybe people feel differently, but our goal was to reveal Brody in an interesting way, rather than showing him being shot. He’s carried into the [camera] frame and there he is with his head lolling about and blood spilling from his gut. That was the most impactful and narrative way [to show Brody] after not seeing him in the first couple of episodes. One of the men [guarding Brody] does allude to ‘those Colombians’ and the fact that Brody didn’t have a pleasant border crossing. I don’t know if it had to be explicated beyond that.”

Though it may not be key to Homeland‘s season 3 arc, fans are gobbling up this bonus material rating the audiobook 4.3/5 stars on Audible.com. Click here to download the book for free and shine a light on Brody’s backstory.

Homeland airs Sundays at 9PM on Showtime.

[Via NYP]

First look: John Noble joins the cast of ‘Sleepy Hollow’ in two weeks

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After last Monday’s episode of Sleepy Hollow came to a close, fans of the new supernatural drama were treated to an extended look at what’s coming next. After only five episodes the show has proven to be a wild, engaging ride and things are about to get even better. As previously reported, Fringe‘s John Noble joins the cast as Henry Parrish, a kind and reclusive man who possesses supernatural powers that have the potential to help Crane. The sneak peek embedded above is our first look at a newly coiffed Noble in action. His recurring character enters the fray when Sleepy Hollow returns to FOX with new episodes–starting with “The Sin Eater”–on November 4.

‘South Park’ misses episode deadline for the first time

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Here’s some fascinating news. Today, for the first time in its 17 season run, South Park has missed its deadline and will not air a scheduled episode on Comedy Central in its designated time slot.

As die-hard SP fans know well, creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone take six days to produce an episode of the show; they come up with the story and the script and the animation and everything in-between in under a week leading up to the episode’s airing so that they can be as culturally current as possible. Parker and Stone gave fans an inside look at their fast-paced, time-crunched process in the 2011 documentary 6 Days to Air: the making of South Park.

So what happened? Two words: power outage. A press release tells the tale: “On Tuesday night, South Park Studios lost power. From animation to rendering to editing and sound, all of our computers were down for hours and we were unable to finish episode 1704 “Goth Kids 3: Dawn of the Posers” in time for air tonight. Trey Parker said, “It sucks to miss an air date but after all these years of tempting fate by delivering the show last minute, I guess it was bound to happen.” Methinks it is time to install a generator, eh? Click here to view images from the dark studios taken last night.

“Goth Kids 3” will be way ready for air next Wednesday, October 23. Tonight Comedy Central will fill the void with a repeat of the classic installment “Scott Tenorman Must Die.”