And your Oscar hosts are...
Plus, Marvel fans go theory nuts over Doc Strange trailer
What to know:
Amy Schumer, Wanda Sykes, Regina Hall eyed as Oscar hosts… Surprising choices but they’re all perfectly suited and should make it a great show for the handful of people who watch it! The Oscars are considering a 3-act structure where in each emcee would solo host an hour of the broadcast. In other hosting news, celebrity power couple Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally will host the Independent Spirit Awards. De-lightful! 🎤
The Oscars will poll Twitter on its favorite movie of the year and reveal the result live… What could possibly go wrong! Despite Academy members showing absolutely no interest in awarding popular movies, the org’s leaders and telecasters keep trying to incorporate popular films so that someone, anyone will actually watch their once-dominant award show. I doubt this moves the ratings needle. Meanwhile, not a single Best Picture nominee made more than $1M at the box office this weekend. 📊
Super Bowl ads market a high-tech future with nostalgia… If you’re a millennial, there’s a good chance you LOVED the Super Bowl. If the abundance of celebrity-starring, throwback ads didn’t get you, the halftime show definitely did. Did you know Ryan Reynolds secretly played the Grimace last night? And now Los Angeles is temporarily changing the Hollywood sign to honor the Rams. 🏈
Marvel fans cook up wild theories based on new Doctor Strange 2 trailer… First the plausible theory: Patrick Stewart is in the new movie as the X-Men’s Prof. Xavier. It’s unmistakably his voice but does this actually connect the MCU to the Fox X-Men series? And then the more far-fetch theory (linked above): Tom Cruise is playing an alternate version of Iron Man. This theory is based on speculation and apparent leaks. Let’s take that one with a tablespoon of salt for now. 🤔
One spoiler-averse movie fan is willing to miss his child’s birth in order to see The Batman opening day… Don’t be that guy. Just delete the social media apps from your phone. 🤦♀️
Amazon adding on-set mental health counsellors after Underground Railroad success… Hey, that’s some nice bit of positive change in the industry! 👩🏻⚕️
Adam Pally and Jon Gabrus to front 101 Places To Party Before You Die for TruTV… Siri, how do I watch TruTV? 👏
Bill Lawrence signs nine-figure deal at WB TV… Christa Miller’s husband is doing alright for himself ⚽️
Trevor Noah to host White House Correspondents Dinner… It’s back! What a nice return to normalcy! 🇺🇸
Drive My Car coming to HBO Max March 2… Come get your 3-hour epic Japanese drama 🚗
What’s new this week:
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel s4 — Feb 18 | Amazon comedy series | 🍅
Uncharted — Feb 18 | Adventure film in theaters | 🍅 50%
Ambulance — Feb 18 | Crime drama film in theaters | 🍅
Dog — Feb 18 | Military drama in theaters | 🍅
For more pop culture news, discussion, and what-to-watch recommendations subscribe to my pals over on the Kickball Friends podcast. 🎙
What to watch:
Trailer: Nope — July 22 in theaters
Written and directed by Jordan Peele, starring Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, and Steven Yeun.
Ever since Jordan Peele released the poster for Nope, I’ve been referring to it as the “ominous cloud movie” — because he gave us very little else to go on. So did we learn more about this movie from the trailer? Upon first watch, I thought nope, Peele is still hiding what this movie is really about. But upon second watch, I think Nope is his take on aliens. There are a few very quick shots in there and some kino-eye style editing tricks that I believe are meant to evoke otherworldly monsters. I’m also picking up some Signs influence on this, specifically in the similar way Shyamalan hid his alien monsters. Could I be 100% wrong in this theorizing? Absolutely. Peele has been known to leave things up to interpretation in the past. Regardless, this is the exact right amount of chilling and confounding. Let’s go.
For all past ‘what to watch’ recommendations, see the full list here!