Some people would metaphorically give their teeth to launch a hit TV show, but for Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk, it was literal.
He clarified to the BBC that he was under so much stress making the original series, which became a global phenomenon, that he lost “eight or nine” teeth. He’d previously said six of his teeth fell out.
In preparation for the anticipated follow-up to the show, which is due on Netflix on Dec. 25, Hwang said, “The stress I feel now is much greater,” adding of his chompers that he’ll “probably have to pull out a few more very soon.”
That said, the Emmy-winning show’s creator said much like his show’s contestants, he pursued a second season for the jackpot.
“Even though the first series was such a huge global success, honestly I didn’t make much,” he tells the outlet. “So doing the second series will help compensate me for the success of the first one too.”
That said, he explained he “didn’t fully finish the story” of the first season’s winner, Lee Jung-jae‘s Seong Gi-hun aka Player 456. For the forthcoming go-round, Gi-hun takes on the life-or-death game once again, with vengeance on his mind for the people behind it.
Olivia Rodrigo and Noah Kahan are friends: They’ve performed live together and recorded each other’s songs. Now they’re headlining the same U.K. festival.
Olivia has just been announced as the headliner for the June 27 date of BST Hyde Park, a weekslong summer festival that takes place each year in London’s famed Hyde Park. Joining her on the bill that day will be girl in red and the U.K. all-girl band The Last Dinner Party. This will be Liv’s biggest U.K. show to date.
Noah was recently announced as the headliner for the July 4 date of the festival, and he’ll be joined by Gracie Abrams on the bill. Zach Bryan will headline on June 28 and June 29, while Wolverine himself, Hugh Jackman, will perform July 6.
An Amex presale for Olivia’s show is underway; another presale starts Nov. 13, with tickets going on sale to the general public on Nov. 15.
The show will be convenient for Olivia, since she already had to be in the U.K. June 30 and July 1 for makeup shows in Manchester, England. The original shows were postponed because the brand-new venue she was supposed to play wasn’t ready yet. Liv is also performing at three South American Lollapalooza festivals in March 2025.
Kid Cudi is expressing gratitude for the support he’s received on his sophomore album, Man on the Moon: The Legend of Mr. Rager. On the album’s 14th anniversary Saturday, he posted a letter to social platform X reflecting on that dark time and the way his fans helped him work through it.
“14 years ago today, I delivered my sophmore [sic] album MAN ON THE MOON: THE LEGEND OF MR. RAGER. As a lot of you know, this was a very difficult time for me. I was heavily using cocaine, my depression was stronger than it ever was at that time, and I didnt think I’d make it to see 30,” Cudi wrote, alongside the cover art to The Legend of Mr. Rager. “But you all listened, and supported me, and were there for me, and thats part of the reason, prolly the main reason, I made it thru the darkness at that time.”
Following the success of his debut Day ‘n’ Nite, Cudi says he “couldn’t f***” up his sophomore album and “made sure to deliver something that was just as good…to show u all I was meant to be here and I wasnt some one trick pony.”
He added, “The rest is history. To the fans, thank you for never leaving me lonely. Im off on an adventureeee.”
Cudi’s sophomore album dropped in 2010 and featured Mary J. Blige, CeeLo Green, Kanye West and more. It was later certified Platinum by the RIAA.
Brooks & Dunn are celebrating Veterans Day by sharing a snippet of their newly recorded “Only in America” duet with Corey Kent.
“Only in America… Dreamin’ in red, white, and blue!” the duo captioned their post on social platform X with a Veterans Day hashtag.
The video features in-studio footage of Corey recording his reimagined version of Brooks & Dunn’s 2001 hit, with Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn joining him for the session.
“It didn’t really hit till I walked in and shook their hands, and it’s like, ‘I’m about to cut a Brooks & Dunn song while Brooks & Dunn are listening,'” Corey recalls with a laugh.
“I had this idea, this vision around the song. It evokes a different emotion. And you slow it down and you kind of mess with the progression,” Corey shares.
Here’s the full track list for REBOOT II: “Play Something Country” with Lainey Wilson “Neon Moon” with Morgan Wallen “Rock My World (Little Country Girl)” with Marcus King Band “Ain’t Nothing ‘Bout You” with Megan Moroney “Brand New Man” with Warren Zeiders “Believe” with Jelly Roll “She Used to Be Mine” with Riley Green “She Likes to Get Out of Town” with The Cadillac Three “Boot Scootin’ Boogie” with Halestorm “Ain’t No Way To Go” with Mitchell Tenpenny “How Long Gone” with The Earls of Leicester “I’ll Never Forgive My Heart” with Jake Worthington “She’s Not the Cheatin’ Kind” with Hailey Whitters “Hard Workin’ Man” with Christone “Kingfish” Ingram “Hillbilly Deluxe” with HARDY “Indian Summer” with ERNEST “Drop in the Bucket” with Thousand Horses “Only in America” with Corey Kent
Timothée Chalamet is opening up about his experience playing Bob Dylan in the upcoming movie A Complete Unknown.
In an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, Chalamet calls playing Dylan “the most unique challenge I’ve taken on,” but notes he gained his confidence by performing all the movie’s music live.
“Maybe it was the least responsible thing on the actor’s part because the music exists and the performances exist,” he said. And while Chalamet did prerecord songs, in the end he opted to sing live during filming because he felt the recorded tunes were “too clean,” noting, “There’s not a single prerecord in the movie.”
While fans may be hoping to learn a lot more about Dylan watching the film, Chalamet warns that they aren’t really seeing a true biopic on the legendary singer.
“This is not definitive, this is interpretive, this is not fact, this is not how it happened,” he says. “This is a fable.”
As for how he approached playing Dylan, Chalamet explains why he didn’t want to directly mimic the singer.
“Somebody once said to me, ‘You can’t make a movie about a painter because it’s not interesting to watch paint dry,’” he said. “Bob has that element because he’s not one of these forward-facing musicians.”
And while he did have a vocal and dialect coach, Chalamet says he found that it wasn’t “my style” or Dylan’s either.
“Bob did not have a vocal coach. He had two bottles of red wine and four packs of cigarettes,” he said. “There’s no way to impersonate that.”
(DELPHI, Ind.) — Delphi, Indiana, resident Richard Allen was found guilty on all charges on Monday in the double murders of best friends Abby Williams, 13, and Libby German, 14.
The jury’s verdict came on the fourth day of deliberations in the high-profile case that shocked the nation.
Allen was stoic in court and did not react to the verdict, but his mother and wife sobbed.
Allen was convicted of felony murder for the killing of Abigail Williams while attempting to commit kidnapping; felony murder for the killing of Liberty German while attempting to commit kidnapping; murder for knowingly killing Abigail Williams; and murder for knowingly killing Liberty German.
Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 20.
Abby and Libby were killed on a local hiking trail on Feb. 13, 2017. The girls’ throats were slit and they were dumped in a wooded area near the trail. Their bodies were found the next day.
As police hunted for a culprit, they released a clip of the unknown suspect’s voice — a recording of him saying “down the hill” — which was recovered from Libby’s phone. Police also released a grainy image of the suspect on the trail: a man who became known as “bridge guy.”
Allen, who was arrested for murder in 2022, admitted to police he was on the trail that day, but he denied any involvement in the crime.
Allen’s multiple confessions while in jail and his mental health at the time became a major focus of the trial.
The defense argues Allen was in a psychotic state when he made numerous confessions to corrections officers, his wife and a psychologist.
The prosecution’s key evidence is police analysis of Allen’s gun, which determined that a .40-caliber unspent round discovered by the girls’ bodies was cycled through Allen’s Sig Sauer Model P226. But the defense rejects the accuracy of that testing, calling it an “apples to oranges” comparison, because the technician compared the initial round — which had been cycled, not fired — to a bullet fired from Allen’s gun.
No DNA was found at the site to tie Allen or anyone else to the crime scene, a forensic scientist testified.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK CITY) — A wildfire raging on the border of New York and New Jersey exploded overnight to 5,000 acres, prompting officials on Monday to postpone one of the oldest Veterans Day Parades in the nation.
As firefighters battled the Jennings Creek Fire straddling the border between Orange County, New York, and Passaic County, New Jersey, organizers of the 80th annual West Milford, New York, Veterans Day Parade, announced the event will be delayed until Nov. 24, due to the ongoing emergency.
“I cannot in good conscience detract from all the hard work our firefighters, police officers, first responders, DPW personnel and our community leaders are currently facing in dealing with wildfires along the East Shore area,” Rudy Hass, commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 7198 in West Milford, said in a statement.
Hass said many firefighters battling the Jennings Creek Fire are military veterans.
“Right now we need to keep them in our thoughts as they spend many hours, day and night, doing all they can in order to protect our great communities in that area,” Hass said.
The blaze broke out Saturday and burned drought-parched wildland stretching from the West Milford in Passaic County, New Jersey, to the Sterling Forest State Park in New York’s Orange County, and on both the New York and New Jersey sides of Greenwood Lake, officials said.
Despite the first measurable rain in the area in more than a month, the fire grew from about 2,500 acres on Sunday to over 5,000 acres, or about 4.7 square miles, by Monday morning, according to the New York Forest Fire Service.
The fire has burned about 2,500 acres on the New York and New Jersey sides of the fire, a forest ranger for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation said at a news conference Monday.
Firefighters made progress battling the fire Sunday night, increasing containment from 0% to 20%, officials said.
At least 25 structures remain threatened by the conflagration, including eight historic structures in New Jersey’s Long Pond Ironworks State Park, a historic 175-acre village where iron was produced during the Revolutionary War, officials said.
A New York State Parks and Recreation aid was killed on Saturday helping the battle the Jennings Creek Fire, officials said. The deceased parks employee was identified Sunday by the New York State Police as 18-year-old Dariel Vasquez.
The New York and New Jersey forest services have teamed up to fight the fire on both sides of the state line.
Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus said numerous residents living near the fire have complied with voluntary evacuations.
“We had about 40 homes and residents that move out voluntarily, we really didn’t have to encourage them too much because they saw out their windows a major firestorm coming their way,” Neuhaus told ABC New York station WABC.
While Sunday’s light rainstorm was welcomed on the fire line, the precipitation did little to extinguish the fire, officials said. Overnight, about 0.25 inches of rain fell across the fire area.
“This provided an opportunity to rest several of the crews who have been working non-stop to contain this fire,” the New Jersey Forest Fire Service said in a social media post on Monday morning. “Today, crews are back on scene and will continue to improve containment lines and address area of concern.”
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Chief Bill Donnelly of the New Jersey Forest Fire Service said at a news conference Sunday that it could take crews until the end of this week to extinguish the blaze.
The fire came amid blustery winds and drought conditions in New York and New Jersey, which before Sunday hadn’t seen any rain in more than a month, officials said.
Since Oct. 1, New Jersey firefighters have responded to 537 wildfires that have consumed 4,500 acres, including about 40 fires that ignited between Friday and Saturday, according to Donnelly. Forest Ranger Jeremy Oldroyd, of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, said New York fire crews have battled 60 wildfires since Oct. 1, and they have burned 2,100 acres.
At one point over the weekend, New Jersey firefighters were simultaneously battling at least six significant brush fires that ignited across the state, including a second large wildfire in Passaic County.
The “Cannonball 3” fire began on Friday afternoon near Passaic County’s Pompton Lake and grew to 181 acres. The New Jersey Forest Fire Service announced Sunday afternoon that firefighters had achieved 100% containment on the fire.
Another wildfire in New Jersey — the Shotgun Fire — started Wednesday and burned 350 acres of the Colliers Mills Wildlife Management Area in Jackson Township before firefighters gained control of the blaze, officials said. Officials said the cause of the fire was arson.
Investigators concluded the fire began behind a berm at the Central Jersey Rifle & Pistol Club in Jackson, New Jersey, and was caused by magnesium shards of a “Dragon’s Breath” 12-gauge shotgun round, which ignited materials on the berm. Firing incendiary or tracer ammunition is illegal in New Jersey, authorities said.
Richard Shashaty, 37, of Brick Township, surrendered to the police on Saturday. He was charged with arson and violation of regulatory provisions relating to firearms, officials said Saturday.
Tom Cruise is ready for one last adventure in the action-packed teaser for the aptly titled Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.
Our first look at the forthcoming film, the eighth in the popular franchise, features Cruise’s Ethan Hunt exploring the wreckage of a submarine, hanging off the side of a biplane for dear life and, of course, lots of running.
“Our lives are the sum of our choices,” Ving Rhames‘ Luther says in the clip.
There are also flashbacks to the 1999 original Mission: Impossible and that iconic scene that saw Hunt suspended over an alarm-rigged floor.
Plot details are thin at this point, but Ethan is reminded in the teaser that “the fate of every living soul on earth is your responsibility” as he races against villain Gabriel (Esai Morales) in the hunt for a dangerous AI program known as The Entity.
The film stars returning Mission: Impossible cast members Simon Pegg, Hayley Atwell, Vanessa Kirby, Pom Klementieff, Angela Bassett, Henry Czerny and Shea Whigham.
Newcomers include Hannah Waddingham, Nick Offerman, Janet McTeer and Holt McCallany.
Cruise also co-produces alongside director Christopher McQuarrie, a frequent collaborator and director of three previous Mission: Impossible films.
When he started working on Final Reckoning, Offerman joked to ABC Audio about his character and Cruise’s, “I kill him, I kill his character.”
On a serious note, he called the project “astonishing,” adding, “Chris McQuarrie … said, ‘The way we make these movies is we jump out of a plane and then we start sewing a parachute as we fall and hope that we’ll land on our feet.’ And it really has that feeling; like, it’s really intense.”
Courtesy of Disney+ & The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
Busta Rhymes was honored with the Global Icon Award at the 2024 MTV Europe Music Awards Sunday.
“Thirty-four years of professionally recording, this is the first time I’m getting an award from MTV,” he said during his speech. “And it feels f****** incredible, yo.”
He expressed gratitude for rapper LL Cool J, Chuck D,his mother and his fans before sharing some words of inspiration.
“They tell us that perfection is unreachable. That is lie,” Busta said. “See, the perfection is in the imperfection. We all are the perfection of what we’re supposed to be. So be the perfection that you’re supposed to be.”
Busta also mentioned his new album, Dragon Season, will be dropping on Nov. 29 and took the stage to perform a medley of his hits, including “Scenario,” “Put Your Hands Where The Eyes Can See,” “I Know What You Want,” “Break Ya Neck,” “Look At Me Now” and “Touch It.”
Another highlight from the 2024 MTV EMAs were Tyla‘s many victories. She took home her first-ever awards from the annual show, winning in the categories of Best Afrobeats, Best R&B and Best African Act, and took the stage to perform “Push 2 Start,” as well as her viral breakout hit, “Water.”
The “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” singer hopped on Instagram to share two Reels of the as-yet-unreleased “Good News.” It’s the first song he’s teased that’s not on his debut country album, Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going.
“All we really need is a little Good News,” Shaboozey captioned one of the Reels.
In the clip, he sings, “At the end of my wrongs/ I need some good news/ Sitting here sipping on cold truth/ Nobody knows what I’m going through/ Bet the devil wouldn’t walk in my shoes/ Wish someone told me/ Living this life would be lonely/ Trying to get away from the old me/ Still stuck singing these blues/ All I really need is a little good news.”
No official word yet on when “Good News” will drop, but you can hear the full snippet now on Instagram.
Shaboozey recently earned six Grammy nominations, including Best New Artist and Song of the Year, Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance for his #1 hit, “A Bar Song (Tipsy).”
“This moment is something I’ve dreamt about ever since I started recording music. Even with that said, nothing could’ve prepared me for the moment when I finally heard my name called today!” Shaboozey wrote in an Instagram post.
“I’m thankful for everyone who ever believed and took a chance on me,” he said. “I’m thankful for everything! I wake up grateful every single day. Never give up on your dreams LLC.”
“Highway” is Shaboozey’s new single, and it’s currently making its way up the country charts.
Shaboozey’s currently opening for Jelly Roll on his Beautifully Broken Tour. For tickets and a full list of dates, visit americandogwood.com.
