Could we have had Kate Bush‘s music in the MCU and Stranger Things?
According to Thor: Love and Thunder star Christian Bale, director Taiki Waititi wanted to put a Bush-inspired dance scene in the upcoming movie.
Bale shares that nugget in an interview with Total Film while talking about his approach to his Love and Thunder character, the villain Gorr the God Butcher.
“There’s obviously sort of a Nosferatu slight attitude,” Bale explains. “Taika and I wanted to do a whole dance, which we didn’t get to do, but we had all this sort of Kate Bush stuff that we worked at.”
As for why the scene didn’t work out, Bale says, “I think [Waititi] just realized he was never going to be allowed to put that in the final film.”
While we won’t be hearing Bush’s music in Love and Thunder, she’s already quite busy with the Stranger Things-driven resurgence of “Running Up That Hill,” which has hit the top five on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the U.K.’s Official Singles Chart following its placement in the newly premiered fourth season of the Netflix show.
The 1985 song’s newfound popularity has been so huge that the normally press-shy Bush has now given a rare interview, speaking with BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour program.
Meanwhile, Thor: Love and Thunder premieres in theaters July 8.
Marvel is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.
Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine has announced a new signature guitar as part of his partnership with Gibson.
The Dave Mustaine Flying V EXP Rust in Peace is a new take on the iconic model, featuring an “alien tech green” finish. Named after Megadeth’s 1990 album, the guitar “delivers the powerful, heavy sound and exceptional playing performance on the stage and in the studio that Dave demands,” a press release declares.
For more info on the Flying V EXP Rust in Peace, which will set you back $2,999, visit Gibson.com.
Mustaine first announced his partnership with Gibson in 2021. The collaboration has so far yielded the non-Rust in Peace edition of the Flying V EXP as well as the Dave Mustaine Songwriter acoustic guitar.
In related news, Megadeth is seemingly preparing to finally release new music from the band’s anticipated new album, The Sick, the Dying…and theDead!, the long-in-the-works follow-up to 2016’s Dystopia. A cryptic social media post hints at something new dropping this Thursday, June 23.
On the heels of releasing his debut solo album, Speed of Heat, last Friday, former Steely Dan and Doobie Brothers guitarist Jeff “Skunk” Baxter has lined up a series of California tour dates in support of the record.
Baxter currently has six shows on his schedule: July 30 in Sutter Creek, July 31 in Mill Valley, August 1 in Oakland, August 2 in West Hollywood, August 3 in Solana Beach and August 4 in San Juan Capistrano.
The new series of shows follows Baxter’s East Coast outing in May. Baxter’s band features Speed of Heat co-producer CJ Vanston on keyboards, as well as Mark Damian on drums and Hank Horton on bass.
“CJ suggested Mark and Hank and I didn’t actually meet them until we started rehearsing for the tour,” Baxter says. “But we meshed immediately, and the initial dates went so well we don’t want to stop.”
As previously reported, Speed of Heat is a 12-track collection that features a mix of original tunes and select covers. Among the latter are versions of the Steely Dan classics “My Old School” and “Do It Again,” and the 1960 instrumental “Apache” that was popularized by The Shadows.
The album features Baxter singing lead on some tracks, as well as some guest vocalists and musicians, including his one-time Doobie Brothers bandmate Michael McDonald, country star Clint Black, Toto keyboardist David Paich and blues-rock singer/guitarist Jonny Lang.
McDonald lends his vocals to a song called “My Place in the Sun,” which he co-wrote with Baxter and Vanston, while Paich plays an organ solo on the “My Old Town” cover.
(SAN ANTONIO, Texas) — Lina Sardar Khil disappeared from a park near her family’s home in San Antonio in December and six months later, police appear no closer to finding the 4-year-old.
San Antonio Police Chief William McManus spoke out about the case in an interview with KSAT, an ABC affiliate in San Antonio, and said that leads regarding Lina’s case have slowed.
“Nobody disappears into thin air. Something happened to her. We just haven’t been able to discover what it was,” McManus said in an interview published on Tuesday.
McManus said that initially the missing person’s unit of the San Antonio Police Department was investigating Lina’s disappearance, but now the special victim’s unit is handling the investigation. He added that police are using resources that they would usually utilize in an abduction case, but Lina’s case is still classified as a missing persons case.
“We still don’t have any evidence or proof that it was an abduction,” McManus said. “So we still we’re doing it. It’s kind of a hybrid missing person and abduction,” he said.
“If there were video, if there were any kind of evidence of an abduction, we would have classified as an abduction. But since we don’t have that, we can’t classify it as an abduction,” McManus said.
The San Antonio Police Department did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for further comment.
Lina, who turned 4 years-old on Feb. 20, was last seen on Dec. 20 at a park on the 9400 block of Fredericksburg Road in San Antonio between 4:30 p.m. and 5:10 p.m., according to police. The park is near the family’s home at the Villa Del Cabo apartment complex.
Lina has brown eyes and straight, brown hair, and was last seen wearing a black jacket, red dress and black shoes, according to police.
She was out of sight from her mother for an unknown amount of time before she realized Lina was nowhere to be found, according to the San Antonio Police Department. The FBI field office in San Antonio has also been working with police on this case.
Her family had held out hope that she would be found to celebrate her 4th birthday at home, but her family had no answers months after she went missing.
“Her light is missing from her family and community. Our continuous prayer is that she will be back in the arms of those that love her,” Pamela Allen, who is representing the Khil family, told ABC News in February.
FBI dive team ends search for 3-year-old Lina Sardar Khil ‘without conclusive findings’
Asked if the hope of finding Lina alive has diminished as time passes, McManus said, “Unfortunately it does, to be candid.”
“We are still devoting the resources necessary to locate her based on the tips we get,” he said.
Lina’s family is part of an Afghan refugee community in San Antonio. They arrived in the United States in 2019 and speak Pashto.
Lina’s mother, Zarmeena Sardar Khil, is pregnant with her second child. She spoke with FOX 29 in San Antonio through a translator in February.
“I am missing my child, I cannot forget her and it is affecting me a lot and my other child who is coming to this world,” she said.
“We all have the same pain, it doesn’t matter that I am from Afghanistan, I have a different culture, different religion. What we have in common is the pain of motherhood as a human, is the same as all people,” she added.
The Afghan community in the city, along with a group of nonprofits and organizations have rallied behind the family, joining search crews, fundraising and raising awareness about Lina’s case.
The Islamic Center of San Antonio announced in February that it increased a $120,000 reward for any information on Lina to $200,000. Meanwhile, Crime Stoppers of San Antonio has offered $50,000 for information resulting in the arrest or indictment of a suspect accused of involvement in Lina’s disappearance, bringing the latest total to $250,000.
The Eagles Flight Advocacy & Outreach organization, a San Antonio-based nonprofit, joined the search in early January, with about 150 people from the Afghan community showing up to help.
Allen, the CEO of the group, became the family’s spokesperson after meeting the Khils through her organization’s work. She told ABC News last month that the family believes Lina was abducted.
“We believe someone has her,” she said. “And so that this is what the family believes — that someone has their daughter and hopefully keeping her alive.”
An FBI dive team ended a search for Lina in January without finding any trace of the girl, authorities said.
In January, Allen’s organization shared a newly surfaced photo taken by a family member of Lina the day she disappeared in hopes that details about Lina’s jewelry could assist the public in identifying her.
In the photo, which was obtained by ABC News, Lina appears to be wearing blue bangle bracelets on one wrist and gold-toned bangles on the other. She is also wearing small gold earrings and an article around her neck that Allen said is known as the Taweez, which is etched with verses from the Quran and is usually worn for protection.
Police are urging anyone with information regarding Lina or her whereabouts to come forward and contact the missing persons unit in San Antonio at 210-207-7660.
ABC News’ Kiara Alfonseca contributed to this report.
Rapper French Montana and producer Harry Fraud enlisted Jadakiss and Benny the Butcher for their new song “Bricks & Bags,” out Wednesday.
The new single follows recently released tracks “Drive By” and “Blue Chills,” all of which are expected to show up on Montana’s forthcoming album, Montega, which is expected Friday, June 24.
The “Unforgettable” rapper also dropped the song’s official music video, which shows all three emcees in the studio mixing and mingling.
Montana first announced Montega, a joint album with him and Fraud, earlier this month, hailing the project as the “rap album of the year” in an Instagram post. Speaking on the long-term relationship with Montana, the New York producer said on Instagram, “From the lowest lows, to the highest highs, me and @frenchmontana have been thru it ALL… on June 24th we solidify our legacy MONTEGA .”
French Montana’s new album, Montega,is available for preorder on major streaming platforms.
Gorillaz has premiered a new song called “Cracker Island.”
The funky tune features acclaimed bassist Thundercat, who’s previously worked with artists including HAIM and Kendrick Lamar. You may have also seen him guest on The Book of Boba Fett.
“Cracker Island,” which is available now via digital outlets, is the first new Gorillaz track to follow the group’s 2021 EP Meanwhile. The most recent album from the Damon Albarn-led cartoon band is 2020’s Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez, which features collaborations with The Cure‘s Robert Smith, Beck, St. Vincent and Elton John.
Along with the song, Gorillaz has shared a link to a site called TheLastCult.org, which asks you to join an email list.
Gorillaz is also gearing up for a U.S. headlining tour, set to kick off in September.
Oscar winner Diane Keaton is coming back to movie theaters this summer in the new film Mack & Rita.
We got our first look at the comedy in the new trailer that was released Wednesday, which finds a 30-year-old self-proclaimed homebody and influencer Mack Martin (Elizabeth Lail) magically transformed into the 70-year-old version of herself.
Keaton plays the older version of Mack, called “Aunt Rita” to avoid confusion. According to its press release, the film promises to “celebrate being true to yourself at any age.”
Mack & Rita hits theaters everywhere August 11 and also stars Taylour Paige, Simon Rex, Loretta Devine, and Patti Harrison.
A new documentary focusing on Don McLean‘s epic 1971 song “American Pie” and its legacy will premiere in theaters in New York and Los Angeles on July 8 and will make its television debut July 19 on the Paramount+ streaming service.
The Day the Music Died: The Story of Don McLean’s “American Pie” will include new interviews with McLean and will feature the singer/songwriter revealing for the first time secrets behind the tune’s creation and the meaning behind its lyrics.
The film also looks at important cultural moments and events in U.S. history that played a role in inspiring “American Pie” and features various people from different generations explaining how they were affected by the song.
The movie includes commentary from a number of celebrities, including Garth Brooks, The Beach Boys‘ Brian Wilson and actor Peter Gallagher, who share their admiration for the song and discuss how it has impacted their lives.
“This documentary is something that will make people think, especially since so many throughout the years have asked me what certain lyrics meant or whom I was referring to, but now I finally can solve many of those mysteries,” says McLean. “Everyone from Madonna to Garth Brooks to Weird Al Yankovic has recorded ‘American Pie’ and made it their own. So many people have their own interpretation of the song, and I love it.”
You can check out a trailer for the film now at Paramount+’s official YouTube channel. In the preview, we hear McLean explain of the song, “I wrote all the verses in about an hour, like a genie out of a bottle,” and how Buddy Holly‘s death helped inspire it.
The Day the Music Died also will be screened in select theaters around the world on July 14 and July 17.
Will & Grace executive producer Gary Janetti is looking back at Madonna‘s infamous cameo and hinted she made herself less funny because of how she dressed.
The “Ray of Light” singer appeared in the series’ fifth season as a woman named Liz, who becomes roommates with Megan Mullally‘s character, Karen.
Speaking to the Behind The Velvet Rope podcast, Janetti revealed there was a specific way that Madonna’s character was supposed to look, but the Grammy winner refused to “dress down.”
He described Liz as “an executive secretary” and said she was “the kind of woman who wears her sneakers on the subway and carries her shoes in her bag and goes to a happy hour after work but thinks she’s… a big deal in her tiny office.”
Janetti adds Madonna was supposed to wear suits with sneakers, but she “didn’t want to wear any of those clothes.” He noted that because the singer was “at the height of her fame,” she wanted to call the shots on her makeup and wardrobe. It was also apparent, to him, that Madonna was not going to budge.
So, Madge wore what she wanted and added “long, blonde hair extensions” — but it wasn’t her character’s vibe. Because of that, some jokes had to be rewritten because they “didn’t make sense anymore.”
“She looked like Madonna. She looked like a rich, fabulous celebrity, which wasn’t what the character was,” he said. He added, “As a result, it was about 50 percent less funny than it should have been.”
Janetti said Madonna was “funny” and had a “good sense of humor” but inferred that wasn’t enough to salvage her cameo.
Will & Grace ran for eight seasons between 1998 and 2006.
All aboard! New Ozzy Osbourne music is dropping this week.
The latest solo offering from the Prince of Darkness is a song called “Patient Number 9” and is scheduled to arrive this Friday, June 24. The song is set to feature guitar icon Jeff Beck.
You can check out a teaser video for the single via Ozzy’s Twitter. The post tags famed comic book artist Todd McFarlane, suggesting he might be involved in the track’s video.
Beck is one of many reported guests to be featured on Ozzy’s next solo album, the follow-up to 2020’s Ordinary Man. Others said to be appearing on the record include Black Sabbath‘s Tony Iommi, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, Eric Clapton, Pearl Jam‘s Mike McCready, Black Label Society‘s Zakk Wylde and Metallica‘s Robert Trujillo.
As exciting as it is for fans to hear new Ozzy music, it’s probably even more so for the man himself, who’s been battling a host of medical issues over the past few months. In addition to testing positive for COVID-19 in April, the 73-year-old rocker underwent surgery just last week, which his wife Sharonsaid would “determine the rest of his life.”
In a statement following the procedure, Ozzy shared that he was “home from the hospital recuperating comfortably.”
“I am definitely feeling the love and support from all my fans and send everyone a big thank you for their thoughts, prayers and well wishes during my recovery,” he said.
