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The Transformers saga is one of the most successful box office franchises of all time, grossing $4.8 billion since the first film hit theaters in 2007. Now, the seventh installment in the franchise is has been announced, titled Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. The film will be based on the 1990s animated series Beast Wars: Transformers, which follows robots who transform into animal form. It will be directed by Steven Caple Jr. (Creed II).

“There are different breeds of Transformers,” said Caple. “In our particular film, they are prehistoric animals who travel through time and space, and we find them here on Earth.” The film will star Anthony Ramos (Hamilton, In the Heights) and Dominique Fishback (Project Power, Judas and the Black Messiah). Ramos will play Noah, a military veteran who is an electronics wiz. Fishback will play Elena, a brilliant artifact researcher working at a museum.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is set in 1994 in Brooklyn, New York, with international locations including Peru, among others. It will serve as a direct sequel to 2018’s Bumblebee. Optimus Prime will return, and the film will introduce both the Maximals and the Predacons, aka the beast corollaries to the Autobots and the Decepticons. “We had somewhat exhausted the battle between the Decepticons and the Autobots,” said producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura.

After over a decade of Michael Bay’s high-volume take on the franchise, it will be refreshing to see someone else helm a Transformers film. Hopefully, Rise of the Beasts will follow the model of Bumblebee (the best film in the series, written by Christina Hodson and directed by Travis Knight), which focuses on character and relationships in addition to action and adventure.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is set to be released on June 24, 2022.

(via The Hollywood Reporter, image: Paramount Pictures/Warner Bros., Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)

• What In the Heights loses when it erases Afro-Latinos from leading roles. (via NY Times)
• Production has begun on the third and final season of His Dark Materials. (via comicbook.com)
• Gross: A SoCal high basketball team threw tortillas at athletes from a predominantly Latinx rival school. (via HuffPost)

Jinkies! Here’s the trailer for Scooby-Doo! Meets Courage the Cowardly Dog:

A trailer for “Scooby-Doo! Meets Courage the Cowardly Dog’ has been released.

The new film releases on DVD September 14.
pic.twitter.com/dEh39EjuXI

— Cartoon Crave (@thecartooncrave) June 22, 2021

• A leaked S&M video won’t keep New York city council candidate Zack Weiner out of politics. (via The Guardian)
• How a conservative activist created the controversy around critical race theory. (via The New Yorker)
• It’s the legendary Octavia Butler’s birthday:

Happy Birthday to sci-fi novelist @OctaviaEButler whose work inspires generations of women to explore. 💫

Her legacy lives on in the cosmos, as @NASAPersevere‘s touchdown site on Mars is named in her honor: https://t.co/kdp85KqVDj

📸 Left photo credit: Ching-Ming Cheung pic.twitter.com/WkEm7On3ia

— Women@NASA (@WomenNASA) June 22, 2021

We believe you can fly, Mary Suevians!

can’t wait for school plays again so we can get more moments like when my friend played Peter Pan pic.twitter.com/ECpdsDgt0w

— Nathan Cykiert (@nathancykiert) June 21, 2021

What did you see out there today?

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—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—

Here at Nerdist we’re huge fans of Harvey Guillén. The hilarious and charming actor first made us fall in love during What We Do In the Shadows. And in Josh Ruben’s new delightful horror video game adaptation Werewolves Within, Guillén cements himself as a total joy to watch and a master of genre comedy. The laugh out loud take on lycanthropy sees the brilliant Sam Richardson as Finn, a new Park Ranger in the small town of Beaverfield. Keeping peace while a new pipeline is built seems like an easy assignment. But as soon as Finn arrives, the eclectic townspeople—including Guillén’s gay tech millionaire Joaquim—get swept up in a night of paranoia, murder, and mystery as a strange and terrifying threat begins to hunt them one by one. It’s a cozy, hilarious murder mystery with a surprisingly deep twist and it might become your new favorite horror flick.

IFC Films

Guillén got the call from director Ruben and was quickly enamored with the script and Joaquim. “I really liked the idea of playing this queer character who gets to be flamboyant,” the actor told Nerdist over Zoom. “He gets to live his best life and has those character traits that are sometimes exaggerated and become a caricature. But I wanted to hone it in and make it comedic but also grounded. This person could be your best friend, could be your neighbor. But there are still those elements of the comedy, he still wears a million dollar biodegradable poncho, he’s doing it for the Earth but it’s also fashion forward, you know? So he’s this hipster environmentalist… and it’s like are you helping the world or are you hindering it? Also who doesn’t want to play a queer character?” Guillén chuckled.

As a queer actor, getting to play a gay tech millionaire in a loving relationship was a joy for Guillén. “It was great,” Guillén gushed. “So often we see the hetro couple be the leads or neighbors, so this is a normality that’s been omitted from our history of being queer. It was nice to present that this is the real world, we’ve always been here!”

IFC Films

Werewolves Within also gave Guillén the chance to play against the wonderful Cheyenne Jackson. The best part of the story is that Guillén actually suggested the American Horror Story star after Ruben asked him who he thought would be his dream to play against. And while Guillén thought he might get someone “like Cheyenne,” soon the actor had signed on. “I was like, ‘This is incredible!'” Guillén smiled. “To see that non-traditional couple; we’re so often shown that the Adonis couple is the mold for what a queer couple or a gay couple should be and that’s not true. So I think it’s really kind of fun to see our height differences, our size differences, and that’s love! You love what you love, you know?”

Aside from its inclusive cast and witty script–and without spoiling anything–Werewolves Within holds a vital message. The story of paranoia and trust is one that spoke deeply to Guillén. “For so long the monster is the person who’s outcast and being chased. It’s because of the unknown. Who’s the real monster, the person you’re chasing or the chaser? That’s the real question. I think that’s the message, and the moral of our story is who are the real werewolves here? What does it take for each one of our own werewolves to come out? And even though it’s a comedy, I love the message that it has.”

IFC Films will release the horror-comedy whodunit Werewolves Within in theaters on June 25, 2021 and on Digital Rental & VOD on July 2, 2021.

Featured Image: IFC Films

The post WEREWOLVES WITHIN’s Harvey Guillén on Queer Horror and Queer Love appeared first on Nerdist.

Source: Ser Baffo / Getty

Chris Brown is now a suspect in an investigation for battery. Allegedly, the victim told police the singer “smacked the back of her head so hard that her weave came off.”

TMZ reported that over the weekend police responded to Brown’s San Fernando Valley residence where the victim, an unidentified woman, says the singer put hands on her. The outlet went onto report that the police “took a battery report and named Chris as the suspect.”

Reportedly, the victim had no physical injuries besides the damage to her hairstyle and as of yet, no arrests have been made. TMZ additionally reported that “the battery case will most likely be kicked to the City Attorney, as it would be a misdemeanor charge… if anything at all.”

As highlighted, this is the second time in the past several months that the police have been called to the singer’s home. Back in May, the LAPD ended up breaking up a “massive birthday bash” there. Relatedly, as we reported on this past April, the singer was sued by the former housekeeper of his L.A. residence after her sister was allegedly “viciously” attacked and injured by one of his dogs.

While he didn’t speak on the reports directly, Brown seemingly addressed the claims that he slapped the victim’s weave off. On the morning of June 22, the singer posted on his Instagram Stories, “YALL SO DAMN [CAP]” with a string of laughing emojis to follow.

Essentially, saying something or someone is “cap” implies that whatever narrative is being spread might be being over-exaggeration or not an accurate presentation of the truth.

“Fans have been pointing out that Chris is regularly caught up in these kinds of allegations, noting that it seems to happen every single year.” Hot New Hip Hop aptly mentioned, in their coverage

We’ll keep you posted as this story unfolds.

Hello everyone!!! I am hoping you can help us with the search for our new logo! We ran a contest over at Designhill in search of a new logo for our brand. On Designhill you can start a contest and graphic designers can enter it submitting their logo designs that meet your criteria. We had over 200+ logo submissions and have narrowed it down to the final 11.

If you have been following our social media we posted several polls to get those 200+ logos down to the 11 listed below. For everyone who voted in those first 5 polls thank you so much for your help! For anyone, who missed those polls here is your chance to submit input! Let us know in the comments which logo you like best!! This is cross-posted on social media in addition to the website. When the contest is over we will send one lucky commenter a price pack including merch with the new logo on it (Sorry only US addresses only)! Thanks, everyone!!!

Please make sure to click on each picture in order to get a better look at each design. The color scheme is subject to change. If you have any suggestions leave them in the comments!

*I was not paid to advertise in anyway, I just included the company I used in case anyone needs a similar service.

The post Help Us Select Our New Logo!! appeared first on The Nerd Element.