Notícias

Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein in ‘Frankenstein’ (Photo Credit: Ken Woroner / Netflix)

Netflix’s 2025 film slate is loaded with sequels, animated offerings, and documentaries. Adam Sandler returns for Happy Gilmore 2, Charlize Theron’s back in action for The Old Guard 2, and Daniel Craig slips back into the role of detective Benoit Blanc for Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. The streamer’s documentary lineup includes films on Eddie Murphy, the Air Force’s Thunderbirds, Charles Manson, and the Titan submersible. Animated offerings include a Witcher project, a K-Pop-themed film, the much-anticipated The Twits, and Simu Liu and Craig Robinson voicing the leads in In Your Dreams.

“We’re not just one thing. We’re the best of film, TV, documentaries, stand-up, animation and live events — and we’re doing it in 50 languages. We’re not afraid to make big bets on compelling voices and new ideas...

There’s currently no magic routine that will make humans live forever. But for tech millionaire Bryan Johnson, the quest to live longer lies in a routine of pills, shots, blood draws, and experimental therapy regimes he says are rewinding his biological clock. And in Netflix’s new documentary Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants To Live Forever, released Jan. 1, filmmakers bring viewers behind the scenes to discover how much work and cash trying to live forever actually takes. It’s a fascinating attempt to peel back the psyche of...

When Chris Smith saw a headline about 47-year-old L.A.-based tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson’s quest to spend $2 million a year to become 18 again, the director knew he’d found the subject of his next documentary. But there was a problem.

“I wrote to (Bryan’s team), and they said I was the sixty-fifth production company/person to reach out to them about doing a doc,” Smith recalls.

Luckily for Smith, known for his zeitgeisty docs including “Fyre” and “Bad Vegan,” Ashlee Vance – the journalist who wrote the Bloomberg article about Johnson that turned him into a worldwide sensation – was a fan. Vance encouraged Johnson to partner with the director.

For 12 months, Smith followed the tech entrepreneur on his crusade to avoid death. The result is the Netflix docu “Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever,” about the controversial wellness practices Johnson uses to not only defy...

If given the chance, would you want to live forever? For tech millionaire Bryan Johnson, the question isn’t rhetorical. It’s a scientific experiment he conducts on a daily basis — with himself as the test subject.

From director Chris Smith, Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever goes behind the headlines surrounding Johnson’s antiaging crusade. It dives deep into his psyche, revealing the drastic shifts that took the entrepreneur from his own personal struggles to dedicating his time and energy — and a considerable amount of his fortune — to living long beyond even the most ambitious human life expectancy.

It’s possible that you may already be familiar with Johnson, as he’s been the subject of a number of articles in recent years that have gone viral. “The things I do lend themselves to great headlines and people forming certain conclusions,” Johnson tells Tudum. “I think...

They say that there are only two things in this life that are for certain: death and taxes. However, if it were up to tech mogul Bryan Johnson, he’d live forever, and that’s exactly what a new Netflix documentary examines as it follows the multi-millionaire on his quest to prolong his life for as long as possible. Titled Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever, the doc followed Johnson for 12 months to give viewers an inside look at how he plans to achieve his goal of living to at least 200 years old, and the impact his lifestyle has had on those around him.

"How far would you go to live forever – or even just slow down the aging process?" the documentary's logline asks. That’s the question filmmaker Chris Smith hopes to answer in Don’t Die, which hits Netflix on Jan. 1, 2025, and follows some...

The Netflix January 2025 originals, movies and TV series have been revealed and can be viewed below. The streaming service has also announced the list of movies and TV series leaving next month.

The Netflix January 2025 schedule includes such titles as Alpha Males Season 3, American Primeval, Back in Action, Cunk on Life, Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action, Love Is Blind: Germany and Mo Season 2.

The Night Agent Season 2

Also coming are The Night Agent Season 2, The Recruit Season 2, Selling the City, The Upshaws Part 6, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, WWE Raw, Xo, Kitty Season 2 and more.

The January schedule includes the comedy specials Ari Shaffir: America’s Sweetheart, Gabriel Iglesias: Legend of Fluffy and Liza Treyger: Night Owl.

Netflix January 2025 Schedule

January Tba

Lovers Anonymous (Tr) — Netflix Series

Cem, scarred by a childhood that crushed his trust in love, runs the “Love Hospital,” until Hazal, who believes in the power of love,...

Netflix has unveiled that its documentary on one man’s quest for immortality, “Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever,” debuts on the streamer New Year’s Day 2025.

According to the official synopsis, the film explores the question, “How far would you go to live forever – or even just slow down the aging process? This startling documentary by Chris Smith is told through intimate access to Bryan Johnson, a man who has dedicated his life to defy aging. ‘Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever’ dives into the controversial wellness practices one man is using to maintain youth and vitality, and the effect this journey has on himself and those around him.”

Smith first encountered the eccentric tech mogul through an article describing how he spent $2 million in an attempt to “become 18 again.” This was the initial spark that inspired Smith to make Johnson...

Netflix's new documentary, Biggest Heist Ever, explores the most controversial Bitcoin theft in history and what happened to the two convicts after their arrest. Directed by Chris Smith, the director of the pop culture documentary, Fyre, the documentary explores the crimes of husband and wife, Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morris, and how they conspired to commit bitcoin laundering. Biggest Heist Ever, which is the latest to join Netflix's growing catalog of true-crime documentaries, includes social media posts from the convicted couple as well as interviews from detectives and reporters connected to the case.

Since 2016, authorities have investigated the crimes of Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morris, who were dubbed by the media as the Bitcoin Bonnie and Clyde, for their strong social media presence and how they stole $4.5 billion worth of bitcoin currency, all while living in the public eye. As Biggest Heist Ever reveals in shocking twists, the unlikely...

The Netflix December 2024 originals, movies, and TV series have been revealed and can be viewed below. The streaming service has also announced the list of movies and TV series leaving next month.

The December schedule features such titles as The Dragon Prince Season 7, Jentry Chau vs the Underworld, Maria, Mary, No Good Deed, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Polo, and Queer Eye Season 9.

Squid Game Season 2

Also coming are Squid Game Season 2, The Great British Baking Show: Holidays Season 7, The Six Triple Eight, The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On Season 3, That Christmas, and Virgin River Season 6.

The lineup includes the comedy specials Fortune Feimster: Crushing It, Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was…, Michelle Buteau: A Buteau-ful Mind at Radio City Music Hall, Ronny Chieng: Love To Hate It, and Your Friend Nate Bargatze. Netflix will also stream two NFL games and the A Nonsense Christmas with Sabrina Carpenter special.

Emanating from their studio in Cincinnati, Ohio, The History of Bad Ideas sees hosts Jason, Jeff and Blake talk about all things geeky on their podcast. Whether it’s rumours of the latest comic book movies, debating who really is the worst villain of all time, discussing the latest comic issues or just wondering about life in general, you are sure to have a fun time with them! In theory.

If you haven’t listened to the show before – why not? – you can check out previous episodes of The History of Bad Ideas podcast on iTunes and look out for new episodes here on Nerdly each and every week…

Episode 568: Beach of Burden!

After last week’s sad song list, the Hobi Gang is in much better mood this week as Bryan reviews Lioness, debate best horror film of 2024, most disturbing toy growing up, and booking tickets to Fyre...

“The Anonymous” has crowned its first-ever winner.

After 15 players went head-to-head while living side-by-side, the USA Network competition named its winner as Nina Twine, who takes home the grand prize of $100,000.

Twine is the daughter of “Survivor” legend Sandra Diaz-Twine, who recently appeared on “The Traitors” Season 2 on Peacock. Following in her mom’s footsteps, Twine first appeared on “Australian Survivor: Blood v. Water,” when she made the notorious move of voting out her own mother, and later returned to the Down Under iteration of the survival show as a hero in “Heroes v. Villains.”

Nina kept her mom’s identity under wraps as she entered “The Anonymous,” though her fellow contestants made it impossible for her to truly deny the connection, even if she tried.

Twine was among several contestants of “The Anonymous” already in the public eye prior to their casting. Her castmates included Xavier E. Prather, who...

Vince McMahon is the latest subject to get a buzzy Netflix deep dive. The six-episode docuseries “Mr. McMahon” will premiere globally on the streamer Sept. 25.

“People wondered who I really am, portray me like I’m a bad guy. But no one really knows me,” McMahon says during an interview in this first trailer.

The camera then cuts to talking head footage of WWE legends such as Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Hulk Hogan and John Cena discussing the former CEO of the wresting organization. The trailer then rapidly flips through several scandals, including steroid use in the WWE and a lawsuit against McMahon that accuses him of “countless depraved and humiliating acts,” a news anchor summarizes.

“What you expect, that’s exactly what you’re going to get,” Johnson says. Watch the full trailer below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwKm7WM_P8E

From The Ringer founder and...

Warning: Spoilers ahead for Futurama season 12, episode 5, "One is Silicon and the Other Gold."Futurama season 12, episode 5, "One is Silicon and the Other Gold," brilliantly parodies the shocking story of Fyre Festival, but the sitcom's take on the failed event comes very close to actually improving upon the real-world occurrence. The episode's take on Fyre Festival doesn't quite make the list of Futurama's darkest jokes, but the satirical commentary does highlight just how doomed to fail the event was. The Futurama cast does a terrific job of keeping it light, while the writers perfectly poke fun at what happened.

While Futurama will often parody other sci-fi movies and TV shows, it's not completely unheard of for the show to pay homage to other parts of popular culture and controversial news stories. Futurama wasn't on the air when Fyre Fest happened, so it would have been impossible for the sitcom...

The Anonymous mixes social strategy with reality TV competition, creating an exciting and chaotic series full of deception and anonymity. Andy King's involvement in the disastrous Fyre Festival led to public perception changes, influencing his decision to appear on The Anonymous. Andy's skills as an event planner and his ability to connect with others make him a strong player on The Anonymous, proving his resilience and dedication.

The Anonymous is bringing together some of the most complicated social gameplay reality TV has ever seen, and Andy King, famous for his involvement with the disastrous Fyre Festival, is excited to take on the competition. From the minds of Studio Lambert, The Anonymous season 1 is set to mix the concepts of other reality TV competition shows viewers know and love, creating a chaotic, exciting series full of social strategy. With the deception of The Traitors and the anonymity of The Circle,...

Its pretty interesting how sometimes two streamers will release similar documentaries around the same time. Take Netflixs Fyre and Hulus Fyre Fraud, for example. Both arrived in 2019 and looked into the wild circumstances surrounding the disastrous titular music festival. More recently, there was Netflixs Escaping Twin Flames, a heartbreaking story that was mirrored in Prime Videos Desperately Seeking Soulmate: Escaping Twin Flames Universe. Now, Netflix and Peacock are at the center of the same conversation but with two very different viewpoints. On August 14, the former celebrated the premiere of its latest docuseries, American Murder: Laci Peterson, and, on August 20, the latter will shed light on the other side with Face to Face with Scott Peterson, which has just dropped a fresh teaser today.

The MoviePass moment was an extraordinary one. Between 2017 and 2018, the company offered a service that granted subscribers admission to one theatrical movie per day for $9.95 per month. At the time, it felt too good to be true, because the business model seemed like it made no sense. And it didn’t – the service flamed out in spectacular fashion by 2019 after burning through hundreds of millions of dollars.

The story of MoviePass’ dramatic rise and fall is the subject of “MoviePass, MovieCrash,” a new documentary that premieres on HBO and Max on May 29.

HBO released a trailer for the documentary today, which promises a “Fyre Fraud”-style look at what went wrong. It’s a story of hubris, excess, and betrayal, and as a moviegoer, it will make you nostalgic for a moment in the relatively recent past that feels so long gone but was so fun while it was happening.

In “Hollywood Con Queen,” director Chris Smith chronicles one of Hollywood’s most audacious scams that involved an impostor who posed as top entertainment studio executives to swindle aspiring artists. Based on the original reporting of entertainment journalist Scott Johnson, and his book, “Hollywood Con Queen: The Hunt for an Evil Genius,” the three-part Apple TV+ docuseries features first-hand accounts and insights from Johnson, private investigator Nicole Kotsianas, the alleged con artist, Hargobind Tahilramani, and his victims.

In 2018, it was revealed that an imposter was posing as a variety of well-known female Hollywood executives and their assistants in a bid to lure victims out to Indonesia with the promise of work. Tahilramani became something of a media sensation when it emerged he had been impersonating women such as former Sony chief Amy Pascal, Marvel Studios executive VP Victoria Alonso and Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy, and NBCUniversal Studio Group chair and...

An Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, an investigative journalist, and a private investigator walk into a secret Hollywood scam and find a story stranger than any movie plot. Chris Smith, Scott Johnson, and Nicole Kotsianas dive deep on one of Tinsel Town’s biggest scams: the long-evasive “Con Queen,” who lured entertainment gig workers on alleged international assignments and instead sent them on “perverse psychological game(s) spanning the globe.” “Hollywood Con Queen,” an original three-part docuseries from Apple TV+, will premiere on Wednesday, May 8. You can watch Hollywood Con Queen with a 7-Day Free Trial of Apple TV+.

How to Watch ‘Hollywood Con Queen’ Premiere When: Wednesday, May 8, 2024 Where: Apple TV+ Stream: Watch with a 7-Day Free Trial of Apple TV+. 7-Day Free Trial$9.99+ / month apple.com About ‘Hollywood Con Queen’ Premiere

The latest from Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Chris Smith and Library Films and based on the original reporting of investigative...

Exclusive: Vice Media Group has announced a new creative structure for its global production business now dubbed Vice Studios Group, which will oversee five premium production entities: Pulse Films, UnTypical, Vice Studios LatAm, Vice Studios Canada and a news documentary unit. Vice Studios Group will be led by the newly elevated Jamie Hall in London and Danny Gabai in Los Angeles as Co-Presidents.

The new content-studio, which has a distribution catalogue of more than 1,000 hours, will work with global streamers, linear broadcasters and brands around the world to develop, finance and produce multi-genre, cutting edge content. It currently has more than 20 productions filming or in edit across the group, including scripted, non-fiction, news and music documentaries. Additionally, Gabai said that the group has “started production on a comedic but character-driven documentary about the 1994 World Cup with Jamie Crawford (Trainwreck: Woodstock ’99) attached to direct – one of the multiple projects we’re doing with Jamie.

Apple has unveiled the trailer for the explosive documentary series ‘Hollywood Con Queen,’ which explores the shocking story behind one of Hollywood’s biggest scams.

A mysterious figure dubbed the ‘Con Queen’ impersonates the industry’s most powerful women, luring unsuspecting victims to Indonesia with the promise of a life-changing career opportunity. The ‘Con Queen’s marks exhaust their personal finances in pursuit of a big break, while being exploited in a perverse psychological game spanning the globe. The scam eventually draws the attention of veteran investigative journalist Scott Johnson of The Hollywood Reporter, and dedicated private investigator Nicole Kotsianas, who set out to find the truth, only to discover a story more strange than they could have imagined.

The docu-series hails from Emmy-winner Chris Smith and Library Films, the team behind the pop-culture phenomenon ‘Tiger King,’ the acclaimed surfing docuseries ‘100 Foot Wave,’ ‘Fyre,’ ‘Bad Vegan,’ ‘Operation Varsity Blues’ and more.

They don’t call the scammer who fooled hundreds of entertainment gig workers out of their money, time, and dreams the “Hollywood Con Queen” for nothing. Filmmaker Chris Smith’s three-part docuseries starts streaming May 8 on Apple TV+ and aims to flesh out the staggering impact of an anonymous fraudster who preyed on hundreds of industry hopefuls from across the globe.

The criminal mastermind — whose identity you can Google but is the linchpin dramatic question in the forthcoming true crime project — posed as various major players from across development. Pretending to be everyone from Amy Pascal to Deborah Snyder to Kathleen Kennedy, the mysterious female voice dangled the promise of life-changing career opportunities in Southeast Asia before exploiting the unlucky creatives who actually tried to take them.

Based on the original reporting of “The Hollywood Reporter” journalist Scott Johnson and his book for Harper Collins (“Hollywood Con Queen: The Hunt...

Apple TV+ has announced its programming for the month of May, which includes the return of two comedies, the premieres of a drama and a sci-fi series, and a documentary. The service also offers feature films, as well as kids and family entertainment.

The Apple TV Plus May 2024 lineup includes Acapulco Season 3, The Big Cigar, Dark Matter, Hollywood Con Queen, and Trying Season 4.

Apple TV+ is available on the Apple TV app on over 1 billion screens, including iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Vision Pro, Mac, popular smart TVs from Samsung, LG, Sony, Vizio, Tcl, and others, Roku, and Amazon Fire TV devices, Chromecast with Google TV, PlayStation and Xbox gaming consoles, and at the Apple site.

For a limited time, customers who purchase and activate a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, or Mac can enjoy three months of Apple TV+ for free.

Apple TV Plus May 2024 Highlights

Available May 1

Acapulco...

Today, Apple TV+ announced a series order for the riveting new three-part documentary series Hollywood Con Queen from Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Chris Smith. It is set to debut globally on Apple TV+ on May 8, 2024.

Based on investigative journalist Scott Johnson’s original reporting and his book, Hollywood Con Queen: The Hunt for an Evil Genius, published by Harper Collins, the series explores the shocking story behind one of Hollywood’s biggest scams.

A mysterious figure dubbed the ‘Con Queen’ impersonates the industry’s most powerful women, luring unsuspecting victims to Indonesia with the promise of a life-changing career opportunity. The Con Queen’s marks exhaust their personal finances in pursuit of a big break while being exploited in a perverse psychological game spanning the globe.

The scam eventually drew the attention of veteran investigative journalist of The Hollywood Reporter and dedicated private investigator Nicole Kotsianas, formerly of K2 Integrity, who...

Exclusive: Sky has acquired UK rights to true-crime documentary series Inheritance: The Jersey Murders, which has been six years in the making.

The under-the-radar three-part series is set amidst the 1987 Great Storm on the island of Jersey, where Elizabeth and Nicholas Newall vanish. Suspicion falls on their sons, Roderick and Mark, when blood is found, leading to a murder investigation. Roderick evades the police but is eventually apprehended off the coast of Africa, while Mark is arrested in Europe. Legal complexities result in a secret deal: Roderick serves 12 years for double murder, while Mark serves 22 months and inherits the entire Newall fortune. More than three decades later, this three-part documentary uses 70 hours of unheard taped recordings between the brothers to reveal new insight and uncovers how Mark Newall went on to co-found a major e-commerce company.

The limited series was directed and produced by Eloise Singer at Singer Studios and...

Documentaries can be adapted into films to explore different perspectives and enhance the storytelling. Films have the responsibility to create a more dramatic and cleaner narrative based on true stories. Adapting documentaries into movies can provide a larger platform and reach wider audiences while delving deeper into the subject matter.

Though documentaries are already a cinematic experience, some are so well told that they lend themselves perfectly to being adapted into movies. When the subject matter is unbelievable, or the subjects' stories are too interesting to be just a single piece of media, filmmakers take on the difficult task of turning the documentary into a film. Documentaries are by no means always objective works, as the people behind the camera have put the story together in a specific way to influence the audience's perception of the narrative.

However, traditional movies uncover a different point-of-view and can extrapolate the inner truth...

There has only ever been one Devo — and there will likely never be another. The new wave band best known for their 1980 megahit “Whip It” was born in Akron, Ohio, in 1973, when two sets of brothers — Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh and Gerald and Bob Casale — met at Kent State University and decided to create an art collective.

The name came from the concept of “de-evolution,” a kind of reverse Darwinism that posited, tongue in cheek, that humankind was moving backwards. But then they bore witness to the infamous Kent State Massacre on May 4, 1970, in which Ohio National Guardsmen killed four unarmed student war protesters — pushing Devo into the realm of performances and protest art. Along the way, they created surrealist art videos to accompany their music, including 1976’s short film The Truth About De-Evolution, which became an underground phenomenon, drawing the attention of David Bowie and landing them a record deal at Warner.

Sting, Incubus, Devo, and My Morning Jacket will shake the sands of Redondo Beach, California’s waterfront, this spring at the fifth installment of the BeachLife Festival. Other performers include Seal, Dirty Heads, Local Natives, Santigold, Trey Anastasio, Fleet Foxes, Zz Top, and Courtney Barnett. Tickets for the three-day fest, which kicks off May 3, are available now.

The lineup spans a variety of genres, including reggae (Steel Pulse, Pepper), punk (performances by members of the Vandals, All, 7 Seconds), and mambo (Tito Puente Jr.) Additionally, the Samples, Surfer Blood, Chevy Metal,...

The mark of a good documentary or docuseries is when it makes the viewer’s jaw drop to the floor in shock and grab for the phone to text friends about it. That’s what has happened with Escaping Twin Flames, which has quickly risen up the Netflix charts and created tons of online chatter and buzz.

The true crime docuseries tells the story of Shaleia and Jeff Divine who run Twin Flames Universe (Tfu) where they purport to help members connect with their soulmates or “twin flames.” It’s dark, sinister, and frustrating, evoking emotions in viewers who can’t believe what the pair have done nor how members have fallen so deeply into the indoctrination. After watching the three episodes, there are similar docuseries to press play on.

Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath (2016-2019) <img alt="Leah Remini in Scientology of the Aftermath interviewing someone and looking disturbed." data-image-id="1741575" height="700" src="https://static0.cbrimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/leah-remini-scientology-of-the-aftermath.jpg" width="1400" />

Related 15 Best Documentaries Of All Time to Watch Documentaries inform viewers, while tugging at their heartstrings,...

If you expect the Netflix docuseries “Big Vape: The Rise and Fall of Juul” to be the ultimate takedown of controversial e-cigarettes, think again.

The four-part series, directed by R.J. Cutler and based on Time reporter Jamie Ducharme’s book “Big Vape: The Incendiary Rise of Juul,” examines all the mistakes Juul executives made, including marketing the e-cigarette to millennials. The series also suggests that the product might very well be a better option than conventional cigarettes.

Stanford graduate students and Juul founders Adam Bowen and James Monsee, who did not participate in the series, were on a smoke break when they had an “a-ha” moment. Could they create a nicotine product that was less harmful than cigarettes? Bowen and Monsee wanted to “erase combustible cigarettes from the face of the earth.” The result was Juul, an electronic cigarette startup meant to save lives that came under federal scrutiny for its own health risks.

Pack your water bottles, because a second Fyre Festival seems to be in the works. On Aug. 20, Billy McFarland, the organizer behind the original failed event, revealed that tickets for a second installment of the festival were on sale for $499 apiece in an Instagram video. He also said the event was scheduled for December 2024.

Just two days later, McFarland claimed that the festival had sold out entirely. However, event's website claims more tickets are "coming soon," though they'll cost between $799 and $7,999 each.

Not many details or specifics about the second Fyre Festival are available, and the website merely says that the festival will take place somewhere in "The Caribbean." Meanwhile, in 2022, the Bahamas Tourism Industry said it would "not endorse or approve any event" on the islands "associated with" McFarland, per NBC.

Speculation about a second Fyre Festival began to swirl when McFarland shared a series of cryptic tweets on April 9 teasing a follow-up.

Years after the disastrous 2017 Fyre Festival, Billy McFarland has announced that Fyre Festival II is in the works.

McFarland said in a video posted on social media Sunday that after speaking with “people as far away as the Middle East and South America” to host the festival, he ultimately decided that the festival would be “coming back to the Caribbean” with a target date at the end of 2024. Specific locations, dates and festival lineup have yet to be revealed.

“This is a big day,” he added in the clip. “It has been the absolute wildest journey to get here, and it really all started during a seventh-month stint in solitary confinement. I wrote out this 50-page plan of how it would take this overall interest and demand in Fyre and how it would take my ability to bring people from around the world together to make the impossible happen.

On Tuesday morning,...

The world’s most poorly planned, money-grabbing, disgusting music festival is back! No, not Woodstock ‘99, but the Fyre Festival, which is set to return next year. Just when you got the image of that cheese sandwich out of your head…

The brain cell behind the first Fyre Festival, Billy McFarland, announced the event in a YouTube video this week. “This is a big day because as of right now, Fyre Festival II tickets are officially on sale. It has been the absolute wildest journey to get here, and it really all started during a seventh-month stint in solitary confinement. I wrote out this 50-page plan of how it would take this overall interest and demand in Fyre and how it would take my ability to bring people from around the world together to make the impossible happen.”

The 2024 edition of Fyre Festival, like 2017’s event, will be held in the Caribbean,...

Unabashed pop groups with fervid teenage followings tend to get trivialized, at least in the media. They’re dismissed as being slick and calculated and superficial. But there’s a story in “Wham!,” the new Netflix documentary about the quintessential pop duo of the 1980s, that testifies to what a chancy and audacious artist George Michael was even back in his teen-idol days.

The year is 1983. Michael and Andrew Ridgeley, coming off their first album, “Fantastic”, have established Wham! as an effective lightweight pop machine, with its two young stars prancing around the stage in sexy sportswear. The time has come to record “Careless Whisper,” a song they’ve had in their back pocket for several years (we hear the super-early demo version of it that they recorded in 1981 in Ridgeley’s living room on a Teac 4-track Portastudio). Michael has become enough of a powerhouse to hook up with Jerry Wexler,...

It’s Sunday afternoon, and the sun is slowly coming out on New York City’s Orchard Street. Patches of the street are covered in soapy water and last night’s party detritus — cups, cigarettes, and ripped wristbands dot the sidewalks. Dogs pull their owners down the street, last night’s revelers clutch coffees and sandwiches like lifelines, and a few marathoners head home, wrapped in foil blankets. In fact, there are people everywhere — everywhere except 7th Street Burger, that is, where inside, Billy McFarland is sweating behind a grill,...

Billy McFarland has declared that Fyre Festival II, the follow-up to his fraudulent 2017 Bahamas-based event, is “finally happening,” though it’s unclear how long the controversial co-founder will leave potential concertgoers stranded without firm details.

McFarland made the announcement on Sunday evening, tweeting: “...

Fyre Festival 2 is reportedly in the works, six years after that disastrous event.

American con artist and convicted felon, Billy McFarland — who co-founded the ill-fated festival — took to Twitter on Monday to reveal the news.

He wrote, “ Fyre Festival II is finally happening. Tell me why you should be invited.”

Fyre Festival II is finally happening.

Tell me why you should be invited.

— Billy McFarland (@pyrtbilly) April 10, 2023

McFarland was released from prison in late March 2022 after serving over four years of a six-year sentence. He pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud in March 2018.

Read More: Fyre Festival Organizer Billy McFarland Breaks Silence From Jail: ‘What The F**k Was I Thinking?’

McFarland recently posted about owing people $26 million Usd after defrauding more than 100 investors in the disastrous 2017 festival.

I owe people $26m

Here's how I'm going to pay it back:

I spend half my time filming TV shows.

Bust out the energy domes and crack those whips: An upcoming authorized documentary will attempt to tell the story of art-rock weirdos Devo.

Titled simply Devo — a little unimaginative given the subject matter — the full-length feature will chart the Ohio band’s formation in the aftermath of the Kent State massacre and their art punk beginnings to their landmark 1978 LP Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! and mastery of the MTV medium as unlikely “Whip It!” hitmakers.

American Movie and Fyre documentarian Chris Smith will direct the film,...

The first-ever fully authorized Devo documentary is currently in production.

Produced by Vice Studios and Library Films in association with Mutato Entertainment, Devo is directed by Chris Smith (“Sr.”, American Movie, Fyre, Tiger King, 100 Foot Wave).

BMG, Freemantle Documentaries (Mrs. Americana), and Warner Music Group are all producers on the project.

In telling Devo’s story, the film will utilize “a mixture of archival footage, interviews from other characters in their orbit, and a range of storytelling techniques.”

Recently, Devo’s Gerald Casale discussed the origins of the band’s seminal synth-rock classic, “Whip It,” in an episode of The Story Behind the Song. You can revisit the episode below.

Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Pocket Casts | YouTube

Devo Documentary in the Works

Alex Young...

The first-ever fully authorized Devo documentary is currently in production.

Produced by Vice Studios and Library Films in association with Mutato Entertainment, Devo is directed by Chris Smith (“Sr.”, American Movie, Fyre, Tiger King, 100 Foot Wave).

BMG, Freemantle Documentaries (Mrs. Americana), and Warner Music Group are all producers on the project.

In telling Devo’s story, the film will utilize “a mixture of archival footage, interviews from other characters in their orbit, and a range of storytelling techniques.”

Recently, Devo’s Gerald Casale discussed the origins of the band’s seminal synth-rock classic, “Whip It,” in an episode of The Story Behind the Song. You can revisit the episode below.

Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Pocket Casts | YouTube

Devo Documentary in the Works

Alex Young...

Devo, the rock band best known for 1980 hit “Whip It,” is getting the documentary treatment.

The project marks the first authorized documentary about the band, which featured the classic lineup of Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh, Gerald and Bob Casales and Alan Myers.

Chris Smith, who directed Netflix’s Fyre, about the troubled Fyre Festival, and Tiger King, will helm the doc.

It comes from BMG, Fremantle Documentaries, and Warner Music Entertainment with Vice Studios and Library Films producing in association with Mutato Entertainment.

The untitled doc, which is currently in production, tells the story of the band that formed in Akron, Ohio in 1973, in the wake of the Kent State massacre.

It will feature a mix of archival footage and interviews from other characters in their orbit.

Producers include Anita Greenspan and Chris Holmes for Mutato Entertainment, exec produers are William Kennedy, Stuart Souter, and Kathy Rivkin Daum for BMG,...

The goal of most journalists who work in the film/TV space, I would assume, is to approach the subject matter of something they are going to review with a certain amount of objectivity. Maybe I'm just speaking for myself, but I digress. The point is, sometimes one is confronted by something so uniquely personal that it becomes difficult to dip into the well of objective thought at all. Such was the case with the upcoming documentary "Join or Die," which I had the great pleasure of seeing at this year's SXSW in Austin, Texas. Am I going to see more entertaining movies in 2023? You bet. Am I going to see a movie that makes me more empowered to get off my ass and do something for the betterment of my country? Not a chance.

"Join or Die" is, somewhat basically, a film about why you should join a club.

Just how polished does a career-spanning documentary about the anarchic underground filmmaker behind “Greaser’s Palace” and “Putney Swope” need to be? If you’ve seen any of Robert Downey’s films, the answer is obviously: not very. You might even say, the scrappier the better. So goes the thinking behind “Sr.,” a loose seemingly seat-of-your-pants portrait of the antiestablishment director (perhaps best known for siring “Iron Man” star Robert Downey Jr.) that sneaks up on ya, emotionally speaking, seeing as how it doubles as a kind of farewell exercise between the two generations (plus grandson Exton) in the months before Downey succumbed to Parkinson’s Disease.

“Oddly, it’s sort of what your family does. You guys make art of your lives,” analyzes Junior’s therapist fairly late in the process, not long before dad’s passing. There’s no question that’s what’s really going on in an...

Vulture Watch

ABC News brings us tales of duplicity, broken promises, and greed. Has the The Con TV show been cancelled or renewed for a third season? The television vulture is watching all the latest cancellation and renewal news, so this page is the place to track the status of The Con, season three. Bookmark it, or subscribe for the latest updates. Remember, the television vulture is watching your shows. Are you?  

What's This TV Show About?

Airing on the ABC television network, The Con TV series is narrated by Whoopi Goldberg and features podcaster Laci Mosely offering her expert insights. The show explores the troubling tales of people taken in by claims and promises that proved too good to be true. It delves into a myriad of topics, from identity fraud and misleading romance to the high-profile college admission scandal and Fyre...

Billy McFarland, the man behind the doomed Fyre Festival in 2017, was partially made a free man when he was released early from prison and transferred this week to a halfway house in Brooklyn, New York.

The 30-year-old still had another 14 months to serve on his six-year sentence for wire fraud after he duped investors out of 26 million over the disastrous festival that ended up serving pathetic cheese sandwiches to ticket holders while they were effectively stranded in The Bahamas.

One such investor is John Nemeth, who works as a director...

Exclusive: Chris Smith, the four-time Emmy nominee who directed and exec produced Netflix’s true-crime docuseries Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives., has signed with Cinetic Media for management, bringing his Library Films production shingle with him.

Smith’s series Bad Vegan recently registered as a #1 hit on Netflix. It tells the stranger-than-fiction story of Sarma Melngailis, a celebrated vegan restaurateur who found her life veering off the rails, after marrying a mysterious man who claimed he could make her dog immortal.

Smith is known for his ability to craft culturally relevant narratives, documentaries and series that explore the essence of human behavior, often in humorous ways. He also recently directed and produced Netflix’s Fyre: The Greatest Party that Never Happened and HBO’s 100 Foot Wave, and served as an exec producer on Netflix’s smash, Tiger King.

Smith’s first film, American Job, garnered him an Independent Spirit Award nomination,...

If you, like me, recently finished binging Netflix’s new docuseries sensation “Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives.” — with its pyramid scheme-esque layers of scams — you were perhaps left with a bad taste in your mouth.

Regardless of your interpretation of the narrative, carefully constructed by “Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened” director Chris Smith, the four-part series attempts to trace a steady line through a truly bizarre sequence of events that enraptured New York circles — and beyond — several years ago.

“Bad Vegan” centers on Sarma Melngailis, once a lauded entrepreneurial chef and restaurateur on the cutting-edge future of raw vegan food at the turn of the aughts. Her buzzy establishment Pure Food & Wine, located in the Gramercy Park neighborhood of Manhattan and co-founded in 2004, quickly became a hotspot for the likes of Owen Wilson, Alec Baldwin and Bill Clinton. Melngailis’ to-go health bar offshoot, One Lucky Duck, soon followed.

This article contains spoilers for Bad Vegan.

Despite usually wanting to present the objective truth, documentary filmmakers wield an enormous amount of power in shaping the perception of their chosen subjects. Documentarians are the arbiters of what footage does and does not make it into a documentary in the first place. Then, once that footage is incorporated, the filmmakers can always add subtle touches like music, subtitles, or further context to influence the audience in one way or another.

Still, even when documentarians have no preset agenda, sometimes audiences can interpret one bit of footage presented far differently than what the filmmakers intended. Such is the case with the latest buzzworthy Netflix docuseries Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives. Directed by Christ Smith (who also directed Netflix’s Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened) and produced by Ryann Fraser (who also produced Netflix’s Tiger King), this four-episode story chronicles...

Docuseries “Bad Vegan” debuted on Netflix’s Top 10 list of English-language TV series at No. 5, with 27 million hours of the show viewed in the first five days after its March 16 launch. On the film side, “The Adam Project” maintained its hold as the No. 1 movie for the second week in a row.

From Chris Smith, the executive producer of “Tiger King” and director of “Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened,” “Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives” is a four-part documentary series that explores how Sarma Melngailis, the celebrity restaurateur behind the glittering New York hotspot Pure Food and Wine, went from being the queen of vegan cuisine to being known as the “Vegan Fugitive.” Shortly after meeting a man named Shane Fox on Twitter in 2011, Melngailis begins draining her restaurant’s funds and funneling the money to Fox after he cons her into believing he could make her dreams — from...

Exclusive: The Amazing Spiderman, 500 Days of Summer and Disney’s Snow White director Marc Webb has been set to direct supernatural thriller Day Drinker.

Based around the bond between an enigmatic stranger and a bartender mourning the loss of her lover, the original story is written by Zach Dean (The Tomorrow War), who will also produce alongside Lit Entertainment Group’s Adam Kolbrenner (The Tomorrow War). 30West is financing and will executive-produce.

Set in coastal France, Portugal, and Spain, plot details are largely being kept under wraps but we’re told the story spans “love, friendship, and revenge”. The project could become a hot Cannes market prospect but that hasn’t been set yet.

30West’s upcoming slate includes Killers of the Flower Moon, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro (Apple), The Contractor, starring Chris Pine, Ben Foster and Kiefer Sutherland, and Ruben Östlund’s...

Netflix has once again found a criminal case whose oddity, extremity, and seeming delusion make for an interesting story. “Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives” — the director of which, Chris Smith, executive produced “Tiger King” and helmed “Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened,” both previously on the streamer — certainly has that to its credit. Sarma Melngailis, a celebrated raw-food chef with a burgeoning restaurant under her control, fell from a perch atop the New York culinary establishment after draining her restaurant’s funds to pay her husband Anthony Strangis, eventually going on the lam with him before being discovered in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, after the couple ordered — irony alert — a Domino’s pizza.

From the enigma of what motivates us to a rise-and-fall narrative to — yes — the pleasures of schadenfreude, the materials for a fascinating tale are here. And Melngailis’ journey, culminating in her arrest for fraud, certainly bears the fascination of tragedy.