STAR TREK: DISCOVERY
The End of an Era
3 BODY PROBLEM
High Concept Sci-Fi from the Game of Thrones Team
THE IDEA OF YOU FALLOUT MIDNIGHTERS
BEHIND THE SCENES OF EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS BEHIND THE SCENES OF
MUSIC FESTIVAL PREVIEW RYAN
Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, and director David Leitch team up to bring us a new kind of action spectacle about filmmaking. PG. 18
It’s time to say goodbye to the USS Discovery. Sonequa Martin-Green and Alex Kurtzman talk us through the final season. PG. 38
The hit video game is making the jump to live-action. But don’t expect a straight adaptation. This Amazon series is a take you haven’t seen before. PG. 10
From the music-as-activism of Crys Matthews to the return of Good Looks after a very tough couple of years to Bad Bad Hat’s highly anticipated new album, we take you on a tour of some of the most exciting acts at this year’s music festival. PG. 44
Artists from all over gather in Austin to share their latest and greatest from a mix of genres. Here are our recommendations to get you started. PG. 66
This remake of the beloved ’80s action movie has big boots to fill. Can lightning strike twice? That’s Jake Gyllenhaal’s plan. PG. 28
Director Michael Showalter gives Anne Hathaway her meet cute moment... at Coachella. PG. 26
Love, lust, revenge, and reincarnation are at the center of Alice Lowe’s thoughtful new sci-fi film. PG. 30
A woman uncovers what really happened to her late sister in this supernatural thriller. PG. 34
A look at who’s who in Netflix’s amibitious new sci-fi series from the creators behind Game of Thrones. PG. 42
As the tech and gaming scenes continue to grow at SXSW, this year’s program takes us to the cutting edge of both industries, exploring hot topics such as AI and gaming’s role in society. PG. 56
It’s so good to be back at South by Southwest! This festival isn’t just a celebration of all things music, TV, gaming, and tech but also the art of filmmaking. That’s why The Fall Guy, David Leitch’s new action movie about the stuntmen who make the blockbuster pictures we love possible, adorns this year’s cover. We not only caught up with the John Wick director but also stars Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt about the film’s death-defying stunts and the Hollywood love story that ties all of the action together. Oh, and Gosling tells a great story about a very good dog. Elsewhere in the issue, we visit the wasteland to get our first look at Amazon’s new Fallout series and take a trip to the final frontier to learn what lies ahead for the Star Trek franchise. We also have exclusives with the cast of Netflix’s 3 Body Problem, three of the most exciting musical acts at the festival, and the minds behind an outrageous new doc. Enjoy the issue!
SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST MIGHT NOT ACTUALLY be the first festival of the year but for Den of Geek, it has always been the one that kicks everything off. We’ve been covering the event since 2016, established our interview studio in 2018, and now in 2024, we are coming out in force and possibly with spurs on. Our latest issue celebrates both a festival that continues to make inspired programming choices and its centerpiece film, The Fall Guy, which is a love letter to the filmmaking process itself. For our cover feature, we spoke to Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt as well as director David Leitch and his producing partner Kelly McCormick. Let this magazine be your guide to the perfect SXSW experience. Get ready for Midnighters via our exclusive interview with Oddity director Damian McCarthy. Prepare for Star Trek’s triumphant SXSW debut with the cast of Star Trek: Discovery’s final season. Hell, use a page as a barbecue napkin if you need to. Elsewhere the issue is packed with profiles, previews, and in-depth looks at some of the incredible emerging artists and stacked showcase lineups. It’s enough to get lost in for days. Enjoy the issue!
(1) David Dastmalchian promoting his retro horror Late Night with the Devil. (2) Ayo Edebiri was a standout in the comedy Bottoms (3) Terry Crews reprising his role as President Camacho from Idiocracy. (4) Lisa Steen (director), Karen Gillan, and Anna Greenfield (writer) support their comedy Late Bloomers (5) Sophia Lillis with the Den of Geek x Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Amongst Thieves special edition magazine. (6) Regé-Jean Page strikes a pose before the Dungeons & Dragons premiere.
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Showrunners Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner open the vault to tell us what to expect
“I KNOW THAT I’VE LIVED A relatively comfortable life,” says Ella Purnell’s Lucy in the trailer for Amazon Studios’ new Fallout series. She’s about to step out of the underground vault she’s called home her entire life and into the savage Los Angeles wasteland 219 years after a nuclear holocaust turned the world to rubble. It’s the start of a story that longtime fans of the post-apocalyptic role-playing games know well, but this is the first time it will open a TV series.
According to Fallout showrunners Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner, it’s the only way their adaptation of this most revered of video game franchises could begin. After all, it’s the moment that kicks off most of the games.
“We always knew we wanted to pay proper homage to the games by having a Vault Dweller going to the surface for the first time,” Robertson-Dworet tells Den of Geek when we catch up with the showrunners ahead of SXSW 2024, where the series has an activation. “Lucy comes from this very privileged, civilized vault. It’s a place that prides itself on how peaceful, civilized, and kind everyone is to each other.”
Lucy isn’t just leaving her cozy existence and venturing into a hyperviolent hellscape ruled by bloodthirsty raiders, grotesque mutant creatures, power armor-wearing super soldiers,
and giant killer bugs because she’s bored. In the Fallout franchise, there’s usually an inciting incident that forces the protagonist to brave the dangers beyond their vault.
“She goes to the surface to find someone she loves and encounters moral dilemmas she’s never had to face,” Robertson-Dworet explains. If we had to guess, that loved one could be her father Hank (Kyle MacLachlan), who is also the overseer of their vault, or her brother, played by Moisés Arias.
Lucy hails from Vault 33, one of the many subterranean fallout shelters constructed across America to protect select citizens from an impending nuclear war. When the bombs begin to drop in the year 2077, these chosen survivors and their descendants are sealed inside for centuries until it’s safe to reclaim the surface. But as Lucy quickly discovers once she’s outside, the wasteland has long been settled, not by other Vault Dwellers, as Lucy’s blue jumpsuitwearing, well-coiffed people are known as—but Wastelanders, those forced to live off scraps on the radioactive lands beyond the vaults.
Carving out a brutal existence that, more often than not, involves killing, stealing, and cheating to survive, these Wastelanders have built small Old West-style shanty towns out of the ruins of the last world. Unlike Lucy’s
neighborly Vault Dwellers, these folks are heavily armed and rarely friendly.
According to the showrunners, one of the key storylines of the first season is how interacting with the people unfortunate enough to live on the surface challenges Lucy’s beliefs and moral compass. “One thing we wanted to deal with in the show is how
morality can be a privilege. If you have all your needs met, it’s incredibly easy to be a good person. If you give to charity or buy an electric car, you have the extra cash lying around for that,” Robertson-Dworet says. “We wanted to examine and dramatize how Lucy’s going to find it harder and harder to be a good person when she’s on the
surface, and she feels desperation for the first time.”
Purnell’s naive adventurer isn’t the only main character of this piece, though. In fact, the show is a threehander, also starring Walton Goggins as a corpse-like bounty hunter known only as the Ghoul, and Aaron Moten as Maximus, an ambitious squire who dreams of joining the elite ranks of the Brotherhood of Steel, the aforementioned super soldiers who rose from the ashes of the U.S. military. As co-creator Jonathan Nolan has teased previously, the thing that ties these three characters together is “an artifact that has the potential to radically change the power dynamic in this world.”
Developed by the Westworld team of Nolan and Lisa Joy, Amazon’s Fallout isn’t a re-telling of any one game in the series but, in fact, a live-action continuation of the story set in the same timeline. The show follows its
own path but without ignoring what’s come before from Bethesda Game Studios, the developer that has worked on the series since 2004, taking over from original creators Interplay Entertainment.
“It’s more creatively interesting to be able to build our own story in the world that they’ve carved out for us,” Wagner says. “That’s historically been the trajectory of Fallout. It has traded hands many times, with different creative teams taking it over. It’s kept it fresh, kept it relevant. We chose to just vainly look at this as our Fallout.”
It’s no secret that Fallout is a game that has long been considered unadaptable, particularly because of the fluid nature of its RPG storytelling, which reacts to and morphs around the decisions players make throughout the journey. According to the two showrunners, it would have been a fool’s errand to try to re-tell a story that no two players experience the
same way. “It was almost liberating that it would be impossible to adapt any one of the games faithfully because these are open-world games. Your experience playing the game would have been different than mine. You would have made different choices and played in a different order,” Robertson-Dworet explains. “If we tried to do it faithfully, half the gamers would have been like, ‘Wait, this is not the order that I remember.’”
As you would expect, creating an original story in this universe involved plenty of input from Bethesda and the studio’s executive producer, Todd Howard, who is well-known in the industry as one of the greatest game devs ever. Robertson-Dworet and Wagner describe Howard as a great collaborator, a “‘yes, and…’ sort of person” who was “very receptive” to their ideas, especially when they pitched things the games have never explored about the horrors of the breakdown of society.
“When we delivered the pilot to Bethesda just to read, Todd’s first comment was, ‘You know, we never really tackled the incest thing. That’s a good idea,’” Wagner says. “That obviously could’ve gone the other way. But he was just like, ‘Hats off, guys.’”
Longtime fans know that Fallout has tackled virtually every human depravity one can think of, including ritualistic murder and cannibalism, so coming up with a new way to make people shudder in their seats is quite the accomplishment. “That was what
made him really proud to be working with us,” Robertson-Dworet adds.
But while the goal was to make a show that wasn’t just a retread of the games, the team also wanted the live-action world to feel recognizable to Fallout fans who’ve adventured in the wasteland for decades.
“We found a nice balance of not trying to pave over what happened in the games, but also build new stuff,” Wagner says. “There’s stuff in there
for the gamers, and we hope it also makes sense for those who couldn’t get past the buttons.”
There are plenty of nods to the games to sink your teeth into just in the show’s trailer, including the retrofuturistic 1950s aesthetic that adorns parts of the world, the bulky Pip-Boy computer Lucy wears on her arm, and the happy-go-lucky Vault Boy symbol emblazoned all over the Vault Dweller gear. Then there’s the most important element of all: the hilarious shifts in tone where one minute you’re watching the most stomach-churningly violent scene of all time, and the next you’re (in the showrunners’ words) “popping down to the vault [to] do something incredibly banal and quotidian” like it’s a sitcom.
“To me, the tone is what’s sacred and special about Fallout specifically,” Robertson-Dworet explains. “It’s a post-apocalyptic series with tons of crazy violence and action, and moral dilemmas that are delicious, but also a really absurdist sense of humor. Not that many games are funny the way Fallout is. That was something we were very eager to protect with every decision we made.”
Fallout will premiere on Prime Video on April 12.
When that happens for comic shop or bookstore employees and owners, Binc is a phone call away.
The Book Industry Charitable Foundation (Binc) is the only nonprofit in the country dedicated to supporting bookstore and comic shop owners and employees through life’s unexpected emergencies like ER visits, eviction, cancer diagnosis, flooding, death in the family, and weather-related disasters. Support bookstores, comic shops and the people who work there by supporting Binc.
Find out more at bincfoundation.org.
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1
Jerrod Carmichael’s first name is Rothaniel. But you already knew that if you watched his Emmy-winning 2022 HBO special of the same name. Filmed during an intimate engagement at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York, Rothaniel delves into the comic’s upbringing as a closeted gay child in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
2 Since moving to Los Angeles at the age of 20, Carmichael has made a name for himself in the stand-up comedy scene. In addition to Rothaniel, the comic has released acclaimed specials Love at the Store and 8, and directed Drew Michael: Drew Michael. He has cited George Carlin, Richard Pryor, and Sinbad as early influences.
4 In 2023, Carmichael appeared in the Yorgos Lanthimos film Poor Things. He plays the cynical philosopher Harry Astley, who Emma Stone’s Bella meets on a boat. Earlier that same year, he hosted the 2023 Golden Globes.
5 Carmichael’s first dalliance with TV came in the form of the NBC sitcom The Carmichael Show, which ran for three seasons and 32 episodes. Now, he’s getting back in the game with HBO’s jerrod carmichael reality show about his “tumultuous quest for love, sex, and truth.” It’s playing SXSW.
3 Carmichael made his feature directorial debut with 2021’s the Count of Three starred in alongside Christopher Abbott. The black comedy follows two friends as they attempt to live up to the terms of their suicide pact.
I PRINTED OUT PICTURES OF THE SQUIRREL AND WOULD LITERALLY TAPE THEM ALL OVER MY WALL. MY WIFE WASN’T TOO HAPPY JUST STARING AT THOSE PHOTOS FOR A LONG TIME!”
Ke Huy Quan on preparing for Everything Everywhere All at Once
“I always felt like, and I still feel like, I’ve been invited to the party but I’m the new kid, even though I’m 60 now. I’ll never get to be in that group, really, because I didn’t come up with them.”
“I’LL PUT MY FOOT UP IN THE ASS OF ANYBODY WHO IS F*CKING WITH AMERICA”
“IT’S GREAT TO BE IN A FESTIVAL, BUT IT DOESN’T MAKE OR BREAK YOU. IT’S IMPORTANT TO MAKE THINGS YOU LOVE AND FIND WAYS TO GET THEM TO PEOPLE.”
— Robert Schwartzman, director of Hung Up on a Dream: The Zombies Documentary
“We don’t always know how vulnerable we are. It’s one of the faults of being a human being.”
— Lily Gladstone on her character in The Unknown Country
“Every time I come to South By, there’s a new kind of barbecue in town that I didn’t get to investigate the year before. I’m not here for tech and The Daily Show. I’m here for food. I’m a Southerner you think I care about electronics? I care about barbecue.”
— Roy Wood Jr.
Includes 4 bonus retellings of classic fairytales!
The hit WEBTOON series is now in print –bring home the first three volumes today!
David Leitch redefined the action movie with John Wick. Now he’s shaking it up again with romantic stuntfest The Fall Guy.BY ROSIE KNIGHT
The Fall Guy wasn’t supposed to be a romance. Or at least it didn’t start out that way. But when Ryan Gosling came on board to collaborate on the script, the shape of the wildly ambitious action film changed. Director David Leitch (the man behind such action extravaganzas as John Wick, Deadpool 2, and Bullet Train) was reminded of what his cinematographer Jonathan Sela would always say: “I want to do a sweeping romance. All we do is punch people in the face. Stop punching and start kissing!” That was ringing in Leitch’s head when Gosling came up with a revolutionary idea. “He said, ‘What if we lean into the love story?’” Leitch recalls. “‘Let's just go down that road in the outline and experiment with it.’ We started to lean into it more, and we started to feel that it felt so much more original.”
"We call it a lovebomb," David Leitch’s producing partner, Kelly McCormick, laughs.
As Gosling tells Den of Geek, it was a choice that felt natural for the film.
“It’s such a love letter to stunts, a love letter to action, a love letter to filmmaking! It’s a love letter to the crew. And that love is at the heart of it. So we felt that it had to be that way from a story perspective as well.”
Playing The Fall Guy’s leading man is no easy feat. Gosling stars as Colt Seavers, a trusty, unseen stuntman who must use all his talents to solve the mysterious disappearance of the leading man of his ex-girlfriend’s directorial debut. For Gosling, the film was a chance to share his love
of cinema and of making movies, which was a central force for making the love story at the heart of the film so prominent.
“It’s such a romantic endeavor, just to make a film in general. And that romance is at the core of all of it,” Gosling gushes. “Every time we reconnected to the love story, it just felt like it kept energizing the movie as it went forward.”
Reimagining the classic ’80s TV series about Lee Majors’ stuntman turned bounty hunter was something
of a dream for Leitch, himself a stunt coordinator turned blockbuster director.
“As stunt people who grew up in the ’80s, we watched it religiously on Fridays.” It was also a chance for Leitch to create a love letter to the blue-collar stuntpeople who get these films made. “They’re the people who really create these action sequences and bring them to life,” Leitch says. “The script says, ‘and they conquered Rome,’ then you see a hundred stunt people choreograph a battle scene. There’s so much that stunt performers do in the creative process—I wanted to tell that story.”
It wasn’t just the stunt aspect of the show that made its impact on a young Leitch, but also the wish fulfillment of the Hollywood insider. The series featured industry cameos and gave viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the business, which a young Leitch was enthusiastic about. “While on these wacky adventures, Colt would use other departments like costume, makeup, and props,” Leitch recalls. “So it didn't just get you excited about stunts; it started to get you excited about moviemaking.” That was something the team wanted to build into the world of The Fall Guy, and thanks to their film-withina-film framework, they achieved that balance.
Along with being an action, comedy, and romance, The Fall Guy is also a movie about the magic of making a film. Just like The Artist, Be Kind Rewind, Adaptation., and many more before it, The Fall Guy takes us behind the curtain as we follow the crew on their quest to make a sci-fi epic. But the difference here is The Fall Guy wants us to feel like part of the below-the-line crew.
Who’s making that fictional film? That would be Jodie Moreno, Colt’s
ex-girlfriend and a debut director who’s helming the special effects extravaganza known as Metalstorm. As fans of the original will know, in the TV series, Jodie was the hair and makeup artist, but it was McCormick who decided there was more to be explored by reimagining her as a director. Played by Emily Blunt, Jodie is a firecracker who’s also relatably terrified, exhausted, and stressed about her first big helming gig, and that’s before her ex shows up.
“I didn’t want her to be severe and tough and together,” Blunt says. “It’s okay for her to feel like she’s in way over her head. It’s okay that she’s white-knuckling it. And then, when Colt shows up, the thread breaks. I like that she’s just as messy and eccentric as the rest of them. We really worked hard on building those colors, so she wasn’t just some presupposed idea of what a female director should be.”
Like Gosling, Blunt was enchanted by the chance to make a love letter to making movies, which she has a deep passion for. “I love the system —obviously—of making films,” she laughs. “I think there’s a curiosity about how it’s done. And this is an opportunity for us to romanticize it and make a spectacle of it but also to show the reality and grind of what it looks like when you’re making movies. The chaos, how everyone is held together with duct tape by the end of the movie. You get to see all those wonderful little nuances that ground it and romanticize it all the more at the same time.”
“So much of filmmaking is almost like what we’re doing right now,”
Gosling says, referring to our interview. “It’s two people trying to have a conversation with all this chaos around them. At any given moment, there are people trying to have a conversation, whether it’s at craft services or on set, or it’s base camp, or it’s in front of the camera or behind the camera, and it’s just chaos around them. So it all had to center around that idea.”
Metalstorm is a big-budget special effects-filled romp that follows a cosmic cowboy, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Tom Ryder, who falls in love with an intergalactic alien brought to life by Teresa Palmer. It’s an epic space opera that could make or break Jodie’s career, but Leitch uses it as a romantic reflection of the journey at the heart
of The Fall Guy, something Gosling feels rings particularly true about filmmaking. “When you make a movie, the movie starts to mirror your life, and your life starts to mirror the movie. It’s very strange,” he says.
“It happens in every department, whether you’re in costumes or special effects, or makeup, or hair, or the camera department. Everyone sees the movie through the lens of their part in it,” the actor continues. “So you’re trying to relate your life to the movie and the movie to your life so that it feels authentic. What I love so much about this is the way we have their relationship mirroring the story and the story mirroring what’s going on in their life. It’s very special. I’m sure it happens in a lot of endeavors, but I love that about filmmaking. It’s a hard thing to capture, and I think the movie does that.”
Just like the jet-setting hero in the original television series, The Fall Guy
begins in L.A. before throwing its cast into an international adventure as they head to Sydney to shoot Metalstorm. Weaving in their own experiences and realities about filmmaking was key to the entire creative team, so even the film’s choice to film in Sydney was a meta in-joke, as it’s known as a more affordable location to shoot.
“We shot Sydney for a couple of reasons,” McCormick explains. “Definitely the incentives, but also because no one ever shoots Sydney for Sydney at that scale,” meaning the city is usually used as a stand-in for another location rather than as the setting for a big picture.
It was also an opportunity for the creative team to pay homage to the city and its filmmaking community after a rough period during COVID. “It was almost like an insider thing, but then it turned out to be this beautiful love letter to Australia as well,” McCormick says. “They really opened their arms to us. We got to shoot the Harbour Bridge; we had a proper crew from Sydney, who had never gotten to shoot the Harbour
Bridge. And they opened the Opera House for us for multiple days.”
The Fall Guy’s daring and delightful sequence on the steps of the Sydney Opera House takes place as Jodie aims to film an epic one-shot, with Colt standing in for Tom at the center of a brutal fight. It’s romantic, bombastic, and brilliant, acting as a midpoint crescendo for the film.
Just thinking about the sequence moves Blunt, too, taking her back to shooting the huge moment. “It’s giving me goosebumps talking about it because that scene is everything; it’s the impossible shot. And yet, people do it. They do it. Somehow, it just happens in the end.”
It reminded Blunt of another “impossible shot” while filming A Quiet Place Part II. Inspired by Children of Men, director (and Blunt’s husband) John Krasinski decided to shoot a car chase and crash as a one-shot but was told over and over it couldn’t be done. “He said, ‘No, I promise you it can.’” Blunt recalls. The eventual solution was to drill a hole in the ceiling of the car where the camera then went through. “They
rehearsed it for two weeks, and he was able to do it. It’s like a million things have to come together to make something impossible happen.” For Blunt, The Fall Guy’s Sydney Opera House battle captures that unique feeling perfectly.
“That’s maybe what I love most about that scene. It’s the insular joy you feel with your cast. That’s really difficult for anyone else to get in on. It’s an insular world. It’s so intense. You have these very accelerated friendships with people, very exciting relationships. It’s the secret language and secret world, and I think we were able to capture all of that.”
As the title might hint, this isn’t just a film about making movies and falling in love; it’s about a guy falling off things. The Fall Guy is a look at the unseen heroes behind your favorite films, featuring unbelievable practical stunts and a commitment to in-camera work that feels almost like a lost art. “We set out to do old-school practical stunts that pay homage to some really classic gags like the high
fall, the cannon roll, the big car jump. Things now that you might do in visual effects or augment with visual effects, we decided to do it practically because this is a movie about stunt people,” Leitch explains.
That meant bringing in some of the best of the best in the world of stunts. The legendary Troy Brown— whose work has been seen in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Iron Man 2, the Fast & Furious franchise, Preacher, and Godzilla to mention just a few—executes the high fall, and Marvel Studios stalwart Ben Jenkin gets set on fire many, many times. So, was there a stunt that felt like it could be impossible to bring to life?
“Every single one of those bigger stunts, you were racing within the bounds of safety like we always do, wondering if you’re gonna be able to pull it off. One in particular?” Leitch ponders. “No, it was a lot!”
It was a journey back to Leitch’s practical roots, when there was less of a reliance on CG and more of a dedication to practical effects. That meant having a lead actor who was willing to take his own role to the next level, including a 12-story drop from the top of a building. “Ryan on the descender is real,” McCormick shares. “And that’s really a rigger’s
dream to get an actor on a rig that high. That Ryan trusted everyone to do that himself and had fun doing it was pretty special for the whole team to be honest. And what you can feel in the movie is how much morale-building that actually does when you’re risking it all and making these stunt peoples’ dreams come true. To do these really big stunts and really go for it, that’s what they got into it for, so that energy infuses the whole project.”
So, how was that experience for Gosling?
“Terrifying!” he shudders. “I had developed a fear of heights before this film. I knew it was coming. I mean, it’s called The Fall Guy; I knew he was going to take a fall. He’s not falling off his chair!”
That huge stunt was made possible by not only the incredible work of the stunt team on set, but also the collaborative spirit at the heart of The Fall Guy.
“David and I worked so closely on this and on the script,” Gosling says. “He got a hotel room by my house, and we spent a week holed up in there, basically personalizing the script. We’ve both been at this for a while now from different ends of the business. So we were trying to make sure that just every nuance of the movie, every character, every dynamic or story—not necessarily based on anyone specific—was an amalgamation of all of these experiences that we’ve had and people we’ve met. We tried to make sure that it felt authentic in that way, not just how it literally is but how it feels and how it’s felt to be making movies all these years.”
All that preparation meant that Gosling knew the stunt was coming, but it didn’t make it any easier. “When you get there, it’s completely
different. I would’ve been happy to be the first actor to say, ‘I did none of my own stunts,’” the actor laughs. “If it’s a celebration of stunt performers, let them do their thing. But with a former stunt performer director, it was never gonna go down that way. It felt very important that I do a couple of them, and I completely got why."
That unbelievable stunt opens the movie and establishes the character of Colt Seavers, which was a challenge for Gosling, who was juggling his own fears alongside his performance. “There’s a five-minute scene that leads up to this 12-story drop. It’s all part of this long one-shot. Everything had to go right,” Gosling recalls. “But also in the back of my mind is the knowledge that the end of the scene was jumping 12 stories off this building, trying to act like a
guy for whom this is just another day at the office, but for me, it’s facing a major fear. It’s funny to me when I watch it because I see the most scared guy in the world trying to act like the coolest guy ever. It’s partly why I put on sunglasses right before because I knew you could see the fear in my eyes.”
Just watching it was scary enough for his co-star Blunt, who was in awe of his courage.
“I was very scared for him,” Blunt says. “And he was so brave to do it because I’m not great with heights,
especially not now. I just thought it was unbelievable watching him do that. I mean, you could have heard a pin drop; everyone was just staring up at him. Then everyone is cheering for him at the end. So deserving of it. I don’t know if I would have done it."
One of the best running gags in the movie shows that Gosling really can
have winning chemistry with anyone, even a Belgian stunt dog named Jean-Claude. The two are brought together as Colt tries to find Metalstorm’s missing leading man and adds another layer of charm and hilarity to the film. But as Gosling explains, the story behind Jean Claude’s addition to the film is a moving and personal one. “Eva [Mendes, Gosling’s wife] had a dog who’s passed now named Hugo, and he was from Belgium," Gosling says. “He was an attack dog, and all of his commands were in French; he was
such a beautiful little soldier. So that was an homage to him, who was one of the best dogs I ever, ever knew.”
The canine character also gave the film a chance to pay respect to animal actors, an often overlooked part of cinema. During the 2024 Oscar Luncheon, Gosling met a legendary new addition to the tradition, Anatomy of a Fall’s Messi, who gave the actor quite a fright. “I walked in, and he was just laying there, and they were performing CPR on him. And I was so disturbed. I said, ‘What's going on?’ And they said, ‘He choked on a bone.’ I was upset that everyone was so relaxed, and he was just staring at me with these crystal blue eyes. So I went in to make a move, and someone gave him a command, and he jumped up and almost took a bow!” When Den of Geek points out Messi is another dog who likely took commands in French, Gosling laughs, “Yes! He was a bon garçon!”
He concludes: “That’s a whole other side of the business; I’m so glad that we had an opportunity to work that into the film, as it’s such a fun part of our business.”
As for moments that Gosling and Blunt think fans should be looking forward to when The Fall Guy hits theaters, “This movie is filled with them. It’s full of surprises,” Gosling teases. For Blunt, though, it’s all about those wild stunts and how the third act plays out: “All the showdowns, all the interweaving narratives coming together to converge at some crazy showstopper. I’m excited to see it with an audience. And I feel like South By Southwest is the perfect place.”
The Fall Guy has its world premiere at SXSW on March 12, and hits theaters on May 3.
The Big Sick director Michael Showalter and Anne Hathaway bring rom-com The Idea of You to SXSW, about the world’s greatest pop star and the mother of his biggest fan.
BY ROSIE FLETCHER AND DAVID CROWSolène (Anne Hathaway) steps out with megafamous boyband star Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine).
There are meet cutes, and there are meet cutes. And then there is the ballad of Solène Marchand and Hayes Campbell: the forty-something single mother chaperoning her daughter at this year’s Coachella and the boy band superstar who’s headlining the show. Such are the twists and quirks of the heart, as well as The Idea of You, a beloved romance novel by Robinne Lee turned into one of the buzziest new comedies at this year’s fest.
Arriving with no less than Anne Hathaway as Solène–an actor who is no stranger to romantic comedies–and Red, White & Royal Blue’s Nicholas Galitzine as the pop star, The Idea of You might just be South By royalty, with director Michael Showalter previously bringing The Big Sick to Austin in 2017. In our chat with the director, Showalter compares his latest effort to Notting Hill and the cult of Harry Styles fandom.
Were you a fan of Robinne Lee’s novel before this project came along?
It came to me as a script. So I became familiar with the novel after I already knew about the movie project. But as a fan of romantic comedy, I’m always looking for a romantic equation that feels like something that I haven’t seen before, a new area to explore. So I loved the idea that, in this moment, we’re all intrigued with these various, different pop stars, both male and female, and their various, different love lives. So the idea of this somewhat older, divorced mom finding herself entangled with the biggest lead singer of the biggest boy band on the planet just felt like a really fun world to explore in terms of the genre.
Some folks have speculated that the novel’s pop star is inspired by Harry Styles. Did you get a sense of that?
You’d have to ask Robinne Lee. I wouldn’t want to speak for her. But I think, for myself, there’s a lot of interest in Harry Styles. He certainly bears some similarities with Harry Styles. He’s British and not what you would expect him to be. He reveals sides of himself that are refreshing. And I think that’s what seems appealing about Harry Styles; he’s breaking some expectations. So I feel like there are definitely some similarities there… but it’s sort of an amalgam of everything.
Styles is such an interesting one, particularly for a British audience,
because he came up through a reality TV show and was this ordinary Brit kid who suddenly became this incredible megastar. And that’s what happens in the movie. What’s interesting about [Galitzine’s] character is that. He has a line in the movie where he says, “On the same day I auditioned to be in the boy band, I also auditioned to play Tiny Tim in a local production of A Christmas Carol.” And he says, “If I’d gotten the play, I would’ve done it, and someone else would’ve been me in the band. Who would I be now?”
Even though he is this huge, giant pop star, like you said, part of what makes him a vulnerable character is that there’s a little part of him that knows that it sort of happened in this strange way, and he questions on some level, “Am I a real artist?” … One Direction was going to happen with or without Harry Styles, and that’s something interesting to think about.
It’s interesting that it is about an older woman and a younger man because, largely speaking, we don’t see that in films very often. I like making movies that are
entertaining and commercial, but that also say something about our society in some small way. There’s a double standard, and we see it where older men date younger women and get a high five for it. But there’s some skepticism when it’s an older woman and a younger man. It’s treated with skepticism or ridicule, calling them cougars. It’s a real double standard.
The internet [in the movie] and the social media of fans—everybody has a very strong opinion about it. There are forces outside the relationship that are trying to break them up, essentially. Almost acting like she’s Yoko Ono. Is she going to break up the band? So that’s part of the story—to ask why we have such a strong reaction when the roles are reversed in this situation.
You mentioned Notting Hill, and it certainly sounds like a twist on similar themes. It’s wish fulfillment, isn't it?
Yes, and it is in this too. This is also wish fulfillment. Like, older women lust after Harry Styles. There is a uniquely strong sort of relationship that I feel an older female audience has with Harry Styles. There’s a feeling that he sees their beauty, and he’s attracted to older women basically [laughs]. He sees them as sexual beings, so there’s reciprocity there. So there is wish fulfillment; there is a sense of what it would be like if this hot young guy who’s a major star, just like in Notting Hill, fell into your life?
What is different is that in Notting Hill, Hugh Grant is Julia Roberts’ number one fan. In our movie, she doesn’t even recognize him when they first meet. So the audience knows who he is, but she doesn’t. And that's part of what he likes about her, actually. He’s so used to being treated a certain way just because everybody knows who he is, and here’s somebody who actually doesn’t know or particularly even care that he’s such a big star. She’s not just gonna fall into bed with him because he’s Hayes Campbell.
The Idea of You is the closing night film at SXSW, screening on March 16. It opens in theaters on May 2.
Like her fellow Euphoria alumnus Hunter Schafer (see page 32), Sydney Sweeney is bringing horror to SXSW 2024 with this high-concept religious shocker. She plays Cecilia, a woman of devout faith who is offered a new role at an illustrious convent in the picture-perfect Italian countryside. However, she soon learns that her new home is harboring some dark and horrifying secrets. And when she discovers she is pregnant —a seemingly immaculate conception—all hell starts to break loose.
Reteaming with The Voyeurs director Michael Mohan, Sweeney is taking a much different tack here than recent rom-com
Anyone But You and comic-book spinoff Madame Web, showing off more range in a role that seems set to put her character—and the audience— through the wringer.
SXSW 2024 is set to start with a bang thanks to this rollicking remake of an iconic ’80s actioner. Directed by Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Edge of Tomorrow), Road House v2.0 sees Jake Gyllenhaal taking the reins from the late, great Patrick Swayze to play tough-as-nails bar ‘cooler’ Dalton, here a celebrated UFC fighter who’s drafted in by bar owner Frankie (Shrinking’s Jessica Williams) to defend her Florida Keys watering hole from rowdy locals and a sinister crime boss.
Unsurprisingly, Gyllenhaal went all
in for the role, with a staggering body transformation and mixed martial arts training that meant when he stepped into the ring at an actual UFC event in Las Vegas to film an early fight scene, even the crowds struggled to spot the difference from the real thing. His appearance was the talk of the town, with the internet quickly dubbing the actor “Jacked Gyllenhaal.”
It probably helps that one of his MMA mentors was UFC superstar and former champion Conor McGregor, who’ll also be making his
Pamela Adlon kickstarted her prolific acting career in 1982’s Grease 2, and is now making her feature-length directorial debut with pregnancy comedy Babes. The film stars Broad City’s Ilana Glazer as Eden, an “aggressively single woman” who, after becoming pregnant from a one-night stand, turns to her best friend Dawn (stand-up comedian Michelle Buteau), a married mother of two, for help.
Written by Glazer and her Broad City co-writer/producer
big-screen debut playing Gyllenhaal’s onscreen nemesis, a brutal henchman named Knox. “It’s been an incredible experience,” Gyllenhaal enthused to Entertainment Tonight. “Working with actual real fighters, reimagining a classic… it’s been a lot of the physical.”
Filling out the cast are The Suicide Squad’s Daniela Melchior, No Time To Die’s Billy Magnussen, The White Lotus’ Lukas Gage, and chart-topping music star Post Malone. Despite some behind-the-scenes bumps along the way, Road House promises to give the original’s campy violence a brutal, modern update—how far it homages the tai chi and throat-ripping of the 1989 version remains to be seen.
Josh Rabinowitz, the film garnered huge buzz among industry folk after screening outside of the official roster at the Toronto Film Festival last year, before being snapped up by Neon (distributor of Michael Mann’s Ferrari and the Oscar-nominated Anatomy of a Fall)—meaning hopes are high that Babes could be a real crowdpleaser. There’s a wealth of new comedic talent and assured experience in the film’s supporting cast, too, including Patriot Act host Hasan Minhaj, comedians The Lucas Brothers, Roseanne’s Sandra Bernhard, and Lake Placid’s Oliver Platt, to name a few.
If you were to take bets on the next contender for Keanu Reeves’ ultraviolent action hero crown, chances are you wouldn’t plump for the lovely Dev Patel. But with new thriller Monkey Man, the Oscar-nominated star of Slumdog Millionaire and The Personal History of David Copperfield is embracing a bold and surprising new direction, both on- and off-screen.
Making his feature-length directorial debut as well as turning himself into a lean, mean, bonecracking machine, Patel brings us the India-set story (which he also conceived) of a young man inspired by the legend of the White Monkey, a protector of the people, to seek vengeance on the corrupt leaders who murdered his mother and continue to victimize the poor and the powerless.
The film’s recent trailer, which has heavy John Wick vibes,
showcases just how committed Patel is to the role. It also, naturally, offers a glimpse of some brutal fights—choreographed by Jackie Chan and Donnie Yen collaborator Brahim Chab—that feature accomplished gun-fu as well as serving trays to the throat and heads smashed through microwave doors. In short, no more Mr. Nice Guy….
Patel’s bruising actioner has already won over some high-profile fans. First snapped up as a streaming original by Netflix, the course of Monkey Man’s fate was changed by none other than Oscar-winning filmmaker Jordan Peele, who caught an early peek at the film and was immediately impressed. Feeling that the movie deserved a big-screen release, Peele acquired it via his production company, Monkeypaw; now, Monkey Man will premiere at SXSW ahead of hitting theaters this April.
Seven years in the making, spanning centuries in the telling, Alice Lowe’s latest feature, Timestalker, is a strange beast. A dark comedy, a romance through the ages, a violent sci-fi, and an existential musing on the self, it’s an ambitious romp dressed in spandex and crinoline.
“When you make an independent film, you know there’s a chance you may never make one again,” says Lowe. “Any time one happens, it’s like a miracle. And I really just thought, God, if this was the last film that I ever get to make, what would I want to put in it? It's like my gravestone in a film.”
What she’s put in it are fabulous costumes, wigs, animals, an ensemble cast playing multiple roles, music, Easter eggs, and some soul searching.
Lowe plays Agnes, a woman in the 1600s who vows to follow the condemned preacher she’s besotted with through time. Reincarnated through different eras, her many lives are intertwined with the roguish Alex (Aneurin Barnard), the brutish George (Nick Frost), the loyal Meg (Tanya Reynolds), and the mercurial Scipio (Jacob Anderson). Agnes goes from peasant to gentlewoman, via
enormous wigs and outlandish deaths, to rock groupie in the ’80s. Inspired by Powell and Pressburger, as well as flights of fancy in films including Brazil and The Fisher King, it’s very British, funny, and deadpan while also being colorful, complicated, and highly philosophical.
“I think a lot of people react to it as, ‘Oh, it's just a light rom-com, isn’t it?’ I mean, it's high-concept. But for me, it’s quite serious,” says Lowe. “It’s reincarnation, but it’s about time as well. And it's about second chances and fucking up. All of those things that you get in rom-coms traditionally, but I wanted to update that and kind of go, I think women are allowed to talk about existentialism now.”
Lowe is a mainstay of British TV comedy, co-wrote and starred in Ben
Wheatley’s horror comedy Sightseers, and made her feature directorial debut with Prevenge, which was shot while Lowe was heavily pregnant and follows a woman whose unborn baby seems to drive her on a murderous rampage. Though Timestalker isn’t strictly speaking a chiller, it comes with splashes of gore and a dusting of folk horror in its opening segment, which was inspired by a real-life story about a mask found in Scotland worn by an illegal preacher who preached the Covenant (a part of the Bible banned by King James) and who was put to death. It’s creepy. There’s a good joke about a fish wife. Agnes pledges her eternal love to a man she barely knows. Then she falls over a dog.
“The joke within the film is that no one can escape. They are who they
are; it doesn't matter what time or place they are in, they’re the same people. And that's really annoying to them,” she explains. “Nobody in the film is falling in love with the right person. They're all falling in love with the toxic, worst person they could fall in love with, which is sort of like reality. Agnes is kind of an idiot as well. I think it's quite transgressive at the moment. To have a stupid female character is quite challenging to the audience.”
Though it’s a broad comedy in some ways, Timestalker is deliberately provocative, focusing on a vacuous male muse, a deluded protagonist, and featuring an aerobics sequence shot like a horror movie. It also comes at a time when stalker documentaries are everywhere—check out Netflix, and
you’ll be presented with a wealth of terrifying true-life tales.
“She could have a scary documentary made about her!” Lowe jokes about Agnes.
It’s in keeping with the film though, which tackles massive themes and constantly undermines them.
“A lot of my work is about reality and fantasy, and specifically the clash between those things,” she says, with self-deprecation. “I have some very highfalutin ideas, and then I realize who I actually am, and that I am just a television actress that has got some trumped up ideas, and that punctures my beliefs. And that’s then funny.”
Lowe’s not been to SXSW before but is stoked to be premiering the film to this audience.
“Everybody tells me it's like the most
fun you can have at a festival,” she says. “You look at a program of something like Berlin, and you go, oh my God, imagine if we were trying to play there and they’d just shown Zone of Interest or something. I don’t think it would work. This is a comedy audience.”
She’s hoping people there for the music festival might see the film too, which has a strong rock thread throughout—Agnes’ “soul mate” goes from preacher to highwayman to ’80s New Romantic megastar, and the film features original music by Brit band Toy Drum.
“I think it's perfect,” she says. “I just want people to have that appetite and that kind of rock and roll vibe.”
Timestalker premieres on March 8.
Before Daisy Ridley makes her return to Star Wars, she’ll be lending some star wattage to this thriller from rising-star Brit theater director Sam Yates. Ridley plays Anette, whose daughter is cast in a movie alongside the glamorous but controversial A-lister Alicia (Matilda Lutz, soon to be starring in the upcoming Red Sonja remake). It’s not long before Alicia is sticking her beak into Anette’s marriage to husband Ben (Star Trek: Discovery’s Shazad Latif)— an affair that threatens to push Anette over the edge.
What would happen if a 30-year-old virgin got a job teaching high school sex ed? That’s the elevator pitch at the heart of Sara Zandieh’s SXSW-premiering comedy. The answer, of course, is that awkward and good-natured hilarity ensues as Maya (Lilly Singh) returns to the U.S. after an abstinent teens/20s spent in India and is inspired to embark on a quest to make up for the experience she lost out on. Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Stephanie Beatriz is on hand for comic support.
Hunter Schafer graduates to full-on big-screen horror (after her movie debut in last year’s The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes) with this creepy chiller from German writer/director Tilman Singer. Here, the Euphoria star plays Gretchen, a 17-year-old who’s invited to stay with her father and stepmother in a tranquil resort in the European Alps. As with all good horror setups, though, she soon finds things aren’t all they seem, with the idyllic setting covering up some sinister experimentation.
The film’s atmospheric teaser scared up a storm on TikTok, as Schafer’s character is confronted by cacophonic sounds, monstrous visions, and an eerie voiceover offering her “the chance to be of great use in our quest for preservation” —all before Gretchen tools up defiantly with a butterfly knife. If a 35-second social clip can be that intense, just imagine what the final film could have in store. Dan Stevens (The Guest) and Jessica Henwick (Iron Fist) co-star.
Nicolas Cage is no stranger to SXSW, nor to genre-nodding indie curios. This year, he’s back to both with Arcadian, a sci-fi thriller in which the prolific star plays a father struggling to protect his kids in a near-future dystopia. After a catastrophic event leads to the collapse of civilization, Cage’s Paul and his two sons (It’s Jaeden Martell and Reacher’s Maxwell Jenkins) find refuge in a remote, fortified farmhouse, living a simple life by day but plagued at night by attacks from terrifying creatures. When one of the boys gets stranded after dark, Paul is forced to leave the safety of the family home to rescue him—kickstarting a desperate fight for survival.
As well as its beloved lead, Arcadian brings with it a strong SXSW heritage —writer Michael Nilon also produced 2022’s Cage-starring fan favorite The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, while director Benjamin Brewer previously helmed 2016 cop thriller The Trust (also with Cage). Brewer worked as a lead VFX artist on festival smash Everything Everywhere All at Once, too, so expect this film’s night terrors (whatever they are) to come with a refined—and imaginative— edge. Cage vs. mysterious beasties? Count us in.
The shadow of war looms large over one family in this debut from Kyle Hausmann-Stokes, a former U.S. Army paratrooper. A dark buddy comedy about PTSD, the film follows the journey of Merit (Star Trek: Discovery’s Sonequa Martin-Green), an Afghanistan veteran whose complicated friendship with Zoe, her dead best friend from the forces, keeps her insulated from the world—that is until she’s summoned to meet with her estranged Vietnam vet grandfather (Ed Harris).
Directing duo (and real-life husbands) Brian Crano and David Craig’s movie is billed as a “comedy horror,” instantly making the farcical, lost-in-translation set-up much more intriguing. An American couple (comedian Nick Kroll and The Boys in the Band’s Andrew Rannells) take a trip to rural Italy to reconnect but end up stranded with no transport or language skills, bringing some simmering tensions to the boil.
Cazzie David and Elisa Kalani make their directorial debut with “a subversive romantic comedy gone wrong.” Sofia Black-D’Elia (Single Drunk Female) stars as disillusioned singleton Mackenzie, who has a “real-life meet-cute” with the charming Finn (Licorice Pizza’s Ray Nicholson). But as Finn’s dark side emerges, the only happy ending here depends on Mackenzie getting out.
Doctor/writer/director isn’t a multi-hyphenate you often come across in the movie world, but it’s one that came in handy for this crowd-pleasing comedy drama. In A Nice Indian Boy, practicing physician Roshan Sethi—co-creator of Fox’s long-running medical drama The Resident—serves up a heartfelt “meet the parents” scenario centered on self-effacing doc Naveen (Deadpool’s Karan Soni), who is forced to reconcile two sides of his identity when he finally takes his white boyfriend (Mindhunter’s Jonathan Groff) home to his traditional Indian family.
This Irish curio is a ghostly revenge story to have you quaking in your boots.BY RICHARD JORDAN
“A REVENGE GHOST STORY with elements of a monster movie” is how Irish director Damian McCarthy describes his latest chiller, which is set to bring “plenty of scares and a few laughs” to SXSW’s late-night line-up. A supernatural horror centered around spooky trinkets, Oddity follows a blind medium (You Are Not My Mother’s Carolyn Bracken) as she uncovers the truth behind her twin sister's death with the help of a terrifying wooden mannequin (pictured above).
“She collects a lot of haunted items—she can pick up an object and tell you everything about it,” explains McCarthy, the writer/director of 2020’s psychological thriller Caveat and celebrated horror short He Dies at the End. Not only does one of these objects—the aforementioned “wooden man”—help her to catch her sister’s killer, but it enables her to exact her revenge, too. “It’s a little bit
of a whodunnit,” McCarthy continues, with the film featuring an ensemble cast that includes Bohemian Rhapsody’s Gwilym Lee. The title, he says, carries a double meaning: “The idea of ‘Oddity,’ it’s like those strange items you collect, but it’s also all these characters making up the story.”
Shot across four weeks in his native West Cork, Ireland, McCarthy says that Oddity “feels like my first proper film,” scaled up from Caveat (which was shot at a single location with a very small team), made with a vastly expanded crew and even featuring some carefully orchestrated stunts. It was a challenge the director relished, although he admits, “You'd be a little bit nervous because you’re watching this guy just throw himself off this thing.”
At the heart of the film, though, are the oddities themselves, with plenty of interesting ornaments filling out the frames—McCarthy’s influences included “a lot of anthology stuff [and] old Twilight Zone episodes.” “With the production designer [Lauren Kelly] and the props we collected or built, there was an emphasis on that and kind of just trying to populate the world with odd things,” he says. “[The
main character] has an antique shop, and we just tried to find as many strange things as we could and to get that sense of, ‘Oh yeah, that thing there—there's definitely a story behind that.’”
So, can we expect any Annabellestyle spinoffs in the works? Perhaps not—although eagle-eyed viewers might spot a few throwbacks to some of his earlier creations. “I wasn’t that forward-thinking,” McCarthy laughs. “A lot of films now seem to have a franchise [in mind] or are trying maybe a little bit too hard to link stuff. I think a subtle nod to things is great, but I do love a standalone horror film more, where by the end of it, you go, ‘OK, there’s going to be no sequel to this. That story feels told, and it's done.’ But we'll see.”
Above all, though, McCarthy is excited to finally be unleashing his oddity on the world—starting with his first trip to SXSW. “Everyone says the audience is really kind of on your side; they're going along as real genre fans,” he says. “Something about it has always seemed to appeal to me, so I’m excited!”
Oddity premieres at SXSW on March 8.
In what sounds like a sort of post-apocalyptic Apocalypto, Azrael introduces us to an Earth some years after a major catastrophe, in which a young woman, imprisoned by a cult of mute zealots and marked for sacrifice to appease an ancient evil that lurks in the surrounding wilderness, makes a savage bid for freedom. Directed by SXSW regular E.L. Katz (Cheap Thrills, Small Crimes), the film follows Samara Weaving’s (Ready or Not, Scream VI) eponymous hero as she barrels towards a “vicious, revenge-fueled showdown.” Is the fact that she’s named after the angel of death some kind of portent? Very probably.
“A sci-fi thriller, with jokes” is how writer/director Greg Jardin pitched his feature debut when it premiered at Sundance back in January. It obviously worked, as It’s What’s Inside arrives at SXSW with a major new backer in Netflix. Joining the club of cinematic bachelor/ bachelorette parties gone wrong, the film sees a pre-wedding get-together at a remote mansion descend into a nightmare after an estranged friend turns up with a mysterious briefcase. The high concept at the movie’s core is being kept under wraps, but expect chaos—and a body count—to ensue.
This feature debut from rising star French writer/director Saïd Belktibia gives the black-market thriller a supernatural twist. The Extraction franchise’s Golshifteh Farahani stars as Nour, a woman making a living from smuggling exotic animals and illicit contraband for her city's holy marabout mystics. In the pursuit of offering her son a better life, she designs and develops an app to connect the marabouts with their clients but its initial success soon turns into a nightmare for Nour after one exchange goes horribly wrong.
First-time writer/director Benjamin Finkel offers up some early ’00s-set horror with Family, in which a malevolent force is invited into the home of a struggling brood. Pushed to her limit by watching her ailing dad (The Thin Red Line’s Ben Chaplin) decline and her mother (Luther’s Ruth Wilson) consumed with caring for him, 11-year-old Johanna (newcomer Lucinda Lee Dawson Gray) puts a desperate call out into the universe for a good spirit to come and save them. What she actually gets, though, is something quite the opposite….
Could this be the most intriguing-sounding doc in the whole lineup? Or is that because, in true doco-thriller style, Dickweed is keeping its cards close to its chest. Or, indeed, its dick, if you will. The logline reads, “Two people got kidnapped. One man lost his dick. No one got any money. This heist-gonehorribly-wrong led one Newport Beach detective on an international manhunt for the most twisted criminal he’s ever hunted.” And that’s all you get as a tease for this film from Jonathan Ignatius Green, who was an executive producer on former SXSW hit doc The Pez Outlaw
How does a movie ticket subscription service, which at its height had over three million members paying under $10 a month, really manage to be profitable? The answer is, of course, it doesn’t. But why did outside investors come in and lead to the implosion of a formerly successful business, and how did it all come about? This documentary from director Muta'Ali Muhammad, explores the rise and bizarre crash of the subscription app.
GTA and Shakespeare come together to make "shuffling off this mortal coil" feel oddly heartwarming and hilarious.
BY
BERNARD BOO
GRAND THEFT HAMLET is about as absurd a mash-up as its title would have you believe. It’s a documentary about Sam Crane and Mark Oosterveen, two actors left jobless at the height of the pandemic who decide to put on a live-streamed production of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet in Grand Theft Auto Online.
Partway through the film, which was shot entirely in-game, as Sam is rehearsing the play’s famous “To be or not to be” speech on the beaches of Los Santos, a masked player walks up and calls him a bitch over chat, utterly unmoved by the iconic soliloquy. Other rehearsals are interrupted by helicopters and shootouts, all fitting encapsulations of the juxtaposition at the heart of the documentary. But
GTA and Shakespeare may not be as disparate as one might think.
“In some ways, we’re returning to the origins of Shakespeare,” says Pinny Grylls, Sam’s wife and codirector and cinematographer for the film. “When Shakespeare’s plays were first performed, the audience would throw apples if it was shit!”
“There would be fights in the crowd, there were prostitutes… it was really quite dirty, the opposite of high culture,” Sam adds. “That’s exactly the world of GTA Online.”
The film sees Sam and Mark scour Los Santos to find players willing to help with the production while struggling with real-life issues at home during the UK’s third lockdown. Sam and Pinny have two children and find themselves spending a lot of time online, and when their lead actor lands a new job and bows out, they’re forced to make a last-minute pivot that changes everything.
It’s a chaotic journey full of obstacles and setbacks (the existential underpinnings of “To be or not to be”
ring truer and truer as the film unfolds). But Sam and Mark’s commitment to presenting Shakespeare with sincerity and integrity holds strong amid the mayhem, and the tight bond they forge with their cast of nervous first-time actors is the beating heart of the film. With all odds against them, the motley crew manages to create one of the most bizarrely wholesome moments in modern gaming history.
“Rockstar [Games] knows about what we’re doing, and they’re really excited about it,” Pinny shares. “They didn’t really understand what we were doing at first, but then they saw the film, and they loved it.”
Sam and Pinny can hardly wait until the arrival of Grand Theft Auto VI in 2025, though when asked if they would welcome support features for performance artists like themselves in the game’s online incarnation, they’re surprisingly disinclined.
“The limitations we were faced with brought out our creativity,” Sam says. “You wouldn’t want it to be too easy.”
Crisis Pregnancy Centers are pervasive across America, outnumbering abortion clinics threefold. But exactly what they are and who they serve is more of a gray area, with some accused of pushing a pro-life agenda and spreading misinformation. Centered around the stories of two young women with unwanted pregnancies, this timely documentary explores the murky background of CPCs, focusing on faith, finance, and deception.
This amazing true story follows Jen Bricker, born without legs and abandoned by her parents as a baby. Jen idolizes American gymnast Dominique Moceanu, one of the “magnificent seven” team who won gold at the 1996 Olympics, who also helped expose the Larry Nassar abuse scandal (she appears in Erin Lee Carr’s excellent doc At the Heart of Gold: Inside the USA Gymnastics Scandal). Jen herself goes on to become an acrobat and motivational speaker. But, it turns out she and Moceanu have more in common than it first appears…
The provocative Star Trek series that relaunched the franchise is ending on a high note.BY RYAN BRITT
When producer Alex Kurtzman launched Star Trek: Discovery nearly a decade ago, the idea of bringing the Star Trek franchise back to TV was a gamble. Back in 2015, the most popular science fiction TV series either aired on SYFY or were Doctor Who. After having gone out with a whimper with Enterprise in 2005, could Trek rematerialize as a fully rejuvenated version of itself? Could a mainstream audience be enticed back to the final frontier by yet another new crew? At first, the answer was maybe. After several delays, Star Trek: Discovery debuted in 2017 on a
newly minted streaming service, CBS All Access, and the reviews were mixed. After the departure of Bryan Fuller, some critics felt Star Trek: Discovery’s first season had a patchwork quality, amounting to a Trek tapestry that was as challenging as it was audacious. To say Discovery’s early years were some of the riskiest in Trek history is something of an understatement.
“We were the great experimenters,” Kurtzman recalls. “Discovery was the first in the door. It allowed us to understand what works well in modern Trek and what works less well. But it all started with Disco.”
Because Discovery was the progenitor of all the new Star Trek that has followed, its scope and influence are bigger than most Trek series. Although it began as yet another prequel to the 23rd century of The Original Series, by the end of its second season, Discovery jumped to
the 32nd century, making it the only Trek iteration ever that is a prequel and a sequel simultaneously.
“I’ve never thought about it that way!” Discovery showrunner Michelle Paradise says with a laugh. “But, without putting those words on it specifically, that’s always on our
minds. We’ve always made sure that even as we move forward into the sequel piece of it all, we’re creating stories and continuing to develop characters that will feel satisfying— and that feel like they honor every piece of the franchise. But it’s a lot of franchise.”
As Discovery spore-jumps into its fifth and final season, several pieces of the Star Trek franchise will be honored at the same time, making this part of the franchise feel bigger than ever but also, strangely, smaller and more human than ever.
As Jonathan Frakes teased in 2023, Discovery’s final season has a flair borrowed from Indiana Jones, lending season five a treasure-hunt structure. And, when fans find out the origin of this particular treasure hunt, let’s just say you may be rewatching some older Star Trek episodes for a tiny bit of context. Discovery season five doesn’t need viewers to have seen every previous episode of other parts of the franchise, but right from the start of this new season, fans who remember the older iterations of the franchise will be rewarded.
“That aspect was very intentional,” Paradise says, teasing the deep-cut canon connections that propel Discovery’s new season. “When we made the jump into the future, it was really important to us that even as we played in the fresh snow, and we could do whatever we wanted, we always wanted to make sure that we anchored Discovery in the canon. So every season, we’re looking for ways to do that.”
And yet, despite its very slick connections to the larger Star Trek canon, Discovery season five is a much lighter, more upbeat collection of episodes than any of its four previous seasons combined.
“That was very intentional. We very much recognized that with season four, there was a weight to it,” Paradise explains. “And so, coming into this season, Alex and I said we should
have some fun. We want to have a sense of adventure. We didn’t lose the emotional heart of the show; the relationships between the characters and each of those characters grew individually. But yes, we wanted to have fun along the way.”
Although Discovery season five will end the series, it’s no secret that it wasn’t entirely planned as the true ending. But what’s strange is that as fans watch the first few episodes, there’s a sense with all the characters —from Saru (Doug Jones) to Stamets (Anthony Rapp) to Tilly (Mary Wiseman)—that the crew is all thinking about moving on to new challenges. In what has become Discovery’s hallmark, the roles of these Starfleet folks are not static, and just as Discovery switched captains for its
first two seasons, other roles in the crew will be reshuffled and remixed in surprising ways this season. There’s even room for a new Starfleet ally: the irascible and unpredictable Captain Rayner, played by Battlestar Galactica veteran Callum Keith Rennie. Sonequa Martin-Green describes working with Rennie as “brilliant,” while Paradise says his work in season five is “phenomenal.” And, as fans will see, his unexpected role creates a new interpretation of Starfleet that has never been glimpsed.
Still, despite the addition of Rayner and mysterious smugglers Moll (Eve
Harlow) and L’ak (Elias Toufexis), season five is still about the found family of the Discovery crew and how their story comes to a close.
Will Discovery find a way to tie up a few loose threads before the end? In the 2018 Short Treks episode “Calypso,” in a future even more distant than the 32nd century, the benevolent AI Zora is the only person left on the ship. Will Discovery find its way to this plot point, or is that better thought of as a kind of What If...? for the Star Trek franchise? Paradise won’t spoil the ending just yet. “You’ll have to tune in and find out.”
In 2024, as Discovery winds down, Trekkies will have a buffet of different kinds of series, each with a different audience in mind. But will those adventures continue in the 32nd century? When is the in-
DISCOVERY WAS THE FIRST IN THE DOOR. IT ALLOWED US TO UNDERSTAND WHAT WORKS WELL IN MODERN TREK AND WHAT WORKS LESS WELL .
production Starfleet Academy series set? What about Michelle Yeoh’s Section 31 movie?
Kurtzman won’t commit to revealing the timeline for either project but says, “I think you can expect more of [Discovery’s] 32nd century. I won’t tell you how or, where, or why. But yes, that era is not over. As for Section 31, the version of Section 31 that we saw Georgiou be a part of on Discovery is very different from the version you will see in the movie. We’re not just repeating the thing we already did.”
Kurtzman also hasn’t commented on the latest rumors of an “origin” feature film connected to the J.J. Abrams universe and only notes that whatever the project is, “they’ll have to honor all the canon we’ve created since Discovery.” He also admits that questions about greenlighting new Star Trek shows, like the muchdiscussed Star Trek: Legacy—a hypothetical sequel series to Picard— is also, as of writing, out of his hands. “If I had a magic button, a magic ‘greenlight button,’ for Star Trek: Legacy, and it was all on me, I’d push that button today,” Kurtzman says. “Right now, it’s beyond my paygrade.”
And yet, magic greenlight buttons aside, it seems that pleasing everyone was never the mission of Discovery or the reborn Star Trek franchise in general. “Picard is not for everybody. Discovery is not for everybody,” Kurtzman says, emphasizing that he’s not interested in making Star Trek on a scale like Marvel.
“There’s still a homemade and handmade mom-and-pop shop quality to what we’re doing,” Kurtzman says. “One thing I’m certain of is that Star Trek has to deliver what is entirely familiar and entirely fresh at the same time. Discovery season one tested that with fans. But I think you have to have an essential vision of optimism. I think that’s the core tenet of Roddenberry’s vision, and I think as long as you’re organizing your story around optimism and making sure your story is reinforcing that idea, then that’s Star Trek.”
Star Trek: Discovery season five hits Paramount+ in April 2024.
For you, what’s the biggest difference between making season one and season five? Wow. Well, between season one and season five is an entire life. We live so much life between the beginning and the end. Season one, you found me and everyone else kind of grappling under the pressure of the franchise and wanting to do it justice and wanting to make everybody proud. Then we came to season five not knowing it would be our last season. And yet we came to this knowing who we are and understanding who we are. I think that journey comes with freedom and actualization and leads to better creativity. In season five, we’re a fully formed, found family.
David Ajala is back as Book this year. You two have an amazing shorthand. But how did you work out that missing year of Book and Burnham’s backstory? It’s never on screen! A lot of it has to do with David! We operate in a wild, imagined playground, a space where anything is possible, and we both have so much love and respect for each other. BUT. I will tell you: I created an entire
timeline for myself for that year of everything that Burnham and Book did. What was this big thing that happened in month three? What's this big thing that happened seven months in? We trusted each other.
Right, but you actually created the whole timeline. Not David. Yes, that’s right. [Laughs]
It’s like you could write your own Michael Burnham novel. But, in all seriousness, could you see this character coming back in the future?
Well, I'll just say I wouldn't be opposed! Anything is possible. We've seen that anything is possible in this franchise. Of course, anything would need to be earned, but it is possible. But, for now, I have to applaud our showrunner, Michelle Paradise, and the writers. Because they created that addendum shoot that we did after we found out that this was going to be the end. That piece that is added at the end—I don’t know how it's so conclusive—but it’s conclusive in the richest way. Maybe the better way to say it is that it’s honorable. It’s an honorable end.
TAKING PLACE BETWEEN CHINA’S REVOLUTIONARY 1960S and present day, where science appears to be “broken,” Netflix’s 3 Body Problem is a bracing new kind of sci-fi story from the creators of Game of Thrones, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. We talked to some of the show’s central “Oxford Five” characters about bringing Cixin Liu's award-winning book series to life.
What did you know about this role when you auditioned?
I didn’t have any context, really. I’d heard of the books, but I had not read them. I just knew it was like a sci-fi thing from the guys from Game of Thrones
What can you tell us about Will Downing?
I got a sense from the [audition] scenes of who he was. He seemed very British, actually. Quite stoic during a personally troubling time in his life. I got the part, and I subjected [producers] to many long Zoom calls where I asked them a ton of questions. What Will’s going through is one of the largest things a human being can face. It terrified me but I was
really moved by his perspective. I wanted to try to capture that. He’s very brave in a sincerely humble way. I instantly fell in love with him.
Who are the Oxford Five?
They’re sort of like the Power Rangers of physics. Maybe I’m the pink one. Hopefully, I am. They all have specialties. They’re all astoundingly brilliant, but they’re all radically different people.
What can you tell us about Jin?
She’s one of the Oxford Five—the group of exceptional scientists who were brought together from across the globe. She was plucked from New Zealand and she eventually grows into her own and has a successful career. Jin is super driven and ambitious, sometimes to the detriment of her personal life. She’ll charge ahead to solve a problem, and until she finds some answers, she doesn’t stop.
What expertise does she bring to the Oxford Five?
I think they all have their own things to offer. It’s more about how they interact with each other. With Jack, [Jin is] more assertive, with Will, she’s more soft and gentle. With Auggie,
she’s a lot more like, “Yeah, let’s do this.” She is the most forward-thinking and tunnel-visioned of the group.
What did you learn from the Three-Body Problem books?
The books were incredibly helpful because of the world-building. You can feel yourself getting drawn into this world, which is basically our own, with some slight differences.
What was it like shooting the scenes set in virtual reality?
My second day of shooting was when we shot with the VR helmet. I was talking to the director Derek [Tsang] about it and was like, “How big is the reaction here?” And he went, “I don’t know, but I’ll know it when I see it.”
How did you get this role?
In many ways it was the easiest part I’ve ever played because David and Dan were very explicit that this character was based on myself. It’s very strange when you hear that because you feel, “I’m gonna find out exactly what they think of me or exactly how they see me.”
What can you tell us about Jack Rooney?
His mind is split between the academic and the practical. I’ve often said that Jack in 3 Body Problem is a bit like Ringo in The Beatles: no matter how weird it gets, as long as Jack’s there, you’ve got a man on the inside who can make light of it.
Did the Three-Body Problem books help you prepare?
I did read the book before I read the scripts. I think reading the book was essential in terms of understanding the sheer scope of it—the finer points of the scientific terminology and the scientific problem we’re asking the audience to understand.
What was it like working with D.B. Weiss and David Benioff again after Game of Thrones?
They’re the reason we want this to be a success. Some of the criticism that’s been leveled at them, some of the unfair things that have been said—I know how hard they work. I find them very inspiring.
Crys Matthews is on a mission to bring social justice to America’s remote corners.
CRYS MATTHEWS DOESN’T equivocate about her music’s north star: “It’s to amplify the voices of the unheard, shed light on the unseen, and be a steadfast reminder that hope and love are the truest pathways to
BY ERIN OSMONjustice and equity. That’s me in a nutshell.”
The 43-year-old singer-songwriter has spent much of her decade-plus career holding a mirror to America’s thorniest issues. Her protest, social
justice, and freedom-infused songs have prompted comparisons to historical folk music activists such as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. Blending the sounds of country, gospel, Americana, and folk music, Matthews boldly sings what many are reluctant to say out loud, in the open and face-to-face.
The Confederate flag, the murder of Black men by police, mass shootings, gerrymandering, Donald Trump—seemingly nothing is off limits. Though the daughter of an
African Methodist Episcopal Church preacher, which is where her interest in freedom songs and social justice began, Matthews resists sanctimony. Her underlying beliefs and messages are akin to what Nelson Mandela once said: “People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”
Matthews has been playing instruments since she was a child,
including piano and clarinet. In sixth grade, she joined the school band and became enamored with classical music. As a student at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, she taught herself to play guitar on a right-handed instrument, which is why she holds it upside-down today, in the style of folk music icon Elizabeth Cotten.
A lefty aside, Matthews, as she puts it, “checks a lot of boxes.” In a 2017 Ted Talk, she described herself as a “poster child for intersectionality.” As a Black lesbian from the South, born in rural North Carolina and currently living in Nashville, she’s lived through many of the hardships she sings about. She says
I’M NOT PROCLAIMING SOMETHING THAT I’M NOT ACTUALLY DOING.”
she was “not welcome whatsoever” in the church after she came out and also pointed to the racism that exists within the LGBTQ+ community. “So I’m out here trying to live the thing, trying to walk the walk,” she says. “I’m not proclaiming something that I’m not actually doing.”
The singer attributes her ease with difficult topics to the fact that she’s a full-time musician who navigates diverse regions and environments. “I’m able to see how many people are having these conversations where you wouldn’t expect them to,” she explains. She points to a recent show she played in Maine as an example. “There were a huge number of people who were so encouraged by this hope-fueled, love-fueled, social justice music. Most of them had never heard me before but were interested in trying to figure out how to have discussions around so many of these issues.”
In February, in honor of Black History Month, Matthews toured from Upstate New York to Fort Worth, Texas, with a program she assembled called “Songs On Why We Can’t Wait,”
which combines her social justice songs with excerpts from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s book on nonviolent action for racial equality and justice. At South by Southwest this year, she hopes to infuse some consciousness into the traditional party vibe of the festival. Matthews says that she and other folkies are often viewed as the “weird theater kid cousin,” and she’s grateful to be able to play alongside the “cool kids in other genres.”
Since 2011, Matthews has released five full-length albums and several EPs and singles. She’s currently working on a new album with several faces from the Nashville music community, including singer-songwriter Levi Lowery (Zac Brown Band), who will produce. Recording will take place at the Sound Emporium and will include mostly Black and female players by Matthews’ design.
As a fiercely independent artist and a self-described “hard-headed Aries,” Matthews says that, historically, self-releasing her music and being her own manager has worked well to ensure her ethics and message aren’t watered down, tainted, or obscured. Recently, she pulled out of a show at a venue whose contract banned “political songs.” “If there’s a label out there that is super stoked to have a Black butch lesbian say whatever she wants to say, I would jump on that label in a heartbeat,” she explains. However, up to this point, that hasn’t been the case.
In a social and political climate that often feels like it’s reached rock bottom, Matthews remains an optimist. She believes people are inherently good and explains that “this vitriol that we’re seeing, so much of it is based in fear, and it gets stuck because they don’t get a chance to meet people like me.” So long as she can, she’ll continue trekking to America’s remote corners to illuminate hope and our shared humanity through song but also in the simple act of taking up space.
“That’s the stealth mode work,” she says. “So many of these conversations through songs are just reminding people to be empathetic to these groups to which they may or may not belong.”
inneapolis indie pop band Bad Bad Hats are returning to South by Southwest to start promotion for their upcoming fourth LP. While the band has always been driven by smart lyrics, catchy melodies, and pristine production, their new record takes a more “collage”inspired approach, playing with different subgenres that will broaden their onstage setup. Fans can get a glimpse of this new era of the band when they headline the Don Giovani Records 2024 showcase.
We spoke with the band’s Kerry Alexander and Chris Hoge about the 10th anniversary of their debut EP It Hurts, food in Austin, and what we can expect from their new tunes.
Your website says that you like to sample the best local cuisine when you’re on tour. Is there anything in particular that you’re looking forward to getting while you’re in Austin?
KERRY ALEXANDER: Veracruz [All Natural].
CHRIS HOGE: I was thinking Veracruz tacos.
KA: I love the Veracruz tacos. I like the migas tacos from there with the tasty salsa. Even though, whenever I’m there, there is, like, a bird actively trying to get my tacos. And you kind of have to wrestle with them to eat. But
it’s always worth it. We haven’t been in a while, but I also really enjoy Juan and a Million. We went there several years ago, and I thought it was so, so good.
Last year was the 10th anniversary of your EP, It Hurts, and you did a vinyl re-release. What was it like looking back on that time period and putting together that new package for the release?
KA: One thing that was cool about [the re-release] was that It Hurts had never been released in a physical form. People would ask us at almost every show we played if we had it for sale, and sometimes would be very upset
that we didn’t. But it all worked out in the grand scheme of things because then we could sort of have a really special moment for the [10th anniversary]. So we had a lot of fun making the back cover because there had never been a back cover before, and trying to tap into what we were into at the time. I was really into collaging back in the day and would collage together show posters and stuff, so I did some of that for the back cover.
Being able to celebrate and reflect on all the years is heartwarming and magical because it has been such a fun journey so far. We feel like we have much, much more to go. Thinking of
the really early days, Chris and I made that EP in our apartment and my English professor’s apartment in the summertime. We had just graduated college and just started dating. So, just like all the warm, wonderful feelings of that time in our lives, I felt like I was right back there. I guess that’s kind of like what music does, right?
There is a new album coming, and this is going to be your second record with Don Giovanni Records. How have they been to work with as a label?
CH: They’ve been great. The main guy we work with is named Joe [Steinhardt], and he has the same outlook on the
music industry as us, which, in a really nice way, is just do what makes you happy and do it creatively. He’s less concerned about playing all the little games that people seem to play to try to get noticed or something, and he’s really just up for putting out whatever we send him. I feel like they’ve got a very artist-supported, supportive way that their label is set up, and I love the variety of bands that they have, too. The history of albums that they’ve put out is amazing.
Your last album Walkman is a very pop-minded, hook-focused record. Is that a similar vibe to what we can expect from the upcoming record?
KA: With [second album] Lightning Round, we kind of went all in on production, having fun in the studio, and using tape machines and every instrument, which was amazing. And that’s how I like to work in the studio. I don’t like to inhibit myself. But it did make it somewhat difficult to perform the songs to their truest extent.
So, when I was thinking about [third album] Walkman, I was trying to write songs that felt like they would be fun to play live with even just three people. I do feel like with the fourth album, we maybe did a bit more of playing all instruments and doing more sample-y, interesting sounds and sort of more collage arrangements instead of maybe more live-focused arrangements, which is kind of fun. So it’s maybe even a little dancier.
CH: We’re going to have a four-piece band again. So our hope is to cover it with four people.
KA: We might have a synth on stage for the first time ever. We’ve never done that, even though synths are all over our albums. So that’s cool. So we’re hoping to fill in the blanks with a four-piece.
You are self-producing the new record. Did you find that to be a challenge or artistically inspiring?
KA: I think what helped was actually that we accidentally got into it. We did not set out to self-produce a record,
but we started a Patreon page in 2020 as a way to stay connected to our fans, make a little money, and for us to stay creatively busy. And for the Patreon, the vibe was that every month, we’d write a new original song inspired by a theme. So we did pop-punk month, and we did country month. And it was fun. We’re still doing it. Our former bandmate Con (Davidson) would come over, and the three of us would just go down to the basement and just have fun and be like, “Okay, what does the badass pop-punk song sound like?”
We’d make a song in two days, really quick, really easy, not getting too hung up on anything, just having fun with it. Before we knew it, we just had so many songs that we’re like, “Wow. Some of these are kind of cool, and I think could actually be on a record.”
So we had a few of those songs that were our guiding light of what the album could be. And I think because we weren’t thinking that we were making an album, we were just having fun, it is a little bit collage-y. Like, “How about a little bit of this? Or a little bit of this? Yeah, that sounds good. Try that!”
So then we decided to finish the album, and we went out of the basement but kept the same energy of trying new sounds and gluing everything together. The album has a scrappiness to me that only the basement could have given it.
Can you tell us a little bit about your experience with South by Southwest?
KA: The thing that I really enjoy about South by Southwest is sometimes, being in the music industry, you meet so many people and make so many wonderful connections and tour with different bands. So you have this wide network, but you hardly ever get to be together and have that office camaraderie. So SXSW is kind of a time when we all get to be together and have that sense of community that you’ve built. So I really enjoy that aspect of it. It’s like I get to be with all my coworkers in the same room for a week. I don’t love hauling my stuff up and down hills. That part can be hard, but it’s good exercise for me.
A traumatic injury followed by a fiery crash left the future of Austin’s Good Looks uncertain. But the group feels luckier than ever. BY DILLON STEWART
IT WOULD BE EASY TO ASSUME Good Looks has bad luck. But singer-guitarist Tyler Jordan doesn’t see it that way.
In 2022, the Austin band released Bummer Year, a seven-song LP of incisive social commentary that cuts through the chaos of our times—as well as Jake Ames’ busy, echoing guitar lines. The songwriter-meetsguitar-rock album would go on to
be well-received, but it was amidst difficult circumstances
Jordan wrote most of the songs on that debut LP while in a haze of depression and political fear between 2015 and 2018. Now a devout socialist, the songwriter grew up in a coastal South Texas community gripped by a cult-like brand of Christianity.
Estranged from his parents, the 19-year-old moved to Austin in 2007
and found an enclave for artists— one that has since given way to high rents and corporate culture.
“I have so many fond thoughts and nice feelings about Austin,” he says. “But I also feel nervous about the scene getting smaller because artists are being priced out. What happens when there’s no place to fail?”
This backdrop—of depression, a complicated rural upbringing, and mounting socioeconomic challenges —swirled as Jordan penned the songs
of the working class. So you have all these people voting for Trump who are kind people on a face-to-face level, even if the politics are not kind on a macro level.”
However overt the lyrics may be, the politics are not really the point—or at least not the only one. The sparse
I H AVE SO MANY FOND THOUGHTS AND NICE FEELINGS ABOUT AUSTIN. BUT I ALSO FEEL NERVOUS ABOUT THE SCENE GETTING SMALLER BECAUSE ARTISTS ARE BEING PRICED OUT.
“Vision Boards”—with its repetitive refrain, “If the answer’s in yourself, well, the failure is your fault”—offers sparse insight into Jordan’s headspace at the time. An indictment of hustle culture’s claim that one can manifest their way to success while ignoring systematic barriers, the tune also analyzes how mental illness held the writer back from fulfilling his artistic potential. How outside forces can get in the way of your best efforts.
Soon, life would imitate art.
By April 2022, Jordan had gained ground on his depressive episodes. On April 10, the band punctuated the release of Bummer Year with a release show at the iconic East Austin venue Hotel Vegas. Buzzing, Ames, along with bassist Harrison Anderson and drummer Phil Dunne, enjoyed the after-hours celebration ahead of an extensive U.S. tour, while Jordan, an introvert, snuck out early.
play guitar. Meanwhile, acclaim built for the new record. Two weeks after the accident, Pitchfork gave the album a respectable 7.3 rating. Later, Austin Monthly named Good Looks Best Indie Band and the Austin Chronicle called the group Austin’s band of the year. Music writer Steven Hyden placed the album on his year-end favorites. Support poured in from fans and the Austin community, who donated $63,868 to a GoFundMe campaign.
In July 2023, the band was ready to tour again. Ames had recovered at a near-miraculous pace. So, the group packed a white Econoline van with brand-new gear and $6,000 in merch that would help them finally capitalize on that acclaimed record. But on the way to the first gig, a car traveling at high speed rear-ended the band, driving them into an 18-wheeler truck. All four members escaped relatively unharmed, but the van caught fire. Everything but Ames’ pedalboard, the one responsible for those haunting reverbs and delays, was lost. Once again, the Austin community showed out for the band, donating another $29,220 to help the group get back on the road.
“It’s weird. I didn’t feel unlucky in those situations,” Jordan says. “It was this good luck in a bad situation kind of thing. It really put things in perspective.”
that made up Bummer Year. In the title track, Jordan forgives his high school friends for voting for Donald Trump, blaming a lack of class consciousness. They are the ones you “want with you in a bar fight,” he sings, and who “come a-racin’ in their stupid jacked-up truck” when you get a flat tire.
“A lot of folks think of it as a centrist song,” he says. “As a socialist, I feel the left has failed in winning people over and the right has obscured the interest
In the middle of the night, Jordan received a call that Ames was in intensive care. He’d been hit by a car outside the venue and suffered a traumatic brain injury, a fractured skull, a fractured tailbone, a broken bone in his ear, and more. Ames stabilized quickly and luckily, but required weeks of round-the-clock care from his mom and Jordan. Though Jordan played a few solo gigs, the band was forced to cancel its tour.
For weeks, Jordan sat by Ames’ bedside, helping his main collaborator relearn to walk, talk and, eventually,
Once again, Good Looks is walking on. The band’s second record, Lived Here For Awhile, drops in June. Jordan, who dives deeper into the abuse of his extreme-religious upbringing as well as political themes of gentrification and development, describes the album’s sound as “a little less Americana” and “a little noisier.”
This month, the band expects to play at least two or three shows during South by Southwest, a week that Jordan calls “an incredible experience.”
“You get to see all these bands in such a short window of time,” he says. “To be part of it… my brain can’t even process it.”
It’s almost as if that “Vision Board” has finally come true.
“Everything that 19-year-old me asked for has happened,” Jordan says. “I really can’t believe it.”
Working with everyone from David Byrne to Damon Albarn and Dev Haynes, Sinkane mastermind Ahmed Gallab is continuing to push his Sudanese pop-influenced music in surprising, dynamic directions. Blending free jazz, krautrock, prog, funk, and everything in between, Sinkane’s music pays tribute to the great suffering and great joy found in the Black American experience but always keeps you dancing.
Hyped as “the past, present, and future” of Australian music, Miss Kaninna is a proud Yorta Yorta, Djadja Wurrung, Kalkadoon, and Yirandhali woman from lutruwita/ Tasmania, bringing the attitude of punk and the inspiration of her ancestry to her bombastic hip-hop heaters. With her star rising on the strength of two singles, including the swaggering “Blak Britney,” it’s only a matter of time before Miss Kaninna catches on in the States.
After two years working on his PhD, Puerto Rico’s Pink Pablo dropped out of school and decamped to L.A. to focus on music full-time. It was a smart move. Pink Pablo traffics in a very 2020s version of pop music, which pulls from urbano and indie rock. His energetic shapeshifting is kept coherent through lyrics focused on the turbulence of youth and nostalgia for simpler times.
Japan-based singer-songwriter Ako combines the trappings of indie R&B, alternative rock, electronica, and J-pop with breathy vocals to create music that’s deeply melodic yet airy and ethereal. Ako’s music is regularly coupled with memorable and innovative videos but she only began performing live in 2023, so it will be interesting to see how that aspect of her art takes shape.
Occultist, nihilist e-girl, hyperpop provocateur, and self-proclaimed loner, Australia’s Zheani brings dark, feminine rage to brutish beats. Zheani’s music sounds like it was beamed directly from the darkest corner of cyberspace, where the only way to respond to the “Spiritual Meat Grinder every damn day” is to party like it’s the end of the world.
Music is often described as hypnotic, but has an artist actually tried to hypnotize their audience? Hypnosis Therapy, the South Korean duo comprised of producer Jflow and rapper Jjangyou, faithfully incorporate elements of hypnotherapy into their skittering, electro-hop bangers. Also flirting with elements of EDM and alternative rock, Hypnosis Therapy is in a lane all their own.
SEE PAGE 66 FOR OUR SXSW MIXTAPE FEATURING MORE OF OUR FAVORITE ARTISTS.
These punks from Brighton, UK were recently cited as Iggy Pop’s “favorite new band.” It’s not hard to see why: rip-snorting riffs, raucous attitude, and fearless lyrics abound on their latest EP, You’re Welcome Whether they’re taking down abusers in their local scene or coming out to their parents via a riot grrrl snarl, Lambrini Girls embody the grime and grace that can be found in the mosh pit.
Fust, the songwriting project from Aaron Dowdy, likely did not expect to have such attention when they started making home recordings in 2018. But with the rising tide of alt-country artists like Zach Bryan and a growing scene in Asheville that has spawned buzzy acts such as Wednesday and Indigo De Souza, Fust are in the right place at the right time. Wednesday’s MJ Lenderman and De Souza both contribute to Fust’s 2023 album Genevieve, which brings a literary bent to their twangy ballads.
Raised by musician parents in Boston and later San Francisco, Cameron Mesirow, who records under the moniker Glasser, uses her avant-garde upbringing and blends it with global folk music, experimental pop, and electronica to create soundscapes that emphasize circular melodies over traditional verse-chorus song structure. Glasser’s latest record, Crux, meditates on life and death while adding the influences of her Celtic and Scottish roots as a new wrinkle.
If alt-country was a trendy sound in indie music in 2023, shoegaze was the defining sonic subgenre of the year. Hong Kong-based indie rock band Arches are perhaps utilizing the signifiers of shoegaze—whispery vocals, powerful, pulsating, fuzzed-out guitars, and locked drum grooves— better than just about anyone. Citing influences you would expect, like Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, and Autolux, their upcoming debut album is one of our most anticipated.
Ten years ago, Ho99o9 (pronounced Horror) were playing New Jersey basements with nothing more than instrumentals on their iPhone and an aux cord. Now, the duo, influenced by hip-hop heavies like DMX as well as punk mainstays Black Flag, and Grindhouse movies, are playing to massive crowds and working with names like Travis Barker and Corey Taylor. Call them punk, hardcore hip-hop, death rap, whatever, but don’t miss their visceral live show.
Las Perlas, March 12
The Australian-based platform DistroDirect has curated one of the deepest showcase lineups, encompassing some of Australia’s most exciting and ecclectic artists: William Singe (soulful R&B), Keenan Te (keening pop), breathe. (electronica), and Miss Kaninna (rap/hip-hop).
Elysium, March 13
HELD THIS YEAR FROM MARCH 11-16, the SXSW Music Festival is once again bringing hundreds of artists to Austin—ranging from up-and-coming new bands to established acts. With so many options, it can be overwhelming to pick and choose what to see every night—so here are the must-attend showcases that caught our attention.
Elysium, March 11 + March 12
In Japan, Tokyo Calling is known for bringing together some of the country’s most promising artists. That same discovery-geared mindset extends to their eclectic official SXSW showcases, which take place over two nights at Elysium. The March 11 show is led by the ferocious GOKUMON, a System of a Downesque math-punk trio with co-ed vocals; flame-haired solo alt-rock act CHAMELEON LIME WHOOPIEPIE; and springy rock band BackDrop Cinderella. The following night’s showcase, titled Inspired by Tokyo, includes bouncy indie-rock act Helsinki Lambda Club and the R&B-favoring soft-pop solo artist luvis.
For Darkwave and electro-pop aficionados, this showcase featuring artists on the indie label Italians Do It Better is for you. The biggest name might be Johnny Jewel, a solo artist who’s a veteran of influential dark-disco acts Chromatics and Glass Candy. However, don’t sleep on Tempers—the sinewy synth-pop project of singer-songwriter Jasmine Golestaneh. Also check out the moody, futuristic Orion or the late-night vibes of Berlin electro act Minimal Schlager.
Swan Dive Patio, March 13
The annual M For Montreal festival is a carefully curated look at the Canadian city’s diverse music scene. This accompanying showcase is just as mesmerizing, courtesy of Winona Forever, who favor a perfect mix of indie-pop with a sophisticated gloss, as well as the bewitching solo newcomer Lola 1:2 and the debonair troupe Night Lunch. Indie rockers Love Language are a highlight—and whatever you do, don’t miss the Corridor, who are one of the most electrifying live acts of the festival.
The Creek and the Cave, March 13
The Wide Days Scotland showcase demonstrates the eclectic Scottish music scene. Fans of Ride and other noisy shoegaze bands will find much to love about Spyres, while VLURE offers a throwback to propulsive ’90s house and electro bangers. On the mellower side is the stark, folk-leaning songwriter Iona Zajac and Mama Terra; the latter offers intricate music that brings jazz into the 21st century.
The Velveeta Room, March 14
The Irish are making a strong showing at SXSW—led by gruff, vulnerable singer-songwriter Mick Flannery; Cardinals, who combine elements of The Big Music popularized by ’80s acts the Waterboys with tender alt-pop; and keyboard-sparkled rockers Soda Blonde. Also, give an ear to NewDad, who conjure the ominous shoegaze-pop favored by Curve and Lush, as well as the erudite Belfast rap group Kneecap.
Lamberts, March 14
Athens, Georgia, has a long history of producing world-shaking bands. This year’s event demonstrates why the college town continues to be an influence. Perhaps the biggest name is Pylon Reenactment Society: led by Vanessa Briscoe Hay—vocalist for post-punk icons Pylon—this new band preserves the loose art-rock vibes of early-’80s Athens. Other promising acts include Clover County—the dreamy indie-folk solo project by A.G. Schiano— power-pop wizard Elijah Johnston and strident rock band Heffner.
The 13th Floor, March 14
Don Giovanni has long been a haven for smart punk rock. This showcase illustrates their range, starting with riotous dance-punks Light Beams, buzzy rockers Bad Bad Hats, and queer country act Paisley Fields, with solo artists Maura Weaver and Tami Hart.
Lefty’s Brick Bar, March 14
The British music/culture magazine CLASH Music rarely steers people wrong—and this showcase is no exception, starting with Harry Styles’ music director/percussionist Pauli The PSM, whose charismatic stage presence is rivaled only by shapeshifting music inspired by every genre imaginable. Also check out the raucous New York City punk band Gnarcissists and Alice Ivy, an ARIA-nominated electronic producer from Melbourne, Australia, who recently collaborated with Mayer Hawthorne on the jam “Howlin’ At The New Moon.”
With hot topics like AI grabbing the spotlight, tech panels are taking center stage like never before.
BY MICHAEL AHR & ILLUSTRATION BY CHLOE LEWISTECHNOLOGY TOPICS HAVE ALWAYS BEEN A MAINSTAY AT SXSW, but this year’s festival will feature some exceptional presentations. Whether you’re a futurist looking at big-picture ideas in the “2050” track or a musician seeking innovations of creative expression in the “Music & Tech” arena, there’s a panel for just about anyone who thinks outside the box.
We’ve chosen a few panels that seem particularly interesting for those looking for recommendations, starting with the keynote speakers, who are definitely on the cutting edge of their respective fields!
As in any creative field, the impact of generative artificial intelligence in the music industry is largely felt by human creators wanting to be supported, not replaced, by technology.
Panelists Andreea Gleeson of TuneCore and Daouda Leonard of CreateSafe will present principles to guide their industry as they engage with AI, building on lessons learned from early interactions with the technology.
The panelists in this session came from outside the gaming world to lend their unique perspectives of what worked in their previous fields and how those lessons can be applied to gaming. The founders of Rotten Tomatoes, Kabam, and Crunchyroll share their journeys and how they’ve leveraged the power of community to find success with their games and those who play them.
As the Academy Award-winning directors and writers of the surreal film Everything Everywhere All at Once, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert are used to unconventional thinking. In this keynote, the “Daniels” plan on exploring several tangents beyond their acclaimed filmmaking, including their thoughts on “the state of the world, the impending climate crisis, the collapse of consensus truth, the rise of AI, the importance and impossibility of self-care, and our collective responsibility as storytellers to confront the issues of our time.”
Dr. Lisa Su, the other featured keynote speaker this year, isn’t merely the chief executive officer of AMD, a leader in the world of computers and semiconductors; she’s also led the company in its creative forays into films like The Creator through partnerships with Industrial Light & Magic and beyond. Su will be joined by futurist and TV news commentator Ryan Patel.
Generative AI is still far from perfect, and the panelists in this session want to “keep it weird.” Brooke Hopper from Adobe and Debbie Millman from The School of Visual Arts will discuss how designers can embrace the strange results AI produces when asked to deal with human anatomy or even the laws of gravity. The idea is to accelerate creativity rather than replace human ingenuity.
Get a broad overview of burgeoning trends in technology with this popular recurring session at SXSW: the Tech Trends Report from noted futurist Amy Webb, CEO of the Future Today Institute and professor at the NYU Stern School of Business. Dig deep into the data that points towards what we can expect to see in the world of technology in 2024. Attendees will receive a special SXSW edition of the Tech Trend Report.
Although AI appears across several tracks at this year’s SXSW, what better person to feature in the dedicated artificial intelligence category than OpenAI’s Head of ChatGPT, Peter Deng? Joining Deng is Josh Constine, consumer VC at SignalFire and former TechCrunch editor, as he discusses the practical and philosophical implications of generative AI and how this transformative technology will affect humanity’s future.
AS SXSW CONTINUES TO GROW, the annual event’s focus on video games grows along with it. Through that expansion, the line between gaming and every other entertainment medium becomes a bit blurrier year after year. Perhaps it should be no surprise that many of SXSW 2024’s biggest video game panels explore not just the video game industry but how that industry’s growth impacts other forms of entertainment and our culture at large.
• Sunday, March 10
• 2:30 pm to 3:30 pm CT
• Fairmont | Manchester GG
More people consider themselves to be gamers than ever before, but how well are those gamers represented in the games they play? This panel will explore why diversity in gaming matters, the progress the industry has made thus far, and what work still needs to be done in order to ensure our favorite games reflect historically marginalized groups of gamers.
• Monday, March 11
• 2:30 pm to 3:30 pm CT
• Fairmont | Manchester EE
In this simply stated panel, Rachel Kowert of the non-profit Take This discusses the history of various societal problems being at least partially blamed on video games. More than just a rebuttal of that misconception, Kowert intends to explore some of the ways that video games can actually help address foundational societal issues in a positive way.
2024’s best gaming panels offer gamers the chance to celebrate the past, present, and future of the medium.
BY MATTHEW BYRD & ILLUSTRATION BY CHLOE LEWIS• Monday, March 11
• 2:30 pm to 3:30 pm CT
• Fairmont | Manchester GG
Many of us turn to video games to relax, escape, and enjoy. Yet, we are only just beginning to understand the therapeutic values of the medium. This panel dives into the exciting future of “immersive medicine” by exploring how current and future video game mechanics may be the key to unlocking new forms of mental health treatment.
• Monday, March 11
• 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm CT
• Fairmont | Manchester EE
While there have been video games based on movies for almost as long as there have been video games, many of those adaptations have been simple retellings or exist independently of their source material. But what if the relationship between games and movies was more harmonious than that? This panel will explore the upcoming Dune: Part Two movie and game as an example of how transmedia storytelling can help creators craft an adventure across multiple mediums.
• Tuesday, March 12
• 11:30 am to 12:30 pm CT
• Fairmont | Manchester GG
In recent years, the wildly popular battle royale game Fortnite has played host to in-game music concerts featuring artists like Travis Scott, Eminem, and Marshmello. What began as a novelty has grown into a phenomenon. In this panel, representatives from Fortnite studio Epic Games and the music industry discuss the challenges of putting these events together and why they are so important in an ever-changing music industry where artists are looking for new ways to connect with their fans.
• Tuesday, March 12
• 2:30 pm to 3:30 pm CT
• Fairmont | Manchester EE
In 2023, composer Stephanie Economou won the first-ever Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media for her work on Assassin’s Creed
Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarök. In this panel, Economou and Ubisoft Music Supervisor Simon Landry discuss the process of crafting that award-winning soundtrack and what this recently added category says about the growing recognition and respect for this uniquely challenging art form.
The venerable sci-fi franchise has produced a plethora of merchandise. We boldly go to strange new worlds to find some of the rarest and most obscure Star Trek collectibles of all time.BY
RYAN BRITT
This story is part of an editorial series presented by eBay.
AS ONE OF THE LONGEST-RUNNING SCI-FI FRANCHISES of all time, Star Trek has generated more than its fair share of merchandise. Before Star Wars and before the MCU, the ruler of geeky ephemera was easily Star Trek.
In 2024, Star Trek is bigger than ever. Not only is it celebrating the 60th anniversary of the filming of the first episode ever—“The Cage” in 1964— but this year is the 40th anniversary of one of the most pivotal films in the franchise ever, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. On TV, this spring will see the return of Star Trek: Discovery, which will host a premiere at the SXSW Film & TV festival, for its fifth and final season, while a new Michelle Yeoh-led Section 31 film is actively filming and expected to drop late this year. Meanwhile, the hush-hush Starfleet Academy series is ramping up, indicating that the Final Frontier isn’t going away any time soon.
From the very beginning, Star Trek has created some wild and cool Star Trek stuff. From action figures to comics to trading cards and more, the amount of Star Trek collectibles is as vast as it is complicated. But over the course of a nearly 60-year mission, which Star Trek collectibles are truly the strangest? Here’s a brief guide to some of the boldest, rarest, and most fascinating Star Trek collectibles you can pick up on eBay.
Marvel Comics has possessed the license to make Star Trek comics only twice, and each time, the tenure was very short. The first time was from 1979 to 1981 and was connected to the release of The Motion Picture. But the second time, from 1996 to 1998, was easily the most interesting. Although this period produced several cool titles, the Early Voyages series is the one to look out for now. Well before Paramount created Strange New Worlds, the Early Voyages comic series focused on the adventures of Captain Pike, Spock, Number One, and the crew of the Enterprise before The Original Series
The individual issues aren’t super expensive on eBay, but tracking down each issue makes collecting this series pretty fun. Detail-obsessed fans will also get a kick out of issue #14, when, in an alternate future, Captain Pike is rocking a movie-era monster maroon uniform. Yep! Just like in the 2022 Strange New Worlds season one finale! Prices for individual Early Voyages issues vary, but you can generally get the whole series for under $50.
Star Trek trading cards have existed since 1967, but the first set to really go hardcore on super obscure details is the 1979 Star Trek: The Motion Picture set from Topps. For those who don’t remember the extremely random “Alien Insectoid" and "Betel’s Attendant” from the movie, you’re forgiven. These creatures were mostly glimpsed as background aliens when Kirk arrives at Federation headquarters. In the case of “Betel’s Attendant,” this alien is a Betelgeusian, a deeply obscure Star Trek species that wasn’t really re-canonized until 2019 in Star Trek: Discovery. While some cards from the 1979 Topps set are easier to get, the super-rare "Alien Insectoid" and "Betel’s Attendant" tend to be worth at least a thousand dollars.
This one-of-a-kind jacket was created only for the cast and crew of The Voyage Home in 1986. Interestingly, this jacket also features a massive spoiler on the back since it depicts the reborn Enterprise-A hovering above the Golden Gate Bridge. Obviously, the Enterprise doesn’t fly this close to the Earth in the movie, but the revelation that the Enterprise returns only happens at the end of the movie! Either way, it’s really fun to imagine Leonard Nimoy wearing this jacket while directing the movie. There are only a few of these floating around, and they tend to run between $200 and $400.
In October 1967, Gold Key Comics launched a Star Trek series in which artist Alberto Giolitti recreated the Enterprise crew only from publicity photos. This results in a wacky throughthe-looking-glass version of the crew, which is both gorgeous and bizarre. In the Gold Key Trek universe, the classic Enterprise has “thousands” of crew members, the transporter is called the “teleporter,” and everybody is still rocking lasers. Spock also gets pretty upset in the first issue. And don’t even mention the uniform colors.
There are a lot of great Star Trek Funkos, but the coolest one is actually a New York Comic Con exclusive that dropped in 2023. It features Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) in the captain’s chair of the USS Enterprise, NCC-1701-D. But Geordi is rocking a red uniform here, which means this moment comes from season one of The Next Generation. And the captain’s chair Geordi is sitting in may not be the one you think it is.
Early issues often featured photo montages on the cover, including the first issue, which sported Spock holding a beaker looking ready to do some science. The actual story inside this first Trek comic was called “The Planet of No Return” and is mostly about killer plants. If this story was ever made into an actual episode, the crew killing all the plant aliens would cause a bigger controversy than anything anyone has ever said about much debated episode “Tuvix.” The Gold Key Trek comics are wonderfully wacky, though, and the first issue goes for about $500.
While still rocking that red, Geordi took command in the TNG season one episode “The Arsenal of Freedom.” This is one of a handful of episodes in TNG in which the Enterprise separates into two ships—the saucer section and the battle section. For most of the episode, Geordi commands the Enterprise from the battle bridge, and this Funko seems to represent that moment, which literally only happened in one episode.
Over the years, various companies have created limited-release Star Trek cups and glassware to tie in with the release of a new series or film. The most enduring and legitimately cool examples of this are probably the 1984 Taco Bell glasses created for The Search for Spock. These four glasses are fairly easy to track down, and a complete set can cost anywhere from $50 to $100.
In 1987, you could put your ICEE in special Star Trek: The Next Generation plastic cups from Circle K and other places that sold ICEEs. Today, these are pretty hard to track down, and some factory-sealed boxes cost about $140. However, the actual set of cups can be closer to $60. Warning: Picard’s eyes look really weird.
Lastly, and probably the coolest in the wild Star Trek promotional cup category, are the ICEE cups created for Deep Space Nine in 1993. These are unique because instead of photographs from the show, the cups had wonderful art created for the Malibu Comics adaptation of DS9. These aren’t too expensive, but getting a complete set of four cups is very, very difficult!
For years, the good people at Eaglemoss produced high-quality replicas of various starships from the Star Trek canon, so many, in fact, that they even created models of some ships that never existed. But in 2022, Eaglemoss went out of business, which meant that some of the last ships produced by the company became very rare. One of those ships was the USS Titan, as featured in Lower Decks season one and season two. This was Riker’s first Titan before the Titan-A we saw in Picard season three. The Lower Decks version is tough to track down, meaning it will set you back at least $120.
In 2002, just one year after Enterprise debuted, Art Asylum created an astoundingly accurate roleplaying set featuring the Phase Pistol and Communicator from the 22nd century version of Starfleet. Like the rest of the aesthetic design of Enterprise, the precursor to the phaser was designed to be retro-futuristic, predating the gear of The Original Series. But this toy Phase Pistol holds a unique distinction in Star Trek history. Eventually, the producers of Enterprise replaced the Phase Pistol prop with the toy version. Basically, the toy produced by Art Asylum looked better and was cheaper to make than the props created for the series. So, if you snag one of these Phase Pistols, you’re getting a Star Trek toy that is also a legitimate Star Trek prop. Because of the notoriety of these toys, the 2002 Trek Tech set can fetch up to $400.
SOMETIMES, STAR TREK TIE-IN MERCHANDISE IS SO WEIRD that it can’t even be contained by the widely expansive canon of the series itself. While the continuity of Star Trek is actually pretty flexible relative to other franchises, these items totally break canon—or do they?
This is the big one! Released in 1976 by Enco Industries, this toy was, at the time, called “The Official Star Trek Helmet." This outrageous toy had a red light on top and a black antenna. And although we call it the “Spock Helmet,” it actually came with decals that let you affix the names of different crew members, including Kirk, McCoy, and Scott. Just in case you’re not clear on this, nobody ever wore anything like this in The Original Series. But in 2020, Lower Decks finally did canonize this helmet, as it was revealed to be part of Beckett Mariner’s “contraband.” In 2019, Ethan Peck—Spock on Strange New Worlds and Discovery—unboxed a 1976 Spock Helmet for StarTrek.com. Arguably, nobody has looked better wearing this helmet, but if you want to get one for yourself, you’ll need about $800 for the one in the box and about $50 for the one out of the box.
In 1994, you could not buy standalone versions of Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock as action figures from Playmates. But at that time you could get mashup versions of Kirk and Spock as Ninja Turtles! In one of the strangest crossovers ever, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were turned into faux-versions of Kirk, Spock, Bones, and Scotty. These Starfleet turtles came with an assortment of legit Trek gear, as well as their normal ninja weapons.
Sometimes billed as the “first Star Trek toy,” this rifle toy was clearly a repackaged version of another toy. While the toy claims you can “launch a flight of jet-discs into space,” nothing like this exists in the canon of Star Trek. Even in episodes in which the crew travels back in time or gets stuck in war game simulations, nobody ever has a Tracer-Scope Rifle. But that doesn’t stop this strange aberration from being very, very valuable. Some versions of this 1968 toy rifle are upwards in the range of $3,000, still in the box.
Without a doubt, the most bizarre Star Trek crossover of all time was the moment when the crew of the classic Enterprise crossed over with the X-Men. During the 30th anniversary of Star Trek in 1996, Marvel wasted no time in taking advantage of obtaining the license to make Trek comics. Could this make sense in some kind of multiverse? Better yet, could somebody try to actually turn this into a movie in our lifetimes? Come for the bonkers premise, but stay for the meeting of the minds between Spock and Beast.
In 1967, the first Star Trek series was ending its first season and beginning its second. And so, trading cards were created by a company called Leaf. Without a doubt, these are the strangest Star Trek cards ever, specifically because nearly every single card describes a story or situation that never happened in any Trek episode. Here are a few examples: Card #42 features a photo of Captain Kirk with the title “Kirk Outside Spock Inside.” The text on the back of the card then describes the scenario as a body-swap story in which crew members “see Captain Kirk, but the personality is Mr. Spock.” In order to undo this freaky mishap, Dr. McCoy has to use “shock ion treatment” to switch their personalities back. Obviously, this episode of Star Trek doesn’t exist, even though the setup is similar to the 2022 Strange New Worlds episode “Spock Amok,” in which Spock and T’Pring switched bodies.
That said, we likely won’t see an episode like Card #23 any time soon. This one is called “Teeny Bopper” and features an image of Spock and Bones in what looks like an outtake. The description reads: “A weird gas causes Spock to believe he is a 1967 teeny bopper. Dr. McCoy attempts to restrain him. There appears no antidote.” These cards vary in value, but the best ones tend to go for hundreds of dollars.
Want a sample of the wide range of acts hitting Austin? Our official Den of Geek playlist has a little something for everyone.
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