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    ‘Thunderbolts*’ Axes the Asterisk for Surprise Title Reveal

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    A plot twist that comes in the movie’s final moments will now be front and center on billboards. The director Jake Schreier explains the rebrand.If you wondered why there’s an asterisk attached to the title of the new movie “Thunderbolts*,” you won’t have to wait any longer to find out.Sure, you could have satisfied your curiosity the old-fashioned way by seeing the movie in theaters over the weekend, where it claimed the No. 1 spot at the box office. But as of Monday morning, the big reveal teased by that symbol will now be front and center on the movie’s billboards, which have switched from “Thunderbolts*” to the surprising title introduced in the film’s closing credits.(If you would like to remain unspoiled, read no further and avert your eyes from billboards for the time being.)So long, Thunderbolts: This team of misfits, headed by Florence Pugh’s weary assassin, Yelena Belova, ends the film rebranded as “The New Avengers.” And now, on billboards, the movie itself will follow suit.The name change happens in the final scene of the Jake Schreier-directed film: The wily C.I.A. director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) tricks the newly assembled superteam into storming a news conference at which she introduces them to the world as the New Avengers. Then, as the end credits begin, the title “Thunderbolts*” is ripped away like a comic-book page, revealing the new moniker.After three days in theaters, that rebrand has now made its way to billboards. “It felt like, if Val is also trying to pull a switcheroo and sell the New Avengers to the world, we could do that, too,” Schreier said in an interview with The Times on Saturday. “Especially given that the asterisk has been on the movie for a year, hopefully it doesn’t feel sweaty — it feels like this was a plan and we built up to it.”Incorporating the new moniker into the marketing may also be an acknowledgment that keeping a movie secret is harder than ever these days, when surprises can be splashed across social media within milliseconds of release. Schreier, who pitched the asterisk during his initial meetings on the movie, credits Marvel Studios and its president, Kevin Feige, for a willingness to experiment with the title switch.“It’s very fun that they were open to embracing that,” Schreier said. He acknowledged that clips containing the spoiler have already made their way online, so why not make it work in their favor?“It’s so interesting in this world, and Kevin talks about it sometimes, where sometimes they wanted things to leak and they don’t,” Schreier said. “I think we all assumed that it would be a bigger part of the conversation already, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens.” More

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      in Music

      Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’s Path From Harlem to Stardom, and Now Federal Court

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      Jason Swain was on his way home to the Bronx when friends told him that something had happened to his brother at a charity basketball game in Harlem. Nine young people at a City College of New York gymnasium were crushed to death in an overcrowded stairwell. Dirk Swain, 21, was lying on the gym floor with a sheet draped over his body.The promoter of the December 1991 event was a 22-year-old novice music producer named Sean Combs.For more than six years, the Swains and other families pursued wrongful death suits, saying Mr. Combs had oversold the game, and that bad planning and inadequate security had led to the tragedy. By the time their cases were settled, Mr. Combs had skyrocketed from a junior record label employee to global superstardom; the $750,000 that he contributed to the $3.8 million in settlements represented a fraction of his wealth as hip-hop’s newest, flashiest mogul.Mr. Combs never accepted full responsibility for the deaths and, for many people, the stampede faded into history. But not for the families who lost their loved ones.“Every one of those nine people was doing something positive in their life,” Mr. Swain said in an interview.The City College incident was Mr. Combs’s first moment of notoriety, but far from his last. In the ensuing three decades, he has repeatedly faced allegations of violence or serious misconduct. The beating of a rival music executive. Gunshots fired in a nightclub. The threatening of a reality-TV cast member. An assault of a college football coach.If found guilty of all charges, Sean Combs, who has spent the last seven months in a Brooklyn jail, could spend the rest of his life in prison.Willy Sanjuan/Invision, via Associated PressWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Music

      Goose Rules the Jam-Band Roost (Sorry, Haters)

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      A monkey, a giraffe, a pair of goth nuns, a bee holding flowers and an old-timey circus strongman made their way through the crowd last month at Luna Luna, the lost art carnival, in Manhattan.Fans of the 11-year-old jam band Goose were wise to what they were witnessing. “They’re from the band’s lore,” one explained spying the performers, who had assembled to help announce a new Goose album, “Everything Must Go.” Soon the four members of Goose and a guest saxophonist situated themselves in the center of the crowd of hundreds that fanned out to Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Ferris wheel and Keith Haring’s carousel, and began an hourlong jam.Creative, intentional, extremely eager to please: The whole thing was very Goose.A jam band “is like a sitcom,” said Cotter Ellis, Goose’s drummer. “When you watch a show like ‘The Office,’ after a while you feel like you know the characters. That’s how people view us — they feel they’re such a part of the scene that they actually get to know us.”Ellis, 33, who earlier had strolled anonymously around Luna Luna dressed as a lion, added, “I like that. I don’t want to be seen as better than the crowd. I want it to be seen as, ‘We’re all in this together.’”“Everything Must Go,” a 14-song set that features major-key tunes with lyrics alternately goofy and uplifting, a prog-y instrumental number and a new single, the Don Henley-inflected “Your Direction,” comes as the group solidifies its status as rock’s biggest “new” jam band. On Thursday, Goose will make its debut at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, followed by its first destination festival — Viva el Gonzo, next month in San José del Cabo, Mexico — and a sold-out headlining concert in June at Madison Square Garden, long the site of heralded residencies by the jam great Phish. Together, it all inescapably feels like an anointment.“Within the community, there’s all this talk of, ‘Who’s coming next?’” said Peter Anspach, Goose’s keyboardist. “You see the lineage of the Grateful Dead, Phish. ‘Well, what’s going to happen after this?’ Is it going to be a pool of bands? Is it going to be, like, one pinnacle band?”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Movies

      Robert E. McGinnis, Illustrator Behind Classic ‘James Bond’ Posters, Dies at 99

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      Robert E. McGinnis, an illustrator whose lusty, photorealistic artwork of curvaceous women adorned more than 1,200 pulp paperbacks, as well as classic movie posters for “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” featuring Audrey Hepburn with a cigarette holder, and James Bond adventures including “Thunderball,” died on March 10 at his home in Old Greenwich, Conn. He was 99.His family confirmed the death.Mr. McGinnis’s female figures from the 1960s and ’70s flaunted a bold sexuality, often in a state of semi undress, whether on the covers of detective novels by John D. MacDonald or on posters for movies like “Barbarella” (1968), with a bikini-clad Jane Fonda, or Bond films starring Sean Connery and Roger Moore.1968‘Barbarella’Paramount, via Corbis/Getty ImagesBeginning in 1958, he painted book covers for espionage, crime, Western, fantasy and other genre series — generally cheap paperbacks meant to grab a male reader’s eye in a drugstore, only to be quickly read and discarded.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Music

      The Hype at Coachella This Year? Billboards.

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      By most accounts, the 130-mile drive from Los Angeles to the first weekend of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival last week was hot, congested and generally unpleasant.But there has been at least one bright spot for the 200,000 or so dehydrated, impatient and aggrieved fans who make the trek for one or both of the three-day events each year: clever billboards.Artists have advertised their sets on the giant placards that dot the route into Indio, Calif., for years. But the 2025 event reached critical mass, in terms of quantity and creativity.“This year was an absolute explosion,” said Morgan Rose, a director of client partnerships at Wilkins Media, who has been doling out highly coveted space on the boards since last fall. “Eleven months out of the year they are completely worthless,” he added.But not this one.Those who bother to look out the windows while slogging down the 10 East may see a billboard for Charli XCX that features her signature shade of green and wonder, “Why did she cross out ‘Brat?’” Or one for Tyla, who is all wet, asking “Got water?” Or one informing all comers in all-caps, “It’s Pronounced Djo.”“Not particularly helpful,” Djo’s manager, Nick Stern, conceded. (The artist in question is the actor Joe Keery, who put out his third album this month.) “But it does lead people to ask and go look.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Television

      In ‘Your Friends & Neighbors,’ the Watches Steal the Show

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      “Your Friends & Neighbors” strives to comment on the vacuousness of wealth while simultaneously glorifying the spoils of being really, really rich.It appeared as if Jon Hamm were, once again, selling us something.Mr. Hamm, who has lent his assertive baritone to Mercedes-Benz ads, an American Airlines spot and a Super Bowl intro, was this time on television enumerating the merits of an expensive wristwatch. Only this time, it wasn’t for an ad. It was a scene from the first episode of “Your Friends & Neighbors,” by Apple TV+, a new soft satire of the financially fortunate.“The Patek Philippe Nautilus sealed 18-karat white-gold blue sunburst dial, water-resistant up to 30 meters,” Mr. Hamm intoned in voice-over, as graphics whizzed across the screen noting the watch’s 2.3-millimeter thickness and other wonky specs. Up flashed the price of this timepiece: $70,110 at retail, but around $169,000 on the resale market.In the show’s first episode, Andrew Cooper, a hedge fund titan who is played by Mr. Hamm and goes by the nickname Coop, finds himself unceremoniously out of a job. With a shriveling bank account and a money-burning lifestyle, he turns to robbing his well-off neighbors.His first target is the Patek. As Coop pulls the watch from a cubbyhole of similar timepieces, he treats viewers to a data-dense recap of what makes the watch so special — and, by extension, so worth stealing.“Like the ads say, you never actually own a Patek Philippe,” Mr. Hamm says in character. “You merely look after it for the next generation.”In the series, Mr. Hamm plays Andrew Cooper, a hedge fund titan who ends up stealing from friends after losing his job.Apple TV+We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 125 Shares99 Views

      in Television

      Rick Levine, Who Gave Commercials Cinematic Flair, Dies at 94

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      An award-winning director, he created ads for brands like Diet Pepsi (starring Michael J. Fox) and Wells Fargo by bringing a Hollywood sensibility to the small screen.Rick Levine, an award-winning television commercial director who brought a big-screen sensibility to the small screen with widely celebrated spots, like a Diet Pepsi Super Bowl ad from the 1980s featuring Michael J. Fox risking life and limb for love, died on March 11 at his home in Marina del Rey, Calif. He was 94.The death was confirmed by his daughter Abby LaRocca.Mr. Levine was a product of what is often called the golden age of advertising, rising in the business through the “Mad Men” era of the 1960s and founding his own company, Rick Levine Productions, in 1972. It was a time when network television held a hypnotic sway over the average American household, and advertising, like so many other cultural arenas of the era, was exploding in creativity.Often serving as his own cinematographer, Mr. Levine approached his big-budget commercials like a director of Hollywood blockbusters.“We decided to make our ads look as good as films,” he said in a 2009 interview with DGA Quarterly, published by the Directors Guild of America. “I would direct and shoot, so I would have complete control.”The Guild named him the best commercial director in 1981 and 1988, in particular for three specific spots.Most notable among them was the Diet Pepsi commercial with Mr. Fox, which Mr. Levine made for BBDO New York; it was one of many ads he shot for Pepsi.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 138 Shares159 Views

      in Television

      ‘The White Lotus’ Luxury: How Branded Collaborations Are Capitalizing on Privilege

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      The hit HBO series satirizes luxury vacationers’ privilege. That hasn’t slowed demand for branded collaborations that sell the show’s lavish lifestyle.Ahead of the much-anticipated Season 3 finale of “The White Lotus,” HBO’s dark comedy-drama that skewers self-absorbed luxury travelers, some fans will be able to immerse themselves in a version of the show’s opulent settings.The Four Seasons Hotel Westlake Village, in the foothills of California’s Santa Monica Mountains, is offering an “exclusive luxury wellness retreat,” set to begin hours ahead of the finale’s airing on Sunday. The experience is intended to “capture the essence” of this season’s Thailand location.“We’re inviting fans to go beyond watching ‘The White Lotus’ and truly experience it,” Pia Barlow, HBO and Max’s executive vice president of originals marketing, said in a news release about the campaign.The retreat is only one of many “White Lotus” experiences and products pegged to the current season. The premium luggage company Away sold out its “White Lotus” capsule collection, complete with lotus flower-printed interior lining. Clothing retailers including H&M, Abercrombie & Fitch, Bloomingdale’s and Banana Republic have all offered show-inspired resort apparel. (Patrick Schwarzenegger, a star of the season, modeled for Banana Republic.) There is “White Lotus” wallpaper, sunscreen and a travel skin-care set in a branded beach tote. Sunglasses, candles, chocolates and even a Thai coffee-flavored creamer can be purchased by viewers looking to live like the show’s wealthy protagonists.But truly experiencing “The White Lotus” is an inherently dicey proposition. The primary motif of the series — created, written and directed by Mike White — has always been to satirize the wealthy who, even while enveloped by the world’s most tranquil and extraordinary surroundings, can’t help but indulge their egos or keep up with their ever-growing list of grievances. They can’t relax either.“I just was like, I should just do a show about people on vacation who have money, and how money is impacting all of their relationships,” White told The New York Times in 2021, ahead of the Season 1 premiere.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Theater

      ‘Boop!’ Arrives on Broadway, With a Surprising 100-Year Back Story

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      Betty Boop has arrived on Broadway, nearly a century after she first boop-oop-a-dooped her way onto the big screen. “Boop! The Musical,” like the “Barbie” and “Elf” films that preceded it, imagines a transformational encounter between an anthropomorphic character and the real world (well, a fictional world full of people).Betty’s journey to the stage has been an unusual one. The original character didn’t have much of a back story, which has made her an appealing blank slate for storytellers. But her image — and Betty, at her core, is a remarkably long-lived illustration — has managed to straddle media and merchandise, surviving court battles and changing mores.“Her popularity goes on and on,” said Peter Benjaminson, author of “The Life and Times of Betty Boop.” “The musical is the latest in a series of incarnations.”Film DebutThe 1930 animated short “Dizzy Dishes.”Fleischer Studios, Inc.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More