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Fiery football action started in Weekly Shonen Jump this week with the launch of Embers in the magazine, as well as in English on the Shonen Jump app and Manga Plus. Embers is the first manga by writer Kei Kurumazaki and artist Sotaro Nishii, who previously was an assistant on the popular soccer manga Blue Lock . To celebrate the publication of Embers ’ first chapter, the Japanese Shonen Jump YouTube channel released a video introducing the series' lead characters. Embers Manga Trailer Embers is available to read in English from Viz media and Manga Plus . The series is described as such: Middle school brawler Noboru Haitani has never lost a fight. But the bitter taste of a soccer defeat gradually warms him up to the sport, until one day Haitani finds himself in a match against a team featuring middle school soccer prodigy Takami. An outlaw fights his way into the world of soccer!

Official Blue Lock series artist Yusuke Nomura has taken to social media to hype up a brand-new manga coming to Weekly Shonen Jump, calling it and its own artist -- a well-known acquaintance of his -- 'scary.'

Embers is a new soccer-focused manga set to debut in Weekly Shonen Jump Issue #10, written by Kei Kurumazagi and illustrated by Soutarou Nishii. The story will center on Haitani, a delinquent who is very good at fighting, and his introduction to soccer. Manga fans have been showing growing excitement for the title, as it is reminiscent of classics like Slam Dunk. Nomura, seeing some strong competition for Blue Lock in the newcomer, has joked that Nishii is "out to crush" Blue Lock. His good-natured support isn't all that surprising, given that Nishii was originally a staff member of Blue Lock's manga team and was responsible for many of the dynamic backgrounds.

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From Embers, which stars Matthew Morrison and Kara Wang, deals with some heavy topics throughout its runtime, including alcoholism and raising a child with autism.

The movie follows Wang’s Lily Xu, who is a recently widowed single mother that has an autistic son named Kevin (played by Alexander J. Lee). While her husband’s death was ruled an accident, she started to suspect something else was at play.

Lily soon meets Matthew Morrison’s Marty Baker, a neighbor who takes a liking to her and starts to help in her daily struggles—while he himself is dealing with alcoholism behind closed doors.

Read full article on The Direct.

Exclusive: There was a top-secret code name on the sides Ruth Bradley was sent to prepare for an audition. “I didn’t know who the characters were, I didn’t know what the show was, but I was like, this dialogue is some of the best dialogue I’ve ever read.”

Bradley immediately emailed her agent: “Who wrote this stuff? It’s amazing.”

Smiling, Bradley recounts: ”They said, ‘Well, actually, it’s Slow Horses.”

That was Bradley’s prelude into the world of Slow Horses and Jackson Lamb, the Falstaffian slob who came in from the cold to oversee intelligence service agents exiled to serve out of harm’s way — they think — in a dilapidated dwelling known as Slough House.

Bradley, at that point, had vaguely heard of Mick Herron’s series of award-winning thrillers upon which the show is based, but she hadn’t then seen any of the...

John Hsu’s Taiwanese supernatural comedy Dead Talents Society has scored 11 nominations for the 61st Golden Horse Awards, followed by Tom Lin’s Yen And Ai-Lee and Geng Jun’s Bel Ami, with eight nods each.

Dead Talents Society and Bel Ami are among the five films competing in the best film category, along with Ray Yeung’s All Shall Be Well, Yeo Siew Hua’s Stranger Eyes and Lou Ye’s An Unfinished Film. The same five films are also running in the best director category.

They reflect the overall representation at this year’s Golden Horse Awards, with the participation of Hong Kong,...

Dream Theater keyboardist Jordan Rudess has unveiled a new solo single, “Embers,” that was made in collaboration with the Moises AI platform.

Rudess composed “Embers” specifically for the Moises Jam Sessions contest, illustrating how the AI platform can help improve musical workflow.

“The inspiration for creating this track coincided with a project I was asked to do for the app, Moises, a technology that can turn standard audio files into separate tracks while also showing chords, lyrics and more,” stated Rudess in a press release.

The song will also be included on Rudess’ forthcoming solo album — due out later in 2024 — and the piece very much stands on its own outside of any tie-ins to the AI app.

Dream Theater fans will recognize Rudess’ innate ability to layer myriad musical textures, guiding the mellow four-minute song with sweeping major chords and uplifting melodies. Accompanying Rudess on the track is drummer Darby Todd,...

Amy Forsyth and Christian Cooke have joined the cast of “Plainclothes,” a new independent film from writer-director Carmen Emmi. They will star alongside Tom Blyth and Russell Tovey, who Variety previously reported would lead the project.

Set in the ’90s and inspired by true events, the film follows a working-class undercover officer tasked with entrapping and apprehending gay men, only to find himself drawn to one of his targets. The film is produced by Arthur Landon, Colby Cote, and Eric Podwall on behalf of Page 1 Entertainment and Lorton Entertainment. Alex Wenger and April Kelley will co-produce.

Forsyth will play Emily, ex-girlfriend and trusted confidant to Lucas (Blyth). She received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for best supporting actress for her role in the 2021 film “The Novice.” She was also seen in the Oscar-winning film “Coda” that same year. She currently stars in the recurring role of Carrie Astor on...

Mark Morton, the guitarist who co-founded the heavy-metal group Lamb of God three decades ago, will release a memoir this summer that looks back on the triumphs and tragedies of his life so far.

In the book Desolation: A Heavy Metal Memoir, which will come out June 25, the musician reflects on how he felt like he had to push forward with the band even after the death of his newborn daughter in 2009. That event and the perpetual motion of band life led him to addiction. His story, which he co-wrote with author Ben Opipari,...

A nine-film retrospective of Indian cinema acting legend Amitabh Bachchan is set for the Festival des 3 Continents in Nantes, France.

The retrospective, titled “Amitabh Bachchan, Big B Forever,” will showcase different aspects of the actor’s oeuvre including his persona as the ‘angry young man,’ created by writers Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, action, drama, romance and comedy in some of the greatest films of Hindi-language cinema including “Sholay,” “Deewar,” “Don,” “Kabhie Kabhie” and “Amar Akbar Anthony.” The directors are also legends of Indian cinema including Yash Chopra, Ramesh Sippy, Manmohan Desai and Hrishikesh Mukherjee.

The showcase is co-presented by Film Heritage Foundation, the not-for-profit organization founded by filmmaker and archivist Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, which over the past year has hosted a series of hugely successful retrospectives in cinemas across India, including “Bachchan Back To The Beginning,” “Dilip Kumar – Hero of Heroes” and “Dev Anand @ 100 – Forever Young.”

Amitabh Bachchan said:...

Christian Cooke’s directorial debut ‘Embers’ is among the world premieres.

The UK premieres of Jack Huston’s Day Of The Fight and Isabel Coixet’s Un Amor will respectively open and close the 31st Raindance Film Festival, which will take place in London from October 25 – November 4.

Day Of The Flight launched in Horizons at Venice earlier this month, It is the directorial debut of UK actor Huston and stars Michael Pitt, Ron Perlman and Joe Pesci in a story about a once-renowned boxer on his first day out of prison.

Coixet’s latest feature Un Amor stars Lai Costa...

Exclusive: UTA has signed Academy Award-nominated and Primetime Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Rory Kennedy for worldwide representation in all areas.

Kennedy has directed and produced more than 30 features, and runs Moxie Films with her husband and partner, writer-producer Mark Bailey. She is currently directing a feature documentary for Alexander Rodnyansky’s Ar Content which examines the parallels between the refugee crisis of 1939—which saw the western world refusing to take German Jews fleeing Nazi Germany—and the international community’s treatment of refugees today. She is also producing the film, which is currently in production, alongside Rodnyansky, Bailey, Judy Korin and Rosanne Korenberg.

Kennedy most recently helmed and produced the upcoming feature documentary Downfall: The Case Against Boeing for Netflix. The film, which focuses on the two tragic Boeing 737-Max crashes of 2018 and 2019, premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and will...

’Cemetery Junction’ actor Cooke also makes his feature directing debut on the project.

Production is underway in the UK on Embers, the directorial feature debut of actor Christian Cooke.

The film is adapted by Dave Florez and Cooke from the former’s 2016 play Experience. It follows a sexual surrogate who is employed to help a psychiatric patient overcome his intimacy issues after 18 years of high-security incarceration.

Cooke will star as the patient, with Ted Lasso actress Ruth Bradley playing the surrogate. Further cast includes David Wilmot, Samuel Anderson, Sam Philips, Judith Roddy and Clare Perkins.

The film is produced by...

A partially contrite Joe Rogan admitted today that he doesn’t “always get it right” on his podcast and promised to “do better” going forward as Spotify scrambled to contain the growing backlash to the ex-Fear Factor host’s take on Covid-19 vaccines.

The same day that CEO Daniel Ek announced adding content warnings and disclaimers to the streaming service, Rogan took to social media to “address some of the controversy taking place over the past several days” with Neil Young and Joni Mitchell pulling their tunes off Spotify. The duo have a big problem with Rogan’s vaccine “misinformation,” as Young called it.

Today, self-proclaimed Neil Young fan Rogan said he was “very sorry” the iconic musicians felt they had to get off Spotify because of him. “I most certainly don’t want that,” Rogan declared Sunday. Copping to the fact a lot of what he says on...