Screengrab via Syfy/YouTube

BY SAM GUTELLE

On Sept. 15, PJ Liguori will re-introduce viewers to the guests at Oscar’s Hotel for Fantastical Creatures, and frequent YouTube viewers will recognize some familiar faces. Production company New Form Digital and distributor Vimeo have released details about Oscar’s Hotel, and its cast will include YouTube stars, well-known Hollywood actors, and the fantastical creations of the Jim Henson Company.

Oscar’s Hotel, which centers on a young man named Oliver who must manage his Uncle Oscar’s hotel and all the supernatural characters therein, is based off a short film Liguori released on YouTube as part of New Form’s first digital showcase. Out of 14 shorts, Oscar’s Hotel and Sawyer Hartman’s Parallax were given full series orders, with Vimeo On Demand serving as the primary distribution platform.

The cast of the Oscar’s Hotel harkens back to the film’s YouTube roots. According to a press release, at least 17 YouTube stars will appear in the series:  Chris Kendall, Anna Akana, Mitchell Davis, Jake Roper, Grace Helbig, Mamrie Hart, Hannah Hart, Dan Howell, Phil Lester,PewDiePie, Marzia Bisognin, Jack Howard, Dean Dobbs , Carrie Fletcher, Meghan Rienks, TomSka, and Andrew Ableson.

At the same time, Oscar’s Hotel is more than just a showcase of digital talent. Acclaimed actors Patrick Stewart, Alfred Molina and Elliott Gould are all among the cast, bringing it some serious gravitas. In addition, the fictional hotel’s inhabitants may take on a decidedly Muppet-esque flair, with Jim Henson’s Creature Shop signing on to design creatures.

“PJ Liguori is a very unique storyteller. We’re very proud to work with him and this amazing cast, in partnership with Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, on Oscar’s Hotel,” said Kathleen Grace, chief creative officer for New Form Digital, in a release. “The series embodies what New Form is all about – building creators’ visions into premium scripted originals.”

This star-studded cast provides Oscar’s Hotel with plenty of hype ahead of its September 15th release. In the meantime, feel free to reintroduce yourself to the world Liguori has created by watching his short film:

Because the phrase "emoji movie" is the perfect embodiment of terrible Hollywood ideas that no one wants, Jimmy Kimmel had fun imagining what such a movie might be like. Enlisting the help of actress Brie Larson, Kimmel performed a dramatic reading of a hypothetical emoji movie script. It's inspiring stuff.

Screengrab via Jimmy Kimmel Live/YouTube

BBQ, pho, Lao food, monster burgers, dumplings: It’s safe to say there are very few things Andrew and David Fung won’t eat—and they’ve traveled across the country doing so.

Seattle natives born to Asian immigrant parents, the two grew up loving food, hip-hop, and comedy. After college they took a leap of faith, moving to Los Angeles hoping to make it big as standup comedians or YouTubers.

In 2011, they quickly gained notice for their rap music video “626,” which celebrated the Asian cuisine and community in the San Gabriel Valley. They’ve since built their channel around the food and cultures of the many and diverse Asian-American communities—with favorites including “What Asian Guys Like” and “Lao Food”—and racked up more than 103 million views. And now they’re making the leap to television: Broke Bites: What the Fung?! sees them traveling the country and finding the best regional cuisine for less than $50.

Taking a quick minute away from a month of filming in NYC, Andrew and David emailed with the Daily Dot to discuss YouTube fame, the power of breaking Asian stereotypes, and their best dating advice.

Andrew: Corned beef reuben sandwich.

David: Chinese beef noodle soup.

What has been the best part of branching into television and something you did not expect going in?

The best part has been just being able to represent for millennial Asian guys on TV. We’re so happy to be part of a new wave of Asian-Americans on TV, but as of right now the only other Asian guy reppin’ for 20-somethings is Tim DeLaGhetto on MTV.

One thing we didn’t expect was how tough it was to stay fit while filming the show. We like to hoop as our exercise, but it’s hard to find a court and basketball while in some of these cities.

What was the No. 1 thing you argued about as kids? What about now?

We probably argue more now than we did as children because we’re working and living together. There’s a lot more at stake nowadays than when you’re in fourth grade. But even when we argue now, we resolve it pretty quick. Gotta keep business moving (lol).

Best advice for online dating?

Message everyone.

Even if someone paid you a million dollars, you'd never, ever…

Clean my own house again.

What has YouTube given you?

It’s given us a platform to make the material that we think is helpful and it’s connected us with our audience.

If someone asks us if we’re YouTube famous, I usually say, “Yeah kind of,” because by most people’s standards, that would be true. But that doesn’t mean we made it at all.

To us, “making it” just means you’ve solidified a career in this game. I think every time you jump to another level, you realize that there’s more work to do.

Did you set out to break Asian stereotypes in media with your YouTube channel, or was that an identity assigned to you that really shaped how you developed your channel?

I think by explaining Asians to people, it already broke a lot of stereotypes! People don't know much about Asian-Americans. The general population doesn’t find us interesting, so I think we’re just here to tell our story in a cool way and let people decide what we actually have to offer America.

We’re observers, analyzers, and explainers. We just want to give people a holistic perspective of Asian and Asian-American culture through the eyes of ourselves.

What’s next for the Fung Brothers?

Finishing season 1 of Broke Bites: What the Fung?! and continuing to build our YouTube channel. I’m not afraid to say that we're always looking for new team members that can help take us to the next level. Email us!

Screengrab via FungBrosComedy/YouTube

YouTuber James Montalbano created Trump to the Future, which places the Republican presidential hopeful inside Back to the Future, specifically in the scene in which Marty McFly discovers Biff Tannen's Pleasure Paradise Casino & Hotel.

In his reaction to Trump's campaign announcement, Marty undoubtedly speaks for many, many Americans.

The Mockingjay has finally arrived in a big way.

Although it’s only been a few weeks since we got a teaser from San Diego Comic-Con, Lionsgate has just released the full-length trailer for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2, and it has even more action than ever before. We know that District 13 is on its way to the Capitol, but everyone is out for blood in order to put an end to President Snow once and for all.

At this point it doesn’t matter how much of the movie is released beforehand. We’re already lining up to see it.

Keillor also expressed excitement about his successor, bluegrass maverick Chris Thile, calling him a "genius musician" and "the best idea since Powdermilk Biscuits."

While Keillor achieved much success and critical acclaim as a host of the long-running radio program, he notes that he never imagined he would enjoy so much success in radio—or that that success would continue in the era of streaming. His weekly segment, News from Lake Wobegon, is available every Monday on SoundCloud, and the show streams live Saturday evenings on YouTube and the site's homepage. 

Following his retirement from the show, Keillor intends to revisit his earliest passion: writing.

"My idea always was to be a writer," said Keillor. "And when you get to be 72 it's time, you should get back to doing what you set out to do."

Photo via schatzee4/Flickr

This month marks the 25-year anniversary of Vanilla Ice's immortal, controversial, and utterly inescapable hit, "Ice Ice Baby." Following its July 2, 1990 debut, the single became the first hip-hop work to top the Billboard charts. It'd eventually top charts in seven different sovereign nations. 

For almost as long, I've been obsessed with a mysterious former associate of Vanilla Ice. The name might ring a bell, too, as "DJ Deshay" is referenced in a noticeable amount of Vanilla Ice tracks. 

In “Ice Ice Baby,” Vanilla Ice raps, “Shay plays on the fade, slice like a ninja / Cut like a razor blade.” And also, “If there was a problem, yo, I’d solve it / Check out the hook while Deshay revolves it.” 

Deshay is mentioned again in the Vanilla Ice song "Play That Funky Music": "Well that’s my DJ Deshay cuttin’ all them Zs / Hittin’ hard and the girlies goin’ crazy."

He is mentioned yet again on "Dancin’": "People under 40… Yo! Let’s get down / Because they need more break and now it’s sliced by Shay / The record’s out so don’t wait."

Who is Deshay? Why has no one in the last 25 years penned a definitive explainer of Vanilla Ice's right-hand man? Is it because people have mortgages and care about things happening now and not things that happened 25 years ago? That's a terrible way to live.

After fervent searching, I found Deshay camped out in the comments of Vanilla Ice videos saying that he would like to work together again. All I could glean from the sparse information on the Internet was that Deshay was formerly affiliated with Vanilla Ice and Usher.

"I thought you were a crazy lady who’d gone off her meds," Deshay says the first time we speak.

He's had a storied career. He's still in entertainment. Most urgently, his YouTube channel is a gift. He has a tutorial where he tells us how to make a Velveeta cheesy casserole chicken pot pie. 

But that's not all. Forty-eight-year-old Renaldo Kelly, also known as DJ Deshay, also known as Shay, also known as Deshay Boogiedown, is from Hawaii, lives in Los Angeles, and works three jobs: Costco, delivering pizza, and DJing at a strip club, obviously. (Strip clubs pay more than dance clubs, he says.) He still makes beats and is still trying to make it in music, which he says is his ultimate passion.

Deshay tells me he met Vanilla Ice while DJing in a club called City Lights in Dallas back in 1988, which was owned by Vanilla Ice’s manager Tommy Quon. Vanilla asked him to play one of his songs, but according to Deshay, didn’t ask very nicely. After Vanilla tried to reach over and force Deshay to play his cassette, Deshay shoved him away, and Vanilla “did the Karate Kid pose.” Deshay laughed and threatened to kick his ass, and Vanilla said he’d wait for him outside.

Vanilla goaded, “Motherfucker, do you know who I am?” 

“I said, ‘Who the fuck is this?’ and someone said ‘That’s Vanilla Ice.’ I said, ‘I don’t give a fuck if that’s Chocolate Swirls, if you reach over here you’ve lost your mind,’” Deshay says. 

Vanilla’s manager sensed the apparent chemistry between the two hotheads and suggested that they both work together. Why did Deshay agree to do it? Well, money.

 “I said ‘Hey, can I borrow your car to go across the street to get something to eat?’” Deshay remembers, laughing. “I jumped in that fucking car and drove home.” 

“What the world don’t know,” says Deshay, “is it’s like we created Frankenstein. Vanilla Ice was not a rapper. A guy named Chocolate wrote the lyrics, and me and Earthquake did the beats. We put [Vanilla Ice] together. My little brother Jake taught him how to dance back in 1988.”

Deshay emphasizes that he and Vanilla Ice never fell out, but that due to poor management, they stopped working together. The story according to Deshay goes like this:  

While in Alabama before going on tour, Vanilla Ice’s managers realized they couldn’t afford touring with two DJs—Earthquake and Deshay—so they decided to send Deshay home. Earthquake broke this news to Deshay by telling him that the managers wanted him to take a bus back home and that they needed his turntables. Deshay refused, and they had a physical scuffle until the bouncers broke it up.

“I went back to the hotel, went to sleep, woke up in the morning, stole a car, and drove back to Dallas, Texas," Deshay says.

Deshay mentions stealing a car with the same nonchalant inflection one uses to describe brushing teeth. I interrupt. 

"You stole a car?"

Deshay tells me that it belonged to some groupies who followed them around everywhere during their promotional tour.

“I said ‘Hey, can I borrow your car to go across the street to get something to eat?’” Deshay remembers, laughing. “I jumped in that fucking car and drove home.”

He left the car in a mall parking lot in Fort Worth, Texas, and went home to Dallas.

“I’m not fucking Leave It To Beaver, I’m not getting on no goddamn bus. So I stole a car like a real, true G.”

After being dropped by Vanilla Ice’s management, Deshay was signed by Tabu A&M Records and released an album with (recently deceased) DJ Curly called R&B Style. Deshay says the album didn’t go anywhere, but it features a song called "No Ice In My Drink." (Yes, he means the Vanilla type of ice.) The single was "Funny Feeling," and it's a forgotten new jack swing classic. 

He claims to have accidentally obtained an Usher sex tape. Deshay says Usher asked him to transfer it off of his mom's camcorder to a VHS, and apparently Deshay did this and it eventually got mixed up with his own belongings. Deshay says he found it later in a box of VHS tapes when he moved. 

He seems to have every desire to return the alleged tape. But it also seems like it's a foot in the door—leverage toward potentially working with Usher again.

Deshay has been trying to get in touch with Vanilla Ice for the past 25 years, and he says that every time Vanilla Ice came into town the bouncers would intervene and say Vanilla didn’t want to talk to him. In April at a Vanilla Ice show, Deshay finally made it happen. 

Although Vanilla himself didn’t know Deshay was coming, Deshay had been in touch with his management and they encouraged him to come along. Deshay says that he was greeted with a hug, but overall he considers the reception to have been cold because Vanilla seems to think money is too tight to consider working together again.

“I was telling him how I was struggling, how I was trying to make ends meet and then he said ‘talk to Chuck, talk to Chuck, my road manager and my DJ’ and taking pictures with me like I was a groupie. He was pretty much treating me like I was a damn fan or something—no, you sang a whole song with my name in it.”

Vanilla Ice let Deshay stand on the side of the stage during the show, but he didn’t introduce him as his original DJ or let him perform. Even though Vanilla Ice suggested they get together sometime, he wouldn’t give him his phone number, telling him to get it from his manager (who then told him Vanilla Ice doesn’t like to give out his phone number). 

“He’s been arrogant from day one, nothing has changed about him. He wants me to kiss his ass. I’m 48 years old, I don’t kiss ass, I kiss cash.”

Photo via DJ Deshay

You can now explore the many worlds and dimensions of Rick and Morty’s world without ever leaving your seat—or your phone, for that matter.

The insanely weird second season of the hit show from Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland premieres on Adult Swim this Sunday, but before we pick up right where we left off, you get to go on a scavenger hunt that takes place entirely on Instagram.

It’s like a choose-your-own-adventure story, except reversing that final click to a dead-end is as easy as hitting the backspace button.

You’ll not only visit different worlds, there are also Easter eggs hidden among the different worlds and pathways like comics about the One True Morty, N33dful Th1ng objects that usually result in death, Meeseeks boxes, and a Tamagotchi toy featuring Rick’s main adversary, his son-in-law Jerry.

It’s right in front of you

Some of the secret worlds will only take a single click from the main Rick and Morty Rickstaverse account. The strip mall and abandoned ship are two good places to start.

There’s no place like home

While Rick and Morty often travel across the universe, plenty of their adventures happen right in their very own backyard on planet Earth and can easily be hidden among humans themselves.

It’s also out of this world

But of course what sort of scavenger hunt would this be if there weren’t some alien planetsto explore before traveling where you need to go?

Is it real life—or is it just fantasy?

Not everything is a single click away. Sometimes you might need to travel to a worldwithin a world to get to your destination.

Screengrab via Rick and Morty Rickstaverse/Instagram

BY EVAN DESIMONE 

You can’t put a price on fame, and that’s a problem for YouTube, Vine, and Instagram creators trying to be paid fairly for their work. Social Bluebook, a new platform announced today, aims to solve that problem by using hard metrics to help creators assess their bottom-line worth to advertisers and brands.

Founded by former Maker Studios VP Chad Sahley, Social Bluebook has already been running in beta for six weeks.

As digital entertainment and online video personalities have become increasingly mainstream, platforms such as FameBit and Plaid Social have emerged that use metrics to help advertisers to connect with the right creators. But Social Bluebook is the first tool of its kind that puts that data to work for creators by helping them to accurately gauge their asking price.

When asked how exactly Social Bluebook determined that value, Sahley told VideoInk, “It is based on real world deals from advertisers and creators, combined with our collective knowledge of the business. Employing a team of statisticians, we developed a proprietary method of determining brand values. The values constantly evolve as market conditions change.”

Social Bluebook currently supports pricing on influencer favorite platforms YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Vine. The company soon hopes to expand its formula to Facebook emerging platforms like Twitch and Snapchat, as well as blogging services.

Illustration by Max Fleishman

Miley Cyrus’s Instagram has become an art project of sorts, as she’s used various digital flair to limbo under the site’s flimsy no-nudity rules. And she went tits out this week.

Cyrus, who is set to host the VMAs at the end of the month, posted a series of #FreeTheNipple-friendly photos documenting what she’s doing on her summer vacation, and she revealed her #turntmermaid persona.

There are many women attempting to "free" their nipples in the name of equality, but Cyrus found a way to wield the power of a social media platform on her terms. And so we keep looking at her. 

In a month where issues with white feminism have been writ large, it's easy to zoom in on Cyrus and rip her apart for being too this or not enough of that. (Or to shame her for being skinny, as many commenters have.) But perhaps there's insight in zooming out. 

Stay fun or be lame. 

H/T Death and Taxes | Photo via Miley Cyrus/Instagram | Remix by Fernando Alfonso III

Finally, two of everyone’s favorite things are in the same room together: cute puppy dogs and delicious chimichangas. Unfortunately, that room is also filled with an insane amount of dog doo.

Saturday Night Live’s Jason Sudeikis, holding a small, wire-haired terrier, spoke about the complete absence of his sense of smell on the Chris Gethard Show on Fusion this week. The show—which usually includes a human studio audience on set—paid homage to man’s best friend this week by devoting the episode to entertainment for dogs. This consisted of replacing the on-set audience with a variety of dogs. But, as every pet owner knows, with dogs comes their inevitable excrement.

“I can see the poops, I can see the pee, but I can’t smell them,” Sudeikis told Gethard, the show’s titular host, who was sitting next to a garbage bag full of the doo. To prove his point further, Sudeikis walked over to the bag on Gethard’s side and took a big, scentless whiff of its contents to the dismay of the host.

“Oh my god, really? Nothing!” Gethard exclaimed. “I feel like my face is in a toilet right now.”

In the spirit of the no-holds-barred zaniness of the show, Sudeikis took the gag one step further. “I could eat a steak right now. I could eat a chimichanga fine,” he said.

Gethard couldn’t get a bite down the hatch, the smell was too much for the funnyman. At least he tried. That’s more than I could say for myself. I can’t pick up my chihuahua’s minuscule number twos.

Screengrab via The Chris Gethard Show/YouTube 

Vine star Carter Reynolds was barred from attending VidCon on Friday, and kicked out of his room in the Hilton across the street from the Anaheim Convention Center. This one month after Reynolds' sex tape was leaked—in which his erect penis was on-screen, while his off-screen voice aggressively pleaded with his then-girlfriend Maggie Lindemann to make a sex tape. 

Investigators are looking into the date of the video, and Lindemann’s age when it was filmed—she's 16. As are many of VidCon's fanatic attendees. 

The 19-year-old Reynolds' VidCon eviction came after a Twitter firestorm caught the attention of one of the the convention’s co-founders, Hank Green. For his part, Reynolds publicly attacked the decision.

Green’s response to Onision:

While the Hilton does have a block set apart for VidCon guests, it’s unclear as to whether Reynold’s was staying in one of those rooms, which would make him automatically ineligible to remain in it after his VidCon pass was taken away. However, according to a professor of hospitality law, Stephen Barth (via the hotel trade site Hotel News Now), the Hilton could legally throw him out, regardless of where his room was. 

According to Barth, there are four things that can get you legally tossed from a Hilton:

1. If the guest does not pay or lacks the ability to pay.

2. If the guest overstays beyond the dates specified in the reservation contract (although this can be state-specific).

3. If the guest is drunk, disorderly, or otherwise creates risk of harm to employees or other guests.

4. If the guest is violating the law.

Reason No. 3 is highly subjective, and it could certainly be argued that Reynolds was being disorderly, simply by being there, as seen in this vine that was retweeted by Onision:

While Reynolds did snap some photos with fans, the general opinion among VidCon attendees seems to agree with Green’s decision: Reynold’s shouldn’t be there. Grace Miller, the operations director and co-founder of UpLift—an organization dedicated to combating sexual violence in online communities—was on the ground at VidCon.

"There are a lot of people who have been removed from the community by higher ups. Unfortunately, those creators sometimes don't understand why, or it doesn't register that their presence in the space based on their past actions makes it an unsafe space for other people," Miller told the Daily Dot. "It appears that seems to be what happened with carter. I think it's wonderful that vidcon removed him, because the majority of people here are women ages 13-17 and they deserve to feel safe in this space."

Reynolds’ joins Sam Pepper in the club of online stars who were banned from VidCon, and that group is—unfortunately—likely to grow. 

The large amount of scandals among Internet stars shows that Reynolds and Pepper aren’t unique, but rather part of a very unsettling trend in the worlds of YouTube and Vine. With conventions like VidCon growing more popular every year, it's a concern VidCon seems to be taking seriously.

Additional reporting by Rae Votta

Screengrab via Carter Reynolds/YouTube

Sometimes you’re on the Internet, and you’re slapped awake by a thought. “Has anyone ever mashed up Neu! and New Kids on the Block?” you call into the void known as Twitter.

Somewhere in the void, Demi Adejuyigbe hears you.  

Since the beginning of July, the 22-year-old Adejuyigbe—a digital producer on Comedy Central’s @Midnight—has been posting a mashup a day on Twitter, sourced from people who’ve tossed their half-formed mashup dreams into the wishing well over the last two years. Adejuyigbe says he got inspiration for the series when he found a tweet from comedian and Last Week Tonightwriter Josh Gondelman.

Perhaps you’ve listened to Gilmore Guys, a podcast he hosts with Kevin Porter, whom he met through UCB. The two decided to start watching after Gilmore Girls hit Netflix last October, and have since been dissecting the show episode by episode twice a week. Adejuyigbe had never seen the show before they started the podcast.

“It’s this weird struggle of trying to be funny while also trying to not piss off fans of the show,” he said. “The fans are very into the show and we don’t want to upset them. So we try to do our best to cover it from an informational and analytical place, but also try to do this take like, ‘we’re not experts; we’re just two dudes talking about a TV show, so understand this is also a comedy thing.’” 

Adejuyigbe excels at threading pop culture into much of what he does online. That reminds me: Is Neu! Kids on the Block a thing yet? 

Photo via Twitter | Remix by Fernando Alfonso III

Coe, one of SNL's original cast members and a renowned TV, stage, and film actor, portrayed the beleaguered butler Woodhouse. Archer creator Adam Reed toldEsquire that Coe's voice for the character had a "chipper sadness" to it. He added that's he's "not sure about Woodhouse's fate." 

This compilation highlights some of Woodhouse's best moments, but the last one will definitely release some tears from eye jail. 

Adam Sandler’s ode to ‘80s gaming, Pixels, is getting savaged by critics. That’s not unexpected, given that this is a Happy Madison joint. But it is a damn shame, and not just because the notion behind Pixels—confused aliens attack Earth using deadly versions of vintage gaming icons such as Pac-Man and Donkey Kong—is loaded with potential.

No, Pixels is doubly disappointing because it began life in a form that proved just how much fun the concept could be. Once upon a time, Pixels was a rather excellent short film. Before the dark times. Before Adam Sandler.

Below you’ll find four more acclaimed short films that are currently being developed into feature films. Any one of them could make for an amazing full-length movie, and we’ve got a stubborn optimistic streak here at the Dot, so we’re holding out hope that at least a couple of them will eventually hit the big screen in a form that’s actually worthy of their origins. Check ‘em out.

1) The Leviathan

The Leviathan netted a pair of big fish of its own shortly after going viral earlier this year, landing both Neill Blomkamp and Simon Kinberg as executive producer and producer, respectively. Blomkamp became one of the hottest names in big-screen science fiction after adapting his own short film into the cult hit District 9. His follow-ups, Elysium and Chappie, have dimmed his star a bit, but he’s still a talent worth watching. Kinberg co-wrote both the upcoming X-Men: Apocalypse and Fantastic Four, and is executive producer on Star Wars Rebels. Shortly after Blomkamp and Kinberg signed on, Fox paid a reported six figures for Uhls’ Leviathan spec script, and you can bet that probably wouldn’t have happened without the strength of this brief but evocative short.

But will it be good? There’s no real story on display in the short, just an impressive concept and bit of world-building. No question, The Leviathan has the makings of some truly epic set pieces, but it will all come down to execution, and giving us the story and characters to anchor those amazing visuals.

2) Realm

Realm became white-hot this past March, around the same time as The Leviathan. And as with Leviathan, Realm had an accompanying spec script to hand off to parties whose interest was piqued. The full-length screenplay was actually penned by Vampire Diaries writer Rebecca Sonnenshine, based on the concept by Speer and Swetnam. Apparently it was a good combination of talents, because Relativity paid mid-six figures to nab the script. Speer will return to direct the feature-length version, and Swetnam is aboard as a producer.

But will it be good? They say there are no new stories, but Realm is a refreshing repackaging of ideas, combined in a way that has real potential. And unlike The Leviathan, Realm actually introduces an intriguing protagonist, if only briefly, and it’s easy to imagine her story entertaining us for two hours. Honestly, it could even stretch well beyond that. Realm seems like a concept that’s far better suited for a longform TV series than the relative brevity of a movie. But, then again, I’m sure Relativity is hoping for a franchise. It’s certainly within the realm of possibilities.

3) Controller

Writer/director Saman Kesh posted his proof-of-concept short Controller to Vimeo in 2014, and Fox scooped up the feature rights this past April. Kesh says on Controller’s Vimeo page that he will be adapting and directing the feature-length version, but Deadline’s story says Alev Aydin will be writing the screenplay. Either way, if done right, Controller could play like the next Matrix.

But will it be good? In addition to nicely flipping the heist/prison-break script, Controller is a rather ingenious inversion of the whole “damsel in distress” cliche. I can see some potential visual shorthand where you could alternate between the helmeted boyfriend and the girl kicking ass, a dual stylistic conceit that would serve as a reminder of who’s in charge and give the female lead more to do than just stand on a box and narrate for 90 minutes. There are also plenty of questions about the girl and the nature of her powers to explore, not to mention that enigmatic ending and the lingering question of whether this dude is even really her boyfriend, or just another tool she’s using for her own purposes.

4) Lights Out

Honestly, it was pretty much a given that Hollywood would sink its claws into Lights Out eventually. And sure enough, New Line has a feature-length version in the works with Sandberg returning to direct, James Wan producing, and Eric Heisserer writing the script. Heisserer wrote both the Nightmare on Elm Street reboot and the unnecessary Thing prequel, but he also wrote a rather clever spec script/bit of metafiction called The Dionaea House, so here’s hoping he finds a way to supersize Lights Out without robbing it of its power. We don’t need another Mama on our hands. Wan’s involvement is also heartening. While I’m no fan of the Saw franchise, the one-two punch of Insidious and The Conjuring has more than redeemed him in my eyes.

But will it be good? In a word: no. It’s at least very, very likely that the Lights Out movie will be yet another reminder that some things simply don’t need to be artificially inflated to feature length. Part of why Lights Out works so well is because there isn’t a wasted frame in its 2:42 runtime. Every second ratchets the tension higher and higher, until that final payoff—a visual that, frankly, looks kind of goofy when removed from its context—is enough to send even the most jaded of viewers scrambling behind the couch. If there’s an upside, Sandberg certainly deserves a shot at a big-screen directing career, so hopefully Lights Out will earn him that, if nothing else.

Screengrab via Scott Speer/Vimeo

Grace Helbig and Hannah Hart (My Drunk Kitchen) have teamed up for a reboot of the 1970s spoof Electra Woman & Dyna Girl, and debuted their first trailer at VidCon this weekend.

The webseries filmed its first season in Canada this year, with Vancouver standing in for the show's Los Angeles setting. The trailer shows the two superheroines arriving in L.A. to kick butt and don their badass new costumes, which quickly replace the old spandex-and-cape look.

Screengrab via Legendary/YouTube

Espinosa tweeted to his 3.1 million Twitter followers that his "uncle" would be attending VidCon, and linked to a new profile for someone named "Papa Squat." 

Espinosa began posting Papa Squat images a week ago on Instagram, where the character already has more than 4,000 followers, and his fanbase debated whether or not the portrayal could be construed as blackface. Fans also called him out on Twitter for the costume.

Espinosa is now planning his fall tour, presented by DigiTour, called the Creative Collab Tour, which kicks off Sept. 29 in Florida.

Image via themattespinosa and papasquatog/Instagram

After five seasons, Key & Peele, the hilarious and successful sketch comedy show from Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, will be coming to an end.

The show’s never been more popular with both fans and critics. Their videos constantly get millions of views on YouTube, and with a Peabody Award and multiple Emmy nominations already under its belt, Key & Peele is currently up for eight Emmy nominations this year (including Outstanding Supporting Actor for Key). But for the duo, who were performing together long before they appeared on Mad TV, it was time for them to end the show while it was still on top.

“This is our final season—and it’s not because of Comedy Central, it’s us,” Key told the Wrap. “It was just time for us to explore other things, together and apart. I compare it to Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor. We might make a movie and then do our own thing for three years and then come back and do another movie.”

Key & Peele currently has no end date, but the final eight episodes have yet to air. Both Key and Peele are grateful for what they’ve been able to do while looking ahead; their movie Keanu comes out Apr. 22, 2016.

We’ve got plenty to look forward to in the next couple months, but we’re looking back at some of their highlights that made us laugh until we cried—but also got us talking.

1) Substitute Teacher

A teacher who subs in the inner city is out of his element when he’s brought in to teach a class full of white kids, mainly because they’re challenging him on something he’s always known: how to say their names. And we learn that we’ve been pronouncing them wrong the whole time. A movie based on the Mr. Garvey character starring Key and Peele is currently in development.

2) Obama’s Anger Translator

Luther is the guy Obama wishes he had. He likely has plenty of anger about plenty of stuff, but because of the unique position he’s in, he can’t really show it. He has to remain calm and collected, but Luther is pure, beautiful rage.

3) What About “Non-Stop,” Though?

These valets don’t have much to do while their patrons are inside the building, but their enthusiastic excitement on everything from Game of Thrones to Batman is infectious. The highlight, though, is how unprepared they are when the very person they’re praising actually shows up.

4) East/West College Bowl

Here is another fantastic series all about names. Key and Peele alternate on stating the names of college players and where they went to school like the NFL does with Sunday Night Football, each player more ridiculous than the last. By the third installment, they got real players to state their names, but the very first take was an instant classic.

5) Meegan, Come Back

Meegan (Peele) her boyfriend Andre (Key) go to extreme lengths in an ongoing argument about a jacket and drinks at a bar, but ultimately who’s right doesn’t even matter. We can relate but hope we never end up like them.

6) Auction Block

Key and Peele push boundaries to a new level of absurdity in a sketch about two slaves who wonder what the other slaves being sold have that they don’t.

7) I Said B***h

They will go to any lengths possible to complain about their wives and girlfriends in private so they can’t hear it—but the minute the women show up, it’s a completely different story.

8) Flicker

Who would’ve thought that Key and Peele could take the concept of “that guy who tries to prank you by pointing out there’s something on your shirt” and turn into a suspense thriller?

9) Aerobics Meltdown

Something so fundamentally happy can turn into a dark moment with the aid of some cue cards and a tragedy, as long as you keep on dancing.

10) Nooice

There’s always that guy who says “nooice,” but when someone else tries to go in, it can get ugly.

Plenty of people dream of one day appearing in a Pixar movie, but voice actor Brock Baker has managed to create his own Pixar universe in his home with only his voice.

He might not be replacing Harry Shearer on The Simpsons anytime soon, but he’s back to creating as many impressions as possible. This time, he’s taken on the Pixar universe, demonstrating that the characters in them are even more keen than we give them credit for.

Did Lightning McQueen know that Cars 2 was somewhat hokey? You bet he did. Merida knew better than to tell her dad that she turned her mom into a bear. And Buzz knows he’s going off-book. That’s the kind of space man he is.