Nerd News

The proposed legislation would extend to all automotica license plate readers.

Quick Take

• Baldur’s Gate 3 comics are coming from Dark Horse Comics and Wizards of the Coast.
• These comics will feature at least Astarion and Karlach.
• We don’t know too much about the plot of these Baldur’s Gate 3 comics, but we feel excited.

It’s a Baldur’s Gate 3 tie-in world, and we’re all just living in it. First, we heard a Baldur’s Gate 3 TV series is in the works. Then Astarion got his very own backstory novel. Now, Dark Horse Comics is teasing a “beautifully bloody new comic series” that promises a Dark Horse Comics and Baldur’s Gate 3 (Wizards of the Coast) will be collaborating. Yes, a series of Baldur’s Gate 3 comics are coming. So far, we know at least Astarion will be involved in these comics… and maybe even Karlach.

Dark Horse Comics What Will the Baldur’s Gate 3 Comics Be About?

At the moment, we don’t have any other news about the new Astarion, Karlach, Baldur’s Gate 3 comics or what they’ll be about. But we do kind of hope Astarion and Karlach can go on a joint journey. They’re a pretty fun pair, if we do say so ourselves. (But where’s Halsin?!)

At the moment, all Dark Horse Comics has to say is: “Hello, darling… A beautifully bloody new comic series is coming your way soon. Please stay tuned for the full announcement on Friday October 9 at #NYCC! 🗽 Dark Horse Comics x Baldur’s Gate 3.” So we’ll surely know more soon.

We Love the Artwork We See From the Baldur’s Gate 3 Comics So Far Dark Horse Comics

We do have some really gorgeous art from these new comics, though. Whatever adventures our party will go on in these stories, we know they are in well-drawn hands. Astarion is looking deliciously bloody, and might we say, more like Neil Newbon than ever. And Karlach’s gleaming eyes have us CAUGHT in her spell. Okay, we’re in and ready to say “Hello Darling,” “Hey Soldier,” etc. to these new adventures.

All These Tie-Ins Make Us Want to Play the Game Again

But it’ll probably be some time before these Baldur’s Gate 3 comics arrive in our hands. We guess in the meantime, we can revisit the original game and enjoy some of those great smooches. Baldur’s Gate 3 comics will bring Astarion and co. into a whole new medium, and we feel excited for that. But we’ll always love going back to the original story.

Rotem Rusak is the Editor-in-Chief at Nerdist. She is a great lover of the anti-hero and is always ready for a new ship to set sail. In her work, she likes to combine fandom passion with journalistic sensibilities. Follow her on Instagram.

The post BALDUR’S GATE 3 Comics Are Coming appeared first on Nerdist.

Sean Parker, who once taught the music industry what asking for forgiveness looks like, is now back with the labels' blessing and money.

Quick Take

• Alison Mattingly’s queer horror short, Burning of a Family Tree, is screening now. This short is cathartic and scary.

Every queer person knows that if there’s a way out of a bad situation, you take it. But bad situations have a way of trying to pull you back in. And what’s truer horror than that? In a phenomenal new queer horror short, Burning of a Family Tree, the exact sensation of responsibility, yearning, anger, fear, and hope for catharsis many queer folks feel is distilled into 10 glorious minutes. All the while, the short weaves a compelling tale that brings an eerie new horror villain into the mix, promises deeper lore, and has you thinking, I could watch 80 more minutes of this. If you’re a queer horror fan, you won’t want to miss Burning of a Family Tree… And the good news is that it’s screening in film festivals now. Here’s more about the short and where you can watch it.

A release shares that the queer horror short, Burning of a Family Tree, is written and directed by Alison Mattingly. The short “follows non-binary protagonist, Eden Becker (Haven), who returns home to their estranged family after the death of their abusive father, Gerald. There, Eden discovers their family’s religious fanaticism has evolved into a cult-like nightmare, forcing them to confront their traumatic past…and their father’s reanimated corpse.”

Kilgore Productions

Burning of a Family Tree stars the incredibly talented Jack Haven (I Saw the TV Glow, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma), as well as Robert Lewis Stephenson (Landman, Criminal Minds), Jonathan von Mering (The Pitt, The Holdovers), and Conn Barrett (It’s Florida, Man, The Legend of Resurrection Mary). The entire cast delivers compelling performances, making this queer horror short rich with the inner lives of its characters, even in only a handful of minutes. Every character is truly dimensional and we get a sense for all their different dimensions and relationships.

And it’s worth mentioning that in only 10 minutes, this short made me jump several times. It’s SCARY.

Kilgore Productions

Burning of a Family Tree had its World Premiere at Popcorn Frights Film Festival 2026 and will hold its LA Premiere at ScreamFest Horror Film Festival this October. Mattingly shares, “Playing at ScreamFest has long been a personal goal of mine as a filmmaker, and I’m beyond ecstatic to see that dream realized with, Burning of a Family Tree. Through Eden’s journey, my goal was to form a catharsis for not only myself, but all the trans and queer individuals in this country and across the world who have had to live under the terror of a looming monster like Gerald.” Mission accomplished with this queer horror short.

Kilgore Productions

You can also catch Burning of a Family Tree at the following film festivals and dates:

• Oct 5th (Block 3 @ 3:30p) – Chicago Horror Film Festival (Chicago)
• Oct 10th (Block 3 @ 3:00p) – ScreamFest LA (Los Angeles)
• Oct 16th (Scare Package Block @ 5:30p) – Seattle Trans Underground Film Fest (Seattle)
• Oct 15-18 (TBD Screening Block) – Nightmares Film Festival (Columbus, OH)

As we said, if you’re a fan of queer horror, you HAVE to get yourself to a screening of this short. For more information, you can follow the film’s social media account @BurningOfAFamilyTree.

Editorial Note: Alison Mattingly is employed by Legendary Digital Networks, of which Nerdist is a subsidiary.

Rotem Rusak is the Editor-in-Chief at Nerdist. She is a great lover of the anti-hero and is always ready for a new ship to set sail. In her work, she likes to combine fandom passion with journalistic sensibilities. Follow her on Instagram.

The post BURNING OF A FAMILY TREE Is a Phenomenally Creepy Queer Horror Short, Screening Now appeared first on Nerdist.

Quick Take

• Eddie Murphy has signed on to star in his first scripted TV series, Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner’s new Peacock show The Chairman.
• No details about the series are known, but it comes from 01 Studios (Yellowstone, Landman, MobLand).
• While Murphy created two animated shows in the ’90s, this is his first real foray into television since he left SNL in 1984.

Eddie Murphy established his place in television’s Pantheon on Saturday Night Live. His meteoric rise then took him to the top of the box office as he quickly conquered the big screen. That’s where his career has primarily remained for more than 40 years. But that’s about to change. The comedy legend is returning to TV. Eddie Murphy will star in The Chairman, a new TV series at Peacock from Mad Men‘s Matthew Weiner.

NBC

Deadline reports Murphy has signed on to star in his first-ever scripted TV show. Weiner, best known as the creator and showrunner for Mad Men, is writing the series. He’ll also serve as an executive producer alongside Murphy. The show will come from 01 Studios (Yellowstone, Landman, MobLand) and Universal Television.

RELATED ARTICLE

HBO Max Forgot to Remove a ‘Vomit Hose’ Crew Member In MAD MEN 4K

No details about the TV show’s plot or premise are known. We know its star is up to the challenge of leading a drama, though. Over his four+ decades on the big screen Murphy has shown his acting chops countless times. In 2007, he also earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his stellar performance in Dreamgirls. (He lost to Little Miss Sunshine‘s Alan Arkin.) But if you ever needed proof that awards don’t always tell a complete story, just remember Eddie Freaking Murphy never won an Emmy while he was on TV for SNL. He claimed his first and only Emmy win in 2020. He took home the statue for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series after finally returning to Studio 8H to host.

While he has never starred on a scripted TV series, he did develop two animated shows in the ’90s. Murphy was behind Fox’s The PJs and CBS’s The Royal Family. The fact that Eddie Murphy has signed on to star on The Chairman is the best sign yet for the TV show. Is it even possible Weiner could ever create another show as good as Mad Men or The Sopranos, which he also wrote for and executive produced? That’s a tall order for any TV series. But then again, no other show has ever before convinced Eddie Murphy to be its star.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow Mikey on Bluesky at @‌burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

The post Eddie Murphy Stars in First TV Series, Matthew Weiner’s THE CHAIRMAN appeared first on Nerdist.

Quick Take

• Digger isn’t a musical, but it does have a massive twist.
• We break down Digger’s big twist, how it’s revealed, and what it means.
• Nerdist Take: Ultimately, Digger‘s twist presents us with two contrasting ideas, one about hope and one about despair.

There’s been a lot of chatter about Tom Cruise’s newest movie, Digger. After all, the trailers for Digger offered glimpses that left us befuddled but excited about the story that could unfold on our screens. In a couple of words, we thought the movie looked “real weird.” And we weren’t the only ones… Internet conspiracy theorists insist that Digger is actually a musical in disguise. Ultimately, Digger is NOT a musical, but it DOES have a twist. Let’s dig into what’s really happening in Digger, delve into what the twist of the movie is, and explain what it really means. As we said, Digger is not a musical, but…

Digger’s Twist Explained: Digger Is Actually a Play Warner Bros.

Surprise. Digger is actually a play. It’s a play within a movie! That is to say, Digger tells the story of a play rehearsal in a dystopian future where climate change, world war, unchecked greed, and oil drilling has wrecked the world. In the context of this reality, actors are putting on a parody play about the historical figure, Digger Rockwell, the man who destroyed the world. In the movie Digger, we see both sequences that take place in “the present” and “the past.” In the present, we follow actors living in a dystopia as they try to put on a play and survive. Then, we also see the play they are putting on about the past, as though we are the audience watching the play itself. But the play is screened to us as a movie, the trappings of the stage falling away.

In other words, we see Tom Cruise playing an actor who is playing Digger Rockwell in Digger. Whenever we see Tom Cruise as Digger, we are immersed in the world of the play about Digger Rockwell. That play is a parody history of the world the play takes place in. And whenever we see Tom Cruise break character, we flash to the present of that world, where Digger’s actions have destroyed life as we know it.

Digger‘s Two-Part Twist: First, We Learn Digger Is Actually a Play

Digger actually reveals its twist very cleverly. From the start, it’s clear that things aren’t 100% real in the “play” scenes of Digger, which run for quite a while before finally zooming out to reveal the backstage of a theater and that Tom Cruise is actually an actor playing Digger Rockwell. We see that Digger’s beloved cat is clearly an animatronic in the very first scene, for one thing. For another, visual cues like the overly picturesque and expansive view out of Digger’s window just LOOK fake. But at the start of Digger, it’s hard to know whether the movie was just aiming for something slightly surreal.

Digger doesn’t keep us in suspense too long, though, and very overtly reveals the first part of its twist. The camera pans out, and we find ourselves on the set of what we are told is a play. We follow Tom Cruise as he falls out of Digger Rockwell and into the actor who is playing Digger Rockwell. (Who is something of a drama queen.) And we get to peer into the behind-the-scenes world of the play being put on. The movie then flips between showing us the play and showing us the actors in between scenes.

Digger’s Two-Part Twist: Digger’s Play, Fossil Fools, Is a Historical Parody of Past Events That Actually Happened, It Is Being Performed in The Future/Present Warner Bros./Legendary Pictures

But the fact that Digger is a play is only a part of the movie’s twist. As the movie intercuts through the “play” sequences and the “behind-the-scenes” sequences, we start to understand that Digger‘s play is being put on in a very specific world. Namely, we learn that the play about Digger Rockwell, titled Fossil Fools, is actually a parody of historical figures and events that really happened in the world. The world in which the play is being put on is actually a dystopia wherein Digger Rockwell’s refusal to stop drilling for oil started a chain reaction that led to climate change, world war, and the overall destruction of the planet. The Fossil Fools play now parodically retells these historical events for an audience who has lived through them and their consequences.

Little clues throughout Digger hint at this twist, as it becomes clear the “past” play is converging with the present storyline. For example, as we see Digger digging the world into a deeper whole with melting icebergs and bombs, we hear about a “Category Six” hurricane, something that doesn’t yet exist in our world, but hints at immense climate catastrophe. And we see the actors using futuristic technology to communicate and perform the play. Ultimately though, it’s a very well-delivered monologue by Jesse Plemons’ mysterious character that reveals all to the audience.

It Is Actually Digger’s Nephew, Played By Jesse Plemons, Who Is Putting on The Play Warner Bros./Legendary Pictures

Surprise! Yes, another Digger twist: it’s actually the real Digger’s nephew, Eddie Rockwell, played by Jess Plemons, who is putting on the play in the first place. Plemons’ Eddie survived his family’s exile after the role they played in massive world destruction (although they were never technically punished) and his uncle’s suicide to come out on top. Eddie Rockwell seemingly took over the “Green Energy” company run by Digger’s sister and Eddie’s mother, Emma Rockwell, played by Sandra Hüller. Digger, of course, never cared about this “Green Energy,” just as Emma never truly cared that Digger was destroying the planet.

Either way, Plemons’ Eddie Rockwell saw the parody play Fossil Fools about his family and decided to turn the idea into something bigger, giving it funding and a major stage. He claims he applauded the play mocking his Uncle Digger. He saw how the play gave the audience catharsis and a place to put their feelings of pain, sadness, and anger. Eddie Digger wants the play to allow its audience to escape the horror of their lives, created by his Uncle, and find some kind of peace. And that’s why he’s put on the play in Digger. (Yeah, okay.)

Nerdist Take: Digger’s Play Both Promises Communal Catharsis Will Always Exist and Cautions That If We Don’t Take Action, We’ll All be Inert as the Rich Get Richer Warner Bros.

Ultimately, the Digger play twists highlight two contrasting ideas. First, obviously, Digger warns us that the stupid rich control our lives. And that even when they utterly tear down everything and make the world a living hell, they will escape true consequence. Digger Rockwell might have killed himself, but Eddie Rockwell was able to use his family’s fortune and status to not only survive, but thrive in a dystopia. He does a couple of nice things in Digger, like helping Digger’s actor to locate his daughter after she is lost in a hurricane, and insists on putting on the play Fossil Fools to give the masses catharsis. But instead, he could be using his money to actually help people.

At the end of Digger, we see every single person in the audience put on a high-tech gas mask before exiting. No doubt the people bought these gas masks from the Digger family, who forced them into this mess in the first place. Ultimately, Eddie Rockwell helps Digger’s actor save his daughter from a catastrophe his family helped cause and now profits from. The selfish rich continue to enact the actions of the selfish rich, and the cycle continues.

At the same time, we do see that Digger‘s play does bring a rare moment of entertainment and community to the people forced to live in this horrible world. And in a sense, Digger the movie does the same in ours. Entertainment will always be important. We’re glad communal catharsis can exist into dystopia. But frankly, we’ll take the first lesson more to heart. Let us not allow ourselves to fall into the future Digger paints in the first place.

Final Thoughts: Even Though Digger Isn’t a Musical, We Feel Like the Internet Got it Right on This One

My favorite conspiracy theory right now is that Digger is secretly a musical and they’re desperately trying to hide it in the marketing pic.twitter.com/JORNZ0iqib

— Jason Pargin, author of John Dies at the End, etc (@JasonKPargin) September 10, 2026

Our final thoughts on Digger? We have to give it to the internet on this one. Digger is not a musical, but really, aren’t a play and a musical practically the same thing? Same genre anyway. We feel like the internet got it right and called the Digger twist! But that also speaks, we suppose, to how Tom Cruise and the rest of Digger‘s actors successfully played their parts as if they were in a play. They managed to get the sense of theater across even in snippets of the trailer without context. Job well done by all!

Digger is now in theaters.

Rotem Rusak is the Editor-in-Chief at Nerdist. She is a great lover of the anti-hero and is always ready for a new ship to set sail. In her work, she likes to combine fandom passion with journalistic sensibilities. Follow her on Instagram.

The post DIGGER’s Twist, Explained—Not a Musical, But… appeared first on Nerdist.

Quick Take

• CEO David Ellison announced the launch of his mega-studio Skydance with a video that opens with footage from Titanic.
• The Titanic was an “unsinkable” ship built by overconfident rich guys that vey famously crashed and sank on its maiden voyage.
• Some people think this video is a bit of very funny, unaware foreshadowing, but that’s only true if you understand metaphors.

The fight against Paramount’s monopolistic, job-destroying purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery is over. After a judge brushed aside the final formal objection to the mega-merger, the two companies will formally come together early next week. We now know the uber-corporation will go by the name Skydance. While many both inside and outside of the industry aren’t happy about any of this, CEO David Ellison continues to promise this deal will be good for creatives and consumers alike. To share his excitement he took to social media to share an optimistic message likely written by AI that also featured an accompanying video. Skydance’s first introduction to the world opens with footage from Titanic, a film about an opulent ship built by overconfident executives that is famous for crashing and sinking.

What once was the peak, is now just the beginning.

Paramount and Warner Bros. shaped over a century of culture. By combining them, we aren't rewriting history — we're equipping these iconic studios with a more powerful engine. Together, we are Skydance: a creative-first home for… pic.twitter.com/uInLRY3IrE

— David Ellison (@ellisonskydance) October 2, 2026

Yes! It makes perfect sense to announce this new company with a clip from Titanic. The movie won so many awards for Paramount! It’s one of the most beloved and popular films of all time. Titanic is exactly the type of IP Skydance should highlight.

Now, as you might remember (don’t feel too badly if you don’t, it happened more than one hundred years ago!), Titanic is based on a very real event. See, what had happened was that a bunch of rich guys built a ship even God couldn’t sink. Then the company’s CEO demanded it travel full speed through a field of ice during its maiden voyage so it could set a meaningless record. Instead, it struck an iceberg and sank, killing roughly 1,500 people. There are, like, one or two books about this otherwise forgotten maritime incident.

Paramount

But, again, Titanic won like a million Oscars and Skydance could win like a million Oscars! That’s all that matters here. There’s obviously no meaning behind making us mentally connect this merger of Warner Bros. and Paramount with the Titanic. This is NOT some kind of accidental foreshadowing made without an ounce of self-awareness. Just like there’s nothing any of us can ever learn from history. The past is over, you know? Full steam ahead! is what I always say. Because I lack critical thinking skills.

For some reason, though, a few silly gooses thinking launching your new company by tying it to the launch of the f***ing Titanic is symbolic of what awaits this entire Skydance endeavor. I can’t imagine why, but in fairness, we should hear from both sides.

— 🎃 Ryan S. Pumpkins 🎃 (Any Questions?) (@ryanwritesgood.bsky.social) 2026-10-02T16:44:19.511Z

— Jameson (@jamesonstarship.bsky.social) 2026-10-02T16:41:44.565Z

— Logan Hard (@loganhard.bsky.social) 2026-10-02T16:35:26.376121Z

— King of the Suburbs (@jamesbaumann.bsky.social) 2026-10-02T16:23:33.313Z

With the merging of these two iconic companies, Skydance is ready to soar into the future!

— Ken Tremendous (@kentremendous.bsky.social) 2026-10-02T15:59:39.244Z

….Hey…..wait. IS there a possible connection between this controversial new Skydance studio and the Titanic? Is this an ominous sign, one that lacks all self-awareness, about the fate of unchecked hubris? Some seem to think so.

But not me. I’m all in on this creative-first ho. I mean, what can go wrong? Skydance isn’t a ship like the Titanic. It’s not like it can literally hit an iceberg and sink, you know? It’ll be totally fine, and you have my guarantee as someone who doesn’t know what “metaphor” means.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow Mikey on Bluesky at @‌burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

The post Skydance Launches with Footage of Overconfident Ship Famous For Sinking appeared first on Nerdist.

Apple says it will add new controls around macOS’s Full Disk Access permission, warning that increasingly capable AI agents make broad access to users’ files, messages, mail, and browsing history riskier.

Quick Take

• The 2020s have been a weird decade but we have gotten a lot of great horror movies and shows out of it.
• We love to be frightened but we also like when horror tosses in some funny one-liners and reactions.
• To celebrate Nerdoween, we are highlighting 13 funny quotes that we love from these recent shows and films.

If there’s one genre that’s excelling in the 2020s, it is horror. We’ve gotten quite a few film and television gems, both from well-known franchises and original stories. Sinners and Weapons even scored big at the Oscars, showing that horror is truly an artform worth recognition. And while we love the more macabre elements of the genre, there’s nothing like a line that makes us giggle in the midst of gasping. So, in honor of Nerdoween, here are 13 funny horror movie and TV show quotes from the 2020s that made us genuinely laugh out loud. 

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Michael B. Jordan and Ryan Coogler’s SINNERS Oscar Wins Are Huge for Horror “I think I shat myself.” -Delta Slim, Sinners (2025)

Sinners has its share of hilarious moments in the midst of a very intense main plot. Stack’s sarcastic “Nah, we cousins.” found lots of social media fame, but we think that Delta Slim’s very real declaration that he felt like he’d pooped his pants is just as funny. It’s also a very real reaction to have after seeing someone you know turn into a bloodthirsty monster. Delroy Lindo’s delivery is perfection, as is Michael B. Jordan’s bewildered reaction. 

“Why, I’m Pennywise, your dancing daddy!” – Pennywise, IT: Welcome to Derry (2025)

Pennywise has never been a serious being, and that’s exceptionally true in IT: Welcome to Derry. Season one took us back to 1962 to see what terrors this dancing clown would unleash on a group of unsuspecting kids. He delivers a lot of great lines, but the best one of the season is when he addresses Ingrid, calling himself her dancing daddy. It’s hilarious in such a mean-spirited way. 

“Nope.” -Otis Haywood, Nope (2022) NBCUniversal

Otis Haywood’s deadpan single word is what we are all thinking when we spot something suspect. And the fact that it is the title of the film makes it even funnier. Oftentimes, we gripe when characters do incredibly boneheaded things, so it is kinda refreshing to see one onscreen who has the same vocal reaction that we do as the viewer. 

“Negroes at Applebee’s cooking pasta? Oh my god, this is so offensive!” – Allison, The Blackening (2023)

This horror comedy gem is packed with lots of jokes from pretty much every character in the film, including the killers. For those who aren’t familiar, The Blackening is about a group of college friends who reunite on Juneteenth weekend to play spades and turn up. Things go awry with a killer with a blackface mask forces them to play a game to prove their Blackness and possibly survive. Allison reading one of the deadly game’s answer choices about what the NAACP stands for and her subsequent disgust makes us cackle every time. 

“Jingle bells, jingle bells, this place f**king smells.” – Dennis, Terrifier 3 (2024) 

We will admit it. The Terrifier franchise isn’t our typical cup of horror tea. But we cannot deny that Art the Clown is scary AF and that the films do have some nice layers of humor. Dennis puts a spin on a typically cheery song, and it became a line that many fans have used in TikTok videos. 

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ABIGAIL Overdelivers on Its Premise With a Wildly Entertaining Vampire Story “I f**king hate ballet.” -Frank, Abigail (2024)

What happens when you kidnap a rich ballerina for ransom, only to discover that she’s a vampire? A very bad night, that’s what. But it is what the unlucky criminal adults get. Frank is absolutely over Abigail’s s**t and gives us this humorous one-liner. 

“F**king help me!” – Justine, Weapons (2025)  Warner Bros.

Poor Justine. Being a schoolteacher who becomes ostracized by her community after almost her whole class disappears has to be hard. What’s even harder is legit screaming for help just like we would and getting absolutely none. It’s not funny for Justine, but the way she says it makes us laugh for sure. 

“You look like a tuna melt. No one’s gonna love you lookin’ like that.” – Chucky in Chucky (2021-2024)

Chucky has always been one of the more humorous slasher villains. You kinda have to have some funny elements when the killer is a doll, right? That remained the same in the Chucky series, which ran from 2021-2024. At one point, Chucky catches a glimpse of himself in the mirror and laments over his appearance. A tuna melt is certainly not an attractive sandwich, so he’s got a point. 

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CHUCKY Canceled After 3 Seasons, But Creator Says ‘He’ll Be Back’ “Apparently there’s no age limit for syphilis.” – Rosemary, Widow’s Bay (2026) Apple TV

Widow’s Bay is beloved by our entire staff, and it is certainly just as comedic as it is spooky. Mayor Tom Loftis has his hands full in every way, from old curses to his eccentric staff, including Rosemary. She says there will be no gossip from her but also declares that there’s no age limit on contracting this STD. While getting syphilis is no laughing matter, Rosemary’s delivery of this line and so many others absolutely are. 

“Well maybe you’re the killer… because that cut deep.” – Dewey Riley, Scream (2022) 

Dewey is not only beloved for his fierce devotion to Sidney and Gale, but also for the unintentionally funny things he says. He’s a grizzled old man in this fifth installment, which sadly ends up being his final round, but that doesn’t mean his feelings cannot be hurt. After Wes tells him that he could be the killer because he’s divorced and washed up, Dewey responds with this line, which is perhaps the funniest quote in this horror movie. 

“STAAAAYYYYYYYY!” – Nikki, Obsession (2026) Focus Features/Universal Pictures

Again, a one word quote that is incredibly funny. Obsession became one of the hottest horror flicks of 2026, packing a lot of dark humor into a rather bleak story about a guy who makes a wish for his crush to love him obsessively, and she does to a deadly and disturbing extend. Nikki’s angry command towards Bear, the film’s real villain, frightens us a bit but also makes us literally laugh out loud. 

“Great. We’re gonna be killed by Murder Barbie.” – Josh, Freaky (2020)

Freaky was, well, a freaky horror flick. A big ole serial killer man switching bodies with a high school girl, Millie, is pretty darn wild. And her friend Josh is both scared and perhaps a bit annoyed that he’s in this situation with “Murder Barbie” on his a**. 

RELATED ARTICLE

Get a Freaky Text? Don’t Worry It Was THE BLACK PHONE 2 “Your day f**king sucks.” -Ally, Heart Eyes (2025) Sony Pictures

Heart Eyes is one film that sadly flew under a lot of folks’ radars, but it is a really great addition to the horror comedy landscape. In it, we meet Ally and Jay, who are paired together for an ad campaign. They are mistaken for a couple on Valentine’s Day and become the target of the titular killer. Towards the end of the film, after a night of hell on Earth, Ally is inside a church and sees a statue of Saint Valentine, and tells it that this day f**king sucks. And yeah, it was a night that neither of them will forget. 

Tai Gooden is the Features Editor for Nerdist, a fictional villain apologist, and a horror aficionado who is forever waiting for her trip in the TARDIS.

The post 13 Funny Horror Film and TV Quotes From the 2020s appeared first on Nerdist.

This week, the White House got nearly every major tech CEO in one room — Zuckerberg, Bezos, Musk, and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei among them — to sign an AI safety pledge that President Donald Trump called “morally binding.” Trump also signed an executive order officially rebranding AI as “super intelligence,” and meanwhile, Meta and OpenAI are putting friendlier faces on their AI products, even as the biggest money […]

Quick Take

• Jonathan Bailey is bringing a NSFW, steamy version of Dracula to our ears in a new audiobook from Audible.
• We have a few clips of Bailey and Ella Purnell recording their Dracula readings, and they are unbelievably sexy.
• Audible better release the full BTS recordings because we NEED them!

Oh my. As Jonathan Bailey says, Dracula is the ultimate creature of seduction… But we’re not sure we’ve ever seen him quite so STEAMY before. Jonathan Bailey is voicing Dracula in a new audiobook from Audible… But we have to say, we wish we could see the visuals for the entire recording. Because Bailey’s purring, panting, and cackling during his reading… Not to mention the way he keeps touching his body… is quite possibly one of the sexiest visions of Dracula we’ve ever seen… And we’ve seen many of them. We’d call it downright NSFW. Someone tell Jonathan Bailey that Dracula is classing literature… And Ella Purnell, please… don’t let us stop you from slurping up that apple.

First clip of Jonathan Bailey and Ella Purnell recording lines for Audible's audiobook adaptation of ‘DRACULA’. pic.twitter.com/8IrbtRGyYb

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) October 1, 2026

Okay, Audible, you’ve got us. We WILL be snagging this Dracula audiobook, which goes straight to downright filthy in less than a minute. Jonathan Bailey and Ella Purnell are BRINGING something beyond sexy to this version of the vampire tale. As we said, someone get us the full visuals of Bailey reading Dracula because we’ll be forever incomplete without them. And we kind of love the hint in the below featurette that there’s a lot of equal opportunity sexiness going around. Sounds like Purnell’s Lucy and Aimee Lou Wood’s Mina have a little bit of a flirtation going. Well, vampire tales have always been a hot bed for lesbianism, that’s for sure.

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For now, we have put a taste of Bailey’s Dracula and co. But Audible’s audio adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula is available now. A release shares, “The immersive, full-cast audio experience reimagines the classic psychological thriller with an all-star English-language cast led by Jonathan Bailey (Wicked) as Dracula and Ella Purnell (Fallout) as Mina… Rounding out the stellar English cast are Aimee Lou Wood (The White Lotus) as Lucy, Louis Partridge (Enola Holmes) as Jonathan, David Jonsson (Industry) as Dr Seward, Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread) as Mrs Westenra, Johnny Flynn (Ripley) as Renfield, Francis Lovehall (A Thousand Blows) as Arthur, and Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Dark Knight) as Professor Van Helsing.”

Well, strap in, vamp lovers; this will be a fun one to sink your teeth into for sure. If you’d like to read along, you can also snag a of Dracula that you can keep on your shelf.

Rotem Rusak is the Editor-in-Chief at Nerdist. She is a great lover of the anti-hero and is always ready for a new ship to set sail. In her work, she likes to combine fandom passion with journalistic sensibilities. Follow her on Instagram.

The post Jonathan Bailey’s DRACULA Is NSFW-Levels of Steamy appeared first on Nerdist.

With all the talk about how AI might one day ill us all, it's easy to forget that AI has already harmed some people, psychologically. Circuit Breaker Labs has created "crash test dummies" to solve that.

Quick Take

• Nicolas Cage, star of Spider-Noir and many terrible movies, compared the MCU and its aging stars in ridiculous costumes to professional wrestling.
• Cage made his comments about the MCU “becoming a well-funded and glorified WWE” at Fan Expo Dallas.
• Nerdist’s Take: Nicolas Cage might be throwing stones from his glass house, but he’s not wrong. He’s also not entirely right.

Oscar-winner Nicolas Cage currently has 131 acting credits on his IMDb page. That is four more than Robert De Niro, even though Cage started his onscreen career 16 years later. Not all of those 131 credits have exactly been top-notch outings. That’s, uh, being polite. We love Cage, but he’s made some pretty terrible films without a ton of artistic merit. So you would think if anyone in Hollywood would not throw stones at other actors’ choices it would be him. Instead, Cage gave the MCU a verbal body slam by comparing the franchise and its aging stars in “ridiculous outfits” to professional wrestling.

Prime Video

The 62-year-old Cage—whose own freaking live-action superhero show Spider-Noir was just canceled at Prime Video!—had some strong/curious/arguably hypocritical thoughts about the MCU during a recent appearance at Fan Expo Dallas. His comments, which we first learned about at The Playlist, aren’t exactly ambiguous. Here’s what he said:

I do say this with love. When I see these 50-plus and otherwise intelligent and remarkably gifted thespians putting on these ridiculous outfits and getting ready for the fight — let’s face it, it’s all cutting to the fight — it’s hard for me not to be reminded that the MCU is becoming a well-funded and glorified WWE.

Okay. Okay, let’s put aside the obvious issue of Nicolas Cage being the one to say this about the MCU so we can evaluate what he said. He’s sort of not wrong? The MCU features a lot of very talented older actors dressing up in elaborate/silly costumes for storylines that culminate in big showy fights. That is quite literally how professional wrestling works. But so what? Like the MCU, when done well, professional wrestling can tell amazing stories. It’s also not like any MCU actor can’t still do amazing work away from the franchise. Robert Downey Jr. won an Oscar for Oppenheimer in-between MCU stints.

Which also sort of proves Cage’s point about the MCU. What could these older actors do if so much of their time wasn’t dedicated to fighting super villains? I suppose they could make more movies like MADDEN.

Prime Video

Cage being the one to say this about the MCU obviously carries an element of someone in a glass house throwing stones. But in addition to having a point, he genuinely does seem to be saying this from a place of love.

Of course, so did Shawn Michaels when he superkicked Ric Flair into retirement….

You know what? That match featured two supremely talented older performers in ridiculous costumes. And it was incredible storytelling. If Avengers: Doomsday is as good as that match, Nic Cage’s MCU comments will be right, just not for the reason he meant.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow Mikey on Bluesky at @‌burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

The post Is Nicolas Cage Right to Slam MCU as ‘Well-Funded and Glorified WWE’? appeared first on Nerdist.

The roughly $110 billion deal is expected to close October 6.

"There is an ontological difference, even before an aesthetic one, between art and what a machine can generate through statistical calculation based on millions of images created by others," the pope wrote. "Algorithms lack the spark of humanity."

Laytr lets you save articles, recipes, screenshots, videos, PDFs and more for later, while keeping your archive private and synced across your Apple devices.

Blackstone's Jas Khaira will take the Builders Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 on building next-gen AI. Register for your pass and get 50% off a second.

Quick Take

• For now, it appears James Gunn, Peter Safran and the DCU are safe after the Warner Bros. and Paramount merger into Skydance.
• The DCU is a relatively new and very successful cinematic universe, so it seems to make sense that the merged Warner Bros. and Paramount company, Skydance, will want to keep it going.
• The question is will Gunn’s DCU still have creative and experimental freedom under Skydance?
• Learn More: Learn more about the Warner Bros. and Paramount merger and what Skydance will own with our piece here.

There’s an intensity in the entertainment world right now as the merger of two giants threatens jobs, IPs, and the diversity of voices in the industry. There’s a lot of unknown variables. But for now, it seems like one beloved cinematic project, still in its infancy, is safe. Reports indicate that although Paramount and Warner Bros. have seen departures around their merger into a company with the new name Skydance, James Gunn, Peter Safran, and the DCU are currently safe.

Warner Bros

Forbes reports, “Big changes are about to happen at Warner Bros. as the Paramount merger closes. The $110 billion deal is supposed to be finalized on Oct. 6, and arriving with it are some big exits, but also some notable retentions. Namely, that James Gunn and Peter Safran will be staying, meaning the current DCU and its future plans are intact.”

It does seem to make sense to keep James Gunn’s DCU safe as Warner Bros. and Paramount merge. After all, it was only in 2025 that James Gunn and Peter Safran announced their plans for the new DCU. The whole affair is only a couple of years old, and it seems to be going well. It wouldn’t make sense to dismantle it now and try to start the DC movie world all over again, especially amid the chaos of building a new company.

Ultimately, Superman was a massive hit. And viewers have been greatly enjoying the recent release of Lanterns, as well as Peacemaker‘s latest season. Supergirl had more mixed reviews, but the movie was good in our book. The upcoming Clayface also looks promising. Then, of course, there are hits like The Batman. The Batman—Part II will also surely be a crowd-pleaser if it ever releases. Overall, Gunn and Safran have done a solid job with DC movies, and it would be foolish for Skydance to fire them after the Warner Bros. and Paramount merger.

So, at least one franchise is safe… for now.. But will Gunn and Safran be allowed the same creative and experimental freedom they had from Warner Bros. under the new era of Skydance? We will have to wait and see.

Rotem Rusak is the Editor-in-Chief at Nerdist. She is a great lover of the anti-hero and is always ready for a new ship to set sail. In her work, she likes to combine fandom passion with journalistic sensibilities. Follow her on Instagram.

The post James Gunn & DCU Safe After Paramount/WB Merger (For Now) appeared first on Nerdist.

The .si domain name is seeing unprecedented demand after President Trump's super intelligence executive order.

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