Charles Bramesco

Through the end of September, fans of Netflix’s sci-fi/horror series can have a drink in the Upside Down.

Those viewers of the opinion that the rebooted Planet of the Apes franchise numbers among the more successful revivals in the recent deluge (and if you disagree, feel free to kindly see yourself to the e-door) tend to credit Caesar as the film’s secret weapon. The intelligent chimpanzee provided the films with a human center, ironically enough, conveying his maturation and radicalization through unprecedented motion-capture technology and acting from Andy Serkis. The upcoming War For the Planet of the Apes will form the final chapter of this trilogy, and according to the film’s producer, may hold bad news for Caesar superfans.

Serious question: does any single entertainer have such complete dominion over their chosen field as Weird Al Yankovic wields over the song parody? Skeptics may scoff that musical spoofery is a stupid thing to become really, really, virtuosically good at, but the point stands that Yankovic has completely and totally mastered his preferred art form. So when the producers behind the upcoming film adaptation of the Captain Underpants chapter book series needed to find a talent for their theme music, of course their choice was obvious. In no insignificant way, Weird Al Yankovic was born to write a peppy pop tune about tightened-whiteys.

See a few of his movies, and you’ll start to recognize the Martin Scorsese style: quick zooms and jump cuts cribbed from the French New Wave, exhilarating tracking shots, the occasional expertly-deployed pop hit, brief breaks from reality straight out of Powell & Pressburger’s playbook. He’s forged an entire career out of synthesizing influences and making their techniques his own, but even as he’s established himself as one of the most distinctive auteurs currently working, he’s never gotten mired in his own aesthetic. He constantly challenges himself to try more (if you need proof, just look at Silence), and in a new interview, he confirms that he’s going for something different with his next picture.

The director, a regularly active user of social media platforms Twitter and Facebook, took to the web last night to show off one his one-of-a-kind interior decor. Specifically, he posted a couple photos of his coffee table, a custom-made piece designed to look just like the Awesome Mix cassette tape so cherished by Chris Pratt’s Peter Quill, a.k.a. Star-Lord, in Guardians of the Galaxy.

Jared Leto took to Twitter to reassure his 2.14 million fans that he had the situation well in hand. He did so by posting the following image:

Weighing in at thirteen discs, this ultimate status symbol among Marvelites collects the Blu-Ray, Blu-Ray 3D, and digital-only editions of Iron Man 3, Thor: the Dark World, Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man, Captain America: the Winter Soldier, and Avengers: Age of Ultron.