New trailer: Dwayne Johnson as UFC fighter Mark Kerr in The Smashing Machine
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Johnson plays Mark Kerr, a star of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) when the mixed martial arts phenomenon was in its infancy.
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The movie is directed by Benny Safdie (Uncut Gems), based on his own script crafted from Kerr's own true story. It was filmed in and around Metro Vancouver from May to July 2024.
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Johnson nursed the project through all the stages of its development and acted as executive producer, before setting up in Hollywood North to play the title character last summer.
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Johnson also endured a radical transformation in the makeup chair each day of filming to portray Kerr, who was a huge star and multiple champion in the early years of UFC/MMA, then fell on hard times as the new millennium dawned before getting sober in recent years. Johnson's co-star Emily Blunt described him as 'unrecognizable' in the role.
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The trailer, which also features Blunt as Kerr's partner, offers a hint of what to expect. Just like the early UFC days it depicts, it's gritty, rough and bloody, mirroring its 2022 documentary counterpart (also called The Smashing Machine: The Life and Times of Extreme Fighter Mark Kerr).
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The Province
4 hours ago
- The Province
Tate McRae at Rogers Arena in Vancouver: What you should know before you go
Calgary pop singer Tate McRae was on So You Think You Can Dance. Tate McRae in concert. Photo by Cole Burston / Getty Images Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page. Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Exclusive articles by top sports columnists Patrick Johnston, Ben Kuzma, J.J. Abrams and others. Plus, Canucks Report, Sports and Headline News newsletters and events. Unlimited online access to The Province and 15 news sites with one account. The Province ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles and comics, including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Exclusive articles by top sports columnists Patrick Johnston, Ben Kuzma, J.J. Abrams and others. Plus, Canucks Report, Sports and Headline News newsletters and events. Unlimited online access to The Province and 15 news sites with one account. The Province ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles and comics, including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors When Tate McRae became the first Canadian finalist on the U.S. reality TV series So You Think You Can Dance, it was obvious she could move to the groove. After all, she had been training in dance since age six. But a career in pop music wasn't an immediately expected followup to that performance. Only a year later, she was releasing singles on her previously dance-video-heavy YouTube channel and had inked a deal with RCA Record in 2019. Her debut EP, All the Things I Never Said, dropped in 2020 and contained her top-15 Canadian pop-charting single Stupid. McRae was on her way. Jump ahead to the 2025 Juno Awards in Vancouver, and McRae and Josh Ross were the two most nominated artists, with five nods each. By the end of the night, McRae walked away with four awards; Artist of the Year, Album of the Year and Pop Album of the Year for Think Later, as well as single of the year for Exes. Essential reading for hockey fans who eat, sleep, Canucks, repeat. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. She also achieved her first U.S. No. 1 as a featured artist on Morgan Wallen's What I Want. Now she has embarked on the headlining Miss Possessive Tour that sees her landing at Rogers Arena for back-to-back performances this month. Rest assured, there is going to be some dancing going on as the hit songs are sung. Here are a few things to know: When is McRae's concert at Rogers Arena? McRae brings her Miss Possessive Tour to the downtown Vancouver stadium on Aug. 4 and 5. Are tickets still available for the McRae concert in Vancouver? Tickets for the Miss Possessive Tour are available at Prices for the shows are starting at $146 and topping out at $859.95. Who will be joining McRae on tour? Swedish singer and dancer Zara Larsson will open the Canadian tour dates. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. lists the start time at Rogers Arena as 7:30 p.m. To find out more about the venue, check out our guide here. What are the bag restrictions for Rogers Arena? The Rogers Arena website has a full list of rules and regulations regarding what you can and can't bring into the concert. Concertgoers are recommended to have their tickets downloaded on their mobile device or Ticketmaster app and ready to scan at the gate for quick entry. Screenshots of tickets will not be accepted. The arena doesn't allow large bags inside the venue. Bags measuring larger than 35.5 centimetres x 35.5 cm x 15.2 cm will not be allowed into the venue. The list of additional prohibited items for the event include outside food and beverages, balloons, selfie sticks and more. See the full list here . This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The pop star will play several more dates in August including: Aug. 7 at Rogers Place, Edmonton Aug. 9 at Canada Life Centre, Winnipeg Aug. 19-20 at Scotiabank Arena, Toronto Aug. 22 at Canadian Tire Centre, Ottawa Aug. 24 at Centre Bell, Montreal What is McRae's latest album? Think Later is the singer's second full-length release and was executive-produced by former OneRepublic singer Ryan Tedder. Greedy, Exes and Run for the Hills have all been released as singles, and the album reached the top 10 in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the U.S. Her latest single is Just Keep Watching from the Brad Pitt film F1. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. sderdeyn@ Read More Love concerts, but can't make it to the venue? Stream live shows and events from your couch with VEEPS, a music-first streaming service now operating in Canada. Click here for an introductory offer of 30% off. Explore upcoming concerts and the extensive archive of past performances.
Vancouver Sun
a day ago
- Vancouver Sun
'Feels like home for me': Vancouver actor brings one-man play to Monsoon festival
When: Aug. 7-17 Where: Various venues in Vancouver and Surrey Info & tickets: For Andy Kalirai, writing and acting in his one-man play Gemini wasn't enough. To play the title character, he set himself an additional challenge — learning to rap. A local actor who grew up in South Vancouver and Surrey, Kalirai had help from local musician Clay Osiris. 'He helped me a lot, teaching me full rhythm lyrics, rapping over beats. We spent so much time over the last three or four years learning how to rap and record.' Kalirai is debuting the play, which he began writing four years ago, at this year's Monsoon festival. Now in its 10th year, the multidisciplinary and bilingual festival features dance, theatre, comedy and more. Get top headlines and gossip from the world of celebrity and entertainment. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sun Spots will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. Along with Kalirai's Gemini, highlights include a photo exhibit drawing from the festival's archives; a salon featuring excerpts from three plays showcasing characters and stories from local actress Nimet Kanji's career; a Punjabi play with live music; and a Punjabi standup performance by YouTube sensation Manpreet Singh, a.k.a. The Comic Singh. There is also an opening night reception at the Cultch, bhangra and Bollywood fusion dance lessons, and a writing workshop with Preeti Kaur Dhaliwal, Upstart and Crow's 2025 Poet in Residence. Kalirai, who has worked with the Monsoon festival on previous productions including Dooja Ghar in 2022 and The Undocumented Trial of William C. Hopkinson in 2018, was eager to bring his long-gestated creation to the festival's stage. 'The Monsoon festival feels like home for me,' says Kalirai. His other credits include Guards At The Taj (Pick of the Fringe 2019) and I and You (Tempest Theatre). 'It's a space where we can tell our own stories, stories that might not fit into the mainstream narrative. For me, the play is a love letter to South Vancouver, to the people I grew up with, and the experiences that shaped me.' Deciding to make the lead character a rapper was intuitive, Kalirai says. ' I chose acting, but I always wanted to be a singer as a kid. And I love rap music, and rap is also a huge part of South Asian culture where I grew up in South Vancouver, and then also in Saudi Arabia. I don't know why that is, but growing up, everyone would listen to it. Even though we didn't come from the same circumstances as the artists we listened to, there was something about it we connected with.' Gemini is caught between the person he truly is and the persona he feels forced to project. In telling the story of a hip-hop star whose facade begins to crumble, Gemini explores mental health, toxic masculinity, and the challenges of navigating South Asian identity in Vancouver. Kalirai's character reflects the challenges of growing up in a community where conformity and masculinity are often valued above emotional authenticity. 'It's a culture where you're taught to suppress your feelings, to act tough, to conform to a certain idea of manhood,' Kalirai explains. 'But that doesn't always serve you. My character is grappling with that — he's searching for love, for acceptance, but it never truly fulfils him. That's what I wanted to explore in this play.' The play takes place Aug. 8 at The Mezz Warehouse, #106-6680 152A St., Surrey. As for post-Monsoon plans for his creation, Kalirai is uncertain. But he has a new potential side-hustle to ponder. 'It would be nice to have a show that I could take on tour, from city to city,' he said. 'It's also nice to continue working on music, because that's something else I found through this experience. The show basically comes with a whole album alongside it that we've been able to make.'
Winnipeg Free Press
a day ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
One Tech Tip: Is that song by AI or a human? Here are some things to check
LONDON (AP) — Is it The Velvet Underground or Velvet Sundown? The fictitious rock group, Velvet Sundown, which comes complete with AI-generated music, lyrics and album art, is stoking debate about how the new technology is blurring the line between the real and synthetic in the music industry, and whether creators should be transparent with their audience. Computer software is widely used in music production, and artificial intelligence is just the latest tool that disc jockeys, music producers and others have added to their production pipeline. But the rise of AI song generators such as Suno and Udio is set to transform the industry because they allow anyone to create songs with just a few prompts. While some people do not care whether they're listening to AI-generated music, others might be curious to know. If you encounter a new song that leaves you wondering whether it's 100% made with AI, there are some methods that could reveal how it was created. Do a background check If you're wondering who's behind a song, try some old-fashioned detective work. The 'most obvious cues' come from 'external factors,' said Manuel Mousallam, head of research and development at streaming service Deezer. Does the band or artist have social media accounts? Lack of a social presence might indicate there's no one there. If they do exist online, examine the kind of content they post, and how long it goes back. Is there any sign that the artist or band exists in real life? Are there any upcoming concerts and can you buy a ticket for a gig? Is there footage of past concerts on YouTube? Has an established record label released their singles or albums? Try going to the source. Song creators often — but not always — publish their generated tunes on the Suno or Udio platforms, where they can be found by other users. The catch is that you'll have to sign up for an account to get access. Users can look up songs by track name or the creator's handle, and browse genres and playlists. But it can still be difficult to spot a song, especially if you don't know the name of the song or creator. Song tags Deezer has been flagging albums containing AI-generated songs, as part of its efforts to be more transparent as it battles streaming fraudsters looking to make quick money through royalty payments. The Deezer app and website will notify listeners with an on-screen label — 'AI-generated content' — to point out that some tracks on an album were created with song generators. The company's CEO says the system relies on in-house technology to detect subtle but recognizable patterns found in all audio created by AI song generators. The company hasn't specified how many songs it has tagged since it rolled out the feature in June, but says up to 18% of songs uploaded to its platform each day are AI-generated. Song scanners There are a few third-party services available online that promise to determine whether a song is human-made or generated by AI. I uploaded a few songs I generated to the online detector from IRCAM Amplify, a subsidiary of French music and sound research institute IRCAM. It said the probability that they were AI-generated ranged from 81.8% to 98% and accurately deduced that they were made with Suno. As a cross-check, I also uploaded some old MP3s from my song library, which got a very low AI probability score. The drawback with IRCAM's tool is that you can't paste links to songs, so you can't check tunes that you can only hear on a streaming service. There are a few other websites that let you both upload song files and paste Spotify links for analysis, but they have their own limitations. When I tried them out for this story, the results were either inconclusive or flagged some AI songs as human-made and vice versa. Check the lyrics AI song tools can churn out both music and lyrics. Many serious users like to write their own words and plug them in because they've discovered that AI-generated lyrics tend to be bad. Casual users, though, might prefer to just let the machine write them. So bad rhyming schemes or repetitive lyrical structures might be a clue that a song is not man-made. But it's subjective. Some users report that Suno tends to use certain words in its lyrics like 'neon,' 'shadows' or 'whispers.' If a song includes these words, it's 'a dead giveaway' that it's AI, said Lukas Rams, a Philadelphia-area resident who has used Suno to create three albums for his AI band Sleeping with Wolves. 'I don't know why, it loves to put neon in everything.' Weekly A weekly look at what's happening in Winnipeg's arts and entertainment scene. No easy answers AI technology is improving so quickly that there's no foolproof way to determine if content is real or not and experts say you can't just rely on your ear. 'In general, it can be difficult to tell if a track is AI-generated just from listening, and it's only becoming more challenging as the technology gets increasingly advanced,' said Mousallam of Deezer. 'Generative models such as Suno and Udio are constantly changing, meaning that old identifiers – such as vocals having a distinctive reverb – are not necessarily valid anymore.' ___ Is there a tech topic that you think needs explaining? Write to us at onetechtip@ with your suggestions for future editions of One Tech Tip.
