logo
Rihanna makes James Corden wait 8 years before finally joining him for duet in 'Smurfs'

Rihanna makes James Corden wait 8 years before finally joining him for duet in 'Smurfs'

Express Tribune09-07-2025
James Corden has finally sung with Rihanna — just not in the way fans expected. After eight years of trying to book her for Carpool Karaoke, the Late Late Show host revealed at the world premiere of Smurfs in Brussels that he and Rihanna recorded a duet for the animated film.
'I tried for eight years to get Rihanna to do a Carpool Karaoke,' said Corden. 'She would always say to me, 'When the new record is out.' And then I finished the show before that record came out.'
While Rihanna hasn't dropped a full studio album since Anti in 2016, she released 'Friend of Mine' for the Smurfs soundtrack — a track fans are calling a 'club hit.'
It was enough to get her behind the mic with Corden, who voices No Name Smurf, while Rihanna stars as Smurfette.
'She can really sing. But he can too! It was one of the biggest surprises of the whole thing,' Rihanna said of their musical moment.
Corden joked, 'I can't talk seriously about singing with Rihanna, because it's silly.' But he also added he 'legitimately would' bring back Carpool Karaoke for one week — if Rihanna's new album ever arrives.
The animated film features an ensemble cast including Dan Levy, Sandra Oh, John Goodman, and Maya Erskine. It hits theatres on Friday, July 18.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

ASAP Rocky spotted in wheelchair in West Hollywood sparking concern over sudden condition
ASAP Rocky spotted in wheelchair in West Hollywood sparking concern over sudden condition

Express Tribune

time15 hours ago

  • Express Tribune

ASAP Rocky spotted in wheelchair in West Hollywood sparking concern over sudden condition

ASAP Rocky was seen in a wheelchair this week in West Hollywood, prompting a wave of concern and speculation from fans online. In photos published by TMZ, the rapper was captured being assisted into a yellow Hummer while partially covering his face with a blanket. He appeared visibly subdued, and the unusual appearance quickly went viral. Photo: Backgrid While no official statement has been made by Rocky or his representatives, TMZ has since reported that the artist was reportedly recovering from recent dental surgery. Despite this explanation, fans were caught off guard, especially considering his recent string of public appearances where he appeared healthy and upbeat. Just days before, Rocky had returned from Paris Fashion Week, where he presented his latest AWGE collection and attended Jonathan Anderson's Dior debut. Prior to that, he appeared alongside Rihanna at the Smurfs world premiere in Brussels. Rihanna, who voices Smurfette in the film, is currently expecting their third child following the birth of their sons in 2022 and 2023. The timing of the incident comes as Rocky continues to prepare for the release of his long-anticipated fourth album, Don't Be Dumb. Originally slated for release in August 2024, the project has been delayed, though several singles—such as 'Highjack,' 'Tailor Swif,' 'Ruby Rosary,' and 'Pray4DaGang'—have already been released.

How to shoot your reboot
How to shoot your reboot

Express Tribune

timea day ago

  • Express Tribune

How to shoot your reboot

As most parents of small children can attest, one of the world's greatest places to take a nap is a cinema. This holds particularly true if that cinema's head honchoes have had the foresight to install reclining leather seats and an industrial-strength air conditioning unit blasting out shades of the Arctic. It is why so many brave souls will fork over hard-earned money to sit through the Smurfs film this summer, probably the reason Inside Out 2 was able to rake in over a billion dollars last year, and must be why filmmakers deem it perfectly acceptable to toss out a sequel to Bad Guys next month. There is nothing that primary caregivers of young children love more than a good nap, and they are willing to pay to get it. However, if scheduling a decent daytime nap is your primary goal when you cave to child-originated requests to watch the live action remake of Dreamworks' How To Train Your Dragon at the cinema (which has already been out for about five weeks, so it is time you stopped dragging your feet), then you are urged to reconsider. No naps will be had here today. For a solid two hours, writer and director Dean DeBlois and his How To Train Your Dragon team have just one goal: to blow your mind, completely and utterly. How to make a remake You are defenceless against this incoming mind-blowiing no matter which side you are approaching this remake from. It doesn't matter if you are a taking your first baby steps into this franchise, or are a devoted fan of the animated original, or if have only the wispiest of memories of when you watched it twice 15 years ago. Whatever your current state of mind is, Gerard Butler's blue eyes - lifted straight from the animation (as is Butler himself) - will give you an electric shock. As Stoic the Vast, Butler's beautiful Scottish lilt and the soliloquies of seething frustration he spits out at his son (and our hero) Hiccup are lifted straight from the original. You will either swim in an ocean of nostalgia as memories of the original ticker-tape before you, or squirm as the tiniest hidden part of you begins to relate - for the first time - to this unreasonable mountain of a man. Stoic desperately wants his son to live up to his dragon-slaying Viking heritage, and is genuinely flabbergasted at how he can produce a boy so unlike him in every way. Fifteen years later, we may still swear our allegiance to Hiccup, but now, with Butler there in the flesh to make us understand Stoic better than ever, is it possible that we understand his growing desperation over the generation gap? You will see Vikings of unorthodox ethnicity as the cast expands to include diversity, but Stoic offers the simplest of explanations to explain as to how they came to be here in the cold and dragon-infested Isle of Berk. However, it is our most important Viking, the almost twig-like Hiccup, who will abscond with your heart. A hero in the purest form, Hiccup's struggles for acceptance will twang a chord in anyone who has ever struggled to gain acceptance, be it at school or at home or anywhere else. His story speaks to everyone in that movie theatre, whether you are the child who dragged your parents, or the parents who gave in to the child. You cannot help but adore this boy with a beautiful soul, who does everything he can to protect the dragon he once vowed to kill. If you somehow remain unmoved by the boy, the first time you see Toothless the dragon slide open one giant cat-like emerald eye, you may understand that love at first sight does, in fact, exist. It is a love that will blossom with every tentative step both boy and dragon take towards one another, and burgeon to bursting point when you take to the skies with Toothless and Hiccup for the very first time. As you soar above mountains, dive through valleys and glide over seas, you will realise only now that you are doing what neither Peter Pan nor Aladdin's magic carpet could pull off. You are flying without wings, transported far beyond the confines of your cinema leather chair. However, all of this is a moot point, regardless of whether or not you cherished that longstanding childhood ambition of flying; from the moment those opening credits roll across the screen, the music will swallow you whole with no intention of letting you go. It really doesn't matter what Stoic, Hiccup or Toothless get up to. At the end of the day, you get a gift of plaintive orchestra that conveys Vikings' struggle with dragons, a boy's bottomless love for the pet who gave him a purpose, and a dragon's undying devotion for the one person who ever understood him. Close your eyes, and you will picture it all playing out in the screen of your mind. If music could speak words, John Powell's score says as much as every word spoken by the cast - and beyond. And now, because we are also happy to include even the most reluctant filmgoer, if you still find yourself checking your Instagram notifications during this mesmerising two hours, then it is possible you are cyrogenically frozen and you are watching this as you time-travelled from a dystopian future. In which case you probably have bigger problems than one live-action remake. A final lesson If Disney could somehow learn how Dreamworks and DeBlois harness all the devotion and attention to detail that goes into creating a true faithful remake, nitpickity fans could perhaps stop complaining about the off-centre sunrise in the 2019 Lion King or the muted lifeless colours of the 2019 Aladdin. (For one thing, they wouldn't have to complain because no one filmmaker would have been idiotic enough to allow it to happen.) Because this is 2025, and we have thus already suffered through numerous Disney reboots, by now we already know that when we hear the phrase 'live-action remake', it is really code for 'soulless cash grab'. We have no one but ourselves to blame for production houses' predeliction for soulless cash grabs when it comes to children's films, because, if you recall, parents are by no means averse to very expensive naps in a dark room. DeBlois, however, is the man responsible for the first animated How To Train Your Dragon in 2010, and has thus sidestepped all these Disney-esque pitfalls to give us the direct opposite of a soulless cash grab. Instead, with consummate surgeon-like precision as he reconstructs the film shot-by-shot, he has given us, a soulful tribute - one that is emboldened with a rich orchestra and a cast and crew who treat the original with reverence it deserves. In conclusion, your dreams of that nap will, regrettably - albeit fittingly in a film featuring fire-breathing dragons - go up in smoke. Save the nap for when you are forced to go and endure Smurfs.

Is Israel the real villain in Gunn's 'Superman'?
Is Israel the real villain in Gunn's 'Superman'?

Express Tribune

time5 days ago

  • Express Tribune

Is Israel the real villain in Gunn's 'Superman'?

James Gunn's Superman may have opened to a heroic USD220 million at the global box office, but much of the conversation surrounding the film has been less about capes and more about geopolitics. The film's depiction of a fictional war between two nations — Bovaria and Jarhanpur — has triggered a firestorm of commentary online, with political influencers accusing the film of being a veiled allegory for the Israel's genocide in Palestine. In the film, Nicholas Hoult's Lex Luthor sparks a violent confrontation between the two nations. Superman intervenes as Bovaria, portrayed as the aggressor, attempts to invade its defenceless neighbour. Since its release, commentators across the ideological divide have taken to social media and YouTube to dissect what they see — or don't see — as an unmistakable parallel. Twitch streamer and left-wing political influencer Hasan Piker described the film as "two hours and like 10 minutes of f—k Israel the entire time," calling any denial of allegory "a lie." His viral video has since gained traction among pro-Palestinian voices online, many of whom hail the film as a bold and timely critique of Israel's recent military operations in Gaza. On the opposite end of the political spectrum, conservative pundit Ben Shapiro dismissed the entire debate. "Only those with a left-wing brain would try to read this as a Gaza allegory," he said in a rebuttal, adding that the film "does not match up to the facts" of Israeli military actions and accusing viewers of "inventing a political agenda." As per Variety, the film's perceived message has fractured audiences, with headlines asking, "Is the new Superman movie anti-Israel?" and "Is the new Superman movie about the Israel-Hamas war?" proliferating across digital platforms. Gunn himself addressed the speculation in an interview with The Times of London prior to the film's release. "When I wrote this the Middle Eastern conflict wasn't happening," he said, referring to his completed script in May 2023 — several months before the current escalation in Gaza. "It's an invasion by a much more powerful country run by a despot into a country — [that] has totally no defence against the other country. It really is fictional," he explained. That disclaimer, however, has done little to contain the swirl of online discourse. The controversy arrives on the heels of earlier right-wing backlash, after Gunn referred to Superman as "an immigrant" — prompting accusations of "SuperWoke" politics from outlets like Fox News. Even the White House waded in with a tongue-in-cheek jab, photoshopping Donald Trump onto Superman's body in a mock poster touting "the American Way." At the LA premiere, Gunn's brother and actor Sean Gunn defended the filmmaker. "Yes, Superman is an immigrant, and yes, the people that we support in this country are immigrants," he said. "If you don't like that, you're not American." Superman is now playing in cinemas worldwide.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store