Latest news with #BONDS
The Independent
20 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Independent
How Hugh Jackman's most ‘humiliating' audition went down
Hugh Jackman recounted that his voice cracked while singing Les Miserables ' "Stars" during an audition, in a story he told the Hollywood Bowl during An Evening With Hugh Jackman. Jackman eventually played Jean Valjean in the 2012 film adaptation of Les Misérables, earning Oscar and BAFTA nominations. Jackman recently reprised his role as Logan in Deadpool & Wolverine alongside Ryan Reynolds. Jackman and Reynolds have become co-owners of Australia's SailGP champions, now rebranded as the BONDS Flying Roos SailGP Team. The team has signed a multi-year partnership with BONDS underwear, marking the first time the Australian SailGP Team has had a title partner.
Pink Villa
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Pink Villa
Deadpool & Wolverine Stars Ryan Reynolds-Hugh Jackman Team Up for New Venture and it is NOT a Film, Find Out
The Deadpool & Wolverine co-stars Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman have set out on a new venture together. The longtime friends have become the co-owners of the Australia team, SailGP Champions. Reynolds and Jackman announced the news in a fun statement released on Thursday. The actor joined the driver and the CEO of the team, Tom Slingsby, as they went on to lead the way. Moreover, the head of the sports team stated that they have BONDS as their first-ever title sponsor. Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman's statement As for the statement that the Marvel actors released, it went on to read, 'Hugh brings a deep love for and pride in his home country as well as being an avid fan of sailing. He will also be bringing his overly clingy emotional support human along for the ride.' They further added, 'Apologies in advance to Australia. No comment on whether we're writing this in our BONDS. No further questions.' The Sailing team's CEO, too, commented on the actors owning the team. In his statement, Slingsby added that it is a milestone for the sport as 'icons' such as Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds have agreed to partner with them. He continued to state, 'They bring unmatched star power, a love for storytelling, and a sharp sense of humor that fits perfectly with our team.' Meanwhile, Reynolds coming onboard to own the sports team marks his third venture, as the actor already owns Wrexham AFC in Wales and Club Necaxa in Mexico. As for the ownership of the team, it comes from Reynolds amid his wife's ongoing legal battle with her It Ends With Us co-star, Justin Baldoni.
Euronews
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Euronews
Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman embark on latest sports venture
Hollywood heavyweights Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman have become co-owners of the Australia SailGP team. The Deadpool & Wolverine stars joined driver and CEO Tom Slingsby on Thursday in leading the team's rebrand after several successful seasons, winning three championships in its four seasons. The team will be called the BONDS Flying Roos, with the Australian underwear company BONDS as its title partner. 'We're incredibly excited to set sail together in this new adventure," Reynolds and Jackman said in a joint statement released through SailGP. "Hugh brings a deep love for and pride in his home country, as well as being an avid fan of sailing. He will also be bringing his overly clingy emotional support human along for the ride. Apologies in advance to Australia. No comment on whether we're writing this in our BONDS. No further questions.' Slingsby said in a release that Jackman and Reynolds bring 'unmatched star power, a love for storytelling, and a sharp sense of (humour) that fits perfectly with our team." "With BONDS joining as our Title Partner and the launch of the BONDS Flying Roos," Slingsby added, "we're building something distinctly Australian; a team driven by spirit, resilience, and national pride.' This is the latest sports venture for Reynolds, who along with fellow Hollywood actor Rob McElhenney is a co-owner of Wrexham, one of the world's oldest football clubs. Reynolds and McElhenney were also among a group of investors in the Alpine Formula One team in 2023 and were part of an investment group that acquired Colombian club La Equidad earlier this year. The BONDS Flying Roos SailGP Team is expected to make its debut at the Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix starting tomorrow. After four Keanu Reeves-starring John Wick films, now comes the inevitable spin-off to milk the franchise for all it's worth, following the dire spin-off series titled The Continental. Ballerina – or to give it its full title From The World Of John Wick: Ballerina - stars Ana de Armas and is set between the events John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum and John Wick: Chapter 4. And before toxic fanboys referring to this newest addition to the franchise as 'John Chick' have an aneurism and moan about how the series can't possibly survive without Reeves, fear not: the Baba Yaga is also back. Briefly. And it's almost a shame, as de Armas is a force to be reckoned with here. Not that this comes as a surprise. Her scene-stealing appearance as Paloma in 2021's No Time To Die might as well have been an audition tape for Ballerina, as the actress can handle action sequences with aplomb and delivers the goods four years later. She plays Eve Macarro, a ballerina-turned-assassin with the Ruska Roma, who defies her orders and sets out to seek revenge on those who murdered her father (David Castañeda). Her quest takes her to the New York Continental (featuring a brief but very welcome cameo from the late Lance Reddick), and later to an Austrian village (almost exclusively populated by assassins) to complete her collision course with The Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne). Plot-wise, that's about as far as it goes, as Shay Hatten's wafer-thin script is this adventure's pitfall. Lines like 'a bullet is not good or evil' grate and subplots are forgotten about before they've even begun, leading to quality performers being criminally underused. Catalina Sandino Moreno, playing the enigmatic Lena, and Norman Reedus as the shady Daniel Pine suffer the most. Add an exposition-heavy first act which drags its feet, and there should be every reason to dismiss Ballerina as nothing more than a cynical cash-grab. However, for all its many pitfalls, Ballerina picks up in the second half and delivers a broadly enjoyable romp. It works best when it streamlines proceedings and does away with the overwrought and increasingly contrived lore that gradually plagued the previous John Wick movies. By eventually settling for Ana de Armas gun-fuing, punching and blasting everything and everyone that gets in her way, audiences can (finally) start to have some fun. There are rumblings that this second half pick-up has to do with rumoured reshoots. Ballerina had a troubled production, with franchise mastermind Chad Stahelski apparently having to step in and take the reins from director Len Wiseman (Underworld, Live Free Or Die Hard). There's no doubt about who the superior filmmaker is, and which one has a keener eye for kinetic action... Thanks to the satisfying simplicity of the second half – which recalls the familiar slickness of John Wick's choreography – Ballerina gets better, with two sequences involving hand grenades being lobbed about after a meeting is rudely interrupted and a flamethrower face-off standing out. It's in these moments that de Armas' character has to adapt to her environments and show her scrappy resourcefulness. In doing so, you truly get to appreciate how the much the actress had to give it socks, as she did many of the stunts herself. Add the fact that the character of Eve is fiery - especially compared to the ice-cold stoicism of John Wick - and the ultra-violent proceedings often feel more visceral. So much so that when the boogeyman does show up for an extended cameo, you won't care all that much. As flawed and overlong as it is, Ana de Armas' performance and her commitment to the action in the film's second half elevates Ballerina to a worthy entry in the John Wick canon. It's not up there with other female-led assassin movies like Nikita, The Long Kiss Goodnight or Hanna, but it crosses the finish line as an unabashedly trashy spin-off that makes you hope this assassin will get to dance again. Ballerina is in cinemas now.
Straits Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
SailGP rides rising tide with celebrity owners, brands
FILE PHOTO: SailGP F50 team Canada competes in front of the Statue of Liberty after the start of the finals race during the SailGP sailboat racing event won by team New Zealand in New York Harbor, New York City, U.S. June 23, 2024. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo NEW YORK - With new celebrity owners and a bevy of fresh sponsors, SailGP hopes to harness a wave of popularity and take the global sailing championship to the next level as it steers back to New York City to race for a third time this weekend. SailGP announced actors Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds as new owners of Australia's three-time champion team on Thursday, just as the ink was drying on the team's first title sponsor deal with BONDS. Reynolds led beleaguered soccer side Wrexham out of obscurity and into the English second-tier Championship with an injection of marketing wizardry, cash and a popular docu-series that quickly converted legions of American fans. SailGP is hoping for their Wrexham moment, too. "The fact that we can get that sort of involvement in one of the teams is amazing, and they'll have some fun with it too, which is what it's all about," Russell Coutts, the former Olympic champion who co-founded the league, told Reuters. It was the kind of news to which fans have become accustomed, as the operation co-founded by billionaire Larry Ellison catches fire with A-listers and snares more big-name brands six years after its launch. Oscar winner Anne Hathaway joined a female-led consortium that acquired the Red Bull Italy SailGP Team last week, while the competition itself named Rolex its title sponsor in November. More than 200,000 ticketholders watched SailGP events last year, as the league reported strong growth in social media engagement, snaring younger fans. The competition expanded to 12 teams for season five, with the addition of Brazil and Italy, and announced its new docuseries last month, part of a new content development push. "We had so many sort of naysayers out there saying this is like another sailing league, it'll be gone in two years, people have tried this and done it before, it never works and SailGP has totally broken down those boundaries," said Tom Slingsby, the CEO and driver for the Australian team. The 2012 Olympic gold medallist, whose team was rebranded as the BONDS Flying Roos, said he could not have imagined five years ago his team signing an iconic brand like BONDS, as they mull potential documentary options with Jackman and Reynolds. "I would have said that's not possible. There's no chance," he said. "But here we are." The leaders in the SailGP standings are not the only winners in the sponsorship race: On Monday, the U.S. SailGP team announced Amazon has signed on as a sponsor, joining existing brands like Tommy Hilfiger and T-Mobile. "You're starting to see really big brands come in and spend money in our sport," said Mike Buckley, the CEO and strategist for the U.S. SailGP team. "We're on everybody's radar now." Buckley put his money where his mouth is in 2023, helping lead a group of investors in the purchase of the U.S. team, locking in early for the league that hopes to become the "F1 of sailing". "Larry Ellison and Russell Coutts had a vision to build a TV product that the average racing fan would spend 90 minutes paying attention to," he said. "And I think they've done just that." The New York Sail Grand Prix is set for June 7-8. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Reuters
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Reuters
SailGP rides rising tide with celebrity owners, brands
NEW YORK, June 6 (Reuters) - With new celebrity owners and a bevy of fresh sponsors, SailGP hopes to harness a wave of popularity and take the global sailing championship to the next level as it steers back to New York City to race for a third time this weekend. SailGP announced actors Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds as new owners of Australia's three-time champion team on Thursday, just as the ink was drying on the team's first title sponsor deal with BONDS. Reynolds led beleaguered soccer side Wrexham out of obscurity and into the English second-tier Championship with an injection of marketing wizardry, cash and a popular docu-series that quickly converted legions of American fans. SailGP is hoping for their Wrexham moment, too. "The fact that we can get that sort of involvement in one of the teams is amazing, and they'll have some fun with it too, which is what it's all about," Russell Coutts, the former Olympic champion who co-founded the league, told Reuters. It was the kind of news to which fans have become accustomed, as the operation co-founded by billionaire Larry Ellison catches fire with A-listers and snares more big-name brands six years after its launch. Oscar winner Anne Hathaway joined a female-led consortium that acquired the Red Bull Italy SailGP Team last week, while the competition itself named Rolex its title sponsor in November. More than 200,000 ticketholders watched SailGP events last year, as the league reported strong growth in social media engagement, snaring younger fans. The competition expanded to 12 teams for season five, with the addition of Brazil and Italy, and announced its new docuseries last month, part of a new content development push. "We had so many sort of naysayers out there saying this is like another sailing league, it'll be gone in two years, people have tried this and done it before, it never works and SailGP has totally broken down those boundaries," said Tom Slingsby, the CEO and driver for the Australian team. The 2012 Olympic gold medallist, whose team was rebranded as the BONDS Flying Roos, said he could not have imagined five years ago his team signing an iconic brand like BONDS, as they mull potential documentary options with Jackman and Reynolds. "I would have said that's not possible. There's no chance," he said. "But here we are." The leaders in the SailGP standings are not the only winners in the sponsorship race: On Monday, the U.S. SailGP team announced Amazon has signed on as a sponsor, joining existing brands like Tommy Hilfiger and T-Mobile. "You're starting to see really big brands come in and spend money in our sport," said Mike Buckley, the CEO and strategist for the U.S. SailGP team. "We're on everybody's radar now." Buckley put his money where his mouth is in 2023, helping lead a group of investors in the purchase of the U.S. team, locking in early for the league that hopes to become the "F1 of sailing". "Larry Ellison and Russell Coutts had a vision to build a TV product that the average racing fan would spend 90 minutes paying attention to," he said. "And I think they've done just that." The New York Sail Grand Prix is set for June 7-8.
