Late last year, former James Bond actor Daniel Craig was attached to star in a DC Studios film based on the World War II hero Sgt. Rock. That project would have reunited Craig with Queer director Luca Guadagnino and screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes. However, Craig has reportedly dropped out of the film and DC Studios will need to find someone else to play Sergeant Franklin John Rock.
The Hollywood Reporter broke the story about Craig’s departure, but the reason for his exit remains uncertain. THR suggested that some sources blamed Craig’s decision on Queer‘s failure to produce box office results or awards season nominations, while others said that it was because of scheduling issues with Craig’s wife, Rachel Weisz. Either way, DC Studios still plans to move forward with a Sgt. Rock movie, with a potential shoot planned for this summer in England. The Bear‘s Jeremy Allen White was mentioned as a possible replacement for Craig, but he isn’t the only candidate up for the role.
Among DC’s characters, Sgt. Rock has always been an outlier. He was created in 1959 by writer Robert Kanigher and artist Joe Kubert for DC’s World War II stories that were set far away from the company’s superhero titles despite sharing a universe with the likes of Superman and Batman. Sgt. Rock was the leader of Easy Company, a daring U.S. Army unit deployed to Europe at the height of the war. Rock and Easy Company have subsequently appeared in some one-off stories alongside a few of DC’s costumed heroes. But for the most part, Rock’s adventures have been kept separate from the rest of DC Universe.
It’s unknown if the Sgt. Rock movie is a part of James Gunn’s reboot DCU, which is launching with Superman later this summer. It’s entirely possible that Sgt. Rock will be a standalone film without any larger connections to the DCU.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?
YouTube is changing how its Home page works, giving viewers more control over what shows up there and making some of the app’s most-used sections easier to reach. Custom Feeds are now replacing the existing topic chips for eligible users, while YouTube is also testing a redesigned top bar on mobile that moves Subscriptions closer to the Home feed.
YouTube first started experimenting with Custom Feeds earlier this year, letting you type out what you wanted to watch and turning that request into its own stream of recommendations. Now, the feature is starting to look less like a side experiment and more like something YouTube actually wants people to use as part of their everyday Home page.