It’s official, per Deadline: Kingsman star Taron Egerton is set to play Elton John in an upcoming musical biopic from Paramount Pictures.
Egerton actually announced his involvement in the project n September in an interview on The Jonathan Ross Show, but the film — titled Rocketman, after one of John’s signature tunes — received the official green light from Paramount. The movie will cover John’s (birth name: Reginald Kenneth Dwight) rapid ascent from a prodigy at Britain’s Royal Academy of Music to a global phenomenon, charting his partnership with songwriter Bernie Taupin, who penned many of Elton’s biggest hits.
Apparently, the movie — which has been in the works for a long time — might not be a family-friendly affair, as Egerton told Ross: “As far as I’m aware, the plan is that it will be the world’s first R-rated musical. … It’s going to be very unabashed in its depiction of him, I think.”
Meanwhile, Egerton has some serious musical chops, as evidenced by his ultra-catchy cover of John’s I’m Still Standing, from the 2016 animated musical Sing, in which Taron portrayed a golden-voiced gorilla. According to the Deadline article, “everyone who has heard [Egerton] has been gobsmacked” by his singing prowess and the similarities between his voice and John’s.
It remains to be seen whether his piano skills can match the legend himself, but we’re betting they’ve got to be pretty good to have snagged the role in the first place. John appeared in a substantial role alongside Egerton in Kingsman: The Golden Circle, which released last September. Egerton’s other upcoming roles include Billionaire Boys Club and the lead in Lionsgate’s Robin Hood.
The film’s script was written by Lee Hall. John is producing via Matthew Vaughn’s Marv Films and David Furnish’s (John’s husband) Rocket Pictures. Vaughn has worked with both Egerton and director David Fletcher before; Vaughn actually directed both Kingsman films and produced Eddie The Eagle (which Fletcher directed), and the two worked together on the 1998 Guy Ritchie flick Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. Fletcher recently got the call to replace Bryan Singer as director of Bohemian Rhapsody, the upcoming Freddie Mercury film starring Rami Malek (Mr. Robot).
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.