Hello, and welcome once more to The Monitor, WIRED's roundup of the latest in the world of culture. We hope you had a nice Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend. What's been going on since the end of last week? Welp, Black Panther got a historic Oscar nod, M. Night Shyamalan's trilogy-ending almost-superhero film Glass ruled the long-weekend box office, and Pixar lost a big director. Oh, and there's a new American Gods trailer too!
Black Panther Up for Best Picture
It finally happened: After much hand-wringing and speculation, Black Panther got nominated for an Oscar, becoming the first superhero film to earn a Best Picture nod. Director Ryan Coogler's film also scored nominations for sound editing, sound mixing, costume design, production design, original score, and original song for Kendrick Lamar and SZA's "All the Stars." Not to be outdone, Netflix earned its first Best Picture nomination with Alfonso Cuarón's Roma, which landed 10 nominations total. Hulu's Minding the Gap nabbed a nom in the Best Documentary Feature category, the streaming service's first Oscar nod.
Glass Breaks a Box Office Ceiling
M. Night Shyamalan's Glass won the box office, bringing in $47 million in North America during the holiday weekend. While it came in under expectations, it was one of the highest-performing MLK weekend openings of all time, and a good showing for the traditionally dreary month of January. And since Shyamalan put up the film's $20 million budget himself, Glass should come out all right.
Coco Director Leaves Pixar
Lee Unkrich, the co-director of Coco and director of Toy Story 3, announced last week that he's leaving Pixar, where he has been making films for the last 25 years. The director's next move remains unknown. "I'm not leaving to make films at another studio," Unkrich said in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter. "Instead, I look forward to spending much-needed time with my family and pursuing interests that have long been back-burnered."
American Gods Is Still Happening
Hey, did you remember that Starz still has a show based on Neil Gaiman’s fantasy novel American Gods? It’s true! In the 18 months since its first season ended, it lost a few showrunners and a star or two, but American Gods still kicking, and now there's a new trailer for its second season. Sure looks like there's an epic battle of the gods on the horizon. We'll find out when it returns March 10.
[#video: https://www.youtube.com/embed/-lnHyVg74aQ