I’m a huge football fan, and placing a few bets or two makes me more enthusiastic than ever. Also a good excuse that I’m really a diehard fan of the team LOL!
Now. I’m in the hunt for a decent online betting platform for sports that has fair odds. Most of the sites I check out are practically out there to take your money. I want something that exhibits a degree of fairness that’ll make it fair for both sides. I actually once saw betting odds that put Bayer Munich up two points. Who does that???
All suggestions are welcome. I really would like to check out where most crazy football fanatics place their wagers.

Alright, yesterday I created a quick match thread to calm down the increasing flow of new redditors on the sub, we went up to 3,598 online users on the subreddit at some point...
So today, let's have a serious, interesting and calm discussion about what happened during the game yesterday.

Atalanta 1 — 2 Paris Saint-Germain

Quarterfinals

Venue: Estádio da Luz
Attendance: Unkown
Referee: Anthony Taylor (ENG)
Kick-off: 21:00 local.

Lineups

Paris Saint-Germain lineup 4-4-2: Navas; Bernat, Kimpembe, T. Silva (Captain), Kehrer; Gueye, Marquinhos, Herrera; Neymar Jr., Icardi, Sarabia
Atalanta lineup 3-4-2-1: Sportiello; Toloi, Caldara, Djimsiti; Hateboer, De Roon, Freuler, Gosens; Gomez, Pasalic; Duvan Zapata

L'EQUIPE RATINGS

MATCH REPORT

GOALS:

• [1]-0 - Mario Pasalic (27')
• 1-[1] - Marquinhos (90')
• 1-[2] - Choupo Moting (90+3')

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS

• CBS Extended Highlights
• UEFA Highlights
• Optus Sports Highlights

STATISTICS:

	Atalanta	PSG
Shots (on target)	9 (4)	16 (6)
Ball Possession	39%	61%
Passes	367	593
Distance Covered	108.2 kms	104.9 kms
Fouls	29	13
Corners	4	3
Offsides	2	0
xG	0.58	3.29

FULL STATISTICS
FULL MATCH REPORTS:

UEFA: "Tuchel's side pull off stunning late comeback."

Paris were so nearly the first to land a blow, Neymar racing clear in the third minute only to slot wide with just Marco Sportiello to beat. Atalanta soon found their feet, with Hans Hateboer’s back-post header – smartly saved by Keylor Navas – serving notice of their growing intent.
La Dea’s ascendancy was rewarded before the half-hour when Duván Zapata played the ball neatly into the path of Mario Pašalić, whose first-time effort from just inside the penalty area arced perfectly past Navas.
Paris carved relatively little out of their superior possession for much of the second half, at least until the 90th minute when Neymar squared for Marquinhos to tap in from close range.
Crestfallen, Gian Piero Gasperini's side had barely caught their breath when substitute Kylian Mbappé raced down the left and crossed for fellow replacement Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting to help himself to an added-time winner.

The Guardian: "PSG's late, late double ends Atalanta's Champions League dream" by Barney Ronay

In the end it took £400m of attacking talent, 93 minutes of increasingly frantic football, and a man who mustered up five goals in a single year at Stoke to wrench a thrilling Champions League quarter-final the way of Paris Saint-Germain.
It had to be Neymar, one way or another. The world’s most expensive footballer had played for much of the game like a man trapped inside another kind of storyline, finding space fluently but shooting at goal like a man wearing wooden clogs.
Gian Piero Gasperini’s Atalanta underdogs had played with familiar verve to lead 1-0 with 90 minutes already up. At which point PSG’s labouring star machine finally found some relief.
Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, on as a 79th-minute substitute, swung a fine cross into the box, and the ball was deflected in off a combination of an Atalanta defender and Marquinhos.
Three minutes later, with extra time looming, Neymar played an extraordinary, high-pressure pass, taking the ball in a small space outside the area, freezing the moment, then sliding the ball inside José Palomino to meet the run of Kylian Mbappé. His low cross was equally precise. Choupo-Moting turned the ball into the net to set up a semi-final with either RB Leipzig or Atlético Madrid next Tuesday.
Atalanta will remain the wider story and not just because of another stirring show from this high-intensity team of low-cost parts. A Champions League quarter-final represents an all-time high, albeit one that will be coloured by other emotions. The horrors of March in Bergamo are well-documented. This is a region still processing its grief. Freewheeling success on the football field is not a fix or a balm for this kind of real-life pain. But all things considered, it is not a bad place to start.
The other story is, of course, Neymar, and a step into fresh territory for Thomas Tuchel’s version of that oddly brittle PSG star vehicle. Neymar remains, for all the outstanding moments, an object of some frustration among those baffled by the choice to move at his peak to an environment as lukewarm as Ligue 1.
And yet, Neymar did deliver and did so when his team needed it most. There are stronger opponents in the draw but not many better attacks, with Mbappé likely also to be fit for the next round.
The Estádio da Luz had provided an agreeably haunting stage for the latest instalment of midsummer Covid-bal. The late evening kick-off meant Lisbon was at least mercifully cool, a step down from the predicted mid-August firepit.
Atalanta had Marco Sportiello in goal, with Josip Ilicic absent for domestic reasons. PSG were without Ángel Di María and Marco Verratti, with Mbappé on the bench.
The action was frantic from the start. It took Neymar two minutes to produce an astonishing miss, running in on goal unimpeded from the centre circle, then shanking the ball five yards wide of the right-hand post.
Unconcerned by their own suicidally high defensive line, Atalanta set about besieging the PSG end. With 10 minutes gone Hans Hateboer drew a clawing save from Keylor Navas and the game settled into a series of crisp, direct Atalanta attacks, broken up by the occasional white-shirted counter.
For a while that powerful PSG midfield began to dictate its more stately rhythms but it was Atalanta who took the lead. Duván Zapata found space just outside the box, tumbling over as the ball ran on to Mario Pasalic. His first-time shot zinged into the top corner.
The response was familiarly staccato. Neymar produced a nutmeg on Pasalic then pinged a shot just wide. Otherwise Atalanta held their high line and swarmed around the ball, their combinations zippy and urgent where PSG seemed to be playing through a midsummer haze.
Neymar had time before the break to miss another presentable chance, blasting miles over the bar after seizing on a terrible pass from Hateboer and sending Tuchel into mild frenzy in his dugout.
Tuchel has something agreeably pale and gaunt about him at the best of times, striding about the touchline looking like a sad-eyed victorian wraith. In Lisbon, left leg encased in a surgical boot, he could be seen shielding his brow and flinching in horror at times in that first half.
Mbappé, his remaining ace, was sent out to warm up at the interval. And PSG did start with more purpose after the break. Neymar continued to find space but still lacked any sense of edge. A low free-kick on 50 minutes was his fourth shot at goal, his third off target.
With 31 minutes to play Mbappé was on, replacing Pablo Sarabia. His impact was instant, a series of surges down the left offering a threat where PSG had been reliant on Neymar’s twists and spins.
Atalanta flooded that side, surrounding Mbappé with five defenders at times. It looked like being enough, right up until that extraordinary ending.

La Gazzetta dello Sport: "Atalanta, going out like this hurts! Pasalic deludes, but PSG overturns everything in the recovery minutes" by Francesco Fontana

Nerazzurri ahead 1-0 until the 90', then the mockery: Marquinhos' draw and Choupo-Moting's overtaking goal. The Parisians went to the semi-finals and Mbappé's entry was decisive.
Players in tears over an incredible result, unbelievable stuff. Atalanta lost 2-1 on PSG, killing the minutes from 90 minutes (Marquinhos' goal) to 93 minutes, when Choupo-Moting signed the overtaking after Pasalic's great goal at 27 minutes of the first half. The Champions League quarter-finals speak French, in the semi-finals Tuchel's team will go there and now await the winner of Leipzig-Atletico Madrid, on the pitch tomorrow night. In any case, despite the defeat, the Goddess can return to Bergamo with a very high head.
Compared to the hypothesis of the eve there is no news in Atalanta's house: Gasperini bets on Caldara, Hateboer and Pasalic, preferred to Palomino, Castagne and Malinovskyi. So, in his 3-4-2-1, space to Sportiello in goal. In defence also Toloi and Djimsiti with De Roon-Freuler on the middle and Gosens on the left. In front, of course, Gomez and Zapata. On the other side, without Verratti and Di Maria (out for injury and disqualification respectively), Tuchel chooses the 4-3-3 with Keylor Navas between the posts, behind Kehrer, Thiago Silva, Kimpempe and Bernat. In midfield Herrera, Marquinhos and Gueye with Sarabia, Icardi and Neymar in attack (Mbappé starts on the bench). English referee Taylor.
First ring at 3': left Papu from inside the area, para Navas on the ground. The real danger comes 1' later with Neymar who, incredibly, makes a one-on-one mistake with Sportiello kicking out. Super start in this first quarter final. The Goddess is in the game, PSG concedes something. On the 11th assist top of Gomez, who from a distance fishes Hateboer on the second post: dunked by the Dutchman's head, Navas is ok in answering (ditto a few moments later on Caldara, albeit offside). Until the 27th minute, the French push to corner the opponent, then the result changes: a ball to the limit for Zapata who, in a daring way, serves Pasalic, amazing with a left-footed shot to beat Navas on the second post. Goddess ahead. And he'll stay there until halftime, also because Neymar, in the 41st minute, didn't take advantage of Hateboer's mistake (Sportiello's back pass was too short) and sent him out. And by quite a lot. Thrill. We go into the locker room after 1' of recovery.
Tuchel (on crutches due to a sprained left ankle with a fractured fifth metatarsus) is not happy and sends Mbappé to warm up immediately, on the field at 60'. At the same time Gasperini puts Malinovskyi and Palomino in place of Papu and Djimsiti, who just before (57') makes a mistake on the fly: what a chance for the Goddess. In the central part of the shot Atalanta shortens, PSG struggles to create. And it's no coincidence that, at this stage, Sportiello is still watching: it will seem absurd, considering adversary and level of competition, but that's how it is. The changes continue: Gasp throws in the fray Muriel (out Pasalic), Tuchel risks more with Paredes and Draxler for Gueye and Herrera. We're at 74', when Sportiello puts his big foot on Mbappé's right. Navas doesn't make it because of an injury accused just before, on 79' space for Sergio Rico, the reserve goalkeeper. Eleven minutes to go, Mbappé made another mistake (very good Palomino in closing). Gasp called for Castagne and Da Riva, midfielder of the 2000 class at his debut in the Champions League. PSG tries, tries and tries. And at the end, in the 90th minute, he finds a draw with Marquinhos, who puts it in the fray from a few steps. And in the 93rd minute he even overtakes Choupo-Moting, who receives a "chocolate" from Mbappé. Unbelievable, unbelievable stuff. Although a round of applause for this Atalanta is certainly not to be missed.
POST-MATCH INTERVIEWS & QUOTES

• Thomas Tuchel Post-Match Press Conference.
• Eric Choupo-Moting Post-Match Press Conference.

[F]
Werewolves are Assholes, But Vampires are Worse 1/2
So as you can imagine, at this point things weren't looking so hot for us. We had Little Missy locked up with some kind of supernatural furniture next to Mark in my garage, one of our werewolves is bed-er... toilet ridden, we have a literal hostage situation, our seasoned vampire hunter was nowhere to be found(and I'll definitely be having a talk with that secret keeping bitch about that when I see her again), and yeah... the vampires. I was definitely in way over my head. I mean I ain't gonna leave the little hoodlums to fend for themselves, but you can bet your ass I'll never have to wash a dish or dust a shelf for the rest of my life after this. Oh, and for the people asking about our cannibalistic princess and her name, well she said something about it when she asked me to write this part. She said she wants to do something like in that Brad Pitt movie where the guy telling the story never mentions their name. That girl sure likes her movies... Bless her heart.
So at this point we were still all huddled in the living room trying to figure out what we were going to do next, making our best effort to talk over the dual barrage of obscenities spilling out from the garage. Finally we agreed to close the door for a minute and let them tucker themselves out.
"Ok, Wolf Boy, ideas." I said once I closed the door and walked back into the room with everyone else.
"I... Um... We might be screwed." Milo says in response.
That was followed by a mild uproar from everyone in attendance. Likely not what they wanted to hear from the only one in the room even half familiar with all this nonsense. I managed to get everyone quieted down about the time Jasmine started to pick up another heavy object to bash Milo with again.
"Alright alright! Everyone just calm the hell down!" I hollered over the ruckus. "Listen sugar, you gotta chill. It ain't that boy's fault he's simple." I said to Jasmine while I took the marble elephant statue out of her hands. "And this was expensive. Try to go for something cheap next time."
About that time Trey spoke up. "Ok, so we have to do something. We damn sure can't leave her in there like that." He said, pointing towards the garage where some muffled commotion could still be heard.
"And what the hell is it we're supposed to do?!" Joannah commented back.
Trey started to answer but Dex beat him to it. "What ever we can!" He shouted. "Not to mention that guy's still in there with plugs missing from him all over the place. And I don't know about you but if I have to clean up one more pile of Mark-shit, him or me one is gonna die."
About this time the sun was already up. And about mid argument we all stopped and turned when we heard the stairs creak as Teagan came down.
"What is all these noise and screams?" She said in that darling broken English of hers. She looked an absolute mess. Poor girl looked like death eating a cracker.
"Oh sweetie you don't need to worry about all that right now." I said about the same time Milo said,
"What are you doing down here? You should go rest some more. I'll come up and tell you everything in a little w-" But she cut him off.
"NO! You will tell me now!" She demanded. "Somebody drop the peas."
"Beans." Dex said. "It's spill the beans."
"What?" Teagan asked. "Who has spilled beans?"
"No no, I was just... The expression is to spill the beans." He tried to explain.
"Why did you spill beans? Have you cleaned them? Why would you leave such mess?" She scolded. "You go clean these beans."
Milo was now off in a corner with his face buried in his palms in embarrassment, Dex made his way into the kitchen long enough to fake clean imaginary beans and return to the living room with everyone else. "Ok, fuck all of you for not helping me out with that." He said.
Then we got Teagan up to speed on everything that happened since she went up stairs, down to the little metal thing that just saved all our asses. As you might imagine, she was a tad... distraught.
"WHAT?! YOU HAVE HER LOCKED LIKE SOME ANIMAL?!" She screamed before turning to make for the garage.
"NO NO!" Milo stopped her. "We're trying to let her wear herself out for a while to see if that calms her down a little."
"NO! I must go to help h-" She stopped as long, low, growl roared across the room from Teagan's... stomach. "Oh no!" She groaned before grabbing her gut and dashing up the stairs like lightning. A few seconds later we all heard the bathroom door slam shut.
We all turned to look at Milo again.
"...... Werewolf.... stuff." He said quietly, suddenly forcing us all to recall the phrase that near traumatized us all about a week ago... "Had to poop out my werewolf arm."
"Yeah... What goes up must come down, what goes in... must come out." He explained in his own kinda way. "It's hard on the body to do what she did. Didn't have enough food stored for mass so when she changed it took till there wasn't anything left to take. Now her body is trying to get rid of everything that isn't mostly human, which doesn't leave her with much. That's why she's so bad off right now."
"The poor girl..." Lesley murmured softly.
"She's made it through the worst of it." Milo reassured her.
"So... does the "out" part get worse too when you change all the way?" Dex asked.
"That's disgusting!" Joannah exclaimed. "Why would you ask that?!"
And as you can all imagine, Joannah's revulsion at the question only served to excite Milo's enthusiasm to answer.
"Define worse." Milo said with a grin.
"What do you mean?" Dex questioned.
"Well I mean worse for who? The one doing it... or whoever has to deal with the aftermath?" He smiled even bigger in Joannah's direction causing her to wince. "When we're fully transformed we're also in a lot better shape when we change back, but what comes out, well... you guys ever seen Jurassic Park?"
It took us a second before we collectively groaned "Oh my god!"
"I mean now Teagan, she's a proper lady about it. Usually brings some toilet paper and finds her a secluded spot away from civilization and innocent human beings and takes care of it there." He went on.
"Annnd... what do you do? To ask a question I don't really think I want answered." Trey said.
"Ah, well ya see I like to find the nearest construction site and just unleash hell on some poor, unsuspecting port-a-john. Then I like to hide and wait around for the first person to open the door. One guy actually started crying. It was great." Milo bragged.
And there we were, in the middle of my house, having an in depth conversation about werewolf shit. Somebody stop the merry go round. I want off...
Nobody went back to sleep. We all stayed up and discussed what we was gonna do now, to little success. After a while me, Trey, and Milo went to the kitchen to start making some food for the recovering Teagan upstairs, who Lesley, Dex, Jasmine and Joannah were with. We'd finish making something and one of them would come down long enough to snatch it up and take it to her.
After a while Trey and Milo got to chatting.
"So how'd you and her meet?" Milo asked Trey, inquiring about the rabid shit head on lockdown in the garage.
"Met in college." He answered. "Same economics class. Actually, the first conversation we ever had was her asking me out."
Milo slammed his hand down hard on the table. "WHAT?!!" He yelled.
"Yeah, we even went on a couple of dates way back." Trey laughed. "Once we even... held hands."
"You dated... HER?" Milo asked, pointing towards the garage.
"Well yeah. I mean she's not so bad all the time and she's cute, in an "I might stab you in your sleep" kind of way." Trey replied.
"Oh my god..." Milo said, leaning back in his chair to look around the corner. "You're right. She's... cute. What the hell?"
"But I thought she was-" Milo started.
"A lesbian?" I interrupted. "Well I get how you might think that. She does mostly bat for the away team but I catch her looking at the fellas every now and then. I try not to label them kinds of things. That way nobody feels pressured to stay inside a box. Let people hump whoever they wanna hump I say."
"But you let people call you Gay Jake." Milo says.
"That's cause I'm queer as a three dollar bill sweety. Don't want nothing to do with any vagina. They creep me right ass out. They look like them face things from the alien movie. You ever make eye contact with one? Looks like something's gonna try to jump out and get ya." I explain, likely a little more vividly than entirely necessary.
"Mmkay..." Milo says slowly, somewhat cringing. "What about the others? How'd they all meet?"
"Well Joannah is kinda new to all this. I met her at the mall where she worked and we'd only been dating for about a week before we... met you." Trey answered.
"Yeah, and Dex was already living here when I brought Shit Head in." I added.
"Wait, Dex lived here too? Why?" Milo asked.
"That boy had his problems too. I had a lot troubled kids through here over the years. Dex had him a fondness for opioids which led him to a fondness for heroin. So he ended up here in a similar way. He was cleaned up and getting back on his feet about the time that little hellion came." I said.
"Then what?" Milo asked, scooting forward in his seat.
"Oh she bullied the piss out of the poor boy." I told him. "But that boy stayed and took it all and never complained not the first time. And I'd tell him, I'd say "Why you let her do you like that?" and he'd just smile and say that he could see how much pent up anger she had, and that she was dealing with it the only way she knew how. Bless that boy's heart, he hung in there till the bitter end to where one day she just snapped, and all the guilt of every time she'd smack him or push him or call him some horrible name or break something of his hit her all and once."
"And then what?" Milo asked almost standing up off his chair.
"She did something a hadn't ever seen her do up to that point. She apologized. Hell, after that you'd hardly see them apart really. I don't think she would have recovered as well if he wasn't around like he was. I think they been best friends ever since then." I explained. "I been catching him peeking into the garage on his way back upstairs every time he comes down to get Teagan's food."
After that conversation I'd catch Milo and Dex making their way from the kitchen to the garage to Teagan's room side by side. I mean most of the time it was just long enough to let a pressure wave of obscenities burst through the opening, but they were making the effort just the same. An now let me tell y'all, this next part just 'bout broke my little heart.
Later that night I went to poke my head in the garage real quick and oh my goodness. I found Milo and Dex both sitting on the cold concrete floor. Dex was out like a light lean't up against the wall, but Milo had brought a laptop downstairs and had it open and playing her favorite movies for her. Every now and then he'd catch Mark trying to watch so he'd pick something random off the floor and throw it at him saying "NO! You don't get to watch." Which would cause our predatory princess to crack an evil little giggle each time.
Now don't get me wrong, I still wasn't going to get in range of her chompers, but this was the calmest she'd been so far. I stuck my head in just a little and asked Milo if he needed anything.
"Nah, Teagan passed out from the itus a while ago so I figured I'd hang down here with Jaws and the Fecal Phenom over there and keep her company." He answered.
"Hey... Is that HER laptop?" I asked. "How'd you get into that? She keeps it locked up like Fort Knox."
"Well... at first she said she'd open it for me. But when I tried to hand it to her... Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice..." He turned to show me a mouth sized section of his right sleeve missing with what was apparently dried blood around the edges. "So I had to figure it out myself. Wasn't too hard. Turns out it was bobbys idgets. All one word."
"Boy, you gotta tell me, are you an idiot or a genius? I gotta know." I finally broke down and asked him what we was all thinking.
"Exactly." He answered with a wink and turned back to the screen.
That boy makes me tired I swear to god. He's lucky he's cute.
We all gathered back up in the kitchen later the next day to resume our figuring. Like you might expect we didn't get too awful far at all. That is, not until Teagan finally made her way down stairs in relatively better conditon. And that's cause when he saw her, Dex went to say hi and wave to her, which made him drop that gun-shaped knife thing of his. Which THEN thunked tip first right into my hardwood floor.
"Oh damn it boy! Y'all are steady fucking up my whole house!" I barked.
But about that time Milo got this strange look on his face.
"Hey Teag... HEY! HEY!!" He yelled. "Teagan! That guy who made these things!" He said, yanking the cutlery from MY HARDWOOD FLOOR. "Maybe he knows something about what we can do to help her!"
"HOLY SHIT!! BANG RATTLE" Sounded from over near the fridge where Jasmine had been pilfering around for food. "Oh god... Oh god..." She groaned, holding her head as she slowly shuffled over to the table.
"Oh honey... Your poor head. Are you alright?" I tried to ask but she just held a finger up at me.
"Mm. M-mmm..." She mumbled, trying to hold still as much as possible until she was able to take a deep breath and talk again. "Do... Do you think that would work?" She asked Milo.
"It's worth a shot. We should at least try. Teag, do you have any contact info from him or anything? What was his name." He said.
"No. I am sorry, but we did not get it before we leave." She said. "But I am thinking his name was Hephaestus. He says to call him Hep also."
To spare you some boring dialogue, in about 30 seconds that idiot savant had found him on... fucking Facebook. Turns out he's pretty easy to get in touch with through his day job not making vampire fighting equipment. About another 30 seconds later we all gathered around the phone set to speaker as it rang.
The other end clicked and someone on the other side answered, "HELLO! If this is the IRS I already told you to suck my ass."
"That is the strange Tony person." Teagan whispered.
"Um yeah hi. I think I'll take a rain check on the ass sucking." Milo replied, causing everyone else to chuckle. "Any chance we can chat with Hep real quick?"
"Oh shit! Right right!" The Tony man said. "Gimme a second." We then heard him say something with the phone way from his face that sounded like "Here. Run this out to him." Followed by the familiar sound of metal tinking and the sound of some kind of power tool getting louder in the distance.
"Heeeello! You got Hep!" Another voice answered.
"YES HELLO!" Milo said loudly. "Hi yeah, my friend and my wife just left your place a few days ago. You remember?"
"Wait! You two are married?!" Lesley shrieked. "Really?!"
Milo and Teagan both held up their left hands showing off a small black band tattooed around both of their ring fingers that apparently none of us noticed before.
"AWWW! That's adorable!" Jasmine and Lesley both cooed in unison, causing Joannah to groan in disgust.
"We got married in Romania... In Vlad's castle. It was the last thing I used my inheritance money on other than the plane tickets back here." He said with a big, proud grin.
"That is just beautiful." The voice in the phone spoke up, causing us all the jump a little. "Yeah, still here guys." The man said.
"Oh right..." Milo says back into the phone. "Uh, so we kinda have a situation."
"Your buddy went psycho and tried to eat someone?" The voice interjected.
"I... Yeah. How'd you know?" Milo asked him.
"I had a hunch that things might go tits up with your girl in the garage over there. Guess my little friend was helpful after all." The man said, making us all lean back away from the phone.
"How... do you know she's in the gargage?" Milo said, joining the rest of us in looking around the room suspiciously.
"Don't worry about it." The man said, increasing our worry. "Now what do you need from me?"
"Well..." Milo answered, "We were hoping you'd know how to fix her... or something."
"....... I do not. BUT," He continued, "I think if there is a way, I know the people who would know. I'm going to give you their number. Just tell them Hephaestus told you to call. That should get them talking."
Then he gave us the number to call, wished us luck, and hung up. We didn't waste a second dialing the new number. We sat the phone back down on the table and circled around again, listening to the ring.
CLICK "Worst Hotel, front desk! Who the fuck is this?!" A voice shouted through the speaker.
We all looked around at each other, all seemingly collectively thinking that the art of answering the phone has really taken a dive.
"Uh hi, my name is Milo and I was told to call by Hephaestus! Who the fuck is this?!" Milo shouted back.
"Ugh... God damn it. I hate taking these. Jesus what a day... Hello my name is Lezley. How can I help you today?" The man says.
"Oh my god my name's Lesley too!" Lesley chirps excitedly.
"Like O... M... G! Do you like... wanna totally be BFFs and like have sleepovers and talk about all the cute boys on the football team and like do each other's nails and stuff?!" The man on the phone said in the most heavily condescending tone I think any of us ever heard.
"Asshole..." Lesley whispered to herself before walking away from the table.
"What the hell do you people want?" The man asked.
"Our friend is a half vampire, werewolf thing, I think, and she's trying to eat us." Milo says into the phone. "We need to know how to fix her."
"An orichalcum infused weapon to the head or the heart ought to fix her." The man replies, sending Jasmine into a shit fit.
"Uh, no can do good buddy. We're going to need her alive." Milo said once we got Jasmine settled back down.
"UGHHH!! Ok god! You said she's trying to eat people yeah?" He asks.
"Yeah, that's right. She bit a chunk out of our hosta-er... Out of Mark. Ate his finger too." Milo answers.
"Jesus. Have any of you EVER watched a vampire movie? What do vampires need?" The man asks in the same condescending tone.
""Blood?" Milo half answers half asks.
"Yes blood dumbass! And what happens when they don't get what they need for a while? They flip the fuck out! So... how about... and hear me out hear... YOU GET HER SOME GOD DAMN BLOOD!" The man yells at us.
"So... we just go in there and give her some of our blood?" Dex asks. "That's easy enough."
"No you jackass!" The man barks at him. "Not unless you want her to bite a chunk out of your stupid neck! Ok look... You idiots obviously can't be trusted to think this through yourselves, so here it is. Right now you need to find a way to slide her a BIG bucket of FRESH and COMPLETELY HUMAN blood. If she's only half vampire, however the fuck THAT happened, then she'll probably only need a small amount every now and then. Regular food should work most of the time. Pure vampires get their nutrition from liquefying the entire body and sucking that up. If she doesn't have the ostial-dentitions you see on regular ones, and her tongue isn't partially bifurcated, then she's probably get most of her nutrition from regular sourses. And once she's calmed down you'll be able to donate to her directly, but unless you want her to tear you a new asshole, right now you need to find some way to get her the blood while she's all bitey and shit. This is just how she is now. You don't fix werewolf and you don't fix vampire. Deal with it. God I feel like I'm just hear to explain shit to people all the damn time. CLICK"
And with that the guy hung up, leaving us all looking at the black screen in silence. After about 30 seconds of gazing into the touch screen void Jasmine finally broke the quiet.
"I guess we need human blood." She says.
Milo responds, "What a coincidence! I know someone who has some to spare!", grabbing a metal turkey baster syringe and a large tup-a-ware bowl before starting for the garage with a spring in his step.
"WHAT THE FUCK YOU PSYCHOPATH?!" Joannah shrieked at the top of her lungs, stepping in front of Milo with her arms spread, blocking his way.
"What?" Milo questioned with the most bullshit feigned innocent tone possible.
As y'all can imagine, that didn't go well and the rest of us damn near had to break up a fist fight. After we got them two cooled down... about 30 minutes later... we started figuring on how we was supposed to come by a heap of fresh human blood. Long story short, it's pretty obvious a blood bank would have something to do with our solution, but we sat around for hours trying to come up with a heist game plan before that lovable moron Milo said something I still ain't sure was smart or dumb. But I gotta admit, didn't none of us think of it.
"Why don't we just run in, grab it, and run back out?" He asked us all, sitting up from where he had been laying down on the floor.
"What are you talking about?" Trey asked him.
"I was just thinking, how many people try to steal blood from a blood bank? It's not like they keep that shit in a vault with a bunch of armed guards and stuff right?" Milo explained, which actually started making some kinda sense.
So we all decided, we was gonna smash and grab a blood bank. We found one a respectable ways away online first, then we had to decide who was going.
"I'm thinking Milo." Trey said. "I mean if something does go to shit and he gets shot he can heal. We can't."
Everyone seemed to agree, then Teagan spoke up. "Then someone will have to also go with him." She said.
"Why's that honey?" I asked her.
"Teag n-!" Milo started but Teagan said it before he could stop her.
"Because Milo does not know how to do the driving." She said.
"THANK... YOU... TEAGAN! Thank... you..." Milo says loudly.
"HAHAHA! Oh my god you don't know how to drive?!" Joannah cackled mockingly at the poor boy, who's head was now hidden down in his arms.
"HEY! You behave you little shit." I scolded her. "It's ok sugar. We ain't gonna judge you none here." I comforted him, secretly taking out my little note pad and putting a check under the stupid section of the smart/stupid tally I had been keeping of him through the day.
Anyway, I ended up volunteering to drive the little hoodlum cause I had a dummy plate for my Wrangler that weren't nobody looking for and that don't trace back to my house. And once the next day rolled around we were ready to get wild. We figured sooner was better than later to get our situation somewhat stabilized again. Plus we figured the more time we had to think about it the more likely we were to come to our senses and chicken out.

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Welcome to the Summer Transfer Megathread 2020!
Here you can discuss rumours, confirmed transfers and also which player you personally would want to sign and how you would like to integrate them into the squad. Of course transfer rumours can still be posted as their own separate posts but you are free to post them in here as well.
I will keep this updated as new rumours come in, but only those sources that mention us directly. If you believe a rumour should be added, just PM me or post them down in the comments.
If you want to know how reliable a source is, just take a look at our Transfer Tier Guide.

Confirmed

Signings

Player	Age	Position	From	Fee	Source
Joe Scally*	17	RB	New York City FC	$2m + add ons ($5m)	borussia.de
Per Lockl	19	DMC	VfB Stuttgart U19	?	borussia.de
Hannes Wolf	21	AMC	RaBa Leipzig	loan (€1.5m) + option to buy (€9m)	borussia.de
Valentino Lazaro	24	MR	Inter Milan	loan (€1.2m) + option to buy (€13.8m)	borussia.de

Departures

Player	Age	Position	To	Fee	Source
Johnson	32	RB	?	free	Eberl via borussia.de
Raffael	35	FW	?	free	borussia.de
Strobl	30	DMC	FC Augsburg	free	fcaugsburg.de
Bennetts	21	FWL	Ipswich Town F.C.	loan	itfc.co.uk

*Winter Transfer

Rumours

Signings

Player	Age	Position	From	Fee	Source
Sebastian Vasiliadis	22	MC	SC Paderborn 07	?	GladbachLIVE (19.08.19), Kicker (16.04.20)
Kevin Ehlers	19	CB	Dynamp Dresden	?	Sport Bild (12.02.20)
Dimitrios Limnios	22	FWR	PAOK Saloniki	€8.5m-15m	Sportime (12.02.20), Sportime (01.03.20)
Marc Cucurella	21	FWL	FC Barcelona	?	Cadena COPE (24.02.20), getafecf.com (30.06.20)
Malang Sarr	21	CB	OGC Nice	free	France Football (27.03.20), GladbachLIVE (28.03.20), Bild (28.04.20), Téléfoot (30.04.20), Sport1 (09.05.20), chelseafc.com (27.08.20)
Linton Maina	21	MR	Hannover 96	€8-10m + add ons	GladbachLIVE (14.04.20), Bild (22.06.20), Bild (23.06.20), Kind via Sportbuzzer (30.06.20)
Streli Mamba	26	FW	SC Paderborn 07	?	Bild (17.04.20)
Bouna Sarr	28	RB	Olympique de Marseille	?	L’Équipe (26.04.20)
Hubert Mbuyi Muamba	17	CB	Paris Saint-Germain F.C.	?	L’Équipe (08.05.20)
Alessio Castro-Montes	23	RB	K.A.A. Gent	?	La Dernière Heure (12.05.20)
Jessic Ngankam	19	FW	Hertha BSC	?	Sport1 (13.05.20), herthabsc.de (20.05.20)
Imran Louza	21	MC	FC Nantes	?	Ouest-France (15.05.20)
Matías Zaracho	22	MC	Racing Club de Avellaneda	€12m	Radio Continental (26.05.20)
Lilian Egloff	17	AMC	VfB Stuttgart U19	?	Kicker (27.05.20), Kicker (28.05.20), Stuttgarter Zeitung (04.06.20), vfb.de (20.08.20)
Thiago Paulo da Silva	15	LB	Standard Liège	?	La Dernière Heure (28.05.20)
Juan Miranda	20	LB	FC Schalke 04	?	Mundo Deportivo (05.06.20)
Umar Sadiq	23	FW	FK Partizan	?	Calciomercato (11.06.20), MozzartSport (11.06.20)
Ismaël Doukouré	16	CB	Valenciennes FC U19	?	Football365 (13.06.20)
Gauthier Ott	18	FWL	AS Nancy	free	L'Est républicain (15.06.20), RMC Sport/Loïc Tanzi (25.06.20), L’Équipe (25.06.20)
Philipp Max	26	LB	FC Augsburg	?	Sport Bild (17.06.20)
Krépin Diatta	21	FWL	Club Bruges	?	Calciomercato (21.06.20), Football365 (11.07.20)
Jonathan David	20	AMC	K.A.A. Gent	€25-35m	Het Laatste Nieuws (22.06.20), losc.fr (11.08.20)
Florent Mollet	28	AMC	Montpellier HSC	?	La Republicain Lorrain (22.06.20)
Marko Grujić	24	MC	Liverpool F.C.	loan + option to buy (€18m)	Mozzart Bet (23.06.20)
Jeremy Ngakia	19	RB	West Ham United F.C.	free	The Telegraph (06.07.20)
Karol Linetty	25	MC	U.C. Sampdoria	€12m	TRANSFER market WEB (06.07.20)
Mohammed Kudus	19	FW	FC Nordsjælland	?	Ekstra Bladet (14.07.20), ajax.nl (16.07.20)
Berat Ayberk Özdemir	22	DMC	Gençlerbirliği Ankara	€7-8m	Habertürk (15.07.20)
Pedri	17	AMC/FWL	FC Barcelona	loan	Sky Germany (16.07.20), Sport (17.07.20), Pedri via Sport (26.07.20)), Eberl via GladbachLIVE (29.07.20), Sky Germany (03.08.20)
Patson Daka	21	FW	RB Salzburg	?	TodoFichajes (18.07.20), Laola1 (21.07.20)
Brenden Aaronson	19	AMC	Philadelphia Union	?	transfermarkt.us (20.07.20)
Jesse Lingard	27	AMC	Manchester United F.C.	?	The Times (28.07.20)
Ilaix Moriba	17	MC	FC Barcelona B	€15-20m	Sport (10.08.20)
Lazar Samardžić	18	AMC	Hertha BSC U19	?	Bild (13.08.20)
Bartosz Białek	18	FW	Zagłębie Lubin	€5m	Meczyki.pl (14.08.20), Przegląd Sportowy (14.08.20), vfl-wolfsburg.de (19.08.20)
Jordan Larsson	23	FW	FC Spartak Moscow	?	Voetbal International (02.09.20)
Timothy Fosu-Mensah	22	RB	Manchester United	?	FussballTransfers (06.09.20)

Departures

Player	Age	Position	Too	Fee	Source
Zakaria	23	MC	Manchester United	?	Sky Germany (02.03.20), Sky Germany (19.03.20), Sport Bild (20.05.20), Rheinische Post (20.05.20), Eberl (21.05.20), Eberl (19.06.20), Eberl via Sportbuzzer (27.06.20), Eberl via Radio 90.1 (08.07.20), Eberl via Westdeutsche Zeitung (27.07.20)
Zakaria	23	MC	FC Bayern München	?	Sky Germany (02.03.20), Sky Germany (19.03.20), Sport Bild (20.05.20), Rheinische Post (20.05.20), Eberl (21.05.20), Eberl (19.06.20), Eberl via Sportbuzzer (27.06.20), Eberl via Radio 90.1 (08.07.20), Eberl via Westdeutsche Zeitung (27.07.20)
Zakaria	23	MC	Liverpool F.C.	?	Sky Germany (19.03.20), Sport Bild (20.05.20), Rheinische Post (20.05.20), Eberl (21.05.20), Sport Bild (04.06.20), Eberl (19.06.20), Eberl via Sportbuzzer (27.06.20), Eberl via Radio 90.1 (08.07.20), Eberl via Westdeutsche Zeitung (27.07.20)
Zakaria	23	MC	Borussia Dortmund	?	Sky Germany (19.03.20), Sport Bild (20.05.20), Rheinische Post (20.05.20), Eberl (21.05.20), Eberl (19.06.20), Eberl via Sportbuzzer (27.06.20), Eberl via Radio 90.1 (08.07.20), Eberl via Westdeutsche Zeitung (27.07.20)
Zakaria	23	MC	Atlético Madrid	?	Sky Germany (19.03.20), Sport Bild (20.05.20), Rheinische Post (20.05.20), Nicolò Schira (20.06.20), Eberl (21.05.20), Eberl (19.06.20), Eberl via Sportbuzzer (27.06.20), Eberl via Radio 90.1 (08.07.20), Eberl via Westdeutsche Zeitung (27.07.20)
Lang	29	RB	FC St.Gallen 1879	?	GladbachLIVE (26.03.20)
Thuram	22	FW	Liverpool F.C.	?	GladbachLIVE (02.04.2020), Eberl (19.06.20), Eberl via Sportbuzzer (27.06.20), Eberl via Westdeutsche Zeitung (27.07.20)
Plea	27	FW	Manchester United	?	GladbachLIVE (19.04.18), Le10sport (23.04.20), Bild (19.05.20), Eberl (19.06.20), Eberl via Sportbuzzer (27.06.20), Eberl via Westdeutsche Zeitung (27.07.20)
Plea	27	FW	Leicester City F.C.	?	Le10sport (23.04.20), Bild (19.05.20), Eberl (19.06.20), Eberl via Sportbuzzer (27.06.20), Eberl via Westdeutsche Zeitung (27.07.20)
Bensebaini	25	LB	Olympique Lyonnais	?	Le10sport (14.05.20), Eberl (19.06.20), Eberl via Sportbuzzer (27.06.20), Eberl via Westdeutsche Zeitung (27.07.20)
Elvedi	23	CB	FC Bayern Munich	?	Le10sport (18.05.20), Eberl (19.06.20), Eberl via Sportbuzzer (27.06.20), Eberl via Westdeutsche Zeitung (27.07.20)
Elvedi	23	CB	Arsenal F.C.	?	Le10sport (18.05.20), Eberl (19.06.20), Eberl via Sportbuzzer (27.06.20), Eberl via Westdeutsche Zeitung (27.07.20)
Plea	27	FW	Arsenal F.C.	?	Bild (19.05.20), Eberl (19.06.20), Eberl via Sportbuzzer (27.06.20), Eberl via Westdeutsche Zeitung (27.07.20)
Plea	27	FW	Tottenham Hotspur F.C.	?	Bild (19.05.20), Eberl (19.06.20), Eberl via Sportbuzzer (27.06.20), Eberl via Westdeutsche Zeitung (27.07.20)
Zakaria	23	MC	Real Madrid	?	Sport Bild (04.06.20), Eberl (19.06.20), Eberl via Sportbuzzer (27.06.20), Eberl via Radio 90.1 (08.07.20)
Thuram	22	FW	ACF Fiorentina	?	La Nazione (24.05.20), *Eberl (19.06.20), Eberl via Sportbuzzer (27.06.20). *
Thuram	22	FW	Juventus F.C.	?	Le10sport (02.06.20), Eberl (19.06.20), Eberl via Sportbuzzer (27.06.20), Eberl via Westdeutsche Zeitung (27.07.20)
Zakaria	23	MC	S.S. Lazio	?	Corriere dello Sport (12.06.20), Eberl (19.06.20), Eberl via Sportbuzzer (27.06.20), Eberl via Radio 90.1 (08.07.20)
Poulsen	20	LB	FK Austria Wien	loan	Fohlen-Hautnah, Eberl via Kicker (10.08.20)
Zakaria	23	MC	Manchester City F.C.	?	Rheinische Post (17.07.20), Bild (20.07.20), Eberl via Westdeutsche Zeitung (27.07.20)
Ginter	26	CB	Inter Milan	?	Tuttomercatoweb (24.07.20), Eberl via Westdeutsche Zeitung (27.07.20), Kicker (28.07.20), Ginter via Kicker (02.08.20)
Zakaria	23	MC	Chelsea F.C.	?	Christian Falk via The Byline Podcast (24.07.20), Eberl via Westdeutsche Zeitung (27.07.20)
Nicolas	22	GK	VfL Osnabrück	?	Kicker (27.07.20), Kicker (03.08.20)
Ginter	26	CB	Chelsea F.C.	?	Eberl via Westdeutsche Zeitung (27.07.20), Kicker (28.07.20), GladbachLIVE (02.08.20), Ginter via Kicker (02.08.20)
Ginter	26	CB	Atlético Madrid	?	Eberl via Westdeutsche Zeitung (27.07.20), Kicker (28.07.20), Ginter via Kicker (02.08.20)
Poulsen	20	LB	Karlsruher SC	loan	Liga-Zwei.de (07.08.20), Eberl via Kicker (10.08.20)

Another Oscar ceremony happened, and we got our fair share of joy and disappointment. After Parasite surprised the world and took Best Picture, it seems like the game has changed for the awards race, now that non-English speaking films can actually fight and be recognized as well as classics as… Green Book. The Oscar race is still full of pain and glory, and even though the year has barely started, we have a bunch of movies that are fighting for air. And here’s 50 of them. Yes, I had some free time in my hands and this is a cool hobby, so I took the liberty to introduce most of the movies that will have Film Twitter entertained for the following 12 months. I say most, because there are always contenders who come out of nowhere later in the year, so this is the starter set. Here we go.
-Annette: Since Parasite’s road to the Oscars started at Cannes, it seems fair to talk about a movie that is circling a premiere in the world stage that is set in France. After delivering weird, indie classics like Mauvais Sang and Holy Motors (yes, the kind of movies that make you seem like a snob when you recommend them to people), Leos Carax is making his first movie spoken in the English language… and it has a musical screenplay written by the cult rock duo of Sparks. Recently robbed Adam Driver and previous Oscar winner Marion Cotillard sing in this tale of a stand-up comedian and a famous soprano singer who rise and fall in Los Angeles while their daughter is born with a special gift. It seems like a wild bet, but we already know that Carax is a master with musical moments, so this is one of the most intriguing question marks of the year.
-Ammonite: It’s time to talk narratives. On the one hand, we have Kate Winslet, a known name who hasn’t been very successful in the Oscar race since her Oscar win for The Reader over a decade ago (with the exception being her supporting performance in Steve Jobs, where she had a weird accent). On the other, we have Saoirse Ronan, a star on the rise who keeps collecting Oscar nominations, with 4 nods at the age of 25, including her fresh Best Actress loss for Little Women. What happens if we put them together in a drama set in the coasts of England during the 19th century where both of them fall for each other? That’s gonna be a winning formula if writedirector Francis Lee (who tackled queer romance in his acclaimed debut God’s Own Country) nails the Mary Anning story, and Neon (the distribution company founded three years ago that took Parasite to victory) is betting on it.
-Benedetta: We know the Paul Verhoeven story. After isolating himself from Hollywood for over a decade, he took Isabelle Huppert to an Oscar nominated performance with the controversial, sexy, dark and funny thriller Elle. Now, he’s back with another story that perks up the ears, because now he’s covering the life of Benedetta Carlini, a 17th-century lesbian nun who had religious and erotic visions. If you know Paul, you already can tell that this fits into his brand of horniness, and a possible Cannes premiere could tell us if this has something to carry itself to Oscar night.
-Blonde: With a short but impactful directorial credits list that takes us from Chopper, to The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford to Killing Them Softly, Andrew Dominik is back with a film about Marilyn Monroe, a woman who has transcended the ideas of fame and stardom, in ways that are glamorous and nightmarish at the same time. After failing to launch with Naomi Watts or Jessica Chastain,the rising Ana de Armas takes the lead in the retelling of Monroe’s troubled life based on Joyce Carol Oates’ novel, which is said to be covered in the screenplay as somewhat of a horror movie. We don’t know what that means yet, but Netflix is gonna push hard for this one, especially considering how the Academy loves throwing awards to stars playing previous stars, and that also can possibly include co-stars Bobby Cannavale and Adrien Brody.
-Breaking News in Yuba County: While he hasn’t gone back to the heights of his success achieved by the box office and award success of The Help (a movie that did not age well), Tate Taylor is still enjoying himself economically due to recent thrillers like The Girl on the Train and Ma. For his next movie, he’s made a dramedy that once again reunites him with Oscar winner Allison Janney, where she plays a woman who has to keep appearances and a hidden body when she catches her husband cheating on her, and then he dies of a heart attack. With a cast that also includes Mila Kunis, Regina Hall, Awkwafina, Samira Wiley, Wanda Sykes, Jimmi Simpson and Ellen Barkin, this could be a buzzy title later this year.
-C’mon C’mon: You may love or hate whatever Joaquin Phoenix did in Joker, but you can’t deny the benefit of playing the Crown Prince of Crime in an Oscar-winning performance. The blank check that you share with indie directors afterwards. Now that Joaquin’s cultural cachet is on the rise, Mike Mills gets to benefit with this drama that stars Phoenix and Gaby Hoffmann, with him playing an artist left to take care of his precocious young nephew as they forge an unexpected bond over a cross country trip. We only have to wonder if A24 will do better with this movie’s Oscar chances compared to 20th Century Women.
-Cherry: After killing half the universe and bringing them back with the highest grossing movie of all time, where do you go? For Joe and Anthony Russo, the answer is “away from the Marvel Cinematic Universe”. The Russo brothers are trying to distance themselves and prove that they have a voice without Kevin Feige behind them, with a crime drama that’s also different than their days when they directed You, Me and Dupree or episodes of Arrested Development and Community. To help them in the journey, they took Tom Holland (who also needs to distance himself from Spider-Man, lest he ends up stuck to the character in the audience’s eyes) to star in a crime drama based on former Army medic Nico Walker’s memoir about his days after Iraq, where the PTSD and an opioid addiction led him to start robbing banks.
-Da 5 Bloods: After bouncing back from a slump with the critical and commercial success of BlackKklansman, Spike Lee is cashing a Netflix check to tell the tale of four African American veterans who return to Vietnam to search for their fallen leader and some treasure. With a cast that includes Delroy Lindo, Clarke Peters, Isiah Whitlock Jr, Paul Walter Hauser and Chadwick Boseman, this sounds like an interesting combo, although we still should remember the last time that Spike tried his hand at a war movie, with the dull Miracle at St. Anna.
-Dune: If you are on Reddit, you probably know about the new film by movies’ new Messiah, Denis Villeneuve. While the epic sci-fi novel by Frank Herbert is getting a new chance in the multiplexes after that David Lynch movie that was forgotten by many, some are hoping that this will be the beginning of a new franchise (as seen by the release date of December 18, taking the spot of the usual Star Wars opening), and a return to the whole “remember when stuff like Return of the King or Fury Road were nominated for Best Picture?” question. Timothee Chalamet will be riding a lot of hope, and sandworm.
-Everybody’s Talking About Jamie: As you start to see, there are several musicals that are gonna be fighting for attention over the next year, and Annette was the first one. Now, we also have this adaptation of the hit West End production, that centers around a gay British teenager who dreams of becoming a drag queen and get his family and schoolmates to accept his sexuality. With a cast that mixes young unknowns, familiar Brits (Sharon Horgan, Sarah Lancashire and my boy Ralph Ineson) and the previously nominated legend that is Richard E. Grant (who is playing a former drag queen named Loco Chanelle), the creative team of the stage musical will jump to the big screen with the help of Fox Searchlight (sorry, just Searchlight), who has clear Oscar hopes with a release date right in the middle of awards heat, on October 23.
-Hillbilly Elegy: Even though the Parasite victory gave many people hope for a new Academy that stops recognizing stuff like previous winner Green Book… let’s be honest, the Academy will still look for movies like Green Book. This year, many people are turning their eyes towards Ron Howard’ adaptation of J.D. Vance’s memoir about his low income life in a poor rural community in Ohio, filled with drugs, violence and verbal abuse. If this sounds like white trash porn, it doesn’t help to know that Glenn Close, who has become the biggest living Oscar bridesmaid with seven nominations, will play a character called Mamaw. And if that sounds trashy, then you have to know that Amy Adams, who follows Glenn with six nominations, is playing her drug-addicted, careless daughter. I don’t want to call this “Oscar bait”, but it sure is tempting.
-I’m Thinking of Ending Things: After his stopmotion existential dramedy Anomalisa got him a Best Animated Feature nomination at the Oscars but at the same time bombed at the box office, Charlie Kaufman is getting the Netflix check. This time, he’s adapting the dark novel by Iain Reid, about a woman (Jessie Buckley, who is on the rise and took over the role after Brie Larson had to pass) who is taken by her boyfriend (Jesse Plemons) to meet his parents (Toni Collette and David Thewlis), in a trip that takes a turn for the worse. If Kaufman can deliver with this one, it will be a big contender.
-In the Heights: Yes, more musicals! This time, it’s time to talk about Lin-Manuel Miranda’s first Tony-winning musical, that was overshadowed because of his other small play about some treasury secretary. Now, his Broadway ensemble tale about life in a neighborhood in Washington Heights is jumping to the movie screen with Jon Chu at the helm, following the success of Crazy Rich Asians. This Latino tale mixes up-and-comers like Anthony Ramos (who comes straight from Hamilton and playing Lady Gaga’s friend in A Star is Born), names like Corey Hawkins and Jimmy Smits (who is pro bits), and Olga Merediz, who starred in the Broadway show as Abuela Claudia and who could be the early frontrunner for Best Supporting Actress, if Chu allows her to shine like she did onstage.
-Jesus Was My Homeboy: When looking at up-and-coming Black actors right now in Hollywood, two of the top names are Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield, who already appeared in the same movie in Get Out, which earned Kaluuya a Best Actor nomination. This time, they share the screen in Shaka King’s retelling of the story of Fred Hampton (Kaluuya), an activist and Black Panther leader… as well as the story of William O’Neal (Stanfield), the FBI agent sent by J. Edgar Hoover to infiltrate the party and arrest him. With the backing of Warner Bros, this will attempt to make an impact with a clash of actors that will have to fight with an August release date, not the ideal time to release an awards movie.
-King Richard: Starting with Suicide Squad, Will Smith has been trying to prove that he’s back and better than ever. Some attempts to get back to the top of the A-list (Aladdin, Bad Boys For Life) have worked, while others (Gemini Man, Spies in Disguise)... have not. But Will is still going, and now he’s going for his next prestige play as he plays Richard Williams, the coach and father of the tennis legends Venus and Serena, who pushed them to their full potential. While it’s weird that the father of the Williams sisters is getting a movie before them, it does sound like a meaty role for Smith, who has experience with Oscar notices with sports biopics because of what he did with Michael Mann in Ali. Let’s hope director Reinaldo Marcus Green can take him there too.
-Last Night in Soho: Every year, one or two directors who have a cool reputation end up in the Dolby Theatre, and 2020 could be the year of Edgar Wright. After delivering his first big box office hit with Baby Driver, the Brit is going back to London to tell a story in the realm of psychological horror, which has been supposedly inspired by classics like Don’t Look Now and Repulsion. With a premise that supposedly involves time travel and a cast that includes Anya-Taylor Joy, Thomasin McKenzie, Matt Smith and Diana Rigg, Wright (who also co-wrote this with Krysty Wilson-Cairns, who was just nominated for Best Original Screenplay for her work in 1917) is making a big swing.
-Let Them All Talk: Every year there’s more new streaming services, and that also means that there’s new players in the Oscar game. To secure subscribers to the new service, HBO Max has secured the rights to the next Steven Soderbergh movie, a comedy that stars Meryl Streep as a celebrated author that takes her friends (Candice Bergen, Dianne Wiest) and her nephew (Lucas Hedges, again) in a journey to find fun and come to terms with the past. The last time that Soderbergh and Streep worked together, the end result was the very disappointing The Laundromat. Let’s hope that this time everything works out.
-Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom: Now that Netflix got the deal to adapt August Wilson’s acclaimed plays with Denzel Washington’s production company, the next jump from the stage to the screen is a meaty one. Viola Davis is playing blues singer Ma Rainey in this tale of a heated recording session with her bandmates, her agent and her producer in 1927, with a cast that also includes Chadwick Boseman, Glynn Turman and Colman Domingo. The Tony nominated play talked about race, art and the intersection of the two, and it’s gonna be explosive to see that unfold on screen, even if director George C. Wolfe’s previous filmography isn’t very encouraging.
-Macbeth: In a shocking development, the Coen brothers are no more. Well, just this time. For the first time in his career, Joel Coen is making a movie without Ethan, and it’s a Shakespeare adaptation. Denzel Washington is playing the man who wants to be king of Scotland, and Frances McDormand is playing his Lady Macbeth. While this just started filming and it will be a race to finish it in time for competition in the awards race, the potential is there, and this project has everybody’s attention.
-Mank: After scoring 24 Oscar nominations and only winning 2 awards last Sunday, Netflix has to wonder what else must they do to get in the club that awards them. They tried with Cuarón, they tried with Scorsese, they tried with Baumbach, they tried with two Popes, and they still feel a barrier. Now, the big gamble for awards by the streamer in 2020 comes to us in the hands of David Fincher, who is basically their friend after the rest of Hollywood denied him (Disney dropped his 20,000 Leagues adaptation, HBO denied the US remake of Utopia, and Paramount drove World War Z 2 away from him). In his first movie since 2014’s Gone Girl, David will go black and white to tackle a script by his late father about the making of the classic of classics, Citizen Kane, with previous Oscar winner Gary Oldman playing the lead role of screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz. Will the Academy fall for the ultimate “power of da moviesshhh” story?
-Minari: Sundance can be hit or miss with the breakout films that try to make it to the Oscars. However, you can’t deny the waves made by A24 when they premiered Lee Isaac Chung’s new drama there, ending up winning the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award in the US Dramatic Competition. If Parasite endeared Academy voters to Korean families, Steven Yeun hopes that the same thing happens with this story, where he plays a father in the ‘80s who suddenly decides to move his family to Arkansas to start a farm. Even though the reviews have been great, we must also remember that last year, A24 had in their hands The Farewell, another Sundance hit about an Asian family that ended up with no Oscar nominations. Let’s hope that this time, the Plan B influence (remember, that’s Brad Pitt’s production company, of Moonlight and 12 Years a Slave fame) makes a difference.
-Next Goal Wins: It’s a good time to be Taika Waititi. Why? Taika Waititi can do what he wants. He can direct a Thor movie, he can win an Oscar for writing a comedy set in WW2 about a Third Reich boy who has an Imaginary Hitler friend, or he can pop up in The Mandalorian as a droid. Taika keeps winning, and he wants more. Between his press tour for Jojo Rabbit and his return to the MCU, he quickly shot an adaptation of a great documentary about the disgraced national team of American Samoa, one of the worst football teams known to man, as they try to make the cut for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Everybody loves a good sports comedy, and Searchlight bets that we’ll enjoy this story led by Michael Fassbender as the new (and Dutch-American) coach in town who tries to shape the team for victory.
-News of the World: Seven years after their solid collaboration in Captain Phillips, Paul Greengrass and Tom Hanks reunite for more awards love in what seems to be Universal’s main attraction for the Oscars. This time, Hanks stars in a Western drama based on Paulette Jiles’ novel where he plays a traveling newsreader in the aftermath of the American Civil War who is tasked with reuniting an orphaned girl with her living relatives. With a Christmas release date, Universal is betting big in getting the same nomination boost that 1917 is enjoying right now, and the formula is promising.
-Nightmare Alley: Following his Best Picture and Best Director wins for The Shape of Water, everybody in Hollywood wondered what would Guillermo del Toro do next. Well, as Del Toro often does, a little bit of everything and nothing. Some projects moved (as his produced Pinocchio movie on Netflix, or his Death Stranding likeness cameo), others stalled and die (like his proposed Fantastic Voyage remake). But now he’s rolling on his next project, a new adaptation of the William Lindsay Gresham novel that already was a Tyrone Power film in 1947. This noir tale tells the story of a con man (Bradley Cooper) who teams up with a psychiatrist (Cate Blanchett) to trick people and win money, and how things get out of control. With a cast that also includes Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Rooney Mara and more, this could play well if it hits the right tone.
-Nomadland: There’s breakout years, and then there’s the amazing potential of Chloe Zhao’s 2020. On the one hand, after making Hollywood notice her skill with the gripping story of The Rider, she got the keys to the MCU kingdom to direct the next potential franchise of Kevin Feige, The Eternals. And just in case, she also has in her sleeve this indie drama that she wrote and directed beforehand, with two-time Oscar winner Frances McDormand playing a woman who, after losing everything in the Great Recession, embarks on a journey through the American West, living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad. If Chloe nails these two films, it could be the one-two punch of the decade.
-One Night in Miami: Regina King is living her best life. Following her Oscar win for Best Supporting Actress in If Beale Street Could Talk and the success that came with her lead role in the Watchmen show on HBO, the actress is jumping to a new challenge: directing movies. For her big screen debut, she’s adapting Kemp Powers’ play that dramatizes a real meeting on February 25, 1964, between Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Sam Cooke and Jim Brown.
-Over the Moon: After earning praise and Oscar nominations with I Lost My Body and Klaus, Netflix will keep its bet on animated movies with a film directed by the legendary Glen Keane. Who? A classic Disney animator responsible for the design of characters like Ariel, the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, Tarzan and more](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jRkx2PNVr8), and who recently won an Oscar for Best Animated Short for Dear Basketball, which he co-directed with the late Kobe Bryant. Now, he brings us a musical adventure centered around a Chinese girl who builds a rocket ship and blasts off to the Moon in hopes of meeting a legendary Moon Goddess.
-Passing: It’s always interesting when an actor jumps behind the camera, and Rebecca Hall’s case is no exception. For her directorial debut, Hall chose to adapt Nella Larsen’s acclaimed novel set in Harlem in the 1920s, about two mixed race childhood friends (Ruth Negga and Tessa Thompson) who reunite in adulthood and become obsessed with one another's lives. With a premise that explores tough questions about race and sexuality, it looks like a tricky challenge for a first timer, but it would be more impressive if Hall manages to rise over the challenge.
-Prisoner 760: An interesting part of following the awards circuit is looking at when it's appropriate to talk about touchy subjects in recent history. I’m saying that because this next movie tells the real life tale of Mohamedou Ould Slahi (Tahar Rahim), a man who, despite not being charged or having a set trial, is held in custody at Guantanamo Bay, and turns towards a pair of lawyers (Jodie Foster and Shailene Woodley) to aid him. Based on the famous journal that the man wrote while he was being detained, the movie (that also counts with Benedict Cumberbatch) is directed by Kevin Macdonald who, a long time ago, helped Forest Whitaker win Best Actor for The Last King of Scotland. Could he get back in the race after almost 15 years of movies like State of Play?
-Raya and the Last Dragon: This year, Walt Disney Animation Studios’ bet for the Oscars is a fantasy tale set in a mysterious realm called Kumandra, where a warrior named Raya searches for the last dragon in the world. And that dragon has the voice of Awkwafina. Even though they missed out last Oscars when Frozen II got the cold shoulder by the Academy in Best Animated Feature, this premise looks interesting enough to merit a chance. One more thing: between last year’s Abominable, Over the Moon and this movie, there’s a clear connection of animated movies trying to appeal to Chinese sensibilities (and that sweet box office).
-Rebecca: It’s wild to think that the only time that Alfred Hitchcock made a film that won the Oscar for Best Picture was with 1940’s adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s psychological thriller novel, more muted and conventional than his more known classics. Now, Ben Wheatley and Netflix are giving the Gothic story a new spin, with Lily James playing the newly married young woman who finds herself battling the shadow of her husband's (Armie Hammer) dead first wife, the mysterious Rebecca. The story is a classic, and we have to see how much weird Wheatley stuff is in the mix.
-Red, White and Water: Between 2011 and 2014, Jennifer Lawrence was everywhere and people loved it. She was America’s sweetheart, the Oscar winner, Katniss Everdeen. But then, everything kinda fell. Those X-Men movies got worse and she looked tired of being in them, her anecdotes got less charming and more pandering to some, she took respectable risks that didn’t pay off with Red Sparrow and Mother!, and some people didn’t like that she said that it wasn’t nice to share private photos of her online. Now, she looks to get back to the Oscar race with a small project funded by A24 and directed by Lila Neugebauer in her film debut, about a soldier who comes back to the US after suffering a traumatic brain injury in Afghanistan. Also, Brian Tyree Henry is in this, and it would be amazing if he got nominated for something.
-Respect: You know what’s a surefire way to get Academy voters’ attention? Play a real singer! Rami Malek took a win last year for playing Freddie Mercury, Renee Zellweger just won the gold after portraying Judy Garland, and now Jennifer Hudson wants more Oscar love. Almost 15 years after taking Best Supporting Actress for her role in Dreamgirls, Hudson will try to get more by playing soul legend Aretha Franklin, in a biopic directed by first timer Liesl Tommy that practically screams “give me the gold”. How am I so sure? Well, see the teaser that they released in December (for a movie that opens in October), and tell me. It will work out better for Hudson than Cats, that’s for sure.
-Soul: Unless they really disappoint (I’m looking at you, The Good Dinosaur, Cars 2 and Cars 3), you can’t have the Oscars without inviting Pixar to the party. This year, they have two projects in the hopes of success. While in a few weeks we’ll see what happens with the fantasy family road trip of Onward, the studio’s biggest bet of the year clearly is the next existential animation written and directed by Pete Docter, who brought Oscar gold to his home with Up and Inside Out. The movie, which centers on a teacher (voice of Jamie Foxx) who dreams of becoming a jazz musician and, just as he’s about to get his big break, ends up getting into an accident that separates his soul from his body, had a promising first trailer, and it also promises a score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, as well as new songs by Jon Batiste. The only downside so far for the marketing was the fact that the trailer reveal led people to notice a suspicious trend involving black characters when they lead an animated movie.
-Tenet: When Leonardo DiCaprio finally touched his Academy Award, an alarm went off in the mind of a portion of Internet users, who have made their next crusade to give themselves to the cause of getting Christopher Nolan some Oscar love. And his next blank check, an action thriller involving espionage and time travel, could pull off the same intersection of popcorn and prestige that made Inception both a box office hit and a critically acclaimed Oscar nominee. It helps to have a cast of impressive names like John David Washington, Elizabeth Debicki and Robert Pattinson, as well as a crew that includes Ludwig Goransson and Hoyte van Hoytema. In other words, if this becomes a hit, this could go for a huge number of nominations.
-The Devil All the Time: As you may have noticed by now, Netflix is leading the charge in possible Oscar projects. Another buzzy movie that comes from them is the new psychological thriller by Antonio Campos, a filmmaker known for delivering small and intimate but yet intense and terrifying dramas like Simon Killer and Christine. Using the novel by Donald Ray Pollock, Campos will follow non-linearly a cast of characters in Ohio between the end of World War II and the beginning of the Vietnam War, with the help of an interesting cast that includes Tom Holland, Sebastian Stan, Robert Pattinson, Mia Wasikowska, Eliza Scanlen, Bill Skarsgard, Jason Clarke and Riley Keough.
-The Eyes of Tammy Faye: After being known as a sketch comedy goofball because of The State, Wet Hot American Summer and Stella, Michael Showalter reinvented himself as a director of small and human dramedies like Hello, My Name is Doris and The Big Sick. For his next project, he’s gonna mix a little bit of both worlds, because he has before him the story of the televangelists Tammy Faye Bakker (Jessica Chastain, who has been really trying to recapture her early ‘10 awards run to no avail) and Jim Bakker (Andrew Garfield, who was previously nominated for Hacksaw Ridge, instead of Silence, because why). With a real life tale that involves Christian theme parks, fraud and conspiracies, this is the kind of loud small movie that Searchlight loves to parade around, especially as an actors showcase (Jojo Rabbit being the most recent example). The first image looks terrifying, by the way.
-The Father: It’s weird to be in the middle of February and say that there’s already a frontrunner for the Best Actor race at the next Oscars. After its premiere in Sundance a couple of weeks ago, every prognosticator pointed in the direction of Anthony Hopkins (recently nominated for Best Supporting Actor in The Two Popes), who delivers a harrowing portrayal of an old man grappling with his age as he develops dementia, causing pain to his beleaguered daughter (recent winner Olivia Colman, who also got praised). With reviews calling it a British answer to Amour (in other words: it’s a hard watch), Florian Zeller’s adaptation of his acclaimed play not only benefits from having Hopkins and Colman together as a selling point, because it was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics, a distributor with experience in getting Academy voters to watch adult movies with heavy themes. If you don’t believe me, watch how they got Julianne Moore a win for Still Alice, as well as recent nominations for Isabelle Huppert for Elle, Glenn Close for The Wife, and Antonio Banderas for Pain and Glory. They know the game, and they are going to hit hard for Hopkins and Colman.
-The French Dispatch: If you saw the trailer, we don’t need to dwell too much on the reasons. On the one hand, we have the style of Wes Anderson, a filmmaker who has become a name in both the critics circle and the casual viewer, with his last two movies (The Grand Budapest Hotel and Isle of Dogs) earning several Oscar nominations, including Best Picture for the one with Gustave H. Then, we have a long cast that goes from the director’s regulars like Bill Murray to new stars like Timothee Chalamet, and also includes people like Benicio del Toro. The only thing that could endanger the Oscar chances for this is that the story, an anthology set around a period comedy with an European riff on The New Yorker, will alienate the average Academy member.
-The Humans: There’s the prestige of a play, and then there’s the prestige of a Tony-winning play. Playwright Stephen Karam now gets to jump to the director’s chair to take his acclaimed 2016 one-act story to the big screen, and A24 is cutting the check. Telling the story of a family that gets together on Thanksgiving to commiserate about life, this adaptation will be led by original performer Jayne Houdyshell (who also won a Tony for her stage performance), who’ll be surrounded by Richard Jenkins, Beanie Feldstein, Amy Schumer, Steven Yeun and June Squibb. If it avoids getting too claustrophobic or stagey for the cinema, it will be a good contender.
-The Last Duel: Always speedy, Ridley Scott is working on his next possible trip to the Oscars. This time, it’s the telling of a true story in 14th-century France, where a knight (Matt Damon) accuses his former friend (Adam Driver) of raping his wife (Jodie Comer), with the verdict being determined by the titular duel. It’s a juicy story, but there was some concern when it seemed that the script was only being written by Damon and Ben Affleck (who’ll also appear in the film). A rape story written by them after the Weinstein revelations… not the best look. But then, it was revealed that they were writing the screenplay with indie figure Nicole Holofcener, who last year was nominated for an Oscar for her script for Can You Ever Forgive Me? Let’s hope that the story is told in a gripping but not exploitative way, and that it doesn’t reduce the role of Comer (who deserves more than some of the movie roles that she’s getting after Killing Eve) to a Hollywood stereotype.
-The Power of the Dog: We have to talk about the queen of the indie world, we have to talk about Jane Campion. More than a decade after her last movie, Bright Star, the Oscar and Palme d’Or winner for The Piano returns with a non-TV project (see Top of the Lake, people) thanks to Netflix, with a period drama centered around a family dispute between a pair of wealthy brothers in Montana, Phil (Benedict Cumberbatch) and George Burbank (Jesse Plemons), after the latter one marries a local widow (Kirsten Dunst). According to the synopsis, “a shocked and angry Phil wages a sadistic, relentless war to destroy her entirely using her effeminate son Peter as a pawn”. Can’t wait to see what that means.
-The Prom: Remember the Ryan Murphy blank check deal with Netflix that I mentioned earlier? Well, another of the projects in the first batch of announcements for the deal is a musical that he’ll direct, adapting the Tony-nominated show about a group of Broadway losers (now played by the one and only Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Andrew Rannells and, uh, James Corden, for some reason) who try to find a viral story to get back in the spotlight, and end up going to a town in Indiana to help a lesbian high school student who has been banned from bringing her girlfriend to the prom. The show has been considered a fun and heartwarming tale of acceptance, so the movie could be an easy pick for an average Academy voter who doesn’t look too hard (and you know that the Golden Globes will nominate the shirt out of this). It’s funny how this comes out the same year than Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, and then it’s not funny realizing that Film Twitter will pit the two movies against each other.
-The Trial of the Chicago 7: After getting a taste of the director’s taste with Molly’s Game, Aaron Sorkin wants more. For his second movie, he’s tackling one of his specialties: a courtroom drama. And this one is a period movie centered around the trial on countercultural activists in the late ‘60s, which immediately attracts a campaign of how “important” this movie is today’s culture. To add the final blow, we have a cast that includes Sacha Baron Cohen, Eddie Redmayne, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jeremy Strong, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Frank Langella, William Hurt, Michael Keaton and Mark Rylance. If Sorkin can contain himself from going over the top (and with that cast, it would be so easy to surrender to bouts of screaming and winding speeches), this could be one of the top contenders.
-Those Who Wish Me Dead: Having made a good splash in the directorial waters with Wind River, Taylor Sheridan (also known for writing the Sicario movies, the Oscar-nominated Hell or High Water or that Yellowstone show that your uncle raves about on Facebook) returns with yet another modern Western. For this thriller based on the Michael Koryta novel, Angelina Jolie stars as a survival expert in the Montana wilderness who is tasked with protecting a teenager who witnessed a murder, while assassins are pursuing him and a wildfire grows closer.
-Untitled David O. Russell Project: Following the mop epic Joy, that came and went in theaters but still netted a Best Actress nomination for Jennifer Lawrence, the angriest director in Hollywood took a bit of a break (it didn’t help that he tried to do a really expensive show with Amazon starring Robert De Niro and Julianne Moore that fell apart when the Weinstein exposes sank everything). Now, he’s quickly putting together his return to the days of Oscar love that came with stuff like The Fighter, Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle, with a new movie that is set to star Christian Bale, Margot Robbie and Michael B. Jordan. Even though we don’t know many details (some people are saying the movie is called Amsterdam) except for the fact the movie hasn’t started shooting yet, David is a quick guy, so he’ll get it ready for the fall festival circuit. If there’s one thing that David O. Russell knows (apart from avoid getting cancelled for abusing people like Lily Tomlin, Amy Adams and his niece), it’s to make loud actor showcases.
-Untitled Nora Fingscheidt Project: When Bird Box became one of the biggest hits on Netflix history, the streamer decided to keep itself in the Sandra Bullock business. Sandy’s next project for Ted Sarandos is a drama where she plays a woman who is released from prison after serving time for a violent crime, and re-enters a society that refuses to forgive her past. To get redemption, she searches her younger sister she was forced to leave behind. With the direction of Fingscheidt, who comes from an acclaimed directorial debut with Systemsprenger (Germany’s submission to the last Academy Awards), and a cast that also includes Viola Davis, Vincent D’Onofrio and Jon Bernthal, this will also hopefully try its luck later this year.
-Untitled Paul Thomas Anderson Project: We don’t know if this movie will be ready for the end of the year (although last time, he managed to sneak Phantom Thread under the buzzer and earn several Oscar nominations, including Best Picture), but PTA is apparently gonna start to shoot it soon, with the backing of Focus Features. After several movies with prestige locations and intricate production design, Film Twitter’s Holy Spirit will go back to the San Fernando Valley in the 1970s, to tell the story of a high school student who is also a successful child actor.
-Stillwater: Tom McCarthy’s recent career is certainly puzzling. After delivering the weird lows of The Cobbler, he bounced back with the Best Picture winner that was Spotlight. And following that, he… helped produce the 13 Reasons Why series. And following that… he made Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made, a Disney+ original movie. Now, he’s back to the award race with a drama starring Matt Damon, who plays a father who rushes from Oklahoma to France to help his daughter (Abigail Breslin), who is in prison after being suspected for a murder she claims she didn’t commit.
-West Side Story: To close things, we have to see one of the possible big contenders of the season, Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of the iconic musical that translates Romeo and Juliet to the context of a street gang war in 1950s New York. While the decision to adapt again something that has been a classic both in Broadway and in movie theaters almost 60 years ago is a challenge, the idea of Spielberg doing a musical closer to the stage version with Tony Kushner as the writer is too tempting for the average Academy voter, who is already saving a spot in major categories in case Steven nails it in December. However, there’s two question marks. First, how well will Ansel Elgort and newcomer Rachel Zegler stand out in the roles of Tony and Maria? And second, will In the Heights steal some of the thunder of this movie by being, you know, more modern?