Link Tank: King of Ashes Giveaway and Peacemaker Season 2 Details

King of Ashes Giveaway 

Flatiron Books is giving away five copies of S.A. Cosby’s newest Godfather-inspired Southern crime saga, King of Ashes on Instagram. 

Cosby, who is an award-winning, New York Times bestselling author, returns with a biting family drama that follows Roman Carruthers, who must return home after his father is involved in a car accident, leaving him in a coma. When Roman heads back to Virginia, it’s clear that what happened to his father was no accident. 

Roman finds that his younger brother Dante’s perfunctory actions with criminals has not only landed him in debt, but that it has also placed the entire family in immediate danger. In a race to save himself, brother and younger sister, Nevah, Roman surprises the criminals with just how far he’s willing to go. 

“Roman begins his work for the criminals while Neveah tries to uncover the long-ago mystery of what happened to their mother, who disappeared when they were teenagers. But Roman is far less of a pushover than the gangsters realize. He is willing to do anything to save his family. Anything. Because everything burns.”

Enter the giveaway here
Preorder King of Ashes here 

A Record-Breaking Memorial Day Weekend for the Box Office 

This Memorial Day weekend was the highest grossing in box office history, generating a record $322 million across all films. Lilo & Stitch, Disney’s newest live-action remake, led the charge with a staggering $145.5 million domestic debut and $183 million through Monday; surpassing Top Gun: Maverick for the biggest Memorial Day opening. 

Paramount’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning followed with a franchise-best $63 million weekend and $77 million by Monday, bringing its global total to $190 million. While successful, the $400 million-budgeted film will need strong legs to break even. 

“Cinema operators are rejoicing because Memorial Day is the official launch to summer movie season, which is the most profitable stretch for the movie business. (Historically, the four-month period has accounted for $4 billion, or around 40% of the annual box office.) It’s a huge improvement from last year, which started with a whimper rather than a bang as “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” and “Garfield” led the holiday’s worst showing in three decades with $132 million collectively.” 

Read more at Variety 

James Gunn and John Cena Talk Peacemaker Season 2 in Exclusive Interview 

Do you wanna, do you really wanna taste a new iconic title sequence dance when Peacemaker season 2 premieres on Aug. 21 on HBO Max? James Gunn, the writer and director of the comedic superhero television series, tells Entertainment Weekly in an exclusive interview that fans will get to see the new credits dance early at San Diego Comic-Con in July. 

After taking a break to work on Superman (2025), Gunn and John Cena, who plays the titular role, are excited to bring the show back following a three year hiatus. Things are changing in season 2, according to Gunn– the show will resume a “couple of years” following the events of the season 1 finale, and feature an even larger ensemble of characters in the DC universe, including Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion), Maxwell Lord (Sean Gunn) and Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo). 

Gunn also promises a “really, really, really” big cameo near the end of the season. He further talks about the now-viral credits dance and how that will evolve for season 2. And while he can’t promise the characters will be earnestly dancing to Wig Wam’s 2010 hit, “Do Ya Wanna Taste It,” again, he can reveal that Eagly, Peacemaker’s loyal companion, will be dancing in it alongside the new cast. 

“Season 2 is going to explore how Peacemaker struggles to be taken seriously by the metahuman community. “He’s still considered a punchline among all of the other metahumans, so he’s starting the season in a bad place,” James [Gunn] says. “As are all of our heroes, all of the 11th Street kids — well, everybody but Vigilante [Freddie Stroma], who just always seems to be okay with everything.”

Read more at Entertainment Weekly 

Jafar Panahi Snags the Palme d’Or

With the 2025 Cannes Film Festival coming to a close on Memorial Day weekend, we now have our new Palme d’Or winner– Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi took home the top prize for It Was Just an Accident, which follows a man and his pregnant wife as they seek revenge on who they believe is the same Iranian government inspector who tortured him years earlier. 

“The director (Jafar Panahi) of ‘No Bears,’ ‘Taxi,’ ‘This Is Not A Film’ and more has continued to make movies, despite a ban, though he has not been able to attend the festival for over two decades. In 2010, he was due to serve on the competition jury at Cannes but incarceration prevented him traveling to France. The festival kept an empty chair for him, and that year, actress Juliette Binoche held up a sign bearing his name as she accepted the award for best actress. Now fifteen years later, a jury headed by Binoche awarded his film ‘It Was Just an Accident’ the Palme.”

Read more at CNN 

David Burtka Set to Star in The L Word Reboot, The L Word: New York

Since Showtime canceled The L Word: Generation Q after three seasons in 2023, speculation has swirled around a potential new reboot of the groundbreaking series that helped lay the foundation for inclusive and nuanced lesbian and bisexual representation in mainstream media.

Though the details of this reboot, which is rumored to have the show’s original co-creator, Ilene Chaiken, attached to it, are still largely unknown, actor David Burtka reveals that he’s been traveling back and forth from Vancouver to prepare for filming.

“Burtka, who shares 14-year-old twins Harper Grace and Gideon Scott with [Neil Patrick] Harris, told Us he ‘finally went back to work acting,’ before teasing that he doesn’t know if he’s ‘allowed to say anything other than’ he appears in the long-awaited The L Word reboot.”

Read more at Us Weekly