Apple will fund and distribute a long-in-the-works movie about embattled Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. Bad Blood will star Jennifer Lawrence as Holmes, while Adam McKay will write and direct. Both are producers on the project, which is a coproduction between Apple Studios and Legendary.

The movie, which is based on the book Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Start Up by former Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou, has been in development since at least 2016, as Deadline notes. The film will depict the rise and fall of Holmes and her company.

Hype around the blood-testing startup led to Holmes becoming the youngest self-made billionaire. Accusations and charges of fraud led to her stepping down as CEO in 2018 and the company liquidating later that year. Holmes is currently on trial for fraud.

Bad Blood is far from the only film and TV project about Theranos and Holmes. Hulu greenlit a miniseries in 2019 with Saturday Night Live star Kate McKinnon pencilled in to play Holmes. She dropped out earlier this year, and was replaced by Amanda Seyfried. An HBO documentary about the Theranos saga premiered in 2019.

Meanwhile, Lawrence and McKay recently worked together on the Netflix film Don't Look Up, which hits theaters this weekend and will be available to stream on December 24th. It's a satire about two astronomers (played by Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio) who try to warn humanity about a catastrophic comet that's set to collide with Earth.

Twitter is testing a new process for reporting tweets in what it says is a major overhaul intended to make it easier to flag harmful behavior on its platform. With the change, the company is changing how it allows users to flag tweets and significantly expanding the criteria that can be included in reports.

In a blog post, Twitter says it’s revamping the process to take a “people first” approach, in which the reporting process begins by asking users “what happened” rather than expecting them to figure out which of the company’s complex policies may have been violated. That’s a significant change from the current process, which requires users to navigate through a series of menus and identify specific rules that were broken by the tweet in question.

Instead, the new reporting flow allows users to specify who was targeted and then describe how it happened. For example, it includes much more detailed ways to report hate speech, including hate speech targeting groups of people. Then, once users have described the incident, Twitter will suggest which of its rules may apply.

Twitter

The company says this process is both simpler for users, and could help the company improve its policies and process further. “The more first-hand information they can gather about how people are experiencing certain content, the more precise Twitter can be when it comes to addressing it or ultimately removing it,” the company writes. “This rich pool of information, even if the Tweets in question don't technically violate any rules, still gives Twitter valuable input that they can use to improve people’s experience on the platform.”

Twitter is currently testing the new reporting flow with a “small group” of users in the US, and plans to expand it to more people in 2022.

Ron Swanson is coming to the world of The Last of Us. Yesterday, Murray Bartlett, a cast member on the upcoming HBO show based on the video game, said that he recently shot scenes with Nick Offerman, a person who hadn't yet been linked to the production. Now, Naughty Dog has confirmed a report from Variety that Offerman is playing the loner Bill in The Last of Us. Bill had a small but crucial role in the original game that was played by W. Earl Brown, who said earlier this year he wouldn't be reprising the role in the HBO show.

Offerman is not the first person to be cast as Bill. The role was originally offered to Con O’Neil, who previously had worked with show runner Craig Manzin on his Chernobyl series (also on HBO). According to Variety, O'Neil had to back out of the role due to scheduling conflicts.

In addition to filming scenes with Bartlett, Offerman should get plenty of screen time with series leads Pedro Pascal, who is playing Joel, and Bella Ramsey, who plays Ellie. While there have been plenty of leaks from location shooting around Canada that shows this production is well underway, there's no word yet on when The Last of Us will arrive on HBO. It's expected sometime in 2022, though. 

Facebook Gaming is about to become more interactive. Two features are rolling out today that should help creators and their fans seamlessly play games together, and give viewers other ways to get involved with streams.

Play With Streamer is self-explanatory. There will be a button on livestreams that lets viewers play Pac-Man Community (a version of Pac-Man developed in partnership with Genvid and Bandai Namco) with streamers and other community members. Pac-Man Community includes a four-player co-op mode, a mobile-optimized maze creator, rankings and community challenges.

Facebook Interactives, meanwhile, are interactive layers viewers will see on top of livestreams. When Pac-Man Community's Watch Mode is enabled, they can help or hamper an AI-controlled Pac-Man or the ghosts through the in-game video player. Facebook says these features form some of the first steps of its vision for the metaverse.

Other platforms have long had ways for players to interact directly with streams. On Twitch, viewers can control Pokémon and other games by entering commands in the chat. There are also extensions that let viewers impact the game the streamer is playing by, for instance, granting them extra items or even instantly killing their character. With Stadia's Crowd Play feature, viewers can play with a streamer who's broadcasting their gameplay on YouTube, as long as they also own the game and have a sufficient setup.

On December 9th, Epic Games will release The Matrix Awakens, an interactive tie-in to The Matrix Resurrections. You can preload the demo to your PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X/S console ahead of its debut at The Game Awards. Epic built the experience using Unreal Engine 5, and you can see what the next-generation engine is capable of in a teaser the company shared today. “How do we know what is real?” asks a life-like Keanu Reeves partway through the clip.

It’s a rare movie experience that’s any good, but that might not matter with The Matrix Awakens. For most people, this will be their first chance to see UE5 in action. Epic previewed the latest iteration of its popular game engine part way through last year with a stunning PS5 demo that showed off what it could do. In May, the company released an early access version of UE5 to PC, but the system requirements meant most people couldn’t experience the Valley of the Ancient demo with the hardware they had.

Earlier this year William Shatner became the oldest person to ever fly to space, and his trip is now set to become an Amazon Prime documentary called Shatner in Space. The Star Trek actor revealed the news himself during a virtual panel for the pop culture conference CCXP Worlds, Deadline reported.

"The Shat" was one of four crew members on Blue Origin's second manned NS-18 mission that flew to an altitude of 66 miles aboard New Shepherd, crossing the so called Kármán line into space (though not orbiting the Earth). At 90 years old, he edged out 82-year-old Wally Funk, who set the previous age record for space flight just months earlier.

The documentary will give a look at what happened before, during and after the trip. The flight also included Blue Origin VP Audrey Powers, Planet Labs co-founder Dr. Chris Boshuizen and Glen de Vries, Medidata co-creator. This is the second of three crewed missions Blue Origin has planned for 2021, with the third (NS-19) set for December 9th. That flight will include Alan Shepard’s daughter Laura Shepard Churchley and GMA co-anchor Michael Strahan, along with four paying customers.

"My time in space was the most profound experience I could have ever imagined," Shatner told Deadline in a statement. "This special documenting my journey gives a dramatic view of that experience, and my hope is that it inspires the world to see we must go to space to save Earth." The documentary is set to air on Amazon Prime in the US, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand on December 15th, and in other territories in 2022. 

There may soon be more ways to get your friends to pay their share of the check. Facebook (or its parent company Meta) announced today that it's testing Split Payments, "a free and fast way to share the cost of bills and expenses." Starting next week, users in the US will be able to charge their friends in a group chat or from the Payments Hub in Messenger. 

In a group chat, you'll need to hit the "Get Started" button to initiate the payments, and then you can choose to divide a sum of money evenly or decide what each person owes. You can also choose to include yourself and add a customizable message. The money will be sent through Facebook Pay, and after you submit, your request will be sent to the group's chat room. 

Facebook also said it's added new custom group effects from four additional creators: King Bach, Emma Chamberlain, Bella Poarch and Zach King. Earlier this month, the company also released new "soundmojis" tied to the Stranger Things soundtrack and Taylor Swift's remaster of her album Red.

Apple has brought in several high-profile figures for guest appearances on the Fitness+ series "Time to Walk." Among them are Dolly Parton, Randall Park, Camilla Cabello and Stephen Fry. To close out the second season, Prince William will make an appearance in a holiday-themed episode. He’ll discuss the importance of staying mentally fit as well as how listening can empower others. 

Apple Fitness+ users can check out the 38-minute episode on demand starting on December 6th. There will also be a few free airings on Apple Music 1 — at 8AM GMT and PST on December 6th and 8AM in Sydney’s time zone on December 7th.

Apple will make donations to three mental health charities chosen by Prince William. They are Crisis Text Line in the US, Shout 85258 in the UK and Lifeline in Australia. The latter provides free, around-the-clock crisis support and suicide prevention services. Shout and Crisis Text Line offer people in crisis support via text.

"Time to Walk" episodes are recorded while notable people take a stroll outside or in areas meaningful to them. They share stories, photos and music, and discuss lessons they’ve learned and their perspective on gratitude and purpose, among other things. The idea is that Apple Fitness+ will listen to episodes via an Apple Watch and connected earphones while going for a walk themselves. For those using a wheelchair, the series is renamed "Time to Push," and episodes center around a wheelchair workout instead of a walk.

This week, Cherlynn and Devindra discuss the significance of Jack Dorsey leaving Twitter. Will the social network thrive, or stumble, after losing its co-founder for a second time? Also, Cherlynn explains what’s up with all of Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon chips for phones, computers and… portable gaming consoles? Is it enough to take on Apple’s M1 chips? Or will Windows once again hold Snapdragon PCs back?

Listen below, or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!

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Topics

• What is Twitter without founder Jack Dorsey? – 1:21

• Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip – 22:38

• Updates from the Theranos / Elizabeth Holmes trial – 45:44

• Spotify’s Wrapped feature is available this week – 51:41

• Working on – 56:18

• Pop culture picks – 59:20

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Credits
Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Devindra Hardawar
Producer: Ben Ellman
Livestream producers: Julio Barrientos,Luke Brooks
Graphics artists: Luke Brooks, Kyle Maack
Music: Dale North and Terrence O'Brien

Facebook said that it's cracking down on anti-vaccine messages, but it recently allowed multiple anti-vaccine ads to run on its site, CNN has reported. One ad compared the rollout of vaccines to the Holocaust, and another promoted T-shirts with the message "I'm originally from America but I currently reside in 1941 Germany."

The ads were run by merchandise companies, including one called "Ride the wave" that spent $280,000 with Facebook's parent, Meta. Another company called "Next Level Goods" spent $500,000 on ads for items like anti-vaccine T-shirts, according to the report.

Facebook, now under parent company Meta, recently vowed to remove claims that COVID-19 vaccines can harm children, among others. It also said that it deleted more than 20 million pieces of content as part of its fight against misinformation in an ongoing partnership with the CDC, WHO and other health authorities. 

Meta said that the ads comparing COVID policies to Nazi German or calling the vaccines poison went against its misinformation policies. However, it still allowed them to slip through, in part because it doesn't review all ads manually, researcher Laura Edelson told CNN. It also has a weaker moderation approach to commercial pages compared to those associated with political campaigns, she added. 

Facebook is already under heavy pressure for the US and other governments over privacy, misinformation and other issues. A trove of documents revealed recently by whistleblower Frances Haugen showed that the company was aware that harmful content increased engagement, yet failed to deploy countermeasures recommended in its own studies. "Facebook, over and over again, has shown it chooses profit over safety," she said.