Waka Flocka Flame has been pretty busy on the road (and planning his wedding on “Love & Hip Hop Atlanta”) but he isn’t backtracking on plans to drop an EDM album this year.

We still don’t have a release date, but now there’s a title, so it must be real.

The Atlanta rapper told XXL that his new project will be called Turn Up God, and he hopes to release it before the end of 2014, along with Flockaveli 2.

In his downtime, Waka’s been pretty busy jumping out of planes and hitting the driving range with Girl Talk. Maybe all of this is just training for the EDM project? Adrenaline is key.

Nadeska Alexis

A native of Grenada, a product of Brooklyn, a student of hip-hop.

@neweryork

With Reporting by Josh Horowitz

A long time ago, in this very galaxy, Andy Serkis and his brother freaked out upon the arrival of “Star Wars” in their lives. Teenage Serkis was just as wowed by the George Lucas film series as anyone, and now, he’s a part of the franchise himself.

Serkis plays an undisclosed role (or roles, possibly, considering the man’s motion-capture talents) in the upcoming “Star Wars: Episode VII,” directed by J.J. Abrams and starring a wide range of actors from franchise newcomers John Boyega and Oscar Isaac to old standbys like Harrison Ford. Speaking with MTV News, Serkis said that getting together with the cast to read the “Episode VII” script for the first time “was quite an extraordinary feeling.”

But there’s one person who is even more excited about Serkis’ work on the film than Serkis himself.

“My brother, who is five years younger than me, this means more to him than anything I’ve ever done in my entire life,” he laughed. “I’m more joyous for him than anything else, in a way.”

Perhaps Serkis’ brother is the man to interrogate when it comes to finding out details about the “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” and “Lord of the Rings” legend’s work on the film. Because for his part, Serkis’ lips are sealed. He would only confirm that Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher are all in top form as they return to their iconic roles as Han Solo, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia, ...

Although there’s been no official announcement yet, it looks like we know the identity of at least one new addition to the cast of “Game of Thrones.” According to the New Zealand Herald, Keisha Castle-Hughes spilled the beans to friends that she’s officially on board for Season 5, in a role of a deadly Dornish Sand Snake.

For those not in the know, the recently-deceased Oberyn Martell was both a deadly swordsman and a prolific sower of wild manly oats back in his home country of Dorne. And though his bastard daughters, known as the Sand Snakes, earned only a passing mention in Season 4, a casting call from earlier this year confirmed that they would be getting some screen time when the show returns in 2015. Which of the ladies Sand will Castle-Hughes be playing? Some speculation (with book spoilers, beware) below.

The Sand Snakes in George R. R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” series include a bevy of Oberyn’s daughters by any number of different Dornish dames, but the show is set to concern itself only with the main three: Obara, Nymeria, and Tyene. After Oberyn’s death at the hands of The Mountain, his daughters — particularly Obara, a fierce and accomplished fighter — are out for revenge in a major way, goading their uncle Prince Doran Martell to declare war on King’s Landing.

The Herald speculated that the Maori actress has just the right look to play the dark-skinned and beautiful Nymeria, but

Ariana Grande is down to one job. After news broke on Sunday that Nickelodeon was canceling her show, “Sam & Cat,” following just one season, Ariana has to be content to be just a music superstar and not a double threat.

“I want to thank Nickelodeon for making a childhood dream of mine come true, for being a family to me, for being so accommodating and supportive of my multitasking with my music career, and for of course introducing me to many of my fans however many years ago,” Grande wrote in a long Facebook post announcing the news, which she said she had kept to herself until the network made it official.

She also thanked show producer/creator Dan Schneider for giving her such a “special, beautiful character who I hid behind for so long. What I mean by that is when I was younger, people loved Cat so much I used to pretend to be more like her. It took me a long time to be brave enough to separate myself and show people how different we actually are…. I think that’s honestly because I admire her so much. Her appreciation for life and everybody she encounters. Her passion and genuine excitement for the little things that most people dread like school projects and work. She always saw negative obstacles as opportunities to make things good… So I know a lot of people will think this is a lot for some ‘dumb’ kids show character…. but to ...

Warning: some NSFW language ahead.

Don’t start getting Crazy-Eyes on us here — “Orange is the New Black” is going to be just fine.

However, there was a rumor circulating the Internet this past weekend certain to rile up fans of the Netflix prison-set dark comedy. On Friday, a website called Empire News released word that “OTINB” had been “permanently canceled,” and that starting in September, “past episodes will no longer be available for streaming on Netflix.”

But none of that’s true. Not even a little bit. Empire News is “a satirical and entertainment website,” according to the site’s description. In other words, the article was a hoax. But concerns over the supposed “cancellation” of “Orange is the New Black” grew so great that even the Netflix show’s official Twitter account had to weigh in to clear the air:

So, Netflix is sending Empire to the SHU, while Taystee and Chapman and Red and everyone else continue doing their time on Netflix. There’s no cancellation on the horizon, and the episodes that already exist aren’t going anywhere. In fact, they’re probably earning some Emmy Awards in the near future. If there’s one show you shouldn’t worry about disappearing anytime soon, it’s “Orange is the New Black.”

Josh Wigler

Likes pizza, punch and pie. Dislikes the Chitauri. Find him on Twitter @roundhoward — like Ron Howard, but rounder.

With additional reporting by Janelle Myers

‘Who Dat? Who Dat?’ I-G-G-Y, Y’all!
Iggy Azalea opened for Snoop Dogg at a cowboy-themed festival in Canada called the Calgary Stampede on Sunday night. Besides performing “Fancy,” she donned a cowgirl hat while doing the two-step and twerking.

Germany Won The World Cup And Hung Out With RiRi
Rihanna fangirled when she met the German soccer team after they won the World Cup, and they even let her hold the cup! She took photos with them and got kissed (on the cheek) by Lukas Podolski and Bastian Schweinsteiger. Before the tournament started, she showed her support for the now-champions by changing her Twitter avatar to her wearing a German flag-colored bathing suit.

If You Flip Woww Over It Spells Momm
Jenni Farley a.k.a JWOWW and her fiance Roger Mathews welcomed their baby girl Meilani Alexandra on Sunday afternoon.

Christopher Walken Lands A Role On ‘Peter Pan’
NBC thinks Hook was made for Walken – yes, Christopher Walken. The television network will air a live broadcast of “Peter Pan,” and it cast the “Pulp Fiction” actor as the title character’s arch-nemesis Captain Hook.

Must See Video Of The Day
“Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” starring pugs is the latest adorable parody from The Pet Collective that basically proves the world would be a better place if it were run by pugs. And if you weren’t sold already, there is a baby pug stampede.

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Say what you will about the heroes in a half-shell, but at least one of those guys is a real “Jackass.”

Johnny Knoxville lends his voice to sword-wielding fearless leader Leonardo in “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” producer Michael Bay and director Jonathan Liebesman’s upcoming adaptation of the classic cartoon, comic book and action figure franchise. Knoxville’s Leo voice makes its grand debut in a new trailer for “Ninja Turtles,” featuring 30 seconds of non-stop ninja action.

Aside from being an action-packed look at the upcoming “Turtles” movie, complete with a tease for how these characters act and sound, the new trailer shows us more about their origin. We see the Turtles in their infancy, then growing up as youngsters, training for Master Splinter. We even see the film’s version of Shredder, a hulking, heavy-metal menace that looks even more roided out than the Super Shredder of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze.”

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” starring Megan Fox and Will Arnett, hits theaters on August 8.

Josh Wigler

Likes pizza, punch and pie. Dislikes the Chitauri. Find him on Twitter @roundhoward — like Ron Howard, but rounder.

A few weeks back, you may have opened iTunes or checked out Billboard and seen a name near the top and thought, who’s that?

That, my friends, was G-Eazy.

The Oakland native caused waves with the release of his debut album, These Things Happen, in June, becoming another example of an independent artist doing it on a major level. Now’s your chance to figure out what all that noise is about.

Getty Images

Who he is:

The 25-year-old, born Gerald Earl Gillum, just released his debut album, These Things Happen, on June 23. The disc moved an impressive 46,000 units in its opening week, which was good enough to top the Billboard Rap Albums chart and debut at No. 3 on the 200.

You don’t just make that kind of splash — as an independent artist, no less — by coming out of nowhere. And though it may seem like that’s the case with Eazy to some, he’s got a consistent grind to credit for the spot he’s currently positioned himself in.

The West Coaster put out his first mixtape in 2007, and since then has dropped a handful more, as well as a few EPs. But his music doesn’t just reach fans through the Net. The up and comer has been making believers out of concertgoers across the country, ...

Guillermo Del Toro’s vampire horror series “The Strain” finally premiered on July 13, and while we’re definitely into it — and the next three episodes FX sent out — we’re still not over how incredibly gross it is.

Effectively using body horror unlike anything we’ve ever seen on television, “The Strain” focuses on a group of New Yorkers on various sides of a potentially apocalyptic vampire virus. Said virus enters the city via plane — or, more specifically via the ancient evil vampire called The Master that flew on said plane, killing all of its passengers minus four.

Well, they’re kind of dead, anyway — and the four survivors are looking pretttttty rough. It’s up to a CDC workaholic (“House of Cards” season one standout Corey Stoll) and a Holocaust survivor Van Helsing type (Red Wedding planner David Bradley) to save the day, though by the end of episode one, they certainly haven’t gotten very far.

Anyway, “The Strain” certainly made quite an impression, largely due to the effectively grotesque horror of Del Toro’s various monsters, including those little parasite worms that eat blood and burrow themselves in eyeballs (click if you dare). We’ll spare you the toss-your-cookies reaction from that particular image, but you’re on your own when it comes to the 11 grossest moments from “The Strain” premiere:

1. First, Walder Frey from “Game of Thrones” started talking to a heart in a jar.

A heart in a jar with parasitic worms in it is just what ...

In its first two episode, “The Leftovers” struggled because it wanted to have its cigarette and smoke it too.

Creators Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta have made clear that we’ll never know what happened to the vanished two percent, which is a brave creative idea because it puts the audience in the same position as its cast and denies them what would be the most obvious payoff from the start.

To make up for this lack of mystery, however, “The Leftovers” has kept the motivations of character like the GR and Wayne Gilchrest from the audience entirely, making us wonder why these people do any of the things that we see them do. It’s a great way to add an air of mystery to a show, but it’s just as alienating for the audience, since we don’t get to know much about anyone or why we should care at all about the mysterious things they do.

Episode three fixes that problem in many ways by laying bare Christopher Eccleston’s character, the town pastor Matt Jamison, who we’ve seen only briefly in the previous two episodes. The hour, entitled “Two Boats and a Helicopter” features short appearances by Justin Theroux and Amy Brenneman, foregoing every other storyline in favor of focusing squarely on Matt and his life post-disappearance.

Where the previous two episodes purposefully obscured the main characters for the sake of the show’s need for mystery, “Two Boats and a Helicopter” succeeds because of how unflinchingly it dives into Eccleston’s character ...