Category Archives: Immortality

If you believe as sincerely as I do that the ruthless Naples-set drug-world epic Gomorrah is the best international crime series on TV (and single-handedly justifies a subscription to HBO Max), and you also feel that Gomorrahs recently released season fourwhile gripping and grimy and impeccably shotwas just maybe lacking a little something without the presence of its brooding antihero star Ciro Di Marzio, well...are you in for a summer treat. The Immortal (LImmortale), the Gomorrah spin-off feature film (already a box office hit in Italy), is finally coming to the U.S., and will stream exclusively on HBO Max on July 29.

The trailer just dropped, and I can practically hear the cheers of Gomorrahs obsessives everywhere. Thats because The Immortal represents the return of the actor Marco DAmore as Ciro, the handsome, violent, sensitive, absolutely uncompromising soldier of the Naples underworld. (DAmore also wrote and directed the film.) During three seasons of Gomorrah, which is based on the best-selling book about the Naples mob by Roberto Saviano, Ciro survived one fix after another, losing everyone he loved in the processand he emerges here as a dead-eyed loner with nothing to live for. In The Immortal, Ciro arrives in Riga, the capital of Latvia, and finds himself split between rival violent gangs: the Russian mafia to whom he is selling drugs and a roughneck Latvian crew that wants in on the action. The film also tells the story of Ciros boyhood in Naples. A sequel and an origin story, Gomorrah has the only expanded universe I care about.

The trailer takes you back to the cliff-hanger at the end of season three, and then gives just hints of whats to come on July 29: blasted central European cityscapes, tatted-up tough guys, and Ciro looking soulful and powerful at every turn. Forget the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Forget CGI popcorn spectacles. The Immortal is the only summer blockbuster I need.

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Watch the Trailer for The Immortal, the Only Summer Movie I Care About - Vogue

By Barry C. Fox, M.D., University of Wisconsin HeLa (Henrietta Lacks) cells are most commonly used in biological research. (Image: Heiti Paves/Shutterstock)Cervical Cancer Diagnosis

In the 1950s, many women were dying of cervical cancer. Ten years earlier, a Pap smear test was invented by George Papanicolaou.However, some women chose not to have the test done and 30-year-old Henrietta Lacks was one such woman.

Henrietta Lacks died in October of 1951, less than a year after her diagnosis. Just before Henrietta died, a surgeon took a sample of her tumor cells and put them in a petri dish. Over the next 24 hours, they kept reproducing over and over at a rapid pace and they never stopped.

In the 1950s, research scientists were looking to study human cells that could stay alive for many generations in cell culture. Human cells died within hours when attempts were made to grow them in a Petri dish. They needed cells that could reliably replicate and could be frozen to examine various intermediate stages. Lackss unlikely gift to all of us was the worlds first immortal cells.

These cells, taken from a tumor in her cervix, were known as HeLa cells.

In the 1950s, the polio epidemic was devastating and it was decided to set up a HeLa cell factory to develop trillions of cells each week to be used for vaccine development.

Having this abundant cell stock was the only way the polio vaccine could be developed quickly and mass-produced. The lab was set up at Tuskegee Institute, a prestigious Southern university. The resulting cells were sent to 23 Salk vaccine testing centers around the country and the vaccine passed the test.

Today, HeLa cells are in cell culture labs all over the world. Theyre being used for many different types of researchstudying genes that turn on and off cancer cellsand testing different drugs for their efficacy in treating everything from leukemia to influenza.

HeLa cells were also sent on several missions to outer space to see how cells behaved under zero-gravity conditions. In fact, much of the research today in the area of sexually transmitted diseases uses HeLa cells.

This is a transcript from the video series An Introduction to Infectious Diseases. Watch it now, on Wondrium.

There is also a complex mix of organs involved in other infections that involve the urinary tract, prostate gland, and reproductive organs.

Usually, bladder infections in women are uncomplicated and can be treated for 3 to 7 days. Nearly every woman has had a bladder infection, otherwise known as cystitis, sometime in her life.

Bladder infections are common in women because the bacteria found near the female urethra are similar to those near the rectal area. The rectal area has a readily abundant supply of germs to cause an infection. And since the female urethra is short relative to males, its easier for bacteria to gain access into the female urethra.

The bodys immune response will be triggered to attract white blood cells only when a true infection occurs. A true infection occurs when the bacteria invade the inner surface of the bladder wall.

Nonetheless, the presence of bacteria in the urine does not necessarily mean that there is a urinary tract infection. Sometimes, bacteria can learn to exist harmoniously in the bladder without actually causing an infection, a condition known as asymptomatic bacteriuria.

Learn more about bubonic plague, malaria, and polio.

When there is a real bladder infection, more than 90% of cases of cystitis will have symptoms. These symptoms, such as urinary frequency, urgency, burning or pain with urination, discomfort over the bladder, and often blood in the urine, are all too familiar to women. The body temperature may be slightly elevated as well.

Any infection in the elderly can cause a change in cognition as a manifestation of infection. But this change is non-specific and should be persistent or worsening before blaming a urinary tract infection, especially without bladder symptoms.

In a report in the spring of 2014 by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the unnecessary use of antibiotics for presumptive urinary tract infections was the number one cause of antibiotic overuse, and, therefore, increased the likelihood of antibiotic resistance.

There are also myths that the use of cranberry pills or cranberry juice reduces the chances of developing an infection. Although these products are safe and have no serious side effects, studies so far have not yielded any evidence in support of the usage.

Learn more about emerging and reemerging diseases.

On some occasions, the bacteria causing a bladder infection can ascend the urinary tract and lead to a kidney infection, a condition that we know as pyelonephritis. The usual symptoms include a higher fever of 101 degrees and associated pain in the flank or underneath the rib cage. However, some elderly individuals may have neither fever nor back pain and still have a kidney infection.

Pyelonephritis is a more serious medical condition, and it prompts the need for stronger antibiotics for a longer duration of up to fourteen days. This condition might require intravenous antibiotics, or even hospitalization.

Men have their own unique infection of the prostate gland, called prostatitis. If bacteria enter the male bladder, they dont have to travel very far to invade the prostate gland.

When this occurs rapidly, leading to sudden difficulties in urination and associated pelvic pain, the condition is known as acute prostatitis. An extended course of antibiotics specifically targeted at the unusual acidic environment of the prostate is needed for cure.

The cells of Henrietta Lacks reproduced over and over at a rapid pace and they never stopped.

Several studies conducted do not provide any positive evidence in support of the usage of cranberry pills or cranberry juice to reduce the chances of developing a bladder infection.

The bacteria found near the female urethra are similar to those near the rectal area and the female urethra is shorter than those of the males, its easier for bacteria to gain access into the female urethra. Hence, bladder infections are common in women.

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The Immortal Cells of Henrietta Lacks and Infections Below the Belt - The Great Courses Daily News

It beggars belief that Soyinka has made it to the heavy age of 87 after a life of multiform dangers: an unknown gunman invading the broadcasting house to replace the premiers tape, going to Biafra in a season of anomie, enduring imprisonment and solitary confinement, bearing the wounds of exile, daring Abacha etc. In short, way beyond the claims of the evangelical churches, the only miracle I see is Wole Soyinkas life.

He was so daring early in life that nobody gave him any chance of living up to 87 years on this earth. But here we are: Professor Oluwole Akinwande Soyinka, that is Wole Soyinka for short, is 87 today.

On my small part, I did not want anything to do with schooling anymore, being much of a tearaway in my youth then I saw the name of Professor Wole Soyinka as the Head of the newly created Dramatic Arts Department at the then University of Ife.

My plans had been to head into the bush to change the system as a guerrilla fighter, but once I learnt of the Soyinka school at Great Ife, I applied and was taken.

Aside from his genius in literature, Soyinka ranks amongst the greatest freedom fighters ever, a foremost defender of the sanctity of the human life.

The first African to win the coveted Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986, he is an accomplished playwright, poet, novelist, memoirist, filmmaker, director, translator, actor, director, singer, activist, humanist, aesthete, connoisseur, and above all else, a human being, and a very remarkable oneat that.

Wole Soyinka threw a party for my class on graduation, declaring us the most challenging students he had ever taught. Of course everybody knows that praise from Soyinka does not come easily. His word is his sword!

This does not at any rate qualify me as an exemplary student. Back then at the University of Ife, I was with my Dramatic Arts classmates in Soyinkas house for practical lessons on television production based on Edith Uche Enems play. I did not care a kobo about the lesson. I told Soyinkas steward, the Ghanaian lad Francis, to get me a cool Star lager beer from the refrigerator. I was nursing my beer gloriously while Soyinka taught my classmates. Then he saw me drinking the beer. He didnt get mad at me. He asked why I was drinking beer while my fellow students were learning and I promptly told him: Prof, sir, thats how I get my inspiration. Soyinka just cast a fatherly benign look at me in the manner of some fathers do have them and continued with his teaching.

After my degree exams, I was totally out of cash. I needed money badly, and I ran to Soyinka in his office. I told him I had no money to go home. He gave me all the money he had. In a show of bravado I told him I would pay him back his money when I came for convocation. Soyinka had a healthy laugh and said: How am I sure you will not run through the money and come back with another sob story?

Soyinka took us on a course in Humanism. It was class war all the way because most of us in the class were Marxists. We asked Soyinka to join us in the bush of guerrilla struggle, instead of being an arm-chair humanist! He was never angry with our youthful ebullition, only advising us that we would get to understand society further as we grew in life.

The truth, of course, is that I only went to Ife because Soyinka was there. I did not care for university education. I went to Ife in 1978, with Soyinka as my Head of Department. Then there was Okot pBitek, the inimitable Ugandan poet of theSong of Lawino fame, in the literature department. Soyinka was always travelling all over the world, while Okot was an ever-present company. Soyinkas Ghanaian boy, Francis, was, of course, around to attend to my needs in Soyinkas gods-festooned home. Soyinkas sister, Folabo Ajayi, was also around, always wondering at my age on account of my multiform high jinks, whilst we were rehearsing Akinwunmi Isolas play Madam Tinubu, directed by Femi Euba, which we took on tour to Ibadan and Lagos.

Our first experience of Soyinka as a teacher was, yes, very dramatic. He was to teach us Shakespeares King Lear. We had all come from secondary schools where Shakespeare was read line-by-line and explained by the class teacher. In Soyinkas case, we were all seated in the Pit Theatre at Ife when he casually strolled in. He distributed sheets of cyclostyled paper in which a speech taken out of King Lear was printed. Soyinka asked us to pick out the unnatural word in the speech. None of us could understand this kind of teaching. He then said we ought to have still been in high school. The West Indian lady, Dr Carroll Dawes, had to come to our rescue by teaching us King Lear, line after line, at Oduduwa Hall for weeks and months on end.

In the course of our Ife studies, we had to read up all the plays of Bertolt Brecht as our special author. We found to our chagrin that Brecht was a rival of Shakespeare in the large number of plays written. My classmates and I had to confront Soyinka with the charge that he was making us read for a Ph.D when we only applied to earn a bachelors degree! Soyinka asked us to arrest Dr Yemi Ogunbiyi as the culprit who gave us more books to read than doctoral candidates.

Soyinka took us on a course in Humanism. It was class war all the way because most of us in the class were Marxists. We asked Soyinka to join us in the bush of guerrilla struggle, instead of being an arm-chair humanist! He was never angry with our youthful ebullition, only advising us that we would get to understand society further as we grew in life. Interestingly, the very next year, Soyinka asked a Polish lady who barely spoke English to take us in the course of Aesthetics in his place! We were thus denied of the opportunity to argue with the lady as we argued with Soyinka.

His intervention on road safety happened before our very eyes whilst at Ife. He had no stomach whatsoever for dangerous driving that killed many along the notorious Ife-Ibadan road. He would bring his friend, Femi Johnsons jeeps into the campus and we were even quite used to Bola Iges vehicles as the then governor of Oyo State. For Soyinka, a vehicle was just a vehicle.

After leaving school, I tried my hands at peasant theatre. I sent the play I wrote, A Play of Ghosts, to Soyinka and it was only much later that I got to know that he forwarded the play to the American director, Chuck Mike, for production. Soyinka does all these favours without asking for any attention whatsoever.

When I ran into Soyinka at poet Odia Ofeimuns birthday party, he wondered aloud where I had been all these years. I replied him that I had all along been in Nigeria doing a great battle with Nigerian poverty. At the time his memoirs You Must Set Forth At Dawn was just published, and I learnt from the novelist, Okey Ndibe, that Soyinka was to do a reading for an organisation run by white ladies in the heart of Victoria Island, Lagos. When Okey and I got to the venue, Soyinka asked me to select the passage that he would read. I told him I did not have a copy of the book ready at hand. He then off-handedly told me that his publisher, Bankole Olayebi, was my friend, in which case I would not have much trouble getting a free copy!

Of course, I am very proud of my teacher, the very first black man to win the coveted Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986. Back in time, my crystal ball did not hide anything when it revealed to me that Soyinka would win the Nobel, a first for Africa, in the year 1985. I told not a few friends that the Nobel was definitely coming that year, and it was such a shocker when the prize went instead to the obscure French novelist, Claude Simon. Well, it is remarkable that Claude Simons first novel bears the very unfunny title, The Cheat.

Soyinka is at heart a jovial soul. From teaching the art of wine to a young Italian girl, to setting a trap for wine-thieves in his then Ife home, Soyinka is the master of his universe. Humour is never lacking in his forte. For instance, an Igbo classmate of mine with a thick Igbo accent asked Soyinka a question in class, only for Soyinka to reply: Are you an Ibadan man?

There was no denying Soyinka the very next year, 1986, when the Nobel Prize for Literature landed on our shores. Soyinka had just made the flight from Cornell University, New York, where he was then teaching, to the International Theatre Institute (ITI) in Paris to attend the executive meeting of the world body, which he headed. His plan was to spend some quiet time at the apartment of his cousin, Yemi Lijadu. He found his cousin giddy with joy: The news just broke that Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka had won the 1986 Nobel Prize for Literature, thus becoming the first African to win the coveted award.

For reasons no one can really explain, the name Kongi has stuck with Soyinka amongst his students and colleagues, even though the character in question in the eponymous play is highly detestable. Behind Soyinkas back, some of us call him Langage, pronounced as Longage, taken from his Inaugural Lecture at Ife entitled The Critic And Society: Barthes, Leftocracy And Other Mythologies.

Soyinkas collection of poetry, Samarkand and Other Markets I have Known, was launched in 2002 at the National Theatre under a tree that is now known as the Samarkand Tree. Soyinka autographed my copy of the book right under that famous tree. The long poem Elegy for a Nation dedicated to Chinua Achebe at Seventy is quite striking. Soyinka had wanted to read the poem at An Evening With WS sponsored by Globacom, but there was too much noise at the Golden Gate, Ikoyi venue, such that it did not provide the right mood for the Nobel Laureate to pay homage to his great compatriot. It was at that event that I asked Soyinka the question: Why are you not a born-again Christian? He duly replied thusly: I have my own religion; thank you! It is a matter of great joy that Soyinka still continues in the onerous task of supporting younger writers, like the irrepressible Onyeka Nwelue. I treasure on my bookshelf a hardback copy of The Second Genesis: An Anthology Of Contemporary World Poetry which features some of my poems, alongside those of my teacher, Soyinka, and my dear compatriots, Ikeogu Oke and Obari Gomba. The book which features poets of 60 countries, from Albania to the United States, is indeed a heavy feast of comparative humanity, a cause to which Soyinka has dedicated his venerated life.

Soyinka is at heart a jovial soul. From teaching the art of wine to a young Italian girl, to setting a trap for wine-thieves in his then Ife home, Soyinka is the master of his universe. Humour is never lacking in his forte. For instance, an Igbo classmate of mine with a thick Igbo accent asked Soyinka a question in class, only for Soyinka to reply: Are you an Ibadan man?

At Freedom Park, Lagos, during the 60th birthday celebration of Kunle Ajibade, the journalist jailed for life by General Sani Abacha, Soyinkas kind and personable wife, Folake Wole-Soyinka, provided two thousand naira for the Nobel Laureate to give to Adunni and her Nefertiti dancers, only for WS to sharply nick one thousand naira into his own pocket and give the musicians the remaining one thousand naira!

Wole Soyinka is still as fecund as ever. I was so happy to break the world exclusive news of Soyinka publishing his third novel, Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth, just after the wave of the COVID-19 onslaught. The great man is still hard at work, writing more immortal books.

It beggars belief that Soyinka has made it to the heavy age of 87 after a life of multiform dangers: an unknown gunman invading the broadcasting house to replace the premiers tape, going to Biafra in a season of anomie, enduring imprisonment and solitary confinement, bearing the wounds of exile, daring Abacha etc. In short, way beyond the claims of the evangelical churches, the only miracle I see is Wole Soyinkas life.

Uzor Maxim Uzoatu is a student of the Nobel Laureate.

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87: The spelling of immortality in the Soyinka canon, By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu - Premium Times

In Peter Jacksons The Fellowship of the Ring, Elrond calls a secret meeting with representatives of the three free races in Middle-earth humans, elves, and dwarves to discuss what to do about the One Ring. As Elrond commands that the ring must be destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom, Boromir utters a line that has since become one of the most iconic Lord of the Rings memes of all time: One does not simply walk into Mordor.

Sean Bean, who plays Boromir, delivers the line with the gravitas necessary for the movies pivotal scene. However, the contrast between his serious line reading and the fact that the quote comes after a brief pause and almost out of nowhere caught the attention of Lord of the Rings fans. A screencap of the scene, featuring Boromir making a circular hand gesture, overlaid with the famous line quickly became a popular meme, spreading across major social sites of the time.

When the first film was released in 2001, memes were just beginning to find their footing online. They had been around for years one of the first modern memes, a dancing CGI baby, became popular in 1996 but the landscape was rapidly evolving. At the same time, fandoms were thriving on websites and forums meant to connect members around the world.

Lord of the Rings memes arrived in the digital space at a moment where dedicated fanbases were purposely trying to share as much content with as many people as possible. The fun of making memes attracted people who hadnt seen the movies, who watched the movies so they could make better memes, which attracted more people and ... the rest is history, a symbiotic relationship that has kept the Peter Jackson trilogy front and center in online consciousness for two decades.

From owyns iconic I am no man scene in The Return of the King, to a line about menus, uttered by an Uruk-hai in Two Towers, which has captivated and confused the internet for years, there are dozens upon dozens to choose from. An online search of Lord of the Rings memes produces hundreds of articles chronicling the best and most known. Pages have popped up on almost every social media site to allow fans to share their love of the memes, from Reddits r/LOTRmemes to Instagrams @danklotrmemes and Tumblrs LOTRreactionmemes.

Boromirs Mordor meme isnt the only Lord of the Rings meme in rotation, but Walking to Mordor is one of the oldest and most recognizable from the franchise. While the image became part of the internets meme lexicon after the movies release in 2001, one of the first noted uses wasnt until 2004, when a user on the forum Something Awful posted an image of Boromir in a car with the text One does not simply drive into Mordor.

The original moment from the film was itself popular, but this adaptation of the line rocketed it to another level. The edited version of the meme situated it as a snowclone, a formulaic phrase that can be customized but still convey the same origin. Other iterations, like One does not simply insert a USB on the first try and One does not simply hit the snooze button just once, began popping up across the internet, cementing the memes status in the digital space. It was a straight-forward template that could be adapted to any phrase, making it an easy format for seasoned and new meme users alike to enjoy. Ultimately, it helped pave the way for similar snowclone memes to thrive.

Its just an easily digestible, low-effort meme from a simpler time, Redditor and member of r/LOTRmemes u/bottle_O_pee says. That being said, that meme became so popular [that] it started a sort of renaissance in the meme world.

Now, though, the memes purpose has drastically changed. The humor behind it has evolved from being a funny, culturally-relevant twist on the meme to an indicator of someone doing something inane or ridiculous. While its widespread use was a major factor of this change, it also became common knowledge that the line in the meme isnt actually what Boromir says at that moment in the film hes actually talking about the great Eye of Sauron, hence his curled hand contributing to its absurdity. Meme humor has also majorly evolved, favoring smarter topics or formats and directly contrasting with the memes uncreative, template-like layout. To use the Boromir meme nowadays is to understand that it has been run into the ground, but that its too integral to internet culture to ever really die.

Lord of the Rings memes are popular because the series is popular, says u/bottle_O_pee. Sometimes [the] simplest answer is the best.

While the breadth of memes that the franchise has spawned is impressive, whats more is how long the memes have stuck around. Boromirs line, for example, has been passed around the internet for 20 years, long surpassing the typical four-month life span of a meme.

In many ways, the longevity of the trilogys memes is a reflection of its fandom. Lord of the Rings fans have been around since the first books publication in 1954; Fanlore even published a 100-year timeline of the fandom. What solidified the fanbase as a major cultural group, though, was its passionate dedication to the franchise and to Tolkien himself. Fans have created clubs around it, lined up for hours to see the films, and just like the Year of the Ring project is doing, dissected every single aspect of the source content through articles, podcasts, and documentaries.

That commitment to the trilogy is as strong today as its ever been, thanks to the stories launch into the mainstream by the films and the internets ability to deliver Lord of the Rings content to almost anyone anywhere at any time. The Reddit page r/LOTR has seen its subscriber count increase by over 4600% since just 2013, and an unfathomably detailed wiki continues to chronicle every corner of the trilogy and its fans and these are just a small sampling of the fandoms growth and dedication.

It doesnt matter that it came out 20 years ago, says Cates Holderness, head of editorial and trends expert at Tumblr. [Fans are] rewatching it every couple of weeks, and they have found a community of people who also love these movies. They can engage forever with this one entertainment property.

This increase can also be attributed to circulation of Lord of the Rings memes online. As they spread across the internet, anyone who interacts with the memes also engages with the films, regardless of how far removed from the content they are. For non-fans, theyre a gateway into a fantasy world that otherwise requires an immense amount of time to get into. Memes allow a person to dip their toes into the Lord of the Rings, without putting in the considerable effort to unpack its story. Its a constant cycle; as new fans are introduced to the story through memes, they become meme creators and circulators themselves, pulling in more new fans as they go.

The Lord of the Rings films have also managed to become a cultural keystone in their two-decade-long existence. Even those who havent seen or read the trilogy have heard of it, typically knowing at least some general plot points. The major characters themselves have become entities separate from the story. Referring to Gandolf or Frodo nowadays doesnt always pertain to the Lord of the Rings books or movies; to many, the former is just a funny, slightly neurotic wizard, and the latter is a small, furry-footed hero, both fully removed from their original context.

Because there is now such a widespread cultural understanding of the trilogy, Lord of the Rings memes can be used and comprehended by everyone not just fans. One does not simply walk into Mordor is funny because fantasy heroes can never just waltz into the climax of the story; its a universal story element, rather than one tied to a specific world. Neither the character of Boromir nor the line he utters are important to the meme at all; instead, its the cultural perception that propelled it to the top of the meme charts and has kept it there ever since.

Theres a low barrier of entry when it comes to memes, because so much of the language and the cultural understanding of memes is ubiquitous, says Holderness. The context is there without having to have seen the movies.

The films themselves are also infinitely quotable, from Samwise Gamgee proclaiming Theres some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and its worth fighting for in The Two Towers, to a visibly sober Legolas saying I think its affecting me after a drinking competition with Gimli in The Return of the King. Because of the number of memorable lines that Jackson and co-writers packed into the script, almost every scene has at least one moment that could easily be transformed into a meme.

In general, the movies are long, and there are several of them, [] so we have that much material, says Holderness. Its just a lot of fodder for memes. Its fun, its interesting, the characters are complex but also funny at the same time. I think that kind of all builds out a great base for people to just riff on and make things out of.

That ability to explore such a large amount of content means that Lord of the Rings memes can feasibly cater to everyone. You dont have to look far for a meme that fits what youre trying to convey from the joys of drinking with friends to the aftermath of cleaning a messy room to simply a funny joke based on a specific scene. Not only does the vast material allow for constant meme creation, but it also encourages continuous circulation; you can always find at least one Lord of the Rings meme out there to relate to or that you find funny.

One does not simply use a Lord of the Rings meme casually theres a rich story behind every image and line, and at least part of it has to be understood in order for the joke to make sense. These memes level the playing field, though; those who only vaguely know the stories because of cultural importance can enjoy the memes just as much as those who harbor a deep passion for the story behind them.

In the same way that the series is so profoundly embedded in our culture, the memes that come from it have garnered their own kind of fame. At this point, for example, the Boromir meme is a living legend. It was created in a time of image macros memes that consist of an image with top and bottom text in the Impact font and it survived the transition into what we consider memes today.

Thanks to dedicated digital fans and a constant adaptability in the changing internet landscape, Lord of the Rings memes have been circulating for 20 years, squarely situating themselves as a major part of internet culture. These memes have so much to be enjoyed, and to be, and to do, and like Samwise Gamgee their part in the story of The Lord of the Rings will certainly go on.

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The history of Boromirs Walk to Mordor meme is Lord of the Rings magic - Polygon

HBO Max has released the official trailer and poster for The Immortal (LImmortale), the feature film spin-off from the acclaimed Max Original series Gomorrah debuting July 29.

The movie finds the notorious, indestructible Naples mobster Ciro Di Marzio (Marco DAmore) in Riga, Latvia, where he turns a low-level counterfeit goods syndicate into a major drug trafficking enterprise despite the incalculable risks.

After reuniting with his first mentor Bruno (Salvatore DOnofrio) and receiving his latest mission, an exiled Ciro is left to fearlessly confront whatever comes his way, navigating a new chapter of gang warfare while grappling with devastating memories of loss and trauma.

Weaving between Ciros past as an orphan in Naples cruel underworld and his present as a hardened, cunning assassin with nothing left to lose, The Immortal plunges into the cold, dark depths of a world where immortality is just another form of damnation.

Based on the book Gomorra by Roberto Savino, the film is directed by Marco DAmore from a screenplay by Leonardo Fasoli, Maddalena Ravagli, Marco DAmore, Francesco Ghiaccio, and Giulia Forgione.

From a story by Leonardo Fasoli, Maddalena Ravagli, Marco DAmore, and Francesco Ghiaccio, the film is produced by Riccardo Tozzi, Giovanni Stabilini, Marco Chimenz, and Gina Gardini.

HBO Max released the fourth season of Gomorrah on May 20th. The critically-acclaimed third season debuted exclusively on HBO Max this January.

The new season turns the spotlight on Genny (Salvatore Esposito), the lone Savastano dynasty survivor: a character who has shed countless skins in the process of morphing from Don Pietros spoiled brat into family boss, husband and father.

The new season sees him on his best behavior precisely for the sake of Azzurra (Ivana Lotito) and little Pietro: with his own family to protect and an activity to reboot, he feels the need for a major life change, committing to legit business while sneaking out, as best he can, from the world his father had him grow up in.

His interests in Naples are now entrusted to Patrizia (Cristiana DellAnna) who, having first betrayed and then killed Scianel, former female leader of The Alliance, has earned her rank within the Savastano clan. Along with Genny, to level the scores and keep the peace in gangland, they will lean on the Levante clan, a branch of late Donna Immas family.

Meanwhile Enzo (Arturo Muselli) and Valerio (Loris De Luna), having tightened their grip over the central Naples turf, are faced with new challenges.

Based on an idea by Roberto Saviano, the fourth season of Gomorrah was produced by Cattleya part of ITV Studios Sky, Fandango in collaboration with Beta Film.

The series is executive produced by Cattleyas Riccardo Tozzi, Gina Gardini, Giovanni Stabilini and Marco Chimenz as well as by Nils Hartman and Sonia Rovai for Sky and developed by Stefano Bises, Leonardo Fasoli, Maddalena Ravagli and Roberto Saviano.

The teleplays were written by Leonardo Fasoli, Maddalena Ravagli, Enrico Audenino and Monica Zapelli. The fourth season was directed by Francesca Comencini who is also the artistic supervisor Claudio Cupellini, Marco DAmore, Enrico Rosati and Ciro Visco.

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The Immortal Trailer and Poster Revealed by HBO Max - VitalThrills.com