Long ago, films ran for a short time in large cities, slowly dripping down to the sticks, as the reels of films were passed down to smaller theaters in the back of a truck, until it became a burden that no longer had any value. The life cycle of a movie in 1976 was short and not particularly glamorous. Star Wars challenged that model, forcing the industry to reassess how they appraised scripts, sold movies, and advertised them.
Much has been made about the national climate and international politics of the day that lent the escapist fantasy film such an eager fan base. The technically advanced film would probably have performed well in any case. That is, if anyone ever got the chance to see it. Director/writer George Lucas had an immense amount of faith in his weird pet project. He was the only one. With neither Fox, movie theater exhibitors, nor some of the actors thinking much of the film’s script or prospects, Star Wars should have cratered at the box office.
The public’s first introduction to the Star Wars universe was not that of a slick, well-oiled machine, but a sputtering, embarrassing mess. Star Wars, quite the contrary to what it is today, started out bereft of positive press or a strong promotional push in televised ads. What it had in spades was good word of mouth. The film succeeded despite the actions of those showing it, not because of it.
Star…What?
Lucasfilm
Retailers and movie exhibitors were keen business people, but even they had no clue what kind of circus they were about to find themselves in the summer of 1977. The typical promo material was distributed to theaters, no big deal. Anyone visiting the lobby in 1977 would have heard this playing on a loop for weeks straight in the lead up to the film. Mark Hamill remembered the panic he felt when he heard the movie trailer ridiculed in a theater weeks prior to the debut: “So we both laughed, but after we laughed, we kind of went, ‘Uh oh'” (via THR). Oh, and that A New Hope appendage was slapped on until years later. In the film’s debut (and many years after) no one ever actually called it that.
Still, the craze caught theater owners by surprise who refused to even bid for the right to show it. “In the months before it opened, a lot of the older guys thought of Star Wars as a kiddie movie,” a theater owner fessed up to. “The cast meant nothing, and no one knew who George Lucas was.” The space epic spurned in favor of the hotly awaited movie The Other Side of Midnight. Go ahead and Google that movie if that title sounds made up. We definitely had to.
Not off on the best foot, unfortunately the film was also weird and so huge that no one knew how to handle the fervor as viewers demanded more space-opera content. In the U.S., it was only slated for distribution in 32 multiplexes nationwide the first week, but required about 40 times that number of seats to meet demand, as people waited hours in line. It was a surreal problem for theater owners to have, forced to deal with long lines as half the theater sat empty, space rented out to other films no one wanted to see.
The Unquenchable Thirst
20th Century Fox
Movies frequently ran for months, or longer if demand allowed it, but when the film could not be screened, alternate, more abstract substitutes took their place. VHS tapes were not a reality for 99% of the public due to the price, so fanboys settled with re-experiencing the film in the most non-cinematic way possible: a dude summarizing the plot on a record. Gripping stuff. A movie in 1977 was lucky to get a late-night TV viewing for insomniacs or a screening at a film festival if you were fortunate enough to live in NYC, LA, or London, where film reels could be obtained. That was it. Average people got one chance to see a movie and then the celluloid disappeared into a vault, slowly rotting into goo.
Lucas had anticipated mass interest, commissioning Alan Dean Foster to ghostwrite a novelization of the working script into a book in 1976. It bore little semblance to the film, and it surely only confused readers. Nothing of substance (that was officially licensed) reached shelves until the next year. The dam would burst in the next two decades, but for the first couple years, fans were on their own. In the vacuum, fan-fiction began to sprout up within weeks. Some of that old stuff setting around your neighbor’s yard sale might be worth a buck or two if you know what to look for. For years, it was the only Star Wars media anyone would see, not counting the Christmas Special in 1978, a monstrosity that Lucas immediately shelved forever and shoved into a memory hole.
Lucasfilm (A Lucasfilm Ltd. Production) Twentieth Century Fox
What’s Christmas morning with no toys under the tree? Ask a Star Wars fan in December 1977. As the film hit theaters, the craze became apparent, however, the rush to commercialize the film into merchandisable paraphernalia was plagued by shortages, the Kenner people slow on the uptake. What did kids get instead? A cardboard certificate, because as the Kenner adverts specified, the 3.75 inch action figures were “not yet available.”
Kids had to wait as late as June ‘78 for some “early-bird” sets of fairly rushed, ugly plastic models. Time was crucial, the IP owners forced to act as pirated, unlicensed goods flooded the market, disappointing kids and traumatizing countless pets. Kenner and Lucas were losing millions at the precise time hilariously-bad knock-offs saturated film theaters across the world. Everyone was getting in on the bonanza, even if all the crap wasn’t officially licensed or made any sense whatsoever, such as the Japanese “sea chicken” brand.
And this is where it gets especially surreal. It is quite probable — at least judging on the plethora of head-scratching posters from around the world, especially behind the Iron Curtain where it was reinterpreted as some kind of Western with robots — that many people involved with marketing and advertising had never actually seen it, received a properly translated version, or knew what it was about.
Marvel’s Blade just added another writer to its crew.
Nic Pizzolatto, known for his work as the creator of True Detective, has joined the upcoming MCU film as a writer, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The addition reunites Pizzolatto and Blade star Mahershala Ali, as they worked together on Season 3 of HBO’s acclaimed crime anthology series.
IGN has reached out to Disney and Pizzolatto’s reps for comment.
Pizzolatto will be working off of a script by Michael Starrbury, who previously scored an Emmy nomination for his work on an episode of When They See Us. Pizzolatto has reportedly been working on Blade’s script for a few weeks now.
Who Is Blade? Marvel’s Vampire Hunter Explained
Blade, which is being directed by Lovecraft Country’s Yann Demange, has gone through a few hiccups so far in the pre-production process. Starrbury and Demange joined the project after Bassam Tariq suddenly departed the movie back in September of 2022 due to creative differences. The move prompted Marvel to hit pause on Blade, with several release dates shifting as a result. Now, THR says that Blade is eyeing a late May start to production in Atlanta, and it’s still currently set for a Sept. 6, 2024 release date.
Alongside Ali, Marvel’s reincarnation of Blade will also feature rising scream queen Mia Goth, whose performances in Ti West’s horror movies Pearl and X were widely acclaimed. Delroy Lindo is also in the cast.
Blade will formally introduce Marvel’s most skilled vampire hunter to the MCU. The character of Blade is a half-mortal, half-immortal being who viciously hunts vampires in order to avenge his mother, who was killed by a vampire as she gave birth to him. The superhero was previously played by Wesley Snipes in the original Blade trilogy from New Line Cinema, which was generally well liked by fans despite a lukewarm critical reception.
All three of Snipes’ films were rated R, making Blade Marvel’s first R-rated hero. Of course, those film’s weren’t a part of the MCU, but hopes are high that the new film can match the original trilogy’s gritty tone. Thankfully, with Demange in the director chair, the movie is said to be a darker affair than the typical MCU movie.
Carson Burton is a freelance news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter at @carsonsburton.
In our Member Lensseries, we’re spotlighting a cross-section of current Film Independent Members to see how they got where they are now, what they hope to do next and what being a part of Film Independent means to them. This profile of Mye Hoang originally ran in 2021. The documentary Cat Daddies is now available for rental on all major platforms.
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There’s something unique about the bond between a man and his cat. At least according to filmmaker, festival programmer and Film Independent MemberMye Hoang, whose new documentary feature Cat Daddies seeks explore themes of evolving gender roles, animal companionship, feline overpopulation and—by necessity—disaster response; to both the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, as well as last year’s devastating California wildfires. Pretty weighty stuff for what was initially intended as a lighthearted portrait of dudes and their kitties.
Originally from Dallas, the now LA-based Hoang has been deeply enmeshed in the independent film world since she was a teenager, working at art house theaters and founding the Asian Film Festival of Dallas (AFFD). Eventually, she began co-producing an array of microbudget indie favorites, including 2015 John Cassavetes Award nominee Man from Reno and 2020 SXSW premiere I Will Make You Mine—the final installment of a trilogy begun with Reno director Dave Boyle’s Surrogate Valentine (2011) and Daylight Savings (2012).
We recently spoke to Hoang about how her interest in film developed, her first feature as director and the importance of responding positively when unexpected challenges arise during production. Here’s the conversation…
Mye Hoang (second from left) and crew behind the scenes of ‘Cat Daddies’
To start, how you first began to develop an interest in filmmaking?
Hoang: I grew up in Texas with very strict parents who immigrated from Vietnam before I was born. They had lived through war and were always concerned about my safety, so there was very little that I was allowed to do. Growing up, my parents didn’t really encourage sports or outdoor activities, but they did allow us to go to the movies. So going to the movies has been a big part of my life—and that’s where it started.
Did you study filmmaking at any point?
Hoang: I studied film at SMU in Dallas, close to home. I also worked at the local art house movie theater, starting in high school. So a big chunk of my life was just being immersed in cinema. I was always making movies with my friends, and I knew that was what I wanted to do with my life—just something pertaining to film. My parents didn’t exactly approve, but I did it anyways. I also founded the Asian Film Festival of Dallas, showing these Asian international box office hits along with these independent Asian American films.
Oh wow, I didn’t know you did that.
Hoang: Yeah! I actually started that right out of college as a way to bring films to town that no one else would. This was back when Wong Kar-Wai was in his heyday and most moviegoers were like, “Why would I want to read a movie?” Subtitles are a little more accepted now than back then. And in regards to Asian American filmmaking, prior to AFFD, hardly anyone in Dallas knew that it existed or what it meant to be Asian American. That film festival is still running—its 20th year. So I was a curator for film for a long time. And I only dabbled in filmmaking. You know, we have our survival jobs and we make what we can; I was making shorts and I helped produce a lot of microbudget features.
How did you start producing? What are the key skills you feel you developed in that role that you’ve taken into your projects as director?
Hoang: I got on board starting with Man from Reno and then I Will Make You Mine. Actually, being the director of a film festival really helped prepare me to produce, because you’re basically just a nonstop problem-solver; there’s just so much you learn along the way. It’s all events planning, really. Most of the hard work is done before you shoot the movie.
Is that how you became familiar with Film Independent?
Hoang: I had friends that had been through some of Film Independent’s programs. It always seemed like Film Independent was inclusive even before it was the cool thing to do. And then especially with [Film Independent’s] interest in Man from Reno, first with the LA Film Festival and then through the Spirit Awards. All of that really helped us tremendously. So I became a Member and I’ve really enjoyed all of the perks of Membership.
Is there one particular Film Independent service or event that sticks out as your favorite?
Hoang: I would always go to the screenings for the Spirit Award nominees. That was really cool—just night after night and seeing the same people in the audience, again and again. I just felt like I was part of a community. It’s something that we’ve not had the benefit of this past year, but that hopefully will come back.
As far as what you’re working on now, tell us about the documentary Cat Daddies.
Hoang: I’ve always been a cat lover, and my husband was not—not even a little bit. But then a cat walked into his life and that completely changed. At the same time, there was just this surge of internet cat activity. And if you follow any of these accounts or the catdad hashtag, you’ll see images and images of men with their cats. And, like many other people, I found that this sparked joy in me. I was looking at my husband becoming this cat guy, and I thought, “How many other guys out there don’t know they’re a cat guy?” So I wanted to make a film to explore masculinity and gender roles and how some of these things are changing. I was thinking maybe it would help break some of the stigma around men owning cats, and at the same time help with the cat overpopulation problem we have. That’s how the movie was born. And also Kedi, the Turkish documentary, proved that there was an audience out there, so I wanted to make this documentary for the big screen to bring people together.
Filming ‘Cat Daddies’
I heard that once you got underway shooting the project went in some unexpected directions. Tell us about that.
Hoang: I had plans from the beginning to make a very light, funny film—knowing at the time that things would probably change. And that’s exactly what happened. I was somewhat prepared, but I still had to deal with letting go of what the original vision was. Basically I cast the whole movie, and we’d been shooting off and on over a period of, like, six months. Then the pandemic hit and there were shutdowns and subjects who we couldn’t travel to because they were international. There were some [subjects] that fell out of the project; all these things that were happening, I just don’t think they were in the mood any more—police brutality, civil unrest and on top of that the wildfires on the West Coast.
I can understand, totally.
Hoang: We just ended up shooting more of one of the stories, and we went in a little bit of a different direction with the movie as a whole. So although I wanted a film that was timeless, it actually became more of a time capsule. But I think we made it work, tonally. We just kept going and we made a really good movie. We’re finishing post now and it will be ready for the world later this year.
Last question. Why do you think it’s important that people support an organization like Film Independent?
Hoang: It’s always been important to me. We see now what happens when filmmakers don’t have a platform or a venue accessible to showcase their work. Without those screenings and those audiences, filmmakers can’t work on their craft. These organizations are more important now than ever, because the screenings that an organization like Film Independent does, that might be the only way that a filmmaker can see their work with an audience.
Film Independent promotes unique independent voices by helping filmmakers create and advance new work. To become a Member of Film Independent, just click here. To support us with a donation, click here.
Photo: Theo Wargo / Staff, Jon Kopaloff / Stringer, John Lamparski / Stringer (Getty Images)
Guy Ritchie’s untitled next project–reportedly a big-budget action film–stands to serve as a major reunion. Henry Cavill, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Eiza González will star in the film, per Deadline,which follows two extraction specialists who must formulate an escape plan for a major female negotiator. All three actors have recently collaborated with Ritchie: Gyllenhaal starred in The Covenant, and Gonzalez performs in the upcoming The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. As for Cavill, this marks his third collaboration with the director, after The Man From U.N.C.L.E and TMOUW. [Hattie Lindert]
The series stars Jeremy Allen White as Carmen Berzatto, an elite, Noma-trained chef who returns to Chicago to run his family’s failing sandwich shop after his older brother, Michael (Jon Bernthal), dies by suicide. The cast also includes Ayo Edebiri, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Abby Elliott, Lionel Boyce, Liza Colón-Zayas and Edwin Lee Gibson as well as Matty Matheson, who co-produces the series.
Gordon is best known for appearing in films such as “Booksmart,” “Shiva Baby” and “You People.” Along with “The Bear,” up next, she will be seen in “Theater Camp,” a 2023 Sundance feature which she also co-wrote and co-directed with Nick Lieberman. The film premieres on July 14 via Searchlight Pictures.
She is repped by UTA, Burstein Company, Shelter PR and Gang, Tyre, Ramer.
As exclusively reported by Variety, Season 2 of “The Bear” will also feature Bob Odenkirk in a guest starring role with character details not yet known.
Chris Storer created “The Bear” and executive produces alongside Joanna Calo, Hiro Murai and Nate Matteson of Super Frog, as well as Josh Senior. Tyson Bidner serves as producer. The series hails from FX Productions.
Season 1 premiered via FX on Hulu in June of 2022 and was an immediate hit, becoming FX’s most watched half-hour series ever. Season 2 will debut this June.
Thursday, May 4, 2023 ratings — New episodes: Grey’s Anatomy, Station 19, Walker, 100 Days to Indy, Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Law & Order: Organized Crime, Young Sheldon, Ghosts, So Help Me Todd, CSI: Vegas, Next Level Chef, Call Me Kat, and Animal Control. Special: 20/20. Reruns:(none).
Note: If you’re not seeing the updated charts, please try reloading the page or go here.
These are the fast affiliate ratings. The percentages represent the change since the previous original episode. (Percentages aren’t given for reruns or specials.) To see past ratings for a particular show, click the show’s link. The show pages are updated with the daily final ratings when they become available. Those pages include season averages to date.
The hilarity of Black women on television has been sorely missed and ignored by the Television Academy over multiple decades. However, this year’s slate of outstanding lead and supporting comedy actress seem to be the two spots preventing an #EmmysSoWhite moment from occurring.
Quinta Brunson is the front-runner to win her first acting Emmy for her charming turn as Janine Teagues, the optimistic 2nd-grade teacher from ABC’s “Abbott Elementary.” With a beautiful sophomore season in the books and the added benefit of Jean Smart being out of the competition for “Hacks,” she seems perfectly aligned with the Emmy cosmos to land much-deserved recognition. The possible recognition would be long overdue for Black comedians on television.
PASADENA, CA – SEPTEMBER 13: Actress Isabel Sanford attends the 33rd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards on September 13, 1981, at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Pasadena, California
Ron Galella Collection via Getty
In lead actress comedy, only seven Black women have been nominated since its inception in 1966 — Diahann Carroll (“Julia”), Isabel Sanford (“The Jeffersons”), Nell Carter (“Gimme a Break!”), Phylicia Rashad (“The Cosby Show”), Tracee Ellis Ross (“Black-ish”), Issa Rae (“Insecure”) and the Brunson above. Sanford is still the only Black woman ever to win the category back in 1981.
Brunson made history at last year’s Emmys when she became the first Black woman nominated for outstanding comedy series, lead actress and writing in the same year. Additionally, 32 at the time, Brunson became the youngest Black woman ever nominated for lead comedy actress.
Notable, Brunson’s co-star Sheryl Lee Ralph became the second Black woman to win supporting comedy actress for “Abbott” following Jackée Harry from “227” in 1987.
Other hilarious women in the mix are scattered from new and established series.
Kerry Washington is brilliant as Paige Alexander, a marriage therapist and social media influencer who reconnects with her father (Delroy Lindo) following being released from prison in Hulu’s comedy “Unprisoned.” Despite being an Emmy winner (for outstanding variety special for “Live in Front of a Studio Audience: ‘All in the Family’ and ‘Good Times’”), she’s never won for acting despite noms for the limited series “Little Fires Everywhere,” the TV Movie “Confirmation” and the drama series “Scandal.” The series is a vital and complicated role that we haven’t seen from her before, that she anchors with heart and sincerity. The TV Academy could find it intriguing enough to check her name off.
And then there are the underappreciated performers still hoping for recognition after multiple seasons and years in the biz, including Robin Thede from HBO’s “A Black Lady Sketch Show” and Meagan Good from Prime Video’s “Harlem.”
It’s also worth mentioning Maya Rudolph’s funny work in Apple’s “Loot,” Folake Olowofoyeku’s sweet turn from CBS’ “Bob Hearts Abishola” and Chanté Adams’ talented swings in Prime Video’s “A League of Their Own.”
If there’s one thing people remember about me, it’s that I’m a Jonas Brothers fan. That’s why I was thrilled to hear the band was heading out on tour for The Album.
After the band’s reunion in 2019, the Happiness Begins era began and we didn’t see much else from the brothers. The Jo Bros went off to do their things and then in late 2022 and early 2023, the band finally gave us some good news.
The group shared they were releasing The Album in May and it was unlike anything they’d released before. With the release of singles, “Wings” and “Waffle House,” I’m sure my fellow fans can agree with that.
Things got even more exciting as the Jo Bros also announced a tour beginning this summer and heading into fall.
Will the Jonas Brothers end up playing 5 albums a night on tour?
It’s official!
FIVE ALBUMS. ONE NIGHT. THE TOUR.
Register for Verified Fan now through Saturday, May 6th at 11:59PM ET for your chance to purchase tickets! Let’s go! pic.twitter.com/lkmMrNJ7Jm
As you can see above, the band shared an announcement on their social media platforms with a list of tour dates and the option to register early as a Verified Fan. What caught my eye was that the band shared “Five Albums. One Night. The Tour,” and immediately I was suspicious.
As someone who loves the Jonas Brothers, I have many questions. The first is which albums will the Jonas Brothers be playing. I think we all know they’ll be playing The Album and then for the other four, I’m going to guess here. There’s Happiness Begins in 2019, Lines, Vines and Trying Times from 2009, A Little Bit Longer in 2008, and Jonas Brothers in 2007.
However, my main qualm is the lack of love for It’s About Time. As far as debut albums go, I feel like the band did a solid job. I just wish that they’d include it in more projects or concerts in general but maybe they’ll surprise us. I mean I’m crossing my fingers we might at least get “Mandy” featured within the setlist somewhere.
My other question is how the band is marketing things. Are the Jonas Brothers going to be featuring the songs from each album or just playing a few from each album? If it’s the latter, I feel like that’s a recipe to get fans irritated. After the band announced Yankee Stadium being “One Night Only,” and then announced the beginning of the tour, fans were mad.
Before Taylor Swift’s Eras tour, I would have questioned things more yet she puts on such a long show and keeps fans guessing. Let’s hope the Jonas Brothers take a page from her book and decide to do something similar. Then again, with a group of brothers, who knows?
Either way, I’m tentatively excited about the Jonas Brothers tour. Let’s just wait and see if they end up playing that many albums in one night, though.
What do you think? Will the Jonas Brothers end up playing five albums in one night? Share your thoughts.
For months Farnaz Jurabchian and her co-director/brother Mohammadreza Jurabchian were banned from leaving Iran, which prevented the duo from attending prestigious fests including IDFA, France’s FIPADOC, Brazil’s It’s All True and the Luxemburg Intl. Film Festival.
Iranian authorities considered the international partnerships that both directors formed in order to make “Silent House” a national security risk.
“My brother and I weren’t able to leave (Iran) due to false and unfair accusations that were made against us,” Farnaz Jurabchian said. “We lost many opportunities that our film created for us due to the ban.”
According to Farnaz, Iranian authorities “took issue with our artistic and cultural communication with international platforms (and financiers), which is a necessity and the basic right of every documentarian around the world.”
In a recent turn of events, the travel ban against both helmers was lifted, which allowed Farnaz to attend the Hot Docs North American premiere of “Silent House” on May 3.
The docu recounts the lives of three generations of an Iranian upper-middle-class family from the perspective of Farnaz and Mohammadreza. Produced by both directors along with Elaheh Nobakht, Stéphanie Lebrun, Jewel Maranan, and the National Film Board of Canada, “Silent House” is a joint production of Iran, Canada, France, the Philippines and Qatar.
Despite the recent travel ban lift, only Farnaz Jurabchian, who is a citizen of Iran and Canada was able to attend Hot Docs with “Silent House.”
“Mohammadreza’s visa was rejected by Canadians,” Farnaz explained. “A very strange decision on behalf of Canadian authorities. So, once again, we have been deprived of traveling with this film by another government. I hope that one day we live in a world where no government can decide for any filmmaker to travel or not to travel.”
During the film’s Q&A, which Mohammadreza attended via Facetime, Farnaz explained that it took three years to edit 500 hours of footage down to the 100 minutes that make up “Silent House.”
“We were constantly shooting our family over many years, so we had a mountain of footage,” Farnaz said. “We were also amateur filmmakers when we were kids, so we also had a huge amount of archival footage. It was really hard to choose between which footage to use and not to use.”
Following Hot Docs, “Silent House” is slated to screen at DOXA Documentary Film Festival in Vancouver, British Columbia, and at the 63rd Krakow Intl. Film Festival in Poland.
A TWO-year-old boy was mauled to death by his family’s German Shepherd after he stumbled on top of it.
The dog had been with the Guerra family for four years before the tragedy struck at their home in Costa Rica on Monday.
2
A two-year-old boy was mauled to death by a German ShepherdCredit: Jam Press
2
The dog had been with the family for four years before the tragedy struckCredit: Jam Press
It was reported the vicious hound latched on to Dexter Yael’s neck after he fell on top of it – despite the tot “knowing the dog since birth”.
Dexter’s mother, Yojebeth Guevara, was also injured while trying to protect her son.
She suffered several bites while trying to get the animal to release her boy, family members said.
Two neighbours were also bitten while trying to pull the dog away.
Alex Guerra, the father, told local media: “From what I understand, my son kind of stumbled on top of the dog and that’s when it attacked him.
“The dog was used to my son.
“They’d been together since he was a newborn.”
Óscar Rodríguez, a neighbour, was eventually able to drag the German Shepherd off the boy.
The youngster was subsequently rushed to hospital but later died from his injuries.
Rubén Rodríguez, president of the Canine Federation of Costa Rica, visited the home and said the dog was well looked after with plenty of space to move around the property.
The animal has now been seized by the National Animal Health Service, which will decide on its fate in the coming days.
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A high-severity vulnerability has been discovered in a widely-used Cisco phone adapter that could allow threat actors to execute arbitrary code on the target endpoints, the company has confirmed.
Users are advised to move to a different device, given that the vulnerable ones reached end-of-life and are no longer receiving upgrades and fixes.
Cisco said that its SPA112 2-Port Phone Adapter lacks proper authentication processes in its firmware upgrade function. As a result, victims could end up installing a malicious (opens in new tab) firmware update, and, “a successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary code on the affected device with full privileges.”
Local access only
The flaw is tracked as CVE-2023-20126, and has a severity score of 9.8 – critical.
The publication claims the adapters are “popular” among organizations looking to use analog phones on their VoIP networks without needing to upgrade. The silver lining in the flaw is that the adapters are not usually connected to the public internet, meaning threat actors would need to first access the local network in order to be able to exploit the flaw.
However, the vulnerability could be used to move laterally through the target network more easily, the publication adds, as security software usually doesn’t monitor tools such as this one.
Given that the SPA112 reached end-of-life status and isn’t receiving updates, Cisco said it wouldn’t be addressing the vulnerability with a fix. Instead, it has told its customers to replace it with the ATA 190 Series Analog Telephone Adapter, a device that will be supported until March 31, 2024.
Cisco said that there is no evidence the flaw is currently being abused in the wild, but now that the information is out there, incursions are bound to happen. Outdated software and hardware are one of the most common ways hackers access target networks.
After prolonged negotiations for fair pay, the WGA went on strike, and Hollywood was forced to rethink how it relates to the economics of writing for film and TV. That was 2008. The strike lasted for 100 days.
Well, here we go again. After extensive conversations with the AMPTP, the WGA once again went on strike this week, and nobody knows how long it will take this time. One thing is certain, though: a lot has changed about the market for writers in the streaming era, and it only stands to change more now that AI is on the scene.
In this week’s episode of Screen Talk, Eric Kohn and Anne Thompson discuss those extensive changes and how much of the WGA’s current demands stand a real shot at getting through. They also look at the potential impact on current and future productions.
Watch the full episode above or listen to it below.
Screen Talk is produced by Azwan Badruzaman and available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify, and hosted by Megaphone. Browse previous installments here, subscribe here, and be sure to let us know if you’d like to hear the hosts address specific issues in upcoming editions of Screen Talk.
Labour’s performance looked a lot better at dawn than it did at 3am. Every year recently, the very earliest declaring councils have tended to provide some of Labour’s less impressive results – Sunderland, Basildon, Dudley, Harlow – and conditioned journalists and experts to start thinking about local elections in terms of Labour underperforming.
Measuring performance in seat gains and losses also distorts the picture. In the big cities that elect a third of their councillors at a time, one seat will represent more than 10,000 electors, while in the smaller rural districts there may only be 1,000 people for every councillor. Labour making solid progress in urban marginals does less for the seat count. There is correspondingly more room for the other anti-Conservative parties with better prospects in rural England to gain impressive numbers of seats.
Local elections are always uneven, all parties will perform patchily and be disappointed by some places. Labour could have hoped for better on Friday in Peterborough or Ipswich, for example. On the other hand, Labour polled the most votes at local level in areas where the Conservatives had five-figure majorities in the December 2019 general election such as Bassetlaw and Dudley North.
The local elections give some plausible grounds for Labour to hope that the realignment of 2019 might prove ephemeral and that despite the huge swings required, these are still winnable seats. Hartlepool and Grimsby returned to the fold. For the second year in a row, Labour showed surprising vitality in Midlands towns such as Redditch and Tamworth where the party’s cause looked dead. Gains in Rushmoor, the local authority covering the home of the British army at Aldershot and Farnborough, also suggested that the party had prospects for unprecedented progress in the urban south.
Starmer’s party was about nine to 10 points ahead if you analyse these elections like a national opinion poll; Blair’s party was 14 points head in 1996. Labour won Medway council on Thursday night with a majority. When it voted on the same day as the 1997 general election, Labour fell just short.
The overnight results from the commuter belt councils such as Windsor and Maidenhead and East Hertfordshire gave the Conservatives a glimpse of the Friday results, many of which in the south and Midlands were worse even than the exaggerated expectations circulated for public consumption.
The new deputy prime minister, Oliver Dowden, quickly experienced something his predecessor Dominic Raab endured last year, namely a trouncing in the local elections in his constituency. Friday brought crumbs of comfort for the Tories from Solihull and Redcar, but also electoral meltdowns in Bracknell Forest and Swindon and the dashing of hopes that they would recover scores of seats lost to independents in 2019. The count of Conservative seat losses ticked upwards in the direction of that fateful number of 1,000, which felt so unreal when the party chairman, Greg Hands, trailed it during the campaign.
The Labour MP Shabana Mahmoud, centre, after local councillors win control of Dover district council. Photograph: Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty
Local elections are always surprising in their rich detail and variation, but the broad pattern is usually explicable. The Conservatives have been in government for 13 years, living standards and public services are under pressure, and although better-regarded than his predecessors, the prime minister is not very popular.
In the circumstances, one would expect the Conservatives to get a trouncing in the local elections from an unhappy, tired electorate. Main opposition parties very rarely arouse wild enthusiasm, particularly if they are already in power in the town hall and making unpopular decisions. The 2023 elections, encouraging as they are, do not show the road clear to Labour winning a majority in the general election. But they are certainly the sort of result endured by a government that is on its way out.
Writer/director James Gunn, who has helmed all the “Guardians of the Galaxy” films, always knew how he wanted to end the franchise: telling Rocket Raccoon’s story. It’s this final origin chapter in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3”that proves to be one emotional and entertaining ride.
When Gunn was approached for the franchise 11 years ago, he wondered, “If there was a talking space raccoon, where would he come from?” he told the Star in a virtual interview with both him and Chris Pratt, who plays Peter Quill/Star-Lord.
“I realized that his back story was a very sad one, that he had been created in this very difficult way. He was taken from being this innocent little animal and turned into something he didn’t ask to be and that back story was an incredibly powerful and traumatic and sad one. That, to me, was the seeds of the entire Guardians franchise that I think culminates in volume three.”
In “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” a narcissistic scientist named the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji), who has long experimented on organic creatures to create the perfect species, sends Adam Warlock (Will Poulter) to retrieve Rocket (Bradley Cooper), who was one of his subjects, and he wants him back. When Rocket is wounded during a fight, the Guardians embark on a mission to save him and the universe.
Joining Star-Lord on the journey is Drax (Dave Bautista), Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel), Nebula (Karen Gillan), Mantis (Pom Klementieff), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Kraglin (Sean Gunn) and space dog Cosmo (voiced by Maria Bakalova).
Gunn took a chance on Pratt when he hired him to play Peter Quill/Star Lord — he knew right away that he was the one. Pratt has grown into his character over the last decade. The actor believes his approach to playing Quill is “95 per cent me and 5 per cent my comedic clown that I put on top for entertainment purposes.”
Gunn added, “I think you’re way less of a buffoon than Peter Quill. And you’re way less of a hothead than Peter Quill. Those are the two main things that make you not Peter Quill.”
Pratt has matured a lot as an actor and in this film, he said, noting he wanted to give him an opportunity to show some of the “deep emotion that he’s capable of as a human being and as an actor.”
Gunn also worked on other characters. He added humour to Nebula’s character because Karen Gillan is “one of the funniest people I know so I was able to allow her to do that.” With Pom Klementieff, “she’s got a spiciness to her; she gets to you and nudges you and that’s part of Mantis now. And so it’s not like they become their characters. But I do see things the actors are capable of that maybe haven’t been put on screen yet.”
For his part Pratt revealed that Gunn is specific, prepared and knows exactly what he wants — something Pratt loves.
“As a performer, it’s really great to have a director who has a very clear vision and is capable of articulating that vision. He’s got the ability to speak to each of us in the most effective way to get the performance from us.”
Sean Gunn, who plays Kraglin in the franchise and is James’ younger brother, echoed Pratt’s sentiments. “I love working with my brother more than anybody. We have a shorthand for communicating. We trust one another as creators and as collaborators,” he said in a separate interview ahead of the Toronto premiere.
Sean was among the very few who knew that Rocket was always the heart of the story. “From the time we were shooting the first movie, he [James] told me where Rocket was going and what his back story was. So that’s a secret that I’ve been living with for a decade that I’ve not been able to share with anybody.”
The impact of the experience of working together through that decade-long journey is not lost on the actors and director.
Pratt says he learned a lot about the craft, and gives part of the credit to his father, who was a woodworker and builder.
“A craftsman learns to fabricate their own tools to get the results that they need and so, over the past 10 years, I’ve really been able to hone my tool kit and add some tools that I didn’t have before,” Pratt said.
One of the biggest lessons he learned from James Gunn, he said, is that he doesn’t always need an approach to get the scene right. “Sometimes who I am, without doing anything, is enough to meet the moment. If I try to alter who I am, I might muddy the moment and get in my own way … (sometimes all that is) required for that moment, is just me being present and being comfortable in my own skin. Just breathing. Sometimes less is more.”
Gunn, too, says he carries pivotal lessons that will inform his future decisions as a filmmaker — he is set to direct the next “Superman: Legacy” as he leaves Marvel Studios behind and steps into his new role as co-CEO of DC Studios.
“I don’t want to make movies with people who I don’t really love. It’s a difficult process. We’re very fortunate to make films. We’re blessed to be able to get paid like we do for making films, but it can be long and tiresome. When you’re surrounded, not by people who you love and who love you but by people who don’t care, it sucks … I don’t want to spend my life like that. I want to be surrounded by people who I really love and care about.”
“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” opens exclusively in theatres on May 5
Marriska Fernandes is a Toronto-based entertainment reporter and film critic. She is a freelance contributor for the Star’s Culture section. Follow her on Twitter: @marrs_fers
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“What’s up, everybody? I just wanted to let you know I am in Jacksonville. We are going to play a show tonight — and all weekend,” the 29-year-old said in an Instagram Story. “I wouldn’t say I’m 100%, but I’m doing a lot better.”
Wallen also apologized to the nearly 60,000 concertgoers in Oxford, Miss., who packed Vaught-Hemingway Stadium at the University of Mississippi on April 23 only to have him cancel moments before showtime. The musician had to cancel three additional shows in Michigan, Illinois and Nebraska after being put on “doctor-ordered vocal rest.”
“And to everyone in Oxford, I just wanted to reiterate how sorry I am for the way that went down. I thought I was going to be good to go and I just wasn’t,” Wallen said Thursday, adding that he and his team are working on rescheduling the canceled dates. The sudden Mississippi cancellation prompted the threat of a lawsuit and rumors that the singer was too drunk to perform, the latter of which Wallen’s team denied.
“We are close to having a rescheduled date, I just don’t have the exact one yet. So as soon as I do, I’ll let you know,” he said. “I appreciate y’all and I can’t wait to get back out on stage tonight. Love y’all and thank you for all the love and support, always, and God bless you and see you soon.”
Later Thursday, the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena posted footage of Wallen performing “You Proof” onstage during the Jacksonville stop, along with other concert footage, on its Instagram Story.
The “Last Night” singer has been mounting a comeback after briefly falling from grace in early 2021 when he was caught on video drunkenly using the N-word to refer to a friend. The footage resulted in the aspiring superstar’s songs being temporarily removed from radio and streaming playlists and his label suspending his contract.
But Wallen has since been “un-canceled,” winning a number of prestigious country music awards and resuming his Dangerous tour in 2022. He launched his 39-date One Night at a Time tour in Milwaukee, Wis., in mid-April. The tour, for which the Jacksonville show was the sixth strop, runs through October and is in support of the March release of Wallen’s sophomore album, “One Thing at a Time.”
He hits the Los Angeles area this summer with a July 22 show at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.
Marvel Studios gave fans the best look yet at the MCU’s newest President of the United States in Secret Invasion.
One of the most intriguing bits about Secret Invasion that fans learned through leaks during production was that it would be the first time the MCU would introduce a new President of the United States. Since Iron Man 3, the President has always been William Sadler’s Matthew Ellis, but, of course, with the five-year time jump and term limits, there would inevitably have to be a new President.
MCU’s Newest (and Soon Out) President of the United States
One of the biggest questions some fans have regarding Secret Invasion is what will happen to Dermot Mulroney’s President Ritson. After all, Harrison Ford’s Thaddeus Ross is poised to take his place as President in New World Order, so what will cause such an abrupt change?
Marvel Studios
The only three possibilities are he resigns, is impeached, loses reelection to Ross, or is assassinated. All three of them still have massive shake-ups within the universe of the MCU.
The leaked set photos showed that there would be unusual tension between the US and the UK, which would hurt the credibility of any sitting President, considering the two countries are meant to be close allies. Moreover, it could factor into his resignation or eventual election loss to Ross.
Killed or Disgraced
Other options for Ritson’s no longer being President could be him being assassinated or becoming such a disgrace to the White House that he’s impeached from office. The former is a strong possibility, considering the antagonists of this series will be a disgruntled Skrull faction aiming to destabilize the governments of Earth.
Another possibility is, on top of the damaged relationship between the US and the UK, that Ritson could be revealed to be a Skrull. Something that could cause enormous global paranoia, which would cause a deep distrust in governments globally.
It could be the perfect time for a reactionary, anti-super government official to step up and run for President.
Secret Invasion will begin streaming on Disney+ on June 21.
The Walking Dead is officially over after eleven seasons and it has been quite the ride. But, as we know, the end of the flagship series that’s been in fans’ hearts for over a decade doesn’t mean this world is done. The show already has had three spinoff series, Fear the Walking Dead, Tales of the Walking Dead, and The Walking Dead: World Beyond, on TV. That number is continuing to grow with shows to look forward to in the nearby future. Some of them include key characters we’ve known and loved (or loved to hate) for seasons as well as new faces to meet.
We see this in a new teaser for The Walking Dead: Dead City, which includes someone we know (Negan) being possibly hunted by someone we don’t know (more on him later).
And, this roster of Walking Dead spinoffs will continue to expand this world in interesting ways. So, what’s coming next? Let’s dig into what we know so far.
The Daryl Dixon Spinoff Show Takes The Walking Dead Universe to Paris
First, we will start with the one we’ve known about since 2020. A Carol and Daryl Walking Dead spinoff was supposed to happen. But surprisingly, Varietyconfirmed that Melissa McBride, who plays Carol, left the show. So now we have The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, the show starring, well, Daryl Dixon. (It is likely that this show will be known simply as Daryl Dixon.) It is set for a “late 2023” release date, so we can expect Daryl’s solo adventure to begin sometime in the Fall or Winter of this year. And it takes place in Paris of all places. It seems that Daryl will “wash ashore” in France with no clue about how he got there or why. All he knows is he wants to go home. That seems awfully close to what fans are expecting with Rick but it takes things up to another level because, well, it is in a different country.
And, in a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight, Norman Reedus affirms that this show will be very different from The Walking Dead. “It’s kind of a reset for me,” Reedus said. “Everything kind of breathes in a romantic way. We have the backdrop of France, we have the Catacombs, the Eiffel Tower… The whole vibe is different.”
We also have these awesome first-look photos. Hopefully more are on the way soon.
Daryl is a character who doesn’t even have a comic book counterpart. However, he’s grown to have just as much of a fandom, if not more, than Rick Grimes himself. A show centering on him indeed makes a lot of sense. In The Walking Dead’s final episode, Judith finally tells Daryl that Michonne is looking for Rick. It takes him a year, but after talking with Maggie about “seeing what’s out there,” he decides to leave his found family. He bids farewell to everyone with a special goodbye for his best friend Carol and takes off on his motorbike.
The Daryl spinoff will bring on ER’s David Zabel as the showrunner. It will be Zabel’s first time stepping into The Walking Dead‘s universe. But he will have the guidance of Angela Kang, who will be the show’s executive producer. As we know, she’s been helming the flagship series since season nine. Norman Reedus himself will also be a producer on the Daryl Dixon series.
There are a couple of interesting new characters in the mix, according to Variety. Clémence Poésy will join the cast as Isabelle, a “member of a progressive religious group who joins forces with Daryl on a journey across France and finds herself confronting her dark past in Paris.” There’s also Adam Nagaitis who will portray Quinn, a “displaced Brit who has become powerful in post-apocalyptic Paris as a black marketeer and the owner of the Demimonde, a sexy underground nightclub.” Now he sounds super interesting.
Why in the world would Daryl be in France if he’s looking for Rick? And how the hell is he going to get there? We will get those answers next year. This will def rank high as one of the must-see Walking Dead spinoffs.
The Negan and Maggie SpinoffThe Walking Dead: Dead CityHeads to New York
My, how things change. If you told any fan that Maggie and Negan would have their own six-episode adventure together, they would have thought you were a liar. But it is true. The Walking Dead: Dead City is coming on June 18 with Eli Journé, an executive producer and writer on The Walking Dead, as the showrunner for. As you can see, the title went through a change from the previous Isle of the Dead title that AMC had been using since around March 2022. And, the premiere date got a pushback from its intended April 2023.
That’s likely because Fear the Walking Dead is coming to an end after eight seasons and will debut on May 14. As the premiere date draws nearer, we have a teaser revealing that Maggie needs Negan to save her son Herschel. We don’t see Herschel super clearly but there’s obviously a new Herschel thanks to a time jump that takes this universe further in the future. Logan Kim will now portray Herschel.
A longer teaser reveals that, for some reason, Negan is a wanted man all the way up in NYC. Manhattan looks very gnarly and Maggie and Negan are back at each others’ throats again. So much for that terse truce they had prior, right?
This is very interesting for all the obvious reasons. There’s the ever-looming reality that Maggie will never forgive Negan because, well, she said so in The Walking Dead‘s finale. He genuinely and tearfully apologized to her about taking Glenn away from her family. She told him that while he and his wife earned their place in the community, she could never truly forgive him. It makes sense. He did murder her husband. In brutal fashion. Right in front of her eyes.
Negan goes away from the community in the end, presumably to get Annie from Alexandria and go off on their own. But, we know that he will cross paths with Maggie again to head to NYC. (This isn’t good for poor Annie or their child. Hope they don’t die.) But it sounds like time away could see Negan falling into his old ways.
Josh Stringer/AMC
Jeffrey Dean Morgan shares, “I think time apart probably will make it worse… Negan has an opportunity to kind of fall into some old habits, because it’s all a survival mechanism for him, especially if he’s not with the group. The group kind of tamed him in a lot of ways, and to fit in, he had to stop being who he was. And I think away from this group, he is likely to fall into some old traps and old behaviors… Away from people, he doesn’t do well.” Uh, oh.
It will be a chaotic ride. And according to executive producer Scott Gimple, that includes warring factions, ziplines to get from building to building, and general mayhem. Dan McDermott, president of entertainment and AMC Studios for AMC Networks, reveals more about what the world is like in Manhattan 12 years after the apocalypse began. (This also answers the ever-present timeline question.)
“It’s going to take place on the island of Manhattan, which was left to the walkers 12 years ago when they overran Manhattan. The government decided to blow all the bridges and tunnels and just leave the island to the walkers. And it’s now 12 years later,” confirms McDermott. “There’s a million-walker herd that’s sort of dominating the streets of Manhattan… Maggie and Negan have to journey onto the island, where there’s a small civilian [faction] that lives in Manhattan … above the 10th floor of all the buildings, and they zipline back and forth above the streets.”
Jace Downs/AMC
This could possibly lead to them finding out answers about Rick, even though it doesn’t appear they are going there specifically to look for him. It seems Rick could be not too far away in Philadelphia (maybe?) or another Northern US city with the CRM. And we know that Michonne left towards that area to look for Rick back in season 10. So perhaps they will cross paths with her in some way. It would be a great way to gear things up for the Rick and Michonne show. We shall see. Considering this show has a name and an April 2023 release date, we can assume it will come out before the Daryl series.
Gaius Charles will also join Lauren Cohen and Jeffery Dean Morgan as a lead on the show. According to Deadline:
Charles will play Perlie Armstrong. He’s confident, ruthless, and unyielding in the pursuit of what he believes is justice, with the force of his will and his menace. Perlie enjoys his work and intersperses humor with the terror he incites. This is a family man, devoted to building a safe world for his wife and daughters. His journey unearths a loss he is haunted by. He has patience and resilience and walks rather than runs from his mistakes.
An interesting sounding character, to be sure. And, based on this new photo, he’s looking a little Father Gabriel-ish with that hat.
AMC
Another slate of photos give us a glimpse into these adventures in the city. Nice to see that Maggie still wants to possibly murder Negan.
Click To View Gallery
AMC
Morgan previously revealed that the show would film near his family ranch in New York. They are done with filming and, before we know it, Dead City will be on our TVs.
A Rick and Michonne Walking Dead Spinoff Series Is Coming in 2024
AMC
The Walking Dead‘s final panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2022 gave us the biggest news of all. There will be a Rick and Michonne series to tell their epic story. Yes, that above poster says 2023 but recent news revealed that it will not debut until 2024, according to Danai Gurira’s interview with Self. You can read more about the series here but this breakdown will also get you excited:
This series presents an epic love story of two characters changed by a changed world. Kept apart by distance. By an unstoppable power. By the ghosts of who they were. Rick and Michonne are thrown into another world, built on a war against the dead… And ultimately, a war against the living. Can they find each other and who they were in a place and situation unlike any they’ve ever known before? Are they enemies? Lovers? Victims? Victors? Without each other, are they even alive — or will they find that they, too, are the Walking Dead?
There’s also some casting news starting to trickle our way. Per Deadline, Lucifer alumna Lesley-Ann Brandt will portray Pearl Thorne. Details about that character are currently unknown. But we do know that Andrew and Danai are officially back on set and filming again. The Walking Dead‘s Twitter page gave us two photos, including one of the pair holding hands. It may not seem like much to some people but for us Richonne lovers, it truly means the world.
During a Walking Dead preview, Gimple warns us that we will see “Red Machete Rick” again. Remember him? He was the one with the brown murder jacket who was a lot unhinged around seasons five and six. This is probably not a good thing but if anyone can bring him back to normal, it is Michonne. We get a glimpse of Rick in The Walking Dead‘s final episode and he looks like hell. But that scene is from the past so he’s presumably in an even worse state at this point. And, there’s also Michonne with her new gear, braving the world alone. Love to see it. Will their show end with an Alexandria reunion? We hope so.
There are rumblings that some filming could take place in Atlanta, where the original show was filmed, but we will see what happens. Even if this is true, the Alexandria location is a done deal and the walls are now down. Regular people will live in those homes now and maybe (probably) be subject to harrassment.
Curtis Bonds Baker/AMC
So there you have it. A lot is happening in The Walking Dead universe and there will surely be more details about these spinoffs as well as new announcements. The show that won hearts is bowing out but there’s plenty left to explore in the land of the dead, so let’s keep walking right towards these spinoffs.
Seagate has officially and permanently reduced the price of its expansion cards for Xbox Series X|S consoles. According to Seagate’s new pricing, the 512GB expansion card will now cost you $90 (was $140), the 1TB version will retail for $150 (was $220), and the 2TB model has a recommended retail price of $270 (was $400).
This price cut comes at a time when modern video games are becoming increasingly bigger in size, with the recent release of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor being a notable example. Respawn’s sequel to Fallen Order takes up over 150GB of space on console and PC, while other games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and Red Dead Redemption 2 can easily take up the bulk of the available storage space available.
Seagate’s solution is a simple one, as the expansion card fits into a dedicated slot at the back of an Xbox Series X|S console and functions just like the internal SSD. That means that you’ll still get the lightning-fast loading times in games, Quick Resume functionality, and other benefits from the Xbox Velocity firmware. Just plug it in, and you’re ready to play. While the 512GB expansion card is currently sold out at several retailers, Amazon and Best Buy still have stock of the 1TB and 2TB versions at their new prices.
Seagate Xbox Series X|S expansion cards.
At the same time, Seagate has some potential competition on the way from Western Digital, as details on that company’s expansion card recently leaked. The WD Black C50 Expansion Card will cost $180 for a 1TB model, but Seagate’s permanent price drop undercuts its rival by a significant amount.
The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors.
GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site.
Clock editor Alexandra Amick sits down with No Film School to break down the horror of her latest project.
This year has been a great year for horror movies. From classic slasher movies like M3GANand Scream 6to the more avant-garde horror films like Beau is Afraidand the gruesome body horror of Evil Dead Rise, I can confidently say that horror is alive.
Writer/director Alexis Jacknow’s female body horror Clock arrives at the perfect time. The curl-your-toes horror is a grotesque and psychological trip as the story follows Ella (Dianna Agron) trying an experimental treatment to “fix” her biological clock. Outside of the gaslighting and typical horrors that aging, married women face in their day-to-day lives, Clock is relentless in its torture of Ella’s and the viewer’s subjective realities.
To create this restless energy in Clock, editor Alexandra Amick sat down over Zoom to talk with No Film School about working within the horror genre, women’s body horror, the real-life elements of horror involved, and creating a sensory experience through the edit.
Video is no longer available: youtu.be/5h3WqGDpeYs
Editor’s Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
No Film School: Congratulations on Clock being out on Hulu in the US for everybody to watch. How did you join this project and what made you excited to be a part of this story?
Alexandra Amick: I was reached out to by one of the producers, Leal, I think he got my name from a friend of a friend of a friend, really. I was sent the script and I read the script and the first thing I thought was, “Wow, this is weird.” But we are not pulling punches with our metaphorical references here. We are sucking frozen eggs. We’re spooning caviar. We’re in a sensory deprivation pod that looks like a giant egg.
What I really, really liked about it and what made me want to meet Alexis, the writer/director, and really see if this was a project for me, was how the issue of having babies was tackled I think. I don’t think the script or the film itself, it never says, “Don’t have babies.” It just says that this woman should not have babies because she didn’t want them. If you don’t want babies, don’t let other people pressure you into that and you should live your life the way that you want to. Which was important to me because I wasn’t pregnant at the time but was planning on it. I definitely didn’t want to work on a project that I felt was against what I wanted to do with my life.
I had been on both sides of it. For a long time, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to have kids. Then, when I decided to, it felt like a movie that could speak to both.
NFS: I like that the film never made anyone feel bad for the choices that they wanted to go about. But because it’s being told through a subjective lens, it’s like everyone’s peer pressuring and gaslighting Ella.
Amick: Yeah, I know. Which is just so wrong. So, so wrong. But I think it’s the way things are in real life, which makes it terrifying already. You don’t need the jumpscares for it to be a scary story of what women face every day.
‘Clock’Credit: Hulu
NFS: This is a film that’s deeply embedded in the horror genre. It’s body horror in a way. As an editor, what draws you to this genre and what are those fun pockets to live in when you’re cutting the film?
Amick: I think that horror is such a great genre because it is set up to subvert expectations. That is its purpose. To earn a jump scare, you have to subvert what the audience is expecting. The audience thinks, “Oh, is it going to come now? Is it going to come now? Is it going to come now?” No, it’s going to come now. That’s how you get them to be scared. Also, just how a plot unfolds in horror, should be subverting your expectations.
And it’s because of that, you can discuss more taboo subjects, subjects that are hidden away, so to speak. Women’s issues are those things. They shouldn’t be. They shouldn’t be taboo. They shouldn’t be uncomfortable. They shouldn’t be scary. But they are. They aren’t talked about. Birth is a scary thing and a very physical body horror-type thing. And so it definitely… We were able to bring a real-life sense of horror to it. Then beyond that, plus it up with things that are not so real to life, like hallucinations and stuff like that.
NFS: The way you also cut scenes and play with silence throughout the film is really interesting, too. I think the one scene in particular that I think about is right after she discovers a spider and she’s in the therapy session and it’s a very intense conversation that cuts to a wide, that’s just goes well, great session today. How are you finding these dynamic balances within these conversations to keep it very engaging to watch?
Amick: It’s very difficult from an editorial point of view when you have long stretches of dialogue, no matter how engaging that dialogue is. Reading it is one thing but watching it is another. And so I worked really, obviously very closely with Alexis, and we really had to hone when we showed… Which character, when it was close when it was far away when we pulled back when, yeah, we just sat in that moment.
I like that you pointed that out because that was very important to us to pull back and just sit there and then be like, welp move on. Which I think is speaking to Melora’s character, Dr. Simmons, if we’re dealing with something extremely personal and dark, but it’s just kind of every day for her. You’re totally… “Oh, you don’t want babies? You’re broken. I’ll fix you.” Which is so gross and she’s so flippant about it in that way. And so I think we tried to emulate that kind of feeling of what it would be like sitting, from both sides of the conversation, in something like that.
Melora Hardin as Dr. Elizabeth Simmons in ‘Clock’Credit: Hulu
NFS: Then you also have the ticking clock motif throughout the entire film, be that in an actual clock or just the repetition of sound. Were those baked into the script already or was that something that you implemented during the editing process?
Amick: Both, I think. Obviously, the clock motif was present in the script. She hallucinates hearing clocks. She walks by the grandfather clock and it’s a constant reminder of her own ticking clock. Then, the grandfather clock especially is an heirloom piece from people who sacrificed a lot so that she could be here. So it’s a representation of what she would be giving up if she doesn’t have anyone to pass along the heritage or the clock.
I think that we kind of found it in the edit repetition of sound. Hearing Dr. Simmons’s voiceover that repeats from the tank scene, which wasn’t necessarily scripted. Then, we worked really closely with our amazing sound design team over at the Sound Department, Juan Campos and Zach Goheen. They were so great and our composer, Steven Lukach, was amazing in that too. I think they really understood that and brought another level to that process as well.
It was there in the script, we added more to it in the editorial, and then sound took over and just really made it cross the finish line in that sense. And so you really felt that sense of rhythm throughout the whole thing?
NFS: It was definitely something I noticed right at the beginning that it was going to be one of those motifs we followed through. Another thing that I didn’t realize was happening throughout the film until the very end was the desaturation of color throughout. Was that also part of the script or was it something that you guys discussed in the process?
Amick: It was a part of the script. Yes. Alexis very specifically noted in the script that once the implant goes in that very slowly from here on out, the color will desaturate slowly and you won’t be able to notice it and I think having a character as an interior designer known as “The Color Authority” and having that slowly be taken away from her was a really great metaphor for what she’s giving up. She gives up her career. She gives up a big chance of a big gig, and it kind of represents what she was scared of if she were to have a kid, which is sacrificing things that she loves.
So yeah, I mean, it was always planned. It was a very effective tool because yeah, you don’t notice it, you just feel it, until it all comes back. And also when the implant goes in, there’s a switch from locked off, like dolly and on a tripod shots, to only handheld. And so you just start to feel more unmoored and the camera gets… The camera work gets more and more shaky as she gets more and more unhinged in her mind. And so I think it really works really, really well.
NFS: As the editor, how do you slowly make that desaturation more and more prevalent without the audience really noticing it?
Amick: I would say that was more the colorist. I mean, it was just a very slow fade. In editorial, it was just setting very technically a layer above all of the footage and setting it from 100% saturation. While I was editing, I don’t know what it ended up being in the official color correction, but down to right before she rips the implant out to 30% saturation. And so it was just literally just a line slowly descending. And so from one shot to the next, it might be half a percent desaturation. And so by the time you get there, you don’t realize you’ve started until it all comes back.
NFS: It was such a fun moment in the story. I felt like a bad viewer for not noticing it.
Amick: No. Everybody pointed that out and said, “I didn’t notice until it all came back.” It just felt depressing. It felt washed out, but you didn’t realize that we had literally taken the color out.” But also that was in the production design as well, especially in the cafeteria. She was wearing a different color nightgown, and then they changed her… The production design on the walls, there are origami bird sculptures on the walls. They changed those out and then changed them back to pink versus white. The other women at the clinic, their outfits were white, and then when she pulled it out, they change to pink. So it was very intentional so that even if it was more than just coloring and desaturation, it was all around practically as well.
‘Clock’Credit: Hulu
NFS: In terms of advancing the film from the earliest assembly to the final cut, what are your goals as an editor?
Amick: I guess that depends on where the assembly lands. Depending on how much time I have to work on an assembly, which is normally not much. My goal within assembly is normally to present everything that has been shot to a director and then take some stylistic swings, definitely. Then, maybe make some bigger decisions, like maybe cutting out, maybe not an entire scene, but half a scene. If I feel like I don’t like it for whatever reason or I feel it’s repetitive or for whatever reason, I might do something like that.
But really my goal is for a director to watch an assembly and think, “Okay, this is a real movie.” Because anytime, whether it’s a first-time director or a seasoned director, the first time they watch an assembly is like, “Did I make a movie? Did I do it?”
You come off the high of set and then you remember all the things that you sacrificed, the problems that you had. It’s like, “Oh my God, did we get that close up? Did she do the performance that I wanted?” So, hopefully, when they watch an assembly, they think, “Okay, I did get it.” Now, most of the time they tend to freak out a little bit because it is not exactly what they thought it would be or the choices I made aren’t what they intended originally.
Then from there, they watch it with me. I watch their reactions and see what scenes they seem to be very upset by, scenes that they maybe really like. And then I talk to them afterward about what I feel like how the film can progress and how we can move forward. In this case, I think it needed a more distinct style moving forward and really just going for it in terms of the style of the film matching the decline of Ella’s mental health, and then really working on Ella herself and making sure that we were always in her headspace.
This is always through the lens of Ella and Alexis agreed and that’s what we work towards. I think grounding every version of the cut, every scene moving forward in your main character or in whichever character it’s supposed to be grounded in. That’s how I look at moving it all the way forward. Then, obviously pacing and then the style that we talked about that falls into place around that. But it just evolves and you get notes from the outside and you try and incorporate those into what you’re working towards. And then you get your final product and, hopefully, it’s what you discussed that you wanted at the beginning.
NFS: There’s that saying where it’s the editing process is the third writer of the movie. You have the actual writer, the director, and then you have the editing. I can understand how sometimes when you look at it for the first time it might not be exactly what you imagined, but it’s those rewrites and all those things or the re-edits that make it a full-fledged movie.
Amick: Definitely. I mean, Alexis was really bold and fearless about throwing out things from the script and redoing things in a way that she hadn’t already thought about that we found along the way. We reordered scenes. We withheld information that originally we weren’t planning on withholding. It definitely is another rewrite of the film.
‘Clock’Credit: Hulu
NFS: What was the editing software that you used for this film, and what were the advantages of using that one?
Amick: I used Premiere Pro. I think I’ve been using it for a really long time, I’m very familiar with it. It’s a lightweight software, and I think really it’s in program VFX and graphics that you can use right within the program really help. I don’t have to send it to another program to do anything. I can do the color correction and make that desaturation very easily. I can do a split screen and stitch two actors’ different performances together very easily. I can cut out a character and put her on a different background if I really need to, all within the program. I think that makes it work and I work faster.
NFS: It’s crazy to see the evolution of Premiere Pro, especially in the industry with it winning its first Oscar actually with Everything, Everywhere. It’s becoming the new industry standard so it’s really fun to see.
Amick: Definitely. I think editing software doesn’t have to be expensive anymore. It doesn’t have to be cost-prohibitive. And then also with, I think Adobe’s move towards collaborative editing, which I think that Avid had kind of the market on for a long time of multiple people working on multiple computers on the same project, but now they’ve moved into that, and made it so that we can work that way as well. I’d come a long, long way.
NFS: What was your favorite scene from Clock to edit and why?
Amick: I guess it’s a little bit of a spoiler, but my favorite scene is in the kitchen with Ella and her husband Aidan after she’s just destroyed the grandfather clock. He comes home and she finally crosses that threshold of the treatment and says, “I want a baby.” Then, bad things happen from there.
But it was a challenging scene to edit because there are so many pieces of it. It’s over here on this side of the kitchen, and it’s this section of coming in and seeing her hands. And then it’s over by the sink, and it’s a slow seduction of washing hands and making washing hands seem sexy. And then it’s, “Oh my God, she’s fully crazed and she wants a baby.”
Alexis and I would constantly… We loved Dianna Agron’s performance in that scene when she’s like, “Give me a baby.” And we’re like, “No, do not give that woman a baby. Don’t do it.” Yeah, I mean, both of their performances throughout that scene are incredible, but it has that moment and then they go for it, and they try to have a baby and or make a baby, and then that does not go well. Then things are revealed, and it was just so fun. All the different pieces to put it together, and then their performances made it really great to work with all of that footage.
Dianna Agron as Ella Patel in ‘Clock’Credit: Hulu
NFS: Do you have any advice for any editors who are looking to work in genre pieces like horror?
Amick: I would say do your research.
Watch horror films, but also watch non-horror films, because like I said, horror is about subverting expectations. I think that what makes the horror films of today so good is that they are genre-bending. They’re merging multiple genres within one. Knowing and watching how to pull off a jump scare is very important.
But also making sure that you’re watching character pieces and understanding that just because it’s scary doesn’t mean it can’t be poignant, doesn’t mean it can’t be timely, doesn’t mean it can’t have a message and so you need to make sure that you’re doing your research and understand how to make a good movie, whether it’s horror or not.
Production underway on feature adaptation of New York Times best-selling romantic comedy This Time Next Year starring Sophie Cookson and Lucien Laviscount, from BlackBox Multimedia and Night Train Media
Protagonist Pictures launches worldwide sales ahead of the Marche du Film
Production has begun on Night Train Media and BlackBox Multimedia’s film adaptation of Sophie Cousens’ sparkling New York Times best-selling novel This Time Next Year, starring Sophie Cookson (Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Gypsy, Red Joan) and Lucien Laviscount (Emily in Paris, Last Sentinel). Nick Moore (Wild Child) the celebrated editor of legendary romantic comedies Love Actually, About A Boy, Notting Hill and The Full Monty directs from a script written by Cousens.
Protagonist Pictures is handling worldwide sales on the highly anticipated adaptation and will introduce to buyers at the upcoming Marche du Film in Cannes.
Minnie (Sophie Cookson) and Quinn (Lucien Laviscount) are born in London on New Year’s Day, in the same hospital, one minute apart. Their lives may have begun together, but their worlds couldn’t be more different. Thirty years later they find themselves thrown together again in the same city on New Year’s Eve. What if fate is trying to unite them? This Time Next Year is an effervescent tale of friendship, romance and two separate lives destined to align.
Producers are Giuliano Papadia for BlackBox Multimedia and Herbert L. Kloiber for Night Train Media, with Erika Hossington also attached as producer on the film. Chiara Cardoso for BlackBox Multimedia and James Copp for Night Train Media serve as executive producers. Sophie Cousens is represented by Sheila David @ Catapult Rights, acting in conjunction with the Darley Anderson Literary Agency.
Lina Marrone, Acting Head of Sales at Protagonist Pictures says “The super talented Sophie and Lucien are the perfect pair to bring Sophie’s uplifting, heartwarming tale to life. With endless charm, biting humor and true kismet, This Time Next Year has all the makings of the next great Brit rom-com with strong global appeal.”
Giuliano Papadia, Producer and CEO of BlackBox Multimedia says “This Time Next Year is both a refreshing update on the romantic comedy genre but also one that pays homage to those that have come before. Sophie Cousens’ novel is an insightful perspective on human nature and relationships, at the heart of which lies the constant question – is destiny making us or are we making our own destiny? We are so pleased to once again be working with our partners at Night Train Media, and the incredible talent of team in front of and behind the camera to bring this story to the screen”.
Herbert L. Kloiber at Night Train Media says “We are delighted to bring together such an incredible creative team both in front and behind the camera. Sophie and Lucien inhabit the roles with such charisma and bring this sparkling story to life, and are surrounded by a supremely talented ensemble of actors doing justice to the wonderful script. Together with our friends at BlackBox Multimedia we are looking forward to this laugh out loud and touching romantic comedy.
Sophie Cousens, Screenwriter and Author of This Time Next Year comments “Writing this book in the evenings after work, I couldn’t have imagined the journey I would go on with these characters. It’s been incredible to see This Time Next Year translated into eighteen languages, become a New York Times bestseller and now, turned into a film. I grew up on the classic romantic comedies of the ’90s and early 2000s – these films are the reason I started writing rom coms, and as such, I always pictured Minnie and Quinn’s story as a film . To witness it come to life with such a talented cast and crew, is an absolute dream come true.”
About BlackBox Multimedia
BlackBox Multimedia is a film and tv production company, founded by industry veteran Guy Avshalom (Lionsgate UK) and led by former FOX executive Giuliano Papadia. With operations in London, Italy and Spain, Blackbox specializes in the development and production of tv series and films for the global market. Last year, the company’s first TV series The Ex-Wife was Paramount+’s first original in the UK and is currently being distributed in the rest of the world by All3Media. Alongside This Time Next Year in 2023, BlackBox is set to produce two drama series for a major streamer and another English language feature film. The company also develops and produces content in Spanish, with currently a TV show and a film in advanced development with platforms across Latin America.
Social Media Links: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn
About Night Train Media
Night Train Media (NTM) was founded in February 2020 by Herbert L. Kloiber, former managing director of Tele München Group. Based in Munich and London, NTM is active on a global scale. Utilizing a vast network of international producers and distributors, NTM’s core segments include development, licensing, co-production and co-financing of premium English and local language fictional and factual content. Recent feature productions include ROGUE AGENT, starring James Norton and Gemma Arterton (Netflix, IFC); and series productions THE EX-WIFE, (the first UK commission by Paramount+); THE CATCH (Channel 5/Paramount+), VIKINGS: THE RISE AND FALL (National Geographic).
NTM is backed by Private Equity investor Serafin Group, and is majority owner of London-based factual distributor BossaNova Media, founded by Paul Heaney, leading factual production company Curve Media, alongside global fiction distributor Eccho Rights.
About Protagonist Pictures
Protagonist Pictures is a sales, finance, and production company with a proven track record in outstanding films and commercial successes. Based in the UK, the company handles films from around the world, always maintaining a strong focus on filmmakers with exceptional vision and storytelling skills.
Current sales titles include Bishal Dutta’s It Lives Inside, produced by QC Entertainment and Neon, Eli Craig’s highly anticipated horror adaptation Clown in a Cornfield, Dario Russo’s darkly comedic folktale The Fox, starring Morfydd Clark and Jai Courtney, Raymond De Felitta’s Artist in Residence starring Diane Keaton, Andy Garcia and Josh Hutcherson, Peter Craig’s Wild Four O’Clocks starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Rebecca Miller’s She Came to Me, starring Anne Hathaway, Peter Dinklage, Marisa Tomei and Joanna Kulig, the underwater thriller The Dive by Maximilian Erlenwein, BAFTA Award-winning writer-director Mark Jenkin’s psychological-horror Enys Men, which had its worldwide premiere in Directors’ Fortnight, and War Pony, the directorial debut from Riley Keough and Gina Gammell, that had its worldwide premiere in Un Certain Regard and won the Camera D’Or.
Other titles include Phyllis Nagy’s Call Jane, starring Elizabeth Banks and Sigourney Weaver, which premiered in Sundance and Berlin in 2022, Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas starrer Official Competition, by directing duo Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat, which premiered in Venice in 2021, the 2021 Nordic supernatural thriller The Innocents which premiered in Cannes at Un Certain Regard, Censor, the opening night film of the Midnight section at Sundance 2021, directed by Prano Bailey-Bond and starring Niamh Algar – both Screen International 2018 Stars of Tomorrow alumni, Ben Wheatley’s In The Earth, starring Joel Fry, Ellora Torchia, Hayley Squires, and Reece Shearsmith – also a Sundance 2021 title, Limbo, directed by Ben Sharrock and starring Amir El-Masry, Saint Maud, from Screen’s 2018 Stars of Tomorrow writer/director Rose Glass and starring Morfydd Clark and Jennifer Ehle, Sound of Metal, directed by Darius Marder, starring Riz Ahmed and Olivia Cooke.
Once upon a time, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel was a love story. We’re not talking about the never-quite-over romance between Midge (Rachel Brosnahan) and her ex-husband Joel (Michael Zegen), or the sizzling chemistry she shared with Lenny Bruce (Luke Kirby), or any of the other suitors she’s entertained throughout the seasons. No, the central pair at the heart of the show has always been Midge and her manager, Susie (Alex Borstein). Or at least it seemed like it was. After “The Testi-Roastial,” which dropped on May 5, we’re not so sure.
Flashing someone is something Tim Allen would do, apparently
Showrunners Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino have been playing with time jumps in this fifth and final season, giving us glimpses of what happens to the characters in the future. But this episode is the first one to take place mostly outside of the early 1960s time period. The framing device is an event—a compromise between a testimonial dinner and a roast, thus the portmanteau in the title—set in 1990 at the famed Friars Club in New York City, celebrating Susie’s successful management career. Through a series of second-hand (and not entirely reliable) narratives, we learn about how Susie worked her way up the industry ladder to become a showbiz legend worthy of a dinner in her honor. We also learn what caused the big falling out between her and Midge hinted at earlier in the season.
In the list of our favorite female friendships on TV, Midge and Susie are up there with the greats: Laverne and Shirley, Leslie Knope and Ann Perkins, Meredith Grey and Christina Yang. So it’s a bit jarring to witness their downfall in this episode, even if, by the time it happens, it’s a long time coming. After everything they’ve been through together, we’d like to think they’d formed a bond strong enough to survive anything, but by 1990 it’s still unresolved. On an evening that’s supposed to commemorate Susie’s illustrious career, no one dares mention the name of her first and most successful client. Midge doesn’t trouble herself to come, and Susie doesn’t expect her to. Although Midge does send a video as a sort of tentative olive branch, hearing the words “tits up” in that context is devastating.
Midge and Susie’s BFF Journey from the Very Beginning | The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel | Prime Video
Susie has always had what it takes to be a good manager. She’s tenacious and loyal, with a keen eye for discovering talent. She can size anyone up within minutes, and once she’s on your side she’ll never stop fighting for you. Her one flaw, and it’s not a small one, is her inability to handle money. So it makes some sense that her big split with Midge would come down to money and Susie’s gross mismanagement of it. It’s been coming since season three, when Susie got mixed up with wise guys Frank and Nicky, and used Midge’s tour money to pay off her gambling debts. What’s surprising is that it took until 1985 for Midge to catch on that Susie was pulling a Colonel Tom Parker on her, forcing her to play Vegas casinos to support her habit.
It was an explosive end to a tumultuous relationship that the show took the trouble to meaningfully center, but never bothered to fully define. That was okay, for a while. We didn’t have to know if they were just business partners, bosom buddies, or more, as long as they were together. The show is never more alive than when the two of them are sharing a scene. Whether they’re working on her act, or bickering at breakneck speed, or those precious moments when Susie gets caught up in the Weissmans’ lavish lifestyle. Pretty much every moment with the two of them is golden. And yet, as we find out in this episode, the first time Susie ever admitted out loud that they were friends was right before it all fell apart.
The two of them always were an odd couple. Midge was born into privilege, an Upper West Side life that came with some restrictive expectations but sheltered her from the harsh realities of the outside world. Susie grew up in a tough neighborhood with a dysfunctional family and had to learn early on to fend for herself. While Midge comfortably fits the mid-century ideal of femininity and womanhood, Susie rejects it entirely.
And yet, despite their differences, Midge and Susie seemed to make a great team.
Alex Borstein, Rachel BrosnahanPhoto: Philippe Antonello/Prime Video
Even before it was revealed that she was once romantically involved with Mrs. Gordon Ford (Nina Arianda), Susie was a queer-coded character. Midge even tried to take her to a lesbian bar last season, the first instance of the show addressing the open question of Susie’s sexuality. She balks at the well-intended gesture, reminding her that if she wanted to find a lesbian bar she wouldn’t need Midge’s help. Some fans have theorized that she’s been in love with Midge this whole time. If so, Midge taking her to a lesbian bar would only add insult to injury. And of course, Midge, being as self-absorbed as she is, wouldn’t get it.
The issue seemed destined to simmer in subtext for the duration of the series, except for a fleeting mention in the stand-up set that opens this episode that seems to imply that Midge was definitely aware of what was going on. She tells the audience in 1985 that she’s just broken up with someone. The audience yells out the names of the various men she’s been with, including Paul Simon, but she brushes them off. “It was a woman,” she says, then holds up a finger. “Don’t. And it was a real partnership. Lasted longer than any of my other marriages combined. In its way, it was just like a marriage. Started with a contract, ended with a lawsuit, and we never had sex. Except once. There really isn’t much to do in Pensacola.”
The throwaway line gets a laugh, which stings. Her relationship with Midge, romantic or not, has always been a bit lopsided, but that joke seems to cross a line.
The flashback to Midge’s aborted wedding to Phillip Roth is a stark encapsulation of how much she’s thoughtlessly put her through. Not only does Midge lean on Susie for emotional support, but it seems like Susie planned an entire destination wedding for her, which Midge doesn’t even go through with. And Susie’s the one who has to cancel everything and break the news to the groom. Their relationship has been turned into a transactional game of give and take, with Susie doing all the giving.
So, then: Has The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel been trying to tell us all along that Midge is actually the villain? Is the message that anyone with ambitions of that size is an inherently selfish person, destined to toss away anyone in her life who gets in the way of her pursuit of fame? We’ve seen her sacrifice her relationships for her career time and again. Somehow, though, we thought Susie would be spared. One of the joys of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel for four and a half seasons was watching these two mismatched partners navigate their way through the male-dominated world of show business together. This episode, though, forced us to re-evaluate that relationship.
Susie isn’t totally blameless here, either. If she’d been a little better with money and addressed her gambling problem, she wouldn’t have had to sell her soul to the mob. Because she couldn’t separate her personal financial problems and her business, those problems became Midge’s and Joel’s too. That bill was going to come due someday. It’s still nothing, though, compared to the way Midge recklessly toyed with Susie’s feelings and used them to her advantage.
“I dumped her and got a fifth dog,” Midge bitterly jokes in her stand-up routine. “Still a bitch, but at least this one will fetch my shoes.”
Maybe they’re better off without each other after all.
Another great podcast guest this week as I welcome the host of the upcoming “Coming Out For Love” reality show, Jessica Clark, that re-releases tomorrow on their website. Jessica is an activist, a worldwide model, who has graced the covers of the some of the worlds best magazines. She’s walked the runways in Paris and now she’s the host of the first US lesbian dating competition show. A great talk with her today as we discuss how she got involved in this project, did she have any hesitations having never done reality TV before, how did she see her role as host, and much, much more. Not to mention, Jessica speaks about how empowering the show feels for the LGBTQ community and how proud she was to represent it. The show releases a new episode every Friday for the next 16 weeks starting tomorrow, so go to comingoutforlove.com, click on “Bundles” in the upper right hand corner, and when you checkout, use promo code: RealitySteve for 15% off your order. First episode is re-released (it was originally released on Valentines Day) tomorrow, then a new one every Friday thereafter. Thanks again to Jessica for coming on this week. I hope you purchase and enjoy the show.
You can listen to today’s podcast on a number of platforms, but you can also tune in by clicking the player below:
(SPOILERS) I begin by briefly talking about the return of “Coming Out For Love” tmrw & whats on the Daily Roundup. Then Jessica joins me (7:40) to talk about her career, how she got involved with “Coming Out For Love,” what the show means to her, what to expect this season, and much, much more.
(SPOILERS) Today’s Daily Roundup covers Charity’s men going public on IG, Met Gala menu is revealed, Gwenyth has to talk about her sex life with her exes, the big King Coronation this weekend, Survivor, and the Challenge.
You can listen to that podcast on a number of platforms, but you can also tune in here:
There’s no official starting flag for the Emmy Awards season, but the first day of May is close enough. In advance of hundreds of shows preparing to submit for consideration, the Television Academy has thrown itself into the spring cleaning otherwise known as rule changes.
A persistent and accurate complaint about the Primetime Emmys is voters’ tendencies to choose certain projects and people as the winners over and over (and over) again. While the rules change every year to adapt to the ever-evolving state of television, they often do not disrupt that monotony—until now.
Here’s a rundown of the most interesting changes made for the 2023 Emmy season and why they matter.
Rule change: Outstanding Variety Talk Series and Outstanding Variety Sketch Series are replaced with two new categories, Outstanding Talk Series and Outstanding Scripted Variety Series. Why it matters: Since 2003, every Outstanding Variety Talk Series Emmy went to “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” or a show hosted by one of its alumni; for the last seven years, the winner was “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.”
That won’t happen again. The new Emmy rules dictate that a Talk Series must dedicate most of the episode runtime to “unscripted interviews or panel discussions between a host/hosts and guest celebrities or personalities.” That definition pushes out “John Oliver” and provides room for “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” (ABC) or “Late Night with Seth Meyers” (NBC) — shows that produce a much higher volume of late-night TV episodes — to break network TV’s decades-long losing streak in the category. However, with “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” as recurring nominees, “Daily Show” dominance could continue.
Plus, the TV Academy threw another curveball last month, denying “Daily Show” progenitor Jon Stewart’s comeback series, “The Problem with Jon Stewart” (Apple TV+) re-admission into the Outstanding Hosted Nonfiction Series or Special category it was nominated for last year. The awards body deemed the show’s format to be more fitting for the Outstanding Talk Series category, putting Stewart back into competition among the hosts he helped break out.
As for Oliver, “Last Week Tonight” will now compete in the Outstanding Scripted Variety Series category against the six-year incumbent, “Saturday Night Live.” However, by removing the “Sketch” from the category, these Emmys behemoths could also compete against newer, innovative series like “Schmigadoon” (Apple TV+) or “Documentary Now!” (IFC). For the last two years the Outstanding Variety Sketch Series category saw only two nominees, “Saturday Night Live” and “A Black Lady Sketch Show,” in large part because nomination slots are proportional to the number of submissions.
“White House Plumbers”Courtesy of Phil Caruso / HBO
Rule change: No more Hanging Episode Rule for Limited or Anthology Series Why it matters: The greatest frustration specific to last year’s Emmys race was the influx of Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series contenders premiering toward the end of the eligibility window. While it was exciting to see starry projects like “The Staircase” (HBO Max) and “Gaslit” (Starz) premiere week to week, that distribution strategy hurt the Emmy chances for many shows. Shows like “The White Lotus” (HBO) and “Dopesick” (Hulu), which completed their runs much earlier in the season, dominated the acting categories.
To ensure more of these projects are considered this year, the TV Academy announced last summer that it would eliminate its hanging episode rule that allowed Limited Series contenders to premiere episodes nationally after the May 31 deadline. The full season of a limited or anthology series must now be available to the viewing public before June. As a result, this year’s Limited Series contenders like “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” (Netflix), “Fleishman Is in Trouble” (FX), and “White House Plumbers” (HBO) premiered across the eligibility window.
Rule change: Documentaries that submitted for Oscar consideration, but did not receive an Oscar nomination, are allowed to contend for Emmys. Why it matters: Last year, the TV Academy enforced strict rules on its Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special category and filmmakers had to choose between putting their documentary on the AMPAS streaming platform for Oscar consideration, or submitting their film for the Emmys. This year, the TV awards body loosened its rules to allow for some films to once again double dip for awards consideration.
The five films nominated for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar this year are still ineligible for Emmy consideration, but films like Paramount+’s “Last Flight Home” (which made the Oscars shortlist), or Netflix’s “‘Sr.,’” which had an Oscar-qualifying fall festival run, may submit for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special. The only major stipulation is that if the film had a theatrical release, it cannot exceed an aggregate of 70 days prior exhibition (i.e., seven theaters for 10 days). This means films like “Good Night Oppy” (Prime Video) are still not eligible for Emmys consideration.
Rule change: The Outstanding Game Show and Outstanding Host for a Game Show categories migrated to the Primetime Emmys. Why it matters: The Daytime Emmys got a little smaller. A new category, Outstanding Game Show, will recognize programs with game elements that take place primarily in-studio and involve mental challenges. Another new category, Outstanding Host for a Game Show, will go to the “master of ceremony” host(s) for a continuing performance in a game show.
Given the resurgence of primetime network games shows like ABC’s “Press Your Luck” hosted by Elizabeth Banks, and NBC’s “Password” hosted by Jimmy Fallon and Keke Palmer, the new categories add an extra dose of star power to the Primetime Emmys (though the winners may be announced during the Creative Arts Emmys instead).
To prevent confusion, the Primetime Emmys also changed the name of the Outstanding Competition Program category, which included unscripted shows like “Top Chef” and “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” to Outstanding Reality Competition Program.
The 75th Primetime Emmys will air September 18 at 8 p.m. ET on FOX.
Welcome to the weekend edition of What’s On. Here are the big things happening on TV from Friday, May 5, to Sunday, May 7. All times are Eastern. [Note: The weekly What’s On will publish on Sundays.]
Anthony Hopkins transcends human consciousness as an NFT
1. Padma Lakshmi returns with another serving of Taste The Nation
Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi Season 2 | Official Trailer | Hulu
Hulu, Friday, 12:01 a.m.: There’s no better host for a food and travel docuseries than Padma Lakshmi. The Top Chefjudge returns with her Hulu series, Taste The Nation, exploring the cuisine and culture of the Afghan community in Washington D.C., celebrating Ramadan in New York City, and traveling to Houston with Insecure’s Yvonne Orji, among other fun journeys. All 10 episodes drop on the same day.
2. Silo joins the list of TV shows about dystopian futures
Silo — Official Trailer | Apple TV+
Apple TV+, Friday, 12:01 a.m.: Created by Graham Yost, Silois a sci-fi drama based on Hugh Howey’s novels. It follows Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson), an engineer in a dystopian reality where the last 10,000 people live in a silo, away from the deadly, toxic world outside. She strives to learn more about their history after a loved one is killed and tumbles into a mystery that lies beyond her imagination. Rashida Jones, David Oyelowo, Common, Iain Glen, Harriet Walter, Tim Robbins, and Avi Nash co-star.
Harriet The Spy — Season 2 Official Trailer | Apple TV+
Apple TV+, Friday, 12:01 a.m.: Based on Louise Fitzhugh’s book of the same name, Harriet The Spyis an animated series about 11-year-old Harriet M. Welsch (voiced by Beanie Feldstein). The outspoken future writer tries to peek in on everything and everyone to collect material for her words, and the voice cast returning for season two includes Jane Lynch, Lacey Chabert, and Grey Griffin.
5. Let’s decompress with The Great American Baking Show
The Great American Baking Show | Official Trailer | The Roku Channel
Roku, Friday, 3:01 a.m.: The Great British Bake-Off’s Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood are the judges here (they just can’t quit), and they’re joined byUnbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’s Ellie Kemper and Severance’s Zach Cherry. All six episodes of The Great American Baking Show will premiere on Roku on the same day.
6. Paramount drops international thriller Death’s Roulette
Death’s Roulette | Official Trailer | Paramount+
Paramount+, Friday, 3:01 a.m.: Spanish-language film Death’s Roulette centers on seven strangers who wake up in a mansion in the middle of nowhere to discover they are part of a twisted game. They get one hour to choose one person who’ll die, and if they don’t, all of them will be murdered. The cast includes Maribel Verdú, Carla Adell, Juan Carlos Remolina, Adriana Paz, Dagoberto Gama, and Fernando Becerril.
More than 200 people were injured during a wild night of celebrations after Napoli won their first Serie A title in 33 years.
Scores of fans raced onto the pitch at the Friuli stadium in Udine after the final whistle blew and used their belts to beat each other in violent scenes. Men were seen cowering on the floor and covering their heads in an effort to avoid the blows.
At least 203 people ended up in hospital overnight for injuries sustained during the celebrations – from knife wounds to burns from firecrackers and asthma attacks caused by inhaling smoke from flares.
The celebrations erupted after Napoli sealed the Serie A title with a 1-1 draw against Udinese, matching the league record by clinching victory with five games to spare.
It is Napoli’s first championship since Diego Maradona led the club to its first two Serie A titles in 1987 and 1990.
A Udinese fan attacks a Napoli fan with his belt in chaotic scenes at the Friuli stadium in Udine on Thursday night
Fans clash on the pitch and beat each other with belts after the match as Napoli fans celebrate winning the match
Napoli fans celebrate after winning the Serie A championship near the mural of Diego Armando Maradona on Thursday in Naples, Italy
There were chaotic scenes in Naples last night, with Napoli fans driving around the stadium in open-top cars
A Napoli fan is overcome with emotion after his team won their first Scudetto in 33 years
Police said Vincenzo Costanzo, 26, was shot dead in a crowd in Naples but said his death was ‘completely unconnected’ to the celebrations.
Costanzo was a member of the D’Amico crime family which has been involved in a bitter feud with rivals from another clan.
Naples police chief Claudio Palomba said at least seven bullets had been fired and all indications were it was a hit as part of gang violence between members of the Camorra, the organised crime group based in the city.
Costanzo was found on the ground bleeding heavily, along with three others, one of which was his girlfriend, and all were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.
Doctors battled to save Costanzo but he was declared dead while the others were treated for minor injuries and expected to be released from hospital in a few days.
Later, medical authorities in Naples issued an updated report to say that an astonishing 203 people had been treated across the city following the title win.
Officials said 22 were in a serious condition having suffered burns, head injuries, and broken bones after being hit by fireworks or falling from scooters and cars.
Among those hurt were three police officers who were attacked as they tried to move crowds on, but they were not seriously injured.
Thousands flooded into the main square of Naples at Piazza Plebiscito waving flags and banners, with many climbing up lamp posts and up onto balconies in their exuberance.
Sixty thousand fans had packed into the sold-out Diego Maradona stadium to watch the game live on giant screens as it was beamed back from Udine 500 miles away.
They were whipped into a frenzy ahead of kick-off with a music and light show but the atmosphere went decidedly flat after just 13 minutes when Udinese took the lead through Sandi Lovric after just 13 minutes.
However top scorer Victor Osimhen’s leveller in the second-half secured the single point needed and kick off crazy scenes of joy across Naples as the side went an unassailable 16 points clear with five games left.
Riot police clash with football fans after they invaded the pitch at Friuli stadium last night
Men were seen cowering on the floor and covering their heads in an effort to avoid the blows from the belts
Scores of fans raced onto the pitch at the Friuli stadium in Udine before being tackled by police officers
Over 200 needed medical treatment amid chaotic scenes with fireworks and flares set off
Celebrations erupted in Naples after the football team Napoli secured the Scudetto trophy
Thousands of Napoli fans packed onto the streets of Naples after their team won the Serie A title after 33 years
Napoli fans celebrate winning Serie A in Naples on Thursday night
Naples erupted in celebration after its football team won their first Scudetto in 33 years
Napoli clinched their first title in 33 years after Victor Osimhen’s equaliser in a 1-1 draw against Udinese – leading to jubilant scenes in the city
Luciano Spalletti’s men wrapped up the triumph with five games left to play in the league
Napoli players dance on tables as they celebrate clinching the Serie A title in Udine on Thursday
Earlier in the week the British Consulate in Naples – a city popular with tourists from the UK – had posted a warning to visitors about the expected reaction to the title win.
It said: ‘Spontaneous celebrations are expected to take place throughout Naples from the end of April to early May following the Serie A football championship.
‘If you’re visiting Naples during this time, you should plan for transport delays due to busy streets and possible road closures.
‘Expect large crowds and the use of loud fireworks. Remain vigilant and take care of your personal possessions.’
Police Naples had outlawed the use of fireworks in an attempt to lessen casualties and traffic was also banned from the centre to try and stop gridlock.
But as England fans found out two months ago when they visited the city during an ‘alcohol ban’ the edict was more of a suggestion than a strictly enforced rule.
Napoli fans drove around in topless cars while celebrating their team’s win
Fans poured into the streets in Naples as the club’s long wait to win the Scudetto ended
Thousands of Napoli fans packed onto the streets of Naples after their team won the Serie A title after 33 years
Naples erupted in celebration after its football team won their first Scudetto in 33 years
Thousands of Napoli fans packed onto the streets of Naples after their team won the Serie A title after 33 years
Naples erupted in celebration after its football team won their first Scudetto in 33 years
A Napoli fan is overcome with emotion after the team won its first Serie A title for 33 years
Napoli fans hug each other after the team won its first Serie A title for 33 years
Napoli fans drove around in topless cars while celebrating their team’s win
Fans waved blue and white flags in Napoli colours as part of an all-night celebration
Supporters savoured the incredible moment after it was confirmed they had won Serie A
Napoli fans set of flares as they watch the Serie A soccer match between Udinese and Napoli on a large screen at the Diego Armando Maradona stadium in Naples, Italy, on Thursday
Nigerian striker Osimhen led celebrations in the dressing room at Udine and pictures on social media showed the players dancing wildly and singing loudly.
He said: ‘I’m happy for all Napoli fans worldwide. No one deserves the Scudetto more than Neapolitans – more than us.
‘I don’t care who scored, I just wanted to get the Scudetto.
‘I want to enjoy this moment for the rest of my life. Then after the season my other dreams can come.’
There were also celebrations in London’s Soho where dozens of ex-pat Italians had gathered to watch the game in pizzerias and restaurants.
Local authorities in Naples were now planning for the partying to continue for several days and were on standby for the return of the team from Udine with people expected to line the streets from the airport.
Napoli previously won the title in 1987 and 1990 when Diego Maradona played for the southern Italian side and is worshipped as a god by devoted fans with several shrines dedicated to him across the city.
Authorities had tried to ban the setting off of fireworks but the suggestion was ignored
Fans aboard a blue and white customised car cruise the streets amid the celebrations
Blue and white bunting had been up in the city’s streets for weeks as they closed on the title
It is the third Scudetto the club has won, the others coming when Diego Maradona played for the club in 1987 and 1990
Statues and monuments were thronged as the city celebrated a historic moment
Flares are lit as the party got into full swing following Thursday night’s draw in Udine
A fan covered in blue face paint and wearing a crown waves a flag amid the celebrations
Giant theater chain AMC Entertainment saw sales blow past Wall Street forecasts for the March quarter, rising 20% to $954 million.
Losses narrowed by $102 million to $235 million, for an adjusted EPS of 17 cents a share, a also ahead of expectations.
Shares popped higher this morning on the numbers.
“It will take a few more years for the industry box office to return near to pre-pandemic levels, and our ability to raise additional capital during this extended recovery period will be a crucial component of our success. We will continue our fight to preserve our agility and to remain on our recovery trajectory, as we work hard to position AMC for long-term success,” said CEO Adam Aron.
A hearing set for late June in Delaware Chancery Court may determine if and when AMC will have that ability to sell shares and raise cash.
That said, he noted that results represent AMC’s strongest first quarter in four years. The first quarter of 2023 and fourth quarter of 2022 mark the first two consecutive quarters of positive adjusted EBITDA since March of 2020 — “testament to the ongoing recovery in the industrywide box office.”
Theater attendance of 48 million was driven by Avatar: The Way Of Water; Marvel’s Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania, Creed III, Scream VI, Shazam! Fury Of The Gods and John Wick Chapter 4.
“As I have said for years, when our studio partners showcase their magical storytelling, there is robust demand to be realized at AMC theatres both in the U.S. and abroad.” Aron said. “We believe the first quarter of 2023 is just the tip of the iceberg for what’s to come in the remainder of the year.”
Warner Bros. Discovery beat Wall Street revenue expectations on Friday after reporting revenue of $10.7 billion for the first quarter of 2023. However, the company reported a net loss of $1.069 billion, or a loss of 44 cents per share. Analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research were expecting earnings per share of 21 cents on revenue of $10.6 billion.
As it gears up to relaunch its flagship streaming service under the new Max brand name on May 23, WBD CEO David Zaslav revealed that the company now expects its streaming business in the U.S. to reach profitability in 2023 – a year ahead of guidance. The company, which previously said its DTC business would break even in 2024 and generate a $1 billion profit in 2025, also reaffirmed the 2025 outlook.
“The key here is our streaming business is no longer a bleeder,” Zaslav told analysts and investors during Friday’s earnings call. “It’s hard to run a business when you have a big bleeder. And so getting this business under control, focusing on what people love to watch, how do we create content that people love? And now as we launch Max, we’ll be able to nourish and delight subscribers with the greatness of HBO, which on Sunday nights is really a cultural moment, whether it’s “White Lotus,” “House of the Dragon,” “The Last of Us,” “Succession,” and then put it together with Discovery content which has been really strong for us.”
The direct to consumer division added 1.6 million streaming subscribers during the quarter for a total of 97.6 million globally and reported a profit of $50 million, a $704 million year-over-year improvement on a pro forma combined basis. Revenue for the segment came in at $2.455 billion, including $2.165 billion in distribution revenue, down 1% year over year as global retail subscriber gains were more than offset by a decline in wholesale revenues, $103 million in advertising revenue, up 29% year over year primarily driven by subscriber growth on DTC ad-supported tiers, and $185 million in content revenue, down 16% year over year driven by lower third-party licensing of HBO content. Average revenue per user came in at $10.82 domestically, $3.48 internationally and $7.48 globally.
Max, which combines the libraries of HBO Max and Discovery+, will offer three pricing options: a $9.99 per month Max Ad Lite tier, a $15.99 per month Max Ad Free tier and a $19.99 Ultimate Ad Free tier. The company will also continue to offer a standalone version of the lower-cost Discovery+ service and plans to introduce its own free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) service later this year. Chief financial officer Gunnar Weindefels said a “large portion” of Discovery+’s 4 million subscribers are expected to turn off the service a few months after the Max launch.
In the studios segment, total revenue fell 8% to $3.212 billion, including distribution revenue of $3 million, advertising revenue of $3 million and content revenue to $3.027 billion. Content revenue fell 8% as higher games revenue from the release of Hogwarts Legacy was more than offset by lower TV licensing, theatrical film rental, and to a lesser extent, home entertainment revenues. TV licensing declined primarily due to certain large TV licensing deals in the prior year quarter as well as fewer theatrical availabilities. Theatrical film rental was lower due to the strong performance of “The Batman” in the prior year quarter. Home entertainment declined due to fewer new releases of theatrical product and lower library sales. The segment posted a profit of $607 million.
In the networks segment, total revenue fell 12% to $5.581 billion, including distribution revenue of $2.995 billion, down 3% driven by increases in U.S. contractual affiliate rates offset by declines in U.S. pay-TV subscribers, advertising revenue of $2.237 billion, down 14% driven by audience declines in domestic general entertainment and news networks and soft advertising markets mainly in the U.S. and certain international markets, and content revenue of $245 million, down 51% primarily driven by the sublicensing of Olympic sports rights to European broadcast networks in 2022. The segment posted a profit of $2.293 billion.
The latest quarterly results come as Warner Bros. Discovery has been undergoing a major restructuring, which it expects to complete by the end of 2024. The company previously estimated that it will incur up to $5.3 billion in total restructuring charges before taxes, including up to $3.5 billion in content impairment and development write-offs. The first quarter’s net loss included $1.810 billion of pre-tax amortization from acquisition-related intangible assets and $95 million of pre-tax restructuring expenses. WBD ended the quarter with $2.6 billion of cash on hand and $49.5 billion of gross debt.
Warner Bros. Discovery shares fell over 5% in pre-market trading following the earnings announcement.
AMC Theaters is still not yet out of the red, but the first quarter of 2023 saw a substantial year-over-year improvement in revenue that enabled the company to cut its loss for the period by 30%.
Revenue for the three months ended March 31 improved to $954.4 million thanks to early-year hits like “M3GAN” and “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” as well as March hit sequels like “Creed III” and “Scream VI,” AMC Entertainment Holdings said Friday. That was up 21.5% from $785.7 million in the first quarter of 2022 and beat projections of $936.1 million compiled by Zack’s Investment Services.
Revenue from admissions leaped 30% to $328.7 million. AMC’s nearly 10,000 screens worldwide saw attendance rise to 47.6 million, a 22% gain, thanks to the strong film slate. In the U.S., attendance jumped 25% to 32.4 million, from 25.8 million last year. International attendance gained 15% to 15.3 million.
“All told, the first quarter North American box office easily surpassed 2022 by some 29%, totaling more than $1.7 billion,” CEO Adam Aron said in a statement. “The recovery in the European box office was even stronger in getting to pre-pandemic norms than that in the U.S. As I have said for years, when our studio partners showcase their magical storytelling, there is robust demand to be realized at AMC theaters both in the U.S. and abroad.”
The company posted a quarterly loss of $235.5 million or 17 cents per share, an improvement from last year’s loss of $337.4 million, or 33 cents per share. On an adjusted bases, the loss came to 13 cents per share, besting analyst projections for a loss of 17 cents per share, according to Zack’s.
“This progress is a testament to the ongoing recovery in the industrywide box office, as well as AMC’s enduring commitment to excellence and innovation as our guests enjoy a superb movie-going experience at our theatres,” Aron said.
In premarket trading, AMC shares gained 3.6%, after closing Thursday at $5.92, up 50% since the start of the year.
The company pointed to a “blistering pace” for spending at theaters, noting that food and beverage purchases per patron rose 7% during the period, to an average of $6.90 worldwide, and $7.99 in the U.S.
Average ticket price in the U.S. was $11.87, down from $12.05 last year, while worldwide average ticket price inched down to $11.22, from $11.36 last year.
Analysts don’t expect AMC to turn a profit until 2024, but they believe it will keep narrowing losses as the box office continues to recover. The second-quarter domestic box office is already close to $1 billion thanks in large part to “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which this weekend will become the third animated movie to gross $500 million in North America, after crossing the $1 billion mark worldwide lsast weekend.
That momentum should carry into a strong summer slate that includes May and June films like “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” “The Little Mermaid,” and “The Flash.”
“We believe the first quarter of 2023 is just the tip of the iceberg for what’s to come in the remainder of the year,” Aron said. “With so many compelling movies coming just in the next few months … the remainder of the year promises something for everyone, and AMC stands ready to welcome movie-goers in significant numbers. We could not be more optimistic about the prospects for the 2023 box office, except to say that 2024 looks even better.”
In an interview with TheWrap at CinemaCon last week, AMC CEO Adam Aron said that he believes the worst damage wrought by the pandemic is behind AMC, and that as long as films continue to come out on a stronger frequency than last year, the theater chain will remain on a path to financial stability.
“The box office is on a positive ramp,” he said, “and if we have the ability to raise cash if we need to, I have no real fear.”
A+E launches new FAST channels in the UK with Amazon Freevee
A+E Networks EMEA has launched three new FAST channels in the UK via Amazon Freevee, following on from its commitment …
Drew Barrymore will no longer host the MTV Movie & TV Awards on Sunday, announcing that she would step down in support of the writers’ strike in Hollywood that has seen late-night comedy shows go dark and thousands of television and movie writers take to picket lines.
Ms. Barrymore’s decision, which was announced Thursday, was the latest blow to the awards show, which has also canceled its red carpet and may see other talent withdraw, according to Variety.
“I have listened to the writers, and in order to truly respect them, I will pivot from hosting the MTV Movie & TV Awards live in solidarity with the strike,” Ms. Barrymore said in a statement to the publication. “Everything we celebrate and honor about movies and television is born out of their creation.”
Ms. Barrymore said on Instagram she would return to host the show next year and was still planning to watch the show on Sunday. Representatives for Ms. Barrymore and for MTV could not immediately be reached Friday morning.
Bruce Gillmer, a president at Paramount Global and an executive producer of the MTV Movie & TV Awards, told Variety that the show would go on without a host.
It’s unclear which celebrity presenters and guests are still planning to attend, including Jennifer Coolidge, who is being honored.
The MTV Movie & TV Awards has handled sudden shifts before, postponing and ultimately canceling its show in 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic. A special, hosted by the actress Vanessa Hudgens, aired later that year.
Some of the most immediate effects were seen on talk shows and sketch shows. New episodes from late-night shows hosted by Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel have been suspended. “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and “Late Night With Seth Meyers” have aired reruns while the hosts of those shows and NBC have agreed to extend staff pay for a short period, according to Deadline.
“Saturday Night Live” canceled a new episode scheduled for this weekend, and NBC said it would “air repeats until further notice.”
Writers have said that their compensation has remained the same even as television production has grown over the past decade. The unions representing the writers, the East and West branches of the Writers Guild of America, said “the companies’ behavior has created a gig economy inside a union work force, and their immovable stance in this negotiation has betrayed a commitment to further devaluing the profession of writing.”
W.G.A. leaders said that the survival of writing as a profession was at stake during the negotiations.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which bargains on behalf of Hollywood companies, said in a statement before the strikes began this week that its offer included “generous increases in compensation for writers.”
Warner Bros. Discovery posted a first-quarter loss, buffeted not only by the dynamics of streaming video that are eroding traditional media-industry economics, but also by charges related to the 2022 merger that created the company out of the former WarnerMedia and Discovery Inc.
The owner of HBO, TNT and the Discovery Channel said its loss of $1.069 billion included $1.81 billion of “acquisition-related intangible assets and $95 million of pre-tax restructuring expenses.” The company also indicated that the debt it took on to finance the merger was affecting its financials. Warner Bros. Discovery had $836 million of “semi-annual interest payments largely attributable to merger-related debt that overwhelmed its cash flow.
The company reported a loss of $1.07 billion, compared with profit of $456 million in the year-earlier period. Executives took pride in the company’s ability to reverse losses in its streaming operations.
“We’ve come through some major restructurings and have repositioned our businesses with greater precision and focus. And we see a number of positive proof points emerging, with DTC perhaps the most prominent,” Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said in a statement. “We made a meaningful turn this quarter with $50 million in segment EBITDA and 1.6 million net adds, and we feel great about the trajectory we are on. In fact, we now expect our U.S. DTC business to be profitable for 2023 — a year ahead of our guidance.”
Analysts felt the company has yet to prove it has mastered its fate. “It’s been over a year since Warner Bros Discovery completed its merger and it looks like David Zaslav is still figuring out the best way to move this combined company forward,” said analyst Jamie Lumley at Third Bridge. “With revenue dropping on an annual basis across all business segments and a swing to an overall net loss, it’s clear there is still a lot of work to do to get the company on firm footing.”
Peter Quill has grown tremendously as a character, from singing and dancing around at the beginning of Guardians of the Galaxyto punching Thanos for killing Gamora in Avengers: Infinity War, and everything in between.
Though not necessarily goodbyes forever, many of these farewells did come to pass in Guardians 3 — with Star-Lord’s story now explained by Pratt himself.
Why Did Star-Lord Make The Choice He Did?
Marvel
Warning: The rest of this article contains major spoilers for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
During the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 global press conference, Chris Pratt discussed Peter Quill’s journey and gave insight into why the character chose to return to Earth at the end of the movie.
Coming so brilliantly full circle from where Guardians of the Galaxy began, Quill decides at the movie’s close to return to Earth and reunite with his grandfather.
Wearing an outfit aesthetically similar to the one he was abducted in (a T-shirt with a red jacket of some kind — a red flannel when he was taken, a red leather jacket when he came back), Quill is greeted at the door by “Grandma Quill,” who brings him to “Grandpa Quill” for an emotional reunion.
When he explains his decision to the rest of his team, Peter says that he is going to take Mantis’ advice (delivered via Drax) and “learn to swim” rather than jump from “lily pad to lily pad” as he has done until now.
This metaphor specifically is referring to the women in Peter’s life in the context of the movie, but Pratt explained that it’s applicable to “affiliations we have with a team or a family or whatever” as well:
“There’s a wonderful monologue that [Dave] Bautista gives that, you know, comes from Mantis, that Quill is a guy who needs to learn how to swim. He’s been hopping from lily pad to lily pad, woman to woman, and relationship to relationship. I think that’s a pretty human condition. I think, oftentimes, we find ourselves in our relationships or in the affiliations we have with a team or a family or whatever. And he has been lost.”
Pratt said that in “dancing around… [Quill] had found himself there. But it was kinda B.S.” as ultimately he was “[pretending]:”
“So, yeah, in the beginning, he was running away from the death of his mother, but he got to pretend to be this character based on these pop culture icons of his childhood of the late-’80s. And so, he was dancing around, but all of that was, really he had found himself there. But it was kinda B.S., you know?”
According to Pratt, Quill’s journey throughout the MCU so far has been him “searching for who he is” and finding it with the team, particularly Gamora, and thinking he could find it in “who his father was” in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2:
“And then he found himself with the Guardians of the Galaxy. And then he thought he could find himself with who his father was. So, he’s a guy who’s constantly been searching for who he is. And then he found it again in his relationship with Gamora.”
Despite this, as becomes especially evident after the loss of Gamora, Pratt explained, “None of them have been the real him … he’s lost:”
“And so, when [the version of himself he found with Gamora]’s stripped away from him, he’s a guy who’s realizing that all of these various people that he’s found that are Quill, none of them have been the real him. And so, he is, he’s lost. And that probably does mean that he’s sad.”
While Pratt did not directly state that this character journey was the logic behind Quill’s choice to return to Earth, Star-Lord said it was time for him to “learn to swim,” and Pratt’s commentary on what that lily pad analogy meant for the character all but confirms this explanation.
Is This The End of Star-Lord?
With the movie’s ending seeing Quill’s return to Earth as he was looking to “learn to swim,” one might assume that this is the character’s retirement from superheroics. However, following the second post-credit scene are the words “The Legendary Star-Lord Will Return.”
As such, fans can look forward to seeing Pratt in the MCU again. The mystery still remains, though, in what capacity that will be.
Perhaps Star-Lord will help out with Earth’s heroes from time to time, teaming up with the Avengers on occasion. Or, he could remain in touch with his former team and the new Guardians of the Galaxy, led by Rocket, and serve as almost a mentor for them with “legend” status.
Given that Rocket is already using what could probably be considered Quill’s signature song – Redbone’s “Come and Get Your Love” – to introduce the new batch of Guardians to music, it is likely that, at the very least, Star-Lord’s influence will be felt on this new team.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is playing in theaters everywhere starting May 5.
Jay Lycurgo, who stars as Tim Drake, a.k.a. Robin, on Titans, discusses a potential future in The Batman – Part II or James Gunn’s upcoming DC Universe. As Titans is dropping its series finale on Thursday, May 11, the show stands as one of the last remaining DC TV projects before the new DC Studios era begins. With Gunn building his DC Universe, the Elseworlds properties are still going forward, including The Batman – Part II. However, some actors from ongoing DC projects are not necessarily against the idea of coming back in different capacities.
In a recent exclusive Screen Rantinterview with Lycurgo, the Titans star was asked if he would want to return to the DC world for a third time. Lycurgo has played Tim since Titans season 3, and he also appeared in Matt Reeves’ The Batman right before joining the HBO Max show. While Lycurgo talked about fans having suggested him for Jimmy Olsen in Superman: Legacy, the British actor would love to return to Reeves’ The Batman franchise in potentially a very familiar role, sharing the following:
Jay Lycurgo: I’m really keeping tabs of it. Who knows, really? Because James seems he’s just doing his own thing. He’s only just started casting for Superman: Legacy, right? Actually, for Superman, there was a character called Jimmy Olsen. People kept on DM-ing me about playing this Jimmy character. I saw that and I don’t really know much about him. They’re doing another Batman film, what is it going to be called? [Gets told about Batman: The Brave and The Bold] We don’t know, right? To be honest, I would love to do something again with Matt Reeves. I think that universe is so exciting. I’m talking as a fan now, being a part of that project was so, so exciting but that character that I played, I think there’s a story in that. I think there’s something really fun in that. I remember people on Twitter talking about him becoming a Robin…
Screen Rant: We never heard his name. That could be Tim! Maybe after Batman saves him, instead of being a bad guy, maybe he decides to be a superhero instead, and again; we never heard his name.
Jay Lycurgo: This is it, Andy! It’s all part of our imagination! If there’s a project that suits right for me, if there’s a character that suits right for me in the DC world, then I’m very open to it. So whatever that is, I would love to play Tim again; I’d love to play Tim again in a different universe. Because then you get a whole different creative team that might have a whole different concept on Tim and uses different comic books on Tim. So I would stick with my boy, Tim, if I’m honest, for the moment.
How The Batman 2 Could Set Up Robin After The First Movie
While his scene in The Batman was brief, Lycurgo appeared as one of the Train Gang members but was clearly reluctant to take part in their activities. As Batman took on the gang, Lycurgo’s character was the only one that didn’t fight the Caped Crusader. Once the fight was over, Batman allowed him to walk away peacefully, and given that this character was never referenced by name, the film may have cleverly found a way to set up Robin’s arrival in The Batman – Part II.
This could easily be The Batman universe’s own version of Tim and get a different setup compared to how Lycurgo’s character was established on Titans. In a hypothetical scenario, perhaps this Tim had gotten himself on a bad path until that night when he encountered Batman. Depending on what the time jump will be in The Batman – Part II, this Tim could have used those years to get back on his feet, perhaps even be inspired to become a crime fighter just like the Dark Knight. As Lycurgo mentioned himself, this would allow a different creative team to establish a unique mythology for Tim in Reeves’ universe.
Time will tell if The Batman franchise will ever end up introducing Bruce’s extended Bat-Family, especially since that is a focus for Batman: The Brave and The Bold. Since The Batman – Part II isn’t starting filming until this fall, it will be a while until casting details begin to come out. But for now, fans can catch Lycurgo as Robin in the Titans series finale on May 11, only on HBO Max.
“Experiment 101 and THQ Nordic are today very happy and thrilled to announce that their open-world post-apocalyptic ARPG “Biomutant”, is coming to the Nintendo Switch via the Nintendo Eshop on November 30th, 2023.” – Jonas Ek, TGG.
EXCLUSIVE: Bella Thorne is headed to the 69th edition of Italy’s Taormina Film Festival (June 24 to July 1) after being invited to guest curate one of its gala evenings with a special program of short films including her own directorial debut Paint Her Red.
The event titled “Influential Shorts” will unfold in the festival’s landmark, open-air venue of the Ancient Greek Teatro Antico, set against the backdrop of Sicily’s Mount Etna volcano.
The event is one of the first initiatives put in place by incoming Taormina Film Festival Executive and co-Artistic Director Barrett Wissman.
The appointment of the entrepreneur, philanthropist and long-time Chairman of cultural arts entertainment agency IMG Artists, was also announced by governing body Taormina Arte Sicilia Foundation on Thursday with immediate effect.
“I am excited to be able to recognize Bella’s talent now as a film director and as a curator. Launching such a great project in the context of a historic festival and event like the Taormina Film Festival is an inspiring opportunity,” said Wissman.
“I would like also like to thank my co-Artistic Director Beatrice Venezi and the head of the Tao Arte Sicilia Foundation, Ester Bonafede, for making all of this possible and believing in the vision that I believe we all share for the future of the Taormina Film Festival.”
Launched in the Sicilian town of Taormina in 1955, the Taormina Film Festival has a long track-record of inviting local and international talent with recent guests including Francis Ford Coppola, Eva Longoria, Susan Sarandon and Nicole Kidman.
Actress Thorne, who has branched into singing, writing and directing since breaking out alongside Zendaya at the Disney Channel in the 2010s, wrote the original screenplay for Paint Her Red, and also directs and stars.
The work is produced by Sofie Warshafsky and Paige Starke and executive-produced by Julian Wayser. Influencer and model Juliet Sterner also features in the cast.
Thorne’s “Influential Shorts” gala evening will also invite well-known artists, celebrities and influencers to screen their projects as directors and introduce fresh talent she has recently discovered.
“We all connect through stories: watching art should be like looking in the mirror. I have been looking for shorts that speak to me about family dynamics, trauma in any form, stories about internalized hatred, and mother/daughter and father/son stories,” said Thorne.
“I’m looking for stories that show balance: both the beautiful and ugly sides of life, and the light and the darkness we are surrounded by every day. I am very grateful for Barrett Wissman for giving me the opportunity to lead the way in showcasing a new generation of filmmakers.”
More details about the evening and festival’s wider line-up will be announced at a press conference in Rome on May 9.
Thorne is represented by CAA, Thirty Three Management and Hirsch Wallerstein Hayum Matlof and Fishman.
In a statement, he said, “This has been a very difficult six weeks for everybody affected by the writers strike. I was, like most people, hoping for a quick resolution when this began. I remained positive during the talks, and while they were still at the table discussing a solution, The Tonight Show remained dark in support of our writing staff. Now that the talks have broken down and there are no further negotiations scheduled, I feel it’s my responsibility to get my 100 non-writing staff, which were laid off, back to work. We fully support our writers, and I think they understand my decision.”
In a responding statement, the WGA said, “NBC forcing Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien back on the air without writers is not going to provide the quality entertainment that the public deserves. The only solution to the strike is a negotiated settlement of the issues. If the AMPTP won’t come to the table, then it’s time for responsible companies to come forward and negotiate a fair deal.”
“He’s a jigsaw puzzle!” Grey’s Anatomy’s Link excitedly said of Thursday’s Special Guest Patient. But before hitting the O.R., the ortho god, still reeling from Tank’s demise, was smacked with self-doubt. Was history going to repeat itself, in so doing killing off Jo’s new admirer before they had even gotten past the flirting stage? Read on…
‘DON’T WORRY, IT FEELS WORSE THAN IT LOOKS’| As “Come Fly With Me” got underway, Nick showed up at Grey Sloan early and was stood up, he told Amelia. Um, by whom? Lucas, it turned out. Nick had a long list of tasks for the resident, and he hadn’t shown up to take them down. Mika feared that Helm, during a “rage blackout,” had so vehemently defended her to Teddy that she was about to be fired. Instead, the new chief held an emergency meeting to revisit the conditions under which the residents were working and living. Jules worked hard not to appear to be peeved by Blue’s new flirtation. (But she clearly was.) Bailey thanked Kwan for tackling the pro-lifer who’d tried to attack her, and soon, he’d bumped into Jules’ roommate Max, who’d awakened feeling under the weather. And Owen recruited Link for a consult. En route to meet Sam Sutton (guest star Sam Page), an Air Force pilot injured in a base-jumping accident, Link asked Owen which of his bones were broken. Hunt’s answer? Pretty much all of them.
“Is it annoying if I say that you’re really lucky?” Link asked after meeting the patient. Kinda. But as Owen assured Sam, if anyone could help him, it was Link. Sam’s wingman Kwame, aware of what had happened to Tank, wasn’t so sure. “So don’t have [another] bad day.” In response, Link said that he’d do his best — and his best was pretty damn good. Looking at Sam’s X-rays, Jules marveled that “nothing is where it’s supposed to be.” And to get any of it back where it’s supposed to be, Link was going to need to perform multiple surgeries over several days. Sam wasn’t into that idea… couldn’t they do it all at once? As Owen strongly recommended, much to Link’s chagrin, yes. As Sam asked Simone and Jules to call Kwame’s wife if he should die, Link and Owen clashed over the course of treatment, with Hunt bringing to bear his status as a vet. When Jo checked in with Link, he confessed his fears — and that he needed a whole team of doctors. Count me in, she said. As soon as she entered Sam’s room, he took note. “I may be dying in the next 18 hours,” he blurted out, “so… are you single?” Simone, as well as Link still suffering some aftereffects of losing Tank, questioned Link’s Owen’s approach to his surgery and was summarily shut down by Hunt.
‘I AM YOUR NEW MAID OF HONOR… DID HE NOT TELL YOU?’| Examining Max (Juliet Mills, interviewed here), Blue was pumped by Jules’ roomie about their relationship. But she would disclose nothing herself. “Girl code.” Meanwhile, Jules revealed to Simone that she’d replaced Lucas as her person of honor at her wedding. Mind you, Jules didn’t know at the time that she was revealing this; she’d assumed that Lucas would’ve told the bride. (Nope.) Nonetheless, Jules proved to Simone that she knew her plenty well enough to do the job. (Actually, pretty sweet the way the show backed into that friendship.) Later, Levi shared with Max that she had a UTI, and she shared with Blue that she’d never told “the one that got away” how she’d felt. Yes, lotsa sharing. After Blue got fussed at for leaving Max unattended and she went on a walkabout, she mistook Levi for her grandson and was diagnosed with delirium from the UTI. “What the hell happened?” Jules wanted to know when she was paged to Max’s room. Millin was ticked that, as Max’s emergency contact, she hadn’t been called. She was further enraged that Blue had left her unattended.
‘WHERE CAN YOU GET THREE MEALS A DAY FOR $15?’| After a patient went into hypoglycemic shock owing to Lucas’ negligence, Nick chewed him a new one. “If you want me on your side, you need to grow up,” Marsh barked, adding that Adams had better get his ADHD meds straight, stat. When he disclosed to Mika what he had done, she hollered that of course he hadn’t been fired for it — he was related to surgical legends. In Teddy’s meeting about the residents, Richard poo-pooed how bad things were for the interns. At which point, Bailey mentioned that he had been the attending who’d kept her from going to a loved one’s funeral when she was a resident! Soon, Webber, Bailey and Amelia were all sharing resident horror stories. “There is something to be said for adversity making people stronger,” Teddy admitted. That was no excuse, Amelia acknowledged, for her yelling at Mika. Soon, Yasuda entered the meeting and quit rather than be fired. Rather than accept her resignation, Teddy announced that a grant was being started to help residents in need. “You have no idea how much that means to me,” Mika said.
‘I ALWAYS THOUGHT I WAS JUST THE BLACK SHEEP’ | As the hour neared its conclusion, Sam’s epic surgery got underway. Simone was able to give Kwame an update, but there were still gory miles to go. When at last Sam was bandaged up like the proverbial mummy, Link and the surgical team were given a round of applause. Owen told Kwame that Link was able to save all of Sam’s limbs. But Link was concerned that Hunt had overpromised. “If you ever put me in that position again in front of a patient,” he said, “we’re going to have a problem.” To Mika’s shock, Amelia apologized for taking out her anger on her. Nick apologized to Lucas for calling him out on the ADHD that he didn’t even know that he had. “The signs… they’re all there,” Nick said. “Maybe it just takes one to know one.” Yeah, he had ADHD, too. Adams would get checked out, and they’d take it from there. As tired as he was, Link was determined to stay at Sam’s bedside until he woke up. Then Jo would stay with him, she said. Simone sat with Jules as she watched over Max. Richard showed up at Joe’s to admit that he hadn’t listened to Helm when he’d tried to get her to come back to Grey Sloan. He was listening now, though. What would it take? Finally, Amelia apologized to Winston for lashing out at him. “I was wrong, and I’m sorry.” Big whoop, he replied with the way that he stalked off from her.
What did you think of the episode? Anyone else insta-shipping Sam and Jo? (Sorry, Link.) Hit the comments with your thoughts.
Russell Crowe will receive the Crystal Globe Award for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema at the 2023 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, KVIFF organizers announced on Friday. And unlike past recipients of the Crystal Globe like Michael Caine, Julianne Moore, Mel Gibson, Judi Dench and Robert De Niro, Crowe will also perform on the festival’s opening night with his rock band, Indoor Garden Party.
The festival, which takes place in a spa town outside Prague in the Czech Republic, will present Crowe with the award on its opening night, June 30. It will also celebrate Crowe’s career with a 20th anniversary screening of Peter Weir’s 2003 epic “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.”
KVIFF also announced that Johnny Depp, who was a special guest at the festival two years ago, has starred in the festival’s new trailer, which will premiere on its opening night. Depp, who stars in “Jeanne du Barry,” the film that will open this year’s Cannes Film Festival, was a controversial choice for the festival two years ago, but he will become the 18th person to star in a Karlovy Vary trailer.
The trailers, made by directors Ivan Zachariáš and Martin Krejčí, are typically humorous vignettes that make use of the festival’s Crystal Globe trophy. Jude Law, John Malkovich, Harvey Keitel and Helen Mirren are among the actors who have starred in previous trailers.
Previously, Karlovy Vary announced that this year’s festival will include a celebration of Iranian cinema focusing on films from the last four years, a tribute to Japanese filmmaker Yasuzo Masumura, a restoration of Evald Schorm’s 1964 classic of the Czechsolvak New Wave, “Courage for Every Day,” and a tribute to Czech actress Daniela Kolářová.
The festival will run from June 30 through July 8.
“These are all emotional one takes recorded all over the world… at soundcheck, at home or elsewhere,” the singer shared of the new renditions
Tove Lo washed away the pop production on four songs that originally appeared on her latest albumDirt Femmeto create an intimate collection titled Dirt Femme (Stripped). The EP features new renditions of “No One Dies From Love,” “Suburbia, “Grapefruit,” and “Pineapple Slice.”
“You’ve asked me for an acoustic album so I thought… why shouldn’t I give you what you want?” Tove Lo wrote in a press release. To sweeten the deal, the singer added an acoustic version of her latest release “Borderline,” which arrived a few months after Dirt Femme.
“These are all emotional one takes recorded all over the world… at soundcheck, at home or elsewhere,” she added. “Thank you to everyone who made these possible.”
Tove Lo originally wrote “Borderline” with Dua Lipa before having it transformed into an eighties-channeling synth-pop record. On the new version, its deeper meaning floats to the surface. “Borderline is a song about being on the edge of love. The drama you cause inside yourself and with another person if you feel insecure. You test them,” Tove Lo shared in a statement when the song was first released. “This song has existed for a long time, and I’ve always felt it was incredibly special, so getting to release it now has sort of a full-circle feeling.”
Even “Suburbia,” an already topically heavy song in its original form, carries a new rawness to it. “It’s about never wanting marriage, not wanting children, and not feeling like that’s a life that I want. But then like, ‘What if I do?’ “ Tove Lo told Rolling Stone last year. “All of my friends around me have kids — babies are adorable and I’m so happy for my friends — but whenever I say ‘I still don’t know if I want kids,’ they take it so personally and get really offended by me saying that.”
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Speaking of Dirt Femme more holistically, she added: “I’ve looked back on how my femininity has helped and hurt me throughout my life. And I think the album has that tone to it. I’m bringing up all these questions and feelings and emotions that don’t necessarily have answers to them. It’s just more my current place of wonder.”
As the King’s Coronation approaches, we’re taking a look back at some of the ways in which the monarch has been represented in the media, and how that has changed (if it has) over the years. It’s challenging to find indie films that specifically feature or explore the history of the British Royal Family. Most films about the royal family tend to be mainstream productions. However, here is a list of lesser-known films featuring royalty that are either directly or loosely related to the monarch.
1. W.E. (2011)
Directed by Madonna, this film intertwines the story of Wallis Simpson and King Edward VIII’s controversial romance with a modern tale of a woman named Wally.
W.E. (2011) is a British historical romantic drama film co-written and directed by Madonna (who would’ve thought). The film is a dual narrative, featuring two parallel storylines connected by themes of love, sacrifice, and the challenges faced by women in different eras.
The first storyline revolves around the controversial romance between Wallis Simpson (played by Andrea Riseborough – a Raindance Alumni!), an American divorcee, and King Edward VIII (played by James D’Arcy), the British monarch who abdicated the throne in 1936 to marry her.
The second storyline, set in 1998, follows Wally Winthrop (played by Abbie Cornish), a young woman living in New York City who becomes obsessed with the story of Wallis and Edward. Wally’s unhappy marriage mirrors Wallis’s struggles, and as she learns more about the famous couple, she finds the strength to make changes in her own life.
2. Lady Jane (1986)
A British historical drama about the short-lived reign of Lady Jane Grey, directed by Trevor Nunn.
Lady Jane (1986) is a British historical drama directed by Trevor Nunn and starring Helena Bonham Carter as Lady Jane Grey, along with Cary Elwes as Guildford Dudley. The film tells the story of the brief and tragic reign of Lady Jane Grey, who was Queen of England for just nine days in 1553.
Although the film takes some liberties with historical events for dramatic purposes, Lady Jane provides a compelling and poignant portrayal of a young woman thrust into a position of power and the tragic consequences that follow.
3. Mary Queen of Scots (2018)
A Swiss-French historical drama that portrays the life of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland, and her rivalry with Elizabeth I of England.
Queen of France at 16 and widowed at 18, Mary Stuart defies pressure to remarry. Instead, she returns to her native Scotland to reclaim her rightful throne. However, Scotland and England fall under the rule of the compelling Elizabeth I. Each young Queen beholds her sister in fear and fascination. Rivals in power and in love, and female regents in a masculine world, the two must decide how to play the game of marriage versus independence.
4. The Other Boleyn Girl (2008)
A British-American romantic historical drama film directed by Justin Chadwick, which tells the story of sisters Anne and Mary Boleyn, both of whom become romantically involved with King Henry VIII.
As King Henry VIII’s and wife Catherine of Aragon struggle to produce a male heir, Henry summons the Boleyn family to his court in search of a mistress. While initially inclined to Anne, Henry instead has his eyes on the more innocent Mary, despite her already being married to the equally innocent William Carey (Benedict Cumberbatch).
5. The Favourite (2018)
Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, this film is a dark comedy-drama about the relationship between two cousins, Sarah Churchill and Abigail Hill, who are vying for the favour of Queen Anne.
In the early 18th century, England is at war with France; nevertheless, duck-racing and pineapple-eating are thriving. A frail Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) occupies the throne and her close friend Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz) governs the country in her stead while tending to Anne’s ill health and mercurial temper. When new servant Abigail (Emma Stone) arrives, her charm endears her to Sarah. Sarah takes Abigail under her wing and Abigail sees a chance at a return to her aristocratic roots. As the politics of war become quite time-consuming for Sarah, Abigail steps into the breach to fill in as the Queen’s companion. Their burgeoning friendship gives her a chance to fulfil her ambitions and she will not let woman, man, politics, or rabbit stand in her way.
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As the happenings of the monarchy progress, we can only anticipate how their representation in the media will change. Especially with members of the royal family opening up in mainstream media, it would be intriguing to see how their stories evolve in cinema and if they will ever take on a more casual or candid approach.
A wildfire raging northeast of Athabasca has prompted a late-night evacuation of the surrounding county in north-central Alberta.
An Alberta Emergency Alert issued around 11:30 p.m. Thursday said there was a wildfire about 10 kilometres northeast of Athabasca, east of Camping Lake and moving west.
Everyone on Range Road 214 and 215, north of Township Road 674 to the Athabasca River must evacuate now, the province said.
Bring pets, important medication and documents and enough food, water and supplies to be away for three days.
Evacuees should go to the Athabasca Regional Multiplex. Everyone else in the area between Jackfish Lake and the Athabasca River to the west must prepare for a possible evacuation.
A wildfire near Athabasca, Alta on Thursday, May 4, 2023.
Courtesy: Angela-Kerr
Dozens of new wildfires were discovered across Alberta amid high temperatures, dangerously dry conditions and high winds on Thursday.
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There were many Alberta Emergency Alerts issued and updated throughout the day as the fires grew and threatened more properties.
Nothing says date night like sitting courtside! Amid the exciting NBA playoffs on May 4, Zendaya, 26, and her boyfriend, Tom Holland, 26, were the cutest couple at the Los Angeles Lakers vs. Golden State Warriors game (watch the video HERE). While spotted in the crowd of fans, the brunette beauty and her man cozied up to each other while enjoying the game. Zendaya rocked a white crop top, black jeans, and a black baseball cap, while her man opted for a white crewneck sweater and black pants.
In a separate video, the Spider-Man: Homecomingco-stars jumped out of their seats and shouted at the events taking place on the court. The sweet pair were both clapping while watching the game and later, the Euphoria star even waved and smiled when the jumbotron put her on blast (watch here). Zendaya completed her casual look with a pair of oversized eyeglasses and pointed at her cap that had a Golden State Warriors logo on it.
Soon after the videos were shared on social media, many basketball and Zendaya fans alike took to the comments to react to seeing her in the crowd. “no wonder Lebron [James] is playing so good,” one fan joked, while another quipped, “Cuteness.” On a separate Instagram photo of the 26-year-old starlet, one fan noted how precious her smile is. “Her smile is so sweet,” they wrote. Tom and Z were also accompanied by her friend, Darnell Appling, who took to his Instagram Story to share a few exciting clips from the event.
Zendaya & Tom Holland confirmed their romance in 2021. (Shutterstock)
Aside from their courtside date, Zendaya is also celebrating the release of the Dune: Part Twotrailer, which was released on May 3. “DUNE Part Two Official Trailer,” she captioned the Instagram video. Z stars in the movie alongside Hollywood heartthrobsTimothée Chalamet, 27, and Austin Butler, 31. They are also joined by Don’t Worry Darlingstar Florence Pugh, 27, actress Rebecca Ferguson, 39, and Hollywood legend Christopher Walken, 80. The sequel to Dune is set to release on Nov. 3, just over two years after the first installment premiered.
Most recently, fans were saddened that Zendaya was missing from the highly-anticipated Met Gala on May 1. Monday’s event was actually the third year in a row that the style icon skipped the event, as she has recently been swamped with other commitments. Zendaya’s last Met Gala was the 2019 event, where she rocked a stunning Cinderella-inspired ballgown that lit up. That year the theme was Camp: Notes on Fashion, which she nailed perfectly.
Apple’s revenue declined again in the March 2023 quarter, marking its second consecutive quarterly drop in sales. But the tech giant topped Wall Street forecasts, with its services business hitting a new record for revenue and iPhone sales showing unexpected strength.
The company reported revenue of $94.8 billion, down 3%, and net income of $24.2 billion ($1.52 per diluted share), a 3.4% year-over-year drop, for the quarter ended April 1, which is Apple’s Q2 of fiscal 2023. Financial analysts expected revenue of $92.96 billion and earnings of $1.43 per share for the quarter, per Refinitiv data.
Apple’s Services revenue rose 5.5%, to $20.9 billion, edging above $20.8 billion for the year-end 2022 quarter. The segment includes the App Store, Apple Pay, and subscription services such as Apple TV+, Apple Music and iCloud.
In the quarter, the company reached more than 975 million paid subscribers for digital services (which includes both Apple-branded offerings like Apple Music and Apple TV+ and services via third-party apps), up 150 million over the last 12 months, according to CFO Luca Maestri.
Apple expects year-over-year revenue performance in the June 2023 quarter to be similar to the March quarter (i.e., a decline comparable to the 3% in the most recent period), assuming “the macroeconomic outlook does not worsen,” Maestri said. He said Services segment revenue will show growth in the June quarter similar to the most recent quarter, but called out headwinds in digital advertising and mobile games,.
Analysts had expected sales of Apple’s flagship iPhones to decline about 4% — but smartphone sales were up 1.5% year over year, to $51.3 billion (an all-time high for a March quarter). Dragging down the company’s top line were its Mac unit, with sales plunging 31% to $7.2 billion, and iPad, which saw revenue drop 13% to $6.7 billion. Sales in Apple’s Wearables, Home and Accessories segment declined 0.6%, to $8.76 billion.
“We are pleased to report an all-time record in Services and a March quarter record for iPhone despite the challenging macroeconomic environment, and to have our installed base of active devices reach an all-time high,” CEO Tim Cook said in announcing the March quarter results. “We continue to invest for the long term and lead with our values, including making major progress toward building carbon neutral products and supply chains by 2030.”
Apple also announced that its board authorized an additional $90 billion for share repurchases and declared a cash dividend of 24 cents per share (an increase of 4%).
Next month Apple is hosting its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in Cupertino, Calif. The event, which runs June 5-9, is rumored to feature the company’s long-awaited mixed-reality headset, reportedly dubbed the Reality Pro.
“John Wick: Chapter 4” may be almost three hours long, but that doesn’t seem to have limited enthusiasm for the movie. The latest installment in the action franchise finds Keanu Reeves once again fighting his way to the top of the High Table — and the top of the box office.
Less than a decade after the first installment sent the retired hitman back to work to avenge his dead dog, the actor continues to enjoy his second wave of movie stardom at the age of 58. The enthusiasm for the “John Wick” series stands out as a notable contrast to the current woes facing the “Star Wars” franchise, as interest has been dropping off for the series. Meanwhile, Marvel’s cinematic universe faces similar challenges, as highlighted by the departure of longtime executive Victoria Alonso this week.
What gives? How did a violent and hyperstylized martial arts series wind up more satisfying than Disney’s greatest IP?
In this week’s episode of Screen Talk, Eric Kohn and Anne Thompson discuss the new release in light of the challenges faced by other studio product. However, not content to focus exclusively on the biggest releases, they also leave room in this week’s episode to touch on some smaller films opening this month: the Dardenne brothers’ “Tori and Lokita” and Sundance winner “A Thousand and One.”
Watch the full episode above or listen to it below.
Screen Talk is produced by Azwan Badruzaman and available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify, and hosted by Megaphone. Browse previous installments here, subscribe here, and be sure to let us know if you’d like to hear the hosts address specific issues in upcoming editions of Screen Talk.
Bobby Moudy, the father of 3 who gained TikTok fame by posting wholesome content with his family, has died … TMZ has learned.
Moudy’s family writes, “Bobby was a loving father, husband, brother and friend. On April 28th, he was a tragic victim of suicide. Bobby was full of life and laughs, but also weighed down by financial pressures. His wife, Jennifer and their three children are in an emotional and financial crisis as he was their rock.”
TikTok / @bbmoudy
The circumstances surrounding Moudy’s suicide are currently unclear, but we know he died at home in Mississippi.
If you were one of the more than 500k followers of the Moudy family accounts, you know Moudy posted a ton of videos of his wife and kids, often using humor to share his life as a dad.
Friends of the Moudy family have established a GoFundMe to help the family through their loss and financial struggles in the wake of Bobby’s death.
Bobby leaves behind his wife Jennifer, and kids Kaytlin, Max and Charleigh.
He was only 46.
RIP
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.
Star Wars is one of those franchises that’s continued to stick with audiences through the years.
And thanks to a seemingly endless collection of TV shows and movies, audiences have been catapulted to a galaxy far, far away for as long as we can remember.
Here’s a roundup of all the Star Wars quotes worth knowing aside from the classic one-liners like “may the Force be with you” and “I have a bad feeling about this.” Take a look:
1.
“Try not. Do or do not. There is no try.”
2.
“I find your lack of faith disturbing.”
3.
“You can’t stop change any more than you can stop the suns from setting.”
5.
“Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.”
6.
“The belonging you seek is not behind you. It is ahead.”
7.
“Always pass on what you have learned.”
8.
“Sometimes we must let go of our pride and do what is requested of us.”
9.
“We’ll always be with you. No one’s ever really gone. A thousand generations live in you now.”
10.
“Who’s the more foolish: the fool or the fool who follows him?”
11.
“Never tell me the odds.”
12.
“Your focus determines your reality.”
13.
“Let the past die. Kill it, if you have to. It’s the only way to become what you were meant to be.”
14.
“You can only get so far without a tribe.”
15.
“I can’t do this alone. I need you in command with me.”
16.
“In my experience there is no such thing as luck.”
17.
“We had each other. That’s how we won.”
18.
“Difficult to see; always in motion is the future.”
19.
“I am one with the Force and the Force is with me.”
What’s your favorite Star Wars quote of all time? Share it in the comments!
And as she looks to follow in the footsteps of Kang the Conqueror and the High Evolutionary on the big screen, she’ll be an important part of Captain Marvel 2 for Marvel Studios to use in the sequel’s upcoming marketing campaign.
Captain Marvel 2 Villain Shines on Merch
As shared by Instagram user ironman.tw, Marvel Studios revealed the first official merchandise featuring Zawe Ashton’s villainous Dar-Benn from The Marvels.
Ashton struts forward holding her hammer-like Kree weapon in her hand, donning green robes and a green tint in her hair.
Marvel Studios
This comes only a few weeks after Ashton made her first appearance in the trailer for Captain Marvel 2 which arrived online in April, complete with a bangle on her wrist that resembles the one which gives Kamala Khan her powers.
Marvel Studios
Also shown in this new merchandise is a promotional image featuring this movie’s main trio of heroes with Maria Rambeau, Carol Danvers, and Kamala Khan being shown off alongside each other.
Marvel Studios
The heroic trio gets the spotlight in another image showing the characters from the waist up, standing tall in superhero poses and all donning their new super suits that will be seen in the sequel.
Marvel Studios
How Will Captain Marvel 2’s Villain Add to MCU?
With the potential that Captain Marvel 2 could take Carol Danvers’ powers away for some of the story, fans will be curious to see how formidable Zawe Ashton’s new villain is against the leading trio.
Ashton will be just one of nearly a dozen major stars in this sequel to take the spotlight as Carol Danvers works with a team of heroes for the first time in one of her solo movies.
‘I AM YOUR NEW MAID OF HONOR… DID HE NOT TELL YOU?’ 
‘I ALWAYS THOUGHT I WAS JUST THE BLACK SHEEP’ | As the hour neared its conclusion, Sam’s epic surgery got underway. Simone was able to give Kwame an update, but there were still gory miles to go. When at last Sam was bandaged up like the proverbial mummy, Link and the surgical team were given a round of applause. Owen told Kwame that Link was able to save all of Sam’s limbs. But Link was concerned that Hunt had overpromised. “If you ever put me in that position again in front of a patient,” he said, “we’re going to have a problem.” To Mika’s shock, Amelia apologized for taking out her anger on her. Nick apologized to Lucas for calling him out on the ADHD that he didn’t even know that he had. “The signs… they’re all there,” Nick said. “Maybe it just takes one to know one.” Yeah, he had ADHD, too. Adams would get checked out, and they’d take it from there. As tired as he was, Link was determined to stay at Sam’s bedside until he woke up. Then Jo would stay with him, she said. Simone sat with Jules as she watched over Max. Richard showed up at Joe’s to admit that he hadn’t listened to Helm when he’d tried to get her to come back to Grey Sloan. He was listening now, though. What would it take? Finally, Amelia apologized to Winston for lashing out at him. “I was wrong, and I’m sorry.” Big whoop, he replied with the way that he stalked off from her.
