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‘Unruly’ wins Dragon Award Best Nordic Film
Unruly, directed by Malou Reymann, wins Dragon Award Best Nordic Film.
The award of SEK 400 000 makes it one of the world’s largest film prizes. Presenting partner for the competition is Region Västra Götaland and the City of Gothenburg.
The Jury’s motivation: With a great wish to honour a film that tells its story with both great sensitivity and power, the jury is grateful to lighten a universal story about human spirit against the oppressive system. Although it is rooted in the past, it transcends time and borders and speaks strongly to our time, our minds and hearts. A solid and mature work, a powerful voice – a timely story of separation.
The 2023 Nordic Competition Jury: Zar Amir Ebrahimi, actor, Iran, Sofie Gråbøl, actor, Denmark, Antonio Lukich, director, Ukraine, Matti Bye, composer, Sweden.
For the fifth consecutive year, Göteborg Film Festival presented the Dragon Award Best Acting. The award is gender neutral, and all the actors in the films competing in the Nordic Competition are nominated.
Dragon Award Best Acting 2023 went to Alma Pöysti for her acting performance as Juulia in Four Little Adults.
The Jury’s motivation:
Actors are the spirits of cinema, bringing life, pain, humour and emotions to the screen, they invite us on an inner journey to get to know ourselves better.
Considering the huge range of professionalism and dedicated actors of this year’s Nordic selection, the jury is grateful to honour an actor without limitations. Who gives us an impressive performance with a large range of emotion, empathy, braveness and strength to portray a touching modern character with no borders. And who moves effortlessly between the dramatic and the humorous, in a performance which is mesmerising, witty and intelligent.
The Jury for Dragon Award Best Acting is the same as for Dragon Award Best Nordic Film.
The Sven Nykvist Cinematography Award went to Jacob Møller for Copenhagen Does Not Exist.
The Jury’s motivation:
The great Orson Welles says: A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet. Cinema is the most powerful art to imitate dreams. The cinema has no boundary, it is a ribbon of dreams. A good cinematographer is a magician, is a dancer, is a listener. The one who puts the words into the images, who uses his technics to transfer the emotions but through his/her eyes. We congratulate the brave and creative technical storytelling of the winning cinematographer and thank him for making us dream.
All cinematographers in the Nordic Competition are nominated for the Award and the prize consists of SEK 50 000. The award is presented in cooperation with the Sven Nykvist Cinematography Foundation.
The Jury for the Sven Nykvist Cinematography Award is the same as for Dragon Award Best Nordic Film.
The award was accepted by the director of Copenhagen Does Not Exist, Martin Skovbjerg.
The film critic’s award, FIPRESCI, went to Ellos Eatnu – Let the River Flow, by Ole Giæver. The award is handed out by The International Federation of Film Critics and goes to one of the films in the Nordic Competition.
The Jury’s motivation:
The story takes us up to the most northern part of Europe, where some 40 years ago, Norwegian national history was written. Those events raised the consciousness of Norwegian society and led to the modern Sámi awakening. The strong and well-balanced script of the film tells a story about a universal issue that is impressively manifested in the performance of a young Sámi woman played by non-professional Ella Marie Hætta Isaksen in her first screen appearance. The movie masterfully conveys the sorrowful mood caused by the threat of a disappearing culture, a loss of identity, language and family ties.
The award was accepted by the film’s co-producer, Lizette Jonjic.
This year’s Audience Dragon Award Best Nordic Film went to Ellos Eatnu – Let the River Flow by Ole Giæver.
This year’s Dragon Award Best Nordic Documentary went to Apolonia, Apolonia by Lea Glob. Presenting partner of the award and the prize sum of SEK 250 000 in services from Edisen.
The Jury’s motivation:
The winner is a multilayered film that takes us deep into the life of the main character. Every creative choice in the making of this film is taken from real life experiences that all of us can relate to. The story is not just about the character who struggles to reach her dream. It’s about the journey. A story about not giving up. A story about hope. A beautiful film about female friendship.
The 2023 Nordic Documentary Competition Jury: Veton Nurkollari, artistic director, Kosovo, Nahid Persson, director, Sweden, Morgane Dziurla-Petit, director, France.
The Ingmar Bergman International Debut Award went to Runner by Marian Mathias. The award is presented together with The Bergman Foundations, i.e. The Ingmar Bergman Foundation, The Bergman Estate and Bergman Center on Fårö.
The award consists of a stay at The Bergman Estate on Fårö and a visit to Ingmar Bergman’s personal archive in Stockholm.
Motivation of the jury:
The winner is a film with a clear vision, integrity and unique sense of visual narration. Originating with the end of life, the picture is at the same time a catalyst for the beginning of a new life. Every frame of this minimalist masterpiece is a cinematic experience and every character is carefully depicted. Behind this film there is a true artist and a wonderful promise for the future of cinema.
For the sixth consecutive time, Dragon Award Best International Film is handed out. This year’s audience award for Best International Film went to The Blue Caftan by Maryam Touzani.
The prize consists of SEK 50 000, and presenting partner for the award is Göteborgs-Posten.
The award was accepted by Birgitta Sollenberg (in the photo) and Sara Fohrman from Folkets Bio.
For the second year, the Draken Film Award is awarded to a Swedish short film in the festival’s programme that excels in its form, and artistic level or by challenging and expanding the narrative in the short format.
The Draken Film Award 2023 went to After Mourners by Hanna Högstedt.
The Jury’s motivation:
The winner is a minimalistic film, with a high level of craftmanship, an incomprehensible trauma. Grief has many shapes, and new generations are often forced to inherit the black, heavy burden, which remains in the soul after loosing a child. After Mourners portrays our worst fears in a distinctive and deeply poetic way. Which made the three hardened film workers in the jury break down in tears.
The Draken Film Award 2023 goes to After Mourners by Hanna Högstedt.
The prize consists of SEK 10 000 and online distribution at Draken Film.
The 2023 Draken Film Award Jury: Christer Wahlberg, director, Lova Lilliemarck, producer, and Oscar Westerholm, film critic.
The Mai Zetterling Grant went to the director Mårten Nilsson.
Nordic Honorary Dragon Award was awarded to Jan Troell.
Dragon Award Best Swedish Short went to Madden by Malin Ingrid Johansson.
Audience Choice Award for Best Swedish Short went to Container Scanning by Edvin Hallberg och Anton Hellström.
Angelo Award, the Swedish Church’s award worth SEK 50,000, went to Annika Fredriksson for Love You Bye. All Swedish feature-length films at the festival were nominated for the Award.
The drama series screenwriting award, Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize, went to Kenneth Karlstad for Kids in Crime.
This week on The Treatment, Elvis sits down with old friend and WTF host Marc Maron, whose new comedy special is “From Bleak to Dark” on HBO Max. Next, writer Rodney Barnes talks about his graphic novel “Blacula: Return of the King,” a reimagining of a classic character. And on The Treat, Oscar winner Domee Shi talks about the animated film that still transports her.
Jane Fonda suggested “murder” could be an option to resolve the rise of GOP-led abortion laws that have impacted states across the country. But was she serious or just joking? Watch the video above and decide for yourself.
Fonda and Lily Tomlin appeared on Friday’s “The View” to discuss their upcoming film “Moving On” when the Oscar-winning actress and longtime activist was asked to share her opinion of anti-abortion legislation that has swept the country over the last couple of years.
“We have experienced many decades now of agency over our body of being able to determine when and how many children to have,” Fonda began. “We know what that feels like, we know what that’s done for our lives. We’re not going back. I don’t care what the laws are. We’re not going back.”
“Besides marching and protesting, what else do you suggest?” co-host Behar jumped in and asked.
“Well, I think murder,” Fonda responded.
The audience chuckled.
“What did you say?” Lily Tomlin asked.
“Murder,” Fonda repeated.
In haste, Behar told the audience and viewers watching Fonda was merely joking, despite Fonda’s “uh, no I wasn’t” expression.
“She’s kidding. Wait a second, she’s kidding. You don’t know, they’ll pick up on that and run with it,” Behar repeated in an attempt to squash that headline-making comment before it went too far.
(L to R) Daniella Pineda as Bonnie Lane, Gerard Butler as Brodie Torrance, and Yoson An as Samuel Dele in ‘Plane.’ Photo Credit: Kenneth Rexach.
Talk about a movie that’ll make you think twice before booking your next flight.
‘Plane’ is the latest action-thriller that is plenty of fun with elements of ‘Con Air’, ‘Speed’, and ‘The Grey’. Packed with passengers trying to get home in time to ring in the New Year, the weather takes a turn for the worse and pilot Brodie Torance is forced to makes an emergency landing on a remote island. The passengers are safe from the deadly storm and lightning strikes, but the island they have just landed on is filled with more danger than they realize.
The film is directed by Jean-François Richet (‘Assault on Precinct 13‘) and stars Gerard Butler (‘Greenland‘) as commercial pilot Brodie Torrance, and Mike Colter (‘South Of Heaven‘) as accused murderer Louise Gaspare. As the movie tagline says “survive together or die along”, the two must learn to work together to survive the violent rebel group on the island.
The official synopsis for ‘Plane’ is:
“In the white-knuckle action movie “Plane,” pilot Brodie Torrance (Gerard Butler) saves his passengers from a lightning strike by making a risky landing on a war-torn island — only to find that surviving the landing was just the beginning. When most of the passengers are taken hostage by dangerous rebels, the only person Torrance can count on for help is Louis Gaspare (Mike Colter), an accused murderer who was being transported by the FBI. In order to rescue the passengers, Torrance will need Gaspare’s help, and will learn there’s more to Gaspare than meets the eye.”
Butler is no stranger to action-packed movies such as ‘Plane’. From his portrayal as King Leonidas in ‘300’ to the ‘Olympus Has Fallen’ trilogies, you know you’re going to have a good time in the theater with him in the lead. Mike Colter is known for his role as the title character in Netflix’s hit Marvel series ‘Luke Cage’, and like Butler, is no stranger to action. With him playing opposite Butler, the pair creates an dynamic relationship that is worth watching.
Mike Colter as Louis Gaspare in ‘Plane.’ Photo Credit: Kenneth Rexach.
Mike Colter To Return In ‘Plane’ Sequel
‘Plane’ opened on January 13, 2023 and has earned $32.1 million domestically. Worldwide, it has grossed just over $51 million. It has a Tomatoe-meter score of 77% from critics and 94% from audiences.
Clearly, the masses enjoyed the film and for those craving for more ‘Plane’ action, you’re in luck. Taking a nautical turn, Mike Colter will return to lead the sequel, titled ‘Ship’. The next installment will follow Mike Colter’s character Louise Gaspare, after he has disappeared into the jungles of Jolo Island. ‘Ship’ is expected to begin production in late 2023. Jean-François Richet will return as executive producer. No word yet if Gerarld Butler will be returning to the film to reprise his role.
Here’s what we know about the sequel so far – but be warned, if you haven’t seen ‘Plane’, there are spoilers ahead!
‘Ship’ will see Louis Gaspare (trying to lay low after the events on Jolo Island) aboard a cargo ship in East Asia to escape the Philippine island. While onboard, he discovers the very vessel he is on is being used as a ferry for a human trafficking ring. Gaspare will need to join forces with the ship’s second mate/navigator to take down the corrupt captain and free the ship’s passengers and captives.
(L to R) Gerard Butler as Brodie Torrance and Mike Colter as Louis Gaspare in “Plane.’ Photo Credit: Kenneth Rexach.
Where Can I Watch ‘Plane’?
For those who prefer to see the action on the big screen, the action-thriller is still playing in select theaters. ‘Plane’ has a total runtime of 1 hour and 47 minutes.
Prefer the own the physical copy? ‘Plane’ will be available for purchase on DVD and Blu-Ray (with special features) on March 28th, 2023.
(L to R) Mike Colter as Louis Gaspare and Gerard Butler as Brodie Torrance in ‘Plane.’ Photo Credit: Kenneth Rexach.
More Action-Thriller Films Like ‘Plane’
‘Plane’ packs a punch, complete with nail-biting suspense, and huge action sequences. Paired with the unlikely partnership between Captain Brodie Torrance and Louise Gaspare, it makes it a very entertaining watch. For more high-octane action, check out the following films.
Gerard Butler as Brodie Torrance in ‘Plane.’ Photo Credit: Kenneth Rexach.
See Gerard Butler In Action In These Titles
Whether he’s spartan kicking the messenger into the dark pit in ‘300’ or saving the President in ‘Olympus Has Fallen’, Gerard Butler has proven he is the man for the job. You can check out the following films to see him in action.
(L to R) Gerard Butler and Mike Colter star in “Plane.’
‘Plane’ was released in theaters on January 13th, 2022 from Di Bonaventura Pictures, MadRiver Pictures, G-BASE, and Olive Hill Media. Directed by Jean-François Richet, and written by Charles Cumming and J. P. Davis, the film stars Gerard Butler, Mike Colter, Tony Goldwyn, Paul Ben-Victor, Yonson An, and Daniella Pineda.
Watch Moviefone’s ‘Plane’ interviews with Gerard Butler and Mike Colter below:
Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages are Davis’ assessment of the current standings of the race and […]
Swimsuit shopping can be a polarizing experience. Trying on countless designs–even the best bathing suit brands vary in terms of fit–gets exhausting, and that’s especially true if you’re after a supportive, tummy-controlling swimsuit.
We looked for swimsuits that smooth your figure with power mesh and hold everything together with spandex—but, that of course, are still comfortable. They’re also size-inclusive and made with body positivity in mind, because at the end of the day, it’s not about hiding your figure, it’s about wearing things that make you feel like your best self.
Ahead, the best tummy-control swimsuits that we’ve handpicked, worn, and loved.
Best Tummy Control Swimsuits 2023:
All products featured on Glamour are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Filmmaker Penny Lane (“Listening to Kenny G”) is known for her insightful, thought-provoking, humorous documentaries. But her most recent docu, “Confessions of a Good Samaritan,” is her most personal to date. In 2019 the director decided to become a Good Samaritan organ donor – a term given to a person who donates a kidney to a stranger, someone she’s never met and never will meet. Beyond giving away one of her organs, Lane decided to document the process. The result is a funny, intimate, and provocative quest to understand why everyone seems to think Lane is crazy to give away a kidney even though more than 100,000 people in the U.S. are awaiting lifesaving organ transplants. In the docu from Sandbox Films, Lane sets off on a quest to understand the science of altruism, the ethical controversies surrounding organ donation, and her own motivations for giving away her kidney.
Variety spoke with Lane about “Confessions of a Good Samaritan,” which premieres at SXSW on March 10.
In the beginning of this doc, you make it clear that you did not donate an organ so you could make a film about it. Instead, you made yourself the subject of “Confessions of a Good Samaritan” in the hopes that it might lead other people to donate an organ. Yet you say that this is not an advocacy film or a “call to action” documentary. Why not?
If you wanted to make an advertisement for organ donation, I don’t think filming a person like me who finds surgery extremely terrifying and then gets like really depressed afterward is the best route. I do believe that if more people knew about it, I feel pretty certain that more people would feel the way I did (and want to donate a kidney). Nobody tried to convince me to do it. I just heard about it and was moved to do donate. So, I hope people will watch the film and feel motivated or inspired to consider organ donation, but the film isn’t designed to convince anybody.
You make it clear that you are uncomfortable in front of the camera. Was there ever a moment when you wanted to quit making the film?
There was never a moment where I didn’t feel that way. But I genuinely felt like it was like “Confessions of a Good Samaritan” was like a calling, as if it chose me. In this way, the experience of making the film was similar to the experience of donating my kidney. Not exactly fun, definitely difficult, but ultimately rewarding, and the most important spiritual experience I have ever had.
The doc is very personal and at some moments feels like a film less about organ donation than a film about loneliness and connection. Does that ring true to you at all?
One hundred percent. Ultimately this isn’t about me and my life and like the arc of my life. That’s not really the angle. It’s much more of a personal essay where I’m the seeker, and I’m going on this intellectual, emotional, spiritual journey into this topic and through this experience, but in a way, that’s meant to illuminate the subject matter, not ultimately illuminate me.
In all of your films including this one, the people you interview are not only informative but often times very funny. Do you spend a lot of time finding interviewees?
No one ever talks about casting in documentaries, but it’s a huge part of what we do. I knew I didn’t want a hundred talking heads. I really dislike that style of filmmaking where it’s just one person after another, and they go by so fast and you don’t really know who they are or what their connection to the subject matter is. So, I knew I wanted a small number of people, so the casting became really important and took a while.
Despite the subject matter, “Confessions of a Good Samaritan” has many humorous parts. All of your movies do. Do you go into each film determined to make people laugh?
I’m kind of a provocative filmmaker. I’m trying to provoke something, so if you’re going do that you have got to do it with a smile. I mean, it’s just like in a conversation. If you are doing that to someone during a conversation without smiling, they are not going to like you very much. I think that they are going to resist whatever it is you are saying. If you’re laughing and you’re smiling, and you know that the person speaking to you is laughing and smiling, then a lot more feels possible in terms of perhaps changing your mind or considering a point of view you hadn’t considered before. So, if there is a strategy to it, I think that’s what it is. But it’s never conscious. I just like to laugh and have fun and so that is the way that the films come out.
Now that you have been the subject of a documentary, has it changed the way you look at the people who have been the subjects of your past docs?
In fiction, character development is a pretty major topic, but in docs, we tend not to talk about it that way because we just sort of think, ‘Well, I’ve found a real person, and I’m going to represent them as they really are.’ And of course, you do, but you’re also making like a lot of choices about where you are interviewing them. What does the lighting look like? What kind of camera angles are you using? What are you asking them? How are you editing them? There are so many things that you’re doing to craft character. So, long story short, now I feel the weirdness of watching yourself get turned into a persona or a character, and it has made me feel more empathy for my subjects.
Not that I didn’t before, but man, it’s so strange.
Police don’t believe there was any foul play involved in the death of a man whose body was found late last month on a Vernon, B.C., street.
The body was found Feb. 28 at around 6:45 a.m., in the 4100-block of 15th Avenue in Vernon.
“In partnership with the BC Coroners Service, a full and comprehensive investigation was conducted and no evidence was found to suggest any criminality was involved in the person’s death,” RCMP said in a press release.
“The Vernon North Okanagan RCMP offers our sincerest condolences to the family and friends of the man.”
Out of respect for privacy for the deceased, police said they’d release no additional information.
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Danica Patrick is the most successful woman in American race car driving history
She became the first female to win an IndyCar Race Series after her victory in the 2008 Indy Japan 300
The international star has dated famous men like football icon Aaron Rodgers
Danica Patrick gave an update on her health after revealing she had her breast implants removed in October 2022. The superstar race car driver took to her Instagram in March 2023 to let her fans know she is right on track to being herself again. Good news for fans, as the Wisconsin native is one of the most recognized sports heroines in the world and her well-being is clearly on top of their list.
Danica Patrick and Aaron Rodgers in 2019. (Chris Chew/UPI/Shutterstock)
During her illustrious career, Danica gave generations of little girls a revolutionary role model by becoming the most successful woman in American racing history. She topped off her groundbreaking run as the first female to win an IndyCar Race Series after her victory in the 2008 Indy Japan 300.
While she enjoys her incredible legacy, Danica’s love life continues to be in the spotlight, and she certainly isn’t shy on speaking about it either. “I think we learn the most about ourselves through relationships,” she said on Running Wild With Bear Grylls. “But there’s nothing like heartbreak to really throw you in the deep end of that.”
With some heartbreak in her past, Danica also said she knows what she wants now in a partner. “It’s not necessarily that they have their work cut out for him but that they’re going to be an extremely high-quality person with a lot of boxes to check,” she told Tamron Hallin March 2021. “It’s not as though there are boxes to check, it’s just that I know what I want now and I’m not willing to compromise [or] bend as much.”
Let’s find out more about the men who have been romantically involved with Danica. Keep reading to learn more, below.
Paul Edward Hospenthal
Danica Patrick and her ex-husband Paul Edward Hospenthal(A Berliner/BEI/Shutterstock)
Danica’s first big romance unfolded like a movie. After she injured herself during a yoga session in 2002, the beauty sought help from a physical therapist. Yes, you guessed it: the physical therapist was Paul Edward Hospenthal! The couple were solid for many years, until they weren’t, unfortunately. They ended up divorcing in 2013.
However, Danica didn’t swear off marriage after the split. “I mean, I love love,” she joked to US Weekly. “If anyone wants to invite me to a wedding, I’ll go because I love weddings. They’re the best events ever.”
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Danica Patrick and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (Jim Ruymen/UPI/Shutterstock)
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was definitely in Danica’s orbit as he is a NASCAR star, but it’s unclear when they first started dating, as it happened rather quickly after her divorce. The romance was hot and heavy and lasted for five years. “The relationship has really evolved into this really comfortable space where we’re … just really happy,” Danica said in her self-titled 2017 documentary. “It’s really straightforward and simple. And we don’t argue.”
The stars were close enough to walking down the aisle that Danica even commented on their family planning. “I don’t think social services would feel good about me driving 200 miles an hour with a baby in my belly,” she joked to USA Today.
Aaron Rodgers
Danica and the famous football-playing, serial-dating Aaron Rodgersinitially met at the 2012 ESPY Awards but didn’t start dating until January 2018. At the time, she sounded head over heels for the NFL icon when she told US Weekly, “You can rely on yourself or you can also rely on those closest to you that are honest, not people that want to tell you what you want to hear, but people that are gonna tell you what you need to hear and be honest with you.”
The romance proved to be short lived, as they sadly split in July 2020. “At the beginning of the last relationship. I was like, ‘Look. You either grow together; one grows and one doesn’t; or you grow apart,’” she explained on The Rachel Hollis Show at the time of their breakup. “I have never experienced growth without pain.”
She also talked about the split on Running Wild With Bear Grylls. “I’ve learned a lot and as broken open as I was on the sad end, I have felt so much joy in so many more instances and so many more unlikely places than I ever have, so it’s like my heart got broken open to both ends of the spectrum.”
Carter Comstock
Carter Comstock and Danica Patrick. (Matt Baron/Shutterstock)
After the split with quarterback, the “Pretty Intense” podcast host sparked up a romance with Carter Comstock. Danica was set up with the Freshly Co-Founder and CIO by the co-founders of a company Danica and Carter invest in. The set up worked and by April 2021, the couple were Instagram official.
After a year, however, they went their separate ways. “We were together for a while, and unfortunately it didn’t work, but it doesn’t mean that it wasn’t a really fun time and we didn’t do a lot of really amazing things,” she told Peoplein March 2022. “It doesn’t mean that there’s something wrong with either of us,” she adds. “It’s just a matter of finding someone who you can stand the test of time with.”
The second-largest bank failure in U.S. history rocked the tech industry and sent ripples of anxiety throughout the financial system Friday as Silicon Valley Bank went from being a key part of the tech ecosystem to collapsing in a matter of hours.
The bank, which largely serves start-ups and venture capitalists, was shut down by regulators and taken over by the federal government after depositors scrambled to withdraw their money following a surprise filing from the firm on Wednesday night that it had sold $21 billion in assets and was selling more of its own stock to shore up its balance sheet.
The stock prices of other banks fell, too, and Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen said she was monitoring the situation. Start-up founders and venture capitalists fretted that money needed to pay employees could be lost or frozen by the bank’s collapse.
Silicon Valley Bank’s rapid failure shocked the tech industry, prompting fears that the economic situation for the sector is worse than previously thought. The collapse is also strengthening calls from Wall Street analysts and investors that the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes are too aggressive and risk causing serious damage to the economy.
At the end of December, Silicon Valley Bank held about $209 billion in total assets, making it the second-largest failure of a federally insured bank after Washington Mutual, which collapsed during the financial crisis in 2008. A spokesperson for the bank did not respond to a request for comment.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which took over the bank, said depositors would be able to withdraw the $250,000 of government-insured funds on Monday. But because the bank served tech businesses, many of them had much higher amounts of money stored with the bank. On Friday, questions ricocheted around Silicon Valley about whether companies would be able to get their money back and what to do if they couldn’t.
The bank’s failure also leaves a gaping hole for the tech industry, which had relied on the bank for its expertise in start-ups and willingness to provide services to fast-growing risky ventures.
“No bank understand start-ups and tech the way they do,” said Antoine Nivard, co-founder and general partner at Blank Ventures. “They have a 40-year reputation earned the hard way built on the most extensive network of insider relationships with Silicon Valley’s most important players.”
The FDIC said it created a new bank to manage the firm’s operations, starting on Monday — a rare occurrence in a bank failure that typically means the process was rushed.
Officials at the FDIC worked into the early morning hours on Friday as it became increasingly clear that regulators may have to shut down the bank, according to two people briefed on the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private deliberations.
The looming disaster sneaked up on them quickly. In previous crises, officials have had weeks or months to try to find a larger bank to take over a smaller one in distress. The highly accelerated timetable in this instance made that extremely difficult, if not impossible.
As the voting members of the FDIC received regular virtual briefings throughout the day on Thursday, regulators zeroed in on just how big the bank was, the people said. Silicon Valley Bank dwarfed the size of Silvergate, a bank of about a tenth of the size that was recently forced to liquidate.
For now, many banking regulators are confident that the contagion will not spread to the financial sector more broadly. There are not that many banks structured like the Silicon Valley Bank, and rules after the 2008 financial crisis help guarantee the stability of the very biggest Wall Street firms.
But some experts say regulators should move quickly to minimize the risk. Lawrence H. Summers, the former Democratic treasury secretary, said he is hopeful the former Silicon Valley Bank will be incorporated and doing business regularly as part of another financial firm by Monday. A sale to another bank, however, could come at a loss, in which case the FDIC may have to provide federal support to facilitate the sale. That could trigger a populist outcry.
Summers said he hopes that “if it’s necessary to provide some kind of support to get that kind of transaction done, the FDIC will do it.” He added: “I don’t think this is a time for moral hazard speeches.”
Natasha Sarin, a former top official in the Biden administration’s Treasury Department, said there probably is a “very active” conversation among federal regulators about what to do with the bank.
“Whether there is contagion and effects that follow onto other financial institutions is something regulators are incredibly focused on right now, because this is a traditional bank run. That’s what is happening,” Sarin said. “You have to work for any systemic effects that are going to arise.”
Founded in 1983, Silicon Valley Bank grew alongside the tech industry, weathering the ups and downs inherent to the sector. As the venture capital market boomed in the late 2000s and early 2010s, the bank took advantage of the influx of new start-ups, becoming a go-to banker for companies that needed a bank that could handle the risky and fast-moving world of early-stage tech.
The bank expanded rapidly, opening new U.S. offices and adding international ones, too. It now has a presence in nine countries, including China and India. It served a spectrum of small and large tech companies, including e-commerce powerhouse Shopify and cybersecurity company CrowdStrike. Its clients list also included powerful tech founders and executives, as well as storied venture capital firms like Andreessen Horowitz and Insight Partners.
On Friday, the bank’s glass-front and wood-paneled two-story building on Silicon Valley’s famous Sand Hill Road — known for housing venture capital funds that invest in start-ups — was quiet. A news release was taped to the front glass doors announcing that regulators had closed the bank.
After the bank said it had sold assets and was raising new money on Wednesday, some tech investors and founders on Twitter encouraged others on Thursday to withdraw their money as fast as possible. Others said not to act too hastily for fear of causing a collapse.
“There’s clearly panic going on,” said Cornelius Hurley, an adjunct banking law professor at Boston University School of Law. “But sometimes panic can be rational.”
At a hearing Friday, Yellen said: “When banks experience financial losses, it is and should be a matter of concern.”
Yellen had convened leaders from the nation’s top banking regulators — the FDIC, Federal Reserve and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency — to discuss the Silicon Valley Bank failure, the Treasury Department said in a statement.
“Yellen expressed full confidence in banking regulators to take appropriate actions in response and noted that the banking system remains resilient and regulators have effective tools to address this type of event,” the statement added.
Briefing reporters at the White House on Friday, Cecilia Rouse, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said the financial system was much safer due to the bank stress tests and other safeguards approved by Democrats to rein in Wall Street following the 2008 crisis.
“Our regulators have much more visibility into the banking sector than they did a decade ago,” Rouse said. “We know we had to build more resilience into our banking system, which allows it to withstand these kinds of shocks. I do have faith that we have the tools for this sector and for our regulators.”
Over the past year, share prices for tech companies have cratered as high interest rates and concerns about the economy cut into the amount of money available for investment in big tech projects and start-up funding. Both big and small companies have laid off tens of thousands of workers — though most companies are still making money and growing, and concerns are far lower than they were during the dot-com crash or the financial crisis of 2008. Large company CEOs have blamed the layoffs on over-hiring during the pandemic, and venture capitalists have said the pullback in new start-up funding was a needed correction from years of over-exuberance.
Still, the panic over Silicon Valley Bank revealed deeper fears that the economic situation in Silicon Valley could get worse. Arjun Sethi, co-founder of venture investor Tribe Capital, said in a memo posted to LinkedIn that the industry was one-third of the way through “the desert” and that founders should be prepared for new funding to become harder to come by.
“Our advice to founders: Call every debt line, close all primary rounds, do it now, and be willing to make concessions,” Sethi said. “The restructuring will be significant.”
Already, the bank failure is affecting start-ups. Parker Conrad, CEO of payroll software company Rippling, tweeted Friday that payments made through the company’s tech were being held up because they went through Silicon Valley Bank’s system.
“This morning, SVB’s systems indicated that all payments had been processed successfully. However, we subsequently learned that no payments had actually been sent to employees,” Conrad said.
Rippling switched to using JPMorgan Chase and had to send out payroll for its many customers a second time, he said. Many workers still hadn’t been paid but would get their money by Monday, Conrad said.
A bank failure of this magnitude may trickle down to taxpayers. Federal regulators will have to sell Silicon Valley Bank’s assets to cover its advances. If the federal deposit insurance fund is used, it will need to be replenished, Hurley said.
The bank’s problems represent one of the early signs of financial stress caused by the Federal Reserve’s year-long campaign to raise interest rates. With inflation still uncomfortably high, the Fed is expected to continue raising rates. Investors now anticipate the central bank’s benchmark rate may rise to near 6 percent from a current target range of 4.5 percent to 4.75 percent.
Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell says higher rates are needed to cool off an overheated economy and ease price pressures. But as rates go higher, additional financial losses are likely to emerge at other institutions.
“If the Fed keeps jacking up rates, it’s going to exacerbate the situation,” said Bert Ely, a veteran banking industry consultant.
The tech industry has been grappling with the changing economy and renewed pressure from Wall Street investors to cut costs and focus on profit after years of spending money to continuously grow their businesses.
During the pandemic, big companies such as Amazon, Facebook and Google hired tens of thousands of new workers to take advantage of the growth in demand for digital services as lockdowns forced people to work, shop and get their recreation through the internet. But as people returned to their in-person lives, and the stimulus funding pushed into the economy by the government dried up, the tech companies that had benefited the most from the pandemic-era economy saw their stock prices plummet.
Over the past several months, most of them have cut costs and fired workers, something that few have had to do over the past decade. The cuts have prompted soul-searching in Silicon Valley, where tech workers had grown accustomed to high salaries and constant demand for engineers and salespeople.
“I am hearing from dozens of founders about what to do at SVB,” Howard Lerman, the co-founder of business software company Yext, said on Twitter. “It’s an all out bank run.”
Lisa Bonos and David Lynch contributed to this report.
Tucker Carlson this week said emphatically that “everyone should have access” to the more than 40,000 hours of Jan. 6 security footage shared with his Fox News show, then spoke at length about how – though he is “the easiest person to reach” – no “working journalist” has bothered to ask for a look.
Well, TheWrap has been trying for four full business days. Neither have we seen the footage, nor has anyone penned so much as a polite “We’ll get back to you.” Full crickets.
“I personally think everyone should have access to [the tapes],” Carlson chirped Thursday on “The Glenn Beck Program,” telling the namesake host: “I’ll put you in touch with my producer who’s been dealing with the speaker’s office.”
Good luck with that, Glenn Beck. TheWrap sent a formal Freedom of Information Act request to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-California, on Tuesday. It has, as of Friday, been left unanswered.
The Wrap also sent a text message Thursday to Carlson, who has yet to respond. Given Carlson’s comments to Beck, forgive us for taking that a bit personally.
“Not one working journalist has texted me directly, and everybody in the world, including my UPS delivery guy, has my text,” Carlson said told Beck. “Nobody doesn’t have my text. … I’ve had the same phone number since 1995. I am not hard to get in touch with at all. I respond to every text, every day.”
If TheWrap does come to obtain the Capitol security footage, we do not intend to make a supercut of the endless hours of empty spaces and reframe Jan. 6 as nothing more than inspiration for “The Backrooms.”
South By Southwest has effectively taken over the streets of Austin, Texas.
With brand activations spilling out of bars, restaurants, parking lots and venues, and hundreds of celebrated founders, marketers and tech savants speaking on panels in and around the city’s downtown hotels and convention center, the excited buzz of the festival is palpable throughout the city.
Major advertisers have descended upon the city in tandem with SXSW, both as festival sponsors and as participants. C4 Energy, Itaú Bank, Porsche, Showtime, Slack, Volkswagen, White Claw are the event’s major sponsors, with differing levels and formats of brand presence throughout the festival.
Dozens of other brands are involved in different capacities, from simply paying to have an SXSW-branded series of events, contributing to panel discussions or sponsoring specific portions of the festival, like music, film or comedy.
Marketers told Adweek that the festival’s cross-section of attendees—ranging from music and comedy to film and emerging tech—offers a unique proposition for brand sponsors.
“South By is just a big, broad, cultural, innovative tent,” Puja Vohra, evp of brand marketing and strategy for Showtime, told Adweek. “You just have to be there.”
Showtime shows up again
In addition to its status as a super sponsor for SXSW, Showtime also sponsors the SXSW Go app. Each time attendees open the app, they see an ad for Showtime’s brand activation centered on the thriller/horror series Yellowjackets, which is open to the public on March 11 and 12. The brand’s logo is also on half of SXSW’s iconic tote bags—HBO Max has its logo on the other half of the branded inventory.
Showtime declined to share how much it paid for its sponsorship deal, citing competitive reasons.
While attendance numbers won’t be finalized and available until after SXSW wraps, Peter Lewis, chief partnerships officer for the event, told Adweek that it expects this year to be “on par” with the kind of participation they saw prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Partnership prices for 2023 were higher than last year, when Covid-related uncertainty kept prices a bit lower, noted Micky Ogando, CEO and chief creative officer at Austin-based indie agency Bakery. Last year, Bakery client and Texas-based beer brand Shiner was the official craft beer sponsor of the festival. This year, the brewer’s diverting those funds to other partnerships, Ogando said—in part due to the increased cost of sponsoring SXSW.
Bringing Slack to life
Slack, another SXSW super sponsor, is bringing its own immersive experience to the Texas capital this year. While the communication platform also activated at SXSW last year, its 2023 presence has a much bigger footprint and a broader mission—to show folks that Slack can do a lot more than just send messages to your colleagues.
“We have an enterprise audience, which is more of those software decision makers, C-suite individuals, and then we have our self-serve audience, which are team influencers and general population,” Colin McRae, head of brand and creative at Slack, told Adweek.
An attendee interacts with Slack’s SXSW activation in 2022.SXSW
The activation itself, which sits along Congress Avenue in downtown Austin between March 11-14, brings to life some of Slack’s newer and lesser known features. That includes things like automating rote tasks or connecting via huddles and clips, McRae explained.
Celebrating 50 years
For Patagonia, bringing the brand to Austin served a different purpose. The company today launched its 50th anniversary campaign, coinciding with the first day of SXSW.
The campaign focuses on “activism, conscious consumption and connection” as a way of “connecting people to action and helping meaningfully change people’s behavior,” explained Aileen Ottenweller, head of brand and business impact at Patagonia.
“To kick off at South By, we planned a series of events that help catalyze that for the Austin community,” she said. That includes hosting runs, happy hours and trail cleanups as well as providing spaces for grassroots environmental groups like PODER, Urban Roots and Austin Youth River Watch to connect with people. Patagonia’s repair truck will also be available to help people keep their gear in play for longer.
The company paid a fee of around $5,000 to co-brand its SXSW-related programming and to ensure that its events are available to attendees via SXSW’s online and in-app schedule, Ottenweller said. While it’s not an official sponsor, Patagonia’s CEO Ryan Gellert will be onstage with Katie Couric for a keynote on March 12.
The former Canadian actor (“Little Mosque on the Prairie”), now Canada’s consul general in Los Angeles, has a point.
There is a healthy crop of Canadians and Canadian-led films nominated for Oscars at Sunday’s Academy Awards, including James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” and Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking,” which are both up for Best Picture.
In keeping with tradition, Shaikh welcomed the Canadian nominees at a private reception at Canada House in L.A. on Thursday evening. The event was attended by many, including Toronto filmmakers Polley and Domee Shi, and Canadian-American actor Brendan Fraser, nominated for Best Actor for “The Whale.”
“We’re just so proud to represent Canada,” Shaikh said ahead of the reception in a virtual interview.
“We’re really shining, we’re outpacing and we’re getting the recognition in a way finally that we deserve … Mary Pickford came from Toronto to Hollywood and helped start the first artists-driven studio with United Artists with Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and others. So we’ve always been part of the DNA of Hollywood, now we just get to celebrate a lot of it,” he said.
Polley, who is nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for “Women Talking,” has been enjoying this awards season experience.
The moment isn’t lost on Domee Shi, either, the Chinese-born Canadian filmmaker who won an Oscar for in 2019 for her animated short film “Bao” and whose “Turning Red” is nominated for Best Animated Feature Film Sunday.
“It’s been such a kind year and there’s been a sense of camaraderie, and I’ve learned a lot,” she said in an interview. “I’ve also found it a really creative process because I’m developing a project based on the experience of going through award season.
“I thought I was going to be more cynical about it and there’s certainly lots you could choose to be cynical about. I don’t think I realized how much joy I was going to get out of the experience because, ultimately, art is not a competitive sport (but) I’ve been surprised by how meaningful many of the moments have been.”
Taking part in awards season has been unreal, according to “Women Talking” actor Sheila McCarthy, a veteran of Canadian film and TV. “For years, I’ve been watching the Oscars going, ‘Someday, maybe I could be there,’ and so here I am, and to be here to celebrate Sarah Polley and her excellence, I’m so honoured to be part of her movie, too.”
The moment isn’t lost on Domee Shi, either, the Chinese-born Canadian filmmaker who won an Oscar for in 2019 for her animated short film “Bao” and whose “Turning Red” is nominated for Best Animated Feature Film Sunday.
“This is such a personal film for me as it’s based on my own life growing up in Toronto as a 13-year-old Chinese-Canadian girl,” she said. “It’s a love letter to Toronto. So it’s huge that this movie has been commercially, critically successful, just to have it recognized at the Oscars. I think it hopefully shows studios that if they invest in different kinds of storytellers, different kinds of stories, that it will resonate with audiences.”
For Mississauga-born Maitreyi Ramakrishnan (“Never Have I Ever”), who voices a character in “Turning Red,” putting Toronto on the map has been thrilling. “I never thought that there would be a Pixar movie set in Toronto,” she said. “Canadian stories have that power. I think they’re unique, but they are still relatable and people feel themselves in those stories.”
Kitchener-raised director Chris Williams is competing in the same category as “Turning Red” with “The Sea Beast.”
“There’s something that I feel that’s true of Canadians is that we really celebrate the power of the collective and the power of the community, and that we prioritize the well-being of the community that ultimately is good for your own personal well-being,” he said. “I think that sort of approach really lends itself to animation because it’s such a collective endeavour.”
Williams attributes the Oscar recognition for Canadian animators over the years to the National Film Board. “I grew up watching those incredible animated films and really being inspired by them, and they were great and I could see they were made in Canada. It made it very tangible and it felt like it was within reach,” he said.
Calgary filmmakers Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby, nominated with producer David Christensen in the Best Animated Short category for “The Flying Sailor,” also credit the NFB for Canada’s strong animation track record.
“We’re really proud of the institution, we’re really proud of the fact that it supports filmmaking (that’s) not necessarily going to turn a profit but that is a sincere expression of something unique … And of course, we’re always proud to represent Canada in the U.S.”
Canada is well represented by documentaries, too, including Best Documentary Feature front-runner “Navalny” by Toronto’s Daniel Roher. Montreal producer Ina Fichman is nominated in the same category for the doc “Fire of Love.”
“I think for many of us, who’ve made documentaries for so long, you were very proud that this form of storytelling has really captured the hearts and minds of viewers worldwide, and certainly in Canada,” she said.
Shi believes it’s the diversity of Canadian storytelling that strikes a chord with audiences. “Getting an opportunity to show the Canada that I grew up in, with the diversity in Toronto, with all of the immigrant classmates and friends and I grew up with, the food, the neighbourhoods like Chinatown and Kensington Market, I think it’s something that a lot of audiences haven’t seen before.”
But while the Oscars have made strides in terms of representation, there’s still a long way to go, according to Shi and Polley.
“The last couple of years looked good or at least a bit better. But it’s still weak,” Polley said. “I think that when you see a lack of inclusion (in) things like awards … it is a symptom of a larger systemic issue in terms of what voices we’re listening to and who’s being heard, who’s getting financing for films and who’s getting momentum.”
Ramakrishnan said she hopes Canada moves further away from its “little brother energy” when compared to the U.S. “We also have just as important stories to tell, so have that story set in Toronto, in Vancouver, Calgary or anywhere else.”
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One thing Oscar lovers can all agree on is it’s rare for there to be an Academy Award winner that everyone agrees on (“Moonlight” and “Parasite” winning best picture are the rare exceptions, for example). Oscars history is chock full of winners that ignited shock, controversy and backlash. There’s the enduring outrage about best picture upsets like “Crash” over “Brokeback Mountain,” “Shakespeare in Love” over “Saving Private Ryan” and “Green Book” over “Roma,” and there’s the decades-long disappointment of Martin Scorsese losing one directing Oscar after another.
But what is the most controversial Oscar winner in history? Take a deep dive into two dozen of the most outrage-inducing Academy Award wins in history.
Will Smith’s best actor victory for “King Richard” was not supposed to be controversial. Then came the infamous slap. Smith took to the Oscars stage and slapped Chris Rock across the face while the latter was presenting the best documentary feature category. Best actor had not yet been announced, meaning Smith would win as the industry and the entire Oscars viewership remained stunned and confused over the slap. Some attendees gave Smith a standing ovation when his name was called, while others sat appalled. The Academy earned backlash for allowing Smith to remain in the theater and accept his Oscar, with AMPAS president Janet Yang later admitting the organization dropped the ball by waiting too long to respond.
“I’m sure you all remember we experienced an unprecedented event at the Oscars,” Yang said at the 2023 Oscars Nominees Luncheon. “What happened onstage was fully unacceptable and the response from our organization was inadequate. We learned from this that the Academy must be fully transparent and accountable in our actions, and particularly in times of crisis you must act swiftly, compassionately and decisively for ourselves and for our industry. You should and can expect no less form us going forward.”
‘Crash’ Wins Best Picture Over ‘Brokeback Mountain’
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Ang Lee’s acclaimed romance drama “Brokeback Mountain” was the critical favorite for best picture heading into the 2006 Oscars. “Brokeback” won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival before claiming top prizes at the Golden Globes and the BAFTAs, but Paul Haggis’ divisive “Crash” stole some of its thunder with a crucial ensemble cast win at the Screen Actors Guild Awards. As the Oscars drew closer, reports of homophobia among the Academy’s old guard surfaced and led many pundits to wonder if “Brokeback” could stick the landing. Actors and Academy members such as Ernest Borgnine and Tony Curtis spoke out against the film, both saying John Wayne would despise the movie because of its gay cowboys. Lo and behold, “Crash” prevailed over “Brokeback Mountain” in one of the most controversial best picture wins in Oscars history. Critics still ask if “Crash” is the worst best picture winner.
‘Green Book’ Wins Best Picture Over ‘Roma’
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“Crash” was widely considered the worst best picture winner of the 21st century until Peter Farrelly’s “Green Book” took home the Oscars’ top prize at the 91st Academy Awards. “Green Book,” a sanitized biographical drama about Black jazz pianist Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali, who won the Oscar for supporting actor) and his white driver and bodyguard Frank “Tony Lip” Vallelonga (Viggo Mortensen, nominated for best actor), prevailed over “Roma,” Alfonso Cuarón’s acclaimed drama that won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and best picture at the BAFTAs. “Roma” won Oscars for director, cinematography and international feature from 10 total nominations (the most nominated film at the 2019 Oscars along with “The Favourite”), but Academy members’ alleged opposition toward giving the top Oscar to a Netflix movie reportedly impacted the drama in the best picture race.
‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ Wins Best Editing
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It wasn’t necessarily a surprise that “Bohemian Rhapsody” won the Oscar for film editing, as the movie prevailed at the ACE Eddie Awards prior to the 2019 Oscars, but the victory led to a considerable amount of backlash from moviegoers and film critics who believed the Queen biopic was one of the worst edited films of the year. A video essay released after the Oscars detailed how sloppily edited “Bohemian Rhapsody” was, and it went viral with over 3 million views. One scene from the film, in which the band meets with their eventual manager John Reid (Aidan Gillen), was especially criticized for its frenetic over-editing. Even the film’s editor, John Ottman, eventually derided the scene, telling The Washington Post, “Whenever I see it, I want to put a bag over my head. Because that’s not my aesthetic. If there’s ever an extended version of the film where I can put a couple scenes back, I will recut that scene!”
‘Life of Pi’ Wins Best Cinematography
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Ang Lee’s “Life of Pi” was awarded the cinematography prize at the 85th Academy Awards, but the win for director of photography Claudio Miranda ignited controversy as the film was largely constructed using digital effects. The Oscar win led to many conversations about the intersection between cinematography and visual effects. “Life of Pi” was also awarded the Oscar for visual effects. Following the 2013 Academy Awards, veteran cinematographer Christopher Doyle slammed the “Life of Pi” win by saying, “What a total fucking piece of shit. Let me be blunt….What the fuck are you talking about cinematography? I think it’s a fucking insult to cinematography…That’s not cinematography…You’ve lost cinema. This is not cinema and it’s not cinematography.”
Rami Malek Wins Best Actor Over Bradley Cooper
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Rami Malek dominated the 2019 Oscar season by winning best actor honors from the Golden Globes, SAG Awards and BAFTAs for his performance as Freddie Mercury in the Queen biographical drama “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which made his Oscar win one of the biggest locks at the 91st Academy Awards. Even so, Malek’s performance divided film critics all season long and the film itself was largely panned. Many pundits believed Bradley Cooper deserved the prize, not only for giving one of his best acting performances in “A Star Is Born,” but also because the Academy snubbed him in the best director race. Cooper created an original character that permeated the cultural zeitgeist (everyone knows the name Jackson Maine), but Oscar voters still went their usual route of honoring a prosthetics-laden performance for a real-life figure.
Marisa Tomei Wins Best Supporting Actress
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Not many Oscar pundits were expecting Marisa Tomei to win the Oscar for supporting actress at the 1993 Oscars. The Academy rarely honors comedic performances (Tomei’s role in “My Cousin Vinny” is a bawdy comedic delight), and Tomei failed to garner nominations at any of the major pre-cursor awards ceremonies. “Enchanted April” actor Joan Plowright won at the Golden Globes and “Damage” star Miranda Richardson won the BAFTA, and both actors were nominated against Tomei at the Oscars. Following Tomei’s shocking victory, rumors surfaced that her name was called by mistake and that she didn’t actually win the award. However, the Academy has long fell in love with young breakthrough female actors and Tomei certainly fit the bill with her vivacious turn in “My Cousin Vinny.”
‘Shakespeare in Love’ Wins Best Picture Over ‘Saving Private Ryan’
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John Madden’s “Shakespeare in Love” triumphing over Steven Spielberg’s war epic “Saving Private Ryan” for best picture at the 1999 Oscars remains one of the most controversial upsets in Academy Awards history. The 11-time Oscar nominee and Golden Globe winner “Saving Private Ryan” was the presumed frontrunner, although “Shakespeare in Love” had taken the BAFTA and “Life Is Beautiful” claimed the SAG ensemble prize. It wasn’t a clean best picture sweep for Spielberg’s film going into the Oscars, and Harvey Weinstein’s ruthless awards season campaigning for Miramax-backed “Shakespeare in Love” ended up giving it the edge over “Saving Private Ryan.” The industry was shocked, and awards season was forever changed.
‘Driving Miss Daisy’ Wins Best Picture
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“Driving Miss Daisy” was the big victor at the 62nd Academy Awards in 1990, winning best picture and best actress (Jessica Tandy) from nine total nominations. The film faced competition from BAFTA winner “Dead Poets Society” and Golden Globe winner “Born on the Fourth of July,” but the reason “Driving Miss Daisy’s” victory proved controversial was because it won in a year when the Academy mostly shut out Spike Lee’s magnum opus “Do the Right Thing.” Lee’s film only got a nomination in the original screenplay race. That the Academy rejected “Do the Right Thing” for best picture and gave the prize to a more sanitized look at race relations led to backlash, which was already brewing because of the “Do the Right Thing” snub in the first place. While presenting at the 1990s Oscars, Kim Basinger told the audience about the best picture race: “We’ve got five great films here, and they’re great for one reason: They tell the truth. But there is one film missing from this list that deserves to be on it because, ironically, it might tell the biggest truth of all. And that’s ‘Do the Right Thing.’”
Tom Hooper Wins Best Director Over David Fincher
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Tom Hooper’s “The King Speech” proved a controversial winner at the 83rd Academy Awards, winning the top prizes for best picture and best director over the far-more acclaimed “The Social Network” and David Fincher. Facebook drama “The Social Network” is widely regarded as one of the best movies of the 21st century, so the Academy’s decision to award the more paint-by-the-numbers historical drama “The King’s Speech” with its top prize remains a point of contention among cinephiles. Some pundits hoped Fincher would still take the directing prize even if “The King’s Speech” claimed best picture (in a similar way to Ang Lee winning director without “Brokeback Mountain” taking picture), but the Academy was still very much in its old school lane of awarding the same film with its top two prizes.
‘Forrest Gump’ Wins Best Picture Over ‘Pulp Fiction’
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Quentin Tarantino had to settle with winning original screenplay for “Pulp Fiction” at the 67th Academy Awrds, where Robert Zemeckis’ “Forrest Gump” owned the ceremony with six total wins and top victories for best picture and best director. History has proved far kinder to “Pulp Fiction,” Tarantino’s Palme d’Or winner that shocked audiences and came to define the rebellious indie spirit of 1990s U.S. cinema. “Forrest Gump” has waned in critical popularity over the years, but its crowd-pleasing nature proved more attractive to Oscar voters in 1995 than Tarantino’s more radical blend of violence and comedy.
Roman Polanski Wins Best Director
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Roman Polanski was awarded best director for “The Pianist” at the 75th Academy Awards, but the filmmaker was not in attendance as he fled the United States decades earlier after pleading guilty to statutory rape. Polanski was found guilty in 1977 of having sexual intercourse with a minor and served 42 days behind bars. Polanski was ready to accept a plea bargain that would have freed him from additional prison time, but he fled the country after learning the judge in his case didn’t plan to accept the agreement. The filmmaker has never returned to the U.S. In the midst of the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements in 2018, the Academy expelled Polanski from its membership for not meeting the organizations’ standards of conduct.
Kevin Costner Wins Best Director Over Martin Scorsese
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Kevin Costner’s Western drama “Dances With Wolves” dominated the 63rd Academy Awards with wins for best picture and best director from 12 total nominations. Overall, “Dances With Wolves” ended the ceremony with seven Oscars. Costner’s wins in the top two categories would’ve been far less controversial had Martin Scorsese’s gangster masterpiece “Goodfellas” not also been nominated. What made Scorsese’s snub for best director painful was not just that “Goodfellas” was one of his most defining directorial achievements, but also that Scorsese had yet to win an Oscar at the time. Even the Academy’s penchant for honoring “long overdue” nominees didn’t apply to Scorsese this year. Scorsese would have to wait until “The Departed” to win his director Oscar.
Robert Redford Wins Best Director Over Martin Scorsese
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Martin Scorsese could never catch a break at the Oscars. Although “Raging Bull” is considered one of Scorsese’s crowning directorial achievements, the filmmaker lost the directing Oscar to Robert Redford for “Ordinary People.” Redford had an irresistible narrative in his corner. An acting icon who at the time only had one Oscar nomination to his name (best actor for “The Sting”), Redford redefined his career with feature directorial debut “Ordinary People” and the Academy just couldn’t ignore him. The emotional family drama won four Oscars, including best picture. Scorsese would just have to keep waiting.
‘The English Patient’ Wins Best Picture Over ‘Fargo’
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Anthony Minghella’s romance epic “The English Patient” was the big winner at the 69th Academy Awards with top prizes for picture and director, but many pundits felt the Academy made the safer choice in selecting “The English Patient” over the Coen Brothers’ “Fargo” for best picture. “Fargo” lacked the sweeping historical scope that made “The English Patient” more traditional Oscar bait, but there’s a reason “Fargo” has stood the test of time and that’s because of the Coen Bros.’ idiosyncratic black humor. “Fargo” felt like no other movie nominated at the 1997 Oscars, but the Academy was a lot more resistant in the 1990s to spotlighting something fresh for best picture than it is today.
Robert Benton Wins Best Director Over Francis Ford Coppola
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“Kramer vs. Kramer” is a searing divorce drama that was awarded many of the top categories at the 52nd Academy Awards. No one is going to argue against “Kramer vs. Kramer” landing Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep wins for actor and supporting actress, respectively, as the movie is first and foremost a powerhouse acting showcase. But “Kramer vs. Kramer” for picture and director? That’s a different story considering the film beat out Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now,” widely considered one of the greatest movies ever made. Even Bob Fosse’s dazzling vision for “All That Jazz” should’ve made him a stronger director choice than Robert Benton. Perhaps the Academy felt Coppola had his time in the Oscars’ spotlight with “The Godfather,” but failing to recognize “Apocalypse Now” remains a controversial snub.
Marlon Brando Declines Best Actor for ‘The Godfather’
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One of the most controversial Oscar moments took place at the 45th Academy Awards, where Marlon Brando was named the winner in the best actor race thanks to his performance in “The Godfather.” Brando declined the award and sent up Apache actress and activist Sacheen Littlefeather in his place so that she could read a speech denouncing the “poor treatment of Native Americans in the film industry.” Littlefeather added, “I’m representing Marlon Brando this evening, and he has asked me to tell you in a very long speech which I cannot share with you presently, because of time, but I will be glad to share with the press afterwards, that he very regretfully cannot accept this very generous award.” Brando’s decision garnered both cheers and boos from the Oscars audience.
George C. Scott Declines Best Actor for ‘Patton’
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George C. Scott became the first actor in Oscars history to decline his Academy Award when he was named the winner for best actor at the 43rd Academy Awards thanks to his leading role in “Patton.” Scott infamously called the Oscars “a two-hour meat parade” and “a public display with contrived suspense for economic reasons.” The actor requested that his name not even be included on the best actor ballot during the voting process. In a telegram sent to the Academy, Scott wrote, “I respectfully request that you withdraw my name from the list of nominees. My request is in no way intended to denigrate my colleagues.”
‘Suicide Squad’ Wins an Oscar
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On the list of Oscar winners with the worst reviews, David Ayer’s maligned comic book tentpole “Suicide Squad” might just be at the top. The movie won the makeup and hairstyling prize at the 89th Academy Awards, besting “A Man Called Ove” and “Star Trek Beyond.” The win was during a period when the Oscars only nominated three movies for the makeup prize. The academy was expanded to five nominees starting with the 92nd Academy Awards. No one would argue against “Suicide Squad” having strong makeup work (Margot Robbie’s comics-accurate Harley Quinn, specifically), but the fact that Ayer’s film could accurately be called “Oscar winner ‘Suicide Squad’” left many cinephiles riled up.
‘Spectre’ Wins Best Original Song
Image Credit: Everett Collection
When Adele won the Oscar for original song with “Skyfall,” she became the first artist to take home the Academy Award in the category for a Bond movie. Adele apparently opened the door for Sam Smith to coast right through, as Smith’s Bond song “Writings on the Wall” from “Spectre” was awarded the Oscar for original song at the 88th Academy Awards despite being widely considered among Bond fans to be one of the franchise’s weakest tracks. The Weeknd’s “Fifty Shades of Grey” infectious pop song “Earned It” could have been a fresh change of pace for the Academy, while Lady Gaga’s powerful “Til It Happens to You” from the sexual assault documentary “The Hunting Grown” was considered another stronger option at the 2016 Oscars.
‘My Octopus Teacher’ Wins Best Documentary
Image Credit: Everett Collection
When “My Octopus Teacher” won the documentary prize at the 93rd Academy Awards, many pundits deduced that it won not for being the best non-fiction feature in contention but for being the most widely-seen one. “My Octopus Teacher” had Netflix in its corner, which made it more widely accessible for a longer period of time than fellow nominees like “Time” and “The Mole Agent.” Critics were on “Time’s” side. Garrett Bradley’s astonishing documentary was named one of the best films of the year by several publications, but all of the film’s artistic flares were no match for the straightforward approach of “My Octopus Teacher.”
The series was recently recognized with the Critics Choice Association Seal of Female Empowerment in Entertainment. The seal represents outstanding new films and television series that illuminate the female experience and perspective through authentically told female-driven stories.
“Our entire team is deeply humbled by this meaningful recognition,” said Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur executive producers Laurence Fishburne, Helen Sugland and Steve Loter. “From the beginning, our passion for promoting female, family, and ethnic diversity has been a driving force behind bringing this special show to life. It’s important to us that all children feel like they are seen, that they matter, and that their life experience is valued and limitless.”
In addition, the series received Common Sense Media’s Common Sense Seal. The seal recognizes outstanding entertainment that includes age-appropriate media with the potential to spark family conversations, entertain families of all kinds, and have a positive, lasting effect on society.
Check out the full press release below for all the details.
WARNER BROS. DISCOVERY HOME ENTERTAINMENT
TO HOST WORLD PREMIERES OF
BATMAN: THE DOOM THAT CAME TO GOTHAM,
JUSTICE LEAGUE x RWBY: SUPER HEROES & HUNTSMEN, PART ONE
AT WONDERCON 2023 IN ANAHEIM
CASTS, FILMMAKERS SET FOR PANELS OVER MARCH 24-26 WEEKEND
BURBANK, CA (March 9, 2023) – Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment returns to WonderCon 2023 with its traditional big screen debuts of DC animated films – headlined this year by the World Premieres of the highly anticipated Batman: The Doom That Came To Gotham and Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen, Part One during the March 24-26 weekend in Anaheim, CA. Both screenings will be followed by panel discussions amongst cast and filmmakers.
Batman: The Doom That Came To Gotham will premiere on Friday, March 24 at 6:00pm in the Arena. Thus far, confirmed to participate on the post-screening panel is Tati Gabrielle (Kaleidoscope, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Uncharted) as Kai Li Cain, Christopher Gorham (The Lincoln Lawyer, Insatiable) as Oliver Queen, David Dastmalchian (Dune, The Suicide Squad, Ant-Man) as Grendon, producer/co-director Sam Liu (The Death and Return of Superman), co-director Christopher Berkeley (Young Justice) and screenwriter Jase Ricci (Teen Titans Go! and DC Super Hero Girls: Mayhem in the Multiverse).
Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen, Part One will premiere on Saturday, March 25 at 1:30pm in North 200A. To date, confirmed talent to participate on the post-screening panel is Natalie Alyn Lind (Big Sky, The Goldbergs, Gotham) as Wonder Woman/Diana Prince and RWBY’s long-running cast – Lindsay Jones (Camp Camp) as Ruby, Kara Eberle (RWBY: Ice Queendom) as Weiss, Arryn Zech (The Detective is Already Dead) as Blake, and Barbara Dunkelman (Blood Fest) as Yang – alongside Jeannie Tirado (Soul, Saints Row) as Green Lantern, and Tru Valentino (The Rookie, The Cuphead Show!) as Cyborg. Also included on the panel are producer/director Kerry Shawcross (RWBY franchise) and screenwriter Meghan Fitzmartin (Supernatural, Justice Society: World War II).
Additional talent will be announced as confirmed.
Both films will have encore screenings in the Arena on Sunday, March 26. Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen, Part One will screen at 12:15pm, followed by Batman: The Doom That Came To Gotham at 2:00pm
About Batman: The Doom That Came To Gotham:
Inspired by the comic book series by Mike Mignola, Richard Pace and Troy Nixey, Batman: The Doom That Came To Gotham is a 1920s-based tale that finds explorer Bruce Wayne accidentally unleashing an ancient evil, expediting his return to Gotham City after a two-decade hiatus. The logic/science-driven Batman must battle Lovecraftian supernatural forces threatening the sheer existence of Gotham, along the way being aided and confronted by reimagined versions of his well-known allies and enemies, including Green Arrow, Ra’s al Ghul, Mr. Freeze, Killer Croc, Two-Face, James Gordon and Bruce’s beloved wards. Prepare for a mystical, often terrifying Batman adventure unlike any other. Produced by Warner Bros. Animation, DC and Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment, Batman: The Doom That Came To Gotham will be available to purchase Digitally and on 4K Ultra HDTM Blu-ray Combo Pack and Blu-rayTM on March 28, 2023
About Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen, Part One
Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen, Part One finds the Justice League facing off against a new horror: adolescence! Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Cyborg, Green Lantern and Vixen are surprised to find that not only have they materialized on a strange world called Remnant, but they’ve also been transformed into teenagers. Meanwhile, the heroes of Remnant – Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang – find their world has been mysteriously altered. Can the combined forces of the Justice League and Team RWBY return Remnant to normal before a superpowered Grimm destroys everything they know? Produced by Warner Bros. Animation, Rooster Teeth Animation, DC and Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment, Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen, Part One, available to purchase Digitally and on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Combo Pack and Blu-ray on April 25, 2023.
About Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment
Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment (WBDHE) distributes the award-winning movies, television, animation, and digital content produced by Warner Bros. Discovery to the homes and screens of millions through physical Blu-ray Disc™ and DVD retail sales and digital transactions on major streaming, video-on-demand cable, satellite, digital, and mobile channels. WBDHE is part of Warner Bros. Discovery Content Sales, one of the world’s largest distributors of entertainment programming.
About DC
DC, part of Warner Bros. Discovery, creates iconic characters and enduring stories and is one of the world’s largest publishers of comics and graphic novels. DC’s creative work entertains audiences of every generation around the world with DC’s stories and characters integrated across Warner Bros. Discovery’s film, television, animation, consumer products, home entertainment, games, and themed experiences divisions, and on the DC Universe Infinite digital comic subscription service. Learn more at DC.com
About Warner Bros. Animation
Warner Bros. Animation (WBA) is one of the leading producers of animation in the entertainment industry, producing and developing projects for multiple platforms, both domestically and internationally. WBA’s current series include Animaniacs for Hulu, Batwheels, Creature Commandos, Bugs Bunny Builders, Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, Harley Quinn,Jellystone!, Looney Tunes Cartoons, My Adventures with Superman, Noonan’s, Tiny Toons Looniversity, and Velma for HBO Max, Teen Titans Go! for Cartoon Network. The studio is currently in production with New Line Cinema on the upcoming original anime feature film, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. WBA’s full-length theatrical film, Teen Titans GO! to the Movies, was released in summer 2018. As home to the iconic animated characters from the DC, Hanna-Barbera, MGM and Looney Tunes libraries, WBA also produces highly successful animated films — including the DC Universe Movies — for DVD, Blu-ray® and digital media. One of the most-honored animation studios in history, WBA has won six Academy Awards®, 40 Emmy® Awards, the George Foster Peabody Award, a BAFTA Children’s Award, an Environmental Media Award, a Parents’ Choice Award, the HUMANITAS Prize, two Prism Awards and 21 Annie Awards (honoring excellence in animation).
About Rooster Teeth
Rooster Teeth is a fan-driven, community built entertainment company. From humble origins in a spare bedroom, Rooster Teeth created the web series Red vs. Blue, an innovative form of entertainment for a changing media landscape that sparked the growth of a passionate global fandom. From that foundation, Rooster Teeth pioneered a direct-to-consumer lifestyle brand for its growing online following with subscriptions, advertising, e-commerce, and live events. Rooster Teeth produces several original content series including RWBY, the most popular western-style anime series today, The Rooster Teeth Podcast, and daily video series featuring an in-house cast of influential talent. With broadcast and live-action production capabilities and a world class animation studio, Rooster Teeth engages top networks, streaming entertainment services and creative talent to develop projects that reach global audiences through its Studios division. Rooster Teeth cultivates the gaming lifestyle it helped define with partnerships through its industry-leading video-first podcast network, The Roost. Rooster Teeth has a massive global footprint of more than 45 million subscribers to its YouTube Network, 5 million unique weekly viewers across its RoosterTeeth.com hub and more than 4 million registered community members. The company was founded in 2003, and is a subsidiary of Otter Media, a WarnerMedia company. Discover more at RoosterTeeth.com.
A new update for Hogwarts Legacy has today rolled out for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC platforms. Since the launch of Hogwarts Legacy this past month, WB Games and developer Avalanche Software have only released one major update for the title. And while the day-one version of Hogwarts Legacy was fortunately polished enough that the game hasn’t been in dire need of new updates, Avalanche has today pushed out a vast number of fixes for the title.
As of this moment, the second post-launch update for Hogwarts Legacy is now available to download and install. For the most part, this patch is entirely centered around rectifying random bugs or other problems that players have found in the game. Whether these problems are tied to crashing, visual struggles, of performance, Avalanche has now fixed up Hogwarts Legacy considerably to make it an even better product than it previously was.
If you would like to find the full patch notes for both console and PC versions of Hogwarts Legacy, be sure to keep reading on down below. And for more on the game in an opinionated sense, you can check out our review of the title right here.
PC Update
Bug Fixes:
Online
Improve player account network registration and tracking.
Fixed DLC related issues during pause menu, gear menu.
Fixed DLC flying mount inventory issue potentially disappearing during a mission.
Gameplay
Missions
Fixed blocker issue when unlocking the bandit camp cage before starting the mission. Resolves the following reported issue: HL-437.
Fixed not being able to complete a quest during a specific conversation with Madam Kogawa missing from her desk. Resolves the following reported issue: HL-1173.
Fixed avatar getting stuck between barrel and furnace by jumping or opening tool wheel.
Fixed a duplication collision next to one of the store entrances.
Fixed issue with waypoints being in the air instead of the ground within Hogsmeade.
Fixed objective maker being over Fig properly after waiting period.
Fixed missing exit prompt on some doors within Hogwarts.
Fixed opening butterfly chests other than the intended ones for a quest doesn’t count toward mission progression. Resolves the following reported issue: HL-5620.
Fixed butterflies to not appearing at the specified area to progress the mission again. Resolves the following reported issue: HL-4807.
Fixed incorrect merge mission progression.
Fixed stability issue in the Spoons in the Potion’s classroom.
Fixed stars being present when focusing telescope during Astronomy class on low settings. Resolves the following reported issue: HL-3032.
Fixed stars brightness and pop issues with Astronomy mini-games.
Fixed shields not displaying correctly during Crossing Wands missions.
Broom flight
Fixed player getting trapped while mounting a broom or while rotating a statue.
Fixed not landing on Viaduct bridge.
Fixed mesh breaking when avatar mounts broom after teleporting in open area.
Fixed flash and shuttering when mounting any broom.
World Events
Fixed wagon carts clipping into one another while avatar is blocking them.
Fixed occasional respawning duplication of One Man Band in Hogsmeade.
Characters
Fixed issue with characters that do not have hair.
VFX
Fixed broom speed parameters.
Fixed enemy shields not displaying correctly during Cross Wands missions.
Fixed enemy shields disappearing after being hit several times.
Fixed visibility of constellations at the astronomy table.
Fixed Dark Wizard Extortionist AOE lightning VFX attack remaining on screen.
Audio
Fixed audio of waterfall in the cliffside based on avatars proximity.
Update latest audio soundbanks.
Resolved localization and VO selection properly playing correctly.
UI
Updated localization strings.
Fixed female avatar face appearing different from the creation preview during gameplay. Resolves the following reported issue: HL-543.
Fixed transition between UI purchase window and forced conversation with vendors.
Fixed map showing wrong path to the map chamber.
Fixed damaged being represented when enemy is hit with transformation and Ancient Magic Throw. Resolves the following reported issue: HL-4810.
Improve tracking for Room of Requirement.
Fixed Ansel issue when FOV is set too high.
Fixed UI controller icons displaying correctly based on controller platform type.
Cinematics
Updated facial animations.
Fixed NPC treadmilling during the House Cup.
Fixed blurred texture and LOD pop.
Fixed Avatar robes appearing before Fig makes them appear before the sorting ceremony.
Raytracing
Improve stability and performance after long play throughs.
Improve VFX performance during while raytracing.
Improve performance by batching and caching raytracing buffers.
Removed fog volumes for better BVH performance.
Fixed RTAO making decals black.
Fixed directional light shadows.
Fixed shadows on trees.
Fixed performance of the culling of lights in the frontend.
Save Game
Fixed not being able to talk to Vendors during sequential saves after issue being patched. Resolves the following reported issues: HL-412, HL-494, HL-590, HL-5260.
Fixed streaming in and out after getting the ‘Dung Bomb’ field guide and loading a manual save.
Fixed an issue when turning off the title and loading an auto-save during final credits causing an infinite loading screen.
Fixed voice pitch setting save issue with avatar.
Performance and Stability
Fixed streaming issues throughout Hogwarts.
Fixed crash when common room is being shown to the player.
Fixed crash with skeletal mesh.
Fixed crash with deflection impacts.
Fixed crash when reading dictionary files.
Fixed performance when using ancient magic squash finisher on elevated Thornback Ambusher in Rune Door arena.
Improve rendering performance of translucent objects.
Fixed crash during a story graph.
Fixed streaming of plants in the Slytherin Common Room.
Fixed several memory leaks.
Fixed crash with map icon state.
Fixed crash with invalid UI.
Fixed streaming out of the Great Hall while navigating Hogwarts. Resolves the following reported issue: HL-71.
Fixed crash during audio occlusion checks around player.
Fixed crash when using explosive barrels.
Fixed crash when using Incendio spell.
Fixed crash when using Accio, Confringo, or Stupefy spells.
Fixed crash when updating gear items.
Fixed crash recursive crash with Solomons shields.
Fixed crash with mount zones.
Fixed crash during combat cursed lifetime.
Fixed crash during and spawning race on broom
Fixed occlusion culling with doors opening and closing.
Fixed occlusion culling issue.
Fixed a crash when travelling to Professor Fig’s classroom.
Fixed crashes related with Niagara and destructible related VFX.
Fixed a crash with damage over time not registering correctly.
Fixed crash spawning actor not being stored correctly.
Fixed crash with spawning actors correctly.
Fixed crash during character creation. Resolves the following reported issue: HL-232.
Fixed optimization animation instancing.
Fixed crash with moving stairs.
Fixed crash with VFX after prolonged play throughs.
Fixed crash related transformations in Overland.
Fixed crash dealing with object state.
Fixed crash with parry in combat.
Fixed crash with VFX AOE.
Fixed crash with hints.
Fixed crash with achievements with an invalid online userid.
Fixed crash while speaking to Rackham.
Fixed crash when using Wingardium.
Fixed performance drops experienced during longevity of the game.
Fixed performance drop in Divination classroom.
Improve VRAM usage specially for video cards with reduced memory.
Fixed raytracing lighting performance in the frontend.
Fixed using Ansel while a spell is being cast.
Fixed using Ansel while the avatar is riding a broom.
Updated shader compilation with latest PSO cache.
Fixed lighting optimization with Nvidia drivers.
Display
Resolved 32:9 aspect ratio issue when using an Ultrawide monitor. Resolves the following reported issue: HL-260.
Fixed Ansel issue when FOV is set too high.
Miscellaneous
Updated “Special Thanks” credits and legal lines.
Updated minimum Nvidia and AMD video driver recommendations.
Console Update
General
Online
Improve player account network registration and tracking.
Fixed DLC related issues during pause menu, gear menu.
Fixed DLC flying mount inventory issue potentially disappearing during a mission.
Gameplay
Missions
Fixed blocker issue when unlocking the bandit camp cage before starting the mission. Resolves the following reported issue: HL-437.
Fixed not being able to complete a quest during a specific conversation with Madam Kogawa missing from her desk. Resolves the following reported issue: HL-1173.
Fixed avatar getting stuck between barrel and furnace by jumping or opening tool wheel.
Fixed a duplication collision next to one of the store entrances.
Fixed issue with waypoints being in the air instead of the ground within Hogsmeade.
Fixed objective maker being over Fig properly after waiting period.
Fixed missing exit prompt on some doors within Hogwarts.
Fixed opening butterfly chests other than the intended ones for a quest doesn’t count toward mission progression. Resolves the following reported issue: HL-5620.
Fixed butterflies to not appearing at the specified area to progress the mission again. Resolves the following reported issue: HL-4807.
Fixed incorrect merge mission progression.
Fixed stability issue in the Spoons in the Potion’s classroom.
Fixed stars being present when focusing telescope during Astronomy class on low settings. Resolves the following reported issue: HL-3032.
Fixed stars brightness and pop issues with Astronomy mini-games.
Fixed shields not displaying correctly during Crossing Wands missions.
Broom flight
Fixed player getting trapped while mounting a broom or while or rotating a statue.
Fixed not landing on Viaduct bridge.
Fixed mesh breaking when avatar mounts broom after teleporting in open area.
Fixed flash and shuttering when mounting any broom.
World Events
Fixed wagon carts clipping into one another while avatar is blocking them.
Fixed occasional respawning duplication of One-Man Band in Hogsmeade.
Characters
Fixed issue with characters that do not have hair.
VFX
Fixed broom speed parameters.
Fixed enemy shields not displaying correctly during Cross Wands missions.
Fixed enemy shields disappearing after being hit several times.
Fixed visibility of constellations at the astronomy table.
Fixed Dark Wizard Extortionist AOE lightning VFX attack remaining on screen.
Audio
Fixed audio of waterfall in the cliffside based on avatars proximity.
Update latest audio sound banks.
UI
Updated localization strings
Fixed female avatar face appearing different from the creation preview during gameplay. Resolves the following reported issue: HL-543.
Fixed transition between UI purchase window and forced conversation with vendors.
Fixed map showing wrong path to the map chamber.
Fixed damaged being represented when enemy is hit with transformation and Ancient Magic Throw. Resolves the following reported issue: HL-4810.
Improve tracking for Room of Requirement.
Cinematics
Updated facial animations.
Fixed NPC treadmilling during the House Cup.
Fixed blurred texture and LOD pop.
Fixed Avatar robes appearing before Fig makes them appear before the sorting ceremony.
Raytracing
Improve stability and performance after long play throughs.
Improve VFX performance during while raytracing.
Improve performance by batching and caching raytracing buffers.
Removed fog volumes for better BVH performance.
Save Game
Fixed not being able to talk to Vendors during sequential saves after issue being patched. Resolves the following reported issues: HL-412, HL-494, HL-590, HL-5260.
Fixed streaming in and out after getting the ‘Dung Bomb’ field guide and loading a manual save.
Fixed an issue when turning off the title and loading an auto-save during final credits causing an infinite loading screen.
Fixed voice pitch setting save issue with avatar.
Performance and Stability
Fixed streaming issues throughout Hogwarts.
Fixed crash when common room is being shown to the player.
Fixed crash with skeletal mesh.
Fixed crash with deflection impacts.
Fixed crash when reading dictionary files.
Fixed performance when using ancient magic squash finisher on elevated Thornback Ambusher in Rune Door arena.
Improve rendering performance of translucent objects.
Fixed crash during a story graph.
Fixed streaming of plants in the Slytherin Common Room.
Fixed several memory leaks.
Fixed crash with map icon state.
Fixed crash with invalid UI.
Fixed streaming out of the Great Hall while navigating Hogwarts. Resolves the following reported issue: HL-71.
Fixed crash during audio occlusion checks around player.
Fixed crash when using explosive barrels.
Fixed crash when using Incendio spell.
Fixed crash when using Accio, Congringo, or Stupefy spells.
Fixed crash when updating gear items.
Fixed crash recursive crash with Solomons shields.
Fixed crash with mount zones.
Fixed crash during combat cursed lifetime.
Fixed crash during and spawning race on broom.
Fixed occlusion culling with doors opening and closing.
Fixed occlusion culling issue.
Fixed a crash when travelling to Professor Fig’s classroom.
Fixed crashes related with Niagara and destructible related VFX.
Fixed a crash with damage over time not registering correctly.
Fixed crash spawning actor not being stored correctly.
Fixed crash with spawning actors correctly.
Fixed crash during character creation. Resolves the following reported issue: HL-232.
Fixed optimization animation instancing.
Fixed crash with moving stairs.
Fixed crash with VFX after prolonged play throughs.
Fixed crash related transformations in Overland.
Fixed crash dealing with object state.
Fixed crash with parry in combat.
Fixed crash with VFX AOE.
Fixed crash with hints.
Fixed crash with achievements with an invalid online user id.
Fixed crash while speaking to Rackham.
Fixed crash when using Wingardium.
Fixed performance drops experienced during longevity of the game.
Fixed performance drop in Divination classroom.
Miscellaneous
Updated “Special Thanks” credits and legal lines.
PS5
Gameplay
Characters
Fixed character lip-sync animation when “Original Audio” is set.
Cinematics
Fixed localized VO not playing correctly when set to “Original Audio” is set.
Controllers
Activities and Game Help
Improve Activities performance update and memory usage.
Update to Game Help hints and videos.
XSX
Cinematics
Fixed black flickering on characters face.
Fixed graphical glitches with Fig’s head when he first opens the door. Resolves the following reported issue: HL-29.
Fixed shadow flicker in tea cup.
Performance and Stability
Improved frame rate performance issue when dismissing the contextual menu.
Improve fidelity mode performance for smooth 30 FPS experience.
Amazon Studios and MGM boss Jennifer Salke and Citadelstar Priyanka Chopra Jonas sat down Friday in what is one of few entertainment-business discussions this year at SXSW. They interviewed each other on an array of topics including pay parity for lead actresses and launching a tentpole series for a global audience.
Spy series Citadel, produced by AGBO’s Russo Brothers, drops its first two episodes on Prime on April 28. (See a new clip dropped today below.)
While Chopra Jonas was fearless about asking Salke how algorithms factor into programming decisions, a notable takeaway was when the Indian actress revealed she was getting compensated equally with her male lead co-star, Richard Madden (without naming him by name).
“I’ve been working in the entertainment industry for 22 years. I have done about 70-plus features, and two TV shows,” Chopra Jonas said. “When I did Citadel, I had pay parity with my male actor for the first time in 22 years.”
Chopra Jonas asked Salke whether that all occurred because a female executive was running the studio.
“There was no question to me that it was the absolute right thing to do,” answered Salke. The two became friends soon after Salke took the top production post at Amazon Studios.
Salke said about coming to the pay parity decision: “I see that change and find it inspiring. … It takes a woman in the room to make space for stepping back, taking a pause … let’s gut-check this.”
Such decisions “have to be intentional and must become automatic,” said Salke, who wants to make space for more female content creators to provide their voices to the service.
At the top of the session, Chopra Jonas asked Salke about the development process at the streamer. Is it the algorithms that dictate the greenlights?
“There’s no magic algorithm that tell us whether we should do something,” answered Salke. “This is an art; it comes down to creative conviction. We try to bring the content to life.” In the case of Citadel, it was the belief that the IP would work outside of India and the U.S.
Salke spoke about being “born into this business with a lot of confidence” regarding how she goes with her gut when it comes to launching series. She shared a story about receiving advice from former Fox executive Peter Chernin that if “you give everyone a stomach ache and it works, amazing. If it doesn’t, we’ll back you on the next one.”
Salke said, “Coming over to Amazon, the scope was exponentially monstrous compared to what I was doing.”
In launching Citadel, Salke observed how local-language series were resonating outside their native countries around the world.
Referencing Netflix’s hit Korean series, Salke said, “If you look at Squid Game they had a tiger by the tail. You want to be ready for that, having it available in local languages.”
In Citadel, Madden stars as Mason Kane, alongside Chopra Jonas as Nadia Sinh, Stanley Tucci as Bernard Orlick, and Lesley Manville as Dahlia Archer. In the series, global spy agency Citadel has fallen, and its agents’ memories were wiped clean. Now the powerful syndicate Manticore is rising in the void. Can the Citadel agents recollect their past and summon the strength to fight back?
Here’s the new clip:
Citadel is produced by Amazon Studios and the Russo Brothers’ AGBO. It is executive produced by Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, Mike Larocca, Angela Russo-Otstot and Scott Nemes for AGBO, with David Weil serving as showrunner and executive producer. Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec, Jeff Pinkner and Scott Rosenberg serve as executive producers for Midnight Radio. Newton Thomas Sigel and Patrick Moran also serve as executive producers.
Rock originally referenced “Emancipation” instead of “Concussion” during a dig at Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith in his live Netflix special.
Turns out what’s live on Netflix doesn’t always last. Less than a week after the Chris Rock live stand-up comedy special “Selective Outrage” premiered on the streamer — its first live broadcast of any kind — a flub from the comedian has now been removed from the special.
In the special, Rock discussed his longstanding feud with actors and married couple Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith. One incident he touched on was the 2016 Oscars ceremony, which Pinkett Smith boycotted (along with others) due to a lack of diversity among the nominees. Rock hosted the ceremony, and joked about Pinkett Smith’s absence during his monologue, saying, “Jada said she’s not coming, protest. I was like, ‘Isn’t she on a TV show?’ Jada’s going to boycott the Oscars? Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna’s panties. I wasn’t invited!”
In “Selective Outrage,” Rock further discussed the 2016 Oscars, claiming Pinkett Smith told him he shouldn’t host because Smith wasn’t nominated for his sports drama “Concussion.” When retelling the story for last weekend’s live broadcast, Rock instead referenced “Emancipation,” which was released in fall 2022.
Related
Related
“Years ago, his wife said I should quit the Oscars — I shouldn’t host ’cause her man didn’t get nominated for ‘Emancipation,’ the biggest piece of shit ever!” Rock said in the special. He followed up with: “No, not ‘Emancipation.’ I fucked up the joke.”
The joke has since been edited out of the replay version of “Selective Outrage” found on Netflix. Instead, the special now skips over the moment to Rock’s following joke, in which he calls out the right film: “She said that me, a fucking grown-ass man, should quit his job because, ‘My husband didn’t get nominated for ‘Concussion.””
According to a source with knowledge of the situation, decisions to edit “Selective Outrage” after its broadcast were given to Rock, meaning the comedian likely made the call to remove the line flub. Editing comedy specials to remove mistakes during the night are common, although the change happening to a live special makes this situation slightly unusual.
Rock did later (correctly) reference “Emancipation” during the closing minutes of the special, in which he responded to the now notorious altercation he got into with Smith during the 2022 Oscars. One of his Rock’s punchlines against Smith, who slapped the comedian on the Oscars stage last year after he made a joke about Pinkett Smith’s (who has alopecia) shaved head, was claiming he watched “Emancipation” — a drama about an enslaved man struggling to escape to freedom — “just to see [Smith] get whooped.”
“Selective Outrage” was a success when it premiered on Netflix last Saturday, ranking No. 7 on the streamer’s U.S. TV Top 10 list despite only being available for roughly a day of tracking. Reactions from critics were mixed; IndieWire TV critic Ben Travers gave it a “C-” rating and wrote in his review that the special “was in no way built to last. Half the jokes were obsolete before he finished saying them,” and that its material “felt like top-of-mind observations, uninterested in deeper scrutiny or even overall cohesiveness.”
Hulu’s fate still hangs in the balance following statements from Disney CEO Bob Iger this week. Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Tech, Media, and Telecom conference on Thursday, Iger said that Disney is still debating whether it will buy out Comcast’s 33 percent stake in Hulu, alluding to the current economic downturn and the company’s own difficulties with Disney Plus.
“What we’re doing right now, because we own two-thirds of Hulu, and we have an agreement with Comcast that may result in us owning 100 percent, is we’re really studying the business very, very carefully,” Iger said. In an interview with CNBClast month, Iger had similarly refuted assumptions that Disney would buy the remaining stake in Hulu, saying “that that is not necessarily the case,” and that “everything is on the table right now.”
Comcast has a standing agreement to sell its 33 percent share of Hulu to Disney in January 2024
Back in 2019, Comcast and Disney announced an agreement that would eventually give Disney full control of the Hulu streaming service. But that agreement isn’t necessarily a done deal — instead, it simply permits either Disney or Comcast to force a sale of Comcast’s remaining stake in Hulu to Disney starting from January 2024. Hulu’s actual valuation will be independently assessed closer to the sale deadline, but the agreement gives a guaranteed minimum valuation of $27.5 billion — making Comcast’s share worth at least $9 billion. (Disclosure: Comcast’s NBCU division is a minority investor in Vox Media, The Verge’s parent company.)
In the face of economic downturn, Disney is hesitant to commit to the purchase
While he expressed that Hulu is a “solid platform” and “very attractive” for advertisers, Iger’s caution isn’t unfounded. “It’s already proven to be valuable for them, and advertising is proven to be valuable for us,” said Iger. “But the environment is very, very tricky right now, and before we make any big decisions about our level of investment, our commitment to that business, we want to understand where it could go.”
Comcast president Mike Cavanagh responded to the hesitancy Iger expressed in February at the same Morgan Stanley media conference, claiming the company is open to other offers for its Hulu stake, albeit at the risk of dissolving its current deal with Disney. “Remember they and we, back in 2019, put together a very clean and good agreement for a put-call that does happen in early 2024,” said Cavanagh, reported by Deadline. “We are very happy with that. But, if there is something different that comes along, we have to consider things.”
As it stands, Comcast can still force Disney to buy its 33 percent stake in Hulu next year per the terms of the put-call agreement. Disney can similarly force Comcast to sell, but given Iger says he’s “targeting $5.5 billion of cost savings across the company,” it’s unlikely that he’ll find enough cash stuffed behind the couches at Disney World in the coming months to pursue such a move.
Well, this is it: Oscar weekend 2023. After many months of awards shows piling up on top of each other, the 95th Academy Awards finally arrive on Sunday. For months now, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” has been the top contender for Best Picture, but that doesn’t make the rest of the categories so easy to call. From crafts to the short films and documentaries, there are several key areas that make any Oscar pool into a tricky proposition. But there is still plenty of room for educated guesses.
In this week’s episode of Screen Talk, Eric Kohn and Anne Thompson discuss several of those and address the recent theories around a Best Picture upset. They also look ahead to the ceremony and why it’s almost certain to be an improvement over last year’s debacle.
For more assistance with your Oscar pool, check out Thompson’s official predictions here, our conversation about the hardest categories to predict, and additional insight into the short film categories here.
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.
As the filmmaker, your focus is creating a magical work of art, but it takes a village to produce a movie. Numerous people on the set work long hours to ensure everything runs smoothly.
So how do you manage all the various personalities on set and keep everyone happy?
1. Stay Positive
As the filmmaker, you’re the leader of the crew. Everyone looks to you for guidance on the show’s production. You make the decisions for the casting, production crew, writing, directing and more.
Therefore, they’ll also look to you as an influence on the set. How you act will rub off on everyone else, so staying calm and positive is critical. Even if things look bleak, keep looking on the bright side and find reasons to smile.
Film sets are fast-paced and things can get hectic quickly. Every few minutes, someone may approach you and ask you to fix a problem. Though it seems like a nuisance, it comes with the territory of being the leader.
Research shows positive work environments lead to higher productivity. Boost the film set’s morale by implementing positive psychological concepts like inspiration, leadership and solid relationships.
2. Build Relationships
Your film set could have as few as five people or as many as 100. Building relationships with as many people as possible is crucial, regardless of size. Remember that leadership should be a strength of yours in addition to filmmaking.
Get to know your cast and crew and show genuine interest in their lives. Is one of your actors getting married soon? Does a crew member have a sick relative? Ask about their personal lives to show you care.
Building relationships on set is essential, but you can also get to know your cast and crew outside the workplace. For example, take the team to the bar for a pint after a long week of filming. Getting to know your colleagues in a relaxed setting is an excellent way to bond and build trust amongst each other.
3. Get Promotional Gear
Small things go a long way in the film industry and other businesses — for example, the clothing you wear on set. As the filmmaker, your attire sets the tone for the rest of the cast and crew.
A smart style to strive for is promotional gear, which may entail shirts, hats, jackets and more. Put your production company’s or film’s name on the items and give them to your cast and crew. Wearing promotional clothing provides pride and identity when filming.
Also, it’s hard to forego free stuff because people love it. Research shows 56% of people saw their business more positively after they received free gear. If you’re ordering for an entire crew, it’s wise to get about 25% more than you think you need to account for new hires. Promotional gear extends outside clothing. You can get umbrellas, coffee mugs, pens and tote bags.
4. Provide Free Food
Free stuff is a terrific morale booster, especially when you can eat it. Nutrition is crucial to productivity in any workplace. Filming can take 12 to 16-hour days, depending on your schedule. During the day, the entire crew will need food to snack on.
Eating helps everyone focus and be their best throughout the day. The last thing you need is an accident or injury on set stemming from a lack of energy.
Provide healthy and delicious snacks to keep energy levels high. These foods may include fruit trays, nuts, pastries, granola bars, cookies and nutritious dips like hummus. Also, don’t forget to keep the coffee brewing. Studies show taking breaks for meals increases productivity instead of trying to push the work all day. Nearly 80% of workers say taking a lunch break improves their job performance during the day.
5. Foster a Productive Atmosphere
After a few days on set, you’ll have a gauge of what makes your cast and crew tick. Do they perform well in a fast-paced, demanding atmosphere? Or do they function better in a more lighthearted setting? You can have the best of both worlds by working hard yet having fun with your crew.For example, in a 14-hour day, you won’t spend every minute filming scenes. There’s bound to be some downtime, so set up stuff for your workers to do when they aren’t busy. For example, they could play video games, throw a football, play cards or hang out at the beach if there’s one nearby. Even on a tight schedule, preventing burnout is critical by letting your cast and crew have fun.
6. Listen to Cast and Crew
As the filmmaker, you’re the brains of the machine. You decide what happens with the movie — if any changes are necessary, they go through you. But keeping an open mind with the cast and crew is essential. If someone has a suggestion for improving the film, listen to them and consider implementing them.
Ask the rest of the cast to see what they think. You must be firm and decisive on set, but it’s not a one-person show. Let the crew play to their strengths and see what they can come up with.
Keeping Everyone Happy on Set
Producing a film isn’t easy, but the end product makes it all worth it. It can take one to three months filled with 12-hour days or longer. During this time, you’ll need to manage your cast and crew in addition to the film.
Use these six strategies to keep morale high and reduce burnout on set.
Oscar Collins is the editor-in-chief atModded. He’s passionate about films, filming techniques and the finer details of filmmaking. Follow him on Twitter@TModded for frequent updates on his work!
The festivities, again presented by Chase Sapphire, were in full swing at Mother Wolf in Hollywood Thursday night attracted some of Hollywood’s best known people of color. “Abbott Elementary” stars Quinta Brunson, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Tyler James Williams were in attendance, while producer/actress and “Black-ish” star Marsai Martin hit the dance floor alongside Lena Waithe, Affion Crockett and Teyana Taylor.
Courtney B. Vance and Lena Waithe at the 5th Annual Macro Pre-Oscars Party, Presented by Chase Sapphire held at Mother Wolf on March 9, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Christopher Polk for Variety
Crafted cocktail bars flanked by gorgeous red and pink floral arrangements set the tone with talent dancing in hallways and doorways like no one was watching.
Also there were “Bel-Air” cast members, Cassandra Freeman, Jimmy Akingbola, Olly Sholoton, Jordan L. Jones, directors Tim Story and Mario Van Peebles, Lakeith Stanfield, Yayha Abdul-Mateen II, Skai Jackson, Dominique Thorne, “All-American’s” Chelsea Tavares, “A League of Their Own” star Chanté Adams, Bresha Webb, Storm Reid, Courtney B. Vance, model-actress Winnie Harlow, Keith Robinson, “Power Book IV: Force” actor Kris D. Lofton, Will Catlett, Algee Smith, Sierra Capri, Marvel Studios star Teyonah Parris, April Reign and the cast of Prime Video’s “Harlem,” including Meagan Good, Jerrie Johnson and Shoniqua Shandai.
Marsai Martin at the 5th Annual Macro Pre-Oscars Party, Presented by Chase Sapphire held at Mother Wolf on March 9, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Christopher Polk for Variety
With client Michael B. Jordan’s wildly successful directorial debut of “Creed 3” taking hold of Hollywood, Macro continues to be a template illustrating what’s possible when people of color collaborate while celebrating what diverse filmmaking looks like. Charles D. King summed up his company and its mission best during his ABFF Honors acceptance speech on Wednesday night: “Just like I was an artist advocate during my time at WME, we are doing the same thing at Macro by using our capital, using our experience, and using our clout to open up doors for others.”
Christina Milian and Karrueche Tran at the 5th Annual Macro Pre-Oscars Party, Presented by Chase Sapphire held at Mother Wolf on March 9, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Christopher Polk for Variety
EXCLUSIVE: The Documentary Spotlight section of SXSW features one of the most inventive films in the festival, This World Is Not My Own, directed by Petter Ringbom and Marquise Stillwell. The SXSW program describes it as spanning five genres – animated, biography, documentary, history, and hybrid – which gives you some idea of the ambitious nature of the project.
The film, which premieres on Saturday, immerses viewers in the life and work of late self-taught artist Nellie Mae Rowe, whose mediums ranged from paper and collages to hand-sewn dolls, sculptural displays and more. Actress Uzo Aduba provides the voice of Rowe, who was born at the turn of the 20th century and died in 1982. We have your first look at the film in the clip above, which features an animated 3D character “based on Nellie’s likeness.”
“For most of her life, Nellie Mae Rowe made art in obscurity in her home outside of Atlanta,” a description of the film notes. “Six years before her death, a wealthy gallerist introduced her work to the art world. Over four acts, This World is Not My Own traces the lifespan of an artist who struggles to dedicate her life to art while exploring the personal and political events that shaped her singular body of work. The film mixes traditional documentary techniques with animations and scripted scenes based on Nellie Mae Rowe quotes.”
Rowe’s work was the subject of a recent exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum. “Rowe’s materials were modest — felt-tip and ballpoint pens, pencil sand colored pencils and above all, crayons with which she achieved an unusual magnificence: solid planes of brilliant color that give so many of her drawings the power of paintings,” Roberta Smith wrote in a New York Times appreciation timed to the exhibition.
Smith observed that Rowe’s works “rivet the eye with bright, dense colors, ingenious patterns and thickets of line and buoyant, sometimes bulbous figures and animals. Arranged in the topsy-turvy manner of a patchwork quilt, these elements fill the page and push forward with an energy that is both modern and primal.”
Ringbom and Stillwell direct This World Is Not My Own, with Ringbom also serving as cinematographer. Stillwell serves as executive producer along with Dream Hampton, who earned acclaim with her 2019 documentary series Surviving R. Kelly. Ruchi Mital produces and also co-writes the screenplay with Ringbom. Princess A. Hairston is the editor.
The impressive VFX – character animation is by Andreas Wiklund; the VFX producer is Sigfrid Söderberg. Matthew Head is the composer.
The exclusive clip above begins with uncovering the grave of Rowe’s late husband, who died in 1948. The plainspoken Nellie Mae – voiced by Aduba – shares that she has no desire to get married again.
“I ain’t in the mood for one [a husband],” she says. “I don’t want ‘em and I am happy without ‘em.” She goes on to describe how the grounds around her house blossomed into a mind-blowing display of artwork.
This World Is Not My Own is an acquisition title, with worldwide rights available.
“This renewal is a richly deserved feather in the cap of Quinta Brunson, Justin Halpern, Patrick Schumacker and Randall Einhorn, as well as the rest of the cast and crew of Abbott Elementary,” Warner Bros. Television Group CEO Channing Dungey said in a January 2023 statement. “Each week, this talented group of artists celebrates true unsung heroes — public school teachers. And for some extra icing on the renewal cake, our favorite group of teachers was honored this morning with two Screen Actors Guild Award nominations and last night with three Golden Globe Awards. Abbott Elementary is the gift that keeps on giving, and I look forward to many more magnificent episodes of this brilliant, authentic and just plain funny series.”
“The show is in its second year, and I think it just continues to grow creatively,” he told Variety during the 2023 Golden Globes that same month. “In Season 2, which is what we’re watching, each of the characters are getting more dynamic and the situations are getting funnier. So there’s years for this show to go. As for the future of Abbott, I’m just constantly delighted and surprised by what Quinta and her team do.”
Fire Country stars Max Thieriot, Kevin Alejandro, Jordan Calloway, Stephanie Arcila, Jules Latimer, Diane Farr and Billy Burke. It was originally renewed for a full-season order before receiving a second season pickup as well.
“It’s pretty remarkable to see a new series resonate like this with both broadcast and streaming audiences right out of the gate,” president of CBS Entertainment, Amy Reisenbach, said in January 2023. “Fire Country has so many appealing entry points for the audience. It combines high-stakes action with small town charm, mystery and romance, and a family franchise at its core. We’re blessed to have an incredible team in front of and behind the camera led by amazing producers and writers and an exceptionally talented cast.”
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Scroll down to see which TV shows have been renewed or canceled so far for 2023-2024:
Over the years, many amazing television series have been introduced by women.
Shonda Rhimes has created shows you know and love like Inventing Anna and Scandal.
As has Mindy Kaling, the co-creator of shows such as Never Have I Ever and The Sex Lives of College Girls.
And there are many more to mention. Here’s a list of 17 women you can credit for your initiating some of your favorite series. Can you match them to the shows they made possible?
The best way to get inspiration to create your own Leo Web Alerts and optimize the signal-to-noise ratio for your intelligence purposes is to look at examples that other researchers and analysts have created in Feedly. Here, we’ll show you examples of Leo Web Alerts that real Feedly users across industries use to track relevant trends and topics across the web.
Track emerging trends
Analysts at a gaming company combine the Non-Fungible Token (NFT) concept with Video Games to track NFTs in their space.
Keep up with innovation
Track innovation by your competitors or companies of interest, whether they’ve filed a new patent or created an existing technology.
Research the strategic moves of your competitors
An analyst at a retail company tracks the strategic moves their competitors are making: Are they launching new products? Raising funds? Signing partnerships? Combine the company with the various strategic moves you’re interested in to track these happenings.
Research consumer behavior
Analysts in the finance space combine the Consumer Insights concept with the Finance Industry” topic to surface insights on changes in consumers’ behavior in their space.
Find inspiration for your content marketing
Content Type concepts look for specific types of content (tutorials, listicles, expert insights, interviews, etc). Content creators and content strategists find inspiration for specific types of content by combining a content type with a social media platform, industry, or topic. For example, if you’re a social media strategist, you can track TikTok AND Tutorials to find examples of existing tutorials about TikTok.
Keep up with business leaders
This one’s simple. Salespeople targeting leads interested in specific leaders in the space just ask Leo to track that specific person.
Try Feedly for market intelligence
Automate analysis with machine learning and effortlessly surface the insights that matter to you.
Discover and research critical vulnerabilities and zero-days
Cyber threat intelligence analysts use the Vulnerability concept to track vulnerabilities and filter them based on their CVSS score (actual or predicted). They combine the Vulnerability concept with a specific company, whether one of their customers or in their supply chain, to keep an eye out for critical vulnerabilities affecting the company.
Research threat actors
Analysts research specific threat actors and their corresponding tactics and techniques according to the MITRE ATT&CK framework by combining Threat Actor names with the Tactics and Techniques (MITRE ATT&CK) concept.
Track cyber attacks
Analysts use the Cyber Attacks concept combined with companies of interest (their own company, vendors, customers, or competitors) to track cyber attacks affecting these companies.
Try Feedly for Cybersecurity
Streamline your open-source intelligence workflow with Leo, your easy-to-train AI research assistant.
Researchers at biopharma companies combine their disease of interest (like Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2) with the Scientific Breakthroughs concept to stay on top of the latest breakthroughs and innovations made by companies, startups, and research teams around this disease.
Track regulatory changes
Researchers at top pharma companies combine the concept of their disease of interest (Neoplasms, in this case) with the Regulatory Changes concept to track new laws and regulations, high-court rulings, bans, FDA and EMA approvals concerning this disease.
Try Feedly for Biopharma
Create personalized biopharma feeds to proactively track specific diseases, topics, and trends.
Scooby-Doo! Where Are you? Well, if you’re talking about the cancelled Scooby/DC crossover film Scooby-Doo & Krypto Too!, then all you have to do is look online, as the scrapped film has been leaked online, in its entirety.
Recently, pieces of footage leaked online from the film, which got people buzzing about it and added fuel to the already burning rage that many have for Warner Bros. Discovery in the wake of them cancelling several projects, reportedly for tax write-off purposes. This included other Scooby-Doo projects, such as the Scooby-Doo & the Mystery Pups, Scoob! Holiday Haunt, and Scooby-Doo & the Haunted High Rise, which featured the fan-favorite Hex Girls.
This also isn’t the first DC project to get shelved like this, as the highly anticipated Batgirl film, starring Leslie Grace and Brendan Fraser, was cancelled for a tax write-off while in post-production, as well as the planned Wonder Twins movie. And while WBD’s President and CEO David Zaslav claimed they were done purging content for the time being, it seems they’re up to their old tricks, which is very disappointing.
Scooby-Doo & Krypto Too! would see yet another crossover with DC Comics, partnering the two titular pups for some always wonderful hijinks as they investigate the disappearance of the Justice League. The film was originally slated for release on September 25, 2023 and stars Frank Welker, Grey DeLisle, Matthew Lillard, Kate Micucci, P.J. Byrne, Victoria Grace, Charles Halford, Nolan North, Tara Strong, Fred Tatasciore, James Arnold Taylor, and Niccole Thurman.
It’s unclear how the film was leaked online, or how it will affect WBD’s tax write-off status, but for fans this was a blessing as they got the chance to see the film, and it’s being praised by many. Will this cause WBD to rethink their position on cancelling films like this, especially ones that are finished or near-finished? Will we see more of these tax write-off films get leaked? Only time will tell.
BLG says, “The Resident Evil 4 Chainsaw Demo isn’t just an opportunity to get our hands on the remake, but it’s also a wonderful trip down memory lane.”
The Asian premiere of Soi Cheang’s “Mad Fate” is just one of three locally-produced movies that have been set as the opening and closing titles of the upcoming Hong Kong International Film Festival.
“Mad Fate” is joined in the festival opening slot on March 30 by “Elegies,” Ann Hui’s documentary portrayal of the topography of contemporary local poetry, which will have its world premiere. The closing film, another world premiere, is “Vital Sign,” an affecting drama directed by Cheuk Wan-chi and starring Louis Koo, Yau Hawk-sau, and Angela Yuen, which will wrap up proceedings on 10 April.
In total, the festival has programmed some 200 films from 64 countries and territories. These include nine world premieres, six international premieres, and 67 Asian premieres.
The festival is to be held in-person and in its usual calendar slot for the first time in 2019. In recent weeks the Hong Kong authorities have eased travel restrictions imposed due to the COVID pandemic and from the beginning of this month have dropped the mask mandate from almost all indoor public places. That has made it easier for overseas filmmakers to return to the event.
Those confirmed include Tsai Ming-Liang, who will bring his latest feature “Where,” and hold a masterclass with Lee Kang-Sheng following the screenings of his short “Where Do You Stand, Tsai Ming-Liang?”.
The festival’s twin Firebird competition sections for young directors working in Chinese and in other languages are also impressive.
The former includes: “Absence” by mainland Chinese director Wu Lan, which premiered in Berlin; “Bad Education,” by Taiwanese actor-director Kai Ko; “Coo-Coo 043,” an already much decorated Taiwan family drama by Chan Ching-lin; “Kissing the Ground You Walked on,” by Hong Heng-fai; “Night Falls,” by China’s Jian Haodong; “Stonewalling,” by Huang Ji and Otsuka Ryuji; “To Love Again,” by Gao Linyang; and “Tomorrow Is a Long Time,” which also appeared in Berlin’s Gerneration-14 section and is directed by Singapore’s Jow Zhi Wei.
The equivalent international competition includes: Berlin hit “20,000 Species of Bees,” “Animalia,” by Sofia Alouai, which won the special jury prize in Sundance; David Depresseville’s “Astrakan”; acclaimed “Autobiography,” by Indonesia’s Makbul Mubarak; Malika Muisaeva’s Berlin film “The CageIs Looking for a Bird”; Argentinian director Martin Benchimol’s “The Castle”; Giacomo Abruzzese’s “Disco Boy”; and Lila Aviles’ Berlin Ecumenical jury prize winner “Totem.”
Lopez vs Lopez is a sitcom that connects two generations of thinking between families. Many times we have had those clashes with our parents regarding how we do things and this sitcom, explores that in a funny way. George Lopez is a good comedian/actor to base this around as many millennials grew up with the sounds of Lowrider waking them up because they had left their television on.
The George Lopez show was a way for Latinos to feel seen in the world of television like we had seen families of other cultures before. Now with Lopez vs Lopez, we can take that to see a new generation of Latinos. One that is often trying to be better in the way of sensitivity to others and ourselves and breaking those old stubborn traditional ways of thinking.
On Friday night NBC will premiere their fourteenth episode titled ‘Lopez vs Work’ which explores the work ethic of the Lopez family. LRMOnline‘s Manny Gomez spoke with actor Al Madrigal who plays Oscar in the series. His character is one of George’s long-time friends and co-workers in the dream of a successful moving company.
During our conversation, we chat about that exploration of thinking that has evolved in Latino families. How things like anxiety and appropriation have become a bigger topic with families. We also chat about the fun that they have on set and the impact that The George Lopez Show has had that this show builds upon. You can check out the full interview below!
George and Mayan, a once-estranged father and daughter, navigate dysfunction, reconnection and all the headaches and joy in between as they make up for lost time like only they can. With George back in the picture, he can always be counted on to provide Mayan with some unconventional parenting advice about her son, Chance — while saving a few lighthearted barbs for her boyfriend, Quinten, for good measure. Then there’s George’s ex-wife, Rosie, who hasn’t quite forgiven him, but they’re staying on good terms… mostly. In the end, the Lopez clan gets by with a little drama, a lot of love and a lifetime of laughter.
NBC’s Lopez vs Lopez airs Fridays at 8/7c on NBC and you can catch up on the series on Peacock.
I can’t believe I actually thought Joe was changing for the better this season. I’m not usually tricked so easily.
When Penn and Greg and I sat down to just discuss the possibility of him playing Joe Goldberg, one of the things that he asked was, “Are you going to redeem the character? Is that the ultimate arc? Is it a redemption arc?” I promised him we wouldn’t and that we would feel no obligation to. And if that changed, it would be a conversation we all had together.
So the season is about the bullshit ways people talk about redemption when they’ve done horrible things, but they’re not actually changing. So of course, Joe thought he had, he was now good, and he had done better, and he had, in some ways, balanced the karmic scales, but actually, he just has been lying to himself more cleverly.
Marienne talked Nadia out of going to the police and basically said, “If Joe knows I’m alive, he’ll never stop.” Is that true? Is there a world where Joe—who now seems happy with Kate (Charlotte Ritchie)—finds out Marienne is alive in Paris with her daughter and just lets her be?
He would have to be very distracted by another problem. I mean, don’t you agree with her based on what you know about Joe? It’s very dangerous, and Nadia sacrificed a lot to help her truly disappear.
There’s now a club of people he’s sent to prison—and a lot of people who know the truth about him.
The idea is not really to let Joe off the hook. The fun of the show is to see him sort of, by the seat of his pants, slide through the crack every season to live to fight another day. But he has a lot of people out there who are very, very smart and know what he is now. Dr. Nicky (John Stamos), I wouldn’t say is very, very smart but Ellie (Jenna Ortega), Nadia, and Marienne totally have his number. But you know, the question is, what are you willing to risk for something like that? We definitely leave a lot of those dangling threads on purpose to threaten Joe with.
Britney Spears is no stranger to reposts on social media. The beloved pop singer regularly drops pictures with different filters, reruns her favorite clips and re-edits some of her dancing videos. Yesterday, however, she turned a few more heads than usual when she posted pictures of herself wearing the same red dress in five separate posts, all of which went up in quick succession.
All of the social media posts came without captions and simply featured Spears rocking a fantastic red dress, though the angles and her expressions are different in each one. You can check out the first one below…
Now, if you’re like me, and you’re a regular follower of Britney Spears on her social accounts, you may be thinking haven’t I seen that dress before? Yes. The answer is yes. The pop star actually posted a video of herself looking fabulous in the same dress five weeks ago. At the time, she said she was channeling Julia Roberts, as the outfit has a bit of a Pretty Woman vibe to it. In the previous post, which contained video footage, she also rocked a red hat, though there wasn’t any sign of it in the above post.
There also wasn’t any sign of the red hat in any of the other four posts either. Each does, however, contain a happy Britney Spears looking terrific and seeming to have a lot of fun. You can check out another of the pictures below…
All five of the pictures have gotten tens of thousands of likes, but fans have responded to one a little more than the other. It already has more than 35,000 likes, which is about 5,000 more than its nearest competitor. Maybe that’s an algorithm thing or maybe there’s just something subtle in the way she’s looking that is connecting with her fans a little bit more.
You can check out the most popular of the pictures below…
Britney Spears’ social media posts and general behavior have been scrutinized to an extreme levels since her conservatorship ended. Last year, a flurry of reposts caused some fans to start dropping conspiracy theories under her pictures and videos about where she was living and whether she was okay, to the point where she had to turn off comments. Of course it later came out she just didn’t like her new house and was still spending time in her old house, and there was absolutely nothing untoward about what was going on.
More recently, rumors about an alleged intervention have made the rounds. They claimed Spears’ loved ones were planning to push her into treatment for supposed substance abuse issues. Britney denied there was an issue and nothing seemed to come from it, except more looking over her shoulder and second guessing from fans. Her husband Sam Asghari also released a statement making it clear Spears is an adult and will make her own medical choices.
I can’t speak to what’s going on in Britney Spears’ life or why she decided to drop these pictures as five separate posts instead of one post with multiple pictures. But I can tell you she looks excellent in her red dress, and I’m glad she looks like she’s having fun modeling the fantastic look.
“The Last Word” host Lawrence O’Donnell predicted Thursday that 2023 will either be the first time that a former U.S. president is charged with a crime or the year when Donald Trump “finally gets all of his criminal legal problems behind him.”
But he also intimated that Trump’s legal woes isn’t all bad news for the Republican Party. In fact, criminal charges “might actually help House Republicans,” the MSNBC host said.
“If Donald Trump is charged with a crime, it might actually help House Republicans because it would take away attention from the way they are humiliating themselves in their own hearings just about every day now,” O’Donnell said.
He noted, for instance, that the GOP did not present a budget for the federal government on Thursday because “they don’t have one.”
“Instead, they held clownish hearings in which the Republican members of the committees and their witnesses were humiliated repeatedly by the truth,” he said.
O’Donnell proceeded to play clips of several House hearings, noting that “hypocrisy” was in all of them.
One focused on investigating what was happening at Twitter before Elon Musk bought it for $44 billion in October, in which Democrat Debbie Wasserman Schultz grilled Matt Taibbi for profiting off his “Twitter Files” by using cherry-picked information fed to him by the social media giant’s new owner.
Another was about enforcing subpoenas served on the Biden administration, in which Democrat Eric Swalwell ripped Republican Jim Jordan for calling the hearing despite being “absolutely out of compliance in the last Congress” by ignoring a subpoena related to the events of Jan. 6.
In the final clip, Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ripped her Republican colleagues for calling a hearing focused on why the federal government is “woke.”
“There’s no definition of what woke is but what is being criticized in this hearing is that the so-called woke policies are remote work for federal workers, especially those that live in rural areas and those who have disabilities. Paying interns so that critical opportunities don’t just go to privileged kids who’s parents can afford to pay for their rent while they go on a free internship,” she said. “That is what is woke here. That is what the other side is calling woke here.”
Watch O’Donnell’s full “The Last Word” segment in the video above.
SANTA BARBARA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2023 REVIEW! I’ve heard of ALS before, but admittedly I did not know much until filmmakers Miriam McSpadden and Brian Beckman’s inspirational and insightful documentary Go On, Be Brave. The main subject of the film is the courageous and charismatic athlete Andrea Lytle Peet, who amazingly attempts to be the first person with ALS to compete in a marathon in all fifty states.
Andrea was diagnosed with the condition at the young age of thirty-three, with many people dying within the first five years of being diagnosed. However, that five-year mark is an important marker for Peet because of the life expectancy, so she decided to take on her near-impossible challenge after five years of living with ALS.
ALS robs people of their ability to walk, speak, feed themselves, and ultimately use their lungs to breathe, all while the mind stays as sharp as it was before. It’s heartbreaking to watch Andrea and others in the film go from being such active, independent people to suffering from this debilitating disease.
Another interesting (and cruel) fact I learned from the movie is that athletes are more prone to getting ALS. People who played a varsity sport in high school are twice as likely to get it than those who did not (Andrea specialized in triathlons previously, doing one more after being diagnosed). Doctors quickly point out that this doesn’t mean people should avoid sports or exercise because the chances of getting ALS are still so low (with fewer than 20,000 US cases per year).
“…amazingly attempts to be the first person with ALS to compete in a marathon in all fifty states.”
It’s impressive for anyone to complete a marathon in every state, let alone someone dealing with ALS. Andrea’s supportive husband, David Peet, is just as impressed, although he knows precisely how incredibly resilient his wife is.
I have to say that the inspiration of the film and Andrea Lytle Peet’s spirit and determination floored me to the point of joyful tears. Despite every reason to feel otherwise, she stays generally positive, good-natured, and strong-willed. There’s one particularly touching scene near the end of the documentary where Andrea is struggling up a gigantic hill with her husband by her side. A group of friends rush over, providing encouraging words, and then start singing the Rocky theme music that’s so familiar to us all. Rocky ain’t got nothing on Andrea.
Kudos to McSpadden and Beckman for documenting this story while following Andrea for over three years, including the lockdown from the pandemic, during which we all know that there wasn’t much of anything happening during those dark days. The movie forces you to take a closer look at your own life, and you realize that your challenges don’t amount to a hill of beans compared to someone dealing with something like ALS.
I was told that Andrea and the film received two standing ovations, and she rolled down the red carpet in her trike at the world premiere of Go On, Be Brave. I would have loved to have seen it. What a hero and a role model, so much more deserving that the typical athletes that we grow up idolizing.
British holidaymakers made the most of a Costa winter heatwave today as Storm Larisa sparked chaos in the UK.
Bare-chested tourists downed pints of lager in Benidorm under sun and blue skies as others packed the beaches with temperatures reaching a glorious 23 degrees Celsius (73.5 degrees Fahrenheit).
On Saturday it was due to be more of the same, except hotter still with thermometers set to reach an incredible 26 degrees Celsius (78.8 degrees Fahrenheit) in the popular Costa Blanca resort.
Spain‘s mini-winter heatwave also blessed the Costa del Sol, with top temperatures around the same dizzy heights as Brits back at home struggled with gales, blizzards and snow.
Sun worshipers on Benidorm’s beaches today soaked up some unexpected winter rays
Bare-chested tourists downed pints of lager in Benidorm as they enjoyed the mid-winter sun and blue skies
On Saturday it was due to be more of the same, except hotter still with thermometers set to reach an incredible 26 degrees Celsius (78.8 degrees Fahrenheit)
Hundreds packed the beaches in Benidorm today as temperatures reached a glorious 23 degrees Celsius (73.5 degrees Fahrenheit)
Ricky Davis, 35, who stripped off his T-shirt to enjoy a lager at a pub in Benidorm’s Little England area at lunchtime today said: ‘I’ve got here yesterday and I can’t believe it.
‘I come from Manchester and have just got off the phone to a mate who says it’s freezing back there.
‘He was supposed to join me but a last-minute work thing got in the way. He’s really gutted.’
Londoner Sheila Cummings, sunning herself on Benidorm’s famous Levante beach with a couple of friends, added: ‘I only packed my bikini at the last minute when I saw there was going to be a mini-heatwave.
‘I was still half-expecting the weathermen to have got it wrong but it’s better than I thought it was going to be.
‘I never thought I’d have to be putting on factor 15 sunscreen in Benidorm in winter. I’ll be needing an ice cream in a bit.’
Spanish weather agency Aemet is predicting temperatures this weekend will be up to 15 degrees Celsius than normal, especially on the Mediterranean coast.
In cities like Murcia in south-east Spain experts reckon they could surpass 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit).
Holiday makers enjoy the mid-winter sun and a mini heat wave hits Spain’s coastal resorts
Meanwhile, Storm Larisa sparked chaos in the UK. A man walks his dog in Tow Law, County Durham, after heavy overnight snowfall this morning
Bare-chested beachgoers lay in the sun during the mini heatwave this week in Benidorm
Hundreds headed for the beach to enjoy the blue skies and unexpected mid-winter rays in Benidorm
British Holidaymakers and resort locals enjoy the Spanish Sun on Benidorm’s beaches today
Many Brits headed for some winter sun in Benidorm as the UK continues to brace for Storm Larisa
Brits and locals sat out in the sun as they enjoyed the mid-winter rays in Benidorm today
Valencia is another place where the top temperature tomorrow could reach 30 degrees Celsius, the first time ever in the first half of March since records began in 1869.
The temperatures are more akin to those Spain normally experiences at the end of May and beginning of June.
The unseasonal weather comes less than a fortnight after heavy snow brought chaos to Majorca.
Around 20 inches of snow shut roads and cut power in dozens of towns on the holiday island at the start of last week.
Temperatures on the Costas are due to drop again after the weekend, to around 16 degrees Celsius (60 degrees Fahrenheit) in Benidorm by Wednesday and the same in Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol although it is expected to remain reasonably sunny.
If last year’s SXSW was driven by panels and events around Web3, NFTs and the metaverse, this year’s has decidedly cooled on the crypto craze and is instead focused on something entirely different: chatbots.
Though chatbots are by no means new technology, the launch last fall of OpenAI’s ChatGPT has sparked renewed interest in — and anxiety over — the use of AI-powered chatbots across multiple industries, in part because of their growing sophistication. Screenwriters in film and TV have become more wary of the impact ChatGPT could have on the scriptwriting process, given that the chatbot is already capable of churning out short scripts; organizations like the Writers Guild of America West say they are actively monitoring the technology “in the event they require additional protections for writers.”
All of these dynamics will be at play in Austin on March 10, the first day of SXSW, when executives and creatives gather to discuss the ramifications of generative AI. OpenAI’s co-founder and president, Greg Brockman, will participate in a featured discussion to talk about the real-world impact of his company’s generative AI, which also includes the AI-powered digital image creator DALL-E.
Earlier that day, Chris Hyams, CEO of the jobs listing site Indeed, will talk about how AI is disrupting the workplace by replacing some job functions or positions entirely.
On March 12, BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti, who has announced that the digital media company will rely in part on AI-generated content, will join Semafor co-founder Ben Smith to discuss how the technology will affect the next generation of creatives.
Also on March 12, a related conversation about deepfakes and AI-generated imagery — by the likes of OpenAI’s DALL-E — will encourage guardrails around generative media.
This story first appeared in the March 8 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
As he’s often done in recent days, Stephen Colbert had a lot of fun mocking the ongoing troubles at Fox News, thanks to the damning and embarrassing revelations about the network that have come out as part of the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit.
But this time, Colbert didn’t mock Fox News heavyweights like Tucker Carlson or Rupert Murdoch; instead, he poked fun at self-described “straight news” journalists who still work there – and at the idea that Fox has ever even done anything close to “straight news.”
The “Late Show” host had some simple advice for these people: “You can quit. It’s legal.”
Colbert got into it by bringing up the documents, released as part of the lawsuit, that prove that the Fox News stars who keep promoting the lie that the 2020 election was somehow stolen from Donald Trump didn’t actually believe it themselves. But these documents also showed these same stars’ disdain for their colleagues in the news division.
“They even mocked the network’s own reporters for correctly calling the election for Joe Biden. Turns out, these reporters are incredibly angry that the revelations ‘further sully the reputation of the network’s “straight news” journalists,’” Colbert said, quoting from a recent Daily Beast article.
Colbert seemed to find the idea that Fox News even has “straight news” journalists particularly hilarious.
“Really?” he said with heavy sarcasm. “That’s like the people at Taco Bell worrying that the cool ranch in fiery Doritos Locos tacos is going to further sully the reputation of their ass-blasting salt pockets.”
Colbert noted how, according to news reports, a current Fox News employee described these revelations as “soul crushing.”
“Aw. It’s nice to know someone there still has a soul,” he joked, adding, “because we know so few of them have a brain.”
Then Colbert noted the account of one employee who told The Daily Beast that “it’s just a really bad time to be working” at Fox News.
“Yes. Unlike the golden age of their journalism: Warning us about woke Legos and longing for Mr. Potatohead’s lost penis,” Colbert joked. And that brought him to his advice.
“Also, you know what you can do if it’s a really bad time to be working at Fox News. You can quit,” he said. “It’s legal. You’re not handcuffed to a radiator in a basement.”
You can watch the whole “Late Show” monologue at the top of the page.
We have some movie release for our readers on this cold and snowy morning, as high-octane, action-packed Sci-Fi opus sees Colonials from Mars take on The Exiles in a battle to save humankind in the latest release from Reel 2 Reel Films.
Get ready for some epic space action with Colonials – the spectacular Sci-Fi opus from directors Andrew Balek (Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End) and Joe Bland (Ellipse). Can colonists from Mars save the galaxy from human extinction in this action-packed, interstellar feature? The film gets its UK premiere on 10 April 2023 courtesy of Reel 2 Reel Films.
A space explorer travelling from Mars, Silas (Greg Kriek – Black Mirror, Maze Runner: The Death Cure), embarks on a reconnaissance mission to Earth – which lies in ruin – to figure out what happened to the ‘humans of old’.
But before he can reach his destination, his squad is intercepted by the Exiles – a dangerously advanced and perilously evil Moon-based civilisation – who destroys their ship.
Separated from his squadron, Silas crash-lands alone on Earth. But, having lost his memory in the accident, he must figure out who he is and his purpose on Earth before the Exiles find and destroy him…
What ensues is a high-octane fight for humanity set in an awe-inspiring dystopian future. With striking musical compositions, electrifying visuals, exhilarating battles and a rip-roaring plot that will have audiences on the edge of their seats – this atmospheric actioner promises thrills aplenty.
Colonials – Poster Art
Join the Colonials, for an interplanetary adventure like no other on 10 April 2023 courtesy of Reel 2 Reel Films.
Karen Woodham is the founder and owner of the Blazing Minds. She is also a Cinema reviewer and works with RealD 3D reviewing the latest 3D releases and IMAX, she has also had several articles published in various publications including the first edition of SFW Magazine. In 2015 she became an Award Winning Blogger and also has her website listed as one of the UK’s Top 10 Film Blogs.
An Irani café in Mumbai is waiting for revival through its once-famous item ‘bun-maska,’ which was its former owner Rustom’s (Jaaved Jaafery) specialty. His son Rumi (Prit Kamani) isn’t keen on taking up the family legacy despite his mother Diana’s (Manisha Koirala) requests.
Rumi wants to be an actor but he is probably not cut out for the film business as he couldn’t pick up simple steps and nuances. This forces him to think of alternate ways to fulfil his dream, and the easiest one is to sell his café and finance a film.
Manisha, as the affable yet feisty single mother, is very likeable from the very beginning. Her genuine happiness and Prit Kamani’s easy-go-lucky attitude hint that there might not be any overdose of emotions even later in the film.
Nikita Dutta’s Punjabi-heavy Hindi works as the filler, but you, somehow, know where all this is headed. It’s one of those slice of life stories that might slightly ease your burden but probably won’t remain with you for long. Like those Disney films where the viewers mostly care about the ‘cuteness’ quotient.
There are moments though. For example, when Dutta realises her loneliness in the pursuit of a better life and career. Her unhinged emotions don’t have any takers and you immediately understand director Neeraj Udhwani’s idea of combining the two worlds—one for the family and the other for excellence.
It’s not a new concept as the personal versus professional has spawned many ideas but most of the time, they work because of their intensity, which Maska lacks.
Similarly, Jaaved Jaafery’s excellent comic timing and ‘dead man’ jokes work but mostly in isolation. You would laugh but the energy wouldn’t be carried to the next scene.
Interestingly, it’s difficult to pin point any one actor for such a broken loop as all of them have done well individually, but they couldn’t manage to bring a little ‘extra’ collectively. Actually, what is missing is the sense of urgency. Everybody behaves as if they definitely know what’s about to happen.
However, there are areas where Maska doesn’t disappoint, like the nostalgia it evokes about the old Parsi buildings in South Bombay. These are the houses with amazing stories and characters, sometimes totally disconnected from the outside world that’s changing faster than their imagination.
These spaces, despite fading plasters, take pride in carrying history unknown to the new Mumbai. These are people who don’t treat the city as a potential goldmine but a part of their upbringing. The compassion and warmth are the hallmark of their presence. They form the city’s spirit and vice versa.
I wish the makers could have explored a bit more on that front. Maska could have been a different and engaging film if it had not fallen for the typical Bollywood tropes. It’s still good enough to help you sail through the total lockdown though.
A former film student himself, Rohit ‘Vats’ feels that a good film is made with a zealous heart rather than brilliant technique. He thinks that films …Read More
It’s been a year and a day since “Everything Everywhere All at Once” premiered at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. No one proclaimed it an Oscar contender then. But that was before it became a box office hit, before we were reintroduced to Ke Huy Quan, before Jamie Lee Curtis turned into a weapon of mass promotion.
Now, on the eve of the Oscars, this loopy, frenetic family drama appears poised to win best picture, along with several other awards.
If it duplicates its showing at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, netting individual honors for Quan and Curtis along with star Michelle Yeoh, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” would become just the third movie to win three acting Oscars. (The others: “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Network.”)
That would be a lot, particularly because in the last decade or so, Oscar voters have spread the love each year among several movies. The last best picture winner to take more than four Oscars? That was “The Artist” in 2012, a triumph that, like many other moments in Oscar history, hasn’t aged particularly well.
The thing is, it feels like ages since “Everything Everywhere All at Once” lost. Anything. The movie swept through the Producers Guild, the Directors Guild, the Screen Actors Guild and the Independent Spirit awards. How many hot dog finger high-fives will be happening at the 95th Academy Awards on Sunday? Here are my final predictions for each and every category.
Could Jamie Lee Curtis, from left, Stephanie Hsu, director Daniel Scheinert, Ke Huy Quan, director Daniel Kwan and Michelle Yeoh possibly have known “Everything Everywhere All at Once” would go from the South by Southwest festival a year ago, when this was taken, to being on the verge of an Oscars sweep?
(Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)
PICTURE “All Quiet on the Western Front” “Avatar: The Way of Water” “The Banshees of Inisherin” “Elvis” “Everything Everywhere All at Once” “The Fabelmans” “Tár” “Top Gun: Maverick” “Triangle of Sadness” “Women Talking”
Will win: “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
As voting began, I was on the phone with a motion picture academy member who insisted that despite its awards season dominance, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” would not win best picture. So what’s going to win, I asked. After a long silence, they replied, “I don’t know. But it can’t be that.”
For a lot of academy members, “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” with its googly eyed rocks, hot dog fingers and weaponized dildos, has been a test of both their patience and belief in traditional storytelling. I find that reaction weirder than anything in the movie. At its heart, “Everything Everywhere” is a classic tale of a marriage coming apart and a family that needs healing. It’s a broadside against despair and nihilism. It practically ends with a group hug, and watching that, feeling that, has been therapeutic for a lot of people, many of whom vote for awards.
DIRECTOR Martin McDonagh, “The Banshees of Inisherin” Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (a.k.a. Daniels), “Everything Everywhere All at Once” Steven Spielberg, “The Fabelmans” Todd Field, “Tár” Ruben Östlund, “Triangle of Sadness”
Will win: Kwan and Scheinert Could surprise: Spielberg
The other grievance — usually aired by people not old enough to know better — is that if “The Fabelmans” had been directed by anyone other than Spielberg, it wouldn’t have been interesting. That’s like arguing that Paul McCartney’s touching tribute to John Lennon, “Here Today,” wouldn’t be as affecting if it had been written by another songwriter. Guess what? Artists have legacies. And one of the abiding pleasures in following a filmmaker or actor over time is the relationship you build with their work. Every movie Spielberg has made is personal. With “The Fabelmans,” it just went deeper, with Spielberg taking a tough, tender look at his parents and examining how art can help you work through pain while simultaneously providing a measure of remove. It’s a terrific movie on every level — and one that doesn’t look like it’ll make good on any of its seven Oscar nominations.
Michelle Yeoh is likely to take the lead actress Oscar, though it’s a close call with Cate Blanchett.
(Jessica Chou / For The Times/Jessica Chou / For The Times)
LEAD ACTRESS Cate Blanchett, “Tár” Ana de Armas, “Blonde” Andrea Riseborough, “To Leslie” Michelle Williams, “The Fabelmans” Michelle Yeoh, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
Will win: Yeoh Could surprise: Blanchett
All the momentum appears to be with Yeoh and, outside of those triggered by the playful creativity of “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” I think most people would enjoy seeing her at the podium. And yet … this race reminds me a bit of the year Anthony Hopkins won a second Oscar for his magnificent work in “The Father,” prevailing over sentimental favorite Chadwick Boseman. Is Blanchett so awe-inspiring as the monstrous maestro in “Tár” that she can overcome the “Everything Everywhere All at Once” steamroller? Maybe. But she does already have two Oscars and hasn’t seemed particularly invested in winning a third. And as Yeoh serves as the spiritual center of her beloved movie, I think she has the edge.
Austin Butler delivered an electrifying star turn in “Elvis,” a movie that earned eight Oscar nominations.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
LEAD ACTOR Austin Butler, “Elvis” Colin Farrell, “The Banshees of Inisherin” Brendan Fraser, “The Whale” Paul Mescal, “Aftersun” Bill Nighy, “Living”
Will win: Butler Could surprise: Fraser
If Fraser prevailed for “The Whale,” would it become the worst movie to feature an Oscar-winning performance? Let’s just say that it’d be in the conversation. Not everyone agrees, of course. Fraser did win the Screen Actors Guild Awards honor for a stirring performance in a hateful film almost completely lacking empathy and compassion. But “The Whale” did not earn a best picture nomination, partly because voters didn’t want to subject themselves to its exploitative aesthetic. Those who tried watching it on the academy’s portal found it dark and dingy. Did anyone make it through to the end?
Butler, meanwhile, delivered an electrifying star turn in “Elvis,” a movie that earned eight Oscar nominations, including best picture. Sure, it’s kind of funny that he still talks like Elvis. But if I had mastered that honeysuckle tone, I might not want to return so fast to my Orange County roots, either. Plus, did you see him walking Sally Field and Jennifer Coolidge onstage at the SAG Awards? Chivalry is not dead!
Kerry Condon may take the only Oscar awarded for “The Banshees of Inisherin.”
(Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS Angela Bassett, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Hong Chau, “The Whale” Kerry Condon, “The Banshees of Inisherin” Jamie Lee Curtis, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” Stephanie Hsu, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
Will win: Condon Could surprise: Curtis
Let me state from the outset that I have no idea who is going to win this Oscar. Not long ago, I thought it’d be either Bassett or Curtis, women who haven’t won many awards for decades of exemplary work. One of them could still win, though their similar narratives don’t help their cause. And then there’s this: Beginning with Patricia Arquette winning for “Boyhood” in 2015, the last eight winners of this category have taken the only Oscar from their film. It’s a weird stat … but supporting actress has long been a quirky category full of surprise winners. Just ask Marisa Tomei. And as I don’t think “Banshees” is going to win anything else …
Ke Huy Quan’s masterful multiverse hopping in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” all but guarantees he’ll win for supporting actor.
(Philip Cheung / For The Times)
SUPPORTING ACTOR Brendan Gleeson, “The Banshees of Inisherin” Brian Tyree Henry, “Causeway” Judd Hirsch, “The Fabelmans” Barry Keoghan, “The Banshees of Inisherin” Ke Huy Quan, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
Will win: Quan
If you aren’t familiar by now with Quan’s comeback story or haven’t cried along with him during one of the many speeches he’s made while accepting awards for his masterful multiverse hopping in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” then you must be just waking up from a year-long coma. Go watch his movie. And then check out last year’s Oscars. That thing between Will Smith and Chris Rock? It wasn’t a scripted bit.
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Edward Berger, Lesley Paterson & Ian Stokell “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” Rian Johnson “Living,” Kazuo Ishiguro “Top Gun: Maverick,” Ehren Kruger and Eric Warren Singer and Christopher McQuarrie; story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks “Women Talking,” Sarah Polley
Will win: “Women Talking” Could surprise: “All Quiet on the Western Front”
Polley’s sensitive and thoughtful adaptation of Miriam Toews’ 2018 novel about sexual assault clocks in at 104 minutes, a testimony to her skill and precision as a writer. Her extraordinary work has been marked as a favorite for this Oscar since its premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, and, after winning the Writers Guild and USC Scripter awards, it looks like Polley will indeed prevail.
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Martin McDonagh “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert “The Fabelmans,” Steven Spielberg & Tony Kushner “Tár,” Todd Field “Triangle of Sadness,” Ruben Östlund
Will win: “Everything Everywhere All at Once” Could surprise: “The Banshees of Inisherin”
For Daniels, those hot dog fingers would come in handy for lugging around three (!)(?) Oscars.
ANIMATED FEATURE “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On” “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” “The Sea Beast” “Turning Red”
Will win: “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio”
Del Toro won Oscars as a director and producer of “The Shape of Water,” and now he’ll add a third for his agreeably weird, dark take on Carlo Collodi’s 19th century folk tale.
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE “All That Breathes” “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” “Fire of Love” “A House Made of Splinters” “Navalny”
Will win: “Navalny” Could surprise: “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed”
Daniel Roher’s suspenseful and galvanizing portrait of Alexander Navalny, the Russian opposition leader poisoned by Putin operatives, won top honors from the Producers Guild and British Film Academy just as the war in Ukraine entered its second year. Oscar voters will likely follow suit, saluting the movie and the defiant bravery of its hero.
INTERNATIONAL FEATURE “All Quiet on the Western Front” “Argentina, 1985” “Close” “EO” “The Quiet Girl”
Will win: “All Quiet on the Western Front”
Edward Berger’s grueling adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s perfect novel made some unnecessary additions to the book, but succeeded fully in hammering home the horrors of war. It earned nine Oscar nominations, won seven British Film Academy awards and will most assuredly take this prize.
CINEMATOGRAPHY “All Quiet on the Western Front,” James Friend “Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths,” Darius Khondji “Elvis,” Mandy Walker “Empire of Light,” Roger Deakins “Tár,” Florian Hoffmeister
The American Society of Cinematographers gave its top award to Walker, who became the first woman to win the group’s feature prize honor. She’s just the third woman to earn Oscar recognition in this category, joining recent nominees Ari Wegner (“The Power of the Dog”) and Rachel Morrison (“Mudbound”). Can Walker pull off another historic first? To quote The King: I just can’t help believin’.
COSTUME DESIGN “Babylon,” Mary Zophres “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” Ruth E. Carter “Elvis,” Catherine Martin “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Shirley Kurata “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris,” Jenny Beavan
Will win: “Elvis”
Pink suits, head-to-toe black leather, iconic white jumpsuits … four-time Oscar winner Martin and her team designed 90 outfits for Butler to wear for “Elvis,” plus an additional 9,000 for other cast members and extras. Zophres undertook a similarly mammoth task for “Babylon,” but I think it’ll be eclipsed by the shadow cast from Elvis’ giant belt buckle.
FILM EDITING “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Mikkel E.G. Nielsen “Elvis,” Matt Villa and Jonathan Redmond “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Paul Rogers “Tár,” Monika Willi “Top Gun: Maverick,” Eddie Hamilton
Will win: “Top Gun: Maverick” Could win: “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
The American Cinema Editors Awards divides its prizes by genre, and this year, “Everything Everywhere” won for comedy and “Top Gun” prevailed for drama. As the editing and sound categories usually line up, I’m giving the edge to “Top Gun,” which would be a deserving winner in both.
MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Heike Merker and Linda Eisenhamerová “The Batman,” Naomi Donne, Mike Marino and Mike Fontaine “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” Camille Friend and Joel Harlow “Elvis,” Mark Coulier, Jason Baird and Aldo Signoretti “The Whale,” Adrien Morot, Judy Chin and Anne Marie Bradley
Will win: “Elvis” Could surprise: “The Whale”
In one corner, you have the mountain of silicone and foam latex that molded Fraser into a 600-pound man. In the other, Butler’s Elvis pompadour and sideburns, plus the many prosthetic enhancements that transformed Mr. Tom Hanks into Col. Tom Parker. Add in Priscilla’s beehive and the late Elvis period when all those fried peanut butter, banana and bacon sandwiches had taken a toll, and you have the knockout winner.
PRODUCTION DESIGN “All Quiet on the Western Front,” production design: Christian M. Goldbeck; set decoration: Ernestine Hipper “Avatar: The Way of Water,” production design: Dylan Cole and Ben Procter; set decoration: Vanessa Cole “Babylon,” production design: Florencia Martin; set decoration: Anthony Carlino “Elvis,” production design: Catherine Martin and Karen Murphy; set decoration: Bev Dunn “The Fabelmans,” production design: Rick Carter; set decoration: Karen O’Hara
Will win: “Babylon” Could surprise: “Elvis”
Oscar voters cannot resist a movie that re-creates La La Land. (And, yes, “La La Land” won this Oscar, as did “Mank” and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood….”) Even those who found “Babylon” a bore will concede that it was, in its own way, everything, everywhere, all at once. The only nominee that could — and, frankly, should — derail its chances is “Elvis,” in which two-time Oscar winner Martin memorably re-created Memphis, Tenn., in Australia.
SCORE “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Volker Bertelmann “Babylon,” Justin Hurwitz “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Carter Burwell “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Son Lux “The Fabelmans,” John Williams
Will win: “All Quiet on the Western Front” Could upset: “Babylon”
It’s rare for a movie outside the best picture field to win. Hurwitz’s often discordant big band jazz “Babylon” score clocked in at more than two hours, making it the most score — and, like the movie, a bludgeoning exercise in indulgence. Still, try as you might, you can’t forget it, so it could win. But Bertelmann’s gut-rumbling, pulse-quickening cues for “All Quiet” linger too, and more voters have seen the film. It’s a toss-up though, so march to the beat that moves you here.
SONG “Applause” from “Tell It Like a Woman”; music and lyric by Diane Warren “Hold My Hand” from “Top Gun: Maverick”; music and lyric by Lady Gaga and BloodPop “Lift Me Up” from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”; music by Tems, Rihanna, Ryan Coogler and Ludwig Goransson; lyric by Tems and Ryan Coogler “Naatu Naatu” from “RRR”; music by M.M. Keeravaaani; lyric by Chandrabose “This Is a Life” from “Everything Everywhere All at Once”; music by Ryan Lott, David Byrne and Mitski; lyric by Ryan Lott and David Byrne
Will win: “Naatu Naatu” Could surprise: “Lift Me Up”
The divas don’t have much of a chance against “RRR” and its joyous dance.
SOUND “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Viktor Prásil, Frank Kruse, Markus Stemler, Lars Ginzel and Stefan Korte “Avatar: The Way of Water,” Julian Howarth, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Dick Bernstein, Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers and Michael Hedges “The Batman,” Stuart Wilson, William Files, Douglas Murray and Andy Nelson “Elvis,” David Lee, Wayne Pashley, Andy Nelson and Michael Keller “Top Gun: Maverick,” Mark Weingarten, James H. Mather, Al Nelson, Chris Burdon and Mark Taylor
Will win: “Top Gun: Maverick”
As mentioned earlier, voters usually match up sound and film editing. And if you saw “Top Gun: Maverick” in a good theater, the roar of all those jets probably lingered in your ears — and memory — well after the closing credits.
VISUAL EFFECTS “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Frank Petzold, Viktor Müller, Markus Frank and Kamil Jafar “Avatar: The Way of Water,” Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon and Daniel Barrett “The Batman,” Dan Lemmon, Russell Earl, Anders Langlands and Dominic Tuohy “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” Geoffrey Baumann, Craig Hammack, R. Christopher White and Dan Sudick “Top Gun: Maverick,” Ryan Tudhope, Seth Hill, Bryan Litson and Scott R. Fisher
Will win: “Avatar: The Way of Water”
Never mind the number of groundbreaking ways the “Avatar” team advanced the use of visual effects. Just look at those space whales.
ANIMATED SHORT “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse” “The Flying Sailor” “Ice Merchants” “My Year of Dicks” “An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It”
Will win: “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse” Could surprise: “Ice Merchants”
Sara Gunnarsdóttir’s “My Year of Dicks” boasts the standout title (who doesn’t want to hear that read after the envelope is opened, hehehe) and story, a superb, original tale of teen girlhood. But the Oscar will probably go to the hand-drawn “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse,” winner of the BAFTA prize and four Annies.
DOCUMENTARY SHORT “The Elephant Whisperers” “Haulout” “How Do You Measure a Year?” “The Martha Mitchell Effect” “Stranger at the Gate”
Will win: “The Elephant Whisperers” Could surprise: “Stranger at the Gate”
First rule of Oscar prognostication: Don’t pick against a movie about orphaned elephants.
LIVE-ACTION SHORT “An Irish Goodbye” “Ivalu” “Le Pupille” “Night Ride” “The Red Suitcase”
Will win: “Le Pupille” Could surprise: “An Irish Goodbye”
The endearing coming-of-age tale “Le Pupille” boasts an impeccable pedigree with director Alice Rohrwacher (“Happy as Lazzaro”) and producer Alfonso Cuarón and, if you’ve seen it on Disney+, you know that its whimsical look at conformity is every bit as winning as you’d expect. But … the heartfelt brothers’ reunion short “An Irish Goodbye” is the sole English-language nominee and, in the year of “Banshees” and “The Quiet Girl,” could pull off a feckin’ upset.
A new rumor indicated The Marvels, aka Captain Marvel 2, is in “chaos” at Marvel Studios ahead of its November 2023 release.
Marvel Studios has reportedly been making some major changes to its Phase 5 & 6 plans behind the scenes after mixed reactions to Phase 4. This has led to a swarm of MCU delays, the latest of which came just weeks ago as The Marvels shifted from July 28 to November 10.
Speaking on The Hot Mic Podcast, Above the Line’s Jeff Sneider shared that, according to his sources, The Marvels may be in trouble, referring to the development as “just a shitshow” and “kind of chaos.”
He went on to share apparent troubles with Captain Marvel actress Brie Larson, noting the star was “upset that this movie is called The Marvels” – a title designed to allude to the team-up of Carol Danvers, Ms. Marvel, and Monica Rambeau – as opposed to Captain Marvel 2.
Exactly what troubles The Marvels is facing remain unclear, although Sneider also noted difficulties with Brie Larson after the actress clashed with Monica Rambeau actress Teyonah Parris on set. Given the pair will lead the flick alongside Iman Vellani’sMs. Marvel, that conflict undoubtedly made for a tough production.
Many of the MCU’s latest releases have been criticized for various reasons, although VFX quality has been a common concern among fans. Previous reports did claim the delay was to allow for further post-production time, so perhaps that will be a focus in the coming months to avoid similar criticism to Ant-Man 3.
Additionally, if the conflict between Larson and Parris did end up causing production difficulties and affecting the quality of the product, Marvel Studios could be planning on conducting reshoots at some point this year to rectify that.
Director Nia DaCosta only has one major release on her directorial resume in the form of the 2021 slasher flick Candyman which was well-received. But her lack of experience, particularly in the major blockbuster game, could have been a factor in this apparent “chaos” – although Marvel Studios clearly chose her for a reason.
No matter the case, Marvel Studios and The Marvels team have plenty of time to fix the issues plaguing the sequel, provided of course none of the key problems in question are too fundamental with regard to the story, acting, or anything else.
Last year’s announcement that James Gunn would be taking the helm of DC Studios alongside Peter Safran was met with a mostly positive reaction. While there were many other factors to considered at the time, such as the unpopular decision of Henry Cavill having his Superman return cut down almost the instant it was announced, Gunn’s subsequent plans for the DCU also gained a mostly favorable reaction among fans. It seems that someone who feels that people should getting excited is the MCU’s Hulk, Mark Ruffalo.
Having been a part of the Marvel Studios franchise since 2012’s The Avengers, Ruffalo has gone through a number of changes as Bruce Banner/Hulk, in a literal sense. However, while appearing at Emerald City Comic Con, Ruffalo was asked about Marvel’s comic book rival and what kind of advice he would give DC Studios. In his response, Ruffalo took the moment to acknowledge that Gunn could cause some problems for the MCU in future. He said:
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
“I would say, hire James Gunn, cause nobody does it better. And Marvel should be sweating because James Gunn is a really gifted filmmaker and I think he’s going to be amazing for that franchise.”
Of course, someone already made that decision, and Gunn is now very much hired to take the DCU to the next level. While Ruffalo seems confident that the Guardians of the Galaxy helmer has more than what it takes to turn around the DC franchise, fans will be more inclined to wait and see how the likes of Superman: Legacy land in 2025.
Where Does Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk Go Next In the MCU?
Marvel Studios/Disney+
The Incredible Hulk was the second movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe back in 2008. However, due to some of those pesky and complex rights issues, that movie is the only time the Hulk has appeared in his own movie. Between that and Hulk’s next appearance in The Avengers, the character underwent a complete transformation when Edward Norton stepped aside and Mark Ruffalo took over as the long-term Hulk of the franchise.
However, in the two decades since, Ruffalo has yet to appear in his own Hulk movie. The reason for this is similar to why Marvel Studios and Sony have to agree on Spider-Man’s solo movies, with in this case the rights to the Hulk being owned by NBC Universal. Those rights have been rumored to be passing back to Marvel Studio for some time now, and it was recently reported that Disney’s upcoming sale of Hulu could even be used to ensure the Hulk, and another recent MCU addition of Namor, could be returned to Marvel Studios soon.
If this does happen, then it could pave the way to the long rumored World War Hulk movie. While there is no way of knowing exactly how this will pan out in the future, Mark Ruffalo is another of the MCU stars who could soon be looking to take a step out of the franchise. Many just hope that he gets the chance to bring back the not-so-jolly green giant for another solo smash one more time before that happens.
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Mar10 Day is here and to celebrate gaming’s favorite mustachioed plumber, Nintendo is offering a Switch bundled with a free Mario game for $300. The Mario Choose One bundle comes with the Switch system, the Switch dock, Joy Cons in Mario Red and a full-game download of either Super Mario Odyssey, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe or New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe. The deal went live today at Nintendo, Walmart, Target and Best Buy.
Nintendo’s super-popular gaming console doesn’t go on sale often, and while this isn’t a discount on the actual device itself, the inclusion of a free game means you’ll save up to $60 — assuming you were thinking about grabbing one of the included titles. You’ll also get stickers for the upcoming The Super Mario Bros. Movie which will feature the voices of Chris Pratt as Mario, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi and Jack Black as Bowser.
If you like the idea of pairing up real live RC cars with in-game Mario Kart action, you may want to bring home the augmented reality set Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit. It’s down to $60 from its usual $100 price tag — since you just get one car with each set, maybe now’s a good time to grab two for better in-home competition. Just note that the discounts on the above titles are set to expire after March 11th, so if one of them is on your list, you may want to grab it now.
A director’s ability to work effectively with actors is critical to the success of any film. By establishing a collaborative relationship, communicating effectively, creating a supportive environment, understanding the actor’s process, and balancing creativity with practicality, directors can bring out the best in their actors and create powerful, authentic performances that resonate with audiences.
By keeping these five key considerations in mind, directors can elevate their work and bring their creative vision to life on the big screen.
