“Rise of the Footsoldier 3: The Pat Tate Story” was produced by Carnaby International and Lipsync Productions. With it’s initial release on November 3rd 2017 it made approximately $0.02m at the Box Office.
Watch the trailer for “Rise of the Footsoldier 3: The Pat Tate Story”
Italian Disney+ drama The Good Mothers has won the inaugural Berlinale Series award for best TV drama at the 2023 Berlin International Film Festival. The U.K.-Italy co-production tells the true story of three women inside the notorious Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta crime syndicate who worked with a female prosecutor to bring down its empire.
Produced by House Productions in the U.K. and Italy’s Wildside, a Fremantle company, The Good Mothers is based on the eponymous novel by Alex Perry. Stephen Butchard adapted the book, and Julian Jarrold (Kinky Boots, Brideshead Revisited) and Elisa Amoroso (Fidelity) directed.
The first two episodes of the six-part series screened at the Berlinale as part of the festival’s sidebar for high-end TV drama.
The first-ever Berlinale Series Award Jury trio of former Yes Studios boss Danna Stern, Moonlight and The Eddy star André Holland, and Danish screenwriter Mette Heeno, said Good Mothers “captured us with its multi-layered characters that have been treated with care and allowed to evolve before our very eyes. The series creators have been meticulous in recreating an authentic and detailed world, presented by a stellar cast, with performance that made our hearts skip a beat.”
The jury gave a special mention to Viaplay series Arkitekten (The Architect), a dark satire about a near-future Copenhagen, from screenwriting duo Nora Landsrod and Kristian Kilde and director Kerren Lumer-Klabbers.
“We have a whole crisis team, something we’ve never had before, and many plans in place,” Kramer said. “We’ve run many scenarios. So it is our hope that we will be prepared for anything that we may not anticipate right now but that we’re planning for just in case it does happen.”
Several weeks ago, Academy president Janet Yang said they weren’t fast enough to stop Will Smith from slapping Chris Rock. Though one has to imagine even with a crisis team, Smith, who was being coronated as the Best Actor of the year, still would have walked on stage to “slap the shit” out of Chris Rock. However, that’s not the point. The point is that the team has “run many scenarios,” which allows them to put out a statement sooner. The slap “opened [their] minds to the many things that can happen at the Oscars,” including on-stage assaults. Through the crisis team, the Academy can produce a statement much faster.
“This is the group that we have to gather very quickly,” Kramer said. “This is how we all come together. This is the spokesperson. This will be the statement. And obviously depending on the specifics of the crisis, and let’s hope something doesn’t happen and we never have to use these, but we already have frameworks in place that we can modify.”
Now that they know that attendees and audiences disapprove of random acts of violence caused by a stupid joke, they can act much more quickly. So next time someone gets slapped, the Oscars can be there, within a moment’s notice, to denounce it.
Directors Jenner Furst and Julia Willoughby Nason were never short on angles through which to investigate the crimes, casualties and collusions of the powerful Murdaugh family of South Carolina’s Lowcountry.
The most obvious one would have been to tell the story through Alex Murdaugh, a former solicitor who’s currently on trial for the 2021 murders of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul. Thanks to dozens of live feeds on YouTube, the ongoing courtroom drama has emerged as the trial of the year.
But once they were on the ground in the Lowcountry, the directors behind Netflix’s new docuseries “Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal” were told there was only one place to start –– the 2019 boat crash that had killed Mallory Beach.
“I think what people don’t understand is that had there not been a boat crash years prior, and had Mallory Beach not died the way she did in this tragic accident at the hands of Paul Murdaugh, there wouldn’t have been a double homicide,” Furst tells Variety.
The Emmy-nominated directing duo have a history of covering high-profile subjects at the centers of their documentaries, including recent projects “LuLaRich” (Prime Video), “The Pharmacist” (Netflix), “Fyre Fraud” (Hulu) and “Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story” (Paramount Network).
But the Murdaughs were tough to get a handle on. The family held the solicitor position in Hampton County, S.C. for nearly a century, allowing them to allegedly strong-arm police, officials and locals to cover up all manner of wrongdoing. Understanding the scope of this story required a year of interviews with people who had never spoken out before, including Paul’s longtime girlfriend, Morgan Doughty, and the other people on the boat that night.
Morgan Doughty in “Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal.”
Courtesy of Netflix
It also meant understanding how Beach’s death exposed the Murdaughs’ connection to other deaths, including the murder of Stephen Smith, who was rumored to be romantically involved with Alex’s older son, Buster, as well as Gloria Satterfield, the family’s housekeeper who died after a fall at their estate known as Moselle.
The three-episode series, now streaming on Netflix, debuts amid the firestorm of attention cast upon Alex’s trial. But Furst and Willoughby Nason designed it to offer viewers the backstory on how the Murdaughs arrived on the national stage.
Furst and Willoughby Nason spoke to Variety about the fateful boat crash, the trial and why –– no matter the verdict –– they are ready to do future installments of the series.
What was your awareness of the Murdaugh family and the murders before getting involved with the project?
Julia Willoughby Nason: My knowledge of the Murdaugh family was none. It was brought to our attention through our showrunner, Michael Gasparro, who was following it closely when it was breaking and brought it to us as this very complex story down South, with a lot of layers. We started looking into it ourselves, and were fascinated by it for many reasons, as so many people are.
Jenner Furst: This was a case that was playing out in the news, but when we finally hit the ground, Mike had already done this incredible work to meet members of the community and gain access. When we started having our initial conversations with folks like Morgan Doughty and attorney Mark Tinsley, even though we had a more comprehensive view of this case than really anyone else in America had, it took months of us sitting there and talking to these people to even piece together all the information we were getting, because it was so dynamic.
The docuseries is releasing in the midst of Alex Murdaugh’s trial, but this story has been unfolding for years. When did you start filming?
Furst: We have been following the case from the outset of the double homicide, since the summer of 2021. By September that year, it became clear in talking with Netflix that they wanted to understand our take, and if we could work to tell a story for their viewers. We were fully in production by October. We are able to turn these things around relatively quickly for the scope, but it was about one year of filming. We were locking picture and handing off to Netflix last fall and through the winter.
Did you know your series would air during the trial?
Furst: The timing couldn’t be any crazier, honestly. We knew that we had to construct a series that would need to exist and be relevant regardless of a trial or a verdict. But the idea that this trial, which we knew was coming, would fall right at the same time that our series would premiere was a level of serendipity that no one could have ever fathomed.
Is it intimidating to release something like this alongside the trial, knowing that each day potential viewers are learning new things that you didn’t know when you were filming?
Willoughby Nason: The double homicide was always a backdrop in our series and the young adults on the boat were our main focus, so we weren’t too heavy into [what is being discussed in the trial]. But now there are all of these discoveries coming out, the videos and the audio of Alex, and it is exciting as filmmakers to see another trap door open.
Furst: We tell stories in a very different way. We don’t chase the news cycle, we also didn’t look at this as a whodunit with the murder scene at Moselle. I think what people don’t understand is that had there not been a boat crash years prior, and had Mallory Beach not died the way she did in this tragic accident at the hands of Paul Murdaugh, there wouldn’t have been a double homicide. The way we approached this story was about real people. Specifically, these young people, who had one night of their life not only determine their histories, but also the histories of their families and their community, and led to a house of cards coming down.
Is that why the focus of your series is the boat crash? You see it as the inciting incident of this story?
Furst: Anyone who knows anything about this community would tell you that this is the moment everything changed. This is the moment when a hundred years of power began to crumble, because of the way this crime was handled and because of the way Paul Murdaugh was being covered up by his family. You have the death of this incredibly charismatic, unique human, Mallory Beach, who was beloved by her friends and family, and the worst person who could have died on that boat. But in many ways, she is an angel of sorts — who becomes a martyr for a cause that has unfolded in the years to come — and reveals crimes that came before and after her death.
It’s not just that we took a unique perspective for the sake of being storytellers. This is the story the locals will tell you. And I don’t think that anyone else could tell that story, because these sources didn’t trust anyone else to tell the story. They chose us because they looked at our work, they understood our perspective and they understand the reach Netflix can have to get their story out there. And they wanted to partner with us to make sure the story is told the right way.
With all the revelations this trial has unearthed, are there any plans in place to explore them with more episodes?
Furst: We knew this could go nine hours, 12 hours or four seasons. It is a remarkable opportunity now that the trial is unfolding, because we already have the backstory on all this stuff. If the viewers and Netflix want another season, we have the goods to deliver. Remember, this trial is going to conclude, and there still won’t be any answers in Stephen Smith’s murder and there still won’t be any justice for Mallory Beach’s family. There is a lot still to uncover here. It’s fascinating and enthralling, and we think it all works together in a truly unique way, so we are super excited about the possibilities here.
Are you watching this trial day to day? Is anything sticking out to you as potentially important for a second installment?
Willoughby Nason: I am watching the trial, and it is fascinating to us because there are so many people we have known about or interviewed or know personally who are in the audience or being cross examined. What we go back and take from this trial will depend on what we are focusing on in a second season. But when we talk about the boat crash, and how we highlighted that for the majority of the series, it is interesting to see and hear in this trial how much Alex was interested in this crash. The first responder’s body camera shows him saying, “I think it is because of the boat crash that this happened.” He says it on the 911 tape. We recently found out on the stand from Maggie Murdaugh’s sister that he told her, “I want to clear Paul’s name in the boat crash,” when he first called her about her sister being murdered. There is an obsession there that organically ties into our focus in our series.
The very meta closing moment of this series features audio from a prison call where Alex asks his son Buster if Netflix is making a series about his case. When you heard that, did you know that was going to be your ending?
Willoughby Nason: I feel like Netflix has become this ubiquitous term referring to whether something is huge or not. It’s like instead of saying tissue, you say Kleenex. There was definitely an ironic quality to the fact that Alex would be talking about a Netflix series on that prison call. It has been used before. But we wanted to include it to kind of take down the fourth wall, and it shows a cavalier aspect to him. “Is this about me? Are they making a show about me?” I find it humorous in a very satirical way.
Do you have to resist the impulse to look at all the new evidence coming out and start crafting your narrative for a second season? Or are you waiting for the trial to reach a conclusion before making any decisions?
Willoughby Nason: I don’t think that we necessarily need a conclusion to tell any story.
Furst: We found ourselves in this position before, and we have the honor of working on behalf of the court of public opinion. It is very different from the court of law. Beyond the court of public opinion, we are trying to work in the canon of history. These stories have to be timeless. What we have learned in all of our work –– whether it be Kalief Browder, Fyre Festival, LulaRoe, Dan Schneider –– is that the story always continues. We see that these films can be even more effective when there is still a lot of meat left on the bone, because the public becomes fascinated, falls down the rabbit hole and makes a commitment to want to know more and see change. That is what is most exciting, instead of sitting on something and waiting to report on it in a conclusive way. We have an incredibly rich canvas and once the verdict happens, barring Netflix and the viewers wanting more, we are ready to provide it and would be excited to do it.
For those who watch the series, what is the big takeaway considering this story is still unfolding?
Furst: We always try to find the silver lining, but nothing can bring Mallory back. Nothing can bring Stephen back. Nothing can bring Paul and Maggie back. There’s other cases that predate all this that we have files on that weren’t even included. Nothing is going to bring those people back. But what I can tell you is that there are things happening in that community, symbolic ways to honor these people. There’s been a foundation formed in Stephen’s name. Mallory loved animals and was passionate about rescuing them, and she has a new animal shelter in her name called Mal’s Pals. People can look into those and know there are ways to honor Mallory and Stephen beyond just watching the film. It is a small silver lining, but a very special one we care a lot about.
The first Indigenous woman to be elected to the BC legislature is stepping down and is describing her time in Victoria as a “torture chamber.”
Vancouver-Mount Pleasant MLA Melanie Mark announced she is leaving elected life in an emotional speech on the floor of the legislature Wednesday afternoon.
Mark, who is also the first First Nations woman to serve in cabinet, says getting things accomplished in Victoria was challenging due to “colonial” roadblocks.
David Eby unveils housing plan, Minister Melanie Mark resigns from cabinet portfolio
“Institutions fundamentally reject change. They are allergic to doing things differently. Particularly colonial institutions like this legislature and government at large,” Mark said.
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“This place felt like a torture chamber. I will not miss the character assassination.”
Mark served as Minister of Advanced Education and Tourism, Sport and Culture in John Horgan’s cabinet. She stepped down last September due to personal reasons and has been serving as a minister without a portfolio since then.
Timing of the Royal BC Museum replacement questioned by reporters
Mark was first elected in a 2016 by-election.
“I will continue my fight for positive change from outside this house,” Mark said.
“I will continue to use my big mouth to speak up for the voiceless and those who do not vote. Namely, children, missing and murdered Indigenous girls and Mother Earth.”
Fighting through tears, Mark explained she is deciding to step away from politics to support her daughters and take care of herself.
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She did not announce an official date for her departure.
“The journey is long but if we paddle together we will all get there. I am not quitting. I am standing up for myself. As a single mother I am, for the first time, looking out for myself and my children first,” Mark said.
Mark has spoken in the past about the abuse she suffered as a child and moving through the foster system.
Before entering politics she worked for the province’s Representative for Children and Youth.
Mark was the tourism minister during the controversy over the future of the Royal BC Museum.
“Members of this house have heard me say we need to paddle together. The reality is the political environment is cutthroat and dysfunctional,” Mark said.
“Future generations need us to have the guts to have their back.”
“So I actually read for Steve Harrington and forgot all the lines and absolutely effed up the audition,” Stokes told Access Hollywood at a fan event in Huntington Beach, CA celebrating the Netflix series.
Stokes continued, “I drove eight hours from Atlanta back to Orlando regretting every moment of my life on that.”
The Steve character was ultimately played by Joe Keery who Stokes calls “an absolute legend.”
“He’s so damn good as Steve Harrington,” Stokes said of Keery. “I’m super proud of him. I’ve talked to him a little bit throughout the years.”
Although Stokes didn’t end up booking the gig, the Duffer brothers gave him another character who appeared in the sixth episode of the first season. He credits the Stranger Things creators for giving him that opportunity which would help him land his starring role in Outer Banks.
“I’m just thankful for the Duffer brothers for giving me an opportunity to do my job and to start my career,” he added. “I mean, if it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t be here and the executive producers and the Netflix people who are part of that show were also part of Stranger Things. It’s a very full circle moment for me.”
Stokes would stay in the Netflix family starring in Outer Banks for the streamer playing John B. Routledge, the ring leader of the Pogues. The show was recently renewed for a fourth season ahead of its Season 3 premiere.
Thanks in large part to Disney’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” and “Avatar: The Way of Water,” Imax got back into the black during the final quarter of 2022 and beat Wall Street projections.
Imax reported quarterly revenue of $98 million, down from a year ago when “Spider-Man: No Way Home” pushed revenue to $108 million but up a dramatic 44% from Q3 2022 when the entire exhibition industry struggled with a threadbare release slate and decades-low grosses in August and September. The premium format company reported earnings of $2.6 million or 19 cents per share, an improvement from last quarter’s loss of 3 cents per share and beating projections of 15 cents per share.
While Imax’s total box office reached only $177 million in Q3, “Avatar: The Way of Water” alone nearly eclipsed that total with $160 million grossed in Q4. The overall quarterly cume worldwide reached $251.6 million, a 42% increase from last quarter.
Imax has further cemented its position as a major contributor to the success of blockbusters upon which the box office and exhibitors have become even more reliant than before the COVID-19 pandemic. As “Avatar: The Way of Water” reached an astonishing $2.24 billion in global box office grosses, Imax estimates that 11% of that total has come from tickets sold for screenings in its auditoriums.
But like the rest of the movie theater industry, Imax couldn’t entirely escape the feast-or-famine nature of the box office in 2022, and the annual results show it. Revenue improved by 18% from 2021 at $300 million and the company’s adjusted net earnings for the year remained low at $3.2 million, though that was an improvement from the $8.4 million loss in 2021. That equates to earnings of 6 cents per share for the year after a 14 cents per share loss in 2021.
Signs point to Imax posting a stronger Q1 over last year thanks to a record $61.3 million Lunar New Year period in China along with holdover grosses from “Avatar 2” and $24 million grossed worldwide during the opening weekend of “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.” Imax will also support several March blockbusters including MGM’s “Creed III,” Warner Bros./New Line’s “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” and Lionsgate’s “John Wick: Chapter 4.”
“Imax fully expects to resume pre-pandemic levels of performance in 2023, as we surge into the year with strong dual tailwinds — the record-breaking performance of ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ and the rapid reopening of China,” CEO Rich Gelfond said in a statement. “Already in the new year, we’ve delivered our highest grossing first-run release ever with the ‘Avatar’ sequel, our best Chinese New Year box office ever, and multisystem agreements — demonstrating our prospects for strong box office and global network growth in 2023.”
Sanders’ support comes amid growing tensions between workers on YouTube Music’s Content Operations team and its parent company, Google. The nearly 60 workers are formally employed by Cognizant, a third-party contractor to Google. Last October, they filed for a union election with the 1,300-member Alphabet Workers Union (AWU). But shortly after that request was filed with the National Labor and Relations Board, Cognizant issued a new return-to-office mandate that organizers — and Sanders — argue amounts to an illegal union-busting strategy.
“Our request to you is simple: Ensure that all Google workers, including YouTube Music workers, are able to freely exercise their right to join a union as guaranteed by federal law.”
“We worry that Cognizant suddenly imposed these impossible requirements on these workers in response to them exercising their right to organize a union,” Sanders wrote to Pichai along with Austin Rep. Greg Casar (D) on Tuesday. “Our request to you is simple: Ensure that all Google workers, including YouTube Music workers, are able to freely exercise their right to join a union as guaranteed by federal law.”
The YouTube Music workers officially called a strike on February 3rd, three days before the return-to-office mandate went into effect. In a Monday tweet, the AWU called it the first-ever strike at Google. While their employer, Cognizant, is a third-party contractor to Google, the AWU argues that the two companies are joint employers for the YouTube Music Content Operations Department.
Responding to a request for comment, Google spokesperson Courtenay Mencini said, “The individuals striking today are employees of Cognizant, not Google or YouTube, and we respect their right to join a union or not. Their decision will not affect our work with Cognizant, as we hold many contracts with both unionized and non-union suppliers. As the employer, Cognizant is responsible for these workers’ employment terms.”
In an email to The Verge Tuesday, Cognizant said it’s “disappointing” that some staffers are striking over the return to work policy and that it has always defined these roles as “in-office positions.” Cognizant spokesperson Jeff DeMarrais said “Cognizant is the sole employer of these employees, not Google or YouTube.”
In January, Sanders became the chair of the powerful Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. In addition to his Tuesday letter to Google, Sanders has leveraged his newfound power to go after other companies allegedly obstructing unionization efforts and running afoul of federal labor law. Earlier this month, Sanders hinted at subpoenaing Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz to testify before his committee about the company’s “egregious union-busting campaign.”
Updated February 21st, 2023 at 2:15PM ET: Included a statement from Google.
Updated February 21st, 2023 at 2:45PM ET: Included a statement from Cognizant.
Pollok, 31, pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to commit money laundering, avoiding a trial. According to prosecutors, she served as the chief lieutenant to Lawrence Ray, who relied on her to gain the trust of young women whom he would exploit for sex and money.
Ray was sentenced in January to 60 years in prison, after being convicted of extortion, sex trafficking and racketeering.
Under her plea agreement, Pollok faced a maximum of five years in prison. Her attorneys argued, however, that she should face no jail time, and stated that Ray had “brainwashed” her into doing his bidding.
“Isabella did whatever Ray directed,” the defense argued in a sentencing memo. “She does not deny that she enforced his bizarre edicts and philosophies. Rather, by pleading guilty, she has accepted full responsibility for her conduct.”
Pollok had a sexual relationship with Ray. Prosecutors alleged that she also managed his finances and helped enforce his domination over the cult victims. The prosecution also stated that she participated in the torture of Claudia Drury, who had been forced into prostitution.
“The extensive documentary evidence in this case bears no indication of remorse, ambivalence, guilt, or horror on the part of defendant for her role in the victimization of her former roommates and friends,” the prosecution argued, in seeking the full, 60-month sentence.
Pollok was indicted in January 2021. Her defense team states that she has since worked with mental health counselors to “separate from Ray and their shared delusional beliefs” and to “break away” from his control.
“I am truly ashamed of my conduct and the pain I caused others,” she wrote in a letter to the judge. “I know I committed serious crimes and I fully accept responsibility for my actions… Lawrence ‘s hold over me changed who I was and it continues to be a healing process.”
The defense also submitted a letter from Drury, who asked for leniency and said she did not blame Pollok for participating in the torture or for forcing her into prostitution.
“I do not believe she had any true capacity to stop Larry or mitigate what he was doing to me in any way, psychologically or physically,” she wrote. “I don’t believe she had an honest choice, or much of any kind of choice.”
Javed Akhtar, Kangana Ranaut and Nawazuddin Siddiqui were among the top newsmakers on Wednesday. (Photos: Instagram)
From Javed Akhtar reacting to Kangana Ranaut praising him to Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s brother levelling fresh allegations; here are the top newsmakers of the day.
Days after Kangana Ranaut praised Javed Akhtar for his befitting reply in Pakistan regarding the 26/11 terror attacks, the lyricist was asked about the same in a recent interview. However, Akhtar decided not to talk about it and rather asked the anchor to ‘move forward’. “I don’t consider Kangana important so how can she make an important remark. Forget about her. Chaliye aage (Let’s move forward),” Akhtar told NDTV.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s brother levelled shocking allegations against the actor a day after the former’s house help issued an apology. On Wednesday, Nawazuddin’s brother Shamaas Nawab Siddiqui, took to Twitter and accused him of ‘buying’ his way out of trouble. He also claimed that the apology video by the house help Sapna Robin Masih was ‘scripted’. Nawazuddin’s house help earlier accused the actor of abandoning her in Dubai without any food or money. However, she later apologised and claimed that whatever she alleged against Siddiqui was under pressure.
The release date of Amitabh Bachchan, Tiger Shroff and Kriti Sanon starrer Ganapath has left Kangana Ranaut disappointed since it was clashing at the box office with the latter’s Emergency. While both the films were scheduled to release on October 20 this year, Kangana took to Twitter on Wednesday evening and called out Ganapath makers for the same. She questioned the makers of Ganapath for choosing October 20 as the release date even when the ‘entire October is free so is November, December and even September’.
If recent reports are to be believed, Ranbir Kapoor has been finalised for former cricketer Sourav Ganguly’s biopic. As reported by E-Times, several names including that of Hrithik Roshan and Sidharth Malhotra were considered for Dada’s biopic. However, it is Ranbir who has bagged the project. The entertainment portal also claimed that the Brahmastra actor is likely to visit Kolkata soon where he will be visiting Eden Gardens, CAB office and even Sourav Ganguly’s house before he commences the shoot.
Here’s some good news for Indian fans of Backstreet Boys. The iconic American boyband announced on Wedensday that their blockbuster DNA World Tour will travel to India in May, 2023. BookMyShow, India’s leading entertainment destination, along with Live Nation, is bringing the world-renowned Backstreet Boys: DNA World Tour to the country in a two-city tour, making a stop at the entertainment capital, Mumbai and the national capital, New Delhi. For the India leg, Backstreet Boys: DNA World Tour will play at Jio World Gardens, Mumbai on May 4th and Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi on May 5th 2023.
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Culture clashes are common, but as is often the case, some arise not out of cultural superiority as much as plain old, patronizing ignorance. Or good ol’ fashioned clickbait. Replete with a cast boasting the likes of Tom Cruise, Ken Watanabe, and Timothy Spall, The Last Samurai was a somber attempt to depict post-Edo Japanese history in the traditional template of the Hollywood epic. The results vary greatly depending on whom you ask.
However, no matter what approach the film chose, director Edward Zwick was treading on sensitive ground, setting up one of the first public debates about cultural appropriation. Casting a white actor in a film about Japan, The Last Samurai attracted negative press for perceived racial insensitivity. Did it deserve it? Based on recent assessment, it is horribly racist and an insult to Japanese culture and its people. Western social critics taking umbrage at the nerve of Americans making a film from the perspective of an American in Japan, regardless of the historical fact that it is loosely based on a real military advisor. Not that it didn’t have some problems. Epic films, by their nature, can be long and talky. But those nitpicks amounted to the standard liberties that films must make to shove years of complex social events, personalities, and battles into a digestible package to recoup the budget.
Yet, in a not all that surprising twist, the American critics had a culturally narrow and decidedly-ignorant understanding of Japanese culture and sensibilities. The Japanese had their own observations, feelings that were completely ignored in the West. The twin controversies rarely overlapped in discourse.
The Western Perspective
Warner Brothers
The Last Samurai fell into the oldest trap of Western filmmakers trying to make sense of Japanese history. A history that has evolved greatly over the centuries, and is not monolithic. Zwick tried to capture the nuance, and did a somewhat decent job showing the influx of Western military advisors and trainers who flocked the country to serve on both sides of the conflict, but did not fully understand the complexities of the politics of the Meiji Restoration, which was more about deifying the Emperor rather than the Buddha.
To many reviewers in Europe or the US, or at least those deemed credible to show up on the Rotten Tomatoes website, it was nothing but a story of a “white guy savior to the heathen natives,” a film full which exploits the “noble savage” stereotype, in which the hero “embraces the peaceful, noble ways of a foreign culture.” The late comedian Paul Mooney was more blunt in his opinion (this clip definitely not safe for work), but he echoes the same exact viewpoint. And today, whether in America or Europe, this is pretty much the majority opinion concerning the film.
Nobody would be more surprised by the accusations of racism than the Japanese, if they bothered to notice the squawking at all. This is where things become especially awkward, because they didn’t get the memo that they were depicted as “savages.” Critics in Japan expressed satisfaction with the portrayal of Japanese history, with one writer making the case (via New York Times): ”With his pursuit of realism director Edward Zwick seeks to surmount the misunderstandings and biases made by Westerners in the past.” We think they were talking about the John Belushi character on SNL, but to Belushi’s credit, there were certainly far more offensive Asian characters littered about American media.
Opinions differed, though most Japanese seemed to agree it was a perfectly fine film, without racist overtones. Reviewers typically displayed appreciation of outside cultures showing Japanese as fully flesh-out heroes with a dynamic history little explored by Hollywood or Europe, flattered by the attention a major Hollywood actor would show to their nation.
Rather than recoiling at the dreaded white savior cliché, Japanese viewers viewed the film through a broader, philosophical lens devoid of western narratives or baggage. The film’s lone scandal in Japan was over Zwick’s glorifying the militarism of the olden days, aka the “bushido” tradition, a tradition which is not actually that ingrained in Japanese society, nor that ancient. This remains a very sensitive topic in Japan, but is not well understood in the outside world, at least at the time of this film’s production. Zwick wasn’t the only one confused. Protesters in the West were stuck between a rock and a hard place, offended personally, while simultaneously realizing that the consensus Japanese sentiment was that it repected their culture, enamored with Cruise.
Being offended on behalf of a group of people and speaking for them, is, in itself, incredibly condescending and serves no purpose but to muddy discourse. That’s what you do to children. We’re sure the President of Japan would have changed his mind about the movie if only he had been issued the stern trigger warning that Western audiences now receive. Looking back on the film in the modern era, Ken Watanabe still insists, “I just thought we had the opportunity to depict Japan in a way that we were never able to before. So we thought we were making something special.” Adding that it showed stories about Asians and Asian history could be bankable for foreign studios and distributors. His assessment is fairly accurate, seeing how Parasite won the Oscar a couple of years back.
Watanabe had good reason to like the film, he got an Oscar nod out of it, and it launched his international career. But that only goes to prove his point that the film was, overall, a good thing for Japan and Japanese actors.
Still more perplexing, very few critics in America or Europe who expressed this disgust over the “white savior” cliche had bothered to ever speak to any Japanese filmgoers or consult critical analysis from overseas for context. Sure, there’s no shortage of similarly-themed films, and much more intriguing and more historically-accurate depictions of Japan history if you look, but the pearl clutching over Edward Zwick’s saga now looks absurdly overblown. If there’s any lesson to be extracted, it is to listen to other cultures’ input before smothering them in a paternalistic embrace.
The JOJOLands follows the story of two Joestars, Jodio Joestar and Dragona Joestar, who are currently in high school while already having Stands of their own. The preliminary chapter sees the brothers introduced while being pulled over by some shady police officers, allowing them the perfect opportunity to show off their respective Stands in “November Rain” and “Smooth Operator”, who have some of the wildest abilities that we’ve seen from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure protagonists to date. Of course, the fact that the new star of the series is named “JoDIO” has many fans starting to wonder if there might be a connection between this alternate Joestar and the most popular villain of the franchise, Dio Brando.
The Stands of The JOJOLands
November Rain is unlike any Stand that a Joestar has had in the past, specifically thanks to the fact that it looks like an amalgam between the more humanoid Stands and a spider, not having fists to deliver machine-gun-like blows as previous protagonists had. While the full extent of its powers is a mystery, Jodio has used it to seemingly create a torrent of deadly rain that drops a flurry of ball bearings on opponents. With Dragona’s “Smooth Operator”, her Stand is a collection of tiny beings that are able to move objects along a smooth surface, which created a horrifying effect for the police officer threatening them as the Joestar was able to move his eyes to a different location on his face.
Araki sets up this new JoJo as the story of how Jodio becomes rich on this tropical island, and while this might not be the most altruistic mission for a Joestar, it will be interesting to see where the story goes all the same.
While the latest chapter has landed in Japan as part of the publication, “Ultra Jump”, an official release via Viz Media for North America has yet to be confirmed, though considering the popularity of the series, we might just see it officially hit North America in the future.
Are you excited about the continuing adventures of Jodio and Dragona? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the world of the Joestars.
A film by Sean Penn, Aaron Kaufman USA 115 minutes 2022
Review by M.R. D’Amico
They went there first. In 2021 director Sean Penn (The Indian Runner, The Crossing Guard, The Pledge, Into the Wild, Flag day) and screenwriter, producer and director Aaron Kaufman began a film about Ukraine: they wanted to learn more about Volodymyr Zelensky, the actor and comedian who had become the actual President of Ukraine. But on February 24, 2022 (almost a year ago) while Penn and Kaufman were filming in Kyiv, still thinking that nothing could happen in Ukraine, Putin’s invasion took the whole world by surprise. They became front row witnesses of the beginning of this terrible war.
At the press conference at Berlinale Sean Penn said that just hours before Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, he had his first camera meeting with Zelensky. “It was as if he was realizing himself, that he was born for this moment”. Penn also recalled the “civility” he saw when leaving Ukraine through the Polish border right after the invasion began.
There were long queues of vehicles leaving the country: “No one was honking, no one was trying to drive around each other and there was a kind of quiet acceptance”, some of the best scenes of the documentary were those of thousands of refugees leaving but also of thousands of Ukrainians who decided not to leave their country. “There were families being torn apart and some most remain torn apart”.
THE PRESS CONFERENCE
Watch the photocall and press conference for “Superpower” by and with Sean Penn and Aaron Kaufman, as well as Billy Smith, Sergei Bespalov, Danny Gabai, Lauren Terp.
SYNOPSIS
When directors Sean Penn and Aaron Kaufman began filming Superpower in early 2021, a full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Vladimir Putin was a looming, if seemingly distant, threat. Penn and Kaufman travelled to Ukraine to learn more about Volodymyr Zelensky, the actor and comedian who played an unlikely presidential candidate on television before becoming the actual President of Ukraine, and who at that point was known primarily to Americans for rebuffing attempts at coercion in the 2019 Trump-Ukraine scandal that resulted in the impeachment and subsequent acquittal of President Donald Trump. But on February 24, 2022, while Penn and Kaufman were filming in Kyiv, Putin’s invasion took the world by storm. As explosions rocked the city, they became inadvertent front-row witnesses to this historic “David and Goliath” struggle. Penn conducted the first of multiple interviews with Zelensky on the night of the invasion and, deeply affected by what he witnessed in Kyiv and during the film team’s journey to the border, became an unofficial ambassador for Ukraine and its unlikely leader.
I saw a lot of films at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. It’s a week where you don’t expect to get much sleep. Among the countless hours of filming, there were two movies that I just couldn’t stop thinking about afterward: A Thousand and One and Scrapper, both of which understandably won big awards at the event. The common thread between the two of them was that they were steeped in realism that felt authentic while thoroughly entertaining.
Teyana Taylor and Aaron Kingsley appear in a still from A Thousand and One by A.V. Rockwell, an official selection of the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Focus Features
A Thousand and One represents storytelling at its best
A Thousand and One walked away with the jury prize in this year’s U.S. Dramatic Competition. It was a complete revelation. Not only for Teyana Taylor’s breakout performance but for the entire cast that exemplified Harlem in the 1990s. I lived in New York at that time and this film absolutely got it: the changing landscape, the political ramifications through the Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg tenures, and the gentrification of Harlem. A. V. Rockwell’s directorial debut paint a picture of Harlem in that slice of time. Not only does Teyana Taylor’s Inez embody all that evolution itself; she is Harlem. This is no mere trick, it’s Rockwell’s mastery of storytelling that encapsulates all that symbolism and atmosphere subtly weaved into the incredibly moving story of a Black mother impulsively rescuing her son from the foster system that has failed him thus far.
Seeing her son suffer, the previous convict realizes that she is the only answer for this bright boy, Terry, to live a fulfilling life. She may not understand it at first, but after seeing him hospitalized after jumping out of a window of his foster mother’s apartment, she takes off with him instead, unsure of her next steps. But the compassionate love she feels for this lost boy inspires her to piece together a stable life that perhaps she didn’t think she would be capable of before. Terry is smart and deserves to thrive, which Inez recognizes, seeing a chance that alluded her and where she can break the cycle of lost opportunity for an earnest, gifted kid.
What sets A Thousand and One apart from so many feel-good movies is the visceral honesty with which it threads the tale. Terry’s earnestness is never overtly emphasized, Inez is a fully realized character with plenty of flaws—her abrasiveness, for one, which threaten to derail her noble efforts many times—and the layers that William Catlett brings to her on-again-off-again boyfriend/husband, Lucky, infuse the film with character richness that makes it feel almost like watching a documentary. There’s one scene when Inez tells Terry to make a plate for Lucky’s other family (a daughter and the daughter’s mother) that packs a punch without even breaking a sweat.
The focus on Inez’s viewpoint is something I haven’t seen a lot of films of this caliber do. So many have told Harlem stories through the eyes of the men, or in anyone else’s hands, this might have been Terry’s narrative. But it is a real coup that Rockwell—a Sundance Episodic Lab prodigy—makes the distinct decision to make this Inez’s story and give us the impact from her point of view.
A. V. Rockwell is the kind of directorial talent who should be on the radar like Spike Lee and the perfect antidote to the outdated notion that awards shows can’t find female directors to nominate, with the occasional exception. Rockwell proves that there are female director stars just waiting in the wings. Of all the titles I saw at Sundance, A Thousand and One was the film that stood out above everything else.
Harris Dickinson and Lola Campbell appear in Scrapper by Charlotte Regan, an official selection of the World Dramatic Competition at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute. | Photo by Chris Harris. All photos are copyrighted and may be used by press only for the purpose of news or editorial coverage of Sundance Institute programs. Photos must be accompanied by a credit to the photographer and/or ‘Courtesy of Sundance Institute.’ Unauthorized use, alteration, reproduction or sale of logos and/or photos is strictly prohibited.
The unexpected heart of Scrapper
Scrapper absolutely charmed me, with its tale of a hardnosed 12-year-old girl who is living on her own since her mother’s death while carefully outsmarting the system without bringing any scrutiny upon her. To get by, she steals bikes and outstrips them for parts so she can pay the rent of her threadbare flat in London. As Georgie, spunky Lola Campbell’s winsome performance brings a delightful vitality as we witness her navigate dealing with social workers and taking care of the laundry, at the same time grappling with the devastating loss of her mother’s battle with cancer.
Just when Georgie seems to be juggling all the messy aspects that now make up her new, chaotic life, her biological father, Jason (Harris Dickinson) turns up to disrupt the flow of things. Attired with a bleach-blonde crew cut and immature attire, Jason is still a walking example of the lack of maturity that had him bail in the first place. But from the outset, Jason makes it clear that although he still may not have his sh*t together, there’s a desire to reach his daughter this time around, even if she wants nothing to do with him.
Scrapper may not have shocking twists and turns, but it’s an engaging tale whose soul sneaks up on you before you know it, with a heartfelt script that surprised with its poignancy, most especially when you get to the revelation that inspired Jason to connect with his daughter in the first place. It was that emotionally impactful moment when I realized I was watching the best of Sundance.
Molly Gordon, Ben Platt, Alexander Bello, Kyndra Sanchez, Bailee Bonick, Quinn Titcomb, Madisen Marie Lora, Donovan Colan and Luke Islam appear in a still from Theater Camp by Molly Goron and Nick Lieberman, an official selection of the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute
Honorable mention: Theater Camp
Directed by Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman, and set in the Adirondacks, Theater Camp, while not revelatory, was a fun romp through an over-the-top summer theater camp that is—unbeknownst to the campers—on the brink of bankruptcy. After the camp director, Joan—the always fabulous Amy Sedaris—ends ups hospitalized after a heart attack during a performance, her inept, DJ/influencer son Troy (Jimmy Tatro) takes over.
It’s a joy to watch Troy out of his comfort zone, along with a winning cast that includes Amos (Ben Platt), Rebecca-Diane (Gordon), the surprisingly talented crew worker Glenn (an excellent Noah Galvin), choreographer Clive (Nathan Lee Graham), BS artist Janet (a hilarious Ayo Edebiri), camp competitor Caroline (Patti Harrison). While no Spinal Tap, the entertaining cast results in enough hilarious moments to make it a winning parody.
Theater Camp also won a Special Jury Prize at Sundance.
Don’t bother: Pod Generation and Infinity Pool
I’ve waxed aplenty on how overrated Infinity Pool was. A gimmicky, much-talked-about spectacle, Brandon Cronenberg focused on distracting and shocking tactics just for shock value by itself, rather than letting a fascinating premise shine. The mystery and thrill of the story could have been served so much better, similar to the review The Washington Post gave it.
Emilia Clarke, Chiwetel and Rosalie Craig appear in a still from The Pod Generation by Sophie Barthes, an official selection of the Premieres program at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Andrij Parekh.
Another disappointment for me was Pod Generation, which opened the festival. The first night films are usually among the marquee titles so imagine my surprised boredom when watching the vehicle which starred Emilia Clarke as Rachel and Chiwetel Ejiofor as Alvy, a New York couple who opt for the synthetic pod technology to have a baby. Set in a slightly futuristic setting where AI helps monitor our moods and is integrated into our daily management, even more so than say an Alexa is now, let’s call it an ever-present, advanced Alexa environment.
The concept for the film had a lot of potential. I’ve been reading up on Hashem Al-Ghaili’s developments on just this type of technology and many swear that this day is coming sooner rather than later when babies will develop in synthetic environments rather than naturally. Unfortunately, this film just never lives up to its potential. Whether it’s the complete lack of chemistry between its two leads—who usually have fantastic chemistry with other co-stars—or the attempts at a light touch, or just an infusion of humor that doesn’t suit the material, I honestly mostly found myself bored throughout. Additionally, watching Clarke and Ejiofor cart the synthetic pod around like a sack of potatoes was the last straw (that’s a growing baby!). I just found the experience of Pod Generation to be a surprisingly lackluster affair.
What were your favorite films from Sundance 2023? Let us know in the comments.
Pictured: Lockwood & Co, Black Summer, Chicago Party Aunt, Ginny & Georgia
Netflix releases dozens of new shows every month and, for the most part, provides either swift renewals (or cancelations). Still, a growing list of shows has yet to receive official confirmations of their future. Here’s the list of Netflix shows that have yet to be renewed as of December 2022.
This is part of a list of three articles ongoing for 2022, whereby we track all the renewals at Netflix and all the cancelations at Netflix. In the latter article, you’ll also see a list of shows we believe are at risk of cancelation.
Another rule below is that we won’t list titles over three years old and are still waiting for renewals. In those instances, we’re presuming the show is dead. Titles that fall under this banner include the likes of The Innocents and Tidelands.
This list will be updated over time, and to begin with, we’ll keep the list limited to English language titles. We’ll also exclude kids’ animation as we rarely, if ever, get confirmations from Netflix regarding their futures until years later or days/weeks before a new season launches.
List of Netflix Shows Yet to Be Renewed or Canceled
Aunty Donna’s Big Ol’ House of Fun (Season 2) – Comedy series that debuted in November 2020.
Black Summer – Picture: Netflix
Black Summer (Season 3) – Most recent season aired in June 2021 and no word since. Our prediction is that it’s likely ended.
Blood & Water (Season 3)
Brews Brothers (Season 2) – First debuted in April 2020 – no word on future seasons of the comedy show.
Bookmarks (Season 2) – Educational kids series produced by Tiffany Haddish released in September 2020.
Chad and JT Go Deep (Season 2) – Comedy series that debuted in August 2022.
Chicago Party Aunt (Part 3) – Animated series that was given an upfront order – unclear whether it’ll continue into a third part.
Criminal: UK (Season 3) – Came originally alongside multiple other anthology series in different languages and was the only one to get renewed for a second season which dropped in September 2020.
Decoupled (Season 2) – Indian/English comedy series that debuted in December 2021.
Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings (Season 2) – Unlikely to return with showrunner now working on Netflix’s Virgin River.
Eternally Confused and Eager for Love (Season 2) – Comedy drama series that debuted in March 2022.
Far from Home (Season 2) – African coming-of-age drama that debuted in December 2022.
Farzar (Season 2) – Animated series from the creators of Brickleberry and Paradise PD.
Ginny & Georgia (Season 3) – Likely renewal given the performance of season 2.
Picture: Netflix
God’s Favorite Idiot (Season 2) – Was originally commissioned for 16 episodes but only eight have been produced and released. No word on whether it’ll return after its initial June 2022 release.
Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities (Season 2) – Horror anthology series that debuted in October 2022 – unclear whether it’ll return despite GDT working on other Netflix projects.
Hard Cell (Season 2) – British comedy series starring Catherine Tate. Not expected to return for season 2.
In From the Cold (Season 2) – First debuting in March 2022, no word on the future of this sci-fi thriller series.
It’s Bruno! (Season 2) – Comedy series that debuted in May 2019 – almost certainly not returning.
Jiva! (Season 2) – South African drama series that was released with 5 episodes in June 2021. No word on the future.
Kings of Jo’Burg (Season 3) – South African series that saw its most recent season drop in January 2023.
Picture: Netflix
Living with Yourself (Season 2) – Comedy drama starring Paul Rudd that debuted in October 2019.
Lockwood & Co (Season 2) – British teen supernatural series. Unclear whether it’ll return given its performance.
Man vs. Bee (Season 2) – Rowan Atkinson led comedy – some have suspected this was a limited series but labeling on Netflix itself implies there could be more.
Master of None (Season 4) – Was renewed for a third season but no word on whether the show will be back for more.
Medical Police (Season 2) – First debuted in January 2020; no word on future episodes nearly three years later.
Murderville (Season 2) – Renewed for a Christmas special, but no word on an entire second season for the sketch comedy series.
Pieces of Her (Season 2) – Not billed as a limited series, Pieces of Her premiered in early 2022 but has yet to get an official renewal.
Saturday Morning All Star Hits! (Season 2) – Comedy animation series that debuted in December 2021.
Savage Beauty (Season 2)
Scaredy Cats (Season 2) – Family fantasy series that debuted in October 2021.
Shanty Town (Season 2) – South African crime drama that debuted in January 2023.
Super PupZ (Season 2) – Children’s comedy that debuted in March 2022.
The Guardians of Justice (Season 2) – Adi Shankar’s experimental animation series – debuted in March 2022.
The Iliza Shlesinger Sketch Show (Season 2) – Sketch comedy series that debuted in April 2020.
The Last Bus (Season 2) – Kids’ science-fiction live-action series.
The Letter for the King (Season 2) – Fantasy family series that debuted in March 2020. No word on future seasons.
The Pentaverate (Season 2) – Mike Myer’s return to comedy in the new series that premiered in May 2022.
The Politician (Season 3) – Ryan Murphy show that went quiet after its second season premiered in June 2020.
Wu Assassins (Season 2) – Not expected to return given the series looked to have wrapped up with a movie release.
Young Wallander (Season 3) – Most recent season premiered in February 2022, no word on future seasons but given performance, we’re guessing cancelation.
If you can confirm the status of any of the above shows, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Which show above do you hope gets renewed? Let us know in the comments down below.
Like many of his other films, João Gonzalez’s Ice Merchants began with an image from his subconscious. He imagined a tiny house attached to a cliff, and the ensuing animation and story excited his producer Bruno Caetano. The short follows a father and son living in a house attached to the side of a mountain. The pair freezes ice at their home and parachutes down to the valley below to sell their wares. While animated digitally, the artistic style emulates a hand-drawn pencil on paper look with bold shadows and a limited color palette that contrasts the warm colors of humanity with the cold, harsh colors of the outside world.
DEADLINE: Where did the idea for Ice Merchants originate?
JOÃO GONZALEZ: Like my other films, I started with an image that comes from my subconscious. In this case, it was an image of a tiny house attached to a cliff. And when I have one of those images that resonate with me in preproduction, I start to write a lot about that reality. I start to draw a lot regarding the house, and I try to figure out the rules of the world building I’m creating. So, I know roughly what the theme of the film is gonna be about. In this case, I knew it was gonna be a film about loss, but all the tiny details of the narrative are about finding joy.
DEADLINE: Bruno, how did you get involved?
BRUNO CAETANO: So, there’s actually a person here missing, which is Ala Nunu. She’s the third person responsible for this film and animated half of the film. We were both in a festival in Portugal and she called me up and said, “Oh, you guys need to get in touch. You guys are gonna like each other.” So, that was the excuse to come together and hit it off. And from then on, João was invited to be a part of the cooperative, COLA Animation. We’re not a regular production company, we’re a cooperative of art directors and animators that come together and try to help each other out. And João came on board and we’ve been doing stuff together ever since.
DEADLINE: How did you achieve this style of animation?
GONZALEZ: It’s a digital animation, but it does try to emulate that more organic filling of paper and pencil. Initially, I was planning to make this film only on paper, but the animation team is very small. It was just me and Ala Nunu, and she was living in France and I was living in Portugal. So logistically speaking, we would have to ship the papers back and forth and it would be a production nightmare. So, instead I focused my energy on trying to find a way digitally to emulate the same style that I initially started drawing for the film. It all started with sketchbooks on my graphic diary, and that was the main reference for it. But the animation itself is traditional frame by frame animation that we draw directly on our graphic table.
DEADLINE: Can you talk about your color choices? It’s a very small palette.
GONZALEZ: I have three things that I always incorporate in my illustration style – use of perspective, which comes from my love of architecture, very strong dark shadows and limited color palettes. For me, one of my biggest concerns as a director is to find a way of combining things that I like aesthetically, but also making them important conceptually. In this case, the limited color palette was really important to contrast the warmer colors of the human side of the characters with the cold, harsh colors of the outside. I started the film with three or four colors, but I was always adjusting slightly until I hit the right spot that I felt would both please me aesthetically and enhance the story of the film.
CAETANO:There were actually little tweaks you were doing as we went along. It was very interesting, just refining everything a little bit better until we got to the end result.
DEADLINE: One thing that stuck in my mind as I watched the short was, “Why do they keep buying these hats?” Where did the idea for the hat flying off every time come from?
GONZALEZ: That’s a funny story actually, because I actually designed the characters wearing hats before I knew that hats were gonna be important for the film. I started doing animation relatively recently, and when I started this film two or three years ago I was still not very comfortable drawing hair on characters. So, all of my characters, both from this film and my film before Nestor, had a hat or a beanie mainly for aesthetic purposes. But it all changes in that pre-production phase when I’m constructing the world and when I’m imagining how those characters would live every day. And when I’m constructing it, I’m thinking that maybe they parachute every time to sell their ice. And the more I thought about it, the wind would make them lose their hats. Initially it was just a funny, surrealistic thing, like those silly rituals that we have with our close ones at home. They lose all their hats, but then they buy it the next day like a running joke. But the more that I thought about it, maybe the hats will pile up eventually and maybe they’ll make a good solution for the ending.
CAETANO: This is a good representation of why João’s work is very different from other directors that we work with. The fact that he starts going back and forth between the drawing boards, the piano and his subconscious starts building the story in a very, very weird but natural organic way. It’s a process that’s not very common. He doesn’t write a script, he starts drawing ideas. But it’s always funny to see how João manages to convey to us his ideas. Even when he starts speaking in terms of music when we are in the process, we immediately understand what he wants to say. It’s one of the nicest things about this weird process, discovering things as we go along.
Bratmobile will headline the 2023 Mosswood Meltdown festival in Oakland on July 2, with a lineup that features original vocalist Allison Wolfe and drummer Molly Neuman, alongside Rose Melberg on guitar, Audrey Marrs on keys, and Marty Key on bass. In a statement, Wolfe and Neuman noted that original Bratmobile guitarist Erin Smith would be unable to join this time due to “other commitments,” though the pair added, “we’re hoping we’ll be able to play together with her again in the near future.”
Mosswood Meltdown 2023 will take place July 1 and 2, with filmmaker John Waters serving as host. The lineup features Gravy Train!!!!, ESG, J.J. Fad, and Le Tigre, who are also reuniting for their first shows in 18 years this summer.
For Bratmobile, the Mosswood show will mark their first public performance since a Sept. 9, 2002 gig in New York City. As Wolfe and Neuman noted, the band did get together in 2019 for a special birthday performance for Bikini Kill’s Tobi Vail, which sparked discussion about a possible reunion.
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“After the show, we talked about playing again, but it wasn’t the right time, and then… 2020,” the pair said. “Now we are both living in Los Angeles, and when the opportunity to play this special show in one of our hometowns came up, we decided to go for it.”
Bratmobile emerged out of the same early-Nineties Olympia, Washington scene that fostered the likes of Bikini Kill, Sleater-Kinney, Beat Happening, and other riot grrrl/indie rock favorites. The band released their debut album, Pottymouth, in 1993, and followed that up in 1994 with The Real Janelle EP. A second album, Ladies, Women and Girls, wouldn’t follow until 2000; Bratmobile’s third and final record (so far, at least), Girls Get Busy, dropped in 2002.
This article will explore the various forms of fun that can be enjoyed both online and offline. In this digital age, people spend a lot of their time engaging in online activities. While online activities can be fun and entertaining, it’s important to have a healthy balance between online and offline activities. This article will discuss various activities that can be enjoyed both online and offline, offering readers a range of options to suit their interests and preferences.
Outdoor Activities
There are various creative pursuits that can be enjoyed outside, such as painting, photography, and gardening. These activities allow you to connect with nature and express your creativity in a unique way. They also provide a sense of accomplishment and relaxation, making them great options for those seeking a break from their daily routine. With a little bit of effort, you can create a beautiful garden or capture stunning photos of nature, all while enjoying the outdoors.
Outdoor activities offer a wide range of options for fun both online and offline. Hiking, camping, and sports are just a few examples of offline activities that provide a great way to disconnect from technology and enjoy the natural world. These activities are not only enjoyable, but they also provide opportunities to learn new skills and explore new places.
In addition to being fun, outdoor activities also offer a range of physical and mental health benefits. Spending time in nature and engaging in physical activity has been shown to reduce stress, improve mood, and enhance cognitive function. It also provides an opportunity to unplug from technology and connect with the world around us.
Indoor activities
As for outdoor activities, there are plenty of indoor activities that can be enjoyed offline, such as reading, board games, and crafting. These activities can be great for those who want to relax, learn a new skill, or spend quality time with friends and family. Reading can be a way to escape into different worlds, while board games can be a way to challenge yourself and engage in friendly competition. Crafting can be a way to express your creativity and create something new.
Together with these enjoyments, there are various online activities as well. For instance: video games, online gaming, social media, and online courses. These activities provide convenience and accessibility for those who prefer to stay indoors or have limited mobility. Online games and e-gaming sites offer a wide variety of games to play. There are plenty of places where you can play blackjack, slots, poker, and roulette. They also offer the opportunity to connect with other players from around the world. Social media allows you to stay connected with friends and family, while online courses provide a way to learn new skills and further your education.
Highlight the benefits of these activities, including mental stimulation and social interaction. Whether you’re reading a book, playing a board game, or taking an online course, these activities can keep your mind active and engaged. Online games and social media can also provide social interaction, even if it’s virtual. These activities can also help relieve stress and provide a sense of relaxation and enjoyment. Overall, it’s important to find a balance between online and offline activities to ensure a well-rounded and fulfilling life.
Blending Online and Offline Activities
The digital age has given us a wealth of online entertainment options, but that doesn’t mean we have to give up on traditional offline activities altogether. By blending online and offline activities, we can enjoy the best of both worlds. For example, using apps to track outdoor activities can enhance the overall experience, providing maps, trail routes, and insights into the area’s wildlife. Additionally, online tools such as video conferencing can help to connect people who may be far away, providing the opportunity to share experiences and have fun together.
There are many ways to combine online and offline activities, offering a more varied and enriching experience. For instance, board games have made the leap to the online world, where players from across the globe can connect and play. Likewise, online gaming and virtual reality can be combined with physical exercise to create unique fitness experiences. Furthermore, attending virtual concerts and museums while exploring a new city is a great way to blend both online and offline activities. These activities can provide an opportunity to have fun while staying healthy and creating a balanced life.
Key takeaways
We have explored the various forms of fun that can be enjoyed both online and offline. From outdoor activities such as hiking and sports to indoor activities like reading, playing online and board games, there is a wide variety of activities to choose from. We have also discussed the potential benefits of blending online and offline activities, such as using apps to track outdoor activities or playing board games online. It is important to find a healthy balance between online and offline activities and to explore different activities to find what works best for you.
In addition to exploring the various forms of fun that can be enjoyed both online and offline, it’s important to remember to have fun and try new things. Don’t be afraid to step outside of your comfort zone and try an activity that you’ve never done before. Whether it’s a new outdoor adventure, or an indoor one, there’s always something new and exciting to explore. So take some time to find what works best for you, and remember to have fun both online and offline!
Differences are growing within the Biden Administration over what kind of victory for Ukraine the United States should support. On the outcome of these discussions could depend not only the outcome of the war in Ukraine, but even conceivably the future of humanity.
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has described a Ukrainian attempt to retake not just the Ukrainian territories seized by Russia over the past year, but Crimea (annexed by Russia in 2014) as a “red line” for Russia, that could lead Moscow to widen the war. The Washington Post has reported that U.S. officials have warned Kyiv that present levels of U.S. aid to Ukraine cannot be guaranteed, and that Ukrainian ambitions may have to be modified.
On the other hand, U.S. Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland has recently identified herself with the Ukrainian government position that Ukraine must regain all its territory and will not compromise on this. Nuland declared that, “[W]e will support Ukraine for as long as it takes. Ukraine is fighting for the return of all of its land within its international borders. We are supporting them, including in preparing a next hard push to regain their territory…Crimea must be—at a minimum, at a minimum—demilitarized.”
To judge by his latest speeches in Kyiv and Warsaw, President Biden himself appears not yet to have decided what the territorial goal of U.S. support to Ukraine should be. He has said that this must be a matter for the Ukrainians to decide, but has stopped short of endorsing their aim to recover Crimea.
The issue at stake here for Americans is whether this war should end in a peace that would leave Russia in de facto (if not de jure) possession of Crimea and the eastern Donbas (territory it seized in 2014) while returning (if Ukraine can recapture them) the land seized since the invasion began a year ago; or if America should give massive help to Ukraine indefinitely with a view to recapturing all the lost Ukrainian lands.
General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has stated that Russia has already lost in Ukraine, and a glance at the map and at the evident goals of the Russian invasion a year ago should make the truth of this clear. The Russian army failed to capture Kyiv and topple the Ukrainian government, and failed in three out of four of its other territorial objectives: to take the whole of the Donbas, Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, and the Ukrainian Black Sea coast. The only really significant goal that Russia has achieved is to conquer the land bridge between Russia and Crimea, and restore Crimea’s water supply from the Dnieper River, previously blocked by Ukraine.
These Russian defeats mean that whatever happens—short of exceptionally unlikely outcomes like a complete end to Western aid and a total Russian victory—the great majority of Ukraine, including four out of its five main cities, will in the future be fully independent of Russia and closely aligned with the West. This cancels out not just Moscow’s aims of a year ago, but more than 300 years of Russian and Ukrainian history.
In the centuries since Russia seized Kyiv from Poland in the 1660s, and Peter the Great defeated the Swedes and their Ukrainian Cossack allies at Poltava in 1709, Ukraine was in one way or another subject to domination by Russia. Like the Scots in the British Empire, ambitious Ukrainians entered the Russian and Soviet bureaucracies and militaries, and Ukrainian writers and filmmakers worked in the medium of the Russian language.
Rule over Ukraine was critical to the Russian self-image as the leader of the east Slavic Orthodox peoples, and to Russia’s status as a first-rank power. As Zbigniew Brzezinski famously wrote, “without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be a Eurasian empire.” As a result of defeat in Ukraine, this has indeed happened; and given military and economic realities, it is very hard indeed to see how Russia can reverse it. At most, Russia can take additional limited amounts of territory in eastern and southern Ukraine and then only with a very heavy loss of men and equipment.
Given the extent of the victory that Ukraine and the West have already achieved, what are the arguments for aiming at total Russian defeat and Ukrainian reconquest of Crimea and the Donbas? For many Ukrainians, the issue is— understandably—in part a question of honor and emotion. Given the suffering that Ukraine has experienced as a result of the invasion, they would like to see Russia completely defeated and humiliated. The desire to restore Ukraine’s territorial integrity is also a natural one. It should however be qualified in the case of Crimea and the Donbas both by the legally complex status of Crimea and Sevastopol, and by the extreme difficulty of reintegrating the Russian-speaking populations of these areas into a Ukraine that is increasingly defined by ethnic nationalism—as Oleksiy Arestovych, a former chief advisor to President Zelensky, has warned.
The Ukrainian government and some U.S. hardliners have also put forward the argument that the complete defeat of Russia and loss of Crimea are necessary if Russia is to be prevented from regrouping and threatening Ukraine again “six months or six years from now,” as Nuland said.
This argument as it stands is deeply flawed. Russian capacity to attack Ukraine does not depend on its holding Crimea. If Russia survives as a state, it will retain a 1200-mile-long border with Ukraine. Nor could one defeat, however severe, destroy Russia’s underlying military capacity, which depends on the still significant Russian economy and population, and the state’s ability to motivate the population to fight.
And on that score, while many Russians might accommodate themselves to the loss of Ukraine (given the defeats and the appalling losses that Russia has experienced in this war), the loss of Crimea would create a permanent desire for territorial revanche, as soon as an opportunity for this seemed to appear.
For the great majority of Russians regard Crimea (which was part of the Russian Soviet Republic until it was transferred to Ukraine by Soviet decree in 1954) as a historic part of Russia. As Blinken has indicated, by far the greatest threat of extreme Russian escalation would stem from a Ukrainian move to take Crimea. At the moment most Crimeans still appear to want to be part of Russia, leading to the question of how Ukraine could rule Crimea in future, without repression or ethnic cleansing.
Given the risks of nuclear escalation, what would be the motives for U.S. support for the capture of Crimea? Firstly, the naval base of Sevastopol in Crimea is Russia’s only deep water port on the Black Sea. Its loss would largely destroy Russian ability to project power in the Mediterranean as well. This would be greatly welcomed by many U.S. strategists, even though the real beneficiaries might turn out to be Turkey and Islamist forces. Turkey would be left as the only major power in the Black Sea; and without Russian forces in Syria, Ankara and the Islamists would be in a much stronger position to take much of that country.
The second hope of U.S. hardliners and the Ukrainian government stems from the point made above, that the loss of Crimea would not in fact end the Russian threat to Ukraine. Rather, it seems, this goal seems related to the hope expressed in various Western circles that as a result of complete defeat in Ukraine, not only would the Putin regime be toppled, but the Russian Federation itself would be radically and permanently weakened or even disintegrate. Nor is this an altogether empty vision. As the examples of Iraq and Libya demonstrate, in multi-ethnic authoritarian states with weak civil institutions, regime and state can be so deeply intertwined that the destruction of one leads to the collapse of the other.
For the U.S. to aim at the crippling of a nuclear-armed state would be the most dangerous enterprise ever embarked on by a U.S. administration. When the Soviet Union broke up, it was for internal reasons, and the first Bush administration was careful not to be seen to be driving the process. For if the Russian elites see Crimea as an existential issue for Russia, then they will be willing to run existential risks to keep it. Is this a risk that Americans should take, when this is not an existential issue for America, and when Ukraine has already won a great and irreversible victory?
Don Lemonwas back at the desk of CNN This Morning on Wednesday (Feb. 22), returning after a near-weeklong absence after saying Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haleywas past her “prime.” Though Don, 56, and co-host Poppy Harlow didn’t mention what he said about Haley, Don tweeted an apology ahead of his appearance. “I appreciate the opportunity to be back on @CNNThisMorning today. To my network, my colleagues, and our incredible audience — I’m sorry. I’ve heard you, I’m learning from you, and I’m committed to doing better. See you soon.”
I appreciate the opportunity to be back on @CNNThisMorning today. To my network, my colleagues and our incredible audience — I’m sorry. I’ve heard you, I’m learning from you, and I’m committed to doing better. See you soon.
This marked Don’s second apology, following what he said on the Feb. 16 broadcast. That morning, Don, Poppy, 40, and cohost Kaitlan Collins, 30, discussed Haley’s proposal that politicians over 75 should be subject to mandatory mental competency tests. “This whole talk about age makes me uncomfortable. I think it’s the wrong road to go down. She says people, you know, politicians are suddenly not in their prime. Nikki Haley isn’t in her prime,” Don said of the 51-year-old Haley, per the New York Post. “A woman is considered to be in their prime in [their] 20s and 30s and maybe 40s.”
The comments immediately rankled Don’s cohosts. ” “What are you talking about, wait … Prime for what?” asked Poppy. ” “That’s not according to me,” argued Don. It’s like, prime. If you look it up. If you Google when is a woman in her prime, it’ll say 20s, 30s, and 40s. I’m just saying Nikki Haley should be careful about saying that politicians are not in their prime and they need to be in their prime when they serve. Because she wouldn’t be in her prime according to, you know, Google.”
Gregory Pace/Shutterstock
Don tweeted an apology after the comments. “The reference I made to a woman’s ‘prime’ this morning was inartful and irrelevant, as colleagues and loved ones have pointed out, and I regret it,” he wrote. “A woman’s age doesn’t define her either personally or professionally. I have countless women in my life who prove that every day.” Lemon was absent on Friday, Monday, and Tuesday’s episodes of CNN This Morning.
Nikki Haley – the former governor of South Carolina and ex-ambassador to the United Nations – announced her presidential candidacy on Feb. 14. At a political rally the next day, she announced her position on testing elderly politicians. “In the America I see, the permanent politician will finally retire,” Haley said, per The Hill. “We’ll have term limits for Congress and mandatory mental competency tests for politicians over 75 years old.”
President Joe Bidenturns 81 in November 2023. The only other Republican running in the 2024 election, Donald Trump, turns 77 in June. The Hill also notes that support for Haley is currently “mired in the single digits.”
Media and publishing company Future plc, which owns a stable of 250 special-interest magazines and sites, has hired digital media veteran Jon Steinberg as CEO.
Steinberg will take over for Zillah Byng-Thorne, who announced her plans to step down as the U.K.-based company’s CEO last September after nine years. Steinberg will join Future on April 3; Byng-Thorne will “remain available to support Jon” over a two-month transition period, according to the company.
Steinberg previously was president of Altice USA’s news and advertising division, encompassing News 12, i24NEWS, Cheddar News and Altice USA’s a4 advertising unit. He had joined Altice through its $200 million acquisition of Cheddar, a digital-first news start-up he founded in 2016.
Prior to Cheddar, he was CEO of DailyMail.com North America and before that was BuzzFeed’s president and COO. Earlier in his career, Steinberg worked at Google as a strategic partner development manager and at consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton.
“Jon has highly valuable expertise and has developed a fantastic track record, combining entrepreneurialism with leadership at some of the very best digital and media organizations operating at scale,” Future chair Richard Huntingford said in announcing the appointment. “He is a charismatic leader with a deep understanding and passion for media, particularly how technology, creativity and innovation can be harnessed to accelerate growth and build significant value for stakeholders. As we look to further extend Future’s leadership, particularly in the U.S., Jon is a natural fit.”
Steinberg, in a statement provided by the company, said: “I am delighted to be joining Future. It is a business that I’ve followed closely and long admired for the way it has redefined the media playbook, marrying the best of editorial and technology. I look forward to working with the board and the leadership team to build on the success achieved under Zillah’s tenure.”
Future, based in Bath, Somerset, England, reported revenue of £825.4 million (up 36% year over year) and net income of £122.2 million (+85%) for full-year 2022. The company had 2,989 employees as of the end of last year.
The company claims its brands reach one in three adults online in the U.K. and U.S. Future’s brands include TechRadar, PC Gamer, Tom’s Guide, Android Central, Truly, The Week, Kiplinger, GoCompare, Digital Camera World, Homebuilding & Renovating Show, GamesRadar+, The Photography Show, Top Ten Reviews, Marie Claire, Live Science, Guitar World, MusicRadar, Space.com, Who What Wear, What to Watch, Gardening Etc, Adventure and Tom’s Hardware.
Steinberg is currently senior adviser to The Raine Group, providing counsel to the investment bank’s media portfolio companies on strategy, a role which he will step down from before he joins Future. He also is a non-executive director of The City, a New York City not-for-profit focused on the coverage of local government.
“CNN This Morning” host Don Lemon did not address his recent comments about 2024 presidential hopeful and former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley during his on-air return Wednesday. However, the anchor did issue an apology tweet to his colleagues and the network’s audience prior to the broadcast.
I appreciate the opportunity to be back on @CNNThisMorning today. To my network, my colleagues and our incredible audience — I’m sorry. I’ve heard you, I’m learning from you, and I’m committed to doing better. See you soon.
“I appreciate the opportunity to be back on @CNNThisMorning today,” he wrote. “To my network, my colleagues and our incredible audience — I’m sorry. I’ve heard you, I’m learning from you, and I’m committed to doing better. See you soon.”
Last week, Lemon and co-host Poppy Harlow were discussing Haley’s announcement to run for president in 2024 and her call for competency tests for presidents over the age of 75, when Lemon drew the conclusion that Haley should be careful when talking about prime age because, according to Google, she wouldn’t be considered to be in her prime.
“This whole talk about age makes me uncomfortable. I think it’s the wrong road to go down. She says people, you know, politicians are suddenly not in their prime,” he said during Thursday’s episode. “Nikki Haley isn’t in her prime. Sorry. When a woman is considered in her prime in her 20s and 30s and maybe 40s.”
The reference I made to a woman’s “prime” this morning was inartful and irrelevant, as colleagues and loved ones have pointed out, and I regret it. A woman’s age doesn’t define her either personally or professionally. I have countless women in my life who prove that every day.
Haley fired back in her own tweet, writing: “Liberals can’t stand the idea of having competency tests for older politicians to make sure they can do the job. BTW it’s always the liberals who are the most sexist.”
During an editorial meeting call on Friday morning, CNN CEO Chris Licht called Lemon’s remarks “upsetting, unacceptable, and unfair to his co-hosts, and ultimately a huge distraction to the great work of this organization.”
In the same call, Lemon issued another another apology to CNN staffers for his remarks and also posted a separate apology on social media.
An individual with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap on Sunday that the “CNN This Morning” anchor was “gutted” by the comments he made — and felt that his comments “let women down.” Lemon was absent from “CNN This Morning” on Friday after taking a scheduled day off and chose to extend his vacation time through the Presidents Day holiday.
Licht told staffers in a statement on Monday that after having a “frank and meaningful conversation” with Lemon, he agreed to participate in “formal training.” Without going into detail about what that “formal training” would involve, Licht added: “It is important to me that CNN balances accountability with fostering a culture in which people can own, learn and grow from their mistakes. To that end, Don will return to ‘CNN This Morning’ on Wednesday.”
The controversy surrounding Lemon is the latest hurdle for the morning program, which has struggled in the ratings and is now on its second executive producer. Prior to being reassigned “CNN This Morning,” Lemon hosted the CNN evening news program “Don Lemon Tonight,” from 2014 to 2022.
Earlier this year, the country songstress was linked to the Outer Banks actor, 30, after they were spotted getting cozy at the College Football Playoff National Championship. They were later photographed holding hands in Nashville — but Ballerini wasn’t worried about how Evans, 37, would react.
“I’m not married to him anymore,” she explained on Wednesday. “I don’t need to care about his feelings anymore. I mean that with all the respect in the world, but his journey is not mine. I hope that he is protected from what he needs to be protected from seeing … [but] that is not my job.”
The “Muscle Memory” artist went on to describe how she reached out to Stokes with the encouragement of her manager. “I slid into those DMs,” she revealed, noting that she wasn’t interested in trying out any dating apps. “He shoots [Outer Banks] in Charleston, and my manager lives there. … He was like, ‘You know who’s really cute, like, when you’re ready? Chase.’ I was like, ‘You’re so right.’”
“His handle is ‘hichasestokes’ and I just said, ‘Hi Chase Stokes,’” she teased. “We’re manifesting, baby.”
The Tennessee native was married to Evans for nearly five years before the duo called it quits in August 2022. Their divorce was finalized three months later, and Ballerini revealed during her candid podcast interview that she began talking to Stokes in December 2022. When asked how her perspective on relationships has shifted since the end of her marriage, the “Homecoming Queen” singer responded that she finally felt like an “adult.”
“I feel like what that means to me is, like, I have opinions, I have a career that is a priority for me … and I have aspirations and goals that are tied to no one,” she said. “I have my s–t together and for me to share that with anyone is a gift. I want to be with someone that feels the same way about their life. … I’m having fun.”
Kelsea Ballerini and Morgan EvansSanford Myers/AP/Shutterstock
While she described herself as “a relationship bitch,” Ballerini isn’t sure another marriage is in the cards. “Anytime I’ve said a hard no to something, I’ve come back later in my life and challenged it. Right now, I would say I don’t think I will get married again,” she explained. “I love the idea, again, of partnership … but I don’t know if I believe in the legality of it all anymore. I think if you want to be with someone, it should be a daily choice.”
Before addressing her budding romance with Stokes, the “Peter Pan” singer shed light on some of the tension in her relationship with Evans that led to their split. She hinted in an early clip of the episode that she “swore” she’d never get married and didn’t want a wedding, throwing shade at the Aussie crooner by claiming: “I think he loved me more at 23 and I love me more at 29.”
Evans fired back before the entirety of the interview aired. “It’s really sad for me to see this person, who I spent so much of my life with, and loved with all my heart, saying things that aren’t reality and that leave out what really happened,” he wrote in a Twitter statement on Tuesday, February 21. “She knows I’m not the type of guy to speak on those things publicly. If this is what she needs to heal, I hope it helps.”
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He concluded: “All I ask is that if you’re on my pages, please don’t be mean. Don’t be mean to Kelsea, don’t be mean to each other. Life’s too short.”
Kathryn Newton believes she is proof that dreams do come true. She always wanted to be a superhero and she finally got her moment when she landed a part in “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” but even she “couldn’t have dreamt of a role this fantastic.”
Newton is the newest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Cassie, daughter of Ant-Man Scott Lang (Paul Rudd). Newton was in Toronto last week for the premiere of the film, which happened to coincide with her birthday, and said she was “really excited to be here on my birthday to talk about this movie that felt like a birthday every day.”
“Quantumania” follows couple Lang and Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) along with Hope’s parents, Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), and Cassie. When Cassie’s curiosity about the Quantum Realm accidentally leads them on a one-way trip to the vast subatomic world, they encounter strange new creatures and a menacing villain (Jonathan Majors).
When Newton met director Peyton Reed for the first time, he told her that, at its core, the film is about a father and daughter reconnecting.
“I just thought it was a really exciting opportunity to see a young person in a huge movie. I started watching Marvel movies when I was eight … So I hope that young people see this movie and relate to Cassie Lang.”
The Florida-born actor felt a sense of connection to Cassie.
“The first time I read the script, I just freaked out because I thought this role was written for me. Jeff Loveness, our writer, just captured the voice of a young person so well. Someone who has a really big heart and trips over herself because having a big heart is amazing and it takes a lot of courage, but it can also get you in a lot of trouble.
“She’s really impatient like me; she’s kind of a mess just like me trying to figure it out. So Peyton Reed and Jeff Loveness asked me if I had any notes or anything I wanted to change about Cassie when I read the script, and I looked at them like they were crazy. I was like, ‘You wrote this for me. It sounds like me, she speaks like me.’ But she’s a lot braver than I am.
“She tries to do something great and help everybody, and it ends up hurting so many people around her,” Newton added. “She thinks she’s doing something to save someone and then it ends up unlocking the Quantum Realm and the biggest Marvel supervillain of all time.”
Working with Rudd was another dream come true for Newton, who was a big fan. “I think I’m the luckiest actor in the Marvel Universe because I got to be a superhero and I got to work with Paul Rudd every day, which just meant I got to smile and laugh all the time.
“He made space for me and encouraged me to take risks, and I couldn’t have asked for a better star to work with.”
Rudd is famously known for appearing to never age. Did Newton ask him about it?
“I told him that he trends on Twitter at least once a day. He was like, ‘Oh, really? What’s Twitter?’ I was like, ‘Everyone thinks that you don’t age.’ He’s like, ‘I know, I really don’t.’ He was the sexiest man alive on People and man, oh man, did we just tease him for months about that … But we love him,” she laughed.
Rudd and Newton did a bit of improv in the film, which surprised Newton.
“I just thought a Marvel movie was going to be very technical and not a lot of time to play. But having the opportunity to play on set just creates chemistry. It creates a freedom and a flow and, whether they use the jokes or they don’t use the jokes, it creates an energy that the audience will definitely feel.”
Newton said the father-daughter relationship at the centre of the film is something everyone can relate to.
“It’s about people making up for lost time. Cassie has been separated from her father for a long time. When something like that happens to a young person, it changes them and I’m really impressed that Cassie chose … to be someone who makes a difference in the world.”
When the 26-year-old signed on for a role in the MCU, she had no expectations because she said she’s learned some things are better than her wildest dreams. “I couldn’t have dreamt of a role this fantastic. The experience, the crew, the cast, my costume, the food were better than my wildest dreams. We filmed it in London, one of my favourite cities.
“All I know is that nothing will ever top this movie, whether I’m lucky enough to be in another Marvel movie, or whatever project I have around the corner will never be as fantastic as this was. It set the bar really high and I jokingly told Paul Rudd he’s ruined my life because I don’t know if anything’s going to be as fun,” she continued.
Newton already has a vision of what she’d like to further explore with her character.
“I’d love to see her make new friends and I’d love to see her home in on her powers. I don’t think she knows the responsibility that comes with being a superhero. So I’m excited for her to make some more mistakes and continue to be a dork, and see what trouble she gets into.”
Newton shared another dream that was specific to Toronto.
“If I’m gonna be honest, it’s a lot to do with Drake. I’m hoping that I see him tonight. Maybe he’ll celebrate my birthday with me and this movie, you never know. I dreamt of being a Marvel superhero my whole life and I’m proof that your dreams do come true. So that’s my next dream is maybe to get to hang out with Drake.”
“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” is in theatres Friday.
Marriska Fernandes is a Toronto-based entertainment reporter and film critic. She is a freelance contributor for the Star’s Culture section. Follow her on Twitter: @marrs_fers
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“MJ,” the Tony Award-winning musical featuring the hits of Michael Jackson, is among the upcoming offerings from Broadway in Hollywood, which announced on Wednesday the seven national tours that will play the Hollywood Pantages Theatre in its 2023-24 season.
“MJ” (Dec. 20-Jan. 28), set during the making of the musician’s 1992 Dangerous World Tour, kicks off the season, followed by a new staging of “The Wiz” (Feb. 13-March 3, 2024). This new version of the groundbreaking “Wizard of Oz”-based musical will be its first major revival in 40 years, and is set to play Broadway after its national tour.
A 25th-anniversary tour of “Chicago the Musical” (March 5-24, 2024) then stops at the Pantages, marking the show’s return to Los Angeles for the first time in nearly eight years. The Hollywood venue also will house “Girl From the North Country” (May 14-June 2, 2024), which is set during the Great Depression and features the songs of Bob Dylan, and “Mrs. Doubtfire” (June 11-30, 2024), which is adapted from the beloved 1993 movie starring Robin Williams. Both shows hit the road after runs on Broadway.
Austin Elle Fisher, left, Tyler Wladis, Analise Scarpaci, Jenn Gambatese and Rob McClure in “Mrs. Doubtfire” on Broadway.
(Joan Marcus)
The Pantages then will welcome a new production of the classic adventure “Peter Pan” (July 30-Aug. 18, 2024), with an updated book by L.A. playwright Larissa FastHorse that revises the show’s long-criticized depiction of Native Americans. “I am thrilled to be part of bringing ‘Peter Pan’ to life for a new generation,” said FastHorse in a statement. “If you loved this musical before, you will still see the show that enchanted you, while discovering a ‘Peter Pan’ that everyone can enjoy, without harm, for many years to come.”
Closing out the season is the Broadway and West End revival of “Company,” which was overseen by Stephen Sondheim himself prior to his death in 2021. Originally written with a man as a main character, this version of the musical instead centers on a woman as she contemplates the pros and cons of romantic relationships upon turning 35 years old.
The announcement also noted that theatergoers who buy a seven-show 2023-24 season package, which is available online, will be given priority access to the previously announced engagement of “Les Misérables” (Aug. 1-Sept. 10).
Rosalie Craig (Bobbie), center, and the cast of “Company” on the West End.
Who’s the six foot seven, green skinned, jacked attorney that was the first MCU character to break the fourth wall? She-Hulk, that’s who. Marvel’s She-Hulk has been an absolute blast to watch so far. Besides its comedy and cameos, She-Hulk also contains a bunch of easter eggs that could possibly tell us more about how it fits into the Marvel Universe. Let’s take a look at the easter eggs we’ve seen so far in the first three episodes:
Sakaar
While Jen and Bruce were driving (and eating Cheetos with chopsticks), they were suddenly cut off by a vehicle that was definitely not meant for the highway. “The spaceship that caused that Hulk fender-bender was a Sakaaran class A courier craft, meaning it came from the planet Sakaar where Banner and Thor worked as gladiators for Jeff Goldblum’s Grandmaster in the movie Thor: Ragnarok.” (via cnet) Potentially, this could also connect to “World War Hulk” and “Skarr Son of Hulk” from the MCU comics.
During the Hulk beach bar scenes, there were multiple cutouts of Hulk in the background from the Sakaar Hulk Festival, and his helmet that he fought Thor with was also spotted in the beach house, leading me to believe that we’ll definitely have to consider Bruce possibly going back to Sakaar during She-Hulk. In the second episode of She-Hulk, while Jen and Bruce discuss the Emil Blonsky case, we see Bruce in space on what looks like a Sakaaran ship. “This is a major plot point and the biggest reveal of the episode as it indicates what may be next for Bruce. Assumedly, he is headed for Sakaar” (via The Direct).
This further emphasizes a possible World War Hulk adaptation in the near future. “Interestingly, it is rumored that the rights to a solo Hulk movie return to Marvel in 2023, so the timing does work out in that capacity. A World War Hulk storyline would mean the return of Savage Hulk and would most likely dive into what happened during that two-year gap he spent in space” ( via The Direct).
Ms. Marvel
As Jen walked into the bathroom in episode one, there was some interesting graffiti on the wall behind her. One of the drawings was the Ms. Marvel lightning bolt symbol, which is super interesting since She-Hulk (2024) takes place a year before Ms. Marvel (2025).
It could be possible that someone pre-drew this, anticipating the arrival of Ms. Marvel. This “someone” could be Kang the Conqueror. In Loki, we saw how the MCU timeline unraveled and discovered that different versions of Kang existed. Since Kang will be in Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which is taking place in California — the same place as She-Hulk — it further points to Kang being the one that anticipated the rise of Ms. Marvel.
Wolverine
In the second episode, as Nikki helps Jen to try and find a job online after getting fired, we see Jen come across an article on a website titled “10 Offbeat Jobs for a Fresh Start”. On the sidebar of this website, there’s an article titled “Man fights with metal claws in bar brawl,” referencing Wolverine.
“While this is the first mention of Wolverine, the MCU recently teased the concept of mutants when the finale of Ms. Marvel sampled the theme from X-Men: The Animated Series to reveal Kamala Khan’s mutant origins” (via Collider).
Whether or not the X-Men are introduced in the MCU, it’s always possible that Marvel may just skip the origin story for its members, or at least Wolverine’s, as they have for other heroes like Moon Knight and Spider-Man in the past. However, it seems that Marvel is getting a lot more comfortable with introducing characters from X-Men, so I think that it’s highly likely that we’ll get to see more of that in the future.
Abomination
Emil Blonsky, also known as Abomination, and now Jen’s client, is being suspiciously “reasonable” in prison. The whole “I’ve changed” act seems just a little too good to be true, which is why I think that it could all be an elaborate trick to try and get revenge on the Hulk, and now possibly She-Hulk.
“During his consultation with Jen, Blonsky mentions that he has ‘seven soulmates’ he met through the prison pen pal program. If he only mentioned it once it would seem to be nothing more than a throwaway line to get a chuckle, She-Hulk is billed as a comedy, after all. But Blonsky brings them up once again, stating that he wants to start a new life and “live in peace on a large piece of property” purchased by them.” (Collider).
Wong: The Sorcerer Supreme
In episode three, we see how the Abomination participating in Xialing’s underground fight ring in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings provides an obstacle for Jen during the parole hearing of Emil Blonsky. Only one person could clear the air and that is none other than Wong, the current Sorcerer Supreme”.
Luckily, Nikki found Wong’s LinkedIn profile and confirms that he became the Sorcerer Supreme after Dr. Strange was blipped in Avengers: Endgame. His profile lists Wong as stationed at the New York Sanctum Sanctorum, where Strange guards the place as a master of the mystic arts, and not Kamar-Taj, the seat of the Sorcerer Supreme. In episode four we do see Wong binging popular television shows with Madisynn in Kamar Taj. Did Wong forget to update his LinkedIn profile or is he still in New York often looking out for Strange, possibly preventing another spell that could be botched, like the one we saw in Spiderman: No Way Home.
She-Hulk is one of my favorite MCU shows so far. From Megan Thee Stallion, to Captain America’s ass, She-Hulk has definitely been one of the funniest and relatable shows so far in the MCU. All of the cameos so far have been amazing, and I especially have been loving the post credit scenes too. However, let’s all keep in mind who the spotlight is on because as Jennifer Walter perfectly said: “Let’s not forget who’s show this is.”
Hi! My name is Siya Patel and I’m a 16 year old writer for FANgirl Blog! I love the MCU, watching sitcoms, and music!
WTMG’s Leo Faria: “All in all, I was really surprised with Grim Guardians: Demon Purge. It’s a neat love letter to Castlevania III with pretty good controls and presentation, and just enough Gal*Gun elements to please fans, but not enough to weird the rest of the populace out. In fact, the fan service is so subtle you’ll barely notice it if you’re not into the franchise. Inti Creates knocked it out of the park with a game that feels right at home on the Nintendo Switch. What little I have to complain about is so minute it feels like nitpicking. If you’re a fan of Castlevania, but are fed up with the sheer volume of metroidvanias flooding the indie scene nowadays, Grim Guardians: Demon Purge is the perfect pick.”
Published last year, The Island follows Heather Baxter, who marries Tom and moves from a small country town to Seattle. A working vacation overseas seems like the perfect way to bring the new family together, but once they’re deep in the Australian outback, the jet-lagged and exhausted kids are so over their new mom. When they discover a remote Dutch island, off-limits to outside visitors, the family talks their way onto the ferry, taking a chance on an adventure far from the reach of iPhones and Instagram. But as soon as they set foot on the island, which is run by a tightly knit clan of locals, everything feels wrong.
The book was a bestseller and comes from the Irish author of 2020’s The Chain and the Sean Duffy novels set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. McKinty, Shane Salerno and The Story Factory are EPs.
“The Island is the story of an underestimated person who maybe doesn’t get a lot of respect but who rises to the occasion and shows everyone what ordinary people are capable of in extremis,” said McKinty. “Really tough and shocking things happen in the book, but what shines through for me are Heather’s smarts, strength and tenacity – she’s a tribute to the strong women who raised and continue to inspire me.”
Kelsey Balance, UIS’ SVP of Scripted Programming, praised McKinty for “writing compelling and complex character journeys.”
“The Island has the right combination of what we’re looking for in a global story,” she added. “It is relatable and rich from a character perspective with an amazing Outback backdrop so we immediately jumped in and picked it up.”
Speaking to Deadline, UIS and Universal Content Productions President Beatrice Springborn praised the novel’s ability to bridge the generational divide, in a similar vein to the likes of Netflix’s Ginny & Georgia.
The development was unveiled as Balance and Springborn addressed the Berlinale Series Market.
UIS label Matchbox’s Stan drama Bad Behaviour is shortlisted for the debut Berlinale Series Award and Balance told Deadline there are “incredible filmmakers coming out of Australia” – a territory that UIS is focusing on.
The team is now seeking an American or Australian writer for The Island.
“The Island is in line with the projects we’re trying to find from Matchbox,” added Springborn. “We want to play off what they’re great at: working with Australian talent but finding global appeal with their projects.”
Springborn and Balance spoke about UIS’ international strategy and territory-by-territory approach this afternoon at the Berlinale. Speaking earlier this week on a separate Berlinale panel, Springborn said when her outfit is striking deals with European talent such as Parallels creator Quoc Dang Tran, it “wants them to be our partners on the ground.”
UIS is developing a range of novels into TV including Jessica George’s debut Maame.
After five years of quietly dating Robert Pattinson, Suki Waterhouse opened up to The Times of London about the pair’s relationship. The two have been linked since 2018, when they were first spotted at a showing of Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again in Notting Hill. In the years following, the pair kept their relationship private before hard-launching at the Dior fall 2023 menswear show last December.
Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Getty Images
“I’m shocked that I’m so happy with someone for nearly five years,” Waterhouse told The Times while promoting her latest project, Daisy Jones & the Six.
Both parties had previously had high-profile relationships: Pattinson famously dated Twilight costar Kristen Stewart for four years during the height of Twilight-mania, and Waterhouse was known as “the girlfriend of Bradley Cooper” for two years before their split. When asked about the judgment she faced as Cooper’s girlfriend, Waterhouse said, “You can’t expect the world to just be graciously understanding of everything.” Of the 17-year age gap in their relationship, she added, “When you’re 21, you go headfirst into things and you’ve absolutely no idea what the repercussions are.”
With Pattinson, she said, everything is different. The couple rarely spends time without each other, even with their busy schedules. “I had two days off the other day, and it was like, no question I’m going back to see him,” she told The Times. “Then he’ll come out for a couple of days.”
She also shared that he actually helps her read lines, even if he eventually falls asleep. “Rob definitely isn’t getting advice from me about acting, but of course I’ll try and get him to help me with an audition before he falls asleep on the sofa.” Pattinson was booked and busy over the last few years playing the broody Bruce Wayne in The Batman (which required a lot of training) and there are talks of him reprising the role in the sequel scheduled to release in 2025.
“The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” got the last laugh Tuesday night on Tucker Carlson — or at least the latest one — after the uber Fox News host falsely lauded colleague Greg Gutfeld for beating out Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel in TV ratings.
The geniuses behind “The Late Show” fake news alerts delivered the comedic blow, mocking the news from Monday that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy had handed over all the available surveillance footage from the Jan. 6 insurrection to Carlson, for him to do with what he pleases.
A mash-up of two anchors breaking down the news kicks the segment off, calling Carlson “one of the most prominent promoters of conspiracy theories about the January 6th insurrection” with MSNBC’s Joy Reid getting to the heart of the matter and what the leading Fox News host will likely do — “he’s gonna use this footage, comb through it and create this sort of alternate narrative to January 6th.”
The bit then takes a turn for laughs, with a narrator saying Colbert’s show had acquired Carlson’s “alternate narrative” before rolling it out, which in the fine form of “Late Show” fake news alerts featured a theme song voiced over Jan. 6 video and a caption that highlighted the lyrics — with a bouncing Tucker Carlson head.
“What a super day — January 6th,” the song begins, tipping off the sarcasm from the jump.
“Lots of friendly words, chirping birds, afterwards all the windows were fixed,” it continues, before references to QAnon, a jogging Josh Hawley and the hangman’s noose meant for then-VP Mike Pence, here called “a swing set built for one.”
The fake news alert comes less than a week after Carlson took a dig at Colbert, saying the late-night host was scared to tell authentic jokes while congratulating the Fox News late-night show “Gutfeld!” for overtaking Colbert and other shows in ratings, which it in fact did not.
Simone walks to the beat of her own drummer in the first season of ABC’s The Rookie: Feds TV show. As we all know, the Nielsen ratings typically play a big role in determining whether a TV show like The Rookie: Feds is cancelled or renewed for season two. Unfortunately, most of us do not live in Nielsen households. Because many viewers feel frustrated when their viewing habits and opinions aren’t considered, we invite you to rate all of the first season episodes of The Rookie: Feds here.
An ABC police procedural drama series, The Rookie: Feds TV show is a spin-off of The Rookie from a backdoor pilot. The series stars Niecy Nash-Betts, Felix Solis, Frankie Faison, Britt Robertson, Kevin Zegers, and James Lesure. Guests in the first season include Jessica Betts, Tom Arnold, Eric Roberts, and Deniz Akdeniz. The story follows Simone Clark (Nash-Betts), the oldest rookie in the FBI Academy. Both empathetic and exasperating, Simone is a former guidance counselor as well as the mother of twins. As the story begins, Simone graduates from Quantico and heads to Los Angeles to start a new life.
What do you think? Which season one episodes of The Rookie: Feds TV series do you rate as wonderful, terrible, or somewhere between? Do you think that The Rookie: Feds should be cancelled or renewed for a second season on ABC?
Check out our ABC status sheet to track the alphabet network’s new series pickups, renewals, and cancellations. You can find lists of cancelled shows here.
Despite representing Germany at this year’s Academy Awards for best international feature, “All Quiet on the Western Front” writer-director Edward Berger doesn’t feel national pride for the country.
“I don’t feel that because of the history,” Berger tells Variety. “I could never say I’m proud to be German. Those words don’t fit into our mouths, and rightly so. I would have a hard time thinking I would represent the country because I can’t speak for the entire country.”
On this episode of Variety‘s Awards Circuit Podcast, Berger discusses “All Quiet on the Western Front’s” nine Oscar noms — the second most of the year — and employing the most artisans of any non-English movie in history. Finally, he shares why he feels a responsibility to accurately portray Germany’s role in some of humanity’s most devastating wars. Listen to the full podcast below.
Distributed by Netflix and based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque, “All Quiet on the Western Front” tells the story of a young German soldier and his terrifying experiences during World War I. It’s nominated for nine Oscars — best picture (Malte Grunert), adapted screenplay (Edward Berger, Lesley Paterson, Ian Stokell), production design (Christian M. Goldbeck, Ernestine Hipper) cinematography (James Friend), makeup and hairstyling (Heike Merker, Linda Eisenhamerova), sound (Viktor Prasil, Frank Kruse, Markus Stemler, Lars Ginzel, Stefan Korte), visual effects (Frank Petzold, Viktor Muller, Markus Frank, Kamil Jaffar), original score (Volker Bertelmann) and international feature (Germany). The movie is also coming off a record-breaking seven BAFTA wins, the most for a film not in English, surpassing the five held by “Cinema Paradiso” (1988).
Berger was born in Germany, but his family’s origins are in Switzerland. Putting his roots in the context of the World Cup, he says, “If Germany plays Switzerland, I’m for Germany. I hope the Swiss listeners are not mad at me.”
But that’s about as far as Berger is willing to discuss possibly bringing Germany its first international feature Oscar win since “The Lives of Others” (2006). This has been a complicated time for the 53-year-old filmmaker, who won the BAFTA award for best director on Sunday. He’s the first BAFTA director winner to not receive an Oscar nom in the directing category since Ben Affleck (“Argo”) in 2012.
“I feel a certain responsibility toward history, toward the last century in Germany,” he says. “I feel a certain sense of guilt and shame — a lot of it — because of what Germany brought to the world. We wanted to put that feeling into the movie.”
The honor of receiving an Academy Award nomination is not something that Berger takes lightly, and he’s incredibly grateful. The complicated relationship between the place you call your home while acknowledging the grotesque actions of a nation is something that many Americans identify with, given its own history of racism and inequality.
He adds: “I’m sure that tons of Germs can’t identify with me, as I can’t identify with them. Everyone’s different. We’re very happy that we got selected and have this honor to celebrate movies.”
“Whatever happens, happens,” Berger continues. “And if Germany feels we represent them well, it would make me happy.”
Also on this episode, “Elvis” star Austin Butler talks receiving his first Oscar nomination for best actor. He also discusses whether he would reprise his role as James Garrett in a “Zoey 101” movie or get aged-up to play Sebastian Kydd from “The Carrie Diaries” so he can star opposite Sarah Jessica Parker in the “Sex and the City” reboot.
Variety’s “Awards Circuit” podcast, produced by Michael Schneider, who also co-hosts with Clayton Davis, is your one-stop listen for lively conversations about the best in film and television. Each week “Awards Circuit” features interviews with top film and TV talent and creatives; discussions and debates about awards races and industry headlines; and much more. Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or anywhere you download podcasts. New episodes post weekly.
The flames of damnation are replaced with the fumes of gasoline and pizza in writer/director James Hilger’s netherworld indie feature Sleepyhead. Lillo Fante (Lillo Brancato) likes to bowl in his spare time and loves his pet parrot. His co-workers at the utility company are pissed off at him for something he did. He is directed to go down a manhole and the next thing he knows he is coming to on the pavement at night with no wallet. He is on the wrong side of the river, which is boiling hot for some reason. A ferryman in a flashing skull mask (Joseph Vincent Gay) agrees to take him across, but only if Lillo sings him Happy Birthday.
Across the river, nothing makes sense at first. Lillo gets thrown out of corner markets and accosted by all sorts of strange characters. A voice at a fast food drive-thru informs him, “You’re dead. So, want a cheeseburger?” As Lillo makes his way through this strange tri-state area of Hades, he has to make bargains with lost souls as he has no money. All he wants is a way out so he can get home and feed his parrot. He is told the price will be a wine bottle with the blood of Jesus in it. So Lillo takes off down the sidewalks of Hell, looking for the best bottle of booze that ever was…
Back in college in the 90s, I would walk to Yonkers to get suitcases of beer and rent splatter VHS tapes. On the border of the Italian Bronx, Yonkers oozes that New York feels like oil and vinegar from a deli hoagie. It is far from any Hell, which makes it such an interesting place for Hilger to put one. So Sleepyhead gets a big recommendation for its rich location cinematography, shot by Waleed Sokkar. The footage delivers one gorgeous slice of mid-century east coast urbanism after another. You would swear you were watching Mean Streets. The lighting is fantastic as well, with impressive stylized colors applied to location shooting, very hard to pull off.
“All he wants is a way out so he can get home and feed his parrot.
There is also a good level of humor maintained throughout. The sequence in the park with the witches is hilarious, particularly when they are raping the tied-up creep. 99% of the time, rape jokes are unwatchable, but this is Hell, after all. Most of the scenes in Sleepyhead seem non-sequential like they could have been put into the movie in any order. It is to Hilger’s credit to have the overall motivation of Brancato to get back to his parrot to add drive to the whole thing.
The big flaw with Hilger’s script is his execution of having Brancato never define what it is that he did to be sent to Hell. I am not disagreeing with the choice of not revealing this, I think Hilger has a good impulse by leaving it up to the viewer’s imagination. When it first comes up with the co-workers commenting on the unnamed messed-up act, the ambiguity worked. However, there is a difference between being ambiguous and being incomplete. Later on, a demon requires as a prize that Brancato tell him the worst thing he ever did. Then the scene ends with no further follow-up. At least Hilger could have had Brancato tell the demon but not let the viewer access what is told. Just cutting away makes it feel undone.
Also, the ending doesn’t work, and I think Hilger knows it. There seems to be audio dubbed in post-production to try to make the climax make more sense. I got it, but it was a stretch. It should be a lot more clear, especially when it explains why the movie is called Sleepyhead. Overall, Hilger has turned in a decent indie film with the subject matter most will have a hell of a time with.
Russian troops were accused of slaughtering Ukrainian civilians waiting at a bus stop today during a major speech by Vladimir Putin to Moscow’s elite, in which he claimed the West was to blame for his on-going invasion.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky said several missiles fired by Russia’s military struck civilian targets in attacks on the southern city of Kherson.
Among his claims, Putin said: ‘The responsibility for fuelling the Ukrainian conflict, for its escalation, for the number of victims… lies completely with Western elites.’ The US called the speech ‘absurd’ while Kyiv said Putin was in a ‘different reality’.
Zelensky issued his own rebuttal in a post on Instagram, posting pictures of the aftermath of Russia’s strikes in Kherson. ‘The world cannot forget for a moment that Russian cruelty and aggression have no limits,’ he wrote. ‘The terrorist state will be responsible for all its inhumane crimes against our people and Ukraine.’
WARNING: Graphic images
Pictured: A picture from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Instagram account on Tuesday showing the aftermath of a Russian missile strike on a bus stop in Kherson Russia of ‘mercilessly killing the civilian population’ of Ukraine
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said several missiles fired by Russia’s military struck civilian targets in attacks on the southern city of Kherson, and accused
Pictured: An injured person (centre) is seen on the ground close to where a Russian missile struck Kherson on Tuesday. The body of a victim of the strike is seen to the left
The strikes on Kherson today killed at least five people and 16 others were in hospitals with injuries, the city’s council said.
In pictures Zelensky posted on Instagram, at least one body can be seen lying on the pavement in a pool of blood. Another person lies on the ground injured, their clothes clearly damaged in the blast. A second body is seen half covered in a foil blanket.
The building next to the bus stop has been ripped apart too, with debris scattered across the street. Damage from the strike extends down the street.
‘The Russian army is heavily shelling Kherson. Again mercilessly killing the civilian population,’ Zelensky wrote. ‘A vehicle park, residential areas, a high-rise building, and a public transport stop were hit.’
AFP reporters also saw dead bodies covered with plastic sheets or foil blankets on the streets near a bus stop and a supermarket in Kherson.
On Sunday, regional authorities in the city said shelling had killed three adult members of a single family. Four others – including two children – were injured when a shell flew into the yard of a house in the village of Burgunka, officials said.
Separately, an 8-year-old boy was injured by the shelling in the same village, the regional authorities said.
Kherson is the capital of one of the four regions – along with Donetsk, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia – that Russia claims to have annexed but never fully controlled.
Despite Russia’s retreat from Kherson in November as Ukraine’s lighting counterattack liberated hundreds of square miles in a matter of weeks, the city is regularly targeted by Moscow’s troops from the other side of the Dnipro river.
Pictured: Medics load a stretcher with a dead civilian on into an ambulance on February 21. The person was killed in a Russian missile strike on Kherson
Pictured: Ukrainian soldiers are seen at the scene of the Russian missile strike in Kherson today
Pictured: A bus stop in Kherson is cordoned off after the area was struck by a Russian missile
Pictured: People in Kherson assess the damage after a Russian missile struck in Tuesday
Pictured: A person cleans up broken glass from a window damaged after a shelling, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kherson, Ukraine February 21
Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson Regional Military Administration, said Russian troops had targeted the city ‘probably by Grad’ multiple rocket-launchers and that 20 explosions had been heard.
The strikes came as Russian President Vladimir Putin was giving a state of the nation address in Moscow, nearly one year into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In his long-delayed state-of-the-nation address, Putin cast his country – and Ukraine – as victims of Western double-dealing and said it was Russia, not Ukraine, fighting for its very existence.
‘We aren’t fighting the Ukrainian people,’ Putin said in a speech days before the war’s first anniversary on Friday. Ukraine ‘has become hostage of the Kyiv regime and its Western masters, which have effectively occupied the country.’
The speech reiterated a litany of grievances that the Russian leader has frequently offered as justification for the widely condemned war while vowing no military let-up in Ukrainian territories he has illegally annexed, apparently rejecting any peace overtures in a conflict that has reawakened fears of a new Cold War.
Russia invaded on Feb. 24, 2022, and made a dash toward Kyiv, apparently expecting to quickly overrun the capital. But stiff resistance from Ukrainian forces – backed by Western weapons – turned back Moscow’s troops.
While Ukraine has reclaimed many areas initially seized by Russia, the two sides have become bogged down in tit-for-tat battles in others.
Much of the speech covered old ground – though Putin did sharply up the ante in tensions with Washington by declaring that Moscow would suspend its participation in the last remaining nuclear arms control pact with the United States.
The so-called New START Treaty caps the number of long-range nuclear warheads they can deploy and limits the use of missiles that can carry atomic weapons.
Among his claims during Tuesday’s speech, Putin said: ‘The responsibility for fuelling the Ukrainian conflict, for its escalation, for the number of victims… lies completely with Western elites.’ The US called the speech ‘absurd’ wile Kyiv said Putin was in a ‘different reality’
In the speech, Putin offered his own version of recent history, which discounted arguments by the Ukrainian government that it needed Western help to thwart a Russian military takeover.
Putin denied any wrongdoing, even as the Kremlin’s forces in Ukraine strike civilian targets, including hospitals, and are widely accused of war crimes.
On the ground in Ukraine on Tuesday, grinding battles and shelling attacks continued in the east and the south of the country.
At least six people were killed and seven more sustained injuries over the past 24 hours, Ukraine’s presidential office reported in the morning.
It’s complicated! Avril Lavigne has endured her fair share of relationship woes over the years, including two divorces.
“I love love,” the “Sk8er Boi” singer told Billboard in October 2018 when reflecting on her marriages. “The way I look at it is, I married my long-terms.”
Lavigne met her first husband, Sum 41 frontman Deryck Whibley, at a bar when she was 17.
The pair didn’t begin dating, however, until two years after their first meeting. In July 2006, they exchanged vows at a private estate in Montecito, California. Although the union didn’t last — Lavigne filed for divorce in October 2009 — the exes remained on good terms.
“We have been friends since I was 17, started dating when I was 19 and married when I was 21. I am grateful for our time together and I am grateful and blessed for our remaining friendship,” the Grammy nominee wrote in a statement shared via her website, announcing the separation.
Nearly a decade later, the “Complicated” songwriter told Billboard of Whibley in 2018: “He’s a good Canadian guy.”
Lavigne moved on with Brody Jenner, dating the Hills alum from 2010 to 2012. After news of their split made headlines, the reality TV personality took to social media to deny speculation that there was bad blood between him and the “Girlfriend” singer.
“Avril has always been there for me and is the closest person to my heart. I love her,” Jenner wrote via Twitter in January 2012. Lavigne responded, “Luv u 2!!! @brodyjenner.”
Shortly after the Canada native parted ways with Jenner, she sparked a whirlwind romance with Nickelback lead singer Chad Kroeger. The duo met in March 2012 while collaborating on Lavigne’s self-titled album. They began dating that July and Kroeger proposed just one month later.
The musicians tied the knot in July 2013, on their one-year anniversary. After two years of marriage, Lavigne announced via Instagram that they were going their separate ways.
“Through not only the marriage, but the music as well, we’ve created many unforgettable moments,” she wrote in September 2015. “We are still, and forever will be, the best of friends, and will always care deeply for each other.”
“The day we met I knew you were the one,” Mod Sun (real name Derek Ryan Smith) wrote via Instagram at the time. “Together forever til our days are done.”
“Avril and Mod Sun have been on and off for the past two months, but are no longer together as a couple,” a source exclusively told Us at the time. However, Mod Sun’s rep claimed that the pair had been together days prior.
“They were together and engaged 3 days ago when Mod left for tour so if anything has changed that’s news to him,” his rep told Us in a statement.
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Scroll down for a look at Lavigne’s dating history over the years:
Max Cutler — the executive who oversees Spotify’s exclusive deals with top creators like Joe Rogan, Call Her Daddy‘s Alex Cooper and Emma Chamberlain — will leave the company in May, a Spotify spokesperson confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter.
Cutler’s exit comes shortly after Spotify announced a reorganization on Jan. 23 that led to the departure of Dawn Ostroff, Spotify’s chief content and ad business officer, and the promotions of Alex Norström and Gustav Söderström to the co-president positions.
With Cutler’s pending departure, Julie McNamara will now take over leadership of Spotify’s exclusive licensing deals with creators like Rogan, Cooper and Chamberlain in addition to continuing to lead original content and major studio partnerships. Bryan Thoensen, who joined Spotify late last year from TikTok and initially reported up to Cutler, will oversee content partnerships with third-party creators. And Bill Simmons, who was promoted last May to lead Spotify’s sports content and strategy outside of the U.S., will be responsible for podcast monetization across Spotify’s portfolio of content. He will continue to lead The Ringer.
McNamara, Thoensen and Simmons will all report up to Sahar Elhabashi, the head of Spotify’s podcast business; Elhabashi reports up to Norström, whose purview includes Spotify’s content business.
Cutler’s departure comes roughly four years after Spotify acquired Parcast, the podcast studio founded and led by Cutler, for 49 million euros (about $55 million) in 2019. The executive had a quick rise within Spotify’s podcast leadership ranks, receiving a promotion last May to lead the audio giant’s buzzy, exclusive licensing deals with top podcast creators and relinquish direct oversight of Parcast, which he founded in 2016.
But in recent months, Spotify has reevaluated its $1 billion-plus investments into podcasting as Wall Street pressures the company to turn make its expansion profitable. In addition to layoffs — some of which impacted staff at Parcast and Spotify’s other in-house podcast studio, Gimlet — top executives have signaled plans to be more judicious with talent deals and content spend. The company also has a new activist investor in Mason Morfit’s ValueAct Capital Management, which is expected to keep an eye on Spotify’s spending on podcasts and other audio expansions.
“In hindsight, I probably got a little carried away and over-invested relative to the uncertainty we saw shaping up in the market,” Ek told analysts on Jan. 31 during Spotify’s fourth-quarter earnings call. “So we are shifting the focus on tightening our spend and becoming more efficient.”
As for Cutler’s exit, the timing appears to follow a typical four-year earn-out cycle for M&A deals, though Spotify declined to comment on the specific timing of Cutler’s situation.
In a note to staff, obtained by THR, Cutler said he was leaving to “return to [his] entrepreneurial roots” and launch his own venture, though he did not share additional details on the business. The executive also noted that Helen Lindqvist, the head of operations within the creator content division, would be leaving after six years at Spotify.
“I strongly believe that companies operating at the intersection of great content and dynamic creators have never had more opportunities than they do now. With the traditional media industry ripe for disruption, I am excited to take on this new challenge and drive innovation forward,” Cutler wrote. “I am deeply grateful to Daniel [Ek], Alex [Norström], and Sahar [Elhabashi] for their unwavering support of my decision to return to my entrepreneurial roots as I embark on this next chapter. I look forward to sharing more details about my next venture with the world soon.”
Feb. 21, 2:23 p.m.: Updated with additional details and to clarify that Cutler’s exit is separate from the Spotify reorganization announced Jan. 23.
In Germany today where he received a lifetime achievement award at the Berlin Film Festival, Steven Spielberg made touching reference to the Holocaust and the country’s continuing attempt to face its own past in the name of healing. Introduced by U2 singer/humanitarian Bono, Spielberg’s speech drew an ovation of around a dozen minutes. You can watch above, but to hear his most poignant comments, cue the video to one hour and 54 minutes in.
“This honor has particular meaning for me because I’m a Jewish director,” said Spielberg, referencing his coming of age autobiographical film The Fabelmans for which he’s Oscar nominated. “I’d like to believe that this is a small moment in a much larger, ongoing effort of healing the broken places of history – what Jews call Tikkun Olam, the repairing and restoring of the world.
“I established The Shoah Foundation, because I’m convinced that that what historian Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi wrote is true: The opposite of justice is not injustice. The opposite of justice is forgetting. Reconciliation is possible only when we remember what’s happened. Germany has long been an essential partner in the Shoah Foundation’s work. Private citizens and the German government and the Berlin Film Festival have joined us in gathering and interviewing witnesses, in introducing documentaries, in spreading educational materials, in helping us make our archives widely available in Germany.
“The German people have shown themselves willing to read their country’s history, to confront its lessons regarding antisemitism, bigotry, and xenophobia, harbingers of holocaust,” Spielberg said. “Other countries, including my own, can learn a lot from the courageous determination of the German people to act to prevent fascists from seizing power. A nation can be called just only if it refuses the convenient amnesia that tempts us all. After the 20th Century, maybe no nation should flatter or delude itself that it deserves to be called Just. But we shouldn’t deny the possibility of Justice. We shouldn’t stop pursuing it. That pursuit is our best hope for finding meaning in life. And that it begins with remembering.”
By the way, the GOAT director also said he intended to keep making movies for as long as he is able — his dad lasted till 103 so the genes are there — and that he intends to go back to the scarier films he directed earlier in his career.
As we inch closer to the Coronation, the controversies in the United Kingdom revolving around the royal family are just catching flame. For all we know, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have already ruffled many feathers in their royal base following their blistering attack on the Monarchy with their tell-all bombshell projects. Now that King Charles has confirmed their attendance from his part, the Duke and Duchess are not sure of attending keeping in mind the polarising reactions.
Earlier this month, outlets revealed that the King is bent on having his family reunited at the momentous occasion. Meanwhile, the elder brother had some issues with the Sussexes’ presence but later agreed to have them at the Coronation. However, it seems like the crowd in the United Kingdom has left Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in a predicament over attending their father’s ceremony.
As reported by Telegraph, their attendance still hangs by a thread despite the King clearing the road from his end. “It’s complicated,” a friend revealed to the outlet saying there are a million variables. Thus, the predicament is understandable, it said.
It further claimed that despite all the confidential discussions over their presence at the event, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have not received any official confirmation, let alone received the invitation card. “They do not have any insight. They’re stuck in limbo,” the apparent friend claimed. Let alone them snubbing the invite, at present, they are not in a position to even decide upon something that is still hanging in the air.
Is the United Kingdom ready to accept Prince Harry and Meghan Markle?
Meanwhile, royal fans in the United Kingdom are all up in arms to boo the self-exiled couple if at all they happen to turn up. Earlier reports suggested that the majority of the subjects do not wish to see the couple at the historical event of the nation.
It is also to note that not only Prince Harry and Meghan Markle but no one has received the coronation invite so far. Although the top 2000 strong guest list is ready, the Palace has not yet sent the written cards.
What is your take on the matter? Should the Sussexes attend the coronation or should they not? Let us know in the comments below.
And the truth is, before I made that movie, I was like, “I don’t know if I will make it in Hollywood.” Yeah, it was some questions of “Am I good enough? Am I attractive enough?” But I was also wondering if Hollywood was going to allow someone like me the chance to do enough that’s interesting – allow me to show up in various parts of my humanity. And before, Dear White People, I thought the answer was no, so that movie really changed my mind.
I look across the industry – what Mike White is building, what Issa Rae is building, what Lena Waithe is building – and I’m like, we’re changing it in our own way because we exist, and I definitely didn’t know that could be a reality, some years ago.
So during that time when you thought you wouldn’t make it in Hollywood, what motivated you to keep going after the pushbacks?
Honestly, I think just looking at others, just like when Issa said “I’m just rooting for everyone Black.” Like, Daniel Kaluuya accepting an Oscar – I’m constantly re-engaging with moments where I believe in that person, which then makes me believe in myself.
Tessa’s clearly been very busy career-wise, but we also caught up with what she’s getting up to outside of work, from becoming a plant mum to Rihanna’s pending album. You can watch the full interview in the latest episode of Seasoned Sessions on Spotify, or listen wherever you find your favourite podcasts. Creed III will be in cinemas on March 3rd!
Italian auteur Vittorio De Sica triumphed at the Berlin Film Festival when his 1971 masterpiece “The Garden of the Finzi-Continis” claimed the Golden Bear, on its way to the best foreign-language Oscar in 1972.
“Finzi” also earned Italian film and TV star Fabio Testi an Italian Golden Globe for best breakthrough actor. A half-century later, with over 100 credits on his resume, Testi remains active and game for parts that utilize his still stunning looks and hearty appetite for performing.
He’s also game for the role he seems destined to play in the Italian tabloids. A quick Google search of Testi’s current film and TV projects is dominated by stories – which Testi playfully plays along with – of current and past romantic adventures with women all over the globe.
Testi turns 82 this year and remains dedicated to two other passions beyond the aforementioned amorous actitivies: farming and acting.
“I did 102 movies with my name on them,” Testi tells Variety from the back porch of his farm in Lake Garda, Italy, noting that the career was less planned than inevitable. A career drilling for oil fell away as offers to act in movies just kept coming his way.
Testi recalls the good fortune of living in Rome during the city’s artistic renaissance in the 70s and 80s, becoming a fixture in pop culture in the city, making headlines with his film roles and yes, his relationships with actresses such as former Miss France Edwige Fenech, Bond Girl Supreme Ursula Andress, Charlotte Rampling and more. “It was a good moment for Italian cinema at the time. I was lucky to be there in the right moment,” he reflects.
During what he calls “the first crisis of cinema” in the late 1990s, Testi turned his attention to the theater, with a role in the stage adaption of Federico Fellini’s 1954 Oscar-winning film, “La Strada.” “In the cinema, everybody saw ‘me’ in the role. In the theatre, I can do what I want,” he asserts. “In film, it’s difficult to change the idea of the public. In the stage, it’s easier.”
Originally owned by his grandfather, the land for his North Italy farm went up for sale during the rise of his film career and Testi grabbed it. An unorthodox concept for the era turned out to be prescient as Testi planted kiwi trees. Testi had visited several kiwi farms during his trips to Los Angeles and was curious if he could plant the crop on his native land.
Testi’s agricultural adventure had a ripple effect beyond his 10 acre startup. “Italy became the first producer the kiwi in Europe,” Testi says. “It started like a hobby and later it became a good business.’
“The farm helped him to keep his feet on the ground, to be in touch with reality, with real people, with real life,” adds his son, Fabio Testi, Jr.
Once the trees got too old and could no longer bear fruit, Testi had to change course. He launched a new era by uprooting the dead kiwi tress and planting acres of olive and trees that allow for the growth of truffles a decade ago, becoming the first truffle farm in the area.
Testi has several film and TV projects in the works, but he always devotes time to mentoring the next generation. He says he’s learned to take “the best” of the world of cinema with him to his sanctuary in Lake Garda, ready to pass his wisdom on to young talent working in the entertainment industry.
“Cinema is beautiful. Cinema is my love. Cinema is my life,” Testi professes. “When I see the young actor or the young singer, they change, they move, to fit in. If you’re an artist, you don’t need to change yourself. You don’t need to be different than who you are. You can be an actor or singer or artist, but be yourself.”
If you told someone from 1997, that Iron Man was one of the most popular super heroes world, they would be stunned. If you are too young to remember a pre-MCU world, this will probably come as a surprise to you, but outside of his comic book fans, Iron Man simply wasn’t that big of a deal.
Let me take you back to 1994. X-Men the Animated Series and Spider-Man the Animated series are dominating the super hero landscape. At this time, Marvel tried to create a show centered on Tony Stark known as Iron Man: The Animated Series.
While the show certainly has a soft spot in the hearts of those of us who grew up watching the cartoons, overall the animated Iron Man was largely forgotten until the character was resurrected and launched into stardom with 2008’s live-action film. The rest as they say, is history.
The first new Iron Man pins comes straight from the cartoon series of the 1990s. Here, Tony Stark is donning his suit and flying forward.
If you saw Iron Man: The Animated Series this character design will look familiar. The red and yellow suit seems a little more fitting than its MCU counterpart.
Tony Stark Pin
The next new Iron Man: the Animated Series pin features Tony Stark without his Iron Man helmet on.
This is the Stark that not only starred in his own TV show, but was also briefly shown in Spider-Man the Animated Series and the Fantastic Four.
Now that Robert Downey Jr. has become so synonymous with the character, it is weird to see Iron Man looking so different.
Hulk-Buster Iron Man
The third new Iron Man:The Animated Series pin features Iron Man in his hulk-buster armor.
This suit is bulkier, yet more powerful, than his normal armor, and is usually reserved for the biggest villains.
War Machine Pin
Moving on from Tony Stark, we have War Machine.
James Rhodes only appeared in the first few episodes of Iron Man, but the character made an impact. He would later play a much larger role is the Iron Man movie franchise.
War Machine looks ready to roll in this new pin, he is posing and looking straight ahead.
A Second War Machine Pin
Last but not least, we have have War Machine in action.
Here, War Machine is lunging forward and ready for battle. With a clenched fist and a pointed blaster, I certainly wouldn’t want to face the hero in battle.
Where To Get Them
If you want to get your hands on any of these Iron Man: The Animated Series pins be sure to visit the Darkroom. The store is located in Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The pins are available now for $17.99.
Photo: Also Disney
The pins are limited edition, so if you want to get them, act quick!
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DCU’s The Flash was rumored to include a Grant Gustin Flash movie cameo, mirroring Ezra Miller’s appearance on the Arrowverse Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover. Since 2014, The CW’s The Flash has been one of the biggest DC TV shows of all time. After his two-episode arc on Arrow, Gustin went on to star in his own series which has been one of the Arrowverse’s flagship shows for close to seven years. The spinoff series not only introduced superpowers into the franchise, but The Flash was crucial in seeding the idea for Crisis on Infinite Earths, which was the last major crossover the Arrowverse did in 2019.
After appearing in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, and Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Ezra Miller’s The Flash solo film is finally happening, following years of development hell. The DCU movie will see Flash explore the Multiverse — and according to rumors, Gustin’s Arrowverse Flash could be involved in some capacity. The theories suggested Gustin could make a cameo appearance in The Flash movie, following Miller’s big moment in Crisis on Infinite Earths, where they shared the screen together. However, with James Gunn now in charge and changing the DCU and The CW Flash ending, many of the old rumors could no longer be accurate.
A Grant Gustin Flash movie cameo has been speculated over for years. In the early days of the DCU and the Arrowverse, many wondered whether Warner Bros. could connect the two universes. It was eventually confirmed that Arrowverse shows would not connect to the DCU. As the two separate arms of DC live-action developed into distinct franchises, many assumed it would be impossible because of “confusing” continuities or different tones. No one thought the Arrowverse and DCU would have anything to do with each other, whether it was people in the industry or fandom. Most decided it would never be possible. But Crisis on Infinite Earths changed everything.
Warner Bros. turned to the Arrowverse team to have Miller’s Flash appear in a cameo for the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover. The moment Miller and Gustin’s Flashes came together was a massive shock for Arrowverse and DCU viewers. While it was a short scene, their exchange was historical, as their characters did “the impossible.” This marked the first time that the Arrowverse had any character from the DCU appear in The CW universe. Out of all the DC cameos in Crisis of Infinite Earths, Miller’s scene with Gustin’s Flash is still the most talked-about surprise. Their moment broke a barrier between the DCU and DC TV, making multiverse crossovers possible — especially a Grant Gustin The Flash movie cameo.
Gustin And Miller Meeting In-Universe Helped Ease Fanbase Feuds
Having Miller’s Flash appear in Crisis on Infinite Earths also helped silence a long-time online dispute. When Miller’s casting happened a week after The Flash’s premiere in 2014, there was a massive negative reception, with fans feeling Warner Bros. was stealing the thunder from the hero’s DC TV counterpart. However, throughout the years, there has been a ridiculous online feud between the respective fandoms of Gustin and Miller’s respective versions of The Flash. There have been online arguments that Gustin’s Barry should have been cast in the movie instead of Miller. A Grant Gustin Flash movie cameo could pay it back.
On the other hand, there have also been those arguing that casting Miller fixed the problems with The CW iteration. Several fans felt Gustin’s Flash is either too good to appear in the film, or the Arrowverse iteration is not worthy of the big screen. Fandoms tried to pit Miller and Gustin’s Flashes against each other in a negative, toxic way, while the actors only showed support for one another. Not only did their Crisis on Infinite Earths moment allow online feuds to be put to rest, but it also set a precedent for a Grant Gustin DCU cameo in The Flash movie.
Gustin’s Flash Is The Most Logical DC Multiverse Character To Cameo In The Flash Movie
The Flash movie already lined up a pretty big cast, especially as it pertains to the DC Multiverse. Ben Affleck’s Batman will be back, and the film is also re-introducing Michael Keaton’s Batman as part of the movie’s Multiverse storyline. Since The Flash movie is indeed featuring characters from multiple live-action DC continuities, a Grant Gustin Flash movie cameo is the most logical DC Multiverse crossover. For decades, exploring the Multiverse has been part of The Flash’s DNA, whether that is in the comics, other media adaptations, or the ongoing TV show.
One of Flash’s most iconic storylines in the comics is Flash of Two Worlds, where Jay Garrick and Barry come together for the very first time. Many might wonder what the point is of Gustin’s Flash showing up in the film, even for just a cameo, given they’ve already done that in the Arrowverse — but big as it is to see DCU’s Supergirl debut and an alternative Batman return, it makes way more sense for a Multiverse Flash to show up in a DCU movie than the Girl of Steel and Dark Knight. It would just be better if this was in addition to a Barry from another Earth.
If Gustin is indeed making a cameo in The Flash film, what that will actually look like remains to be seen. It could be that the Crisis on Infinite Earths moment is revisited from the perspective of Miller’s Barry Allen. Only time will tell, but if Gustin is reuniting with Miller in The Flash movie, it will not only have a huge impact on the DC live-action Multiverse, but it will be fitting for the Scarlet Speedster’s cinematic adventure. One thing that is certain — since the two multiverse-hopping heroes have met once already, it would almost seem strange if Grant Gustin doesn’t appear.
There’s Been No Confirmation Of A Grant Gustin Flash Movie Cameo
There is no confirmation that a Grant Gustin Flash movie cameo is coming at all. With James Gunn taking over the DCU he has brought with him a total shake-up of the upcoming slate, and very little from the former DCEU looks like it will move forward outside TV shows focusing on Amanda Waller and Peacemaker.
With Flash ending on The CW, and Ezra Miller’s The Flash movie possibly being the final installment in the former cinematic universe, there is no payoff to Gustin appearing beyond pleasing fans. It also doesn’t make sense from what’s been seen of The Flash movie’s narrative. Grant Gustin showing up in The Flash would definitely be an interesting moment, but since the rumors are unconfirmed, there’s little concrete reason to expect the Arrowverse Barry Allen to make a DCU appearance.
Microsoft was quick to limit Bing’s AI chats to prevent disturbing answers, but it’s changing course just days later. The company now says it will restore longer chats, and is starting by expanding the chats to six turns per session (up from five) and 60 chats per day (up from 50). The daily cap will climb to 100 chats soon, Microsoft says, and regular searches will no longer count against that total. With that said, don’t expect to cause much havoc when long conversations return — Microsoft wants to bring them back “responsibly.”
The tech giant is also addressing concerns that Bing’s AI may be too wordy with responses. An upcoming test will let you choose a tone that’s “precise” (that is, shorter and more to-the-point answers), “creative” (longer) or “balanced.” If you’re just interested in facts, you won’t have to wade through as much text to get them.
There may have been signs of trouble considerably earlier. As Windows Centralnotes, researcher Dr. Gary Marcus and Nomic VP Ben Schmidt discovered that public tests of the Bing chatbot (codenamed “Sidney”) in India four months ago produced similarly odd results in long sessions. We’ve asked Microsoft for comment, but it says in its most recent blog post that the current preview is meant to catch “atypical use cases” that don’t manifest with internal tests.
Microsoft previously said it didn’t completely anticipate people using Bing AI’s longer chats as entertainment. The looser limits are an attempt to strike a balance between “feedback” in favor of those chats, as the company says, with safeguards that prevent the bot from going in strange directions.
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On stage, drag artist Aphrodite Banks is a femme fatale: Caked in war paint, with a waterfall of braids whipping around her waist, she’s possessed of the white-hot glare and forthright confidence to match her Amazonian height and bearing. Off stage, as Jules, he’s simply femme: that term for gay men who present or express themselves in a more feminine way, too often used as a slur or a dismissal even by their community brethren. (Open up a cruising app like Grindr and see how frequently “no fems” comes up as a requirement.) The former identity connotes swaggering strength; the latter, to many, delicate weakness. How those associations and stigmas battle each other in one man’s body is the driving conflict in “Femme,” a tense, sometimes startling revenge drama from British freshmen Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping.
A pair of sensational performances by Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (“Candyman”) and George MacKay (“1917”), locked in a nervy duet as two men with virtually nothing in common but their sexuality, represents the chief selling point for this stylish, commendably uncompromising fusion of genre fireworks and measured, thoughtful character study. The stars also hold the film steady and emotionally credible when a hitherto sturdy screenplay, by the novice directors, makes some wild, wayward plotting moves in the home stretch. Such eminently forgivable first-feature glitches won’t stop “Femme” from racking up festival appointments — particularly in the LGBTQ+ sphere — following its premiere in Berlin’s Panorama strand, while edgier arthouse distributors are also sure to want in.
For Stewart-Jarrett, who has been on the British next-big-thing radar since his leading turn in the sci-fi teen series “Misfits” over a decade ago, “Femme” is a long-overdue feature showcase for his supple, adaptable gifts: The film hinges on his believability in a complex spectrum of gender guises and archetypes, and his intense vulnerability even at the character’s most performative and walled-off. We’re introduced to him first as Aphrodite, dauntless and unshakable as she struts through a Shygirl lipsync at a hip East London queer club. Yet after the show, as Jules dashes to the convenience store down the road for cigarettes, his flamboyant Aphrodite costuming feels not like armor but a target, open to attacks from everyday bigots.
Sure enough, at the store, a group of thuggish young men taunt him. Jules gives as good as he gets, picking up on the mixture of loathing and intrigue in the stare of ringleader Preston (MacKay), and suggestively baiting him back. A fight ensues, shot and cut as a blurry, brutal tornado of limbs, skin and blood; stripped and viciously lacerated, Jules is the loser. For weeks afterward, to the consternation of his outgoing friend and housemate Toby (John McCrea), he withdraws into himself.
When he ventures out again, it’s into the comparatively secluded shadows of a gay sauna — mostly shooting at night, or in charged, low-lit interiors, DP James Rhodes is wise to the different textures and colors of darkness that distinguish an air of safe or seductive privacy from one of invisible threat. In the locker room, he agains encounters Preston: bristling with sexual aggression and self-loathing, and oblivious to the identity of the man he brutalized weeks before. They have rough, anonymous sex, and exchange numbers.
At first, Jules’ motives in this literal case of sleeping with the enemy seem clear-cut: He’s after a revenge-porn video, sure to ruin his closeted tormentor’s life and social standing if it leaks online. But the thorny point of fascination in “Femme” is not this mission but his increasingly ambiguous investment in it, as curt, thrusting trysts with Preston, a superficially moneyed dealer, become dinner dates and, in time, halting, anxious gestures of affection. Is Jules also an expert performer away from the club spotlight, dispassionately stringing along his prey by playing sweetly submissive? Or does some internal part of him actually yield to Preston, whose short fuse and emotional immaturity can’t entirely conceal the catharsis he feels at being able to live out his identity in one man’s presence?
Even as the narrative is somewhat clunkily engineered toward a grand reveal — one in which characters conveniently appear and disappear to speed things along — Freeman and Ping never force a conclusion. Neither does Stewart-Jarrett’s lithe, crackling performance, which shimmies up and down the various degrees of masculinity required for his increasingly fraught project: jockishly straight in the presence of Preston’s friends, femme and taciturn when they’re alone and, in one significant pivot, icily dominant when he senses other desires afoot between them. He gets a vital assist in this regard from Buki Ebiesuwa’s slick, canny costume design, which is keenly attuned to the roles and codes of gender, attitude and sexual power that can be stitched into both casual streetwear and flamboyant stagewear. Viewed in three different iterations, a simple saffron-yellow hoody becomes a more loaded and versatile garment than you might ever imagine.
Stewart-Jarrett is superbly matched by MacKay, an actor whom the industry sporadically attempts to fashion as a gung-ho leading man — and who always seems more at home when drawn into darker, more perverse territory. His casting here plays cleverly on that very duality: Never standing but posing, stamped up to the throat with laddish tattoos, with a slurring voice suffocated with pent-up rage, he’s a full-body clenched fist of straight-acting aggression, only gradually permitting himself erratic moments of honesty and good humor in Jules’ presence. From Preston, a single brief, darting peck on the lips seems a transformative miracle, though MacKay never entirely hides the softer, unexpressed boy in a terminally volatile man. “Femme” neither sets out to forgive or redeem this bully, merely to outline all his warring, unresolved parts — as copious and chaotic as Jules’ splintered identities, lashing violently outward rather than inward.
In an interview with SiriusXM’s Gary Dell’Abate and Rahsaan Rogers on The Howard Stern Wrap Up Show, Hudson explained that while he had so much love and appreciation for Ivan Reitman and his fellow Ghostbusters, the studio was a different story.
“I was the guy who was brought in, and so finding my place in the middle of that — and they were all welcoming and inclusive,” the actor recalled of joining the cast. “The studio wasn’t, and the studio continued not to be. So it made it very, very difficult because I was a part of it, but then I very selectively was pushed aside.”
Hudson shared an example on the radio show of how the studio wasn’t very supportive, pointing out that he wasn’t on the movie posters when they came out.
“It took a long time. I went to the 30th-anniversary release of the movie and all the posters are three guys,” he continued. “Now I know the fans see it differently, and I’m so thankful for the fans because the fans basically identified with Winston, especially young, I don’t want to say minority kids, but a lot of kids.”
The actor explained that with current negotiations for a new Ghostbusters movie that’s set to begin filming in March, he’s making sure he isn’t seen as an “add-on.”
“If I’m going to do it, it has to make sense,” Hudson said. “When you start out in the business, I was always told it’s almost impossible to succeed. But if you get in a major movie from a major studio and it comes out and it opens number one, it will change your career. Well, Ghostbusters didn’t do any of that for me. I was working pretty nonstop, I did Ghostbusters, and it was two and a half years before I got another movie.”
He went on to explain that the role of Winston in the movie changed from when he originally got the script to when they actually began filming. At first, his character was introduced at the very beginning. By the time production rolled around, Winston came in halfway through.
“It wasn’t an easy road. Ghostbusters, I would say, it was probably the most difficult movie I ever did just from the psychological perspective,” he continued. “All those things…It definitely felt deliberate. And I’m still not trying to take it personally.”
Hudson concluded, “Anything bad, if you’re African American in this country, anything bad happens to you, you can always blame it on because I’m Black. You don’t want to go there. That’s the last thing I want to do…I got nothing bad to say about anybody, but it was hard. It took me 10 years to get past that and enjoy the movie and just embrace the movie. Ghostbusters was really hard to make peace with it.”
From the “Rocky” saga to multiple “Carrie” movies and the classic “12 Angry Men,” here’s what’s coming to Prime Video in March.
March is still winter, no matter which animal you ask, which means it’s still completely acceptable to cancel all plans and curl up under a blanket in front of the TV. Prime Video’s movie library updates throughout the month, with most of its new additions on March 1 — including the “Rocky” saga, multiple “Carrie” adaptations, “12 Angry Men,” and more.
For Prime users who love books and TV, March means the highly-anticipated premiere of “Daisy Jones & the Six,” based on the best-selling novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid. The eponymous Daisy (Riley Keough) and Billy Dunne’s band (Sam Claflin) make a mean match, starting with a hit single and leading to what seems like endless fame and glory. But where there is success there is peril, and both the band’s rise and an electric connection with Daisy threaten Billy’s marriage and everyone’s personal lives. James Ponsoldt, Nzingha Stewart, and Will Graham direct the series, created by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber. “Daisy Jones & The Six” premieres March 3, with new episodes every Friday until March 24.
Related
Related
Read on for more of what’s coming to Prime Video in March.
March 1
“12 Angry Men” (1957) “A Fish Called Wanda” (1988) “Akeelah and The Bee” (2006) “American Gangster” (2007) “Barbershop” (2002) “Barefoot in the Park” (1967) “Being John Malkovich” (1999) “Big Daddy” (1999) “Capote” (2006) “Carrie” (1976) “Carrie” (2013) “Cinderella Man” (2005) “Cloverfield” (2008) “Contraband” (2012) “Courageous” (2011) “Creed” (2015) “Creed II” (2018) “Dazed and Confused” (1993) “Def Comedy Jam S1-S7” (1992) “Detroit” (2017) “Duck Soup” (1933) “Elizabeth” (1999) “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” (2007) “Eye for an Eye” (1996) “Flesh and Bone” (1993) “Good Will Hunting” (1998) “Imagine That” (2009) “Internal Affairs” (1990) “Jonah: A VeggieTales Movies” (2002) “Kevin Hart: Laugh At My Pain” (2011) “Leaving Las Vegas” (1996) “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” (1999) “Lost in Translation” (2003) “Margin Call” (2011) “Midnight Cowboy” (1969) “Minnie and Moskowitz” (1971) “Nerve” (2016) “Nowitzki: The Perfect Shot” (2015) “Once Upon a Time in the West” (1969) “Ordinary People” (1980) “Paths of Glory” (1957) “Pulp Fiction” (1994) “RBG” (2018) “Red River” (1948) “Rocky” (1976) “Rocky Balboa” (2006) “Rocky II” (1979) “Rocky III” (1982) “Rocky IV” (1985) “Rocky V” (1990) “Sahara” (2005) “Scent of a Woman” (1993) “Shine A Light” (2008) “Sterile Cuckoo” (1969) “Street Smart” (1987) “Super 8” (2011) “The Apartment” (1960) “The Babysitter” (1995) “The Dead Zone” (1983) “The Defiant Ones” (1958) “The Expendables 2” (2012) “The Expendables 3” (2014) “The Frozen Ground” (2013) “The Hunted” (2003) “The Hunter” (1980) “The Last Temptation of Christ” (1988) “The Machinist” (2004) “The Manchurian Candidate” (2004) “The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie” (2008) “The Presidio” (1988) “The Virgin Suicides” (2000) “Unlocked” (2017) “Vanilla Sky” (2001) “Vanity Fair” (2004) “VeggieTales: An Easter Carol” (2004) “VeggieTales: Lord of the Beans” (2005) “VeggieTales: Noah’s Ark” (2017) “VeggieTales: ‘Twas The Night Before Easter” (2011) “Witness For the Protection” (1958) “Your Highness” (2011)
March 3
“Daisy Jones & The Six” (2023) “The Pimp – No F***ing Fairytale” (2023)
March 6
“The Magnificent Seven” (2016)
March 7
“Secret Headquarters” (2022) “The Silent Twins” (2022) “The Visitor” (2022)
March 10
“Jackass Forever” (2022) “This Is Christmas” (2022)
March 11
“La Guzman” S1 (2019)
March 12
“Men, Women & Children” (2014)
March 14
“Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris” (2022)
March 17
“Angel Flight” (2023) “Boy and the World” (2014) “Class of ‘07” (2023) “Dom” (2023) “Swarm” (2023)
March 21
“Nope” (2022)
March 22
“Sanandresito” (2012)
March 24
“Reggie” (2023) “Top Gun: Maverick” (2022)
March 28
“Big Trip 2: Special Delivery” (2022)
March 29
“American Renegades” (2018) “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets” (2017)
March 31
“Boss” S1-2 (2011) “But I’m a Cheerleader” (2000) “Enemies Closer” (2014) “The Power” (2023) “Siberia” (2021) “Tyler Perry’s Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor” (2013) “Zeros and Ones” (2021)
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