Netflix dominates the top of the charts once again, with Ginny & Georgia leading the way as the most streamed program for the week of January 2, according to Nielsen streaming Top 10 list.
The dramedy earned 2.5 billion minutes viewed with an audience that was 77% female and 34% aged 18-34. In second place was fellow Netflix series Kaleidoscope with 1.6 billion minutes viewed that drew viewers that were evenly split across ages 18-64, as a 50% male and female split. 21% came from African-American homes and 16% were Hispanic.
Wednesday added another billion-minute-week to its streak (now 7) as it notched 1 billion viewing minutes, No. 3 overall. As of publication date, the Netflix Original has totaled 21.3 billion viewing minutes since its November 23 release (47 days of Nielsen streaming data availability).
AMC’s hit The Walking Dead recently added its 11th and final season to Netflix, and placed No. 7 on the Nielsen streaming charts for the opening week of 2023. The series earned 905 million viewing minutes, 36% of its audience was in the 18-34 age group, and about 25% of viewers were Hispanic.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery was the most streamed movie of the week with 935 million minutes viewed.
The Kardashians try to put family first as they manage their growing fame, expanding empires, high-profile relationships and more in this reality series.
Certificate:Suitable for ages 15 and up
Year: 2015
Duration: 1 Season
Available Seasons: Season 9 (21 Ep), Season 10 (17 Ep), Season 11 (13 Ep)
Audio: English [Original]
Subtitles: Arabic, English, French, Polish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese
Status: Ended”Keeping Up with the Kardashians” is a TV show produced by Bunim-Murray Productions (BMP), Ryan Seacrest Productions and NBCUniversal International Studios. The show was originally broadcast on E! (United States) and premiered on October 14th 2007. “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” ended after 20 seasons and a total of 282 episodes. The final episode aired on June 20th 2021.
Watch the trailer for “Keeping Up with the Kardashians”
The TV Academy did not extend its ruling that HBO hit “The White Lotus” remain in Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series contention.
UPDATED: This article has been updated to include a statement on the decision from the Television Academy. The update is below.
HBO hit “The White Lotus” is saying arrivederci to the Emmys’ Limited Series categories one year after it won every major award it was up for.
Variety was first to report the news that the show helmed by Mike White, which won the Emmy for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series last year, is now being moved to the Drama categories for its Sicily-set second season.
The issue of how to classify “The White Lotus” — which has been part comedy, part drama, part murder mystery, now established to take place at a different location each season — is one that actually came up last year. Since 2019, the TV Academy has made rulings that prevented shows with continuing story threads, characters, and actors reprising those same characters from previous seasons from competing in the Limited or Anthology Series categories, pushing away former contenders like “American Horror Story” and “The Sinner.” When “The White Lotus” Season 2 was announced with star Jennifer Coolidge returning as eccentric heiress Tanya McQuoid, the TV Academy made the decision that, in that specific case, “the reappearance in a subsequent ‘season’ of one character from a large ensemble does not prohibit eligibility based on the Academy’s main criteria for limited series.”
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“The White Lotus” Season 2 has also been a puzzle for guild awards nominations, with the Directors Guild of America nominating the show in its Comedy category, and the Screen Actors Guild nominating it for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series this year.
A spokesperson for the Television Academy released a statement on “The White Lotus” decision to IndieWire that said, “Due to an ongoing storyline, The Television Academy has determined ‘The White Lotus’ Season 2 is eligible in the Outstanding Comedy or Drama Series category.” IndieWire has reached out to representatives for the series to confirm that the hour-long show will opt for the latter.
“The White Lotus” has made no announcements about bringing back any characters with Season 3, putting it more in line with what qualifies as a Limited Series under the organization’s rules. It could very well compete again in Limited Series for that season.
Should “The White Lotus” move to the Drama categories, it would mean HBO likely has four major contenders for the Outstanding Drama Series Emmys. Current reigning winner “Succession” will premiere its fourth season on March 26, putting it right before the Emmy deadline. The network also has “House of the Dragon,” a prequel to the four-time Outstanding Drama Series winner “Game of Thrones,” and the currently airing apocalypse drama “The Last of Us,” from Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series winner Craig Mazin (“Chernobyl”).
More than five years after Lil Peep’s death at age 21, the legal battle over responsibility for his fatal drug overdose has ended. According to a notice filed today in Los Angeles County Superior Court, the rapper’s mother, Liza Womack, has settled her wrongful death lawsuit against First Access Entertainment (FAE)—the management and label services company that worked with Peep, who was born Gustav Elijah Åhr.
Terms of the settlement were confidential, according to Womack’s lawyer, Paul Matiasic. “Liza has been indefatigable in her pursuit of justice for her son,” Matiasic told Pitchfork. “With the conclusion of the litigation, her focus will shift to shepherding his legacy and continuing to release his music for the enjoyment of his fans.”
The date of the settlement was February 14, according to the court filing. A trial had been scheduled to start on March 8.
A post on Lil Peep’s social media pages from earlier today reads:
Today, Gus’s music came home.
From this day forward, his music will be in the care of his mother and brother, and no one else.
It is a solemn moment for us as we reflect on the struggles of the past five plus years. We are grateful to all of the fans, friends, professionals, and family who stood by us. We were all permanently changed by Gus’s death. We know he should be here in the world with all of us, creating–making whatever he was inspired to make. But he is not. So, we will protect his music with all of our strength.
We look forward to continuing to release Gus’s music.
This is a very important day for us.
Womack filed the lawsuit in October 2019, almost two years after Peep’s death. The complaint alleged wrongful death, negligence, and breach of contract against First Access Entertainment, manager Bryant Ortega, and tour manager Belinda Mercer. Legal experts said at the time that the case had the potential to change the way the music industry views drugs. In January 2022, texts unsealed in court showed what Womack’s lawyers asserted was the “dysfunctional, ultimately lethal state” of the tour that Peep died in during 2017. A month later, Judge Teresa Beaudet ruled that the case against FAE and Mercer could go ahead, but dismissed most of the claims against Ortega.
Pitchfork has reached out to lawyers for FAE, Ortega, and Mercer for comment about the settlement notice. In court documents in 2021, Mercer denied causing Peep’s death “in any way.” Previously, FAE has called Womack’s lawsuit “groundless and offensive”; FAE CEO Sarah Stennett, through her attorney, has denied giving Peep any drugs; and Ortega has called the allegations against him “entirely baseless, misguided, and without merit.”
In recent years, Liza Womack has been re-releasing her son’s self-released material, including Live Forever, Crybaby, and Hellboy. An archival song, “Runaway (OG Version),” was uploaded to streaming services today. (In 2018, a year before filing the wrongful death lawsuit, Womack directed the posthumous music video for Come Over When You’re Sober, Pt. 2’s “Runaway.”)
Russian documentary filmmaker Victor Kossakovsky and the production team behind his Oscar-shortlisted feature “Gunda” will follow up with the second instalment in his “Empathy Trilogy.”
AC Independent will handle the North America sale and Cinephil will be selling international rights. They will be kicking off sales this week at the European Film Market in Berlin.
The new film focuses on the health of the oceans and the effects of industrial fisheries. The “Empathy Trilogy,” of which “Gunda” formed the first part, looks at the sentience of non-human animals.
After a pre-production shoot in June 2022, principal photography is planned for June 2023, with a projected release date in 2025.
While “Gunda” captured the lives of farm animals, notably the engaging mother sow who was its eponymous protagonist, for this new project, Kossakovsky is collaborating with the German artist known as K49814 to record her quest to raise awareness of our depredation of the oceans and the destruction humankind inflicts on the world’s fish species.
At current rates of exploitation, the ocean’s population of edible fish will mostly disappear by 2048. Their loss represents a major part of the ongoing Sixth Extinction, the first worldwide extinction since the end of the Cretaceous, 65 million years ago.
“Equally a visual poem and a call to action, in this second chapter, Kossakovsky invites us to pay close attention to yet another facet of our environment that we don’t see – or choose to ignore,” Cinephil said. “Kossakovsky weaves balletic action and a deceptively simple story into an edge-of-your seat experience, gradually situating viewers within a dynamic event.”
The film brings back together much of the team behind “Gunda,” including cinematographer Egil Håskjold Larsen, sound designer Alexander Dudarev, editor Ainara Vera, and producers Anita Rehoff Larsen and Tone Grøttjord-Glenne for Sant og Usant, and Joslyn Barnes for Louverture Films.
“Gunda” was the breakout title of 2020’s inaugural Encounters competition at the Berlinale, and was snapped up for North American distribution by Neon. Kossakovsky’s 2018 film “Aquarela” premiered out of competition at Venice, and has picked up by Sony Pictures Classics.
NEW DELHI — India welcomed 12 cheetahs from South Africa on Saturday that will join eight others it received from Namibia last year as part of an ambitious drive to reintroduce the big cats in the country after 70 years.
An aircraft carrying the cheetahs landed at Gwalior Air Force base, the Press Trust of India news agency reported. The cats will then be flown in helicopters to Kuno National Park in India’s Madhya Pradesh state, where they will be released into quarantine enclosures.
In January, India said it planned to import 12 cats annually for the next eight to 10 years as part of an agreement signed by the two African countries.
Cheetah populations in most countries are declining. South Africa, where the cats are running out of space, is an exception.
Cheetahs were once widespread in India but became extinct in 1952 from hunting and loss of habitat. They remain the first and only predator to die out since India’s independence in 1947. India hopes that importing African cheetahs will aid efforts to conserve the country’s threatened and largely neglected grasslands.
There are fewer than 7,000 adult cheetahs in the wild globally, and they now inhabit less than 9% of their original range. Shrinking habitat, due to the increasing human population and climate change, is a huge threat.
Based in Atlanta, Cenat has collaborated with major artists like Drake, 21 Savage, Lil Uzi Vert and Lil Baby. On Twitch, the streamer has 4.4 million followers and currently has the most paying subscribers on the platform, according to the analytics platform Streams Chart.
Cenat — who was named streamer of the year at the 2022 Webby Awards — is a member of the collective Any Means Possible (AMP) alongside the creators known as Agent 00, Fanum, Duke Dennis, ImDavisss and ChrisNxtDoor.
He got his start on YouTube in 2018, becoming known for his prank “ding dong ditch” videos, before joining Twitch in 2021 as a variety streamer playing games like Grand Theft Auto and Fortnite. Cenat has also ventured into music, releasing the single “Bustdown Rollie Avalanche” last year with the rapper NLE Choppa.
Earlier this month, Cenat began a 30-day marathon to live stream himself for 24 hours until March 2. On the first day of the marathon, Cenat’s stream garnered 6.4 million unique viewers who watch 683 million minutes, while his channel has accounted for 2.5 percent of all hours watched globally on Twitch in the past two weeks, according to UTA.
At UTA, the 21-year-old Cenat will join other top streamers like Valkyrae (Rachell “Rae” Hofstetter), Pokimane (Imane Anys), Scump (Seth Abner) and Swagg (Kris Lamberson).
He continues to be represented by John Nelson at LFM Management.
Vince McMahon, who’s been exploring the sale of his WWE empire, is seeking $9 billion, according to multiple media reports. The news comes after McMahon’s return to the company as a board member boosted the WWE’s stock by 20%.
And there are several interested buyers, including Endeavor Group Holdings, which owns UFC. McMahon stepped down as the company’s CEO in June 2022 and officially retired a month later after allegations of misconduct were made against him and his head of talent relations.
McMahon started WWE in the 1980s, serving as CEO for 40 years. Even after his departure, he remained the controlling shareholder.
His daughter Stephanie picked up the title of CEO, alongside Nick Khan, who is still the CEO after Stephanie announced her resignation in January. But, when McMahon came back to the board of directors, he pointed out that he would be looking to sell.
“Together, we look forward to exploring all strategic alternatives to maximize shareholder value,” said the statement credited to co-CEOs Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan and Chief Content Officer Paul Levesque.
“A review of strategic alternatives,” the statement continued. “There is no assurance that this process will result in a transaction,” the statement said.
Next Level Chef is back for Season 2 on Fox and you know what that means: more Richard Blais! Oh, chefs Gordon Ramsay and Nyesha Arrington are still as commanding, inspirational, and intimidating as ever, but if you’re like me, the founder of the #GaysForBlais hashtag that will be a thing eventually probably, then you’ve been an admirer of Blais…
The Television Academy has reversed course about HBO’s “The White Lotus” competing as a limited series at this year’s Emmy Awards and will instead compete in the Drama Series categories.
Back in March 2022, the TV Academy reported that the series would be up against competitors in the limited series category when the awards show returned on Sept 18, 2023. The Academy has since walked back that decision, having determined that the series’ second season will be moved to categories for dramas. The Season 2 finale dropped on HBO Max in December 2022.
“The Television Academy has determined The White Lotus, Season 2, is eligible in the Outstanding Comedy or Drama Series category,” a Television Academy spokesperson told TheWrap Friday.
According to the Television Academy, a limited series is “defined as a program with two (2) or more episodes with a total running time of at least 150 program minutes that tells a complete, non-recurring story. The story arc must be completely resolved within its season, with no on-going storyline and/or main characters in subsequent seasons.”
Season 2 of the series stars F. Murray Abraham, Jennifer Coolidge, Adam DiMarco, Beatrice Grannò, Meghann Fahy, Jon Gries, Tom Hollander, Sabrina Impacciatore, Michael Imperioli, Theo James, Aubrey Plaza, Haley Lu Richardson, Will Sharpe, Simona Tabasco and Leo Woodall.
The HBO show created by Mike White tells the story of employees and guests, who are staying in a fictional White Lotus resort chain. The characters’ time eventually becomes impacted by their various dysfunctions. As viewers will recall, the second season inspired by its Italian landscape, strikes an operatic tone rooted in themes of adultery and sexual politics.
Judge Mathis and The People’s Court will both end their runs at the end of their current seasons.
The Hollywood Reporter learned Friday that the decision was in part due to the challenging market in the daytime syndication landscape.
Judge Mathis, which has been on the air for 24 seasons, follows Judge Greg Mathis as he lays down the law and gives sentences to those in his courtroom. The show won a Daytime Emmy Award for outstanding legal/courtroom program in 2018.
The program, which began in 1998, is the second longest-running court show with a single production life, behind Judge Judy. Judge Mathis is also the longest-running Black male host on television.
The People’s Court, which premiered in 1997, will wrap after season 26. It has won four Daytime Emmy Awards for outstanding legal/courtroom program – the most wins for a court show in the category.
The show follows former Florida prosecutor and judge Marilyn Milian as she decides on actual small-claims court cases. Milian was the first Latina judge to host a nationally syndicated television court show.
The People’s Court also ranks as the longest-running traditional court show and second-longest-running court show in general, with a total of 39 seasons, including the original series which ran from 1981 to 1993 with Judge Joseph Wapner.
Judge Mathis is produced by Warner Bros. Unscripted Television in association with AND Syndicated Productions and Telepictures Productions, and is distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution.
The People’s Court is a Ralph Edwards/Stu Billett Production and Warner Bros. Unscripted Television in association with Telepictures. It is distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution.
The new Netflix Korean Thriller, Unlocked, is now streaming, but should you give it a watch?
As noted in our review of the post-climate crisis sci-fi thriller JUNG_E last month, Netflix has taken note of the demand for more Korean content and set up a massive slate of 34 upcoming titles this year, including 6 brand-new original films.
After JUNG_E kicked off with modest reviews (including my lackluster “Pause” review), Netflix and Korean film fans hope for a better outcome with the latest Korean thriller dropping this weekend, Unlocked, the debut feature from actor turned director Tae-joon Kim.
Based on the novel by Akira Shiga and adapted from the Japanese film Stolen Identity, Unlocked centers around the smartphone-obsessed Na-Mi, who loses her phone after dropping it on the bus coming home from a night out with friends. After a stranger finds the phone, he returns it to her with spyware installed to track her every move. Na-Mi’s life is turned upside down as she and everyone close to her is at the mercy of the whims of this dangerous man.
The film stars Woo-hee Chun (Be Melodramatic; Bong Joon Ho’s Mother) as Na-Mi, Si-wan Yim (Tracer,The King Loves) as the dangerous stranger known as Jun Yeong, and Kim Hee-won (The Man From Nowhere) as police officer Ji Man.
Picture: Netflix
As smartphones & computers have been around controlling our lives for some time, the “hacker running havoc on someone’s life via personal devices” is not a fresh plot narrative. With this film, director Tae-joon Kim attempts to update the story by dividing the story between the 3 main characters: the victim, the criminal, and the officer who believes the criminal may be his estranged son that is connected to a recent murder victim found in the mountains. By doing so, the film shifts away from the standard “whodunnit” mystery to a creepier analysis of how & why this stranger would ruin a seemingly random woman’s life.
While the cyber criminality aspect of the story did make me want to throw my cellphone into the ocean and install a landline once again, I felt that the three main characters didn’t grab me in their respective roles. Na-Mi is a very average victim with an incredibly thin personal connection to her stalker that develops after her phone is stolen. Her life is not particularly interesting or intricate in design, so when her life is upended, the drama is turned down until the stakes become potentially lethal at the very end of the film.
Picture: Netflix
The stalker we know for most of the film as Jun Yeong has no true motive for his crimes. He’s a psychopath, a liar, & decent hacker, but overall his presence in the film does not meet the level of the escalation in his offenses. This is partially because Si-Wan Yim seems to be miscast in this type of role. He doesn’t convey creepiness nor a level of menace that would denote a criminal of this level. He seems to play his character with a flat affect that barely moves the needle even as the danger increases. He also journals his every intention which takes away most of the surprise as the plot unfolds.
The only mystery element in the story belongs to the connection between the detective working the case and our criminal lead. While he quickly deduces that his estranged son is somehow involved, the detective still bungles many aspects of the investigation including identifying the criminal when they trap him late in the film. The plot unveils a late change that gives us a more charged ending and a bloody showdown, but it’s not enough to save a more pedestrian crime drama before the conclusion.
Overall, Unlocked doesn’t build upon the inherently terrifying cyberstalking reality we could all face at any time. With seemingly no motive, very little personal connectivity, and a lack of presence in the characters that matter most, the film fails to bring this story to a boil.
Watch Unlocked on Netflix if you like:
Stolen Identity
Unfriended: Dark Web
You
MVP of Netflix’s Unlocked
Park Ho-San as Na-Mi’s Father.
While his character may not have had a great time, I enjoyed the father-daughter relationship between Park Ho-San’s character and Na-Mi. Their connection & chemistry lead to some of the more compelling scenes at the end of the film. Park Ho-San continues to perform well in Korean Netflix films as he is quite good in The Call and Night in Paradise.
PLAY, PAUSE, OR STOP?:
PAUSE.
While not a movie you will feel comfortable 2nd screening, the less compelling narrative & lead characters will make you think it’s worth the risk.
When you’re an actor married in real life to an actress, it only seems natural that you’d cast yourself opposite your wife in a rom-com that you’ve co-written and are directing. But that’s not what Dave Franco did for “Somebody I Used to Know.” In fact, he wasn’t in it at all — but he had a good reason.
The movie, now streaming on Prime Video, tells the story of Ally (Alison Brie), a very stressed TV producer, who suddenly finds herself out of a job and running to the comforts of her hometown. While there, she runs into her first love Sean (Jay Ellis) and starts to question how her life turned out after leaving him, and the person she has since become.
Franco, who is, of course, Brie’s actual husband, directs the film but admitted to TheWrap that there was never a point where he considered putting himself in Ellis’ role of the film’s leading man. But that’s mostly because he knows how hard it is to act and direct a project.
“I learned from the first movie I directed that it’s actually really nice to just be behind the camera,” Franco explained. “You know, there’s so much going on already. And so, if I didn’t have to be in a place where I needed to run back and forth from being in front of and behind the camera, like, I wanted to avoid that at all costs.”
That said, Franco also noted that he and Brie, who co-wrote the film with him, really felt like Jay Ellis was most appropriate for the character of Sean overall.
“On top of that, it’s like, there are so many great actors that you don’t need me,” Franco said. “It’s like, we can find someone else. And when Jay Ellis showed interest we were like yes, he’s better for this part than me anyway. And if we can get Jay, this is incredible.”
The thing is, Sean is now engaged to Cassidy (Kiersey Clemons), who reminds Ally an awful lot of her younger self. As a result, Ally is determined to figure out if Sean really was the man for her — albeit in morally questionable ways. But that moral gray area was the most important aspect of this love story for Brie and Franco, not just crafting any love story. And that’s why they were particularly deliberate in casting.
“It was about sending people the material, seeing if they connected with it,” Brie said. “And then really important to Dave and I to get in a meeting with them over Zoom — it was during COVID — and talk them through the tone of the movie, what we were going for, what the themes were that we were exploring, and kind of let them know.”
She continued, “Because on the page, I think you could take this movie a lot of ways, and we have some comedic set pieces in the film that might read more broadly than we play them in the movie. So it was like, it was all about us connecting with people and speaking to like the heart of the film, and everybody really connected with it. And we lucked out.”
You can watch TheWrap’s full interview with Dave Franco and Alison Brie in the video above. And the full movie is now streaming on Prime Video.
Two more senators are calling for restrictions on TikTok’s operations in the U.S., citing alleged risks to national security and consumer privacy presented by the Chinese-owned platform.
In the letter sent Thursday, U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) called on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which is currently investigating TikTok’s 2017 merger with Musical.ly, “to swiftly conclude its investigation and impose strict structural restrictions” between the platform and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance — including by “potentially separating” the two companies. The letter was addressed to U.S. Treasury Secretary and CFIUS chair Janet Yellen.
In the letter, Blumenthal and Moran cite a December disclosure by ByteDance — reported by The New York Times — that four of its employees obtained the data of several TikTok users, including two journalists, in an effort to locate the sources of suspected leaks to journalists of internal company conversations and documents.
Despite ByteDance’s assertion that it fired the employees involved, Blumenthal and Moran allege that the scheme was in fact perpetrated by a “formal ‘Internal Audit and Risk Control’ team” directed by senior executives, including TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew.
“The incident also occurred while TikTok’s executives had repeatedly promised that Americans’ personal data was secure against such spying,” the letter reads, citing testimony given by TikTok’s vp/head of public policy, Michael Beckerman, to the Senate Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Consumer Protection in October 2021.
The letter goes on to claim that TikTok company engineers “continue to have dangerous access to Americans’ personal data and control over its algorithmic recommendation systems, access that continues enable this spying on journalists.”
The senators cite several more reports to bolster their case, including a December article in The Wall Street Journal reporting that TikTok’s product development and management — including oversight of its algorithmic recommendation system — remains based in China. Another article published by Forbes in August, which reported that roughly 300 current employees at TikTok and ByteDance work or have worked for Chinese propaganda outlets including Xinhua News Agency and China Global Television, is also held up as evidence to support restrictions.
Elsewhere, Blumenthal and Moran cite an October investigation by Consumer Reportsthat found TikTok tracks Americans — including those who don’t use the platform — by embedding “a tracking technology” on partner websites. “While this collection effort is ostensibly an advertising effort by the company, the transmission to TikTok of non-user IP addresses, a unique ID number, and information about what an individual is doing on a site provides a deep understanding of those individuals’ interests, behaviors, and other sensitive matters,” the letter adds.
Despite TikTok’s assurance that it no longer censors videos critical of the Chinese government and other authoritarian regimes, the senators additionally allege that the platform “continues to opaquely demote or remove certain content, including blocking LGBTQ accounts.”
TikTok “is clearly, inextricably dependent on ByteDance for its operations,” the letter concludes, “and therefore beholden to the government of China.”
Thursday’s letter is just the latest in a string of recent condemnations of TikTok by U.S. lawmakers. In December, President Joe Biden signed a bill that prohibits use of the platform by nearly 4 million government employees on devices owned by its agencies, joining at least 27 state governments and several universities that have passed similar measures. The same month, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Flor.), Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) introduced a bill that would effectively ban TikTok and any other China-based social media platform from operating in the United States. And earlier this month, Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Col.), pushed Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores over national security concerns, claiming the Chinese Communist Party could “weaponize” the platform against the United States by forcing ByteDance to “surrender Americans’ sensitive data or manipulate the content Americans receive to advance China’s interests.”
These lawmakers clearly weren’t assuaged by TikTok’s announcement in June that it had started routing U.S. user data to Oracle cloud servers located in the U.S., instituted audits of its algorithms and established a new department to solely manage U.S. user data for the platform.
Concerns about TikTok have been prevalent in other corners of the West, most prominently in Europe. In January, Zi Chew met with European Union officials over concerns about child safety and data privacy, among other matters. On Friday, TikTok’s general manager of operations in Europe, Rich Waterworth, attempted to allay some of those concerns in a blog post where he noted that the company plans to establish two additional European data centers, citing a commitment “to keeping our European community and their data safe and secure.” He added that the company is “continuing to deliver against” a data governance strategy they set out for Europe last year, which includes plans to further reduce employee access to European data, minimize data flows outside Europe and store European user data locally.
Zi Chew is slated to appear before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on March 23, when he’s expected to comment on TikTok’s data security and user privacy policies, the app’s impact on children and ties with the Chinese Communist Party.
“The 1619 Project” adapts the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism of Nikole Hannah-Jones into a six-part series on Hulu. Filmmaker Roger Ross Williams teams with The New York Times and Oprah Winfrey to reexamine Black American history.
A list of the world’s top ten cheeses has sent the French into meltdown after not a single one of their offerings made the cut.
Earlier this week, the global food website Taste Atlas based in Bulgaria, claimed in fact Italy is home to eight of the most popular cheeses, according to their database of reviews.
Parmesan came in first place, with the website highlighting how the flavours can vary from ‘nutty to robust and slightly piquant’ depending on how much time it has had to mature.
Two other Italian varieties ranked highly, with burrata coming in second, followed by the hard cheese Grana Padano.
The only two cheeses originating from other countries to feature in the list were Portugal’s Serra da Estrela and Polish Bundz, which came in seventh and ninth place respectively. Both are made from sheep’s milk.
Eight of the ten best-rated cheeses in the world originated from Italy, according to Taste Atlas’ rankings
Taste Atlas then went on to share an extended top 100 list – with Reblochon being the first French cheese to appear in the 13th spot.
Comté – a semi-hard cheese which originates in eastern France – then came in 14th. In contrast, Camembert was ranked 88 out of 100.
However, the UK and US fared far worse in the rankings – with not a single one of the countries’ cheese making it into the top 100 on the website.
Unsurprisingly, the divisive list caused outrage on social media – which prompted the French news channel BFMTV to weigh in on the debate.
The hosts said the results were a ‘crushing blow for French gastronomy’ before adding: ‘The judges must have been Italian.’
Twitter users also argued that French cheeses should have ranked much higher.
One fumed: ‘I definitely don’t agree. Reblochon, the first French cheese? The person who did this list doesn’t know anything about French cheese.’
Parmesan came out top in Taste Atlas’ list of the top 10 best-rated cheeses in the world – prompting outrage on social media
Twitter users agreed that French cheeses should have featured higher on the list after the first one came in 13th place
Another user wrote: ‘An extremely stupid list, I’d say.’
Speaking to the Telegraph, cheesemaker Yves Jourquin argued that the Taste Atlas findings accurately reflected the popularity of Italian cheeses around the globe.
He explained: ‘The ruling makes sense because Parmesan remains one of the most emblematic cheeses and can be found on all tables in France whereas I’m not sure you’d find French cheese on Italian tables.’
What’s more, Clément Brossault – who works at Paris fromagerie Goncourt – said the French cheese industry relies less heavily on export as residents eat so much of their country’s own cheese.
He said: ‘We export 4,000 tons of Comté compared with 40,000 tons of Parmesan.’
Last year, Taste Atlas caused uproar when they placed the US ahead of France in a ranking of the world’s best cuisine.
In response to thousands of complaints, the website explained how they put together the rankings.
A representative said: ‘Throughout the year, people rate those foods (not cuisines).
‘At the end of the year, we take the average of the best-rated dishes in each kitchen (so that France is not brought down by frogs, for example). And that’s it.’
American wrestler Helen Maroulis and Chris Pratt posed together at the Cinema Vanguard Award Ceremony during the 38th Annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival at the Arlington Theatre.
It seems that Microsoft is dipping its toes into other fields with its AI technology, specifically the gaming kind if a new report is to be believed.
According to an unnamed source from Semafor (opens in new tab) and reported on by Neowin (opens in new tab), Microsoft may be planning on developing a new AI model with the task of allowing gamers to control their characters and tasks using natural language. This feature was reportedly showcased during an internal Microsoft meeting.
Apparently, this task has been more difficult than first planned as some sandbox tasks can be done in multiple ways and the AI model itself could even develop alternate methods to accomplish tasks in the game.
The Semafor article does state that Microsoft has no plans to add this AI control to any public builds of Minecraft, though AI researchers have used the game to test out their tech including OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT.
The possible pitfalls of AI in Minecraft
Though this report did state that Microsoft wouldn’t use its AI tech in a public version of Minecraft, the idea of this sort of AI demo isn’t unique either if this video later posted on Twitter by WalkingCat is accurate.
It certainly has some amazing applications, allowing players to instantly build beautiful structures and easily control their characters is an excellent accessibility option. But as that video points out, there could end up being coding issues which only those with experience debugging could fix.
There’s also plenty of room for misconduct, as players could summon inappropriate symbols, structures, or worse instantly, and an AI could be trained to harass other players as well. Hopefully, Microsoft continues to keep its research behind closed doors until these kinks are worked out.
Editor’s note:Deadline presents the 50th episode of its video series Take Two, in which Pete Hammond and Todd McCarthy tackle the artistry of films just opening in theaters every weekend. Each has reviewed and written about the craft for decades and built a remarkable breadth of knowledge of films past and present. What we hoped for when we asked them to do this was a concise, mature and thoughtful conversation comparable to what we saw from Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel.
With the Presidents Day holiday weekend upon us, we discuss the best political films of all time, from Citizen Kane to The Manchurian Candidate to Election to All the President’s Men and many more. We make reccomendations for your holiday viewing and talk about why these movies can change the world.
Click above to watch our conversation.
Hammond has been Deadline’s Awards Columnist for the past decade, covering what now seemingly is the year-round Oscar and Emmy seasons. He is also Deadline’s Chief Film Critic, having previously reviewed films for MovieLine, Boxoffice magazine, Backstage, Hollywood.com and Maxim, as well as Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide, for which he was a contributing editor. In addition to writing, Hammond also hosts KCET Cinema Series and the station’s weekly series Must See Movies.
McCarthy is a veteran trade publication film critic, columnist and reporter who has also written several acclaimed books and documentary films. He served two stints on the staffs of Variety and The Hollywood Reporter and extensively covered film festivals internationally for both publications. His film Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography won the best documentary prizes from the New York Film Critics and National Society of Film Critics associations, and he won an Emmy for writing the documentary Preston Sturges: The Rise and Fall of an American Dreamer. He also directed the documentaries Man of Cinema: Pierre Rissient and Forever Hollywood.
Solidarity with Ukraine has been a constant theme at the 2023 BerlinInternational Film Festival, but the issue came to the forefront Friday night at the world premiere of Sean Penn’s latest film Superpower, a documentary profile of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his wartime leadership.
Before the curtain came up at Berlin’s Verti Music Hall, where the premiere was held, Penn offered a personal introduction from the stage, thanking the film festival for hosting the premiere and “being so respectful of the Ukrainians, who are fighting a fight on all of our behalf.”
And when the credits rolled a little under two hours later, the Berlin crowd rose to its feet to give Penn and his collaborators a warm standing ovation.
Penn has said that he originally planned Superpower, which he co-directed with Aaron Kaufman, as a “whimsical tale of a comic actor turned president,” but the project changed radically after Russia’s Feb. 24, 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Portions of the film were shot both before and after the attack’s outset, offering a staggering depiction of the war’s toll on Ukraine. The film follows Penn as he travels to the front lines of the conflict to meet with soldiers and observe firsthand how the battle is being waged.
Penn revealed at the screening that he had returned just days prior from Ukraine, his sixth trip to the country. He said Superpower’s true world premiere was the one held for Zelensky and his staff earlier in the week.
In an earlier show of solidarity with the Ukrainian people, and a show of defiance against Russia, the Berlin festival invited the Ukraine President to open this year’s Berlinale with the live video message. The audience rose to their feet when Zelensky was introduced and applauded his speech throughout.
“Culture chooses a side when it decide to speak out against evil,” Zelensky said, “and it takes a side when it remains silent and in fact helps the evil.”
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year, Zelensky has been tireless in his use of media events to attract attention to his country’s cause and to drum up political and military support. In addition to speaking before Congress, the U.K. House of Parliament and Germany’s Bundestag, he has made numerous video appearances at major film festivals, including Cannes and Venice last year, and even sent a video message to the Grammys.
Eric (Jonathan Groff), Andrew (Ben Aldridge), and their daughter, Wen (Kristen Cui), head to a beautiful cabin in the countryside for a family vacation. The forest is beautiful, the cabin is cozy, the water’s great — oh, and they’re in the absolute middle of nowhere with no cell reception. What could go wrong, right?
When the hulking figure of Leonard (Dave Bautista) looms over Wen, it’s not long before she and her family are given a bleak choice: choose one of them to sacrifice, or the world will end.
A psychological thriller that makes you really question what you’d do in their shoes, Knock at the Cabin boasts emotive performances all around and a great debut from newcomer, Kristen Cui, as the small but determined Wen.
It’s unclear if Galifanakis will be voicing Stitch, portraying another alien, or if his role is an original character in the remake.
Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
The “Lilo & Stich” live-action remake is assembling its Ohana. Zach Galifankis has been cast in the upcoming Disney+ film, IndieWire has confirmed.
Details of Galifanakis’ character is being kept under wraps, so it’s unclear if the “Hangover” star will be playing a live-action character, or if he’s voicing a CGI character such as the lovable Stitch himself. Because the original animated film centered primarily on Native Hawaiian characters, Galifanakis will likely be playing either a new character for the film or one of the aliens in the cast, like Stitch, antagonist Captain Gantu, or a member of the iconic odd couple Jumba and Pleakly.
The beloved original animated film focuses on Lilo, a young girl struggling after the death of their parents. When she encounters Stitch, a bizarre dog-like creature created by an alien scientist to be the ultimate destructive force, Lilo adopts the stray and brings it into her home — inadvertently putting her and her sister Nani’s lives in jeopardy in the process. Directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, the film was positively received when it was first released in 2002, grossing $273.1 million worldwide and receiving an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature. Three direct-to-video sequels followed, along with a successful Disney Channel animated series.
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The film is set to be directed by Dean Fleischer Camp, a current Oscar nominee for last year’s “Marcel the Shell With Shoes On” animated feature. Chris Kekaniokalani Bright wrote the screenplay for the film, which is produced by Dan Lin and Jonathan Eirich of Rideback and produced by Ryan Halprin.
“Lilo & Stitch” is one of Galifianakis’ first live-action film projects in several years. After starring in “The Sunlit Night” and releasing a film version of his “Between Two Ferns” online talk show in 2019, the actor has mostly done voiceover roles on animated films like “Ron’s Gone Wrong” and “The Bob’s Burgers Movie.” Other upcoming projects from the comedian include “The Beanie Bubble” with Elizabeth Banks and the Reality Winner biopic “Winner.”
Galifianakis is repped by UTA, Brillstein Entertainment Partners, and Yorn Levine.
Disney+ has canceled the John Stamos-led sports comedy-drama Big Shot, as well as The Mighty Ducks: Changers, both after two seasons, sources confirm to Deadline.
Created by David E. Kelley, Dean Lorey and Brad Garrett, with Lorey serving as showrunner, Big Shot centered on Marvyn Korn (Stamos). After he is ousted from his position as head coach for an NCAA basketball team, he is given a chance at redemption with a coaching position at Westbrook, an elite private high school for girls, and soon learns that the teenage players require empathy and vulnerability – foreign concepts for the stoic Coach Korn.
The cancellation comes four months after the Season 2 launch.
Big Shot also starred Jessalyn Gilsig, Sophia Mitri Schloss, Nell Verlaque, Tiana Le, Tisha Custodio, Cricket Wampler, Echeagaray and Yvette Nicole Brown.
Kelley, Lorey, Garrett and Bill D’Elia exec produced. A Disney Branded Television series, Big Shot was produced by ABC Signature, part of Disney Television Studios.
Mighty Ducks: Game Changers starred Lauren Graham.
In Season 2, after winning back the Mighty Ducks team name last year, the squad-with-heart and their coach Alex Morrow (Graham) take to the road to attend an intense summer hockey institute in California run by charming yet hardcore former NHL player, Colin Cole (Josh Duhamel). It’s a place for kids to get excellent at hockey — without school to get in the way. As our Ducks try to survive in this super-competitive environment, they’re faced with the question: Can you win summer?
In addition to Graham and Duhamel, the series also starred Brady Noon, Maxwell Simkins, Swayam Bhatia, Luke Islam, Taegen Burns and De’Jon Watts.
Josh Goldsmith and Cathy Yuspa served as showrunners and executive producers. Additional executive producers included Steve Brill, Lauren Graham, George Heller, Brad Petrigala, Jordan Kerner and Jon Avnet.
This frontier town isn’t what it seems. Has the Walker: Independence TV show been cancelled or renewed for a second season on The CW? The television vulture is watching all the latest cancellation and renewal news, so this page is the place to track the status of Walker: Independence, season two. Bookmark it, or subscribe for the latest updates. Remember, the television vulture is watching your shows. Are you?
What’s This TV Show About?
Airing on The CW television network, the Walker: Independence TV show is a prequel to the Walker series. It stars Katherine McNamara, Matt Barr, Katie Findlay, Greg Hovanessian, Philemon Chambers, Justin Johnson Cortez, Lawrence Kao, and Gabriela Quezada. The story is set in the late 1800s and follows Abby Walker (McNamara), an affluent and tough-minded Bostonian whose husband is murdered before her eyes while on their journey out West. After crossing paths with Calian (Cortez), a curious Apache tracker, Abby arrives in the town of Independence, Texas. There, she encounters eclectic residents running from their pasts, chasing their dreams, and keeping their own secrets. Abby also literally runs into Hoyt Rawlins (Barr), a slippery rogue, thief, and con artist with a dented heart of gold who quickly eyes Abby as a mark — until she turns the tables on him. Abby and Hoyt soon find themselves precariously aligned, both seeking to uncover the truth about the identity of Abby’s husband’s killer. They also vow to save Independence, a frontier boomtown where nothing is what it seems.
Season One Ratings
The first season of Walker: Independence averages a 0.05 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 506,000 viewers in the live+same day ratings (including DVR playback through 3:00 AM). While these numbers don’t include further delayed or streaming viewing, they are a very good indicator of how a show is performing, especially when compared to others on the same channel. There can be other economic factors involved in a show’s fate, but typically the higher-rated series are renewed and the lower-rated ones are cancelled. Find out how Walker: Independence stacks up against other The CW TV shows.
O F F I C I A L S T A T U S
As of February 17, 2023, Walker: Independence has not been cancelled or renewed for a second season. Stay tuned for further updates.
Telly’s Take
Will The CW cancel or renew Walker: Independence for season two? Previously, the network was used to air Paramount and Warner Bros. series and didn’t focus on being profitable because the parent companies made money selling the shows internationally and via streaming. Now that the network is run by Nexstar, The CW is shifting toward using acquired and inexpensive original programming to fill the schedule. The goal is to focus on programming that attracts a broad demographic and I think this show fits the bill. It’s produced by CBS Studios (which is owned by Paramount Global, which owns 12.5% of the network), so I think it’s got a good chance of surviving. I’ll update this page with breaking developments. Subscribe for free alerts on Walker: Independence cancellation or renewal news.
Walker: Independence Cancellation & Renewal Related Links
What do you think? Do you hope that the Walker: Independence TV show will be renewed for a second season? How would you feel if The CW cancelled this TV series, instead?
Check out our CW status sheet to track the smallest network’s new series pickups, renewals, and cancellations. You can find lists of cancelled shows here.
He will present nine awards including the Gordon E. Sawyer Award, an Oscar statuette to lens innovator Iain Neil, during what will be the first in-person SciTech Awards ceremony since 2019.
Additionally, eight scientific and technical achievements represented by 19 individual award recipients will be honored. Among them are the CineTape distance measurement system and Preston Cinema Systems Light Ranger 2 for on-set use, as well as a couple render farm management systems used in postproduction.
Also during the ceremony, Ryan Laney will receive an award of commendation (special plaque) for his inventive use of AI-driven facial technology to give subjects a digital “disguise” to protect the identities while preserving their facial emotion in documentary filmmaking, as seen in 2020’s Welcome to Chechnya.
Liu starred in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the first Marvel movie to center on an Asian lead character. His upcoming projects include Barbie, with Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling.
The “Beautiful Trauma” singer received a star on the Walk of Fame on Feb. 5, with her husband, Carey Hart, and their two children, Willow and Jameson, by her side. “To have my whole family here, it’s incredible, it’s such an honor,” the pop star told ET. “I started looking down the list of the names… Julie Andrews, Lucille Ball. I’m next to The Rock and Jackie Chan. It’s amazing!”
Pink also delivered a heartwarming acceptance speech about always believing in yourself and never giving up. “Today, for me, is a celebration of something that my dad taught me, and that is, ‘To thine own self be true,'” she explained. “If you walk along this boulevard and you look at these names, there’s a power that lies in that. There’s a power in believing in yourself, there’s a power in not giving up on life and on not giving up on yourself. And there’s a power in making a decision that while you may not be the best that ever did it, you may not be the prettiest or the tallest or the funniest or the most talented, or whatever it is you tell yourself that you’re not, if you’re stubborn, and you don’t give up and you work really hard, no one else can ever be you.”
Films have always been the stuff of magic. They’re portals to whole new worlds. They’re a refuge from the world’s troubles. They’re the visible expression of the filmmaker’s soul, the manifestation of the crew’s loving craft.
Yes, films are all this and so much more. As the ideal amalgamation of art and science, films are capable of simultaneously unleashing and taming the awesome capacities of technology in breathtaking new ways.
The union of filmmaking and technology has perhaps never been more powerful or more important than it is today. Indeed, the ascendancy of digital technology is radically transforming all aspects of filmmaking, from how movies are made to how they are marketed to how they are experienced by audiences. This article examines the profound impact of digitalization on the film industry.
Slashing Costs and Streamlining Production
Advances in digital technologies are revolutionizing filmmaking across the entire project lifecycle, from production to editing to release. Not only are today’s digital cameras far less costly than traditional film, but they’re also lightyears ahead of them in functionality.
For example, digital cameras are now equipped with features that would have been prohibitively expensive, if not wholly unimaginable, just a few short years ago. Common capabilities include, for example, virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) and ultra-high resolution functions to create an immersive audience experience like no other.
But it’s not only in the quality of the production process that filmmakers are using digitalization to bring their craft to the next level. Digital technologies are also making it possible to condense post-production and editing processes.
Filmmakers can, for example, add special effects or correct errors in real-time, significantly reducing, if not entirely eliminating, post-production editing and the need for reshoots. This results in an accelerated time-to-release schedule and a substantial reduction in production costs.
Democratizing Filmmaking
The increasing affordability and availability of state-of-the-art digital filmmaking equipment don’t only mean more and better films made at a lower cost for the major studios. Perhaps even more importantly, it means significantly more access to the art by filmmakers without the immense resources of the production companies.
Indeed, digitalization may well prove to be the great equalizer in film, allowing voices that would once have been silenced due to lack of funding to be heard at last. And it’s not just the proliferation of affordable digital cameras that is ending the marginalization of independent filmmakers.
Other ubiquitous technologies, such as drones, are helping filmmakers achieve their artistic vision without paying a king’s ransom. This means that filmmakers, at last, produce a visually stunning product, even on a shoestring budget.
The Power of Streaming
In addition to streamlining production schedules and slashing costs, digitalization is also transforming how films are promoted and distributed.
The breathtaking popularity of social media has truly opened up the global market. This means that, through social media, filmmakers can promote their films to audiences literally around the world–and often at little or no cost. And this means that more of the marketing budget may be put toward production.
For instance, social media can be the ideal platform to release the film’s trailer, using a staggered strategy to truly prime the audience. Because most social media users visit their preferred platforms multiple times a day, staggering trailers enable filmmakers to generate buzz.
Rather than being consigned to purchasing advertising space through traditional channels, filmmakers can capitalize on the ongoing audience access enabled by social media. And this means they can use the best techniques of storytelling to hold the audience’s interest by sustaining and building the drama through staggered trailers.
Marketing is only one aspect of the role of social media in film’s digital revolution. Particularly in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, film distribution has increasingly shifted to online media.
Small studios and independent filmmakers are increasingly looking to digital platforms to sell their films to distributors and target audiences alike. The proliferation of high-quality content online promises to decrease the major studios’ chokehold on the industry and open the field to small independents.
At the same time, it significantly expands audience access as well. Those who might once have been excluded by a lack of physical access to a theater can now enjoy the magic of film from the comfort of home. And, in the process, audiences and filmmakers, now liberated from the intercession of the major studios, can build more engaged and more interactive relationships than ever before.
Conclusion
It has been said that the golden age of film passed more than half a century ago. However, digitalization may well usher in a new golden age. Through the advent of digital technologies, production has achieved a level of cinematic quality previously unimaginable. At the same time, production costs and times-to-release have been slashed. This has served to democratize filmmaking, opening the art to more small studios and independent filmmakers than ever before. Likewise, the rise of social media has transformed the ways that films are marketed and distributed, enabling filmmakers, at last, to reach a truly global audience.
Amanda Winstead is a writer from the Portland area with a background in communications and a passion for telling stories. Along with writing she enjoys traveling, reading, working out, and going to concerts. If you want to follow her writing journey, or even just say hi you can find her on Twitter.
He says the staffing shortages are the result of Halifax Transit fostering an environment where people don’t want to work.
“Every division at transit is short-staffed. The maintenance department, the ferry division, they’re all short-staffed.”
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According to O’Leary, one of the reasons the three bus routes has to be cut is because the limited bus staff is being overworked.
“From years back, the transportation was very good,” says frequent bus user Sudheer Mamidi. “Now, because of so many buses being increased, cutting the routes…I have to change three buses.”
Addressing the route changes, Halifax Transit said in a statement from last month, “this service reduction will be in place until late summer 2023, and if recruitment continues at the current pace, Halifax Transit is planning to return to regular service levels by that time.”
However, O’Leary says recruitment efforts are hindered by the lack of retention.
“When somebody comes out of training and they find out they’re working 60 hours a week and they’re not getting their days off, they can’t get vacations when they need them, they can’t get time off for doctors appointments…that’s too much.”
Attrition is higher than the hiring that’s happening.
“I do not think that in the next year that they’ll have the work back to the way it was,” says O’Leary. “I don’t think that they’ll be able to hire and retain employees to bring the service back up to where it needs to be.”
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Hi there, From Sept. to Dec. 2022, we recruited & trained 35 new Bus Operators. As of Jan. 2023, we have also begun hosting new training courses every 3 weeks. If recruitment continues at the current pace, we plan to return to regular service levels by late summer 2023.
He goes on to say that Halifax Transit would be lucky to retain half of the 35 new hires trained since September — as 12 members have already left since the new year.
“Nova Scotia is one of the fastest growing provinces in the country, there should be a line up of people wanting to work here,” O’Leary says. “It should be a worthwhile place to work. Halifax Transit is not the employer of choice at this moment.”
O’Leary says a safe, good working environment with a livable wage will be necessary to see retention of employees resume.
Halifax Transit refused an interview request before deadline.
“Party Down,” which aired the last episode of its first run in 2010, was a small miracle twice over. First, the show was endlessly inventive in finding new ways to reveal the truths of its characters, the entertainment-industry-adjacent-but-not-adjacent-enough members of a Los Angeles catering crew, through the different events they worked. And then, it ended perfectly, with burnout Henry (Adam Scott) making a first, tenuous step back towards the acting career he’d abandoned, encouraged by Casey (Lizzy Caplan), every bit as lost as he but unwilling to give up.
Thirteen years later, a show about the impossibility of understanding how Hollywood works returns, buoyed by suitably unpredictable trends — among them, the fervor for reboots and the emergence of this show’s low-key leading man as a major television star. But it’s lost a step. “Party Down” version 2.0 is, necessarily, a sadder affair: In order for its story to work, the characters have to be where we left them, which is not what almost any of them wanted. But it comes to feel dour, tonally unbalanced — a party one cannot wait to leave.
Let’s start with what seems the original sin of this version of “Party Down” — the absence of Casey. From “The Conners” to “And Just Like That,” a reboot missing some seemingly crucial character is nothing new, and (at least in the case of “Sex and the City” without Samantha) can generate new insight and a sense of loss. Here, Casey is unable to rejoin her old team because she’s now a major celebrity, which, first, deprives the show of its most reasonable cast member, the one who cut through even Henry’s vanities. It also, in being mentioned once and then never again, contributes to the ambient bad mood of the project. Her success is just the millionth indignity about which Henry can grumble.
He’s certainly been through it. We learn that the intriguingly unresolved ending of “Party Down” in 2010 — with Henry putting himself out there and trying to audition — was met with endless rejection. Henry is no longer even considering pursuing acting. And over the early going of these six episodes, Henry goes from guest at a Party Down team reunion to caterer once more after various misfortunes require him to pull together some cash. In one scene, he weeps over the degradation he has been through — how very far he feels from what, decades before, had been his aspirations — and though the scene ends with a sly reversal, a revelation that Henry’s kind of kidding around, the impression sticks.
Which is not, in and of itself, disqualifying by any means. The subject of failure is a rich one — it’s one the original “Party Down” toyed with like a loose tooth, and that this new series pokes at like an abscess. Indeed, the element of this show that most consistently works is Henry’s relationship with a movie producer and onetime catering client, played by Jennifer Garner. Granted, the always-on Garner playing a woman who urgently wants to be laid-back and fun seems in moments a bit too appropriately cast. But the oddity of the pairing, and especially Garner’s character’s attempts to engineer a late career revival for the never-was Henry, have an odd poignancy — a fantasy that both are living out in order to blot out the rest of their lives.
We get less complete pictures of the rest of the returning cast, save for Ken Marino’s Ron Donald, the crew captain whose desperately sunny hopefulness is once again a counterpoint to Henry’s glumness. Jane Lynch and Megan Mullally are occasional presences, while Martin Starr and Ryan Hansen, both playing colleagues of Henry’s, are a decade-plus older but otherwise unaltered, so much so that the show finds it has little to say about them. Two new cast additions, played by Tyrel Jackson Williams and Zoë Chao, aren’t given enough material to make much of an impression; the former is constantly asked to be live-streaming or recording for TikTok in a way that feels like a grasp at relevance for a show that’s otherwise reliving 2010. One senses the show trying for a parallel — this new generation of caterers has a set of ambitions all their own — but the older generation (really, Henry and Ron) remain too much at the center of things to allow them space.
Indeed, much of what plays out on this season of “Party Down” feels like restaging a play that had met great acclaim years before: The dynamics between the cast are the same, and so is Ron’s hapless optimism, as well as his ability to ruin relationships with clients. There’s even an episode in which the team caters a meeting of a far-right political organization — something they did the first time out.
Of course, back then it was a group of campus Republicans, and today it’s a group of neo-Nazis; everything has a tendency to keep getting worse. Ron goes through many of the same beats he did in round one — facing degradation, including financial problems and physical harm, as he waits for things to turn lucky. But his endless aspiration to make a better company has been rebuked, as were Henry’s tentative steps out of himself. Here’s where one misses Casey, who had the mordant ability to diagnose everyone else’s damage and the fight to make sure that her own damage didn’t define her.
Without an element like that, it’s easy for a show like “Party Down” to become a collection of small miseries, a cascade of misfortunes with no throughline but the people whom they’re befalling. And of those people, only Henry really pops this time. The first iteration of this show chronicled the painstaking journey up and out of a rut; it feels bizarre that it was revived only to show us, well, a trajectory headed “Down.”
“Party Down” will premiere on Friday, February 24 at midnight on the Starz app and on streaming and on the linear Starz channel at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
“Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane is developing a television adaptation of the seven-book graphic novel series “The Shrouded College” for Peacock.
MacFarlane’s Fuzzy Door production company and UCP, a division of Universal Studio Group, acquired the rights for “The Shrouded College” from authors Charles Soule and Will Sliney. USG’s Creative Acquisitions and IP Management team, led by Jordan Moblo, alongside Fuzzy Door president Erica Huggins, were instrumental in securing the rights.
“The Shrouded College” series tells the stories of various characters enlisted to become secret agents fighting a supernatural cold war on the side of the Shrouded College, a down-and-out organization on the edge of destruction.
The show will be executive produced by Soule and Sliney alongside MacFarlane, Huggins, and Rachel Hargreaves-Heald for Fuzzy Door.
The first graphic novel in “The Shrouded College” universe, “Hell to Pay,” commenced publication from Image Comics in November 2022. The second installment in the franchise, “The Bloody Dozen,” is releasing later this year.
Soule, a New York Times best-selling novelist, comic book writer, musician and former attorney, has authored some of the most prominent comic stories of the last decade for Marvel, DC and Lucasfilm, including a groundbreaking run on “Daredevil,” the mega-bestsellers “Death of Wolverine” and “Darth Vader,” and a run on “She-Hulk “that served as inspiration for the Disney+ television show. In addition, he works as a Creative Consultant for Lucasfilm Ltd. within the Star Wars universe, and is the writer of the acclaimed creator-owned comic series“Eight Billion Genies,” “Undiscovered Country,” “Letter 44” and “Curse Words.”
Sliney, an award-winning comic book artist and presenter, has drawn many of the most prominent characters in comics, including best-selling runs on Star Wars and Spider-Man, with over one hundred issues drawn for Marvel Comics. He has also produced and starred in the TV series “Draw With Will” (Sky Kids) and “Will Sliney’s Storytellers” (RTE), and is the co-founder of Pioneertown Productions.
“The Shrouded College” is MacFarlane and Fuzzy Door’s latest project under a multiyear television deal with Universal Studio Group.
Fuzzy Door recently premiered Peacock’s disaster series “The End Is Nye”, hosted by Emmy Award winner and renowned science educator Bill Nye, and is producing TV adaptations of the celebrated novel “All Our Wrong Todays” and the dystopian sci-fi short film “Skywatch”. Additionally, MacFarlane is expanding the iconic “Ted” franchise into a television series for Peacock. “Ted,” “Ted 2” and “A Million Ways to Die in The West,” have collectively grossed more than $800 million at the worldwide box office.
In addition to “Family Guy,” Fuzzy Door’s television production slate includes the Emmy-nominated Hulu space adventure series “The Orville” and the animated series “American Dad!” Building on the legacy of the beloved 1980’s documentary series “Cosmos”, Fuzzy Door also produced the Peabody award-winning “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey,” which garnered 13 Emmy nominations and became a global event seen by more than 135 million people, and the recent critically acclaimed installment “Cosmos: Possible Worlds”.
Other Fuzzy Door projects include a new animated take on Norman Lear’s classic sitcom, “Good Times,” for Netflix, a limited series based on “The Winds of War” and a feature film reboots of “Revenge of The Nerds” for 20th Century Studios and “The Naked Gun” for Paramount Pictures.
Soule and Sliney are repped by Angela Cheng Caplan of Cheng Caplan Company and Eric Feig of Feig Finkel. Fuzzy Door is repped by WME and Jackoway Austen.
Stella Stevens, who starred in the 1972 disaster film “Poseidon Adventure” and in films opposite Elvis Presley and Dean Martin, died Friday at the age of 84.
Her son, actor Andrew Stevens, confirmed her passing to TheWrap via email, “I was notified early this morning. Stella had been in hospice for quite some time with stage seven Alzheimer’s.”
Maria Calabrese, founder of Green Life Media and Stevens’ manager and friend said in a statement, “It was an honor and a privilege to have worked with Stella, who was one of the most wonderful and gifted people I have ever met. While I truly wish I could have done more for her toward the latter years of her career, and shared in her frustration as she so wanted to make the leap from a triple threat American icon to producer – her wish, never realized was to have three original western scripts produced.”
“She was an amazing animal lover, horse wrangler, rock and roller, so ahead of her time and so much more than a sex symbol – which her adoring fans admired, respected and understood. What a tremendous body of work and loss. The OG of badass woman,” Calabrese wrote.
She is survived by her only son Andrew and three grandchildren Amelia and Aubrey Stevens, both age, 20 and Samuel Stevens, age 25.
EXCLUSIVE: Ayesha Harris (Daisy Jones & The Six) has signed on to star alongside Rainn Wilson, Lil Rel Howery and more in the forthcoming buddy action-comedy Code 3, helmed by Christopher Leone.
The film from Wayfarer Studios and Circle of Confusion, which we were first to report on, follows a day-in-the-life of two overworked, underpaid and nearly burnt-out paramedics. One EMT is so burnt-out by the job that he is forcing himself to resign, though he first must embark on one last 24-hour shift to train his replacement. Everything that could happen on the job, from the mundane to the extreme, then happens on this final, exhilarating day.
Harris will play Kim, a paramedic who, from time to time, works with Randy (Wilson) and Mike (Howery). Other set for the pic, as previously announced, include Aimee Carrero, Yvette Nicole Brown, Page Kennedy and Cameron Fuller.
Former paramedic Patrick Pianezza wrote the script with Leone, with Wayfarer Studios financing the project and tapping Angela Cardon to oversee it. Producers are Justin Baldoni and Andrew Calof for Wayfarer, Lawrence Mattis of Circle of Confusion, Matt Smith of Electro Corduroy Entertainment, and Paul “Pizza” Pianezza of Realdream. Steve Sarowitz is exec producing for Wayfarer, alongside Michael D. Jones for Silver Hearts Productions, with Megan Herring co-producing for Circle of Confusion.
Harris recently appeared in the Samuel Goldwyn Films anthology Tell It Like a Woman, which landed Diane Warren her 14th Academy Award nom for Best Original Song. She’s also been seen on series including This Is Us, Abbott Elementary, The L Word: Generation Q and Good Girls, and will next appear in the Prime Video miniseries Daisy Jones & The Six, led by Riley Keough.
Harris is repped by Mrk Mgmt and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman.
The Cannes Market, which runs along with the Cannes Film Festival got washed out this year owing to Coronavirus pandemic. Now, in a virtual form, it is screening some of the movies that were selected and tagged at Cannes 2020. Magnus von Horn’s second Sweat (which premiered on Tuesday) is his second film to feature at the film festival. The Here After was his first film that played at the Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight in 2015.
Talking of Sweat, the film is an apt portrait of today’s young people who are most comfortable conversing with friends and others over the phone or the internet and shun face to face meetings. In the film, Horn’s protagonist is a Polish fitness instructor – or call her if you may a mood elevator – Sylwia Zajac (Magdalena Koleśnik). She is about 30, lives in Warsaw and has gained enormous celebrity status through her 60,0000 Instagram followers. She invariably talks about herself, and the film traces her life over three days. And many things happen then.
Self-made, and with a figure that her followers die to have, Sylwia, despite her admirers on the net, is lonely. This reminded me of a Naseeruddin Shah movie, called Waiting. His wife is in a coma and has been in the hospital for a long time. And Kalki Koechlin’s character walks into the hospital, her husband having met with an accident. When Kalki’s Tara talks to Shiv Natraj (Shah) about her hundreds of Facebook friends, he asks her why not one of them is there to console her! Similarly, Sylwia realises in the end that she is alone, and this is perhaps what they mean when they say that it is lonely at the top.
But Sylwia is also guilty for her state of affairs. A chance encounter with an old school friend makes her squirm with discomfort. When the friend shares a sad event in her life, Sylwia, who is bristling with radiant energy and full of smiles on camera for her Instagram posts, seems cold and soulless! Later, at a family dinner, she is only happy when the conversation centres on her. The moment it veers away from her, she is unhappy. Life for her is all about herself and her virtual fans.
Sylwia’s life, however, does take a turn when she confronts a stalker, who waits in his car outside her house. And when he is beaten up, Sylwia is upset and takes him to hospital. Something, somewhere begins to connect her to the real world.
Sweat is beautifully textured and conveys the angst of modern living that has become so impersonal. Koleśnik captures this with both joy and sorrow; her fitness lessons on the net are vibrant and she comes off as vivacious. As we go through the 104-minute film, we realise that Sylwia loves the camera, and her hundreds of followers who adore her.
Horn said in a Press note that “emotional exhibitionists fascinate me, probably because I am on the opposite side of that spectrum; I keep my emotions on the inside and rarely share them because I fear being judged. So when I meet people who effortlessly and without shame express themselves I feel envy. On social media I am a passive observer. I observe those who are active, who expose themselves and their feelings. How much is truth? I fantasise about their real lives. What are they like when their cell phone is sleeping? Is there a difference? I started following a fitness motivator and influencer. The amount of photos and videos she posted each day amazed me. Everything from driving home from work, talking about a headache, emotional problems, what to eat for dinner, taking photos of her body, opening gift bags and letting the camera together with all her followers discover what’s inside. She has 600000 followers on Instagram, has been on the cover of bodybuilding magazines and has released a couple of work-out DVDs. Posting and sharing her private life is her job. She is self employed and her product is her body. But who is she the moment before she starts recording herself? Is there a big difference between her on- line and off-line persona?”
He adds: “For me it is about finding enough inspiration to want to write about someone. In the case of my previous work, The Here After, it was a court case about a teenager who had killed his girlfriend. It gave me a unique insight into a boy’s life. That made me want to write about him. In this case, social media has given me that opening. I want to take a closer look and use my own imagination to fill in the gaps. Sylwia is an extremely contemporary character. She is a pragmatic business woman as well as an inspiration to people who want a healthy lifestyle. She is an ambassador for feeling comfortable in your body and being proud of who you are. Accept yourself, she says, but what happens when she has problems accepting herself? When her stalker, Rysiek, enters her life she starts doubting herself, because, in many ways, he’s similar to her”.
Horn leaves us with an open-ended work. Will she or will she not change?
Rating: 4/5
(Author, commentator and movie critic Gautaman Bhaskaran has covered the Cannes Film Festival close to three decades)
Genre-blending in films is nothing new, and in the era of horror comedies and superhero dramas, it is gaining momentum at lightning speed. Enter: The Civil Dead. Made on a meager budget of 30,000 dollars, it’s a pandemic pet project that accomplishes something many bigger-budget indies these days lack. It’s got heart, a good number of laughs, and tells the story of a conflict between two old friends that is… complicated. And that’s an understatement.
The film was written by Los Angeles-based comedian Clay Tatum, who commissioned the help of real-life bestie Whitmer Thomas to take on a co-starring role. The two play characters who share their real first names, and the film follows a simple yet expertly unnerving premise: One day, Clay is surprised to run into Whit – an old friend with whom he has lost touch. As the two are catching up, Whit makes a bizarre revelation: he is actually dead, and Clay is the only one who can see him. Yikes.
It’s a comedy through and through, but moments of drama pierce the film’s silly overlay and hint at something a bit darker. What would it be like to be dead and have only one person who can see you? Conversely, what if you were the only person who could see your dead friend? Talk about pressure. That ante is upped measurably when Clay – searching for an answer to his little problem – learns a girl who suffered his same fate wound up, shall we say, “unaliving” herself. Double yikes.
The Civil Dead takes a somewhat overdone ghostly trope and puts it in a sillier light. Still, the premise is unsettling enough to keep you feeling uneasy. Thomas and Tatum have undeniable chemistry which makes the flick that much more watchable. And the ending, which I won’t spoil, is one that will keep you pondering long after it’s over.
The long awaited second season of the Fantasy Netflix series “Shadow and Bone” starring Jessie Mei Li and Ben Barnes, is almost upon us, returning with a brand new adventure for us to dive into.
Season 1 saw of “Shadow and Bone” premiered in 2021, the series is based on Leigh Bardugo’s bestselling Grishaverse novels. In a world where dark forces have taken over, young mapmaker, Alina Starkov, accidentally discovered that she had the power to change the fate of the war. She is the only one who had the power to summon light and this made her play a key role in this war. Alina is thrust into magical training and tasked with destroying
Courtesy of Netflix
the Shadow Fold — a region of darkness that splits the country of Ravka and is home to deadly monsters. While she was not able to take down the Fold, Alina and her friends do manage to escape its perils and defeat The Darkling, or so they thought. The final scene shows Barnes’ character emerging from the Fold stronger than ever and with an army of monsters in his command.
The show stars Jessie Mei Li as Alina Starkov, an orphan and former assistant cartographer of the Royal Corps of Surveyors in the First Army. She discovers she is the Sun Summoner, a rare Grisha with the ability to control light. Kaylan Teague as Young Alina. Archie Renaux as Malyen “Mal” Oretsev, an orphan tracker in the First Army and Alina’s childhood best friend. Cody Molko as Young Mal. Freddy Carter as Kaz Brekker, leader of the Crows, known as Dirtyhands and the Bastard of the Barrel. Amita Suman as Inej Ghafa, member of the Crows, known as the Wraith. Kit Young as Jesper Fahey, member of the Crows, a skilled sharpshooter Ben Barnes as General Aleksander Kirigan / The Darkling, general of the Second Army and the Shadow Summoner
Watch the trailer for season 2 here:
In season 2 Alina Starkov is on the run. A beacon of hope to some and a suspected traitor to others, she’s determined to bring down the Shadow Fold and save Ravka from ruin. But General Kirigan has returned to finish what he started. Backed by a terrifying new army of seemingly indestructible shadow monsters and fearsome new Grisha recruits, Kirigan is more dangerous than ever. To stand a fighting chance against him, Alina and Mal rally their own powerful new allies and begin a continent-spanning journey to find two mythical creatures that will amplify her powers.
Courtesy of Netflix
Back in Ketterdam, the Crows must forge new alliances as they contend with old rivals and even older grudges that threaten not only their place in the Barrel, but their very lives. When a chance at a deadly heist comes their way, the Crows will once again find themselves on a collision course with the legendary Sun Summoner.
“The most wonderful thing about Season 2 is that we get to advance the story of these characters that we’d left in precarious positions at the end of Season 1. There’s a lot of potential for them this season.” Said showrunner Eric Heisserer to Netflix’s Tudum.
Season 2 will see some new faces on the cast. Lewis Tan will be playing Tolya Yul-Bataar, actress Anna Leong Brophy has been cast as Tamar Kir-Bataar, Irish actor Patrick Gibson will take on the character Nikolai Lantsov and Jack Wolfe is the sixth and final member of The Crows, Wylan Hendriks.
Shadow and Bone returns for a second season of new friendships, new romance, bigger battles, epic adventures — and a shocking family secret that could shatter everything.
The show is written and executive produced by Eric Heisserer and will premiere on Netflix on March 16th.
The limited series category is saying goodbye to Tanya and Co. at the 2023 Emmy Awards. The TV Academy is no longer allowing HBO’s “The White Lotus” in the limited/anthology category and Variety has confirmed that the series will likely move to the drama category, but a final decision has not yet been made.
Season 1, starring Jennifer Coolidge, Murray Bartlett, Connie Britton and Sydney Sweeney, earned 10 Emmy Awards. The second season brought back Coolidge as her Season 1 character — new cast members included Aubrey Plaza, Meghann Fahy, Theo James and Michael Imperioli.
In 2021, the Television Academy defined what a limited or anthology series is, explaining that the story must be resolved within its season, with no ongoing storylines allowed.
However, with Jennifer Coolidge’s character being the only one returning for Season 2, the organization ruled that “the reappearance in a subsequent ‘season’ of one character from a large ensemble does not prohibit eligibility based on Academy’s main criteria for limited series.” Among the awards, both Coolidge and Bartlett took home the solo acting Emmys, and the Mike White show took home best limited/anthology series.
That has since changed. “The White Lotus” has already been renewed for a third season, and while Tanya will not be back (spoiler alert!), the TV Academy has made up its mind, and the show must move to a new category. The show moved from limited to drama at both the SAG Awards and the Critics Choice Awards, and at Critics Choice, Coolidge won for both seasons. It remained in limited at the Golden Globes for both seasons.
The drama category will likely be filled with heavy hitters, with former winner “Succession” back in the race. Other top contenders this year include “Better Call Saul,” “The Crown,” “The Last of Us” and “House of the Dragon,” among others.
We are joined this week by a multi-time guest on this show, Kristen Baldwin, a TV Critic at EW.com. So much to talk about with Kristen as she recently got to interview Zach through EW when he attended the SCAD TV Fest in Atlanta last week. We get an answer to an age old question when it comes to this show which is, “Hey, when someone asks if they can steal you, why the hell don’t you say anything?” Zach actually answered the question. We’ve all kinda known what the answer has been over the years, but to hear a lead basically admit it was quite refreshing. So look forward to that. We also talk about her impressions of Zach now that we’re 4 episodes in, the anticipation of the Zoom rose ceremony next week, the contract contestants sign, and of course we also talk about other shows she’s watching, and end it with “Cobra Kai” talk, which has become somewhat of a tradition when Kristen comes on. As always, if you’d like to respond to the interview, please include Kristen’s Twitter handle (@KristenGBaldwin) in your replies.
You can listen to today’s podcast on a number of platforms, but you can also tune in by clicking the player below:
(SPOILERS) I begin by briefly talking about “Coming Out For Love,” & the Masked Singer premiere. Then Kristen joins me (11:34) to talk about EW.com interviewing Zach at the SCAD TV Fest last week, her impressions of Zach this season, the contract the contestants sign, new shows to watch on network and streaming, & of course ending with “Cobra Kai” talk.
(SPOILERS) Today’s Daily Roundup covers misinformation in Bachelor Nation, dumb rumors, The Challenge finale duped me, and Special Forces nears its end.
You can listen to that podcast on a number of platforms, but you can also tune in here:
Joanna Lumley, the BAFTA-winning British actress, has said that women would lose out if award ceremonies switched to gender-neutral prizes.
The Absolutely Fabulous and Paddington performer said she was unsure about the drift away from segregating awards on the basis of gender, saying it was “a bit weird.”
Ceremonies including the Brit awards have embraced gender-neutral categories, while BAFTA has said it is actively considering the issue. Emma Corrin, who identifies as non-binary, is a vocal supporter.
Lumley is less sweet on the idea, telling TalkTV: “I know that if my name was just put up as best actor against lots of men, I wouldn’t have a chance. But as best actress, you might.”
The Brits was criticized this year after its award for artist of the year featured an all-male list of nominees, including Stormzy and Harry Styles.
Others in the industry think the gender-neutral move is inevitable. Sam Mendes told the BBC earlier this year: “I have total sympathy with it, yeah, and I think it might well be inevitable in the end … I think that’s the way it’s moving and I think that it’s perfectly reasonable.”
Lumley said she was uncertain about awards altogether. She said: “When I read about the Oscars, and I realized that to get even onto a list to be part of the shortlist, you have to go around lobbying people and promising things, and having lunch. These are the stars who are up for it. You have to go, as it were, tarting around to get people in favor, I’m not sure about it.
X-Men: The Animated Series | Unofficial Official Trailer | Disney+
Stars: Norm Spencer, Cathal J. Dodd, Lenore Zann, George Buza, Alyson Court, Cedric Smith
Number of seasons: 5
X-Men: The Animated Seriesfeatures mutants like Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm, Beast, Professor X, Rogue, Gambit, and Jubilee, with each season following everything from Jean Grey’s transformation into Phoenix to Magneto’s attempt to start a human-mutant war. Italsoremains one of the best animated adaptations, along with X-Men: Evolutions, which is available to stream as well. And thankfully, a continuation of the original, titled X-Men ‘97, is set to arrive on Disney+ this fall.
Our appetite for post-apocalyptic narratives is seemingly insatiable. Whether it’s current sensation The Last of Us or a classic like The Omega Man, we’re drawn to stories of survival in the midst of a crumbling world. We’re still relatively fresh off our own miserable experience beginning in 2020, but there’s still no sign of slowing down when it comes to these spectacles of misery. Writer/director James Morrison’s Diverge is an indie exploration of a post-apocalypse that should impress fans of this genre.
The early segments of the film immediately bring to mind The Road as Chris (Ivan Sandomire), an unkempt young man, is crossing a desert landscape outside of New York in hopes of caring for his sick wife, Anna (Erin Cunningham). She has contracted the same illness that destroyed the world they once knew. The notion that the pathogen originated in China makes the filmmaker seem in possession of an inordinate sense of premonition, but the similarities end there. Our time with Chris and Anna in this hellscape is short-lived as she succumbs to the illness early on, but not before the two of them are visited by a strange figure claiming to have a solution.
“…an unkempt young man is crossing a desert landscape outside of New York in hopes of caring for his sick wife…”
It turns out that this figure, Leader (Jamie Jackson), is a brilliant physicist who has come to the future from the past. At this point, the plot turns into a time-hopping journey into the past, with Chris working to prevent his past self from making the same decisions that led to the current moment. But as is always the case in narratives like this, things get messy when it comes to interfering with the past and changing the course of history, or the future, in this case. Will Chris and Leader succeed in their efforts? Or is the future already predetermined for us, no matter how we try to rejigger it?
For better or worse, I’m partial to these dizzying stories of time travel and the ramifications therein. Morrison packs enough twists and surprises to keep us engaged while he takes us through the nutty world of endless possibilities. That’s not to say that this hasn’t been done before, but this is honestly preferable to something like Shane Carruth’s Primer, which goes so far down the rabbit hole of possibilities that all but the most obsessive viewers inevitably zone out. This isn’t the case with Diverge, as Morrison keeps the story grounded in the strong relationships at its center.
One’s mileage may vary with the narrative subplots around the pathogen and the comically evil pharmaceutical company (named Tyrell). But these are stand-ins that simply provide a reason for the chronologically inventive framework at play. The atmosphere early in the film, as Chris and Anna explore the wasteland, is memorable. Admittedly, I missed this slower pace once the narrative goes all-in on the time-traveling. Morrison, though, wisely prevents the film from getting too bonkers. Diverge is fun, engaging, and a refreshing reminder that sci-fi films don’t need a substantial budget to look polished or to peak one’s interest.
SOFIA, Bulgaria — Police in Bulgaria on Friday discovered an abandoned truck containing the bodies of 18 migrants, who appeared to have suffocated to death.
The Interior Ministry said that according to initial information, the truck was carrying about 40 migrants and the survivors were taken to nearby hospitals for emergency treatment.
Bulgarian Health Minister Assen Medzhidiev said most of the survivors were in very bad condition.
“They have suffered from lack of oxygen, their clothes are wet, they are freezing, and obviously haven’t eaten for days,” Medzhidiev said.
The truck was found abandoned along a highway near the capital, Sofia. The driver was not there, but police discovered the passengers in a secret compartment below a load of timber.
Authorities did not immediately give the nationalities of the migrants. Bulgarian media reported they all were from Afghanistan.
In October 2019, British police found the bodies of 39 people inside a refrigerated container that had been hauled to England. Police said all the victims, who ranged in age from 15 to 44, came from impoverished villages in Vietnam and were believed to have paid smugglers to take them on a risky journey to better lives abroad.
Police said they died of a combination of a lack of oxygen and overheating in an enclosed space. The truck discovered in the town of Grays, east of London, had arrived in England on a ferry from Zeebrugge in Belgium.
EXCLUSIVE: Wild Bunch International has made an eleventh-hour addition to its European Film Market slate, signing international sales on Swedish Morbius director Daniel Espinosa’s upcoming drama Madame Luna.
Inspired by real-life events, the film follows an Eritrean refugee who gets stuck in Libya and becomes a notorious human trafficker known as “Mama Luna” with deep ties to the Italian Mafia.
When she is forced to flee to Italy due to a change in fortunes, she experiences the same hardships endured by the people she exploited.
Desperate to find a way out of the situation before she is recognized and brought to justice, she forms a bond with a younger version of herself.
The film was shot in Sicily and Calabria last August and September and is now in post-production.
WBI has teased a first image of newcomers Meninet Abraha and Hilyam Weldemichael, who are both of Eritrean origin, in the roles of Madame Luna and the younger woman respectively.
Further cast members include Claudia Potenza (Mountain) and Emanuele Vicorito (Gomorrah).
Based on a story by Binyam Berhane, the screenplay is written by Italian screenwriter Maurizio Braucci (Gomorrah, Pasolini and Martin Eden) and Palestinian writer and director Suha Arraf, who is best known internationally for her Ramallah-set drama Villa Touma.
The film follows Chilean-born Espinosa’s U.S. studio pictures Safe House, Life and Morbius and marks his first major independently backed film in more than a decade.
The Swedish-Italian co-production is lead produced by David Olivier Herdies (Dogborn, Transnistra, Amparo) at Stockholm-based Momento Film with Marco Alessi (Atlantide) and Massimiliano Navarra (The Tale Of King Crab) at Rome-based Dugong Films.
Created in 2011 by Herdies, leading Swedish indie Momento Film has made waves on the festival circuit in recent years with Anna Eborn’s 2018 doc Transnistra; Henrik S. Burman’s 2020 Swedish rap star portrait Yung Lean: In My Head and Colombian director Simon Mesa Soto’s Cannes Critics’ Week 2021 breakout Amparo.
The production has the backing of Greek ship owner and businessman Paris Kassidokostas-Latsis’s Luxembourg-based Hercules Film Fund.
Kassidokostas-Latsis is producing along with Terry Dougas. Rhea Films’s Jean-Luc de Fanti and Binyam Berhane are Executive Producers.
Launched by Kassidokostas-Latsis in 2015, Hercules and Los Angeles-Based Rhea Films have jointly financed and produced a slew of U.S. pictures over the last eight years including Doug Liman’s American Made, the Safdie Brothers’ Good Time, Paul Feig’s A Simple Favor, Brie Larson’s Unicorn, Grant Sputore’s I Am Mother and Halle Berry’s Bruised.
Further key backers are West Sweden’s regional fund Film I Vast and the Swedish Film Institute. The production was also supported by the Calabria Film Commission and Sicilia Film Commission.
Lionsgate’s Starz and Amazon’s MGM+ are joining forces through a new 20% discounted bundle offer for Prime members in the U.S., in the hopes of seeing a bump in subs.
The bundle arrangement is part of a new long-term deal between Starz and Amazon. The MGM+/Starz bundle on Prime Video in the U.S. will launch “in the coming weeks,” priced at $11.99 per month, according to Starz. That’s a 20% discount off the combined price of both standalone subscriptions (Starz is $8.99 per month and MGM+ is $5.99 per month). The deal is available to members of Prime ($139 per year or $14.99 per month in the U.S.) or the standalone Prime Video service ($8.99 per month).
“We are excited to join forces with Amazon to offer Starz together with MGM+ to their millions of customers on Prime Video,” said Alison Hoffman, Starz’s president, domestic networks. “Starz is a complementary service to general entertainment offerings, so we’re thrilled to see that bundling is now here and believe there will be many more bundling opportunities to come.”
Starz lost 1.1 million domestic subscribers in the last three months of 2022, including a decline of 700,000 streaming subs and 400,000 linear subs, to stand at 19.9 million (11.6 million streaming and 8.3 million linear). Lionsgate has said it plans to spin off its film and TV studio and production company from Starz, which it acquired for $4.4 billion in 2016.
Starz’s original series include “Outlander,” the “Power” Universe, “P-Valley” and upcoming new seasons of “Party Down” and “Blindspotting.” Subscribers also have access to domestic Starz services including Starz Encore, 17 premium linear channels, and their associated VOD and streaming services.
MGM+ originals include drama “Godfather of Harlem” starring Forest Whitaker, sci-fi horror series “From,” Western adventure “Billy the Kid,” “A Spy Among Friends,” “War of the Worlds,” “Rogue Heroes” and “Belgravia.” The network’s docuseries lineup include “Laurel Canyon,” “Murf the Surf,” “Helter Skelter,” “Slow Burn,” “My Life as a Rolling Stone,” “NFL Icons” and “Blumhouse’s Compendium of Horror.” Movies available on MGM+ include “Top Gun: Maverick,” MGM’s “No Time to Die” and “House of Gucci” and franchises like the James Bond and Rocky films.
EXCLUSIVE: Kyle Gallner (Smile) and Holland Roden (Teen Wolf) lead Mother May I?, a new horror flick from writer-director Laurence Vannicelli.
The film is set to have its market premiere at this year’s EFM. MPI Media Group is handling international sales.
The pic follows Emmett (Gallner), who wants to sell his recently deceased mother’s house. However, lingering memories of childhood abuse soon emerge when he and his fiancee Anya (Roden), spend a night in the property.
Anya wants to force Emmett to deal with his trauma and shape him into the partner she needs. She convinces him to take mushrooms to get him to let go. But something strange happens while they’re tripping: She starts behaving like his mother. The next morning, he wakes up sober, but she still won’t drop the act. Anya loves playing games — is this her taking it too far? Or did his mother’s spirit somehow possess her? The cast also includes Chris Mulkey (Twin Peaks).
The film is being released theatrically in the US this summer by Dark Sky Films.
Producers include Dane Eckerle, Daniel Brandt, and Daisy Long. Holland Roden is also a producer on the film along with Cole Eckerle. Executive producers are Sam Slater, Paul Bernon, and Phil Keefe of Burn Later Productions, as well as Raj Trivedi and Alex Whitney.
Liam Neeson gets asked in almost every interview if he would reprise his role of Jedi master Qui-Gon Jinn in a “Star Wars” spinoff. The answer is often no, and such was the case when Neeson joined Paul Rudd on the Feb. 16 episode of “Watch What Happens Live!” But Neeson took things a step further, explaining that his reason for not wanting to reprise Qui-Gon Jinn is because the “Star Wars” franchise is damaging its own magic.
“No, I’m not,” Neeson said when asked if he’s interested in returning. “There’s so many spinoffs of ‘Star Wars.’ It’s diluting it to me, and it’s taken away the mystery and the magic in a weird way.”
Neeson had a brief cameo in the Disney+ series “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” but he only had about two lines of dialogue. The actor made his “Star Wars” debut in “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace,” but his character died and his “Star Wars” tenure was cut short. Neeson told ComicBook.com last year that he’d consider reprising Qui-Gon Jinn under one condition: It’s got to be a movie, not a television show.
“Oh, I think so, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think so…if it was a film,” Neeson said then about a potential “Star Wars” return. “Yeah, I’m a bit of a snob when it comes to TV, I must admit. I just like the big screen, you know? Qui-Gon, I can’t believe it’s 24 years since we made ‘The Phantom Menace,’ I just cannot believe where the time has gone. It was a terrific experience, shooting that film in London.”
Neeson isn’t wrong when he says the “Star Wars” franchise has been inundated with spinoffs. On the big screen, Lucasfilm has released “Rogue One” and “Solo” outside of its main Skywalker saga. The franchise has expanded greatly on Disney+ with shows such as “The Mandalorian,” “The Book of Boba Fett” and “Obi-Wan Kenobi” having aired. Upcoming series include “The Mandalorian” Season 3, which launches March 1, plus “Ashoka” and “The Acolyte.”
Watch Leeson’s full interview on “Watch What Happens Live!” in the video below.
Shahid Kapoor starrer Farzi has been applauded by viewers not just in India but also globally.
Released on February 10th, Shahid Kapoor’s debut web series Farzi has been receiving love and appreciation globally.
Shahid Kapoor recently made his web series debut with Farzi last week. The show also stars Vijay Sethupathi, Raashi Khanna, Kay Kay Menon and Amol Palekar in pivotal roles. The show has been receiving immense love and appreciation worldwide and it already has an IMDb rating of 8.7.
Released in 37 languages globally, the series was streamed by viewers on Prime Video in over 170 countries and territories already over the launch weekend. The thriller scaled a global milestone as it entered the top 10 trending titles lists on Prime Video in multiple countries and territories around the world including India, U.S., UK, Canada, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia. The show has been applauded by viewers not just in India but also globally for its fast-paced and edgy narration, high-production values and genre-defining performances.
“Buoyed by immense love and appreciation that the show has garnered so far from fans and audiences, at Prime Video, we are committed to building a service that appeals to customers across all of India. Farzi has set an exciting new benchmark against that ambition,” said Sushant Sreeram, Director – SVOD Business, Prime Video, India.
He added, “Farzi’s phenomenal success is a testament to the growing global popularity of Indian content, and helps us shine the spotlight on India’s world-class, quintessential and diverse storytelling cultures. We are delighted to have worked with the maverick duo Raj & DK again, and with such an incredible cast. The love from customers everywhere across the country and the world over the launch weekend has been truly humbling and exciting at the same time, and I am certain this is going to get even bigger!”
Creator duo Raj & DK said, “We are elated and overwhelmed by the fantastic response the show has received across the board. The stellar cast did an amazing job, we are grateful that we could get them all in one show! All this love from the audience motivates us to continue to work hard and create compelling content!”
Shahid Kapoor had earlier shared, “Farzi has a special corner in my heart. Kehne ko toh this is my digital debut, but working with Raj & DK, felt like home. And working with such brilliant co-actors like Vijay Sethupathi, Nanu (Amolji), Kay Kay Menon, Raashii had its own charm. Playing Artist aka Sunny wasn’t simple, the character is quite complex, his situations and his greed for a better life makes him take some decisions, which he has not necessarily thought through. I am quite sure, that the audience will love the show, they will enjoy the humour, the grit and the overall story, it will keep them at the edge of their seats. And of course, Prime Video will be taking this series to a worldwide audience, usse better kya hi ho sakta hai, that people around the world get to watch this amazing content.”
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Get ready for a brand new Marvel dynasty with “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania”.
The third film in the Ant-Man franchise has everything there is to love about a good Marvel movie, and serves as the perfect gateway to the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s (MCU) Phase 5.
Courtesy of Marvel
“Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania” takes a turn from the lighthearted nature of the previous Ant-Man films, shifting to a more intense tone. Despite the low critics score Quantumania has received on Rotten Tomatoes and its mixed reviews, the film includes the trademark action and adventure of the MCU movies that we have all come to love along with the humor we’ve come to enjoy from the Ant-Man films, however this time there is a more darker element mixed in. Peyton Reed has delivered an exciting new story that is a rollercoster ride of emotions, while still maintaining continuity from the previous films. This movie is the most SciFi filled entry from the entire trilogy. This will be the start of all that is yet to come in the second part of the Multiverse Saga.
The film like Ant-Man (2015) and Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) is still comedic, and focuses a lot on family, but it takes a very serious turn. We see Ant-Man who is usually called in for back up now in the middle of an Avengers level movie facing off against one of the most powerful villains in Marvel history with no other Avengers backing him up. This definitely is not San Francisco anymore.
The story follows Scott Lang and Hope Van Dyne along with Scott’s daughter Cassie Lang and Hope’s parents Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne as they find themselves exploring the Quantum Realm, interacting with strange new creatures and embarking on an adventure that pushes them beyond the limits of what they thought was possible, and facing off against Kang the Conqueror.
Courtesy of Marvel
The storyline focuses a great deal on Janet’s past in the Quantum Realm, Michelle Pfeiffer is great in her performance as Janet Van Dyne. As Scott and his family are trapped there we are introduced to a whole new microscopic universe, and new characters. In each Ant-Man film we have seen new parts of the Quantum Realm, this film dives deeper, exploring a whole new civilization in a visually stunning way. Something that is best experienced in a cinema. Certain aspects even give off Star Wars vibes. With Ant-Man, Hope and Cassie in the picture we see a lot of insane fight scenes that include the epic shrinking and enlarging of our favorite heroes. Let’s just say Scott has come a long way from having his ass kicked by Hope in training.
The film stars stars Paul Rudd as Scott Lang, Evangeline Lilly as Hope van Dyne, Jonathan Majors as Kang, Kathryn Newton as Cassie Lang, Michelle Pfeiffer, Michael Douglas, David Dastmalchian, William Jackson Harper, Katy O’Brian, and Bill Murray.
Courtesy of Marvel
We see a great amount of character development especially from Scott Lang who has been one of the most under-estimated characters in the MCU. When you take into account how this all started for him, and how he has been considered the butt of the joke in the MCU, Ant-Man being the first Avenger to fight a villain as epic as Kang the Conqueror is a significant moment. Paul Rudd admits this was the hardest and the most difficult Ant-Man film he’s made, Scott Lang is beaten down in every sense of the word. The question is, can he get back up? It’s time viewers start taking Ant-Man a bit more seriously now. ““We wanted to kick off Phase Five with Ant-Man because he’d earned that position,” said Kevin Feige, President of MarvelStudios. “To not simply be the back-up or the comic relief, but to take his position at the front of the podium of the MCU.” That’s not to say that we dont see some hilarious moments from Rudd. His comedic timings and line delivery are on point during the movie. We see some incredible scenes from Scott Lang, as he firmly solidifies himself as one of Marvel’s new leading men.
We also get to see more of Scott’s and Hope’s evolving relationship. As well as Scott’s relationship with his
Courtesy of Marvel
daughter Cassie. In Ant-Man and the Wasp, Cassie wanted to be her dad’s partner helping him fight bad guys, and after Thanos snapped everyone away and Scott reappeared to find his daughter now a teenager, the two started to reconnect. In this film we see them fighting side by side. Finally giving Cassie the chance to be her dad’s partner in crime. Kathryn Newton who makes her debut as Cassie Lang in this film did a fantastic job for her first MCU movie, especially considering what a big one it was. From all the father, daughter moments to her action packed fight scenes to her sarcastic comments, the 26 year old actress did not fail to deliver.
In the Marvel comics the supervillain Kang is described as a time-traveling despot who uses all his resources and technology from the future to rule as many universes as possible. The character of Kang is quite a large role to take on, as it was with Josh Brolin and Thanos. However Kang takes things up a notch in this film.
Courtesy of Empire
“In the comics, Kang has dominion over time, he’s a time traveler. His situation is a little bit different in this movie, he’s someone who, while we live very linear lives, from childhood to death, Kang doesn’t exist that way.” Said director Peyton Reed. “It struck me as interesting to take the tiniest Avengers, in some people’s minds maybe the least powerful Avengers, and put them up against the most powerful force in the multiverse.”
Jonathan Majors has received high praise from critics and fans alike for his superb performance in the film. He is an absolute force portraying ruthless and power hungry Kang the Conqueror. Paul Rudd complimented Majors’ performance in the film “It’s legit. It feels intense. He’s a great actor, and throughout the entire film, he really felt as if he was a formidable foe.” He then spoke about his work on the fight scenes between them as well. “He was also getting ready to go into Creed 3, so anytime we’re doing any of that fight choreography, it was real. It was amazing.” The final fight between Ant-Man and Kang is absolutely brutal. You can tell Rudd and Majors both gave it their 100%, physically as well as emotionally. Their performances and their fight choreography was spot on. So much so that you will be on edge and your heart will be bleeding with Scott Lang.
This film also included the first appearance of the Marvel character MODOK or Mental Organism Designed Only For Killing in the MCU. But taking a turn from the comics, his backstory was very, very different to what the comics originally intended. Instead, tying in to the previous Ant-Man films. MODOK was a constant source of humor throughout the film, and the reveal of his identity was one of the biggest surprises in the movie.
Watch the trailer for “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania” here:
In Scott’s words, “This is weird”. Definitely one of the MCU’s more weirdest movies. Weird, funny, entertaining, but also incredibly intense. Full of emotion, with all the action you love and a plot that has you on edge from time to time.
When it comes to nail trends, we’ve been ricocheting between the super clean Vanilla French and its gothic sibling of late. But Selena Gomez’s flower nails have just raised the bar with manicure inspiration that is pure joy. There’s even a side helping of ’70s nostalgia thrown in for good measure.
Better still, they’re serving up a tantalizing reminder that spring is just around the corner, which is precisely what we’re craving after months of subzero temperatures and exhausting TikTok’s “I’m Cold Makeup” trend.
In a photograph of Selena’s nails on his Instagram, celebrity manicurist Tom Bachik reveals that the actors’ tips have been filed into an almond shape, which immediately creates a softer feel than the stiletto nails flooding our feeds.
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Each nail bears intricately-defined yellow, purple, and blue floral nail art, which, were it not for the gold accents, look so realistic you’d think pressed petals had been shellacked onto her nails.
Given Tom has recently gone viral for his various manifestations of lip gloss nails and nude manicures, this degree of color and art school-level painterly vibes immediately caught our eye on his feed.
But what stops the look from straying into the coquette aesthetic, which is partial to hyper-femininity and an intentionally over-pretty floral, is the use of black rather than a pastel for the base. It’s also a nod to the “goth glam” beauty looks that are dominating the catwalks right now, where copious amounts of black eyeliner are being either smudged around model’s eyes or painted on for dramatic wings.
All of which is to say, don’t just bookmark this page for the sunnier days ahead. While this manicure clearly references spring flowers, you don’t have to wait to hit up your nail technician for the look. It’s pitch-perfect for right now. By paying homage to darker elements, Selena Gomez’s flower nails kick up the cool factor a notch so they won’t look out of place paired with chunky boots and a black leather jacket at this time of year.
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This frontier town isn’t what it seems. Has the Walker: Independence TV show been cancelled or renewed for a second season on The CW? The television vulture is watching all the latest cancellation and renewal news, so this page is the place to track the status of Walker: Independence, season two. Bookmark it, or 
