Politician and Bhojpuri actor-singer Manoj Tiwari had two marriages.
Today, we’ll talk about the controversial love life of famous Bhojpuri actors, who married twice.
Celebrities are always in the limelight because of their relationships and affairs. Apart from their movies, celebs’ breakups and patch-ups garner a lot of attention too. Today, we’ll talk about the love life of famous Bhojpuri actors, who married twice.
Manoj Tiwari
Politician and Bhojpuri actor-singer Manoj Tiwari had two marriages. The actor first got married to Rani Tiwari in the year 1999. The two are parents to a daughter Riti Tiwari. After being married for 11 years, Manoj and Rani got separated in 2011. Then, for the second time, in the year 2020, Manoj Tiwari got married to Surabhi Tiwari, at the age of 49. He has two daughters with her. His wife Surbhi Tiwari is a singer by profession.
Pawan Singh
Bhojpuri star Pawan Singh has been married thrice. He first married Neelam Devi in 2014. A year after this, in 2015, she died by suicide. The actor then married Jyoti Singh in 2018. Now, according to some sources, the couple has decided to break their relationship. Both are in discussion about divorce. Pawan Singh’s wife has made many serious allegations against him and his in-laws.
Yash Kumar
Bhojpuri actor Yash Kumar was also married twice. The first time he got married was in the year 2013 to Anjana Singh. The duo worked together in many Bhojpuri films. After a few years of their marriage, Yash fell in love with the Bhojpuri actress Nidhi Jha and got divorced Anjana on mutual consent. Both the actors, Nidhi and Yash were in a relationship for a long time and got married in May last year.
Yash Kumar started his acting career in 2010 from the TV serial Agle Janam Mohe Bitiya Hi Kijo and Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah in 2012. In 2013, he made his film debut in the Bhojpuri movie Dildar Sanwariya. He has also worked in several south Indian and Bollywood films.
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A middle-aged Iranian man makes a desperate bid to keep his apartment as his relationship with his son unravels.
By Emmanuel Itier
Meet Anya Chirkova and Meran Ismailsoy, the filmmakers of “Baba”, which played at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival in the Shorts Program 2 section
1/ Inspiration and goals for this film?
The inspiration came directly from my own personal experiences with my dad. The film essential is about a father and son who drift apart because of a language barrage. My Farsi was getting worse, and his English was almost nonexistent, so communication was agonizing.
My goal would be for people to relate and connect to this story. I would hope that it could bring closure or a sense of catharsis to some families.
2/Challenges to put it together?
Finding the right actor to play the dad. I wish I was exaggerating, but we probably approached every middle-aged male Iranian actor in Toronto. A lot of them just didn’t understand the film and character. Iranian men are very traditional and the main issue for them was the swearing and subject matter, but we were lucky to connect with Amir Zavosh. It’s pretty surreal because he shares the same first name as my dad.
3/ Themes explored in this film? what is it truly about?
At its core, the film has always been about a son who parents his father, trying to get him out of the hole he’s dug himself into. It’s presented in the style of dark comedy.
4/ Being in Sundance, what does this mean and what type of expectations?
It’s amazing to get this kind of recognition. I was lucky enough to premiere my short film Bump in 2022 and to be back at Sundance again feels like a dream.
5/ what comes next for this film and for you?
I have a feature film I’m working on, that feels like it’s in the same world as Baba. (absurd and dark) It’s based on a real-life criminal trial.
Meet the Artist
Anya Chirkova
Anya Chirkova is a Ukrainian-Russian film director and producer. In her work, she’s always looking to tell painful, yet cathartic stories that feel strikingly personal. She is the co-founder of a Toronto-based production company Funny Bone Pictures and a Humber College alumna. Currently, Anya is in pre-production of her first feature film.
Meran Ismailsoy
Meran Ismailsoy is a Toronto-based, Azerbaijani filmmaker with directing and acting backgrounds. Meran approaches film as the art side of philosophy, and believes that this art form can introduce the world to humankind.
Netflix has picked up a new teen series based on the best-selling book franchise Geek Girl from Waterside Studios, Nelvana, Ruby Rock Pictures, and Aircraft Pictures, which begins production later this year. Here’s what we know so far.
Please note: this preview was first published on January 20th, 2023, at 04:00 EST.
Ten episodes have been commissioned by Netflix and Corus Entertainment, each around 30 minutes.
While Netflix is the key distributor worldwide, there is a notable exception. In Canada, the distribution will be handled by Corus Entertainment which owns networks like Global, Slice, HGTV, W Network, and Showcase.
Waterside Studios is headed up by executive producer Jeff Norton, known for his work in bringing best-selling books to the screen. Waterside Studios regularly teams with Nelvana (the animation studio owned by Corus Entertainment) on children’s animated and live-action content.
RubyRock Pictures are producing the forthcoming show. The British-based outfit describes itself as a “high-end scripted production company” founded by Zoë Rocha. Rocha, alongside production executive Josh Harris serves as producer on the project.
Aircraft Pictures, based in Canada, are also behind the production.
What’s Geek Girl about?
The series itself is based on a book series by British writer Holly Smale who went on to produce six entries in the series in total, published between 2013 and 2017.
The six book entries include the following:
Geek Girl (2013)
Model Misfit (2013)
Picture Perfect (2014)
All That Glitters (2015)
Head Over Heels (2016)
Forever Geek (2017)
Geek Girl book collection from Holly Smale
The best-selling books are published by HarperCollins and have been translated into over 30 languages.
Per GoodReads, here’s the synopsis of the first entry:
“Harriet Manners knows a lot of things.
She knows that a cat has 32 muscles in each ear, a “jiffy” lasts 1/100th of a second, and the average person laughs 15 times per day. What she isn’t quite so sure about is why nobody at school seems to like her very much. So when she’s spotted by a top model agent, Harriet grabs the chance to reinvent herself. Even if it means stealing her Best Friend’s dream, incurring the wrath of her arch enemy Alexa, and repeatedly humiliating herself in front of the impossibly handsome supermodel Nick. Even if it means lying to the people she loves.
As Harriet veers from one couture disaster to the next with the help of her overly enthusiastic father and her uber-geeky stalker, Toby, she begins to realise that the world of fashion doesn’t seem to like her any more than the real world did.
And as her old life starts to fall apart, the question is: will Harriet be able to transform herself before she ruins everything?”
Who will star in Geek Girl on Netflix?
No cast announcements have been made as of February 2023.
On February 2nd, 2023, Rob Kelly Casting issued a casting call for the female lead for the forthcoming series.
In their casting call, they state they’re looking for an actress to play the role of Harriet Manners and encourages those that are neurodivergent to apply, with the deadline being February 17th.
It also confirms our reporting that production is scheduled to begin in Spring and run through the Summer.
Casting call for Netflix’s Geek Girl
When will production begin on Geek Girl?
Production on the new series is scheduled to begin in Spring 2023 and will primarily take place in the United Kingdom.
No release date or window for the teen series has been currently provided.
We’ll be tracking all updates and news about Netflix’s new YA series Geek Girl as and when we get it, so keep this post bookmarked as it’ll be updated over time.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has today named the eight scientific and technical achievements, on the part of 19 individuals, to be honored at its Scientific and Technical Awards presentation for 2023, which is taking place in-person for the first time since 2019 at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on February 24.
Technical Achievement Award recipients, set to be honored with Academy Certificates, include Howard Jensen, Danny Cangemi, John Frazier, Mark Hills, Jim Vanns, Matt Chambers, Sébastien Deguy, Christophe Soum, Sylvain Paris, Nicolas Wirrmann, David Eberle, Theodore Kim, Fernando de Goes and Audrey Wong.
Jensen, Cangemi and Frazier will be recognized for their contributions to Rain-Bar technology for the generating of practical rain on set; Hills and Vanns, for their design and engineering of the FQ render farm management system; Chambers, for his contributions to modern render farm management system design; Deguy, Soum, Paris and Wirmann, for their work on Adobe Substance 3D Designer; and Eberle, Kim, De Goes and Wong, for their design and development of the Fizt2 elastic simulation system.
Scientific and Engineering Award recipients, taking home Academy plaques, include Larry Barton and Ben Wilcox, who were behind the Cinematography Electronics CineTape distance measurement system for focus-pullers, as well as Howard Preston and Bernie Butler-Smith, who worked on the focus assist system known as Preston Cinema Systems Light Ranger 2.
Ryan Laney will receive an Award of Commendation, in the form of a special plaque, recognizing his work on the AI-driven facial veiling technology for 2020’s Welcome to Chechnya. And then, there’s Gordon E. Sawyer Award recipient Ian Neil, whose Oscar statuette comes in recognition of his lens design work’s lasting impact on motion picture cinematography.
Barbara Ford Grant, who serves as Chair of the Scientific and Technical Awards Committee, noted that “since 1931, the Academy has recognized the most important innovations in filmmaking; inventors and engineers have been advancing the art and science of motion pictures ever since. Their efforts have not only served to enrich the art form but inspire a global industry to engineer, create, change, and push the boundaries of our craft.
“This year we honor achievements spanning accomplishments from pioneering methods in practical rain effects to career-long contributions in optical design for cinematography to humanistic-driven AI techniques,” continued Grant. “This outstanding work has enabled new and exciting ways of creating and further expanding how we experience motion pictures.”
The single follows the 24-year-old Atlanta rapper’s death in May 2022
Tonnie “HoodMama” Woods-Reed, the mother of the Lil Keed, shared a new song from her son who died at the age of 24. The track “Long Way to Go” is the first single to be released after the Atlanta rapper’s death last May.
In a statement earlier this week, Lil Keed’s mother said that before he died, her son was “hard at work” on a new album, Keed Talk to ’Em 2. “As much as he was a great father, son, and friend—he was also an artist who (thanks to many of you) lived and continues to live through his music,” she wrote. “With that being said, the time has come to share some of our last pieces of Keed with you all starting with the release of his first single, ‘Long Way to Go.’ This song holds a special place in my heart and as you guys will see it will reflect on many aspects of Keed’s journey here on Earth.”
The rising rapper emerged out of the Atlanta hip-hop scene beginning in 2018 thanks to a string of mixtapes including Keed Talk to ‘Em and his Trapped in Cleveland series. The following year, after signing with YSL Records, Lil Keed completed his debut album Long Live Mexico, which featured artists like Young Thug, Roddy Ricch, Moneybagg Yo, and Gunna.
In 2020, Lil Keed released the collaborative mixtape A-Team with his brother Lil Gotit and fellow Atlantans Lil Yachty and Zaytoven.
His brother first announced on social media that the rapper born Raqhid Render had died. Lil Keed’s cause of death was attributed to natural causes as a result of eosinophilia, the Los Angeles County medical examiner-coroner confirmed, according to People.
Trending
“Can’t believe I seened u die today bro I did all my cries,” Lil Gotit wrote on Instagram with a photo of the two brothers.
Lil Keed’s death came just days after federal prosecutors filed a 56-count RICO indictment against Young Stoner/Slime Life (YSL) Records. Lil Keed was not among those named in the indictment.
NOW ON VOD! In the early 1990s, New Orleans seemed like Pleasure Island from Disney’s Pinocchio, with public drinking 24/7 until you turned into a donkey. I had zero interest in the city because I lost interest in alcohol, heroin, and vampires. And I hate to say it, but I thought Katrina had destroyed everything worthwhile. I am sure Madame Tinkertoy’s House of Blue Lights is no longer open. So when my editor at Film Threat informed me that I was going to review a New Orleans documentary with a chewed-up cigar hanging from his mouth, I was not enthused. However, now that I have seen director Martin Shore’s amazing Take Me To The River: New Orleans, I have completely changed my tune. I now have to see the Big Easy before I leave this planet.
Written by Robert Gordon and Shore, the documentary features the rich narration of John Goodman, who I have previously heard speak passionately about the city. The filmmaker introduces himself and states his purpose right up front. Shore is teaming legends in the New Orleans music scene with up-and-comers to collaborate in his recording studio. Old and new schools smash together like distant stars and make something miraculous — traditions such as brass bands and Carnival mix with contemporary styles like the twerk-a-tronic pulse of Bounce. A strong bridge is built between icons like the Neville Brothers and Dr. John to rising local stars such as Big Freedia and Ledisi. The impact of Katrina on the city and its music was disastrous, but the documentary proves New Orleans didn’t go anywhere.
“…teaming legends in the New Orleans music scene with up-and-comers to collaborate…”
Martin Shore is a music producer and obviously knows a thing or two about arrangements. Take Me To The River: New Orleans takes off like a jockey full of bourbon and never slows its stride. The artists’ backgrounds flash like lightning through a window, and then we slam immediately into their music. The live studio performances capture the energy of the New Orleans music tradition. Despite being unfamiliar with nearly all the music, I found it was fantastic. There is this infectious boogie running through the picture that never fades. Shore always includes just enough of everything, never cutting too short or staying too long. You will be pleasantly surprised over and over. This movie hits you on the head, drags you into an alley, and stuffs money into your wallet. Pacing-wise, it is faster than a hot buttered cheetah.
Take Me To The River: New Orleans is edited together in a way more organic to music than traditional documentaries, which works wonders. Remember when you were little and had songs sung to you to learn things? Same principle. In no time at all, I went from being completely oblivious about the city’s music to feeling like an insider. The jazz was hot, and the funk was deep, dark, and delicious. The new school behaves very well, both enthusiastic and respectful of the old school. This documentary is one of the best showcases of why New Orleans is constantly a top travel destination.
Shore pulls all this off on the back of the music scene alone. I do not once remember the movie leaning on the city’s famous food or vampires. Again, I had zip, zero, nada interest in New Orleans prior to watching this. Now I am packing a satchel of gris-gris, firing up the Night Tripper records, and am pointed towards the levees.
Apple revenue declined 5% in the year-end 2022 quarter amid iPhone manufacturing disruptions and fell short of Wall Street’s earnings estimates for the critical holiday-shopping period.
Meanwhile, Apple’s Services segment turned in revenue of $20.8 billion — a quarterly record — but its growth slowed down in the period, to a 6.4% year-over-year increase. The segment includes the App Store, Apple Pay, and subscription services like Apple TV+, Apple Music and iCloud.
Overall, the tech giant reported $117.2 billion on the top line and net income of $30 billion (down 13%), or $1.88 per share for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2022, which is Apple’s Q1 of fiscal 2023. Analysts on average expected Apple to post revenue of $121.1 billion and earnings per share of $1.94, per Refinitiv data.
Sales of iPhones — by far Apple’s biggest business segment — dropped 8.2% in the year-end quarter, to $65.8 billion. The company experienced shortages and longer-than-expected ship times for iPhone 14 models in the quarter, but Apple now has manufacturing capacity “where we want it to be,” Apple CEO Tim Cook (pictured above) said on the earnings call. Despite the decline, Apple touted that its installed base of active devices had crossed 2 billion active devices worldwide in the period.
“As we all continue to navigate a challenging environment, we are proud to have our best lineup of products and services ever, and as always, we remain focused on the long term and are leading with our values in everything we do,” Cook said in announcing the results. “During the December quarter, we achieved a major milestone and are excited to report that we now have more than 2 billion active devices as part of our growing installed base.”
An actress and a hairdresser befriended an affluent Malibu doctor, who suffered from mental illnesses, moved into his home, and pretended to be his caregivers as they stole millions of dollars from him, according to a federal indictment unsealed this week.
Anthony David Flores, 46, of Fresno, and his co-defendant, 39-year-old Anna R. Moore, who lives in Monterrey, Mexico, face multiple charges. Flores is a hairdresser and ran a window-cleaning business. Moore owned a yoga studio owner and played an extra in “The Life Before Her Eyes,” a film starring Uma Thurman, according to IMDb.
According to court documents, Flores and Moore met the victim in June 2017 and befriend him under false pretenses. The victim was a physician and successful investor in Southern California and was worth more than $60 million. But he suffered from mental illness and could not take care of himself.
Shortly after meeting the victim, who is not named in the indictment, Flores and Moore moved into his beachfront Malibu home living there rent-free, and slowly took control of his life by pretending to be his new “best friends” and caregivers.
A few months later, in September 2017, the victim had a mental breakdown and was arrested and detained in the Los Angeles County Jail. Court documents allege that Flores fraudulently induced the victim to sign powers of attorney granting Flores control over the victim’s finances. Flores told the victim he would immediately rescind those rights once the doctor was freed from jail but failed to do so when the victim was out of custody.
Flores used the power of attorney rights to open up bank accounts in the victim’s name and gave himself and Moore access to the victim’s wealth. The pair continued to send money to themselves from the victim’s accounts from September 2017 through May 2018.
In the final days of the victim’s life, Flores and Moore drugged the doctor as they gave him LSD, which caused his mental state to deteriorate severely, according to the DOJ.
While the victim was under the influence of LSD and suffered from mental illnesses, court documents say Flores allegedly changed the two-step authentication feature on the victim’s $60-million online brokerage account after changing the phone number listed on the account from the victim’s phone number to his own phone number.
Just four days before the victim died and was still being drugged by the pair, Flores allegedly initiated two $1 million wires from the victim’s brokerage account to accounts that Flores controlled, including Flores’ personal bank account.
While in mental distress, the victim evicted the two from his home. However, Flores and Moore stayed in a luxury hotel they paid for with the victim’s money. They allegedly watched his deteriorating mental condition on the video cameras installed throughout the Malibu beach house.
Even after the victim died in May 2018, Flores and Moore continued to steal from him. Court documents say the two moved back into the victim’s home after he died and withdrew large sums of money from his accounts.
The victim had two surviving family members, a mother, and a sister, who both lived in Florida. But Flores and Moore kept information about the late victim’s finances from them, which prompted them to file a lawsuit – which brought the fraud to light.
If convicted on all counts, Flores and Moore would face statutory maximum sentences of 20 years in prison for each fraud count, 20 years on the conspiracy to commit money laundering and laundering of monetary instruments counts, 10 years on transactional money laundering count, and a mandatory two-year prison sentence for the aggravated identity theft count.
Billie Connelly is done sleepwalking through life in the new teaser for Sex/Lifeseason two.
The Netflix drama series follows Sarah Shahi’s Billie as she enters into a love triangle with her reliable, suburban husband Cooper (Mike Vogel) and her “sexy ex-boyfriend” Brad (Adam Demos), who she dated during her once-wild, free-spirited youth in New York City.
When Billie begins journaling to relive her passionate exploits throughout the city that never sleeps, she finds herself wondering how she got to this place in her life, as a stay-at-home wife and mother living in Connecticut.
“Not everyone has it: The desire to wake up, stop sleepwalking through our lives,” Shahi says in a voiceover at the top of the teaser, “to stop trying to do the right thing while denying our truth, but those of us who do, we tread in dangerous waters.”
The high-stakes teaser sees not only Billie and Brad rekindling once again but also her trusty husband Cooper may be entering a love triangle of his own.
“Once you wake up, once you get even just a tiny taste, there’s no going back,” the Black Adam star concludes the teaser.
Sex/Life was created by Stacy Rukeyser and is told through a woman’s perspective in more ways than one, with each episode being helmed by a female director. The fact that the show focuses on the woman’s point of view is one of the things that initially attracted Shahi to the script.
“Well, to be totally honest with you, I was a bit scared and a bit turned on at the same time,” the actress previously told The Hollywood Reporter. “It was a very risqué project in a lot of ways. Emotionally, I was going to have to go to some pretty raw, vulnerable places that I hadn’t had the opportunity to do onscreen before, and physically, it was a very revealing side of myself.”
She continued, “A lot of times, when you have female sexuality onscreen, it’s portrayed through the male POV, but this time, we really put it on its head by portraying everything through the female gaze. So I thought that was just something that was so important to be a part of.”
When journalist Paul Jay set out 25 years ago to make his documentary “Wrestling With Shadows,” he was planning on a kind of character study: a profile of the Calgary-born champion Bret “The Hitman” Hart, focused on the gruelling grind of ring work and steeped in themes of heritage and tradition.
What he ended up with was closer to a 1970s-style conspiracy thriller about vice, corruption and the loss of innocence: the “Chinatown” of pro wrestling movies.
“When we finished shooting, I didn’t know what to do,” recalled Jay, who will present “Wrestling With Shadows” at the TIFF Bell Lightbox Saturday at 6 p.m. (Hart is scheduled to join via Zoom).
“I had a film about this famous wrestling family that was somewhat dysfunctional and a film about the behind-the-scenes reality of wrestling, but I didn’t really have an ending,” Jay said. “Then Bret tells me that he’s gonna be wrestling in Montreal and it looks like it’s gonna be his final match. We were running out of money to shoot, but I said, ‘To heck with it, let’s go.’ It turned out to be the most crazy ending to a film you could imagine.”
The craziness in question was the infamous Montreal Screwjob, in which the lines between scripted reality and volatile chaos underlying the World Wrestling Entertainment brand became blurred beyond recognition — and perhaps in perpetuity.
Before the 1997 match, Hart and the company’s CEO Vince McMahon had agreed that “The Hitman” — who was on the verge of leaving for a rival circuit — would walk out of the match with the title belt around his waist: a compromise tied to Hart’s stubbornness about losing in front of his Canadian fan base. But McMahon called an audible, awarding the match (and the championship) to the sleazy anti-hero Shawn Michaels.
It was a violation of protocol that doubled as a gauntlet dropped at the feet of wrestling fans. For the crowd at the Molson Centre, figuring out exactly what was happening in the ring was difficult; by the time a furious Hart knocked McMahon out backstage in retaliation, it was clear the script had been thrown out the window.
“I had agreed that I wouldn’t reveal that wrestling was all fake,” said Jay. “At the time, they were still pretending.
“I figured, this is like doing a movie about a magician: you don’t reveal how the magic tricks are done, but you can still do a film about the magician. It turned out that when Bret got screwed in Montreal, he didn’t care about any of that anymore.”
Before its shocking finale, “Wrestling With Shadows” works as a sympathetic, observant portrait of a performer as high-performance athlete, whose hardscrabble background clearly shaped his world view — and whose pride is the kind that typically comes before a fall.
It’s 1997, and the World Wrestling Federation is facing fierce competition from Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling. When the legendary Bret “The Hitman” Hart is offered a lucrative opportunity to jump ship to the WCW, WWF mastermind Vince McMahon appeals to his sense of loyalty and lures him back with a 20-year contract. But when McMahon abruptly reneges on the deal, Hart reconnects with the competition, paving the way for one of the most notorious events in the history of professional wrestling: the Montreal Screwjob.
Jay captures Hart’s mixture of confidence and egomania, which the grappler would amplify smartly into his “Hitman” persona: the tetchy edge of a not-quite-supersized gladiator who nevertheless claimed to be the “best there is, the best there was and the best there ever will be.”
“There was some blurring in where Bret began and ‘The Hitman’ ended,” said Jay.
“But mostly (Bret) just really loves, enjoyed and respected the people that love him back. So he took seriously for example, how disappointed they would have been, especially his Canadian fans, if he lost the belt in Montreal. Now you can say this is meaningless — the belt is a piece of theatre and it’s scripted. But the emotions and feelings for the fans who sincerely love, you know, loved him, he took that seriously.”
After Montreal, Hart moved to the Atlanta-based WCW, where his character was creatively mismanaged; meanwhile, McMahon — whose genius for self-promotion had always transcended ethical considerations — used the real-time legend of the “screwjob” to give himself a new on-air character: a cruel, authoritarian heel who became a dramatic foil for his own employees.
“What Vince did was really quite brilliant,” said Jay, who had a few run-ins with WWE’s legal department before the film was complete. “Because he was depicted in (my) film as an actual corporate bad guy, he decided to start playing a corporate bad guy. And they realized that even though (‘Wrestling With Shadows’) outed the theatre of it all, it actually kind of didn’t matter. It gave them another way to tell the story.”
Between its globally branded subject matter and its sharp, independently minded storytelling, “Wrestling With Shadows” has become one of the most viewed Canadian documentaries of all time.
“It was purchased and aired in every market in the world,” said Jay, who believes that its legacy — and meaning — extend beyond its carnivalesque milieu.
“Going to watch wrestling is like going to watch a movie,” he said. “It’s suspension of disbelief. You know it’s theatre, but it draws you in so that you’ve participated as an audience member as if it’s real. It’s OK to have suspended disbelief about wrestling or movies, but it’s not OK to have suspended disbelief about the actual world, and that’s part of the problem that’s happening in a broader sense in the culture.”
He points out that before Donald Trump got into politics, he used appearances in McMahon’s programming to test-drive his bad-boy charisma: “It’s where he learned how to get a crowd to pop to the BS.”
With this in mind, Jay’s new project is a documentary called “How to Stop a Nuclear War,” produced in collaboration with Daniel Ellsberg, the famous whistleblower of the Pentagon Papers (with a righteous crusader’s psychology similar to Hart’s).
Even though the stakes of this material are obviously higher than the story he told in “Wrestling With Shadows,” Jay said he sees the films as existing on the same continuum.
“What goes on generally in politics — in Canada too — is mostly theatre. There’s a willingness to risk nuclear war to make money, but out front you have these people who say ‘We care about America, we care about you, we care about the working man.’
“It’s similar to the fiction of wrestling, which is why I think about Trump learning his politics there. He’s the most exaggerated form of that.”
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Creatives are building their own opportunities through social media — without the cumbersome guidance of yesteryear’s screen practitioners.
Creators like Regan Roell leveraging his online following into a career on mainstream radio, to Māori Facebook star Nix Adams turning her digital skits into prime-time television.
The screen work of legends like Merata Mita, Sima Urale, Oscar Kightley and Waititi cannot be disregarded, but the governing structures in Pacific strongholds like Australia and New Zealand still remain the same. Waititi’s words “We are the original storytellers” ring true — we just needed to find original ways to tell our stories. Social media has become that place.
Despite a drop in profits due, a significant part of which was due to a huge amount of money it paid to laid off employees, Amazon handily beat expectations for the 4th fiscal quarter of 2022, posting $149 Billion in revenue, the company announced Thursday.
Analysts had predicted earnings of around $145 billion.
And while Amazon didn’t get too specific about its entertainment division’s earnings in the quarterly report, it indicated one of the highlights of Q4 was “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.” The show, a prequel series explaining how the whole One Ring to Rule Them All thing came about, brought in more than 100 million viewers during its first season. It was Amazon’s most-watched original series in every region and, so Amazon says, brought in more new Prime Video subscribers than any previous show.
Overall, the company’s earnings in Q4 rose by 9% over the same period in 2021. But profits were $278 million, quite a drop from the $14.3 billion the year before. The company attributes that drop to a combination of factors, including higher costs amid the spike in prices last year that were inaccurately described as inflationary.
The biggest dent in Amazon’s Q4 profits came thanks to a $2.3 billion drop in the value of its investment in electric vehicle manufacturer Rivian. Behind that was the $640 million it spent on severance payments for the 18,000 people it laid off in January amid fears of a recession that didn’t actually pan out. Additional losses stemmed from various expenses.
As for its entertainment business, Amazon also had good luck with “Thursday Night Football,” which began streaming live on Prime Video last fall. Streamed games had the youngest median age of any football broadcast in a decade, according to Nielsen, and also rose in the 18-34 demo by 11%.
NBC is heading back to a crazy court for the 2023-24 television season. The peacock network has renewed the new Night Court series for a second season. Only four episodes of the first season have aired thus far.
A workplace comedy series, the Night Court TV show stars Melissa Rauch, India de Beaufort, Kapil Talwalkar, Lacretta, and John Larroquette. The new story follows Abby Stone (Rauch), a judge following in the footsteps of her revered late father, Judge Harry Stone (Harry Anderson). She takes on the challenge of overseeing the night shift of a Manhattan arraignment court, just as he did. To bring order and dignity to the court, she enlists former night court district attorney Dan Fielding (Larroquette) to serve as the court’s public defender. Others on the team include Olivia (De Beaufort), the court’s officious and ambitious assistant district attorney; Neil (Talwalker), the court’s neurotic clerk; and Donna “Gurgs” Gurganous (Lacretta), the sharp-witted bailiff.
Airing on Tuesday nights, the first season of Night Court averages a 0.80 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 6.11 million viewers. According to NBC, the show has reached 25.7 million total viewers across all viewing platforms since its January 17th premiere.
“It’s so rewarding to have audiences respond and return to a show in which they have such incredibly warm feelings, and, more broadly, it’s testament to how broadcast is still a huge driver of communal viewing,” said Lisa Katz, President, Scripted Content, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming. “A huge thank you to our studio partners, a wonderful cast, incredibly talented writers and producers, and a crew that has transformed a lower Manhattan courtroom into a true family.”
Channing Dungey, Chairman and CEO, Warner Bros. Television Group, said: “The verdict is in and the ‘new-boot’ of Night Court is a hit! The series’ razor-sharp humor makes the show a weekly must watch. We’re overjoyed that court will remain in session and return with new cases for season two. We’re so grateful to our colleagues at NBC, to the richly talented creative team led by Melissa Rauch, Winston Rauch, Dan Rubin, and John Larroquette, and to the stellar ensemble cast.”
What do you think? Have you been enjoying the new Night Court series? Are you glad that it’s been renewed for a second season? Did you think that it might be cancelled instead?
Check out our status sheets to track new TV series pickups, renewals, and cancellations. You can find lists of cancelled shows here.
Colin Farrell is basking in the glow of delivering four acclaimed performances in 2022 and receiving his long overdue first Oscar nomination for “The Banshees of Inisherin.” Next, he’s gearing up to reprise his role as Oz — a.k.a. the Penguin — for the spinoff television series to Matt Reeves’ “The Batman,” which he starts shooting on Feb. 28.
“It’s going to be an eight-part thing,” Farrell tells Variety‘s Awards Circuit Podcast. “Around Oz’s rise to power, filling that power vacuum created when Falcone was killed. Matt’s idea was to have the Penguin show begin about a week after the end of the Batman film. And if it works, if the trajectory is interesting, and the audience goes for it, and we do our jobs right, the second Penguin feature will pick up where the HBO show will end.”
On this episode of the podcast, Farrell discusses receiving his first Oscar nomination for playing Pádraic, the milk farmer with a lovable donkey in “The Banshees of Inisherin.” In addition, the 46-year-old Irish star talks about his successful year, which included acclaimed performances in “After Yang,” “Thirteen Lives” and “The Batman,” where he played the villainous Penguin. Also, after reading the scripts for the first five episodes, he talks about what to expect with the TV show. Listen below:
Written and directed by Martin McDonagh, “The Banshees of Inisherin” tells the story of Pádraic (Farrell) and his relentless quest to find out why his best friend, Colm (Brendan Gleeson), doesn’t want to talk to him anymore. Along with his sister Siobhán (Kerry Condon) and Dominic (Barry Keoghan), the son of a village policeman, “Banshees” is a fascinating tale surrounding the complexities of morality and forgiveness, bringing forth a refreshing and touching dramedy.
“Banshees” was the second most Oscar-nominated film, receiving nine nods — best picture (Graham Broadbent, Peter Czernin and McDonagh as producers), director (McDonagh), actor (Farrell), supporting actor (Gleeson and Keoghan), supporting actress (Condon), original screenplay (McDonagh), film editing (Mikkel E.G. Nielsen) and original score (Carter Burwell). The film was also nominated for 10 BAFTAs and five SAG Awards prizes, performing phenomenally on the awards circuit.
Farrell is being prideful of his beloved Ireland scoring its first nom for international feature with “The Quiet Girl.” He tells us how his beloved co-star Condon went over to his house at 5 a.m. PT on Oscar morning wearing “denim on denim,” and gets beautifully candid about being an advocate for disability awareness and finding kindness in the world.
“I think human beings are at our best when we’re curious about all this, about ourselves,” he says. “Not to the degree of self-obsession, but when we question or wonder why we are the way we are as individuals. I think there’s incredible power in the vein of liberation in that.”
Also in this episode, Academy Award-winning composer Justin Hurwitz (“La La Land”) breaks down the challenges of bringing the music for Damien Chazelle’s “Babylon” to the screen. The Los Angeles native discusses getting to meet his musical inspiration John Williams at this year’s Golden Globes Awards and how he got his unconventional start in Hollywood by writing television episodes for “The Simpsons,” “The League” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”
Finally, the Awards Circuit Roundtable breaks down the controversy and the latest news on Andrea Riseborough’s surprise inclusion for “To Leslie.” That led to the Motion Picture Academy announcing a “review” of campaign procedures, and then ultimately choosing not to rescind her nomination. What can we expect next from the story that gripped pundits for the last week?
Variety’s “Awards Circuit” podcast, produced by Michael Schneider, who also co-hosts with Clayton Davis, is your one-stop listen for lively conversations about the best in film and television. Each week “Awards Circuit” features interviews with top film and TV talent and creatives; discussions and debates about awards races and industry headlines; and much more. Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or anywhere you download podcasts. New episodes post weekly.
Although in many ways the most exciting chunk of the calendar by far, Q1 of the new year can be a brutal one for cineastes. After all, the watchlist-crushing weight of awards season doesn’t mean that new releases have abated, as this month’s always-stellar list of newly-release Don’t-Miss Indies can attest. Besides, you’re sure to find plenty of Spirit Awards crossover below–new, old and perennially up in the mix (we’re looking at you, Julianne Moore).
Why We’re Excited: Best known for his acting credits on Sons of Anarchy, All Rise and Big Little Lies, thespian-turned-filmmaker Mo McRae’s debut feature opens with an eye-catching 17-minute single shot opening sequence by cinematographer John Rosario (Son of the South, One of Us). Perfect Black couple James (Noel) and Vanessa (Coleman) look like they’re living the American Dream–successful, smart, affluent. But one day, the evening news delivers a nasty surprise: the white police officer who has killed an apparently unarmed kid turns out to be their next-door neighbor, Brian (Hartley). Shocked, disgusted and enraged, the couple decide to take matters into their own hands, forcing Brian to come into their house at gunpoint… and then taping him into a chair. Check out the Film Independent Presents’ Q&A with McRae about the film here.
KILLING COUNTY
When You Can Watch: February 3
Where You Can Watch: Hulu
Director: Michaela Dowd
Why We’re Excited: Produced by ABC News Studios in association with Kaepernick Media, this three-part docuseries narrated by André Holland (Moonlight, Selma, A Wrinkle in Time) delves into the reasons behind the high rate of officer-involved shootings in Bakersfield, California. In 2013, Jorge Ramirez–an informant for the Bakersfield Police Department–was killed following a shootout with the police in a hotel parking lot. The incident put a spotlight on the culture of corruption and violence in the area and–more disturbingly–within its police force.
MAGIC MIKE’S LAST DANCE
When You Can Watch: February 10
Where You Can Watch: Theaters
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Cast: Channing Tatum, Salma Hayek, Caitlin Gerard, Nick Wechsler
Why We’re Excited: The third and final installment of the Magic Mike film franchise was initially intended as an HBO Max exclusive. But given last August’s renewed commitment to theatrical releases by controversial Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav, the movie is now headed for a theatrical debut, ahead of Valentine’s Day. With all three films penned by Tatum’s frequent collaborator Reid Carolin (Dog, Logan Lucky, White House Down), the series has also spawned the “Magic Mike Live” show, which launched in Miami last fall before heading to Las Vegas and London. Touted as “The Super Bowl of Stripping” with a “reverse-role Pretty Woman” spin by Tatum, the threequel takes Mike Lane (Tatum) to London, where socialite and benefactor Maxandra Mendoza (Hayek) bankrolls his dream of mounting a West End production. Is it all too good to be true? You’ll have to hit up a movie theater near you to find out.
SHARPER
When You Can Watch: February 10
Where You Can Watch: Theaters (limited), Apple TV+ (February 17)
Directors: Benjamin Caron
Cast: Julianna Moore, Sebastian Stan, Justice Smith, Briana Middleton, John Lithgow
Why We’re Excited: Helmed by Emmy-winning director of The Crown Benjamin Caron (also episodes Andor and Sherlock) and based on a 2020 Black List script, this psychological thriller is set in the most affluent corners of New York City (think: HBO’s Succession). Stan (Pam & Tommy, Captain America: The Winter Soldier) is con man Max, whose mother Madeline (two-time Film Independent Spirit Award winner Moore) is in a relationship with a significantly older billionaire, Richard (Lithgow, another Spirit Awards alum). “Of course I like him. He’s a billionaire!” Madeline exclaims, matter-of-factly. Unable to pass up the perfect opportunity to score a massive payday for himself, Max works with accomplice Sandra (Middleton) to lure Richard’s son Tom (Smith) into their web, after Madeline foils their initial run at Richard himself.
Cast: Alison Brie, Jay Ellis, Kiersey Clemons, Haley Joel Osment, Amy Sedaris
Why We’re Excited: A Spirit Awards nominee as producer for last year’s Zola, Franco’s sophomore outing as director is a romcom co-written with leading lady (and Franco’s IRL wife) Alison Brie (Mad Men, GLOW). When workaholic reality TV producer Ally (Brie) loses her job, she returns to her hometown to recalibrate for the weekend. Complicating her effort to reinvent her career is ex-boyfriend and first love Sean (Top Gun: Maverick’s Jay Ellis), whom she bumps into on her first night back in town. When it becomes clear that the chemistry between them is still definitely there, she starts questioning her decision to leave him–and their hometown–for the big city, a decade prior. As she probes at the person she has become, another bombshell is hurled her way: Sean is getting married this weekend, and his fiancée Cassidy (Dope’s Clemons) reminds her a lot of who she used to be. The film, along with in-person Q&A, will be at Film Independent Presents on Friday, February 3.
Why We’re Excited: Co-created by Amit Bhalla and Lucas Jansen, this new half-hour sci-fi dramedy series stars Spirit Awards Robert Altman Award winner Billy Crudup (for Spotlight) and is helmed by The End of the F***ing World director Jonathan Entwistle. Ambitious and perpetually optimistic salesman Jack Billings (Crudup) inspires his team of traveling salesman peddling timeshares on the moon. His unyielding faith in a brighter and better tomorrow not only propels his colleagues forward, but also serves as a source of encouragement for his customers as well. While the first three episodes will drop on February 17, after that you’ll have to wait for new episodes to be released every Friday.
LIAISON
When You Can Watch: February 24
Where You Can Watch: Apple TV+
Director: Stephen Hopkins
Cast: Vincent Cassel, Eva Green, Peter Mullan
Why We’re Excited: Apple TV+’s first English-French multilingual series, this six-episode thriller is directed by Emmy Award winner Hopkins (24, Shameless, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers). Shot in London, the series stars two French actors: BAFTA winner Eva Green, best known to mainstream audiences as the woman who broke James Bond’s heart, Vesper Lynd, in Casino Royale; and Cesar winner Vincent Cassel, whose memorable English-language credits include Black Swan, Eastern Promises, and HBO’s Westworld. Proving that past mistakes always has a way of coming back to haunt you no matter who you are, the bilingual thriller weaves a narrative where “espionage and political intrigue play out against a story of passionate and enduring love.” Following the premiere on February 24, subsequent episodes will be released weekly on Fridays.
COCAINE BEAR
When You Can Watch: February 24
Where You Can Watch: Theaters
Director: Elizabeth Banks
Cast: Keri Russell, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Ray Liotta, Margo Martindale, Christian Convery-Jennings, Alden Ehrenreich
Why We’re Excited: Inspired by an IRL story from 1985–when of a 175-pound American black bear died after ingesting a duffel bag full of cocaine after a drug smuggler jettisoned the drugs from his plane to minimize payload–director Elizabeth Banks’ (Charlie’s Angels, Pitch Perfect 2) newest feature employs quite a bit of artistic license in bringing the story to the big screen. In reality, the bear in question did not go on a rampage killing people. But this Universal Pictures release gives the real-life wildlife tragedy a black comedy thriller bent, with the bear terrorizing a small town in Georgia on a savage rampage. Film Independent Member Brian Duffeild is one of the producers on the film.
BLUEBACK
When You Can Watch: February 24
Where You Can Watch: Theaters (Limited)
Director: Robert Connolly
Cast: Eric Bana, Mia Wasikowska, Radha Mitchell, Clarence Ryan
Why We’re Excited: Based on Tim Winton’s 1997 novella, Australian writer-director Robert Connolly’s young adult drama just wrapped its Sundance premiere last week. Shot in Western Australia, the story focuses on marine biologist Abby (Wasikowska), who has to rush back to her hometown to care for her elderly mother Dora after the latter suffers a stroke. Being back in her seaside hometown takes her back to her childhood, when she befriended a giant blue groper named “Blueback.” As the story goes back and forth between the present and her childhood, everything coalesces to remind her of her abiding love for the environment, and why it’s important to preserve the many wonders of nature.
*PROGRAMMERS PICK* RETURN TO SEOUL
When You Can Watch: February 17
Where You Can Watch: Theaters
Director: Davy Chou
Cast:Frédérique Benoît, Park Ji-min, Oh Kwang-rok, Guka Han, Kim Sun-young
Why We’re Excited: From Jenn Wilson, Film Independent Senior Programmer: “Davy Chou’s emotional Return to Seoul (nominated for the 2023 Spirit Awards)tells the story of a young French woman named Frédérique (Freddie) who finds herself, kind of, accidentally, on purpose, in Seoul on a journey to find her Korean birth parents, who gave her up to an adoption agency when she was a baby. Originally only in South Korea for two weeks, Freddie ends up spending years there. Although she finds her dad right away, it takes her several years to reach her mom. The journey is a bumpy one and the results bounce Freddie around, both physically and mentally. Prone to outbursts and mood swings when things don’t go the way she expects, Freddie sometimes takes herself out on a night of binge-drinking. While Freddie’s parents might be broken, bent and disappointing to her, what she finds in the end is much more important than any relationship she could have had with them.”
UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. special envoy for Iraq urged the country’s new government Thursday to keep fighting corruption and move quickly on much-needed economic, fiscal and financial reforms.
Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert told the U.N. Security Council many other areas also need immediate government attention, among them ensuring human rights, resolving issues with the Kurdistan Regional Government, improving public services, addressing environmental challenges, and continuing to return Iraqis from camps and prisons in northeast Syria.
“The hope is that the confirmation of Iraq’s new government will provide an opportunity to structurally address the many pressing issues facing the country and its people,” she said. “The urgency is for Iraq’s political class to seize the brief window of opportunity it is awarded, and to finally lift the country out of recurring cycles of instability and fragility.”
A more than year-long political stalemate punctuated by outbreaks of street violence ended in late October with the confirmation by Iraq’s Council of Representatives of a new government and Cabinet led by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.
Hennis-Plasschaert said that during its first three months, al-Sudani’s government has shown a commitment to tackle endemic corruption, poor public services and high unemployment.
Turning to the fight against corruption, she pointed to a number of important steps taken by the government, including trying to recover stolen funds and investigating allegations of graft.
“That said, I can only encourage the Iraqi government to persevere, as those who stand to lose will undoubtedly seek to hinder these efforts,” she said. “But if Iraq is to build a system that serves the need of society instead of serving a closed community of collusion, then ensuring accountability across the spectrum is absolutely essential.”
The U.N. special representative said “systemic change” is vital to address corruption and improve services that directly affect people’s lives.
As for economic, fiscal and financial reforms, Hennis-Plasschaert expressed concern at the increase in the exchange rate on the parallel market “adding to the pressure on everyday Iraqi women and men.”
“On the short term, it is obviously essential that the federal budget is passed expeditiously,” she said. “A further delay will only result in worsening the situation due to the well-known spending constraints.”
Despite high unemployment, Hennis-Plasschaert cautioned against any “further bloating” of Iraq’s “already extremely inflated public sector.”
She cautioned the government against relying totally on the country’s oil, which is vulnerable to price shocks, and urged it to focus on diversifying the economy, including by developing an employment-generating private sector.
Hennis-Plasschaert said the government also needs to swiftly implement the Sinjar Agreement brokered by the U.N. in October 2020 between Baghdad and the Kurdish-run regional government to jointly manage the Sinjar region. It is home to Iraq’s Yazidi religious minority, and the agreement aims to restore the state’s hold over the patchwork of militia groups and competing authorities in the area after the defeat of Islamic State extremists.
When IS fighters swept into northern Iraq in 2014 the militants massacred thousands of Yazidi men and enslaved an estimated 7,000 women, including Nadia Murad, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for her campaign to end sexual violence as a weapon of war. She returned to her home village in Sinjar this week with actress and activist Angelina Jolie to meet survivors of IS brutality and see progress in redeveloping the region.
U.S. deputy ambassador Richard Mill called on the government to improve its respect for human rights and commit to implementing the Sinjar Agreement in close consultation with the Yazidi community.
He said the United States supports the prime minister’s efforts to root out corruption and improve public services, particularly providing electricity, and encourages development of the private sector and job growth, “with a focus on increasing women’s participation in the workforce.”
Mills added that the Biden administration is eager to work with the government on addressing the negative impacts of climate, including through the use of renewable energy and reducing gas flaring.
With just four episodes out so far, “Night Court” has already been renewed for a second season at NBC.
“Night Court” is a revival of the series of the same name that ran on NBC from 1984 to 1992 and starred Harry Anderson as Harry T. Stone, a young judge assigned to the night shift at a Manhattan arraignment court. The revival stars Melissa Rauch as the late Stone’s daughter, Abby, an unapologetic optimist. She follows in her father’s night court footsteps and tries to bring order to the crew of oddballs and cynics, most notably former night court prosecutor Dan Fielding (Larroquette, reprising his role from the original series). India de Beaufort, Kapil Talwalkar and Lacretta also star.
Dan Rubin writes the series. Executive producers include Rubin, Rauch and her husband Winston Rauch, while Larroquette serves as producer. Warner Bros. Television produces in association with After January Productions and Universal Television.
Though early, the renewal is not completely surprising, as “Night Court” has enjoyed solid viewership since its Jan. 17 premiere, which NBC says has reached 25.7 million viewers across multiple platforms.
“It’s so rewarding to have audiences respond and return to a show in which they have such incredibly warm feelings, and, more broadly, it’s testament to how broadcast is still a huge driver of communal viewing,” said Lisa Katz, president of scripted content at NBCUniversal Television and Streaming. “A huge thank you to our studio partners, a wonderful cast, incredibly talented writers and producers and a crew that has transformed a lower Manhattan courtroom into a true family.”
“The verdict is in and the ‘new-boot’ of ‘Night Court’ is a hit!” added Channing Dungey, chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. Television Group. “The series’ razor-sharp humor makes the show a weekly must watch. We’re overjoyed that court will remain in session and return with new cases for Season 2. We’re so grateful to our colleagues at NBC, to the richly talented creative team led by Melissa Rauch, Winston Rauch, Dan Rubin and John Larroquette, and to the stellar ensemble cast.”
Dawn Ostroff, Spotify’s former chief content and advertising business officer who led the company’s podcast expansion, will be entitled to nine months of her $1 million base salary as part of her exit package with the audio giant, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday.
Ostroff’s departure was first revealed Jan. 23 by Spotify CEO Daniel Ek as part of a major round of layoffs and executive reorganization. Though she is expected to remain with Spotify in an advisory role, Ostroff’s last day in the executive position was Jan. 31, according to the securities filings.
As part of her separation agreement, which includes a non-compete clause, Ostroff will receive her $1 million base salary, COBRA health benefits and vesting of her equity- and cash-based long-term incentive awards through April 17 in lieu of the three-month notice period that was included in her employment agreement. After that period, Ostroff will be entitled to receive an additional six months of her base salary, health benefits and six months of accelerated vesting of her long-term incentive awards. The exact amount of Ostroff’s total exit compensation will largely be influenced by Spotify’s stock price over time.
In the same securities filing, Spotify also revealed that Ostroff received just under $7.5 million in compensation during 2022, with the majority of that executive payday coming from stock awards and the company’s incentive program.
Alex Norström, the former chief freemium business officer who is now overseeing content as part of his new position as chief business officer and co-president, received about $9.2 million in compensation during 2022. $325,000 of the pay was Norström’s base salary, while the majority came from option awards and stock awards.
Gustav Söderström, Spotify’s former chief research and development officer, received $14.16 million in compensation; $312,500 came from Söderström’s base salary, while the remainder of his executive pay came from option awards. The executive now serves as Spotify’s co-president and chief product and technology officer.
Ek’s compensation for 2022 amounted to $181,085 for home security costs. The top executive notably has not taken a base salary since 2017 and has not received a bonus since 2020.
UPDATED with release date:What We Do Next, the thriller written and directed by Stephen Belber starring Corey Stoll, Karen Pittman and Michelle Veintimilla, will hit theaters exclusively March 3 via a platform rollout in Los Angeles and New York.
Veintimilla (The Good Wife) plays Elsa Mercado, who has been released from prison after serving 16 years for killing her father. New York City Councilwoman Sandy James (Pittman, from The Morning Show) and corporate attorney Paul Jenkins (Stoll, from Billions) are forced to grapple with their involvement in the original crime.
Producers Unbridled Films and Mangano Movies & Media are handling distribution, which is expected to widen after opening in L.A. and NYC.
Check out the new trailer above and the new poster here:
PREVIOUSLY, April 2022: What We Do Next will be making its world premiere at Cinequest’s Cinejoy Film Festival on April 14. The film is an emotional thriller sitting at the intersection of race, class, and criminal justice, that centers on the three powerful and dynamic performances from its leads.
Written and directed by Stephen Belber (Match starring Patrick Stewart, Management starring Jennifer Aniston), and stars Corey Stoll (Billions, House of Cards), Karen Pittman (And Just Like That…The Morning Show), and Michelle Veintimilla (Big Sky, Gotham). It was filmed safely and successfully in the fall of 2020 in only six and a half shooting days, pre-vaccines, during the height of the Covid pandemic.
The film is about a New York City politician (Pittman) climbing the political ladder who is forced to navigate her complicated past with a young woman recently released from prison (Veintimilla) and a corporate attorney with whom she shares an equally complicated history (Stoll). Power constantly shifts among the three characters as they fight for their version of the truth.
Chris Mangano (Standing Up, Falling Down, Don’t Tell a Soul), Merry-Kay Poe (Don’t Tell a Soul) and Max Neace produced the film, which is a co-production between Poe’s Unbridled Films and Mangano’s Mangano Movies & Media. Stephen Belber, Brian Tanke, and Matt Bronson are executive producers on the film, with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lynn Nottage serving as co-producer.
Verve Ventures and Literary Agency and UTA Independent Film Group co-represent the film for sales.
Seth Rogen has drawn a line on superhero stuff. During a recent interview with Total Film, Rogen confessed he doesn’t love the MCU and its films.
While that’s hardly an uncommon take, what makes it interesting is that Rogen is a comic book fan and has been involved in such adaptations as AMC’s Preacher, and is an EP on The Boys and Invincible.
The difference, Rogen explained, is that the Marvel films are geared toward kids, in his mind.
“I think that Kevin Feige (Marvel Studios president) is a brilliant guy,” said Rogen. “And I think a lot of the filmmakers he’s hired to make these movies are great filmmakers. “But as someone who doesn’t have children… It is [all] kind of geared toward kids, you know? There are times where I will forget. I’ll watch one of these things, as an adult with no kids, and be like, ‘Oh, this is just not for me.’”
Still, Marvel’s box office appeal aside from Rogen is fueling interest in The Boys, Rogen admits.
“Truthfully, without Marvel, The Boys wouldn’t exist or be interesting,” Rogen said. “I’m aware of that. I think if it was only Marvel [in the marketplace], it would be bad. But I think it isn’t – clearly. An example I’m always quoting is, there’s a point in history where a bunch of filmmakers would have been sitting around, being like, ‘Do you think we’ll ever make a movie that’s not a Western again? Everything’s a Western! Westerns dominate the f***ing movies. If it doesn’t have a hat and a gun and a carriage, people aren’t going to go see it anymore.’”
Entertainment is basically the only industry where anyone can start their career at any age. For some, success comes fairly quickly — especially when they already have connections in the industry. For others, however, “making it” in Hollywood may take decades.
Here are 15 celebs who got their “big break” before they were 10:
1.
Drew Barrymore was 7 when she starred in E.T.
2.
Tatum O’Neal celebrated her ninth birthday while filming Paper Moon. The following year, the role made her the youngest person to ever win an Oscar.
3.
At 6, McKenna Grace started her acting career with a recurring role on the Disney XD series Crash & Bernstein.
4.
When Blue Ivy Carter was only 2 days old, her dad, Jay-Z, sampled her cries on “Glory,” a song he wrote for her. It made her the youngest person to ever have a song on the Billboard charts.
5.
Dylan Sprouse was only a year old when he booked his first main role on a TV series. He played Patrick Kelly on Grace Under Fire.
6.
Cole Sprouse, Dylan’s twin brother, shared the role of Patrick Kelly with him for five years.
7.
Similarly, Mary-Kate Olsen was about a year old when she began playing Michelle Tanner on Full House.
8.
Her twin sister, Ashley Olsen, shared the role of Michelle Tanner with her until they were 9.
9.
When Jaden Smith was 8, he made his onscreen debut alongside his dad, Will Smith, in The Pursuit of Happyness.
10.
Similarly, his sister, Willow Smith, turned 7 the year she appeared in her first movie, I Am Legend, alongside her dad.
11.
Jacob Tremblay was 8 when he played Jack Newsome in Room.
12.
Daryl Sabara began playing Juni Cortez in the Spy Kids franchise when he was 9.
13.
The year Iain Armitage turned 9, he began playing main roles on both Big Little Lies and Young Sheldon.
14.
When Kiernan Shipka was 8, she booked the recurring role of Sally Draper on Mad Men.
15.
And Mia Talerico started playing the titular role on Disney Channel’s Good Luck Charlie when she was 10 months old, then wrapped the show before kindergarten.
And now, here are 15 celebs who got their big breaks later in life:
16.
F. Murray Abraham got his big break at 45, when he played Antonio Salieri in Amadeus and won an Oscar for the role.
17.
At 42, Viola Davis landed her breakout role as Mrs. Miller in Doubt, which earned the actor her first Oscar nomination.
18.
After 30 years in the acting industry, then-53-year-old Christoph Waltz landed his breakout role in Inglourious Basterds. He won his first Oscar for it.
19.
At 48, Susan Boyle rose to prominence as a fan-favorite contestant on Britain’s Got Talent. That same year, she released her debut album, I Dreamed a Dream, which broke records for the fastest selling UK debut album of all time and the fastest selling global female debut album.
20.
After years of performing as a James Brown impersonator, Charles Bradley released his debut album, No Time for Dreaming, at the age of 62.
21.
An experienced theater actor, Alan Rickman booked his first movie role, Hans Gruber in Die Hard, when he was 42.
22.
As a teenager, Lisa Vanderpump did a ton of bit TV roles and commercial work. After decades away from the entertainment world, she entered the spotlight as an original cast member on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills at 50.
23.
Martha Stewart published her first book, Entertaining, at 41.
24.
At 50, Morgan Freeman played his breakout role in Street Smart, which he won an Oscar for.
25.
Sharon Jones was 40 when she released her debut album with the Dap-Kings, Dap Dippin’.
26.
At 47, standup comedian Leslie Jones became the oldest cast member to debut on Saturday Night Live.
27.
At 42, Steve Carell got his first major movie role in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. The next year, he booked two of his most iconic projects — The 40-Year-Old Virgin and The Office.
28.
For a long time, former theater student Michael Emerson had given up on his acting dreams. However, at 43, he landed his breakout onstage role in Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde. Three years later, he landed his breakout TV role, William Hinks on The Practice.
29.
At 42, Ty Burrell booked his first major role, Phil Dunphy on Modern Family.
30.
And finally, after her divorce, Kathryn Joosten balanced three jobs with theater, making her onstage debut at 42. With her kids’ support, she pursued acting professionally, booking local gigs in the Chicago area, then a street performer job at Hollywood Studios in Orlando before eventually moving to LA. At 55, she made her onscreen debut on Family Matters, then “after that, it was one job after another.”
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James Gunn reveals some of the comics which will be inspiring the new DC Universe, including All-Star Superman, Absolute Swamp Thing & more.
James Gunn announced a number of new DC movies and TV series earlier this week, but he’s continued to drop teases on social media. One of the big-screen projects announced was Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, which will be based on comic by Tom King and Bilquis Evely, but there are other comics that have inspired James Gunn’s new DC Universe.
James Gunn took to Twitter to tease a few of the comics that will help shape the first chapter of the DC Universe.
We’re talked a lot about Woman of Tomorrow, but these are more of the comics inspiring #DCStudios and the new #DCU in these early days. That doesn’t mean we’re adapting all these comics, but that the feel, the look, or the tone of them are touchstones for our team. Check ’em out! pic.twitter.com/34KrVPeEL5
“We’re talked a lot about Woman of Tomorrow, but these are more of the comics inspiring #DCStudios and the new #DCU in these early days,” Gunn wrote. “That doesn’t mean we’re adapting all these comics, but that the feel, the look, or the tone of them are touchstones for our team. Check ’em out!” The comics James Gunn shared includes All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely; Batman by Grant Morrison, a run which introduced readers to Damian Wayne, who will be the the focus of The Brave and the Bold; The Authority Omnibus by Warren Ellis; and Absolute Swamp Thing by Alan Moore.
We’ll have to wait and see what elements of these comics will make it to the big screen, but I’m excited to learn what James Gunn and Peter Safran have in store for us. The current slate of movies is only the first part of the first chapter, which is called Gods and Monsters. James Gunn said, “We’re telling a big, huge central story that is like Marvel, except that I think we’re a lot more planned out than Marvel from the beginning because we’ve gotten a group of writers together to work the story out completely.” Despite all that planning, Peter Safran added that they’re “remaining flexible and we’re going to adjust because we’re never going to put a project into production before the script is right. This is a general timeline, but there will be flexibility within it.“
Following the release of the remaining DC movies (Shazam: Fury of the Gods, The Flash, Blue Beetle, and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom), the first project to emerge from the new DC Universe will be Superman: Legacy, which will be written by James Gunn himself. The film is set for a July 11, 2025 release.
The sequel to the 1984 NBC comedy series scored a surprisingly strong debut mere weeks ago.
“Night Court” is going back into session — again. The NBC sitcom, and sequel to the popular ’80s series of the same name, has been renewed for a second season at the network.
The news comes shortly after the series premiered to a surprisingly sizable audience on January 17. The first season has thus far aired four episodes of 13 episodes; the fifth scheduled for February 7.
“It’s so rewarding to have audiences respond and return to a show in which they have such incredibly warm feelings, and, more broadly, it’s testament to how broadcast is still a huge driver of communal viewing,” Lisa Katz, president of Scripted Content at NBCUniversal Television, said in a statement on Thursday. “A huge thank you to our studio partners, a wonderful cast, incredibly talented writers and producers, and a crew that has transformed a lower Manhattan courtroom into a true family.”
Since its premiere last month, “Night Court” has quickly shaped up to be one of the network’s biggest comedy hits in years. The first episode received a strong 7.55 million “live” viewers, according to Nielsen ratings. Across all platforms, that viewership has since grown to a total of 25.7 million viewers, according to NBC. That makes the show the biggest NBC comedy premiere since “Will & Grace” came back in 2017.
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“The verdict is in and the ‘new-boot’ of ‘Night Court’ is a hit! The series’ razor-sharp humor makes the show a weekly must watch. We’re overjoyed that court will remain in session and return with new cases for season two,” Channing Dungey, the chairman and CEO of “Night Court” studio Warner Bros. Television Group, said. “We’re so grateful to our colleagues at NBC, to the richly talented creative team led by Melissa Rauch, Winston Rauch, Dan Rubin and John Larroquette, and to the stellar ensemble cast.”
The original “Night Court” was created by Reinhold Weege, and ran from 1984 to 1992 on NBC for a total of nine seasons and over 200 episodes. The original show starred Harry Anderson as Judge Harold T. Stone, a young and quirky judge presiding over the bizarre and wacky cases set during the night shift of a Manhattan criminal court. John Larroquette played Dan Fielding, the narcissistic and selfish prosecutor, while Markie Post played the public defender Christine Sullivan from Season 3 onward. The cast was rounded out by Charles Robinson as the court clerk; Richard Moll and Marsha Warfield played the bailiffs.
The new series stars Melissa Rauch as Abby Stone, Harold T. Stone’s daughter, who takes on her dad’s old role as the night-shift judge at his old court. Larroquette reprises his role as Fielding, now serving as a public defender instead of a prosecutor. India de Beaufort plays assistant district attorney Olivia, Kapil Talwalkar plays court clerk Neil, and Lacretta plays bailiff Donna Gurganous.
“Night Court” is executive produced by Dan Rubin, Rauch, and Winston Rauch; Larroquette produces. The series is a production of Warner Bros. Television in association with After January Productions and Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group.
Another great talk today with multi-time guest of the podcast, Kate Casey, from the “Reality Life” podcast. We do talk about the early returns on Zach’s season and get into some Housewives stuff, but the last half hour of the podcast is spent talking about the tragic murders of the four University of Idaho students. Kate has had a retired FBI agent on her podcast for the last couple months, so she shares insight from what she learned from them. It’s a really good talk, and I’m not someone who’s followed that case too closely. I’ve kinda just been on the periphery and read headlines and some stories here and there, but I know this case is fascinating to a lot of America and I really enjoyed learning more about it talking with Kate. I hope you’ll enjoy it too. Kate is always a great conversationalist and has some ideas for the “Bachelor” that, unfortunately, I don’t think are gonna pan out the way she wants them to. Namely the next “Bachelorette” and how the situation with the “Game of Roses” book plays out. Thanks again to Kate for coming on again and no doubt we’ll be hearing from her in the future.
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 talking about a new show I’ll be covering starting next week, the spoiler people keep sending me, and what’s on the Daily Roundup today. Then Kate joins me (10:22) to give her impression of Zach so far as the Bachelor, how Christina in her mind is stealing the show, Housewives drama, and then we spend the back half of the podcast talking about the four college students murdered at the University of Idaho and the perspective she’s gained from speaking to a former FBI agent on her podcast.
(SPOILERS) Today’s Daily Roundup covers Kaitlyn’s appearance on the “Not Skinny But Not Fat” podcast, the freak out over Clayton & Rachel, spoilers, The Challenge Part 1 finale, and Special Forces on Fox.
You can listen to that podcast on a number of platforms, but you can also tune in here:
At the Netflix premiere of her documentary “Pamela, a Love Story,” the actress and her son Brandon Lee discussed the intimate project.
One of the biggest bombshells (other than the subject herself) in “Pamela, a Love Story,” a new Netflix documentary about Pamela Anderson, is the shocking revelation that she and ex-husband Tommy Lee never saw a dime from their infamous sex tape. Though the information was public, most people just assumed the couple somehow capitalized on the unauthorized tape, which was stolen from their home and released in 1995.
The original celebrity sex tape and viral video in one, Anderson says in the documentary it was one of the most painful times in her life. Though she has always said she never profited from the tape, no one cared enough to listen.
“I don’t think anyone wanted to believe it,” Anderson said during a talkback after a recent New York screening of the film. “Plus, we just let it go. After the depositions and all this craziness, and I was pregnant with Dylan, we didn’t wanna put any more stress on the baby. Tommy and I just said, ‘f— them, karma, whatever,’ we just left it. We really just tried to leave it in the past. So we didn’t do a press tour talking about what money we didn’t get. That was just dirty money. We didn’t want it. And we ended up OK.”
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The Ryan White film sets the record straight on many things in Anderson’s life; fleshing out the icon for those who may know nothing beyond “Baywatch.” Born on Vancouver Island, B.C., she survived a childhood marred by trauma before being plucked from obscurity by a few “Forrest Gump”-like coincidences of being in the right place at the right time. It’s a refreshing and intimate look at the misunderstood starlet, who comes off as thoughtful, loving, and free-spirited.
“I just think, why not? Everyone’s different, let’s try and dig into those feelings that nobody else has,” said Anderson of the decision to make the film. “We all have a purpose, and if we can just find our unique forward-thinking ideas, that’s where all the interesting, good stuff is. So I thought, ‘if somebody else can do it, I can do it.’ And I just don’t know what I’m capable of yet. I just want to push myself to the limit. I don’t know what my purpose is, I’m just having fun doing it and trying all the things. I think it’s a survival mechanism — trying to have a good time, even if things are hard.”
The film also offers her own take after the popular Hulu series “Pam & Tommy” forced her to relive the sex tape. Aside from being yet another painful invasion of privacy, the series stoking renewed media interest in the scandal. Anderson’s older son, Brandon Lee, was a producer on the film, and felt especially passionate that his mother be seen in her full humanity.
“My whole goal with this was to give everyone a glimpse of what I got to see every day when I came home from school. Every day at my soccer practices, being a dedicated mom, and just all around a supportive human being, trying to live this normal life inside a world that just really didn’t understand her,” Lee said. “The way she was treated was unacceptable, and we should all be ashamed of ourselves for being a part of that.”
It was Lee who recruited director White (“Good Night Oppy,” “Ask Dr. Ruth”) to the project. Anderson herself was very hands-off, her son was there to make sure the story was being told with care and nuance. Still, it was difficult for him to remain entirely neutral.
“There were definitely times where I thought: ‘Am I gonna be able to keep a level head as a producer on this project and wanna do what’s best for the film?’ I constantly battled that with a lot of stuff that was in the film about my family,” said Lee. “You’re watching your life come together in reverse, and I don’t think that a lot of people get to do that, I’m watching a lot of things that happened with my family in the public eye that I remember certain instances of when I was a kid… but the rest of the world knew the full story and I didn’t. A lot of this for me was kinda catching up to that, so it was very emotional.”
“Pamela, a Love Story” is currently streaming on Netflix.
Although the holiday (and that glorious long weekend) are still a ways off, the best Presidents’ Day sales are already in full swing—if you know where to look. It’s a symbiotic relationship: Retailers get to make room for new-season merchandise while you get to stock up on winter essentials and springy finds at a steep discount. If you’ve been eyeing anything from current collections, now’s the time to pounce.
The holiday day falls on February 20 this year, and while it’s best known for those can’t-miss Presidents’ Day mattress sales, there are plenty of other early deals up for grabs too in the fashion and beauty space. Need a puffer jacket that’ll help you survive the rest of the season in style? Buzzy beauty products to revamp your routine? One of the best vibrators for better O’s all 2023? You’ll find it all (and even more) in our roundup of Presidents’ Day deals.
To save you valuable browsing time—one person can only wade through so many sites—we went ahead and rounded up the absolute best early Presidents’ Day sales of 2023 that you can shop right now. (Yes, technically some of them are technically deals on Valentine’s Day gifts—but we’re not picky.) And make sure to bookmark this page, since we’ll be updating it with even more deals from Apple, Best Buy, Saatva, and other retailers as the holiday weekend approaches.
Best Presidents’ Day Clothing Deals 2023
Looking for gear to get you through your last winter workouts? Hit up Lululemon’s secret We Made Too Much section for discounts on bestsellers like winter leggings, gym-ready tanks, and so much more.
Head over to Nordstrom’s Presidents’ Day sale for up to 70% off wardrobe MVPs and designer finds. Take these Tory Burch and Reformation finds as all the proof you need to sprint to checkout. (Not pictured: Ugg, Nike, and The North Face.)
From vintage tees to cute sweatshirts and ultra-comfy jeans, there’s a treasure trove of cute basics currently hiding in Madewell’s recently expanded sale section. Keep an eye out for an official sale—we bet it’ll be a doozy.
Shopbop’s sale section never fails to impress, but it’s especially sweet right now, considering the retailer just filled it with thousands of styles like high-waisted jeans and spring dresses up to 70% off retail. If that’s not enough reason to finally snap up the wish-list piece languishing in your cart, what is?
J.Crew fans know that a sale is never too far away, and its mid-winter discounts are especially great. With code EXTRA, you’ll get an extra 50% off select sale styles, including a ton of party dresses, coats, and tank tops that make perfect transitional layers.
One of our favorite department stores is clearing out its shelves both online and IRL, meaning its sale section is popping right now. We see cool-girl labels like Simon Miller, Farm Rio, and Sandy Liang in your future—all up to 70% off their original prices, no less.
Net-a-Porter’s legendary sale section needs no introduction, but we’ll give you a little refresher anyway: A few times a year, the luxury retailer puts a huge swath of styles on sale, with the discounts inching up until they disappear into thin air. Right now, sale styles are up to 80% off at NAP, a sure sign that the deals are about as good as they’re going to get—and not long for this world. Run.
Continue your designer haul at Ssense, where you’ll find on-trend pieces from the likes of Diesel, The Very Warm, Alighieri, Collina Strada, and more—brands ideal for bringing your weird girl style into full form.
Come for the coveted designer fashion; stay for the jaw-dropping deals. Bloomingdale’s is currently offering discounts of 40% to 60% off a huge selection of items, including high-end labels like Ganni, Maje, and Kate Spade. Plus, you’ll get $25 off every $150 you spend, no promo code necessary.
Finding Amazon’s Presidents’ Day deals on home goods, kitchen appliances, smart TVs, and laptops (just to name a few) isn’t hard. But you know what is? Finding deals on the beauty products you really want and would buy at full price anyway, like the viral Revlon One-Step Hair Dryer Brush. Oh, wait—here you go.
Savvy shoppers know that Nordstrom’s beauty department has some excellent deals year-round, with some under-$100 gems already up for grabs. We’re eyeing up rarely discounted finds from Perricone MD and True Botanicals (which counts Brooke Shields and Laura Dern among its fans).
Thinking about switching up your skin-care routine for spring? Hit up Ulta’s sale section. The beauty mecca has slashed prices on gift sets, making it easier than ever to try out a new brand or product. Plus, select mini-products are currently buy-one-get-one, and a few products (including from Black-owned beauty brand Mented Cosmetics) are up to half-off on flash sale.
Use the code SS15 at checkout to score up to 15% off sitewide on thousands of cult-favorite beauty products, including from the likes of NuFace, Fur, and Hero Cosmetics. Winter dryness is no match for your soon-to-be revamped routine.
While we’re on the topic of self-care, let’s talk sexual wellness. Lelo sex toys are among the best vibrators available anywhere, thanks to their long-lasting batteries, powerful motors, and unique shapes—and most of them happen to be on sale right now. Don’t miss your chance to stock up ahead of Valentine’s Day.
Best Presidents’ Day Home & Tech Deals 2023
Leave it to Wayfair to blow us away with a holiday sale. The furniture mega-retailer is currently holding its (aptly named) big furniture sale, meaning you’ll walk away with discounts of up to 50% off every category on the site. First up: couches and sectionals, area rugs, coffee tables, and plenty of other cute home decor for our living rooms.
Although there are many, many more new mattress deals to come, we might be most hyped about Purple’s set. The brand’s gel-grid mattresses are surprisingly comfy, and although its sales aren’t exceedingly rare, they almost never get as good as its early President’s Day discounts: up to $400 off mattresses and $500 off bases.
Not to be outdone, Target is coming in hot with discounts across its entire site—including an epic 25% off select furniture. Hear that clacking? It’s the sound of us racing to nab these MCM pieces before they sell out.
This year’s recipient of IDA’s Preservation and Scholarship Award is Cambodian director Rithy Panh, 60, whose most recent autobiographical film, The Missing Picture, won top prize in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2013 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, as Cambodia’s submission. The Missing Picture blends clay figures, photographs and Khmer Rouge propaganda films into a devastating memoir of Panh’s family’s demise in the work camps of that murderous regime.
The Preservation and Scholarship Award goes to Panh for co-founding, along with filmmaker Ieu Pannakar, the Bophana Audiovisual Resource Center in Phnom Penh. This young institution, established in 2006, is the repository for film, television, photography and sound archives on Cambodia, drawn from around the world. Visitors can access these materials free of charge. The Center also provides filmmaking training and produces “modern audiovisual creation, filmmaking and multimedia.”
A Center event, Cine Saturday, screens propaganda films made by both the Khmer Rouge and former Cambodian ruler King Norodom Sihanouk, as well as documentaries by filmmakers such as Raoul Peck (and Panh himself, of course) and fiction such as the Catherine Deneuve-starrer Indochine. This past August, the Center commemorated the centenary of Indian cinema with Bollywood classics from 1958 to 2003. Other programs include a cine club, conferences, exhibitions and mobile screenings outside of Phnom Penh. The Center also produces the Cambodian International Film Festival, which runs December 5-10.
We reached Panh via email, and he was gracious enough to take time out from his production shoot to respond to our questions.
Can you tell us about the origins of the Bophana Audiovisual Resource Center?
Rithy Panh: After the Khmer Rouge fell [in 1979], the whole country was in ruins. Generations of memory had been destroyed, and it was left to us survivors to rediscover and redefine our shared identity. Many of the tools, the tangible things and the people that would ordinarily help us do this, were no longer. Wanting to preserve what limited memory was left, Ieu Pannakar began collecting old films he found scattered across streets and cities.
Then in 1990, some friends and I discovered this collection, stored in the roof of the Cinema Department in Phnom Penh. I remember the first thing that came to my mind was noticing what poor condition all of the films were in, followed by feeling deeply sad: “Everything has been destroyed; everything has been taken from us.” With the deterioration and decay of these films, I felt like our identity, our sense of belonging, would continue to diminish and die. We couldn’t let another memory be ripped away from us, so we did what we had to do to ensure the film collection’s survival. We asked Ieu Pannakar and the Cinema Department for their support, and without any film archive experience, we looked at ways to store and preserve these films while simultaneously sharing them with others.
At first, we thought we could just create a library. But as our vision and mission refined itself, we realized our goals were much bigger than that. We were not film archivists or teachers, and we had to learn from the very basics up. We needed to know about copyright, preservation, business management, community engagement, fundraising. We needed a whole range of skills in order to see our idea realized. In the beginning, many people were reluctant to invest in us. Owners of prints were afraid to hand over their films to a bunch of young Cambodians new to the game. But we continued to work at it voluntarily, doing solid days and nights. Ten years later, the Bophana Audiovisual Resource Center was realized and given to the people to explore their heritage.
What is the origin of the name Bophana?
Bophana was separated from her husband throughout the Khmer Rouge era. Imprisoned in S-21 prison, she was forced to write a “confessional” biography: who she was, whom she knew and her background. Through horrific torture and suffering, Bophana had to write her full story; she confessed she was with the CIA, although this was false. Each time she did this, she signed with the name Seda Deth. She did not know her husband was also in prison right next to her, but in signing this way, she tried to reinforce to him that she would not let the Khmer Rouge break her. They could torture her, abuse her, interrogate her—but they could not destroy her spirit or her love for him. This is a strong message for the next generation: a message of resistance in the name of love. Our spirit and the message we choose to send to the world can have a profound impact on the society. At the Bophana Center we want people to have a voice to share and exchange their message, doing so via conscious, empowering and creative channels.
Tell us about the Bophana Center’s co-founder, Ieu Pannakar.
Ieu Pannakar was one of the first Cambodian filmmakers. He worked for King Norodom Sihanouk. He made Cambodian television, was a pilot, an engineer, he built railways…a man of many skills and talents. His true passion, however, was cinema. When the Khmer Rouge fell, he helped to establish the Department of Cinema, worked for the King as a senator and continued making films. Today he shares his time between prayer and filmmaking—he is a man of many passions and much enthusiasm. He is a great mentor to me, and in those early days he supported me in developing the Bophana Center. He provided us with the building for the center, and he talked and guided me along all the way.
How did you incorporate the Khmer Rouge footage into The Missing Picture?
The footage used in this film was not singularly used by me but has been used by many directors and filmmakers both here and abroad to document the Khmer Rouge. It is a long-term goal to see this database extend to become accessible worldwide and available over the Internet for other cultures and places to learn about our past.
I think the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has it right when it lists access to information and freedom of expression as a fundamental right to every human being. Being able to learn about your roots, your culture, your identity and that of others is an essential component to any healthy society. Young people have their minds floating above themselves, buzzing within the technological world of Facebook and mobile phones. We have information overload and much of it is rubbish. We have to teach our young generations now how to distinguish the good from the bad. Many youth wouldn’t know where to start in accessing quality information and memory resources, so we have to help lead them to it.
Is there the possibility that there are “lost” Cambodian films hidden somewhere in the countryside?
I am sure of it. It is this belief that has driven my work until now. But these are not so easy to locate, and if found, are often in very poor condition, requiring high-tech equipment to restore and preserve them. One Japanese expert is now working with our team on film restorations. Many more films are no doubt scattered across the world, and any new material we acquire will only add to our memory and build upon what we know and understand of ourselves.
I aspire to find these, find them all and bring them back to life but, like everything, this takes funding. I think about our history: the US bombings, then the Khmer Rouge, then the civil war and all the lives lost, and the destruction and suffering that resulted. I think of all the expertise and knowledge that was wiped out as a consequence and how now we are struggling to rebuild; our path of prosperity and peace has been shattered.
Genocide is not only killing; it is not only deaths. It is much more than that. It is the complete destruction and deprivation of our culture and our identity. After all of this, when we look to rebuild what we have lost, we find ourselves left begging for help—as if all the responsibility and accountability have been placed on our backs alone and the past forgotten. If we don’t try to access and preserve our memory, it means the millions dead will stay only a statistic with no face, no name, no story. The dead will be nothing.
Frako Loden is adjunct lecturer in film, women’s studies and ethnic studies at California State University East Bay and Diablo Valley College. She also reports on film festivals for Fandor.
The Spanish island made its name as a popular British holiday hotspot, offering year-round sun, beautiful beaches and a stunning volcanic landscape.
But Lanzarote has now decided it has had enough of tourists after becoming ‘saturated’ with Brits abroad.
The Canary Islands haunt is now deliberately pursuing a policy of tourist decline to ‘guarantee the future of generations to come.’
Island leaders say the new strategy will focus on becoming less dependent on Brits who currently account for more than half of holiday numbers.
Lanzarote, with a census of just 151,000 inhabitants, received 2.5 million tourists until November 2022, 17 times its population.
English Tourists on Puerto del Carmen Beach in Lanzarote (file photo)
Lanzarote has now decided it has had enough of tourists after becoming ‘saturated’ with Brits abroad (pictured: David Cameron on holiday in Lanzarote in 2014)
Now, the Island Council has advanced the idea of declaring itself a ‘tourist-saturated area’, something for which they assure there is ‘a broad social consensus’.
Lanzarote’s president Dolores Corujo (PSOE) said it would be the start of a phase of tourism decrease.
‘This year, we went to the travel trade fair, FITUR to present the change in the tourism model that we want for Lanzarote, on which we have been working throughout this mandate, despite setbacks and limitations derived from the pandemic.
British pub customer sitting outdoors in Puerto del Carmen (file photo)
A young girl applies sun cream to a relative’s back in Puerto del Carmen (file photo)
‘There we certified the return to full tourist normality and once again highlighted our firm commitment to sustainability and excellence,’ she said.
This stance, she said, would mean aspiring to receive fewer tourists, ‘with greater spending in the destination so that they generate greater wealth in the economy as a whole.’
As more than half of the island’s visitors come from the United Kingdom, it would be necessary to adopt ‘a diversification strategy to reduce dependence on the British market.’
The Canary Islands haunt is now deliberately pursuing a policy of tourist decline to ‘guarantee the future of generations to come’
Lanzarote, with a census of just 151,000 inhabitants, received 2.5 million tourists until November 2022, 17 times its population
Growth was therefore expected in the French, Italian, Dutch and peninsular markets which would have a direct impact on the increase in tourist spending at the destination.
Tourism leaders say although the objective is shared, massive investments will be needed to attract a tourist with higher spending, such as the beaches and infrastructure.
And they say it is going to be a difficult job for Lanzarote to find other lucrative markets to reduce the weight of tourism.
Tourists take pictures in Timanfaya National Park, a protected volcanic area located in the south west coast of Lanzarote
‘There is hardly any industrial land and aquaculture is not being well received either. If the decision is not to grow tourism and at the same time there is no industrial land planning and other models are rejected, all the parties will have to ask themselves what future model they want to develop,’ said one business leader.
Hotels would also need money to upgrade themselves.
At this stage, Lanzarote’s island council hasn’t said how it plans to reduce tourism saturation or visitor numbers.
With Nelson Peltz angling for a seat on Disney’s board, the company today blasted the activisit investor, his firm, and his son, Matthew Peltz, whom Trian is proposing as a possible alternate candidate.
“The Disney Board of Directors does not endorse Nelson Peltz (or his son Matthew, who is running as an alternate Mr. Peltz may swap in) as a nominee, and believes the election of either Mr. Peltz or his son would threaten the strategic management of Disney during a period of important change in the media landscape,” the company said today.
Disney shareholders will vote on the boad of directors at the next annual meeting. The event is usually in early March but may be delayed a bit this year. The company is proposing slate of 11 directors — it used to be 12 until the retirement of former board chair Susan Arnold. Peltz has gotten himself added to the ballot and the battle, called a proxy fight, is heating up.
The 11 directors with the most votes win, so Peltz has to basically unseat one on Disney’s director nominees and targeted Michael Froman, citing lack of board experience and urging shareholdrs to withold support for Froman and vote for him instead.
Both Disney and Trian are sending shareholders voting cards with the full list of board candidates, just in different order. Shareholders can use card either to vote.
“It is ESSENTIAL that you VOTE “FOR” Nelson Peltz and “Withhold” on Michael B.G Froman. If you do not ”WITHHOLD” on Michael B.G. Froman, this could jeopardize the goal of electing Nelson Peltz to the Board. Even if you vote “FOR” Nelson,” Trian said in an SEC filing today.
Its justification: “Trian Group believes Mr. Froman has no experience as a public company director outside of Disney, and, moreover, has served as a member of the Governance and Nominating Committee of the Board, which the Trian Group believes has overseen weak corporate governance at the Company. In contrast, Nelson Peltz has served on numerous public company boards over the last several years, including The Procter & Gamble Company, Unilever plc, Mondelēz International, Inc. and The Wendy’s Company, and has a long track record of working with management teams and boards in turning around companies with strong underlying fundamentals that are facing meaningful challenges. In addition, having Mr. Peltz, who has a significant ownership stake of Disney stock, will bring a shareowner mentality to the boardroom. Accordingly, we believe that Mr. Peltz’s experience makes him better positioned than Mr. Froman to help the Board enhance accountability, align executive compensation with shareholders’ interests, plan for leadership succession, address operational challenges and improve capital allocation practices.”
Disney, for its part, called the attack on Froman inexplicable, calling him “a highly valued member of the Board with deep background in global trade and international business, who the Board believes is far better qualified than either Mr. Peltz or his son to help drive value for shareholders. Neither Mr. Peltz nor his son offer skills or experience additive to the Disney Board that replace the decades-long experience of Mr. Froman.”
“Mr. Froman’s decades of experience in business and international affairs are critical to helping Disney assess the risks and opportunities in an increasingly complex global marketplace, given its strategic focus on global growth of its customer base and innovation in changing markets.”
“Mr. Froman has served as U.S. Trade Representative, where he worked on trade-related issues to advance the interests of the U.S. government and American businesses in foreign markets, including on issues affecting the digital economy, the usage and protection of data, and intellectual property rights, all of which are critical to Disney’s business. He served as Assistant to the President of the United States and as Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economic Policy, a position held jointly at the National Security Council and the National Economic Council. He also served as Chief Executive Officer of CitiInsurance and Chief Operating Officer of Citigroup’s alternative investments business, and is currently Vice Chairman and President, Strategic Growth, Mastercard Inc. He works closely with his fellow members of the Disney Board to guide the company, providing expert advice on complex international economic, policy and regulatory affairs to assist with Disney’s international strategy and operations, among other matters.”
Today, I attended the unveiling of the Ninja Speedi at the brand’s (very cool) new office in London. It’s due to launch in the UK next week but for our US readers, it’s already available for you to buy.
I’m writing this all down for you to read because this is a revolutionary home appliance. One that can cook you a meal in 15 minutes. You can use a variety of ingredients; from meats and cheeses to veg and rice, and put them all into the same pot.
It’s the first small appliance to launch after the success of some of the best air fryers I’ve ever seen. The Ninja Speedi is sure to disrupt our countertop and the way we do dinner. But what’s it really capable of?
Ninja Speedi cooking four chicken breasts on the Cook & Crisp tray (Image credit: Future / Jennifer Oksien)
When I saw the Ninja Speedi in action, pasta, broccoli and crème fraiche was added into the pot. Water was then added. At this point I didn’t know what to expect. The Cook & Crisp tray was then added and four crumb coated chicken breasts were placed on top. The lid was put down, some buttons were pressed and the timer started counting down from 15 minutes.
My time watching this particular demo was then up, and we had to move on to another demo within a few minutes. However, I had plated up some halloumi and veg skewers with coconut rice from an earlier demonstration and, oh my, it was delicious.
The Ninja Speedi has a total of 10 cooking functions, with a SmartSwitch that can be used to flip between Rapid Cooker mode and Air Fry / Hob Mode. Yep – air frying is one of the cooking functions, along with Speedi Meals, Steam Air Fry, Steam Bake, Steam, Grill, Air Fry, Bake/Roast, Dehydrate, Sear/Sauté and Slow Cook.
You can cook three parts of your main meal according to the specs, and even roast a 1.6kg chicken. I’ve been equally impressed to see that the 5.7L cooking pot (and Cook & Crisp tray) is non stick and all parts are dishwasher safe.
Cooking pot is non-stick (Image credit: Future / Jennifer Oksien)
This is certainly an example of SharkNinja innovation at its best and I’m looking forward to reviewing it. If you can’t wait to read my review about it and you just know that you want to buy already, our US readers can get hold of it from the Ninja site for $199.99 (opens in new tab) whereas our UK readers can be notified (opens in new tab) once it comes in to stock (priced at £249.99).
In the latest edition of Variety‘s Awards Circuit series, presented by HBO, television editor Michael Schneider and TV features editor Emily Longeretta analyzed this year’s Screen Actors Guild nominations. The two focus on the comedy ensemble category, discussing audience favorites including “Abbott Elementary,” “Hacks,” “Barry,” “Only Murders in the Building” and “The Bear.”
Throughout the release of “Abbott Elementary’s” second season, the series has been dominating the comedy series awards categories. As Schneider said, “It’ a murderers row of talent on this show,” since its December 2021 premiere season. “Abbott Elementary” has garnered three Emmys, three Golden Globe Awards and two Critics’ Choice Awards, with wins and nominations for creator and star Quinta Brunson, as well as her castmates Sheryl Lee Ralph, Tyler James Williams, Chris Perfetti and Janelle James.
Explaining that “Abbott Elementary” is “on a tear,” Schneider noted how fun it is to watch the series “pair people up, and you see them interact and play off each other.” Longeretta added, “When it comes to ensemble, this is the definition of a show that works because of its ensemble.”
Although the genre of FX’s dramatic breakout hit “The Bear” has been debated amongst critics and fans, Schneider suggests the series has “become kind of a front runner” in the comedy category, adding, “If anything ‘The Bear’ could be the spoiler when comes to ‘Abbott Elementary.’”
Since its June 2022 premiere, “The Bear” has been celebrated for the undeniable chemistry from its ensemble, including Jeremy Allen White, Ayo Edebiri, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Abby Elliott, Lionel Boyce and Liza Colón-Zayas. White is nominated for SAG award as well as the ensemble nomination.
The remaining nominations include HBOMax’s “Hacks,” starring SAG nominee Jean Smart, Hannah Einbinder, Megan Stalter, Carl Clemons-Hopkins and creator Paul W. Downs; “Only Murders in the Building,” the murder-mystery led by unlikely trio Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez; and HBO’s “Barry,” created and starring Bill Hader, Henry Winkler, Sarah Goldberg, Anthony Carrigan and Stephen Root.
As the online landscape continues to shift and evolve in the screen sector, so too do the conversations surrounding streaming legislation in Canada. The current iteration of that dialogue, Bill C-11, is in the final stages of voting at the Senate this week. It is expected to be passed back to the Commons for a final vote and eventual passage into law in the coming days.
Just as decision-makers wrapped that bill’s third reading on Feb. 2, Canadian screen leaders took the stage at the Canadian Media Producers Association’s (CMPA) annual Prime Time event in Ottawa. There, they discussed media policy and potential changes to the industry in the years ahead.
Unsurprisingly, most of that discussion revolved around the concerns some of the 26 amendments to the 56-page bill have raised. (The bill is the longest study ever conducted at a Senate committee.) While the heart of the bill is designed to ensure streaming platforms in Canada also contribute to the culture, vague and concerning wording in the bill has raised issues of IP, Canadian production expenditure (CPE), and the potential emergence of a two-tiered system in which streamers are not held to the same standards as Canadian broadcasters.
“If the policy goes in a direction that’s helpful to our entire ecosystem and things go well with the legislation and regulations, we could actually see more money coming into the system,” said Justin Stockman, VP of content development and programing at Bell Media Inc.
“We could see more Canadian productions, which can fuel IP and actually be really beneficial to this entire market. But it could go the other way, where we could see Canadian content and Canadian dollars being controlled by non-Canadians.”
Barbara Williams, CBC’s executive VP, added it’s essential the bill pushes incremental money into the Canadian system, rather than shuffling around current expenditures in the ecosystem.
“We’re hoping that however the mechanics work, it’s incremental and that it really adds to the support for all producers to be able to access that incremental money, in whatever way is determined to be best,” she said.
In its current form, it’s unclear whether the bill would give streamers a CPE obligation or force them to contribute to a fund like the Canada Media Fund (CMF). There are also questions surrounding access to those funds and who would oversee it.
During the discussion, Stockman pointed to Netflix’s “The Umbrella Academy,” which currently films in Canada and features a Canadian lead in Elliot Page.
“There’s a world where if Netflix decided to do another season of ‘Umbrella Academy,’ which is a big expensive show, a couple tweaks to that show where there’s already a Canadian lead and there are Canadian producers, and that can be your CPE for the year,” he said.
“It’s not CanCon in its current form. They were going to do it anyway, and all those dollars just leave the system.”
Stockman also cited previous regulation, which encourages partnership, ownership rules, and the ability to monetize foreign content, and said he hopes C-11 bridges partnerships in a way that ensures content remains managed appropriately through a Canadian lens.
“All the partnership angles in our previous regulations don’t seem to be what we’ve seen so far [with this new bill],” he added.
Blue Ant Media CEO Michael MacMillan reiterated the importance of keeping IP ownership in Canada while building on what streamers are already doing well in Canada: bringing international standards to the country, allowing access, and making great use of Canadians as creative resources.
“We want to continue making sure we’re able to participate more and to continue to do what they’re already doing,” he said. “On top of that, we’re saying there could be a new mechanism for additional creativity and for additional production, where the IP resides in Canadian hands.”
He added there are plenty of details to debate, given how the bill is designed to deliver broad general instructions as a directive to the CRTC and other regulatory boards. However, if Canadians don’t insist on the Canadian ownership of IP, at the end of the day they won’t have much left.
“Ultimately, the streamers will find a way in all these jurisdictions to be supported and to support those local industries,” he said. “I’m really optimistic about where this is going if we don’t take our eye off the underlying importance of the ownership of it.”
“Lootcase”, directed by Rajesh Krishnan, is constructed around a scenario that most of us have only fantasized about – the hope of someday chancing upon unexpected wealth. The film plays out longer than it should, but it’s mostly clever, and it benefits from a crackling cast that comes together to elevate even the saggy bits.
Nandan Kumar (Kunal Kemmu) is a blue-collar worker in a printing press, struggling to give his family a better life. His wife Lata (Rasika Duggal) suggests that he should supplement his income by starting a small business from home. Among other complaints, she reminds him that he’s been promising to take them to Shimla for years. “Maine toh sweater bhi bunke rakha hai; aise hi pada hai,” she says. Their young son understands that money is tight, but a kid wants what a kid wants.
While returning home after completing a night shift one day, Nandan stumbles onto an abandoned suitcase stuffed with cash. It doesn’t appear to belong to anyone, but it could be the solution to every problem he’s ever had; a means to uplift his family from a life of pinching pennies that they seem destined for. So away he goes, bag in tow, oblivious that a corrupt politician, some ruthless gangsters, and a trigger-happy cop are in hot pursuit of it.
Much of the humour in “Lootcase” comes from two factors – the first being Nandan’s inability to find a suitable place to hide the bag. We’re talking about a lower middle-class fellow who lives cheek to jowl with neighbours in a ratty chawl. Where do you hide ten crore rupees? The second source of amusement is his inability to spend much of the cash. “Na chaar rupaay ka churan khareed sakta hoon, na chaar crore ka flat,” he laments, realizing the impracticality of hoarding two thousand rupee notes. There is also the irony that his wife is constantly complaining that they don’t have enough money, yet he knows she’d never be okay with keeping what doesn’t belong to them.
The other characters too are quirky; the screenplay coasts along nicely when Gajraj Rao shows up on the screen as a sweet-talking MLA who gets people to carry out his crooked bidding by employing a passive-aggressive approach. Vijay Raaz is a hoot as a National Geographic-obsessed don who employs wildlife terminology while issuing orders to his henchmen. There’s also Ranvir Shorey in good form, as a hot-headed police officer who’s becoming increasingly desperate – and violent – as the hunt for the suitcase gets increasingly intense. A word also for the fine actors in smaller roles who add to the hilarity – like Nandan’s polite neighbour, Vijay Raaz’s goondas, and Ranvir Shorey’s informer.
At the centre of this comedy of errors are Nandan and Lata. Kunal Kemmu does the aam aadmi routine with real flair, and his scenes with the excellent Rasika Duggal are some of the best in the film. Their Chinese food analogies for sex deliver some of the biggest laughs.
But “Lootcase” unravels in its final act, losing steam well before the finish line. At 2 hours and 13 minutes, it’s way too long; there’s just not enough plot to justify that running time. The climax is your standard Priyadarshan-style chaos of multiple characters and complete madness, although there is more bloodshed here that one tends to see in comedies. Also, it’s quite predictable how things will inevitably end, so there’s no real point in stretching the screenplay.
The film’s best bits are its little throwaway moments and there are plenty of those. “Lootcase” is not perfect or extraordinary in any way. But it will bring a smile to your face. And in these times I think it’s fair to say we’re grateful for what we can get.
Following the Emmy Award®-nominated success of “Star Wars: Visions,” the newest volume will continue to push the boundaries of “Star Wars” storytelling, with nine new shorts from 9 studios from around the globe.
Employing the most captivating animation styles from a variety of countries and cultures, the second volume offers a dynamic new perspective on the storied mythos of Star Wars.
Star Wars: Visions is an animated anthology series created for Disney+. Produced by Lucasfilm, the series consists of various original stories set in, or inspired by the Star Wars universe.
The first volume of nine anime short films were produced by seven Japanese animation studios: Kamikaze Douga, Studio Colorido, Geno Studio, Trigger, Kinema Citrus, Production I.G, and Science SARU. The creators at each studio were given free rein to re-envision the ideas of Star Wars as they saw fit, while receiving guidance from Lucasfilm’s executive team.
Volume 2 will showcase that potential as the shorts go on a global tour, celebrating the incredible animation happening across countries and cultures, through the mythos of Star Wars. The shorts included in “Star Wars: Visions” Volume 2 were created by the following international animation studios: El Guiri (Spain), Cartoon Saloon (Ireland), Punkrobot (Chile), Aardman (United Kingdom), Studio Mir (South Korea) Studio La Cachette (France), 88 Pictures (India), D’art Shtajio (Japan), and Triggerfish (South Africa). D’Art Shtajio’s short was created in collaboration with Lucasfilm Ltd. (United States).
“The reaction to the first volume of ‘Star Wars: Visions’ blew us away. We were delighted that this project inspired and resonated with so many people,” says James Waugh, “Star Wars: Visions” executive producer and Senior Vice President Franchise Content & Strategy at Lucasfilm. “We always saw ‘Star Wars: Visions’ as a framework for celebratory expressions of the franchise from some of the best creators working today. Animation is in a global renaissance, and we’re constantly staggered by the amount of creativity pushing the medium forward. With Volume 1, the imaginative minds of Japan’s anime industry were on full display. With Volume 2, we expanded our canvas to take audiences on a global tour of some of the most talented creators from around the world. We’re so proud to be able to reveal the line-up of studios we’ve assembled. Every short is incredible, full of heart, scope, imagination, and the values that make stories distinctly ‘Star Wars’ — all while opening up bold new ways of seeing what a ‘Star Wars’ story can be.”
Waugh executive produces “Star Wars: Visions” Volume 2 along with Jacqui Lopez and Josh Rimes.
The details on each short and their director in Volume 2 are listed below:
Title: “Sith”
Studio: El Guiri
Writer-director: Rodrigo Blaas
Rodrigo Blaas is an Emmy Award®-winning director who has spent more than 20 years in animation. After co-founding Stromboli Animation in 1997, Blaas joined Blue Sky Studios in 2000, working on the feature film “Ice Age,” before transitioning to Pixar Animation Studios. There, he worked on such projects as “Finding Nemo” (2003), “The Incredibles” (2004), “Ratatouille” (2007) and “Wall-E” (2008) and on the Oscar®-nominated short film “La Luna” (2011). More recently, Blaas partnered with Guillermo del Toro to develop the award-winning series “Trollhunters,” served as creative director for Mikros Animation Paris and, in 2021, created El Guiri Studios in Madrid with his partner, Cecile Hokes. He also wrote and directed 2009’s award-winning short film “Alma.”
Title: “Screecher’s Reach”
Studio: Cartoon Saloon
Director: Paul Young
Paul Young is a co-founder of Cartoon Saloon, an IFTA winner and Oscar®, Emmy® and BAFTA nominee. He produced the animated features “My Father’s Dragon,” “WolfWalkers,” “The Secret of Kells,” “Song of the Sea” and “The Breadwinner” as well as award-winning TV series including “Puffin Rock,” “Dorg Van Dango” and “Viking Skool.”
Title: “In the Stars”
Studio: Punkrobot
Writer-director: Gabriel Osorio
Gabriel Osorio majored in Fine Arts at Universidad de Chile, later specializing in 3D animation. After working in commercials, movies and television series, he founded Punkrobot Studio. Since 2008, he has directed projects for children’s television including “Flipos,” “Muelin y Perlita,” “Soccer Girls” and television spots. In 2016, his short film “Bear Story” became the first Latin American project to win an Oscar® in the animated short category.
Title: “I Am Your Mother”
Studio: Aardman
Director: Magdalena Osinska
Magdalena Osinska is an award-winning director who has been with Aardman for eight years. She has directed stop-motion, CGI, 2D and live-action commercials including Wallace & Gromit’s “The Great Sofa Caper” and “Share the Orange.” Osinska directed development of the children’s series “Joyets” and has also directed films including “Spirits of the Piano” and “Zbigniev’s Cupboard.” A graduate of the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield, UK, as well as the Polish Film School in Lodz and Art College in Warsaw, Osinska is currently developing the feature film “Jasia,” based on her grandmother’s memories of WWII Poland.
Title: “Journey to the Dark Head”
Studio: Studio Mir
Director: Hyeong Geun Park
Rising star Hyeong Geun Park had already made a name for himself when he entered the Korean animation industry in 2017, thanks to his strong drawing and animation sensibilities. He has directed animation for dozens of cinematic game trailers and has since expanded into animated series, working on projects including “Dota: Dragon’s Blood: Book 3” (2022) and “Lookism” (2022). “Journey to the Dark Head” is the first title he has executive produced from start to finish.
Title: “The Spy Dancer”
Studio: Studio La Cachette
Writer-director: Julien Chheng
Julien Chheng is CEO of Studio La Cachette, an Emmy Award®-winning French animation studio he co-founded in 2014 with fellow Gobelins school’s alumni Oussama Bouacheria and Ulysse Malassagne. Chheng was trained in visual development at Disney and has worked as a character animator on acclaimed 2D animated features “The Rabbi’s Cat,” “Mune” and the Academy Award®-nominated “Ernest and Celestine.” In 2021, he won an Emmy Award® as animation executive producer of “Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal,” for which he also served as animation supervisor. In 2022, Chheng directed with Jean-Christophe Roger the Cesar-nominated feature “Ernest and Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia.”
Title: “The Bandits of Golak”
Studio: 88 Pictures
Director: Ishan Shukla
Ishan Shukla started his career as a CG artist in Singapore. For more than a decade, he spearheaded projects ranging from TV commercials to series and music videos. His 2016 animated short, “Schirkoa,” was long listed for the Academy Awards® after receiving dozens of awards and playing at 120 international festivals, including SIGGRAPH Asia where it was named Best in Show. He then set up his own animation studio to work on adult-oriented animated feature films including a feature-length version of “Schirkoa,” set to hit festivals in summer 2023.
Title: “The Pit”
Studios: D’art Shtajio and Lucasfilm Ltd.
Writer-director-executive producer: LeAndre Thomas
Co-director: Justin Ridge
LeAndre Thomas is an award-winning writer and director from Oakland, Calif., whose most recent film won Best Director at the Pasadena International Film Festival. In addition to his independent films, Thomas is a part of the franchise studio team at Lucasfilm Ltd. where he has worked for more than 11 years being credited on recent titles such as “Light & Magic,” “The Mandalorian,” “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” “Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi,” and many more.
Justin Ridge executive produced the Emmy®-nominated series “Star Wars Resistance.” His credits also include “Star Wars Rebels,” “Storks,” “The Cleveland Show,” “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” and “Avatar: The Last Airbender.”
Title: “Aau’s Song”
Studio: Triggerfish
Writer-directors: Nadia Darries and Daniel Clarke
Nadia Darries is a director, animator and co-founder of Goon Valley Animation, with an avocation for songwriting. Born in the Cape Flats in South Africa, Darries has worked on high-end animated film and motion design as an animator, project manager, creative director and director since 2015. Her experience includes animating at Triggerfish Animation Studios on the award-winning BBC films “Stick Man,” “Revolting Rhymes” and “Highway Rat.”
Daniel Clarke is a Cape Town-based director and artist working in animation, film and illustration. He started his career in animation in 2008 at Triggerfish Animation Studios, where he has served as production designer, art director and director on projects such as the feature film “Khumba,” BBC’s “Stick Man” and “The Snail and the Whale.” In 2018, along with James Clarke and Daniel Snaddon, he completed the graphic novel “Kariba.”
The second volume of the animated anthology series “Star Wars: Visions” will premiere exclusively on Disney+ on May 4, 2023.
When it comes to her ex-husband Tom Brady, Gisele Bündchen is giving big “I don’t know her” energy and I support it. The supermodel and the quarterback finalized their divorce in October 2022 after Brady decided to unretire from the NFL—possibly a contributing factor in the split. But now that he has re-retired, Bündchen no longer has any opinion on what he does with his life.
“Gisele moved on with her life quite a while ago and is happy about whatever Tom chooses to do with his life now,” an unnamed source told People. “[She] is fine with his decisions but is not involved with them.”
On February 1, Brady announced on Instagram that he was retiring from professional football once again, and presumably, this time he really means it. “I’ll get to the point straightaway. I’m retiring…for good,” he said. “I know the process was a pretty big deal last time, so when I woke up this morning, I figured I’d just press record and let you guys know first.”
Outer Banks‘ John B. and friends have kept pretty busy since we last saw them. (Because, c’mon, Poguelandia wasn’t going to found itself!) But as the new Season 3 trailer can attest, soon their attention will be less focused on chilling on a deserted island and more concerned with finding gold (again) and running for their lives.
Netflix on Thursday released a full trailer for the upcoming season, all 10 episodes of which will be available to stream on Thursday, Feb. 23. And a lot happens in the two-minute preview! The Pogues wind up on a journey to the legendary city of El Dorado. John B. reunites with his presumed-dead dad, Big John. Sarah enlists the help of an unlikely ally. And… are we seeing this correctly… are Kiara and JJ about to kiss?!
Per the season’s official synopsis, the Pogues — aka John B., Kiara, Pope, Sarah, JJ and Cleo — are spending time on the desert isle they washed up on at the end of Season 2 (read a full finale recap) when they suddenly find themselves thrust back into a treasure hunt.
“They’re broke and far from home, they can’t trust anyone, Ward and Rafe are hungry for revenge, and there’s a ruthless Caribbean don who will stop at nothing to find the bounty,” the summary reads. “Was the treasure ever within their reach? Or was it all a trap to stop them once and for all? Either way, it’s the Pogues against the world — and the only way out is together.”
Press PLAY on the trailer above to see what Season 3 has in store, then hit the comments with your thoughts!
You know a movie is special when people describe it as “Groundhog Day” crossed with… something you’d never expect. Here are a handful of films that were inspired by or informed a similar time loop story as the Bill Murray rom-com classic
New Line Television
“12:01” (1993) • The short story on which “12:01” is based actually pre-dates “Groundhog Day” by nearly 20 years. It’s about a man caught reliving the worst day of his life when his wife is shot and killed. After receiving an electrical shock at midnight, he relives the previous day and finds that things get worse.
Sony Pictures Classics
“Run Lola Run” (1998) • Tom Tykwer’s action classic takes the time looping premise and turns it into a kinetic, real-time thrill ride. The title character Lola goes on a 20-minute dash as repeated several times, with each time depicting slight changes in the story that invoke ideas about parallel realities and moral choice.
Columbia Pictures Corporation
“50 First Dates” (2004) • Leave it to Adam Sandler to make another rom-com aping a “Groundhog Day” premise. In this one, Drew Barrymore only thinks she’s living the same day over and over because she has an affliction in which she can’t remember the previous day, but it doesn’t stop Sandler from trying to win her over. Short-term memory loss is a real thing, but not Barrymore’s specific affliction.
THINKFilm
“Primer” (2004) • One of the more creative indie time travel stories you’re likely to see, Shane Carruth’s lo-fi thriller is a densely plotted science fiction story about two entrepreneurial inventors who accidentally invent a device that allows them to travel back in time for a few hours at a time. Carruth keeps us in the dark as to what they’ve actually invented until well into the film, and it maintains its tension as it evolves into a character study of these two men trying to double cross the other.
Summit Entertainment
“Source Code” (2011) • Jake Gyllenhaal wakes up in someone else’s body eight minutes before a terrorist attack blows up the train he’s riding on. It’s his job to use that time to find the terrorist and stop the attack. The movie’s first eight minutes are its best when he realizes that he’s living someone else’s final moments. Director Duncan Jones uses the sci-fi set up as a parable for the frustration of being used as a tool and the nature of free will within each alternate reality.
Warner Bros. Pictures
“Edge of Tomorrow” a.k.a. “Live. Die. Repeat.” (2014) • This is one of Tom Cruise’s most underrated roles. We watch him die on an endless loop as he tries to learn how to win in a war against aliens, with each of his lives playing out like a video game in which he gains experience and gets closer to winning. But its charm comes from a sardonic sense of humor and Cruise’s relationship with a hard-nosed soldier played by Emily Blunt. In the end, she ends up killing him in training more times than the aliens do.
Netflix
“Naked” (2017) • It’s “Groundhog Day” with no clothes! Phil Connors at least didn’t have to relive the same humiliation Marlon Wayans does, where he wakes up naked hours before his wedding day and has to repeat things over and over until he gets things right. The film is actually a remake of a Swedish film from 2000.
Open Road Films/Universal Pictures
“Before I Fall” (2017) • What if “Groundhog Day” was about a mean girl? Zoey Deutch stars as a San Francisco teen with a “perfect” high school life until she’s killed in a car accident. When she repeats the same day of her death, she starts to reassess her relationships and unravel the mystery around her accident.
Universal Pictures
“Happy Death Day” (2017) and “Happy Death Day 2U” (2019) • “Happy Death Day” is a horror movie about a woman played by Jessica Rothe who has to relive a murder at the hands of a killer in a baby face mask until she can outsmart him and survive. And following the success of that film, the sequel, “Happy Death Day 2U,” winks at that premise by having Rothe’s character dying all over again…again. And this time, both her and her friends are caught in this vicious death loop.
Netflix
“See You Yesterday” (2019) • Stefon Bristol’s time-travel Netflix drama, produced by Spike Lee, features two high-school science geniuses (Eden Duncan-Smith and Dante Crichlow) who keep traveling back to the same day when their first trip back in time ends in tragedy. It combines critiques of racial profiling and over-policing with light moments, including a cameo from “Back to the Future” star Michael J. Fox.
Toronto Film Review
“The Obituary of Tunde Johnson” (2019) • This drama played at TIFF and tells the story of a black, gay teenager who is killed in an unprovoked incident of police brutality, only to wake up on the same morning and relive the day of his death.
Sundance Institute
“Palm Springs” (2020) • This film starring Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti sold for a then-record $17.5 million to Neon and Hulu when it premiered at Sundance. The sci-fi comedy stars Milioti as a woman dreading attending a wedding, only to be drawn to Samberg and get caught up in his own infinite time loop. “Palm Springs” explores personal trauma, depression and guilt for as many wacky set pieces and dance numbers it also has.
Amazon Studios
“The Map of Tiny Perfect Things” (2021) • “The Map of Tiny Perfect Things” directly name-drops “Groundhog Day” and “Edge of Tomorrow” but is a coming of age rom-com about two 17-year-olds who are the only ones aware they’re caught in the time loop. Kyle Allen and Kathryn Newton star in the film.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Jeff Hutchens | courtesy of SHOWTIME
Director: Razelle Benally, Matthew Galkin
About: The deaths of a group of Native American women in rural Montana are the focus as Native families, journalists, and local law enforcement reveal a violent crisis set in motion almost 200 years ago.
About: Stopping the climate crisis is a question of political courage, and the clock is ticking. Over three years of turbulence and crisis, four remarkable young women of color fight for a Green New Deal, igniting a historic shift in US climate politics.
About: Against the darkening backdrop of Delhi’s apocalyptic air and escalating violence, two brothers devote their lives to protect one casualty of the turbulent times: the bird known as the Black Kite.
>February 10: In Theatres: Anthology Film Archives
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Ava Benjamin Shorr
Director: Chase Joynt
About: After discovering case files from a 1950s gender clinic, a cast of transgender actors turn a talk show inside out to confront the legacy of a young trans woman forced to choose between honesty and access.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Love Martinsen
Director: Maria Loohufvud, Love Martinsen
About: A coming-of-golden-age look at Florida’s most dedicated dance team for women over 60, shaking up the outdated image of “the little old lady,” and calling for everyone to dance their hearts out, while they still can.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Rebecca Greenfield
Director: Dylan Southern, Will Lovelace
About: An immersive journey through the New York music scene of the early 2000s. Set against the backdrop of 9/11, the film tells the story of how a new generation kickstarted a musical rebirth for New York City that reverberated around the world. Inspired by the book by Lizzy Goodman.
Four years after getting married for a third time, Heidi Klum, 49, isn’t ruling out the possibility of more kids. The model appears on the Feb.2 episode of The Jennifer Hudson Show, where she was asked whether or not she’d have more kids in the future. Heidi had a sign that said ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ in German on each side, and she twirled it back and forth, unable to make up her mind about the answer. “It depends what day it is,” Heidi admitted. “Some days I’m here, some days I’m here. It’s a lot. I’ve done it four times.”
Heidi pointed out that she breastfed for eight months each time she was pregnant, and with three of her children, the pregnancies were back to back. However, after contemplating it for a minute, she did seem to come around to the idea of fifth baby. “Now, I’ve waited a long time,” Heidi, whose youngest child is 13, said. “So…maybe…yeah.”
Heidi and her husband Tom on the red carpet. (OConnor-Arroyo/AFF-USA.com / MEGA)
The supermodel married her third husband Tom Kaulitz in Feb. 2019, and they don’t have any children together. She gave birth to her first daughter, Leni Klum, now 18, in May 2004. Leni’s biological father is Flavio Briatore, but she was adopted by Heidi’s second husband, Seal, in 2009. Heidi and Seal tied the knot in May 2005 and have three biological children: Sons Henry, 17, and Johan, 16, and daughter, Lou, 13. Unfortunately, Heidi and Seal separated in 2012 and she filed for divorce later that year. The divorce was finalized in 2014.
Heidi Klum out with her kids. (Broadimage/Shutterstock)
Heidi is certainly a proud mom, and her oldest daughter, Leni, has even started following in her modeling footsteps. Heidi and Leni have posed in photo shoots together, and Leni even made her debut on the runway in Jan. 2021. “She wasn’t even nervous,” Heidi told Jennifer Hudson. She also shared how proud she is that Leni is living in New York while attending college in the Big Apple.
In a statement provided to TheWrap, a Pinterest spokesperson said, “We’re making organizational changes to further set us up to deliver against our company priorities and our long-term strategy. As a result, we made the difficult decision to say goodbye to some of our team members.”
“Our employees are the heart of how we’re able to serve our Pinners around the world. All of the employees who were impacted contributed to Pinterest, and as they transition, we’re committed to supporting them with separation packages, benefits, and other services.”
No further details about the layoffs were provided.
The layoffs at Pinterest follow a wave of tech and media industry job cuts over last the several months. In 2022, Twitter, Stripe, and Doordash were among the over 1,000 tech companies that laid off nearly 154,000 workers, according to Layoffs.fyi, which tracks the job situation in the tech industry.
“Have you met me? I’m the most nervous guy in the entire world,” director Eisenberg told his “When You Finish Saving the World” star Wolfhard.
Jesse Eisenberg is spreading wisdom for how to manage anxiety as a teen star.
The “Social Network” alum told “Stranger Things” breakout Finn Wolfhard advice director Greg Mottola imparted on him back in 2009 on the set of “Adventureland.”
“‘You’re doing a job that’s very emotionally exposing and very publicly horrible. I would be surprised if you didn’t have that, and please never worry,’” Mottola told Eisenberg, per GQ. “‘This is a two-dimensional medium and we’re not seeing what’s inside your head.’ It just changed my life because I was able to take my anxieties more seriously and realize that it’s okay to feel that stuff in a professional setting.”
When Wolfhard was feeling “really anxious and depressed” ahead of starring in Eisenberg’s directorial debut “When You Finish Saving the World,” the writer-director shared comforting advice. “[Eisenberg] was like, ‘Have you met me? I’m the most nervous guy in the entire world,’” Wolfhard recalled. “I was so uptight and nervous about it, because I just was like, ‘This is the first movie [that I’m doing] as an adult.’”
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Wolfhard said he began having routine panic attacks when he was around 15 years old. He opted to “not talk about anything, because I just was having this crazy whirlwind career, so there was no time, or at least we didn’t feel [there was] at the time” while filming “Stranger Things.”
“Everyone was like, ‘Look at him, he’s fine. He’s having the best time,’” Wolfhard siad. “But in reality, I was probably also developing and things were happening in my brain and anxieties were forming and things that I didn’t realize that I had to bury because of how I had to feel at work.”
Wolfhard added, “When things feel really overwhelming and big, it can feel even more big to kid actors who just feel like it all can be gone in an instant.”
And Eisenberg isn’t the only collaborator that has opened up to Wolfhard: the young actor detailed how “Stranger Things” co-stars Gaten Matarazzo and Caleb McLaughlin were there for him in a time of need. While having a panic attack, which Wolfhard called “classic me,” both Matarazzo and McLaughlin hugged him as showrunners the Duffer Brothers stopped filming.
“They were like, ‘Dude, we’re the only people that know what it’s really like,’” Wolfhard said of his co-stars. “Gaten and Caleb, we’re for life, bonded for life.”
Read IndieWire’s recent interview with Wolfhard here.
“It’s set only probably 100 years from now. So, it’s old technology that has been pushed to the limit to make these ships try to rescue people off of Earth which is collapsing. And we go with one of the ships and have all kinds of fun adventures,” he told The Companion in September 2022. “It’s really a survival show. It could almost be set on an island somewhere and be just the same.”
“We wanted the moral of the story to be, simply stated, ‘Until we stop fighting, we’re doomed.’ Until we stop killing each other in the name of country or tribe or even family, we’re doomed to keep repeating that cycle of violence,” he told Entertainment Weekly in September 2020. “And once we do and we link arms and we realize we’re all in this together, then we can get to whatever comes next.”
Rothenberg continued: “As dark as the show has been at times, I feel like the ending — and I always say I was not trying to make people feel good most of the time and the show is not a show that was supposed to bring you joy, it’s supposed to move you and make you feel sad or angry even — but here we were definitely aiming for people walking away feeling uplifted.”
“First of all, the whole show is written, season after season, long before it airs, so there’s nothing we could do once people start reacting to episodes as they air, certainly within a season,” he shared with KSite TV that same month. “The show obviously is hard to watch sometimes. It’s not designed to be a pleasant, enjoyable, happy ride. If you can’t sign up for a ride like that, knowing that you’re going to lose characters that you love, for instance, then you shouldn’t. Don’t watch the show if you cannot handle losing characters that you love.”
Scroll down to see all the similarities between The 100 and The Ark:
Many may have wondered how exactly the birthday girl earns money in spite of being away from the film industry.
Shamita Shetty was last seen in the music video Tere Vich Rab Disda alongside her ex-boyfriend Raqesh Bapat.
Happy birthday, Shamita Shetty. The actress, model and interior designer has turned 44 today. She made her acting debut in 2000 with the musical romance film Mohabbatein, earning her IIFA Award for the Star Debut Of The Year- Female. But then Shamita was not seen on the screen for many years. Despite her ups and downs, Shamita recently came into the limelight after appearing in the OTT version of the popular reality show Bigg Boss. She received immense love from fans and audiences, and undoubtedly became one of the show’s most popular contestants.
Many may have wondered how exactly the birthday girl earns money in spite of being away from the film industry. Today on the actress’s special day, let’s look at her net worth. According to sources, Shamita is actually an interior designer by profession. She owns her own interior designing company named Golden Leaf. Shamita earns lakhs of rupees a month despite being away from the film industry for many years. She also does multiple brand endorsements. According to media reports, Shamita’s total net worth is 1-5 million dollars.
Apart from this, Shamita also has a collection of luxury cars. The actress owns a Mercedes Benz S Class car, the cost of which is 2 crore rupees, a BMW X6 that costs 36 lakh rupees, a Jaguar XJ worth 1.97 crore and an Audi A6 worth 57 lakhs.
On the work front, her popular films include Bewafaa and Cash. Following this, she participated in several reality television shows such as Bigg Boss 3, Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa and Khatron Ke Khiladi where she became a finalist.
She was last seen in the music video Tere Vich Rab Disda, which was released in August 2022, alongside her ex-boyfriend Raqesh Bapat. Sachet Tandon and Parampara Tandon lent their beautiful voices to this song and Meet Bros gave the music. Manoj Muntashir penned the lyrics of Tere Vich Rab Disda. The song received immense love from the viewers following its release. And now her fans are really expecting to see her on the big screen soon.
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Today’s trailer roundup includes Disney+’s The Mandalorian Season 3, Netflix’s Love is Blind: After The Altar Season 3 and Faraway.
The Mandalorian: Season 3 premieres on Disney+ March 1. The new featurette includes executive producers Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, director Rick Famuyiwa and others as they explore how the Mandalorin and its fan-favorite character Grogu rose to engage the world and win the hearts of viewers across the globe.
Love is Blind: After the Altar Season 3 premieres on Netflix February 10. A year after the weddings, some old flames have reunited, while others try to navigate next steps in their relationships. Watch as the season three cast readjusts to life in Dallas after the altar and comes together for a birthday extravaganza. Who is still thriving and who is forced to make hard decisions about their future?
Faraway streams on Netflix beginning March 7. In this German rom com, Zeynep (Naomi Krauss) is unhappy and her life has not turned out as she wanted. That’s why she flees to a Croatian island, where her deceased mother bought a house long ago. She finally hopes to find peace and relaxation – but she hasn’t reckoned with Josip, who still lives on the property.
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