Gearing up for phase two of the Oscar season even before we have even scratched the surfaces of phase one, the Santa Barbara Film Festival said Tuesday that The Whalestar Brendan Fraser will be the recipient of its American Riviera Award on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2023.
Fraser has already become the nascent awards season’s “comeback kid” — first winning raves when the A24 film from director Darren Aronofsky had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival (including a viral post showing a tearful Fraser reacting to a long standing ovation), and then at the Toronto Film Festival where the film also received raves along with a prize at TIFF’s awards gala.
The movie will not be released until December, but the Oscar buzz is loud already, something SBIFF heard as well in putting together its annual series of awards and career tributes to stars and filmmakers likely to hear their names mentioned when Oscar nominations are announced in January.
‘The Whale’ A24
“I’m so elated that we will be celebrating Brandon Fraser at SBIFF. Here’s a performer who brought us so much joy through the years, given us so many incredible cinematic memories, and now with the best performance of his career! We are thrilled to honor him!” SBIFF executive director Roger Durling said.
Among Fraser’s upcoming films for next year are Legendary Films’ Brothers with Glenn Close, Josh Brolin and Peter DInklage (directed by Santa Barbara’s own Max Barbakow); as well as Martin Scorsese’s epic Western Killers of the Flower Moon. In The Whale, he plays a reclusive teacher living with severe obesity who tries to reconcile with his estranged daughter.
The American Riviera Award was established to recognize actors who have made a significant contribution to American cinema. Previous recipients include Kristen Stewart, Delroy Lindo, Renée Zellweger, Viggo Mortenson, Sam Rockwell, Jeff Bridges, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke, Robert Redford, Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, Annette Bening, Sandra Bullock, Mickey Rourke, Tommy Lee Jones, Forrest Whitaker, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Kevin Bacon and Diane Lane.
The 38th Santa Barbara Film Festival will take place in-person February 8-18, 2023. Official events including screenings, filmmaker Q&As, industry panels and celebrity tributes will be held throughout the city including at the Arlington Theatre.
Salman Khan is set to get back on the TV screens with yet another season of the reality TV show Bigg Boss. On Tuesday, September 27, the superstar attended a press conference in Mumbai ahead of the release of the show. For the event, he went dressed in black and displayed his ultimate style and swag. The Tiger 3 actor took to his Instagram story section to share his photo from the event.
Veteran actress Asha Parekh, one of the most influential stars of her generation, was on Tuesday named the Dadasaheb Phalke award recipient for the year 2020 for her immense contribution to the Indian film industry. The announcement was made by Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur.
Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt are set to embrace parenthood, and they are gearing up for the same. In a new interview, Ranbir revealed that the two are all set to start the next phase of their lives. “We have done everything, the room is done, we have done all the preparations that are required for a child,” Ranbir was quoted as saying by Indian Express. To this, Alia adds, “My check list is ready, like I am foreseeing things, ‘if we have this etc…’ but one can never be prepared for it. We take each day as it comes.”
American actress Gwyneth Paltrow has broken the internet on the occasion of her 50th birthday. The Iron Man star, who is celebrating her 50th birthday today, marked the special occasion by posing in the nude. The Goop founder took to Instagram to share a pic in which she posed wearing gold body paint – and nothing else – to celebrate her milestone year.
Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone was reportedly rushed to Breach Candy hospital, Mumbai last night after she complained of uneasiness. The Gehraiyaan actress underwent numerous tests but is now fine. However, her team has not given any official statement or confirmed this development yet.
“Grendel,” the series adaptation of the Dark Horse comic book of the same name, will not be moving forward at Netflix, people familiar with the matter informed TheWrap. The decision, which was not “taken lightly,” will not impact Dark Horse Entertainment’s overall deal with the streamer.
The show’s producers have the opportunity to shop the project externally if they choose to and find the best home for their show, but no other details were given.
The eight-episode show was announced in September of last year, with “Power Book II: Ghost” and “Katy Keene” alum Abubakr Ali attached to star as the masked vigilante and “Supernatural” showrunner Andrew Dabb serving as writer, showrunner and executive producer. “Grendel” creator Matt Wagner also served as EP alongside Dark Horse Entertainment’s Mike Richardson, Keith Goldberg and Chris Tongue.
In early August, Netflix announced the extension of its creative partnership with Dark Horse. Under the multi-year deal, Dark Horse will continue to give Netflix a first look at its IP for both film and TV. Upcoming projects include “Bang!” with Idris Elba, “Mind MGMT” and “Revenge Inc.” Dark Horse is also behind “The Umbrella Academy,” which was just renewed for a fourth and final season.
Malala Yousafzai has unveiled her first slate of film and TV projects for Apple TV+ through her production banner Extracurricular.
The Nobel Laureate struck a programming deal with Apple TV+ last year, and appointed former Berlanti Productions executive and “The Flight Attendant” producer Erika Kennair as president of production at Extracurricular. The resulting projects reflect “Stranger Things” and “Severance” fan Yousafzai’s wide array of interests and tastes — some of which may surprise people.
Headlining the slate is “Hyperobject,” a feature film adaptation of Elaine Hsieh Chou’s acclaimed book “Disorientation” — a sharp-edged, celebrated satire published earlier this year about a college student’s revealing dissertation on a young poet. The project will be directed by “Don’t Look Up” helmer Adam McKay.
Elsewhere, Extracurricular is also working on a scripted series based on Asha Lemmie’s coming-of-age novel “Fifty Words for Rain,” about a woman’s search for acceptance in post-World War II Japan.
The lead casting for both projects will introduce new talent, Kennair tells Variety. “Just by the nature of it, the lead of ‘50 Words for Rain’ is a half-Black half-Japanese woman. And unless Naomi Osaka wants to start acting, we’re going to have to discover that woman, which is really exciting.”
Meanwhile, “Disorientation” will require a Taiwanese American lead. Both are “discovery roles” with the opportunity for more big-name casting around them to fulfil Apple’s star-studded remit, Kennair explains.
Also on the slate is a feature documentary with A24 about South Korea’s matriarchal Haenyeo society of elderly fisherwomen, which is currently in production.
Overall, the Apple pact will cover dramas, comedies, documentaries, animation and children’s series.
“What I hope to bring to the table are the voices of women of color, and debut writers and Muslim directors and writers,” Yousafzai tells Variety. “I hope we can have a wide range of perspectives and that we challenge some of the stereotypes we hold in our societies. And I also hope that the content is entertaining, and that people fall in love with the characters and have the best time together.”
The company also won’t shy away from telling a fictionalized or unscripted account of Yousafzai and her family’s experience with the Taliban — with Kennair noting that the topic is frequently discussed at Extracurricular — but Yousafzai and her production head are keen to “find the surprising way in…that really [adds dimension to] the characters.”
“It’s about finding — whether scripted or unscripted — a way in that’s character-driven, as opposed to issue-driven,” says Kennair.
She notes that when approached by Yousafzai’s agency UTA to join Extracurricular, she initially had her reservations. “At first, I was like, ‘I don’t think I’m your gal; I’m doing a show about an alcoholic flight attendant and a stalker.’” The agency said, “‘Talk to her. You’re going to be surprised,’” Kennair recalls.
The executive — who discussed shows such as adult animated sitcom “Rick and Morty” and Netflix comedy “Sex Education” with Yousafzai in their meeting — says the company wants to make those kinds of programs, with a rich diversity at the heart of them.
“I’m a Cuban woman,” says Kennair, “and a lot of the time, shows about people of color — and particularly women of color — are very trauma-focused. It’s not about iconic personalities and characteristics; it’s more about the things put on people.”
Yousafzai, says Kennair, does not want to be known for the worst day of her life. The Nobel Peace Prize winner’s brand comes with certain assumptions — that the company will focus on only documentaries; that all the shows will be serious; that the entire slate will be G-rated. Upon launching, Extracurricular received submissions of “the world’s most depressing books,” says Kennair.
In fact, it’s the opposite that Extracurricular is looking for: the company is on the hunt for work that will inspire viewers to get off their couches and do something.
Yousafzai, adds Kennair, is “fearless” in how she approaches projects for Extracurricular.
“Especially right now, we’re in an entertainment industry that gets really scared and reactive,” says the executive. “How many times a day does everyone hear the word ‘precedence’? And Malala does not care. It’s really emboldened me, to work with someone who isn’t stuck in the fear cycle — who really is just looking at things for their creative value, and for how they make people feel as opposed to statistics and fear.”
This family’s been through a lot. Has the Chesapeake Shores TV show been cancelled or renewed for a seventh season on Hallmark Channel? The television vulture is watching all the latest cancellation and renewal news, so this page is the place to track the status of Chesapeake Shores, season seven. Bookmark it, or subscribe for the latest updates. Remember, the television vulture is watching your shows. Are you?
What’s This TV Show About?
Airing on the Hallmark Channel television network, the Chesapeake Shores TV series stars Robert Buckley, Meghan Ory, Treat Williams, Laci J. Mailey, Emilie Ullerup, Brendan Penny, and Andrew Francis. The store explores the lives of the O’Brien family, after the homecoming of eldest daughter Abby O’Brien (Ory), a high-powered career woman and divorced mother of two. In season six, the O’Brien family comes together in the aftermath of Connor’s (Francis) heart attack. Jess (Maily) and David (Carlo Marks) start to deal with the media fallout after Dennis Peck (Malcolm Stewart) goes on the run, and lean on one another for support. Abby finally reveals to her family who she called at the end of season five and this leads to an unexpected yet exciting first date. Meanwhile, Mandrake (Wesley Salter) and Kevin (Penny) talk about their difficult past.
Season Six Ratings
The sixth season of Chesapeake Shores averages a 0.12 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 1.39 million viewers in the live+same day ratings (includes all DVR playback through 3:00 AM). Compared to season five, that’s up by 20% in the demo and down by 5% in viewership. While these numbers don’t include further delayed or streaming viewing, they are a very good indicator of how a show is performing, especially when compared to others on the same channel. There can be other economic factors involved in a show’s fate, but the higher-rated series are usually renewed and the lower-rated ones are cancelled. Find out how Chesapeake Shores stacks up against other Hallmark Channel TV shows.
O F F I C I A L S T A T U S
Chesapeake Shores is ending, so there won’t be a seventh season. Could this drama be revived someday? Stay tuned for further updates.
Telly’s Take
We don’t have to wonder about the immediate future of Chesapeake Shores on Hallmark Channel. It’s already been announced that the drama is ending. Could it be revived for a seventh season someday? Subscribe for free alerts on Chesapeake Shores cancellation or renewal news.
Chesapeake Shores Cancellation & Renewal Related Links
What do you think? Do you wish that the Chesapeake Shores TV show had been renewed for a seventh season? Are you disappointed that this Hallmark Channel TV series is ending?
Check out our status sheets to track new TV series pickups, renewals, and cancellations. You can find lists of cancelled shows here.
“Real Housewives of New Jersey” star Teresa Giudice was the second celebrity to be eliminated from the “Dancing With the Stars” ballroom, getting sent home on Monday night — Week 2 of Season 31. But, backstage, after the show, she said she saw the experience as wish fulfillment.
“How am I feeling? Listen, it was an amazing experience. I had an amazing partner,” she said, referring to pro Pasha Pashkov. “Finally my dream came true. I’ve always wanted to dance. I did two dances and in front of a live audience. And it was pretty amazing. Yeah, it was great.”
In the final moments of Monday night’s show on Disney+, Giudice and her partner were put in the bottom two alongside “Charlie’s Angels” star Cheryl Ladd and pro Louis van Amstel. While the viewer votes landed both couples in the bottom, the couple that continued on was ultimately up to the judges. While Derek Hough and Bruno Tonioli opted to save Giudice and Pashkov, Carrie Ann Inaba and Len Goodman chose Ladd and van Amstel. Because Goodman’s vote, as head judge, serves as a tiebreaker, Giudice was eliminated.
“It is what it is,” Giudice said backstage after being asked if she was surprised about not being saved to dance another week. “I guess maybe because we were in the bottom two last week. I really don’t know how it works, and so I guess it’s because it happened again this week. So, they picked …. Cheryl instead of us. That’s OK. You know, everyone was amazing.”
Giudice said she had hoped to make it to the finals, though when she saw who she’d be competing against this season, she didn’t think she’d make it to a mirrorball win, despite her drive.
“I wanted to win the mirrorball because his wife [Daniella Karagach] won it last season. So I want him to have like, the second trophy in their house so they have two of them. But you know what? There’s a lot of amazing dancers on the show. … When I saw my competition, I’m like, ‘I’m definitely not winning it.’ But I tried,” she added.
When asked about the judges’ decision being split, Giudice noted it was a salve despite the fact that she was sent home.
“Yeah. I mean, that was nice. Yeah, I don’t I don’t think Len liked me really so much. … And then, I knew Len was not going to pick me. I knew he was gonna pick Cheryl over me. I knew already,” she said.
Asked why she thought that, Giudice replied, “I just knew. I had a feeling.”
Although disappointed to leave the competition, Giudice said she takes away a lesson from the experience.
“That anything that you want to do in life, you know, go for it. Because you can achieve anything,” she said. “Because I’ve always wanted to dance, I really did. And look, I got to do it at 50 years old. My dream finally came true because … I love ‘Dancing With the Stars.’ I was a really big fan of it. So I finally got to be on it.”
New episodes of “Dancing With the Stars” debut Mondays on Disney+.
We’ve done this before. Three times, actually: once in 1999, once in 2003, and then again in 2010. So, why battle over the “Best of the 1990s” again? Well, for the same reason any good music is worth revisiting: because our understanding of it changes the more we learn; because there is still a thrill in discovering something we didn’t know about (or quite get) before; because taste evolves and grows, enriched by the passing of time. Nevermind that our current cultural moment oozes ’90s influence and nostalgia. What are the albums and songs from the ’90s that our current writers and contributors find indispensable? That have made a lasting impact on the way music is made and how we listen to it now? And what just doesn’t hit the same way it once did?
The ’90s were a wildly exciting time for music. Hip-hop boomed, with regional styles laying the foundation for what would become the most popular genre of music today. Riot grrrl sneered at the punk canon, grunge became the voice of angsty teens, delightfully weird British experimentalists and women singer-songwriters reshaped what alternative and indie could be. Underground house music rose into pop prominence, and jungle, techno, and drum’n’bass gave way to “rave” as a lifestyle. Contemporary R&B flourished and the modern-day diva was born.
Pitchfork’s staff spent more than seven months poring over thousands of albums and songs in the making of this package, a series of lists and interviews that try to encapsulate some of our favorite music of a formative decade. The process included several rounds of voting between staff and contributors, and hours upon hours of “listening rooms” where the staff debated the merits of one song against another. There were more spreadsheets and impassioned Slack debates than anyone would like to admit, extensive conversations about the “critical pick” vs. the “fan favorite” vs. the “holistically beloved.” You try battling out Elliott Smith’s catalog, or OutKast’s, or A Tribe Called Quest’s, or Björk’s. (As your luck would have it, you’ll actually be able to do just that in a few days: Stay tuned for our ’90s Music Battle game and experience the agony of deciding between your own favorites.)
The result is a massive amount of incredible music, represented by hundreds of artists and carefully considered by 112 critics from our staff, contributor pool, and writers and editors who influenced the discourse around music in the ’90s in real time. Up first, you’ll find our list of the Best 250 Songs of the 1990s; tomorrow, we’ll publish our list of the Best 150 Albums of the 1990s. In the weeks to come, we’ll be sharing a lot more writing about the music of the decade, including deep dives into specific genres. We hope you come away with a refreshed perspective and appreciation, too.
COMING TO THEATERS! The fun of Sigourney Weaver in directors Wallace Wolodarsky and Maya Forbes’ feature, The Good House, is watching a master actor create an everyday character so believable that she could literally walk into a room and pass as one of us. By the way, everything I said about Weaver equally applies to her co-star Kevin Kline as well.
Weaver plays Hildy, a longtime real estate agent living and working in an affluent New England town. Early on, Hildy declares, “I need a good year,” feeling compelled to pay for her daughter’s college. We also learn that Hildy is coming off a short stint in rehab after a painful intervention with her friends and family. Hoping to get off onto a fresh start, she needs to sell the home of a young couple moving out of town but can’t do it without the help of former crush and contractor Frank (Kline). Hildy’s also competing to be the selling agent of the multi-million dollar home of a potential high-profile client.
The joy of The Good House is the ensemble cast surrounding Weaver. The supporting characters push and pull her, putting stress on her ability to maintain a sober post-rehab life. Her two daughters, Emily and Tess (Molly Brown and Rebecca Henderson), have trust issues with their mother’s drunk past. Hildy’s ex-husband Scott (David Rasche) left her for another man. Her friend Rebecca (Morena Baccarin) is an outsider in the town, and then there’s Peter (Rob Delaney), who runs a therapy practice on the second floor of Hildy’s home.
“…Hildy is coming off a short stint in rehab after a painful intervention with her friends and family.”
The script, by Maya Forbes, Wallace Wolodarsky, and Thomas Bezucha, engagingly tells the story of a recovering alcoholic’s journey to her true rock bottom. But, at the same time, it’s a story of an older woman in her 60s—the demographic that Hollywood likes to ignore for “financial” reasons. Weaver absolutely shines as Hildy. A character like Hildy should be and is an easy one for the actor to pull off. Her skills come into play as the role has her frequently break the fourth wall. But the true actress comes out with the subtle reactions to whatever trials and tribulations are thrown at the “I’m not really an alcoholic” Hildy.
Thankfully The Good House is a light drama with sparks of comedy. It’s a character-driven story with an ensemble of veteran character actors. Seeing Kline, I could help but think of the two of them in Dave. Here the roles are swapped as Kline plays the moral center and unlikely hero to Hildy.
The Good House is simply a fun story to watch and by no means meant to be gut-wrenching drama. Plus, it’s a story about an older woman, which we should all be glad that anyone in Hollywood is willing to produce. It shows that good stories come from all stages of life.
Quebec Liberal Leader Dominique Anglade is on a media blitz Tuesday to raise her profile ahead of next week’s election.
Anglade is scheduled to conduct no fewer than six media interviews in Montreal and Quebec City before attending a gala in the evening in the provincial capital for young student achievers.
Meanwhile, Coalition Avenir Québec Leader François Legault is campaigning for a second day in Îles-de-la-Madeleine, where post-tropical storm Fiona caused significant damage to seaside infrastructure.
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Polls say the CAQ is in a tight race on the island archipelago with the Parti Québécois, whose candidate Joël Arseneau won the riding by 15 votes over his Liberal rival in 2018.
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Legault will head to the Gaspé Peninsula later in the day and then visit two ridings in Quebec’s Côte-Nord region.
Québec solidaire spokesman Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois has four events in the Quebec City area today before he campaigns in the riding of Sherbrooke, Que., where his incumbent candidate is trying to fend off Caroline St-Hilaire, a star candidate for the CAQ.
Image Credit: Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP/Shutterstock
Emily Ratajkowski, 31, is no stranger to dating in the spotlight. The gorgeous model has gotten attention for her love life over the years and it includes two previous boyfriends, a husband in Sebastian Bear-McClard, and a new “friend” in actor Brad Pitt. She’s been spotted at various events with her love interests while involved with them, and isn’t shy about sharing her romantic status on social media whenever she wants. Find out more about Emily’s dating history and current potential new love below!
Andrew Dryden
Emily and Andrew Dryden reportedly dated from August 2013 until February 2014. She and the creative director and menswear buyer were photographed together at various events during their relationship, including an outing in New York. She first gave a hint of their breakup when she was reportedly overheard telling people she was newly single at a Super Bowl party back in 2014. When Andrew was later asked about the split, he replied with, “Sorry, I don’t want to talk about it.”
Jeff Magid
Emily Ratajkowski and Jeff Magid dated from 2014 until 2017. (Mediapunch/Shutterstock)
Emily went on to date Jeff Magid from 2014 until late 2017. She and the musician, composer, and record producer, stepped out publicly for the first time in December 2014. Their relationship is believed to have begun after he reportedly was a source of comfort to her after she had to deal with a nude photo hacking scandal, shortly after her split from Andrew. They were spotted out and about numerous times until they split around the end of 2017/early 2018, reportedly due to work commitments.
They stopped living together for “weeks” as of early Jan., according to the New York Daily News. “It was common knowledge among her friends” but “[they] did not make a big deal publicly about them living together,” the outlet claimed at the time. “They used to be inseparable, although she tried to play down things in public. Jeff is an incredibly successful music producer and is working around the country.”
Sebastian Bear-McClard
Sebastian Bear-McClard and Emily Ratajkowski were married from 2018 until 2022. (Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP/Shutterstock)
Emily and Sebastian, who is a producer and director, started dating soon after she split from Jeff in early 2018. They married in a New York courthouse very quickly after they started their romance in February 2018. The beauty went on to reveal they were expecting their first child together, in a digital essay for Vogue in October 2020. On Mar. 11, 2021, she took to Instagram to announce their son’s birth with a photo of her breastfeeding the newborn. Sylvester Apollo Bear has joined us earth side. Sly arrived 3/8/21 on the most surreal, beautiful, and love-filled morning of my life,” she wrote in the caption.
In July 2022, it was reported that Emily and Sebastian had split up. Emily then filed for divorce in Manhattan Supreme Court on Sept. 8. “They split recently. It was Em’s decision. She is doing okay. She is strong and focused on her son. She loves being a mom,” a source told People about the split. It was also reported that the reason for the split had to do with Sebastian allegedly being unfaithful, but nothing was confirmed.
Brad Pitt
Brad Pitt has reportedly been hanging out with Brad Pitt after splitting from her husband. (Press Agency/NurPhoto/Shutterstock)
In September 2022, it was reported that Emily and Brad had been hanging out. [They have] “been out a few times,” a source told Page Six. “People have been speculating about this for a while. Brad is not dating anybody. They [Brad and Emily] have been seen a couple times together.”
The source also noted that Brad had “been seen with other people” around the same time, but he wasn’t dating anyone at the moment. “Stay tuned,” they added. As a high-profile actor, Brad’s own love life is known by many and includes a relationship with Gwyneth Paltrow and marriages to Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie.
Back in the 1960s, if you wanted to watch a weekly sitcom about monsters living in suburbia, there were only two games in town: “The Addams Family,” about a group of kooks whose wealth and largely normal looks gave them the freedom to pursue their freaky interests, and “The Munsters,” about a working-class group of unmistakable monsters whose outward appearance provided a humorous contrast to their utter normalcy.
The Addams Family have gone on to great cinematic success in the decades following their sitcom (and the New Yorker cartoons on which it was based), with successful live-action and animated movies to their name. But Hollywood hasn’t been quite so kind to The Munsters. Their show was originally a bigger hit than “The Addams Family,” but they’ve never been cinematically rebooted for the big screen. (Not counting the series spinoff “Munster Go Home!” in 1966.)
And even though there’s a brand new feature-length “Munsters” movie from heavy-metal superstar and cult favorite grindhouse director Rob Zombie, they still haven’t.
“The Munsters” is a new live-action comedy arriving straight-to-video and bearing a remarkably low-fidelity aesthetic that’s more reminiscent of “The Big Bad Beetleborgs” than “House of 1000 Corpses.” It’s bright, it’s friendly, it’s inviting, and it’s so disarmingly silly one would be forgiven for scratching one’s head and wondering if the director was some other “Rob Zombie” you’ve never heard about, unrelated to the guy who brought you “The Lords of Salem.”
But here’s the thing about Zombie: He may have changed his aesthetic for “The Munsters,” but this silly film fits tidily into his filmography. His films have always been love notes to monstrous, underappreciated media, filled with strange and often disturbing characters who watch silly old movies and TV shows. “The Munsters” is the type of program the Firefly family in “The Devil’s Rejects” watches to give their grisly world a wholesome grist. If Dracula, Dracula’s daughter and the Frankenstein monster can find familial bliss in a world that doesn’t understand or appreciate them, why can’t everyone?
Zombie’s “Munsters” movie is a PG-rated, even dorky ode to the original series, which provides a prolonged backstory to the characters we know and, presumably, love. We witness the creation of Herman Munster (Jeff Daniel Phillips, “Satanic Panic”) in a plot point liberally cribbed from “Young Frankenstein,” where the mad scientist Dr. Wolfgang (Richard Brake, “Barbarian”) sends his hapless assistant Floop (Jorge Garcia, “Hawaii 5-0”) to get a brilliant brain from the morgue, only to find out too late he returned with the brain of a hack stand-up comic instead.
Herman becomes a bit of a local celebrity in Transylvania, combining his tired vaudeville jokes with punk-rock music and attracting the attention of the hopeless romantic Lily (Sheri Moon Zombie), who instantly falls for his innocent charms. All this is to the chagrin of her father, The Count (Daniel Roebuck, “3 From Hell”), who hates Lily’s new boyfriend and keeps trying to set her up with more desirable men, like Orlock from the movie “Nosferatu” (also played by Brake) or a tap-dancing monster he accidentally conjures up in his lab.
The plot of “The Munsters” finds Herman marrying Lily but swiftly signing away their posh Transylvanian castle to her ne’er-do-well brother, a werewolf named Lester (Tomas Boykin, “Allan the Dog”), forcing them to consider moving to Hollywood and pursuing a brand new life amongst typical American suburbanites.
“The Munsters” is a whimsically realized production, with amusing production design and art direction by Juci Szurdi (“Hab”) and Hedvig Kiraly (“Escape Room: Tournament of Champions”), who make the most out of a clearly limited budget. Zombie’s film either looks like an expensive music video or a modestly-priced Halloween Horror Nights funhouse, and cinematographer Zoran Popovic (“Clean”) blasts bright and weird colors at every single corner of those sets.
It’s the kind of film you’d expect to see on a television set in the background of any other Rob Zombie film, or on the giant screens behind Zombie as he unleashes heavy-metal riffs about death and sex in front of a cheering crowd. What it’s not, sadly, is a particularly good movie to watch without other distractions at hand.
“The Munsters” is amiable enough, but Zombie seems content to merely hang out with these characters in their Transylvanian world, to the point that the actual story — the one about Lester betraying the family and forcing them to move — gets shoved off into the corner, to be dealt with only in the final act. The film doesn’t even so much end as it just stops, with a final plot point giving everyone a happy conclusion that, oddly, doesn’t even match the starting point of the series.
The film is packed with attempts at humor, but the jokes rarely land; when they do — usually from either Garcia’s sidekick character or Phillips’ likable delivery — they earn a hearty guffaw. It’s Phillips who emerges as the film’s greatest bit of casting, not just capturing the vibe of Fred Gwynne’s original performance but also finding a somewhat more youthful, romantic, wannabe-celebrity attitude for Herman that’s distinctive without feeling unfaithful. Whereas Sheri Moon Zombie, usually the standout in most Zombie productions, is given less entertaining material with which to create a character.
It’s rather telling that Zombie seems completely uninterested in getting the Munsters to suburbia until the very end of the movie, and that Cousin Marilyn, the one conventionally human member of the Munster family, is nowhere to be found. (That their werewolf son is absent makes a lot more sense, since the film is technically a prequel.) Zombie doesn’t seem to care about the Munsters in contrast with conservative reality or even as a meaningful part of it, despite their superficial dissimilarities.
Zombie just seems to want to live in a peacefully eccentric world, where creatures can party down and suck some blood without having to worry about any of the normies bothering them. The appeal is understandable, but it doesn’t make for much of a movie. The story is inert, even by the standards of films based on sitcoms, and the absence of contrast with old-fashioned Americana robs the premise of most of its humorous potential.
“The Munsters” is a love note to the characters from the sitcom but not their trappings; there’s more to “The Munsters” than the Munsters, but he seems to have missed that. Zombie’s film, though clearly sweet and well-intentioned, seems only partially formed, a Frankenstein monster with only half the parts.
“The Munsters” premieres on Blu-ray, DVD and digital Sept. 27 via Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.
Opportunities for foreign language titles to cross borders has never been better, said a host of top industry execs this weekend at Deadline’s Zurich Summit Studio.
“It’s possible to be a foreign language film in the mainstream even more so now because of streaming and because of series,” said Neon’s Tom Quinn. “There’s a whole host of a younger demo that is completely agnostic about country of origin, language and certainly genre.”
Quinn, a long-time collaborator with South Korean helmer Bong Joon-ho, looked back to Parasite’s multiple Oscar wins and said it was a prime example of a foreign-language title that could be recognized beyond the foreign language category.
“When I saw it I absolutely felt immediately that this was something that could transcend the foreign language category and be a multi-tier award possible winner,” said Quinn of the title.
“I felt it was such a win for cinema and it only validated everything I believed in and was the reason for starting Neon,” he said of the film’s Oscar wins.
David Taghioff, whose company Library Pictures has a co-financing deal with Seoul-based NEW for Korean projects, pointed to the success of Squid Game and the impact it’s had across the world.
“No one really forsaw the kind of performance that Squid Game was going to have,” he said. “We all believed in the stories and we all believed in the filmmakers and it’s nice to see that that kind of content is having the global impact that it’s having and will continue to have.”
CAA’s Sarah Schweitzman noted that the barriers for content have been broken in the last few years thanks to the success of these foreign titles and the rise of the streamers.
“The world has opened up in a really beautiful way,” said Schweitzman. “There isn’t any kind of barrier so to speak. Of course there’s emerging markets I guess but for the most part it’s about what is the most interesting story, what are the stories that we haven’t heard before. What kinds of people are telling those stories and how does that fit into the global marketplace and society at large that we’re all connected to.”
Meanwhile, Anonymous Content’s Robert Walak stressed that while there are a host of opportunities in other markets one interesting trend is the changes he’s seen in how companies balance their film and television slates. changing way companies balance their film and television slates.
“On the TV side it’s interesting where we seem to be doing these juggernaut pieces at the moment,” he said, pointing to the company’s upcoming series Time Bandits, which it is making for Apple TV+.
He continued, “On the feature side, this has given more flexibility to do indie features. The discrepancy between the two is quite interesting just in terms of how budgets stack up, the availability of talent and just how pressured the market is and how you have to really rally and find support with the right partners.”
Trying to follow in the footsteps of last year’s best original screenplay winner Kenneth Branagh (“Belfast”), Focus Features is trying to position writer, director and co-producer James Gray as one of the awards season’s breakout nominees for “Armageddon Time.” The film is currently sitting with a respectable 89% on Rotten Tomatoes, and the awards team will be looking for opportunities beyond the Writer’s Branch.
After debuting the film at the Cannes Film Festival, before making stops at Telluride and later this week at the New York Film Festival, the distributor has revealed exclusively to Variety its awards submission categories for the film’s actors.
Anne Hathaway, who plays the devoted mother Esther, was one of the actors who seemed to straddle the line between lead and supporting, and she will be seeking the latter. A two-time Oscar-nominee for “Rachel Getting Married” (2008) and “Les Misérables” (2012), which she won for best supporting actress, she hasn’t been back to the ceremony as a nominee in the last decade. With Michelle Williams’ turn in “The Fabelmans” moving to lead actress, the studio apparently sees an opening for Hathaway in a wide-open category.
As spunky grandmother Mickey Rabinowitz, four-time Tony nominee Tovah Feldshuh will also compete alongside Hathaway. While not having a bulk of screen time compared to her co-stars, Feldshuh’s role is full of one-line zingers and steals the movie every moment she’s on screen.
For supporting actor, Emmy winner Jeremy Strong (HBO’s “Succession”) as the stern father Irving, will attempt to break into a race that’s stacked with multiple veterans, including his co-star Anthony Hopkins as wise and loving grandfather Aaron. Hopkins also has a one-scene wonder turn in Florian Zeller’s “The Son” opposite Hugh Jackman that could also factor into the discussion.
In his feature film debut, Jaylin Webb as Paul’s Black friend Johnny Davis, who undergoes a multitude of hardships, will also be presented as a supporting player. His co-star Banks Repeta, who plays the young Paul, will be the sole actor submitted for lead consideration.
The coming-of-age story, which focuses on the strength of family and the pursuit of the American dream, is also seeking recognition in the technical races: production design (Happy Massee and Teri Bella), cinematography (Darius Khondji, who also shot “Bardo”), costume design (Madeline Weeks), film editing (Scott Morris) and original score (Christopher Spelman).
Also serving as producers alongside Gray are Oscar-winner Anthony Katagas (“12 Years a Slave”), Marc Butan and Rodrigo Teixeira.
Gray will be getting the director honor at Mill Valley and the Bill Wittliff Award for screenwriting from the Austin Film Festival.
“Armageddon Time” will open in limited release on Oct. 28 before expanding on Nov. 4.
Starring Ana de Armas, Julianne Nicholson, Adrien Brody, Bobby Cannavale, Xavier Samuel, Garret Dillahunt, Toby Huss, Caspar Phillipson and Lily Fisher. Written and directed by Andrew Dominik, adapted from the novel by Joyce Carol Oates. Opens Friday at TIFF Bell Lightbox. 166 minutes. STC
“They say I’m whistle bait, could be, but I’m forever meeting guys who don’t stop at a whistle. I’ve learned to handle them all.”—Marilyn Monroe,“Wolves I Have Known”
The quote above is from a magazine essay published in January 1953, the year of Monroe’s big Hollywood breakthrough, when she had starring roles in “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” “How to Marry a Millionaire” and “Niagara.”
At age 26, Monroe knew who she was. She understood the smouldering sexuality of her screen image and the effect it had on people. She had a sad beginning and a tragic demise, but she was nobody’s fool and nobody’s victim.
That’s not the message we get in Andrew Dominik’s “Blonde,” which stars a luminous Ana de Armas in the title role. The Cuban actor brings much-needed compassion and believability to a film of harsh judgments, dirty whispers and lazy conclusions about one of the 20th century’s greatest movie icons.
To be fair, “Blonde” follows a gawk-and-pity template laid down by author Joyce Carol Oates in her 2000 bestselling novel of the same name, a 738-page doorstopper that stretched the definition of biography by injecting a large amount of wild supposition into known facts about Monroe.
Like the book, the nearly three-hour film depicts the former Norma Jeane Baker as a pathetic figure enduring daddy issues and a succession of rejections and abuse from preying and uncaring men. The plot takes a then-this-happened approach that numbs the viewer, despite Dominik’s attempts to liven up the frame with flashing lights, rapid edits, constant colour/B&W shifts, and bizarre images that include a vaginal POV shot and a talking fetus lamenting an abortion.
The film begins Monroe’s story in 1933, when seven-year-old Norma Jeane (Lily Fisher) is living in L.A. with her schizophrenic (and later institutionalized) mother, Gladys (Julianne Nicholson), who points to a faded wall photo of an actor resembling Clark Gable and declares him to be the girl’s father. Mother and daughter undergo near-death experiences by fire and water, and Norma Jeane finds herself in the care of state authorities. She’s an orphan in name if not reality.
Jump to circa 1950, when Norma Jeane is now the starlet Marilyn Monroe, being casually raped in the office of a studio mogul called Mr. Z (allegedly Fox boss Darryl Zanuck), her “audition” for a small but important role in “All About Eve,” which will become the year’s big Oscar winner.
This mercifully brief scene begins a series of degradations at male hands that will include Monroe’s marriages to “the Ex-Athlete” (a.k.a. baseball great Joe DiMaggio, played by an intense Bobby Cannavale) and “the Playwright” (a.k.a. Pulitzer-winning writer Arthur Miller, played by an owlish Adrien Brody). The first spouse is jealous and violent; the second is condescending and exploitive.
Later we’ll see arguably Monroe’s greatest humiliation and the film’s most tawdry moment. She’s summoned to the hotel room of President John F. Kennedy (Caspar Phillipson) to administer oral sex while he’s on the phone (“Am I room service?” she asks JFK’s security men) while cartoonish images of rockets appear on a nearby TV set.
Dominik allows Monroe just one brief interlude of joyful agency in her sex life, a time early in her career when she simultaneously dates the look-alike sons of two famous actors: Charlie Chaplin Jr. (Xavier Samuel) and Edgar G. Robinson Jr. (Evan Williams), who identify and sympathize with her absent-father loneliness. Yet even this playful ménageàtrois, based on rumour rather than fact, will eventually lead to unhappiness.
It’s a pity we don’t see more of Allan “Whitey” Snyder (Toby Huss), Monroe’s personal makeup man and crafter of her unique look, who might be the only male in the movie who isn’t trying to exploit her.
Through it all, and including the termination of at least two pregnancies through abortion and miscarriage, Monroe maintains a grim stoicism in private and a carefree ebullience in public.
Expressing all these emotions and experiences demands a lot of actor de Armas, who rises to the challenge superbly and makes me inclined to give the movie a pass on the basis of her performance alone.
She resembles and moves like Monroe enough that in scenes recreating some of the star’s most famous moments — such as the “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” number from “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and the subway-grate “flying skirt” PR stunt for “The Seven Year Itch” — it’s hard to tell the icon from the actor.
De Armas also conveys Monroe’s breathy whisper of a voice, so intoxicating to male ears, with barely a trace of her natural Cuban accent. Don’t believe any comments made to the contrary.
Most of all, she conveys Monroe’s inner fortitude, undoubtedly true to life. She makes you believe the “I’ve learned to handle them all” boast about navigating the many toxic males in Monroe’s orbit, even if it was more aspirational than actual.
When the time inevitably arrives to depicts Monroe’s tragic 1962 death at age 36, an apparent suicide through drug overdose, de Armas summons genuine feelings of grief and loss as the film exercises rare restraint.
De Armas elevates Marilyn Monroe with her performance. Dominik, like author Oates before him, sullies the icon’s memory by emphasizing gossip over fact. “Blonde” remains an imperfect account of a perfectly captivating individual.
Correction — Sept. 23, 2022: In “Blonde,” the role of Edgar G. Robinson Jr. is played by actor Evan Williams, not Garret Dillahunt as previously reported.
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Ahead of “Legally Blonde 3,” penned by Mindy Kaling, longtime Witherspoon collaborator Andy Tennant revealed the Emmy and Oscar winner didn’t anticipate the massive success of the Harvard Law School-based fish out of water rom-com.
“I had lunch with her not that long before I turned in the ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ script,” Tennant told Insider as part of a “Sweet Home Alabama” 20th anniversary oral history. “We were just catching up and I asked, ‘What have you been up to?’ And she said, ‘I made this movie nobody is going to see. It’s silly but it was really fun to make.’ And that turned out to be ‘Legally Blonde.’”
It was only after the viral sensation of “Legally Blonde” that the studio thought of Witherspoon to star in “Sweet Home Alabama” after former lead and producer Charlize Theron parted ways with the project.
Related
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“Reese called me and said, ‘You are never going to believe this, they sent me your script!’” Tennant said. “The only reason ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ was made was because of ‘Legally Blonde.’”
“Sweet Home Alabama” starred Witherspoon as Melanie, a career woman engaged to the perfect man (Patrick Dempsey) but has second thoughts after running into her ex (Josh Lucas) while planning her hometown wedding. Co-writer Tennant already has a sequel script in the works set around the next generation of Melanie’s daughter.
“I wrote a treatment and a lot of it has to do with Reese’s character and Melanie Lynskey’s character taking their kids on a college tour,” Tennant said. “Melanie doesn’t know this. I haven’t seen her in years. I would do everything and anything to work with Melanie Lynskey again. She is a director’s dream. The stuff she does in every take is wonderful.”
Tennant added, “Josh [Lucas] and I continue to lobby Reese, but she’s busy. Even Reese’s lawyer loved the treatment. But that’s as close as I got.”
Christian BalePhoto: Frazer Harrison (Getty Images)
Method acting gets a bad rap, because it often seems annoying and pretentious, but at least the way Christian Bale does it—losing a lot of weight, gaining a lot of weight, occasionally screaming at a cinematographer on the set of Terminator Salvation for disrupting his work—is less aggravating than the “I’m going to act like an asshole because I’m playing an asshole” shit that certain Jared Letos do (not that we’re naming any specific Jared Letos). Case in point, the latest example of Bale being very serious about acting is actually a little fun: He told IndieWirethat he had to stop talking to Chris Rock on the set of David O. Russell’s Amsterdam because Rock is just too funny.
Bale said that Russell made a point to introduce him to Rock and get Rock to tell “some stories” that he knew would really make Bale laugh, so he said he “was loving it” when the first started working together. Eventually, though, Bale realized that Rock is “so bloody funny” that he couldn’t act around him and that it would just be “Christian laughing at Chris Rock” instead of whatever Amsterdam stuff he was supposed to be doing. So Bale said he had to go to Rock and say, “mate, I love talking to you, and we have mutual friends, but I can’t do it anymore.” He said that Russell didn’t cast him in the movie to watch him “giggle,” adding, “He wants me to be Burt, and I’m forgetting how to be Burt.”
Bale also explained that he tries to “isolate” himself on set, because if he gets to know the “incredible people” he works with too well, he won’t be able to believe what he’s doing in the scene. This all may seem like a bummer for Rock, but at least we know that Christian Bale saying something akin to “we can’t be friends because you’re too funny” isn’t the worst thing that a famous person has done to him lately.
One of my favorite podcast guests to have on, Courtney Robertson, joins me again today for I believe the 3rd or 4th time. And I wanted to have her on because her engagement with Ben post show got very rocky, and is probably the closest one we had to Tino and Rachel. She offers a lot of insight, what it’s like to be in that position, how it felt to walk on a stage where no one cheers for you, how to navigate a public engagement post show, and much more. A lot of good insight, and yeah, you can see why she leans towards siding with Tino in this situation, which is because she was basically the female version of it during hers. I’ve said I’m not on either side and each could’ve handled themselves better both during the Happy Couple weekend argument and live on stage Tuesday night. Ultimately, I don’t think these two were going to make it with the way they handled confrontation. They couldn’t agree on anything that had happened or what was said in the past, and that’s a recipe for disaster. As always, if you’d like to respond to the interview, please include Courtney’s Twitter handle (@bugrobertson) in your replies. Thanks again to Courtney for coming on. Enjoy…
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 Rachel & Gabby’s media tour yesterday, Rachel talks about Aven, Gabby talks about the texts, and the sickening story in Bachelor Nation that broke on Tuesday. The Courtney joins me (10:51) and we talk about how her and Ben’s relationship post show was eerily similar to Rachel and Tino’s, why she felt bad for Tino, how tough it is being a final couple in this franchise, mom life, and much, much more.
Today’s Daily Roundup has now been posted and covers Rachel and Gabby’s post show interviews, what Rachel said about Aven, Gabby taking a stance on Erich’s texts, Zach’s women, a disturbing story in Bachelor Nation, the Survivor premiere, the final (I promise) IOS 16 talk, and trolls online.
You can listen to that podcast on a number of platforms, but you can also tune in here:
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts, which has long honored filmmakers in Los Angeles at its Britannia Awards ceremony (last held in 2019), is ending that event and will henceforth present BAFTA Special Awards — “honorary awards presented to those that have made a significant, inspiring and outstanding contribution to film, games and television through a particular project(s) and/or their work” — at bespoke events throughout the year.
Special Awards candidates can be put forward by members, the sector committees and the BAFTA North America board, and recipients will receive the iconic BAFTA mask. The first recipient is expected to be named soon.
BAFTA has had a presence in the US since the formation of BAFTA Los Angeles in 1987, followed by BAFTA New York in 1996. The organization now has almost 2,000 members in North America, who have access to its extensive screenings and Q&A program, tea parties, BAFTA Breakthrough USA, the Yugo BAFTA Student Awards, the U.S. newcomers program, scholarships and the Vance Byrd Mentorship program.
Kathryn Busby, chair of the BAFTA North America board said in a statement, “This is an incredibly exciting moment for BAFTA, as we evolve and expand our award presentations and activities. Creating the opportunity to present awards year-round and celebrate excellence at more locations was a priority for our board this year as we expand BAFTA’s mission and activity across North America, so we are delighted to be able to now announce this new direction.”
Matthew Wiseman, executive director and head of North America for BAFTA, added, “To be able to capture the same spirit and warmth of the Britannia Awards event, and now present honorary awards throughout the year and in different cities, is an exciting prospect that will enable BAFTA to celebrate those who have made exceptional contributions to our industry in even more impactful and unique ways. We will also be able to use these moments to further inspire future generations of talent across our industry, many of whom will in turn be supported by BAFTA’s many learning, inclusion and talent programs globally.”
On the eve of the second Taylor Hawkinstribute concert in Los Angeles, Heart co-founder Nancy Wilson has shared a song about the late Foo Fighters drummer, “Amigo Amiga,” which she began writing the day of his March 25 passing.
At the request of the Foo Fighters, Wilson will perform the track tomorrow (Sept. 27) at the concert.
“The night we heard about losing Taylor I started writing the song,” Wilson said of the new song in a statement. “I heard myself in tears saying ‘too soon too soon’ which became a refrain in the song. I spent quite a few sleepless nights trying to express it all. He was a wonderful friend and we always had funny pet names for each other like Amigo and Amiga as well as Luv and Dahling. I sang on his great solo album Get the Money at his home studio and later he returned the favor and played drums on my solo album.
She continues, “it is such a painful loss — but it also feels like Taylor has galvanized and re-energized rock and roll with so many of his musician friends and fans coming together — it’s a new renaissance Taylor and the Foo family have gifted us all.” All proceeds from the release of the track will benefit the Recording Academy’s MusiCares.
Wilson’s first solo album, You and Me, was released last year. One of its tracks, “Party at the Angel Ballroom” features Hawkins and Guns N’ Roses’ Duff McKagan.
To celebrate our Board Member matching campaign–which, your donation (and impact!) will be doubled through our Board Members and Friends Matching Challenge, available through this Thursday, September 29–we’re reposting our retrospective series The Fi Hall Of Fame featuring refreshed, expanded and updated versions of most popular blogs of all time. Special thanks to the original author of this piece, Lorena Alvarado.
Filmmakers often feel so attached to a song that it becomes a crucial and indispensable element of their story. A scene, or even an entire film, can revolve around a single piece of music. What many directors don’t realize is that the process of clearing that song can be very difficult and expensive. Brooke Wentz, the music supervisor behind Kings Point, Bully and Bill Cunningham New York cleared up some of the confusion and little-known realities of music licensing during a recent Film Independent education event.
The most important thing to know is that there are two rights to every song. There is the person who wrote the song (who holds the publisher rights, aka “sync” rights) and the person who recorded it (who holds the “master” rights). To use this piece of music you need permission from both entities. You can listen to a song like “All Along the Watchtower” by Jimi Hendrix, but you may not know that the writer is Bob Dylan. To determine who owns the rights to songs, the websites ascap.com and bmi.com are extremely helpful.
Once you’ve determined who owns the publishing and the master, you must contact them separately and ask for permission to use the song. This can get tricky when there are a lot of songwriters involved. Katy Perry’s song “California Gurls,” for instance, has five publishers. Therefore, if you wanted to clear this tune you would need approval from all five of the writers and on top of that you would need approval from Katy Perry. If one of them says no, then unfortunately you can’t use the song.
Here are Wentz’s top six secrets for music licensing:
For festival rights, most songs can be cleared at around $500 per side.
Meaning $500 for the publishers, $500 for the master. If you don’t have enough money in your budget to pay for all the rights up front, you can clear only the film festival rights and add an option to get all media rights up to two years later.
The fee is the same regardless of the duration of the cue.
If you use a song for five seconds or two minutes, it will cost you the same amount of money. The only exception to this is if the song is used over beginning or end credits.
The rate for a piece of music is negotiable!
Most filmmakers don’t know that they can offer a lower price, or if the artist likes the subject matter of the film, they might offer a better rate.
If you think a song is in the public domain, double check.
“I had a client who thought ‘My Sweet Lord’ was in the public domain,” Wentz explained. “I said ‘Nope, I’m pretty sure that’s a George Harrison song.’”
No response does not mean an approval.
It might be frustrating if they are not getting back to you, but you have to keep pushing. If you do not clear the rights for a song, you could receive a “cease and desist” letter from the rights holder which could incur fees.
If you’re doing a music doc, make sure you can secure the rights.
If the estate or the artist is not on board you will not be able to use the music. Many deceased musicians’ rights are owned by their spouse or ex-spouse—or both. Certain songs might never be clearable just because of inner conflicts that have nothing to do with you or your movie.
Filmmakers can get charged higher fees because they don’t know the numbers. That’s why it’s useful to have someone that knows about clearance to be the middleman. Brooke Wentz’s company, The Rights Workshop, helps filmmakers secure the appropriate rights for any budget.
Brooke recently worked on a film that got distribution at a festival and needed to expand the rights. She was shocked to discover that the director had licensed the songs himself and got charged five times what the fees should have been. Ouch!
Here some other stuff you should know:
Sync vs. Master agreements.
There are several different types of music-licensing agreements, but the two primary ones to worry about are sync and masteruse agreements– these agreements deal with pre-existing songs and sound recordings, not ones specifically composed for your film.
Sync refers to the actual composition/song—melody, lyrics and arrangement – as synchronized in timed relation with a motion picture. In almost all cases, a sync agreement is required in order to use a song in a film.
Take the example of U2’s cover of “Helter Skelter.” A filmmaker wishing to use this specific recording of the song will need first to seek a sync agreement from the copyright holder to the original Beatles composition in addition to a master recording agreement from U2’s record label.
Classical music is not free.
Let’s say you want to pull a 2001 Kubrick and score your film with wall-to-wall classical music. You’re in the clear, right? Beethoven and Brahms are centuries dead and their music is in the public domain. After all, it’s not like Amadeus is going to sue you.
Again, the issue of sync vs. master use rears its ugly head. While a piece of classical music may have unrestricted compositional application, the specific performance of a piece of classical music is, in fact, copyrightable.
That means that while the music from “Don Giovanni” may be free to use in theory, the New York Metropolitan opera’s recording of it is not. You need to seek permission from the original recording’s copyright holder.
You may be thinking, “But doesn’t every version of ‘Swan Lake’ sound the same? Who’s going to know?” Trust us—musicians know. And more importantly, their lawyers know.
Beware favors from your rock star friends.
Recording contracts are complicated, restrictive documents that musicians may not always fully understand, which is why it’s always beneficial to enlist the help of a lawyer to help navigate them.
One example is a messy story about a rock star friend who had agreed to write some original music for a friend’s film. The rock star was signed to a major label as part of a band, but assumed that any work he did outside of his group was free from the restrictions of the band’s recording contract.
That wasn’t the case, as the filmmaker soon found out. Typical recording contracts usually tie up any and all of the artist’s work, regardless of the nature of its creation or intended use.
So the next time your pal Pat Smear offers to lay down some tasty guitar loops for your opening credits sequence, watch out. Legally speaking, those loops are likely to fall under the Foo Fighters family of products, property of Capitol Records.
Film Independent promotes unique independent voices by helping filmmakers create and advance new work. To become a Member of Film Independent, just click here. To support us with a donation, click here. Your donation–and impact–will be doubled through our Board Members and Friends Matching Challenge, available through September 29.
Netflix is establishing an internal games studio in Helsinki, Finland, announcing that it will be led by former Zynga and Electronic Arts exec Marko Lastikka as studio director.
“This is another step in our vision to build a world-class games studio that will bring a variety of delightful and deeply engaging original games — with no ads and no in-app purchases — to our hundreds of millions of members around the world,” Amir Rahimi, Netflix’s VP of game studios, wrote in a blog post announcing the studio’s launch. Rahimi joined Netflix in November 2021, after serving as president of games for Scopely; before that, he was SVP and GM of FoxNext.
Netflix kicked off its push into gaming last summer and now offers more than two dozen titles in its catalog. The idea is that the games, included as part its core video-streaming service, will reduce churn and boost customers’ value perception.
Why is Netflix Games setting up shop in Helsinki? According to Rahimi, the city is “home to some of the best game talent in the world,” and noted that Helsinki also is home to Next Games.
“Creating a game can take years, so I’m proud to see how we’re steadily building the foundation of our games studios in our first year, and look forward to sharing what we produce in the coming years,” Rahimi wrote.
At Zynga — which was acquired by Take-Two Interactive earlier this year — Lastikka was co-founder and GM of the Zynga Helsinki game development studio, working on “FarmVille 3.” Prior to joining Zynga in January 2017, he was co-founder and GM of the EA Helsinki tracktwenty game studio, responsible for the creation and live service of the “SimCity BuildIt” mobile game.
Director Sam Mendes, actress Olivia Colman, cinematographer Roger Deakins and the cast of “Empire of Light” talked at length about the inherent escapism that films can present.
“It’s not really just an ode to movie making, it’s movie watching, movie showing, going to the movies,” Mendes said at the Variety Studio presented by King’s Hawaiian at TIFF. “I think when we were all in lockdown and during COVID fearing that this would go forever, that we would never be in this situation again… being able to sit with people in the dark and be taken on an adventure.”
The meditation on returning to the cinema makes sense as “Empire of Light” is a love story that takes place in an English coastal cinema during the 1980s.
Mendes elaborated further that eyeing Colman to play the film’s leading role came about naturally during quarantine, where he watched episodes of Colman playing the late Queen Elizabeth II on Netflix’s “The Crown,” seeing similar qualities in the lead role he was writing for “Empire of Light.”
“First of all, getting a Zoom from Sam Mendes was so exciting that I would have said yes to anything,” Colman said of being approached to play the role of Hilary Small in the film. “The chance to play things I haven’t played before, [being] a bit scared of it, which was quite exciting, I sort of knew just from our Zoom conversations that I’d be in safe hands.”
Meanwhile Deakins had a new challenge on filming “Empire of Light,” finding the right theater to shoot in: “At first, you think something is going to be incredible difficult, like we did with ‘1917,’ but this was also [difficult] in its own way, because we had to find a theater that really worked for the script in terms of its magic and everything else.”
Watch the full conversation with the “Empire of Light” talent above.
In “Patrick and the Whale,” director and editor Mark Fletcher explores an area not often examined by wildlife filmmakers: the emotional connections that bind sperm whales and their ability not only to communicate to one another, but also, seemingly, to humans.
Produced by Austria’s Terra Mater Studios and screening in the Zurich Film Festival’s Focus Competition, the film centers on Patrick Dykstra, a passionate wildlife explorer, BAFTA-winning cameraman and host of the Discovery series “Chasing Ocean Giants,” and his relationships with two female sperm whales.
Employing stunning underwater footage, the film follows Dykstra as he delves into the fascinating nature of sperm whales, seeking to better understand their intelligence and complexity while also highlighting their fraught relationship with humankind.
Dykstra, a former corporate lawyer who ditched his office job to explore the oceans, initially experienced a close encounter with one of the whales off the coast of the Caribbean island of Dominica, where she approached him, coming within touching distance and pulsing him with her sonar in what appeared to Dykstra to be an effort to communicate with him.
The film accompanies Dykstra as he returns to Dominica the following year to find the special whale, whom he names Dolores, hoping that she will provide a glimpse into the hidden world of her species.
It focuses largely on Dykstra and his conviction that the whales are indeed trying to communicate with him. There was some concern that his views might be deemed “anthropomorphic, whimsical or totally deluded,” Fletcher notes. The film explores that, he adds.
On his return trip, Dykstra finds Dolores and she immediately recognizes him.
The filmmakers planned to mount a camera on the whale with the hopes of capturing never-before-seen footage of the great depths to which the whales dive and perhaps even witness it feeding on giant squid. Dykstra, feeling emotionally attached to the whale, was hesitant about conducting the science experiment, however. When things don’t go as planned, the delicate relationship between whale and man is put to the test.
“The film becomes about the balance of science versus emotion, and about the science of emotion,” Fletcher explains.
“There is a science of animal emotions – scientists call it ‘effective behavior’; they’re affected by their feelings,” he says. Here, the presenter of a wildlife film explains what that actually feels like. With “Patrick and the Whale,” Fletcher focused on getting the audience to feel exactly that.
The director compares Dykstra’s initial contact with the whale to an alien encounter, particularly the one portrayed in Steven Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” in which the extraterrestrials use musical notes to communicate.
While some humpback whales are known for their singing, sperm whales communicate by making clicking sounds.
“When the whales say hello to each other, it’s click, click, click,” Fletcher says. “They talk very slowly to Patrick. Normally when they talk to each other it’s in very fast bursts. They slow it down with Patrick because they’re trying desperately to communicate. And then they wait for him to say something and they are so patient. But he can’t.”
Fletcher notes, however, that communication between humans and sperm whales – which have the largest brains of all animal species – may become reality thanks to a scientific project that is currently seeking to decipher the language of sperm whales: the Cetacean Translation Initiative, or CETI.
In their ambitious effort to make interspecies communication possible, researchers are using data collected from sperm whales off Dominica and applying machine learning, cryptography and robotics to decode their language.
I’m not sure why someone in 2012 decided that we needed a found footage teen comedy, but now we have it, and it’s just as anti-gay, anti-fat, ableist, and misogynistic as you might think.
In this Hangover Jr., our main character throws an (excuse me for my extreme 2012 language here) ~epic~ house party. He destroys his parents’ house and practically the whole neighborhood, but in the end, he’s a hero. Even his dad is proud of him because he proved that he has friends and he’s not a total loser after all. Oh, and he “gets the girl,” because that’s how teen movies ended 10 years ago, despite how shitty he was to her throughout the movie.
Also, let’s not mistreat a dog for comedy — it’s not funny and will never be funny.
HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 03: Noah Centineo attends the premiere of Netflix’s “To All The Boys: P.S. I Still Love You” at the Egyptian Theatre on February 03, 2020 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Phillip Faraone/Getty Images)
Our Netflix boyfriend is back (and in a brand new way). Noah Centineo will return to the platform that made him a star as part of the upcoming thriller series, The Recruit. Although it won’t drop until December 16, Netflix just released details about the series at its Annual Tudum event. Check out everything you need to know.
All about Noah Centineo’s return to Netflix
Noah first rose to popularity as part of the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before franchise and Sierra Burgess Is a Loser. Although he has been acting from a young age, his appearance in highly successful Netflix films gave him his rise to stardom. Not only will he be returning, but will also be returning as the lead in the new series.
The Recruit will also give fans the opportunity of seeing Noah serve as executive producer. Alongside Noah, the series will include actors Fivel Stewart, Vondie Curtis Hall, Kristian Bruun, Aarti Mann, Colton Dunn, and Daniel Quincy Annoh.
The movie will star Noah as Owen Hendricks, a lawyer at the CIA. Netflix describes him as someone who “becomes enmeshed in dangerous international power politics when a former asset threatens to expose the agency”.
Is it a departure from his well-known roles as a boyfriend or crush? Yes. But are we excited? Yes!
It is time for Noah to evolve into not only a starring role and franchise but away from the roles he has done before. While this role will see Noah still playing a younger role, it truly looks like it will be an evolution for the star.
Check out the preview for the new series below:
Are you excited to watch Noah Centineo again on Netflix? Sound off below! We would love to hear from you.
“Surprise!” the Yellowjackets star exclaimed on Twitter Monday, shortly after her stealth casting was revealed in the series’ first official trailer (watch above).
When one of Lynskey’s 154K followers asked her how she came to be involved in HBO’s adaptation of the wildly popular video game, the actress explained that she is a “fan” of The Last of Us‘ co-creator Craig Mazin.
Meanwhile, TVLine has learned that Lynskey is playing Kathleen, the ruthless leader of a revolutionary movement in Kansas City.
Set two decades after the implosion of current-day society, The Last of Us — which is slated to debut in 2023 — centers on Joel (The Mandalorian‘s Pedro Pascal), a tough survivor, who is hired to smuggle a 14-year-old girl named Ellie (Game of Thrones‘ Bella Ramsey) out of an “oppressive” quarantine zone, per the official synopsis. “What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey, as they both must traverse” across a U.S. ravaged by a lethal disease called the Cordyceps fungus “and depend on each other for survival.”
The cast also includes Anna Torv (Fringe), Storm Reid (Euphoria), Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation), Gabriel Luna (Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), Merle Dandridge (Greenleaf), Nico Parker (The Third Day), Murray Bartlett (The White Lotus) and Con O’Neill (Chernobyl).
Bulgaria has re-entered the International Film race for the 2023 Academy Awards with In the Heart of the Machine, directed by Martin Makariev.
The Bulgarian selection committee, chaired by Oscar-nominated Borat star Maria Bakalova, named In the Heart of the Machine (В Сърцето На Машината) as the country’s new entry after their original pick, Mother, was deemed ineligible by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences earlier this week due to more than 50% of the spoken dialogue track being in the English language. The country had until October 3 to submit a new film.
The Academy’s decision created confusion among the producers of Mother who believed their film was compliant with the rule amid calls for more transparency over how exactly the determination is made.
Based on a true story, In the Heart of the Machine is set in 1978, at the height of the communist rule in Bulgaria, and revolves around a group of prisoners recruited to work at a factory. A convicted murderer’s refusal to start his machine until a pigeon trapped in it has been freed triggers a series of events, including a hostage situation, as humanity prevails over self-preservation.
The cast of the film includes a number of top Bulgarian actors including Hristo Shopov, who played Pontius Pilate in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ; Ivaylo Hristov, whose film as a director, Fear, was Bulgaria’s International Oscar submission last year; Julian Vergov; and Bashar Rahal.
In the Heart of the Machine won Best Picture and Best Screenplay at the 2021 Bulgarian National Film Awards. Watch a teaser below. (Clicking the CC sign activates English subtitles.)
At long last, Rihanna is returning to music — in one of the biggest ways possible. As announced Sunday (Sept. 25), the 34-year-old superstar is slated to play the 2023 Super Bowl Halftime Show on Feb. 12, and suffice it to say, fans are freaking out on Twitter.
That’s largely because Ri hasn’t even released an album since dropping Anti six years ago, and she hasn’t performed music live in nearly as long. Though she’s teased new music several times over the years, she still hasn’t come out with anything new since 2016, and has mainly focused on running her makeup and skincare brand, Fenty Beauty.
That’s why a Rihanna halftime show almost seems too good to be true to some fans, even though the “Needed Me” artist confirmed the news herself by posting a photo to Instagram Sunday of her own tattooed hand holding up an NFL football.
One joked that the singer would simply perform a “14-minute makeup tutorial at the halftime show” instead of a concert, while another tweeted a tongue-in-cheek video of Jake Gyllenhaal blowing a kiss to his screaming fans captioned, “Rihanna leaving the super bowl stage after explaining all the new fenty products coming in 2024.”
Others, however, are just excited to see Rihanna performing onstage again. “WE MADE IT THROUGH THE RIHANNA DROUGHT,” rejoiced one fan.
“When I hear RIHANNA’s voice after 6 whole years, the blood that will rush to my veins,” wrote another. “I’ll just cry.”
See the best fan tweets, memes and reactions to Rihanna playing the 2023 Super Bowl halftime show below:
having a child so expensive Rihanna gone back to work ?
When I hear RIHANNA’s voice after 6 whole years, the blood that will rush to my veins. I’ll just cry ? I don’t even know dear God? pic.twitter.com/Qqm7XeZfbr
IDA’s Logan Elevate Grant, which is made possible through the generosity of the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation, aims to uplift emerging filmmakers. This year, the grant program awards $30,000 to three women and nonbinary filmmakers of color directing feature-length journalistic documentary films. This year’s grantees are Paige Bethmann, Chelsea Hernandez, and Zippy Kimundu.
Growing up in Kenya, Kimundu says she saw her country through everyone else’s lens. She worked as an editor for 10 years, and while putting together a documentary for a British television station, she felt conflicted over the content she was creating.
That was when she knew she needed to tell stories centering her African identity. In 2013, Kimundu founded Afrofilms International.
Filmmaking is a way to educate and fight ignorance, which Kimundu, an alumna of New York University–Tisch Asia, has experienced at home and abroad. Everything that happens [in countries like Kenya], Kimundu says, is because of colonialism. The countries, while free, still reel under colonialist structures, which is why, she feels, it’s so important to have African filmmakers telling African stories and reclaiming the narrative. Journalism and documentary filmmaking, for Kimundu, go hand-in-hand. The Logan Elevate Grant, Kimundu explains, will allow her to dive deeper into her storytelling and strengthen her connection with the people in her work.
She is passionate about creating commentary on social justice issues like neocolonialism, white supremacy, and volunteerism. “There are thousands of people who come as volunteers [to Africa],” Kimundu says. “You come in, and you go out. What have you done? What really deep down do you think that you have done? What change do you think you have made?”
Despite Paige Bethmann’s decade-long experience working on various nonfiction projects—for outlets like NASCAR and Vox, where she was in charge of live television—she never thought she’d make a documentary. With her directorial debut, Remaining Native, Bethmann is also pushing for change as she attempts to reclaim the narrative around Indigenous history. After the uncovering of unmarked graves of Indigenous children at former boarding schools throughout the United States, Bethmann, who is Haudenosaunee, said she felt an “internal responsibility to be able to find a story to honor that history.” At 10, her great-grandmother attended a similar boarding school, which was the root of familial trauma and shame. Bethmann’s grandmother fought against this, establishing the first Native American after-school program in Rochester, New York, where Bethmann learned tradition, culture, language, and storytelling.
“She was this big reminder to us growing up that you must be proud to be Native,” Bethmann reflects. “You must be proud of what we had to come through in order to be here today.”
Bethman lost her grandmother two years before she heard about Ku, a Yerington Paiute teenager orchestrating a 50-mile memorial run which starts at the Stewart Indian Boarding School and follows the same path his great-grandfather ran while escaping the boarding school, in honor of him and all the other lives lost at Indian boarding schools. Bethmann saw a mirror in Ku; both of them were serving a similar goal—to honor family legacy–through filmmaking and running, respectively.
“Ku is like this symbol of hope, despite everything that his family has gone through, despite him not having a coach or resources,” Bethmann maintains. “To have him get to the place where he’s at today is inspiring. He cultivated this whole community to run with him and to raise that awareness, and not just for himself.” Despite Ku’s lack of resources and connection to the sports world, he defied expectations by getting a walk-on offer to run for University of Oregon. Bethmann hopes that Ku will be someone that young Native kids can look up to. “For [Native kids] to see someone who looks like them achieve so much—not only achieve so much, but to also give so much back—that is Indigenous to its core. It’s always having that reciprocal relationship in balance. That’s needed right now, to try to reconnect and to find that balance again.”
Remaining Native goes beyond just Ku though, as his story parallels the ongoing federal investigation of the boarding schools, which was launched as Ku began his senior year of high school. The week he graduated, the federal report came out.
Because the film revolves around a traumatic topic, it’s been integral for Bethmann to ensure there are “psychological safety nets,”—whether that be taking breaks or cultivating safe spaces—for the Native people involved in the project. She was able to meet with a trauma psychologist as part of the Logan Elevate program, which has been helpful when dealing with the heaviness of the film she is making. Bethmann is also working with The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, which aims to address the “ongoing trauma created by the US Indian Boarding School policy.”
For Bethmann, it’s important to assert that Native people aren’t a monolith. She remembers pitching the story and hearing that it was too niche and wouldn’t reach a wide audience, to which Bethmann laughed and responded, “A teenage boy?” —who, like any other teenage boy, gets in trouble for staying out, argues with his parents, and talks about girls.
Under a colonized narrative, Bethmann points out, portrayals of Indigenous people are often “stoic and sad.” So it was especially important for the film to be aesthetically beautiful, with Indigenous people in front of and behind the camera, establishing an accurate representation that would inspire cultural knowledge.
“That is a direct rebellion against what the boarding school goal was,” Bethmann adds, “Playing a role in doing that makes me the proudest I could be.”
For Chelsea Hernandez—who, along with Heather Courtney and Princess Hairston, is the co-director of the Untitled 19th documentary—diverse representation in front of and behind the camera was integral to the integrity of their film. The documentary follows the release of The 19th, a news outlet run by women and non-binary editors and journalists, reporting on politics and policies through the lens of gender and race.
When Hernandez heard that Emily Ramshaw, the former editor-in-chief of The Texas Tribune, was leaving to start her own inclusive newsroom, she was intrigued. She asked herself, “How were they going to bring lived experiences and diversity and inclusion into the newsroom?”
“Seventy out of 100 newspapers in the country right now are run by white men, and those are the people that are saying what stories get told and what viewpoints those stories get told [from],” Hernandez explains.
As a Mexican-American filmmaker, Hernandez asserts that having a space like Brown Girls Doc Mafia to speak and collaborate with other filmmakers of color, is “instrumental to not feel alone with certain issues.” Brown Girls Doc Mafia is where Hernandez connected with Hairston.
In low points during the filmmaking process, Hernandez says she’s been uplifted by the success of other members of BGDM, saying she feeds off their energy.
Newsrooms across the country have been engaged in uncomfortable conversations about the lack of representation and disparities over race and gender. Hernandez hopes that the documentary will encourage these conversations, no matter how uncomfortable they may be. “There are some people doing some badass work,” Hernandez says. “You can’t complain that you can’t find people of color anymore.”
The documentary, which should be released in 2023, tells the resilient story of the women-operated news startup launching over Zoom during a global pandemic but also showcases a model that newsrooms and classrooms can adapt—a model that reimagines journalism through an inclusive and empathetic lens.
“There’s more to reporting than just trying to get both sides of the story,” Hernandez explains. “You can bring your lived experience.”
The filmmakers all express immense gratitude for the grant and speak to how essential the financial support is to finishing their films. Because of filmmakers like Kimundu, Bethmann, and Hernandez, narratives—which have traditionally been gatekept and dictated by a narrow group of people—are being reclaimed and retold by rightful and righteous voices.
Kelsey Brown is the editorial intern for Documentary magazine. She is a senior at Cal State Long Beach, where she is pursuing her bachelor’s in journalism with a minor in International studies.
Russia was hit by a major school shooting today with at least 15 dead, 11 of which are children, after a gunman inspired by the infamous Columbine school shooting went on a rampage.
The shooting took place in the No. 88 school in Izhevsk – the capital of Russia’s Udmurt Republic roughly 600 miles east of Moscow.
Police later found the attacker dead in the school, having committed suicide. He was identified as Artyom Kazantsev, a former pupil of school No. 88 who was born in 1988.
Students and teachers were seen cowering under desks and hiding in cupboards in their classrooms as the gunman made his way through the halls in shocking video footage. Other students were injured after jumping out of windows to escape the gunfire.
Clips posted on the Telegram messaging app showed the moment armed police piled into the building in search for the gunman while other officers and teachers ushered panicked kids towards the exits.
Images of the man’s corpse showed a Nazi swastika emblazoned across his shirt.
The pistols used in the attack meanwhile bore handmade keychains paying tribute to Columbine shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who staged an infamous school shooting in Colorado, USA, in 1999.
One chain displayed the words ‘Eric’ and ‘Dylan’, while the other one read ‘Columbine’.
A message reposted to Telegram which is thought to have been written by the attacker read: ‘What happened is not a terrorist attack.
‘As the only reason for what happened, I ask you to cite hatred. I am not a member of any extremist organisations, I have no political demands.’
Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced the shooting as an ‘inhuman terrorist attack’.
‘The president wishes for the recovery of those injured as a result of this inhuman terrorist attack,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Armed police are seen tearing up the stairs in pursuit of the gunman as primary school age children run down stairs and are hustled toward the exits by officers and teachers
Grieving family members are pictured at the scene of a school shooting in Izhevsk
Police later found the attacker dead in the school, having committed suicide. His motive is unknown, but he was clad all in black and wearing a balaclava
Gunman’s weapons bore personalised keychains paying tribute to Columbine school shooters. Images published of the attacker’s clothes also showed Nazi symbols
Ammunition magazines recovered from the shooter had the word ‘HATE!’ painted across them
Initial reports said two security guards and several children were wounded or killed in the No. 88 school in Izhevsk – the capital of Russia’s Udmurt Republic roughly 600 miles east of Moscow
Video footage posted on the Telegram messaging app showed terrified children and a teacher sheltering inside in a biology classroom as the gunman roamed the halls.
An unnamed girl posted from inside the siege: ‘We are in biology class.
‘Moved from class to lab. The whole class is sitting and crying. They don’t tell us anything. Very scary.’
Another video saw children aged around nine or ten huddled in a classroom and crouched on the floor.
They can be heard whispering ‘Be Quiet!’ to each other.
Reports said school director Elena Semashko, 50, had locked herself and a wounded teenager in an office to avoid the attack.
The press service of the Ministry of Education stated that the head of the department, Sergei Kravtsov, has dispatched a delegation to the school in the wake of the attack to oversee the investigation.
A major operation was underway from Russian law enforcement to break the siege, until it transpired that the gunman had shot himself in room number 403.
Once the attack was over, footage showed wounded children being taken out of the school to waiting ambulances.
One – with apparent wounds – was carried out on top of a school desk.
The school has 982 students and 80 teachers.
Many of those affected were first graders – seven years old – according to reports.
Russia’s Investigative Committee confirmed the death toll of Kazantsev’s attack stands at 13, while 14 more were injured.
Rescuers are seen carrying a wounded child on a stretcher to an ambulance outside of the school
Video footage posted on the Telegram messaging app showed terrified children and a teacher cowering inside in a biology classroom as they hid from the gunman
Ambulances are pictured outside the No. 88 school in Izhevsk as a victim lies on the ground by the roadside
A major operation was underway from Russian law enforcement to break the siege, until it transpired that the gunman had shot himself in room number 403
A police van is pictured outside the school in Izhevsk
Governor of Udmurtia Alexander Brechalov said: ‘We’ve got everything deployed at school 88. Special services, ambulance are all there. I am at the site, I’ll be reporting all updates.
‘So far, an unidentified person entered the school, killed a guard, it is already known that there are victims among children and wounded. Now the evacuation has ended.
Brechalov later reported: ‘It is already known that a guard was killed, there are victims among children, wounded… The attacker shot himself.’
Izhevsk is the headquarters of the Kalashnikov weapons empire and the birthplace of the famed AK-47 assault rifle, among many other small arms used the world over.
The school is in the centre of Izhevsk, a city of about 650,000 residents, close to central government buildings.
The attack came as another gunman opened fire inside a Russian military enlistment office in the far-eastern city of Irkutsk, leaving the chief military recruiter in critical condition.
This is the moment gunman Ruslan Zinin, 25 (far left and second right), walked into a Russian enlistment office in Irkutsk and shot military commissar Alexander Eliseev (second left)
Dramatic footage captured the moment the man walked up to the recruiter has he stood on stage in front of new conscripts and fired a single shot at point-blank range while shouting: ‘Nobody is going to fight!’.
The man – identified as Ruslan Zinin, 25 – was angry after his friend got called up to the army following Putin’s announcement of a partial military mobilisation amid the war in Ukraine.
Zinin had told his mother that he was going to the recruitment office to enlist voluntarily, according to local reports.
Igor Kobzev, the governor of the Irkutsk region, said military commissar Alexander Eliseev was in ‘critical condition’ after the attack and that the shooter was arrested at the scene ‘and will definitely be punished.’
It comes as opposition to Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine grows after he gave the order to start conscripting men into the military, with a recruitment office in the Volgograd region fire-bombed overnight.
Russian mass shootings and gun laws
Mass shootings at schools and universities in Russia were rare until 2021, when the country was rocked by two separate killing sprees in the central Russian cities of Kazan and Perm that spurred lawmakers to tighten laws regulating access to guns.
In September 2021, a student dressed in black tactical clothing and helmet armed with a hunting rifle swept through Perm State University buildings killing six people, mostly women, and injuring two dozen others.
The gunman resisted arrest and was shot by law enforcement as he was apprehended and moved to a medical facility for treatment.
It was the second such attack that year, after a 19-year-old former student shot dead nine people at his old school in Kazan in May.
Investigators said that the gunman suffered from a mental impairment, but was deemed fit to receive a licence for the semi-automatic shotgun that he used.
On the day of that attack Putin called for a review of gun control laws and the age to acquire hunting rifles was increased from 18 to 21 and medical checks were strengthened.
Authorities have blamed foreign influence for previous school shootings, saying young Russians have been exposed online and through television to similar attacks in the United States and elsewhere.
Other high-profile shooting cases have taken place in Russia’s army, putting the issue of hazing in the spotlight in the country where military service is compulsory for men aged between 18 and 27.
In November 2020, a 20-year-old soldier killed three fellow servicemen at a military base near the city of Voronezh. In a similar attack in 2019, a young recruit shot dead eight servicemen, saying he faced bullying and harassment in the army.
Sharp-witted jokes, plenty of awkward situations and unexpected plot twists. Everything we have been waiting for so long! Viewers should get ready for a reboot of an old TV show. The creator of the ‘Reboot’, Steven Levitan, shows us the underside of the creating process of TV industry.
It feels like we’re on the set of a reality show. And this feeling stays with us through the entire TV series. What plot twists are awaiting us? Let’s dive into a detailed description of the first episode, entitled ‘Step Right Up’.
Courtesy of Hulu
EPISODE ONE: REBOOT OF AN OLD TV SHOW
The first main, characters of this series you meet, is Hannah (Rachel Bloom). She’s ambitious and fully qualified to receive this job – at first glance. But this is far from the truth – she’s nervous and sweats profusely (sounds very familiar) and isn’t sure why she’s here. And that’s why her decision surprises the bosses of Hulu even more.
Courtesy of Hulu
Hannah desperately wants to reboot the old show ‘Step Right Up‘, and even with the original cast. But why is she so eager to do this? She definitely has her reasons for this and she intends to achieve them, no matter what. Even if it means getting over her principles and fears. But will it be so easy to find the original cast, have they not changed at all? The answer is obvious – they have changed, that’s for sure.
WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE CAST?
The old show was cancelled when Reed Sterling (Keegan-Michael Key) left to pursue a film career. But, for some reason, there is no trace of any film or TV show, in which he starred. Elaine Kim (Krista Marie Yu), the new VP of Comedy, found a short video with Reed from an audition. He looks like a gangster from some shitty movie (clearly, not the most presentable look). But what about other cast members?
Zack Jackson (Calum Worthy) starred in a string of straight-to-video teen movies it seems that he’s stuck forever in the image of a little boy. Bree Marie Jensen (Judy Greer) did a season on a low budget sci-fi cable show (so creepy experience). And after that she left Hollywood and married the Duke. And, finally, Clay Barber (Johnny Knoxville), who had some huge substance abuse issue and a not so successful career as a stand-up comic. It doesn’t look so bad or…?
Courtesy of Hulu
Anyway, Hulu’s management has given Hannah the green light to reboot an old TV show. The actors from the original cast had no hesitation about agreeing to act in the new show. Most importantly, Reed is ready to return to this role again. And now they’re all meeting again in Hollywood.
And it seems that they’re really happy to see each other. But there’s a small problem between Bree and Reed. They had an off-screen relationship. Unfortunately, it didn’t end well.
But anyway, all of them are inspired by the new script. And they’re just waiting for shooting to begin. It would seem that nothing can prevent Hannah’s plans to reboot an old TV show. But is it so?
BIG AND REALLY DARK SECRET OF THIS SHOW
Courtesy of Hulu
Suddenly Hannah announces that she’s leaving the show (they hasn’t even started filming yet) and just can’t stand IT! The cast is surprised by this decision. But what made the new showrunner so mad? And the thing is that Hulu bosses don’t really believe in young talent. So they decided to invite the original creator of the series – Gordon (Paul Reiser).
What a twist plot (but it doesn’t end there)! And, of course, the original creator brings all his signature style back to this show: old, hackneyed jokes and set-up/punchline script. When the cast sees Gordon again, not everyone is excited about it, especially Reed.
Courtesy of Hulu
Gordon gives them an ultimatum – either they stay in the show or they leave. This is his show and he can make such decisions. And if they are against it, then he’ll simply return to his wonderful life. Again, the plot of the series turns in a cardinal direction – Reed decides to express the general opinion of the team (he thinks so).
He portrays his scene from his audition to Gordon and just simply says him to back off. The cast is in shock and just doesn’t understand what happened. They all admit to each other that without this show they simply will not survive. Everything is not going as well in their lives as it seems. They decide to bring Hannah back, because her script brought them back to reboot an old TV show.
They’re trying to convince her to come back and that she can work with Gordon. Then Hannah blurts out the terrible truth. The biggest and darkest secret is that Hannah is Gordon’s daughter! And the whole show is really based on real events from her life.
WHAT TO EXPECT FROM OTHER SERIES?
Courtesy of Hulu
Considering how the first episode ended, the fans will definitely not be disappointed in the rest of the show. The viewers can expect, for sure, a lot of funny and extraordinary scenes and definitely a lot of unusual plot twists.
So get ready for a tremendous show and actors, who know exactly how to make the audience laugh out loud. And, obviously, they will make you wait impatiently for new series.
The first three episodes premiered on Hulu on September 20. New episodes will be released every Tuesday.
A couple finds out that they are going to have a baby, and to become better role models before the baby arrives, they come up with a way to combat their swearing habit— they start using a “Swear Jar.” Every time one of them swears, they must put a few dollars in the jar. They intend to use the money to go on a vacation approximately three years from the time when their child is born.
Seems like a rom-com synopsis at first glance, but you don’t see the big picture until the heartbreaking plot twist. Adelaide Clemens, Patrick J. Adams, and Douglas Smith led the film that just premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Swearing doesn’t count if you’re singing it.
The film, directed by Lindsay MacKay, opens with a hilarious “home video” style montage and a concert in a community center, where Carey (Adelaide Clemens) sings a lyrical masterpiece full of swear words. You can’t help but laugh because it’s a funny expression of her love for her husband, Simon (Patrick J. Adams), at his 40th birthday party. Owen (Douglas Smith) accompanies her on guitar. These scenes, combined with heartfelt songs (with ample swearing), mark the shifts in the tone of the story.
The montage ends and Carey awkwardly tells Simon that she’s pregnant, and he is ecstatic to hear her news. He is holding a yellow sheet of paper, folds it, and tucks it in his pocket, hoping that Carey will forget about the news. In a seamless transition, Carey walks into a bookstore and while she is writing down some lyrics. One of the clerks offers her a pen, introducing himself as Owen.
“It is a rare and miraculous thing to find your one true soul mate.” Carey soon learns that finding two of them can pose an even greater problem (IMDb).
There is clear chemistry between Carey and Owen, initially leading the viewer to believe that Carey is treading in dangerous waters, potentially beginning an affair. Owen asks her out for a coffee date, and she accepts. Soon, he takes her on a picnic date and they kiss. The mood changes when Carey’s mother-in-law sees her at the park with Owen, greeting her then quickly making an excuse to leave.
Scenes switch back and forth between the past with Simon and the present with Owen. Details come together when Carey asks Simon why he is “acting so weird” and confronts him. Is Carey is seeking comfort and companionship from Owen… while she is still married to Simon?
The Heartbreaking Plot Twist: WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!
One easy detail to miss: Simon often takes naps and complains of a headache. This leads to his sudden and tragic passing. She finds out from his mother-in-law that the little yellow paper in his pocket were the results of a test from a doctor. He passed from an aneurysm, and his mother reveals to Carey that he told her. He made his mother hide the diagnosis from his wife. Once Carey finds out, she cuts off her mother-in-law.
Owen and Carey continue to explore their new relationship, and she tells him that she isn’t married anymore. At this point, we discover that three years passed between Simon’s death and Carey’s newfound love with Owen, and she has a three year old daughter named Gretchen. When Owen declares his love for Carey after she finally lets him into her life, she struggles to move on and allow herself to love him.
Saved by Swearing
It is revealed that that the birthday party was a wake, 40th birthday party, and a concert. Carey announces that she will be using all of the money that they saved from the swear jar would be used to take her daughter on a vacation. The look that Carey gives Owen in the last scene leaves us with the impression that she is opening up her heart again.
These characters are well-developed and the plot reveal tugs on your heartstrings.
Sept. 21, 2022 – Paramount+ announced the premiere date for CRIMINAL MINDS: EVOLUTION. The 10-episode season will premiere with two episodes on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, Nov. 24, exclusively on Paramount+. Following the premiere, new episodes will drop weekly on Thursdays, until its mid-season finale on Thursday, Dec. 15. The season will then return on Thursday, Jan. 12 with all-new episodes dropping weekly through the finale on Thursday, Feb. 9.
The news was revealed by CRIMINAL MINDS: EVOLUTION showrunner, executive producer and writer Erica Messer during Paramount+’s virtual Television Critics Association (TCA) presentation today. In addition to Messer, the CRIMINAL MINDS: EVOLUTION virtual TCA panel featured cast members Joe Mantegna, A.J. Cook, Kirsten Vangsness, Aisha Tyler, Paget Brewster and Zach Gilford.
CRIMINAL MINDS: EVOLUTION will continue and expand the beloved franchise for streaming audiences, blending serialized elements into the series’ format. CBS’ original “Criminal Minds” series, which ran from 2005-2020, followed the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, the best of the best who profiled the worst of the worst. In CRIMINAL MINDS: EVOLUTION, the FBI’s elite team of criminal profilers come up against their greatest threat yet, an UnSub who has used the pandemic to build a network of other serial killers. As the world opens back up and the network goes operational, the team must hunt them down, one murder at a time. Original cast members reprising their roles include Joe Mantegna, A.J. Cook, Kirsten Vangsness, Aisha Tyler, Adam Rodriguez and Paget Brewster. Zach Gilford joins the dynamic cast as a recurring guest star in a season-long arc.
CRIMINAL MINDS: EVOLUTION is produced by ABC Signature and CBS Studios. Erica Messer (“Criminal Minds,” “Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders”) serves as showrunner, executive producer and writer. Breen Frazier and Chris Barbour will serve as writers and executive producers, Glenn Kershaw will direct and executive produce and Mark Gordon will also serve as executive producer.
Courtesy of Everett Collection
About Paramount+
Paramount+, a direct-to-consumer digital subscription video on-demand and live streaming service, combines live sports, breaking news and a mountain of entertainment. The premium streaming service features an expansive library of original series, hit shows and popular movies across every genre from world-renowned brands and production studios, including BET, CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures and the Smithsonian Channel. The service is also the streaming home to unmatched sports programming, including every CBS Sports event, from golf to football to basketball and more, plus exclusive streaming rights for major sports properties, including some of the world’s biggest and most popular soccer leagues. Paramount+ also enables subscribers to stream local CBS stations live across the U.S. in addition to the ability to stream CBS News Network for 24/7 news and CBS Sports HQ for sports news and analysis.
For more information about Paramount+, please visit www.paramountplus.com and follow @paramountplus on social platforms.
About ABC Signature
One of the Disney Television Studios, ABC Signature produces many of ABC Entertainment’s most significant hits, including “Grey’s Anatomy,” and “Station 19”; co-productions “The Good Doctor,” “A Million Little Things,” “The Rookie,” “The Rookie: Feds” and “Home Economics,” and late-night talk show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” ABC Signature’s returning and upcoming series include “grown-ish” “The Watchful Eye” and “Everything’s Trash” for Freeform; “Godfather of Harlem” for EPIX; “Bad Sisters” and “Five Days at Memorial” for Apple; “Reasonable Doubt” and “This Fool” for Hulu. For streaming service Disney +, series include “The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers,” “Big Shot” and the upcoming “National Treasure: Edge of History” and “Muppets Mayhem.”
About CBS Studios
CBS Studios is one of the world’s leading suppliers of entertainment programming, with more than 60 series currently in production for broadcast and cable networks, streaming services and other emerging platforms. The Studio’s expansive portfolio spans a diverse slate of commercially successful and critically acclaimed scripted programming, which includes genre-defining franchises such as “NCIS,” “CSI” and the ever-growing “Star Trek” universe, award-winning late night and daytime talk shows, as well as an extensive library of iconic intellectual property. The Studio also develops and produces local language and international content originating outside of the U.S. with series in the U.K., Europe, the Middle East and Australia.
Brett Favre’s SiriusXM show has been put on hold following his involvement in a Mississippi welfare fraud scandal, a company spokesperson confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter.
The news follows the decision by ESPN Milwaukee to suspend his weekly Packers recap program The Brett Favre Show, according to NBC Sports. The ex-footballer, who also played for the Atlanta Falcons and the New York Jets has hosted the NFL show The SiriusXM Blitz With Brett Favre and Bruce Murray since 2018. The show airs on Tuesdays and released its most recent broadcast on Sept. 13.
In May, the former NFL quarterback — along with 37 other individuals and organizations — was sued by the Mississippi Department of Human Services for allegedly misusing millions in state welfare funding for personal projects. In Favre’s case, that included allegedly rerouting $5 million in aid toward the construction of a volleyball stadium at the University of Southern Mississippi, where Favre’s daughter played.
Favre was also interviewed by the FBI, which his lawyer confirmed to NBC News in a Sept. 1 report. The federal agency spoke with the NFL Hall of Famer over the more than $1 million in speaking fees he was paid by the state of Mississippi for motivational talks he didn’t deliver, according to the Mississippi state auditor.
The former Green Bay player denied any wrongdoing at the time and his lawyer Bud Holmes told NBC News that Favre had not been charged with or accused of a crime or made aware the money was intended to help low-income children.
The investigation into his speaking fees dates back to 2020, with that money also taken out of the state’s welfare fund. The NFL quarterback was ordered to pay back the speaking fees with interest and has since paid the fees, but not the interest.
In a report published on Sept. 13 by Mississippi Today, text messages allegedly show the former quarterback working with former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant Bryant, along with former executive director of Mississippi’s Department of Human Services John Davis and founder of nonprofit Mississippi Community Education Nancy New to allegedly divert state welfare funds.
That money was part of a federal program known as the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), which financially assists states with supporting low-income families with children.
The pause of Favre’s SiriusXM show follows Bryant pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and to commit theft concerning programs receiving federal funds, as well as theft concerning programs receiving federal funds, the Department of Justice announced on Sept. 22.
Is this show amazing or underwhelming or something in between? We’re talking through our feelings — join us.
“House of the Dragon” is a hit, but what’s working and what’s not remains hotly contested among fans and critics alike. How is the show handling misogyny, violence, and wigs? Are the week-to-week plot twists as gripping as “Thrones’” before it? The show is pulling in a massive audience, but are we just going through the motions and watching the big buzzy show, or do we actually love it?
As Season 1 enters its second half, let’s look at the pros and cons of Episodes 1-6 to better assess how HBO’s latest juggernaut can get even better (and bigger?) from here. Episode 6 “The Princess and the Queen” jumps ahead more than any other so far, catching up with Alicent and Rhaenyra around 10 years after Episode 5, with the characters now played by Olivia Cooke and Emma D’Arcy. A lot has happened since Rhaenyra’s wedding, yet somehow not much at all. Everything until this point has been preamble, and the true purpose of “House of the Dragon” now seems to lie ahead.
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Below, IndieWire’s Ben Travers and Proma Khosla duel — um, debate — the major moments from Season 1 so far. Working? The lead characters. Questionable? Dragon representation. Too gross to be objective? Crabfeeder, by a long shot.
The Opening Credits
Pro: It’s what you want to hear.
BT: As disappointing as the show’s lack of courage in this regard feels, it’s also totally in line with the rest of “House of the Dragon.” As I outlined in my initial review, HBO built this to be the next “Game of Thrones,” meaning it’s literally built to mimic the original series. Making sure fans feel the same way they do about the first franchise extension is essential to extending the franchise even further, and one of the surefire ways to do just that is through music. Fans want to feel how they felt when they heard Djawadi’s banger, week after week, for eight years — so why not simply give it to them? Is it boring, crass, and annoying? Absolutely. Is it still a great tune? Also, yes.
Con: It’s lazy as heck.
PK: I could not believe my ears when I started this show and heard the ol’ “dum dum, DUMDUMDUM dum” strings introducing it. I had a very mixed emotional response due to a decade of conditioning, but the predominant thought was: WTF. Do not tell me my boy Ramin Djawadi couldn’t drop the song of the season with new title music for this show. Don’t tell me he couldn’t revise or retool the original and come up with a fire-and-blood themed BANGER that reminds viewers of “Thrones” but has its own flare. Using this music is an insult to Djawadi, not to mention to 29 million viewers and counting!
Daemon Targaryen
Matt Smith in “House of the Dragon”
HBO
Pro: He’s deeply compelling.
BT: It’s funny: In a lot of ways, Daemon Targaryen represents everything that made the original “Game of Thrones” so difficult for me to stomach. He’s such a ginormous piece of shit, you know he’s taking the City Watch to Truffoni’s every New Year’s Eve and slopping those steaks. But not only is Daemon sadistic and misogynistic, he’s written to be seductively so — adding a cool factor to every objectively repulsive decision he makes. That kind of thing can get old, and the many cruel twists peppered throughout the original series wore me down.
But I must say: “House of the Dragon” needs him. There could certainly be less incest — a phrase I never thought I’d actually have to write down — but too many of the current characters maneuver for power like chess pieces: stiffly, predictably, and without much thought. Daemon flips the board over and then, well, does something unspeaking on top of it. His particular brand of chaos has been largely lacking in other aspects of the prequel series, so I have to come down in favor of Daemon. I hope he meets his maker eventually, but until then, at least he’s keeping the audience on their toes.
Con: He sucks.
PK: I am deeply concerned for the Daemon Targaryen hive, especially the “Daenyra” subhive (a word I learned this week and would like to chuck into the sea for the crabs to feed on). Are we really still falling for this rogue-man-who-plays-by-his-own-rules bullshit? Did y’all clock how quickly he went from “chaotic king” to literal wife killer? And no offense to Matt Smith, but he doesn’t do it for me and never has. Yes he is objectively tall and chiseled and handsome and charismatic and acted the shit out of that one scene without saying a word — wait, what side am I on again?
Alicent and Rhaenyra
Pro: Female besties.
PK: Imagine my absolute unexpected delight as a woman who watched all of “Game of Thrones” to watch this pilot and have it be undeniably about YOUNG WOMEN. Yeah Daemon is there or whatever, but it is not his show. There is a reason it focuses so much on Alicent and Rhaenyra (who aren’t even friends in the book!): It makes things personal. Emily Carey herself told IndieWire how important it is to build that relationship up before breaking it down, and you really feel that with these performances. Female friendships are deep and complex and that’s something “Thrones” rarely, if ever, explored.
Con: …but they turn against each other.
BT: In a show with three male creators, based on one of those creators’ books, the male gaze is going to make its way into the story. For the most part, I like Alicent and Rhaenyra’s shared arc, especially as it builds anticipation / terror over the prospect of Rhaenyra murdering her best friend’s son in order to preserve her right to the throne. I’m pretty sure we haven’t seen a friendship tested like that on TV, and even if it never comes to pass, the underlying suspicion is enough to send unique ripples through both characters. That being said, Alicent and Rhaenyra are the two lead women in “House of the Dragon,” and, of course, they end up fighting each other. As a plot requisite, it’s easier to forgive falling back on a vexing cliche, but it’s still a vexing cliche.
Dragons
What’s going on in that pretty little head?
HBO
Pro: They look *sick*.
PK: Ahead of watching the episodes, someone I know (one of our colleagues? Ben Travers himself?) joked that the whole show was about building a house and then a dragon coming and moving in. I have not stopped thinking about how much I want that show. All these dragons have different looks and skills and names and personalities, and they get the short end of the stick in a show notorious for large ensembles where viewers can barely keep track of the incestuous lead characters.
Con: They have no identities.
BT: Gosh, I wish I’d made that joke, because now I want that show, too! Frankly, it just sounds… nice, and I know that’s not what “House of the Dragon” is about, but maybe the next spinoff can be?
As far as the show we’ve got, I agree that it’s frustrating to see all the dragons basically treated as the same general creature, rather than individuals with their own personalities. That’s a problem, and I hope it’s addressed in the second half of the season. What I do like about the dragons, though, is how they’ve been presented. Rhaenyra’s dragon, Syrax, emerging through the fog in Episode 2 looks great. Same for the inevitable yet awesome reveal in Episode 3, when Seasmoke flies into frame and turns the Crabfeeder’s army to toast. Even in Episode 6, just seeing the dragon drag its tail along the ocean as it flies low overhead, that’s a great shot! All these shots give the flying cats (yes, they’re definitely inspired by cats) a style that should be mirrored by substance. Hopefully the latter’s still coming.
The Crabfeeder
Pro: As close as this show will come to comedy.
BT: The name “Crabfeeder” — especially as the big bad of the early episodes — is inherently funny, and I appreciated “House of the Dragon” leaning into an absolutely absurd idea as hard as they did, just for the laughs. Of course, that presumes you can separate from the onscreen barbarity enough to laugh, which… may not be possible for everyone. That is all. That is my only defense. I am done now.
Con: Ew ew ew ew ew ew ew.
PK: WHERE TO BEGIN. The graphic burning and oozing and feasting upon human flesh by crustacea? The trypophobia inspired by close ups of Mr. Feeder’s face? I sometimes wonder if it would all have been more palatable if they simply washed the Crab Feeder’s hair, but alas, we will never know. Everything to do with the Crab Feeder was suitably gross for someone named after this unique proclivity, right up until his first moments as a corpse that Daemon sliced in two and kept as a trophy. The intestines — when will I forget the intestines? I haven’t had pasta in weeks (but I have eaten crab).
Action (Or Lack Thereof)
Steve Toussaint in “House of the Dragon”
HBO
Pro: The one battle was pretty good!
BT: Credit where it’s due, The Battle of the Stepstones is well-executed. Daemon, feigning defeat, baits the Crabfeeder’s army out of hiding and proceeds to blitz through his opponents with a savvy tenacity. (As arrows cascade down upon him, Daemon kills his enemies while using their bodies as human shields — smart move!) Meanwhile, the Crabfeeder isn’t written like an idiot. As Daemon charges, he’s watching the sky, waiting for a dragon to swoop in and light up his soldiers. But Daemon just keeps coming, taking arrows along the way, until enough of the opposing army is exposed and he’s close enough to reach the Crabfeeder before he can escape. That’s when the dragon arrives, and that’s when the battle is won. It’s a risky plan that actually feels risky, instilling a reluctant admiration for Daemon’s abilities on the battlefield that helps elevate his dangerous status back in polite society. “Game of Thrones” has provided better, bigger battles, but the first for “House of the Dragon” still delivers.
Con: There are very few actual battles… so far.
PK: Not to be That Guy, but I have read “Fire & Blood” and there are so many amazing battles ahead. The show is moving slower than the book, but Season 1 feels like it’s treading water, inventing and stretching out things that are barely mentioned or don’t even exist in the text — which is sometimes fine, but sometimes pointless! The Crabfeeder storyline is there to build up Daemon, to show dragons in battle, and to gross us out with crabs. It’s fine, but once we get to the God’s Eye you’ll be laughing that this even happened.
So Much Childbirth, So Much Death
Con: JFC.
PK: I continue to be so curious about the writers’ ongoing fascination with childbirth. They can’t have known this was going to be a critical sociopolitical issue at the time of the show’s airing, but now it is and it’s tough to divorce all these scenes from cultural context. As someone with a uterus, I could actually do without weekly reminders of what can happen to my body if I lose control over it! Whenever a character observes that the birthing room is its own battlefield or that birth givers have it so hard or there is a deliberate juxtaposition between the violence of war and the excruciating pain of creating life — I don’t need it! I’m aware! The best thing these storylines can do is make other people aware and empathetic, so I hope that at least happens.
BT: Honestly, I don’t think there’s a “pro” beyond your last note, and I truly hope that by making the perils of childbirth an ongoing topic of conversation, “House of the Dragon” can widely exemplify why women’s bodily autonomy is an absolute imperative. From what I’ve been told, the scenes are… accurate, to a degree, so even in the context of a fantasy show reminiscent of the Middle Ages, perhaps some viewers will wake up, read a friggin’ book, and recognize health care as a human right.
The Brutal Death of That Other Joffrey
Theo Nate and Solly McLeod in “House of the Dragon”
HBO
Con: Too Many Tropes — and not good ones.
BT: I think it’s the combination of two overused and ugly tropes that grates on me more than either one taken on their own. Joffrey — Joffrey Lonmouth, not Joffrey Joffrey — is introduced solely so he can die, which then creates additional stories for Criston and Laenor. Technically, this falls under the unpopular theme of “fridging,” where a loved one is hurt or killed in order to move another character’s plot forward. It’s rather lazy writing, for one — since all we really know about Joffrey is that he liked to stir shit up, apparently — but because the only other thing we know about Joffrey is that he prefers the company of men, his death becomes doubly clichéd via the “bury your gays” trope — when LGBTQIA+ characters are routinely killed off instead of their straight peers. At its worst, such seemingly targeted deaths imply queer characters are dispensable, or even less human than their surviving heterosexual characters. Now, I don’t think Joffrey’s demise exemplifies the nastiest iteration of either of these trends — some supporting characters are expendable, and some have to be written to, well, support other characters — but it’s still worth noting that “House of the Dragon” ended up here.
Pro: Death is inevitable in this show.
PK: Joffrey dying is canon, even if it’s not as dramatic or brutal; in the book Criston strikes him during a tourney and he passes away after several days. Killing him at the wedding is a lot more narratively potent, inextricably linking Joffrey’s death to Laenor and Rhaenyra’s marriage, the disintegration of her relationship with Criston, and Alicent’s shift in loyalty. Laenor has ample cause to be resentful of everyone present, which is something the writers could use in future episodes or seasons. And when it comes to the “bury your gays” trope — Laenor himself is alive, arguably thriving! He’s married to the person next in line for the throne, he has three healthy children by Episode 6, and his wig even got better. I wish him nothing but peace and happiness, two things everyone gets in “Game of Thrones.”
The Royal Wedding
Pro: We love a good wedding.
PK: At least, I personally love a good wedding. The “She-Hulk” wedding bottle episode is my favorite so far, for no reason apart from its chosen setting. I go to a lot of Indian weddings, so I was delighted to see Houses Velaryon and Targaryen honor my people’s tradition of nonstop food and dance, that too before any vows are even uttered (not enough “Kala Chashma,” but you can’t have it all). The wedding drama also served — admittedly going too far at that one point — with Daemon sharing loaded looks with both Rhaenyra and Laena, some classic shit stirring by Larys Strong, and Queen Alicent entering in a show-stopping gown that will have people talking for years.
Con: We love a good wedding.
BT: Everything you said about the wedding is true and good, but once all the dancing had concluded and all the faces were turned to squished cobbler, my lingering feeling was: …that’s it? This was a wedding — a “Game of Thrones” wedding. Sure, the gown is a big deal, but it does less for the drama in this episode than it does to promise drama to come. And Criston’s fight is disgusting, but no matter how gross that final shot, the two-man brawl is relatively minor in comparison to expectations. The wedding continued a trend I expect to end soon, but has dragged on too long: “House of the Dragon” just hasn’t delivered anything stunning yet — and it needs to fix that, fast.
“House of the Dragon” airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.
“I can’t wait to see what she’s going to do,” rapper who performed this year’s event says
Rihanna is officially set to perform the Super Bowl LVII halftime show in Glendale, Arizona in 2023, and shortly after the news broke on Sunday, this year’s headliner and self-proclaimed Rihanna “super fan” Dr. Dre offered the pop star some advice.
“Put the right people around you, and have fun,” the Beats by Dre co-founder told Apple Music 1 host Ebro Darden. “That’s basically what it is, making sure you have the right creative people around you. She might want to look into some of the people that we used to do our show.”
Dr. Dre’s 2022 halftime set —which included Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, and Snoop Dogg — made history as the first time the Super Bowl featured hip-hop as the centerpiece for its halftime show.
He admitted the experience made him nervous, but he surrounded himself with people who came through to make it successful. “We had a good time, although it’s a lot of things and a lot of people you have to depend on,” he explained. “You’re talking about at least 3,000 people that you have to depend on to get this show right for 13 minutes. So it is an extreme amount of pressure, but it’s fun at the same time. When it’s done, it’s like goosebumps, bro.”
As for Rihanna’s upcoming appearance, he’s excited to see it. “I just like her and what she does, and her get down, and how she approaches her artistry and the whole nine. It’s fantastic. She has the opportunity to really blow us away. I know we set the bar extremely high.”
The Super Bowl 57 halftime show will mark Rihanna’s first public performance in more than five years, as the singer last appeared onstage at the 2018 Grammy Awards to perform “Wild Thoughts” with DJ Khaled.
The 2023 Super Bowl halftime show will also be the first sponsored by Apple Music, who signed a new multi-year partnership with the NFL after Pepsi’s 10-year sponsorship ended. Super Bowl LVII will air on Fox.
Paramapadham Vilayattu Director: K. Thirugnanam Cast: Trisha, Nandha, Vela Ramamoorthy, Richard Rishi
Actress Trisha’s 60th outing is a medical-political Tamil thriller, Paramapadham Vilayattu (Game of Snakes and Ladders), helmed by K Thirugnanam. Trisha, who plays Dr Gayathri, engages us with a nuanced performance. Her earlier work, 96, with Vijay Sethupathi, is still fresh in my memory. Her emotive range here was amazing.
Thirugnanam’s work, now streaming on Disney+Hotstar (after the Coronavirus pandemic inordinately delayed the film’s theatrical release), seems a trite too long even with its 120-minute run time. A number of scenes could have been excised or shortened, and pray, what was the need to include a “item number”, and this arrives at a most crucial juncture, interrupting the flow. Do Indian movies even care to remember that there is someone called an editor?
What pulls the work further down is the uninspiring casting with the exception of Vela Ramamoorthy, who as Chezhiyan, the leader of a political party hoping to win the coming elections in Tamil Nadu, exudes a dignity rarely seen in Tamil cinema.
The plot is waver thin. Chezhiyan’s son, Tamizh (Nandha, at his wooden best), has been kept away from the dirty game of politics. He is trained to be a doctor and has settled in London, all set to open his own hospital. But when his father suddenly falls ill and remains in critical care, Tamizh rushes back into what appears like a ring of conspiracy woven around the political leader. The party is faction ridden with a rebel hoping that Chezhiyan would die.
But Dr Gayathri, who is charge of Chezhiyan, is not going to let that happen, and she, who is a single parent with a little deaf-mute girl, manages to turn the leader around. His condition begins to improve, and it comes as a rude shock to her when he dies of a cardiac arrest.
Obviously, Gayathri has strong suspicions that the man was murdered. She starts to investigate and her doubts seem vindicated when his blood reports do not indicate a natural death. What is more, a chip hidden inside the room where political leader lay has a revelation to offer, but before the doctor can watch what is inside it, her daughter is kidnapped, and she is taken prisoner. And then begins a game of snakes and ladders, and we see how the fortunes of the players rise and fall – much like what happens on the board.
It is not difficult to guess who the villain of the piece is, who the killer is, and with the story and script trying hard to lead us on, the climax begins to appear discernible much before the last images roll on. Many Indian thrillers have not quite graduated from a narrative style that is outdated. Today, it is not easy to lead a viewer with archaic story-telling methods.
Amal Clooney’s most recent look will have you canceling future appointments with your seamstress.
On September 24, the human rights lawyer attended the 2022 History Talks event in Washington, D.C. with her husband George Clooney wearing a sheer red lace jumpsuit. Fitted in the torso, the vibrant ensemble featured wide-length pants which pooled around her pointed silver heels and onto the red carpet instead of being hemmed to hit just above the floor.
She topped off the look with a bold red lip, simple earrings, and her hair styled in long, loose waves. Of course, Amal looked immaculate while proving that you don’t need to wait for alterations to wear those statement pants you ordered online.
Amal Clooney and George Clooney attend HISTORY Talks 2022 on September 24, 2022, in Washington, DC.
Paul Morigi/Getty Images
For his part, George complimented his wife in a sharp grey suit with a slight sheen over a navy button-up shirt, which he left delightfully undone at the collar. He paired the suit with classic black dress shoes.
Amal Clooney and George Clooney attend HISTORY Talks 2022 on September 24, 2022, in Washington, DC.
“I don’t have the money or influence to fight this out,” Smaker said. “I’m not sure I see a way out.”
“In my naïveté, I kept thinking people would get the anger out of their system and realize this film was not what they said,” she added. “I’m trying to tell an authentic story that a lot of Americans might not have heard.”
“Jihad Rehab” goes inside the Mohammed bin Nayef Counseling and Care Center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where former members of Islamic extremist groups are rehabilitated. The film follows four former detainees at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, through the program and explores how young men in the Middle East are radicalized and how that process can be undone.
After its debut in Sundance, “Jihad Rehab” faced fierce criticism from several prominent Muslim and Arab filmmakers who said that the film, however empathetic it may be toward its subjects, still portrays them primarily as terrorists and in doing so perpetuates negative stereotypes about Muslims and their faith. Others objected to the fact that Smaker is neither Arab nor Muslim herself.
“To see my language and the homelands of folks in my community used as backdrops for white savior tendencies is nauseating,” Assia Boudanoui wrote in an article for Documentary magazine. “The talk is all empathy, but the energy is Indiana Jones.”
The film has its defenders, including Jihad Turk, founding President and Dean of BayanIslamic Graduate School in Claremont, California. “My first instinct was ‘Oh, not another film on jihad and Islam,’” Turk told the Times. “Then I watched and it was introspective and intelligent. My hope is that there is a courageous outlet that is not intimidated by activists and their too narrow views.”
“Jihad Rehab” has also sparked a debate within the documentary community whether filmmakers should share the ethnicity or identity of their subjects, particularly when dealing with culturally sensitive issues.
A month after the festival, Sundance issued a public apology for programming the film: “We have been listening to, and reflecting on, the many perspectives shared around the inclusion of Meg Smaker’s documentary film ‘Jihad Rehab’ at our Festival in January. As with every film we show, we hope to stimulate conversation and debate that adds value to our civic society. In this case it is clear that the showing of this film hurt members of our community — in particular, individuals from Muslim and MENASA communities — and for that we are deeply sorry.”
In the wake of the controversy, and Sundance’s aplogy, “Jihad Rehab” was pulled from the South By Southwest and San Francisco Film Festivals. One of the few festivals that has screened it is the Doc Edge festival in New Zealand, whose lead programmer, Dan Shanan dismissed whether he was concerned about backlash.
“What happened at Sundance was not good,” he told The Times. “Film festivals must hold to their belief in their role.”
Julian returns to Isabelle’s fold to charm a complicated new client. Meanwhile, Michelle’s past catches up to her as she attempts to save her missing son – forcing her to choose between the two loves of her life.
After two weeks of solid showings at the box office, excellent reviews and passionate fan responses, “The Woman King” has become one of the year’s standout hits, with plans to be competitive in the awards races for both major and artisan category attention.
One of the film’s standout stars, Thuso Mbedu, who plays the young Nawi, will be campaigning for supporting actress attention, Variety has learned. Academy Award winner Viola Davis (“Fences”) will be the sole actress campaigning for lead actress.
Mbedu, who was the breakout sensation of 2021’s Emmy-nominated series “The Underground Railroad” from director Barry Jenkins, will compete in supporting alongside her co-stars Sheila Atim, Jayme Lawson, Adrienne Warren and most prominent, Lashana Lynch. All of the male actors, including John Boyega, will be competing in supporting actor.
Beginning with “Gone with the Wind” (1939) duo Olivia de Havilland and winner Hattie McDaniel, who became the first Black woman ever to win an Oscar, we’ve seen a total of 35 films get two noms for supporting actress over Oscar history. The last occurrence was Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz for “The Favourite” (2018).
There’s been one instance of two Black women nominated in the category from the same movie – Margaret Avery and Oprah Winfrey for “The Color Purple” (1986). In fact, it’s only happened one other time in any other acting category: the shocking double dip of eventual winner Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield (who was campaigned in lead) for “Judas and the Black Messiah” (2021).
Can both Mbedu and Lynch get attention from the actor’s branch? With the recent news of Michelle Williams seeking a lead actress nom, their chances increase significantly, even if many feel Mbedu is more of a lead in “The Woman King.”
Davis has been shattering ceilings at the Academy for the past few years. She’s already the most nominated Black woman in history with four nominations. She’s also the first to be nominated for best actress a second time. If she manages a nomination once again for her work as general and battle warrior Nanisca, she would be the first Black woman to be nominated for a film that she also served as a producer on.
If “The Woman King” lands among the 10 films nominated for best picture, Davis would be only the third Black woman nominated in the category after Winfrey (“Selma”) and Kimberly Steward (“Manchester by the Sea”). If she’s able to land in lead actress too, she would be the first Black woman, and second woman ever, nominated for acting and producing the same year. The other was Frances McDormand for “Nomadland” (2020), who won both. For context, people like Warren Beatty and Clint Eastwood have done this multiple times.
To add a little glee to the equation, her co-star, co-producer and husband Julius Tennon, would also be a nominee, marking the first time a married couple shares the best picture nomination in the same year.
Six Black men have been nominated for directing in the history of the Oscars – John Singleton (“Boyz n the Hood”), Lee Daniels (“Precious”), Steve McQueen (“12 Years a Slave”), Barry Jenkins (“Moonlight”), Jordan Peele (“Get Out”) and Spike Lee (“BlacKkKlansman”). Despite close calls and egregious snubs for artists like Ava DuVernay and Regina King, we’ve yet to see a Black woman nominated. Director Gina Prince-Bythewood could become the first.
Composer Terence Blanchard made history as the first Black composer to be nominated for original score twice after “Da 5 Bloods” (2020). He could extend that record. That same year was also the rrst time multiple Black composers were nominated, with the other being eventual winner Jon Batiste for “Soul” (along with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross).
Cinematographer Polly Morgan hopes to join Rachel Morrison (“Mudbound”) and Ari Wegner (“The Power of the Dog”) as the only women nominated in the category.
Editor Terilyn A. Shropshire would be the third Black person and second Black woman nominated after Hugh A. Robertson (“Midnight Cowboy”) and Joi McMillon (“Moonlight”).
As it stands, Oscar winner Hannah Beachler’s historic win for “Black Panther” (2018) is the only winner and nominee for Black production designers. Akin McKenzie’s 19th-century creation of the Dahomey kingdom could make him the second.
Coming to theatres and to Apple TV+ today, Friday, September 23: SIDNEY
Director: Reginald Hudlin
World Premiere: Toronto 2022
About: A sweeping portrait of the late, great Sidney Poitier surveys his films, life story, and litany of accomplishments as an artist and activist who forever changed what it means to be Black in America.
This year’s U.N. General Assembly meeting of world leaders came on the heels of another event that reverberated internationally – the death of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, followed by both an outpouring of tributes and sometimes bitter reflection on the colonialist empire that came to an end during her seven decades on the throne.
There were also some questions about whether the loss of the long-reigning monarch might affect the Commonwealth, a voluntary association of 56 nations that, in many cases, have historic and linguistic ties to Britain. Fourteen of them are Commonwealth “realms” – former colonies where the British monarch, now King Charles III, remains the head of state.
Some already were revisiting that relationship before the queen’s death.
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Barbados snipped its link to the monarchy and became fully independent last year, to felicitations from Elizabeth and Charles. The prime ministers of Jamaica and of Antigua and Barbuda said earlier this year that they intend to do likewise, and Antigua and Barbuda’s Gaston Browne followed up after the queen’s death by telling Britain’s ITV News that he planned to call a referendum within three years.
Others have no such plans, at least for the moment. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had laid some groundwork for a potential Australian republic earlier in the year but said after Elizabeth’s death that it was time to honor the queen, not change up the government. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinta Ardern, who supports becoming a republic, said she didn’t plan to take up the matter soon, noting there are many other issues on the country’s plate.
So there are on the General Assembly’s agenda, too, and the future of the Commonwealth didn’t factor in the major speeches each country gets to make. But some did take time to remember the queen and invoked her words and example to suggest future action – or lessons for leaders.
More Commonwealth countries could cut ties after Queen’s death
More Commonwealth countries could cut ties after Queen’s death
A look at some of the remarks:
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British Prime Minister Liz Truss, whom Elizabeth formally appointed two days before her death, said Elizabeth “symbolized the post-war values” underlying the U.N. and recalled a speech that the queen gave at the General Assembly in 1957.
“She warned that it was vital not only to have strong ideals but also to have the political will to deliver on them. Now we must show that will. We must fight to defend those ideals. And we must deliver on them for all our people,” Truss said.
Mauritius is a former British colony off the southeast coast of Africa, and the two countries remain at odds over the Chagos Islands, which the U.K. continues to control. Former residents have waged a years-long legal fight for the right to return to the archipelago after Britain expelled them in the 1960s and 1970s to make way for a military base.
Mauritius’ prime minister, Pravind Jugnauth, urged Truss’ new government to resolve the matter by placing itself “on the right side of history,” pointing to Elizabeth’s “values and principles.”
“What more fitting tribute to the memory of this great monarch who dedicated her life to service, to uphold values of democracy, human rights and international law, sovereignty and territorial integrity than to bring this history to an end and to do so in a manner that respects sovereignty, matters of security, environment and the fundamental rights of human beings?” he asked.
Indigenous Peoples reflect on death of Queen Elizabeth II
Indigenous Peoples reflect on death of Queen Elizabeth II
Papua New Guinea is one of the far-flung “realms” where the U.K. monarch is still head of state, and Prime Minister James Marape closed his General Assembly remarks with an homage to the sovereign whom he said islanders affectionately dubbed “Mama Kwin.”
“Our beloved queen personified grace, dignity, honesty, humility, tolerance of others, forgiveness and all other Christian virtues and lived 70 years of consistent, unfailing life of public service – some lessons we leaders of the world must learn to practice,” he said.
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The prime minister of another “realm,” Manasseh Sogavare of the Solomon Islands, called her “an inspiration, a figure of stability, dignity, and grace.”
Fijian Prime Minister Voreqe “Frank” Bainimarama recalled Elizabeth stepping aside from greeting other guests to welcome him at a reception a few years ago – and welcome his country back to the Commonwealth. Fiji was suspended in 2006 after Bainimarama seized power in a coup, then reinstated after elections in 2014, when he won his first term as premier.
The queen’s welcome “was a simple gesture but a special affirmation of all that we had worked to achieve for Fiji’s new and true democracy,” said Bainimarama, whose country’s head of state is a president, not the monarch.
The colonial history of Gabon and Togo rests with France, not Britain, and the two African nations are members of French-speaking countries’ own own affinity group, L’Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie. But Togo and also joined the Commonwealth this past June.
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At the first General Assembly since then, Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba hailed Elizabeth’s “respect, friendship, and wise counsel to many independent nations around the world, small or large” – and added kind words for the new king. Bongo saluted Charles’ concern about the environment, climate change and biodiversity.
Recap: Queen Elizabeth II State Funeral
Recap: Queen Elizabeth II State Funeral
Some other Commonwealth members, from Dominica to Malawi, took time to express condolences and pay tribute to the queen. So did a few countries that aren’t part of the group, including the Central African Republic, Madagascar and the Dominican Republic.
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Perhaps the most fulsome homage came from Hungarian President Katalin Novak, who repeatedly quoted a 2010 speech in which Elizabeth told the General Assembly about leadership, the work of the U.N. and what she saw as the challenge facing the world body: to continue showing “clear and convening leadership” without losing sight of its work to foster security, prosperity and dignity for people around the world.
Novak exhorted to assembly to “regain our ability to distinguish between the essential and the irrelevant, the important and the unimportant, reality and fiction.”
“We bade farewell to an exceptional monarch whose life was steeped in service to peace,” she said. “We owe it to the people and to her memory to make our decisions in the same spirit.”
SPOILER ALERT: This story discusses major plot developments in the first six episodes of “House of the Dragon,” currently airing on HBO and streaming on HBO Max.
If one of the big narrative challenges of “Game of Thrones” was managing the geographical sprawl of its many interweaving storylines, the challenge for the first season of its prequel series, “House of the Dragon,” is stretching the story of the civil war within the Targaryen family over multiple decades. George R.R. Martin’s bestselling book about the conflagration, “Fire & Blood,” spans generations — children are born and grow into adulthood within the two warring factions of Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen and her former best friend turned stepmother, Queen Alicent Hightower.
To wrangle that story into shape for a TV series, showrunners Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik decided to cast the roles of Rhaenyra and Alicent twice, with Milly Alcock and Emily Carey, respectively, playing them as teenagers for the first five episodes, and Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke as adults.
Episode 6, “The Princess and the Queen,” marks D’Arcy and Cooke’s debuts in the roles, opening with a harrowing sequence set 10 years after Episode 5, in which Rhaenyra gives birth to her third child and then immediately walks the newborn to Queen Alicent after the latter demands to see the child immediately. It seems all of Rhaenyra’s children have been born, not with silver like hers and her husband’s, Laenor Velaryon (John MacMillan), but with brown hair — like that of Ser Harwin Strong (Ryan Core), one of Rhaenyra’s closest confidants.
The confrontation makes for a gripping introduction to D’Arcy and Cooke’s approach to the roles, but many “HotD” fans have also wondered if this is truly the last we’ll see of Alcock and Carey.
“I mean, look, I don’t know,” Condal tells Variety. Condal — who will be the sole showrunner for “House of the Dragon” after Sapochnik elected to step away after Season 1 — says that his writing team has broken much of Season 2, and the younger versions of Rhaenyra and Alicent “are not a part of the story that we’re telling, yet. That’s not a thing that we’re doing right now.”
However, Condal adds that while “‘Game of Thrones’ was not a flashback show,” his show can get “a little bit more fancy” with its narrative approach. And “Thrones” did on rare occasion dip into flashbacks, most often during Bran’s temporal sojourns as the Three Eyed Raven. So Condal wants to keep his options open on whether “House of the Dragon” will ever see Alcock and Carey back as Rhaenyra and Alicent.
“There are things that we haven’t fully sorted out,” he says. “I’m not closing the door on anything. So there, how’s that for an answer?”
One thing Condal is clear on: Don’t expect any major time jumps in Season 2. Following Season 1, “The storytelling becomes fairly in the rhythms of the original ‘Game of Thrones’ series,” he says.
Speaking with Variety just past the halfway point for Season 1 of “HotD,” Condal seems as relaxed and congenial as one could possibly expect of a person who’s successfully launched the follow-up series to one of the most successful TV shows of all time. As of Sept. 20, “House of the Dragon” is averaging 29 million viewers per episode, and its audience has been more-or-less steadily rising week-to-week.
As with its predecessor, the rabid popularity of “House of the Dragon” has also placed it under an occasionally harsh spotlight. After the gruesome death of Laenor’s male lover, Ser Joffrey Monmouth (Solly McLeod), at the hands of Rhaenyra’s spurned lover, Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) in Episode 5, several outlets published stories questioning whether the show had a “Bury Your Gays” problem (followed by a backlash to the backlash). Condal gamely addressed that issue, as well as the show’s careful approach to sexual violence, how the writers thought about the time jump between Episode 5 and 6 — and the fiery death in Episode 6 of Laena Velaryon (Nanna Blondell), the second wife of Rhaenyra’s uncle (and almost lover!) Daemon (Matt Smith).
Ollie Upton / Courtesy of HBO
What connective tissue did you want to have between the older and younger actors playing Rhaenyra and Alicent?
We wanted them to look similar enough that it wasn’t one of these tropes where you’re just meant to believe that that’s the same person. But ultimately, we needed great actors. It was definitely a process. As great as Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke are, they were not the people that were going to begin the story. It was definitely a thing that we stressed over a lot. I think we succeeded. All four of them brought a tremendous performance to the show. I’m really proud of all of them.
What did you make of so many fans appearing to ‘ship Rhaenyra and her uncle Daemon, given the incest of it all?
I mean, nothing surprises me these days. I really didn’t know what people were going to make of that at all. Look, it’s part of the story, and I think that’s what makes it fascinating, because it sort of is taboo in a way and in our modern sensibility.
Quite taboo! Quite!
Well, yeah. It’s even pretty taboo as far as “Game of Thrones” goes, maybe not for — well, I think even so for Targaryens, because it’s different generations. But, yeah, it’s amazing what a great performance can do to make people accept things about a character. That’s credit to Matt and Milly, and soon, I think, to Matt and Emma, because you’ll see they also have a complex relationship. But look, I mean, I went back to “Back to the Future,” which is just like, you know, Marty goes to the prom with his mom and you’re kind of creeped out about it, but also you’re kind of like, “Huh! These are two good looking people. Are they’re going to make out tonight?!” Look, it’s not your uncle. So, you know, I guess people are OK with it, or the original series did enough groundwork to normalize Targaryen mating rituals that we don’t have to worry about it.
What Daemon does to young Rhaenyra is, in modern terminology, an act of abuse. And, as a traumatic event would, it shapes who Rhaenyra becomes.
Did you always know that you wanted to start Episode 6 with Rhaenyra giving birth?
Yes. That was conceived very early on in the writers’ room. The death of her mother in the pilot is the real underlying psychological reason Rhaenyra does not want to get married, because she’s terrified of going the way that her mother did. To drop in on her giving birth — knowing that the last birth the audience has seen has gone terribly wrong — was an incredibly tense and visceral way to begin the story, to get you in with Rhaenyra, to make you hopefully connect with her and care about her, and also to communicate that a ton of time and story distance has passed since the last time we saw her.
How did you decide either side of the 10-year time jump, where you were going to leave the story and then come back to it?
Those things happen, I think, organically over the storytelling process. The moment with [Alicent in] the green dress at the pre-wedding ceremony was the dividing line between Rhaenyra and Alicent. Rhaenyra lied and got Alicent’s dad fired. Alicent backed her and vouched for her to the king, and it blew up in her face. She’s played the role of the good servant all the way along. This is her coming out, saying, “I am House Hightower, and I now stand for myself.” So we knew that’s where we wanted to end it.
Then jumping forward to this new time period felt like the right thing to do. A lot of the storytelling that happens in 6 — which is done brilliantly by Sara Hess, who wrote the script, and Miguel, who directed it — is being told in the things that you’re not seeing happen and the characters who are now there and the characters who are missing. All of these things imply the passage of time, and I think a smart audience who is leaning forward and paying attention will pick up on those things and understand quite a bit has changed since last we left these characters.
The question of the parentage of Rhaenyra’s children is left kind of ambiguous in the book. But it seems pretty clear on the show that Laenor is not their father. Is that how should we should be reading it?
Well, take from it what you will, but I think it becomes a major part of the storytelling. That’s a great example of the reason why we took the time to tell those five stories with the younger cast, because it lays all the groundwork so you understand why Rhaenyra is in the place that she’s in. You know who Laenor is. You know a little bit about Harwin Strong and Rhaenyra. And certainly you know now who Alicent Hightower and Viserys are. Rhaenyra still has a lot of the devil-may-care qualities as she did in her youth. Alicent remains this very steadfast woman of duty. All those things can now play together in a much higher stakes sandbox than where we left them when they were younger.
In the book, Laenor’s sister, Laena Velaryon, dies in a much more conventional way, in complications from childbirth. How did you arrive at the decision to have Laena order her dragon set her on fire because she couldn’t deliver her baby?
Laena’s a valkyrie. She’s a dragon rider. We met that little girl back in Episode 2; that little girl went on a couple years later to claim the biggest dragon in the world. It felt like she wouldn’t want to go out the way that the history book said. Unfortunately, because of the nature of the season and the storytelling, we didn’t get to spend as much time as I think we would have preferred to with Laena. We had to keep the story moving. So we wanted to give her a memorable out that felt active and in her character. Even though we’re only with Nanna Blondell’s portrayal of her for a very brief time, within that moment, it tells you a lot about who Laena is and was.
Ollie Upton / Courtesy of HBO
There also were several articles following Episode 5 that criticized Criston Cole’s rather brutal murder of Laenor’s boyfriend, Joffrey, as an example of the “Bury Your Gays” trope. How do you feel about that reaction?
I mean, people are going to react how they’re going to react. First of all, that was the story in the book. It was handled, again, slightly differently: Joffrey is murdered by Criston Cole out of a jealous, wounded rage at a tournament. We just had him do it out in the open, and watch Cole’s frustration over the slight that he feels like he’s been levied with. It’s a brutal world. It’s a violent world. Cole has exposed himself, I think, as a certain kind of character. It wasn’t done without thought. I know people are going to react as they react, but, you know, that’s the story we’re telling.
Were you aware of that “Bury Your Gays” pitfall — that that’s a thing that people are aware of and concerned about?
Probably vaguely. I mean, I try not to read the internet. I live in my own storytelling world so that I’m not affected by these things, so I feel free to tell the story. But look, there are lots of interesting characters in the show. People come in and come out of this world all the time. There’s more interesting characters to come. So I would just say, stay tuned.
Emily Carey said in an interview that before they got to the set and met the intimacy coordinator, they were scared of doing sex scenes on “House of the Dragon” because of how sexually violent “Game of Thrones” had been. Was that something that you and Miguel were aware was in the air as you were casting, writing and preparing the show?
Yeah. Those scenes are always a challenge. I’m uncomfortable writing them, to be honest with you. But sometimes it’s necessary to tell the story. We always come back to: Is this a necessary thing to reveal character, to tell a certain story point? I think we’ve been really restrained in the making of the show — that those kinds of scenes have never been done to titillate. It’s always been done with a purpose to either reveal character or to reveal the world or to tell a bit of story.
Viserys married a much younger woman, essentially the childhood friend of his daughter. We felt it was important to see the outcome of that. We had female directors on the show; one of them directed that particular scene. Sara Hess is my writing partner on the show. There were lots of female voices involved in the decision-making there, and it was actually the women who were really pushing for it: “No, we have to see it, because we have to make the audience feel the actual results of this kind of political scheming and what that actually means — but do it in a way that protects the actors and is, again, not titillating.”
How does that work on the day?
We bring in an intimacy coordinator. Those scenes were heavily rehearsed beforehand. The actors get to voice any concerns that they would have about being uncomfortable or being taken care of. I followed up with everybody throughout that process and I was always getting feedback from them that they felt safe and protected and cared for. The big thing, at least in my experience, with intimate scenes, is that the actors understand that it’s part of the job, but they want to know what they’re walking into. We put a lot of effort and thought into that. I’m proud of what we did, and I just hope our cast felt as taken care of as we tried to make them.
When did Miguel Sapochnik tell you he was going to be moving on from the show?
We had a conversation in the summer — right around when the show premiered. I knew it was something that he was wrestling with. He doesn’t have anything left to prove in Westeros, I don’t think. He’s shot every kind of battle: good and evil, light and dark, fantasy and not fantasy, dragon and no dragon. He’s said what he has to say in Westeros. I knew that it was always a possibility that he was going to do one season, get this thing on its feet [and] be proud of having a hand in the actual creation of a “Game of Thrones” story. It was lingering in the back of my mind, knowing how much is involved with doing another season of the show, would he want to get up on the horse again? I was really bummed. He’s tremendously talented. And I’m really proud of the work that we did. But I’m excited to see what he’s got in store now.
How are you feeling about being the only showrunner for Season 2?
[Deep exhale.] It’s a lot. It’s one of those things where, like, I’ve heard presidents say that they always have more trepidation about their second term than their first because they know the job that they’re going into. I definitely am not comparing this job to the presidency at all. But it’s lonely at the top, and now I find myself alone at the top. Thankfully, I have a wonderful team around me. I’m excited for the story that we’re going to tell in Season 2. There are thousands of people that go into the making of this. It’s on me to be able to be a great leader and try to inspire people, hopefully with some good writing, to get the very best work out of them and make another great season of the show.
By all reports, the show is doing enormously well. At this stage of the season, are you able to celebrate that success? How does it feel to have met or even exceeded the expectations?
It feels good. I’ve been doing this job for 15 years. I’ve never been involved with anything even remotely like this. It’s pretty crazy. It is hard to celebrate, because it is so intense and all consuming. Season 1 has really folded over on Season 2. We’ve been writing Season 2 for months, through post and premieres and press. So there’s not really a moment to take stock and go to some Mediterranean island and stand and look off into the sunset, proud of your work. Maybe that day will come, but not today.
Information about the upcoming OnePlus Nord Watch – perhaps an even more affordable companion to the OnePlus Watch – continues to drip out from official and unofficial channels. Thanks to a new leak, we now have a proper look at the wearable.
This leak comes from 91mobiles (opens in new tab) and shows the OnePlus Nord Watch in a dark-ish blue and black, from a variety of angles. With its rectangular face and a physical button on the right of the screen, the wearable definitely gives off Apple Watch vibes.
OnePlus already gave us a glimpse of part of the watch, but these images show the whole picture. There are also some mock-ups of what to expect from the software side, including two watch faces and statistics on heart rate, blood oxygen levels, stress and sleep.
Screen and battery
Some key specs are included in this latest leak too, some of which have already been confirmed – like the 1.78-inch, 60Hz AMOLED panel. There will apparently be 105 fitness modes to pick from, with OnePlus expected to reveal more about this on September 26.
Keep your eye on the official site (opens in new tab) for more details, as OnePlus is promising to reveal the device’s specs bit by bit across the next week. A full launch shouldn’t be far away, based on what we already know.
As per 91mobiles, the OnePlus Nord Watch is going to offer battery life of up to 10 days, with up to 30 days possible in standby mode. As expected, the wearable is going to work with both Android phones and iPhones.
Analysis: a smartwatch for everyone
We’ve been hearing rumors around the OnePlus Nord Watch for several months now, and when we do finally hear the price, it’s expected to be a low one. The OnePlus Watch from 2021 only cost $159 / £149 (about AU$245), so there’s not a lot of room to go under that.
It’s interesting to compare the move to the recent launch of the Apple Watch Ultra, which will set you back $799 / £849 / AU$1,229. That’s as much as a flagship smartphone, so it’s a wearable for only the most committed and wealthy of Apple fans.
Then there’s the Google Pixel Watch to add Into the mix, which is thought to be launching in full on October 6. That could come in as cheap as €250 (roughly $250 / £220 / AU$370), according to the most recent rumors.
In other words, we’ve got smartwatches all over the pricing spectrum at the moment, which has to be good news for consumers looking for something to wrap around their wrists (we haven’t even mentioned Fossil, Fitbit or Samsung).
This family’s been through a lot. Has the Chesapeake Shores TV show been cancelled or renewed for a seventh season on Hallmark Channel? The television vulture is watching all the latest cancellation and renewal news, so this page is the place to track the status of Chesapeake Shores, season seven. Bookmark it, or 
