Mark Howard James, the beat maker best known as the 45 King, has died, James’ manager, Paul Martinez, confirmed to Pitchfork. The Bronx native started producing in the mid-1980s as hip-hop seemed to pour out of every stereo in New York’s five boroughs. After breaking out with his work for Queen Latifah in the late ’80s, James would go on to produce rap classics such as Jay-Z’s “Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem),” “Stan” by Eminem, and more. James died at age 62, days after his birthday on October 16. A cause of death has not been revealed.
While DJing, James would cull sound bits from obscure 45 singles, which eventually informed his production style, and was in conversation with the surrounding culture of hip-hop sampling that remains relevant today. His breakout track “The 900 Number” was released in 1987, and featured a prominent saxophone snippet from Marva Whitney’s 1968 song “Unwind Yourself.” The song was also released on James’ 1988 debut Master of the Game. In the ensuing years, “The 900 Number” has been sampled and remixed by a number of artists, including DJ Kool, Public Enemy, Breakestra, and Ced Gee.
James’ New York hip-hop crew, known as the Flavor Unit, included up-and-coming artists like Apache, Lakim Shabazz, Chill Rob G, and one Queen Latifah. Riding the success of “The 900 Number,” James was recruited to produce Latifah’s 1989 debut All Hail the Queen.
Throughout the late ’80s and mid-’90s, James produced and reworked cuts by Latifah, Gang Starr, Salt-N-Pepa, Eric B. & Rakim, Digital Underground, Madonna, C&C Music Factory, and many others. He continued to self-release records throughout that period, including his Straight Out Da Crate and The Lost Breakbeats series.
In 1998, James produced Jay-Z’s mega hit “Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem),” which introduced him to a new generation of rap lovers. The song famously samples and loops “It’s the Hard-Knock Life” from the original cast recording of the Broadway musical Annie. In 2000, James made another star turn on Eminem’s sophomore record The Marshall Mathers LP, crafting the iconic, Dido-sampling beat for “Stan.”
As the news of his death circulates, a number of artists have paid tribute to James, including Eminem, who wrote on social media: “Legends are never over. #RIP Mark Howard James aka the 45 King … I’m 4ever grateful!!!” The Alchemist called James “one of the original architects of production,” while DJ Premier wrote “we Salute your greatness!”
Hi, I’m Zach, I am a part of the team at Raindance. Despite living a relatively normal life with normal interests I have a passion for music! Specifically I very much enjoy music documentaries. Therefore I am so happy to say that for the 31st Raindance Film Festival we are showing a number of different music Docs. See a couple of my favourites below:
Dusty and Stones struggle to sustain a country music career in their tiny African Kingdom of Swaziland and yearn for greater recognition. When they are unexpectedly nominated to compete in a Texas battle of the bands, the two cousins journey to the heart of American country music, determined to win big.
Content Warnings – graphic descriptions of drug use, death, discussion of cult conditioning, sexual assault, racist discrimination, and brief nudity
Director: Nicolas Jack Davies | Germany/United Kingdom 2023 | 127 minutes | World Premiere
A film that charts the artistic and personal relationship between two era-defining artists, Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala (At the Drive-In / The Mars Volta), told almost entirely through hundreds of hours of self-shot footage filmed by Omar over the last 40 years.
Fresh off of Venice, Jack Huston’s directorial debut tells the story of a once-renowned boxer who takes a redemptive journey through his past and present on the day of his first fight since he left prison.
The film stars Michael Pitt alongside a cast including Ron Perlman, Joe Pesci and a cameo from Steve Buscemi which leads us right into our star-studded Opening Night Party.
Red carpets, literal icons, a 1920s swing band and an open bar – what’s to miss?
Limited tickets are available for our Opening Gala, now on sale at an early bird price. Snag them while you can!
Zach Levens is a UK-based photographer and student who joined Raindance on an internship. He photographs sports, food, and events and captures the action, flavour, and moments that matter to his clients. At Raindance, he works in Marketing and focuses on content creation for the film festival.
After years of sitting untouched, work has finally started on the Exhibition Lands in central Edmonton.
Slowly, each building will be knocked down, making way for the future of the former Northlands area — which some residents say has been a long time coming.
The main stables at the horse racing track have started to come down, which is step one of a longer process which will remove all the structures no longer in use.
“It’s really exciting to start to see some progress, some real progress on the site — something tangible that residents have been looking for a really long time,” said Ashley Salvador, Ward Métis councillor.
“We have a fantastic vision for the site but to start to see actual structures being demolished, it helps provide that vision.”
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The first stage of demolition has started at Edmonton’s Exhibition Lands.
City of Edmonton
Three years ago, Edmonton city council announced that the area near the former Northlands Coliseum would be redeveloped to include residential, retail and commercial spaces. Since then, there hasn’t been much movement at the site.
“I hope to see something built in my lifetime. I understand that there’s lots of process and there’s lots of ideas, as far as I know there’s nothing firm for the plans,” said Mandolin Books & Coffee Company owner Lianne Traynor. The bookstore is just down 112 Avenue from the grounds.
People living and working not far from the area say they hope to see infill in the area, but at a pace faster than other recent infill projects.
“It’s tough to be hopeful — looking at developments like Blatchford — with like city-led initiatives, but I’m generally an optimist. I generally like our council and so I am hopeful,” said Steven Teeuwsen, Lowlands Project Space director.
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The Blatchford development is transforming another historic part of Edmonton — the old municipal airport lands — into a residential community with its own geothermal district energy facility. But it’s been a slow process and development is not as far along as some expected at this point.
Salvador says the city is taking a different process with the Exhibition Lands, as they’re looking at larger parcels of land which allow for more creativity and opportunity.
“With Blatchford really took a smaller-scale approach where we were going sort of small parcel by small parcel. With the Exhibition Lands, I expect to see a faster pace of development because of the approach we’re taking,” Salvador said.
The plan aims to transform the 160-acre area into housing, retail, commercial and recreational spaces, as well as two urban plazas beside two LRT stations.
Edmonton to begin selling parcels of land as part of Exhibition Lands Redevelopment Project
The biggest step in the redevelopment of the area will be the demolition of the shuttered Coliseum, which is supposed to happen sometime in the next few years.
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Even though the former hockey arena been closed since 2017, a year after the Edmonton Oilers relocated to the downtown Rogers Place arena, it’s costing the city over $1 million a year to keep the old building in quiet operation.
“My perspective is when the arena deal was first signed and established, that’s when we should’ve set aside funds to deal with the Coliseum or to at least have a plan for it,” said Salvador.
“It has been sitting in community vacant, derelict for years now without a plan.”
The city is still responsible for the costs of that demolition, unlike in Calgary where the province has agreed to pay to tear down the Saddledome.
Northlands Coliseum to be demolished
With Northlands Coliseum out of use and the next steps with the Exhibition Land development, nearby business owners are eager for construction to be completed.
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“Anything that brings people, brings life and economic viability for all the businesses that are here and perhaps new life. We’ve seen lots of new life in our little neighbourhood strip lately and it’d be great to see that continue,” said Traynor.
The first stage of demolitions is scheduled to continue through December. The demolitions of other structures on the grounds are expected to take place over the next two years.
Gwen Stefani, 54, now has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. But aside from her massive accomplishments, she’s also a mom of three. Two of her sons with ex Gavin Rossdale, Kingston, 17, and Zuma, 15, very nearly towered over her at the big event today. Apollo, 9, was also there, though her youngest child is definitely still a child. In a photo you can see below, the “Hollaback Girl” singer rocked an eye-catching silver mini dress trimmed in — what else — stars! She finished the look with fishnet stockings and silver boots, and pulled her hair into a high ponytail.
Son Kingston was a mirror image his rockstar dad Gavin, and was taller than his mom as he posed on her right side for photographers at the ceremony. He wore a black pinstriped suit with a blue turtleneck. Gwen’s proud second son Zuma rocked a black suit as well, and was only a bit shorter than his big brother as he stood next to his mom. Apollo stood in front smiling broadly, still markedly shorter than Gwen. He wore a white top and a casual black sport jacket.
Gwen Stefani and her sons Kingston, Zuma, and Apollo at the Hollywood Walk of Fame on October 19, 2023. (Matt Baron/BEI/Shutterstock)
The photos come as Gwen, the former lead singer of No Doubt, reached the career milestone on Thursday, October 19, in Hollywood. Her husband Blake Shelton, 47, paid tribute to her in an emotional speech that noted her devotion to her three boys. “The first time that I ever met Gwen was in 2014,” he shared during the talk. “She wasn’t like any other famous person that I had ever met before. She drove herself to work in a black minivan with car seats in it.”
He also explained why she’s “perfect person” to get a star. “She has risen to the top over and over again with her unique style that has made the world fall in love with her,” he gushed. “Not as much as me, though.”
Gwen was married to Gavin from 2002-2015, while Blake was previously married to fellow country star Miranda Lambert until their split in 2015.
It’s time for your daily dose of Quordle hints, plus the answers for both the main game and the Daily Sequence spin off.
Quordle is the only one of the many Wordle clones that I’m still playing now, around 18 months after the daily-word-game craze hit the internet, and with good reason: it’s fun, but also difficult.
What’s more, its makers (now the online dictionary Merriam-Webster) are also keeping it fresh in the form of a variant called the Daily Sequence, which sees you complete four puzzles consecutively, rather than concurrently.
But Quordle is tough, so if you already find yourself searching for Wordle hints, you’ll probably need some for this game too.
I’m a Quordle and Wordle fanatic who’s been playing since December 2021, so I can definitely help you solve Quordle today and improve your game for tomorrow. Read on for my Quordle hints to game #634 and the answers to the main game and Daily Sequence.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.
Your Quordle expert
Your Quordle expert
Marc McLaren
Marc is TechRadar’s UK Editor in Chief and has been playing Wordle and Quordle for more than a year. He’s authored dozens of articles on the game for TechRadar and its sister site Tom’s Guide, including a detailed analysis of the most common letters in every position. His Wordle streak recently reached the 500 mark and he’ll be inconsolable if he loses it. Yes, he takes it all too seriously.
Quordle today (game #634) – hint #1 – Vowels
How many different vowels are in Quordle today?
• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 4*.
* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).
Quordle today (game #634) – hint #2 – total vowels
What is the total number of vowels in Quordle today?
• The total number of vowels across today’s Quordle answers is 6.
Quordle today (game #634) – hint #3 – repeated letters
Do any of today’s Quordle answers contain repeated letters?
• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 2.
Quordle today (game #634) – hint #4 – total letters
How many different letters are used in Quordle today?
• The total number of different letters used in Quordle today is 13.
Quordle today (game #634) – hint #5 – uncommon letters
Do the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?
• Yes. One of Q, Z, X or J appears among today’s Quordle answers.
Where Wordle challenges you to guess a new five-letter word each day, Quordle presents you with four puzzles to solve. And rather than complete them in turn, you do so simultaneously. You get nine guesses, rather than the six for Wordle, but the rules are otherwise very similar.
As with Wordle, the answers are the same for every player each day, meaning that you’re competing against the rest of the world. And also as with Wordle, the puzzle resets at midnight so you have a fresh challenge each day.
The website also includes a practice mode – which I definitely recommend using before attempting the game proper! – and there are daily stats including a streak count. You also get Quordle Achievements – specific badges for winning a game in a certain number of turns, playing lots of times, or guessing particularly hard words.
Oh, and it’s difficult. Really difficult.
What are the Quordle rules?
The rules of Quordle are almost identical to those of Wordle.
1. Letters that are in the answer and in the right place turn green.
2. Letters that are in the answer but in the wrong place turn yellow.
3. Letters that are not in the answer turn gray…
4. …BUT the word you guess appears in all quadrants of the puzzle at the same time, so an A could turn green in one square, yellow in another and gray in the final two.
5. Answers are never plural.
6. Letters can appear more than once. So if your guess includes two of one letter, they may both turn yellow, both turn green, or one could be yellow and the other green.
7. Each guess must be a valid word in Quordle’s dictionary. You can’t guess ABCDE, for instance.
8. You do not have to include correct letters in subsequent guesses and there is no equivalent of Wordle’s Hard mode.
9. You have nine guesses to find the Quordle answers.
10. You must complete the daily Quordle before midnight in your timezone.
What is a good Quordle strategy?
Quordle needs to be approached in a different way to Wordle. With four puzzles to solve in nine guesses, you can’t blindly throw letters at it and expect to win – you’ll stand a far better chance if you think strategically.
That’s the case in Wordle too, of course, but it’s even more important in Quordle.
There are two key things to remember.
1. Use several starting words
Firstly, you won’t want just a single starting word, but almost certainly two or three starting words.
The first of these should probably be one of the best Wordle starting words, because the same things that make them work well will apply here too. But after that, you should select another word or possibly two that use up lots more of the most common consonants and that include any remaining vowels.
For instance, I currently use STARE > DOILY > PUNCH. Between them, these three words use 15 of the 26 letters in the alphabet including all five vowels, Y, and nine of the most common consonants (S, T, R, D, L, P, N, C and H). There are plenty of other options – you might want to get an M, B, F or G in there instead of the H, maybe – but something like that should do the trick.
If all goes well, that will give you a good lead on what one or sometimes two of the answers might be. If not, well good luck!
2. Narrow things down
Secondly, if you’re faced with a word where the answer might easily be one of several options – for instance -ATCH, where it could be MATCH, BATCH, LATCH, CATCH, WATCH, HATCH or PATCH – you’ll definitely want to guess a word that would narrow down those options.
In Wordle, you can instead try several of those in succession and hope one is right, assuming you have enough guesses left. It’s risky, but will sometimes work. Plus, it’s the only option in Hard mode. But in Quordle, this will almost certainly result in a failure – you simply don’t have enough guesses.
In the scenario above, CLAMP would be a great guess, as it could point the way to four of the seven words in one go.
During Vanity Fair’s lie detector test, “Merrily We Roll Along” star Lindsay Mendez asked Jonathan Groff why he always spits when he sings, and Groff’s answer had their other costar Daniel Radcliffe laughing uncontrollably.
“You’re a notoriously spitty singer. Is that because you want to make sure everyone can see how hard you’re singing?” Mendez asked. “How many times do you think you’ve spit on us during the production of ‘Merrily We Roll Along’? What’s your secret to staying so hydrated?”
“A lot. Like numbers? I think every day,” Groff answered to the spitting question. “Yeah, I get wet when I…”
Here, both Mendez and Radcliffe try to get Groff to either answer a different question or rephrase the way he previously answered.
“No, man,” Radcliffe says as he shakes his head.
“No, say something else,” Mendez says. “Please say something else. Try again.”
Groff asked Mendez to repeat the question – which was how does he stay so hydrated?
The actor in the hot seat again attempted to say “I get wet when I…”
But then he plainly answered by saying he drinks water.
The next question involved whether Groff ever looks at his Instagram fan account, but he went back to the spitting.
“What I was gonna say was I don’t think the spitting is from being hydrated,” he said.
“What is it?” Radcliffe asked. “Why do you think?”
“Your mouth gets wet…” Mendez tried to lead Groff.
“Everything gets wet,” Groff said, to laughter from both his costars.
Radcliffe translated this to mean that Groff sweats.
“People won’t know that because you just said everything gets wet,” Radcliffe clarified.
“It isn’t just sweat,” Groff said, and Judd, the test administrator confirmed that Groff was telling the truth.
“We know,” Radcliffe said.
Radcliffe later pulled out a picture of Ariana DeBose and asked if Groff knew what the actress meant when she sang “Angela Bassett did the thing.”
Groff answered yes, and he also answered yes to the question of whether he has done “the thing.” He did not disclose what “the thing” was.
Ozark vet John Shiban has been named executive producer and showrunner for NBC‘s Law & Order: Organized Crime. Shiban fills the last remaining open showrunner spot for Wolf Entertainment & Universal Television’s drama series following the end of the writers strike. Law & Order: Organized Crime is set to air in midseason.
Shiban replaces Sean Jablonski, who stepped down as showrunner in March, the fourth showrunner to exit the NBC police procedural in a little over a year. At the time, SVU’s David Graziano stepped in to oversee the remaining three episodes of Season 3.
Writers rooms began opening earlier this month, shortly after the WGA reached a deal, for Wolf Entertainment and Universal TV’s three Chicago dramas for NBC, threeFBIdramas for CBS as well as NBC’s Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU.
Starring Christopher Meloni, Law & Order: Organized Crime is executive produced by Dick Wolf, John Shiban, Paul Cabbad, Meloni, Arthur W. Forney and Peter Jankowski.
The series is produced by Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, in association with Wolf Entertainment.
This is veteran showrunner Shiban’s first time as showrunner/EP for a series in the Wolf universe.
Shiban spent the last three seasons as an executive producer on the Emmy-, Golden Globe- and Critics Choice-nominated Netflix series Ozark, starring Jason Bateman and Laura Linney. He was nominated for both an Emmy and a WGA Award for writing the episode “Boss Fight.”
Previously, Shiban was under an overall deal at Sony Television while serving as showrunner and executive producer of the Hulu series Shut Eye.
Shiban began his career as a staff writer on The X-Files. During his stint on the Fox series, he wrote or co-wrote over 20 episodes, earning an Emmy nomination for writing, and served as executive producer by the end of its nine-year run. As a producer, Shiban also received a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Dramatic Series for his work on X-Files.
Shiban joined AMC’s Breaking Bad as a consulting producer in Season 2. He penned several episodes of the acclaimed series, received a WGA Award nomination for the episode “Phoenix”and wrote and directed the Season 3 penultimate episode “Sunset.” His other credits include Da Vinci’s Demons, Hell on Wheels, Vampire Diaries and the long-running hit Supernatural.
His director credits include Better Call Saul, NOS4A2 and Shut Eye.
Shiban is repped by CAA, Artists First and Hansen Jacobson.
For Eva Longoria to have the chance to direct “Flamin’ Hot,” she says she had to “overcome the stigma of being a dumb actor.”
“I’m more than the actor you know from TV,” she tells Variety‘s Awards Circuit Podcast. “I’ve been directing for 12 years. I started with short films. I directed episodic TV, half-hours, one-hours, dramas, comedies, baby pilots, and big pilots. I’ve touched every rung of the ladder.”
On this Variety Awards Circuit Podcast episode, we sit with Longoria to discuss the chance to helm the inspirational true story of a Latino who achieved the American dream. In addition, the Awards Circuit Roundtable discusses the continuation of the SAG-AFTRA strikes and how that will affect the awards season, with actors unable to campaign.
Listen below:
The “Desperate Housewives” alum is making her feature directorial debut with “Flamin’ Hot,” an inspirational story about a Frito-Lay janitor who invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. The Hulu/Searchlight production won the audience award at the SXSW Film Festival. When it was released in June, the studio announced it was the most-watched streaming movie on its platform.
Getting the chance to helm this project wasn’t easy for Longoria, and as she looks to the future, she gets candid about Hollywood and what opportunities will be afforded to POC. She feels a case of “diversity fatigue” is going on in Hollywood.
“Sometimes they say, ‘Oh well, you’re only on that list because they needed a Latina, so you’re the token one,’” Longoria says. “No, we have a large pool of talented directors, writers, producers, actors that don’t get the opportunity.”
She’s also walking the walk; as announced recently, Longoria and her longtime friend Cris Abrego (Banijay’s chairman of the Americas) joined forces to launch Hyphenate Media Group, a company focusing on production, talent scouting, and a business incubator.
You can see the makings of it through her cast and artisans. Boasting an incredible ensemble that includes Jesse Garcia, Annie Gonzalez, Dennis Haysbert, Tony Shalhoub and Emilio Rivera, the heartwarming “Flamin’ Hot” script by Linda Yvette Chávez and Lewis Colick shows an authentic story that gives many underseen artists their overdue spotlight. Moreover, a chart-topping and original song, “The Fire Inside,” performed by Becky G and written by Oscar darling Diane Warren, will surely be in the mix for a nom.
Variety’s “Awards Circuit” podcast, produced by Michael Schneider, is your one-stop listen for lively conversations about the best in film and television. Each week “Awards Circuit” features interviews with top film and TV talent and creatives; discussions and debates about awards races and industry headlines; and much more. Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or anywhere you download podcasts. New episodes post weekly.
One of the strange quirks in life is that failure often leads to success.
Hopefully, that statement will apply to Marvel television as well.
Source: Marvel Studios
The Hollywood Reporter (THR) just posted a detailed evaluation of behind-the-scenes turmoil that fills in a lot of the blanks we’ve discussed in 2023.
Let’s talk about what has gone wrong with Marvel television and what Kevin Feige is doing to fix it.
Daredevil Reborn Again
Source: Marvel Studios
Let’s start with the headline here. During the two Hollywood strikes, Marvel executives watched the footage and recognized the truth.
The attempted reboot of Daredevil: Born Again wasn’t working to anyone’s satisfaction.
When Disney+ declared an intent to reboot the Daredevil franchise, it faced an immediate uphill battle.
Source: Marvel
The Netflix version of the series proved excellent. Now that Disney had control of its own characters, it needed to create something even better.
In the aftermath of Secret Invasion’s failure, Disney faced much more pressure for the Daredevil project, which will be the longest to date.
Original plans called for 18 episodes of Daredevil: Born Again, several of which Marvel filmed before the strike shut down production.
Source: Marvel Studios
Well, we will never see a few of those because Marvel just nuked several episodes from orbit.
Kevin Feige “reviewed the footage” and determined that “the show wasn’t working.”
Fans of the Netflix series aren’t surprised to learn this, as Disney intentionally chose not to bring back fan favorites Karen Page and Foggy Nelson.
Source: Marvel Studios
While Daredevil II does return Vincent D’Onofrio as Kingpin, it’s still facing a stark tonal change.
In fact, THR’s article indicates that Matt Murdock didn’t even suit up during the first three episodes.
Instead, Daredevil wouldn’t appear until episode four. I’m using the past tense because the series is mostly starting from scratch with most footage cut.
Source: Marvel Studios
Two weeks ago, Marvel removed head writers Chris Ord and Matt Corman as well as the directors scheduled to work on additional episodes.
In other words, Daredevil is fully rebooting on the fly.
Source: Marvel
The original plan called for a procedural drama, one that would have confused fans of the Netflix series known for non-stop action.
Marvel recognized that fans wouldn’t have liked that, so Daredevil starts over after the strike.
Marvel Ditches Its Television Playbook
Image: Marvel
By this point, we’re all used to Marvel drama in 2023. But this story should prove essential to the company’s television future.
Executives have used their downtime during the strikes to acknowledge the obvious. Marvel’s television division is struggling.
Many of these wounds are self-inflicted, too. From the start, Marvel planned its television stories to work differently from conventional programs.
Photo: Marvel Studios
WandaVision even riffed on the typical family stories audiences watched for generations.
Alas, Marvel quickly realized that this format has worked for decades for good reason. It’s the most efficient, effective way to relay stories in the medium.
Marvel tried to reinvent the wheel – and to some success – with WandaVision, Loki, and She-Hulk.
Source: Marvel Studios
However, the constant attempts at bringing Marvel big-screen action to streaming television have proven inconsistent at best in terms of quality.
While the pandemic didn’t help any, Marvel also set itself up for struggle via its needlessly complicated structure.
Thus far, Marvel has eschewed conventional showrunners in favor of mini-rooms and hand-offs.
Source: Marvel Studios
A writing team sets the baseline, the director establishes the tone during principal photography, and then Marvel cleans everything up via reshoots.
That structure exemplifies a movie-making studio trying to create television for the first time. It’s the wrong approach.
After three years of inconsistencies, Marvel has finally acknowledged this hard truth during the strike.
Source: Marvel Studios
From now on, Marvel will create television in a more similar fashion to conventional productions.
Until now, Marvel had tried “to marry the Marvel culture with the traditional television culture.”
This practice has led to some chaotic productions. For example, Jessica Gao wrote She-Hulk.
Source: Marvel Studios
Once the nine-episode series started production, director Kat Coiro took control of everything during a challenging pandemic shoot.
Afterward, Marvel brought back Gao for post-production. That sort of storytelling inconsistency often wrecks a series.
The New Marvel
Source: Marvel Studios
Moon Knight similarly suffered turmoil when creator Jeremy Slater experienced creative differences.
Marvel quickly hired Mohamed Diab as a replacement, which has worked out well, all things considered.
Still, under the previous Marvel system, neither writers nor directors felt like they had control over their work.
Source: Marvel Studios
Instead, the creators would lose authority once the directors started filming. Then, post-production changes would negate the directors’ work.
In short, none of the Marvel television storytellers felt empowered.
Even worse, Marvel spent 15 years training would-be showrunners on how their system worked.
Source: Marvel Studios
Then, when Marvel hired for television productions, they inexplicably looked outside the company.
Those outsiders struggled to fit their ideas with the Marvel system, a problem that sank Secret Invasion.
Image: Marvel
According to THR, “actions became entrenched and leaders vied for supremacy during Secret Invasion’s preproduction in London.”
Yes, territorial behavior sank Marvel’s most ambitious television project to date. Not coincidentally, Marvel is ready to make a change.
Moving forward, Marvel will follow more conventional television production practices rather than do its own thing.
Image: Marvel
Because of Gao’s success with She-Hulk, Marvel wants “shows to have a creative throughline from start to finish.”
Almost as importantly, Marvel will staff full-time television producers. Until now, employees have flipped between television and film.
The people in charge of each production “will write pilots and show bibles.”
Source: Marvel Studios
Finally, and most significantly, Marvel will ditch the limited series.
The studio has correctly deduced that six-episode shows come with a natural limitation. Just when fans get attached to the characters, the show ends.
Image: Marvel
I mean, you’re craving more Madisynn, right? Until we get season two of She-Hulk (or season one of Wongers?), that’s impossible.
From now on, Marvel will greenlight television shows with the expectation that each one will last several seasons.
Final Thoughts
Image: Marvel
Marvel television needed a change. We all know that.
Objectively, Secret Invasion was the kind of debacle we’d expect from DC or Fox’s Marvel division or a non-Spider-Man Sony/Marvel movie.
For Disney and Marvel, Secret Invasion signified rock bottom. For years, the company had hyped it as the small-screen answer to Avengers: Endgame.
Source: Marvel Studios
In reality, the more apt comparison is Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Thankfully, the strike-related downtime provided Marvel executives with a rare opportunity to stop, look in the mirror, and honestly reflect on the status quo.
The current Marvel structure wasn’t working. Now that Marvel has accepted this truth, it will make changes that should benefit everyone.
Image: Marvel
Television shows need someone with a vision that lasts beyond a handful of episodes.
Meanwhile, viewers need a promise that characters will return. Otherwise, there’s no point in getting attached.
Source: Marvel Studios
Rather than creating new stories about unknown characters, Marvel should be greenlighting second seasons of Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk instead.
While that hasn’t happened yet, the article references that Marvel views Wonder Man as that sort of program.
Source: Marvel
I’d mentioned this fact in MarvelBlog News a while ago, and it’s true.
One of the reasons why television series include so many episodes/seasons is about production costs.
In most instances, once you get everyone on set, it’s cheaper to just keep shooting.
Image: Marvel
The mind-boggling budget for Secret Invasion apparently highlighted this truth for Marvel.
From now on, once the studio announces a new show, we can safely expect it to be around for several years to come.
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Review: Nightwing #107 [Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Writers: Tom Taylor and Michael W. Conrad Art: Stephen Byrne and Serge Acuna Colors: Adriano Lucas and Ivan Plascencia Letters: Wes Abbott
Reviewed by: Matthew B. Lloyd
Summary
Nightwing finally learns about Bea’s past, but in order to get the box that was stored in The Hold, he has to do a favor for her first that will cement her role as the new Captain Blud.
Positives
Tom Taylor keeps the story in Nightwing #107 focused on character. This allows for whatever happens to feel legitimate. It’s strange to see “Ric” Grayson in flashback, but Taylor makes it work because Dick is written accurately. Bea is a bit of an unknown quantity since she’s been revealed to have a secret past, and what Taylor provides for her past is seamlessly woven into her previous appearances during the “Ric” era.
The task Dick has to provide for Bea is not antithetical to him, but the situation provides some challenges. He’s got to go off with Bea to apprehend her wanted criminal brother. Barbara is not surprisingly a little concerned for multiple reasons. Bea’s past is quite interesting as we learn that she is the new Captain Blud, the person in control of The Hold. Bea’s mantle of Captain Blud dates back to the founding of Bludhaven, she’s descended from THAT Captain Blud. This is an interesting legacy to fulfill and uphold.
Positives Cont’d
The relationship between Bea and Dick is intriguing. Dick’s a good person so he’s going to do the right thing. There’s no lack of tension with Barbara, you can tell she’s a bit afraid. While not spoken, it feels implied that she’s a little worried for Dick falling for Bea all over again. It’s something nice to have on the table, but it’s not something that should come to pass.
The second story is the middle chapter of a three-part mystery. Michael W. Conrad also focuses on character, this time it’s Dick and Jason Todd. Dick and Jason certainly have a complex relationship as brothers, brothers who are not alike, yet also have so much in common. Conrad makes this the crux of the story, and it works very well. The contrasts in personality make me think of the pre-Crisis Jason Todd that was much more like Dick Grayson. How would this story have been different if this had been THAT Jason.
The mystery is good. There’s not a lot that’s been revealed. Last issue, we saw a fairly non-descript fellow watching Dick as he baked with Cassandra Cain. This issue Dick and Jason get jumped by some thugs (it doesn’t go well for them) in an alley on this guys orders. You just can’t tell what’s going to happen. The character moments between Dick and his family/ friends make the unraveling enjoyable.
Negatives
The only negative with Nightwing #107 is the fear that Dick’s going to get knocked on his head and go back to being “Ric.” Not that it would last, but it would be a difficult journey for Dick and Babs, AND Bea when Dick came back, AGAIN!
Verdict
Nightwing #107 is another fine entry in the series. If you’ve been enjoying this there’s no reason to think that you won’t enjoy this issue. Character reigns supreme and there’s an intriguing story developing in the lead tale. That sense of character continues in the second story and ties the issue together. Hopefully, you’re here for Dick Grayson, the person and not simply the punch ups and actions.
Spider-Man 2 is here, and with it comes a much bigger version of New York for Miles and Peter to swing through. That means there are all new–and quite numerous–side missions to complete, like completing all of Marko’s Memories, a chain of side quests that will see the Spider-Men aiding a troubling but also troubled Sandman as his psyche has been spread across the city, crystalized as physical memories you can explore. If you’d like to complete all of Marko’s Memories in Spider-Man 2, use our map guide to spot them all right here.
Spider-Man 2 – all Marko’s Memories locations
After an explosive opening sequence that pits the pair of Spider-Men against a rampaging Sandman, his psyche will be left scattered across New York City, and it’s up to you to find them all and repair his mind remotely. Doing so will clue you into his motives, but we’ll leave out those spoilers here. Instead, let’s get to finding all memory locations.
There are 14 Marko’s Memories locations in total, and each one includes a small horde of sandman-esque baddies to defeat before you can access the memory shard. Marko’s Memories can be found in the following locations on the map. We also recommend playing as Miles as much as you can for these missions, as his electricity-based powers make quick work of the sandy goons.
All Marko’s Memories locations in Spider-Man 2
Unlike some side mission types, completing all of Marko’s Memories does not unlock any Spider-Man 2 suits, but it will give you a heap of XP and some additional story content, plus you’ll need to do them all if you want to complete the game to 100% and earn the Platinum Trophy.
More Spider-Man 2 side mission maps:
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Special announcement: as a special culinary bonus, all ten of this month’s Don’t-Miss Indies are, in fact, pumpkin spiced. Go ahead and lick your laptop or smartphone glass to confirm. No? Hm. Looks like that WordPress update hasn’t pushed through yet. Regardless, the spirit of Autumnal renewal (picaresque decay?) presently fills the October air, heralding the onset of Awards Season and its bountiful horn full of cinematic goodies. Starting here…
FOE
When You Can Watch: October 4 (Film Independent Presents), October 6
Where You Can Watch: Film Independent, Theaters
Director: Garth Davis
Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Paul Mescal, Aaron Pierre
Why We’re Excited: An intricately crafted love story presented under the guise of a sci-fi tinged psychological thriller, writer-director Garth Davis’s (Mary Magdalene, Lion) latest offering is based on Iain Reid’s 2018 novel by the same name. Living on an isolated farm in the year 2065, Henrietta “Hen” (Ronan, a Spirit Awards nominee for Lady Bird) and husband Junior (Mescal, a Spirit Awards nominee for last year’s Aftersun) have their lives turned upside down when Junior is assigned to travel to an off-Earth resettlement project for over a year while a digital replica of him takes his place in their life on Earth. What Hen learns and gains while experimenting with a new life alongside her husband’s digital doppelgänger threatens to tear them apart, but could it also set her free in ways that she never imagined? Members are invited to a theatrical screening October 4 at Film Independent Presents to be followed by an in-person conversation with Davis.
Where You Can Watch: Theaters, Film Independent Presents
Director: Susanna Fogel
Cast: Emilia Jones, Nicholas Braun, Geraldine Viswanathan
Why We’re Excited: Writer of Booksmart and The Addams Family 2, director Susanna Fogel’s black comedy psychological thriller is based on the viral New Yorker short story from 2017, as adapted by Michelle Ashford (Masters of Sex, The Pacific). Twenty-year-old college sophomore Margot (CODA‘s Emilia Jones) works at a movie theater and begins dating an older man, Robert (Succession’s Braun), who frequents the theater. In going back and forth between the POVs of the protagonists, Fogel wanted to explore the dating dynamics in our post-#MeToo era. As Margaret Atwood’s quote in the film’s epigraph suggests, the chasm is vast: “Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.” The film will screen free for Film Independent Members as part of Film Independent Presents on October 16.
Why We’re Excited: Winner of the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, writer-director Justine Triet’s French courtroom thriller has garnered critical acclaim, particularly for lead Sandra Hüller’s performance. Best known to English-speaking audiences for her work in Toni Erdmann, Requiem and I’m Your Man, Hüller plays German writer Sandra, who has to fight tooth and nail to prove her innocence following her husband’s suspicious death in the French Alps. Her biggest problem? The only witness to the death is their blind 11-year-old son, who is caught in an unfathomable predicament. Peter Debruge of Variety likens it to “Gone Girl” in reverse.
NYAD
When You Can Watch: October 20
Where You Can Watch: Theaters, Netflix (November 3)
Director: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin
Cast: Annette Bening, Jodie Foster, Rhys Ifans
Why We’re Excited: Two-time Spirit Award nominee and silver screen legend Annette Bening portrays IRL marathon swimmer Diana Nyad, who at the age of 60–aided by coach and friend, Bonnie (Foster, no less legendary)–embarks on her lifelong dream of swimming the 110 miles from Cuba to Florida. The narrative feature debut from the Free Solo docmakers Vasarhelvi and Chin, the sports biopic follows Diana’s tenacious journey, which really begins at age 28, when Nyad first tried and failed to conquer the grueling 53-hour challenge. Based on Nyad’s own autobiography Find a Way with a screenplay by Julie Cox (TV’s The Last Tycoon and Recovery Road), the film premiered last month at Telluride.
SIGHT
When You Can Watch: October 27
Where You Can Watch: Theaters
Director: Andrew Hyatt
Cast: Terry Chen, Greg Kinnear, Fionnula Flanagan
Why We’re Excited: Based on renowned eye surgeon Dr. Ming Wang’s autobiography From Darkness to Sight, writer-director Hyatt’s (Full of Grace, Paul Apostle of Christ) inspiring immigrant success story follows Wang’s (Almost Famous’s Terry Chen) unlikely journey, escaping from communist China and landing in the United States. Beginning in 1970s rural China, we find the younger Wang defying all odds to secure a place in Harvard and then MIT, going on to help develop life-saving medical innovations to restore eyesight to millions of patients worldwide.
THE HOLDOVERS
When You Can Watch: October 25 (Film Independent Presents), October 27
Where You Can Watch: Film Independent, Theaters
Director: Alexander Payne
Cast: Paul Giamatti, Dominic Sessa, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Carrie Preston
Why We’re Excited: Generally disliked by students and his fellow staff, Hunham (Giamatti, a Spirit Award alum for both Sideways and American Splendor) is a grumpy prep school teacher in 1970s New England. Unfortunately for everyone involved, he gets stuck babysitting a few students who have nowhere to go during Christmas break. And get this–he even assigns homework during the holiday. But during this midwinter purgatory, Hunham ends up bonding in unexpected ways with student Angus (newcomer Sessa) and the school’s head cook, Mary (Randolph). Another 2023 Telluride premiere, the film was shot in Massachusetts over the winter of 2022 and marks the re-teaming of Giamatti and Sideways filmmaker Alexander Payne. The film will be coming to Film Independent Presents (link posting soon!) two days early, October 25.
FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S
When You Can Watch: October 27
Where You Can Watch: Theaters, Peacock
Director: Emma Tammi
Cast: Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Lail, Kat Conner Sterling
Why We’re Excited: Just in time for Halloween, Emma Tammi’s (The Wind, Blood Moon) supernatural horror tale is based on the popular video game franchise, following Mike (Hutcherson), a troubled young man still haunted by the disappearance of his younger brother more than a decade ago. If that wasn’t enough, he’s also now caring for their 10-year-old sister. To make ends meet, he takes on the night shift as a security guard at an abandoned themed restaurant, Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria, which still has its four animatronic mascots onsite: Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy. Soon enough, he discovers that nothing at Freddy’s is what it seems… Fans of the Freddy’s franchise can also look forward to a making-of book, expected to be released in August 2024, and a film novelization of the movie, expected this Christmas.
THE PIGEON TUNNEL
When You Can Watch: October 20
Where You Can Watch: Apple TV+
Director: Errol Morris
Featuring: John le Carré, Errol Morris
Why We’re Excited: A three-time Spirit Awards alum for his landmark nonfiction projects The Fog of War and The Thin Blue Line, director Errol Morris’s newest feature takes a fascinating peek inside the life and persona of the man who bestowed us the crème de la crème of literary spy thrillers, such as Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. Born David Cornwall, author John le Carré successfully parlayed his few years in British intelligence from the late 1950s to 1960s into a prolific career as a writer, with many of his books adapted into famous film and television works. With very personal interviews from the late le Carré himself, interspersed with rare archival footage and cinematic re-creations, Morris’s film is a piercing window into the author’s life going back to the Cold War.
PRISCILLA
When You Can Watch: November 3
Where You Can Watch: Theaters
Director: Sofia Coppola
Cast: Cailee Spaeny, Jacob Elordi, Ari Cohen
Why We’re Excited: A three-time Spirit Award winner (all for 2003’s Lost in Translation) writer-director Sofia Coppola’s rendition of the ever-enigmatic mystery surrounding the Presley family centers the 14-year-old army brat who became enchanted by “The King” and never let go. Based on Priscilla Presley’s own 1985 memoir Elvis and Me—co-written with Sandra Harmon—the film premiered at Venice last month, where lead actress Cailee Spaeny (On the Basis of Sex, Bad Times at the El Royale) won Best Actress for her portrayal of the pop culture icon. Coming a little over a year after Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, the film will surely invite many comparisons. As BBC Culture’s Nicholas Barber puts it, Coppola’s “understated, nonjudgemental portrait” is almost the polar opposite of Luhrmann’s excessive film in every way conceivable.
*PROGRAMMER’S PICK* THE PERSIAN VERSION
When You Can Watch: October 12(Film Independent Presents), October 20
Where You Can Watch: Theaters
Director: Maryam Keshavarz
Cast: Jordan Firstman, Sebastián Silva, Catalina Saavedra
Why We’re Excited: From Jenn Wilson, Film Independent Senior Programmer: “Maryam Keshavarz’s (Spirit Awards Nominated in 2012 for Circumstance) The Persian Version (a Sundance winner for Audience Award and Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award) is an autobiographical comedy about a large and chaotic Iranian-American family and an estranged mother and daughter. Leila (Layla Mohammadi) and her mother, Shireen (Niousha Noor), have never seen eye to eye on much of anything and Leila has always assumed it’s because she’s queer and the only daughter in the family. When Leila’s dad is put in the hospital with heart failure, it causes her mother to re-visit her past and we finally get to see why it is that Shireen has become the person that she is toward her daughter. The Persian Version is a fantastic film on a rarely seen subject– the private lives of Iranian women. The absolute stars of this film are Layla Mohammadi and Niousha Noor who turn in some of the best performances of 2023.”
Former “The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart’s Apple TV+ series “The Problem With Jon Stewart” is ending over creative differences.
According to The New York Times, Stewart and Apple executives decided to part ways in recent days with members of the show’s staff informed about its end today.
Taping of new episodes for the third season was scheduled to begin within a couple of weeks. The series launched two years ago and was touted as Stewart’s big return to the talk show format after exiting “The Daily Show” in 2015.
However, over the seasons, Stewart and Apple executives had disagreements over some of the topics and guests. Stewart reportedly indicated to staff that topics related to China and artificial intelligence were causing concern at Apple, as was concern over the show’s potential coverage of the 2024 U.S. Presidential campaign.
Apple’s concern is its diving into entertainment raises the risk of collateral damage to its brand. As of September, analytics firm Antenna indicates Apple TV+ had more than 19.8 million U.S. subscribers.
The series had already confronted several topics like gun control and gender identity that sparked discourse.
Coachella headliner Bad Bunny has announced his 2024 “Most Wanted” tour on Instagram, a week after the release of his fifth solo album, Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana.
In the Instagram video announcement, a lucha libre-masked Bad Bunny appears on horseback. He comes to a wall plastered with “most wanted” signs bearing his image. He crumples the poster and tosses it away as ticket information pops up.
The tour will have 31 shows in the U.S. out of a total of 47. The first stop will be on Feb. 21, 2024, in Salt Lake City. He will play at the Crypto.com Arena for three nights, March 13-15, and a similar multiple on April 11-13 in New York.
Bad Bunny’s film plans have been put on hold by Sony/Columbia Pictures because of the tour. Originally, he was to star in a Spider-Man spinoff called El Muerto, to be directed by Jonas Cuarón. It would have marked the first time a Latino character led a Marvel live-action film.
El Muerto is a character within Spider-Man’s universe. In Marvel lore, he is an antihero and the son of a luchador next in line to inherit the ancestral power of “El Muerto.”
The film remains in development, but Bad Bunny’s tour schedule and the ongoing strike makes finalizing a date complicated.
Bad Bunny’s new abum became the most-streamed album in a single day in 2023 so far on Spotify. The album has amassed more than 900 million streams, and its lead track, Monaco, hit #1 in 16 countries on Spotify.
Fans can register now until Sunday, October 22 at 11:59 PM ET HERE for the Registration Onsale. Once registration closes, fans will be randomly selected to receive a code that grants them access to the onsale on Wednesday, October 25.
The pop icon recalled in her new memoir, The Woman in Me, according to The New York Times, being “devastated” by their split, which he initiated over text message. She added that she even fantasized about quitting the entertainment industry.
Spears and the *NSYNC alum had dated for three years after initially getting together in 1999 following her tour with the boy band. Their relationship ended in 2002.
But following their split, Spears said what made it even more difficult was the media portraying her as a “harlot who’d broken the heart of America’s golden boy,” when in reality, “I was comatose in Louisiana, and he was happily running around Hollywood.”
She specifically recounts seeing Timberlake’s music video “Cry Me a River” for the first time, which she described as “a woman who looks like me cheats on him and he wanders around sad in the rain.”
As she was still trying to recover from the new heartbreak, the singer said her father, Jamie Spears, and his management team forced her to do an interview with Diane Sawyer, which ended up being a “breaking point” for her. Spears said Sawyer asked her what she did to the *NSYNC star that caused him “so much pain.”
The pop star wrote in her book that she left that interview feeling “like I had been exploited, set up in front of the whole world.”
At the time, there had been rumors that Spears kissed choreographer Wade Robson during her relationship with Timberlake. While she confirms the longtime rumor in her memoir, she also suggests that her actions were related to other rumors of Timberlake being unfaithful.
In excerpts released earlier this week by People magazine, Spears revealed that she had an abortion while she was in a relationship with Timberlake, saying it was “one of the most agonizing things I have ever experienced in my life.”
She explained that her decision to have the abortion was because he didn’t want to go through with the pregnancy. “Justin definitely wasn’t happy about the pregnancy,” she alleges, according to People. “He said we weren’t ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young.”
“I don’t know if that was the right decision,” she added in her book. “If it had been left up to me alone, I never would have done it. And yet Justin was so sure that he didn’t want to be a father.”
Spears’ new memoir, which hits bookshelves on Oct. 24, discusses growing up in the music industry, her decades-long career, personal relationships and her 13-year conservatorship, which a Los Angeles County judge terminated in November 2021.
Though some have said the conservatorship saved Spears’s life, in excerpts released by The Times, the pop star wrote, “No, not really. My music was my life, and the conservatorship was deadly for that; it crushed my soul.”
As for how she feels about creating music now, Spears has no plans to return to the recording studio. “Pushing forward in my music career is not my focus at the moment,” Spears wrote. “It’s time for me not to be someone who other people want; it’s time to actually find myself.”
The Hollywood Reporter reached out to Timberlake’s rep for comment.
Veteran touring specialist Rich Schaefer has been officially promoted to president of global touring at AEG Presents. Schaefer takes over the role from Gary Gersh, who announced he would be stepping down last month.
In his new role, Schaefer will oversee all aspects of the concert promotion company’s worldwide touring deals, operations and talent relations. He will report to Jay Marciano, chairman/CEO of AEG Presents and COO of AEG and will also be joining the company’s executive committee.
“Rich has a wealth of experience across every level of the concert business,” said Marciano in a statement. “His rapport with artists, managers and agents, along with his attention to detail and follow-through, have made him a critical member of our team. I’m thrilled to elevate him to President of Global Touring.”
Schaefer joined AEG Presents in 2018 to help define and build the newly created division. He most recently held the title of senior vp of global touring. Schaefer has played a key role in many of AEG Presents’ touring partnerships, having helped sign and promote artists such as Kane Brown, Kacey Musgraves, Zach Bryan, Leon Bridges, Carin Leon, Hugh Jackman, Tame Impala and Maggie Rogers, among others.
“I am very excited to step into this new role leading Global Touring, and I’m extremely grateful for the support from Jay and everyone at AEG Presents,” Schaefer added. “Our priority is to continue executing at the highest level for our clients, their teams and fans.”
Schaefer was a co-founder of LoyalT Management before joining AEG Presents. A New York native, he will continue to work out of the company’s offices there.
AWARD THIS 2023 NOMINEE! After watching Berndt Mader and Ben Steinbauer’s odd documentary, Chop & Steele, I’ve never been so jealous of two people more in my life than Found Footage Fest founders Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher…then I realized I still like making money and don’t like starving.
As mentioned just words ago, this is the story of Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher, who were lifelong friends after realizing they both liked Pee Wee’s Playhouse as children. The two were inseparable and created a life of mischief making producing odd videos and engaging in a series of juvenile prank phone calls.
Working odd jobs as young adults, the pair discovered the existence of corporate training and industrial safety videos. Their collection grew into a library of quirky hometown clips to mind-numbing industrial safety tapes, preachy religious bits, cat videos (eye roll), festive holiday overkill, martial arts mishmashes, dodgy gambling ‘how-tos,’ and the gem, ‘Nude Golf.’
Seeing the humor in these woefully self-unaware subjects, the pair compiled the best of the worst and founded the Found Footage Fest—a traveling celebration that still tours today.
In hopes of boosting attendance, Joe and Nick reluctantly went on the morning news circuit. They realized that the staff and hosts didn’t exactly do their research. For example, their names would be misspelled on the chyron, and it was clear these folks weren’t paying attention.
Joe and Nick decided to create odd characters, write up a fake press release, and then see what happens. The first attempt was Kenny Strasser, played by Mark Proksch, a yoyo champion who uses the yoyo to teach children about climate change. The stations bit and Mark made several appearances on morning TV with an inept yoyo routine. When the hoax was revealed, Mark received offers to appear on The Office, Better Call Saul, and Portlandia…to name a few.
“It gets serious when you have no money and must defend your antics in federal court.“
As they say, “Go big or go home.” Joe and Nick took things a step further with the strong man duo Chop & Steele. Claiming in their press release that they won the TV competition show America’s Got Talent (easily researchable), the pair got booked by eight morning shows. Their appearances were laughable, and yeah, these stations got punked.
Let’s just say the news industry does take well to being made a fool. Months after their appearance as Chop & Steele, one station’s parent company sued the pair for fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud, and copyright infringement. Now, who’s laughing?
As someone who enjoys comedy and a good laugh, Chop & Steele delivers on so many levels. The film is not short on the antics of Joe and Nick. There is no institution in the world that can not stand to be taken down a peg or two. The sheer balls they have to pull pranks on a local…even a national level, is awe-inspiring.
Comedians who appear in the doc, including David Cross, Reggie Watts, and Bobcat Goldthwait, are enamored by their accomplishments. In contrast, the pair is not exactly as rich as Cross, Watts, and Goldthwait. Their love of the art of comedy is pure, and their wallets reflect that.
The documentary centers on this lawsuit with Gray Television. It gets serious when you have no money and must defend your antics in federal court. There is footage of their depositions that is not to be missed. You’ll see in the doc that the lawsuit gave them a national platform, which ultimately led to an ironic run on America’s Got Talent.
Walking away from Chop & Steele, I have great admiration for Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher. They see the silliness behind the world’s seriousness. It’s stated in the film that they use mischief to save the world, and I wholeheartedly believe that.
Chop & Steele is nominated for the 2023 Award This! Unreal Outsiders Documentary.
After a blistering summer of record heat, raging wildfires and unpredictable storms, federal scientists on Thursday said a warm, wet winter driven by El Niño is in store for California and much of the rest of country.
The first winter outlook from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts that a strong El Niño will remain in place through at least the spring, with further strengthening possible over the next couple of months.
El Niño is the warm phase of the El Niño-La Niña Southern Oscillation pattern — sometimes referred to as ENSO — and is a major driver of temperature and precipitation patterns across the globe.
“The anticipated strong El Niño is the predominant climate factor driving the U.S. winter outlook this year,” said Jon Gottschalck, chief of the operational prediction branch at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.
Aggressive and impactful reporting on climate change, the environment, health and science.
Temperature forecasts for December, January and February favor warmer-than-average conditions across the northern tier of the U.S. and much of the West, with the highest chance of above-normal temperatures expected in Northern California, the Pacific Northwest and northern New England. Odds are tilted toward warmth in Central and Southern California as well.
The forecast also favors wetter-than-average conditions in many regions of the country, including nearly all of California, the southern Plains, Texas and the Southeast. Widespread drought will persist across much of the central and southern U.S., but not in California, where the Central Valley and San Francisco Bay area have the highest odds in the state of above-normal rainfall.
Warmer-than-average temperatures are favored across the northern tier of the U.S. and West Coast, according to a new winter outlook from NOAA.
(NOAA)
The outlook conjures the specter of another soggy season for the Golden State, which was pummeled by 31 atmospheric river storms, deadly floods and record-setting snow last winter.
Gottschalck said the combination of wetness and warmth means more precipitation is likely to fall as rain instead of snow. But he and other experts also said it’s too soon to say whether California will see a repeat of the atmospheric rivers it experienced at the start of this year.
Wetter-than-average conditions are likely across much of California, as well as the central Rockies, the southern Plains, Gulf Coast, Southeast and lower-mid-Atlantic and northern Alaska, according to a new winter outlook from NOAA.
“It’s important to stress that even though we see these general patterns during El Niño and La Niña years, there is still a lot of variability and not every event is going to follow the general pattern,” Julie Kalansky, a climate scientist at the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, said in a recent El Niño update.
Kalansky noted that last year’s La Niña was a perfect example, as the state received a deluge of moisture despite the pattern’s association with drier conditions in Southern California.
“So, the declaration of an El Niño doesn’t guarantee that Southern California is going to have a wet, stormy winter, but it does stack the deck in that direction,” she said.
Global average surface temperatures in June, July, August and September were the highest they’ve ever been, marked by sizzling heat waves in Europe, China and the southwestern U.S. — including a record 31 consecutive days of high temperatures at or above 110 degrees in Phoenix.
September was so hot — 2.59 degrees above the 20th century average of 59 degrees — that it also broke the record for the highest monthly global temperature anomaly, or the largest difference from the long-term average, NOAA officials said.
Timothy Koelkebeck hikes an Eaton Canyon trail as temperatures reach 100 degrees and above.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
The September data and winter forecast make it 99% certain that 2023 will end up as the planet’s hottest year on record, according to Gavin Schmidt, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Currently, 2016 and 2020 are tied for that record.
Schmidt said this year’s monthly heat records are particularly remarkable because they are occurring before the peak of the current El Niño event. Other hot periods, including in 2016 and 2020, happened after the peak of El Niño.
That doesn’t bode well for what might be in store next spring, he said.
“I would anticipate that 2024 is still going to be warmer than 2023, even given the ‘gobsmackingly bananas’ anomalies that we’ve had this summer,” Schmidt said. “What we would predict for next year, based just effectively on the long-term trend and the predicted level of ENSO going into next year, is that it will be warmer again — and by quite a lot.”
Schmidt said he was surprised by the unusually high temperatures this summer. Persistent climate warming driven by the burning of fossil fuels is to be expected, as are warmer global temperatures linked to El Niño, but scientists are still seeking answers about why 2023 has been so off-the-charts.
Some theories include a recent change to shipping regulations concerning aerosols, which reduced the upper limit of sulfur in fuels. The change was geared toward cleaner air in ports and coastal areas but may have had an unintended planetary warming effect because the aerosols were reflecting sunlight away from Earth.
A dearth of Saharan dust, possibly linked to weakened trade winds from El Niño, could also be a warming factor since the dust normally has a cooling effect on the North Atlantic, Schdmit and other researchers said.
Residents check out the damage after the fast-moving and swollen Tule River crumbled parts of Globe Drive in Springville, Calif., in March.
“But all of the quantitative estimates of how big those effects are are way too small to explain what’s going on,” Schmidt said. “This is not a neat story. It could be the long-term trends, plus ENSO, plus a little bit from the volcano, plus a little bit from the marine shipping emission changes, plus quite a large chunk of internal variability.”
Indeed, he said that while the long-term trends point to continued warming, there are likely to be years in the future that are cooler than 2023.
What is indisputable, though, is that people are already experiencing the effects of warmer temperatures — including extreme rainfall, extended droughts, heat waves and sea level rise — through their impacts on infrastructure, coral reefs, fishing, crop yields and other sectors, Schmidt said.
NOAA experts said this year’s El Niño probably won’t be as severe as the one in 2015-16, which ranked as a “very strong El Niño,” but that it would still be wise for the West Coast to ready itself for more El Niño-fueled moisture. This month, state officials said they are taking steps to prepare for such a possibility, including assembling flood control material and sandbags, and providing funds for critical levee repairs.
Though the winter storms significantly eased drought conditions in California, the soggy winter was among dozens of billion-dollar climate disasters in the U.S. this year, with flooding in the state between January and March causing about $4.2 billion in damage, according to NOAA. In August, Tropical Storm Hilary dropped more than a year’s worth of rain in a single day in several regions of the state.
“So far this year we’ve had 24 confirmed billion-dollar disasters, which is already a record-breaking amount,” said Tom Di Liberto, a climate scientist with NOAA. “And we still have October, November and December to go.”
“We’re not perfect. I don’t judge anybody,” Timberlake told Barbara Walters in 2002. “It’s just young love. It was a very intense relationship, that’s for sure.”
Justin Timberlake has come a long way since his humble beginnings in Memphis, Tennessee. Timberlake competed on Star Search in 1992 one year before he became a cast member on The All-New Mickey Mouse Club with Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera JC Chasez, Ryan Gosling and Keri Russell. Timberlake and Chasez stayed friends after their Mouseketeer […]
Spears was shell-shocked that Timberlake accused her of cheating before flipping the script on him in her memoir, The Woman in Me. (A source told Us Weekly in October 2023 that Timberlake was “trying to distance himself” from the book’s bombshells.)
Keep reading for a break-down of Timberlake’s biggest controversies and scandals, from cheating drama to Nipplegate:
Encouraging Britney Spears to Have an Abortion
Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears.KMazur/WireImage
“Justin definitely wasn’t happy about the pregnancy. He said we weren’t ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young,” the “Baby One More Time” singer wrote, claiming she decided to terminate the pregnancy because Timberlake wasn’t ready to become a father. “If it had been left up to me alone, I never would have done it.”
Timberlake dropped his song “Cry Me a River,” which he wrote in two hours, less than one year after he and Spears split. (Spears claimed in her memoir that Timberlake ended their romance via text.) In the music video, Timberlake costarred alongside a model, who looked like Spears, as she acted out a cheating scene.
Spears, who was vocal about her dislike of the video, later alleged in The Woman in Me that Timberlake was actually the one who cheated on her a “couple” of times.
No Longer In Sync
Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Lance Bass, Joey Fatone, and Chris Kirkpatrick.SGranitz/WireImage
“I was growing out of it,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in a February 2017 profile. “I felt like I cared more about the music than some of the other people in the group. And I felt like I had other music I wanted to make and that I needed to follow my heart.”
He continued: “We were on a stadium tour, and I just felt like the whole thing was too big. It started out as a fun snowball fight that was becoming an avalanche.”
Super Bowl Nipplegate
Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake.Frank Micelotta/Getty Images
Amid his romance with now-wife Biel, Us Weekly confirmed that he had been unfaithful. A source exclusively told Us in October 2010 that Timberlake had a three-day fling with Olivia Munn. Timberlake’s rep strongly denied the allegations at the time and Munn’s spokesperson did not issue a comment.
Timberlake and Biel were able to work through their issues, getting married in 2012. They later welcomed sons Silas and Phineas.
Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears’ once-dreamy teen romance turned messy after they broke up. Timberlake and Spears, who initially met on The All New Mickey Mouse Club in the early ‘90s, went their separate ways in 2002. The following year, Timberlake dropped his song “Cry Me a River,” where he appeared to recreate their breakup […]
Packing on the PDA With His Palmer Costar
While filming Palmer in New Orleans, Timberlake was spotted holding hands with his costar Alisha Wainwright at a bar in December 2019. The photos also showed Wainwright placing her hand on his knee. A source subsequently told Us that the costars were “just friends” and “nothing inappropriate” occurred.
Timberlake then issued a public statement. “A few weeks ago, I displayed a strong lapse of judgment — but let me be clear — nothing happened between me and my costar,” he wrote via Instagram. “I drank way too much that night and I regret my behavior. I should have known better. This is not the example I want to set for my son [Silas].”
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He added: “I apologize to my amazing wife and family for putting them through such an embarrassing situation, and I am focused on being the best husband and father I can be. This was not that.”
Check the Credits
‘NSync released their first new song in 20 years, “Better Place,” in September 2023 to accompany Timberlake’s animated film Trolls Band Together. Eagle-eyed fans quickly noticed that the track was credited as “‘NSync featuring Justin Timberlake,” wondering why Timberlake received preferential treatment. (No members of the band addressed the credit drama at the time.)
UPDATED, 8:45 a.m.: “Lots of people get lost in Saltburn,” Paul Rhys’ butler Duncan warns Barry Keogh’s Oliver in the new trailer for Amazon MGM Studios’ Saltburn, unveiled on Thursday morning.
In the sophomore feature of writer-director Emerald Fennell, which has been buzzed about since her Academy Award win for Promising Young Woman, student Oliver arrives at Oxford and struggles to find his place. After finding himself drawn into the world of the charming and aristocratic Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi), he’s invited to his eccentric family’s sprawling estate for a summer never to be forgotten.
Also part of the all-star cast of the stunning psychological thriller, which world premiered at Telluride, are Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant, Alison Oliver, Archie Madekwe, and Carey Mulligan. Producers on the pic included Fennell, Margot Robbie, and Josey McNamara. It’s slated for release in select theaters November 17 and will go wide on November 22.
Read more about the awards contender below, and check out the latest trailer above.
PREVIOUSLY, AUGUST 30: Amazon Studios released the first teaser for Saltburn today. Academy Award-winning writer and director Emerald Fennell‘s latest film stars Jacob Elordi(Euphoria),Barry Keoghan (The Batman) and Oscar nominee Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl).
Plot details have been kept under wraps, with the only hint being that Saltburn is a “story of obsession.” Now, with the trailer, we learn a bit more.
Keoghan’s character Oliver meets Felix (Elordi) at a swanky boarding school. Felix, finding out his new acquaintance might not have the greatest situation at home, says, “Why don’t you come home to me? Come to Saltburn.”
Saltburn, it turns out, is the estate of Felix’s family, complete with a butler, a snobby mom and an upper-crust ingenue who may or may not be complementing Oliver when she tells him, “You’re so…real.”
What follows is a fish-out-of-water story in which Oliver takes a journey inside the access and excess that the 1% enjoy. At one point Keoghan’s character enthuses, “I can honestly say that these these past few months have been the happiest of my life.” We get a sense that happiness, however, may not hold.
Saltburn is Fennell’s follow-up to Promising Young Woman, which was nominated for several Oscars and won Best Original Screenplay for Fennell.
The pic is produced by Fennell, MRC and LuckyChap Entertainment’s Josey McNamara, Tom Ackerley and Margot Robbie. World rights to the film were picked up by Amazon Studios in a pact with Knives Out outfit MRC.
DJ Mark the 45 King, who produced or co-produced such hip-hop classics as Eminem’s “Stan,” Jay-Z’s “Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)” and early Queen Latifah hits like “Wrath of My Madness” and “Ladies First,” has died, a rep confirms to Variety. No cause of death was cited; he was 62.
“It is with great sadness that I announce the passing of my beloved Mentor DJ Mark the 45 King!,” Latifah said in a statement. “He believed in me before anyone else. He touched every life he encountered. I’ve never met someone like him; he wanted everyone around him to win. His spirit was magic and will certainly live forever.”
Legendary hip-hop producer and Gang Starr member DJ Premier wrote on Instagram, “His sound was unlike any other, from his heavy drums, and his horns were so distinct on every production.”
Born Mark Howard James in 1961 in the New York City borough of the Bronx, Mark began DJing in the 1980s and acquired his stage name from his use of obscure 7” singles. He signed a production deal with Tuff City Records and used his status to advance the careers of his expanded crew, known as the Flavor Unit, of which Latifah, along with Chill Rob G, Apache and others, were members. Her breakthrough and his both took place with her debut album, “All Hail the Queen,” released on the hip-hop powerhouse Tommy Boy Records in 1989. The label released music by several other Flavor Unit members, much of it produced by Mark; he even had a hit single in the U.K. under his own name, “The 900 Number,” which was later used as the basis for DJ Kool’s 1996 song “Let Me Clear My Throat.”
While Mark struggled with substance abuse in the 1990s, by the end of the decade he’d reached new peaks, producing Jay-Z’s smash “Hard Knock Life” in 1998 and Eminem’s culture-shifting multiplatinum hit “Stan” two years later. The song not only launched a term for unhealthy super-fandom, it became a defining moment for tolerance when Eminem, who had been saddled with unfair accusations of homophobia, performed the song with Elton John at the Grammy Awards in 2001; it remains arguably the rapper’s most memorable and influential song.
In January 2014, he discussed his health in a YouTube video and how he had suffered from a heart attack. At the time, he was a smoker, and was taking medications to recover from the incident. Two years ago, he made his acting debut in “6:45,” a horror film directed by Craig Singer. The movie also featured rapper Remy Ma in a supporting role.
Mark’s discography also includes productions for Rakim, MC Lyte, Craig Mack and remixes for Madonna, Public Enemy, Lisa Stansfield, Salt-N-Pepa, Eric B. & Rakim, Gang Starr and many others.
Anushka Sharma shows her support to Virat Kohli for World Cup 2023.
Virat Kohli scored his first century in this year’s World Cup against Bangladesh and Anushka Sharma is all hearts.
During the India Vs Bangladesh World Cup 2023 match on Thursday, October 19, Virat Kohli scored a century during the 41st over. This score marked Virat Kohli’s first century in this year’s World Cup and his third in his overall World Cup career. As the world cheers for Virat, his biggest supporter, his wife and actress Anushka Sharma also took to social media to express her reaction.
Taking to her Instagram story, Anushka Sharma shared an image of Virat from the match with a red heart emoji and a kissy face emoji. Anushka has often taken to Instagram to support her cricketer husband. Fans are in awe of their love and relentless support for one another.
(Image: Instagram)
Earlier this month, when India won against Pakistan, Anushka shared a photo of her husband and KL Rahul with a blue heart emoji to show her support for Virat and team India. While Virat nearly fell short of a century during that match, he scored his first century during this year’s World Cup against Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, it is rumoured that Anushka is pregnant with her second baby. A source told Hindustan Times that Anushka is pregnant but will not be announcing the pregnancy anytime soon. “Anushka is expecting her second baby. Like the last time, they will formally share the news with the world at a later stage,” the source said.
Addressing the actress’ lack of public appearances, the source claimed, “This isn’t a coincidence. She is staying away from the public eye to avoid speculation.” While the rumours had been sparked earlier, they went rife after Anushka’s Ganesh Chaturthi post.
The report also mentioned that the couple was recently spotted by the paparazzi outside a maternity clinic in Mumbai but requested that their photographs not be taken. “They requested the paparazzi to not publish their pictures, with a promise to make an announcement soon,” the source was quoted as saying.
Captain America 4 Could Release Sooner Than Planned (Report)
Marvel
A new report from Deadline offered a promising update on the release of Captain America: Brave New World following concerns the movie may be delayed as the SAG-AFTRA strike continues in full force.
According to Deadline’s source, there is a “long shot” Brave New World may even move back to its original May 3 release date after the Deadpool 3 delay due to its further along state of production.
Unlike Deadpool 3, which only filmed for two months before the strikes, Captain America 4 completely wrapped its three-month shoot at the end of June.
Due to its completed principal photography, Brave New World ought to proceed smoothly through post-production as the strikes continue. However, development could hit a roadblock down the line if reshoots are required depending on how long the actors’ strike continues to impact Hollywood.
Why Captain America 4 Will Likely Move Release Dates
Marvel Studios
The last two Captain America movies, The Winter Soldierand Civil War, had 273 and 258 days, respectively, between wrapping production and release. As Brave New World finished filming around June 30, the movie will have been wrapped for 308 days by the time the now-vacant May 3 release date rolls around.
So, Marvel Studios ought to be more than capable of bringing Captain America 4 to theaters by May, and likely only shifted its release to July for box office purposes as Deadpool 3 may have been expected to find more success in the prime date.
But now the mutant threequel probably won’t be completed in time to make its current release date, Brave New World is the only choice to take its place, then allowing Deadpool 3 to make its way further into 2024.
Historically, the early May release for Marvel Studios has gone to the movies it sees as having the highest box office potential, including the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy franchises, as well as Civil War and Doctor Strange 2.
As production has still yet to begin with no end to the actors’ strike in sight, fans should prepare to see Thunderboltsdelayed into 2025, leaving Captain America 4 and Deadpool 3 as the MCU’s only new movies for next year.
As has been the case with every other MCU movie before now, Brave New World will likely require reshoots down the line, but provided they aren’t too major and the actors’ strike doesn’t go on too long, that shouldn’t be an issue.
But in the worst case, the Anthony Mackie solo flick may simply need to hold onto its July date, placing over eight months between MCU movies after The Marvelsreleases in theaters on November 10 this year.
Captain America: Brave New World is currently set to hit theaters on July 26, 2024.
Warner Bros. turned down the opportunity to make an animated crossover movie between Mortal Kombat and DC Universe despite the success of the video game.
Writer Jeremy Adams, who has worked on both franchises, expressed his hope for a DC/Mortal Kombat crossover and his desire to be involved in the project.
While there have been successful collaborations between Mortal Kombat and DC in the form of video games like Injustice, Warner Bros. has shown little interest in a direct crossover between the two franchises.
“Finish him!” Those two little words conjure up violent, bloody imagery of the countless fantastic fatalities from the Mortal Kombat video game franchise over the last 30+ years. And in 2008, the crossover event Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe dropped on the Playstation 3 and Xbox360 platforms. The popular video game matched up characters from DC Comics like Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman against MK’s warriors, including Raiden, Scorpion and more. However, despite the success of the game, Warner Bros. turned down the opportunity to make an animated crossover movie. Supernatural writer Jeremy Adams said in an exclusive interview with ComicBook.com:
I would lower your expectations. I don’t know if they have any plans to do more. I do know that we pitched that a while ago, but it was kind of rebuffed.
In addition to writing the animated titles Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge, Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind and Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms, Adams wrote 25 episodes of DC Super Hero Girls. He also penned Batman: Soul of the Dragon, Justice Society: World War II and, most recently, he co-wrote Justice League: Warworld. So, Adams has a unique understanding of both these highly successful franchises. Adams said in the same interview:
“Well, I think at the end of the day, I don’t know if they’re ever going to do anymore. I hope they do, and I hope they call me to be involved. That would be great because I really love it. But I don’t know. I don’t know. I think it would be really cool though. Trust me, I would love to see a DC Mortal Kombat. That would be super, super cool.”
In 1992, Midway Games released the very first edition of Mortal Kombat. The video game series was created by Ed Boon and John Tobias. 16 years later, MK crossed over with the DC Comics’ characters for the first time. And the concept was a huge success. In January of 2009, Midway reported that 1.8 million copies of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe had shipped since its November 2008 release. Boon said in a statement (via Game Spot):
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe was the result of countless hours of hard work by many people, and seeing the game surpass the million-seller plateau makes it worth all the effort. We’re already hard at work on our next version of Mortal Kombat, and look forward to being able to reveal more details in the future.
Mortal Kombat co-creator Boon said in an interview with Game Informer:
“The biggest lesson we learned with Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe was that there was an opportunity for two separate games that each could embrace their roots without compromising the other. This resulted in us deciding that the next Mortal Kombat game would be a full reboot and aggressively embrace everything signature about Mortal Kombat. This included going back to a 2D fighting plane, retelling the story of the original trilogy, and going back to our classic Fatalities without restrictions.”
Five years after the release of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, Boon served as the director over the NetherRealm Studios and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment collaboration Injustice: Gods Among Us in 2013. The Mortal Kombat-esque fighting game, minus MK’s vaunted fatalities, featured a full roster of DC Comics’ superheroes and villains. The popularity of the video game venture led to 2017’s follow-up game Injustice 2 and 2021’s animated film Injustice. However, Warner Bros. has shown little interest in a straight-up crossover between DC and MK, according to writer Jeremy Adams.
Anyone who has played Diablo 4 since its beta launch in March will remember the days of running into a World Boss area with a small group of low-level players, only to get repeatedly wiped out and forced to return to town and repair our gear. Over time, as everyone leveled up their characters and entered the fight in larger groups, it turned into annihilating world bosses in seconds. However, Diablo 4’s Season of Blood changes this dynamic, with world boss buffs bringing everyone back to the days of struggling to defeat them.
The time between World Boss spawns has been reduced from 6 hours to 3.5 hours.
World Boss health and damage has been increased.
The quality of rewards received for defeating a World Boss has been significantly increased.
The warning that indicates when a World Boss will spawn now broadcasts an hour in advance versus 30 minutes previously. Players are also notified 15 minutes before a World Boss spawns.
World Bosses now become immune 2 seconds after beginning their escape.
As the second point mentions, this latest patch buffs world bosses, increasing their damage and health. These changes, combined with everyone starting from scratch with their seasonal characters and working to climb back up to max level, have the community struggling to inflict any meaningful damage, let alone defeating a boss, as highlighted in a recent Diablo 4 Reddit post.
In this post, several comments describe the pros and cons of these changes. As u/Question_Few initially mentions, while the buffs make it far more challenging to defeat a boss, they also force you to learn boss fighting habits and ways to counter them rather than tanking every attack.
Another reason world bosses are challenging lately is the natural progression of seasons and having to start from level one again. As posts from users like u/Erthan-1 and r/Zealousideal_Team981 highlight, many are not yet at level 35, the recommended level to even participate in the World Boss fight. While the previous season and eternal realm allowed us to get away with this, this patch’s buffs show the necessity to go in at the recommended, if not higher level, unless you have a powerful build, gear, and teammates to help you tackle the bosses.
Ultimately, this shift in World Boss difficulty in the early stages of Diablo 4’s second season allows us to be more attentive to our builds and strategies, including the newly added vampiric powers.
About the Author
Madison Benson
Madison is a staff writer at Prima Games who has played video games for over twenty years and written about them for over two years. Her love for video games started with turn-based strategy games like Heroes of Might and Magic and has since extended to casual farming sims, MMORPGs, and action-adventure RPGs.
Martin Scorseseese has been making movies for over half a century. From his first feature film, Who’s That Knocking at My Door, to his 60-second short film with the Bleu de Chanel fragrance campaign, Scorsese knows how to masterfully create an engaging narrative that keeps the story and the visuals interesting.
In a recent interview with Timothée Chalamet hosted by GQ, Scorsese breaks down that all of his projects, no matter if they are 60 seconds or three-and-a-half-long Western epics, are carefully crafted with a shot list that plays out the visuals Scorsese wants to capture in service of the narrative.
In the interview, Scorsese says, “The shots were designed, or at least the, I like to call it, like a philosophy of a shot. Should this be a moving shot at all? Or should it be static? And if it’s static, what the hell size are you [the character] in the frame?”
While shot listing is an essential part of the filmmaking process for most filmmakers, Scorsese takes the process very seriously and looks for the best shot that has the most potential to boast the visual narrative.
“Back when I started doing my first films, I would draw everything … I spent a lot of time doing that because, first of all, I like the idea of how to tell a story with pictures, right?” Scorsese says. “But it also, because it was so low-budget, I had to really have a plan so that it could be changed.”
It is amazing to know that Scorsese used to draw out the shot lists for each of his productions, sometimes including the shot list in the script for films like Goodfellas. To him, the shot list isn’t just creating a visual language but helps Scorsese find the pacing and purpose of each shot in the film.
There have only been a few times that Scorsese hasn’t used a shot list in a film, but the American auteur says he works better with a plan. With a plan, Scorsese can understand how each scene works in the larger narrative and what the focus of each shot needs to be to better serve the story.
“There’s a difference between memorizing and knowing it. As long as you know it. You know it, then you can start fooling around with stuff.
Scorsese’s attention to detail is unmatched. There is little to no fat in Scorsese’s films. Everything in his stories matters and deserves a particular shot to be in service of the story. Scorsese’s shot list seems to take a lot of time to put together, but the results show us that this careful planning and exercise in understanding the screenplay can lead to a great and tight direction on set.
While we have the technology to draw out our storyboards for us, I highly encourage directors to sit down and create a shot list that helps them understand what is needed from each shot of their film. Not only will this make you a stronger director on set, but it will give you the needed time during production to work out any knots in the story.
Is Taylor Swift, whose “Eras” concert movie just set the box office on fire, going to be in “Deadpool 3”? Producer Shawn Levy playfully ducked the question during an appearance on SiriusXM’s “The Jess Cagle Show.”
Levy remarked, “Oh my god, Jess. You really just went there,” when Cagle asked him directly, “What does Taylor Swift play in ‘Deadpool 3?’”
The producer understandably did not give a straight answer: “It pains me to be coy with you, Jess, given that we’ve known each other for over a decade.”
Levy, who is promoting his upcoming Netflix series “All the Light We Cannot See,” added, “I love the proliferation of casting rumors on the internet because I never have to say what’s real and what’s fantasy, so I’m just gonna go with the very cliché ‘no comment’ on all things casting in ‘Deadpool 3.’”
“Well, is there a better chance of Steve Martin appearing in ‘Deadpool 3’ or Taylor Swift?” asked co-host Julia Cunningham.
“Now that movie I definitely want to see,” quipped Levy. The closest he came to answering the question was to say, “I will say we’re lucky on this one… a lot of the internet rumors are completely false, but some of them aren’t.”
Cagle noted that Levy did not specifically deny the rumors that the singer/songwriter is in the movie: “By the way, now you’re just giving us hope. You’re dangling carrots.”
On Monday, Levy told TheWrap that he “wish he knew” whether the third film in the snarky superhero franchise would be released as scheduled on May 2024.
“I wish I knew. I don’t even know if we officially have [a release date]. I know we were gonna be May 3,” Levy said of the sequel, which stars Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine.
“Certainly, the actors’ strike and the long pause in production have put that release date in true risk. We’ve shot half the movie. I’ve edited half the movie. We’re dying to get back to work and get this movie out next year.”
Watch video of the SiriusXM segment at the top of this post.
The best way to scare the studios this Halloween? Avoid dressing up as characters from struck series and movies.
As striking actors enter spooky season, SAG-AFTRA released guidelines for members looking to “celebrate Halloween this year while also staying in solidarity” with the strike. That means union members can hang up their “Oppenheimer” porkpie hats and put away their “Barbie” pink.
“Choose costumes inspired by generalized characters and figures (ghost, zombie, spider, etc.),” the actors union recommended in a website post on Wednesday.
The guild also suggests actors “don’t post photos of costumes inspired by struck content to social media,” as to not give the studios any additional publicity. As SAG-AFTRA fights for a better contract with the AMPTP, striking actors are prohibited from doing press for struck shows and films.
The post encourages members to “dress up as characters from non-struck content, like an animated TV show.”
Projects under an interim agreement with SAG-AFTRA are also presumably in bounds, which means members can safely dress up as the Jacob Elordi Elvis (from A24’s strike-proof “Priscilla”) but not Austin Butler’s King of Rock n’ Roll from Warner Bros.’ movie. Carmy from “The Bear” is off limits, but don’t fret — there’s still time to bulk up and trick or treat as Jeremy Allen White from A24’s upcoming wrestling pic “The Iron Claw.”
After talks between the guild negotiators and studio bosses fell apart last week, SAG-AFTRA concluded its post with a motivational message: “Let’s use our collective power to send a loud and clear message to our struck employers that we will not promote their content without a fair contract!”
With network, cable and streaming, the modern television landscape is a vast one. Here are some of the shows, specials and movies coming to TV this week, Oct. 16-Oct. 22. Details and times are subject to change.
Monday
THE AMERICAN BUFFALO 8 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). Ken Burns is back with another documentary — this time, it’s a two-part series on buffaloes and their evolution, reaching back to the early 1800s. Stories from Indigenous people frame the film with accounts of the mutually beneficial relationship their communities had with the animals.
FBOY ISLAND 8 p.m. on The CW. Katie Thurston might not have found love during her stint as “The Bachelorette,” but she’ll get another shot on this new reality series. Thurston will be joined by the model Hali Okeowo, and the influencer Daniella Grace as they date 25 men — some of whom are nice guys. It is not entirely clear how someone wins the cash prize on this show (which asks the eternal question: Is it better to be a nice guy or the wilder kind?), but there is no doubt that it’ll be as messy as a car crash you cannot look away from.
NAVAJO POLICE: CLASS 57 9 p.m. on HBO. Though being a recruit for the Navajo Nation Police Department doesn’t seem like it would be too different than trying to make the cut in any other department, these law enforcement hopefuls have to contend with rising crime levels and the particular threats that their communities face. This three-part docu-series follows the candidates as they work their way through the Navajo Police Training Academy in Arizona.
Wednesday
THE CHALLENGE: BATTLE FOR A NEW CHAMPION 8 p.m. on MTV. Like the original version of the show, this special iteration features a group of reality stars who all formerly appeared on other shows, including “Love Island,” “Big Brother” and “Are You the One?” The twist here is that the contestants not only will be pitted against one another, but they will also compete with a rotating group of former champions of the show in physical challenges for a cash prize and the title.
Thursday
POLTERGEIST (1982) 10 p.m. on AMC. It’s all fun and games when ghosts commune with a Southern California-based family through their television set — until the spirits turn menacing. This story follows Steve (Craig T. Nelson) and Diane (JoBeth Williams) as they consult with a parapsychologist and an exorcist after their daughter Carol Anne (Heather O’Rourke) goes missing amid spooky and creepy happenings around their house.
Friday
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES (2016) 9:45 p.m. on Syfy. Though in my head Mr. Darcy will always be tall, dark and handsome (see Colin Firth or Matthew Macfadyen in the role) and silently brooding in various corners — if you love all things supernatural, maybe you would prefer a Mr. Darcy who, along with his other attributes, is an exceptionally skilled zombie-slayer. The title of this movie really says it all: The unmarried Bennet sisters seek out eligible bachelors while simultaneously trying to stay safe amid a growing zombie population. While Elizabeth Bennet is attracted to Mr. Darcy in the Jane Austen book because of his love for her, in this film, she is drawn to his zombie-killing skills.
THE UNINVITED (1944) 11:45 p.m. on TCM. This film, staring Ray Milland (Rick) and Ruth Hussey (Pamela), is a classic ghost story. Rick and his sister Pamela decide to buy an abandoned 18th-century house. The owner associates the house with the death of his daughter and sells it over his granddaughter’s objections. Once Rick and Pamela move in, they have to contend with some not-so-happy ghosts. It is “as solemnly intent on raising goose flesh as any ghost story weirdly told to a group of shivering youngsters around a campfire on a dark and windy night,” Bosley Crowther wrote in his review for The New York Times. “All of the old standbys are in it — flickering candles, the slowly opening door, supernatural agitations and a scent of mimosa now and then.”
Saturday
HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA (2012) 7:15 p.m. on Freeform. If two nights straight of scary movies has your fight-or-flight response working overtime, this cute, animated take on a spooky movie could give your nervous system a break. Count Dracula (Adam Sandler) owns a hotel where monsters go when they want to relax. On this particular weekend, Dracula plans a party to celebrate the 118th birthday of his daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez). Things go awry when a human (Andy Samberg) accidentally crashes the party and subsequently falls in love with Mavis, who is a vampire.
Sunday
AKA MR. CHOW 9 p.m. on HBO. It’s impossible to deny that Michael Chow has had an interesting life: born in Shanghai, Chow moved to London, where he opened a Chinese restaurant with Italian waiters that catered to British diners. His restaurant, Mr. Chow, now has locations in New York, Miami, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. This documentary film focuses on his life and his recently revealed other identity as an artist who goes by the name “M.”
Penske Media Corp. has promoted George Grobar to the role of company President, effective immediately. Grobar, who has been at PMC for 14 years, previously served as Chief Operating Officer with oversight of the company’s operating units and many of the corporate departments. He most recently led the integration of The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard into PMC and oversaw a portfolio of PMC’s music and entertainment brands, in addition to corporate planning functions.
As President, he will expand his scope with oversight of the entire PMC brand portfolio which includes 26 business units (brands) and counting. Grobar will continue to have a seat on PMC’s board of directors. He reports directly to Jay Penske, Chairman, Founder and CEO of PMC.
“George has been instrumental in making PMC the company it is today,” said Penske. “His consistent partnership and deep understanding of our business have been invaluable to our continued growth and success over the years. We are thrilled to recognize George’s leadership, loyalty and unwavering commitment to the team and our brands.”
Grobar joined PMC as Chief Financial Officer in 2009 and built the company’s financial planning infrastructure, helped lead many acquisitions, built a PMC joint venture operation in India, and worked with the company’s growing portfolio of operating units. Grobar’s promotion coincides with Penske Media’s significant growth and expansion over the last three years.
Prior to joining PMC, Grobar spent 13 years at The Walt Disney Company, including launching a new strategic business from the ground up, SVP of Disney Mobile. Before moving to Disney Mobile, Grobar held several senior positions including VP of Disney Ecommerce, VP and CFO for Disney Direct Marketing and Walt Disney Art Classics, and the Director of Business Operations & Control for Disney Consumer Products. Prior to Disney, Grobar was with Unisys for 8 years.
“I feel incredibly proud when I look back at how far we have come in the last 14 years, and even more excited about what the next 14 will hold,” said Grobar. Working alongside a visionary and great operator like Jay Penske has been the opportunity of a lifetime. It feels like we are just getting started and I can’t wait for what’s next.”
In her highly anticipated memoir, The Woman in Me, Britney Spears has confirmed long-standing rumors that Justin Timberlake ended their three-year relationship with a text message in 2002. The Princess of Pop opened up about the heart-wrenching experience, revealing that she was devastated by Timberlake’s sudden digital breakup.
“I was comatose in Louisiana, and he was happily running around Hollywood,” Spears wrote in her memoir, according to the New York Times. The emotional toll of the breakup left her reeling, and she says she even contemplated leaving the music industry altogether.
Spears also used her memoir to address how the media portrayed her as a “harlot who’d broken the heart of America’s golden boy” after Timberlake insinuated in his Cry Me a River music video that she had been unfaithful. In a surprising revelation, the Toxic singer admitted to her own infidelity, acknowledging that she had “made out with” dancer Wade Robson one night at a bar.
Frank Micelotta/ImageDirect
This bombshell admission also corroborates earlier claims made by the director of Spears’ “Overprotected (The Darkchild Remix)” music video, Chris Applebaum. He recounted on Instagram that Timberlake had indeed broken up with Spears via text during the filming of the video, adding that he encouraged her to show Timberlake he had made a colossal mistake.
In a tell-all that offers a candid look into her tumultuous relationship with Timberlake, Spears, now 41, disclosed that the breakup was not without its complexities. While she does not name Timberlake’s other romantic interest, she alleges that he had also cheated during their relationship. The two former Mouseketeers began dating in early 1999 but faced a crossroads in their romance nearly two years later.
Another deeply personal revelation in the memoir is Spears’ account of a challenging moment in her life. She disclosed that she had an abortion in late 2000 after a “surprise” pregnancy, a decision that Timberlake was reportedly not pleased with. “He said we weren’t ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young,” Spears wrote in her book.
Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage
“I’m sure people will hate me for this, but I agreed not to have the baby. I don’t know if that was the right decision,” Spears added. “If it had been left up to me alone, I never would have done it.” Timberlake has not publicly responded to any of Britney’s revelations.
“Justin has been focusing on his own family and trying not to concern himself with Britney’s memoir,” a source previously told ET. “In recent years, Justin has tried to be supportive of Britney from a distance. They dated so long ago, but he still has respect for her. Justin and Jessica just want everyone to grow and evolve instead of continuing to bring up the past.”
Timberlake went on to marry Jessica Biel. Together, they share sons Silas, 8, and Phineas, 3. Spears and ex-husband Kevin Federline are parents to sons Sean Preston, 18, and Jaden James, 17.
Crank up the witch house and start peeling those grapes for the eyeball bowl, because the spookiest month of the year is once again upon us! All roads lead to Halloween in the month of October, including the zombie-prowling highways and byways of Film Independent Fiscal Sponsorship.
Of course, horror and short films go together like peanut butter and mini Reese’s cups, which is why were turning this month’s #FiSpo column over to three concise, high-concept chillers that are sure to send a shiver down your spine—and perhaps bring up a salient social point or two, as horror so often does.
As always, these films are being supported by Film Independent’s Fiscal Sponsorship program, enabling filmmakers to solicit tax-deductible donations and organizational grants in partnership with Film Independent. Here’s how:
This month’s Fiscal Spotlight projects are The Flacalta Effect, Hive and Burnout. Learn more about each project—and possibly lend them your support—below:
THE FLACALTA EFFECT
Project type: Fiction Short
Project status: Production
Writer/Director: Rochée Jeffrey
Producers: Ebony Elaine Hardin
About the project: When a beauty enhancement drug causes a zombie apocalypse in LA, Keesha and Toya debate whether or not they should fight to survive in a world that doesn’t appreciate or respect Black women. Keesha and Toya are Black women and sisters whose house is being infiltrated by the undead. Keesha and Toya couldn’t be more different. Keesha’s hardened to the world because of everything she’s experienced as a Black woman in America and has no desire to fight to escape. Toya, an open-hearted optimist, believes that if they survive this zombie attack, maybe they can live to see a better world. After an intense debate, Keesha is guilted into following Toya’s plan. All they have to do is kill a couple zombies, not murder each other in the process and maybe they’ll survive… Maybe.
Meet the filmmaker: To learn more about The Flacalta Effect including how to support the project, click here. Filmmaker Rochée Jeffrey is a writer/director who hails from Jamaica. Her credits include Golden Globe-nominated comedy series SMILF (Showtime), Woke (Hulu), Bigger (BET+), and co-executive producer of grown-ish (freeform). As a Film Independent Project Involve Fellow, she wrote the award-winning, Oscar-qualifying short film Suitable, which was a finalist in the American Black Film Festival HBO Competition and premiered on HBO in February 2018. In 2018, she was selected for the Viacom Emerging Directors Program. Her feature, Not Your Average Queen, was selected for the 2021 Film Independent Screenwriting Lab and the 2021 WIF/Sundance Financing Intensive.
HIVE
Project type: Fiction Short
Project status: Development
Writer/Director/Producer: Russell Goldman
Producers: Michael Fry, Wendy Wang
About the project:Hive is a real-time, visceral horror short film following scrupulous teenager Sasha, who loses the young girl she’s babysitting, Val, at an idyllic playground. Amid her frantic search for the young girl as the sun sets, Sasha realizes all of the children in the playground are alone–their parents are all missing. Sasha soon unearths an insidious entity hidden among the children which is snatching away the parents and mind-controlling the children at this dreamy playground-turned-nightmare. Sasha must confront the insectoid creature burrowed within the playground’s tube slide to rescue Val, or risk losing her to a soul-crushing hivemind.
Meet the filmmaker: To learn more about Hive including how to support the project, click here. Filmmaker Felipe Vargas is a Colombian-American Writer and Director. He is attached to helm Lionsgate’s horror-comedy reboot of Leprechaun and is directing his debut feature, Rosario, in Colombia this Fall. Felipe is also developing a horror feature for Paramount Pictures. As a writer, he is the Pilot Writer and Co-EP of the fantasy series Lotería produced by Norman Lear, Sony and Amazon. Recently, Felipe directed a Film Independent Project Involveshort film. Felipe’s films Milk Teeth and The Guide garnered over 13 million views on YouTube and screened at several Academy Award qualifying festivals. He has been named one of Variety’s “Latino Creators to Watch.”
BURNOUT
Project type: Fiction Short
Project status: Development
Writer/Director/Producer: Russell Goldman
Producers: Michael Fry, Wendy Wang
About the project: An ambitious assistant at a major sports management firm will do whatever it takes to win the approval of his nefarious boss… starting with setting himself on fire. The short follows Virgil Warren, once a star linebacker for the San Jose Bulldogs until an ill-timed tackle led to a debilitating, life-changing concussion. Today, Virgil is the assistant to Gower Birch, a larger-than-life sports manager and the head of Merriweather Sports Management. We meet him in the office hours before work starts, pushing through exhaustion as he finalizes each page of his proposal. On a smoke break he turns from the window to see electrical sparks climbing up his computer wires: his desktop is going to catch fire! He rushes over and attempts to upload the presentation to his server. Fighting the searing heat, he saves his file in the cloud but in the process his ear catches fire. Later, Virgil watches Gower read his presentation, shaking from the excruciating pain he’s trying to hide. Then, Virgil’s left ear snaps off, falling to his feet. Blood squirts out of his ear socket. Gower is stunned. Virgil tries to play it off, like it’s no big deal… and then the weird stuff starts happening. Burnout seeks to create and unforgettable short experience, full of provocative, strange, original imagery, but always foregrounded by an achingly relatable character.
Meet the filmmaker: To learn more about Burnout including how to support the project, click here. Filmmaker Russell Goldman is a filmmaker from Virginia. He is the screenwriter of the upcoming Blumhouse feature Mother Nature, based on the forthcoming graphic novel he created with his Comet Pictures boss and producing partner Jamie Lee Curtis. His body of short film work including Return to Sender has appeared in over 50 film festivals around the world, including Fantastic Fest, Frameline, Cinequest, Flickers’, LA Shorts and the opening night of HollyShorts.
Learn more about Fiscal Sponsorship, including its benefits and eligibility requirements, by visiting our website. Check out our Sponsored Projects page to see the projects are currently being supported.
Celebrating 30 years, Film Independent Artist Development promotes unique independent voices by helping filmmakers create and advance new work. Become a Member of Film Independent today. Support us with a donation here.
There are growing concerns about an increase in Islamophobia and antisemitism in Canada amid the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Muslim and Jewish community groups told Global News that incidents of verbal abuse, vandalism, hate and intimidation targeting Canadians across the country have spiked since Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel and Tel Aviv has responded with retaliatory strikes on Gaza.
Many Canadians who have families and friends in the region are mourning the loss of loved ones, with deaths tolls in Israel at 1,400 and in Gaza at roughly 3,000, according to local authorities. At the same time, others say they are reeling from hateful rhetoric experienced here as the conflict rages on.
Special envoys to help combat antisemitism, Islamophobia amid rising hate crimes
The National Council of Canadian Muslims said the last few days “have been the worst” in decades in terms of Islamophobia reported to the organization.
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“We’ve seen an increase of 1,000 per cent of actual incidents of Islamophobia that have come in from across the country,” said Uthman Quick, director of communications at the National Council of Canadian Muslims.
From verbal abuse, racist language hurled at children and hijab-wearing women to intimidation from employers and fellow employees in the workplace, the Muslim community is suffering from a “huge tidal wave of Islamophobia,” he added.
In one such instance in London, Ont., Quick said an apartment building, where many Muslim families live, was vandalized, with the words “Kill All Muslims” written on multiple floors.
London Police Service confirmed to Global News in an emailed statement that they were “actively investigating” this incident and the graffiti has since been removed.
Hate crime unit investigating after incident at Toronto Jewish school
The Jewish community in Canada is also concerned about its safety.
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Michael Mostyn, chief executive officer of B’nai Brith Canada, a Jewish advocacy and rights organization, said they have observed a “great threat assessment increase” against the community in recent days, with incitement at university campuses, on the streets and genocidal slogans targeting Jews at rallies.
“We have seen a lot of increase of hate targeting our community, places of worship, synagogues, schools,” he told Global News in an interview.
“This needs to stop. This cannot be allowed to continue in this country because that’s how people eventually get hurt.”
Last week on Oct. 12, Toronto police arrested and charged two teenaged boys and a 20-year-old man after they made threats at a Jewish high school. Toronto Police Service said they were investigating the incident as a possible hate crime.
“What we see, unfortunately, is that there are certain Canadians who are supporting the actions and justifying the actions of Hamas terrorism and taking out their own frustrations and hate on individual Jews,” said Mostyn.
Israel-Hamas crisis: Muslim, Jewish communities across Canada on edge
Even before the conflict started, there were growing concerns about antisemitism and Islamophobia in Canada.
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In its annual report published in April, B’nai Brith Canada said there were 2,769 antisemitic incidents in 2022, a slight decrease from the all-time peak in 2021.
Mostyn said much of the violence in 2021 was linked to another Israel-Hamas conflict that year, but it remains to be seen how big of an impact current violence will have, he added.
Data from Statistics Canada released in July 2023, showed that 502 hate crimes targeting Jews were reported to police last year, an increase of two per cent from 2021. StatCan also reported 108 incidents of hate crime against Muslims in 2022, a 24 per cent decrease from 2021.
Quick of NCCM said he suspects “hundreds and possibly thousands” of incidents go unreported and urged Canadians to notify police.
“It’s really, really important that people who are suffering any form of Islamophobia or antisemitism or any other forms of racism reach out and report these incidents as soon as they happen.”
Islamic centres and mosques in the country have been on “high alert” since Oct. 7, said Dalia Mohamed, representative of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) in Canada.
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At ISNA centres, Mohammed said they have increased security and made sure there is a police presence at large congregations on Fridays.
“I think people are watching this with grave concern both for the loss of life overseas, but also for the impact that it has on our communities here in Canada,” she told Global News in an interview.
Days after the Hamas attack, Toronto police said they increased patrols in Jewish communities, along with cultural centres, synagogues, mosques and other places of worship across the city.
Anti-Muslim hate crime investigations ongoing in Edmonton
Ottawa Police Service also beefed up its presence in areas of cultural and religious significance last week and in an updated statement Thursday said this “will remain in place during these uncertain times.”
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“Our intelligence and investigative units continue to work with federal and provincial police and security partners to monitor the ongoing situation,” the statement said.
“The increased number of hate crimes, and hate-motivated incidents, are concerning,” it added.
As the tensions escalate, Mohamed said increased security is helpful, but it’s just a “Band-Aid solution.”
She said better education is needed to combat the larger community problems around Islamophobia that Canada faces and the government has a key role to play.
“I think the government’s rhetoric is important, especially at times like these, condemning Islamophobia in all of its forms, condemning anti-Arab hatred in all its forms, ensuring that people don’t dehumanize Muslims in the process,” she said.
Toronto-area realtor has business suspended after social media post appears to mock airstrikes in Gaza
During question period in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Kamal Khera, minister of diversity, inclusion and persons with disabilities, said that special envoys for antisemitism and Islamophobia, Deborah Lyons and Amira Elghawaby, respectively, will work together to support communities.
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Mostyn said university campuses also have an obligation to ensure that all members of their communities feel safe.
He said there are community supports available, such as B’nai Brith’s online app, to assist victims of hate and antisemitism.
NCCM also helps Muslims seeking legal advice, advocacy, or representation in school boards, said Quick.
The 36-year-old Dutch man confessed to the murder as part of an extortion trial related to the crime. In a taped confession on Oct. 3, van der Sloot recalled the night of Holloway’s disappearance and death on May 30, 2005, from the moment he and Holloway exited an Aruba nightclub with two other men, brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe.
Van der Sloot said Holloway, then 18, asked to be dropped off at her hotel, but he told the Kalpoes to drop them off further away so he and Holloway could walk along the beach and he “might still get a chance to be with her.”
He recalled that he and Holloway laid down on the beach, “and we start kissing each other.”
“I start feeling her up… and she tells me no,” he continued. “She tells me she doesn’t want me to feel her up. I insist. I keep feeling her up either way.”
Holloway then tried to stop the assault by kneeing van der Sloot in the crotch. In response, he said, “I get up on the beach and I kick her extremely hard in the face.”
“She’s laying down, unconscious, possibly even dead, but definitely unconscious,” he recalled. “I see right next to her there’s a huge cinderblock laying on the beach. I take this and I smash her head in with it completely. Her face basically collapses in. Even though it’s dark, I can see her face is collapsed in.”
“Afterwards I don’t exactly know what, you know — I’m scared. I don’t know what to do,” van der Sloot continued. “I decide to take her and put her into the ocean. So I grab her and I half pull, half walk with her into the ocean. I push her off. I walk up to about my knees into the ocean and I push her off into the sea. After that, I get out. I walk home.”
Holloway’s remains have never been discovered.
Holloway’s parents, Beth and Dave, both gave victim impact statements as part of the trial — in which van der Sloot pleaded guilty to extortion and wire fraud charges. He was extradited to the U.S. earlier this year following 2010 charges that allege he tried to extort Beth in exchange for information about her missing daughter’s remains.
Both parents said they believe van der Sloot’s confession, and that he acted alone, adding that his statements have been “verified by a comprehensive and conclusive polygraph test.”
“Despite everything he has done to us, he is not sorry for what he did,” Dave wrote in his statement. “He expresses no remorse, regret, or even compassion for committing the horrific crime that violently ended Natalee’s life and irreparably changed the trajectory of all of ours. He is evil personified.”
Lawmakers on Wednesday pressed Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on the company’s plans to prevent the spread of misinformation ahead of the 2024 election, citing a Washington Post report that the company’s voice assistant Alexa spread false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the Senate Rules and Administration Committee chair, and Rep. Joseph Morelle, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, asked Bezos in a letter to explain what steps have been taken to improve the accuracy of Alexa’s responses. The Minnesota and New York Democrats also pressed Bezos on how the company is vetting responses that cite Alexa users as source material — especially when the inquiries are related to elections.
“This spreading of election-related misinformation and disinformation is particularly troubling given the emerging use of artificial intelligence to mislead voters,” the lawmakers wrote.
Bezos, the company’s former CEO, owns The Washington Post. The Post’s interim CEO Patty Stonesifer sits on Amazon’s board.
After years of concern about the spread of voting-related falsehoods on social media, members of Congress are turning their attention to the threat of AI, which could supercharge online misinformation. Much of the debate has focused on the ways AI could be used to manipulate photos, videos and audio recordings, but the Alexa responses underscore how voice assistants and chatbots that draw responses from unvetted sources could also be a potent vector.
When asked whether the 2020 election was stolen, the popular voice assistant said there was “a massive amount of election fraud,” citing Rumble, a video-streaming service favored by conservatives, The Post found. The voice assistant also falsely claimed that Trump won Pennsylvania in 2020, and that the races were “notorious” for “indications pointing to electoral fraud taking place in major metro centers.”
Amazon declined to comment on the letter. The company previously told The Post that the responses were “errors” that were quickly fixed. But in the days after those changes, The Post and readers reported that Alexa still made false claims about the 2020 elections when the questions were asked in slightly different ways.
Shortly after The Post’s reporting published, Amazon spokeswoman Lauren Raemhild sent an advisory to employees, saying the report was based on “three bad responses,” according to an email viewed by The Post. Raemhild said the company’s Alexa information team worked with its support team to investigate and block the bad responses.
The lawmakers warned Bezos that the company needs to act expediently and asked for a response by Nov. 3.
“With some ballots for the 2024 election being sent out as early as this December, it is important that proactive measures are promptly taken so that voters can trust the information that is provided to them,” the lawmakers wrote.
Podcasts are now having world premieres at film festivals, shared Nick Elliot, associate director of content marketing at Audible, in conversation at Variety Studio presented by Canva at Advertising Week.
While speaking to his colleague Susan Jurevics, chief brand and international officer at Audible, Elliot shared the story of how the podcast series “The Space Within,” featuring an all-star cast including Jessica Chastain, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.
“We had an incredible cast, we had incredible writers. And so we decided to put on a truly unique, first-of-its-kind audio experience,” he shared.
In their discussion, Elliot emphasized that Audible is “working with major Hollywood actors who are genuinely excited about being able to record something without a massive set that they need to navigate.”
He continued, “It’s just them in the microphone. And it’s sort of a private personal experience.”
Audible is also focused on expanding their global presence and representing international voices.
One of their recent global campaigns involves bringing popular German author Sebastian Fitzek to an American audience.
Jurevics shared a story about the lengths the team has gone to in order to bring his work to new listeners and make him feel welcomed: “We decided when Sebastian was coming into town that we would outfit our entire lobby, including the billboard [outside the Newark office], with his work…And so he came in and was completely overwhelmed,” she said.
Elliot continued, “What’s so core to that relationship we built with him is we brought him into the fold. We wanted to know: ‘You’ve been doing this for 20 years, what worked? What are your goals here in the States?’ And we really engaged him and our German marketplace early and often to figure out what have they done.”
Advancing technology has also played a significant role for Audible lately. Around one year ago, Jurevics shared, Audible launched a new French business model.
“We launched with about 40 different titles in binaural audio. This is really before Dolby started to take off,” Jurevics said.
She continued, “And now about a year later, I’m looking at how much amazing content is coming out of Dolby. It’s like a soundscape in your head. It’s very immersive. It’s surround sound, it’s distinction across sound, not just things like music scores or needle drop — but truly innovation in sound engineering. It’s pretty amazing.”
Looking ahead to 2024, Jurevics said, “We’re working on a lot of geographic expansion for Audible and ensuring that listeners all around the world can be elevating everyday moments through audio storytelling.”
Elliot and Jurevics concluded by emphasizing that they will continue to listen to what their customers are looking for and keep creating alongside the artists they work with.
As POPSUGAR editors, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you’ll like too. If you buy a product we have recommended, we may receive affiliate commission, which in turn supports our work.
Taylor Swift is promoting her live recording of “Cruel Summer” from the Eras tour in a look that’s quintessentially on-brand. Sporting Reformation’s blue-and-white floral Peach dress, round Stella McCartney sunglasses, a delicate gold chain, and her signature red lip, the 33-year-old musician has sent fans racing for her outfit yet again. It may be fall, but the Swift effect would have it that even a breezy, lightweight picnic dress with spaghetti straps and shoulder ties still feels like a must-have. While the exact silhouette is sold out, the Marie print is still available on a number of other designs, including the Nira — replete with a smocked bodice and tiered skirt — and the Lacey, which has pouf sleeves, a charming sweetheart neckline, and a leg slit. It’s only a matter of time until those styles have been shopped out, too.
Swift, whose wardrobe is curated by Joseph Cassell Falconer, sports her signature wispy blonde bangs and a sparkling blue manicure as she lounges on a blanket in the grass in the promo pic. While the romantic ensemble is a far cry from the dark, edgy, and slightly sporty looks she’s been wearing out with new beau Travis Kelce, and wouldn’t hold a candle to her dramatically appliquéd stage costumes, it does fit the vibe of the track at hand. In “Cruel Summer,” Swift belts out, “It’s blue, the feeling I’ve got,” perhaps speaking to the shade of her frock. After all, it’s a color she references repeatedly in her lyrics and also happens to be the exact same hue as boyfriend Kelce’s “1989” Bedroom Painting coord set from KidSuper. As we all know, Swift’s outfits are rarely a coincidence and usually spark a narrative for her fans to research.
Ahead, shop her exact Reformation pattern, along with similar dresses at an affordable price point.
Always a quick worker, Scorsese establishes the time and place with seamless efficiency. Ernest has come to Oklahoma to work with his uncle, William Hale (a terrific Robert De Niro), a well-to-do, glad-handing cattle rancher who lives with his small family in a large, gloomy house surrounded by prairie. Known as “the King of the Osage Hills,” Hale welcomes Ernest into the fold with amused prurience: He asks if Ernest brought anything back from the war, a.k.a. the clap (no), and if he likes women (yes). Hale also delivers a brief lesson on the Osage, who in recent decades have become enormously wealthy from their oil strikes. They are, Hale says, “the finest, the wealthiest and most beautiful people on God’s earth.”
Ernest tethers you to the story and its early buzz and confusion, and you discover this new world and its people largely through him. He soon sets himself up as a chauffeur-for-hire in Fairfax, a boomtown that’s still shaking off the dust of the 19th century. There, Scorsese makes an entire social order come alive — he has an ethnographer’s eye — as roadsters race past horses and buggies on the main dirt strip, and a white salesman on bended knee implores a Native family to buy another luxury automobile. It’s amid this tumult that Ernest meets Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone, wonderful), an Osage woman with watchful eyes and a colorful blanket that she drapes over her shoulders like a royal mantle. They flirt, and soon wed.
Ernest and Mollie’s courtship develops with graceful naturalism — the two actors make immediate sense together — and their relationship grounds the story emotionally. Now 48, DiCaprio is about twice as old as the real Ernest was at the time, and age has made his face more yielding and eloquent. Ernest looks like he’s been beaten up by life (the war presumably took a toll, too), and when you first see him, a large frown is tugging his face downward, giving him a sour, dyspeptic look that only really lifts when his and Mollie’s romance takes flight. Sometime later, you realize that his uncle has the exact same frown, although Hale, who presents himself as a welcoming man of the people, is careful about who sees his displeasure.
The movie is based on David Grann’s 2017 book “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the F.B.I.,” a nonfiction account of how, in the early 20th century, greedy whites preyed on the newly oil-rich tribe. The book is informative, stark and relentlessly grim; the depravity of some of the crimes can be shocking. In adapting it, Scorsese and Roth have more or less jettisoned the second half of Grann’s subtitle: There’s little in the movie about the Federal Bureau of Investigation, its foundational years or its newly appointed young director, J. Edgar Hoover. (The story may horrify you, but it’s hard not to laugh when DiCaprio meets his first fed — portrayed by the reliably good Jesse Plemons — given that DiCaprio played Hoover in “J. Edgar.”)
Not everybody loves Kanye West, like Kanye loves Kanye — not even ex-girlfriend Julia Fox.
The “Uncut Gems” breakout star revisited her whirlwind romance with the controversial rapper in an interview for the “Drew Barrymore Show” that aired Wednesday. After more than a year since their split, Fox said the short-lived relationship was “so unsustainable.”
“I only could do it for so long, ‘cause ultimately I think he needed a full-time person and I just couldn’t be full-time,” said the “Down the Drain” author, who shares 2-year-old-son with ex-husband Peter Artemiev.
Fox and Ye, who faced public scrutiny for his numerous antisemitic outbursts last year, first spurred dating rumors at the beginning of 2022. Paparazzi often caught the unlikely couple walking in New York City, sometimes in matching outfits.
Fox, 33, told Drew Barrymore that she thought her relationship with Ye “would be a secret.” In 2022, all eyes were on Ye, 46, as he and ex-wife Kim Kardashian were in the process of divorcing.
Kardashian was already dating “Saturday Night Live” alum Pete Davidson by the time Fox and Ye began their relationship.
Fox told Barrymore she ultimately “just embraced” her relationship’s public status, and agreed to “do what [Ye] says.” She also said in the Wednesday interview that the rapper would “want to talk on the phone a lot.”
The actor, who released her memoir last month, said her priority was her son and that the relationship with Ye “just became too much.”
She added: “I didn’t sign up to have two babies — I couldn’t do it. It felt like two babies.”
In February 2022, Fox confirmed that her romance with Ye came to an end. In a since-expired post on her Instagram Stories, the actor said she and the rapper “are on good terms.”
Elsewhere during her interview, Fox revealed that she has “sworn off men,” and said she does not want to “talk down” on Ye or their relationship. Fox also said that she thinks Ye is a “genius,” but also “very tortured.”
In “Down the Drain,” Fox goes into more details about dating West, from initially thinking it “could be something real,” to how the affair impacted her image. To her, the relationship “really wasn’t that big of a deal, but other people made it such a big deal.”
If you’re a Disney Visa Card Member and a Marvel fan, then here is some fun news for you!
Disney Visa has released Marvel Superhero designs!
Photo: DisneyRewards.com
Switching up your card design is part of the fun of Disney Rewards.
Photo: DisneyRewards.com
It’s free and easy to change your Disney Visa Credit Card design at any time. Premier Cardmembers get an exclusive metal card when choosing the Disney100 design.
Photo: DisneyRewards.com
No matter which card design you choose, you can earn Disney Rewards Dollars on every purchase. One Disney Rewards Dollar is equal to a $1 value when redeeming toward Disney products and offerings at most Disney locations in the U.S.
1. Merchandise Savings at Disney Store 10% Off Restrictions: Valid on select, in-stock merchandise purchased at Disney store and outlet locations in the U.S., and at shopDisney.com (online or via phone orders). Not valid on purchases made at Disney Parks and Resorts locations or on Disney store merchandise purchased from other retailers or using third party websites. Must use your valid Disney Visa Card and/or Disney Rewards Redemption Card as the form(s) of payment at the time of purchase for full amount of purchase and mention this offer in store or use promo code DRVCMEMBER online. Offer excludes sales tax, shipping & handling charges, gift wrap & gift box charges, personalization charges, Disney Theme Park Tickets, Disney Gift Cards, The Walt Disney Company Collectible Shareholder Certificate, subscription products, art & collectibles, books, electronic toys, limited edition, special edition & limited release merchandise, talking action figures, items related to a charitable promotion, and items from the following brands and collections: Afridrille Shoes, ALEX AND ANI®, Barefoot Dreams, BaubleBar, Bulova, Citizen, COACH, CRISLU, Cubcoats, Disney Designer Jewelry Collection, Disney Fairy Tale Wedding Rings, Disney Parks Designer Collection, Disney Vacation Club®, Disney+ Special Access items, Enesco, Garmin, Harveys, Jim Shore, kate spade, LEGO, Lilly Pulitzer, Loungefly, MagicBand, Make-A-Wish Collection, Marvel Legends Series, Master of Arts, Mickey Mouse: The Main Attraction Collection, Minnie Mouse: The Main Attraction Collection, Milk Snob, select National Geographic merchandise, Native Shoes, Nike, Nixon, Olszewski, OtterBox Electronics, Pandora Jewelry, Petunia Pickle Bottom, Pura Vida, Rebecca Hook, RockLove, Royal Selangor, Sideshow Collectibles, select Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge merchandise, Star Wars: The Black Series, select Star Wars: The Mandalorian merchandise, Steiff, Stoney Clover Lane, Terez, Thomas Kinkade, Tommy Bahama, Tommy Hilfiger, Tron: Back to the Arcade Collection, Tron Thrill of the Race, Vans, Vera Bradley and Vinylmation. Additional exclusions may apply. Visit shopDisney.com/DRVCPerkDetails for the most current list of exclusions and any updates to these offer terms. Offer cannot be combined with any other offer or discount except available shipping offers. Offer will only be applied if a valid promotion code is entered at checkout. No adjustments to prior purchases. Valid packing slip or receipt required for returns or exchanges, which will be subject to discount taken at the time of purchase. Offer subject to restrictions and to change without notice. Promotion may not be redeemed for cash, sold, or altered. Internet distribution is strictly prohibited. Use of offer or Promotion Code DRVCMEMBER constitutes acceptance of these offer terms. Void where prohibited. Chase is not responsible or liable for fulfillment of this offer. 2. Savings on Marvel Unlimited Offer valid 9/26/23 to 9/30/24 on annual memberships only. First year billed at a one-time payment of $55.00; subsequent years will be automatically billed annually to the payment card on file at the then-current annual subscription fee (currently $69 per year) unless and until cancelled. Offer is open to new and former (now-cancelled) Marvel Unlimited members. Must use your valid Disney Visa Card as the form of payment at the time of purchase for full amount of purchase and use promo code DRVCMEMBER online. Subscribers can cancel their subscription at any time by accessing My Account or reaching out to Marvel Customer Support at help.marvel.com. All subscription fees are nonrefundable. No refunds or credits for partial months or years. Auto-renewal and other terms and conditions apply. Please see the Marvel.com/MarvelUnlimitedAgreement and the Marvel.com/MarvelUnlimitedPlusTerms for more details. 3. Disney Rewards Dollars Disney Rewards Dollars are subject to the Disney Rewards Dollars Terms and Conditions for Disney Visa Credit Cards available at DisneyRewards.com/Terms. 4. Statement Credit for a Disney Bundle for Disney Premier Visa Card Earn $14.99 per month for up to 3 consecutive months (up to $44.97 total) in statement credits on qualifying subscription payments of $14.99 or more per month when you make a qualifying purchase with your Disney Premier Visa Card at DisneyPlus.com, Hulu.com, or ESPNPlus.com (each, a “Service” and collectively, “Services”) by September 30, 2024. Qualifying purchases include (i) Disney Bundle subscriptions, and (ii) any other Services subscriptions or Services add-ons totaling payments of $14.99 or more (collectively, “Qualifying Purchases”). To receive the statement credits, you must use your Disney Premier Visa Card as the payment method on file for your Qualifying Purchases. Your Disney Bundle subscription will be subject to the terms and conditions of the Disney+ and ESPN+ Subscriber Agreement (disneyplus.com/legal/subscriber-agreement). To receive the statement credits, the payments must be made directly on DisneyPlus.com, Hulu.com or ESPNPlus.com. Purchases will not qualify for the statement credit if made through a third-party device or digital platform (unless such device or platform redirects to DisneyPlus.com, Hulu.com or ESPNPlus.com), or as a bundle with cable services or as another bundle. If you purchase a monthly or annual subscription, unless you timely cancel, your subscription will automatically renew for another monthly or annual subscription period pursuant to the terms and conditions of the Disney+ and ESPN+ Subscriber Agreement (disneyplus.com/legal/subscriber-agreement). Statement credit(s) appear on your monthly credit card billing statement within 1–2 billing cycles. Not redeemable for cash or other goods or services. Offer is non- transferable and is subject to change. 5. Card Designs Card designs are subject to availability and may change without notice. Selection of a new card design does not automatically deactivate your previous card. Your previous card remains activated upon the selection of a new card design, until the expiration date of the previous card, unless otherwise requested by you to Chase.
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Kite-Man: Hell Yeah! — the Harley Quinn spin-off series coming to Max — will differ from its predecessor in a key way, according to storyboard artist on both DC shows Christopher Jones.
The 10-episode animated series will revolve around Harley Quinn side character Chuck Brown (Kite-Man), and will take place within the original show’s universe. If the character’s name sounds silly, that’s because he is one of those goofy D-list villains in the vein of Condiment King or the Baffler.
Kite-Man: Hell Yeah! was originally titledNoonan’s, referencing the bar that appears throughout Harley Quinn‘s run. In both iterations, Kite-Man would be seen working with the likes of Bane and Lex Luthor — all three of whom have appeared as relatively prominent side-characters in Harley Quinn.
What Makes Kite-Man Different from Harley Quinn?
DC
During New York Comic Con, The Direct sat down with storyboard artist and comics writer Christopher Jones, known best for his work on Young Justice, Harley Quinn and the upcoming Kite-Man: Hell Yeah!.
Jones teased what’s to come with the new spin-off, and discussed how it differs from its predecessor.
Jones revealed that while Kite-Man: Hell Yeah! shares some similarities with Harley Quinn, its “different group of core characters” makes “some of the humor and tone … a little different.” But, Jones confirmed that fans can expect “to see some familiar faces:”
“It is very similar [to] ‘Harley Quinn’ [in] a lot of ways, but it’s focusing on a different group of core characters, even though you are certainly going to see some familiar faces. But because we’re focusing on different characters, some of the humor and tone is a little different, just because you’re- you’re immersed in stories that are about these people, and not Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy.”
He continued, saying that Harley Quinn fans will “definitely want to give it a chance,” but given the unique “flavor” of the spin-off, “it may find fans of its own:”
“But I think I think it’s similar enough, that if you’re a fan of ‘Harley Quinn,’ you definitely want to give it a chance. But it definitely has a little bit of its own flavor. So it may find fans of its own.”
Wacky, Goofy DC Isn’t Going Anywhere Yet
Harley Quinn has occupied a special place in DC’s television repertoire — as the self-deprecating, satirical show that leans into everything DC does right, and everything it does wrong.
Kite-Man has already held the role as the butt of many DC jokes. In fact, his status as a joke character was the premise around much of the plot of Tom King’s The War of Jokes and Riddles. His whole introduction in Harley Quinn was as a D-List villain Poison Ivy was relegated to hanging out with (before an admitedly surprisingly lengthy romance between the two began).
Combine these two elements, and it’s not a surprise that “humor and tone” will be part of what gives the show it’s unique “flavor,” but it still plausibly exists within the wacky, zany universe of Harley Quinn.
The trailer alone confirms this, mixing raunchy humor, gory imagery, heartfelt characters, and bright colors. The show’s entire aesthetic and tone add up for where this show exists within the larger DC repertoire.
Kite-Man: Hell Yeah! does not currently have a release date, but is “Coming soon” to Max.
Well if you’re a console owner you don’t need to worry because it’s been delayed until at least spring of 24 and they’ve refunded all console preorders. I was refunded even though I never asked for one which kind of makes me wonder if they can even get cities working properly on console’s.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) will not seek a third vote for House speaker and instead is backing a plan in which Speaker Pro Tem Patrick McHenry will be vested with an interim speakership to get the chamber running again.
What’s unclear is whether there are enough votes to even pass that resolution. Some Republicans exiting a closed door meeting expressed anger and frustration.
Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) called the plan a “big mistake” and told reporters that it “walking Republicans off the plank” and handing power to Democrats. He predicted that more than half of Republicans would vote against it, and that it would take “Democrats to make it happen, and that is a historic betrayal to our Republican voters if we go along with it.”
“We don’t deserve the majority if we go along with a plan to the Democrats control over the House of Representatives,” Banks said.
Democrats also were meeting today, with speculation that a number of lawmakers will get behind the plan.
Under the plan, Jordan reportedly would still be in the speaker race, but that vote would be put off until January. He has been unable to lineup the 217 votes necessary to clinch the speakership, and support for him dropped in the vote on Wednesday. Some hold out GOP members complained that they received death threats and other harassment after they refused to back him. Jordan condemned those threats on X/Twitter on Wednesday, but his detractors had already complained of a right-wing media pressure campaign over last week to get them to support him.
The Shining (1980) – Here’s Johnny! Scene (7/7) | Movieclips
Not just one of the greatest horrors in history but also one of the best movies ever, period, The Shining is so compellingly enigmatic that entire documentaries have been made trying to unravel it. Ingenious auteur Stanley Kubrick may have ostensibly signed on to adapt a Stephen King novel about a father hunting his family in a haunted hotel, but what he created goes well above, invoking genocidal and patriotic imagery, as well as the Nietzschean notion of eternal recurrence. Is this a commentary on America’s unending history of persecution and prejudice? Yes, it is—but it’s a broader purpose only hinted at, while vivid colors, sinister writing and Jack Nicholson’s unhinged performance steal center stage. Whether you view this as a supernatural slasher or an art film lamenting the nature of violence, The Shining is a masterstroke that begs to be rewatched repeatedly.
(L to R) Cillian Murphy (as J. Robert Oppenheimer) and writer, director, and producer Christopher Nolan on the set of ‘Oppenheimer.’
Christopher Nolan’s historical biopic was not only a box-office powerhouse but also delivered compelling performances and stunning visuals.
The film chronics J. Robert Oppenheimer‘s career from the beginning of his studies to his role in the Manhattan Project to the 1954 security hearing. The film used color to differentiate between Oppenheimer’s point of view and Lewis Strauss’ point of view – with color representing Oppenheimer and black and white for Strauss. The difference in color also depicts their personality, where Oppenheimer sees the world in bright colors, while Strauss sees it in black and white.
The story of J. Robert Oppenheimer’s role in the development of the atomic bomb during World War II. Read the Plot
The official synopsis for ‘Oppenheimer’ is below:
“During World War II, Lt. Gen. Leslie Groves Jr. appoints physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer to work on the top-secret Manhattan Project. Oppenheimer and a team of scientists spend years developing and designing the atomic bomb. Their work comes to fruition on July 16, 1945, as they witness the world’s first nuclear explosion, forever changing the course of history.”
Who Is In The Cast of ‘Oppenheimer’?
Robert Downey Jr is Lewis Strauss in ‘Oppenheimer,’ written, produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan.
The Atomic Explosion
Cillian Murphy is J. Robert Oppenheimer in ‘Oppenheimer,’ written, produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan.
The film did not use any CGI or VFX to recreate the Trinity Test blast. As we saw with Nolan’s 2020 film ‘Tenet’, the director has always had a knack for creating realistic and explosive moments on film with practical effects. To recreate the atomic bomb detonation, Nolan worked with cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema to capture the explosion on film.
Working closely with special effects supervisor Scott Fisher and visual effects supervisor Andrew Jackson, they first ran tests by dropping silver particles in an aquarium.
“We built aquariums with powers in it. We dropped silver particles in it. We had molded metallic balloons which were lit up from the inside. We had things slamming and smashing into one another, such as ping-pong balls, or just had objects spinning,” said Van Hoytema.
The explosion was captured in in close-up at variable frame rates, combined with Van Joytema’s IMAX cinematography which filled the screen with an image that is both beautiful and deadly. When this moment is played in the theaters, the film goes silent as the detonation flashes before the deafening blast shakes and resonates in everyone’s core.
(L to R) Tom Conti is Albert Einstein and Cillian Murphy is J. Robert Oppenheimer in ‘Oppenheimer,’ written, produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan.
‘Oppenheimer’ held its world premiere on July 11, 2023, at Le Grand Rex in Paris. The film was released domestically on July 21 in formats such as IMAX 70mm, stand 70mm, and 35mm. The film was released simultaneously as Warner Bros.’s ‘Barbie’, creating the internet phenomenon known as “Barbieheimer.”
‘Oppenheimer’ earned over $82.4 million on its opening weekend and has since grossed over $322.4 million domestically and $933.8 million worldwide, making it the 2nd highest-grossing R-rated movie. ‘Oppenheimer’ has a total runtime of 3 hours.
Watch the official trailers for ‘Oppenheimer’ below:
While some theaters are still playing the movie, options are limited as the film has passed its 45-day theatrical window. Currently, there is no word on when the historical biopic will be released on digital or streaming. ‘Barbie’, which was released at the same time as ‘Oppenheimer’, is already available on digital. However, it is possible the film remains in theater longer as Nolan requested a longer theatrical window.
If the film were to follow the release schedule of Universal’s ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’, arriving on its streaming service Peacock 120 days after its theatrical release. That could mean ‘Oppenheimer’ would be available on streaming by mid-November.
(L to R) Emily Blunt is Kitty Oppenheimer and Cillian Murphy is J. Robert Oppenheimer in ‘Oppenheimer,’ written, produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan.
