Video from the Russian government showed some of the blast victims being treated at a medical facility that is part of Russian peacekeeping operations in the region.
Video from the Russian government showed some
Sheryl Lee Ralph was all smiles at the Project Angel Food’s 2023 Angel Awards Gala at Project Angel Food in Hollywood.
Sheryl Lee Ralph was all smiles at
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 #610 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.
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.
• 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).
• The total number of vowels across today’s Quordle answers is 6.
• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 0.
• The total number of different letters used in Quordle today is 14.
• No. None of Q, Z, X or J appear among today’s Quordle answers.
• The number of today’s Quordle answers starting with the same letter is 2.
If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you’re not ready yet then here’s one more clue to make things a lot easier:
• S
• C
• C
• G
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
The answers to today’s Quordle, game #610, are…
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
The answers to today’s Quordle Daily Sequence, game #610, are…
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.
It’s played online via the Quordle website and you can also get to it via the Merriam-Webster site, after the dictionary purchased Quordle last year.
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.
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.
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.
It's time for your daily dose of
“if these corporations aren’t willing to offer a fair deal, our next stop will be the picket lines,” said SAG-AFTRA Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland
SAG-AFTRA has voted to approve a strike against the video game industry.
On Monday, union members voted 98.32 percent in favor of a strike authorization against 10 major video game companies, with 34,687 members casting ballots, representing 27.47% of eligible voters. The result allows SAG-AFTRA negotiators to call for a strike for a new Interactive Media Agreement if necessary, but does not does not guarantee a work stoppage will take place.
“It’s time for the video game companies to stop playing games and get serious about reaching an agreement on this contract,” said SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher in a statement. “The result of this vote shows our membership understands the existential nature of these negotiations, and that the time is now for these companies — which are making billions of dollars and paying their CEOs lavishly — to give our performers an agreement that keeps performing in video games as a viable career.”
Video game companies facing a potential strike include Activision Productions Inc, Blindlight LLC, Disney Character Voices Inc., Electronic Arts Productions Inc., Formosa Interactive LLC, Insomniac Games Inc., Epic Games, Take 2 Productions Inc., VoiceWorks Productions Inc. and WB Games Inc. Negotiations began Oct. 2022 and according to the union, the companies have refused to “acceptable terms” on “wages that keep up with inflation, protections around exploitative uses of artificial intelligence, and basic safety precautions.” The voting period began on Sept 5. and concluded Monday.
“After five rounds of bargaining, it has become abundantly clear that the video game companies aren’t willing to meaningfully engage on the critical issues: compensation undercut by inflation, unregulated use of AI and safety,” said SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland. “I remain hopeful that we will be able to reach an agreement that meets members’ needs, but our members are done being exploited, and if these corporations aren’t willing to offer a fair deal, our next stop will be the picket lines.”
The next bargaining session is set for Sept. 26, 27 and 28.
"if these corporations aren’t willing to offer
Last Updated: September 26, 2023, 13:26 IST
Parineeti Chopra got married on September 24.
Parineeti Chopra and Raghav Chadha are happily married. After having a dreamy wedding in Rajasthan, the couple jetted off to Delhi. Yesterday, the bride received a warm welcome at the Chadha residence. The actor was received at Raghav’s official bungalow in Pandara Park. Reportedly, the actress will be moving to this Bungalow for time being.
A video from last night has gone viral, where there Chadha family welcomed the newlyweds with dhol. There was much pomp and grandeur for their homecoming.
News18 has learned that Parineeti and Raghav will be hosting two wedding receptions for friends in the entertainment industry and politicians. “The couple will host two reception dinners, one in Delhi and one in. Mumbai. The one in the national capital will see a host of politicians. In Mumbai, Parineeti will be celebrating the next chapter of her life with her film industry friends,” the source told us.
Parineeti and Raghav had an intimate wedding ceremony at the Leela Palace in Udaipur. The couple, who has known each other for a while now, exchanged their vows in the presence of their families and close friends.
On Monday, Raghav and Parineeti shared photos from their wedding. The heartwarming pictures revealed that the couple opted for matching ivory outfits for the wedding. The bride was styled by Manish Malhotra. Sharing the photos, the couple wrote, “From the very first chat at the breakfast table, our hearts knew. Been waiting for this day for a long time .. So blessed to finally be Mr and Mrs! Couldn’t have lived without each other .. Our forever begins now .. .”
Parineeti and Raghav made their first appearance as a married couple in Udaipur after their wedding ceremonies concluded.
Last Updated: September 26, 2023, 13:26 ISTParineeti
Kourtney Kardashian’s lifestyle brand Poosh threw a promotional poolside party at a Malibu mansion over the weekend, drawing dozens of influencers to the coastal city.
Now, the city’s mayor, Bruce Silverstein, is accusing the event’s planners of misleading the city in order to get a permit to throw the party and going on to violate the city’s rules during the event. And he said Kardashian’s party is only the latest example of a large event put on by the rich getting what he says is favorable treatment from city staff members.
In a fiery Facebook post shared Saturday that has since drawn the attention of media outlets across the globe, Silverstein blasted his colleagues at City Hall for allegedly choosing “celebrities and the uber wealthy over residents” and accused city staff of selling out to the Kardashians.
A spokesman for the city told The Times via email that its staff is “looking into the matter fully” and declined to comment further. A representative for Kardashian declined to comment.
Parties for the wealthy are “an endemic issue,” Silverstein told The Times in an interview Monday. “This is not about this event, it’s about the way the city handles events of this nature.”
The Poosh party may be part of a growing trend.
Throughout the summer, city leaders have criticized events that have drawn large crowds of the rich and famous to Malibu, generating traffic issues and other safety concerns.
One such event took place on the Fourth of July at Nobu Malibu, an upscale sushi restaurant. The event reportedly drew a long list of A-listers including Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael B. Jordan, Kevin Hart and Jamie Foxx. And as more than 700 guests packed into the restaurant for the party, traffic backed up from the parking lot onto Pacific Coast Highway, clogging a thoroughfare already full of holiday beachgoers. Residents upset with the Nobu congestion flooded local authorities with calls.
“There were party buses, limousines, private coaches,” Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. Christopher Soderlund said during a Malibu City Council meeting on July 10. “What they did was because there wasn’t any parking for them, they basically took over the center median of PCH and left their vehicles there, and there’s dozens and dozens of vehicles.”
City leaders were concerned that emergency vehicles wouldn’t have been able to pass through on the highway if needed. The city fined Nobu for failing to obtain a temporary use permit, noting that the 700-person guest list “was clearly more than the 100-person threshold for a private event to require a TUP,” according to the Malibu Times. The city declined to specify the dollar amount of the fines, which appeared to be minimal, according to reports.
Then, in August, city leaders discussed a separate high-end event, a wedding held at Broad Beach. The city had initially denied a permit for the event after planners said they wouldn’t be able to meet the city’s requirement that they set up and take down all their equipment in a single day, Mayor Pro Tem Steve Uhring said during an Aug. 28 council meeting.
However, city staff members went on to strike a deal with the event planners under which the applicants would pay a $10,000 fine to allow the wedding to happen as planned, he said. The result: a towering, canopied staging area built on the beach that took a week to erect and a week to take down. Uhring flashed an image of the stage onto the council chamber projector. He called the situation a “pay-to-play plan.”
“And the problem is, we got this precedent now,” Uhring said. “People with money paid attention and they’re gonna come back and someone’s gonna want the same deal.”
Silverstein echoed Uhring’s concerns and said the event never should have taken place.
Also in residents’ recent memory was the 2019 Yves Saint Laurent fashion show held at Malibu’s Paradise Cove. The show was initially denied an event permit, but as a workaround instead applied for a film permit, which was granted. The fashion brand held the show with celebrities lining its front row including Miley Cyrus, Liam Hemsworth, Salma Hayek, Laura Dern, Lakeith Stanfield and Keanu Reeves. Yet during the event, organizers violated several environmental regulations meant to protect the beach, such as building a boardwalk to serve as the catwalk along the sand and shoring it up with plastic sandbags.
Silverstein said he learned about Kardashian’s party to promote her company on Thursday when he was pulling out of his driveway. He said he noticed movers hauling boxes into a nearby home and thought he was getting new neighbors. He was told by workers at the house that it was for “an influencer event.” He asked if they had permits but was told they didn’t need any.
While the event was eventually granted a permit on Friday, Silverstein claimed the city had expedited the process for event planners, which he said is rare. And the permit itself, he said, was full of errors and “based on false pretense.” Silverstein said the event planners had failed to tell the city that the event was intended to promote Poosh.
The special event permit and application for the party, which were reviewed by The Times, showed the planner had left blank the part of the form where applicants are supposed to disclose what the event would promote. Instead, planners vaguely wrote in a separate section, “girlfriends day at the pool.”
The permit also stated that parking would be kept at the event site or in the designated parking area. However, Silverstein recorded a video showing a long row of cars parked alongside Pacific Coast Highway. He further alleged that the event planner should have obtained an affidavit to show the property owner had given permission to use the site. Instead, the application included only a typed note and copy of a digital signature, rather than an official document.
Silverstein said he raised the issues with the city attorney and code enforcement officials leading up to the event, but the city did not intervene.
“You’re the MAYOR. And get treated with indifference,” one neighbor lamented to Silverstein, according to an email he sent to city staff. “Now imagine how the rest of Malibu is treated. We don’t matter to this city. That’s a fact.”
He said that he’s heard from residents who “complain of a lack of timely response to their complaints” and questioned why “the city expeditiously reacted to help out the scofflaw.”
Billed as Poolside With Poosh, the 1980s-themed party drew around 100 guests. Images and video posted online from the party showed rows of Poosh merchandise, including jewelry and designer shoes, along with Adidas apparel. The crowd of influencers took part in a massage station, a bar, and glam booths where they got their hair and makeup done. Others posed near the pool, along the backyard lawn and next to retro sports cars.
It was unclear whether Kardashian was present at the event. However, she attended a Disney-themed baby shower at another home the following day, alongside her husband, Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker.
Earlier this month, Kardashian announced that she was hospitalized and had undergone emergency fetal surgery, but assured everyone that she and her unborn baby were OK.
Silverstein said he would bring up the Poosh party issue during Monday’s City Council meeting. He also planned to introduce a measure that would increase financial penalties on events that failed to meet permit requirements. The trust of residents, he said, is his main priority.
“What a lot of people don’t appreciate, even though Malibu is known internationally,” Silverstein said, “is it’s a small town with a lot of people living here on a daily basis.”
Kourtney Kardashian’s lifestyle brand Poosh threw
NSYNC was one of the most influential boy bands of the ’90s, with three American Music Awards and eight Grammy nominations under their belt. The group comprised five members, Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Lance Bass, Joey Fatone, and Chris Kirkpatrick, who grew a dedicated fan base during their run from 1995 to 2004. They maintained their name and status alongside other groups like The Backstreet Boys and 98 Degrees, even after dismantling to work on separate projects and further their careers independently.
From hits like “Bye Bye Bye” and “It’s Gonna Be Me” to two albums being certified Diamond, NSYNC has a vast selection of songs in their catalog. Here are some of the best NSYNC needle drops in movies and TV, ranked.
Ron Howard’s 2000 version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas is another movie featuring an NSYNC song not in an actual scene but on the soundtrack. The film stars Jim Carrey in this adaptation of the classic book that tells the story of a town called Whoville, where Christmas is the biggest celebration of the year.
Outside the town, in a mountain cave, lives the Grinch, a cranky, anti-social creature who was once a citizen of Whoville before leaving for a life of solitude. Things get complicated for the Grinch when he is nominated to be the town’s Holiday Cheermeister and has to attend the town’s festivities.
The NSYNC song “You Don’t Have To Be Alone (On Christmas)” is the perfect addition to the movie’s soundtrack and fits well among other pop artists of the time, like Smash Mouth and Mariah Carey. It’s one of the band’s more underrated songs that seems to have faded into the background behind their Christmas album Home for Christmas.
Comedy Central’s Cursed Friends is a lighthearted take on Halloween movies that follows a group of Millennial friends who wake up to discover their childhood game of MASH (mansion, apartment, shack, house) is manifesting in real time. One by one, the characters’ lives start changing into the most ridiculous scenarios, including a cult leader and marrying Joey Fatone (who actually stars in the movie), bringing laughs and classic NSYNC songs to the screen.
NSYNC’s “I Want You Back” plays during an interesting part of the movie where Harvey Guillén is dancing and singing along to the song. There’s also a large amount of glitter vomit during this scene, which surprisingly ties in perfectly to Guillén’s character and performance. It’s a movie you should see at least once around the Halloween season, especially if you’re looking for laughs you don’t have to take too seriously.
Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston star in the 2011 comedy Just Go With It, a romantic comedy that follows the mishaps of a lonely plastic surgeon, Danny, who pretends to be in an unhappy marriage to avoid commitment with his dates. His assistant, Katherine, is the only one aware of his scheme and gets dragged into the mess when Danny needs her to pose as his soon-to-be ex-wife in an attempt to wow a woman he met at a party.
The movie feels like an Adam Sandler production but was well-received by viewers, taking home five awards and 13 nominations. NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye” plays during the movie when Palmer, Danny’s new love interest, is listening to the song in the shower as he walks into the room.
The NBC series Superstore ran for six seasons, totaling 113 episodes, and follows a group of store employees and their daily duties working at Cloud 9. The cast features stars like America Ferrera, Ben Feldman, and Nico Santos, who have to deal with crazy customers, even crazier co-workers, and all the challenges that come with clocking into a shift for the big-box store. Superstore debuted in 2015 and went on until 2021, earning 14 award nominations during its time.
One of NSYNC’s earlier songs, “Tearin’ Up My Heart,” is featured during Season 3, Episode 2, “Brett is Dead.” The show has also used NSYNC songs like “God Must Have Spent (A Little More Time On You) during Season 2, Episode 14, “Valentine’s Day.”
Scrubs is a long-running comedy series that aired from 2001 to 2009 on NBC and ABC. The show follows employees at Sacred Heart Hospital, a teaching hospital where new med students arrive to learn the ins and outs of working in the medical field. Zach Braff leads the show as J.D. alongside Donald Faison as Turk and Neil Flynn as the janitor. Scrubs blends comedy and somewhat accurate medical scenarios perfectly, which helped it gain dedicated fans over the years.
NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye” is a hilarious insert into Season 6, Episode 1, “My Mirror Image.” This finds J.D. dealing with the emotions of finding out he’s going to be a father. Unfortunately, when he reaches out to Turk for support, he and the rest of the hospital staff are too busy dancing to his new NSYNC ringtone to answer.
Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius is a 2001 animated Nickelodeon movie that inspired the TV series ’90s kids came to love. The movie follows Jimmy, a young boy with genius-level intelligence, his robot dog, and two friends, Carl and Sheen, as they work together to save the world from aliens known as Yolkians. The movie featured songs from numerous ’90s and early ’00s artists, including Britney Spears, Aaron Carter, Backstreet Boys, and Bowling for Soup.
A remix version of “Dirty Pop” plays as Carl, Jimmy, and Sheen arrive for a fun night at the amusement park Retro Land. It’s the perfect upbeat, fun song for a theme park and is a great lighthearted song that transitions from a night of fun into chaos the next morning when the boys realize their wish on a shooting star for their parents to disappear came true.
The 2002 comedy Crossroads is a teen movie that follows three childhood friends, Lucy, Kit, and Mimi, as they reunite after years apart and embark on a cross-country road trip together. The group leaves for the trip on a whim with little planning, sparking an adventure between the trio that helps to heal their friendship and show them how important it is to follow their heart. The cast features Britney Spears, Taryn Manning, and Zoe ña as the friend group, along with Anson Mount as their friend, Ben.
It only makes sense that “Bye Bye Bye” is featured in Britney Spears’ movie Crossroads, as she was another one of the booming pop stars of this time. This song plays as the three friends sing along in the backseat while Ben is driving.
The fantasy comedy series The Good Place follows the character Eleanor as she arrives in the afterlife at a place known as the ‘Good Place.’ This heaven-like land is where all the humans who lived a truly good-natured life spend eternity and have all of their wishes granted.
Those who lived a life of cruelty are sent to the ‘Bad Place,” where their eternity is filled with torture and suffering. The only issue is that Eleanor has been mistaken for someone else and believes she was wrongfully sent to the ‘Good Place,” sparking her friends to help her change her ways.
NSYNC’s song “Digital Get Down” is featured in several episodes of The Good Place. It is heard during Season 1, Episode 10, “Chidi’s Choice,” Season 3, Episode 9, “Janet(s),” and Season 4, Episode 9, “The Answer.”
Pen15 is an outside-the-box comedy series starring Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle as two 13-year-old outcasts trying to survive the ups and downs of middle school. The adult-age actresses portray their younger selves in an accurate depiction of middle school, puberty, and peer pressure while providing lighthearted laughs and cringe-worthy moments sure to remind viewers of their own time in middle school.
“Thinking of You (I Drive Myself Crazy)” plays during the pilot “First Day.” This episode follows the duo as they navigate their first day of seventh grade, crushes, and being labeled UGIS or the ugliest girls in school.
The crime series Tokyo Vice debuted in 2022 on HBO Max and is based on the 2009 book series by Jake Adelstein. The show follows an American journalist who relocates to Tokyo to work for a major Japanese newspaper. Once on the staff, he starts working with a member of the Tokyo police department to uncover the dark secrets of organized crime in the city. The two are willing to do whatever it takes to uncover the truth and find the truth behind the city’s tagline: “Murder does not happen here.”
NSYNC’s 1997 hit “Tearin’ Up My Heart” is featured in Season 1, Episode 4 of Tokyo Vice, “I Want It That Way.” This song is heard during a nightclub scene where Jake, Sato, and everyone in the club start cheering once it plays.
The popular AppleTV+ series Ted Lasso stars Jason Sudeikis as a football coach who ends up having to coach the British soccer team, AFC Richmond. He has no experience with the sport, but his undeniable humor, charm, and determination win over everyone around him, even the team’s owner, who hired him, believing he would fail on the job. It’s a comforting show that helps restore faith in not only the character and his abilities but in humanity as a whole.
“Bye Bye Bye” is featured in Season 2, Episode 11, “Midnight Train to Royston.” This episode received mixed reviews from viewers and critics who felt the subplots with Rebecca and Sam took away from the show’s main points.
One of the best NSYNC needle drops in a movie is one that hasn’t been released yet but has been teased in the trailer. The upcoming movie Trolls Band Together is the third installment in the DreamWorks Animation franchise and has actors like Justin Timberlake and Anna Kendrick returning to voice their characters.
This movie follows Poppy and Branch as she discovers Branch was once a member of her favorite band, BroZone, with his brothers. Unfortunately, one of his brothers is kidnapped, and the two must embark on a journey to save him.
“Better Place” is the first song NSYNC has reunited to create in over 20 years, leaving fans of all ages excited to see what’s next for the group. Timberlake has been a part of the Trolls franchise since the first movie, so it’s fitting this is the movie that inspired them to work together again. Trolls Band Together is set to hit theaters this November.
NSYNC was one of the most
Spotify is rolling out a new feature called “Jam,” which will give friends a way to curate a single playlist on the service and listen to it together in real time. Participants in a Jam session can contribute tracks to a shared queue, which they can access whether they’re in the same room or in various places around the world. The audio streaming giant is rolling out the feature to both free and Premium subscribers, but only the latter will be able to start a session and invite others to join as its host.
Premium users can launch a joint listening experience by selecting a song or a playlist, and then tapping the speaker icon at the bottom of their screen or the three-dot menu at the top. From there, they can select “Start a Jam.” Housemates on the same Wi-Fi connection will be automatically prompted to join and contribute to the session as soon as they fire up their Spotify app. Hosts can also invite people anywhere in the world by getting them to scan a QR code or by hitting share and posting the link on social media.
While Jam was designed as a collaborative experience where participants can add music to the playlist, hosts will have the power to change the order of the tracks and remove songs they believe don’t fit a theme or vibe. Spotify says they also get to determine who’s in the Jam, though it’s unclear if that means hosts will be able to kick out anybody from the session. That said, hosts can switch on “Guest controls” to allow all participants to rearrange the queue or to remove tracks from it.
Spotify Jam will be available globally starting today, so all users will soon be able to enjoy the shared experience with their friends. Those who’d rather stream music alone but still be able to discover new songs and artists would probably enjoy Spotify’s daylist more. The new playlist launched earlier this month keeps changing throughout the day, based on the kind of music the user typically listens to.
Spotify is rolling out a new feature
‘Split’
Fox
A writer can define this as the struggles going on within their characters.
A few classic examples could be depression, alcoholism, fear of commitment, or even the evolving personality like the James McAvoy character in Split.
What is an inner conflict if not having conflicting people inside yourself?
‘The Lord of the Rings’
New Line Cinema
It’s hard to build a movie around only internal conflict ideas, but people try to do it all the time, and with the right ideas… it works perfectly!
Sometimes it’s an internal struggle like Indiana Jones coming to terms with his relationship with his father. Or other times the conflict is more central, like Frodo fighting against the ring’s power in Lord of the Rings.
‘Return of the Jedi’
Disney
This one is going to be a bit easier to define.
Think of it as the physical struggle between your character and outside forces, even including other characters.
These are the outside pressures slowing crushing in on your character. Things like maybe being stuck in a trash compactor, or the impending attack of a star destroyer, or being hunted by the Sith.Also, non-Star Wars related things too.
But the fundamental difference between the internal and external conflict is that one happens inside the character, and one happens outside. Sounds obvious, sure. But to give your story layers, you want to have both, and you want to find ways for them to feed off one another.
‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’
Disney
Sometimes the struggle on the outside is what causes the battle on the inside.
Because basically when you’re writing a movie or TV show, you need things to go wrong. No one wants to read a script or watch a tv show about the village of happy people.
When things go wrong, usually they become conflicts on every level of the characters life. This kicks a story into gear.
Nazis are chasing you to the ark. E.T. needs a way to go home. Aliens have invaded Earth.
And other non-Spielberg examples.
The great thing about the external variety is that they can come in all shapes and sizes. They can be the computers in The Matrix controlling the world, or they can be a nurse trying to catch Jinx, the cat in Meet the Parents.
The size of the conflict isn’t as important as the stakes, or the character facing the battle.
So what’s the key to writing this?
It’s putting a character with the right internal conflict in the right external conflict… Okay, that sounds a little messy, so let’s get another example.
If that ship in Titanic is sinking, Rose should examine whether or not she loves and believes Jack and wants to save him.
If Morpheus has been taken by Agents, Neo needs to look inside and see if he’s actually “The One.”
Another way to think about it is who is the worst person internally suited to face this external problem? Or vice versa.
Got it? Okay now, let’s dig even deeper.
If you’re planning to write a screenplay, for TV or movies, you need to know about the other types of conflict.
‘Toy Story’
Pixar
When I think about internal and external conflict, I think about the angel and devil on each shoulder. These conflicts should eat away at your characters’ insides and thus drive the story forward.
Think about every rom-com you love. From It Happened One Night to Set It Up, romantic comedies are stories of internal struggle.
The “will they or won’t they” can carry Jim and Pam, or Sam and Diane. You can define the conflict as wanting someone but also having reasons, like a workplace, that hold you back from it. Every scene between these characters is then charged with that struggle.
That’s how you use inner conflict in a story to make a scene where two people are talking as dynamic (or maybe even more dynamic) than a scene of two people fighting.
Or what about another tremendous and unexpected example?
Think of Buzz Lightyear in the original Toy Story. He is conflicted because he thinks he’s Buzz Lightyear and not just a toy.This clash between his internal state and his reality charges every single scene. It is the engine that drives the plot, created the timeless classic, and launched a franchise.
Writing conflict fundamental to your screenplay’s success and thinking about these examples should help get you on your way. Consider your character, and then consider the inner struggle that defines them.
Sometimes you need to compound the conflict though.
Time to define external conflict, and talk about internal vs. external conflict, which creates a conflict symphony within your story.
So in classical literature, and now film and television, there are six different types of conflict. While more seem to be classified as internal conflict or external conflict, we’ll take a look at each category and supply examples.
‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’
Amazon
Okay, right from the get-go we’ll delve into something that seems like it could strictly be classified as being internal. In Man vs. Self, we traditionally follow what happens in the mind of a character. Whether it’s Don Draper trying to get over self-destruction, or the Marvelous Ms. Maisel conquering becoming an independent woman.
But some of the best writing takes a spin on this and creates external issues from the internal struggle.
Think about the movie Multiplicity. That’s legitimately inner struggle come to life. Or what about all the personalities in Orphan Black?
Sometimes our best writing comes from taking a traditional conflict and flipping it on its head.
‘Good Will Hunting’Credit: Miramax
This is probably the most common external struggle. We see it in comic book movies, Star Wars, and even in sitcoms like The Good Place. This type of conflict is determined by protagonists and antagonists.
But how can Man vs. Man be internalized?
Truly, if you internalize it, you get Man vs. Self, but think about movies about the possessed when Voldermort takes over Harry’s body in Order of the Phoenix, or even the possessions in Get Out.
Those become inner conflicts as one person tries to take over another.
‘Manchester by the Sea’
Amazon
Usually the topic of political thrillers, or tragic movies like The Elephant Man, this typically covers these types of outer conflicts
One of my guilty pleasure movies is Conspiracy Theory with Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts. That’s about a guy who everyone thinks is nuts, who happens to be right about one thing.
In television, you’ve got shows like Succession that show the inner workings of a family and the people trying to tear them down in hilarious ways.
But how can you make Man vs. Society internal?
What about a movie like Boys Don’t Cry? That story is about how society refuses to accept who Brandon Teena is on the inside.
Or what about Manchester By The Sea? A lot of the conflict in the movie comes from how Casey Affleck’s character is viewed in this town after the fire. And how he deals with it.
As you can see, it’s harder to peg some of these within the realm of television, because tv allows characters to evolve and grow over multiple seasons.
Think about Oscar on The Office. He was never conflicted about being gay, but it took multiple seasons for the other characters and Michael Scott to truly accept him.
‘Jaws’
Universal
I’m not sure there’s a better example here than The Revenant when it comes to Man vs. Nature. This type of conflict carries us on journeys like Homeward Bound and is about defeating external forces.
In television, Man vs. Nature usually comes up episode to episode. It feels like every sitcom has a camping episode. One of my favorites comes from New Girl, where they stare down the coyote.
But what’s the inner issue that arises with nature?
I’ll admit this is a stretch, but I like to think about characters like the Wolfman, or even Fiona in Shrek when I’m breaking this down.
These are people stricken with a change in nature, who have to balance their lives around said change. What’s more internally conflicting than that?
‘The Matrix’CREDIT: Warner Bros.
As we enter the robot era of real-life, Man vs. Machine seems less far-fetched and more plausible. This story has its roots in John Henry hammering spikes against a machine and has worked its way all the way up to iRobot.
I think the cooler parts of Man vs. Machine come from characters dealing with things internally. Like what about Terminator 2, where that machine has to learn to be better? It has to make an internal change to try to be more human.
Or even stuff like Artificial Intelligence, where the robot boy desperately wants to change to become real. But his programming will never allow that.
Again – these are reaches – but that tends to be where our most incredible stories lie. In the grey areas between accepted tropes.
‘The Leftovers’ Credit: HBO
Lastly, we’ll cover a tricky one. Man vs. Fate/Supernatural is kind of a sticky subject. See, the problem is, these items aren’t always tangible.
I like to work my way into this section by going a little biblical. Think about the story of Job. There are great references to Job’s story across film and television.
It pops up in The Leftovers, Mission Impossible, and is the basis for the Coen masterpiece, A Serious Man.
Job’s predicament is that God and Satan keep messing with him. So he has to overcome all sorts of external nightmares. But the bet God and Satan make is whether or not they can control him internally.
That’s a double whammy.
‘Jurassic Park’
Paramount
When you sit down to write your screenplay, sometimes it helps to track how the various conflicts play off each other as the story moves forward.
I like to think about each level of conflict being the side of a car.
If you just have one sides’ wheels moving, your story goes in circles. But if both sides are rolling, your story will always push forward.
So how can you use the types of conflict to push your story forward?
As I mentioned prior, you want to get everything working in tandem.
So, in every scene, ask yourself, how does this work with the conflict I’m writing?
Let’s take a look at a few scenes and examine the fact.
In the final scene of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, we have a gunfight going on. But as the camera spins, so do the characters’ insides.
This whole movie is about trust and greed. Can you trust someone who is greedy? Is there honor among thieves? What does it mean to be a good person?
So here, you have the obvious external threat from the guns and internal issues from the hearts of the men who wield them.
What about a comedy?
For my money, the funniest scene in movie history is the “Frank and Beans” scene in There’s Something About Mary.
It’s pretty obvious to see that the external conflict has to do with what’s stuck in Ben Stiller’s zipper. And everyone coming inside the bathroom.
But the deeper inner issue at work is about love.
Ben Stiller has courted this girl, fallen for this girl, and now he’s dealing with the emotional weight of wrecking their perfect prom.
It’s kind of a sweet, emotional conflict if you think about it.
I know we chatted about those genres, but what about action movies?
Let’s talk Die Hard.
The standoff in the final scene is one of legend. We remember the badassery of John McLane, but this is a movie built on his internal conflict.
John loves his wife, but he hasn’t been great at supporting her. And there have been consequences to that…
We learn early on she’s gone back to her maiden name.
As Hans Gruber plummets to his death, we send him off with Holly’s watch with her maiden name on it.
It’s the perfect external symbol for their internal triumph.
John and his wife are going to get back together.
Merry Christmas!
I think we can all agree that the best-written film and television takes characters on multiple journeys. We need to see what they’re going to physically surmount on the outside to know how it will reflect on the inside.
And vice-versa.
The best uses of conflict work in tandem to create gripping drama. Or gripping comedy.
Just make it gripping!
If you think about how these types of conflict work in everything you watch, and then start to apply those principles to your own work, suddenly you’ll unlock the ability to push your stories to more dynamic places.
So keep the forum going!
Do you have some amazing examples? Do you have some ideas about types of conflict we didn’t mention?
Let us know!
I look forward to hearing your thoughts!
What is the Internal Conflict definition?
Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War.
We’re officially two and a half months into the exhilarating second cour of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War. Subtitled “The Separation,” TYBW Season 2 part 2 began with Ichigo honing his powers through rigorous training sessions with none other than the formidable Captain of Squad 0, Ichibe Hyōsube. On the other side, Sternritters unrest was sparked by Yhwach’s proclamation of Uryū as his successor.
The mysterious son of the Soul King also revealed his bold plan to retake the world in the coming nine days. As we speed towards the final episodes of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War, Season 2, Part 2, the anime has sparked a full-scale conflict between Soul Reapers and Soldats that has tragically claimed the lives of many valiant combatants on both sides. Fresh from his training, Ichigo has also emerged as a formidable war force, displaying remarkable strength that has left fans in awe.
The suspense peaked in the gripping 24th episode as Yhwach and his powerful soldiers launched a full-scale assault on the Royal Palace with the goal of capturing the enigmatic Soul King. Later, Ichigo, Orihime, Chad, Yoruichi, and Ganju Shiba are sent to the Royal Palace by Urahara, the strategic mastermind. However, things take a turn when the Palace is revealed to be a trap caging them in.
Never one to be outwitted for very long, Yhwach uses his trump card to launch himself straight for Hyōsube’s palace, the mysterious Captain of Squad 0. So, Bleach is back in action, and things are heating up! Episodes 25 and 26, will form the two-part finale that will pick up the story from this point. Here’s when and where you can watch it!
Episode 25 “The Master” and Episode 26 “Black” will mark the end of the second cour of TYBW season 2. But fear not—the thrill is far from over, as these two episodes are ready to lay the groundwork for what lies ahead in the much-anticipated third. Both episode 25 and 26 will be released together on Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023. As for the premiere time, fans in the United States can catch the finale at 7:30 a.m. PT / 9:30 a.m. CT / or 10:30 a.m. ET.
Here is a detailed list to set the reminder according to your time zone:
As announced by Viz Media back in Oct. 2022, Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War would not stream on the usual anime streaming giant Crunchyroll. Instead, the series streams on Hulu in the United States and on Disney Plus internationally. Fans who have been watching TYBW must already have a subscription, but those now looking to start this adventure, can buy a Hulu subscription for $7.99/month. Disney Plus basic costs the same as Hulu, and goes up to $10.99/month for the ad-free plan.
To help you skim through the storyline, here is the best watch order for all Bleach anime seasons and films.
Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Bleach:
EXCLUSIVE: Leonine Studios’ Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion has hired international doc expert Martin Pieper from public network ZDF.
The experienced exec will exit ZDF after 20 years to join the German production house on October 1 as International Producer.
Gebrueder Beetz is known for docs such as Sky’s Juan Carlos – Downfall of the King and Netflix’s first German doc-series Perfect Crime and is considered as one of mainland Europe’s top factual producers.
Pieper, who has a reputation as an expert on the international doc market, led numerous ZDF/Arte’s editorial departments, namely its Culture and Science, Thema and, most recently News/Arte units. During his time at ZDF, he worked with Gebrueder Beetz on Armenian Academy Award entry Aurora’s Sunrise and docs Gaza and The Land of the Enlightened, both of which were nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.
Pieper will lead international co-production activities in his new role and seek to make the company’s content more international. His international doc productions include Why Democracy, Why Slavery and Why Plastic, which were part of human rights journalism initiative The Why and Generation Africa, which told stories of migration from the perspective of young Africans and was made in collaboration with local African writers and directors. He will report to Producer and Managing Director Christian Beetz.
Pieper has worked with doc makers such as Eugene Jarecki (Reagan, The House I Live In), Alex Gibney (Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God), Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith (The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers), Liz Garbus (Bobby Fischer Against the World), Janus Metz (Camp Armadillo), Christian Frei (The Giant Buddhas, Space Tourists, Genesis 2.0) and Sam Hobkinson (Misha and the Wolves).
Among his local credits are Grimme Award-winning ZDF/ARTE series Into the Night With…/Durch Die Nacht Mit.
“With Martin Pieper, we are gaining an experienced international producer whose commitment to high-quality productions fits perfectly with our content focus,” said Gebrueder Beetz co-founder Beetz. “He has an excellent international network and will play a significant role in furthering our internationalization and our focus on producing relevant documentaries with a global perspective for an international audience.”
Gebrueder Beetz has made around 250 doc series and features since its creation in 2000, such as he 2013 Academy Award-nominated Open Heart and The Cleaners, which debuted at the Sundance International Film Festival in 2018 and won several awards. On the TV side, it has produced shows such as Reeperbahn — Special Unit 65, a ARD Mediathek show that was awarded best docu-series at the Berlinale Series fest last year.
Almost a year ago, we revealed expanding Germany-based production group Leonine Studios had acquired the business, taking 50% of Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion & Co. KG (Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne) and 100% of Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion Lüneburg. The deal led to the creation of a deep development fund that will allow them to make between 12-15 premium doc series and/or one-offs per year. “It’s a huge step, going from a family business to a consolidated business,” Beetz told Deadline at the time.
We also had the first report on the company’s new doc projects The Netanyahu Paradox and Lost at Sea – The Longest Night, the latter of which is a collaboration with Lucy, the Human Chimp director Alex Parkinson.
Pieper said: “I have known Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion since its foundation and have long been able to follow their constant struggle for viewers, the search for innovative forms of storytelling and the visual implementation to make complex topics exciting and understandable. They have thus become a reference internationally. As the ‘Godfather’ says: ‘An offer you can’t refuse.’”
EXCLUSIVE: Leonine Studios’ Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion has
Perennially, there are new shows based on idiosyncratic characters. For whatever reason, the characters are usually quite eccentric, and a narrative is built around them using a particular idea as the central plot point.
This format has been central to many shows, and the trick is to write compelling characters, and the more ambiguous they are, the better.
The Irrational Season 1 Episode 1 introduced Dr. Alec Mercer, a behavioral science professor who dabbles in crime fighting in his free time and not as a vigilante.
The cold open went straight to the point, ensuring we got the idea behind the show.
People are irrational. But predictably so. They’re more afraid of flying than driving, and the fact is, driving is much more dangerous. We know we should eat healthy food, but then we give in to temptation. Buy things we will never, ever use. We assume people are making rational decisions, weighing the pros and cons. For most of the time, we’re not. Instead, we rely on instincts, which are almost always wrong. Sometimes, dangerously wrong. One error in judgment leads to another.
Mercer
Dr. Mercer’s narration was accompanied by various montages of people doing some things that would appear rational, but if investigated further, they’re far from it.
There was seriousness in Dr. Mercer’s voice, but there were comedic undertones in the montages, which did some disservice to the show because it made it unclear what precisely the takeaway was supposed to be.
Next, we saw Dr. Mercer in the field as he tried to de-escalate a hostage situation involving a child.
Thankfully, there wasn’t anything comedic in the situation, and it allowed us to experience the full prowess of Dr. Mercer as he tore down the bad guy by showing him how irrational his demands were.
Jesse L. Martin did a great job with the character. Given what he had been stuck with on The CW during his stint as Iris’ dad on The Flash, it was great to see him widen the scope of his acting. The limitations The Flash had given him were absent.
The pilot episode was an introductory chapter into the story, and as such, it introduced the other characters in Dr. Mercer’s immediate environment.
Thus far, nothing significant about the writing had stood out.
However, Marisa’s introduction felt a bit off. It is always odd when a character references some important information from the past that the audience is not quite aware of and does so in a very unnatural way.
Marisa: That ability you have to completely divorce emotion from reason is both why I married you and…
Mercer: … why you’re longer married to me.
It was a considerable leap connecting Dr. Mercer’s “divorce” from the situation to their former marriage.
If the writers wanted us to know that Marisa and Mercer had history, there was a better way to go about it.
That revelation was also significant, and it felt like it came too early. That kind of revelation is a great cliffhanger for an episode.
Mercer’s younger sister was also introduced, and that introduction seemed off, too.
You know, you can get your own place, but you chose to move in with your little sister, so you get what you get.
Kylie
When was the last time you conversed with your sister, and you made a point of mentioning that they were younger than you?
When was the last time your sister reiterated that they were your sister when you two were conversing?
That’s the knowledge that both of you had your entire life, and it doesn’t need to be brought up without a third party present who would benefit from this information.
It felt like we were being spoon-fed information.
Pilots these days try to tackle a lot at once in so much time to get the ball rolling, but they lose viewers in the process.
We learned that Mercer had been involved in a terrible situation that saw him sustain severe dermal burns.
That was the only information we needed to know about Dr. Mercer for now, and it was one of the best-executed storylines in the series premiere.
It created a certain intrigue, given that the man who knew so much about memories couldn’t get himself to remember one of the most traumatic events in his life. It was a “physician heal thyself” kind of thing.
The storyline extrapolated to include the circumstances under which Mercer sustained the burns; the story was that he was a victim of a church bombing.
Bennet — the man convicted of the crime — was up for parole, which wasn’t particularly thrilling for Dr. Mercer.
Rather than feeling like a smooth turn in the plot, this extra bit of information about Bennet and the parole seemed to be additional information that could serve as a cliffhanger for another episode.
In all fairness, it was the cliffhanger for this episode, but it was ill-timed.
By the end, it was clear what the season-long conflict would be. The Irrational could have eased slowly into it, but it was interesting, nonetheless.
Marisa: Did you see his face? The plates?
Mercer: No, nothing.
Marisa: Whoever they were scared Benett so much that he would rather stay behind bars.
Mercer: He wasn’t a lone wolf.
Marisa: Someone else is pulling strings, and whoever it is is still out there.
It will be interesting to see how Mercer navigates, potentially having to help the man who robbed Mercer of years of his life and peace of mind.
The stranger in the courtroom expanded the narrative, taking it in a new direction. While Mercer seemed aware of many things in his environment, this was new territory for him now that the church bombing was a bigger issue than initially thought.
Apart from the irrational nature of humans, the episode explored the nature of memories through an ex-soldier accused of killing his girlfriend.
Everything was handled with careful realism, so it didn’t feel like something out of a science fiction film.
The concept was simple and executed simply. I hope it is explored similarly since this is no Inception.
The case was also not straightforward as it featured several twists, which kept the viewer alert.
Generally, this was not the best pilot, but there is so much room for improvement.
What did you think? Did you enjoy meeting Dr. Mercer? Will you stick around? How much will the lack of content otherwise play into your decision?
Let us know in the comments section.
Denis Kimathi is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. He has watched more dramas and comedies than he cares to remember. Catch him on social media obsessing over [excellent] past, current, and upcoming shows or going off about the politics of representation on TV. Follow him on Twitter.
Perennially, there are new shows based on
Watching the trailer for “Saltburn” is enough to fall in love with the titular estate in writer/director Emerald Fennell’s upcoming film; even no less than Evelyn Waugh was obsessed, as one of the characters casually drops into conversation. And the bucolic, elegant home and grounds are even more seductive in the actual film, even as the behavior in which her characters engage is anything but aristocratic.
As Fennell told Vanity Fair, she was determined that whatever location used in the film had to be somewhere unfamiliar to audiences and — to further complicate matters — it had to work as the main location, so there would be no need for interior scenes shot on a soundstage. “It was important to me that we were all in there together, that the making of the film in some way had that feeling of a summer where everyone loses their mind together,” she said. “I didn’t want to be constantly picking up and moving.”
Interestingly, the Vanity Fair profile stated that, contractually, no one involved with “Saltburn” can disclose the name or the location of the estate used for the Catton family’s titular mansion and grounds. Contracts are contracts, but 14th-century estates are a lot more recognizable than one might suspect.
Even before the film’s premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, Tatler had identified the estate seen in the trailer as Drayton House in Lowick, Northamptonshire, England. And in a preview of its upcoming feature with Fennell, Empire dropped the estate’s name. Photos of the estate compared to similar shots in the trailer seem to confirm it. Among the details that inspire awe in out-of-place visitor Oliver (Barry Keoghan) — and viewers — are a 17th-century spiral cantilever oak staircase, an imposing dining room that began as the estate’s buttery and pantry, and a long string of color-coordinated rooms with imposing heights and priceless furniture.
All of that served as a perfect setting for the work of Fennell and production designer Suzie Davis to bring the Catton family to life with all of the casual priceless antiques and ephemera of a family who has long since stopped marveling at the massive home in which they live — not to mention the sly work of cinematographer Linus Sandgren.
And the Drayton House’s history (which includes a beheading per royal command, a soured relationship with King Henry VIII, and a few hundred years of familial disputes) is equally suited to Fennell’s darkly comedic look at the haves and those have-nots who’ll ruthlessly do what it takes to get something. As for the claim that the estate would remain a secret? Well, that’s a bit of glamorous side-stepping that the Catton family would surely relish themselves.
Watching the trailer for “Saltburn” is enough
Selena Gomez and I had the same reaction to a recent picture of Selena Gomez: “More people need to see this.”
Currently in Paris to watch tennis with her most “Of course they watch tennis” friends, Brooklyn and Nicola Peltz-Beckham, Gomez stepped out in a Marc Jacobs corset top and cropped jacket, with silver Mejuri earrings and her long hair styled super straight. She proved the smoky eye isn’t dead, and she also just looked really…powerful. Her power was heaving, you might say.
ABEI
Her suit, which she wore to dinner at a luxury hotel, was adorned with a wide silver buckle. As a fashion enthusiast who writes about celebrity style all week long, I would describe this picture with three words: SHE LOOK GOOD. The folks on Twxtter agree, though all their comments were too inappropriate to include here. Is the picture edited? Hard to say. It’s not a fan edit, but celebs like the Kardashians retouch their pap shots. Whatever the process, the end result is…well, it’s mother is what it is.
Gomez, too, thought everyone should really see this picture, and posted it to her Instagram Stories, along with a selfie she took just after getting glammed up:
Instagram:@selenagomez
Selena Gomez and I had the same
In his staggering 2012 film “Our Children,” Belgian writer-director Joachim Lafosse turned an unthinkable true-life tragedy — the story of a mentally ailing mother who, one hitherto ordinary afternoon, single-handedly murdered all five of her children — into deeply compassionate drama, focusing not on the lurid whats of the event, but its more intimate, less discussed whys. That approach again serves Lafosse well in “A Silence,” another solemn, upsetting domestic chamber piece that lightly fictionalizes and foregrounds the hidden, knotty familial tensions behind a headline-making scandal. In this instance, it’s one disturbing, high-profile court case that begets another, both connected by differing forms of patriarchal abuse — but Lafosse’s interests lie, as ever, less in procedural formalities than in unruly household turmoil.
Outside Belgium, audiences are less likely to be familiar with the case of serial killer Marc Dutroux, convicted in 2004 of the kidnapping, rape and murder of multiple girls — or that of Victor Hissel, a lawyer for two of Dutroux’s victims, who was later imprisoned for possession of child pornography. Changing the names of all concerned but otherwise hewing recognizably close to the facts, “A Silence” is likely to play very differently for those acquainted with these news stories than it will for the uninformed. Which isn’t to say the film works against viewers in the latter camp: Various structural intricacies and dramatic concealments frame it as a mystery, with considerable intrigue in the secrets and complicit silences of one tortured bourgeois family. That suspense factor will fuel distributor interest in Lafosse’s latest following its competition premiere in San Sebastián.
Those already in the know, meanwhile, may be drawn into the drama by the considerable intensity of the performances — in particular from stalwarts Daniel Auteuil and Emmanuelle Devos, as a well-to-do couple whose tense marital front for years of compacted betrayal and denial can no longer hold. Visible only as a pair of devastated, bloodshot eyes in a rearview mirror, Devos gets a stunner of a sustained opening shot, as her character Astrid Schaar drives in a stricken panic to the police station — where she’s told that her teenage son Raphael (Matthieu Galoux) has been charged with attempted murder.
Cue an extended flashback to, well, not happier times but slightly less outwardly Greek-tragic ones. Together with Raphael, Astrid and her high-profile lawyer husband François (Auteuil) share a life of brittle privilege in a palatial walled estate, the vastness of which — with its tennis court and swimming pool and hall-like rooms — enables them to keep each other at a frosty distance. Still, their peace is persistently disrupted by the reporters and cameramen who have hovered outside their home for as long as François has represented the parents of young murder victims in a stretched-out trial of the century, plainly modelled on the Dutroux case.
The grim demands of François’s job do nothing to lighten an already heavy mood at home, where assorted skeletons have shared generous closet space with the Schaars’ designer threads for most of their 30-year-plus marriage. Their adult daughter Caroline (Louise Chevillotte) is aware of unsavory allegations against François from another family member, while her younger brother has been kept in the dark — but with said relative threatening to speak out, and the authorities growingly interested in the contents of François’s hard drive, Raphael can’t remain innocent much longer.
A terse, snaking screenplay — chiefly by Lafosse and regular creative partner Thomas Van Zuylen, but with separate credits for a further five collaborating writers — is perhaps more elliptical than it needs to be in unpacking all this baggage. Certainly, the film’s first half-hour keeps our emotional investment at bay as we work out the precise geometry of the characters and their unhappy histories. But there is a gasping power to its staggered reveals, and a searching sadness to the emerging family portrait that outweighs the film’s shock factor.
Auteuil, increasingly drawn and gray as François’s cover unravels, portrays a potential monster with guarded control; with each ugly detail revealed about him, he retreats further from view. It’s Astrid’s conscience that the film lays bare, and Devos plays her in a state of frenzied stillness: a woman doing her utmost on the outside to shore up a nervous collapse. The guiding perspective, as well as the greatest dramatic burden, in the film’s latter stages is ultimately passed to brooding newcomer Galoux, tersely affecting as an already wary, lonely kid shedding his last vestiges of trust in family.
Yet while “A Silence” is a hothouse actors’ piece, the effectiveness of its horrifying climax rests at least as much on the precise discipline of Lafosse’s filmmaking — here heavier on long-shadowed atmosphere than is usual for him, but not indulgently so. DP Jean-François Hensgens strategically navigates the Schaar household’s luxuriously empty spaces and pools of darkness in ways that alternately trap and cloak its inhabitants, sometimes leaving the viewer anxiously waiting outside the area of conflict. A score assembled from pieces by multiple modern composers — including the late Jóhann Jóhannsson and Ólafur Arnalds, a collaborator on Lafosse’s 2021 feature “The Restless” — is remarkably consistent in its swarming sense of despair, aurally imposing in a way that draws attention to the film dreadful air of domestic hush.
In his staggering 2012 film “Our Children,”
Officials said on Tuesday that at least 20 people had been killed, and nearly 300 wounded, in an explosion at a fuel depot in the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan on Monday.
Emergency workers took 290 patients “with various degrees of burns” to four different medical facilities after the blast near the city of Stepanakert, the health ministry of Nagorno-Karabakh said in a statement.
Seven of those people died, and 13 bodies were recovered at the site and taken to a forensics office, the ministry said. Dozens of patients were still in critical condition, it said.
“The doctors and medical staff in Stepanakert are doing their best to save the lives of the wounded in these difficult and cramped conditions,” the ministry said.
The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear. The Associated Press reported that it occurred as people were lining up to refuel their cars as they were evacuating Nagorno-Karabakh.
Thousands of ethnic Armenians have been fleeing the breakaway region for Armenia since a military offensive last week brought the enclave back under Azerbaijan’s control.
Armenians and Azerbaijanis had lived peacefully around Nagorno-Karabakh, a region the size of Rhode Island in the South Caucasus, for decades until the fall of the Soviet Union. Ethnic Armenians took control of the region in 1994 with the backing of the Armenian military.
Azerbaijan led a 44-day war in 2020 against the ethnic Armenian leadership, gaining control of most of the region. Last December, Azerbaijan installed a blockade to the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia, cutting off the region from food and fuel supplies and worsening a humanitarian crisis.
Nagorno-Karabakh’s human rights ombudsman, Gegham Stepanyan, who was elected to the role by the breakaway republic’s lawmakers, said on Monday after the explosion that most of the victims were in severe condition, without providing details, and warned that the region did not have adequate medical facilities.
Officials said on Tuesday that at least
Netherlands photographer and director Anton Corbijn has been named as president of the main feature film jury for the upcoming Zurich Film Festival.
Oscar-winning producer Malte Grunert (All Quiet On The Western Front) will be the jury president for the Focus competition, reserved for first, second and third features, while another Academy Awards winner, Last Men In Aleppo director Feras Fayyad will head up the documentary competition jury.
The juries each award a Golden Eye endowed with a $27,000 (CHF 25,000).
“Anton presented his film Life about James Dean at ZFF eight years ago, now we’re delighted that the world-famous director and photographer is returning to preside over the feature film jury,” said Zurich director Christian Jungen.
“Producer Malte Grunert and documentary film director Feras Fayya are also set to enrich the ZFF with their wealth of experience. Our competitions are dedicated to promoting the next generation, so it’s encouraging for all the participants that the juries are presided over by such inspirational greats from the world of international auteur cinema.”
Corbijn will be joined in his jury by New Zealand producer Finola Dwyer, French actress, Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, Finnish filmmaker Juho Kuosmanen and creative producer and VFX consultant Bryce Nielsen.
The Focus jury also features Oscar and BAFTA-nominated producer Gabrielle Tana, German producer Katrin Renz, film editor Heike Parplies and Swiss actor Sven Schelker.
Fayyad is joined in the documentary jury by Romanian producer Monica Lazurean-Gorgan, Swiss-Italian film editor Claudio Cea, director Crystal Moselle, Indian filmmaker and scholar Shaunak Sen
The Zurich Film Festival runs from September 28 to October 8.
Netherlands photographer and director Anton Corbijn has
A salute to Basque cinema, the 71st edition of the San Sebastian Festival has once again unfurled its Zinemira section, a brainchild conceived in collaboration with the Basque government’s Department of Culture. Serving as more than just a showcase, Zinemira comes wrapped in the financial backing of sponsors Irizar and EiTB, with collaborative support from Urbil, the Basque Film Archive, EPE/APV, IBAIA, and Zineuskadi. The competition for the coveted Irizar Basque Film Award promises to be as strong as ever, drawing eligible feature films that meet a set criteria— namely, a 20% Basque production involvement, a Basque-language script, or a narrative focus on Basque communities. Not to be eclipsed, the section also lights up with the Kimuak programme, a curated selection of this year’s top Basque short films, giving them a passport to international acclaim. A rundown:
“Sultana’s Dream,” (“El sueño de la Sultana,” Isabel Herguera, Spain, Germany)
The latest from “Unicorn Wars” producers Abano Producions and UniKo, joining El Gatoverde Producciones, Sultana Films and Fabian & Fred, a three-part animated feature, recounting the modern-day vicissitudes of a Spanish artist in India; the travails of real-life feminist thinker Rokeya Hossain; and the story she published in 1905 about Ladyland, where women rule. Screening in main competition.
“Contadores,” (Irati Gorostidi)
The latest from rising Basque star Gorostidi, set in 1978 around collective bargaining for a new deal in Gipuzkoa’s metallurgical industry which served testimony to the splintering of the Basque Country’s labor movement. Selected for this year’s Cannes Critics’ Week.
“Mamántula,” (Ion de Sosa)
A surreal sexual arachnid sci fi, this 45-minute feature turns on a giant spider disguised as a human being set in “an alternate past of brutalist saunas, endless subway corridors and detectives with raincoats and hats,” its synopsis runs. One of the banner Basque titles at this year’s San Sebastian, from De Sosa, a partner at Apellaniz y de Sosa, and DP on Chema García Ibarra’s Locarno standout “Sacred Spirit.”
“Misión a Marte,” (Amat Vallmajor)
Produced by Vitrine Films, Muxika Zinema, Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola, and Mina Films. This tale follows unemployed Basque archaeologist, Txomin, and his ailing brother, Gene, on an imaginative journey to Mars. As they navigate familial tensions and mysterious challenges, old wounds resurface. Drawing inspiration from the director’s childhood memories and the impending end of the Basque punk generation, this film captures death, rebellion, and generational finiteness.
“20,000 Species of Bees,” (Estíbaliz Urresola)
A big winner at this year’s Berlinale, scooping a a Silver Bear winning best leading performance for Sofía Otero, and Berliner Morgenpost Readers’ Jury Award and the Guild Film Prize. Produced by Gariza Films, Urresola’s own Sirimiri Films and Barcelona’s Inicia Films, the feature turns on Lucía, an eight-year-old girl, who sometimes struggles as the world tries to catch up with the fact that she has a penis. As the summer holidays pass she explores her femininity alongside the women of her family who at the same time reflect on their own femininity.
“Arnasa Betean, emakume zinegileak,” (Bertha Gaztelumendi and Rosa Zufia)
A dive into the world of Basque women filmmakers, this documentary explores their unique contributions to cinema through the lenses of history and present-day challenges. Guided by the underwater journeys of three free divers, it weaves through experiences and thoughts of 19 filmmakers, showcasing extracts from 43 films. Produced by San Sebastian-based Tentazioa, this tribute encapsulates the spirit of female cinematic visionaries and their enduring quest for recognition and equality.
“Mirande, film baterako zirriborroa,” (Josu Martínez)
Tackling the enigmatic mid-20th-century Basque writer Jon Mirande, this film grapples with a complex legacy. Celebrated for elevating the Basque language, Mirande’s reputation is marred by accusations of racism, pedophilia, and misogyny. Amid fiery debates surrounding his persona, this project seeks to unravel the man behind the controversy.
“Bidasoa 2018 – 2023,” (Fermín Muguruza)
Director Fermin Muguruza couldn’t have stronger words for President Macron. “The French government closed the natural border of the Bidasoa river and this has caused the death of 10 migrants. President Macron is a murderer”. This haunting documentary spotlights the tragic consequences of border closures. It chronicles the perilous journeys of immigrants, and the tragedies that can result. By highlighting activists from Harrera Sarea and Bidasoa Etorkinekin associations, the film humanizes the cold statistics, giving voice to the voiceless.
“Bizkarsoro,” (Josu Martínez)
Set in a fictional town, this evocative film weaves five true tales from 1914 to 1982, sourced from oral accounts and written narratives. It is director Martinez’s second film on show at this year’s festival alongside “Mirande.” It reflects the societal transformations of a 20th-century Basque town, and delves into linguistic evolution, cultural tenacity, and the enduring spirit of community resilience.
“Irati,” (Paul Urkijo)
Produced by Irati Zinema AI.E., Bainet Teknika, Ikusgarri Films, Kilima Media and La Fidèle Production. “Irati” dredges Basque mythology, set in the 8th-century Pyrenees. Director Paul Urkijo paints a medieval adventure-fantasy of courage, love, and duty. Released in Spain, 2023, it’s hailed by Filmax’s Ivan Diaz as looking “nothing short of spectacular,” with Filmax handling distribution.
Tetuán (Iratxe Fresneda)
Produced by Pimpi & Nella Films, Marmoka Films, and Arena Comunicación, all based in Spain. “Tetuán,” directed and written by acclaimed Iratxe Fresneda. A respected professor, writer, and critic, Fresneda’s works have garnered global accolades, “Tetuán” weighing in as the culmination of her “trilogía del registro”.
“Not Such an Easy Life,” (“Una vida no tan simple, Félix Viscarret)
Produced by Lamia Producciones and A Contracorriente Films from Spain. The drama navigates the complexities of parenthood and personal growth. Directed and penned by Viscarret, acclaimed for Goya and Malaga winning “Bajo las estrellas” and HBO series “Patria.” This film’s exploration of life’s intricacies also competed at the Málaga Festival, winning fans. Latido sells.
“Upon Entry,” (Alejandro Rojas)
Produced by Zabriskie Films, Basque Films, Sygnatia, and Upon Entry A.I.E. from Spain, “Upon Entry” proved a breakout hit at SXSW, taking viewers on a tense journey. A young couple travels from Catalonia to the U.S. for a brighter future, but are thrust into a strained nightmare as they are taken in for questioning within the airport. Directed with a sharp eye on contemporary issues, this thriller delves deep into relationship dynamics and U.S. immigration policies. International sales are handled by Charades.
“Las buenas compañías,” (Silvia Munt)
Set in 1977, Munt’s narrative unfolds as young Bea’s feminist activism intertwining with unexpected romance. Amidst a country in transformation, Bea’s burgeoning love with Miren reveals secrets that force her into adulthood. A tough honouring of togetherness. Produced by Basque outfit Irusoin and Antonio Chavarrías’ Oberón Media, two top Spanish independents, this poignant tale of passion and change is sold by Filmax.
KIMUAK SHORT FILM SELECTION
“Illustrated Woman,” (“La mujer ilustrada, Isabel Herguera)
Herguera, a pioneering figure in Spanish animation, ventures into Ahmedabad, blending animation workshops with the dreams of Mehndi tattoo artists. Renowned for her globe-trotting academic engagements and artistry, Herguera’s work often finds inspiration in India, from where her San Sebastian main competition entry, “Sultana’s Dream”, originates.
“Swift,” (“Sorbletza, Iban del Campo)
A compelling 16-minute Basque narrative, spotlighting a couple’s unconventional method to confront their relationship woes: Inviting a sleeping beauty onboard their sailboat, in hopes of alleviating their insomnia. Produced by Limbus Filmak, this short delves into love, intimacy, and unconventional healing.
“Prioridades,” (Tamara Lucarini Cortés)
An evocative 18-minute short. Ane and Andrea lose themselves in their bedroom’s sanctuary, as the world continues outside.From writer-director Lucarini Cortés, the film delves deep into moments of intimacy, laughter and vulnerability amidst sweltering heat. A production by Katz Estudio and Sayaka Producciones, it captures the essence of seizing the moment until outside intervention becomes inevitable. Currently distributed in Spain.
“Deadly Draw,” (Nitya López)
A gripping 10-minute Spanish short film, thrusting viewers into a world of suspense and moral dilemmas. As Caroline tensely observes the world outside, an unexpected visitor, Nathan, her husband, returns, intensifying her fears. At the heart of their conflict is a winning lottery ticket, ominously connected to a tragic accident. A poignant exploration of fate and choices.
“El aprendíz,” (Raúl Campos)
Beginning his journey as a novice phone repairman, the protagonist is consumed by hopes and dreams of his future. Yet, a discovery in a customer’s phone shatters his expectations, prompting a profound reflection on his perspective of the world. Campos takes the helm as director and co-writer, alongside Raquel Perea, with the combined backing of “The Platform’s” Basque Films and ECPV. The narrative masterfully weaves a tale of immigration, dreams, and the unforeseen lessons life offers.
“The Monkey,” (“Ximinoa” Itziar Leemans)
The tale of June’s summer job with Constance, a girl craving affection. Directed and penned by Itziar Leemans, this story showcases a deep bond’s evolution and its juxtaposition with the stark reality of class relations and identity denial. Supported by Gastibeltza Filmak and Al Borde Films.
“El rey de la semana,” David Pérez Sañudo)
“El rey de la semana,” by Pérez Sañudo, famed for his feature debut, “Ane is Missing,” turns on the life of Martín, a meticulous 33-year-old cosmetics worker. Post-divorce loneliness drives him to a seduction workshop. When Marta enters his life, his newfound skills are put to the test, making her his ultimate pursuit.
A salute to Basque cinema, the 71st
For many music fans, the name Rod Wave may not immediately come to mind as one of today’s hip-hop superstars. But over the past few years, this 25-year-old from St. Petersburg, Fla., has quietly become one of the most successful artists in the genre with a distinctive style that combines rapping and singing and has helped him score his third No. 1 album in a row.
“Nostalgia,” Rod Wave’s new album, opens with the equivalent of 137,000 sales in the United States, beating Olivia Rodrigo’s hit LP “Guts” by a few thousand, bumping it to second place after one week at the top. “Nostalgia” was a big streaming hit, particularly on Apple Music, garnering 188 million clicks, according to Luminate, which tracks music data.
“Nostalgia” is Rod Wave’s third straight No. 1, after “Beautiful Mind” last year and “SoulFly” in 2021; before that, his album “Pray 4 Love” peaked at No. 2. According to Luminate, Rod Wave, who began releasing mixtapes in 2017, has logged more than 15 billion career streams in the United States alone.
Rodrigo’s “Guts” is No. 2 with the equivalent of 134,000 sales. Zach Bryan’s self-titled album holds at No. 3, Morgan Wallen’s “One Thing at a Time” is also stationary at No. 4, and SZA’s “SOS” — which recorded 10 weeks at No. 1 from late 2022 into February — rose one spot to No. 5 in its 41st week of release.
For many music fans, the name Rod
Curated By: Dishya Sharma
Last Updated: September 26, 2023, 12:20 IST
Rakshit Shetty talks about Rashmika Mandanna.
Rakshit Shetty made a rare statement about his ex-fiancée Rashmika Mandanna. The Kannada actor was engaged to the Animal actress in 2017 but it was reported that Rashmika called off the wedding. While Rashmika hasn’t delved into the broken relationship in the past, Rakshit made a jaw-dropping reveal about their equation after the split. In a new interview, Rakshit revealed that he and Rashmika are still in touch. He also praised her for her hardwork and showed a sign of support to her as she grows in the film industry.
Speaking with a YouTuber during the promotions of his recent release Sapta Sagardaache Ello: Side A, Rakshit was asked if he was still in touch with Rashmika. The actor said (as quoted by India Today), “Yes, Rashmika and I are still in touch. She had a big dream in the world of cinema. Accordingly, she is moving towards that dream. She has the will to achieve the task she set out to do. We should pat her on the back for her achievement.”
Rashmika began her acting journey with Kirik Party. The film was directed by Kantara star Rishab Shetty. Rashmika starred alongside Rakshit. It was reported that the actors fell in love during the making of the film. Following the release, Rashmika and Rakshit got engaged. However, after a few months, the engagement fell apart. The cause of the split was not revealed.
Last year, she sparked controversy when she did not credit Rakshit and Rishab for giving her the opportunity to kickstart her career. Following the controversy, in March, she gave Rakshit and his production house proper credit in an interview. Speaking with Harper’s Bazaar, Rashmika said, “I never saw myself as an actor, I never believed I could be one. However, I was always fascinated with cinema. I also auditioned for a few roles but nothing came through, and because of that, I began making peace with the fact that acting was not my destiny. However, after winning the title of Times Fresh Face in 2014, I got a call from Paramvah Studios (a production house). They asked me to audition for a character called Sanvi Joseph for a film called Kirik Party, which was my debut film.”
On the work front, Rashmika will be seen in Animal. The first look of her role was released recently. This will mark her first film with Ranbir Kapoor. On the other hand, Rakshit is celebrating the success of Sapta Sagardaache Ello: Side A.
Curated By: Dishya SharmaLast Updated: September
Spain’s Basque Country, an ever-evolving film hub, continues to see a consolidation of talent driven by an animation boom alongside an increase in the production of ambitious genre cinema, marked by the colossal success of recent projects on streaming platforms and pick-ups by labs and festivals.
As San Sebastian unspools, the sequel to “The Platform,” the second most watched non-English Netflix movie in the streamer’s history, is in production in the Basque Country, produced by Carlos Juárez at Basque Films. Director Paul Urkijo, who opened the Fantastic Pavilion, heads to the fest to screen“Irati,” which has broken box office records for a Basque film and continues its prize trawl at festivals.
Spanish helmer Carlota Pereda’s follow-up to “Piggy,” “The Chapel” was produced in the region by Filmax and the Basque Country’s Bixagu, co-founded by producer Iñaki Gómez and amusing and intimate short effort “Priorities,” (“Prioridades”) from writer-director Tamara Lucarini Cortés, has gone through the region’s Noka lab, alongside other burgeoning talents Estibaliz Urresola (“Cuerdas”) and Nitya Lópe (“Deadly Draw).”
“There’s a new generation of creators who are attracted to genre. At first it might seem more niche, but it has great fan potential that feeds back to the fact of having communities that can grow a lot,” Juárez tells Variety. “Directors like Alex De la Iglesia helped focus on this genre when he directed ‘Acción Mutante’ in Bilbao, with this film it was possible to see that another type of cinema could be made, and made popular. Another reason is surely that fantastic film festivals later emerged throughout the territory, so that these groups could feed each other and connect with other similar spaces internationally, creating networks,” he added.
“I think that those of us who do genre now are a generation that grew up in the ‘80s, a time in which, internationally, there was an explosion of genre in all media (cinema, comics, literature, television). In my case, I do fantasy because it’s what I’ve learned since I was a child and it’s what I like. Especially delving into the mythological stories of our land,” Urkijo muses. “The establishment of the infrastructure of the Basque film industry, for which we’re all responsible, gives rise to being able to be more ambitious when it comes to producing more complex films at the level of staging.”
All credit the mysticism tied to the region’s backdrop, a budding and competitive industry, financial incentives, the talent of creatives in the region and an overwhelmingly inviting culture.
“The Basque Country has always been a hotbed of fantasy. It’s nourished by its rich folklore, climate, landscape and its language. Pedro Olea, Álex de la Iglesia, Alice Waddington, Koldo Serra, Ivan Zulueta and Paul Urkijo, even Erice himself, all play with fantastical elements in aesthetics and the creation of atmospheres. As artists, we’re children of our experiences and our culture influences the creation of a sensitivity. I believe that in our collective subconscious, the North is associated with magic, fantasy and mythology,” Pereda told Variety.
“There’s something in its landscapes, traditions and folklore that’s associated with the Western imagination of the fantastic and that is local enough to give it a unique personality, avoiding clichés. It’s a place where ancient culture coexists with modernity, and that fits very well with the genre,” she added.
“The Basque culture and its language, Euskera, have preserved roots and a mysticism linked to the land. Their customs and legends are impregnated with magic. The myths that have been transmitted orally continue to live among us. I think all of this is in the new current genre narrative proposals. That in some atavistic way they’re connected with that magic, aesthetically, in locations, but especially if the text is in Basque, since the language itself is the instrument that our ancestors used to describe the world as they saw it when they believed that magical deities populated the earth,”says Urkijo.
He adds: “If you tell a mythological story in Basque, the language is an alchemical catalyst, which connects you with that arcane vision, causing the fantastic tale spell to activate and the epiphanic invocation to be performed successfully.”
Not only are the locations steeped in lure and lore, they’re accessible and accommodating.
“The Basque Country is a huge set located in Spain and also in France, with all kinds of landscapes, cities, architectures, towns, with green mountains, forests, beaches, waves, rivers, deserts and technical infrastructures, all brought together in a distance that we can travel in less than an hour,” Gómez opines.
Gómez also believes that “in Euskadi, there’s a lot of talent, the public sphere is invested in supporting the world of short films where new creators and technicians have emerged, which has led to a renewal with very ambitious professionals. This, together with good film schools, results in a great future for the sector.”
Lucarini Cortés agrees, pointing to her experience within the region’s cinematic ecosystem. “Having been at Noka Labs with my previous project ‘El Peso’ has given me many tools for subsequent projects. We must also take into account the existing programs and laboratories in the community that allow you to create a project accompanied from the first steps. In the case of ‘Prioridades,’ it was the Aukera program, carried out by the association of women filmmakers Hemen, and its mentors that accompanied us in the first phases.”
She adds that, “the sum of talent along with highly valuable professional equipment” were vital and remarks that productions should continue towards supporting, “the diversity of points of view and the desire to narrate from there.”
Robust funding in the region also makes the region a viable and attractive option for genre production.
“Tax breaks facilitates the incorporation of important private investors and the policies of aid for writing, development and production, together with the commitment of public broadcaster EITB MEDIA with the Basque film sector, make the Basque Country a very attractive place to produce films of any genre, including of course animation,” Gómez told Variety,” while also crediting the incorporation of the global streamers into the Spanish market.
“The tax relief is very attractive when it comes to attracting investment for genre films, whose budgets are usually higher due to the complexity they entail. On the other hand, there’s the technical-artistic infrastructure with extensive experience in the sector, widely demonstrated in films such as ‘Handia,’ ‘Erremetari’ or ‘Irati.’ Our territory also has impressive places to set a fantastic story: Natural spaces such as forests, mountains and caves as well as ancient architecture that’s very interesting when it comes to proposing a genre story, historical or not,” Urkijo adds.
Juárez concluded that Basque Films “plans to continue working from our region now it’s much easier with the entry of the platforms, although we don’t forget that centralism makes it easier to produce in Madrid and Barcelona by concentrating the whole industry there. In Euskadi, we still have to improve the issue of filming infrastructure and, more importantly, forge good communication with the places where the state industry is concentrated.”
Urkijo and Pereda both remark that, for them, future filming in the region is a no-brainer, with Pereda eyeing a possible relocation.
“My experience has been so good that I’m looking forward to repeating it. There’s something about the locations, nature and the light that I find very suggestive. You place the camera and you already have almost 40% of the shot resolved,” Pareda stated.
She concluded, “the fantastic is a language and the Basque team, so accustomed to productions of this type, speaks it perfectly.”
Spain’s Basque Country, an ever-evolving film hub,
For over eighty years, DC Comics has been continuously publishing Batman and Detective Comics. And in that time, they have produced some of the best, most creative runs on any superhero comic book series ever. So many in fact, it was hard to narrow them down to a “ten best.” But for our money, the following are the greatest creator runs by a specific writer or writer/artists combo in the history of the Dark Knight.
Writer Doug Moench and artist Kelley Jones were a dream team on the Batman titles, producing a 42-issue run from 1995 to 1998. Issues that leaned heavily on supernatural stories and good old-fashioned detective yarns. This writer/artist duo picked up from where the Knightfall Saga left off. That 1993 story saw Batman seriously injured and replaced for a time. Their mid-’90s run was a back-to-basics approach, after two years of different characters under the cowl, like Azrael and Dick Grayson.
Moench’s propensity for the spookier side of Batman lore was perfect with Jones’ art style, which often made Batman’s villains look more grotesque than ever. Although the two had a lengthy run on the ongoing title, we can’t forget to mention their Batman and Dracula trilogy. These were a series of out-of-continuity stories that told what-if style tales about Batman as a vampire. When you combine these three Elseworlds stories with their regular run in the ongoing Batman title, it all makes for a truly memorable run on the character.
Writer Paul Dini became a Batman legend in another medium outside of comics, before tackling the Dark Knight’s adventures in print. As a producer and writer on Batman: The Animated Series, Dini wrote several iconic episodes, including redefining Mr. Freeze in “Heart of Ice,” and co-created Harley Quinn. Not to mention writing both video games Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. But years after the show ended, Dini did a significant run of Batman stories in Detective Comics and Batman: Streets of Gotham.
Working together primarily with artists Dustin Nguyen and Don Kramer, Dini wrote stories that expanded and gave depth to newer villains like Hush. He also wrote several one-and-done mysteries stories, once that reflected some of his best work on the animated shows. While his non-comics Batman stories might have had a greater impact on popular culture, his run on the character in the pages of the Dark Knight’s birth medium of comic books shouldn’t be forgotten.
When most people talk about the best Batman and Detective Comics runs, most people begin in the ‘70s. But a very important Batman run happened in 1964 -1968, which literally saved the character from irrelevance. For much of the ‘50s/early ’60s, the restrictive Comics Code censors neutered Batman as a character. Instead of fighting criminals, he fought aliens and wacky monsters in stories mainly aimed at 6-year-olds. And Bob Kane’s art (and those of his copycat ghost artists) was hopelessly dated in an era of Marvel heroes. Sales slipped badly, and something needed to be done. Legend has it that if DC couldn’t raise sales on the Batman books, they would cancel one or both of them.
So DC editor Julius Schwartz hired veteran writers John Broome, Gardner Fox, and artist Carmine Infantino to revamp Batman, just as they had for the Flash. Infantino illustrated every other issue of Detective, with longtime penciler Sheldon Moldoff now instructed to mimic Infantino’s art, not Bob Kane’s. The stories featured a lot of one-off bad guys, and dynamic artwork. And with Batman actually being a detective for the first time in years. This era also gave us the iconic yellow oval Bat emblem and introduced Batgirl and Poison Ivy. This 1964-68 run of Batman revitalized the character for younger readers. Many who saw Batman as their dad’s hero. Its success led directly to the ABC creating the TV series. Which, of course, mercilessly spoofed the comics, but the comics themselves remain a retro blast to read.
This run often gets forgotten, thanks to the long shadow of game-changing work from Denny O’Neill. And, it was only eight issues long, running in the late ‘70s. But writer Steve Englehart, famous for work on Marvel titles like Avengers, wrote several character-defining issues of Detective Comics that were some of the best Batman work ever published until that time. Englehart, together with artist Marshall Rogers, really doubled down on Bruce Wayne as a suave, James Bond-style ladies’ man, giving him a femme fatale love interest named Silver St. Cloud.
Together, Englehart and Rogers gave new life to discarded Golden Age villain Dr. Hugo Strange, and introduced the definitive version of the assassin Deadshot. Both characters would become mainstays of Batman’s rogues gallery from then on. One of his Joker stories, “The Laughing Fish,” even found new life as a fantastic episode of Batman: The Animated Series years later. He even made a once-cheesy villain like Doctor Phosphorus cool. Steve Englehart would return years later for a Batman tale here and there. But nothing beats the original Englehart and Rogers combo. Their run was brief, but the impact on Batman was big.
Writer Tom King had the unenviable task of following up Scott Snyder’s celebrated run back in 2016. Yet King’s Batman introduced lots of new concepts in innovative stories, some of which worked like gangbusters, and a few that landed with a thud (killing off Alfred Pennyworth counts as the latter). But during King’s nearly 100-issue run, he finally deepened the Batman/Catwoman relationship, even if fans were (wrongly) denied their wedding. However, the abruptly ended nuptials of Bruce and Selina were part of a pretty amazing story involving the oft-misused Bane.
King’s run also included the Joker vs. Riddler crime saga “The War of Jokes and Riddles,” a story that stands as one of the great modern Gotham City stories. They paired King with incredible artists during his run — David Finch, Mitch Gerads, Clay Mann, Lee Weeks, Jason Fabok. But especially Mikal Janin, who illustrated Batman the most. But everyone brought their A-game. We eagerly await our first Tom King Batman omnibus, DC Comics. This run one was one of the greats, flaws and all. And yes, one big flaw was killing Alfred. That keeps this entry down one whole notch.
You thought this run would be way higher on the list, didn’t you? We wouldn’t blame you if you did. The footprint that writer/artist Frank Miller left on the character of Batman is, quite frankly, enormous. Both his Batman: Year One, which he produced with artist David Mazzucchelli, and The Dark Knight Returns, are the most iconic versions of Batman’s “first” and “final” stories ever put to print. And everyone who has adapted Batman in every medium since has found influence in them. And they’re both really, really good.
So why this mid-level placement? Well, both Year One and Dark Knight Returns are just 8 issues long, all together. And his other, later runs on Batman? Well, Miller’s All-Star Batman was so terrible even Jim Lee’s art couldn’t save it. His 2001 Dark Knight Strikes Again is one of the most disappointing sequels ever made in any medium. The third chapter, which had a co-writer and different artist, was just ok. So, in the end, it’s a draw. If we were judging individual stories, then Miller’s Dark Knight Returns and Year One would be at the top. But in terms of extended runs on the Caped Crusader, collectively it’s all about as great as it is awful.
Most of writer Jeph Loeb’s run on Batman was in mini-series format, with one notable run in the regular ongoing Batman title. But man, what a way to leave a stamp on a character. Loeb and artist Tim Sale first worked together on a series of Halloween specials in the mid-90s. However, their pièce de résistance remains the 13-part mini-series The Long Halloween. This intense murder mystery involved almost the entire rouges gallery in key ways, and it had a payoff worthy of the year-long build-up. Every panel of Tim Sale’s artwork is a stunning composition.
This creative team reunited for the underrated sequel, Dark Victory, a few years later, which introduced Robin into the story. But Loeb wasn’t done quite yet. In 2002, he teamed with superstar artist Jim Lee (now DC president) for a 12-part story called Hush. It’s another long-form mystery, but Loeb played to Lee’s strengths and gave him big action in addition to mystery. All of these comic runs stand out as some of the best Batman stories of all time to this day. One can see the fingerprints of these modern classics all over modern Batman films, including the recent The Batman.
The 2011 New 52 reboot of DC was hastily put together, and is largely disliked today. But there was at least one big exception to the quality dip of that reboot everyone agrees on, however. And that is writer Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo’s run on the series. This run introduced one of the coolest concepts to the mythology in years, the mysterious Court of Owls, a secret society controlling Gotham for decades. Snyder and Capullo also gave us one of the best Jokers storylines in decades, in The Death of the Family. After decades of Frank Miller’s Year One as being the definitive “early years” Batman, Snyder and Capullo unleashed Zero Year. This was an arguably more epic take on Batman’s first twelve months on the job.
Scott Snyder found a way to combine a psychological take with big superhero action, and it always works. We should add, even before the New 52 reboot, Snyder wrote one of the best Batman stories ever, The Black Mirror. Only that time with Dick Grayson as the Dark Knight and not Bruce Wayne. The Snyder/Capullo run officially ended with the two-part Last Knight on Earth. But they unofficially continued their Batman partnership in the event series Dark Nights: Metal and Dark Nights: Death Metal. Both of which featured Batman in a central role. This one is the most recent of the truly great runs on Batman’s ongoing titles.
By the time they took on the regular ongoing Batman title in 2006, writer Grant Morrison was already a comics legend. Specifically for Batman, having written the graphic novel Arkham Asylum and given the character a significant part in his JLA run. But they’re take on the Dark Knight’s ongoing series successfully combined elements of every era of the character before, from the ‘50s sci-fi goofiness to ‘70s high adventure, in one wonderful almost surreal run that even saw Batman dead and his former protégé Nightwing replacing him in the role.
Morrison’s run also introduced Bruce’s son Damian Wayne as Robin, now an iconic part of Batman’s lore. Their extended storyline Batman: R.I.P. remains one of the greatest and trippiest Batman stories of all time. They also created new villains that are now legit parts of the rogues gallery, like the Flamingo and Professor Pyg. Combined, it was an epic seven-year run on the character, playing across multiple series and even the event Final Crisis. The art by Adam Kubert, Frank Quitely, Tony S. Daniel, and others also raises this run into the stratosphere.
After the end of the Batman ’66 TV series, the character’s reputation as a joke was cemented in popular culture. So DC did something drastic and doubled down on returning Batman to his 1939 status as an avenging creature of the night. Writer Dennis “Denny” O’Neil and artist Neal Adams produced 11 issues from 1970 to 73. These stories restored Batman to his role as Gotham’s Dark Knight Detective. They separated Batman from Robin (mostly), making him a brooding loner again. In their stories, they introduced major villains like Ra’s al Ghul and Talia. They made the Joker a homicidal maniac again, and brought back Two-Face after decades.
O’Neil also introduced the concept of Batman as a sexy globetrotting adventurer, in the style of James Bond. While the O’Neil/Adams collaboration only lasted three years. Later, O’Neil wrote dozens of other Batman stories, with collaborators like Irv Novick and Dick Giordano. One of those stories, “Appointment in Crime Alley,” is widely considered one of the best Batman stories ever. O’Neil became group editor of the Batman line by the ‘90s, guiding what other writers did. But his own run is the most influential run on the Dark Knight of any creator to date. Bob Kane and Bill Finger might have created the architecture of Batman, but Denny O’Neil and his artistic collaborators did the rest.
For over eighty years, DC Comics
Bethesda has released Starfield’s second update for Xbox Series X/S and PC.
Announcing its availability, Bethesda said the “small update… addresses some issues with performance and stability as well as a few general gameplay issues”.
We’ve republished the update’s full patch notes below.
Bethesda also said it’s continuing to work on a larger update that will add previously announced features and improvements.
Earlier this month, the studio said future updates would introduce “top community requested features” including brightness and contrast controls, an HDR calibration menu, an FOV slider, Nvidia DLSS support, ultrawide monitor support, and an eat button for food.
Starfield was released on September 6, but players who pre-ordered its Premium Edition or Constellation Edition were able to start playing on September 1.
On September 19, its publisher claimed the sci-fi RPG had reached 10 million players, making it “the biggest launch in Bethesda history”.
Starfield was reportedly the fifth fastest-selling game across Europe this year, based on launch week performance.
GENERAL
GRAPHICS
PERFORMANCE AND STABILITY
SHIPS
Bethesda has released Starfield’s second update for
NCIS veteran David McCallum, also known for his Emmy-nominated role in The Man From U.N.C.L.E., died peacefully this morning of natural causes at New York Presbyterian Hospital, surrounded by family. He was 90, having celebrated his birthday less than a week ago.
A fan favorite, McCallum was the last remaining original cast member on CBS’ NCIS, in which he played Chief Medical Examiner Donald “Ducky” Mallard, an eccentric but highly efficient investigator with a knack for psychological profiling, for two decades.
David McCallum as Medical Examiner Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard. (Photo by Sonja Flemming/CBS via Getty Images)
Sonja Flemming/CBS via Getty Images
“For over 20 years, David McCallum endeared himself to audiences around the world playing the wise, quirky, and sometimes enigmatic, Dr. Donald ‘Ducky’ Mallard,” said NCIS executive producers Steven D. Binder and David North. “But as much as his fans may have loved him, those who worked side by side with David loved him that much more. He was a scholar and a gentleman, always gracious, a consummate professional, and never one to pass up a joke. From Day 1, it was an honor to work with him and he never let us down. He was, quite simply, a legend. He was also family and will be deeply missed.”
The previously announced 20th anniversary NCIS marathon will now include an “In memoriam” card in remembrance of McCallum. You can see it below.
David McCallum as Medical Examiner Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard (Getty Images)
“We are deeply saddened by the passing of David McCallum and privileged that CBS was his home for so many years,” the network and NCIS studio CBS Studios said in a joint statement. “David was a gifted actor and author, and beloved by many around the world. He led an incredible life, and his legacy will forever live on through his family and the countless hours on film and television that will never go away. We will miss his warmth and endearing sense of humor that lit up any room or soundstage he stepped onto, as well as the brilliant stories he often shared from a life well-lived. Our hearts go out to his wife Katherine and his entire family, and all those who knew and loved David.”
Born in Glasgow, Scotland on Sept. 19, 1933 in a prominent musical family, McCallum studied at the Royal Academy of Music. Following a well received performance from Shakespeare’s King John at a local theater group, he switched his focus to acting while keeping music as a secondary interest. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, he joined Actors’ Equity in 1946 where he began working on BBC Radio and made his debut in a 1946 production of Whom the Gods Love, Die Young. That was followed by several years in repertory theater. His many theater productions include Amadeus, Communicating Doors, The Hunting of the Snark, Comedians, The Lion in Winter and Julius Caesar.
After moving to America in 1961, McCallum was cast in the role of Illya Kuryakin in the TV series The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Initially a minor character with two lines. But that was enough for producers to see that McCallum and star Robert Vaughn had considerable chemistry together, and McCallum was boosted to co-star status, with the role earning him two Emmy Award nominations and a Golden Globe nod. He went on to appear in the movies The Greatest Story Ever Told, The Great Escape, Mosquito Squadron, Billy Budd, Freud and A Night to Remember and in several TV movies, including the 1969 Teacher, Teacher, which landed him his third Emmy nomination.
McCallum found his next hit with NCIS. A close confidante to Mark Harmon’s Jethro Gibbs, his “Ducky” Mallard served as father confessor and paternal figure for the show’s offbeat cast of characters. McCallum remained on the show til the end, working a lighter schedule over the last several years. He showcased his signature sense humor in announcing his return in 2018.
McCallum’s extensive TV series credits also include The Invisible Man, The Education of Max Bickford, Sapphire and Steel, Colditz, Motherlove, Kidnapped, and episodes of The Outer Limits, Law & Order and Sex and the City. He also voiced characters in the animated series The Replacements and Ben 10 and narrated more than 30 books on tape and CD.
In addition to acting, McCallum also orchestrated and conducted a trio of records that put unique spins on some of the period’s more popular songs. In 2016 McCallum published his first novel, Once a Crooked Man.
Callum is survived by his wife of 56 years, Katherine McCallum, his sons Paul McCallum, Valentine McCallum and Peter McCallum, his daughter Sophie McCallum and his eight grandchildren: Julia McCallum, Luca de Sanctis, Iain de Sanctis, Stella McCallum, Gavin McCallum, George McCallum, Alessandro de Sanctis and Whit McCallum.
“He was the kindest, coolest, most patient and loving father,” Peter McCallum said in a statement on behalf of the family. “He always put family before self. He looked forward to any chance to connect with his grandchildren, and had a unique bond with each of them. He and his youngest grandson, Whit, 9, could often be found in the corner of a room at family parties having deep philosophical conversations.
“He was a true renaissance man — he was fascinated by science and culture and would turn those passions into knowledge. For example, he was capable of conducting a symphony orchestra and (if needed) could actually perform an autopsy, based on his decades-long studies for his role on NCIS.
“After returning from the hospital to their apartment, I asked my mother if she was OK before she went to sleep. Her answer was simply, ‘Yes. But I do wish we had had a chance to grow old together.’ She is 79, and dad just turned 90. The honesty in that emotion shows how vibrant their beautiful relationship and daily lives were, and that somehow, even at 90, Daddy never grew old.”
In lieu of flowers, McCallum’s family asks that donations be made to the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation at http://www.mcsf.org.
No immediate memorial service will take place, instead a celebration of life service will be held in the future.
NCIS veteran David McCallum, also known for
Dan Harmon’s “Krapopolis” got off to a very un-krappy start on Sunday, thanks in large part to it immediately following NFL football on the east coast.
“Krapopolis” drew 3.6 million “live” viewers, according to early Nielsen numbers, and had a 1.2 rating among adults 18-49. That makes it television’s most-watched animated series premiere in a decade, and Harmon’s most-watched episode of an animated show (so, not “Community”) ever. Excluding awards shows, the football-boosted “Krapopolis” debut was the most-watched entertainment telecast since Fox’s “Next Level Chef” launched out of February’s Super Bowl.
Like “Next Level Chef,” much of Sunday’s success can be directly attributed to folks just leaving their TV sets on their Fox station after the “Game of the Week’s” final whistle. (And a quickie version of post-game show “The OT.”)
Save NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” (Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Las Vegas Raiders) telecast, “Krapopolis” is likely to be primetime’s no. 1 show.
Fox will say it focuses on numbers that include three days of delayed viewing, and it will. But take our word for it: Fox is very happy to have these Nielsen numbers out there as a one-off.
Linear-television (broadcast, like Fox, and cable) ratings have been dwindling for years as streaming usage has soared. Similarly, “live” tune-in has given way to on-demand viewership and bingeing. Sports, news, and other live events (like awards shows) are just about the only thing that can and should still be analyzed using Nielsen’s Live + Same Day metric; the NFL is the biggest player in its genre.
Fox’s 4 p.m. (ET) national game was the Chicago Bears vs. Kansas City Chiefs. Though the contest was a total blowout in Kansas City’s favor, it had the added intrigue of (and social-media attention from) Taylor Swift cheering on Travis Kelce from his Arrowhead suite. Fox cameras cut to Swift seemingly at every chance — even its announcers publicly shipped the pop/country star and the Chiefs’ star tight end. The two would later be seen leaving the stadium together.
You think the league was excited? Following the Chiefs’ win, the NFL’s official TikTok account changed its bio to “Taylor was here.” We’re sure football purists loved that.
Even with the very non-football storyline, faced with a 34-0 score at halftime, Fox was forced to cut away to a more competitive game. The consolation prize was an Arizona Cardinals upset of the Dallas Cowboys, the first win for the former and first loss for the latter. A network could do worse: the Cowboys, nicknamed “America’s Team,” draw the best national TV ratings of any NFL team.
IndieWire TV critic Ben Travers gave “Krapopolis” a C+ grade. “There are laughs to be had and glimpses of largely unrealized potential,” Travers wrote, calling out Hannah Waddingham and Matt Berry’s voice performances at highlights.
But in watching the three episodes provided in advance to press, Travers didn’t quite see three seasons — the order Fox handed Harmon — of material at the ready. Read his full review here.
The animated comedy takes place in the ancient Greek city of Krapopolis, under the rule of Tyrannis (Richard Ayoade). As the son of goddess Deliria (Waddingham) and mantitaur (half manticore, half centaur — so part human, horse, lion, and scorpion) father Shlub (Berry), Tyrannis is pulled between his curious mortal genes and mighty Olympian heritage.
Pam Murphy voices Tyrannis’ sister Stupendous, with Duncan Trussell as his brother Hippocampus (both are half-siblings, their other parents a cyclops and a mermaid, respectively), as this ancient modern family try to govern the city and themselves through chaos.
New episodes of “Krapopolis” air Sundays at 8 p.m. on Fox.
Dan Harmon’s “Krapopolis” got off to a
European production-distribution giant Studiocanal is teaming with Spain’s Mr. Fields and Friends and Bambú, both led by producer Ramón Campos, on dramatic comedy “Rondallas,” written-directed by Daniel Sánchez Arévalo (“BlueDarkAlmostBlack,” “Cousinhood,” “Seventeen”).
Sánchez Arévalo, one of Spain’s foremost crossover filmmakers, is coming back with “Rondallas” to a movie project oriented to classic cinema theater exhibition and distribution, after creating and directing a feature film and a TV series for Netflix.
Studiocanal will handle worldwide sales on “Rondallas,” scheduled to roll from March in Galicia, Northern Spain, with a still undisclosed cast.
“Rondallas” is produced by Campos, creator and executive producer of flagship Spanish TV dramas such as “Gran Hotel,” “Velvet,” “Cable Girls” and “Fariña,” all set up at his Madrid-based Bambú, one of the most game-changing of TV production companies in Spain, and partially owned by Studiocanal.
With dedicated film production house Mr Fields and Friends, Campos has produced titles such as Isaki Lacuesta’s 2022 Berlin competition player “One Year, One Night,” on the emotional aftermath of 2015’s terrorist attacks on Paris’ Bataclan night club and horror movie “Malasaña 32,” sold in more than 20 territories. It has also teamed with Warner Bros. and Atresmedia on romantic drama “Our Summer Together.”
“Rondallas” will tell the story of a small fishing town on the coast of Galicia, which was shaken two years ago by the shipwreck of a fishing boat in which seven of its nine crew members died, including the director of the rondalla [a musical band whose members play popular songs with guitars, bandurrias and other similar stringed instruments].
After two years of mourning, they decide to return to the rondalla, a tradition deeply rooted in the community, which brings a lot of joy and excitement at Christmas. What they need is to get excited again.
“As a director and screenwriter, you always look to make films that you would like to see. And as a viewer, what captivates me most is that they move me and make me smile at the same time. I think this film has all the necessary ingredients to achieve it: Comedy, social drama, Galicia, the sea, rondallas, tradition and rock’n roll,” Sánchez Arévalo said.
The filmmaker broke through in 2007 with his feature debut, tragicomedy “DarkBlueAlmostBlack.” After 2009’s acid “Fat,” he directed two movies – 2011’s bachelor farce “Cousinhood” and 2013’s wedding-set “Family United” – which won him respect as an adept writer-director of fun comedy with a social point of view.
More recently, he created and directed for Netflix the feature “Seventeen” (2019) and TV drama “The Last Row” (2022), both produced for the streamer by José Antonio Félez’s Atípica Films, who had backed all of Sanchez Arevalo’s top titles to date.
Through “Rondallas,” Sánchez Arévalo is returning to a film project oriented to theatrical exhibition and distribution.
“After two projects for Netflix, I was clear that I wanted to make a film with a classic distribution and exhibition release. A movie for theaters. And for the public. I like cinema. I like the experience of going to the movies, of sitting in a seat to share such an intimate moment with more people,” he explained.
A 100% affiliate of Vivendi’s Canal Plus Group, in 2016 Studiocanal took a minority stake in Bambú, which Campos had co-founded in 2007 alongside Teresa Fernández Valdés.
“I have been a fan of Daniel’s films since I saw his first shorts 20 years ago. Since then I have followed his career. Destiny wanted us to establish a friendship in addition to our professional admiration. Now with ‘Rondallas,’ I fulfill my dream of becoming his producer,” Campos argued.
“Daniel is the best director of emotional comedies in our country. He is our Alexander Payne and with ‘Rondallas’ we want to give him the opportunity to take another step in his career in terms of ambition and projection,” he concluded.
European production-distribution giant Studiocanal is teaming with
The fourth and final season of Sex Education cements the show’s legacy as an all-time Netflix great. The eight-episode swan song offers the rare combination of quirky humor and beating-heart sincerity that the show is known for, providing fans with a sensational sendoff. There’s no shortage of entertaining programs out there, but what makes Sex Education stand out is its ability to make you feel. The show’s warm, inclusive nature and immensely talented ensemble combine to create a fun, relatable world with which viewers can deeply empathize. Otis (Asa Butterfield), Eric (Ncuti Gatwa), Adam (Connor Swindells), Maeve (Emma Mackey), and Jackson (Kedar Williams-Stirling) feel less like characters and more like classmates. Thanks for the memories, Sex Education. We’ll miss you.
Photo: Netflix
By Josh Sorokach The fourth and final season of
Range Media, the management and production company that’s quickly establishing a foothold in Hollywood, is expanding its sports division.
Range, led by CEO Pete Micelli, said Monday that it has acquired veteran agent Lowell Taub’s boutique sports company Stoked Management Group. Taub will join Range as chief revenue officer and head of athlete marketing for the sports unit. All five employees of Stoked are moving over to the Santa Monica-based company.
Taub launched Stoked Management nearly at the same time that former CAA, UTA and WME agents decamped to found Range in 2020 during the pandemic when production was shut down in Hollywood. Stoked touts a roster of Olympic stars and pro athletes in action sports, including surfer John Florence, Peloton instructor Kendall Toole and track athlete Gabrielle Thomas, who will move over to Range.
“Lowell is a uniquely talented leader with an impeccable reputation,” stated Range Sports co-presidents Will Funk and Greg Luckman. “We are excited to have him and the rest of the Stoked team lead our Athlete Marketing practice and accelerate the growth of our broader Range Sports platform.”
Taub, who founded GFHF Marketing & Management in 2005, sold that firm two years later to CAA and spent 13 years at the Century City-based talent agency, including as head of sports endorsements. Other clients have included Olympian swimmer Ryan Lochte and ski star Bode Miller. Of his new deal, Taub added, “I have been inspired by Range’s growth during the same period and I could not be more thrilled to join such an impressive team.”
Range, launched with financial backing from Steven A. Cohen’s Point72 Ventures, is part of a wave of management firms that have formed in recent years amid a fracturing (and consolidating) Hollywood representation landscape. Last year, A+E Networks invested in Range as part of a production and content partnership deal.
In June, the company made a deal for production shingle Automatik and enlisted Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and Fred Berger as partners and co-presidents of film and production, expanding Range’s producing to projects including Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriders, Oz Perkins’ Longlegs, Jonathan Entwistle’s Fred & Ginger and James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown.
Range Media, the management and production company
Armand Hammer have shared “The Gods Must Be Crazy,” the latest single from their forthcoming LP, We Buy Diabetic Test Strips. It was produced by El-P of Run the Jewels. Check it out below.
Of the collaboration, El-P said: “[Armand Hammer’s billy] woods and Elucid have something special going, and I am happy we got together on this jam. I think we made a banger.”
“The Gods Must Be Crazy,” follows the new album’s “Woke Up and Asked Siri How I’m Gonna Die” and “Trauma Mic.”
After the release of We Buy Diabetic Test Strips on September 29, billy woods and Elucid head out on a tour that will take them through the United States, Europe, and Canada into 2024. The tour also includes a November 5 performance at Pitchfork Music Festival Berlin.
Armand Hammer have shared “The Gods Must
Film Factory Entertainment has swooped on international sales rights to “Marco,” the next film from Basque filmmaking trio Aitor Arregi, Jon Garaño and Jose Mari Goenaga.
Their latest follows a high caliber run consisting of 2014 San Sebastian competition player “Flowers,” 2017’s San Sebastian Special Jury Prize winner “Giant,” and lockdown hit “The Endless Trench” which secured their second Oscar entry for Spain. Shooting is scheduled to begin in October.
“‘Marco’ will be a beautiful film and it perfectly suits our slate of quality films with commercial potential,” Film Factory’s Vicente Canales told Variety.
The film, based on real events, turns on imposter Enric Marco. Marco gained sympathy, fame, and respect for being an eloquent concentration camp survivor. He was a distinguished voice for the Spanish deportees as head of the Amical de Mauthausen. Marco was charismatic. In giving speeches, he packed them with tragic details of life at the camp.
It was a lie. Marco was exposed in 2005 by historian Benito Bermejo, just prior to sharing a platform at the Mauthausen camp with then Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. He was 84 at the time. The film will explore the motivations behind what leads to a lie of this magnitude, and the fallout post scandal. “His lies were like a ball of snow, becoming bigger and bigger over time. At the end he was telling huge lies.” Jon Garaño told Variety.
The shoot will be located in San Sebastian, with parts shot in Germany, Barcelona and Madrid. Its expected release is 2024.
“The Endless Trench” saw the three sharing directing credit. This time around it’s split between Arregi, and Garaño, with Jose Mari Goenaga still heavily involved in all aspects of writing and production. They are a contented trio, seemingly holding the secret to collaboration having worked successfully together for over 20 years.
“Marco” is backed by the filmmakers’ long-time producer Xabier Berzosa at Irusion, and Moriarti Produkzioak, as well as Artresmedia and La Verdad Inventada AIE.
“Working with such dedicated production houses as Irusoin and Moriarti is a real pleasure.” Canales added.
It would be easy to hold contempt for Enric Marco but the directors hope to show the choices we all make in revealing ourselves to others. “Sometimes you want to show a better version of yourself. In a way that people can love you more, and can admire you more. And this is what he did. And in a smaller way, it is what we all do,” said Garaño.
Arregi highlights another aspect of how we can be taken in by a lie. “Why do we give so many people like this a platform? Because he knows how to tell a good story and we prefer to hear a good story over a true one perhaps. For me, this story dances in that kind of concept.”
This dance between the said and the unsaid, the metaphors of secrets is a marker of their work. With “Flowers,” “Giant,” “The Endless Trench,” and soon to release Disney+ series “Balenciaga,” the Basque trio are building success upon success with a slew of ideas and projects ready and waiting.
Film Factory Entertainment has swooped on international
The first Black person appointed to the B.C. Bench has died of cancer, according to the family of Selwyn Romilly.
His relatives say he passed away last Friday at his home, surrounded by loved ones.
Romilly was born in Trinidad and Tabago in 1940. He moved to Canada in 1960 where he earned a bachelor of arts and a law degree from the Peter A. Allard School of Law at UBC.
That’s where he also met his future wife Lorna. The pair then moved to Smithers where they raised two children.
Two of his brothers also moved to Canada around the same time with his brother Valmond also working in the legal profession and eventually becoming a judge as well.
Romilly worked as a lawyer from 1967 until 1974 when he was appointed a provincial judge.
In 1995, he was appointed to the B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver becoming the first Black judge named to the province’s highest court, where he served until 2015.
Upon his retirement in 2015, Romilly was honored at Vancouver city hall and a gala was held by the Canadian Association of Black Lawyers.
His family said Romilly was a kind, gentle soul and a trailblazer.
Romilly’s relatives added there are no words to express what he meant to the community.
In 2021, Romilly was wrongfully detained and handcuffed by Vancouver Police officers while on a morning walk in Stanley Park.
At the time, officers said they were looking for a dark-skinned man in his 40’s or 50’s.
“I thought things had changed and they haven’t,” Romilly told Global News of the incident.
“I hate to say racial profiling, but I can’t help but think if it was an 81-year-old white man, regardless of the description, they wouldn’t have put him in handcuffs for ‘officer safety.’”
In a statement, the then mayor of Vancouver, Kennedy Stewart, said he was “appalled” by the incident.
The incident did cause the VPD to change their handcuffing policy.
Now, officers who use force will be legally responsible for their actions and cannot view handcuffing as a routine action.
Romilly was 83 years old.
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
The first Black person appointed to the
It seems Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater are ready to go public. In new videos and photos obtained by DeuxMoi and shared on September 25, the couple was seen walking arm in arm while hitting up Disneyland at night over the weekend. The duo went low-key, with the hitmaker rocking a black ball cap and black hoodie with leggings and a small purse. Ethan wore head to toe black and finished the look with sandals and white socks as he walked arm in arm with Ariana. At one point, he pulled his black hoodie over his head, a beige ball cap peeking out from underneath.
“Ariana Grande & Ethan Slater spotted for the first time as a couple this weekend at Disney,” DeuxMoi captioned the content on Monday. In the comments thread, fans had dubious thoughts about the sighting, who famously split from their respective spouses (Dalton Gomez and Lilly Jay) over the summer amid rumors of a burgeoning romance.
“I. Don’t. Like. This.” wrote a follower on the account, with another remarking, “Like this just shows all the ‘rumors’ were true. Gross.” “We really thought she was just being cute w/ that break up with your girlfriend bc she’s bored song too,” quipped another. “Yikes.”
PEOPLE reported on July 20 that Ariana and Dalton had parted ways back in January, with sources denying any impropriety as Ariana and Ethan allegedly got to know each other on the set of Wicked. “Ariana and Dalton separated in January,” a source reportedly told the outlet. “She and Ethan recently began dating, and he is separated from his wife.” The co-stars reportedly bonded over their fresh breakups from their spouses — it’s worth noting that the Broadway actor has a child with Lilly Jay.
Meanwhile, Lilly slammed the “God is a Woman” singer in a harsh statement in July. “[Ariana’s] the story really. Not a girl’s girl,” she told Page Six. “My family is just collateral damage.” The mom of one added, “The story is her and Dalton.”
Ariana filed for divorce from Dalton on September 18. Ethan filed for divorce from Lilly Jay on July 26.
Image Credit: Matt Baron/Kristina Bumphrey/Starpix/Shutterstock It seems Ariana Grande
Taylor Swift’s presence in the bleachers — or rather, the luxury suite — to support Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce was the talk of social media over the weekend, and even quarterback Patrick Mahomes was part of the conversation.
Swift attended the team’s game against the Chicago Bears at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday, with Fox’s cameras cutting to the singer frequently during the broadcast. Her visit followed media reports of a budding romance between herself and tight end Kelce, whose own third-quarter touchdown helped his team wallop the opposing squad 41-10.
After the game, Mahomes was asked during a press conference about Swift’s presence. “She’s a tremendous singer, tremendous at everything she does,” the reigning NFL MVP told reporters. “I haven’t got to meet her, but I guess if she ends up being with Travis, then I’ll probably get to meet her at some point. Seems like a good person, so hopefully I get to meet her one day.”
Mahomes explained that he only learned recently that Swift would attend the game for the Chiefs, who won Super Bowl LVII in February and currently sit atop the AFC West with a record of 2-1.
“He told me at the last minute, but there’s some things with Trav where he just says it, and you don’t know if it’s true or not,” Mahomes quipped. “Friday, he was like, ‘Yeah, I think she’s coming to the game this weekend,’ and then moved about his business. So you’re kinda like, that just happens, I guess. I don’t know — it’s just Travis.”
During an on-field interview with Erin Andrews, the quarterback addressed whether he felt pressure to get Kelce the ball in front of the famous fan. “I heard she was in the house. I felt a little bit of pressure, and so I knew I had to get it to Trav,” Mahomes replied. “I think he wanted to get into the end zone just as much as all the Swifites wanted him to.”
Kelce and Swift did not publicly address their relationship status following the game, although footage of the pair exiting the stadium together made the rounds on social media. The music star typically keeps developments in her personal life close to the vest.
This is a busy stretch for Swift, who is currently enjoying some downtime from her hugely successful Eras Tour before it picks up again in South America in November. A concert film featuring the tour will hit theaters next month and is tracking for a colossal opening weekend.
Meanwhile, Kelce starred on E! dating series Catching Kelce, which aired in 2016, and he hosted Saturday Night Live earlier this year.
Taylor Swift’s presence in the bleachers —
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As shoppers are readying their wallets for Amazon Prime Big Deal Days on Oct. 10 and 11, other retailers are piggy-backing off the epic pre-holiday shopping event with their own rival deals.
For those looking to avoid shelling out extra money on an Amazon Prime membership (which costs $14.99 per month or $139 annually), the great news is that there are plenty of fall sales to shop elsewhere online. Target’s Circle Week returns Oct. 1 to 7 with up to 40 percent off Beats, Dyson and other brands; while the Walmart Deals — Holiday Kickoff event runs from Oct. 9 to 12 online.
Don’t want to wait? Right now, Overstock and Wayfair are among the online furniture retailers that are hosting major savings on furniture, decor, rugs and more. That means you don’t need a membership to enjoy savings on designer clothing, accessories, and eyewear alongside big-ticket items like smartphones, laptops, cookware, home appliances, televisions, soundbars, gaming systems, and more goods ahead of the back-to-school shopping season.
Shoppers who are upgrading their outdoor spaces, restocking their fall and winter wardrobes or getting early holiday gifts have plenty of ways to save this season.
Below, we’ve rounded up the best Amazon Prime Day competing sales that are happening now through July 16. Stay tuned for more and bookmark this page as we’ll be updating our list as more deals are announced.
Best Buy hasn’t yet announced any sales for October, but there are still plenty of deals on laptops, TVs, appliances, tablets, smartphones and more tech on sale for up to 50 percent off at the retailer’s Outlet and Clearance section.
Online pet retailer Chewy is offering a free $30 gift card with purchases of $100 and up with the code FALL.
Save up to 50 percent off outdoor and patio furniture and decor, select kitchen appliances, tools, ceiling fans, lighting and more.
Kohl’s hasn’t announced and fall deal event, but the retailer’s clearance section offers up to 70 percent off clothing and more.
No word yet on any October sales, but the home improvement retailer’s Deals of the Day promises big savings on appliances, patio furniture, storage and organization, bathroom and kitchen furniture and supplies, and more.
For a limited time, save an extra 30% off select clothing styles and 15% off select beauty products with code VIP.
For a limited time, save up to 25 perent off select items across fashion, beauty and home, including from AllSaints, GreenPan, YSL Beauty, La Mer, Dior, Steve Madden and more.
The online home furnishings retailer’s ongoing deals include up to 65 percent off rugs, 40 percent off living room furniture and Halloween decor, 35 percent off dining room furniture and more.
The pet retailer hasn’t announced any October sales, but there are still plenty of deals for dogs and cats in its clearance section.
Through Oct. 1, save 25 percent off select new arrivals during Saks’ Friends & Family sale, including on Staud, Alice + Olivia, Mother, Rag & Bone, Vince and more.
Revolve
Target‘s fall Circle Week takes place from Oct. 1 to 7 and promises up to 40 percent off floor care (including Dyson) and kitchen items; $70 off Beats headphones ($130, reg. $200); 50 percent off annual Shipt memberships;$10 off toy purchases of $50 or more or $25 off purchases of $100 and up; 30 percent off select womenswear and Halloween costumes; 20 percent off bath, bedding, grocery, diapers and wipes, books and movies; exclusive offers from Ulta Beauty at Target; and more.
Target’s free Drive Up and Order Pickup services and convenient Same Day Delivery (via Shipt) allow you to get your shopping haul as early as within the same day.
From Oct. 9 starting at 4 p.m. PT/7 p.m. ET to Oct. 12, Walmart Deals — Holiday Kickoff will feature $171 off the Apple Watch SE ($149, reg. $320), $400 off the Sony 75-in. Class Brava XR X90K 4K TV ($4998, reg. $1,498), $58 off the Mega Barbie the Movie Dreamhouse ($140, reg. $197), $45 off Lego Super Heroes The Batman Batmobile set ($55, reg. $100), $223 off the iHome Nova S1 Pro vacuum robot ($177, reg. $400) and many more deals.
Wayfair’s Surplus Sale promises up to 50 percent off home furnishings, decor, outdoor seating, mattresses, lighting, rugs and more.
Save up to 60 percent off designer labels such as Chloe, Balenciaga, Manolo Blahnik, Zimmerman, Valentino and more.
FWRD
For a limited time, save up to 65 percent off shoes and athletic apparel during Nike’s Last Chance Sale.
Through Sept. 27, save 30 percent off everything, including clearance items.
Through Sept. 30, save up to 65 percent off brands including Agolde, Birkenstock, Norma Kamali and others during Revolve’s end-of-month sale.
Revolve
If you purchase an independently reviewed product
Bobby Deol’s look from Animal is out now.
Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Animal featuring Ranbir Kapoor, has been one of the most highly anticipated films of 2023 since its inception. Fans have been eagerly waiting for the film’s teaser, and the teaser will finally drop on September 28, coinciding with Ranbir Kapoor’s birthday.
Days before the drop, Bobby Deol’s look from the film has been revealed. Bobby has a striking appearance with blood splattered across his face, giving him a rugged and intense look. He sports a thick, unkempt beard that adds to his tough demeanour. With his index finger pressed to his lips, he gestures for someone to be quiet, adding to the thriller’s secrecy and suspense. Check out the look here:
Brother Sunny Deol hailed the look and wrote, “Yes Bob Go For it”.
Bobby Deol has extensively worked on his physique for his role in the Sandeep Reddy Vanga directorial.
Meanwhile, a new poster of Animal has been released and it unveiled the first look of Rashmika Mandanna from the film. The actress shared the poster on her Instagram account and revealed her character’s name from the film. Her character’s name will be Geetanjali. In the poster, Rashmika was seen draping a traditional Bengali red and white saree. She also wore a mangalsutra to complete her look.
Speculations are rife that Animal is the story of a son’s obsessive love for his father. Often away due to work the father is unable to comprehend the intensity of his son’s love. The film also features Animal Kapoor in a pivotal role.
Bobby Deol's look from Animal is out
WATCH: Kathy Griffin calls out ‘sleaze bag’ Russell Brand on Instagram
WATCH: Kathy Griffin calls out ‘sleaze bag’
![Scooby Doo! And Krypto Too! Clip Follows The Search For The Justice League [EXCLUSIVE]](https://timewarnerent.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Scooby-Doo-And-Krypto-Too-Clip-Follows-The-Search-For-1200x600.jpg)
Screen Rant is thrilled to share an exclusive clip from the new animated adventure Scooby-Doo! and Krypto, Too! The animated movie brings the worlds of DC and Scooby-Doo together for an all-new mystery as the Scooby Gang is called in for help when the Justice League goes missing. With villains from all over DC running amok in Metropolis, they must search for clues with threats hot on their heels. However, they aren’t alone, with Krypto the Superdog stepping up to help protect the Scooby Gang and the city.
On top of that, a mysterious phantom has taken over the Hall of Justice. With the biggest mystery of their careers on their plate, the Scooby Gang and Krypto will need to save the iconic DC superhero team and thus save Metropolis. Scooby-Doo! and Krypto, Too! will be available on Digital and DVD on September 26.
Screen Rant’s exclusive Scooby-Doo! and Krypto, Too! clip features Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen showing the Scooby Gang the enigmatic phantom, or phantoms with red eyes spotted at the bottom of the image, that is in the Hall of Justice. Velma admits this may be a mystery right up their alley, which Lois Lane is clearly pleased with, and although the journalists would love to help with Superman, missing villains have been attacking Metropolis left and right, meaning the Daily Planet is busier than ever. Scooby and his pals need to unmask the Phantom and find the Justice League before these villains destroy the world, which, to Shaggy’s point, is a lot of pressure, especially with said villains keeping an eye on the sleuths.
Scooby-Doo! and Krypto, Too! brings two iconic worlds together, with Krypto the Superdog as the perfect way to tie them together. The comedy and heart of both the Justice League and Scooby-Doo can be a perfect team-up, especially with the gang stepping up to help find the missing heroes while foiling the plots of their greatest enemies. Scooby-Doo! and Krypto, Too! includes three bonus Scooby-Doo episodes: “The Scooby of a Thousand Faces!”, “What a Night, for a Dark Knight!, and “One Minute Mysteries!” Guest Starring The Flash.
Scooby-Doo! and Krypto, Too! is directed by Cecilia Aranovich Hamilton from a script penned by T.K. O’Brian. Reprising their roles as the Scooby Gang are Matthew Lillard, Frank Welker, Kate Micucci, and Grey Delisle, who also voice Wonder Woman. Scooby-Doo! and Krypto, Too! also stars P.J. Byrne, Victoria Grace, Charles Halford, Nolan North, Tara Strong, Fred Tatasciore, James Arnold Taylor, and Niccole Thurman.
Scooby-Doo! and Krypto, Too! is available on Digital and DVD on September 26.
Summary Scooby-Doo! and Krypto, Too!
There are a couple of endings in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty. The missions themselves can branch out depending on your actions, though one does lead to a satisfying conclusion to V’s story. Our Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty endings guide discusses the important decisions that you need to make, as well as the finale that leads to another arc for the main campaign. Naturally, it goes without saying that this article contains major spoilers.
The Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty endings are tied to the mission structure. As such, we outline the steps that led us to certain key moments. We also advise you to keep backup saves in case you want to make a different decision the next time around.
You’ll need to make an important decision near the end of the Firestarter mission. This will influence the type of finale arc that you’ll get, including the closing missions, as well as certain iconic weapon rewards. You’re given these two choices:
If you help Songbird escape in Firestarter, you’ll get a finale mission called The Killing Moon. The goal is to clear a spaceport so she can board a shuttle that takes her to a lunar facility. However, upon riding the train car, you’ll realize that Songbird might have been lying, and she was just using V to find a cure for herself.
Several options become available at this point, as well as in succeeding instances:
To get this Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty ending, you must pick up Songbird and carry her to the shuttle. Suddenly, Reed appears and a standoff ensues:
Once you lay Songbird down on the platform, you’ll continue talking to Reed:
With Reed dead, you can pick up Songbird again so you can take her to the shuttle. V and Johnny will watch as the shuttle takes off, presumably so Songbird can be cured of the Blackwall’s corruption. You may also grab Reed’s iconic weapon, the Pariah, next to his corpse.
V will not find a cure if you pick this particular arc. Instead, you’ll simply return to Night City, and the only ending options that remain are those from the base game (i.e. Nocturne Op55N1 and meeting Hanako Arasaka onward). As an aside, we also completed one particular final mission from the base game. There were no new post-credits scenes (i.e. Songbird did not call V to have a chat).
Gallery
To get this Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty ending, you’ll have to surrender Songbird to Reed. There are a couple of ways to do this:
Reed will carry Songbird to the NUSA transport craft that’s waiting nearby, and you can tell him to keep his end of the bargain. This unlocks a new ending for the Cyberpunk 2077 main campaign. That means you’ll no longer need to go through all the tasks related to Nocturne Op55N1 and Arasaka HQ.
If you help Reed capture Songbird in Firestarter, you’ll get an entirely different finale. It involves the following missions:
At the end of Somewhat Damaged, you’ll enter the core where Songbird is hiding. She’s in a weakened state, and she wants you to finish her off. You’re given a couple of choices:
This leads to a mission called Leave in Silence, where you and Reed drive her back to NUSA’s border. Here’s what happens next:
The same scenes from Leave in Silence will play out. There are, however, a few key differences:
Next up, you’re asked to wait for a few days until Reed calls you to talk about a cure. This is somewhat vague, as there’s no definite time frame. In our case, we had to skip several days in-game until we received a call from Reed. Once he does call you, meet him at the designated location:
Either of these two branches will lead to another quest called Who Wants to Live Forever. You’ll then need to go to the rooftop of Misty’s Esoterica, which is marked on your map. Those who’ve played the base game will remember this as the spot where V decided on how to attack Arasaka HQ.
Important: This area acts as a point of no return. You’re free to continue exploring the rest of Night City. But once you call Reed, a NUSA transport will show up and you’ll be taken to a hospital, which leads to the new ending.
This new ending for Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty is somewhat bittersweet. Here’s a quick summary:
This leads to an epilogue where V returns to Night City. You’ll meet up with a couple of peeps here:
Long story short: V, the legendary mercenary, is alive and well. Unfortunately, since they can’t use most cybernetic implants, they can no longer engage in any combat-oriented role. They’re now a regular person, a face in the crowd.
This Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty ending also has a few post-credits scenes involving other characters. As mentioned earlier, Mitch doesn’t want you to contact Panam again. Rogue, meanwhile, says that you’re always welcome in the Afterlife bar, but she also doesn’t want you to tarnish your legend. Takemura also tells you about how he and Hanako attempted to overthrow Yorinobu Arasaka. Without V’s help, this ended in failure–Hanako was killed, and Takemura was falsely accused of her murder. Lastly, Reed tells you that Songbird is alive, but he hasn’t heard from her in a long while. It seems that he regrets his actions.
Gallery
That’s everything you need to know about the endings in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty. Was this a satisfying conclusion to V’s arc, or could things have been better? You be the judge.
There’s more in store for V as you check out the district of Dogtown in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty. For other tips and tactics, you can visit our guides hub.
The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors.
GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site.
Frenetic and high-flying ‘90s rock emblem Mauricio Aznar trades his position as enigmatic frontman of Zaragoza’s Más Birras for a journey towards the soul of his craft in Spanish writer-director Javier Macipe’s highly-anticipated second feature, “The Blue Star” (“La Estrella Azul”) saw its world premiere in the New Directors strand of the San Sebastian Film Festival on Monday.
Macipe’s (“Los inconvenientes de no ser dios”) short efforts, 2014 release “Children of the River” and 2019’s “Gastos incluídos,” earned Spanish Academy Goya nominations, placing him among Variety’s 10 Spanish talents to track in 2021.
“The Blue Star,” filmed in Spain’s Zaragoza and Argentina’s Santiago de Estero and Cerro Colorado, Córdoba, poetically delves into Aznar’s introspective journey to Northern Argentina, where music isn’t a mere hobby but resides in the veins, flowing effortlessly alongside lifeblood to enrich the community.
After an encounter with an aging musician – the two, worlds apart in circumstance and style – a serendipitous exchange grows as he transitions from humble observer to ebullient participant.
The film continues as Aznar travels back to Spain, ever-changed by his experience and carrying an irreconcilable longing that leaves him tethered to the memory.
An ambitious co-production, “The Blue Star,” is backed by indie shingle MOD Producciones, Alejandro Amenábar’s regular producer, and fast-growing Latin American studio Cimarrón Cine (“The Ravaging Wind”) in tandem with El Pez Amarillo. Barcelona’s La Charito Films and Argentina’s Prisma co-produce.
International sales are handled by Film Factory Ent. (“Wild Tales”) while Wanda Vision will distribute in Spanish theaters. The cast is led by Pepe Lorente (“El Espirante”) alongside Argentine musician Cuti Carabajal, who plays his brother Carlos, and rounded out by Bruna Cusí (“Fácil”), Marc Rodriguez (“Spleen”), Mariela Carabajal, Noelia Verenice Díaz and Catalina Sopelana.
Ahead of the film’s debut, Macipe spoke with Variety about Aznar’s legacy, the challenges of production and the warm-hearted nature of the Argentine countryside.
What was it about Mauricio Aznar that prompted you to turn his story into a film?
Great stories have to be told sooner or later. By fate, Mauricio’s mother and I crossed paths 18 years ago and she gave me the idea of making a film about her son, who’d just died. Mauricio was a kind of John Lennon, a “Sugarman.” He died young but was an old soul, he’d known the deep pain of his countrymen and renounced fame to be faithful to his mission. For me, that’s what it means to be a true artist. And, as an artist, what better theme could there be for a movie?
Can you speak to the ambitious filming process between Spain and Argentina?
It’s an ambitious film because there are many scenes of massive concerts. I wanted everything to be recorded live, with a real audience. We started filming in 2020 and had to stop on the third day of filming due to the pandemic.
Since then, everything’s been extended with the outbreaks of the virus, fights against financial problems, inflation in Argentina, technicians who got off the boat, even deaths of key people on the team. The only way to summarize it? It’s been a very hard process, full of resistance, which has been sustained because we had a very deep motivation from the heart and many friends supporting us.
When did you know the lead role would go to Pepe Lorente?
There was a casting exercise and after a meditation I asked the actor, with his eyes closed, without thinking, to let Mauricio speak through him, as if he were a medium. I really heard Mauricio.
It’s almost impossible to explain and it was difficult for me to convince the producers that he was the right person, because everything was based on a somewhat ethereal feeling. Seeing the result, everyone thinks we got it right.
There’s a warmth, curiosity and a feeling of being welcomed in Argentina that just doesn’t exist elsewhere in the same capacity. Can you speak to incorporating that into the film and how the entire experience had an impact on Mauricio and your crew during filming?
10 years ago, I made my first trip to Argentina, repeating Mauricio’s trip. I’d booked hotels, but I ended up sleeping alone in musicians’ houses. Argentina, and even more so Santiago de Estero, is a land accustomed to perpetual crises. It’s common to find that brother willing to offer you everything he has and open his house to you. Shared poverty can be transformed into joy.
The team never stopped getting excited about this every day and several people have told me that this trip has been the most transformative of their lives. Mauricio learned this and opened his house to everyone.
Frenetic and high-flying ‘90s rock emblem Mauricio
Like keeping up with all the celebrity hair changes of 2023? You’re in the right place. We get it: It seems like A-listers dye their hair a new shade every other day. One day your favorite actor has a bob. The next they don’t! It’s exhausting. If you can relate, we have good news: We’ve taken it upon ourselves to round up every glam transformation of the year, which means you no longer have to moonlight as beauty detective to follow along with your faves.
From Cardi B and Emily Ratajkowski’s bright red dye jobs to Megan Fox and Jana Pinkett-Smith’s hot takes on pink, keep scrolling to see the best celebrity hair changes of 2023. You might want to bookmark this page and check back in throughout the year too. It’s research, after all.
Ahead, the biggest celebrity hair changes of 2023. Get ready to screenshot.
Like keeping up with all the celebrity
Chevy Chase has added a new wrinkle to his dishonorable discharge from Community in 2012. As it turns out, he never really thought the show was that funny to begin with.
Finally given the opportunity to tell the world who his guys were, Chase appeared on Marc Maron’s long-running podcast, WTF, today. Leaning on his 50 years of showbiz ups and downs, Chase discussed the things he liked and the many things he disliked in Hollywood. Chase is who he is. Eventually, the conversation turned to his most notable set confrontation of the last two decades: his firing from Community.
By the time Maron brings up Dan Harmon’s beloved cult series about an hour into the podcast, Chase seems surprised to hear the title at all. The former Fletch had just finished talking about how much he loves his life, which consists primarily of spending time with his wife and kids, when Maron brings up Community being a “big deal”—again, to Chase’s surprise. “I kind of forget about that,” Chase said of being asked to be on the show. “They wanted me, so I said ‘yes.’”
Chase lasted 83 episodes on the sitcom before creator Dan Harmon fired him for using the N-word on set. The actor sarcastically asked aloud if his character would start using racist epithets. For Chase, though, the show could have been better to begin with.
“I honestly felt the show wasn’t funny enough for me, ultimately. I felt a little bit constrained,” Chase told Maron. “Everybody had their bits, and I thought they were all good, but it just wasn’t hard-hitting enough for me.”
“I didn’t mind the character. I just felt that it was—I felt happier being alone. I just didn’t want to be surrounded by that table, every day, with those people. It was too much.”
Despite the Harmon-Chase feud making its way into the discourse occasionally, Chase says he’s “okay” with Harmon but has not seen him since 2012. “I have no idea if we’re okay,” he said. “I’ve never been not okay. He’s kind of a pisser.”
Last year, after news broke about a Community movie supposedly coming to Peacock, Harmon said he didn’t “even know if it’s legal for [Chase] to come back.”
“That may be out of my hands,” he continued. “Maybe something I sign for with an insurance company, I really don’t know.”
For what it’s worth, Chase does say that he and Bill Murray are okay these days. Maybe there’s hope for Community yet.
Chevy Chase has added a new wrinkle
Spoiler alert! This story contains spoilers for The Voice’s Season 24 premiere that aired September 25.
There’s a new sheriff in town, now that Blake Shelton has officially retired from The Voice, but while Reba McEntire rode in on a horse, she quickly upgraded her status from cowgirl to queen, as she made her debut on Season 24, complete with crown and scepter. That doesn’t mean Shelton was merely a memory, however, as the coaches — and especially Gwen Stefani — spent much of the first night of Blind Auditions taking note of his absence.
It was obvious from the get-go that Blake Shelton may be gone, but he’s definitely not forgotten after serving on the coaches’ panel for the first 23 seasons. After Carson Daly welcomed Reba McEntire to the stage officially for the first time, he presented her with a large pair of scissors to perform a ribbon-cutting on her Big Red Chair, of course, joking that it had been cleaned since the cowboy had vacated it.
That set the tone for the first sans-cowboy episode. Despite the first artist turning attention to Reba McEntire with a rousing rendition of “Fancy,” both Niall Horan and Gwen Stefani channeled Blake Shelton while trying to attract Jordan Rainer to their teams. The No Doubt singer said she’d get song recommendations from her husband, but the One Directioner really upped the ante by rigging his button to where every time he pressed it, Shelton’s voice boomed out something complimentary about him.
Niall Horan would strike again later, trying to win another Four-Chair Turn by hitting his button to feature a large foam finger that read, “Pick Niall,” with Blake Shelton’s name crossed out. Other mentions of the former Voice coach included:
So not surprisingly, Blake Shelton remained the focus of The Voice, despite not being on it anymore, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t get a taste of what Reba McEntire will bring as Shelton’s replacement. She was, after all, able to secure Four-Chair Turn Jordan Rainer, who bravely took on the country queen’s biggest hit to kick off the season, which you can see below:
All in all, The Voice seemed a little tamer without Blake Shelton — and his frequent sparring buddy Kelly Clarkson. Nobody blocked anybody from any of the artists (did The Voice finally get rid of the Blocks?), there was less passion in the bickering, and the only stunts pulled by any of the artists were Niall Horan’s recycled moves from Shelton. I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing, if it means putting more attention back on the artists.
Blake Shelton’s absence might take some getting used to, but if Gwen Stefani has anything to say about it, he won’t ever be far from our thoughts. The Voice continues at 8 p.m. Tuesday, September 26, on NBC.
Spoiler alert! This story contains spoilers for
Seven candidates qualified for the second Republican presidential debate on Wednesday, to be held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and telecast on Fox Business and Univision.
Making the cut were North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Vice President Mike Pence, Vivek Ramaswamy and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC). Former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson did not make the list, even though he was at the first presidential debate last month.
The debate, which starts at 6 p.m. PT, has a higher qualification threshold than the first event. Candidates had to have a minimum of 50,000 unique donors and also reach 3% support in two national polls, or 3% in one national poll and 3% in two polls conducted of early nominating states. Candidates also had to sign a loyalty pledge to support the eventual nominee. That is why Donald Trump, the front runner, was not on the list. He already had said that he would not participate.
The debate also will be livestreamed on Rumble.
Seven candidates qualified for the second Republican
Doja Cat is still top cat on the U.K. singles chart, but she’s facing stiff competition.
The U.S. singer, rapper and producer’s hit “Paint the Town Red” (via Ministry of Sound) leads the midweek chart, and is on track for a fourth consecutive week at No. 1.
Victory is not guaranteed.
Based on sales and streaming data published by the Official Charts Company, Kenya Grace’s “Stranger” (FFRR) is close behind, lifting 3-2, ahead of Olivia Rodrigo’s “Vampire” (Geffen), down 2-3.
Born in South Africa, based in Britain, Grace’s breakthrough drum ‘n’ bass leaning number is her first through a major label. And she’s posing a real challenge to the leadership, blasting 20-2 in less than a month.
Further down the chart blast, another track from Doja Cat’s fourth and latest album, Scarlet, is set to enter the top 40; “Agora Hills” is forecast to arrive at No. 35.
English singer and songwriter Tom Odell could have the week’s highest new entry with “Black Friday” (Urok). It’s new at No. 17 on the Official Chart Update, for what should be his fourth U.K. top 40 (Odell has a U.K. No. 1 album to his name, with his 2013 debut Long Way Down).
U.S. pop-punk heroes Blink-182 are back, and they’re heading for a highest-charting single in two decades. The title track from the trio’s forthcoming ninth studio album is set to start at No. 21 on the chart, based on midweek data. ONE MORE TIME (via Columbia) is due out on Oct. 20 via Columbia Records, and sees the classic lineup reunite with singer/guitarist Tom DeLonge for the first time since 2011.
“One More Time” should be the trio’s 12th U.K. top 40 single, and best performer since “I Miss You” hit No. 8 back in 2004.
Also, new singles from Nines (“Daily Duppy” featuring GRM Daily at No. 25 via Zino) and a hip-hop team-up of Headie One, K-Trap and Clavish (“Triple Threat” at No. 31 via One Thousand8) are eyeing top frame berths.
All will be revealed when the Official U.K. Singles Chart is published late Friday, Sept. 29.
Doja Cat is still top cat on
TikTok’s ambition to expand in online shopping is facing a major blow from new rules in Indonesia that are set to curb its operations in its biggest e-commerce market.
Indonesia is prohibiting social media companies from facilitating direct e-commerce payments on their platforms, Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan said Monday. The move, directed at ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok, means companies will only be able to advertise products but not conduct direct transactions.
The rule is part of newly tightened trade regulations that could be introduced as soon as Tuesday by the Ministry of Trade. The policy seeks to keep Indonesia’s 64.2 million micro, small and medium enterprises that contribute 61% of its gross domestic product from being squeezed out by social commerce companies. Currently, TikTok is the only social media company that allows direct e-commerce transactions on its platform.
Read More: TikTok Sparks Inspiration—And Pressure—As Students Shop For School
Indonesia is the first and biggest market for TikTok Shop, and online shopping has become the app’s fastest-growing feature with a burgeoning fan base in the country. TikTok is betting on Indonesia as a blueprint to expand into other online-shopping markets, including the US.
With the new rule, Indonesia will be the first among countries in Southeast Asia to push back against TikTok.
Navigating this conflict with Indonesia will be pivotal for the company as governments across the world assess how Southeast Asia’s largest nation moves to curb the social media giant’s burgeoning e-commerce presence, just months after the firm said it will invest billions of dollars into the region. TikTok is already facing possible bans and scrutiny in the likes of the US, Europe and India on national security concerns.
Read More: What to Know About the TikTok Security Concerns
TikTok has pushed back against the proposed policy. It argues that separating social media and e-commerce into different platforms not only hampers innovation but also disadvantages millions of its Indonesian merchants and consumers. The company says some of them rely on its platform to make a living.
“Social commerce was born to solve a real world problem for local traditional small sellers, by matching them with local creators who can help drive traffic to their online shops,” a TikTok Indonesia spokesperson said in a statement. “While we respect local laws and regulations, we hope that the regulations take into account its impact on the livelihoods of more than 6 million sellers and close to 7 million affiliate creators who use TikTok Shop.”
Traditional online retailers, meanwhile, would benefit from restrictions on TikTok Shop. Shares of Sea Ltd., whose Shopee unit is an online-shopping leader in Indonesia, surged 12% in New York trading Monday. GoTo Group, parent of online retailer Tokopedia, advanced as much as 5.8% in early Jakarta trading.
TikTok’s possible split of e-commerce and social media operations in Indonesia could impede further conversion of its 125 million local monthly active users (MAU) into shoppers, benefiting Sea’s Shopee, which, like TikTok Shop, relies on beauty and personal care for most of its domestic sales. GoTo’s Tokopedia, which had 34 million MAU in August vs. Shopee’s 138 million and Alibaba-owned Lazada’s 37 million, should be better able to defend its GMV share in Indonesia, which drove 90% of the group’s 2022 sales. —Nathan Naidu, analyst
TikTok’s ambition to expand in online shopping
Kevin Costner and ex-wife Christine Baumgartner are taking the high road after settling their tumultuous divorce.
“They are now on speaking terms. Things are better,” a source exclusively tells Us Weekly, noting that the exes “didn’t want it to get ugly for the kids’ sake.”
While the pair — who share sons Cayden, 16, and Hayes, 14, and daughter Grace, 12 — may be keeping it civil, that doesn’t mean they plan on rekindling their romance. “There won’t be a reconciliation. They’re moving on,” the insider says.
Costner, 68, is just “thrilled that the negotiations are over,” the source continues. “At the end of the day, Christine is the mother to his children and he didn’t want to fight anymore.” (Costner also shares daughters Annie, 39, and Lily, 36, and son Joe, 35, with ex-wife Cindy Silva and son Liam, 27, with ex Bridget Rooney.)
Second chances! Kevin Costner and Christine Baumgartner may have met in the ’90s, but it took the couple years before their connection blossomed into something more. The actor was previously married to Cindy Silva from 1978 to 1994. Over the course of his first marriage, Costner and Silva welcomed daughter Lily (born in August 1986), […]
Baumgartner, 49, and Costner finalized their divorce on Tuesday, September 19, following a messy four-month legal battle. The twosome have been at odds over child support and the terms of their prenuptial agreement.
Baumgartner first requested $248,000 per month in child support from Costner but instead temporarily received $129,755 per month. A judge later ruled in favor of the actor over Baumgartner and set the payments at $63,209.
Despite the final child support amount being significantly lower than Baumgartner’s initial request, the source tells Us that she “and the kids will be taken care of” by Costner “in their accustomed standard of living for life,” adding that the Yellowstone actor “doesn’t want them to want for anything.”
According to the insider, Costner will “always love” Baumgartner and it was “important to him that she and the kids [were] taken care of” even if they are at odds.
A multi-hyphenate! Kevin Costner has been in show business since the 1980s, wearing many hats — including actor, producer, director and musician. The Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves star — who won the Oscar for Best Directing in 1991 for his film Dances With Wolves — has said that he doesn’t find it difficult to […]
Costner previously spoke out about the challenging nature of the divorce following his and Baumgartner’s September hearing. “This is a horrible place to be, but this is where we’re at,” he told Access Hollywood at the time. “It feels so bad and we’re talking about somebody I love on the other side, I just can’t.”
While the divorce and child support case are settled, Costner and Baumgartner will return to court in November for a trial over their prenuptial agreement.
“Kevin knows Christine is far from done,” a second insider exclusively told Us earlier this month. “He’s relieved that step one has [gone his way] … but Christine is sure as hell not giving up on the overall war.”
Baumgartner initially filed for separation in May after 19 years of marriage. Costner reacted to the divorce filing at the time, saying in a statement via his rep, “It is with great sadness that circumstances beyond his control have transpired which have resulted in Mr. Costner having to participate in a dissolution of marriage action. We ask that his, Christine’s, and their children’s privacy be respected as they navigate this difficult time.”
Kevin Costner’s divorce from estranged wife Christine Baumgartner got off to a messy start — and lasted four months before they finalized their legal battle in September 2023.. Us Weekly confirmed in May 2023 that Baumgartner had filed for divorce from the Oscar winner after 19 years of marriage, citing irreconcilable differences. Costner met Baumgartner […]
Later that month, a third source exclusively revealed to Us that the divorce was Costner’s “worst nightmare” and he was entirely “blindsided” by the split.
“Everyone thought Kevin and his wife were super happy,” the insider said. “So it’s all surprised. He truly loves her.”
Rich Fury/VF22/Getty Images for Vanity Fair Kevin Costner
For more than two decades, workers at a factory in Perrysburg, Ohio, near Toledo, have been making something that other businesses stopped producing in the United States long ago: solar panels.
How the company that owns the factory, First Solar, managed to hang on when most solar panel manufacturing left the United States for China is critical to understanding the viability of President Biden’s efforts to establish a large domestic green energy industry.
Mr. Biden and Democrats in Congress last year authorized hundreds of billions of dollars in federal incentives for manufacturing solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, electric cars and semiconductors. The efforts amount to one of the most expansive uses of industrial policy ever attempted in the United States.
As a result, many companies, including First Solar, have announced the construction of dozens of factories, in total, around the country. But nobody is entirely sure whether these investments will be durable, especially in businesses, like battery or solar panel manufacturing, where China’s domination is deep and strong. Chinese manufacturers enjoy lower labor costs, economies of scale and incentives from a government eager to control industries critical to fighting climate change.
First Solar survived the shift of most manufacturing to China in part because its panels do not use polysilicon, a material found in most panels and now made almost entirely in China. But it has not been an easy ride, and the company has struggled at times, especially after the 2008 financial crisis.
“They’re sort of a unicorn,” said Michael Heben, director of the Wright Center for Photovoltaics and Innovation at the University of Toledo, who has worked with First Solar. “It’s been a rocky history. The revenues have been pretty lumpy.”
Some analysts warn that efforts to make solar panels in the United States are misguided. Even in the best of times, the business yields modest profits and does not employ a lot of people. It would be better to import panels from low-cost producers to quickly shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy, said Jenny Chase, a solar analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
“Solar panels would have been cheaper,” Ms. Chase said, if policymakers did not insist on domestic manufacturing. “In the United States, even with the manufacturing boom, it will still be expensive.”
But many lawmakers and corporate executives insist that the United States should make solar panels. They contend that it would be unwise for the country and allies like the European Union and Japan to remain dependent on China for such an important technology. Supply chain chaos during the pandemic, and the growing economic hostility between Beijing and Washington, highlighted the huge risks.
One thing is certain: The world will need many more solar panels to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions. The capacity of solar power installed worldwide needs to be at least 20 times as big as today and possibly as much as 70 times, energy experts said.
“We are going to need very large amounts of photovoltaics around the world,” said Nancy Haegel, director of the National Center for Photovoltaics at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. “While it’s a very ambitious goal, it is also achievable given the growth of photovoltaics in recent years.”
First Solar’s chief executive, Mark Widmar, said he was confident that his company and others could quickly expand U.S. production. The company, which is based in Tempe, Ariz., is building its fifth U.S. factory in Louisiana. It is already expanding in Ohio, where it has three plants, and building one in Alabama. It also has factories in Vietnam and Malaysia and is working on one in India.
“It’s daunting,” Mr. Widmar said at the Perrysburg factory when describing the company’s plans. “It’s really a David versus Goliath.”
Mr. Widmar, 58, who grew up in a working-class family in South Bend, Ind., about two and a half hours from Perrysburg, said he was motived by a desire to create U.S. jobs and extend America’s lead in technology.
He was the first in his family to attend college — his father worked in a mailroom, and his mother was a secretary — earning degrees in accounting and finance from Indiana University.
Soon after becoming chief executive five years ago, Mr. Widmar said, he pushed his engineers to roll out a new generation of solar panels that would generate more energy at a lower cost per watt. The move was risky because it required removal of old equipment and a big investment in new machinery, a switch that sharply reduced production in 2018.
“I said, ‘Let’s leapfrog,’” Mr. Widmar said. “A lot of C.E.O.s wouldn’t have made that decision. I knew we had to grow.”
First Solar began in 1990 as Solar Cells, founded by Harold McMaster, an inventor and businessman who was a pioneer in producing tempered glass, which is used in skyscrapers and solar panels.
In the 1990s and 2000s, the solar panel business was growing fast in the United States, Europe and Japan. But like many boom industries, it soon hit hard times, and many companies, including Solyndra, which the Energy Department backed during the Obama administration, shut down.
At the same time, the Chinese government and Chinese companies doubled down on the technology. They greatly expanded panel manufacturing, helping to drive down costs sharply.
First Solar, which benefited from investments by Walmart’s founding Walton family, survived in part by quickly scrapping plans to expand production. That saved the company from having to sell panels at a steep loss, according to a case study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
It also helped that First Solar’s panels were different from most Chinese panels. Instead of silicon, the company used a proprietary thin film of cadmium telluride.
One thing that helped sustain First Solar was strong growth in Europe, where many countries, particularly Germany, offered generous subsidies to encourage the use of solar power.
Yet First Solar has not been immune to the industry’s ups-and-downs. The company lost more than $100 million in 2019 before earning about $400 million each in 2020 and 2021. Last year, it lost $44 million, which the company attributed to the volatile cost of freight and shipping.
Mr. Widmar said the Inflation Reduction Act, Mr. Biden’s signature climate law, set the stage for a growing domestic solar manufacturing industry. But he worries that the law could become “a political football” — a real threat given that some Republican lawmakers have sought to repeal all or parts of the legislation.
He also said the United States must protect domestic producers from what he described as unfair Chinese competition. “If we are to have a diverse, competitive and sustainable solar manufacturing industry, China’s anticompetitive behavior must be addressed,” he said.
One of First Solar’s advantages, Mr. Widmar said, is that it is not as exposed to the use of forced labor, which human rights groups and U.S. government officials say is common in China’s western Xinjiang region.
In August, First Solar revealed that it had uncovered the use of forced labor by subcontractors at its plant in Malaysia. The subcontractors had forced immigrant workers to pay fees to get jobs and had withheld wages and passports. Mr. Widmar said he was determined to publicize the findings, compensate the workers and get the subcontractors to return their passports.
“I’m an auditor by nature,” Mr. Widmar said. “I’ve always felt in order to sleep at night you always have to do what’s right.”
Human rights activists worry that as manufacturers ramp up solar panel production, forced labor, sometimes referred to as “modern slavery,” will become more common. Walk Free, a human rights group based in Australia, estimates that 50 million people around the world lived under forced-labor conditions in 2021, about 10 million more than in 2016.
Michael Carr, executive director of the Solar Energy Manufacturers for America, a trade group, said more domestic manufacturers like First Solar were needed to ensure that the United States had a secure supply of panels untainted by forced labor.
“The module manufacturing in the United States is starting to happen,” Mr. Carr said. But, he added, “our international competitors have built up a really sizable lead.”
For more than two decades, workers at
Former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson appeared on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” to discuss her upcoming book “Enough,” which details among other things what she witnessed working for Trump during the period culminating in his attempt to overturn the government on Jan. 6, 2021.
Hutchinson has of course revealed many shocking details about Trump and his various associates in the book, which are still coming to light in advance of the book’s Sept. 26 launch. Among them, she accused Florida congressman Matt Gaetz of groping her on two occasions.
In a statement given to Maddow, Gaetz denied the accusations, claiming instead that he used to date Hutchinson — while also accusing her of lying about what she witnessed on Jan. 6.
“I don’t remember either of these events and based on Cassidy’s prior false statements, I doubt they occurred. I did date Cassidy for a few weeks when we were both single years ago. We parted amicably and remained friends thereafter, even during President Trump’s post presidency when she asked me to help her secure housing in south Florida because she was eager to continue working for President Trump,” Gaetz said.
Asked about this by Maddow, Hutchinson didn’t address the claim that she “was eager to continue working” for Trump even after Jan. 6 and had asked Gaetz for help finding a residence near him. But she did shoot down his claim that they dated.
“Matt Gaetz, in my opinion, is somebody that I personally do not hold in high regard in terms of trust. And I do not think that Matt Gaetz has the best track record for relationships and condoning his relationships, how he thinks that they might be defined,” Hutchinson said. “I will say, on behalf of myself, I never dated Matt Gaetz. I have much higher standards in men. And Matt, frankly, is a very unserious politician. We see that today with the ruckus that he is causing on Capitol Hill with the spending negotiations. I don’t really have much else to say to somebody that is more concerned about a sound bite than actually passing legislation.”
Watch the clip below:
Former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson
In a move that many people may describe as provocative, the Göteborg Film Festival has set Ingmar Bergman’s landmark arthouse drama Persona for an AI-assisted restoration.
The Swedish festival has teamed with SF Studios, Gothenburg Film Studios, and The Ingmar Bergman Foundation to produce an AI-generated version of Persona, with Liv Ullmann replaced by Alma Pöysti (Fallen Leaves).
Ullmann famously plays Elisabet Vogler in the pic, and with new AI technology, her face will be digitally replaced by Pöysti’s. Göteborg described the project as a “cinematic experiment,” giving the new film the title Another Persona.
Once completed, the cinematic experiment will screen exclusively at the 2024 Göteborg Film Festival, with Liv Ullmann and Alma Pöysti in attendance. It will not be screened to an audience again. The screening will be followed by a discussion on acting and technology.
“The discussion about acting, masks, and authenticity that has made Persona a classic has been urgently reactivated by technological advancements. Not least, the strike in Hollywood has sparked an important debate on production possibilities and labor-market threats in relation to AI,” said Jonas Holmberg, outgoing Göteborg Film Festival Artistic Director.
“We want to add an artistic and existential dimension to the discussion, and we want to do it by engaging with Ingmar Bergman’s incomparable film. Another Persona will be a uniquely thought-provoking and quite unsettling cinematic experience.”
Jan Holmberg, Ingmar Bergman Foundation CEO, added: “As administers of Bergman’s artistry, we at The Ingmar Bergman Foundation and SF Studios think that Another Persona is a brilliant project. ‘Every intonation is a lie, every gesture a forgery,’ it is said in Bergman’s 1966 film. This becomes even more true now! In a time when we outsource ourselves to machines and at the same time seek our authentic selves.”
Pöysti is perhaps best known internationally for her leading role in Aki Kaurismäki’s latest Cannes competition title Fallen Leaves. She won the Dragon Award for Best Acting for her role in Four Little Adults at the last Göteborg Film Festival.
Another Persona will serve at the center of the festival’s focus sidebar, Another Intelligence, based on the rapid progression of AI.
In a move that many people may
Ek Niranjan, opposite Prabhas, ended up as Kangana’s first and last Telugu project.
Kangana Ranaut is currently promoting her new Tamil movie, Chandramukhi 2. She was recently in Hyderabad with the film’s team. During a chat with the media about the movie, someone asked her if she’d work with Prabhas again, who she acted with in the Telugu film Ek Niranjan in 2009.
Talking about working with the Adipurush star again, Kangana, as quoted by Indian Express, said, “Of course, I would. I am so happy for his success. You know how he has been so incredibly successful as a pan-Indian star. We were both very young when we did that film (Ek Niranjan). I remember he was such a great host and treated us to such great food at his farmhouse. We were very young and used to be very chilled out. I remember we used to tease each other a lot. I would like to meet him for sure. I think it has been a decade or something like that. It would be so refreshing to see him.”
Ek Niranjan, a film centered around a bounty hunter, achieved commercial success despite receiving mixed reviews. Surprisingly, it marked Kangana’s debut and farewell to the Telugu film industry.
In Chandramukhi 2, Kangana Ranaut takes on the lead role alongside Raghava Lawrence. Directed by P Vasu, this sequel to Rajinikanth’s 2005 movie Chandramukhi is set to hit theaters on September 28th.
Last week, on September 20, the actress took to her Instagram handle and dropped a new teaser of the film. In the video, Kangana was seen dressed in her Chandramukhi avatar. She sported a red saree with heavy traditional jewellery.
In the caption of her post, Kangana expressed excitement for the film and wrote, “Just 8 more days to go! We’re excited to present you this horror-comedy packed with drama, emotions and non-stop entertainment!” Check it out here:
Ek Niranjan, opposite Prabhas, ended up
