Spoiler alert! If you haven’t seen the first four episodes of season 5 of Love Is Blind, proceed with caution.
Greetings, Love Is Blind fans! Season 5 of the Netflix dating show premiered on Friday and one woman was at the center of all the drama. Lydia Arlene Velez Gonzalez came into the pods with a bold personality. She admitted that sometimes people thought she was “too much,” but that she was looking for someone to love her for who she truly was.
First she fell for Izzy Zapata, but he soon broke things off in favor of connections with Johnie and Stacy.
Netflix
The Puerto Rican geologist seemed heartbroken but continued to talk with her other connection — Milton, whose full name is James Milton Johnson IV. The pair bonded over their love of science and geology despite their extensive age gap.
Milton was 24 at the time of filming and Lydia was 30. Though Lydia was worried that Milton might be too immature, he soon proved that his logical, calm demeanor was a good counterbalance to her passionate ways.
And despite the fact that Lydia and fellow contestant Uche’s romantic past was exposed, Milton still seemed willing to move forward with Lydia, popping the question.
Netflix
In fact, we know that Lydia and Milton make it to the altar as we see footage from their wedding day in the preview clip for the next episode drop on Friday.
So do these two end up together? That remains to be seen. Neither one is following the other on social media, but it’s not uncommon for the cast to wipe their pages clean of any spoilers about their relationship status. Milton did like one of Lydia’s friend’s birthday posts in honor of her special day back in August.
clauyke/Instagram
Season 5 of Love Is Blind was filmed in early 2022, so if they are still together, the couple has been keeping this secret for more than a year.
New episodes of Love Is Blind stream Fridays on Netflix.
A24’s upcoming pro wrestling sports drama “The Iron Claw” was approved for the SAG-AFTRA interim agreement, clearing the way for the cast to promote the film ahead of its Christmas wide release in the U.S, according to an insider with knowledge of the project.
Based on a true story, “The Iron Claw” follows the rise and fall of the Von Erich family, a dynasty of wrestlers who made a huge impact on the sport from the 1960s to the present day.
The film stars Efron as Kevin Von Erich, Jeremy Allen White as Kerry Von Erich, Harris Dickinson as David Von Erich, Stanley Simons as Mike Von Erich, Holt McCallany as Fritz Von Erich, Maura Tierney as Doris and Lily James as Pam.
“The Iron Claw” is written and directed by critically acclaimed filmmaker Sean Durkin, best known for his 2011 Sundance breakout “Martha Marcy May Marlene.”
Producers are Tessa Ross, Juliette Howell, Angus Lamont from House Productions, Sean Durkin and A24.
Executive Producers are Derrin Schlesinger and Harrison Huffman for House Productions, Len Blavatnik and Danny Cohen from Access Entertainment and Eva Yates from BBC Film.
The film was developed by House Productions, with the support of Access Entertainment and BBC Film. A24 financed and produced the film and it is co-financed by Access Entertainment and BBC Film.
Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson spoke out Thursday against the ubiquitous term “content,” calling on Hollywood to stop using it to describe film and TV shows. She added that it makes her feel like “the stuffing inside a sofa.”
“You don’t want to hear your stuff, your stories described as ‘content’ or your acting or your producing described as ‘content,’” the actress said.
The comments came as part of an appearance at the Royal Television Society Cambridge Conference on Thursday, Yahoo News reports, where the British star stressed the importance of authentic storytelling during a discussion about the future of talent and creativity.
“What is authentic, whether you like it or not, is going to be meaningful to somebody. You find your audience by being completely authentic,” she said, adding that she wants to “feel different” after she watches something.
“I don’t want to feel the same way,” she continued. “I want to feel as though I’ve been shifted slightly, even if it’s just my mood, or I’ve learned something extraordinary.”
The actress has won two Oscars: for acting in “Howards End” and for best-adapted screenplay for “Sense and Sensibility.”
Focusing on emotion “takes you away from this thing of ‘content,’” Thompson said. “What is the story that you want to hear and that you want to tell, that you think will make people feel different, safer, stronger?”
To that end, Thompson said, describing film or TV as “content” is “just a rude word for creative people.”
Thompson argued against using a formula to get the audience to feel an emotion, saying that the end result is ruinous.
“You sit there and you watch them,” she said of the finished TV or film projects, “and you wonder why, at the end of it, you feel a bit ill.”
The British star also addressed the U.S. writers’ and actors’ strike, calling it “so painful.”
“I’ve been writing to friends who are crew people, who are costume people, who are makeup people, who aren’t working, so it’s a very, very hard time, people are suffering so much,” Thompson told the conference attendees.
“And it’s actually sort of hidden as well, because there’s something about the words ‘an actors’ strike’ which doesn’t sound the same to people as ‘the doctors are on strike’ or ‘the miners are on strike,’” Thompson said.
Her comments come as the media landscape has shifted enormously over the last decade in the push to create “content” for streaming, and as the WGA and SAG-AFTRA are currently on strike in Hollywood fighting for new provisions that protect writers and actors as the landscape continues to evolve. Much of the discussion surrounding the strikes involves creatives being compensated appropriately for their work, as well as AI usage and viewership data. The strike is now in its fifth month.
Thompson said that Hollywood studios could better align with creators going forward by changing their language and moving away from using the term “content.” She added that the word is “misleading” and allows room for miscommunication between the executives and creative sides of the industry.
“I think the relationship between the executive branch of television and the creative branch of television just has to be closer,” she emphasized.
Most recently, Thompson starred in the film, “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande.”
But Sophie didn’t seem to have the messy divorce on her mind as she arrived just moments ahead of Taylor outside the luxury Hotel Barriere Fouquet for dinner.
She was photographed carrying a colorful quilted Louis Vuitton purse that she held in front of her face.
The blonde beauty — who wed Joe back in 2019 — kept it casual in a white T-shirt, a gray maxi skirt and red satin ballet flats.
Reunited! Sophie Turner enjoyed another girls’ night out with her estranged husband Joe Jonas ‘ ex-girlfriend Taylor Swift on Thursday in New York City
Luxury: Sophie arrived just moments ahead of Taylor outside the luxury Hotel Barriere Fouquet for dinner
She entered the restaurant with several close friends in tow.
Minutes later, Taylor rolled up in a chauffeured black SUV with two well-dressed security guards.
The singer — notably dated Joe from July 2008 until their split only a few months later in October — looked ultra chic in a tight black off-the-shoulder top.
It was tucked into a pair of light brown trousers that she cinched into at the waist with a black leather belt.
She strolled the sidewalk in black sandals and a carried her essentials in a black designer purse.
Two evenings earlier, Taylor and Sophie partied until 2AM as they grabbed a low-key dinner at Via Carota restaurant
The blonde duo also enjoyed ‘martinis and caviar bumps’ at the trendy celeb haunt Temple Bar.
A source told PEOPLE that it ‘cheered [Sophie] up’ and that she enjoyed the normalcy of it all.
‘They were normal. Completely normal. Everyone was all excited, but they were normal,’ an insider recalled, adding: ‘Sophie seemed to be enjoying the night.’
Another continued: ‘Taylor is a great friend — Sophie can talk to her about anything. It cheered Sophie up to spend time with Taylor.’
Earlier Thursday, Sophie stepped out with her and Joe’s daughter Willa – after accusing her ex of ‘abducting’ their kids and blindsiding her with his divorce filing in explosive court documents.
Sophie looked happy to be stepping out with her eldest daughter, three, amid her increasingly acrimonious split from the Jonas Brothers rocker, 34, after she claimed he lied in court documents and said a birthday row sparked the end of their marriage.
Joe accused his estranged wife of ‘lying’ in her filing and clarified that their ‘children were not abducted,’ after she petitioned to have them return to the UK.
Sophie filed documents in US District Court for New York to petition for ‘the return of children to England,’ her home country.
The outing — which is Sophie’s second with Taylor this week — comes amid new developments in the Game Of Thrones star, 27, and Joe’s, 34, bitter custody row as she’s now suing him in the hopes of moving their daughters back to the UK
Out of sight out of mind! Sophie didn’t seem to have the messy divorce on her mind
Shy: She was photographed carrying a colorful quilted Louis Vuitton purse that she held in front of her face
Minutes later, Taylor rolled up in a chauffeured black SUV with two well-dressed security guards
Chic: The Grammy Award-winner looked ultra chic in a tight black off-the-shoulder top
Past: Taylor notably dated Joe from July 2008 until their split only a few months later in October
Style: It was tucked into a pair of light brown trousers that she cinched into at the waist with a black leather belt
The blonde beauty wed Joe back in 2019 and claimed that she was blindsided by his recent divorce filing
Casual-cool: Sophie kept it casual in a white T-shirt, a gray maxi skirt and red satin ballet flats
Blondie: Sophie’s bleach blonde tresses were styled sleek and straight
Gal pals: Sophie brought along two of her closest friends to the dinner date
Jovial: Sophie was seen flashing a wide smile in the backseat of an SUV after dinner
Connected: Sophie kept her cellphone in hand at all times
Round two! Taylor and Sophie partied until 2AM as they grabbed a low-key dinner at Via Carota restaurant earlier this week
A source told PEOPLE that the hangout ‘cheered [Sophie] up’ amid her relationship woes
Jonas had previously filed for divorce from the actress earlier this month.
The couple, who married in 2019, share daughters Willa and D.J., one.
In documents seen by DailyMail.com, Turner made the claim that Jonas had refused to return the children’s passports, effectively preventing them from traveling back to the UK.
In the filing, she says the exes met on September 17 to discuss a previously planned trip to the UK with her children set for September 20, but Jonas allegedly would not turn over the passports or send the children to the UK on his own.
‘Based on the Father’s express statements that he will not return the children to England and will not return the children’s passports to the Mother, on September 20, 2023, the Mother has submitted her Hague Convention Application for Return to the Central Authority for England & Wales seeking the return of the children to England,’ the filing read.
She added that the move to the UK was not unexpected, as the couple had allegedly planned to spend an extended amount of time there in the near future.
According to Turner, she and the children expected to accompany Jonas on his US tour with the Jonas Brothers, and then when it wrapped up the entire family had planned to travel to the UK and to live at a rented property near her parents’ home.
She claimed that the move was a prelude to a full-time life in the UK, and that the couple had agreed to move their children there as their oldest Willa prepared to begin attending school.
The X-Men actress alleged that she and Jonas toured properties from December 2022 until July of this year, when they discovered a ‘beautiful country property’ in Oxfordshire and they ‘both agreed they would purchase the property for the family’s permanent home.’
They allegedly signed a contract for the property in July and planned to finalize the sale in December of this year.
Last year, Turner and Jonas put their Miami mansion on the market after previously buying it for $11 million.
They sold the property in August at a profit for $15 million, only after they slashed the asking price by $2 million, suggesting they may have been trying to unload it quickly.
In her filing, Turner also disputed Jonas’ claim in his divorce filing that their children had resided in Florida for six months, which would make it easier for a court in that state to decide custody matters.
She appears to allege that a fight on August 15 was a major precipitating event for their separation, and afterward the couple had agreed ‘with some hesitation’ to have the children travel to the US to accompany their father on tour, as Jonas was able to care for them during the day on dates when he was scheduled to perform.
Heading out in style: Taylor rocked a blazer as she headed out in the city
All in the details: She clutched a chic black bag which complemented her tailored look
Partying the night away: Sophie appeared in high spirits as she was pictured making her exit from The Mulberry
Helping hand: A bodyguard helped see the actress to her car
First sighting: Earlier in the day, Sophie Turner had been spotted stepping out with her daughter Willa in New York City
Under the radar: Elsewhere on Thursday, Sophie tried to keep a low profile as she was spotted for the first time since she sued her estranged husband Joe Jonas
Supportive brother: Meanwhile, Joe was spotted grabbing a bite to eat with his younger sibling Nick on Wednesday night
Bitter divorce: Turner’s husband Joe Jonas filed for divorce earlier this month; seen in September 2022
Taylor and Joe seen in 2008
Documents filed to the US District Court in New York revealed that the Game Of Thrones alum is suing her ex Joe as she petitions ‘for the return of [their] children to England’
Jonas has since denied Turner’s claims that he blindsided her with the divorce, and argues that their children will be raised in the U.S. because they are American citizens
While Jonas was on tour with his brothers, Sophie was engaged filming the new series Joan in the UK, which would have significantly impacted her ability to care for the children during the limited period that she was on set.
Unlike Jonas’ tour, which would presumably allow him some free time when he wasn’t on stage or in rehearsals, Turner would likely have had little free time while working, as film and television productions often keep actors working for long hours each day on tight schedules.
According to TMZ, the musician allegedly realized his marriage was finished after catching Turner ‘saying and/or doing something’ that irked him on their security camera.
Early reports focused on Jonas’ alleged devotion to their children after parenting them on his own for a short period of time, but critics subsequently defended Turner, pointing out that her work required her husband to share some of the burden for a limited period, and that Jonas should not have been praised for fulfilling his parental obligations.
The C.I.A. mission recalled in “Neither Confirm Nor Deny,” Philip Carter’s neat and steadily paced documentary, sounds like the stuff of a Tom Clancy Cold War thriller. In the film, C.I.A. veterans and journalists recount a 1974 U.S. operation to recover a Soviet nuclear submarine that had sunk in the Pacific six years earlier. It’s a high-risk mission made more suspenseful by technical challenges, the looming specter of Watergate and a need for secrecy in the face of scrutiny from Russia and the press.
The story assembles before our eyes like an illustration in a manual for superspies. The goal: obtain valuable nuke data. The tool for the job: a big ship with the ability to snatch the sub and sneak it away to American shores. The cover story: an undersea mining operation fronted by Howard Hughes.
David Sharp, who directed the mission and wrote a book about it, is the most prominently featured of the wonky talking heads here. He relates amazing details — like what the U.S. did with bodies of Soviet sailors that were discovered — in the understated manner of a kind science teacher. The Pulitzer-winning journalist Seymour M. Hersh, who wrote about the operation for The New York Times in the 1970s, offers a salty insider perspective.
Lachlan Murdoch has long shared his famous father’s enthusiasm for right-leaning politics and the news business, including the family’s vast portfolio of newspapers — even as the industry was ravaged by internet search engines and shunned by investors.
But he also has a sentimental streak.
When Rupert Murdoch decided to unload much of the entertainment assets he had spent decades building, investment bankers advised the clan of ruthlessly bottom line-focused media moguls to include the real estate — the company’s legendary movie studio lot in Century City — as part of the deal.
Lachlan Murdoch said no. He felt the lot was the beating heart of the company on the West Coast, one steeped in Hollywood history. Besides, he sensed the Century City land would only grow in value, a belief that has proved true (it’s worth billions).
Now, the 52-year-old executive is firmly presiding over the empire his father built — encompassing the most influential conservative media institutions in America — from an office suite on the L.A. studio lot.
Lachlan Murdoch becomes the sole chairman of News Corp., the publishing company that owns the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, and executive chairman of Fox, the television arm that includes Fox News, Fox Sports and the Fox broadcast network. Because Lachlan Murdoch has been at the helm as Fox’s chief executive since March 2019, and because he is exceedingly close to his father, analysts expect the son’s strategy to largely reflect the father’s.
“Lachlan is probably the most aligned with his father in terms of politics and in terms of his vision of the business,” Paul Verna, principal analyst at Insider Intelligence, said. “There’s not a lot of daylight between the two men.”
Lachlan Murdoch has previously said the political bent of Fox News, which has made the network a lightning rod, will remain.
Fox documents from late 2020 and early 2021, revealed in the course of high-profile and devastating litigation, underscored the tight collaboration between the two Murdochs. The pair were involved in overseeing Fox News’ coverage of President Trump and his false statements that the 2020 election was stolen from him, which proved costly for the company. In April, Fox agreed to pay $787 million to Dominion Voting Systems to avoid a trial over defamation claims.
Documents in the case showed how the Murdochs and Fox News Media Chief Executive Suzanne Scott in November 2020 discussed ways to avoid further alienating viewers after Fox News made the early and accurate call that Arizona had tipped to then-candidate Joe Biden.
The situation “needs constant rebuilding without any missteps,” Lachlan Murdoch wrote, according to the internal documents, referring to the company’s effort to regain trust among Fox News fans.
But there are differences between the pair, beyond the generational gap.
In fact, for a while, Lachlan Murdoch appeared uninterested in working with his father — at a time when his younger brother James dived into his corporate role with relish. Back then, it looked like James was in line for the throne.
Rupert Murdoch has long made clear that one of his two sons would ultimately succeed him. Beyond wanting to keep his business in the family, the elder mogul is known among friends for his lack of sentimentality, buying and discarding properties that he once coveted, including the Hollywood movie studio known for “Avatar” and “Titanic,” DirecTV and the European satellite television service Sky.
When he was CEO, he worked in an expansive office on the fifth floor of a modern office building on the lot.
In contrast, Lachlan prefers the ground-floor office of the Depression-era Art Deco structure, Building 88 on Fox’s Avenue of the Palms, where movie pioneer Darryl F. Zanuck once ran the show. Inside his office, a bank of TV screens flicker with Fox News and other channels. Editions of the company’s newspapers are proudly and neatly displayed nearby.
Lachlan Murdoch and Rupert Murdoch watch the U.S. Open tennis championships in 2018.
(Adrian Edwards / GC Images)
Lachlan Murdoch is fulfilling the career trajectory that his father mapped for him. Just as Rupert Murdoch had done seven decades before, after his father — a respected Australian news editor and former war correspondent Sir Keith Murdoch — died when Rupert was in his early 20s and left him a small Australian publishing company.
“My father firmly believed in freedom, and Lachlan is absolutely committed to the cause,” Rupert Murdoch wrote in a letter to the staffs of the two companies.
Murdoch’s message reads, in many ways, like a rallying call to his troops against so-called elites. The elder mogul has long seen himself as a provocateur, chiding news organizations he viewed as too bloated, too high-brow and too liberal.
For decades, Rupert Murdoch has fashioned himself as a counterbalance to the media establishment. He’s never shied away from using his outlets to influence politics and governments — in his native Australia, Britain and the U.S.
“The battle for the freedom of speech and, ultimately, the freedom of thought, has never been more intense,” Rupert Murdoch wrote in his letter. “Elites have open contempt for those who are not members of their rarefied class. Most of the media is in cahoots with those elites, peddling political narratives rather than pursuing the truth.”
In some ways, Murdoch’s letter also felt like a mandate to preserve his legacy.
There have been tensions within family, and the succession battle that played out behind the scenes was intense at times, providing fodder for HBO’s fictional drama, “Succession.” Some observers have openly wondered whether the final episodes of the real-life Murdoch succession saga have truly been written yet.
Although the elder mogul is pulling back from executive responsibilities at News Corp. and Fox, segueing into chairman emeritus, he retains the family’s controlling voting shares of the two companies through a family trust, according to regulatory filings. Rupert Murdoch has the voting control of the trust, through itsinvestment vehicle.
Control of the trust will be passed to his four oldest children — Prudence, Elisabeth, Lachlan and James — after Murdoch dies. They will each have voting shares. Murdoch’s two daughters from his marriage to Wendi Deng each have a financial stake, but not voting shares.
The siblings, particularly Lachlan and James, haven’t always been aligned in business priorities or in politics.
James Murdoch served as chief executive of 21st Century Fox until its 2019 sale to the Walt Disney Co. After working 23 years in the family enterprise, he no longer had an executive role. Three years ago, James stepped down from News Corp.’s board, citing “disagreements over certain editorial content published by the company’s news outlets and certain other strategic decisions.”
For much of the last decade, Rupert Murdoch has been intent on entrusting Lachlan with the enterprise.
After he graduated from Princeton, the London-born Lachlan joined the family business in Australia, working at some of their newspapers. Within a few years, he was scaling the ladder at the company in the U.S.
In 1999, he was named head of the printing operations in the U.S. and served for a time as publisher of the New York Post during 9/11.
He abruptly resigned in 2005, after souring on the corporate politics and moved with his wife, Sarah, and their children back to Australia to build his own profile in media there.
In 2015, at his father’s urging, Lachlan returned to the U.S. to work alongside him in the company.
Fox credits Lachlan Murdoch with savvy business moves, including initially making an $11-million investment in the Australian real estate insights company, REA Group, in which News Corp. now has a majority stake. The publicly traded firm is now worth $8 billion, and News Corp. has a 61% stake.
But the media landscape is particularly challenged, and it will be up to Lachlan Murdoch to steer the enterprise through those difficulties, including cord-cutting and declining ratings for linear television.
“The changes the media industry has been through, and will continue to go through, are monumental,” Verna said. “The biggest one is how do you monetize streaming as the cable bundle erodes? That’s not a small challenge, but it will be one that Lachlan will face.”
Haunted houses are the most common settings in horror films. The premise is usually the same: a happy, unsuspecting family moves into a large house with a dark and traumatic past. Soon after, strange things begin to happen: they hear eerie sounds and voices or see inexplicable apparitions, or even come to be possessed. As it turns out, the house is haunted — and its ghostly residents aren’t pleased with their new housemates.
The early 2000s is stacked with haunted house movies. While not all of them are critically acclaimed, these movies still bring the scares. They’ll have some viewers jumping in their seats, anxiously anticipating the moment that the main character turns around or opens that door and finds something terrifying. Here are ten of the scariest haunted house movies of the 2000s.
Naturally, ominous events start taking place: crows are constantly swarming their property, and ghostly figures keep popping up. The Messengers was panned by critics, mostly because it didn’t offer anything original. One reviewer called it “The Grudge on a Farm.” The Messengers may not be the most unique film ever made, but it’s still a decent haunted house story with a few jump scares.
9 The Haunting in Connecticut (2009)
Lionsgate
The Haunting in Connecticutis exactly like it sounds. A family moves into a haunted house in Connecticut that, of course, used to be a mortuary. The film supposedly captures true events that are based on the real-life Snedeker family (they’re the Campbell family in the movie), who lived in a haunted house.
There’s even a book written about them: In a Dark Place: The Story of a True Haunting. However, there are people who claim that the story is false. Even the book’s co-authors have admitted that the story was fabricated. Real or not, The Haunting in Connecticut is another horror film that lacks originality. But the horror clichés and jump scares that it depends so heavily on are enough to make you gasp.
8 The Skeleton Key (2005)
Universal Pictures
Actress Kate Hudson is known mainly for romantic comedies and chick flicks. But back in 2005, she tried something a little different and starred in the Southern gothic horror film The Skeleton Key. Here, she plays a hospice aide who cares for an elderly couple at a remote Louisiana plantation house.
While there, she uncovers secrets about the house’s dark history. Unlike other entries on this list, The Skeleton Key revolves around voodoo rather than traditional ghosts. But make no mistake: this house is very much haunted. The Skeleton Key was applauded for its unique Southern backdrop and for doing away with traditional ghosts. It’ll keep you in suspense for most of the film, all the way up to its twist ending.
7 What Lies Beneath (2000)
DreamWorks Distribution LLC / 20th Century Fox
A horror film directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford almost sounds made-up. And yet, it exists. What Lies Beneath follows a married couple, Claire and Norman (Pfeiffer and Ford respectively), who live in a Vermont lakeside home.
Unlike the other entries on this list, the ghost who lurks within their house isn’t necessarily here to terrorize the residents. It’s here to lead Claire to a dark and terrible secret about her husband. What Lies Beneath is a spooky, adult-oriented film that, despite some cliches, manages to stand apart from other typical haunted house stories.
6 The Amityville Horror (2005)
MGM Distribution Co.
Released in 1979, TheAmityville Horrorand its tremendous success birthed a series of films. They’re not as famous as, say, the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise or the Halloween franchise, but the Amityville Horror series is still popular among fans of the genre. One of its installments is a 2005 remake of the 1979 film, which was likely inspired by the 2003 remake and box office success of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It’s weird to think of funny man Ryan Reynolds, who’s known for sarcastic characters like Deadpool, in horror movies. But in 2005, that’s what we got. Fun fact: this movie also features the debut of Chloe Grace Moretz.
The Amityville Horror, both the remake and the original, is based on the 1977 book of the same name, which documents the paranormal activity experienced by the Lutz family after they move into a house in Amityville, New York — the same place where real-life mass murderer Ronald DeFeo Jr. killed six members of his own family. There are doubts about whether the Lutz’s story is even true. But hey, at least we got a new horror franchise out of it. The 2005 remake didn’t offer anything new from the original, but it’s still a creepy film. And its more modern look, which comes with improved gory effects, will delight younger horror fans.
The early 2000s loved remaking horror classics. Thirteen Ghosts is another movie that falls into this category, a remake of the 1960 original. Its set-up is a little different from the usual haunted house story. Arthur (Tony Shalhoub) and his family move into the home of his deceased uncle, who worked as a professional ghost hunter. In an interesting twist, the ghosts that had been captured by Arthur’s uncle are trapped inside the house, imprisoned by enchantments.
The ghosts are an intriguing cast of characters, some with tragic backstories. Some of them are benevolent spirits, like the Dire Mother or the Withered Lover. Others are dangerous and violent, like the Jackal and the Juggernaut. When wandering this haunted house, you never know which ghost will be lurking around the corner. Thirteen Ghosts is reportedly being developed into a 13-part TV series, which will hopefully improve upon, and be more frightening than, its predecessors.
4 The Grudge (2004)
Sony Pictures Releasing
After the monumental success of 2002’s The Ring, which was an American remake of a 1998 Japanese horror film, Sony Pictures decided to remake another Japanese horror movie and bring it to American audiences: Ju-On: The Grudge. Titled simply The Grudge, this version stays true to its Japanese source material while giving it an American spin — most notably with casting Sarah Michelle Gellar in its lead role. It did, however, cast several Japanese actors from the original film.
The Grudge isn’t as good or scary as The Ring (or as the original film for that matter), but it does have some frightening moments. The film’s ghosts, Kayako and Toshio, are disturbing with their stark white skin, bulging eyes, and unnatural movements. The scene where Kayako crawls down the staircase is the stuff of nightmares. And let’s not forget that eerie, throaty noise she makes, which is sure to send tingles down your spine.
3 The House of the Devil (2009)
MPI Media Group
The House of the Devil is regarded as one of the best haunted house films ever made. It pays homage to ’70s and ’80s horror films, mimicking their styles and techniques. For instance,the film opens with claims that it’s based on true events, similar to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, though this isn’t actually the case.
The House of the Devil also does away with the gorey cliches and jump scares of modern horror; instead, it slowly builds up the tension in a scene, until your heart is pounding against your chest. Obviously, this movie contains elements from the haunted house genre. But it also borrows elements from slasher films and satanic cult movies, combining all these subgenres to craft a well-made and terrifying tale.
2 Paranormal Activity (2007)
Blumhouse Productions
Paranormal Activity is one of those horror films that sets the world on fire. The kind of movie that becomes a cultural phenomenon and gets everybody talking and watching — and screaming. It follows an innocent young couple, who believe their house is experiencing…well, paranormal activity. To prove this, they set up a camera to film the strange occurrences and the supernatural forces that are haunting them. Unlike most horror movies, Paranormal Activity relies on realism rather than gore, and it’s incredibly effective.
Its disturbing, homemade footage is reminiscent of The Blair Witch Project, another low-budget independent film that killed it at the box office. One of the film’s most memorable, spine-tingling scenes is also one of its simplest: the woman is watching her husband as he sleeps, seemingly possessed, standing in place as the minutes fly off the clock. Paranormal Activity’s massivesuccess launched a franchise that continues to make films today.
1 The Others (2001)
Dimension Films
The Others might seem like your typical, run-of-the-mill, haunted house horror story at first. But this film’s brilliant twist reveals that it’s the main characters, who are supposedly being haunted throughout the film, that are the ghosts.
The supernatural forces that we see are actually living people: a group that consists of an elderly medium, who’s performing a séance, and the new family that’s now living inside the house. As it turns out, the main character Grace (Nicole Kidman) murdered her two children before taking her own life as well. Since its release, The Others has become one of the best and most unique films in the horror genre.
Continuing his oddball promotional tour for his new album, singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran performed his new song American Town for Courtney Cox in an unlikely setting – her kitchen.
The longtime pals enjoyed a song that was inspired by Friends, the popular TV show Cox starred in.
“Courtney, I wrote a song inspired by Friends, the show that you were on, and I’m going to play it to you, if that’s alright,” Sheeran says in the Instagram post that captures the moment.
The song is part of his upcoming album, Autumn Variations. It describes an “English girl in an American town,” and name-checks the sitcom while describing the way the characters eat Chinese take-out.
“That was really about the show Friends?” Cox asks.
“Well yeah, because you eat Chinese food in small white boxes, we lived the life we saw in Friends,” Sheeran responds.
“Oh my God, I love this, I love that,” Cox says, before joking “Do I get paid?”
Sheeran has been working hard to promote the upcoming album, appearing at a hot dog stand, crashing a wedding, and showing the flag at other unlikely venues. On Tuesday, he announced that he’d recorded an alternate live version of Autumn Variations, with each song performed in the living room of a different fan.
The studio version of Autumn Variations is out Sept. 29.
The WGA is heading back to the bargaining table with the CEOs of Netflix, Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros Discovery on Friday.
“The WGA and AMPTP met for bargaining today and will meet again tomorrow,” said the guild in a message to members after a long session Thursday night. Executives Ted Sarandos, Bob Iger, Donna Langley and David Zaslav are all anticipated to be in attendance Friday, along with AMPTP president Carol Lombardini and a praetorian guard of lawyers. On the other side, WGA chief negotiator Ellen Stutzman, along with David Goodman and Chris Keyser, will also be in the room at the AMPTP’s Sherman Oaks offices.
Scheduling and attendance weren’t the only messages the guild wanted to convey late tonight after an unresolved marathon negotiating session with the studies and streamers.
“Your Negotiating Committee appreciates all the messages of solidarity and support we have received the last few days, and ask as many of you as possible to come out to the picket lines tomorrow,” the WGA wrote to members in a call for a show of strength in front of studio lots and offices in L.A. and New York on Friday.
The WGA’s missive came soon after news broke that the guild, the AMPTP and the CEO Gang of Four were unable to close a deal to end the soon-to-be 144-day writers strike. With the industry essentially shut down for almost five months, almost no one working, and the greater Los Angeles County facing an estimated economic hit of up to $5 billion, there were high hopes an agreement was in the offering tonight — especially with the CEOs in the room and engaged.
Bob Iger, Ted Sarandos, David Zaslav & Donna Langley
Getty/Courtesy
Rumors had been picking up steam all day that a deal was close after a second solid day of deliberations. When tonight’s bargaining session suddenly went longer than expected, that hearsay became a hurricane as agents, execs, showrunners and other began optimistically texting and DM’ing one another. Of course, a deal proved not to be in the cards – which leaves the writers still on strike.
It additionally leaves the 160,000-strong SAG-AFTRA out on strike too, and no closer to a new three-year contract of their own.
After today’s roller-coaster ride and the disappointment of tonight, enthusiasm about whether Friday’s negotiating session will be more successful may be harder to come by.
The WGA went on strike on May 2; the actors’ union will hit its 70th day on the picket lines Friday.
Up next is “Fukrey 3,” the next instalment of the hit comedy-crime franchise directed by Mrighdeep Lamba, which is due a theatrical release Sept. 28. Action-drama “Agni,” directed by Rahul Dholakia, is in the works and due a 2024 release. “Ground Zero,” directed by Tejas Prabha Vijay Deoskar, is currently in post-production and is based on a true-life story. Comedy-drama “Madgaon Express,” the directing debut of actor Kunal Kemmu, is also in post and Ravi Udyawar’s action-thriller “Yudhra” is in the works.
On the streaming front, “Dabba Cartel,” a story of five housewives who run a high-stakes secret cartel, which is Excel’s first show for Netflix, has just started filming. Also for Netflix is original film “Kho Gaye Hum Kahan,” an urban friendship saga directed by Arjun Varain Singh, starring Ananya Panday, Adarsh Gourav and Siddhant Chaturvedi. Zoya Akhtar’s “The Archies,” a co-production with Tiger Baby Films, will stream on Netflix from December.
For Prime Video, season 3 of hit hinterland gangland show “Mirzapur” is due in the first quarter of 2024, and “Unseen,” Excel’s first foray into the supernatural horror series space, is complete.
Namrata Rao’s “Angry Young Men,” a Tiger Baby co-production, which is a three-part documentary series on famed Bollywood screenwriters Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, who created Amitabh Bachchan’s ‘angry young man’ persona in the 1970s, is also complete.
Akhtar’s return to direction after 12 years, feature film “Jee Le Zaraa,” announced with Bollywood A-listers Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Katrina Kaif and Alia Bhatt in the cast, is on hold at the moment. “We just have issues with dates, and the actor’s strike that’s happened has put Priyanka’s dates into a huge tizzy with what can happen and what can’t, so I’ve started genuinely believing that that film now has a destiny of its own. It’ll happen when it has to, we’ll see,” Akhtar told Variety.
Instead, Akhtar will star in what he describes as a “slice-of-life romantic musical” directed by Nitya Mehra (“Made in Heaven”), which does not have a title yet, and will return to directing next year with “Don 3.”
“Don” (1978) starred Amitabh Bachchan in dual roles – that of a ruthless mafia don and his look alike Vijay, a slum-dweller who is brought in by the police to masquerade as the gang leader after his death. In 2006, Akhtar rebooted the franchise with Shah Rukh Khan in the lead playing the dual roles of Don and Vijay in “Don: The Chase Begins Again.” The film was a smash hit and a 2011 sequel “Don 2” followed.
“Don 3” will see Ranveer Singh as the latest actor to take on the role. On the change of casting, Akhtar said, “I’m not in the position of replacing anybody. These are things that we discussed over the years, I wanted to take a certain direction with the story, somehow we just couldn’t find common ground. We just parted mutually knowing that it’s probably for the best. So that’s where it is,” Akhtar said.
“I’m really excited Ranveer’s on board. He’s so charged and so ready to go. It’s a big film, just purely from the point of view of an actor, it’s a big thing to do, and we’re really excited to have him on board. His energy is energizing us, so to speak,” Akhtar added.
Excel is currently basking in the success of Amazon Prime Video series, Indian mafia saga “Bambai Meri Jaan,” which launched at a glitzy event in London recently. “Amazon has seen the success of shows leading up to this, how slowly, but surely Indian shows are creating a space and a market for themselves. Hopefully, this will further that cause,” Akhtar said.
Sidhwani added: “It’s encouraging, because what you realize is most of the popular shows in that genre like ‘Narcos,’ ‘Money Heist’ or ‘Squid Game,’ they’re all in their original language, they’re not in English. This is that kind of show, which all of us have been believing in.”
Excel is also developing content internationally, while maintaining its India focus. “Suddenly we’ve got an opportunity with our work, which has been on streaming platforms, where people have now discovered stories out of India, they know about us, they know the kind of stories we tell, we’re hoping to now take that and try to make a mark,” Sidhwani said.
The Mumbai-based company also has a keen eye on the flourishing south Indian market, the largest in India, as barriers of content being restricted to regional silos are fast disappearing in the post-pandemic era. “The more industries interact, the more they cross-pollinate, the more fun it is for everyone,” Akhtar said.
At the star-studded, gala event, held at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills on Thursday evening, Lizzo smiled bright as she chatted with other celebs in attendance and posed for photos inside the event.
The singer, who did not walk the carpet ahead of the gala, shined in elegant black gown during the event — where she was also honored with the Quincy Jones Humanitarian Award.
Johnny Nunez/Getty Images
In court docs obtained by ET on Thursday, Daniels — a professional clothing designer who designed the wardrobe for the dancers who will be on Lizzo’s 2023 tour — alleges that the singer, whose real name is Melissa Jefferson, condones a sexualized, racially charged and illegal work environment.
The suit alleges that Lizzo allowed her management team to express racist and fatphobic comments, mock Black women, deny workers medical care and forced Daniels to endure degrading sexual harassment.
In response to the lawsuit, Lizzo’s spokesman, Stefan Friedman, told ET: “As Lizzo receives a Humanitarian Award tonight from the Black Music Action Coalition for the incredible charitable work she has done to lift up all people, an ambulance-chasing lawyer tries to sully this honor by recruiting someone to file a bogus, absurd publicity-stunt lawsuit who, wait for it, never actually met or even spoke with Lizzo. We will pay this as much attention as it deserves. None.”
Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty Images
The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court. It was filed over a month after three of Lizzo’s former dancers — Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams and Noelle Rodriguez — filed a lawsuit claiming they faced sexual harassment when they worked for Lizzo, as well as religious and racial harassment, disability discrimination, assault and false imprisonment, among other allegations.
In a statement posted to Instagram shortly after those lawsuit made headlines, Lizzo called the allegations “outrageous” and “sensationalized.”
“These last few days have been gut wrenchingly difficult and overwhelmingly disappointing,” the singer wrote at the time. “My work ethic, morals and respectfulness have been questioned. My character has been criticized. It’s never my intention to make anyone feel uncomfortable or like they aren’t valued as an important part of the team.”
Saying she didn’t want to be viewed as a “victim,” Lizzo added, “I also know that I am not the villain that people and the media have portrayed me to be these last few days.”
Despite embracing being “very open with my sexuality,” Lizzo shared, “There is nothing I take more seriously than the respect we deserve as women in the world. I know what it feels like to be body shamed on a daily basis and would absolutely never criticize or terminate an employee because of their weight.”
TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2023 REVIEW! Grant Singer is one of the top music video directors, having worked with The Weekend, Sam Smith, Lorde, and Taylor Swift, to name a few. His first feature, Netflix’s Reptile, opens strong, with the song Angel of the Morning setting the mood. We see lovers and partners in real estate, Summer (Matilda Lutz) and Will (Justin Timberlake), apparently prepping a house to show. We can tell some of the passion is gone — this is just work with a foreboding sense of doom. Soon after, Summer turns up brutally stabbed to death. Detective Tom Nichols (Benicio Del Toro) is sent to investigate.
Suspects abound — Will, as the boyfriend, is a natural suspect, and he is in a powerful real-estate family run by his mother (Frances Fisher). But Summer’s technically still-husband Sam (Karl Glusman) seems shady and may have the motive. Meanwhile, Eli Phillips (Michael Pitt) is a real weirdo who has been screwed over in a real estate deal with Will’s family.
Del Toro’s Tom and his wife Judy (Alicia Silverstone) have recently moved from Philadelphia to this small town in Maine. Tom seems well respected in the police department but is still getting to know everyone, like his captain (Eric Bogosian), a fellow officer with a side hustle, Wally (The Wire’s Domenick Lombardozzi), and the police chief (Mike Pniewski). As Tom starts to uncover clues, the paranoia builds — it seems like there might be a grand conspiracy here, and he’s unsure who to trust. Still, he confides in his wife, Judy, as they go out country dancing in some of the film’s best scenes, even though she may be having an affair.
“Summer turns up brutally stabbed to death.Detective Tom Nichols is sent to investigate.”
Reptile has a lot going for it, including loads of style, lots of twists, an incredibly strong performance by Benicio Del Toro, and great chemistry between Del Toro and Silverstone. The supporting actors do great work, too. Still, it is about a 30-minute edit from being a great film. At2 hours and 14 minutes, it really starts to drag, especially when we’re well away from the center of the action, off into our third suspect, on some plot point about a real estate empire, or hearing the medical struggles of the police captain.Scene-to-scene, almost everyone in Reptile is well done, but the whole is less than the parts. The plot has so many twists we get tangled up in it. The film begins to feel like a slog, and when its ending is revealed, it feels less satisfying and more like we need a study guide to remind us how all the puzzle pieces fit together.
Director Singer is clearly going for a David Fincher vibe here with a police procedural with a moody atmosphere. He’s not nearly as masterful as Fincher (who is), but he’s clearly got potential. Maybe some of the problems stem from the three-handed script written by Benjamin Brewer, Singer himself, and, in a first, Benicio Del Toro. I’d love to know who wrote what because every scene with Del Toro is magnetic — this is his best role in years. The film is worth watching for his performance alone. It is almost a modern noir, but in a fresh take, the detective has a happy relationship.
Reptile is certainly watchable, but like so many of Netflix’s films is just kind of a B- affair. There’s good stuff there, but it could have been great with a little extra effort.
Hours before Mr Trudeau spoke to the press on Thursday, Arindam Bagchi, a spokesperson for India’s foreign ministry, told reporters that India had made it clear that “we are willing to look at any specific information that is provided to us. But so far we have not received any such specific information.”
The Writers Guild of America and Hollywood’s major studios will meet for a third day of bargaining Friday as Hollywood wrestles with growing hopes of a deal balanced with concerns that key issues in the nearly five-month strike battle remain in contention.
“The WGA and [Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers] met for bargaining today and will meet again tomorrow,” the WGA said in a negotiations update message sent to members late Thursday. “Your Negotiating Committee appreciates all the messages of solidarity and support we have received the last few days, and ask as many of you as possible to come out to the picket lines tomorrow.”
The WGA has been out since May 2. Industry hopes for resolution to the strike that is close to surpassing the guild’s longest-ever work stoppage soared on Thursday as rumors throughout the creative community that a deal between studios and scribes was coming as soon as early evening. In reality, sources close to the situation say significant issues and deal points remain on the table. In short, the guild has yet to indicate that the elements under discussion as of Wednesday are sufficient to close the deal and end the walkout that is heading into Day 144 on Friday.
Optimism about a settlement coming together was stoked by the presence of CEOs and senior leaders of four of Hollywood’s largest employers: Disney (Bob Iger), Netflix (Ted Sarandos), NBCUniversal (Donna Langley) and Warner Bros. Discovery (David Zaslav). Sources indicated that the participation of executives seemed to accelerate the back-and-forth between management and labor on solutions to the most divisive contract points. It’s believed that the sides have moved toward a compromise on the WGA’s demand for a new minimum staffing formula to be implemented for writers on episodic TV programs.
Other issues discussed Thursday include the complicated problem of regulating the use of generative artificial intelligence in writing for screen, as well as the WGA’s push to add into the master film and TV contract the right for its members to honor strikes and picket lines of other unions.
The WGA and AMPTP resumed negotiations on Sept. 20 for the first time in nearly a month. The executive leaders hoped to signal their commitment to making a deal by showing up in person. On Thursday evening, multiple sources said a bit of last-minute static emerged over what the management side viewed as new deal points raised by the WGA, which kept the CEOs in the room longer than expected, until about 7:30 p.m.
Plans for a third day of talks were firmed up shortly before the WGA sent its message to members at 9:45 p.m. PT. It’s unclear if the CEOs will return to AMPTP headquarters in Sherman Oaks for a third day of bargaining.
On Thursday CNN’s Abby Phillip commemorated Rupert Murdoch’s media legacy in a most appropriate way: A nearly 6-minute long supercut detailing the damage done by Fox News, “the beast of his creation.”
Earlier Thursday, Murdoch announced he will be stepping down as the chairman of Fox News Corp. and will be replaced by his son, Lachlan. It marks a sea change in media, but that Murdoch is also 92 years old, analysis of his decision has tended to read more like obituaries, with much focus on his legacy as a right wing activist and media magnate.
Phillip was blunt in her assessment. “His legacy is outrage porn. Partisan red meat. Stoking relentless culture wars,” she said.
She went on to argue that the idea of a “center-right” news network isn’t inherently bad. “But instead, stoking division seemed to become Murdoch’s mission. So did power, and so did the money,” she said. “Fox became a mouthpiece for Republican administrations. A mouthpiece, really, for Donald Trump. And eventually, a vehicle for his baseless conspiracies.”
So it is that she cued up the supercut, a damning 5 minutes and 55 seconds of Fox News history. This includes openly expressed racism, sexism and other forms of bigotry. A staggering number of baseless conspiracy theories. And by the end of the clip, which by this point is focused on Fox News clips from 2020 and later, lie after lie after lie, and outright attacks on American democracy.
For a teenager growing up in Europe, both shows provided a window into American pop culture and what I believed was a typical high school experience. Set in Orange County, California, The O.C. delivered on high drama. There were pool parties and Chanel bags. Drug overdoses and weekend jaunts to Tijuana, Mexico. Chrismukkah holiday cards! When Marissa died, I cried for the first time watching TV; now I tear up at the smallest things. Is this what life was like in California? And when I could move there?
One Tree Hill, which was filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina, painted a different picture: small-town charm on the East Coast. (Sidebar: The location is also home to a bunch of other well-known shows, including Dawson’s Creek, The Summer I Turned Pretty, and more or less every Nicholas Sparks movie ever made.) The early days of the Scott brothers were filled with basketball games (the only sport featured in my school was soccer), hookups in the back of a car (I wasn’t even allowed in the driver’s seat until I turned 18), pom-poms, and cheerleading outfits (I still wish I’ taken gymnastics classes).
Their high school wardrobes—velour tracksuits, jeans, layered band tees—were arguably more accessible, though if I’d sought to emulate anyone’s style, it’d be Peyton’s, since I always had a moody streak. An honorable mention goes to the music in the show, which introduced me to a bunch of indie rock bands like Jimmy Eat World, Jack’s Mannequin, and Fall Out Boy, all of which ended up forming the soundtrack of my teenage years.
She’s got stellar personal style, an admirable ability to parent thoughtfully and privately, and a seemingly permanent spot on the paparazzi’s must-capture list. But behind it all, Katie Holmes is—and always has been—a passionate and successful actor and director.
So much happened throughout One Tree Hill’s nine-season run (including a major time jump between seasons four and five that skips over their college days). Some major moments I still remember: Haley and Nathan getting married at the end of season one. Peyton Sawyer helping run Tric, the nightclub that Lucas’s mom Karen Roe (Moira Kelly) opened in season two. Brooke Davis turning her love for fashion into a million-dollar business with Clothes Over Bros. I could go on listing all the significant character developments and plot twists, but you get the picture.
Looking back on the show now, I find that most characters and storylines seem to have aged well—keeping in mind, of course, that showrunner Mark Schwahn was accused by female cast members of sexual harassment and assault in 2017. The series still has a timelessness to it for me, addressing difficult realities in the lived lives of American teens that feel relevant to this day. Sure, there were multiple love triangles and many theatrical hospital scenes, but there were also more poignant moments and conversations surrounding sexuality, teen pregnancy, and gun violence.
The podcast Drama Queens—which IRL besties Sophia Bush, Hilarie Burton, and Bethany Joy Lenz cohost—revisits each episode of the show from behind the scenes. The trio launched Drama Queens in 2021 and are currently recapping season five, in case you want to catch up.
Revisiting the show and my own memories attached to it isn’t done entirely through rose-tinted lenses. I was your average moody, insecure teenager, and going back in time brings up a lot of those emotions. But perhaps because One Tree Hill celebrates 20 in the same year that I turn 30, reflecting on the show now feels more serendipitous—a reminder of what was but also what’s to come.
Aimee is a sweetheart from day dot of Sex Education, but she has a lot to learn. She goes through A LOT, but it only serves to make her stronger, smarter, and more confident in what she wants and needs. Even though Aimee never loses her sweetness or no-filter charm, she’s a badder bitch by the finale, for sure.
Spain’s 71st San Sebastian Film Festival is tracking to welcome an even larger industry presence than 2022, currently up 10% in attendance on 2022’s already bullish figures, its status as the biggest movie event in the Spanish-speaking world remaining undiminished.
Here are 10 key takes on potential highlights and trends which look likely to shape this year’s edition, running Sept. 22-30:
New Talent
Boasting a prestigious New Directors’ section as its biggest sidebar and an Ikusmira Berriak development lab for emerging cineasts, San Sebastian has always been strong on new talent. In 2023, however, it is even stronger still. 10 of its 16 main competition entries are first (three) or second features (seven). “Having so many new directors is part coincidence,” says San Sebastian director José Luis Rebordinos. But the presence of so many emerging directors may reflect new industry dynamics and recent years of fuller employment. “My impression is that some young directors now move fast, make shorts and co-write screenplays before making first features and this experience means these films are more rounded and mature,” he adds, citing competition contender Isabella Eklöf, who co-wrote Ali Abbasi’s Oscar-nominated “Border.”
Women Make Their Mark
Seven of the first or second-time fiction feature directors in San Sebastian competition this year are women, and more than half of their films strongly women-centric, whether capturing the memories of a Black women in rural Mississippi (Raven Jackson’s “All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt,”) toxic masculinity in the Outback (Kitty Green’s “Royal Hotel”) or women’s reproductive rights in past rural Galicia (Jaione Camborda’s “The Rye Horn”). They also rate as three of the buzziest competition titles.
All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt
Courtesy of San Sebastian Film Festival
Industry Big Guns Hit the Fest
Last year, CAA Media Finance teamed with San Sebastian to organize the festival’s first Creative Investors’ Conference, to debate latest market trends. They should know: Speakers took in CAA’s own Roeg Sutherland, now Goodfellas’ Vincent Maraval and Cinetic Media’s John Sloss. All three will return this year. Running Sept. 26-28, further CIC attendees include Netflix’s Teresa Moneo, Amblin Partners’ Jeb Brody and Anonymous Content’s David Davoli, plus key figures from Latin America such as K&S’s Matías Mosteirín and Infinity Hill’s Axel Kuschevatzky. Panel subjects range widely. The real rub, however, playing out in many, is a state of the union take, with a pull-back on streamers’ content investment, on the challenges and opportunities in the U.S and global film industry, from a market and producers’ perspective.
Will There Be Any Stars?
Yes, but not Javier Bardem. A San Sebastian Donostia Award winner this year, Bardem will pick up his prize in person at 2024’s fest, the postponement due to “limits imposed” by the SAG-AFTRA strike, San Sebastian announced Sept. 8. Jessica Chastain will, however, present Michel Franco’s “Memory.” Gabriel Byrne and Aidan Gillen (both “Dance First”) are expected, as Mads Mikkelsen (“The Promised Land”) and Griffin Dunne and James Norton (“Ex-Husbands”). Also coming are multiple A-list auteurs, led by main jury president Claire Denis.
Buzz Titles
There’s great word of mouth on the Greenland-set “Kalak,” from Denmark’s Isabella Eklöf, turning on pederasty, and “Puan,” a university faculty satire, by Benjamin Naishat, who stormed San Sebastian with “Rojo,” and María Alché (“A Family Submerged”). In New Directors, titles building fan clubs take in Xiao Yao You’s section opener “Carefree Days,” a portrait of modern urban China; Javier Macipe’s “The Blue Star,” inspired by 1990s Spanish rock icon Mauricio Aznar; and singular family comedy “Mother, Couch,” another debut, from Sweden’s Niclas Larrson, with one of the biggest star lineups of any movie at San Sebastian.
Puan
Credit: Luxbox
San Sebastian’s Biggest New Cinematic Highlight? Los Javis’ Series ‘La Mesías’
Time hopping from the ‘80s to around 1997 to 2013, shot in 16mm and digital, structured with the unpredictability of memory, “La Mesías” delivers a big canvas yet intimate and lacerating vision of religious fanaticism and childhood trauma which marks a huge step-up across the board for Los Javis, say those who have seen it. With Berto Romero, likely to surprise with “The Other Side,” a comedic horror thriller with social issue undertow, TV series look set to make at least some of the significant running at this year’s San Sebastian.
Tooning Up
Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Boy and the Heron” opens San Sebastian; Isabel Herguera’s “Sultana’s Dream,” an India-set three-part take on gender politics down the decades, plays competition; dazzling at 2022’s Annecy when in post, a third animated feature,“They Shot the Piano Player,” from Oscar-nominated Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal (“Chico & Rita”), features as a special screening. The toon trifecta is again part coincidence, stresses Rebordinos, noting that San Sebastian has screened animated features before, such as Juan José Campanella’s fest opener “Underdogs.” Animation’s build is seen on San Sebastian’s doorstep in the Basque Country, whose “fledgling animation industry is an opportunity” for the region, says Rebordinos.
They Shot the Piano Player
Courtesy of San Sebastian Film Festival
Genre Build
Meanwhile, also based in the Basque Country, Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia has shot sci fi horror allegory “The Platform” 2, whose 2019 original ranks as Netlix’s second most-watched non-English movie ever. Ever increasingly a favourite among younger directors and one form of independent production which can punch healthy market returns, genre and genre blending is also on the rise, as this year’s San Sebastian’s Co-Production Forum attests. Its genre titles often retains Spain and Latin America’s traditional arthouse social edge. One Forum project, “The Days Off,” for instance, “blends genres such as horror, comedy and coming-of-age as it explores an economic crisis from the eyes of a kid,” says producer Paula Zyngierman.
Latin American Central
Not all is change: , one of modern San Sebastian’s foundation stones holds strong: its Latin American axis. Vaunted Argentine auteurs Martin Rejtman (“The Practice”), Benjamin Naishtat and María Hache (“Puan”) and Lucía Puenzo (“Los Impactados”) world premiere their latest completed films at San Sebastian. At the Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum, Federico Veiroj, Theo Court, Alicia Scherson and Daniel Hendler effectively world premiere latest projects. Horizontes Latinos packs 12 Latin America titles. No other major film festival can match this presence.
The Best of Spain, Down the Generations
Victor Erice, whose 1973 San Sebastian Golden Shell winner, “The Spirit of the Beehive,” helped lay another founding stone of the modern San Sebastian – its strong line in social/political issue arthouse – will attend San Sebastian to screen “Close Your Eyes,” acclaimed by those who caught it in Cannes, and accept a Donostia Prize. This year’s fest will, indeed, welcome many of the Spain’s greatest filmmakers whether from a post-Franco generation who opened Spain up to various forms of U.S. cinema, whether its golden age of comedy (Fernando Trueba, at San Sebastian with “They Shot the Piano Player”), U.S.-style indie production (Isabel Coixet, in competition with “Un Amor”) and genre (J.A. Bayona, at San Sebastian with “Society of the Snow.” Carla Simón, whose “Summer 1993” brought down the flag on a new generation of filmmakers, making dramas with a large sense of place, but raising universal issues, will receive Spain’s National Cinema Prize. One of San Sebastian’s biggest strengths has been always been its platform for Spanish cinema. 2023 will be no exception.
Welcome back to the galaxy far, far away, Star Wars fans! This week’s episode of Ahsoka was filled with some major jaw-dropping moments as one of the universe’s biggest villains made his triumphant return, but did it also set up an even greater evil yet to come? Dan Casey heads to Peridea to break it all down on today’s episode of Nerdist News!
YouTube has new AI features for creators on the way. AI-powered features the company announced at its Made on YouTube event on Thursday include a green screen feature, insights to stimulate ideas, automatic dubbing to other languages and a soundtrack search.
Dream Screen gives YouTube Shorts creators an AI-powered green screen, similar to a popular feature on TikTok. YouTube’s tool will automatically remove backgrounds from your videos, replacing them with AI-generated images or videos based on your prompts.
Although it’s yet to be seen how professional and convincing the generated content appears in practice, the idea is for Dream Screen to make it easier to illustrate fantasy scenarios or simply liven up otherwise ho-hum backdrops. YouTube suggests trekking through an enchanted forest or riding shotgun as your pug drives you to school as two oddball scenes Dream Screen can craft. The company says it will start to test the tool with “select creators” later this year before a broader rollout in 2024.
YouTube Studio will get a new feature that brainstorms for you. Similar to asking ChatGPT for video ideas, the “insight recommendations” feature can draft outlines and help creators conceptualize projects. Similarly, assistive search in Creator Music will make it easier to find background tunes for your videos. “Simply type in a description of your content and AI will suggest the right music at the right price,” YouTube VP Toni Reid wrote today. Both Insights and assistive music search will be available for creators next year.
YouTube also showcased the AI-powered dubbing feature it began testing earlier this year. Developed at Google’s Area 120 incubator, it can generate a text-based translation into the selected target language. The company says it gives you a chance to double-check the output before choosing from different virtual narrators to read your content. The feature is currently being tested with select creators in English, Portuguese and Spanish.
The company is also launching a YouTube Create app to help video makers produce content on their mobile devices. It includes standard features like editing, trimming, automatic captioning, voiceovers, filters, effects and royalty-free music with beat matching. The free app is currently in beta for Android in select markets.
Prime Video Latin America has snapped up streaming rights to Katina Medina Mora’s latest film “Latido” (“Heartbeat”), starring Oscar-nominated Marina de Tavira (“Roma”).
This is the third feature from Medina Mora, whose credits include episodes of Netflix hit “Emily in Paris,” Apple TV+’s “Swagger” and romantic drama, “LuTo,” her debut feature picked up by Netflix. Its trailer debuts exclusively on Variety.
“Latido,” which has its world premiere at the Mill Valley Film Festival and its Mexican premiere at the Morelia Film Festival, turns on 45-year-old Leonor, played by De Tavira, who works for an NGO that supports young athletes. Leonor has struggled for years to conceive. She meets 16-year-old Emilia, a gifted ballet dancer, played by Camila Calónico, who aces her audition but whose world falls apart when she finds out she is pregnant. Leonor and Emilia make a pact to share the pregnancy process. What starts as a transactional relationship evolves into something deeper.
The film reflects on the critical issues of teenage pregnancy, infertility, adoption, especially in Mexico where the process is mired in red tape, and of grandmothers who become inadvertent caregivers when their children bear children. It also comments on the health system that rarely pays attention to women and their specific needs.
“It portrays the complexity of human relationships, from their shortcomings and affections, hoping to generate reflections and questions that will lead us to empathize more deeply with the women,” said Medina in her director’s statement.
The drama is produced by Inna Payán’s Animal de Luz, which she founded in 2011. Among Animal de Luz’s credits are lauded immigrant drama “La Jaula de Oro,” co-produced with Machete Prods.; Everardo Gonzalez’s harrowing documentary “La Libertad del diablo”; Beatriz Sanchis’ “Todos estan muertos” and Samuel Kishi’s “Los lobos.”
“‘Latido’ is a movie that explores motherhood. It tells the story of a woman who cannot have children and desperately wishes to become a mother with all her heart. On the other hand, there’s a young girl who unintentionally becomes pregnant and doesn’t want to have the baby. In reality, it’s a serendipity because they decide to make a deal to achieve something and end up discovering something else,” Payán told Variety.
“The movie was created with an entirely female crew: Nur Rubio in cinematography, Elva Algravez in production design, and produced by myself, Katina Medina Mora, and Marina de Tavira. We are very proud to be part of this feature film,” she said.
“As a producer, I feel extremely pleased to have in my hands a powerful story that delves into the individuality of two beings and addresses a very relevant topic in today’s public discourse: Women’s relationship with motherhood,” she added.
Two other Animal de Luz projects are going to Morelia: the latest documentary by Gonzalez, “Una jauria llamado Ernesto” (“A Wolfpack Called Ernesto”), about the children who are drawn into Mexico’s underworld, some trained to become sicarios (assassins), collectively called ‘Ernesto,’ and the thousands who lose their lives too soon.
Drama “Todo el silencio” (“All the Silence”), is the debut feature of award-winning theatre director Diego del Rio based on a screenplay by “La Jaula de Oro” writer, Lucia Carreras.
It turns on Miriam who teaches sign language in the mornings and in the afternoons, participates in a theater production. Her girlfriend Lola, her parents and many friends are deaf but her world begins to shatter when she finds out that she too is losing her hearing and refuses to accept her fate.
The saga of Oliver Anthony—the self-published recording artist who garnered national attention, mentions by major politicians, and a whole ton of YouTube views with his sudden breakout hit “Rich Men North Of Richmond”—has now taken a turn for the corporate, it seems. Deadline reports that Anthony (who’s hesitated to sign any major deals after becoming the first artist to ever debut at the very top of the Billboard Hot 100 with his very first song on the list) has signed with the Nashville branch of Hollywood’s United Talent Agency.
Oliver Anthony reportedly stranded with the Rich Men Of Burning Man
Anthony’s decision to sign with UTA comes as summer is winding down, and with it, maybe, the inescapable popularity of the song—now sitting at 22 on the Hot 100, which is still pretty good for a completely indie song recorded on a phone. (But still a long way down from its multi-week peak.) It is now, presumably, time to see how much genuine staying power he has outside of singing angry anthems about people on welfare—although he’s previously made comments suggesting he wants to take things slow before signing on for a full album or any kind of major deal.
As for UTA, it’s not hard to see why they signed him, even before parsing typical agency speak. (“We’re honored to represent such an authentic artist, and excited to put together a global strategy to bring Oliver Anthony and his music to the people.”) The most-viewed video of “Rich Men”—which features Anthony, his guitar, his dog, and not much more—has picked up more than 70 million views on YouTube in the span of about a month, while more recent releases have picked up millions of views within a few days of release. Meanwhile, he’s been making the media rounds, including appearing on Joe Rogan’s podcast, and doing a handful of live shows in his native South. Even beneath the general Rorschach test effect of his lyrics—which blend plaintive folk misery with more Fox News-y lines about “minors on islands”—it’s clear that he’s hit some kind of powerful vein of feeling here; the question now is whether UTA will succeed in helping him make the most of it.
2023 has been a turbulent year for all of Hollywood and Netflix is no different. One trend that’s back in full force is licensing with some huge shows from yesteryear and more recently joining Netflix that don’t sport the Netflix Original logo.
For years, Netflix was home to some of the biggest shows in the world from other providers. We’re talking about the majority of output from ABC, NBC, AMC, Showtime, and others. Of course, that all changed as we progressed through the 2010s as companies began deciding that giving away their big shows wasn’t worth the cost of admission. Or, as Bob Iger famously put it: “We’re basically selling nuclear weapons technology to a Third World country.”
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Of course, those mantras of keeping everything for yourself have begun to reverse over the past year or so. Whether that’s from pressures to reach profitability on their own streaming services that are struggling for growth or difficult balance sheets, there’s an incentive for companies to begin the process of licensing again. It’s not quite at the level it was years ago, but it doesn’t need to be.
From Netflix’s point of view, it needs the eyeballs, and throughout much of this year, there’s been a major strike, and come next year, it’ll begin running out of its own US-produced series.
Will this trend continue post-strike? We’ll have to see.
This list is specifically for those in the United States, as Netflix licenses TV shows per region. With that said, international licensing has stepped up, too. Some regions saw the return of Hannibal, more regions have licensed Young Sheldon, and some are even getting Preacher in the coming weeks.
Enough with the context – here are our picks of the best-licensed series added (or re-added) to Netflix over the past nine months.
The Mindy Project
Owner of the Show: Universal Television Added to Netflix: January 1st, 2023 Seasons/Episodes: 6 seasons / 117 episodes
The Mindy Project
Running between 2012 and 2017, this Mindy Kaling comedy series kicked off the year of licensing on Netflix. The romantic comedy saw Kaling play a obstetrician/gynecologist juggling her personal and stressful professional life in New
What makes this license to Netflix even more funny is the fact the final season of the show was revived at Hulu and was dubbed a Hulu Original. Who would’ve thought that a Hulu show would drop on Netflix US just a few years ago!?
Suits
Owner of the Show: Universal Content Productions Added to Netflix: June 17th, 2023 Seasons / Episodes: 8 seasons / 124 episodes
The licensed show you probably heard most about over the summer was no doubt Suits. It made waves after completely dominating Nielsen charts for weeks (and still features even at the time of publishing), pulling in billions of minutes watched in the US alone each week.
The show, originally running on USA Network, depicted a law firm and the new wunderkind joining the firm with a photographic memory but notably missing his law degree.
There are numerous reasons why Netflix knew it’d do well on the service; after all, it already has carried the global rights for the show outside the US for years now. Add the royal factor (it stars Meghan Markle) and the fact there are a lot of addictive episodes to dig through, and you’ve got a winner.
Netflix notably didn’t manage to pick up the ninth season, however, with that season still exclusive to Amazon. The entire season also continues to stream on Peacock.
Band of Brothers
Owner of the Show: HBO / Warner Bros. Television Added to Netflix: September 15th, 2023 Episodes: 10
Picture: HBO
One network we didn’t mention above in the list of companies that used to license to Netflix was HBO, and there’s a good reason for that. Beyond a short deal with Prime Video, HBO stuck to its guns and never licensed to anyone. That’s why the addition of a slew of HBO shows over the summer (and more to come) in the US and abroad was so gobsmacking.
We’re picking out Band of Brothers not only because it’s one of the best pieces of art depicting the events of World War II but also because it demonstrates why HBO wanted to keep its content to itself. It’s premium. It’s not TV. It’s HBO.
New Amsterdam
Owner of the Show: Universal Television Added to Netflix: January 1st, February 1st, September 20th Seasons/Episodes: 5 seasons, 89 episodes
Picture: NBC Universal
When it comes to medical dramas, for whatever reason Netflix has never moved into the genre. Sure, it’s got some excellent documentaries on hospitals and those in the profession, but it doesn’t have any scripted medical dramas and, for the most part, has been reliant on annual drops of Grey’s Anatomy that it still carries from an old legacy deal with ABC.
That’s changed in 2023 with three drops of seasons of the NBC medical drama on the platform throughout the year with the final season arriving on September 20th.
The medical drama follows the life and work of Dr. Max Goodwin as he becomes the medical director of one of the oldest public hospitals in the United States.
S.W.A.T.
Owner of the Show: Sony Pictures Television (airs on CBS) Added to Netflix: May 17th, September 1st Seasons/Episodes: 6 seasons, 128 episodes
Picture: CBS
Set in the shared universe of FX’s The Shield and based on the 2003 movie, this excellent police procedural has also performed well in the various Nielsen charts since its initial arrival.
In the month the show got added to Netflix, the seventh season got canceled and then uncanceled within the space of a week. It’s unclear whether that seventh season will come to the service.
Netflix has a connection to S.W.A.T. in the form of the creator of the show, Shawn Ryan, who developed The Night Agent exclusively for Netflix.
Powerpuff Girls
Owner of the Show: Cartoon Network Added to Netflix: April 4th Seasons: 2 seasons
Picture: Cartoon Network
For the first time in years, several Cartoon Network shows returned to Netflix. Others included Justice League, Scooby Doo, Ben 10, and The Batman.
Created by Craig McCracken, who in recent years developed Kid Cosmic for Netflix, followed three kindergarten girls with superpowers fighting against Mojo Jojo and other villains.
The Mick
Owner of the Show: 20th Century Fox Television / Fox Added to Netflix: June 1st Seasons / Episodes: 2 seasons and 37 episodes
20th Century Television, following their acquisition by Disney, mostly shut off the licensing taps (and even stopped producing Original content) but that’s slowly been changing in recent years, with The Mick being one of their lesser-known titles that dropped on Netflix.
Sadly canceled after two seasons that ran in 2017 and 2018, The Mick was about a a tough, foul-mouthed woman, finding herself out of her depth when looking after his more affluent sister’s spoiled kids.
Ugly Betty
Owner of the Show: ABC Studios Added to Netflix: August 1st Seasons / Episodes: 4 seasons / 85 episodes
ABC Studios
Our final pick is the most recent addition to the Netflix library of the big new licensed titles. We’re referring to the US version of Yo soy Betty, la fea about a young woman who, despite not conforming to traditional beauty standards, finds success in the world of high fashion and media while navigating the challenges of her unconventional appearance.
In this instance, Netflix had streamed Ugly Betty many years prior (it departed eight years ago in 2015) and its re-addition didn’t really make any impact in the top 10s but it’s still a good series worthy of a rewatch of a spin for the first time.
What licensed show have you been watching on Netflix this year? Let us know in the comments down below.
A clever and well-crafted alien invasion story that would have absolutely slayed in theaters if not for Disney’s choice to dump it straight to Hulu (the streaming era is nothing if not a golden age for self-sabotage), Brian Duffield’s “No One Will Save You” does something that no sci-fi horror movie ever has before: It makes it seem weird that its heroine isn’t constantly talking to herself. In fact, Brynn Adams — played by a game and ultra-expressive Kaitlyn Dever — hardly says a single word the entire film.
If the effect is similar to the classic “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” episode “Hush,” the reason for Brynn’s silence is not because she can’t speak, but rather because she doesn’t really have anyone to speak to. That’s just how she likes it. Perfectly content to live alone in an isolated house at the end of a long driveway on the outskirts of town, Brynn spends her days sewing dresses for her online clothing store and playing with the various birdhouses that she’s intricately transformed into a model village — an immaculate replacement for the harsher reality outside her window. She dances. She smiles. She makes the best of it.
An alien in her own world, Brynn only steps out of her front door to ship her wares and sit by her mother’s grave; in the rare instance when Brynn has to go to Main Street for a routine errand or because she wants to tell the police that a gray-skinned alien landed on her roof the previous night, seemingly nice people spit right in her face. What would compel them to do such a thing? Brynn isn’t telling us, and Duffield’s script — which proves surprisingly bold even in its most predictable reveals — waits until the last possible moment to show its cards.
As its title might suggest, “No One Will Save You” is much less shy about the rest of its agenda. The movie is only a few minutes old before Brynn has her first encounter with a chittering extraterrestrial (whose flying saucer and disc-like head are traditional in a way that seems designed to erase any lingering ambiguity over what it is and where it comes from), and it’s only a few minutes older before we understand that this telekinetic E.T. isn’t just a lost traveler looking to phone home.
Things get harried in a hurry, and while Duffield doesn’t reinvent the wheel when it comes to the various “Home Alone”-like battles that pit Alien vs. Dever, the “Spontaneous” director stages them with rare aplomb and an unerring respect for the fact that Brynn’s house represents her entire universe (even just watching it on my couch, a bit involving Brynn’s refrigerator door had me leaping out of my seat).
Occasional trips beyond the confines of Brynn’s property suggest that Duffield has the vision to scale his stories to “event movie” size if a studio bothered to invest in his talent for revitalizing tired genres, but the long and wordless stretches that “No One Will Save You” spends inside its protagonist’s house are even more compelling for how expertly they dole out new information and dick around with old sci-fi tropes (I don’t think any other movie has ever had this much fun with tractor beams). Just when you think you have a good handle on where things might be going next, Duffield spins around and spears those expectations in the head with the spire of a miniature church.
Comparing this Hulu original to an IMAX-sized masterpiece like “Nope” won’t do it any favors, but “No One Will Save You” does a similarly effective job of narrativizing its aliens’ natural abilities, so that each spine-tingling new attribute feels like it’s moving the plot forward somehow (it helps that the CGI invaders generally move with the herky-jerkiness of stop-motion animation, which lends some extra weight to their pixels). That approach also allows Dever to develop Brynn into a three-dimensional character despite the fact that she doesn’t say anything, or even have all that much to say.
In keeping with the trauma fetishization of modern horror films, Duffield’s heroine is only as complex as the demons that his monsters force her to confront, though a few errant moments — including a genuinely beautiful moment of self-generosity — add nuance to what might have been an even more basic metaphor about the strength required to step outside the moral oblivion of our own darkest shadows. It’s true that no one will (or even could) save Brynn from the seemingly bottomless abyss of her own guilt, but it’s also true that she’s never even bothered trying to climb out. Just because no one is willing to throw her a rope doesn’t mean she has to die alone down there, least of all in a world where everyone is being replaced by the worst versions of themselves.
To that end, it doesn’t come as much of a surprise that something as classically minded as “No One Will Save You” makes time for an “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” subplot. If that decision feels like a hat on a hat (at least until Duffield reveals the icky mechanics of how it works), that’s only because it initially seems reverse-engineered from an excuse to keep the film’s dialogue to a bare minimum.
Effective as the movie’s wordless conceit might be at expressing Brynn’s emotional isolation (from other people, as well as from herself), there is something forced and even a little bit fraudulent about the almost complete lack of dialogue. The gimmick works in the abstract, and certainly makes the film more interesting on the whole, but a handful of crucial moments prove less immersive for the same point they’re trying to make: It’s hard to come in peace when everyone acts like you don’t belong on this planet. Fortunately, Duffield shares Brynn’s resourcefulness and determination, and he stays true to the spirit of his film until the bitter end of a story that never sacrifices an ounce of its integrity, even when it inevitably cops to the truth that dancing is never as fun when you have to do it alone.
Grade: B
“No One Will Save You” will be available to stream on Hulu starting Friday, September 22.
Pitch Perfect: Bumper In BerlinScreenshot: YouTube
Ah, the un-renewal: Is there a more ignominious fate for a TV show, or its creators? You get the go-ahead to make more of your thing, get excited to plot out new storylines and character arcs, and then, whoops: Lucy pulls the corporate football away, and you go flying off into the miserable distance.
Skylar Astin talks So Help Me Todd, and Pitch Perfect
The practice—which got a lot of press during the COVID-19 lockdowns—has been seeing a resurgence of late, as various Hollywood studios have shrugged their shoulders at the current WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes and declared “Hey, whadda ya gonna do?” (Pay your writers and actors a living wage? Who can say.)
Anyway: The un-renewal reaper has now come for Pitch Perfect TV series Bumper In Berlin, which will no longer be going forward with a second season on Peacock. The series, developed by Megan Amram and Elizabeth Banks, centers—as the title suggests—on Adam DeVine’s Pitch Perfect character Bumper, who finds himself moving to Germany after one of his songs takes off in, you guessed it, Munich. The series co-starred Sarah Hyland, Jameela Jamil, Lera Abova, and Flula Borg. After releasing its six initial episodes in a single burst in November of 2022, the series picked up a renewal in January of 2023, complete with a bunch of very effusive quotes (“We can’t wait to dive further into this new hit with Peacock audiences,” “We look forward to taking the next season to new heights,” etc.) that we now know to interpret with an invisible (but obvious) “Hey, maybe!”
Previous victims of the un-renewal bug include The Peripheral and A League Of Their Own, both at Amazon. According to Deadline, season 2 of Bumper In Berlin hadn’t even had pre-production work done on it by the time the WGA strike hit, causing it to miss its planned return window; the phrase “content pipeline” is also used, in case you were feeling overly optimistic about the state of art at the moment.
Much like its protagonist — a ghastly superhero who gains his powers after falling into a vat of chemical waste — “The Toxic Avenger” refuses to die. Made for a paltry $500,000 in 1984, Troma’s cult classic spawned three direct sequels, a rock musical, two video games, a short-lived animated series and now a remake starring Peter Dinklage. Given the eco-friendly, anti-pollution message at the improbable franchise’s core, perhaps its reemergence shouldn’t be surprising. Those problems haven’t exactly been alleviated in the intervening decades, with rising sea levels and melting glaciers acting as a kind of real-world Bat Signal.
In some ways, remakes of this sort have more to live up to than updated versions of massively successful blockbusters do. The self-selecting audience of a cult classic like “Toxic Avenger” may not be large, but it is fiercely devoted. Actor-turned-filmmaker Macon Blair, who earned acclaim for his roles in “Blue Ruin” and “Green Room” before making his directorial debut with “I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore,” has his work cut out for him.
Blair seems aware of that, as the film’s opening narration — “I didn’t want any of this” — could double as a commentary on the responsibilities inherent in reimagining a beloved story and an expression of certain fans’ reactions to said reimagining’s very existence. It’s hard to imagine those die-hards being let down. It’s also difficult to imagine “The Toxic Avenger” winning over any schlock-averse viewers who aren’t already on board with its brand of campy, over-the-top violence. This is largely a fans-only proposition, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
After spending a little time with Winston Gooze (Dinklage), you’ll see why he was world-weary even before being turned into St. Roma’s Village’s (a play on the original’s Tromaville) resident folk hero. A single stepdad to a teenager (Jacob Tremblay) whose mother died of cancer, he works as a janitor at a chemical factory that pollutes the surrounding area even more than the nuclear reactor in “The Simpsons.” That evil corporation is owned by Bob Garbinger (Kevin Bacon), whose products’ side effects have killed so many people that it’s a surprise no one tried taking him down before J.J. (Taylour Paige). After receiving a troubling diagnosis and failing to navigate his company’s byzantine insurance plans, Winston entreats his mega-rich boss for help, only to be cruelly rebuffed. One failed robbery attempt and an involuntary trip to the toxic-waste pool later, our mild-mannered protagonist is reborn as a B-movie Joseph Merrick.
The effects are appropriately grotesque, transforming Winston into a mutated whatsit that would make Freddy Krueger blush. His corroded skin has taken on several hues that surely don’t occur anywhere in nature, his now-enormous left eye frequently falls out of its socket and his blood runs blue. Dinklage grounds his tragic hero in the sadness that birthed him. One crucial difference between Blair’s film and the original is that here the lead actor voices both iterations of his character, and the contrast between his appearance and his sotto voce line delivery is a constant reminder of the man behind the mutant. “The Elephant Man” this is not, but it wouldn’t be surprising in the least to learn that Dinklage looked to John Hurt’s performance for inspiration.
What the original lacks in sophistication it more than makes up for in blood spatter and gore (that’s essentially what makes a Troma production work), and so it is here. Toxie’s weapon of choice is a mop dipped in the same caustic sludge that transformed him, its noxious embers burning green like bioluminescent plankton lighting up the sea at night. With it he severs many a head and removes oodles of intestines from his victims’ bodies, dispatching each of them in a more comically violent manner than the last.
In between such bloodshed, there’s no shortage of banter and one-liners, with near-constant background chatter provided by the chaotic townsfolk who bring to mind the ludicrous beings who populate the first act of “Beau Is Afraid,” of all things. There, too, audiences sensed a constant hubbub just at the edge of the frame, lending a heightened-reality air to the increasingly bizarre goings-on. “The Toxic Avenger” isn’t as off-puttingly funny as Ari Aster’s psychodrama — nor is it as funny as it means to be — but the two aren’t as dissimilar as you’d expect.
Blair could hardly have been truer to the spirit of his source material, which is another way of saying that his film is unlikely to find a much wider audience than its predecessor. It isn’t unwelcoming, though. This is an inside joke of a film, but it’s also one that wants you to be in on it.
Some of Colombia’s most prominent producers have banded together to form PI, a new association of independent producers led by Cristina Gallego, behind Oscar-nominated “Embrace of the Serpent” and “Birds of Passage,” who is an official jury member at this year’s 71stSan Sebastian Film Festival.
“Colombia has become a production destination for major companies due to its tax benefits, which has led to growth, experience, and job opportunities within the sector,” Gallego told Variety.
“However, members of PI view with particular concern the need for attention, updates, and the evolution of national and departmental policies that support the continued production of Colombian cinema, its voices, its artists, and its filmmakers,” said Gallego who will preside over the association along with director-producer Franco Lolli (“Gente de Bien”) as vice president while Diana María Bustamante (“Memoria,” “Land & Shade”) and Manuel Ruiz Montealegre (“Amparo”) serve as legal representatives.
It has been some 20 years since Colombia’s coveted Film Law and Development Fund was created, leading to an explosion of film and television production in the country. More international film companies, including Netflix, have set up shop there.
“We are not cutting ties; rather, we are coming together to engage in collective dialogues with ministries to update the system. The policies and funds from 20 years ago are inadequate for the size of the industry today,” Gallego asserted.
“Finding a balance is challenging; on one hand, international production has driven up prices, and on the other hand, the capacity for financing, the size of the FDC (Film Development Fund), and tax benefits for domestic investors have remained the same for 20 years. In this regard, it is difficult to align the expectations and requirements of the industry with the reality of Colombian cinema and its international communication,” she added.
“This may sound harsh, but it reflects the sentiment of several members of this association. We feel as though we are perceived as people whose hobby is making films, rather than being recognized as a sector of the economy and culture. Paradoxically, the international image and the perception of countries are constructed through the films we create. This is the update we are requesting—in policies, perspectives, and the scope that Colombian cinema truly deserves,” she said.
PI comprises the production houses Antorcha Films, Burning, Casatarántula, Ciudad Lunar, Evidencia Films, Inercia Películas, Laima, Madlove, Medio de Contención, Milagros, Mutokino, and Rara Cine.
Another local association, Asocinde, also represents film producers. It’s led by Diana Camargo (“The Stoplight Society”) who took over the reins after the demise of beloved film and TV producer Ana Piñeres, a driving force behind the enactment of the film law.
But the difference lies in their profiles, said Gallego who explained that Asocinde primarily focuses on production services and more commercially-oriented production, with an emphasis on foreign investment laws.
“In contrast, our profile is more artistic and boutique in nature, with smaller companies aiming to expand opportunities and funding for Colombian cinema,” Gallego said,
The curtain has come down on Disney’s answer to Squid Game, the smash-hit Korea YA superhero drama Moving. After becoming Disney+ and Hulu’s most-watched Korean drama of all time after just seven days of release, a three-part season finale to the 20-episode series was released on Wednesday.
Moving is an adaptation of a popular webtoon created by the influential Korean graphic artist Kang Full, whose works have been adapted into numerous Korean films. In his series writing debut, Kang wrote the screenplay for every one of Moving‘s episodes. The show stars some of the biggest names in Korean film and TV, including Ryu Seung-ryong (Miracle in Cell No. 7), Han Hyo-joo (20th Century Girl) and Zo In-sung (Smugglers) in his long-awaited return to the drama series format. All episodes of Moving‘s first season were directed by Park In-je, best known for helming Netflix’s hit Korean zombie series Kingdom.
Moving tells the story of a group of South Korean spies working to protect their super-powered children from harm and exploitation at the hands of malicious government agencies. Initially recruited because of their extraordinary abilities including flight, instant healing and enhanced senses, the spies disappeared without a trace after being tasked with carrying out increasingly dubious missions. Now with their children exhibiting similar abilities and a dangerous assassin rapidly picking off super-powered individuals, the parents must leave their peaceful lives behind to become the “monsters” they once were.
Across much of Asia (Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia and Taiwan), Moving is also Disney’s most-watch series of any category, meaning more viewers in the region have consumed the show than Disney’s core franchise series like The Mandalorian. The show has been nominated in six award categories at the Busan International Film Festival’s upcoming Asia Contents Awards & Global OTT Awards.
Shortly before Moving‘s finale dropped, The Hollywood Reporter connected with series director Park to discuss the inspirations behind the hit show and where a second season — still unconfirmed by Disney — might take the story.
Park In-je
Courtesy of Disney
What were the creative origins of this project for you? And what appealed to you about the original webtoon as material for a TV series?
Well, first of all, I’m not of the webtoon generation. I’m more used to reading graphic novels or Banpo, as we call Korean cartoons in the published format. And so I didn’t really actually read the original webtoon for Moving. I first came across the work through the format of it being already a live-action script. And at that time, actually, my daughter had just been born. So, I was really moved and drawn to the story’s relationship of love between a parent and child. And it was right after I had wrapped up directing Kingdom season two for Netflix and I wanted to take on a new challenge in a new genre. I was planning to do something on my own, but that’s when I got the script for Moving. As you know, it has a mixture of genres, including teen romance, action, superhero — and very VFX-heavy elements too. So I thought it was worth giving it a go and taking on the challenge. You know, I was born in the 1970s and the films that my generation grew up with were movies like E.T., Back to the Future, Superman. So, in some way, those were all sort of a part of the creative origin of this project for me. I was influenced by those films. And at the same time, I wanted to differentiate what we were creating from the current Marvel films.
That’s interesting. Could you share a little more about why and how you differentiated Moving’s superhero-like elements from the Marvel Universe that everyone knows so well?
Well, basically, the first obvious thing is that compared to the huge blockbuster budgets of Marvel, we had a relatively small budget for these episodes. So, our main mission — within that smaller budget — was to create a set of heroes who were convincing even though the audience is so used to seeing superheroes in the Marvel form. So, we had to be more creative and couldn’t simply lean on technical effects. And we tried to create more grounded heroes because that’s in line with the story of the original webtoon. They are innately different from the Marvel heroes. We wanted them to be more everyday, realistic people. Marvel heroes always act in a certain way, so there was an established superhero style that we could steer away from. You know, they wear suits, they have a certain posture, and they even stretch out their hand in a dramatic way.
In Black Widow, the sister character played by Florence Pugh, says to Black Widow, “Why do you always have to land that way, in that pose? I saw that as a sort of clever self-satirical poke at the way Marvel always depicts its superheroes. There is a consistent style, which even the Marvel Universe itself has acknowledged.
As you mentioned, Moving, like so many great Korean films and series, has remarkable dexterity with genre. There are moments of coming-of-age high school drama, teen romance, conspiracy thriller, superhero movie, and even some impressively violent action scenes. Was it challenging to get all of these elements to fit together so smoothly? Or was it simply fun to be able to work in all of those different registers with one project?
I’ll answer your last question first. Yes, this project was a lot of fun as a director. When I choose projects to work on, or when I write my own, what’s important to me is that it’s something I haven’t done before. For example, my first film was about journalism (Moby Dick, 2011). The second film was about a politician (The Mayor, 2017). My third project was Kingdom — zombies. Moving is my fourth work. I’m always very interested in trying different genres. For Moving, the genres were related to how the show was released. We released episodes one through seven as a batch, and then two episodes per week. One of the biggest reasons for doing that was that we wanted it to seem like the audience was watching a film of a different genre each week. If you look at episodes one to seven, they’re all about high school teens and youth romance. Episodes eight and nine are about the romance between the adults. Episodes 10 and 11 got a little bit more in a gangster direction, more for the hardcore action fans. Further episodes go back to the romance between the adults. So that’s how we approached it.
The most challenging genre for me, I think, was melodrama, as we like to call it in Korea, or romance. I’m personally not much of a fan of watching romantic dramas and it wasn’t a genre on my radar as something I wanted to work on.
So and because it’s so much, you know, not within my usual radar, I had to really debate within myself about how to go about portraying those aspects. But you know, having worked on it, it was actually a lot of fun. I tried to portray sort of the classics or films that I had working titles for it before.
You mentioned how you became a parent yourself just before undertaking this project. Do you feel the show has something to say about the nature of parenthood and adolescence — any deeper metaphoric meanings you might want to share?
Well, Moving is not an arthouse drama, right? (Laughs) So, as for the themes and the penetrating message, it’s up to the audience to interpret it on their own. But I will say that the thematic message that penetrates the entire story — which is a big part of the last episodes — is definitely the theme of love within the family. It’s the love between parents and their kids. It’s about the sacrifice you make as parents and the growth of the children as a result of that. You know, rather than having a very deep thematic message, I was coming from a place where, as a parent, I am just now learning how to look at my kid in a way where I allow them room to grow on their own in the way they should. So, I hope the feelings of this learning process of being a parent is something that sort of takes place within the audience as they watch the show, too.
One thing that’s striking about the show is how rich the character development is. The plot seems to function by virtue of the character development in a very cool way.
Yeah, I think that’s definitely true. Some viewers have said that the story is a little bit too slow-paced because there’s so much focus put on each character’s development. This is a story about the growth of these kids, and the sacrifices of their parents, so it was more important to have an emphasis on the development of their backstories than have the narrative progress simply into the future.
Was there a character you related to most?
Well, my daughter is now 40 months old, so I relate to the parent characters a lot. There’s a line in the series that says, “On behalf of their kid, anyone is capable of becoming a monster.” I think that really penetrates the overall theme of what the series has to say about the way parents are.
The early episodes of the series have such a bright, crisp feel to them — almost like teenage life itself. What were your visual reference points for the show’s various aesthetics?
As I said, I really wasn’t a fan of the romance genre. So, for the crispness, pastel tones and youthful visuals of episodes 1-7, I referred to the film Love Letter (1995) by Shinji Iwai. I had watched it back when it came out almost 30 years ago, but I revisited it and was really struck by it, so I referred to it a lot in terms of visuals.
And then for some of the scenes where you see the character of Frank, I went for gory, in-your-face action scenes. I was really curious to see how the audience would respond to the contrast of that pastel, lovey-dovey visual tone with a really dark, gory tone.
One question I definitely wanted to ask is, you know, looking ahead from what I understand the show has not been officially renewed for a second season. I was curious whether komfortables webtoon continues beyond what we will see in season one, like is there more story ready to go for adaptation? And now that the show is connected with such a wide audience if you are to do a second season, you know, what would you what would your ambitions be in terms of story and where you want to take things
Kang Full has other titles that are within this universe that he’s built, under the titles of Bridge and Timing, so there’s a lot more story that’s already out there. There’s another one that he’s currently working on called Hidden. So, if there were to be a second season, it will be one of those. As I said before, everything was a first for me with this show — it being VFX heavy, the genre of romance and it having a lot of wire-work action, so on. So, if I were to helm the series once again, what I can say is that I will show you a much-upgraded version of everything you saw in season 1.
EXCLUSIVE: Actress Sydney Sweeney earned praise for her performance as whistleblower Reality Winner in the recent fact-driven HBO drama Reality. But in the new documentary Reality Winner, audiences will get to hear from the woman herself who was hit with the longest prison sentence ever handed down for leaking a secret U.S. intelligence document.
Sonia Kennebeck (National Bird) directed the Codebreaker Films production, which will premiere at IFC Center in New York on October 11 and at Laemmle Theatres in Los Angeles on October 18. Grasshopper Films will release Reality Winner on VOD on October 31 (Separately, Winner will participate in a Q&A at a special screening at Alamo Drafthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas on Saturday, Oct. 7). The documentary offers a first-hand account of a case that gained national attention after Winner was arrested for exposing a classified assessment of Russia’s attempts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
“Filmed over five years, this is the only documentary about the young NSA whistleblower Reality Winner, who exposed Russian interference in U.S. elections and went to jail for it,” notes a synopsis about the film. “With exclusive access to Reality Winner and the media outlet involved in her arrest, this film also reveals FBI evidence never before released.”
We have your first look at the film in the trailer above.
Director Sonia Kennebeck
Dominik Bindl/Getty Images
“I first read about Reality’s arrest shortly after it was announced in June 2017,” Kennebeck said in a statement provided to Deadline. “I was touring with my film National Bird that follows three drone whistleblowers, one of whom was raided by the FBI, so Reality’s story was immediately deeply personal to me. I could imagine the fear and horror she must have felt during the interrogation and when the agents went through her most private messages and diary entries. Espionage Act investigations are rare and serious – the disclosure of a single classified document can lead to a decade in prison, no matter the intent – and it troubled me to know what Reality was facing.”
Kennebeck continued, “We wanted to make this film investigative, truthful, and cinematic, but most importantly Reality Winner is a deeply human story about one woman who tried to do the right thing for the American public by exposing foreign election interference. Reality was harshly punished for her decision, but there is a record of it and I hope people from across the political spectrum will watch the film to see what happened.”
In 2018 Winner was sentenced to over five years in prison for violating the Espionage Act. She was released, with time off for good behavior, in 2021.
Reality Winner
Courtesy of E.J. Enriquez
“In the first interview after her release, Reality gives our film team unprecedented insight into her motivation for sharing the document and her experiences during the interrogation and harsh prosecution,” the documentary synopsis says. “Combined with the original audio recording of Reality’s FBI interrogation, which is exclusive to our film, as well as verité footage from the past five years, this character-driven documentary shines light on the personal sacrifice one young woman made in order to inform the public about a threat to American democracy.”
Filmmaking legend Wim Wenders serves as an executive producer on the film. Abigail Disney, Bryn Mooser, and Tony Hsieh serve as co-EPs. Reality Winner is directed and produced by Sonia Kennebeck and produced by Ines Hofmann Kanna.
And guess what? It turns out yeule is a very good rock star, a student of the game. In their youth, stifled by Singapore’s conservative society, they escaped into Smashing Pumpkins cassettes and bashed out Pixies songs as part of a band. They filled their 2021 covers album Nuclear War Post X with homespun takes on the Breeders, Big Thief, and the Velvet Underground, among others. When David Bowie died, a teenage yeule didn’t leave their room for a full week. That admiration resonates in their aesthetic bravado and alien otherness: They have cited Nintendo DS consoles and bottom-feeding deep-sea creatures as mood-board fodder for their ever-changing looks, which have recently hit upon a perfectly tattered midpoint between steampunk and cyberpunk, Max Max: Fury Road and The Matrix.
Bowie can also be heard in softscars’ walloping emotion and the way yeule gives voice to today’s outcasts—Ziggy Stardust’s Gen-Z grandkids, dismantling gender normativity in the face of heightened violence and prejudice. Mix all that with a dramatic self-loathing streak that Billy Corgan, Thom Yorke, or Gerard Way could appreciate, plus hints of Courtney Love’s confrontational spin on sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll, and even some of Avril Lavigne’s middle-finger insolence (yeule has called the famed mall-punk’s 2002 debut, Let Go, particularly formative), and you have someone who’s balling up decades of misfit energy into art that speaks to our uniquely AI-addled times.
Again and again, the album pulls off a delicate tightrope walk, balancing big, widespread feelings of modern disillusionment with harrowing personal details. On “software update,” a strung-out, meta power ballad that deserves to be met with a galaxy of swaying phone lights, yeule offers a micro autobiography that could work as a social-media bio for a blinkered generation. “25, traumatized, painting white on my eyes,” they sing sweetly, as if reading from a children’s book. “Handcuffs and hospitals are some things I despise.” The song references disordered eating, a condition that yeule still struggles with, along with white lines and grams, bruises and loss. It revolves around the idea of digital immortality. “When I leave my flesh, you can download my mind/And pick out the pretty parts for you,” they offer, lines that carry an extra heft considering that, as a lonely teenager existing mostly online, the idea of living on as a series of automated posts actually crossed yeule’s mind. “software update” crests with yeule’s version of an algorithmic arena-rock hook—“I love you baby,” they belt atop distorted guitar chimes, perhaps addressing their fans, their friends, their partner, themself, or all four.
AP Dhillon seemingly reacts to the ongoing controversy surrounding Canada-based singer Shubh.
AP Dhillon has requested people to not spread hate amid the ongoing controversy around Canada-based singer Shubh’s India tour which now stands cancelled.
AP Dhillon has shared a cryptic post amid the ongoing controversy surrounding Canada-based singer and rapper Shubh, whose Still Rollin tour now stands cancelled in India. Dhillon’s post comes hours after Shubh issued a public apology for sharing a distorted image of India’s flag on social media.
Dhillon didn’t address the controversy directly, but requested people to not spread hate. He also spoke about how over the years it’s become difficult for artists to stay focused on their craft as “someone, somewhere, is going to spin the narrative to their liking and create more division.”
“I try to stay out of all the social mania as it is clear to me that regardless of what I say or do, it is a lost cause… I try to be mindful of everyone’s sentiments but it’s gotten to a point where we have to second and triple guess our every move due to the fear of unintentionally fueling even more division,” Dhillon wrote on his Instagram Story.
The ‘Brown Munde’ hitmaker continued, “Special interest and political groups constantly use our public image as a chess piece to further their agenda while we are just trying to make art that helps people on an individual level, regardless of their color, race, religion, nationality, gender, etc. Spread love not hate. Let’s start thinking for ourselves and not let hateful influences program our beliefs. We are ALL one. Let’s not let man made social constructs divide us. Division has gotten us to this point but unity is the key to the future.”
AP Dhillon requests people to not spread hate, hours after Canada-based singer Shubh issued a public apology.
Canada-based Punjabi singer Shubhneet Singh, popularly known by his stage name Shubh, on Thursday expressed his disappointment after his India tour was cancelled following allegations of his support for Khalistan.
In a lengthy Instagram post on Thursday, Shubh said he was “extremely disheartened” by the cancellation of the tour. Reacting to the controversy, Shubh clarified, “My intent in resharing that post on my story was only to pray for Punjab as there were reports of electricity and internet shutdowns throughout the state. There was no other thought behind it, and I definitely didn’t intend to hurt anyone’s sentiments.”
Shrishti Negi is a journalist with nearly eight years of experience in the media industry. She is currently heading the Entertainment team at News18.c…Read More
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’s trailer CGI has been compared to The Flash, raising concerns about the film’s visual effects quality.
The Flash faced criticism for its use of CGI, particularly in the multiverse cameo sequence, which contributed to its box-office disappointment.
While the trailer has raised some concerns, the rest of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’s visuals, including underwater creatures and battle scenes, appear to be stunning, and future DC projects shouldn’t have the same CGI issues.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom has not escaped the recent negative CGI trend that plagued the DCEU‘s The Flash in the eyes of many DC fans. While Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom‘s story seems very promising, with the movie featuring an expansive adventure led by brothers Aquaman and Orm against the villainous Black Manta, the first footage revealed from the film after a long time with no updates has caused some concerns to emerge. Aquaman’s story needs to take place underwater, and that’s where things get tricky.
On Twitter, several DC fans have begun to question if Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is about to deliver the same low-level quality of CGI that Ezra Miller’s The Flash became infamous for. Those concerns were raised after the debut of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom‘s trailer, which featured a couple of moments where the underwater scenes were not quite as good-looking as they should be, especially where characters’ faces — such as Jason Momoa’s Aquaman and Nicole Kidman’s Atlanna — are concerned. That led to comparisons being drawn between The Flash and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Check out some reactions below:
@MyTimeToShineH claimed that there was a problem with the movie’s CGI.
@NoticiasGeekTV followed up, joking that the poor visual effects are because the “movie was shot from the POV” of The Flash.
@QgtharoninSaki is hoping that Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom‘s CGI is better than The Flash‘s.
@JBennettiano thinks Aquaman’s face looks eerily similar to The Flash‘s bad CGI.
@Gitsenberg says that is not the real Jason Momoa in the Aquaman sequel trailer, but rather “The Flash CGI Momoa.”
@PamelaIngold tries to give the movie the benefit of the doubt but calls out the bad CGI on Nicole Kidman’s Atlanna, saying, “this is “The Flash” all over again…“
Why Aquaman 2’s Trailer CGI Has Been Compared To The Flash
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom‘s trailer CGI drew comparisons to The Flash due to the DCEU’s first solo adventure for Barry Allen becoming mostly known for its poor use of CGI throughout its run, but more importantly in the movie’s multiverse cameo sequence. Being a multiverse story, The Flash decided to bring in several heroes from past DC movies for a big cameo sequence that should have been one of the most positively talked about moments of the year; however, that was far from the case. Each one looked much worse than it should have.
The Flash brought back past DC actors — some deceased — via CGI models that looked quite bad. That obviously backfired, contributing to The Flash becoming a box-office disappointment. The Flash‘s poor CGI didn’t stop there, with there being multiple times throughout the movie — such as the infamous “Baby Shower” scene — where an uncanny valley feeling seeped in. The Flash‘s director claimed the bad CGI was intentional, with the world looking like that due to it being from The Flash’s point of view. With Aquaman and Atlanna’s faces looking uncanny in the Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom trailer, it is easy to see why comparisons to The Flash would be made.
Is DC Movie CGI Getting Worse?
While The Flash‘s subpar CGI and the weird-looking faces in the Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom trailer are not a good look for DC, there shouldn’t be any fears about future projects having bad VFX. The rest of the Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom trailer holds up pretty well, with underwater creatures and battle scenes looking stunning. Besides, despite not succeeding at the box office, DC’s other 2023 movies — Shazam! Fury of the Gods and Blue Beetle — didn’t have a CGI problem.
With James Gunn in charge of the upcoming DC Universe, there should be no reason for concern based on the quality of the CGI in his Guardians of the Galaxy movies at Marvel, as well as DC’s The Suicide Squad and the Peacemaker series. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom still has three months to fix its CGI hiccups before the movie is released, so the possible negative DC trend that started with The Flash might be ending fast. Even if it does, a lot can be forgiven if the movie’s other elements hold up well.
The new exclusivity scheme will allow developers of any size to claim 100% of revenue if they agree to make eligible titles exclusive to the Epic Games Store for six months.
After the six months are up, the game will revert to the standard Epic Games Store revenue split of 88% for the developer and 12% for Epic Games.
In comparison, Valve has traditionally taken a 30% share of game sales on Steam, although in 2018 it introduced a revenue share tier system which offers more to developers if their games meet certain sales thresholds (75%/25% on earnings beyond $10m and 80%/20% on earnings beyond $50m).
“At the end of the day, I think it’s good having competition to Steam, because it puts them on their toes to deliver their best experience,” Wingefors said of Epic First Run.
“Obviously, we would like to pay less fees to platforms. In reality we are paying more fees to platforms than we spend on game development every year, and if you just think about that number, it’s crazy.
“So, there are margins with the platforms that I would preferably have within building more games and some more margins, but I think it’s great that Epic is there trying to build a competitive platform.
“At the same time,” he added, “consumers are perhaps looking at things differently, that they want to be able to pick their platform, so there are many different perspectives to that, and I don’t want to go too deeply into that, but I think competition in general is great.”
That meant shooting out in the real world and not solely on green screens, no matter the cost.
Levy sat down with Total Film magazine and told them, “It bums me out that photos have leaked online. But this is the price we pay for committing to real locations.”
He went on to explain, “Deadpool and Wolverine are iconic Marvel characters; more specifically, iconic Marvel-of-the-Fox era characters. We’re not going to pretend: ‘Oh, we snap our fingers, and suddenly that Fox legacy doesn’t exist, and it shaped a lot of what we now know as the MCU.”
These characters both rose at a time when more practical effects were used in filmmaking, and while most of the industry has moved onto stages, that legacy matters to Levy.
He elaborated, “Fox also shaped Ryan’s career, Hugh’s career and my career. So there’s a lot of history there, and there’s a lot of Marvel history at Fox. And certainly that’s a part of our storytelling.”
Levy put his put down with production, saying, “I made a decision very early in prep that even though ‘Deadpool’ is now in the MCU, I didn’t want another Marvel movie shot on a green screen stage with digital set extensions.”
This makes me very excited to see where this movie will go and makes me hope other filmmakers take note.
The third Deadpool movie is on hiatus during the summer strikes and will return to filming when they end.
The segment began with the message, “In loving memory,” before featuring a montage of moments from Miller’s time on the show.
“To end today’s episode we paid tribute to a greatly missed member of the Y&R family,” the show wrote on X(Twitter), alongside a clip of the memorial. “Billy Miller will forever be in our hearts. ❤️”
Miller starred as Billy Abbott on The Young and the Restless, from 2008 to 2014. It was a role that earned him three Daytime Emmy awards. After exiting The Young and the Restless in 2014, Miller went on to play Jason Morgan and Drew Cain on General Hospital until 2019.
After leaving soaps, Miller appeared in five episodes of the USA drama Suits, where he played the brother of Harvey Spector, Marcus. Miller’s other acting credits include Ray Donovan, Truth Be Told and The Rookie.
Miller’s family previously said that Miller died in Austin, Texas, and that “The actor was struggling with manic depression when he died.”
“I would like to share the following thoughts,” Patricia began her statement Monday. “I want to personally thank the many fans & personal friends for the overwhelming amount of love, prayers & condolences sent to me and my family on the devastating death of my beautiful son BJ — Billy Miller. He fought a long hard valiant battle with bipolar depression for years.”
“He did everything he could to control the disease. He loved his family, his friends and his fans but in the end the disease won the fight and he surrendered his life,” she continued. “The other causes of death being told are not true. I wish they were but they just aren’t. We all loved him so much and are desperately trying to deal with our loss. I will have nothing further to say. Thanks for the love and support.”
Following the news of Miller’s death, his co-stars in the daytime television community took to social media to mourn the loss. See the video below for more on the outpouring of love and support for the late star.
FX has been churning out a lot of original scripted series. Some have been hits while many others have not. Which will be cancelled and which will be renewed? Stay tuned!
Scripted FX shows listed:American Crime Story, American Horror Story, The Americans, Anger Management, Archer, Atlanta, Baskets, The Bastard Executioner, Better Things, Breeders, The Bridge, The Comedians, Fargo, Feud, Fosse/Verdon, Justified, Justified: City Primeval, Legion, Louie, Married, Mayans MC, Mr Inbetween, The Old Man, Partners, Pose, Saint George, Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll, Snowfall, Sons of Anarchy, The Strain, Taboo, Trust, Tyrant, and What We Do In The Shadows.
Last update: The most recent ratings added for American Horror Story.
There’s a lot of data that FX execs look at when deciding whether to renew or cancel a TV series but ratings are a major factor. Here’s an updated listing of all of their recent/current primetime scripted shows.
Note:If you’re not seeing the updated charts, please try reloading the page. You can also view them here and here.
A couple of notes about these charts: These figures are updated automatically as new ratings are released (usually a day or so after the broadcasts). The averages are based on the final national numbers (live plus same day viewing). For technical reasons, I have to resort them manually so feel free to let me know if I missed something.
The demo numbers, which are typically most important to the broadcast networks, aren’t quite as vital to cable channels because their audiences are usually much smaller. Demo numbers are typically reported using the 10ths decimal place (2.4, for example). In the averages, I’m using an extra decimal for easier ranking.
What do you think? Are you surprised by any of the ratings? Which shows should be doing better? Which one do you think will be cancelled next?
On Thursday CNN’s Abby Phillip commemorated Rupert Murdoch’s media legacy in a most appropriate way: A nearly 6-minute long supercut detailing the damage done by Fox News, “the beast of his creation.”
Earlier Thursday, Murdoch announced he will be stepping down as the chairman of Fox News Corp. and will be replaced by his son, Lachlan. It marks a sea change in media, but that Murdoch is also 92 years old, analysis of his decision has tended to read more like obituaries, with much focus on his legacy as a right wing activist and media magnate.
Phillip was blunt in her assessment. “His legacy is outrage porn. Partisan red meat. Stoking relentless culture wars,” she said.
She went on to argue that the idea of a “center-right” news network isn’t inherently bad. “But instead, stoking division seemed to become Murdoch’s mission. So did power, and so did the money,” she said. “Fox became a mouthpiece for Republican administrations. A mouthpiece, really, for Donald Trump. And eventually, a vehicle for his baseless conspiracies.”
So it is that she cued up the supercut, a damning 5 minutes and 55 seconds of Fox News history. This includes openly expressed racism, sexism and other forms of bigotry. A staggering number of baseless conspiracy theories. And by the end of the clip, which by this point is focused on Fox News clips from 2020 and later, lie after lie after lie, and outright attacks on American democracy.
The multi-genre musician teamed up with the SOS singer for the reflective new track
Fresh off two new tracks with Drake and Justin Bieber, SZA recently guested on genre-bending performer Jean Dawson’s new song “No Szns.” The stirring single is driven by grungy guitar and reflective singing by the duo. They are both the song’s only writers, though it was produced by Dawson and a handful of other musicians. Towards the track’s end, they share the chorus: “In the spring, you can’t hear a thing all the birds and bees/Nobody thinks/In the summertime people off the brink/In California, we ain’t got no seasons, it’s all the same to me.”
Dawson tells Rolling Stone, “I made this song like I’ve made the rest of my songs: The song poses a question then answers that question upon completion. This song allowed me to ask myself what I’m afraid of in my own physical voice and what it is I have to say to anyone that deems my music worth listening to.”
“I then answered that question with the nature of my desire to hide from myself to speak in riddles so my perspectives aren’t challenged,” he continued. “They are incomplete or incoherent expressions to allow me to be uncomfortably straightforward while subverting its own or my own implied profundity. The song itself is simple in my mind.”
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He also reflected on learning from his collaborator, adding, “Working with SZA helped me understand how one thing can be communicated multiple ways without the idea collapsing on itself with the weight of how complex the message could be. The way she communicates is profound and honest. She is the songbird of our generation and I love her to death.”
In 2021, SZA told Billboardshe had become a big fan of Dawson, who’s music touches on rock, country, hip-hop, and more. “I love Jean Dawson,” she said. “Go look at his music video, it has like a shit ton of views. It’s on YouTube. He’s Black, but it’s also like some punk shit. It’s tight — it’s super tight.” She would end up calling on Dawson’s frequent visual collaborator, Bradley J. Calder, to direct music videos for SOS, including “PSA,” “Nobody Gets Me,” and “Snooze.”
Thales Corrêa’s episodic series, Doggy Bank, is a modern Latin-American adaptation of Quincas Borba by Brazilian author Machado de Assis. Uber driver Rubian (Thales Corrêa) grinds it out, trying to make it to the next day. After a particularly problematic ride, Rubian receives a mysterious call regarding his half-sister, Prana (Andrea Flowers), to pick her up. He soon arrives at the mansion of the rich and very old philosopher Borba (Anthony Moore), who has been acting as Prana’s sugar daddy for quite some time.
Taking place during a pandemic (pretty sure they’re talking about COVID), Prana has been pretending to be sick so Rubian can take her away. Before she can finish packing her bags, Prana dies of said global virus. Because Rubian and Borba have been exposed to the virus, Borba’s concierge physician, Amin (Sanjay Nambiar), insists that the two must quarantine at the mansion for a week. Thus begins the pair’s wacky adventure together.
Doggy Bank definitely plays out like a novel. The first season is about the friendship developed between Rubian and the terminally ill Borba. Rubian is a kind soul who refuses to exploit the wealthy Borba. When his car is in the shop, keeping him from his rideshare job, Rubian accepts Borba’s proposition to live at the mansion and care for his dog, also named Borba. Rubian finds Borba’s philosophical views of life, death, and society fascinating. Well, not really, but he is nonetheless devoted to Borba the dog and is always around at the right time when Borba the man takes a spill. Life in paradise appears to be short-lived when Borba’s lawyers come to take him away.
“…the two must quarantine at the mansion for a week.”
What I like about the series is how I’m placed right into the shoes of Rubian from the beginning. Many of us know what it’s like living day-to-day, wondering when or if that big break in life will come. If I ever befriended a wealthy millionaire, I’d like to think that my motivations would center around friendship versus concocting some greedy get-rich-quick scam. Rubian is highly relatable as every temptation is thrown at him to take advantage of Borba, from personal struggle to act honorably or fending off his brother, who wants to throw a mansion party when Borba is taken away.
Writer/director Corrêa brings a low level of silliness to Doggy Bank, which, for the most part, works. He never overdoes it to the point of eye-rolling but establishes a light comedic tone to the narrative. The humor is a bit self-aware, but none of the characters take themselves too seriously or goofy. Instead, they are all caricatures of themselves, notably Anthony Moore, who plays the elderly Borba under thick layers of make-up.
My criticism is that it’s too light across the board when it could have been darker… particularly in the dark moments. I’d also say it’s less silly and more grounded. Overall, I would have liked to see the comedy turned a notch or two. Ultimately, the fun in this series is Thales Corrêa’s relatable and sympathetic performance as the hapless Rubian. Doggy Bank is perfect if you’re looking for a feel-good and whimsical indie comedy.
EXCLUSIVE: Peacock is not moving forward with a second season of comedy series Pitch Perfect: Bumper In Berlin. This marks a reversal of the Season 2 renewal for the offshoot from the Pitch Perfect movie franchise, which was announced in early January.
Like was the case of two Prime Video series whose Season 2 renewals were rescinded last month, The Peripheral and A League Of Their Own, the cancellation of Bumper In Berlin stems from the length of the work stoppage due to the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, which have delayed production, creating large gaps between seasons and making shows miss their target release dates.
Bumper In Berlin‘s first season was released in Nov. 2022. The comedy had not started pre-production on Season 2 when the WGA strike began May 2. It has now fallen significantly behind its planned timeline. Such a delay would impact Peacock’s pipeline as there is already a schedule — and budget — in place for content rollout.
Like was the case with The Peripheral, which was a solid ratings performer for Prime Video, Bumper In Berlin got off to a strong start for Peacock, scoring the biggest comedy premiere in the streamer’s history.
As Deadline reported last month, there was a real possibility that a number of series’ renewals could be rescinded if the work stoppage stretched past Labor Day, with freshman series going into Season 2 the most vulnerable. First-year shows have harder time retaining viewers if they have to wait a long time for new episodes.
There was a similar string of unrenewals during the pandemic, with the majority of series with rescinded renewals during Covid headed to Season 2, including Netflix’s The Society and I’m Not OK With This as well as Showtime’s On Becoming a God in Central Florida and ABC’s Stumptown.
Even if the WGA strike comes to an end very soon, as is seems, we still may see more reversed renewals as networks and streamers reevaluate their lineups post-strike amid an ongoing increased financial scrutiny among most media companies, which have been recalibrating their streaming strategies.
While Bumper In Berlin is not going forward, Pitch Perfect remains an important IP for Universal, and the company remains in business with the franchise’s Elizabeth Banks via more projects in development with her Brownstone banner and with series’ showrunner Megan Amram who continues to have an overall deal with Bumper In Berlin studio Universal Television.
Pitch Perfect: Bumper In Berlin follows Adam Devine’s Bumper Allen several years after the events of Pitch Perfect as he moves to Germany to revive his music career when one of his songs becomes big in Berlin.
Season 1 also stars Flula Borg, Sarah Hyland, Lera Abova and Jameela Jamil. Amran executive producers alongside Devine as well as Banks and Max Handelman of Brownstone Productions, and Paul Brooks and Scott Neimeyer of Gold Circle Films.
Coming up for Peacock on the comedy side are series Ted, Wolf Like Me S2, In The Know, We Are Lady Parts S2 as well as the Monk and Community movies.
In his statement to employees on Thursday Mr. Murdoch wrote, “The battle for the freedom of speech and, ultimately, the freedom of thought, has never been more intense.” While Lachlan was “absolutely committed to the cause” Mr. Murdoch wrote, he planed to remain “involved every day in the contest of ideas.”
He had a message, too, for his longtime nemeses in the so-called “MSM,” or mainstream media, writing that “most of the media” was “in cahoots’’ with “elites” who have “open contempt for those who are not members of their rarefied class.”
It was not all that different from the language he used when he first arrived in the United States in the early 1970s, criticizing the “intellectual showmanship” of the big name journalists who, in his view, had lost touch in all the self-celebration of that heady, post-Watergate era. Offering an alternative, he pronounced, “We’re here to give the public what they want.”
All followed from that: His first foray into the U.S. newspaper market, which reinvigorated the slashing, populist style of old. His creation of Fox Broadcasting, which broke the three-network oligopolistic hold on prime-time television and introduced the edgy sort of programming that is now the staple of streaming. The birth of Fox News, which became No. 1 in cable news by giving a very specific public what it wanted — those conservative-leaning Americans who long felt ignored by a traditional journalism world they viewed as biased against them.
Yet it also helped lead to an illegal hacking operation in Britain, to give British tabloid readers what they wanted — juicy inside details about the famous and the newsworthy — as well as the 2020 election coverage that prompted the Dominion suit, to satisfy Trump fans who made up so much of the Fox audience.
It will for now fall to Lachlan to keep that public satisfied amid the new demands and challenges of the streaming era, and for a more fragmented media sphere — leaving a new chapter to be written by a Murdoch not named Rupert.
WWE released a number of wrestlers from their contracts on Thursday, with the biggest name being Dolph Ziggler, real name Nic Nemeth.
The move comes amid news that WWE’s “Friday Night SmackDown” show will be moving from Fox to USA Network next year, as well as it being just over a week since the company merged with UFC under Endeavor ownership to form TKO Group Holdings.
TheWrap has reached out to WWE and members of the roster for comment.
Other wrestlers shared their admiration for several of the stars who were let go, including crossover stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and John Cena both posting about Ziggler’s release in particular on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter).
Just seeing all these releases now. These days so f’n tough for the ones who gave their all to our crazy world of pro wrestling. Like @HEELZiggler. What a decorated @WWE career and I’ll always be a supporter and fan. Can’t wait to see what he (and everyone) does next… #onwardpic.twitter.com/uc5vXNxxNk
I was so immensely fortunate to start my time on the main roster next to @HEELZiggler. I learned so many lessons about this craft by watching and listening. One of the smoothest workers I’ve ever been in the ring with. Thank you for everything you’ve done for me, Zig Man.
I know a lot of people think my career really took a downturn once Mr. Levesque took over, but, in actuality, my per match fee skyrocketed through the roof.
Other promoters, get ready to back the brinks truck up.
Ali publicly requested a release from WWE under the previous management structure back in January 2022, but his request was denied at the time. He appeared on WWE’s NXT program as recently as Tuesday and was set to wrestle Dominik Mysterio at the upcoming NXT No Mercy special on Peacock.
TKO’s stock fell Thursday morning following the news of “Smackdown” leaving broadcast TV. Some observers have speculated that the releases were made to counter the effect on the stock price.
The releases also follow dozens of layoffs of WWE office staff last week, particularly in divisions where UFC had its own staff already in place. Both those inside the company and observers weren’t expecting significant roster cuts to come so soon.
Hulu also confirmed Thursday that WWE’s programming will be leaving the streaming platform, with episodes set to be removed next week on Monday and Tuesday. Most of WWE’s programming is currently available on NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming platform.
Emma announced her excitement earlier in the day that WWE’s “Elimination Chamber” is headed to her native Australia in February, but she later said she had been released.
“I think that in some capacity, I’m going to have to explain this part of my life to my child,” Wes, 39, exclusively told Us Weekly on Monday, September 18. “It would be naive of me to think that I could just ignore it. I’m going to have to explain to him or her that their dad is different.” (Wes’ wife, Amanda Hornick, is currently pregnant with the couple’s first baby.)
He continued: “I almost hesitate to say the word extraordinary, but f—k it. Let’s call a spade a spade. I’m extraordinary … and different and an anomaly. … Their dad is different and they’re going to stand out and they need to be aware of why. And that comes with pros and cons, and they need to be warned and taught what that means.”
Wes has cemented his reputation as a Challenge legend over the years with three wins under his belt: The Duel in 2011, Rivals II in 2013 and All Stars 3 in 2022. While appearing on season 2 of The Challenge: USA, which premiered last month, Wes spoke candidly about the competition being his last stint on the show as he prepares for fatherhood. He was eliminated during the Thursday, September 21, episode after losing to Chris Underwood in the Arena.
It’s not uncommon for stars to quickly fall head over heels in love while filming a reality TV show — and The Challenge competitors are no exception. While many fans didn’t think Paulie Calafiore and Cara Maria Sorbello would create a real bond after meeting on Final Reckoning in 2018, but they proved the haters wrong. […]
Wes BergmannAaron Smith, courtesy of Paramount
Although Wes admitted to Us that there’s always a chance he could change his mind about returning to the show, he doesn’t see that happening. “I ask myself, ‘Why would I do that? Do I need to get a fourth Challenge championship?’ I’ve done it all,” he explained.
Wes also said that when he revealed his retirement plans to his fellow Challenge: USA competitors, his intentions got “massively misinterpreted” and “none of them really even believed me.”
During an August episode of the CBS reality series, several cast members were unimpressed by Wes talking about his impending departure from the franchise as he tried to avoid going into the Arena. (Desi Williams called it “a sob story” executed “in true Wes form.”) However, Wes has a message for people who found his actions manipulative.
With so many personalities, there’s bound to be drama — even behind the scenes. That’s definitely the case for MTV’s The Challenge. The reality show debuted in 1998 and was originally titled Road Rules: All Stars, then Real World/Road Rules Challenge, before simplifying its name. Ever since, the cast has been one to watch — […]
Courtesy of Wes Bergmann/Instagram
“Anytime people are like, ‘Oh, he’s trying to manipulate me,’ you’re literally just admitting that you’re an idiot,” he told Us. “Am I hypnotizing people? … It legitimately is never manipulation. That word gets used by my enemies about me, which is propaganda. I create mutually advantageous relationships with people in the house that then hurt people that are not part of those mutually advantageous relationships. It’s called business.”
Although Wes displayed his conflicted emotions about leaving The Challenge behind this season, he told Us that he feels reasonably prepared for the life changes that come with parenthood.
“I am as ready as someone can be, but I’m also very cognizant of the fact that no one is actually ready until it happens. I’ve got a good, healthy mindset of partial excitement, partial ready for war,” he said.
Contestants join The Challenge to compete for a cash prize, but along the way, many MTV stars found love on the show. The romances on the series have become one of the most memorable components of past seasons, but there are many couples who you probably forgot dated. Most duos from the MTV spinoff fizzled […]
Paul Castillero/Paramount+
After emphasizing that he’s “not underestimating an ounce” of what lies ahead, Wes acknowledged that he’s “done some really hard things” in his life prior to this.
“[Challenge host] T.J. [Lavin] once told me to jump out of an airplane without a parachute. I can handle changing diapers,” he said. “Also, my wife is very smart and patient and positive and happy, and we’re going to do this together.”
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Wes and Amanada tied the knot in 2018 after getting engaged two years earlier at a Kansas City Royals game. They announced their baby news via Instagram in April, joking in the caption that they aim to make their child “the next great ginger genius.”
The Challenge: USA airs Thursdays on CBS at 10 p.m. ET.
“Have you ever had a memory of a memory?” The question comes from an unseen prosecutor. His beleaguered witness, flummoxed, recalls once taking a friend’s story (a bizarre tale about a pervert giving away free bologna on a street corner) and presenting it as his own. Juxtaposed with the dialogue is a still from “The Sandlot,” the 1993 family comedy.
Composed of numerous other provocations — clipped questioning about the industry paired with 35-millimeter publicity stills from many major films, including “Apollo 13” and “Bamboozled” — the writer-director James N. Kienitz Wilkins’s “Still Film” is a stunning, acute critique of the regressive artistic sensibilities that plague contemporary Hollywood.
The challenging, experimental movie is presented in the loose form of a trial. It involves four unseen characters: prosecutor, defendant, witness and recorder. Each is voiced by the director. The players offer conspiracy theories about an evil Tom Hanks, and salient talking points about the erosion of the cinematic experience. Movie stills placidly shimmer, like old vacation photos beamed through a slide projector.
Eventually, the circular dialogue finds a center: The film posits that Hollywood, through a reliance on existing intellectual property, indulges our desire for an uncomplicated past, imposing suffocating limits on artists and crushing audiences’ collective imagination. Wilkins demands that we make new cinematic memories, lest we lose ourselves.
Still Film Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 12 minutes. In theaters.
For Julian Lennon, the sad song written for him by Paul McCartney did not make it better.
The musician, photographer and son of late Beatles icon John Lennon sat down with talk show host and self-proclaimed “Beatlephile” Bill Maher for a recent episode of Club Random Podcast, and he revealed mixed feelings over the Fab Four’s hit “Hey Jude.”
During the podcast appearance, Lennon revealed that he was thinking of writing a memoir about his life. Maher then prompted the subject of “Hey Jude” by suggesting that in the film adaption of his life story they start with the “hook” of McCartney driving to see a young Julian in the wake of his parents’ divorce. Lennon didn’t seem to get such a kick out of the proposed scene, having lived it himself.
“I have a love-hate [relationship] with it, I have to say,” Lennon explained. “I’ve probably heard that song and heard renditions of it more than most people alive. And even my dear friends send me babies in nappies playing guitars [and] singing, ‘Hey Jude’, which I really don’t need.”
From left, Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones, Yoko Ono, Roger Daltrey of the Who, John Lennon with son Julian on his lap, and guitarist Eric Clapton in London in 1968.
(Michael Webb / Getty Images)
Lennon continued that he was thankful for the well-intentioned song, “but the other real thing is that people don’t really understand that it’s a stark and dark reminder of actually what happened.”
“The fact that Dad walked out, walked away — left Mum and I. That was a point of complete change and complete disruption and complete darkness and sadness. I mean, I was only 3, but I recognized that something was up, you know? But for Mum, it was heartbreaking. So it’s a reminder of that time and that place. So I get both sides of it, but a lot of people don’t necessarily understand there’s a dark, yin and yang of that song.”
The Beatles’ biggest U.S. single was released in 1968. McCartney wrote “Hey Jude,” originally “Hey Jules,” in the summer of 1968, singing the words to himself in the car as he drove to visit Julian and his mother, Cynthia Lennon, in the midst of a messy split that involved a certain Yoko Ono.
McCartney recalled that the lyrics were meant to be “a hopeful message for Julian: “Come on, man, your parents got divorced. I know you’re not happy, but you’ll be OK.”
Last September, Lennon released his seventh studio album, “Jude,” as a way of taking ownership of the name. He told iHeart Radio at the time that he really did want to take the sad song and make it better, a nod to one of McCartney’s lyrics in the original ’68 hit. While speaking with the outlet, he spoke of his mother — who died in 2015 — as “the be-all and end-all of life for me, and everything I do is about making her proud at the end of the day.”
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