For over 20 years, fans of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette have heard that iconic phrase said by young hopefuls, but now there’s a new kind of bachelor in town: The Golden Bachelor. This time around, ABC’s The Golden Bachelor — which premieres Thursday, September 28 — has contestants in their 60s and 70s looking for their second chance at love.
The first-ever Golden Bachelor is Gerry Turner, a 72-year-old widower who was happily married for 43 years. Turner is a retired restauranteur, father and grandfather, and he’s ready to give love another shot. He will be introduced to 22 women hoping to win his heart.
Turner spoke with ET’s Denny Directo and said his daughters were the ones who actually encouraged him to be on the show, “They are very much fans of the show. They got me started watching it. They were the ones that motivated me to respond early on to the casting call.”
“She would be thrilled for this,” said Turner when asked what his late wife and former high school sweetheart, who passed in 2017, would think about this journey. “We talked frequently as time went on… about what we expected for the other if one of us didn’t live forward, and it was, like, we both wanted the other to be happy.”
How to watch The Golden Bachelor online
The Golden Bachelor premieres Thursday, September 28 at 8:00 p.m. EDT on ABC. The following day, the episodes will be available to stream on Hulu.
How to watch The Golden Bachelor live without cable
ABC is a part of many Hulu + Live TV plans, depending on your area, meaning you could watch The Golden Bachelor when it airs. Now until October 12, new and eligible returning subscribers can get three months of Hulu + Live TV for $50 per month, which is $20 down from the standard monthly subscription price of $70 per month. Subscribers also get Disney+ and ESPN+ for even more streaming options.
Rome’s MIA market dedicated to international TV series, animation, feature films, and documentaries is set to feature a panoply of 62 projects from 36 countries for its upcoming 9th edition.
Though European content remains the core of the curated pre-Mipcom event that will run Oct. 9-13 in the central Rome’s Palazzo Barberini – which besides being Italy’s National Ancient Art gallery, is also the market’s main hub – organisers on Thursday announced that this year more than 500 entries were submitted from 80 countries which they said marks a 30% increase in terms of national provenance.
MIA (whose whose acronym stands for the Mercato Internazionale Audiovisivo or International Audiovisual Market) is headed by Gaia Tridente.
Standout projects that made the cut for MIA comprise groundbreaking Romanian animator Anca Damian’s “Motherhood,” described as a poetic journey into female body and desire, illustrated by Italian artist Virginia Mori and co-produced by French studio Miyu Productions; “Letizia Battaglia: Her Name is Battle,” a doc about the late great photographer who chronicled years of Sicilian Mafia bloodshed in Palermo; the high-profile TV series “A Thousand Times at Dawn,” based on the novel “Tre volte all’alba” by prominent Italian novelist Alessandro Baricco, produced by Domenico Procacci and Laura Paolucci for Fandango; and the feature film “A Story of Three Girls” by Turkey’s Nursen Çetin Köreken in which the world of female weightlifting provides a backdrop to stories of three girls struggling to assert their identity in the complex reality of contemporary Turkey.
As previously announced, this year’s MIA speakers include Nicole Clemens, president of Paramount Television Studios and Paramount+ original scripted series; Sara Bernstein, president of Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Imagine Documentaries; Marge Dean, head of Skybound Entertainment’s animation studio and president of Women in Animation; “Waltz With Bashir” director Ari Folman; Nicholas Weinstock, founder and president of Invention Studios and “Severance” producer; and James Townley, chief content officer of development at Banijay.
More content on YouTube is going to be created at least in part using generative AI.
The video platform announced several new AI-powered tools for creators at its annual Made on YouTube event on Thursday. Among the features coming later this year or next are AI-generated photo and video backgrounds, AI video topic suggestions, and music search.
A new feature called Dream Screen will create AI-generated videos and photos that creators can place in the background of their YouTube Shorts. Initially, creators will be able to type in prompts to generate backgrounds; eventually, YouTube says, creators will be able to remix and edit their existing content using AI tools to create something new.
At Made on YouTube, the company demonstrated Dream Screen, generating backgrounds in seconds based on short prompts.
Creators will have the option to use AI-generated video topicsImage: YouTube
AI tools will also begin informing what kind of content creators make. A new AI feature in YouTube Studio will generate topic ideas and outlines for potential videos. The AI suggestions will be personalized to individual creators, YouTube says, and based on what’s already trending with audiences. Additionally, an AI-powered music recommendation system will take a written description of a creator’s video and suggest audio to use.
Finally, YouTube announced an AI dubbing feature that will allow creators to dub their videos into other languages. YouTube brought over the Aloud team from its Area 120 incubator earlier this year to help make the feature.
The shift in how digital creators make content is already well underway since the explosion of cheap generative AI tools over the last year. As YouTube parent company Google has been pouring money into its generative AI systems, YouTube has also slowly introduced AI-powered tools including video summaries. On Google’s biggest product, Search, the company is already testing placing AI search results at the top in the form of Search Generative Experience.
The slew of new AI-powered YouTube products could mark a shift in how creators plan, make, and structure their content. AI-driven insights will likely shift what kind of content creators double down on, and AI-generated content — already viral on YouTube — will become more common. In response to the spread of convincing synthetic material, other platforms like TikTok have already introduced labels to identify AI-generated material as such.
YouTube is also making it easier for creators to make Shorts with a new YouTube Create app that it announced at the event.
Correction September 21st, 11:10AM ET: Removed an incorrect reference to the product as “Green Screen” instead of “Dream Screen.”
Indian-born singer, songwriter, composer and actor Guru Randhawa has signed with CAA for representation.
Randhawa began by releasing independent singles and grew to become a global icon and pop star recognized for his Punjabi and Bollywood hits. In 2012, he made his music debut with the single “Same Girl,” then signed with the leading Indian label T-Series and released “Patola,” which has more than 493 million views on YouTube. He has several music videos on YouTube with more than one billion views, including “Lahore” and “High Rated Gabru.” “Lahore” won track of the year and Randhawa won best male act at the Brit Asia TV Music Awards in 2018.
His first international collaboration was the 2019 track “Slowly Slowly” with Pitbull, which racked up 38 million views on YouTube in 24 hours, and now has some 265 million views. The track won him the best Punjabi vocalist at the PTC Punjabi Music Awards in 2019.
Randhawa’s latest single “You Talking To Me” was released a month ago and has amassed 30 million views. He has also composed for several Indian films and won the best music director award for his work on “Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety” (2018) at the International Indian Film Academy Awards and at the Mirchi Music Awards.
He will make his acting debut with Bollywood comedy “Kuch Khattaa Ho Jaay.” He is currently working on English-language music in Los Angeles.
Randhawa is one of the most followed male solo artists in the world today with 34 million followers on Instagram, 7.6 million followers on TikTok, 6.8 million followers on Facebook and 1.1 million followers on X.
He continues to be represented by Exceed Entertainment, Mumbai, High G Talent, and Gang, Tyre, Ramer, Brown & Passman.
Crafted entirely out of the televised 1985 trial of Argentina’s military junta, “The Trial” lays bare horrific crimes while showing the courage of victims, survivors and their families. Ulises de la Orden’s conscientious documentary is a necessary act of memory — for such is the only way justice truly endures — and it reminds viewers of the Dante-esque extent of the abuses beyond the stories of “the disappeared,” the thousands who were snatched and killed because they were labeled left-wingopponents or on other pretexts.
De la Orden’s respectful, smartly abridged account draws on the 530 hours recorded by public television to compile a kind of oral history, rather than tracking the legal arguments. The testimony by dignified witnesses from all walks of life is gripping, even when viewed obliquely because of the camera placement. Cutaway shots show the smug-looking military brass who are on trial, the judges watching as impassively as they can manage and a rapt crowd in the courtroom.
The director rightly recognizes that nothing is to be gained by smoothing over the facts. The military junta that seized power (from President Isabel Perón) in 1976, and its cronies and followers raped, murdered, tortured and kidnapped. They trafficked orphans of “subversives,” and stole (real estate and cash, while also raiding homes for everything from cookbooks to women’s underwear). We hear all about their mafialike behavior — throwing their victims out of airplanes into the sea — and how they made a grisly mockery of the rule of law.
The 177-minute film concludes with the dramatic sentencing of the regime’s de facto president, Jorge Rafael Videla, and others. The document might resemble an artifact from another era. But it offers a stirring universal example of justice served, at a time when so many American voters fear the prospect of an authoritarian president already impeached once for inciting an insurrection.
The Trial Not rated. In Spanish, with subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 57 minutes. In theaters.
In the explosive world of espionage and stunts, there’s one name that has become synonymous with explosive action and adrenaline-filled missions: Tom Cruise. For over two decades, Cruise has embodied the indomitable Ethan Hunt, the charismatic and fearless agent at the heart of the Mission: Impossible film franchise.
And while these movies are known for their jaw-dropping visual spectacles and intricate plots, there’s more to them than meets the eye. Hidden beneath all the action and excitement is a treasure trove of Easter eggs, cleverly placed nods, and subtle references that even the most eagle-eyed viewers might have missed. We’ll set out on a mission to uncover a few Easter eggs from the Mission: Impossible franchise.
10 The Angel Gabriel
Paramount Pictures
This Easter egg, specifically in the context of Esai Morales’ character Gabriel and the sentient AI known as The Entity, adds a fascinating layer of symbolism and mystery to the storyline. In a clever misdirect, Gabriel isn’t the central antagonist of Dead Reckoning. Rather, he serves as a right-hand man to The Entity, a sentient AI highly similar to the evil Skynet from the Terminator franchise. The reference to The Angel Gabriel alludes to Gabriel’s role as a messenger or intermediary, which hints at a profound connection between Gabriel and The Entity.
While the exact endgame of The Entity remains shrouded in mystery, it’s clear that its intentions go beyond mere annihilation. The reference to wanting to be “worshipped like a god” suggests a desire for power and control, just like the age-old human tendency to deify and venerate higher beings. Gabriel’s role as a willing servant adds an intriguing dynamic, leaving us to wonder whether he will aid The Entity in its quest for god-like status.
9 CIA Cameos
When audiences first glimpse the board of intelligence at the CIA, a few familiar faces might catch their attention. Mark Gatiss, Indira Varma, Charles Parnell, and Rob Delaney are among these actors. These brief appearances raise questions about the significance of these characters in the broader narrative.
Why are these well-known actors making cameo appearances in the film? What roles might they play in the upcoming Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two? These faces’ brief but noteworthy appearances pique our curiosity, leaving us speculating about the connections and implications of these characters in Ethan Hunt’s world of espionage.
8 Grace
Paramount Pictures
Hayley Atwell‘s character, Grace, is a newcomer to the team, and her role initially carries a question mark on itself—however, a subtle clue hints at her significance and her potential ties to Hunt. In a key moment in Abu Dhabi, Grace demonstrates her exceptional pickpocketing skills as she retrieves one of the Entity keys.
What makes this moment noteworthy is the manner in which she manages to hold onto the key through sleight of hand, a skill that fans of the first Mission: Impossible (1996) film may recognize. This skill is a direct callback to a young Ethan Hunt’s demonstration of pickpocketing in the original movie. As Grace’s role becomes clearer in future installments, this Easter egg hints at the potential significance of her character in the future.
7 Dr. Nekhorvich
This little gem is a clever reference to a similar scene from Mission: Impossible 2 (2000), where Ethan Hunt poses as Dr. Nekhorvich to deceive John C. McCloy and acquire information necessary to stomp a bioterror threat. In Mission Impossible:Fallout (2018), this homage is paid to the second installment of the franchise, showing the enduring influence of the earlier films.
In Fallout, the scene unfolds as Hunt and his team pursue a terrorist to obtain vital information. They orchestrate an elaborate ruse inside a fake hospital to achieve their objective. This setup closely parallels the scenario in MI2, where Ethan impersonates Dr. Nekhorvich to outsmart the enemy. The main difference in Fallout is the character used for the disguise. Instead of posing as a supposedly dead Russian scientist like in MI2, Hunt takes on the identity of Wolf Blitzer, the journalist/news anchor.
6 The White Widow is Max’s Daughter
Paramount Pictures
In Mission Impossible: Fallout, Vanessa Kirby‘s character, the enigmatic White Widow, is revealed to bethe daughter ofVanessa Redgrave’s Max, a key character from the first film. Max played a central role in the original movie, forging an uneasy alliance with Ethan Hunt as he sought to clear his name of crimes committed by Jim Phelps.
What makes this Easter egg intriguing is the subtlety with which it’s presented. The film doesn’t go to great lengths to underline the connection, allowing discerning audiences to pick up on it. Also, it reveals that Max, despite her involvement in arms dealing, had aspirations to use the proceeds for a noble cause, hoping to make the world a better place.
The Leonard Nimoy Easter egg in Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One(2023) is a delightful nod to a legendary actor’s history with the original Mission: Impossible TV series. Nimoy, a.k.a. Mr. Spock (from the Star Trek TV Series 1966–1969), made a unique appearance in the original Mission: Impossible series during its fourth season. In the show, he played the role of The Great Paris, a retired magician known for his exceptional skills. The character served as an inspiration for Pom Klementieff’s character, Paris, in Dead Reckoning.
Pom Klementieff has confirmed that her character pays homage to The Great Paris, particularly in his flamboyant wardrobe choices. And while she acknowledges that her character’s attire may be more extravagant than what The Great Paris would have worn, the connection is clear.
4 August Walker’s John Lark Alias
Paramount Pictures
When Ethan Hunt prepares to meet the White Widow, he assumes the alias she knows: John Lark. The significance of this alias lies in the fact that the alluring White Widow (played by Vanessa Kirby) is unaware of Ethan’s true identity and affiliations. Thus, Ethan adopts the fake identity of John Lark, a known nuclear terrorist extremist, to maintain his cover.
The use of the John Lark alias was first introduced in Mission: Impossible – Fallout, where it served as the name for the film’s antagonist. In a surprising twist, John Lark was revealed to be Henry Cavill‘s character, who had been operating undercover as CIA agent August Walker. With Walker’s death, Ethan Hunt inherits the criminal alias of John Lark, allowing him to step into the secretive criminal underworld.
3 Printing Latex Masks
Paramount Pictures
Here, we have an Easter egg that pays homage to a famous gadget from the Mission: Impossible films—the latex mask machine. These mask-creation machines have been a staple of the IMF’s arsenal throughout the franchise. They enable the creation of flawless disguises that allow operatives to transform into spitting images of their targets. In Dead Reckoning Part One, fans are introduced to these machines once again.
However, in a surprising turn of events, The Entity, the film’s antagonist, sabotages and destroys the machine, catching the IMF off guard. But despite the machine’s demise, one mask manages to be created, offering a glimpse of its transformative power. While it may not change the eye color of the person wearing it, the inclusion of this Easter egg serves as a nostalgic nod to the past.
2 Ethan Tricks Walker Like He Tricked Claire
Paramount Pictures
This moment highlights the franchise’s enduring use of clever deception, drawing a direct parallel between two iconic scenes from different installments. In Fallout, there’s a memorable moment when August Walker unwittingly confesses his crimes to Solomon Lane, believing Lane to be Benji in disguise. This scene carries a sense of fun as the IMF closes in on Walker and harks back to a similar moment from the original Mission: Impossible film.
The callback specifically references the final train scene in the original movie, where Ethan Hunt impersonates Jim Phelps to coax a confession from Claire. Although the technology behind the face masks and voice modulators has evolved since 1996, the core intention of both scenes remains remarkably similar.
1 Ethan Climbing The Monster Cliff
Paramount Pictures
This Easter egg serves as a recall of a scene from Mission: Impossible 2. In Fallout, Ethan Hunt faces a difficult challenge toward the film’s climax. He must climb up a dangerous cliff without the safety of a harness to reach August Walker’s detonator and prevent a catastrophic nuclear explosion. This high-stakes sequence directly references a classic moment from the first Mission: Impossible sequel, where Hunt takes a break from his spy adventures to indulge in rock climbing in Utah.
The callback to the cliff-scaling scene in Mission: Impossible 2 is not only a nod to the franchise’s history but also a testament to Tom Cruise’s real-life daring stunts. Despite the passage of nearly two decades, Ethan Hunt’s athleticism and climbing skills remain as impressive as ever, allowing him to undertake daring feats to save the day again.
Lego has revealed its next Super Mario set for adult collectors, a large Piranha Plant.
The set was teased on the official Lego Twitter account, with the message: “Waking soon… discover the newest Lego Super Mario set emerging from our pipeline…”
The model shown in the video is clearly a Piranha Plant, and the video also features the music that plays in Super Mario 64 when you walk past a sleeping Piranha Plant.
However, the item can already be found on the official Lego store website, with a November 6 release date and a $59.99 / £57.99 price point.
“Recreate the distinctive features of a Piranha Plant and pose its head, mouth, stalk and leaves,” the item’s description reads.
“Displayed in the buildable pipe, it makes a fun centerpiece for your home or office.”
The set will consist of 540 pieces, making it the smallest of Lego’s Nintendo-themed adult sets to date, and will stand at 9 inches tall.
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This is the fourth Nintendo-themed Lego set aimed at adult collectors.
“Massive” ticket demand for Olivia Rodrigo’s “Guts” world tour will leave many fans disappointed as presales start today, and Ticketmaster is already trying to cushion the blow.
Two days ago, Tickemaster posted a statement on its website and social media platforms saying, “There has been massive fan demand for Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS world tour, and even after the tour added 20 additional dates to meet the demand, there are still more fans who registered than there are tickets available.”
The majority of fans trying to register for tickets were waitlisted – the ticketing service hasn’t released figures on how many of those on the waitlist eventually made it through to registration.
Even those who made it through to registration (it’s now closed) needed to curb their enthusiasm: “Invitations” from Ticketmaster for today’s presale went out last night to a limited number of those who registered.
And no, an invitation, with a verified code, isn’t the final hoop. According to Ticketmaster, receiving an invitation provides an opportunity to shop for tickets, but the ability to actually buy those tickets is determined “by supply and demand.” Today, it’ll be first come, first served. Ticket prices range from $49.50 to $199.50, with VIP packages available, and Ticketmaster has already warned of “scammers” attempting to re-sell tickets they don’t actually have.
Legitimate resale sites – StubHub, VividSeats and Seat Geek – will probably have tickets available for purchase at some point after today, though not at the same prices as those on Ticketmaster.
Rodrigo announced the initial slate of 57 tour dates on September 13, with an additional 18 dates added a couple days later.
The high demand – and Tickemaster’s involvement – no doubt recalls last year’s Taylor Swift “Eras” tour, when the onslaught of hopeful ticketbuyers crashed the seller’s site, prompting Ticketmaster to halt the presale. The debacle prompted lawsuits, demands for Congressional hearings and a response from Swift herself; the singer said, in part, “I’m not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked [Ticketmaster], multiple times, if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could.”
Pedro Almodóvar is convinced Pedro Pascal is one of the greatest working actors today.
The Oscar-winning writer-director, who helmed queer Western “Strange Way of Life” starring Pascal and Ethan Hawke, told The Independent that Pascal is more than just his viral roles in “The Last of Us,” “Game of Thrones,” “The Mandalorian,” and “Narcos.”
“He really is an actor. He can do comedy and drama. He can do musicals and classical theatre,” Almodóvar said of Pascal. “I feel like people are pigeonholing him.”
He continued, “One of my hopes is that, after people see ‘Strange Way of Life,’ a light bulb might go off in people’s heads and they’ll say, ‘He can do more than what we’re employing him to do.’ Not only epic roles! I don’t have anything against epic roles, but he is more well-rounded as an actor than that.”
Almodóvar previously told IndieWire that “Strange Way of Life” harnesses a unique performance from Pascal, one that according to Almodóvar, is unprecedented.
“I think it really shows a range of registers he can hit that people haven’t given him yet,” Almodóvar said earlier this year. “I hope the audience can appreciate that.”
Pascal shared that he signed onto the short film to expand his own indie film background.
“I loved the idea of Pedro addressing an era of cinema in a location that held the physical history of some of our most beloved and rebellious Westerns,” Pascal told IndieWire. “There’s something so much more intimate about being under the singularity of someone’s vision. Even more so when it’s a vision that has been such influence over your creative inspiration.”
Pascal continued, “Pedro put his trust in us to inhabit the story as he felt so much of the work was accomplished by casting. I think there’s a disarming and playful sexiness to everything Pedro does, so it’s exciting to step into that world. It also helped to have a scene partner as good as Ethan.”
Next, Pascal is starring in “The Last of Us” Season 2 and Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator” sequel alongside Paul Mescal and Barry Keoghan. Academy Award nominee Mescal admitted that he was too “afraid” to speak to Pascal at first given his stardom.
If you can’t tell from Hollywood’s addiction to English-language remakes, English is an important language in the film industry. No, not that written stuff at the bottom of the screen in a foreign film (they’re called subtitles, guys!), but good ol’ spoken ‘American.’ For better or worse, Earth’s most widely spoken tongue is the language of global entertainment; not only does it open a lucrative international market, it brings together creative talents from around the world.
That said, even for the greatest of international directors, transitioning into English isn’t always easy. Take Wong Kar-Wai’sMy Blueberry Nights, which was criticized as a poor translation of the filmmaker’s talents. There’s also renowned Austrian director Michael Haneke, whose English debut was a shot-for-shot remake of his own horror classic, Funny Games. Some respected the message he was trying to send to American audiences, while others found it a pointless indulgence. Roman Polanski, on the other hand, made a convincing (and horrifying) move into English-language film with Repulsion, though the film now takes on uncomfortable undertones in light of the director’s troubling reputation.
Some directors remain successful despite never making the shift into English-language movies, though the alluring roster of talent that comes with English-language entertainment will inevitably come calling. Though acclaimed director Pedro Almodóvar has been extremely successful while sticking to his native Spanish, he’s now making his first English film, A Manual for Cleaning Women, with Cate Blanchett at the helm. The star power and clout of the American film industry supply a wealth of resources and actors that is hard to turn down. Here are eight English-language debuts from international directors that made the most of these new riches and struck gold.
Update September 21, 2023: Are you wondering what other international directors had great English-language debuts? Then you’ll be happy to know this article has been updated with additional films and directors by Rafa Boladeras.
13 Mimic – Guillermo Del Toro
Miramax
Mexican director Guillermo del Toro has always marched to his own drum, and that has made for a unique career. That was already there in his first English film Mimic, a horror, sci-film that was much better than it had any right to be. This is the story of entomologist Dr. Susan Tyler (Mira Sorvino) who creates a genetically engineered insect to kill cockroaches that are carrying a disease killing Manhattan kids. Three years later, those same insects have evolved into something much worse, and they now want to kill humans, as they can even mimic them.
Del Toro is a master of the disgusting, and this film has disgusting in spades, even if the director had some problems with producers Harvey and Bob Weinstein. The film is scary, with some hunting images and a great performance by Sorvino, while it’s also fun to see a young Josh Brolin and Norman Reedus in the movie. Del Toro has made many better films than this one, but you could already see some of his passions here, from his love for the scary and macabre to his imagination in creating unique, weird creatures, making for a good first effort in English.
12 The Impossible – J.A. Bayona
Warner Bros. Pictures
Spanish filmmaker J.A. Bayona became an overnight sensation after his directing debut was the horror movie The Orphanage. All eyes were on the director and what would he do next, as it was not only in the English language but with a much bigger budget and more known actors. In The Impossible, he decided to tell the real-life story of the Bennet family, Henry (Ewan McGregor), Maria (Naomi Watts), and their three kids Lucas (Tom Holland in one of his first films ever, and many years before he became Spider-Man), Thomas (Samuel Joslin), and Simon (Oaklee Pendergrast), as they get separated when an incredible big tsunami hits the region where they were on Holidays.
Bayona’s mastery of how to create tension and horror works perfectly in this story, as these parents are having their worst nightmare ever, making for scenes where, although there’s no ghost or serial killer, things get much scarier, as they might not be able to found their kids, or even worse, they might be dead. The story gets a bit melodramatic at times, but it’s directed so well that at the end, you only want to call your parents and, or kids and tell them you love them.
11 Prisoners – Denis Villeneuve
Warner Bros. Pictures / Summit Entertainment
Canadian Denis Villeneuve started out directing French-language films like Maelström and Polytechnique. Buzz was growing for the director, especially after his knockout drama Incendies, and he had earned a reputation for visual mastery and imaginative storytelling. His Hollywood debut, Prisoners, built on this reputation, shocking audiences with a tense, genre-melding thriller that meticulously combined artful cinematography, impeccable acting, and perfectly calibrated tension.
The stacked ensemble cast, including Jake Gyllenhaal and Hugh Jackman, cranked up the emotional impact of the film, which centered on two families left reeling after the disappearance of their daughters. Villeneuve has gone on to become one of the most accomplished directors of his generation, with Blade Runner 2049 and Arrival affirming this status. He continues to ride high on the success of his latest hit, Dune, picking up a slew of Academy Award nominations for the sci-fi epic at the 2022 Oscars.
10 Sense and Sensibility – Ang Lee
Sony Pictures
Sense and Sensibilitywas the film that allowed Taiwanese master director Ang Lee to assert himself in the English language and gain a truly international reach. An adaptation of a classic Jane Austen novel, this 1995 filmfollows three sisters and their suitors. Your heart will be warm (and its strings completely worn out) by the end. Lee’s earlier films, Eat Drink Man Woman and The Wedding Banquet, were also romantic comedy dramas with themes of family at their core.
Here, Lee approaches the source material with his warm touch, well-developed characters, and sweeping visuals. Written by and starring Emma Thompson as Elinor, it is widely considered one of the best Austen adaptations. Its thoughtful conception of female characters and emotionally rich, nuanced portrayal of romance stand the test of time. It’s hard not to cry happy tears along with Elinor when Edward (Hugh Grant) finally proposes. Lee would go on to back up this English-language achievement with classics like Brokeback Mountain and the stunning Life of Pi,both of which won him a Best Director Oscar.
9 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy – Tomas Alfredson
StudioCanal
Swedish director Tomas Alfredson made an incredible, small, intimate vampire film with Let Me In, so much so that Hollywood did an English remake of it. After that, he got the chance to do something bigger, so when the director decided to tackle a John Le Carré novel in an English-language film, people were more than interested, and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy delivered.
The film is all about semi-retired spy George Smiley (Gary Oldman), who must discover a mole in British Intelligence giving information to the Soviets. As with any Le Carré story, there are many twists and turns, and Oldman holds the audience’s attention closely, even if the plot can sometimes escape them. Alfredson has a great cast to play with, not only his leading man but also Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Mark Strong, Colin Firth, and Toby Jones. The director also knows how to create tension in every frame, and he’s a master of creating a unique mood that surrounds the whole film, making for a spy film that might have more in common with The Conversation than with James Bond.
8 A Little Princess – Alfonso Cuarón
Warner Bros.
Alfonso Cuarón‘s first English-language film demonstrates his keen talent for communicating points of view. The way his subjects see the world shapes the work of the award-winning Mexican director, be they little girls, teenage wizards, or adults living in a dystopia. Cuarón is a member of the talented “three amigos” group of Mexican directors who have taken the film industry (and the Oscars) by storm in recent years.A Little Princesswas praised for its cinematography, thanks to Cuarón’s frequent collaborator, the prolific Emmanuel Lubezki (arguably the “fourth amigo”).
A loose adaptation of the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, the movie follows Sara, a girl who is sent to boarding school after her father leaves to fight in World War I. After he’s presumed dead, Sara is tormented by the cruel Miss Minchin and is forced to use her imagination to overcome her circumstances. Cuarón still reflects fondly on the film, and there’s no question that it helped his career soar to new heights. His English-language filmography grew impressively after the picture, with English-language box office successes like The Prisoner of Azkaban,Children of Men, and Gravitycementing him as one of the most talented working directors.
7 Fury – Fritz Lang
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Fritz Lang started his career in Germany, where he became one of its best filmmakers after directing masterpieces like Metropolis, or M. The problem he had was that his next film, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse was seen as problematic by the Nazi Party, who had just arrived in power, as the character might’ve had some inspiration in Adolf Hitler. That film was all about a criminal mastermind and hypnotist and was banned in Germany, but even then, Lang was offered a place on the German propagandistic team.
The director decided to leave Germany and went to America to continue his career, with Fury being his first film here. The movie, with a great Spencer Tracy, is all about mob mentality and how they almost lynched Joe Wilson (Tracy) before a trial is had after he survives. The movie might be as unique, formal, and adventurous as his films in Europe while tackling a subject as uncomfortable and prescient (back then, but unfortunately also now) about those who get personal gain by promoting hate and violence against someone else.
6 The Lobster – Yorgos Lanthimos
Element pictures
Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos was already ‘a favorite‘ for his original, darkly comic dramas like Attenberg, Alps, and Dogtooth. But it was The Lobster, his first English movie,that truly catapulted Lanthimos into the spotlight. He makes use of the same matter-of-fact violence and deadpan dialogue that characterizes his Greek work, plus a portly Colin Farrell as protagonist David. The film is set at a wilderness retreat where David is told that he has 45 days to find a partner before he is turned into an animal of his choice.
Rebellious loners terrorize the outskirts of the forest, and the retreat encourages the participants to hunt as many of them as they can to win extra time. Lanthimos seems fascinated with exploring the strange confines of interpersonal relationships, creating rules and quirks within his singular films that shine a light on human nature. The Lobster is disturbing, funny, and clever all at once. Lanthimos will continue building on the success of his subsequent English films with his next project, Poor Things, which is a play on the classic Frankenstein story.
5 The Constant Gardener – Fernando Meirelles
United International Pictures
Although he had been directing in Brazil for a while, Fernando Meirelles made an international name for himself when he directed City of God, which was nominated for four Academy Awards even though the film was in Portuguese. For his next film and his first in English, Meirelles tackled a story by John Le Carré, The Constant Gardener. This is the story of a humble, make-no-fuss diplomat, Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes), stationed in Kenya, who, once his wife Vanessa (Rachel Weisz) is found dead, starts investigating and discovering a worldwide conspiracy that, as always, is making the rich richer and the poor poorer.
Fiennes gives an excellent performance, as his character finds a new gear and motivation to discover what really happened to his wife while also being hunted by grief, love, and confusion, as the official story is that she was killed in a crime of passion with another man. The chemistry between the actor and Weisz in flashbacks makes the story much more believable as you understand why this character will go to the ends of the world to uncover the truth. Meirelles proved his mastery of the camera to shoot thrilling, stressful action scenes while also showing the character’s increasing paranoia, making for a great film.
4 Snowpiercer – Bong Joon-ho
CJ Entertainment
Now one of the world’s most respected directors, Bong Joon-ho went from making well-respected Korean language films like The Host and Memories of Murderto producing an English-language hit with Snowpiercer. Adapted from a French graphic novel, Snowpierceris an imaginative action film set on a train traversing a dystopian ice world.
As the hierarchies and senseless inequalities of the world manifest in the train’s hellish inner workings, Curtis Everett (Chris Evans) works his way from the back to the front, leading a proletarian revolt one car at a time. Starring Tilda Swinton, Jamie Bell, and Song Kang-ho, the film bridged Bong’s filmmaking prowess from Korea to North America and Europe. His favorite themes of capitalism and his trademark fusion of dark themes and humor worked just as well abroad. The moviehas gone on to spawn a successful American TV series of the same name.
3 21 Grams – Alejandro Iñárritu
This Is That Productions
Another member of the Mexican power trio “the three amigos,” Alejandro Iñárritu, burst onto the scene with Amores Perros, a film that centers on three distinct stories brought together by a car accident; his English-language debut,21 Grams, was part of the same “trilogy of death.” It takes place in Memphis and centers on another fatal car accident, following the lives of the people involved in a perspective-shifting, time-jumbled narrative.
As the movie progresses, some scenes resurface from the point of view of different characters. Starring Naomi Watts, Sean Penn, and Benicio del Toro, the painful tangle of lives and emotions manifests with a gut punch, particularly thanks to Watts, who plays a bereft mother who has lost her family in the accident. Moving and brutally insightful into human relationships, Iñáritu’s English debut kept him true to form as an incredibly talented director, no matter the language. Given this strong start, his later success with Birdman and The Revenant was no surprise.
2 Breaking the Waves – Lars von Trier
Sandrew Metronome
Most famous for his boundary-pushing, controversial films, Lars von Trier has never been one to play by the rules. His films often explore difficult material like mental health (in Melancholia) or sex addiction, leaving viewers with a pit in their stomachs. Breaking the Waves, the first film in his “Golden Heart” trilogy,was the first fully English language feature from the Danish arthouse master.
Emily Watson plays Bess, a naive but kind woman who marries an oil rig worker named Jan, who comes from outside her small, extremely religious Scottish community. When he is paralyzed in an accident, Jan makes a painful request to Bess: she must make love to others in his place. In a difficult, powerful exploration of faith in the most barren of places, Von Trier expands the definition of what that word even means. The film was a strong debut for Emily Watson, too, who earned an Oscar nomination for her performance. Von Trier is clearly fluent in the emotional language of cinema, no matter what language his actors are speaking.
1 Blow-Up – Michelangelo Antonioni
MGM
Michelangelo Antonioni was one of the 20th century’s greatest directors. His British arthouse thriller Blow-Up, came after years of success in Italian filmmaking, with his films like L’avventura, La Notte, and L’eclisse becoming pillars of cinema. Riding on all of this success, it’s impressive that his English-language debut still holds up as one of the defining films of the ’60s. He would later go on to direct other classics in English like Zabriskie Point and The Passenger with Jack Nicholson, but Blow-Up would remain one of his most famous and influential works.
Here, he assembles all the ingredients to a suspenseful crime thriller — a murder, a witness, a piece of evidence — then uses his talents to throw these elements promptly into question. A complacent London fashion photographer (David Hemmings) thinks he might have seen a murder in the park, but the mystery fades into obscurity before it even gets going. Mystifying until the final shot, nothing is quite as it seems in this classic, which Antonioni described to Roger Ebert in 1969 as being “not about a murder but about a photographer.”
Despite all his bravado to the contrary, four-time indicted former president Donald Trump is indeed worried about going to prison, according to a new report from Rolling Stone. Among those worries is, apparently, that he’ll end up in a “bad” prison — which caused MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” crew to literally laugh out loud on Thursday morning.
According to the report, Trump has wondered aloud if he’d “be sent to a ‘club fed’ style prison — a place that’s relatively comfortable, as far these things go — or a ‘bad’ prison,” as well as whether or not he’d be made to wear a prison jumpsuit, among other concerns.
“There are no good prisons. Mr. President,” host Willie Geist mocked, earning loud laughter from Joe Scarborough and the rest of the team. “There are no good ones.”
But, Joe Scarborough wasn’t at all surprised to hear Trump is actually worried about jail time.
“He is the most insecure guy on the face of the earth behind that facade,” Scarborough said. “And he has to know what even his fiercest defenders on Fox News say, like Jonathan Turley. 91 counts, and if he goes 90-1, he’s going to jail for the rest of his life.”
He continued, “He could win 90 and lose one. Every one of those counts, basically, at Donald Trump’s age, that equals a life sentence. So yeah, the guy is worried!”
You can watch the full discussion from “Morning Joe” in the video above.
WWE’s “SmackDown” is officially set to return to USA Network in a new five-year rights deal.
The weekly show currently airs on Fox but will move to its new network home in October 2024 when the Fox deal expires. “Smackdown” originally began airing on Fox in 2019 as part of a five-year deal between the network and WWE. It had previously aired on USA Network from 2016-2019 and had a number of network homes before that, including Syfy, The CW, UPN, and MyNetworkTV.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but sources say the new deal is worth roughly $1.4 billion, up from the $1 billion Fox paid in 2019. As part of the new deal for “Smackdown,” WWE will produce four primetime specials per year for NBC, marking the first time that WWE will air in primetime on the network. It is unknown at this time exactly what form those primetime specials will take, i.e. if they will feature live wrestling or if they will be more documentary-focused like WWE’s programming on A&E. According to an individual with knowledge of the deal, the exact nature of the specials is still being determined.
“NBCUniversal has been a tremendous partner of WWE for decades,” said WWE president Nick Khan. “We are excited to extend this longstanding relationship by bringing ‘SmackDown’ to USA Network on Friday nights and look forward to debuting multiple WWE special events annually on NBC.”
The rights deals for both “Smackdown” and “Monday Night Raw” were due to expire in the next year. While “Smackdown’s” future has been determined, there is no word yet on where “Raw” will land. It currently also airs on USA Network, as does WWE’s NXT. Sources say that there has been serious interest from a number of top platforms but no deal has been made at the time of this publishing. Neither of the other two shows is expected to continue to on USA Network, according to sources.
“It’s a privilege and thrill to continue NBCU’s decades-long partnership with WWE which has helped cement USA Network’s consistent position as the top-rated cable entertainment network in live viewership” said Frances Berwick, chairman of NBCUniversal Entertainment. “With Friday nights on USA, primetime specials on NBC, and the WWE hub on Peacock, we’ll continue to use the power of our portfolio to superserve this passionate fanbase.”
Since 2021, NBCUniversal’s Peacock has been the exclusive streaming home of the WWE Network. That includes the company’s expansive library of wrestling shows as well as the home for annual events like WrestleMania, the Royal Rumble, Summer Slam, and more.
WWE was recently sold to Endeavor, which merged WWE with the UFC to form a new company dubbed TKO Group. Vince McMahon, former CEO of WWE, has assumed the role of executive chairman of TKO Group. Under the terms of the deal, McMahon — who was WWE’s controlling shareholder — will own 16.4% of the economic interests in TKO (and 16.4% of the voting power in the new entity). McMahon stepped down as WWE’s chief executive in 2022 amid an investigation by the company’s board into alleged hush-money payments to women who accused him of sexual misconduct. McMahon returned to the company in January 2023 as executive chairman to head up efforts to sell WWE.
A Ryanair passenger attacked staff and smashed furniture and a computer during a rampage at Palma airport after he missed his flight, it has emerged.
Video shows the topless man, who has not been named, throwing a bin at a wall before gesticulating furiously at Ryanair staff who were hiding behind a glass door.
The furious passenger was filmed shouting abuse at the panicked ground staff at 5.43am this morning after he missed his flight to Gran Canaria.
The aggressive man had stripped off his T-shirt in his rage before he began throwing furniture towards the airport staff.
At one point, he picked up a computer and threw it against one of the walls before doing the same with a chair, printer and bin, reports Ultima Hora.
Moments earlier he had allegedly physically assaulted a Ryanair staff member.
The furious passenger was filmed shouting abuse at the ground staff at 5.43am this morning after he missed his flight to Gran Canaria
Video shows the topless man, who has not been named, throwing a bin at a wall before gesticulating furiously at Ryanair staff who were hiding behind a glass door
The aggressive man had stripped off his T-shirt in his rage before he began throwing furniture towards the airport staff
The panicked Ryanair staff called for help and six security guards arrived at the chaotic scene to find the man still throwing objects at walls and shouting abuse.
Broken pieces of the furniture was seen strewn across the floor of the boarding gate.
The man is said to have then entered the women’s bathroom where he broke the mirror and threatened to kill himself.
The man reportedly cut himself on his chest and abdomen before the security guards managed to restrain him until the Spanish Guardia Civil officers arrived.
The officers took the man for treatment at a hospital before he was detained at a police station.
An instantly iconic addition to Las Vegas’ skyline, Sphere is not only the world’s largest spherical structure but also a technological marvel whose innovations could offer a glimpse of entertainment’s future. The venue near The Venetian will make its long-anticipated debut Sept. 29 with a U2 residency, closely followed by the launch of the first movie designed for its all-encompassing screen, Postcard From Earth, helmed by filmmaker Darren Aronofsky.
The $2.3 billion structure contains the world’s largest interior and exterior wraparound LED displays. Outside, the LED-coated globe lights up the city at night with ever-shifting imagery. Inside, the viewer is immersed in a jaw-dropping phantasmagoria.
Sphere’s sound system even enables audience members to have different sonic experiences in different parts of the venue, which can accommodate 20,000. As Hollywood explores the potential of LED displays as an alternative to digital cinema projection, sound has remained a stubborn obstacle. Designed by Berlin-based Holoplot, Sphere’s system could well prove an approach to address that technical challenge.
With its all-encompassing screen, Sphere can immerse audiences in extraordinary settings, such as a rocket launch.
Courtesy. Area15
The production of U2:UV Achtung Baby Liveat Sphere includes custom 16K-resolution content that was specially produced and mastered to be displayed during the concert, as well as unique concert lighting and a mobile stage. Meanwhile, the globe-trotting Postcard — which Aronofsky describes as a “sci-fi journey deep into our future as our descendants reflect on our shared home” — was filmed on every continent and contains both narrative and documentary elements. “It’s a learning process because the technology is new,” says the director. “Delivering a half-petabyte movie — that’s 500,000 gigabytes — that utilizes more than 160,000 speakers is mind-boggling.”
With such bleeding-edge technology, it may not come as a surprise that since the 2018 groundbreaking, Sphere’s construction budget ballooned.
“I will confess that we did not anticipate spending $2.3 billion,” James Dolan — the cable TV and Madison Square Garden mogul who conceptualized the project — said on the inaugural earnings call for Sphere Entertainment Co. Aug. 22. “We also didn’t anticipate COVID,” which dramatically increased the cost and build time on the project. “But I think we’re still in good shape.”
Dolan initially unveiled the plans for Sphere in a high-tech presentation at Radio City Music Hall (another Dolan-controlled property) in February 2018. A musician himself (he is the frontman for the band JD & The Straight Shot), Dolan touted the Sphere as a venue that would “revolutionize the way artists and audiences connect.”
Dolan would go on to restructure his holdings in support of the project, combining the Sphere with MSG Networks, splitting it from MSG Entertainment (which includes the namesake New York arena, Radio City, the Beacon Theatre and the Rockettes), and MSG Sports, which owns the New York Knicks NBA team, and the New York Rangers NHL team.
The mogul has positioned Sphere as the future of experiential entertainment, mixing live concerts (like the inaugural U2 residency) with programming like Aronofsky’s film that can run on days when no live events are booked. In time, the hope is to accommodate multiple shows in a single day.
To adapt bespoke content for the massive curved screen, Sphere Entertainment established Sphere Studios, a quarter-size version of the Las Vegas Sphere in Burbank, with R&D and production facilities. It also turned to Hollywood pros for their expertise, like Robert Settlemire (Avatar: The Way of Water), who helped design underwater housing for filming aquatic scenes with the 316-megapixel Big Sky camera, designed to capture 18K-by-18K images at up to 120 frames per second.
Dolan told the Wall Street analysts that Aronofsky’s film was “capital intensive,” but that future projects would be able to be produced at a lower price tag.
“He’s a very talented director, but we have new cameras that are used for capture. Hehad to learn how to use those cameras, we had to learn how to use those cameras,” Dolan said. “We went all over the world with those cameras, capturing content from all parts of the globe.”
Sphere is poised to play a visible role at November’s Formula One race in Las Vegas. “Turn six and the beginning of turns seven on the track are going to run through Sphere’s parking lot,” says Sphere’s executive vp and COO Rich Claffey. “And then they’ll use our whole infield for their staging area, their musical artists, their activation area. We’ll probably have 27,000 maybe 30,000 people on our property at any given time.” Additional plans call for Formula One content to be displayed on the exosphere during the race, while an afterparty for the drivers will be held at Sphere.
Meanwhile, the company continues to present the Sphere to potential partners. “I think we’re doing 20 tours a week with athletes, celebrities, rock stars, producers, promoters, business people,” says Claffey. “Everybody’s come through here, they’re all interested in seeing Sphere.”
And while this summer has seen many Hollywood creators rail against artificial intelligence, Vegas has no such qualms about the future: Visitors to the venue will be greeted by five humanoid, AI-enabled robots named Aura, which will recount the history of humanity and innovation, culminating with — what else? — Sphere.
Courtesy of Sphere Entertainment
1. Sphere houses a record 160,000-square-foot wraparound LED display on the interior, while the exterior is coated with a record 580,000-square-foot LED display. Both are fully programmable and accommodate 16K-by-16K picture resolution.
2. Sphere is poised to play a visible role at November’s inaugural Formula 1 race in Las Vegas. “Turn six and the beginning of turn seven on the track are going to run through Sphere’s parking lot,” says Sphere executive vp and COO Rich Claffey.
3. With the unique display and sound system, content must be bespoke, specially mixed and mastered by the filmmakers for the venue. Darren Aronofsky’s Postcard From Earth is the first film designed specifically for its immersive-experience screen.
4. The venue can accommodate up to 20,000 standing spectators or 17,500 seated guests. Its spatial audio system uses an estimated 160,000 speakers that can simultaneously send different audio content (including different languages) to different seating sections.
5. Visitors entering through Sphere’s grand atrium will encounter five lifelike, AI-equipped humanoid robots, all named Aura, which will converse with guests and introduce them to the wonders of Sphere — as a flesh-and-blood technical adviser stands by.
6. At 336 feet tall and 516 feet wide, the venue is believed to be the largest spherical structure in the world, outdoing such globes as Epcot Center’s Spaceship Earth, Montreal’s Biosphere and Stockholm’s Avicii Arena.
This story first appeared in the Sept. 20 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
Rupert Murdoch is retiring from his role as chairman at both Fox Corp. and News Corp., and his son Lachlan will take his place.
Murdoch will become Chairman Emeritus of each company while his son becomes the sole chair of News Corp. and maintains his role as executive chair and CEO of Fox Corp. The changes will be effective mid-November, following an upcoming annual shareholders meeting.
“On behalf of the FOX and News Corp boards of directors, leadership teams, and all the shareholders who have benefited from his hard work, I congratulate my father on his remarkable 70-year career,” said Lachlan Murdoch in a statement. “We thank him for his vision, his pioneering spirit, his steadfast determination, and the enduring legacy he leaves to the companies he founded and countless people he has impacted. We are grateful that he will serve as Chairman Emeritus and know he will continue to provide valued counsel to both companies.”
In a memo to his Fox colleagues, Murdoch wrote, “For my entire professional life, I have been engaged daily with news and ideas, and that will not change. But the time is right for me to take on different roles, knowing that we have truly talented teams and a passionate leader in Lachlan who will become sole Chairman of both companies.”
However, he assured Fox that he would still “be involved every day in the contest of ideas.”
Murdoch continued “The battle for the freedom of speech and, ultimately, the freedom of thought, has never been more intense.”
The 92-year-old media mogul’s departure comes after a tumultuous year for Fox Corp., which agreed to pay a $787.5 million settlement for Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit.
Additionally, Fox News’ top anchor, Tucker Carlson was ousted from the network earlier this year.
Sufjan Stevens, the indie-rock singer-songwriter, said in a statement on his website on Wednesday that he was in recovery from a rare neurological condition called Guillain-Barré syndrome that had taken away his ability to walk, saying he had been hospitalized for several weeks but was expected to recover.
“Last month I woke up one morning and couldn’t walk,” Stevens said on his website. “My hands, arms and legs were numb and tingling and I had no strength, no feeling, no mobility.”
The musician said that his brother drove him to an emergency room and that neurologists diagnosed him with the autoimmune disorder, which can cause muscle weakness and paralysis. He was treated with immunoglobulin infusions, which he said were effective, and was eventually transferred to rehab for intensive physical therapy, noting that most people with the condition learn to walk again within a year.
“My doctors did all the things to keep me alive and stabilize my condition,” Stevens said. “I owe them my life.”
Stevens has a new album, called “Javelin,” coming out next month. He noted that his health had prevented him from participating in the album’s promotion.
“I’m only in my second week of rehab but it is going really well and I am working really hard to get back on my feet,” he said. “I’m committed to getting better, I’m in good spirits, and I’m surrounded by a really great team.”
Chris Evans Talks Marvel, Quentin Tarantino, Acting Less
Now in the post-Marvel phase of his career, Chris made three projects last year: Ghosted, Pain Hustlers, and the upcoming Christmas movie Red One. However, he hasn’t worked on a movie set at all this year.
“I could just make furniture for nobody and be happy,” he told GQ as part of their new cover story. Citing his previous 20 years in Hollywood, he added that he didn’t want to “occupy too much space” in the industry.
“Sometimes I wonder if I’m lacking some sort of — like, I think I’m a very driven person. I have a lot of energy. I wake up early, I get a lot done in a day, but it’s not always focused on acting. Sometimes reading a script is the last thing I want to do,” Chris continued, noting elsewhere that he does love to act, “But it’s not something that I couldn’t live without.”
Chris now lives in Massachusetts rather than LA, and asks himself questions like “Am I gonna miss autumn?” before taking on a new project. Indeed, looking back on his work-heavy 2022, he said that he first told his now-wife Alba Baptista when they first met, “I was like: ‘Yeah, I do one movie a year. I try to never work now.’ And then, after, like, a few months of dating, boom, guess what? We’re living in Atlanta for a year. Get ready. And even when that year was happening, I was like, man, never again.”
Ultimately, Chris said that he’s not trying to “fit into that box” of a leading man and prefers to take on “ensemble” and supporting roles. In that, he explained that he’s different to some of his previous costars: “Someone like Robert Downey Jr. walks in the room and he owns the oxygen. […] He’s just such a presence, such a force. Magnetic in every way. Let him be the lead. Let him have the mic, let him say the lines.”
Chris then turned to Quentin’s comments on Marvel last year, when the director said, “Part of the Marvel-ization of Hollywood is you have all these actors who have become famous playing these characters. But they’re not movie stars. Right? Captain America is the star. Or, Thor is the star.”
“I was like, you know, he’s right. The character is the star. You’re there, but you don’t feel the burden of it,” Chris said of Quentin’s words.
On the note of Marvel, Chris said that he’d be open to returning, but that it would be “no time soon.” He continued, “Ultimately, I really hope to just maybe act a little bit less in my life. I have a lot of other interests. Look, by no means have I climbed any sort of a mountain in this field. I have no Oscars, and I’m not lumped with other names that are at the top of the mountain in any way. But I also feel very satisfied.”
“I like autonomous things. I’d like to just smoke a joint, put on some music, and like, get into pottery. You know what I mean? Seth Rogen, what he’s doing. It’s good for you, man. You just go to your workshop and make something. And how satisfying, how simple, how quotidian,” he added.
Longtime Executive Director Suzanne Isken is retiring this month,and the museum has named Rody N. López as her successor. He comes to the museum from the world of nonprofits and healthcare, having served most recently as director of development and communications for L.A.-based QueensCare, a faith-based organization offering healthcare to underserved communities, as well as QueensCare Health Centers, with five locations in Los Angeles County.
“I’m just thrilled. I’m from Guatemala,” López said in an interview. “It’s a country where craft, textiles, ceramics drive culture, so this is a dream come true.”
Isken came to the Craft Contemporary — then called the Craft & Folk Art Museum — in 2011, succeeding Maryna Hrushetska, who’d been at the museum for nearly six years. Isken played an instrumental role in not only building but also reimagining the Miracle Mile institution. During her tenure, she doubled the budget — from about $600,000 when she started to $1.2 million currently — and tripled annual attendance. It now draws more than 30,600 visitors annually.
Isken, who’s turning 70 in November, also broadened the museum’s mission to include showcasing contemporary art while also promoting cultural understanding. She curated several memorable exhibitions there, including “Man-Made: Contemporary Male Quilters,”“Material as Metaphor” and “Strings of Desire.”
In a major moment in 2019, Isken changed the museum’s name to more accurately reflect what the institution had been focusing on: the intersection of contemporary art, craft and design, as opposed to historical exhibitions or dedicated folk art shows. The Craft & Folk Art Museum lost an ampersand but gained a new identity.
Suzanne Isken, the Craft Contemporary’s longtime executive director, is retiring this month.
(Craft Contemporary)
“For me, this was the best job in the world,” Isken said in an interview. “I wanted to create equity and access in a smaller museum setting, and I set out over this time to do that to the best of my ability. I’ve had an incredible team. The staff is creative, passionate, hard working, and I am really blessed to have had this amazing experience.”
López, 37, considers himself “a loyal steward of the nonprofit realm.” Before QueensCare, López worked in the development department at the social services organization Para Los Niños.
López also has deep ties to the art world. He served as associate director of exhibitions at the Long Beach Museum of Artfrom 2014 to 2016.While there, he co-curated 2015’s “Vitality and Verve: Transforming the Urban Landscape,” showcasing 20 site-specific murals and installations by local and international contemporary artists.
Previous to that, López served as an associate curator at the American Museum of Ceramic Art in Pomona from 2009-14. He worked onthe museum’s2011 “Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980” offering, “Common Ground: Ceramics in Southern California 1945-1975.”
Lópezhas a bachelor’s degree in art from Pomona College and an MFA in exhibition design from California State Fullerton. Hewrote “Living With Clay: California Ceramics Collections,” a companion publication toCal State Fullerton’s 2018 exhibition of the same name.
The Craft Contemporary is a museum López is intimately familiar with, a place where he says he’s seen many exhibitions over the years.
“The institution is a gem,” he says. “It’s an institution that deserves more attention. People definitely need to see it. I’m looking forward to partnering with LACMA [the Los Angeles County Museum of Art] and other institutions nearby so we can help each other and create partnerships that will benefit everyone.”
López takes his post at the Craft Contemporary on Sept. 25.
In episode six of Star Wars: Ahsoka, we heard a term we’ve never heard before in the saga for a Jedi. When Shin Hati (Ivanna Sakhno) asked her master Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson) if he ever knew Ezra Bridger personally, he said he didn’t. He said that “he was a breed of Bokken Jedi,” trained “in the wild,” outside the strict rules and regulations of the Jedi Temple. The word “Bokken” is actually a Japanese term, used to describe a wooden sword used for training in kenjutsu. This would not be the first time Star Wars has taken a Japanese word and uses it to describe something else.
Both “Bokken” and “Jedi” Are Derived from Japanese Words
Lucasfilm
Ever since Star Wars’ early days as an idea in George Lucas’ brain, they’ve used Japanese terms to describe things. Even the word “Jedi” was a riff on the Japanese term“jidaigeki”meaning period drama, usually ones about samurai. It’s possible that Bokken is an insulting term and not an official designation. But if Bokken is an actual Jedi term in the galaxy far, far away, then it’s one that describes most of the important Jedi Knights in the entire saga. If legit, then Ezra Bridger, Luke Skywalker, and Rey Skywalker were all trained in the Bokken way. Ahsoka was training Sabine Wren this way too, out in the wild, far away from the stricter codes of the Jedi Temple.
Lucasfilm
In the prequel trilogy, we learn Jedi trained under a very strict method that existed for a thousand generations. The Jedi Order adopted them as small children, probably around three to four years old. As Younglings, Master Yoda gave them basic lessons in the Force. Then, upon entering puberty, they began an apprenticeship under a Jedi Master as their Padawan learner. After a period of time as a Padawan, they each face their personal trials, and graduate to the status of Jedi Knight. This was the training method of Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and to a certain extent, Anakin Skywalker.
Ezra, Luke, and Rey Might All Be “Bokken Jedi”
Lucasfilm
After the fall of the Jedi Order in Revenge of the Sith, the handful of remaining Jedi couldn’t be so precious about the rules. If they encountered someone Force-sensitive, they put aside concerns about whether they were too old or even too emotional. Kanan Jarrus wasn’t even a full Jedi Knight in Rebels when he started training 14-year-old orphan Ezra Bridger. Even Yoda, the epitome of the Jedi Order itself, had to throw those rules out to train an adult Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back. And even though Luke tried to establish a proper Jedi Temple, by the time Rey came to him, not only was she an adult, she’d had no formal Jedi instruction at all. When Luke became one with the Force, his sister Leia continued Rey’s training. Even though she herself never fully became a Jedi Knight.
Bokken Jedi May Be the Future of the Order
Lucasfilm
However, these three Bokken Jedi were the saviors of the galaxy. Ezra saved Lothal from Thrawn, Luke saved the entire Galaxy from Vader, and Rey stopped Palpatine. Meanwhile, the Jedi trained under the strict codes of the Order? Well, Count Dooku, trained in the temple under its rules, and went to the dark side. Obi-Wan’s inflexibility helped to push Anakin to the dark side as well. Even the Grand Inquisitor was a Jedi Temple Guard, who no doubt grew up and trained in the Temple himself. If anything, having a previous life outside the Jedi only made Ezra, Luke, and Rey better Jedi than most. All were tempted by the dark side, and all resisted in the end. Hopefully, when Rey trains her new generation of Jedi, she’s a little more “Bokken,” and a little less “Old School Jedi Temple.”
Xbox Game Pass subscribers can look forward to some big new games in the near-future, as Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name and Like a Dragon: Ishin will be added to the library of the subscription service alongside several other titles. For Like a Dragon Gaiden, this interquel will be available as a day-one release on Game Pass when it launches on November 9, Xbox announced at Tokyo Game Show.
Set after Yakuza 6: The Song of Life and during Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Like a Dragon Gaiden focuses on Kazuma Kiryu, the legendary Yakuza who faked his own death so that he could protect his family. Now operating under the codename of Joryu, Kiryu becomes caught up in a new plot that threatens to expose him and put his loved ones in danger. Billed as a shorter adventure in the Like a Dragon franchise, the game also sets the stage for Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth ahead of its January 2024 release, as completing it will unlock exclusive scenes that won’t otherwise be accessible in that game.
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Like a Dragon: Ishin was released earlier this year, finally bringing what developer Ryu Ga Gotokou deemed to be an impossible port to Western audiences on a variety of platforms. Unlike the Yakuza and Like a Dragon games that are set in the modern era, Ishin is a samurai epic in which you take up the sword of Sakamoto Ryoma, explore feudal Japan, and uncover who really murdered his father. There’s no set date for its arrival yet, but Xbox confirmed that it will be available on Game Pass later this year.
For something different out of Japan, Game Pass subscribers can also look forward to the original Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy when it comes to Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass on September 26. In 2024, the franchise expands with Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC.
The Like a Dragon and Ace Attorney games join a few other previously confirmed titles headed to Xbox Game Pass. Mineko’s Night Market (October 26), Persona 5 Tactica (November 17), and Persona 3 Reload (February 2, 2024) are all being added as day-one releases. In the immediate Game Pass future, four day-one new releases will be available second half of September, but the Game Pass library is losing nine games in September.
Other announcements from the Xbox Tokyo Game Show panel was confirmation that Octopath Traveler II will arrive on Xbox platforms in early 2024, 2.5D “slasher film parodic action” Hotel Barcelona from Swery65 and Suda51, and the first look at action-adventure Altheia: The Wrath of Aferi.
The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors.
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Rupert Murdoch is stepping down as Fox and New Corp chairman, the companies announced today. His son, Lachlan, will take over the role at each company as Rupert moves into a chairman emeritus role at each company.
“On behalf of the FOX and News Corp boards of directors, leadership teams, and all the shareholders who have benefited from his hard work, I congratulate my father on his remarkable 70-year career,” said Lachlan Murdoch in a statement. “We thank him for his vision, his pioneering spirit, his steadfast determination, and the enduring legacy he leaves to the companies he founded and countless people he has impacted. We are grateful that he will serve as Chairman Emeritus and know he will continue to provide valued counsel to both companies.”
The WGA and AMPTP have issued a rare joint statement that could point to the strike nearing its end. They meet again on Thursday.
In a sign that things could be moving forward in negotiations between the WGA (Writers Guild of America) and the AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers), the two groups have issued a rare joint statement coming off their Wednesday meeting. The WGA and AMPTP will return to negotiations today.
In the statement released on Wednesday, the WGA and AMPTP wrote: “The WGA and AMPTP met for bargaining today and will meet again tomorrow.” OK, that’s not exactly a tome, but it does suggest at least a hint of mutual understanding and progression. It is also noteworthy for being the first time that the groups have issued a joint statement since the strike began back in May. As one studio source put it, “If they’re putting out a joint statement, I’m taking that as a positive sign…Given what’s transpired, this feels different from before.”
On Wednesday, representatives for the WGA sat down with those from the AMPTP, with some big names at the table: David Zaslav (Warner Bros. Discovery), Ted Sarandos (Netflix), Bob Iger (Disney), and Donna Langley (Universal Pictures). Objectively, this itself seems like a step in the right direction. Adding to this, another source claimed, “CEOs have cleared their calendars and want to sit and have a real conversation.”
Negotiations between the WGA and AMPTP have been at a virtual standstill for months now, causing numerous productions to be delayed as writers are barred from doing exactly what they came into the business to do. And with the likes of Drew Barrymore and Bill Maher being blasted as scabs for wanting to bring back The Drew Barrymore Show and Real Time with Bill Maher without much of what makes their shows successes – the writers – we’re seeing just how serious the industry is taking their stance. Both have since been convinced to pause their return.
Do you think the WGA and AMPTP issuing a joint statement and meeting two days in a row is a strong sign that the strike could be over soon? Or does this feel like wishful thinking at this point? Give us your thoughts on the situation below.
The summer heat is finally starting to dissipate, and that means it’s about time for a fall haircut.
As well as pumpkin spice lattes and Halloween costume planning, with a new season comes the opportunity to get your “back-to-school” fall haircut (even if you’re not a student anymore). You know, that fresh new look that switches gears for the season ahead and makes you feel a bit more productive.
We’ve already told you about all the autumn haircuts and colors that will be major for this season (lash-skimming bangs, soft layers, and slinky bobs are all on the menu), but if you feel overwhelmed by the choices and want to plump for the one back-to-school haircut for autumn, we’ve got you.
Issey Cook, a hairstylist at Larry King Salon in London, has declared the “’90s bouncy bob” as the cut you should opt for if you’re seeking that back-to-school energy.
“One haircut we will be seeing a lot of is a kind of ’90s bouncy bob,” she says, “something that’s fun, cool, and has movement but is super easy to style.”
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Cook says the cut works for everyone—from those with fine and thick hair to those with curly hair too.
“It looks expensive and chic, and with a few styling hacks, you can take it from cool-girl vibes to a mature blown-out look,” she notes.
Cooke adds: “The length can vary and that’s something you and your stylist should discuss depending on whether you want to be able to tie it up or let it be. You can also make it your own by adding more layers or keep it blunt but shaggy for finer hair. You can use some hair mist to scrunch in and add texture, or use a round brush to create volume, body, and shine. A dry hairspray or dry shampoo is great for this cut, as well as some Social Life for Your Hair Cream to define the ends and smooth over flyaways.”
“The Foreigner” was produced by Sparkle Roll Media, STX Films, Arthur Sarkissian Productions, The Entertainer Production Company, Orange Corp, Wanda Media Co., Huayi Brothers Pictures and Prosperity Pictures with a budget of $35m. With it’s initial release on September 28th 2017 it made approximately $145.37m at the Box Office.
Poland’s right-wing government has upped its attacks on The Green Border, the new film from acclaimed, Oscar-nominated Polish director Agnieszka Holland, requiring theaters in Poland to run a government-approved warning video ahead of the movie.
The move, unprecedented in democratic Poland, comes ahead of The Green Border‘s national release on Friday, where it will go out wide on 250 screens across the country via distributor Kino Swiat.
The Green Border premiered to critical acclaim at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month where it won a special jury prize. Critics lauded the movie, with The Hollywood Reporterreview calling it a “devastating dramatic triumph” and naming The Green Border one of the top 15 movies of the fall festival season.
The film is a dramatization of the plight of refugees stranded on the natural border between Poland and Belarus. The migrants, most of them from North Africa and the Middle East, were lured to the border by propaganda from the Belarusian regime, which had promised them easy passage into the European Union. Instead, they became pawns in a geopolitical game when the Polish government shut down the border, leaving them stranded and starving in the swampy, treacherous forests between the two countries. The black-and-white drama intertwines the perspectives of the stranded refugees, Polish border guards, and activists providing help to the migrants in the forest.
Even before its Venice premiere, The Green Border sparked a furious backlash from the Polish government, with Polish justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro comparing the film to “Nazi propaganda” for its supposedly negative depiction of Polish police and border guards. In a TV appearance, Polish President Andrzej Duda also made the Nazi comparison, calling for a boycott of the film, saying “only pigs sit in the cinema,” a World War II slogan used by the Polish resistance during German occupation when only Nazi propaganda films were shown in Polish theaters.
“It’s quite funny, really, the minister of injustice has accused me of being a Nazi and then, in a recent press conference, compared my film to Stalinist propaganda, so I’m both Hitler and Stalin, apparently,” said Holland, speaking to The Hollywood Reporter. The director calls the allegations absurd, pointing to some of her most famous films, including the Oscar-nominated Europa, Europa (1990) and In Darkness (2011), both stories of Jewish suffering during the Holocaust, and 2019’s Mr. Jones, about the Stalin-caused famine in Ukraine in the 1930s, referred to locally as the Holodomor. She is pursuing legal charges against Ziobro for defamation.
But the Polish government, which is up for re-election on Oct. 15, is doubling down on its Green Border attacks. On Thursday, interior minister Poboży appeared with a spokeswoman for the national border guards, calling Holland’s film “a disgusting lampoon” and its depiction of the events on the green border “extremely unfair, unauthorized, and harmful to border guard officers, soldiers [and] all those who defend the Polish border at the risk of their health and life.”
The interior minister has produced a warning spot that will run ahead of all screenings of The Green Border in Poland. Poboży said the video will counter what he called the “untruths and distortions” of Holland’s film.
Holland called the Polish government’s response “typically Orwellian, they are twisting the meaning of words. They are attacking while saying they are being attacked. They are the perpetrators claiming to be the victims. It’s sadly not at all surprising.”
Alongside what she calls “a wave of hate” against her film, Holland says there has been “a wave of solidarity” from many in Poland and from the international film community, who have come out in support of her and against the government’s attacks. Groups including the European Film Academy, the Europe Screen Directors and Poland’s Women in Film Association have written public letters of support for the 74-year-old filmmaker.
All eyes will now be on a press conference in Warsaw on Monday when Poland will officially unveil the film it is putting forward as its best international feature contender for the 2024 Oscars. In a typical year, The Green Border — an internationally acclaimed film from a legendary, twice-Oscar-nominated Polish director — would be considered a frontrunner. Poland’s Oscar committee is officially independent of the government. The Green Border was produced as an international co-production with no public subsidy support from Poland. The film has sold widely but does not yet have a distribution deal for North America or other English-speaking territories.
The SXSW Sydney festival has set a 75-film screening schedule for its first edition. The selection skews heavily towards music, but is also distinctly international.
Headline titles include re-edited Talking Heads concert film “Stop Making Sense,” “Hot Potato: The Story of The Wiggles,” an exploration of iconic Australian musical act The Wiggles; drill rap documentary “Onefour: Against All Odds,” directed by Gabriel Gasparinatos; and the widely-acclaimed “Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus,” directed by Neo Sora.
“The first ever SXSW Sydney Screen Festival aims to platform the most exciting new voices, new forms and new ways of creating on screen. We hope to inspire our audiences and industry, by unwrapping the future of screen innovation as it emerges,” said Ghita Loebenstein, the festival’s head of screen. “Like our Austin counterparts, our festival presents global programming from leading creators, and our unique offer is this distinctive Asia Pacific lens. We also thematically lean into our sister pillars across music, games and tech, celebrating where our forms and communities converge.”
The festival will open with the previously-announced Australian premiere of Kitty Green’s “The Royal Hotel,” with Green and Hugo Weaving in attendance. The Australian premiere of aristocratic thriller “Saltburn” from “Promising Young Woman” director Emerald Fennell, is set as another gala event.
The Visions main section, showcasing emerging cinema in narrative, documentary and hybrid, includes: “Agra” (India), directed by Kanu Behl; “All Ears” (China), directed by Liu Jiayin; South Korea’s Oscar contender “Concrete Utopia,” directed by Um Tae-hwa; cutting-edge Chinese animation “Deep Sea,” directed by Tian Xiaopeng; “Like & Share” (Indonesia), directed by Gina S. Noer; “Mars Express” (France), directed by Jéréme Périn; “Otto Baxter: Not A F***ing Horror Story” (U.K.), directed by Bruce Fletcher, Otto Baxter and Peter Beard; “Sahela” (Australia), directed by Raghuvir Joshi; “The New Americans: Gaming A Revolution” (U.S.), directed by Ondi Timoner; “The Rooster” (Australia), directed by Mark Leonard Winter; “This Is Going to Be Big” (Australis), directed by Thomas Charles Hyland; and “Uproar” (New Zealand), directed by Hamish Bennett and Paul Middleditch.
The ten-film Midnighters section includes: “In Flames” (Pakistan-Canada) by Zarrar Kahn; “Monolith,” by Australia’s Matt Vesely; and Jason Yu’s insomnia drama “Sleep,” which premiered in Cannes and has headed the Korean box office for the past two weeks.
A TV premieres section comprises: episodes from SBS and Screen Australia’s latest Digital Originals series Korean-Australian horror anthology “Night Bloomers”; Korean romantic comedy “Doona!,” starring retired K-pop sensation Bae Suzy; Indian-Pakistani love triangle drama “The Pink Shirt”; SBS’s “Erotic Stories,” an anthology of erotic and intimate stories told from fresh perspectives; and Australian adventure special “The Disposables,” directed by Renny Wijeyamohan and Sonia Whiteman.
The SXSW Sydney festival runs Oct. 15-22 with all film screenings at either Darling Harbour Theatre at ICC Sydney or the Palace Cinemas Central.
Disclosure: Variety-owner P-MRC is a significant investor in South by Southwest, the parent company of the annual SXSW festival.
The leaders of Manitoba’s two largest political parties promised Wednesday to not impose any more COVID-19 “lockdowns” as two new opinion polls suggested the Opposition New Democrats had gained a commanding lead in the run-up to the Oct. 3 provincial election.
“I can tell you that if we are back in government, we will not be locking down again,” Progressive Conservative Leader Heather Stefanson said during a debate with other party leaders, hosted by the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce.
“I will tell you that the unintended consequences of locking people in their homes and shutting down businesses is devastating, and we’ve learned from that,” Stefanson later told reporters, citing a rise in mental health issues and addiction.
Manitobans were never locked in their homes. But at the height of the pandemic, there were temporary restrictions on having visitors. Non-essential businesses were briefly closed and then reopened at reduced capacity. Strict limits were imposed on public gatherings.
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From left to right, Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba Leader Heather Stefanson; Manitoba NDP Leader Wab Kinew; and Manitoba Liberal Party Leader Dougald Lamont.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck, John Woods, David Lipnowski
Stefanson was a cabinet minister throughout the pandemic, including a stint as health minister for several months in 2021, a time when COVID-19 surged and dozens of intensive care patients were flown to other provinces because of a lack of beds.
NDP Leader Wab Kinew told reporters after the debate he would also not bring in previous pandemic restrictions, such as closing businesses or limiting public gatherings.
“The idea of bringing our economy to a halt again is not something we can contemplate in the future in Manitoba,” Kinew said.
“Manitobans are ready to turn the page on the pandemic.”
The key, he added, is to expand hospital capacity to ensure people who get sick can get treatment. Both Kinew and Stefanson said it’s also important that people get vaccinated.
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Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont, whose party has three legislature seats and lacks official party status, expressed disappointment in Stefanson’s comments and accused the government of failing to take precautionary measures against an outbreak.
“To prevent a lockdown, you have to make sure you are doing things to prevent that lockdown, and this government is doing nothing of that. So it just sounds like if there’s another outbreak of COVID, they’re just going to let it rip,” Lamont said.
Strong support for NDP at Manitoba campaign’s midpoint, new poll says
The leaders’ debate came the same day two new opinion polls suggested the New Democrats enjoy a solid lead in public support over the Tories, who have been in office since 2016. Polls over the last two years have suggested support for the governing Tories dropped sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A survey by the Angus Reid Institute released Wednesday suggested the NDP has a six-point lead province-wide over the Tories among decided or leaning voters, 47 per cent to 41 per cent, with the Liberals trailing far behind at nine per cent. In Winnipeg, where most legislature seats are, the survey suggested NDP support at 53 per cent to the Tories’ 31.
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The online survey was conducted from Sept. 13 to 19 and involved 990 Manitobans. The polling industry’s professional body, the Canadian Research Insights Council, says online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population.
Another survey, by Probe Research Inc., suggested the NDP leads the Tories provincewide among decided and leaning voters, 49 per cent to 38 per cent. The Liberals trailed with nine per cent. In Winnipeg, the poll pegged NDP support among decided and leaning voters at 57 per cent to the Tories’ 28.
The Probe poll, which involved 1,000 Manitobans in a random sampling between Sept. 7 and 18, is considered accurate to within plus or minus 3.1 per cent, 19 times out of 20. It was commissioned by CTV and the Winnipeg Free Press.
Political analyst Royce Koop said the numbers point to an NDP surge that could displace a lot of Tories in suburban Winnipeg.
“The NDP has been very disciplined since the campaign started, sticking with health care,” Koop said.
“They’ve effectively kept health care on the front page.”
The poll numbers also suggest Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont will be challenged to keep his St. Boniface seat, which the NDP held until 2018, Koop said.
Manitoba’s health professionals monitoring possible cases of COVID-19 variants amid seasonal spike
Oscilloscope Laboratories has acquired U.S. rights to Dan Partland’s “God & Country: The Rise of Christian Nationalism.” The film, which was produced by Rob Reiner, is set for release in early 2024. It features interviews with prominent faith leaders, who share their fears about this movement.
According to its official description: ‘”God & Country’ looks at the implications of Christian Nationalism and how it distorts not only our constitutional republic, but Christianity itself…[it also]asks this question: What happens when a faith built on love, sacrifice, and forgiveness grows political tentacles, conflating power, money, and belief into hyper-nationalism?”
The film features commentary from author David French; co-creator of “VeggieTales”and Holy Post podcast host Phil Vischer; pastor, author and Holy Post podcast host Skye Jethani; historian and author Kristin Kobes Du Mez; Christianity Todayeditor-in-chief Russell Moore; historian and author Jemar Tisby; U.S. Presidential Medal of Honor winner Sister Simone Campbell; social activist Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II; Evangelical pastor and activist Doug Pagitt; journalist and producer Reza Aslan; journalist and advocate Rob Boston; journalist Jack Jenkins; pastor and author Rob Schenck; political commentator and author Charlie Sykes; sociologist and journalist Andrew Whitehead; historian and author Anthea Butler; journalist and author Katherine Stewart; and journalist and attorney Andrew Seidel.
“Christianity is in crisis,” said Partland. “To be clear, Christianity is not the problem, and having one’s faith inform one’s political beliefs is not the problem. The problem is the intertwining of a Christian identity with a political identity such that it can be hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. The danger to democracy led me to explore this topic, but what I learned in the process is that the threat may be even greater to the Church itself. I’m thrilled to partner with Oscilloscope, as they understand the importance of bringing awareness to a divisive, political version of Christianity that has little in common with Christian principles.”
“Not since the Civil War has our country been so divided. ‘God & Country’ throws a spotlight on the role that Christian Nationalism has played in stoking that division,” said Reiner. “With the deepest respect for Christians who are sincere in their faith, but who are misinformed about the dangers and history of Christian Nationalism, I was compelled to produce this film to use my voice to draw awareness to the threat it poses.”
O-Scope’s Dan Berger said, “’God & Country’ is a clarion call to Christians all over the nation. Their religion, the tenets of which are based on kindness, caring, and love is being co-opted in the name of something entirely other that derives its strength from fear mongering and obfuscation. The ‘God & Country’ team has created a film that is not only important, but immensely effective in communicating a very complex and often messy issue in a clear and concise manner. We are thrilled to be able to help this crucially important film get in front of as many people as possible at a time when it’s most needed.”
Partland is an Emmy-nominated director whose work includes “Intervention” and “American Race.” Reiner’s credits include “A Few Good Men,” “The Princess Bride” and “Stand By Me.”
Just before FTX collapsed in November, one of its outside lawyers at the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell emailed a colleague at another firm, insisting that the cryptocurrency exchange’s finances were stable.
Rumors of FTX’s demise were “silliness,” the lawyer, Andrew Dietderich, wrote. “FTX is rock solid, doesn’t use customer funds or take credit risk at all,” he said.
Four days later, FTX filed for bankruptcy. Mr. Dietderich quickly arranged for Sam Bankman-Fried, the exchange’s founder, to step down so that a new chief executive, John Jay Ray III, a specialist in corporate turnarounds, could lead the company. When Mr. Ray needed lawyers to manage the bankruptcy, a lucrative assignment, he asked a judge to appoint the same ones who had helped get him the job: Sullivan & Cromwell.
Now, with Mr. Bankman-Fried set to go on trial next month on fraud charges stemming from FTX’s failure, Sullivan & Cromwell’s tangled history with the exchange is drawing scrutiny — especially from Mr. Bankman-Fried’s lawyers and family.
For months, Mr. Bankman-Fried has attacked Sullivan & Cromwell in court papers and on social media, arguing that the firm’s lawyers set him up as the fall guy for FTX’s implosion while downplaying their own involvement with the exchange. The dispute became even more personal this week when FTX sued Mr. Bankman-Fried’s parents, seeking to claw back millions of dollars and claiming the exchange had operated like a “family business.”
Criticism of Sullivan & Cromwell has become more widespread recently, as the firm has racked up over $100 million in legal fees from FTX’s bankruptcy. This summer, its lawyers clashed with representatives for FTX’s millions of disgruntled creditors over the firm’s legal strategy and the pace of its efforts to recover billions in missing assets.
“They were involved before the bankruptcy,” said Sunil Kavuri, an FTX creditor who lost more than $2 million in the collapse. “They should’ve been aware of what was going on.”
The dispute over Sullivan & Cromwell’s relationship with FTX shows the range of powerful institutions that were eager to help Mr. Bankman-Fried during his rapid rise, even as he resisted basic due diligence and eschewed traditional corporate governance. And it offers a preview of a conflict that may unfold at Mr. Bankman-Fried’s trial in Manhattan, where he is expected to shift some of the blame for FTX’s bankruptcy to Sullivan & Cromwell and a second law firm that advised him, Fenwick & West.
In court filings, Mr. Bankman-Fried’s lawyers have suggested that they may raise a so-called advice of counsel defense to argue that those firms approved many of FTX’s actions. Prosecutors have argued that the judge overseeing the trial should not permit Mr. Bankman-Fried to blame his lawyers, because the founder often lied about how his business was using its money. They also said he should have to disclose whether he relied on legal advice from his parents, who are longtime Stanford law professors.
A spokesman for FTX said Mr. Bankman-Fried’s claims were “a biased story line” intended to unfairly blame the professionals trying to recover money. A representative for Sullivan & Cromwell declined to comment. In court, the law firm has said that FTX was never a “regular client,” and that the firm had put in place procedures to guard against conflicts of interest during the bankruptcy.
A spokesman for Mr. Bankman-Fried declined to comment. The FTX founder has pleaded not guilty to charges that he orchestrated a scheme to funnel billions in customer money into venture investments, real estate purchases and political donations. His trial is scheduled to begin on Oct. 3.
One of the oldest law firms in New York, Sullivan & Cromwell began handling legal matters for FTX in summer 2021 after one of its partners, Ryne Miller, was hired as general counsel of FTX.US, the exchange’s American arm.
Over the next year and a half, the firm worked on 20 legal matters for FTX and its sister hedge fund, Alameda Research, court records show, including discussions with federal regulators at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Sullivan & Cromwell received a total of about $8.5 million for the work.
Mr. Bankman-Fried has said that beyond those specific matters, he worked out of Sullivan & Cromwell’s offices in New York while visiting from FTX’s Bahamas headquarters. And when FTX started teetering in November, Mr. Dietderich emailed a lawyer working on the bankruptcy of Voyager Digital, a crypto firm that FTX was trying to acquire, to assure him that the exchange “doesn’t lend” its customers’ money.
It turned out he was wrong. As FTX plunged into crisis the next day, Mr. Miller sought a $4 million retainer for Sullivan & Cromwell so the firm could work on a possible bankruptcy filing, according to messages he sent at the time. Soon, Sullivan & Cromwell lawyers alerted the authorities to possible criminal malfeasance at FTX, while Mr. Dietderich encouraged Mr. Bankman-Fried to let Mr. Ray take over the exchange.
In essence, Sullivan & Cromwell worked both sides of the crisis. When FTX was a darling of the corporate and political elite, the firm’s lawyers helped Mr. Bankman-Fried navigate Washington as he pushed to loosen regulations. After FTX failed, Sullivan & Cromwell worked closely with federal prosectors, supplying them with key corporate records.
In January, the U.S. trustee assigned to FTX’s bankruptcy raised the prospect of removing Sullivan & Cromwell from the case, citing its failure to disclose all of its past work for FTX. Around the same time, four U.S. senators released a letter arguing that Sullivan & Cromwell had a conflict of interest because the firm might bear some responsibility for FTX’s failure. But the trustee backed down after the firm made a more detailed disclosure, and a judge allowed the lawyers to continue overseeing the bankruptcy, saying he saw “no evidence of any actual conflict.”
Mr. Bankman-Fried has remained fixated on Sullivan & Cromwell. His lawyers have argued that the firm is providing evidence to the prosecutors that reflects poorly on Mr. Bankman-Fried, while withholding material that could help the defense. Prosecutors have denied that claim, writing in court papers that FTX and its lawyers “have been responding to the government’s document requests voluntarily.”
After Mr. Bankman-Fried’s arrest, his mother, Barbara Fried, contacted one of her Stanford colleagues, the legal ethics scholar Bill Simon, and asked him to evaluate Sullivan & Cromwell’s conduct in the bankruptcy. Mr. Simon, a family friend, spent about nine hours discussing the case with Mr. Bankman-Fried in June, he said in an interview, before writing an unpublished article criticizing the firm, which he shared with The New York Times.
“It is hard to see how the lawyers could have done their jobs during the period in which they represented FTX,” he wrote, without familiarizing themselves with practices that “are now condemned as irresponsible or worse.”
Rebecca Roiphe, a former prosecutor and a professor at New York Law School, said it was fair to raise questions about potential conflicts of interest when a law firm represented a company both before and during a government investigation that might involve related work.
“But this is not uncommon and doesn’t necessarily prove wrongdoing,” she said, adding that Mr. Simon had asked her to review his article.
At the same time that Sullivan & Cromwell has clashed with Mr. Bankman-Fried, the firm has faced pushback from FTX’s creditors. They have complained that the law firm has failed to maximize proceeds from the sale of the exchange’s assets. So far, the lawyers say they have recovered about $7 billion, but it’s unclear how much of that will be returned to customers, who have filed $16 billion in claims, court filings show.
The dispute spilled into public in July when a group appointed to represent FTX’s creditors in the case said Sullivan & Cromwell had ignored its suggestions about how to resolve the bankruptcy. The law firm responded that some creditors were engaging in “unprofessional conduct” — the lawyers had been left perturbed after a meeting in which at least one creditor used a four-letter word to express frustration, two people familiar with the exchange said.
None of those conflicts have stemmed the flow of payments to Sullivan & Cromwell, which has more than 200 lawyers, paralegals and support staff members working on FTX’s bankruptcy, the most senior of whom charge $2,165 an hour.
In its most recent monthly bill, Sullivan & Cromwell said it was owed more than $10 million for its work on the bankruptcy, including over 100 charges for meetings, calls or correspondence with the federal prosecutors pursuing Mr. Bankman-Fried.
2023 has been the year of franchise fatigue as new releases from Marvel, Star Wars, DC, and pretty much every movie series has seen diminished quality and/or dwindling reactions. That’s why Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is such a rad blast of fun. The TMNT franchise may be on it’s dozenth reinvention after nearly 40 years, but this fresh take from Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg might be the absolute best take on the Turtles ever. Why? Because Mutant Mayhem synthesizes everything we love about the turtles — the action, the attitude, the pizza — and pumps it full of heart. These are teenage turtles who act like teenagers and are voiced by actual teens. What a concept! This makes what could have been a cheap franchise cash-in feel more like a bold innovation — like when Playmates Toys released those Turtle figures with shells built to store weapons and snacks on their backs. All this nostalgia paired with a hilarious and modern script and unleashed via bodacious, scratch-tastic animation? It’s as good as pineapple and pepperoni pizza, dude.
Akshay Kumar will be next seen in Mission Raiganj.
Akshay Kumar said that he came to Mumbai to teach martial arts and soon found himself in the fashion world.
Akshay Kumar has had an illustrious career in Bollywood so far. From romantic films to mega-hit comedy franchises and from action-packed blockbusters to dramatic, patriotic films, the actor is a champion of his craft. However, before becoming an actor, Akshay was a chef abroad who came to Mumbai to teach martial arts. In an old interview, the actor talks about his entry into the film industry and what gives him an edge over other actors.
An old clip from the 90s has now resurfaced on Reddit in which a reporter asks Akshay about how he ventured into Hindi films. Akshay said, “Well, it’s a very long story actually. I came to Bombay to teach martial arts and I was teaching and suddenly I found myself in the fashion world. I was doing fashion shows and modelling and very soon, I came into films. The rest is history.”
The reporter then asked Akshay if he thought he had an edge over other actors because he knew martial arts. Akshay replied, “Well, this is one of my positive points. Obviously, I must be having some negative points also. Many other people must be having more positive and negative points. So, basically, altogether I’m just lucky enough to come in this line and survive here for the last nine years. I hope to survive here more and more. I hope to work in this line till they have to shoot me down.”
One person commented, “Maybe this is a rehearsed interview but he sounds far more eloquent than what he sounds now.” Others also took to the comments section to express their views on Akshay’s style in the 90s. One person wrote, “He looks hot here.” Another added, “The OG beard style in 90’s.”
Meanwhile, on the work front, Akshay will next be seen in the film Mission Raniganj. The film revolves around the true story of Jaswant Singh Gill, a top engineer in a mine, who saved more than 60 lives in 1989. Parineeti Chopra will essay the role of his wife. The movie, directed by Suresh Desai, is slated to hit the theatres on October 5 this year.
“My Adventures with Superman” is learning from the DCEU’s past mistakes by avoiding rushed crossovers and cameos with other DC heroes.
The focus of the show is solely on Superman, with the creative team emphasizing their love for the character and their dedication to his story.
The show aims to properly build Clark Kent’s world and characters, taking the time to develop them and avoiding rushing the introduction of iconic villains, such as Lex Luthor.
My Adventures with Superman is making sure it does not repeat a DCEU mistake from seven years ago. Henry Cavill debuted as Superman in 2013’s Man of Steel, with director Zack Snyder’s movie setting up the DCEU. Several mistakes were made when it came to Henry Cavill’s Superman over the years, both on camera and behind the scenes, due in part to DC executives not affording Snyder the time to properly get Clark Kent from a darker point in his life to his hopeful self from the comics, and 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was responsible for one of the DCEU movies biggest mistakes.
Now, the DCEU will get rebooted with James Gunn’s upcoming DC Universe, which will repeat the prior cinematic universe’s decision to kick things off with a Superman movie. David Corenswet is set to star as Clark Kent in 2025’s Superman: Legacy movie, with the DC Universe’s own creative chief, Gunn, serving as the film’s writer and director, showing how important Superman is to DC. Before Superman: Legacy comes around, the animated My Adventures with Superman is already proving that the franchise has learned from its seven-year-old mistake.
While the producer mentioned that she is excited for the Dark Knight’s upcoming animated series — Batman: Caped Crusader — Campbell made it clear that Batman is not part of the My Adventures with Superman team’s plan for the series, saying, “this is a Superman show. We have brought in some other characters… Vicki’s from Gotham, there’s some mentions of Gotham. But, for us, the whole point of this is, it’s about Superman.” Check out the full exchange below:
SH: “Now, as soon as the word or the title, ‘Gotham Gazette,’ got thrown up, fans online jump straight to, ‘Batman, Batman, Batman.’ As a Superman fan, I’ve got nothing against Batman, but as a Superman fan, please tell me we’re going to be concentrating on Superman in Season 2…”
Campbell: “Oh yeah.”
SH: “… Not going down that road of bringing in Batman and necessarily other characters along the line?”
Campbell: “I mean, this is a Superman show. We have brought in some other characters, like you said, Vicki’s from Gotham, there’s some mentions of Gotham. But, for us, the whole point of this is, it’s about Superman. It’s about Lois, and Jimmy, and the focus is always going to be on them. We love Superman so much. I’m excited to see [Batman:] Caped Crusader when that comes out. Definitely, there’s still going to be some more mentions of Gotham, so keep an eye out. But, at the end of the day, Superman is our hero. Superman and Clark are who we love the most. And it’s who we’ve spent a couple of years writing now, so it’s what we love.”
Based on Campbell’s words, My Adventures with Superman season 2 will not only be missing Batman when it premieres, but the animated series should also not feature any other DC hero that isn’t Superman in its second season, and likely beyond. My Adventures with Superman didn’t feel like it was lacking in any way without other DC heroes, with the show making up for it by bringing in new takes on iconic villains, including a younger version of Deathstroke. By keeping its focus on Superman and not bringing in other DC heroes, My Adventures with Superman avoids a mistake that the DCEU made with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
How DC’s Rushed Crossovers Hurt The DCEU
The Marvel Cinematic Universe succeeded due to its careful effort to build out its world and heroes before they crossed over in The Avengers. The DCEU, however, took a different approach. After Man of Steel, DC opted not to have Ben Affleck’s Batman debut in a solo movie, but rather fighting Cavill’s Superman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Having its two most popular heroes spend most of their first time together on the big screen trading blows was not the best choice to prepare for a future team-up, arguably sabotaging the overall franchise.
Adding to that, the DCEU deciding to rush the debut of Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman in a supporting role – as well as the rest of Justice League‘s cast through short videos Diana watches – in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice actively hurt the DCEU’s structure. Thankfully, My Adventures with Superman has its focus clear on taking the time to properly build Clark’s world and its characters, even waiting to introduce Superman’s iconic nemesis Lex Luthor, which shows that My Adventures with Supermanhas learned from DC’s past mistake.
To say that Mortal Kombat 1 on Nintendo Switch is a terrible version of the game would be an understatement, especially considering the game asks players for $70 of their hard-earned money. Unfortunately, the visual fidelity of Mortal Kombat 1 leaves much to be desired, as the game had to make a lot of compromises just to be playable on the Switch. Players have been reporting wild graphical issues, ugly graphics, and a whole lot more.
The Horrible Graphics in Mortal Kombat 1
X user Synth Potato, one of the various fighting game fans who have access to the game since September 14, has compiled a bunch of screenshots that showcase the awful visual differences between the Nintendo Switch version of Mortal Kombat 1 and the current-gen version of the game.
Crying at the Switch version of Mortal Kombat 1, Why didn’t they just wait for the next gen switch console, the fact it costs 70$ is robbery??? pic.twitter.com/RHUFQJTHC5
Some users have pointed out the thousand-yard stares that the Nintendo Switch version of Mortal Kombat 1 has, but others, like Johniibo, have made comprehensive videos explaining and exposing just how terrible this version of the game looks. The video creator stated, “I knew it wasn’t going to be the same experience, but they are charging the same amount [as the Xbox Series and PS5 versions].” Of course, when it comes to the outrageous price of admission for the Switch version, it stops being funny and starts to become frustrating for Switch owners.
There’s a lot of discourse going around about Mortal Kombat 1 on Nintendo Switch. I’ve been sharing gameplay to hopefully steer people away from buying it at $70.
If you don’t believe what you see, buy it. Just don’t be upset when you realize how bad it is. I tried to warn you pic.twitter.com/3uZHoMSpGy
Unfortunately, this game’s issues don’t end with the awful graphical issues. From awful texture mesh problems to Fatalities not displaying properly to even having issues with characters not being able to walk correctly, the Nintendo Switch version of Mortal Kombat 1 is reportedly the worst version of them all.
According to ElAnalistadeBits, the Switch version of Mortal Kombat 1 doesn’t really run that great. The game runs between 640p and 720 docked and as low as 480p in handheld mode. Although the game targets 60FPS, it often has stuttering issues when more than 2 fighters are on screen. As such, the sacrifices made regarding the graphics for the Nintendo Switch version of Mortal Kombat 1 are arguably not worth taking.
Mortal Kombat 1 is available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC for users who bought the Premium version. The game will be available for everyone else on September 19.
About the Author
Ule Lopez
A journalist from Mexico obsessed with Shiny Eevees, he wears his profession with pride as he researches current-day stories and plays JRPGs and horror games.
The iPhone 15 line was announced only a week ago, yet filmmakers, photographers, and creatives already have their hands on it.
While the entire line is a solid device for everyday use, the only version that mattered to us filmmakers was the iPhone 15 Pro Max. With its new lens design, Log ProRes, and 10Gbit/s transfer speed via USB-C, it finally felt like a tool that you could use on set.
Would you want to? Probably not. There is a wide range of new tools that are way more capable. But for content creators or filmmakers in a pinch, it finally felt like a tool instead of a gimmick.
But what are creatives out in the world saying about it? Let’s dive in and see if our impressions have any merit.
What Do Creatives Think?
To start, we’ll check in with Chris Niccolls and Jordan Drake (also known as PetaPixel) both reviewed the latest smartphone from different perspectives. Niccolls took the side of the photographer while Drake looked at the new device from the perspective of a filmmaker.
For his review, Niccolls tested the 120mm lens, which we were excited to learn more about. However, while it does provide some noticeable depth of field, it is only barely noticeable. It’s a nice focal length to have, but if creatives are expecting 120mm performance, they’ll be in for a rude awakening.
Users will still have to utilize Portrait Mode to get that blurry background everyone is chasing. But here is some good news, according to his testing, the iPhone 15 Pro Max does do a better job with the fuax-focus roll-off. While it’s not perfect, it is a major improvement over the iPhone 14 Pro.
As for the filmmaking options, Drake really dug into his experience shooting LOG footage. While it’s a cool feature to have, the minor issues kept piling up. There weren’t any options for a viewing LUT, which means you’ll see the LOG image while shooting. This can be tricky to get the correct exposure, and you’ll have to trust that your iPhone is doing a good job. In my experience, it hasn’t always been spot.
Additionally, the LOG feature is only available when shooting ProRes, meaning you’ll get increased file sizes and, by extension, reduced recording times.
However, one cool thing that Drake did realize is that when recording to external media, it really doesn’t have to be an SSD. You can record to a card reader with a CFexpress card instead. Unfortunately, when using this feature, you’re also locked into ProRes. You can’t record the smaller files on an external drive.
Competition Comparison
Next, we have a video by Safwan AhmedMia of the SuperSaf YouTube channel with a comparison between the iPhone 15 Pro Max and the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra.
Trying to understand the features and power of the new iPhone in a vacuum can be difficult. We can only compare it to the previous generation.
Seeing how the iPhone Pro 15 Max compares to the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, it’s interesting to see how much on par they are from a hardware perceptive. Both smartphones contain powerful camera modules, with the only difference being what happens in post-processing.
From what I’m seeing, the iPhone has reduced contrast in its images. This could mean an increase in perceived dynamic range, or it may look washed out to you. I know when I use my iPhone 13 Pro Max, I always end up editing my photos with a steeper contrast curve.
Our Thoughts
There’s a lot to unpack in both videos. New features are interesting to see in action, but they don’t feel like I can depend on them in a stressful situation. But maybe I’m trying to put the iPhone into a position it’s not built for.
Sure, Apple’s marketing team pushes things like ProRes, the 48MP camera, and Log as professional features, but their implementation into the smartphone still feels like gimmicks for a consumer base that doesn’t really need these features.
However, for those who do, it’s nice to have them in a device we carry everywhere. Yet it seems that Apple is content with leaving the refinement of said features to third-party developers.
U.K. TV giant ITV’s CEO Carolyn McCall said on Thursday that “strong leaders” must ensure talent is managed properly to avoid “appalling” behavior in the TV industry.
Speaking in a keynote at the Royal Television Society (RTS) Cambridge Convention days after allegations against Russell Brand were reported, she was asked about reports on complaints about industry talent in general, with Brand’s name not being specifically mentioned. “It’s a really serious issue,” the ITV boss said. “It’s appalling, some of the things that have emerged.”
She emphasized that “how talent is managed” is a “very big area that we’ve spent an awful lot of time on,” adding: “You have to have strong leaders, managers, who will say, ‘That’s not appropriate,’ or, ‘We’ve had a complaint and this is what we’re going to do about it.’ And I think perhaps that has not happened enough.”
Brand has been accused of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse during a seven-year period at the height of his fame. Four women have alleged that Brand sexually assaulted them between 2006 and 2013, while he was a BBC presenter and acting in Hollywood films, a joint investigation among The Sunday Times, The Times and Channel 4 Dispatches found. Other accusations include Brand’s controlling, abusive and predatory behavior. Brand has vehemently denied all accusations.
Addressing how to deal with complaints against talent, McCall highlighted some of the complexities involved and emphasized that issues go beyond the TV industry. “Some [issues] are historic, and some are current. And then there will be more emerging, no question. It won’t be just our industry, it will be much larger than that, societal,” the ITV CEO said. “Every single broadcaster will take it very, very…we’ll take it very seriously. I mean, no one wants this to happen.” So, no one in government or beyond should think or even imagine that the TV industry doesn’t take this “incredibly seriously, and we will act on it, we will learn from it,” she emphasized. “It is not right.”
The ITV boss argued that there has been some progress. “Duty of care has improved significantly…since social media went exponential, because of trolling, because of information coming out really quickly, because of misinformation coming out very quickly,” McCall explained.
But more needs to be done. “We don’t want this to continue,” the ITV CEO emphasized before outlining next steps. “The next thing is not just duty of care. It’s also how do you ensure that people speak up. How do you ensure that they don’t feel intimidated? How do you ensure that your culture is not just inclusive and welcoming, but it’s also one where you can really be yourself and you can talk to somebody…where you can say, ‘This is happening, or that is happening.’ That’s difficult to manage because it is about [what] each and all of us have.” She said ITV was looking at how to ensure it also protects freelancers who come and go on productions.
Concluded McCall about the state of the TV industry’s battle against behavior leading to complaints: “We’re all looking at it. We’re all working on it. We’re all trying to avoid this happening in the future. And we’re also trying to set up processes and systems that can deal with this when it emerges from the past.”
Status: Returning Series”Scissor Seven” is a TV show produced by 啊哈娱乐 and Sharefun Studio. The show was originally broadcast on iQiyi (China), Youku (China), bilibili (China) and Tencent Video (China) and premiered on April 25th 2018. So far there have been 4 seasons (comprising of 40 episodes) of “Scissor Seven”. The most recent episode aired on March 15th 2023 and more seasons are expected in the future.
Channel 4 News lead anchor Krishnan Guru-Murthy has raised concerns that the government is using the likes of GB News as a “platform” to avoid scrutiny.
The right-leaning network generated headlines this week when it was rapped by Ofcom for a show in which two Conservative politicians interviewed the Conservative Chancellor about the budget.
According to Guru-Murthy, there have been recent examples of Channel 4 News being told there was no time to ask government officials a question as that time had been taken up by “softball questions” from the likes of GB News.
“I’m worried the government uses [the likes of] GB News as a platform,” he added. “It is not the issue of them existing but how the people in power use them. If [the government] says ‘well that network is on our side’ or a left-wing party says ‘we’ll go to a leftie channel like [left-leaning website] Novara Media’ then that will be bad for public service broadcasting.”
Guru-Murthy, who is appearing on the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing this year, was speaking at the RTS Cambridge Convention alongside Piers Morgan and prior to GB News CEO Angelos Frangopolous.
“Due impartiality”
Responding to Ofcom’s decison and the six similar live investigations, Frangopolous criticized the regualtor for failing to consider the concept of “due impartiality.”
“‘Due’ is a very contentious word and should allow program makers to apply a layer of appropriate impartiality,” he added. “That is difficult to do when you have a regulator who says there wasn’t enough ‘impartiality,’ no matter how much you argue.”
Frangopolous said Ofcom is “opaque on the word ‘due’” and added that breaches of the regulator’s code are “normal,” as he pointed to times when Sky and the BBC have fallen foul.
“It’s going to be a constant conversation with the regulator because we are pushing boundaries and doing things differently and that is a really good thing for the industry,” added Frangopolous, who described GB News as “addressing market failure” several times during his panel session on day two of the convention.
GB News’ practice of having politicians host topical shows has generated plenty of controversy of late and both BBC News boss Deborah Turness and Sky News Managing Director and Executive Editor Jonathan Levy said that they would not allow sitting politicians to host shows.
Mystery solved! Taylor Swift has finally put us out of our misery. Yesterday, September 19, the hitmaker posted a puzzle more puzzling than her usual puzzles, revealing one of her “vault” track titles in an Instagram post that I couldn’t figure out. Was she spelling out slut? lust? Or delivering a different kind of clue? Is this the damn Enigma code?
Twenty-four hours and millions of Google puzzles later, we have all our answers. I won’t make you read further without getting to the answer of the biggest question: It’s “SLUT!”
“SLUT!”
I AM SO! EXCITED! FOR THIS! SONG!
The other vault tracks are “Don’t Say Go,” “Now That We Don’t Talk,” “Suburban Legends,” and “Is It Over Now?” There’s definitely a super-mix to be made with the title of “Is It Over Now That We Don’t Say Go,” but someone who knows GarageBand better than I do will have to make it.
Swift revealed the full track list in an Instagram post that also features the back covers of the different editions of 1989 (Taylor’s Version), with all the pictures shot by Beth Garrabant, who has been Swift’s go-to photographer since the Folklore days.
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Taylor Swift is playing 3D promotional chess while the rest of us are still sorting our checkers. In her classic winged eyeliner and red lipstick, Blondie is seen having fun on the beach, shouting, eating ice cream, dancing, and, of course, showing feet. (It’s a thing.)
“SLUT!”
Sorry, I’m just really excited. This is the not-ironic “Blank Space” that’s going to make me go absolutely feral through the end of 2023.
Emma Thompson rallied for creatives on Thursday, saying she finds the word “content” offensive.
“I think the relationship between the executives and the creative branch just has to be much, much closer,” she said during an in-conversation with CAA boss Bryan Lourd at the Royal Television Society conference in Cambridge on Thursday afternoon.
“To hear people talk about ‘content’ makes me feel like the stuffing inside a sofa cushion,” Thompson continued. “It’s just a rude word for ‘creativity’.”
She went on to acknowledge that many executives are creative and that creatives can also be executives.
Thompson also expressed her love for television at the conference, saying because she didn’t go to drama school she felt she learned to act in front of television cameras.
The “Harry Potter” actor added that her experience of mentoring another young actor through BAFTA had given her another insight into the often rocky relationship between talent and executives. “You find your audience by being completely authentic,” she says. “These formulas don’t work… And then you sit there and you watch them and you wonder why at the end of it, you feel a bit ill. And I think that’s something else that we don’t talk about as creators in television and in film. How does it make us feel inside ourselves after we’ve seen something?”
Thompson also discussed the effects of the concurrent WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, particularly on craftspeople in the industry. “It’s a very, very, very hard time. People are suffering so much,” she said.
With Ukraine locked in a slow, bloody war with Russian troops who hold a fifth of its territory, President Volodymyr Zelensky, set to visit the White House Thursday, is treading a delicate path as he presses for more U.S. military aid.
In the rain-soaked streets of the Ukrainian capital, the question of whether American support will remain steadfast weighed on people even as they hurried about their morning business.
“We worry about what will happen next,” said Nataliya Antoniuk, a 35-year-old who works in a bank. “We are not sure if everyone understands how difficult it is.”
Over the course of 19 months of fighting, even some close allies have occasionally grumbled that Ukraine doesn’t seem sufficiently grateful for the billions of dollars in assistance it has received.
Back in July, on the sidelines of an at-times-contentious NATO summit, Britain’s then-defense secretary, Ben Wallace, observed snappishly that “we’re not Amazon” when it comes to fulfilling Ukrainian needs.
While there is immense appreciation within Ukraine for all the United States and its allies have done to help fend off the 2022 Russian invasion, many here also feel that the West should express more gratitude to Ukraine for its valiant fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin and the threat he poses to Europe and the world order.
“To be honest, it’s weird,” said Mark Savchuk, a leader of a Ukrainian civil activists group combating government corruption. “We absolutely understand that without all that support, we’d be dead already. So of course we’re thankful! But Putin is a huge danger to everyone.”
Putin’s goal, he said, was to “turn our land, our people, our lives, our resources, into a weapon against you — against the international rules-based order.”
Zelensky, who has proved himself a wartime leader of uncommon abilities, is a canny communicator, and some Ukrainian analysts see a careful calibration of his tone, particularly as some Republican lawmakers are overtly critical of aid to Ukraine.
When Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken came to the Ukrainian capital two weeks ago, Zelensky, greeting him, issued rapid-fire volleys of appreciation.
“Thank you so much — we are really thankful to you,” he said, before launching into an even longer litany of gratitude.
The dynamic can be an uneasy one. As a cultural expression, excessive and elaborate thanks can sometimes be read in Ukraine as insincere, analysts said. Moreover, in many post-Soviet societies, “politeness in general is not always the strongest point,” said Alyona Getmanchuk, the founder and director of the Kyiv-based New Europe Center.
The Ukrainian president is “definitely tailoring his message” to be “less critical, expressing more gratitude for major partners who provided support,” she said.
“The funny thing is that in reality, Ukrainians are very grateful for the support we have received so far,” Getmanchuk said. But she added that etiquette can’t always be the point.
“By just saying ‘thank you’ without articulating our needs to succeed on the battlefield, we will lose the war,” she said.
At a fraught juncture in the fighting, just how forcefully Ukraine should make its case for more robust and timely help has become a sore point. Zelensky and his aides believe that foot-dragging by some allies — including, at times, the United States — set the stage for difficulties as the nearly 4-month-old counteroffensive has unfolded in the country’s east and south.
The closely watched campaign so far has failed to yield dramatic results, and Ukraine is frustrated that in some quarters, the slow pace of territorial gains is fueling calls to pull back on support, rather than increase it.
Some Western analysts have been outspoken in their view that as Ukraine struggles on the battlefield, a lack of urgency in providing weaponry has contributed to an inability to break through a maze of deeply entrenched Russian fortifications.
“It has obviously been quite slow going,” said Nick Reynolds, a land-warfare expert at Britain’s Royal United Services Institute, a defense think tank. “Probably expectations were set too high beforehand, and the Ukrainian government did play into that, as well as pressure from outside.”
With the largest war in Europe since World War II unfolding, Reynolds said, “one would have thought more urgency could have been adopted — we’re seeing the results of significant delay.”
Some weaponry earmarked for the current offensive, he said, arrived broken, with missing parts or manuals, making it “incredibly difficult for the Ukrainian military to absorb that equipment.”
There’s one area where gratitude — Zelensky’s and that of the Ukrainian public — is unstinting: toward troops in the field.
On arriving in the United States, the Ukrainian leader’s first stop was to visit soldiers undergoing rehabilitative surgery for grievous war wounds — an expression of appreciation for their care and to the fighters themselves.
The toll of war has been heavy. A poll released earlier this year said that nearly 80% of Ukrainians now have a friend or relative who has been killed or hurt in the conflict. Millions remain displaced, scattered throughout neighboring European countries or taking refuge away from the front lines in safer parts of Ukraine.
Everyone who is part of the war effort, from public sector workers to emergency service personnel, gets periodic shout-outs from the president. Across the country, workers have been rushing to harden the power grid against expected Russian attacks over the winter.
For most people, even far from the front lines, the reminders are everywhere. In central Kyiv, commuters threaded their way through an open-air photo exhibition set up months ago on a cobblestone square outside St. Sophia, a landmark cathedral.
There are oversized portraits, with names and dates of birth and death on the battlefield — young and old, men and women, pictured in combat gear and civilian clothes, dangling a grenade or petting a puppy.
“I walk past this every day,” said Antoniuk, the bank worker. “Sometimes it seems their eyes follow you.”
As scenes of Zelensky’s U.S. visit played out on TV screens with lowered sound, a Kyiv barista caught an unmistakable American accent along with an espresso order.
“U.S.A.?” he said, handing over a small, steaming cup. “Thank you.”
The film was selected by BAFTA, the organization appointed by the American Academy to choose the UK’s submission for the International Feature category. To be eligible, a British film must be predominantly non-English language and released theatrically between 1 December 2022 and 31 October 2023. The Zone Of Interest was shot on location in Poland with largely German and Polish dialogue.
Written and directed by Glazer, based on the novel by the late Martin Amis, the film stars Christian Friedel and Sandra Hüller, with a score by Oscar-nominated musician Mica Levi (Jackie, Small Axe) and cinematography by Łukasz Żal (Cold War).
Story follows Rudolf Höss, the commandant of Auschwitz, and his wife Hedwig, who strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp. The film is produced by James Wilson and Ewa Puszczyńska. Executive producers are Reno Antoniades, Len Blavatnik, Danny Cohen, Tessa Ross, Ollie Madden, Daniel Battsek, and David Kimbangi. It was co-financed by A24, Film4, Access Entertainment, and the Polish Film Institute.
Glazer picked up the Grand Prix and the FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes with the pic, which will be released by A24 in the US on 8 December 2023. A24 has yet to announce the UK release date.
Past British films submitted to the International Feature Film category include Winners by Hassan Nazer, Dying to Divorce by Chloe Fairweather, and The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind, directed by Chiwetel Ejiofor).
Here’s the list of this year’s category submissions so far:
An event dedicated to Samsung’s Fan Edition (or FE) products is expected to land soon, but a new leak might have spoiled one more of the budget-friendly tech announcements. This latest leak has seemingly revealed almost everything about the Galaxy Buds FE.
In terms of its audio capabilities, according to the Winfuture.de report that first shared the details, the Buds will support a single 10mm audio driver each. This should help the earbuds provide relatively decent bass and is larger than the 11mm driver found in the Galaxy Buds Pro 2 – however, audio performance may suffer on the high end as the FE seemingly lacks the equivalent to the 5.3mm driver the Pro Buds also sport.
Design-wise the report says the Buds will come in two colors, White or Graphite Gray, and the simplified design will feature a single touch-sensitive area on each bud that controls media playback via different finger tap inputs.
Leaked renders of the Samsung Galaxy Buds FE (Image credit: Samsung / WinFuture)
The report still leaves us with a few unanswered questions. There’s no word on how long the battery life is or if the buds will support premium features like active noise cancellation. That said, given the Fan Edition brand’s positioning as a more affordable Samsung offering, we don’t expect the Galaxy Buds FE to boast many (if any) premium upgrades like ANC.
As with all leaks, we need to remember to take these details with a pinch of salt. While the leaked images look good enough to be the official renders and the specs are within the bounds of what we expect from the Galaxy Buds FE, there’s no guarantee that everything is correct. We won’t know what the Galaxy Buds FE are really capable of (assuming they’re even real) until Samsung officially unveils them.
Other FE gadgets on the way?
Alongside the Galaxy Buds FE, we also expect Samsung to show off a new Samsung Galaxy S23 FE smartphone. Samsung never launched an S22 FE which made the budget smartphone line’s future uncertain. However, leaks and rumors have suggested that we will soon see an S23 FE.
Remember the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE? (Image credit: Samsung)
Other details are still up in the air, but with the growing number of Samsung FE leaks in the wild it seems likely a launch event for these new products is on its way soon. We’ll be keeping a close eye out and will be sure to keep you updated on the latest Samsung details as soon as we have them.
The U.K. has given itself arguably the best chance of landing its first-ever Oscar for best international feature film, having selected The Zone of Interestas its submission.
Jonathan Glazer’s Holocaust drama, which was one of the buzziest titles in Cannes where it won the Grand Prix and FIPRESCI prize, has been chosen by BAFTA to represent the U.K. in the category formerly known as best foreign language film.
Shot on location in Poland and featuring German and Polish dialogue, the film — a chilling contemplation on the banality of evil and based on the novel by Martin Amis — follows the commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife Hedwig, as they strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp.
Written and directed by Jonathan Glazer and his first film in 10 years, The Zone of Interest stars Christian Friedel, Sandra Hüller, with a score by Mica Levi, cinematography by Łukasz Żal, production design by Chris Oddy, costume design by Małgorzata Karpiuk, editing by Paul Watts, and sound design by Johnnie Burn. The film is produced by James Wilson and Ewa Puszczyńska, executive producers are Reno Antoniades, Len Blavatnik, Danny Cohen, Tessa Ross, Ollie Madden, Daniel Battsek, David Kimbangi and was co-financed by A24, Film4, Access Entertainment and Polish Film Institute. A24 will release the film in the US on Dec. 8.
In his Cannes review, The Hollywood Reporter‘s David Rooney described The Zone of Interest as a “stone cold stunner” and a “devastating Holocaust drama like no other” adding that the film “demonstrates with startling effectiveness [Glazer’s] unerring control of tonal and visual storytelling.”
Despite having one of the world’s most active film industries and being ever-present in most Oscar categories, the U.K. — understandably — has a poor track record in the international feature section, with most British features not eligible due to them being produced in English. Across 19 submissions, it has landed only two nominations, the Welsh language films Hedd Wynn in 1993 and Solomon and Gaenor in 1999. Many will likely be highly shocked if The Zone of Interest doesn’t become the third.
When Barton Fink, the neurotic screenwriter cooked up by the Coen brothers, scrambles to write a wrestling picture, his peers prescribe the basics. Tell us the man’s ambitions. Entangle him in a romance. You know the drill. Not even in Barton’s most delirious dreams could he have envisioned “Cassandro,” about a flamboyant, sequin-clad luchador who takes his ring name from a telenovela. But I bet Barton could have drafted the film’s outline, which uses the same squelchy gym bag of tricks as many underdog sports dramas.
Based on a real star of Mexican professional wrestling, or lucha libre, Saúl Armendáriz (Gael García Bernal) is a profoundly unusual athlete wedged into a biopic that sometimes feels like passable stage fighting: elegantly executed but drained of danger.
Directed by Roger Ross Williams (“Life, Animated”), the movie depicts the decisive, late-1980s period when Saúl ascended out of obscurity and into the big time, braving countless training montages and a few private miseries on his way to the top.
We meet the striver in Texas in early adulthood, when he is assisting his mother, Yocasta (Perla De La Rosa), with her laundry business and wrestling at a nearby club. Using the name El Topo (The Mole), he tumbles into the ring masked and petite, a pipsqueak doomed to act as a punching bag opposite giants. “Let me guess. You’re always cast as the runt?” challenges Sabrina (Roberta Colindrez), a local lucha hotshot and trainer. She spies potential in Saúl, and offers to coach him pro bono.
Colindrez, like many of the actors in this movie, is a superlative performer. Her character is granted little interiority — she serves by turns as Saúl’s fierce advocate and his shoulder to cry on — but alongside Bernal she radiates a cool glow fit for a film less shackled by the ebbs and flows of established convention. In conversations with Sabrina, Saúl toggles between English and Spanish, reserving the latter for colloquialisms or teasing, and the mixture gives their dialogue an organic rhythm. He uses the same blend of languages with his lover, Gerardo (Raúl Castillo), a married luchador with kids whom Saúl sees in secret.
Saúl’s sexuality is at once a major plot point and somewhat underexplored. With gentle nudging from Sabrina, Saúl, who came out as a teen and is supported by his mother, soon reinvents his ring persona as the campy Cassandro, an “exótico,” or luchador who plays with femininity. The character initially attracts slurs and heckling, but quickly (and perhaps too effortlessly) starts winning matches and becomes a fan favorite. This is an era when H.I.V. and AIDS panic was at its shrillest, and although the real-life Cassandro was sometimes rebuffed by homophobic opponents, the movie never mentions the epidemic. (Williams wrote the screenplay with David Teague.)
“Cassandro” is at its strongest when it zeros in on the relationship between Saúl and Gerardo, who share a physical intimacy that both echoes their fighting careers and acts as an escape from them. Alone, safe from onlookers, the pair tussle in bed. “Don’t you think he’s sexy?” Saúl says, referring to Cassandro as if he were a third person who might join them.
Williams, an Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker, is an expert orchestrator of naturalism. The trouble is that lucha libre, built on glitz, is anything but naturalistic. The self-assured freedom Saúl channels in bed never makes its way into scenes in the ring, which tend to tire when they should dazzle.
– English Audio Description
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