From afar, the film has all the makings of a Bildungsroman, the coming-of-age form that depicts a passage from callow youth into maturity. But in Oppenheimer’s case, age arrived long before wisdom. A story by Murray Kempton in the December 1983 issue of Esquire describes how the real Oppenheimer was, as a precocious young man, so blessedly sheltered from the demands of real life — “protected from the routine troubles, discontents and worries that instruct even while they are cankering ordinary persons” — that he was “transported to his glittering summit innocent of all the traps that every other man of affairs has grown used to well before he is 42 years old.” It is only when Oppenheimer is already middle-aged, a man whose faith has only ever been in his own intelligence, that he gets his first reality check, at the hands of a once-adoring government bureaucrat named Lewis Strauss. This is an experience any self-identifying girlie will recognize: a profound betrayal from a friend-turned-frenemy.
Here the girlhood parallels move beyond the facetious to acquire a darker quality, as shame begins to erode Oppenheimer’s sense of self. As he’s accused of being a Communist sympathizer and publicly ridiculed in a kangaroo trial, the once-venerated scientist finds each of his beliefs collapsing. The great Oppenheimer realizes that no amount of personal brilliance can counter the force of the state. He finally sees that he has devoted his intellect to a system that was rigged against him, one that took advantage of his brilliance and then punished him for it. The same man who once earnestly referred to himself as a prophet is now paralyzed by his inability to either have or act on any firm conviction; the veneer of his certainty in his own power has been stripped away. Near the film’s end, Oppenheimer silently reckons with visions of what his brilliance has wrought: unimaginable suffering and fire as the invention he fathered wipes out civilization itself. Even on my fourth viewing, the sight of Murphy’s frosty blue stare elicited in me a deep familiarity, making me recall a line from Annie Ernaux’s “A Girl’s Story”: “To have received the key to understanding shame does not give the power to erase it.”
In theory, I have little in common with this man. But shame — living with it, drowning in reminders of it, never being free from your own inadequacy and failure — is a great equalizer. Being plagued by the squandering of your abilities, condemned to a lifetime of uncertainty, forever wondering where you went wrong or whether you were always set up to go wrong. This is the precondition of girlhood that “Barbie” tried to portray — the dual shock and dissonance of navigating a world that seems to vilify your existence, imbuing it with persistent and haunting shame while also demanding that you put on a show for the hecklers. But it was while watching a helpless Oppenheimer, stunned at being forced to participate in his own public degradation by the U.S. government, that I averted my eyes in dread and recognition.
For a Great Man like him, it took the twin shames of the bomb’s destruction and public disgrace to have this life-altering yet basic realization about his own powerlessness. But this feeling of betrayal at the hands of the same system that once adulated you is not solely the domain of men who reach a certain age and come to the uncomfortable realization that after a lifetime of revolving around them, the world is now moving on, indifferent or even hostile to their existence. This is a rule and a warning that life has drilled into girls from age 13, if not sooner. The same powers that have displayed you like a trophy will not hesitate to spit you out the moment you have ceased to be useful.
Blue Beetle will include two post-credit scenes, giving fans a tease of what’s next for Jaime Reyes and how he fits into the future of the new canon.
The movie hints at connections with other DC characters, such as a reference to Gotham Law on Jaime’s medal, leaving fans curious about a possible interaction with Batman in the future.
Fans can look forward to the big screen debut of Jaime Reyes on August 18, with a star-studded cast including Susan Sarandon, George Lopez, and Becky G.
Blue Beetle is just a few days away of its release, and as it has already become a tradition within the superhero genre, will include post-credit scenes teasing what’s next for the character played by Cobra Kai‘s Xolo Mariduena.
Although James Gunn’s DCU is still far away from giving its first steps into building a new franchise for Warner Bros. Discovery’s long time alliance with DC Comics, Jaime Reyes will soon become the first hero from the new canon to debut on the big screen, and fans are really waiting to see what Angel Manuel Soto has done with the character, and how will he fit in to the future of the new canon.
A good way of anticipating Reyes’ role in the franchise and what his upcoming adventures will be after his introduction, is the post-credit scenes that are included in the film. And, according to recent reports, there will be two.
Blue Betle Is Already Teasing Connections with Other DC Characters
Warner Brothers Pictures
Even when Blue Beetle was conceived as a project from the past administration of Warner Bros. Pictures, and would have connected with the previous DCUand the remains of the Snyderverse, there are still some references included in the movie that will help Jaime Reyes’ story to fit in a larger picture, connecting with some other characters from the franchise, even when they haven’t been introduced.
On a recent poster for the film, which references to Jaime’s recent graduated status but wearing his superhero suit, but the interesting part is that the medal on his neck reads “Gotham Law”, which means he assisted to Gotham’s University for college:
Warner Bros. Pictures
Fans will have to wait and see if when the new Batman comes into the pictures in The Brave and the Bold, Andy Muschietti and his team decide to include any reference to that, or even make Jaime and Bruce Wayne can cross paths at any point of the upcoming movie The Flash‘s director is preparing.
For now, fans can enjoy the debut of Jaime Reyes on the big screen since August 18. Besides Mariduena, the movie also stars Susan Sarandon as Victoria Kord, Bruna Marquezine as Jenny Kord, George Lopez as uncle Rudy, Damian Alcazar as Albert Reyes, Becky G as Khaji-Da, Belissa Escobedo as Milagro Reyes, Raoul Trujillo as the villain Caparax, Harvey Guillen as Doctor Sanchez, Adriana Barraza as Nana Reyes, and Elpidia Carrillo as Rocio Reyes.
Microsoft seemingly plans to harness the power of cloud processing in its next-gen Xbox console.
The idea of using the cloud to calculate more processor-intensive calcuations is one that Microsoft has been dabbling with for more than a decade now, with the company famously promising to implement it in Xbox One games.
The most notable example of its actual use in an Xbox game to date was the Wrecking Zone multiplayer mode in Crackdown 3, which used cloud-based processing to run the game’s destruction model and sync it across all players’ games.
However, unredacted court documents published overnight – seemingly in error – included an internal Microsoft plan featuring early details of its next-gen console, and cloud processing appears to be a main focus again.
The document lists the innovations introduced for each generation of Xbox, including Xbox Live for the original console, a digital store and Kinect for Xbox 360, Game Pass for Xbox One and Project xCloud for Xbox Series X/S.
Under the next-gen console, the document says the main innovations will be “cloud hybrid games” and an “immersive game and app platform”.
Another page in the document lists early ideas for the potential shape of next-gen gaming, including such topics as machine learning, AI and scalable hardware architecture. One of the topics proposed is “cloud native / enhanced” games.
Microsoft’s vision, according to the document, is to “develop a next generation hybrid game platform capable of levaraging the combined power of the client and cloud to deliver deeper immersion and entirely new classes of game experiences.”
It adds: “Optimised for real-time gameplay and creators, we will enable new levels of performance beyond the capabilities of the client hardware alone.”
Microsoft heavily promoted the cloud ahead of the Xbox One launch.
The division’s mandate is to work on ‘cloud native’ games, which use the cloud to process certain parts of the game, such as physics, lighting, environments or AI.
Microsoft seemingly plans to release the next-gen console at the end of 2028, and according to its roadmap it should have been in the process of early hardware design and game pre-production this year.
A+E Networks is continuing its investment in Korean entertainment content with “A Good Day to Be a Dog,” a fantasy romantic comedy that will upload from Oct. 11. Within Korea, the show will play on public broadcaster MBC and Lifetime Korea, releasing at the rate of one episode per week, every Wednesday.
Adapted by screenwriter Baek In Ah from a webtoon originally written by Lee Hye, the story involves a young woman turns into a dog at midnight after she kisses someone. The only way to break the curse is to have the same person kiss her in her canine form. The predicament makes her dating life complicated and ironically, a man who is deathly afraid of all dogs is the only person who can free her from this lifelong predicament.
The 14-episode series stars Park Kyu-young (Netflix’s “Celebrity”) as the young woman and Cha Eun-woo (“Island,” “True Beauty”) as her reluctant suitor. It is directed by Kim Dae-woong (“Start Up The Engine”).
“A+E Networks Korea is thrilled to bring such a renowned webtoon to life as a scripted drama series — and with such massive stars in Cha Eun-Woo and Park Kyu-Young. It’s what we do best! Presenting unique and innovative stories that defy conventional norms,” said Soh Youngsun, senior VP and MD of A+E Korea.
“The ideation, innovation and overall production of ‘A Good Day to Be a Dog’ has enabled us to build upon our diverse and creative portfolio. As a global media company, we aim to discover and provide exceptional content around the world as well as reinforce the creation of new IP in the Korean market.”
A+E has previously been involved in the production of other Korean content, including dramas such as “If You Wish Upon Me,” “Woori the Virgin” and “Backstreet Rookie.” It also screened two seasons of “Dramaworld.”
In her first letter to members, incoming BAFTA chair Sara Putt took note of a story continuing to generate headlines after breaking over the weekend — the allegations against Russell Brand.
In a joint investigation by The Times, The Sunday Times and Channel 4 Dispatches, the comedian, actor and TV host was the subject of in which four women accused him of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse between 2006 and 2013, all of which he has vehemently denied.
“This weekend’s news has again raised serious questions about the culture of the screen industries and what still needs to change,” wrote Putt, who was formally unveiled as BAFTA’s new chair in June, taking over from Krishnendu Majumdar after a three-year term.
Putt added that the British Academy was “supportive of the creation of CIISA, an independent standards authority for those working in the creative industries.”
The CIISA, or Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority, is a proposed body that has been in development since 2021 in the wake of various other industry scandals over sexual misconduct and bullying. Initiated and funded by Time’s Up U.K. with former BFI exec Jen Smith as its interim CEO, the CIISA would purportedly be an independent body for the sector where individuals could not just raise concerns about behavior anonymously, but also go to for mediation, to seek advice, for dispute resolution and investigation.
In a statement on Monday, the CIISA said that it was now in “advanced discussions” with the U.K. creatives industries and was “currently developing it services and structures” as it prepared to go live.
“The creative industries is one of the only sectors that does not have an independent place to confidentially raise concerns about behavior,” it added. “The news this weekend further underlines the need for this critical intervention.”
In her letter, Putt noted that BAFTA had now made it mandatory for U.K. productions to have a bullying and harassment policy in place in order to enter its film, TV and games awards.
The Protectors (1972) was an action thriller television series produced by ITV that premiered in September of 1972.
The Protectors (1972) was a British action thriller series created by Gerry Anderson (Thunderbirds) about an international group of rich troubleshooters. Contessa di Contini (played by Nyree Dawn Porter), Paul Buchet (played by Tony Anholt) and Harry Rule (played by Robert Vaughn) helped innocent people around the world.
The Protectors (1972) aired two seasons.
Episode List
Season 1
1 – 2,000 Ft to Die. (S01E01 – 101)
2 – Brother Hood (S01E02 – 102)
3 – See No Evil (S01E03 – 103)
4 – Disappearing Trick (S01E04 – 104)
5 – Ceremony for the Dead (S01E05 – 105)
6 – It Was All Over in Leipzig (S01E06 – 106)
7 – The Quick Brown Fox (S01E07 – 107)
8 – King Con (S01E08 – 108)
9 – Thinkback (S01E09 – 109)
10 – A Kind of Wild Justice (S01E10 – 110)
11 – Balance of Terror (S01E11 – 111)
12 – Triple Cross (S01E12 – 112)
13 – The Numbers Game (S01E13 – 113)
14 – For the Rest of Your Natural… (S01E14 – 114)
15 – The Bodyguards (S01E15 – 115)
16 – A Matter of Life and Death (S01E16 – 116)
17 – The Big Hit (S01E17 – 117)
18 – One and One Makes One (S01E18 – 118)
19 – Talkdown (S01E19 – 119)
20 – Vocal (S01E20 – 120)
21 – … With a Little Help from My Friends (S01E21 – 121)
22 – Chase (S01E22 – 122)
23 – Your Witness (S01E23 – 123)
24 – It Could Be Practically Anywhere on the Island (S01E24 – 124)
One person’s “Worst Person in the World” is another filmmaker’s new favorite collaborator.
Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier, director of the cult-favorite coming-of-age romance “The Worst Person in the World,” is reteaming with that film’s star, Renate Reinsve, for “Sentimental Value.” The show-business drama will be their second film together after she won the Best Actress award at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival for portraying a restless, mercurial spirit Julie. “The Worst Person in the World” was nominated for Best Original Screenplay (Trier with Eskel Vogt) and Best International Feature at the 94th Academy Awards.
As first reported by Variety, “Sentimental Value” follows an actor named Nora (played by Reinsve) and her sister Agnes (yet to be cast), both grieving the death of their mother. Meanwhile, their estranged father, a formerly successful filmmaker named Gustav, re-enters their lives with a comeback script, offering the leading role to Nora. She refuses. Meanwhile, while on a career retrospective in France, Gustav meets a Hollywood star to whom he offers the part. Once the movie starts shooting in Norway, Gustav takes advantage of the geography to repair bonds with Nora and Agnes.
“The Worst Person in the World” completed Trier’s Oslo Trilogy, which began with 2006’s “Reprise” and was followed in 2011 by “Oslo, August 31st.”
Represented in international markets by MK2 Films, “Sentimental Value” begins filming in August in Norway, France, and Germany. Trier wrote the film with “Worst Person” screenwriter Eskil Vogt. Producers include Juliette Schrameck at Agat Films, Nathanaël Karmitz and Elisha Karmitz for MK Production, Maria Ekerhovd at Mer Film, and Andrea Berentsen Ottmar at Eye Eye Pictures. Germany’s Komplizen and Denmark/Sweden’s Zentropa will also produce.
Schrameck told Variety the project is “more ambitious and mature with a combination of comedy and drama” compared to “The Worst Person in the World,” which featured plenty of ambition, maturity, and mixing of comedy and drama. The project is said to be about “family, memory, and how we need to rewrite the stories we tell about ourselves in order to survive.”
Reinsve has a raft of other projects coming up, from A24’s “A Different Man” with Sebastian Stan to “Another End” with Gael García Bernal and Bérénice Bejo. There’s also “The Governesses” with Lily-Rose Depp.
The only music-streaming account I’ve ever had lasted less than 72 hours in 2012. In 2023, I’m still building a non-streaming music collection, shelling out hard cash for what the streaming industry has convinced consumers should be free. As a very online millennial, that makes me somewhat of an anomaly among my peers. I know it’s a privilege for me to pooh-pooh streaming — after all, for those with less disposable income than I have, it offers access to enormous music libraries at little to no cost. But even for those who can afford to purchase music, the concept of paying for songs is a foreign one to many of us.
People like me, who came of age in the decade after Apple introduced iTunes and before Spotify took over the market, belong to what is probably the last generation to remember what it was like to own a music collection that doesn’t live in the cloud. Maybe that’s why I never latched onto streaming services — I didn’t like depending on a third-party platform, or being part of a social experiment that feeds Spotify data that it then sells to advertisers. There’s also the matter of fair pay: Streams are the slowest way for musicians to earn money, at fractions of pennies per stream. Most important, though, I don’t like how streaming feels — like I’m only borrowing something for a while, rather than having a handpicked library of albums (digital or physical) that I’ve vetted and can keep forever.
I was still using iTunes until 2019, when Apple decided to sunset the app and replace it with a new media player called Music (not to be confused with Apple Music, the streaming service). The appeal of the app remains the same: a media player where I can see my entire music library hosted on my local machine rather than in the cloud. In fact, I have several libraries across different devices and drives that — much to my dismay — all differ from one another slightly. What I lack in portability, I make up for in security. Once I add something to my iTunes library, I have it forever. I have no fear of platforms’ removing artists, or of artists’ removing themselves.
When I started this journey in grade school, I, like many of my peers, got around the new order via dubious means. I started by importing CDs I found at the library (the “Juno” soundtrack, anyone?) to my hard drive. I graduated to downloading MP3s online in the heyday of music blogs (“Bitte Orca,” by the band Dirty Projectors, darlings of the hype machine) and searching Google for compressed files. I was a D.J. at my college’s radio station, where we shared files and browsed the station’s racks for CDs we could rip, all to fatten up our iTunes libraries.
These days I’m paying for nearly all my music, and have become more selective when adding to my collection. I lean into Bandcamp for MP3s. The platform’s low barrier to entry allows nearly anyone to share and sell their music, whether they have a distributor or not — a limiting requirement for most major streaming platforms. Bandcamp is also possibly the best way to give the most money to small artists, aside from picking up a T-shirt from the merch table. If something isn’t available on Bandcamp, I’ll scope out used CDs to buy and rip. If I love something enough, I’ll try to get the record. If it’s out of print, I’ll throw it on my wish list and cross my fingers for a reissue. At the end of the day, the goal is to have something to hold onto: a digital file, a CD, a record, anything other than an ephemeral stream.
This isn’t always convenient: Depriving myself of streaming means there’s no easy way for me to repeatedly listen to a song without a deeper monetary commitment; but for me, listening to music is not about convenience so much as engagement. Resisting Spotify pushes me to actively find new music, as opposed to sitting through Discover Weekly playlists generated by an algorithm. I tune into local college stations, or online stations like the London-based NTS Radio network, and go down rabbit holes on YouTube, whose algorithm can still surprise me as long as I give it the right seeds. YouTube can be the most reliable platform for obscure finds, like live sets or rips of small-production seven-inches lost to time (I’m still trying to find out more about Naming Mary, a not-so-S.E.O.-friendly ’90s shoegaze band with little to no internet presence that surfaced after several recommended videos).
This process of discovery has created a stash of albums that is dwarfed by Spotify’s bloated world of curated playlists and anarchic algorithmic “radio stations.” I prefer it that way. When everyone has access to everything, nothing is stamped with the personal memories — the particulars that hold our experience of music together. I don’t need the entirety of recorded music at my fingertips. I just need the few curated albums that I cared enough about to collect. Having my own library means I can distinctly remember the context of every find, and that makes my intimacy with the songs I care about — the ones I can mentally fill in when one earbud falls out as I’m tying my shoes — feel especially rich.
Denise Lu is a visual journalist at Bloomberg News. She has previously worked for The New York Times and The Washington Post.
Based on Sanjay Singh’s book “Telgi: A Reporter’s Diary,” “Scam 2003” is written by Kiran Yadnyopavit, Kedar Patankar and Karan Vyas. It follows the story of Abdul Karim Telgi, the mastermind behind a scam printing counterfeit stamp paper in India, which earned $3.8 billion. A stamp paper is a government-issued blank document with headers of varying financial values that are used to validate most business transactions in India.
The show is the second in the “Scam” series after SonyLIV’s “Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story,” also created by Mehta. This time around, Mehta entrusted directing duties to Tushar Hiranandani as he wanted fresh eyes on the material. Mehta was also busy wrapping “Scoop.”
“‘Scam,’ ‘Scoop,’ all of them are stories of ordinary people who follow a certain arc – who are down and out, ordinary, not people that you would notice on the streets, and then doing things that make them public figures all of a sudden,” Mehta told Variety. “In Telgi, you have this man from a small town becoming this man who actually printed stamp papers. These were not fake stamp papers for the simple reason that they were real stamp papers because he stole an entire printing press, got the same suppliers for the paper, everything was genuine. There’s no way to say that this is fake and this is real – the audacity of that scam was something,” Mehta said.
“Scam 1992” followed a person who gamed India’s financial markets. “I didn’t want to have another white collar crime – it’s very easy to repeat another share market scam. This was a little more criminal, more crooked, this is forgery,” Mehta said.
Pratik Gandhi played Harshad Mehta in “Scam 1992,” which was a star-making turn for him. In “Scam 2003,” Telgi is played by Gagandev Riar, who Mehta spotted in a small role in BBC/Netflix series “A Suitable Boy.”
“Scam 2003” bowed on Sept. 1 and, like its predecessor, became a hit for SonyLIV, driving a wave of new subscribers to the service. “Today he [Riar] has become an overnight star, like Pratik Gandhi,” Mehta said.
“In terms of popularity, ‘Scam 1992’ and [Prime Video’s] ‘The Family Man’ are perhaps the most popular Indian TV shows in the streaming era. They’re mass shows. But when ‘Scam 2’ came out, the kind of responses received tells us how popular the franchise was. It was crazy. The euphoria, the madness,” Mehta added. “There is a template that the show has followed. And it seems to have worked in the dialogues, those same spicy one liners, new actors, fresh faces.”
Talks are on for a third season of “Scam.” Next up for Mehta is “The Buckingham Murders,” headlined by Kareena Kapoor, which will world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival.
The parents of a baby who was born in India with 26 fingers and toes have called her the reincarnation of a Hindu goddess.
The young girl, who was born at a hospital in Bharatpur, in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan, has seven fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot.
While doctors have described her condition as a genetic anomaly, her family are reportedly delighted and have publicly called her the reborn version of Dholagarh Devi, a well-known local deity whose temple is near where the girl was born.
Statues of the deity reveal she is a young girl with several arms.
The baby’s mother, named as Sarju Devi, 25, is said to be delighted.
Her brother, who has not been named, told local media: ‘My sister has given birth to a baby who has 26 fingers, and we are considering it to be the incarnation of Dholagarh Devi. We are very happy.’
The newborn girl (pictured) was born with 26 toes and fingers
She was born with two extra fingers on each hand
She was also born with an additional toe on each foot
Her family are delighted, and believe she is a reincarnation of a well-known local deity called Dholagarh Devi
A doctor at the hospital she was born in said that she’s a healthy baby, despite her additional digits
The baby’s father, Gopal Bhattacharya, is a police constable in the Central Reserve Police Force and he is also said to be very happy.
Dr BS Soni, a medic at the hospital where the baby was born, said: ‘There is no harm of any kind in having 26 fingers, but it is a genetic anomaly. The girl is otherwise absolutely healthy.’
It is not currently known whether the family are planning to have their newborn girl undergo surgery to reduce the number of digits on each limb.
The baby’s birth comes just a few weeks after a traveller left his fellow plane passengers horrified when he slipped off his shoes and socks, revealing his extra toe.
A TikTok of the shoeless man went viral, garnering a huge 8.1million views and over 14,000 comments, most of which are poking fun at the unusual clip and re-igniting the debate of whether it’s acceptable to go barefoot in public.
After zooming in on their fellow jetsetter’s foot, the camera pans out to the window as the plane takes off.
One commenter joked ‘Flying out of Torontoe,’ while another added ‘you know he’s not lack toes intolerant’.
The top comment with over 40,000 likes, is simply ‘I’m telling you right now…’ with laughing emojis.
It turns out Kalani has been dealing with Asuelu’s cheating since before they even got married. On Monday’s episode of 90 Day: The Last Resort, Kalani tearfully shared that Asuelu has cheated on her repeatedly for years.
Kalani and Asuelu are dealing with his latest infidelity which resulted in him giving her a hall pass, which she took. Since then, Kalani has admitted she has feelings for the other man and also has said she isn’t sexually attracted to her husband anymore. During their latest therapy session, Kalani reiterated that even though Asuelu was now giving her his full attention which she had wanted for years, she now only felt friendship with him. During a Kama Sutra class, she said she felt like she was hanging out with a friend and was completely closed off sexually to him.
“I honestly just feel grossed out,” she bluntly said. “I just think of his penis with somebody else so that just disgusts me and I don’t want to do anything else. When I found out what happened, I just blocked out love to him because I’m afraid of being hurt.”
Asuelu got emotional and said he felt like a bad person. He tearfully asked Kalani what it would take for her to forgive him. She said she felt confused because she never felt just friendship with him before.
“I feel like I’ve done a lot of bad things in our relationship and I really want to work on myself and I need to treat my wife better,” Asuelu acknowledged.
Later, Kalani broke down talking to a producer and revealed Asuelu had actually been cheating on her with different women since even before she got pregnant with their first child. Kalani was a virgin before she met Asuelu in Samoa.
“Basically since the beginning of Asuelu and I’s relationship, he’s cheated the whole time — so when we were dating, when I was pregnant, before he came here, like what three years into our marriage and then now so it’s just been this pattern,” she confessed. “So how do you forgive someone for something they keep doing?”
“I stayed with him because I was pregnant,” she tearfully shared. “I did it because I thought we would be together forever. So feeling my feelings just die … I just never wanted this to happen.”
To challenge the undisputed champion of souls-like video games, a genre acclaimed for its opaque stories, epic boss battles and punishing difficulty, a young South Korean studio turned to an insecure puppet who has a shaky relationship with the truth.
This version of Pinocchio, though, has a mechanical arm that can be fitted with a grappling hook to pull enemies into range or a flame-throwing device that incinerates them.
Jiwon Choi, the director of Lies of P for Round8 Studio, said his team looked for a globally recognizable character with promising lore when it began the project. “The story had everything we were seeking for Lies of P: elements of innocence and gore with dark humor and compelling characters,” he wrote in an email.
FromSoftware has had a stranglehold on this style of game since it released Demon’s Souls in 2009. Now labeled souls-likes, the games have become a genre unto themselves, known for frequent, cavernous lows and euphoric spikes of victory. FromSoftware’s most recent iteration, last year’s open-world Elden Ring, sold more than 20 million copies.
Lies of P, which officially releases on Tuesday for the PC and the past two generations of PlayStation and Xbox consoles, appears to have been inspired by other FromSoftware titles, evoking the gothic horror of Bloodborne and the laser-precise combat of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. It has received generally positive reviews but must still convince a die-hard community that it is a real souls-like and not just a wooden imitation.
Transporting ideas from Carlo Collodi’s “The Adventures of Pinocchio” into the fictional city of Krat, which is inspired by the Belle Époque period, Lies of P presents a dark, lush and terrifying world. A slender shadow in Victorian dress cautiously stalks the streets of a ruined city, sword in hand. Bloody, broken figures are everywhere, and the air is soon punctuated by the shrill sounds of clashing steel.
Souls-likes live and die — and die and die and die — on their combat systems. Lies of P wears its Sekiro and Bloodborne inspirations on its sleeve, requiring the main character, P, to sidestep or parry enemies in frenetic battles with slim margins for error. Perfectly blocking an oncoming strike can wear down the enemies that P encounters, from rank-and-file soldier puppets to hulking bosses, leaving them vulnerable to a powerful attack.
One system that sets Lies of P apart is the ability for players to disassemble weapons into handles and blades and then fuse them in whatever combination they wish. Wielding a giant wrench attached to a saber’s hilt may better fit someone’s preferred fighting style. “The vast amount of freedom it offers in combat will forge a distinctive gameplay experience,” Choi said.
Offering the tools to succeed is a vital component of well-crafted souls-likes, which must overwhelm players while convincing them that victory ultimately rests in their hands. Upsetting that balance can make it feel like trying to win the Daytona 500 on a unicycle.
Souls-like combat has been compared to rhythm and memorization games, where improvement requires learning how enemies fight. If an attack animation feels too random or difficult to read, a fight can come down to luck instead of skill. A game’s camera angles can also be a factor, blinding a player to incoming attacks.
Studio8 knows it cannot please everyone with the level of difficulty in Lies of P — what frustrates one player captivates another — but the initial sections of the game have been tailored, Choi says, to gently guide players. A shop and a dummy that players can use to practice parrying are placed right before the first boss, although the difficulty ramps up considerably from there.
Lies of P could come the closest of any souls-like this year to nailing FromSoftware’s formula; Lords of the Fallen, which failed to shake up the genre when it was first released in 2014, is expected in a new version next month, from Hexworks and CI Games. FromSoftware, which did not respond to a request for comment, has announced an Elden Ring expansion but has not detailed any plans for a Bloodborne or Sekiro sequel. Instead, it turned to one of its oldest franchises this year by releasing Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon, a mech combat game.
Geppetto and other aspects of the Pinocchio tale — popularized in the Disney movie from 1940 and explored by many otherfilmmakers — are woven into Lies of P. In a seeming echo of Isaac Asimov’s fictional laws of robotics, the game’s puppets are created to serve humans and bound by a series of laws. One says puppets cannot harm humans, a rule that has clearly been broken, and another forces puppets to always tell the truth.
Yet P is different: He can lie, affecting how the game’s narrative plays out. In an early encounter, an ill woman asks P to find her baby. When he does, P must decide between a hurtful truth or a compassionate lie. Choi said he hoped that aspect of the game would foster moments of reflection about what it means to be human.
Jackie and Josh met in the pods during season 4 of the Netflix reality series in 2023. While they had a strong bond, the dental assistant also formed a connection with Marshall Glaze. While she was torn between the two men, Jackie ultimately accepted Marshall’s proposal following the pod phase of the dating experiment.
However, Jackie called off their engagement to Marshall and ended up rekindling her romance with Josh after he shared he still had feelings for her. After the dating show’s reunion special aired in April 2023, Jackie revealed to Us Weekly that she and Josh were going strong and living together.
“This is exactly how it was supposed to happen,” Jackie said at the time. “I think if me and Josh would have [chosen] each other in the pods, I think, maybe, our story would’ve been a little bit different than how it is now. But to be honest, like, this was already in the motion [and] in the plan because of the Lord above.”
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The pair’s romance ultimately didn’t last. Jackie revealed in September 2023 that she and Josh had called it quits after dating for more than a year.
Keep scrolling to see Jackie and Josh’s relationship timeline:
15 Movie Endings That Changed Due To Test Screenings
1.
At the end of Pretty in Pink, Andie memorably chooses popular guy Blane over her best friend Duckie — but originally, she was supposed to end up at the prom with Duckie, and the two would dance together.* However, test screenings apparently saw audiences literally booing at this choice. “Up to that point, the screening had been like a rock concert. And we got to the ending, and they started to boo,” director Howard Deutch said. “That young audience, they did not want Molly to end up with Jon Cryer. The girls were like, ‘Forget the politics. We want her to get the cute boy.'”
They only had one day to reshoot the ending, which saw Blane showing up alone instead of with a date as he had previously. Blane stands up to his friend Steff and tells Andie he loves her before leaving…at which point Duckie encourages Andie to go after him, which she does. The two kiss in the parking lot. According to Deutch, test audiences loved the new ending: “They were satisfied, fulfilled, and delighted. And I agreed.”
2.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the Worldalso had a different ending that saw the lead end up with a different character. In the original ending, Ramona walked away from Scott and Scott left with Knives to play DDR.
This was changed to the ending we all know, not only because of test audience reactions, but because of the release of the graphic novel the movie was based on, which had Scott end up with Ramona.
3.
If you’ve ever seen the stage show of The Little Shop of Horrors, you’ll remember an extremely bleak ending: Basically, Audrey II kills Audrey, Seymour feeds her body to the plant, then Seymour tries to destroy Audrey II…which leads to Audrey II eating him. Test audiences were NOT a fan. “The more we came in close to that love story between Rick and Ellen, the more the audience hated that we killed them,” said director Frank Oz, who had originally advocated for the dark ending.
“People took it seriously, and they were extremely upset that we killed the people they loved.” The reaction was so bad — 13% recommendation from a crowd who had cheered throughout the whole movie then gone silent for the last 10 minutes — that they spent six weeks reshooting the ending, which had also featured Audrey II multiplying and basically taking over the world. The original final shot showed one of the plants climbing up the Statue of Liberty as the army fought them, then the plant lunging through the screen.
The new ending, which featured Seymour saving Audrey before she’s devoured by the plant, and the two destroying Audrey II then moving to the suburbs, was much better received by test audiences. However, there still was a slight dark tone to the ending, which shows Audrey II popping back up in a bud in the garden.
4.
Rambo: First Blood was also supposed to have a darker ending. Director Ted Kotcheff saw Rambo’s journey as a suicide mission, and intended to kill off Rambo at the end. The book the film was based on also ended with Rambo dead.
However, when Sylvester Stallone signed on to star, he requested to help Kotcheff rewrite the script. Though they still shot the ending with Rambo’s death, Stallone came up to Kotcheff and said, “You know, Ted, we put this character through so much. The police abuse him. He’s pursued endlessly. Dogs are sent after him. He jumps off cliffs. He runs through freezing water. He’s shot in the arm and he has to sew it up himself. All this, and now we’re gonna kill him?”
Kotcheff ultimately saw Stallone had a point. “To then have him kill himself means the enemy would have won, that town would have killed him. By this time, the audience had gotten the message. Did they need me to excessively pile it on?” They reshot the ending right away and had Rambo agree to leave with the colonel and see that the sheriff survived. This led to some tension with the producers, which ultimately led to a test screening with the original ending. The audience all agreed, “‘This is the best action film I’ve ever seen. But the ending is horrible!'” So, the second ending was used.
5.
Legally Blonde‘s original ending saw Emmett kissing Elle right after winning the trial, with a flash-forward a year into the future showing Elle and Vivian (now blonde) handing out pamphlets for their “Blonde Legal Defense Fund.” However, test audiences thought the ending wasn’t exciting enough and wanted Elle’s success to be more clear. “The kiss made it seem like it was a rom-com,” cowriter Karen McCullah said. Her cowriter, Kirsten “Kiwi” Smith, added, “They knew that this was not a movie about a girl getting a guy.”
The two (with the film’s director and producer) literally sat down in the lobby of the test screening theater and wrote the graduation speech for Elle to end the movie instead. You can actually tell when the new ending comes in (when Elle rejects Warner; this scene had been in the prior version, but had to be reshot for continuity after the old ending that accompanied it was scrapped). Reese’s hair looks redder (she was in a wig), and she appears to have freckles. They also shot her part in London, and all the reactions in Burbank, so the lighting was a bit off. “But the new ending was way more satisfying,” McCullah acknowledged, making these issues worth it.
6.
Multiple endings were considered for Halloween Ends, but director David Gordon Green really wanted to go with a more “modest” and “intimate” ending to “return to the simple dramatic roots.” But, Green revealed, “Then there were times when I thought it just didn’t play big enough and I wanted some scope to it. We wanted something more grand, and [that became] the procession sequence. So the actual ending of the movie we came up with this summer, like two months ago, after we screened it a few times.” The procession sequence he’s referring to is parading Michael Myers’ dead body around town in front of everyone, then putting him through an industrial shredder.
7.
The beginning of that reboot trilogy, Halloween (2018), also apparently had a different ending. Both Michael and Laurie appeared to die in the original ending (with Michael stabbing Laurie, then Karen shooting Michael with a crossbow), which reportedly changed after test screenings, but there’s far less record of this change. Instead, the movie ended with Laurie burning her house down with Michael inside, only to reveal he’d escaped.
8.
Sweet Home Alabamahad a sort of strange original ending where lightning struck as Melanie and Jake kissed during the lightning storm at the end of the film, and the screen went white. Jake then carried a limp Melanie into a wedding reception, saying, “Melanie Carmichael is dead…Long live Felony Melanie.” Melanie then kissed him and got to her feet and they danced. Director Andy Tennant called the ending “funny on paper,” but said test audiences got really angry at the fake-out. “When we showed it to a test audience, the whole room was just like, ‘What the fuck?!’ The audience loved the movie up until that shot.”
The ending was reshot to take out the lightning strike. Instead, in the ending we all know and love, the two went up to the bar to an impromptu wedding reception and danced to Sweet Home Alabama.
9.
Producers were forced to add a new scene at the end of Thor: The Dark World to show that Loki was alive after test audiences “didn’t accept” Loki’s death. “Loki’s death on Svartalfheim was written as a death, and I would say Chris and I played that scene for real. That was meant to be that he redeemed himself, he helped save his brother, he helped save Jane Foster, but that he, in the process, sacrificed himself,” Tom Hiddleston, who plays Loki, revealed.
“It was part of the original pitch and in test screenings, the audience didn’t accept it. They said, you know, ‘He’s obviously coming back. That didn’t really happen.’ And there was a very strange and almost unanimous resistance to it. They decided that wasn’t the end.” So, an ending was added to show Loki impersonating his father on the throne, which Hiddleston called “a great twist.”
10.
Tree was also originally supposed to die permanently at the end of Happy Death Day. In the film, Tree finally breaks the loop and survives until the 19th. But in the original ending, Tree is poisoned by Gregory’s wife and dies. But this ending didn’t fare well with test audiences: “They were pissed,” the actor who plays Tree, Jessice Rothe, revealed.
“They were like, ‘You made us care about this person. You can’t do this. We went on this journey. We love her.'” This ending was scrapped, and instead, Tree wakes up in Carter’s bed. He originally tricks her into thinking the loop has continued, then reveals he was joking, and they kiss.
11.
National Lampoon’s Vacation memorably ends with the Griswolds finally making it to Walley World, only to find that it’s closed. Clark then forces a security guard to take them on all the rides using a BB gun. However, this was not the original ending — they were originally meant to see the park was closed, then go to park owner Roy Walley’s mansion to tell him to entertain them since his park couldn’t. Director Harold Ramis revealed test audiences were not a fan of this ending: “The audience was hysterical watching the film in our test market screenings all the way up to that moment, and then they went strangely quiet and did not laugh again for the rest of the picture.”
“It occurred to me that they’d now invested about, oh, 70 minutes, 75 minutes, on the way to Walley World. And they really expected to get to Walley World. And here we were denying them the payoff to the whole trip,” Ramis continued. In the original ending, the group presumably went to Walley World afterward, but it’s not shown. They then get on a plane to go home, where it’s announced that the plane isn’t going back to Chicago, causing Clark to lose it.
But all of that was scrapped, and Ramis had the film’s screenwriter, John Hughes, write the ending we all know. They tested it with audiences, who loved it. Though if you look closely, you’ll notice that the kids look older and bigger in the new scenes — by Anthony Michael Hall’s own admission, he’d begun to go through puberty.
12.
The 2004 remake of The Stepford Wives reportedly changed extensively during test screenings. “The movie has been in Hollywood’s version of intensive care, undergoing a protracted series of test screenings interspersed with editing-room surgeries,” reported the New York Times. One of these changes included adding an epilogue.
While the original ending of the film is unknown (some sources suggest it followed the ending of the book the film was based on), director Frank Oz admitted that test audiences didn’t find it satisfying. In the new ending, Joanna doesn’t ever actually become a Stepford wife, and the wives are freed. An epilogue reveals the husbands are under house arrest for what they’ve done to their wives and are in subservient positions similar to those they put their wives in.
13.
Test audiences did not like the original ending of My Best Friend’s Wedding, which saw Julianne meet a new guy at the very end and dance with him at the wedding. In fact, “They wanted her dead,” revealed director P.J. Hogan. “They just couldn’t understand her motives.” They decided to change the ending, but they were in a predicament: The studio wanted a happy ending for Julia Roberts’ character, so they couldn’t just have her end up sad and alone.
They decided to expand George’s character (played by Rupert Everett) with phone calls to make Julianne more sympathetic throughout the film. “Whenever she was being particularly devious, I’d have her phone Rupert’s character and he would call her out on it,” Hogan revealed. They then reshot the ending to have George show up to dance with her (platonically; George was gay). “That one scene somehow gave the audience permission to forgive Julianne. Those last five minutes really made the whole movie work.”
14.
Final Destination ends with Carter getting killed, revealing they didn’t escape Death after all. But the original ending was actually happier and featured a different character’s death.
In the original cut of the film, Clear and Alex actually got together, and Clear became pregnant. But when Alex saved Clear from the car explosion, he died to save her.
The film then flashed forward to Clear giving birth to their son and visiting the memorial of the victims with Carter, resolving to live her life to the fullest since it could end at any time. But test audiences hated the fact that Alex died, so the film was changed to keep him alive, though the ending was much bleaker. “Saving” Alex meant little, as those who have seen Final Destination 2 know he was killed by a brick between movies.
15.
And finally, Prisoners didn’t change their original ending as a result of a test audience, but actually kept the ending because of the test audience. The ambiguous ending you see in the film — where Keller blows the whistle from the hole in the ground he’s stuck in and Loki looks like he *might* hear him — was the one in the script. But they had shot a few additional scenes with Loki actually finding Keller, just in case. They went to test audiences with the ending they wanted — without the more definitive part — to see if it was received well. Audiences ended up liking it, and the extra shots were scrapped.
What do you think — were the original endings better, or do you prefer the final version? Let us know in the comments!
The comedian explained his change of heart in an X post, citing the renewed talks between the writers union and the studios as a motivating factor.
“My decision to return to work was made when it seemed nothing was happening and there was no end in sight to this strike,” he wrote. “Now that both sides have agreed to go back to the negotiating table I’m going to delay the return of Real Time, for now, and hope they can finally get this done.”
“You might not hear from us in the coming days while we are negotiating, but know that our focus is getting a fair deal for writers as soon as possible,” the WGA’s negotiating committee wrote to members on Monday morning.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents major studios including Warner Bros. Discovery, Netflix and the Walt Disney Co., confirmed the meeting date.
“Every member company of the AMPTP is committed and eager to reach a fair deal, and to work together with the WGA to end the strike,” the studio group said in a statement last week as it signaled it was working with the guild to return to the negotiating table.
“I have listened to everyone, and I am making the decision to pause the show’s premiere until the strike is over,” Barrymore wrote on Instagram. “I have no words to express my deepest apologies to anyone I have hurt and, of course, to our incredible team who works on the show and has made it what it is today. We really tried to find our way forward. And I truly hope for a resolution for the entire industry very soon.”
That chat series is “pausing its season premiere,” originally scheduled for Sept. 18, a spokesperson for the network confirmed Sunday in a statement provided to The Times. The statement did not mention the strikes.
“We will continue to evaluate plans for a new launch date,” the spokesperson said.
Maher announced Wednesday that his HBO show would be returning to the air without “writers or writing.” He said he supported the striking writers but that the stoppage had become too hard on nonstriking production staff who have been out of work since May. Maher’s move echoes what happened during the 2007-08 writers’ strike, when he restored his show midway through the work stoppage (along with hosts Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien) without writers or writing.
A spokesperson for the WGA called Maher’s decision from last week “disappointing.”
“If he goes forward with his plan, he needs to honor more than ‘the spirit of the strike,’” the spokesperson said. “Bill Maher is obligated as a WGA member to follow the strike rules and not perform any writing services. It is difficult to imagine how ‘Real Time’ can go forward without a violation of WGA strike rules taking place. WGA will be picketing this show.”
Times staff writers Wendy Lee, Matt Pearce and Christi Carras contributed to this report.
Jonathan Frakes believes there is a “real opportunity” for a Star Trek: The Next Generation sequel series, with a blueprint in place for a Picard follow-up.
Frakes suggests that a possible sequel series could focus on the daughters of TNG characters and sees a potential for three legacy characters’ children to carry on the next generation of Star Trek.
While there are currently no plans for another sequel series, the showrunner for Picard’s third season hints that there are ways to continue expanding the franchise, expressing a desire to go back to the spirit of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Star Trek: Picard actor Jonathan Frakes reflected on his character and revealed that he believes there’s a “real opportunity” to make a Star Trek: The Next Generationsequel series and noted that there’s a “blueprint” in place for a Picard follow-up. Frakes is best known to Star Trek fans for playing William T. Riker on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation as well as its follow-up films and series. Most recently, Frakes starred on the drama series Picard which premiered back in 2020 and recently wrapped up its third and final season.
At this time, there are no plans for another sequel series following the events of Picard. However, while chatting with Star Trek Explorer, Frakes revealed that there is a “blueprint” in place that allows the franchise to continue moving forward and could potentially follow the daughters of TNG characters. Frakes told the outlet:
“In my mind, for the show to be able to move forward, Riker would have to be a captain and have his ship, or he would be promoted to admiral and be a liaison. I’m only half-kidding when I say it would be great for me if the show carries on and I’m like Charlie from Charlie’s Angels. They’d have to come to my office one day a week for a meeting with Riker. That’d be perfect.”
“I suspect if it does go forward, it would be Jeri Ryan, Michelle Hurd, and Ed Speelers, who’s now in Starfleet, and Mica Burton and Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut, who played Geordi’s daughter[s]. I would also imagine Lulu Wilson, who played the Rikers’ daughter in Season 1 and was so fabulous, could be a part of it. She could come back and maybe be in Starfleet. It feels to me like there’s a real opportunity for three of the legacy characters’ children to carry on and sort of be the next Star Trek: The Next Generation. It just feels like it’s laid out there. It’s the blueprint for the next phase.”
Previously, Terry Matalas, the showrunner for the third season of Picard, hinted that another follow-up series was not out of the question. While speaking to ComicBook.com following the series finale of Picard, Matalas noted that although nothing was official yet, there were definitely ways to continue expanding the franchise.
While expressing enthusiasm for a follow-up Matalas said, “I would love to go back to the spirit of Star Trek: The Next Generation quite a bit. This last season of Picard is not season eight of Star Trek: The Next Generation. It’s more Star Trek 11. It’s a movie. The characters are much closer to their cinematic versions than they are Star Trek: The Next Generation versions of their characters. I would love to go back to the spirit of Star Trek: The Next Generation as much as you can, but we’d have to see if it would be possible.”
Star Trek: Picard is currently streaming on Paramount+.
An old release schedule leaked in documents released for the FTC v. Microsoft trial mentions a number of unnanounced games including Dishonored 3, a Ghostwire Tokyo sequel, Doom Year Zero, and Fallout 3 and Oblivion remasters.
As posted by Wario64, the leaked document shows an old ZeniMax release schedule that lists a number of major titles we already know about–such as Starfield and Elder Scrolls 6–alongside a handful that have never been announced.
The unannounced games include a third game in the Dishonored series, despite recent reports that Deathloop was developed due to Bethesda turning down Dishonored 3. A Ghostwire: Tokyo sequel also appears on the schedule, which appears to have been greenlit while the original game was still in development. A new Doom title named Year Zero is also on the list, along with two lots of DLC–suggesting it’s planned to be a major title.
Two of Bethesda’s most loved older RPGs, Fallout 3 and Oblivion, are also on the list for a remake, with both original titles over 15 years old now.
Notably the release schedule appears to be from before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, with games still aiming for their pre-pandemic release dates–such as Starfield slated for 2021, or Elder Scrolls 6 still expected in 2024. Most of the unannounced games are on the schedule for financial year 2024, which means we likely won’t see any of them until 2026 or later. Its also possible the titles have been quietly cancelled or shelved since this schedule was current, but we’re holding out hope that the titles still exist behind the scenes somewhere.
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You’ve just finished your screenplay and now you’re thinking “I need an agent.” We all know that to get big writing assignments in Hollywood you’re going to need an agent. But how can you accomplish this if you’ve never done any writing assignments in general?
You need to learn how to get an agent, and today we’ll show you.
We’ll go over how to find an agent, all the major agencies, and what the differences between agents and managers are. We’ll also go over how to handle agent meetings, including a checklist so you can make sure you make the most out of those coveted interactions.
So get ready to lose 10% of your paychecks! Let’s find some film agents.
Advice To A Screenwriter Who Doesn’t Have An Agent Or Manager by Mark Heidelbergerwww.youtube.com
What Is An Agent and What Do They Do?
An agent helps negotiate contracts for actors, writers, directors, and producers. They also help talent find jobs by networking and setting up general meetings. Generals are where talent can meet respective producers or studios that might be interested in their work.
In short, agents will show you the money.
I had to. Sorry.
Your agent’s ear will always be to the ground and if they have you in mind, and they hear of an appropriate opportunity they’ll mention your name.
People want to know how to get a film agent so they can get their careers moving.
Having an agent is not required, but most people who make Hollywood their full-time job find agents a valuable resource when it comes to booking gigs, negotiating contracts, and dealing with productions.
What Are the Big Agencies?
Want to learn how to find an agent? Start by looking where they live. The largest talent agencies are:
No, they’re not just locations from Entourage, these are the big players in Hollywood. They represent most, if not all, of your favorite writers, directors, and actors.
There are other agencies in Hollywood than these eight, but the smaller they are, the fewer opportunities they see pass through the door. That doesn’t mean those smaller places are any less valuable, but it does mean they could be good places to start your career.
But you can’t just stand outside yelling “I need an agent!”
Well, maybe you could. But it might not work.
You want to learn how to find an agent who can help you advance your career and get you to that next level. How do they do that?
Agents are often stereotyped as bullish, angry people. While this is probably an unfair generalization, agents are responsible for getting their clients paid, and that persona can be part of how they manage that.
The adage goes, “If you need a best friend to talk to, get a manager. If you need to get into a fight, get an agent.”
But the similarities and differences in the profession are not that simple.
What’s the Difference Between An Agent and A Manager?
The most obvious difference is that managers are allowed to produce their clients work, while agents are not. But there’s a lot more to it than just that…
Managers usually oversee what their clients do day to day. They’re there if you need to talk through or develop an idea. They want to motivate and help you strategize.
While agents can do these things, they’re also legally bound to act only in the financial interest of their clients. There are lots of laws built around what it means to legally represent someone as an agent. In California, agents are legally required to be licensed by the state.
Most agents take 10% of a client’s earnings as payment. Usually, they have you sign a piece of paper saying their agency represents you. If they don’t have you sign that then you’re being “hip-pocketed.” Which isn’t a bad thing, it just means it’s unofficial.
Most managers work on a verbal agreement and a handshake.
But pay heed to the famous quote from original movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn “A verbal agreement isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.”
The Writer’s Guild, Screen Actor’s Guild, and Director’s Guild, specify certain regulations and privileges reserved solely for agents including setting maximum commissions at 10% of gross earnings. Managers do not face the same restrictions. So they can charge more or less (haha).
This is all nuanced and complicated. If you’re worried about agents or managers, check in with your respective guild for advice and information.
What Are the Kinds Of Agents?
There are agents for music, broadcasters, and magicians, but today we’re going to focus on how to find an agent that would represent you in film and television.
So what kinds of things do you do?
Are you trying to learn how to get an agent for screenwriting or acting?
Lit Agents
I’m guessing most people reading this want to know how to find a literary agent. Lit Agents represent writers for film and television. At bigger agencies, these departments are split. Some people represent you for the feature scripts you write, while others represent your tv ideas. Most writers try to straddle both worlds now but further define themselves as their careers move forward and they get more jobs in one area of the other.
If you want to find a literary agent, you’re going to need to have a great screenplay. Maybe a few. Most agents aren’t looking to take on someone too green, so if you only have one great sample, make sure you have an idea of what you want to write next, at the very least prep a few film treatments.
Talent Agents
Talent agents represent actors and directors in Hollywood. They’re all about what roles you can play, and getting you into the spotlight. If you want to get a talent agent, start by getting great at acting. The way talent agents find their clients are through word of mouth, showcases like improv, or stealing clients from rival agencies by promising them more opportunities.
There aren’t a lot of clearcut ways to get into Hollywood from the outside. Most people come here and work until their star rises. It can be hard because you are not proving yourself with tangible things on the page, you have to make people believe in your performances.
Aspiring actors looking for a talent agent should try to make friends with casting directors, so they can be put in front of bigger players. They should also work on showcases, take improv classes, and go out for as many commercials as possible.
But don’t pull a Tobias Funke and send out a bunch of headshots with glitter.
How to Get an Agent
Now that you know about the different types of agents lets learn how to find an agent who can represent you.
How to Find A Literary Agent
Lit agents are always looking for new clients. It can help to win a prominent screenwriting contest, like the Nicholl, or even place high on the Black List website. I’ve found the best way to get an agent is to make a ton of connections with their assistants and get your material passed upward.
You know I’m a fan of crushing a great coming of age script as a way to break in and get your screenplay passed up the ladder.
You can make connections all over. I did it by working as an assistant in Hollywood. But what if you don’t live in the Greater Los Angeles area? You’ll have to face a harsher reality.
It’s going to be a lot harder for you.
You’ll have to try and excel on the Black List website, win a respected contest, or attend a festival dedicated to helping people network.
Some people love pitch-fests, but I’ve espoused my skepticism with them a few times.
The key here is that if you’re In LA or not, you need to generate strong material, and a lot of material. So start there. Whatever is going to help you do that is the right first step.
How To Find A Talent Agent
Talent agents function in the same way as literary agents. They want to hear you’re great from someone else, be it a casting director or just someone who cast you in their movie.
They also frequent acting showcases in Los Angeles, stand-up comedy events, improv comedy shows, and even take a look at commercials.
You can even act in your own YouTube series and gain some notoriety that way.
If you want to get a talent agent, you probably have to live in Los Angeles or New York. Or maybe be amazing while doing Second City in Chicago. It’s so hard to stand out, and it really helps to be in a place where an agent c find you.
How to Find an Agent For Directing
Let’s assume off the bat that you have some amazing directing samples, because no one is going to let you direct without them. The exceptions being if you’re a highly successful screenwriter or actor. And usually those also mean you already have an agent.
Directors, like writers, have the ability to showcase their talent wherever they are on the globe.
So if you have amazing directing samples, try posting them on Vimeo, YouTube, and qualifying for Shorts Of the Week.
Hollywood is built on finding people, but I don’t know anyone who has gotten an agent or manager by just mailing them scripts or cold-calling assistants.
When I was an assistant, I dreaded the people who would find our phone numbers and pepper us with unsolicited material. Agents hate that even more.
But what if you’re lucky enough for your material to stand out and to hear that an agent wants to meet with you?
What To Do If You Get a Meeting With An Agent
So you figured out how to get an agent? Congratulations.
But just because you have a meeting with an agent doesn’t mean they’re going to represent you. So now what?
You need to head into some of the most important meetings of your life, so first step is to head in with confidence. This is the agent’s time to figure out if they want to represent you or not. They have to know if they can sell you to other people, and how you’ll behave in a room.
Are you a natural storyteller?
Do you listen as much as you talk?
How much chemistry can you milk from tough situations?
Hollywood is about selling yourself as much as selling your ideas. So you need to prepare before you meet an agent. You got this far, so do yourself a favor and prepare even more. Another important question to ask yourself?
How can you tell if the agent you’re meeting is right for you?
As the old saying goes, “It’s the agent, not the agency.”
Sure, it’s easy to rejoice when your stuff makes an impression on an agent, but you don’t want someone who signs you and then forgets about you.
Ask about their strategies for your work. If they’re not at one of the big agencies, ask about their company’s track record. Come prepared with a few ideas to pitch them, but listen to the other properties they may represent that you can package as your own.
You need someone who’s got a long and short-term strategy for you.
Remember, they only get paid when you get paid. So make sure they have a plan for that, and a plan to get you working and getting paid for a long time.
Also, it’s okay to see who else they represent. Who have they helped break in? What connections do they have for when it comes time to package your work.
New writers spend so much time learning how to get an agent they forget that they don’t just need an agent, they need a great agent.
That’s a lot to keep in mind, so how can we help you prepare?
Checklist For When You Meet An Agent
Don’t worry. we made a checklist for you so you know what to do and say in your first meeting.
Here’s to many more!
Come prepared with a finished script to pitch.
They may have already read your work, so if you have other scripts that are done, mention their loglines in case they want to read any.
Have at least two other ideas for what you’ll work on next.
TV, Film, doesn’t matter, but you ideally want them all to be the same or similar genre so the agent knows how to sell you.
Be knowledgeable about other people on your career path.
Who do you idolize?
Whose career path would you like to follow?
Have a dream job for them to help realize in your future.
Ask about their strategy.
Do they have successful clients?
Will they get you a lot of generals?
Will they get you a lot of pitches?
How involved do they like to be in your creative process?
What’s their plan for the year?
Can they sell your spec?
Get they get you staffed on something?
What’s their plan for the next three years?
How will you make it to the next level?
Do they have good contacts for packaging?
Who can they get in your movie?
Do they have relationships with buyers?
Summing Up How To Get an Agent
Now that you know how to get an agent, We hope the checklist helps you suss out who’s worthy of representing your talents.
Remember, agents only get paid when you do. So work hard, and be confident in your ideas and where they’ll take you. Find an agent who believes in you, but also is willing to get tough when things aren’t working out.
Hollywood is often about hearing the hard passes on your projects. An agent can fight to get you paid and get your stuff into the right hands, but at the end of the day, the burden is on you to create.
UFA’s long-serving CEO Nico Hofmann is stepping down from his post and becoming Chairman of Fremantle’s German powerhouse, with former RTL and exec Sascha Schwingel replacing him.
Hofman has been chief exec of the Deutschland 83 and Generation War maker since 2017 but has been with the company for more than a quarter of a century. In that sense, his exit from the CEO post marks the end of an era.
Hofman had joined in 1998 to set up TeamWorx, which is now UFA Fiction, and went on to produce many of Germany’s best-travelling drama series. Notably Deutschland 83 was the first from the country to air on a U.S. network.
His replacement, Schwingel, was most recently Deputy Chief Content Officer of RTL Deutschland, overseeing the likes of RTL Television, RTL+ and VOX, where he was previously CEO. He is well known to Hofman having started his career at TeamWorx. There he oversaw shows such as event series Die Sturmflut, Dresden and Die Hindenburg before moving to ARD Degeto, where he worked on Babylon Berlin.
With immediate effect, he will be based in Berlin and report to Fremantle CEO for Continental Europe and Group COO Andrea Scrosati, as well joining the production giant’s global leadership team.
“I would like to personally thank Nico for his hard-work and commitment to UFA for the past 26 years,” said Fremantle Group CEO Jennifer Mullin. “With him at the helm, UFA has maintained its position as a leading German media company and a vital part of the Fremantle Group. We are delighted he will become Chairman and stay within the Fremantle family. At the same time, I am so pleased to welcome Sascha back to the business and look forward to working with him to shape and drive UFA’s future.”
“After 26 years with Bertelsmann and eight years at the helm of UFA I have decided, together with Jennifer Mullin and Andrea Scrosati, to pass on the leadership of UFA,” said Hofmann. “In Sascha, who is a friend and colleague for many years, we have found an experienced and highly talented successor. With great creative energy, Sascha has pursued a successful career at our subsidiary teamWorx, at public broadcaster ARD and at RTL Deutschland – evolving as an intelligent manager with a strong reputation in the creative scene.
UFA comprises of four successful production units: UFA Fiction, which is behind the Deutschland franchise and Helgoland 513; UFA Serial Drama, which makes soaps such as Unter Uns and Alles was zählt; UFA Show & Factual and UFA Documentary, which made Prime Video’s All or Nothing: The National Team in Katar.
Russell Brand is facing rape and assault allegations that emerged over the weekend and are now putting a hold on his upcoming projects.
Brand’s sold-out comedy tour “Bipolarisation” was postponed at the U.K.’s Theatre Royal Windsor, plus in Plymouth and Wolverhampton over the next 10 days. Brand has additionally been dropped by his management company, and his book deal has been suspended.
A years-long joint investigation by The Times of London, The Sunday Times, and Channel 4 culminated in the recently aired documentary “Dispatches” during which four women accuse Brand of sexual assault and one case of rape. Brand allegedly also entered controlling consensual relationships, including with a 16-year-old girl whom he allegedly made read passages of “Lolita” to him. To note, 16 is the age of consent in the U.K.; Brand was 31 at the time of the allegation.
Assault accusations against Brand in “Dispatches” range from encounters across 2006 through 2013, overlapping with his marriage to Katy Perry. The BBC and Banijay, both of which employed Brand at the time the accusations allegedly took place, have launched an investigation into the claims. Police officers are also investigating a report about an assault that allegedly took place in 2003, with a statement issued: “Officers are in contact with the woman and will be providing her with support.”
Brand’s “rule-breaking” comedy tour “Bipolarisation” was set to fund an addiction charity; Brand previously opened up about his own struggles with drug and sex addiction. The Theatre Royal Windsor issued a statement following the allegations against Brand, saying, “We are postponing these few remaining addiction charity fundraiser shows, we don’t like doing it — but we know you’ll understand.”
Brand’s publishing deal with Pan Macmillan imprint Bluebird was suspended. The company stated, “These are very serious allegations and in the light of them, Bluebird has taken the decision to pause all future publishing with Russell Brand.”
The “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” actor was dropped by management company Tavistock Wood Management, which is owned by Curtis Brown, which is also owned by United Talent Agency. The company stated they were “horribly misled” by Brand after he denied a 2020 assault allegation against him.
“Russell Brand categorically and vehemently denied the allegation made in 2020, but we now believe we were horribly misled by him,” Tavistock Wood said (via Deadline). “TW has terminated all professional ties to Brand.”
Brand recently shared a YouTube video titled “So, This Is Happening” where he refuted all the new claims against him.
“These allegations pertain to the time when I was working in the mainstream media, when I was in the newspapers all the time, when I was in the movies,” Brand said. “And as I’ve written about extensively in my books I was very, very promiscuous. Now during that time of promiscuity, the relationships I had were absolutely always consensual. I was always transparent about that then — almost too transparent — and I’m being transparent about it now as well.”
It’s time to say goodbye to Moordale, Otis’ sex therapy sessions and the entertaining ensemble of the Netflix dramedy Sex Education. While it’s a bummer that Season 4 of Sex Educationwill be its last, there’s no question that the memorable stories and valuable lessons about life, love and sex will live on. So, before Asa Butterfield’s Otis gives his final session, let’s go over everything you need to remember about this fantastic series before its fourth and final season debuts on September 21.
After seasons and seasons of keeping fans waiting, Maeve (Emma Mackey) and Otis finally kissed and admitted their feelings for each other mid-way through the third installment. The last part of Season 3 focused on the two trying to figure out how to move forward, and how their relationship would impact both Maeve’s love interest Issac and Otis’ girlfriend through part of Season 3, Ruby.
Arguably, this was one of the most anticipated moments in Sex Education, and with Maeve going to America, I’m curious to see if their relationship can last long-distance, or if these two are modern-day star-crossed lovers.
(Image credit: Netflix)
Maeve Left Moordale To Go To School In America
Even though Maeve was close to staying in Mooredale, given how good things were between her and Otis, Amiee gave her a stern talking-to and said she must go.
When she went to tell Otis her decision, he asked about their future together, and she simply told him that they’ll see where they’re at whenever she returns. So, nothing is set in stone when it comes to their relationship, but they did leave things on fairly good terms. As Maeve said, it wasn’t a goodbye, but a “see you soon.”
Jean Went Into Labor Very Early, And She’s Planning To Raise Her Child With Jakob
Joy, the little baby who was born at the end of the season, came into a world full of drama, especially when it comes to the mystery of who her father is. Jean (Gillian Anderson) was pregnant with her the whole season, and she told Ola’s dad Jakob (Mikael Persbrandt) that the baby was his. He was a bit skeptical about that, because the two were on again off again, and he asked for a paternity test.
Then, Jean went into labor way too early, which gave her a serious health scare. After she had the baby, and was in recovery mode, Jakob showed his support, and it seems like they’ll move on happily together. However, toward the end of the finale, Anderson’s character opened an envelope and had a less-than-ideal reaction, implying that Joy’s biological father might not be Ola’s dad, leaving the door wide open for even more drama come Season 4.
Even though Jackson (Kedar Williams-Stirling) and Cal (Dua Saleh) truly care about each other, they ended up calling things off. After flirting all season, and trying to be together, Jackson struggled with his identity, and the non-binary Cal worried about him not seeing them as such. Both characters are on major journeys of self-discovery; however, to really figure themselves out, they decided it would be best not to be together.
(Image credit: Netflix)
Adam And Eric Broke Up
Sadly one of our favorite YA LGBTQ+ couples broke up in Season 3. However, it was arguably for the best. After Eric (Ncuti Gatwa) took his life-changing trip to Lagos, and kissed another boy, he confessed that moment to Adam (Connor Swindells). While he felt bad for hurting his partner, he also realized it was a sign that the two of them aren’t so compatible, and were at very different stages of their lives. This led to Gatwa’s character saying:
I just feel like I’m ready to fly, and you’re just learning to walk.
Adam then asked if a break-up was necessary, and sadly Eric’s answer was yes. While it was a tragic moment, both boys could go on to have happy endings by the end of the episode, showing that they’re both headed in positive directions, different as those directions may be.
After a season-long battle between headmaster Hope (Jemima Kirke) and the students, the kids sabotaged her open day by showing an explicit film where many of them dressed as genitals and sang the NSFW classic “Fuck the Pain Away.” This came after the headmaster tried to enforce gender norms and made Adam and Lily where shame signs. Even though that went well, and Hope’s mean and un-inclusive plans were put to a stop, the school lost its funding. So, going into Season 4, the kids will be forced to find new schools or paths.
(Image credit: Sex Education – Production Still Image)
Isaac Told Maeve He Needs Time Before They Can Be Friends
Maeve was sending Isaac (George Robinson) mixed signals, especially after she kissed Otis in Season 3, and so he understandably “takes [his] heart off the table,” and he decided to move on. In the finale, she approached Isaac and apologizeds to him, which he accepted, but while also noting that it will take him a while to truly accept it. Overall, things aren’t terrible between the two, but they’re for sure awkward going into the new episodes.
After losing his job as headmaster, Adam’s dad Michael Groff (Alistair Petrie) went on a journey of self-betterment. Having criticized and rudely accosted his son for years, he decided to look inward and really try to figure out how to be a better dad, and a better man in general. That started with him taking up cooking as a hobby, while also trying to to mend his relationships with his son and ex-wife in the meantime.
A Few More Quick Things To Remember
Otis and Ruby dated for a short period of time but broke up.
Aimee is in the process of healing after being sexually assaulted two seasons ago.
Aimee and Steve broke up, and left things on good terms.
Viv started seeing a boy.
Maeve spends quite a bit of time with her mom and half sister Elsie in Season 3.
If you want to get all the way caught up on Sex Education before the fourth and final season premieres on the 2023 TV schedule, you can do so with a Netflix subscription. Then you can return to Moordale on September 21 to see how all these characters’ stories get wrapped up.
SkyShowtime, the European streaming joint venture of Comcast and Paramount Global, has named Mark Neil chief financial officer (CFO), with current CFO Francesca Pierce taking on the newly created role of chief administration officer, the company said on Tuesday.
Neil will begin his role in January and join from A+E Networks EMEA where he has served as CFO. Based in London, he will report to SkyShowtimeCEO Monty Sarhan.
“The announcement follows current CFO Francesca Pierce’s appointment as SkyShowtime’s first chief administration officer,” the company said. “She will continue to report to Sarhan and will begin this new role in January once Neil formally joins as CFO.”
SkyShowtime recently also appointed former Netflix executive Kai Finke as chief content officer.
Neil has led the finance function at A+E Networks EMEA for seven years. “As CFO, he regularly interfaced with A+E Networks’ U.K. board of directors which, as a joint venture, includes executives from owners Sky and Hearst,” SkyShowtime said. Neil has more than three decades of experience in media and telecommunications, having previously worked at News Corporation, Thomson Reuters, and Scripps Networks.
“Mark is an exceptional finance executive, and I’m excited to welcome him to the SkyShowtime team,” said Sarhan. “His experience in helping to scale new businesses as well as working at a joint venture make him an ideal choice to succeed Francesca.”
In the new role as chief administration officer, Pierce, a former Sky executive, will focus on “maximizing the business both operationally and financially,” SkyShowtime said. The goal is “to drive continuous improvement across all departments, working with leaders across the business to ensure teams are working at pace and have a clear sense of purpose.”
Explained Sarhan: “In the year since SkyShowtime’s first launch, and just six months after its final launches, our team has done a tremendous job to scale the business rapidly. As we enter this next phase of the company’s growth, the ability to execute well — with both speed and efficiency — is even more important.”
Sydney Sweeney is making a serious case for the return of disco curls.
The Euphoria star, who turned 26 on September 12, celebrated her birthday this past weekend with a star-studded ’80s-prom-themed party. And in true Sweeney fashion, the Laneige ambassador really committed, going all out when it came to hair, makeup, and overall vibe.
Sweeney practically transformed into prom queen for the night, rocking va-va-voluminous disco curls and a bright pink, puff-sleeved minidress that looks like it was ripped straight from the set of 16 Candles. The decor was similarly John Hughes–worthy, as the venue was decked out with several disco balls, a photobooth courtesy of Revolve, and cheesy party streamers adorning the walls, all of which truly encapsulate the over-the-top aesthetic of the era.
Countless stars were also in attendance—and on theme. Nicola Peltz Beckham posted a selfie of her own prom-inspired glam on Instagram, and Camila Mendes, Anitta, Alexandra Shipp, Emily Tosta, and Barbie’s Ariana Greenblatt all posted Stories of the celebration throughout the evening.
That said, there was one true star of the evening: Sweeney’s ultravoluminous disco curl hairstyle, which I’m personally dying to recreate ASAP.
Fortunately, with Halloween and the holidays just around the corner, we finally have an excuse to rock our own over-the-top glam complete with disco curls, which are surprisingly easy to DIY.
New BAFTA chair Sara Putt has reflected upon the events of the past weekend in her first letter to members.
While not addressing Russell Brand – about whom allegations of rape and sexual assault emerged over the weekend – by name, Putt wrote: “This weekend’s news has again raised serious questions about the culture of the screen industries and what still needs to change. BAFTA is supportive of the creation of CIISA, an independent standards authority for those working in the creative industries and I encourage you to find out more about their plans. As a reminder, it is now mandatory for U.K. productions to have a bullying and harassment policy in order to enter our film, games and television Awards, building on principles and guidance on the prevention of bullying and harassment in the workplace as set out here.”
Putt also addressed the ongoing Hollywood strikes, writing: “Harnessing the talents of our global membership, I want BAFTA to take its place as a thought leader, change creator and convener of debate on what’s important to you. It’s a critical time for freelancers at the moment, following the downturn in commissioning and the far-reaching impact of the U.S. strikes. The risk of losing talent who are not able to withstand this financial insecurity, including those on our talent initiatives such as Elevate, Breakthrough and Connect membership, is profound.”
The chair also welcomed the new deputy chairs of BAFTA – Julie La’Bassiere, from the film committee and Siobhan Reddy from the board of trustees.
La’Bassiere has served as the international awards lead for Apple TV+, across feature film and television series, since 2021. Previously, she handled marketing and awards campaigns at Obscured Pictures for clients including Bleecker Street, Amazon Studios, Focus Features, Magnolia Pictures, Netflix and Roadside Attractions. Prior to Obscured, she was the CEO of BAFTA New York and over the past two decades has worked with FilmBuff, British Council, Los Angeles Film Festival, Tribeca Enterprises, CAA, Film Independent, American Cinematheque, Magus Entertainment and Writers Guild of America West.
Reddy is currently studio director at Media Molecule, which is behind “LittleBigPlanet,” “Tearaway” and the user generated content platform Dreams. Media Molecule is one of a group of sister studios that form PlayStation Studios, which is owned by Sony Interactive Entertainment.
Putt said: “Julie La’Bassiere and Siobhan Reddy bring a wealth of experience from the film and games industries and are both brilliant assets to BAFTA. Through their existing work with BAFTA, I know how committed they are to our charitable mission to support, empower and celebrate the screen industries. I look forward to working with them.”
Piotr, 54, and Paulina, 20, are facing life in prison for murder and incest after the bodies of three babies were found at their home in PolandCredit: Newsflash
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Locals said they ‘always suspected something was wrong’, and one neighbour claimed to hear a girl’s screams coming from the houseCredit: Newsflash
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The rotting bodies of three newborn babies were found wrapped in plastic bags in the basement of the Gierasik’s house by social workersCredit: EPA
Locals in Czerniki, northern Poland, said they “always suspected something was wrong” with the family.
One neighbour said: “We often heard him shouting at the children. His verbal abuse was shocking.
“Sometimes we’d hear one of girls screaming.”
The rotting bodies of three newborn babies were found wrapped in plastic bags in the basement of the Gierasik’s house by social workers.
The first two bodies were discovered on Friday and a third was found in an “advanced state of decomposition” on Saturday.
Social workers were tipped off by locals who had grown increasingly concerned about the dad and daughter duo.
Mariusz Duszyński, from the District Prosecutor’s Office in Gdańsk said: “The woman has been charged with two counts of murder and a charge of having an incestuous relationship with her father.”
“The man was charged with three counts of murder, a charge of incest with his 20-year-old daughter, and a charge of having incestuous relations with another daughter.”
According to prosecutors, two of the murdered babies came from Piotr and Paulina’s “consensual relationship”.
The third child was reportedly from a relationship the dad had with another daughter after forcing her into sex.
The prosecutors added that they suspected Piotr of murdering the third newborn.
One local told Polish newspaper the Super Express that Piotr was raising “ten or twelve” children alone following the death of his wife.
Others told Fakt that while the disturbed man may have “seemed calm”, he “had the devil under his skin”.
The neighbour who reported “screams” coming from inside the house of horrors said “the whole village knew something like this was happening”.
“It’s a tiny village, so everyone knew about these things.
“He [the father] has such a personality that everyone in this village was afraid of him. That’s why this case didn’t appear for so long.”
But the depraved father and daughter appeared to hide the true reality of what was happening inside their home from other neighbours.
One of the residents from the small village in northern Poland told the Super Express that “Piotr made a good impression”.
“The yard is neglected, but he installed new windows in the house.
“There was no sign of him drinking. He took the kids for walks or to the forest to pick mushrooms.
“Just ordinary people. Who would have thought that such abominations existed in their home,” they added.
The father and daughter – who were allegedly in a relationship for four years – were discovered when Paulina’s colleagues noticed something was wrong.
Locals guessed that she was pregnant, and suspicion grew when she returned from a week off work “much weaker and constantly tired”.
The 20-year-old reportedly started wearing loose clothing and stuffing tissues down her bra to soak up leaking breast milk.
One of Paulina’s colleagues said: “When she returned early from her holiday the change was visible. She was much thinner, weaker, and constantly tired.
“When we asked about the child, she feigned surprise and denied it.”
Locals in the small village grew more suspicious when the pair walked hand in hand around town and she began calling him Piotr instead of Dad.
Another local told Fakt newspaper that they “lived like a couple” and that Paulina looked up to her dad “as if he were God”.
It was then revealed that depraved Piotr had even shaved his daughter’s head so that other men wouldn’t look at her in the street.
One of Paulina’s work colleagues is also reported to have alerted social services after seeing a “disturbing” text message the 20-year-old had sent to her dad.
Local authorities are waiting for the results of autopsies on the three infants’ remains and cops are continuing to search the property to see if any more bodies are hidden there.
The investigation is ongoing.
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Social workers had been tipped off by locals and Paulina’s colleagues who were growing increasingly concerned about the dad and daughter duoCredit: EPA
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Locals in the small village grew suspicious when the pair walked hand in hand around town and she began calling him Piotr instead of DadCredit: Newsflash
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Local authorities are waiting for the results of autopsies on the three infants’ remains and cops are continuing to search the property to see if any more bodies are hidden thereCredit: EPA
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Both the father and daughter are being held while the investigation is ongoingCredit: Newsflash
Windows Photos is getting a significant update that will introduce a selection of new features designed to improve user experience.
According to Microsoft’s official blog post about the Photos improvements, users can expect features like in-depth search, background blur, location search, and ‘Motion Photos’ – think live photos on iPhones – which will bring a little life to the currently rather drab photo software.
Background blur will surely be welcomed by Photos users who want to remove backgrounds from their photos, highlight certain subjects, or modify the area being blurred. To be honest, it may be cruel to say it, but like the majority of these updates, it’s about time. Many of the new features have already existed for a while on other platforms, most notably within Apple’s software ecosystem.
Get with the times, man
You’ll also be able to search for specific photos by the type of content within the photo. This means you can now type in things like ‘cat, car, beach, holiday’ and more, with the app attempting to identify and collate relevant images. You’ll have to log into your Microsoft account to be able to use the feature, and the blog post does warn that the enhanced search bar may not work right away.
Other features to expect include live photos and location searches, which will help you find the right picture when you’re ready to reminisce (or plan your next vacation Instagram post). If you went to the beach, you can type in either ‘beach’ or the name of the specific beach, the city you visited, or just home and school.
Microsoft seems to be on a roll recently, dishing out updates and new features across its product range, and it’s really good to see. With updates to Microsoft Edge, the continuing popularity of Bing AI, and now a Windows Photo refresh, we’re really eager to see what the company has to offer in the near future.
Outposters, welcome back to Film Club. Apologies for the delay getting back to everyone with this, it’s been a chaotic week! We’ve kept you waiting long enough, let’s get straight to the reviews for Damnation Alley!
Shawn B
Damnation Alley certainly has its charm, despite some of its flaws. This post-apocalyptic adventure doesn’t offer much in the sense of being unique or imaginative. It’s a pretty standard take on a world ravaged by nuclear war and natural disasters. While it may not have achieved the same level of acclaim as other sci-fi classics of its era, it still manages to be entertaining.
One of the standout features is the special effects. Considering the technology available at the time, the filmmakers did an admirable job in creating a desolate and perilous landscape, filled with mutated creatures and treacherous weather conditions. The armored vehicle was the most impressive thing the movie gives us.
Jan-Michael Vincent and George Peppard, deliver solid performances that help anchor the story. Although there wasn’t much adversity, their camaraderie and determination grounded them as they traveled the apocalyptic wasteland. The lack of adversity stems from everyone being so trusting and never having their guard up. The only real threat was the cockroaches.
Damnation Alley isn’t a cinematic masterpiece, but it’s an enjoyable journey into the world of 1970s post-apocalyptic sci-fi. The TL;DR, it’s more fun than good.
Wrenage
Damnation Alley? More like Darnation Alley, amirite? The movie plays like a family-friendly apocalypse. Occasionally, it flirts with having an edge, but such moments are flitting. Plot-wise, a nuclear war happens, which turns the earth into an ecological disaster — not quite as bad as what Greta Thunberg is worried about but pretty bad. A crew of ex-military folk head for greener pastures in their badass “Landmaster.”
George Peppard and his mustache are set up to be hard cases, but they end up only a slightly stern father figure. Jan Michael Vincent is set up the be the rebellious son, but he ends up a good son. A mom comes in along the way. No scene exists where she bakes cookies, but we can imagine it happening. A cute youngster, played by Jackie Earl Haley, also joins the crew. Instead of throwing baseballs, he throws rocks. This completes the family unit. Two other guys are along for the ride, but they are just there to die and bring that pseudo edge to things.
Mostly, Damnation Alley is the makeshift family cruising along in their glorified RV to the rousing tunes of Jerry Goldsmith. Periodically, they are challenged by bad special effects. I do love the “bug rugs,” though. Damnation Alley doesn’t capitalize on the pulpiness of the Roger Zelazny novella on which it is based. It’s more like a skewed Swiss Family Robinson adventure. It is somewhat entertaining, occasionally giving glimpses of what it could have been, but mostly it’s a meandering road movie.
Eggy
Well, that’s an hour and a half of my life I’ll never get back!
Hammy performances, below-average special effects, and totally ridiculous scenarios. The scene where Paul Winfield attempts to escape killer cockroaches by climbing into a broken-down car that he can’t escape from is beyond laughable… “Keegan, his face black, his eyes bulged, his body eaten.”
Some will say that I’m being a tad harsh on the special effects, but let’s remember, in 1977 we got Close Encounters and Star Wars. Yes, Close Encounters had a much bigger budget but let’s not forget that Damnation Alley had a budget of $8m, which is just $3m less than what Lucas had. This is either a testament to George Lucas’ genius or a perfect example of how low the bar was set for this movie.
It gets a half-star for the sole reason of inspiring Elon Musk to make the Cybertruck.
Best Shawn
I really like Damnation Alley. Always have. I first saw it with my older brother in 1980 or ’81 and it made an impression on me at the time. So of course I have a soft spot for it. How can you not love the Landmaster? The vehicle and film obviously have a big influence on the later book series Deathlands, by Jack Adrian. Post-nuclear war landscapes and dangers? I’m in.
Film Club Week 9
So there you have it Outposters, another week completed for Film Club. Let us know what you think of Damnation Alley in the comments below. Also, we want more recommendations as we are about to embark on Week 9 – so let us have them!
Check back every day for movie news and reviews at the Last Movie Outpost
Neena Gupta is one such star who never fails to impress with her fashion choices. From elegant sarees to mini dresses, the actress has rocked every outfit.
Neena Gupta is one such star who never fails to impress with her fashion choices. From elegant sarees to breezy mini dresses, the actress has rocked every kind of outfit. She is much admired for her age-agnostic approach. In the photo, Neena can be seen in a powder blue dress, posing alongside Jackie Shroff. She captioned the photo, “At the screening of our upcoming movie”.The occasion was the screening of a film by Vijay Maurya, titled Sabun, where she has been paired opposite Jackie.
Her dress featured a shrug that she loosely hung over her shoulders. Neena accessorised her look with oversized stud earrings and nude pumps. She tied her hair up in a ponytail. Jackie Shroff, fondly known as Jaggu dada, opted for a blue shirt, paired with beige pants and a white sporty cap.
Many took to the comments section to talk about how Neena Gupta defies aging. “Always inspired by u mam ? n happy for u I think u r doing best work 2nd innings like old wine ? @neena_gupta God bless,” wrote one user. Another wrote, “What a stunner”.
Neena will be seen in the web series by Vishal Bhardwaj (his debut), who is not only the writer and director but also the composer. The series is titled Charlie Chopra and the Mystery of Solang Valley and is an official adaptation of Agatha Christie’s 1931 novel, The Sittaford Mystery. The show boasts a diverse ensemble cast that includes renowned actors such as Naseeruddin Shah, Gulshan Grover, Ratna Pathak Shah and Neena Gupta.
Neena Gupta will be next seen in Anurag Kashyap’s Metro….In Dino. The film comprises an ensemble cast of Aditya Roy Kapur, Sara Ali Khan, Anupam Kher, Pankaj Tripathi, Konkona Sen Sharma Ali Fazal and Fatima Sana Sheikh.
Shreyanka Mazumdar is Chief Sub Editor of the entertainment team at News18. With an unbridled passion for all things Bollywood, music and fashion, she…Read More
Rebecca Welton had all the money in the world, but for three seasons the Greyhounds owner got a special treat free of charge every morning. Her team’s head coach started off every workday by bringing Rebecca a little pink box of his very own homemade shortbread cookies. It was a brilliant way to “butter up” his superior. (Joking, joking. We all know Ted was far too kind to bring someone cookies for any malicious reason.) But it was also frustrating watching her eat them because we couldn’t.
That ends now. Ted Lasso backers can now enjoy them, too. For a price.
Mackenzie Limited has their very own official version of those cookies for sale. And the company’s Ted Lasso Biscuits with the Boss sweets (which we first learned about at /Film) sound as good as they always looked on the Apple TV+ series. Here’s the edible collectible’s official description:
These authentic English biscuits are a touch salty, a touch sweet, and always buttery and rich. One bite of these Ted Lasso shortbread cookies with their signature crumbly texture and you’ll realize why Ted believed in the power of biscuits. “They can bring people together, they can make you feel better, and they can even help you win a football game.” – Ted Lasso
Apple TV+
Each box comes with ten large shortbread cookies equaling nine-ounces of delectable deliciousness in total. Obviously that’s not enough, which is why you can order up to three boxes at once. One box will run you (like Roy Kent) $29.95, two costs $49.95, and three boxes come in at a Zava-like $69.95.
If you have a Coach Beard in your life you’ll probably want to order 300 boxes. (It’s me. I’m the Coach Beard in peoples’ food lives.) For that amount, it’s probably best if you actually do have Rebecca Welton’s number. Either that or work with Ted Lasso.
I don’t know exactly how the developers at Behaviour are planning on re-writing the rules of Chess, but it looks like they’re going to give it everything they’ve got. A recently revealed September Developer update shows that the Dead By Daylight team is taking a lot of recent criticism to heart and reworking plenty of characters, maps, and perks to make the game more accessible and fun for players once more.
Video via Otzdarva on YouTube
The recent controversy regarding the Skull Merchant came to light during a professional match that took a full hour to reach completion due to her ability to 3-Gen survivors with her drones. After the constant waves of memes, jokes, and everything in between on social media and the Dead By Daylight forums, it seems that Behaviour is finally doing something about this.
You can read the full September Developer Update here, but the absolute highlight is the changes coming to this controversial character. To quote the development team:
“Combined, these changes push The Skull Merchant’s drones in a more chase-oriented direction, giving them more immediate consequences when they are triggered rather than slowly building over time. At the same time, her ability to defend generators for excessive lengths of time has also been reduced substantially. We will be keeping a close eye on these changes and making further adjustments as needed.”
Behaviour Development Team via September Development Update
This is excellent news, as anyone who has played against the Skull Merchant knows exactly how painful these matches can be. Checking Steam, you can see that she is one of the only DLC packs that has “Mostly Negative” feedback due to how much of a slog she is to face off against. Matches can take over an hour if they know what they’re doing, which means that it’s a death sentence for the Survivors who found themselves stuck dealing with her pesky drones.
Tweet via @OtzdarvaYT on X (formerly known as Twitter)
With professional Dead by Daylight players weighing in with their opinions on this particular rework, alongside all of the other changes, it seems this could be one of the biggest content changes of all time for Dead by Daylight fans. We can only wait to see if these reworks pan out exactly as they expect, but I know that I’m beyond ready to see what the team is cooking behind the scenes.
About the Author
Shaun Cichacki
As a fan of RPGs, Action & Retro titles, Shaun has been gaming since he was a young boy. With an overwhelming obsession involving Metal Gear Solid and Pizza Tower, you know you’re in for a wild ride when it comes to things he’s writing about.
This year’s 11th Annual Edition of the Chelsea Film Festival will premiere 131 films from 20 countries, including 12 Features, 88 Short Films, 15 Documentaries and 17 Indie Episodics (click below to access the lineup per category).
Running Sept. 18 – 21, this year’s fully in-person Cartoon Forum co-production pitch session will build on pre-pandemic attendance numbers, welcoming 290 buyers, among them nearly two dozen first-time participants, while introducing unseen players into the mix.
Alongside the commissioners, producers, and broadcasters that have made up Cartoon Forum’s traditional base, this year’s bustling edition will host a growing delegation of publishers hungry for fecund I.P. and niche streamers filling in the gaps left by Amazon and Netflix, who will not make the trip to Toulouse in France.
“We’re opening up to a new generation,” says Cartoon Media director Annick Maes. “We’ll have [more than] 20 companies that have never attended Cartoon before, which should make for a very interesting event. How will they pitch? What will they produce? What will they bring [to the mix]?”
Among those new to the mix is Ubisoft Film and Television, a subsidiary of the video game powerhouse bringing the original property “Starpets” to Toulouse. Described as an absurdist space comedy targeting a Y.A. audience, the 3D series comes courtesy of French funnyman Eric Judor (“Wrong Cops”) and “Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart” director Stéphane Berla. Indeed, the project’s older skewing demo and previous pedigree both reflect themes that will echo throughout Cartoon Forum this year.
Maes tells Variety that a number of the forum’s new participants are in fact new to the animation field itself, pointing towards doc projects like “Grandpa & Grandma Made the Revolution,” which comes from war journalist Sophie Nivelle-Cardinale, and the historical series “The Forgotten Women of the Père Lachaise,” which spins off a popular Instagram account.
“We have a certain number of producers who come from fiction and documentary,” says Maes. “And we see them track towards animation to tell their stories with greater ease. [For us] that brings in so much richness, so many new inputs and new collaborations, which will be very interesting to follow.”
Unsurprisingly, of the 76 animated offerings presented at this year’s forum, most target children and most stem from French producers – but all the while the project statistics reveal some subtle shifts. Pre-school content has dipped from previous years, while Young Adult fare has notched upward. And while French studios have a hand in 32 of the selected projects, the program reveals the growing impact of the Irish, Belgian and Nordic industries, which all bring several projects to the table.
This edition will even see a number of Ukrainian projects, which include a series spin-off the fantasy film “Mavka,” and the kid-skewing comedy “Monsterberry Jam.”
“[Expanding our scope] is an ongoing process, and a very important one,” says Maes. “But Cartoon Forum will always remain the [leading] forum for co-production, and thus a kind of window to the future, showing what’s coming next.”
Ireland Baldwin, daughter of Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger, recently welcomed her own baby girl, Holland, and just posted a sweet photo of the two sharing a moment.
“so many fall dumps to be dumped” she wrote alongside a series of photos on Instagram, though it’s the first that has me in my feelings. In the pic, the model and writer beams at her little girl while breastfeeding her in a ridiculously cute sunlit bedroom. Like, this could be a Renaissance painting.
She shares Holland with her boyfriend, musician RAC (you may remember their stripper-themed baby shower), and I’d like to assume he took the picture of his two ladies, because it’s sweet and cute and nice and adorable and all the other things. It’s all the things! I want to call my mom, I want to adopt twelve kittens, let’s enjoy nice things that are nice.
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Other pics in the dump include a daddy/daughter café moment, Holland chillaxin’ in a tiny sweater, cookies, small dogs, and big dogs. Fall vibes immaculate, actually. The post racked up tons of comments, including one from Ireland’s famous dad, who wrote “Love you.” Again, a nice thing that is nice.
Ireland Baldwin continues to share snippets of her life online despite some iffy feelings about social media because she’s growing her business (she has a restaurant in Oregon) and also because it’s kind of annoying to delete your Instagram account. As she explainedin a post in June, “I tried to delete my instagram last night because I just sort of reached a weird breaking point.”
“I kept instagram for as long as I did because to be transparent, I was holding on to the idea that I was throwing away brand opportunities. Since I literally have to request to have my profile deleted (doesn’t work) I guess I’ll stay and make the best of it,” she added. “I love connecting with you all, sharing laughs, glimpses of my little life. I will be more active on the @goodtimes instagram as our business grows.”
The Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead Season 1 Episode 10 release date and time have been revealed. The episode will air on Crunchyroll, Netflix, and Hulu. It will continue to tell the story of Akira Tendo and his friends as they travel through the zombie-infested Japanese landscape.
Here’s when the episode is coming out.
When is the Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead season 1 episode 10 release date and time?
The Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead season 1 episode 10 release date is August 1, 2023.
The Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead season 1 episode 10 release time is:
2:00 a.m. PT
4:00 a.m. CT
5 a.m. ET
9 a.m. GMT
11:00 a.m. CEST
Where to watch Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead season 1 episode 10
To watch episode 10, subscribe to Crunchyroll, Netflix, or Hulu. Crunchyroll offers three plans to its viewers. The Fan Plan costs $7.99 monthly, the Mega Plan costs $9.99, and the Ultimate Fan Plan costs $14.99. All three plans come with a 14-day free trial at the start. The Viewers can also create a free account on the platform and watch selected episodes of the anime.
Netflix offers three plans to viewers in the US. The Standard Plan with Ads costs $6.99 monthly, the Standard Plan (Ad-free) costs $15.49 a month, and the Premium Plan (Ad-free) costs $19.99 monthly. A subscriber can invite others to share their accounts, but they need to have their own accounts and passwords. The number of additional members is decided by the type of plan the subscriber has. The viewers who have existing accounts with the Ad-Supported Basic Plan can watch the season, but this plan is currently unavailable for new or returning subscribers.
Hulu offers three Base plans to its potential subscribers. One costs $7.99 monthly (with ADs), and another costs $14.99 (no ADs). In both cases, the first-month subscription is free. There is also the Hulu + Live TV plan, which includes Disney Plus and ESPN PLUS and costs $69.99 monthly (with ADs, no free trial is available). Viewers can also opt for Disney Bundles. The Duo Basic Bundle (Hulu and Disney Plus, with ADs) costs $9.99 monthly, while the Trio Basic (Hulu, Disney Plus, and ESPN Plus, with ADs) costs $12.99 monthly. The Trio Premium (Hulu, Disney Plus, and ESPN Plus, with no ADs on Hulu and Disney Plus) costs $19.99.
Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead is a TV anime based on the zombie dystopian seinen manga series of the same name written by Haro Aso and illustrated by Kotaro Takata. The plot revolves around Akira Tendo, who discovers that the world has descended into a zombie apocalypse, but for him, that is preferable to working for an exploitative company.
The official synopsis for Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead reads:
“Surviving a zombie apocalypse beats being a wage slave any day! After spending years slaving away for a soul-crushing company, Akira’s life has lost its luster. He lives in a trash-filled apartment, his pay is abysmal, and he can’t even muster up the nerve to confess his love to his beautiful co-worker. But when a zombie apocalypse ravages his town, it gives him the push he needs to live for himself. Now Akira’s on a mission to complete all 100 items on his bucket list before he…well, kicks the bucket.”
Paramount Plus‘ new TV and movie releases for September 18-24 include the first and second seasons of 1987’s Teenage Mutant…
Max‘s new TV and movie releases for September 18-24 include Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper, the animated series Young Love, and…
Hulu‘s new TV and movie releases for September 18-24 include Men in Black: International, the premiere of American Horror Story:…
Peacock‘s new TV and movie releases for September 18-24 include the John Wick spin-off series, The Continental, The Lego Batman…
The mother of soap star Billy Miller, who died Friday at 43, released a statement that thanked fans and explained how her son “fought a long hard valiant battle with bipolar depression.”
Patricia Miller said via X that her son “loved his friends, his family and his fans but in the end the disease won the fight and he surrendered his life.”
Miller was a three-time Daytime Emmy winner known for his roles on The Young and the Restless and General Hospital. He would have celebrated his 44th birthday Sunday.
The outpouring of support from colleagues and fans has been a constant on X over the last 24 hours, with many posting pictures and video from his time on the daytime dramas. Although Miller is best known for his soap roles, he also played Marcus Specter — Harvey’s younger brother — on Suits for several seasons.
“Very sad news for the entire Suits family,” Suits creator Aaron Korsh wrote on X. “Billy Miller has passed away. I flew home once with Billy. We had a great time, bonding over the five hour flight, which seemed like it was over in minutes. A funny, smart, kind, gentle man.”
Weyes Blood has unveiled a new music video for “Twin Flame,” which appears on her 2022 album And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow. Directed by Ambar Navarro, the moody, medieval visual follows Natalie Mering herself in a red dress as she traverses through the candlelit halls of a castle, waiting for her husband to return on horseback. Watch it below.
“Twin Flame” is the latest song from Weyes Blood’s most recent LP to get the music video treatment, following “It’s Not Just Me, It’s Everybody,” “Grapevine” and, as of last month, “Hearts Aglow.” After releasing And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow last November, Weyes Blood performed “God Turn Me Into a Flower” on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert and recorded her take on the jazz standard “When You’re Smiling” for National Geographic’s limited series A Small Light.
A lavish Arabic-language film titled “Sukkar,” that draws inspiration from U.S. writer Jean Webster’s epistolary novel “Daddy-Long-Legs” and is being touted as the Arab world’s first musical movie in the Western canon, is set to release in cinemas across the Middle East and North Africa.
Produced by Saudi-owned broadcasting powerhouse MBC Group, “Sukkar” is conceived by Kuwaiti writer Heba Mishari Hamada and directed by Egypt’s Tamer Mahdy. It features singer Hala Turk, who rose to prominence after being an “Arabs Got Talent” contestant in 2011, in the lead role alongside a wide-range of new young talents from the Arab world.
The movie, which features original songs penned by Hamada and scored by Egyptian composer Ehad Abdel Wahed, is set in an orphanage where the titular character Sukkar and her friends wake up every day “with hopes of transforming their lives into something more meaningful and colourful,” according to the provided synopsis that specifies that “the head of the orphanage, Ratiba, is incredibly mean and makes life even harder for the kids.”
“Sukkar” is set to be released across the MENA region on Oct. 12 by Beirut-based Empire Entertainment, which is one of the region’s top movie distributors. It will subsequently play on MBC’s premium Shahid streaming service. It will be interesting to see how it performs at the MENA box office.
The groundbreaking film’s lead producer is Samar Akrouk, who is group director of production at MBC Group, along with MBC executive producer Lara Ghazal Nassif and MBC producer Alaa Awada, plus executive producer Tamer Mortada and producer Mostafa Al Awadi from Egypt’s Aroma Productions.
A Danish court yesterday ordered an artist to refund a museum which gave him 70,000 euros in cash for art – only for him to deliver blank canvasses.
Jens Haaning was commissioned by the Kunsten Museum in the western city of Aalborg to reproduce two works using the cash – Danish kroner and euros – to represent the annual salary in Denmark and Austria.
But Haaning simply returned empty canvasses to the museum and said his work was entitled ‘Take the Money and Run’.
Museum director Lasse Andersson previously said he laughed out loud when he first saw the two blank canvasses in 2021, and decided to show the works anyway.
He said they have a ‘humoristic approach’ and were ‘a reflection on how we value work’, but confirmed the museum would take Haaning to court if he didn’t pay back the money, which he refused to do.
A Copenhagen court on Monday ordered the artist, 58, to refund the museum equivalent to the sum it had given him minus the artist’s fee and the mounting cost.
But in an interview with TV2 Nord television on Monday, Haaning said the museum had made ‘much, much more’ money than what it invested thanks to the publicity surrounding the affair.
‘It has been good for my work, but it also puts me in an unmanageable situation where I don’t really know what to do,’ he added.
The museum thought the artist planned to include the bank notes in an installation they had commissioned him to create. But when the artwork was revealed for the first time, museum staff were horrified to find nothing but a big, empty frame
The museum nonetheless decided to display the empty frames, admitting that Haaning had created an ‘interesting artwork’, but ultimately a Danish court ordered the artist to return the money
Jens Haaning, a 58-year-old artist living in Copenhagen, was given 534,000 kroner in cash by the Kunsten Museum in Aalborg for use as part of an artwork, but he instead sent the museum empty frames and took the cash
The museum initially thought the artist planned to include the bank notes they provided him in an installation they had commissioned him to create.
But when the artwork was revealed for the first time, museum staff were horrified to find nothing but a big, empty frame.
Speaking shortly after the canvasses were revealed for the first time, Haaning said: ‘It’s not theft. It is a breach of contract, and breach of contract is part of the work,’ he said.
‘The work is that I have taken their money.’
Haaning, who was born in Hoersholm in 1965, gained popularity in the 1990s for his art which focuses on power structures and differences between social groups, and had previously created artwork in which he used banknotes to represent workers’ annual salaries.
The museum expected Haaning to use the money it lent him to recreate his previous artwork by arranging the bank notes into two picture frames, which would visualise the average annual income of a person in Denmark and Austria and form part of the ‘Work It Out’ exhibit.
Running from Sept. 28 to Jan. 16, the exhibit features new and existing works from about 20 artists and occupies the majority of the museum.
But just as the installation was set to open for the first time, the museum received an email from Haaning who confirmed he had taken the money and would not pay it back.
‘Subsequently, we could ascertain that the money had not been put into the work,’ a museum spokesperson said.
The Kunsten Museum of Modern Art in Aarlborg, northern Denmark, plays host to Haaning’s artwork as part of the installation ‘Work it Out’
Take the Money and Run’ by Danish artist Jens Haaning, on display at the museum Kunsten in Aalborg, Sweden, 28 September 2021. The frame should have been filled with around 550.000 Danish kroner in cash, which is supposed to match the average annual salary in Austria and Denmark
In 2021, Kunsten director Lasse Andersen told DR that he agreed Haaning had created an interesting artwork and that the museum would continue to display the empty frames, but would take legal action if the artist did not return the money by the contracted date of January 16, 2022.
‘I would agree with Jens that a work in its own right has been created, which actually comments on the exhibition we have. But that’s not the agreement we had,’ he said.
‘Right now we wait and see. If the money is not returned on January 16 as agreed, we will of course take the necessary steps to ensure that Jens Haaning complies with his contract.’
Andersen claimed the artist’s contract with the museum included a display fee for his work of around €1,340, but that the museum would cover any expenses up to €6,000.
For his part, Haaning said that he took the money in response to his poor working conditions, alleging that the museum’s paltry pay meant he would’ve had to sacrifice are £2,850 of his own money to complete the installation.
‘[Returning the money] is not going to happen. The work is that I have taken their money,’ he told Danish broadcaster DR.
‘I encourage other people who have working conditions as miserable as mine to do the same.
‘If they’re sitting in some sh***y job and not getting paid, and are actually being asked to pay money to go to work, then grab what you can and beat it,’ he said.
EXCLUSIVE: Fremantle has struck a multi-year output deal for Jamie Oliver shows in Germany with RTL.
The agreement will see the Bertelsmann-owned network become the home of the celebrated TV chef’s portfolio of content in Germany, handing exclusive rights for pay-TV, free TV, SVoD and AVoD. Fremantle said the move will “redefine the cookery television landscape for German audiences.”
The German premieres of several Jamie Oliver cooking formats will air on pay TV channel RTL Living, starting with Jamie Cooks the Mediterranean next month. Formats are also set to premiere on free TV platform VOXup, while further specials and Oliver events are in discussion for the flagship channels of RTL Deutschland. On RTL+, the shows will be available for streaming via AVoD and SVoD.
The deal also opens up opportunities for cross-promotion, Fremantle added, including in digital and printed media and publishing of Oliver’s books. Bertelsmann, which also owns Fremantle, has a hefty publishing arm.
“We’re incredibly excited to be starting a new chapter for Jamie Oliver programming and lifestyle content in Germany, working closely and expanding our relationship with RTL Deutschland,” said Maximillian Bolenius, Senior Vice President Distribution, German speaking Europe & Israel at Fremantle.
“The deal will unlock a variety of synergy opportunities across the Jamie Oliver brand via the incredible media portfolio of RTL Deutschland and Bertelsmann. We’re proud to have a long-standing relationship with the Jamie Oliver team and thrilled that we can continue to feed the appetites of his fans across Germany.”
A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked an online child protection law in California and said it probably violates the Constitution.
Under the law, known as the California Age-Appropriate Design Code, digital platforms would have to vet their products before public release to see whether those offerings could harm kids and teens. The law also requires platforms to enable stronger data privacy protections by default for younger users.
U.S. District Court Judge Beth Labson Freeman granted a request Monday by the tech trade group NetChoice for a preliminary injunction against the measure, writing that the law probably violates the First Amendment and does “not pass constitutional muster.”
NetChoice, which counts Amazon, Meta and Google as members, sued to block the law in December, arguing that tech companies have a right under the Constitution to make “editorial decisions” about what content they host or take down and that the law would turn platforms into “roving censors of speech on the Internet.” (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post. Interim Post chief executive Patty Stonesifer sits on Amazon’s board.)
“We look forward to seeing the law permanently struck down and online speech and privacy fully protected,” Chris Marchese, who leads NetChoice’s litigation efforts, said in a statement.
Monday’s ruling is the latest in a string of recent defeats for children’s safety advocates in the courts. Last month, two federal judges temporarily blocked laws in Arkansas and Texas that would require some online service providers to verify users’ ages and to get parent consent to access social media platforms or adult content.
The office of California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) said it disagreed with Freeman’s ruling.
“We are disappointed by the decision and will respond in court as appropriate,” the state Office of the Attorney General said in a statement.
Justin Anderson joined Realscreen as senior staff writer in 2021, reporting and writing stories for the newsletter and magazine. During his 20-year career he’s filled a variety of roles as a writer and editor at a number of media organizations, covering news and current affairs as well as business, tech, the film and music industries and plenty in between. He’s also spent time behind the scenes in television production, having written everything from voiceover scripts for documentaries to marketing copy. He has a degree in Journalism from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University).
During a 1989 roundtable discussion about comedy on The Late Show, Keith Allen argued with the other guests until a producer jokingly told him to shut up because she didn’t like his show. In response, he screamed, “HOW DARE YOU?” and called her names before storming off.
Irish Grinstead, singer and member of the R&B girl group 702, has died. She was 43.
The vocalist died Saturday evening, according to an Instagram post from her sister and fellow group member LeMisha Grinstead. No cause of death was given, but 702 had announced in December that Irish Grinstead would be taking a “leave of absence” from performing “due to serious medical issues.”
The other two members of 702, LeMisha Grinstead and Kameelah Williams, mourned the loss of their beloved bandmate on social media.
“She has had a long battle and she is finally at peace,” LeMisha Grinstead wrote.
“That girl was as bright as the stars! She was not only beautiful on the outside, but also within. Sharing the stage with her was a joy I will cherish for the rest of my life! We, the family ask for prayers and respect for our privacy as we grieve an outstanding loss to our family.”
A “devastated and heartbroken” Williams reacted to the news Saturday.
“There’s a lot I want to say, but there’s no way to say what your heart hasn’t fully accepted,” Williams wrote on Instagram.
“It’s hard to acknowledge this is even happening. … You & I have known each other since we were kids and we’ve laughed, cried, celebrated, and everything in between … I still love you my forever lil sis!!!”
Williams’ tribute also mentioned Irish Grinstead’s late twin sister, Orish Grinstead, who died from kidney failure in 2008 after a battle with cancer, according to Rolling Stone. She was 27.
“I know you’re feeling better now and hugging your twin Orish which makes me smile,” Williams said, “cus I know how much you missed her.”
In the 1990s and early 2000s, Irish Grinstead and 702 were best known for songs such as “Get It Together,” “Steelo” and “Where My Girls At.” The trio’s debut album, “No Doubt,” came out in 1996, followed by two more records in 1999 and 2003.
During its initial rise to fame, the group collaborated with the likes of Missy Elliott and the Neptunes. 702 — which is the area code of the musicians’ hometown, Las Vegas — disbanded in the mid-2000s, per Rolling Stone, but had reunited to perform at various events in recent years.
Creature Commandos, the DC Universe’s first project, will premiere in 2024 as planned, according to actor Frank Grillo, dispelling rumors of a delay.
The animated series features an impressive cast, including Grillo, Sean Gunn, David Harbour, Maria Bakalova, Alan Tudyk, Indira Varma, Zoe Chao, and more.
Creature Commandos takes place in the modern day, establishing the setting for the new DC Universe before the release of Superman: Legacy in 2025.
Creature Commandos, the new DC Universe‘s first project, gets a confirmed 2024 release. James Gunn’s DC Universe will debut shortly after Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom ends the DCEU this December, as the DCU’s Creature Commandos, the universe’s first project and animated series, has been confirmed to arrive before Superman: Legacy, the DC Universe’s first movie, comes around in 2025.
On his Instagram Stories, Creature Commandos Rick Flag Sr. actor Frank Grillo (via u/lawrencedun2002) confirmed that the animated series will premiere in 2024.
Grillo shared an article that claimed Creature Commandos will premiere in 2024 as planned. The actor echoed Gunn’s recent comment about a possible Creature Commandos delay, saying, “No Delay for #creaturecommandos.” Creature Commandos‘ status as an animated series means work on the DC Universe’s first project didn’t have to stop due to the Hollywood strikes, allowing it to keep moving toward its original release window.
Creature Commandos‘ cast includes a talented roster featuring some actors with prior expertise on superhero projects. The animated series’ team consists of Grillo as Rick Flag Sr., Sean Gunn as Weasel and G.I. Robot, David Harbour as Eric Frankenstein, Maria Bakalova as Princess Ilana Rostovic, Alan Tudyk as Dr. Phosphorus, Indira Varma as The Bride, and Zoe Chao as Nina Mazursky. Both Steve Agee and Viola Davis are set to reprise their DCEU roles of John Economos and Amanda Waller, respectively, in Creature Commandos.
The DC Universe’s creative chief, Gunn, has written all seven episodes of Creature Commandos, and while plot details from the show are scarce, fans have some idea of the direction the series’ story is taking. Grillo’s character being the father of Joel Kinnaman’s Rick Flag and the military suit worn by G.I. Robot in Creature Commandos‘ cast reveal made it seem like the animated series might be set in the past, which is not the case.
When asked if the DC Universe’s first project was going to take place in the present or during WW2 — the original setting for the obscure team’s debut in the comics — Gunn confirmed Creature Commandos‘ place in the DC Universe’s timeline, saying it takes place in the “Modern day.” That does not kill the chances that another version of the team might have existed in the past, which a possible season 2 of Creature Commandos could explore. However, it will be good for the new DC Universe to get its setting established a year before Superman: Legacy releases, with Creature Commandos taking some of the pressure off the anticipated DCU film.
YouTube has suspended revenue on Russell Brand’s channel after the British comedian was accused of rape and sexual assault.
YouTube said it had stopped “monetisation” on Brand’s platform because he had violated the company’s “creator responsibility policy.” Brand denies criminal wrongdoing.
“If a creator’s off-platform behaviour harms our users, employees or ecosystem, we take action to protect the community,” a YouTube spokesperson said.
Brand has 6.6M subscribers on YouTube and his videos regularly get millions of views. A recent interview with Tucker Carlson has been watched 2.5M times.
His content will remain on YouTube, but he will no longer be able to make money from the videos, which lean heavily into internet conspiracies about politics, Covid, and UFOs.
Sara McCorquodale, chief executive of social media analysis agency CORQ, told The Guardian that Brand makes an estimated £2,000 ($2,500) to £4,000 per video, which would equate to up to £1M a year if he published five a week.
YouTube’s intervention follows The Times, Sunday Times, and Channel 4 reporting allegations that Brand sexually assaulted four women at the height of his fame.
The Metropolitan Police said on Monday it had received a “report of sexual assault” in 2003 against Brand. Officers are in contact with the woman, who alleges she was assaulted in Soho, London.
Brand vehemently denies the claims and has said all of his relationships were consensual. He has not commented since publishing a video across his social media channels in which he preemptively denied the “litany” of allegations about his criminal behavior.
“The relationships that I had were absolutely always consensual,” he said. “I was always transparent about that then, almost too transparent. And I’m being transparent about it now.”
