Despite Russell Brand making a tour stop at London’s Troubadour Wembley Park on Saturday to a standing ovation, promoters have postponed his upcoming tour dates due to the numerous sexual assault allegations against the comedian. Further indicating Brand’s departure from public life for the present moment, he also skipped his Rumble show Monday, days after he preemptively defended himself on the channel.
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Earlier today, London’s Metropolitan Police announced they were investigating another accusation, this time from 2003, though they did not mention Brand by name. “We are aware of reporting by The Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches about allegations of sexual offenses,” a Met spokesperson told CNN. “On Sunday, 17 September, the Met received a report of a sexual assault which was alleged to have taken place in Soho in central London in 2003. Officers are in contact with the woman and will be providing her with support.”
A joint investigation by England’s The Sunday Times, The Times, and Channel 4 reported that four women accused Brand of sexual assault in incidents occurring between 2006 and 2013. One of the women was 16 at the time of the alleged assault, and Brand was 31. Brand has denied these allegations.
In addition to the postponed tour dates, Brand’s publisher, Bluebird, announced it would “pause all future publishing with Russell Brand.” Bluebird previously published the comedian’s Recovery: Freedom From Our Addictions and Mentors: How To Help And Be Helped and planned on releasing his latest, Recovery: The Workbook, this December. Brand’s literary talent agency, Tavistock Wood, also cut ties. In The Times report, one of Brand’s accusers made allegations to the agency in 2020 and received a “very aggressive” response from Brand’s lawyers for her troubles. “Russell Brand categorically and vehemently denied the allegation made in 2020, but we now believe we were horribly misled by him,” Tavistock Wood said in a statement. “TW has terminated all professional ties to Brand.”
YouTube has suspended monetization on Russell Brand’s channel after the comedian was accused of rape and sexual assault.
“If a creator’s off-platform behavior harms our users, employees or ecosystem, we take action,” a YouTube spokesperson told U.K. media outlets on Tuesday. The company added that Brand had violated YouTube’s “Creator Responsibility policy.”
The move comes as four women variously accused Brand of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse between 2006 and 2013 as part of a joint investigation by The Times, The Sunday Times and Channel 4 Dispatches published on Sunday. Brand has denied the allegations.
Tuesday, September 18th has a brand new Wordle word to solve. Here are the daily hints, and fully spoiled answer, to today’s Wordle.
The newest Wordle word is ready for players to attempt and this word shouldn’t cause too much trouble for most players. The word itself is quite common in normal conversation and doesn’t use any of the normal Wordle tricks that can sometimes throw a player off their game, like duplicate letters or regional spellings.
For those who prefer more of a challenge in their word games, there are a number of Wordle copycats available that increase difficulty and change the way the basic game is played. The battle royale version, Squabble forces players to compete together as they see who will be the first one to solve the answer. There is also Quordle which has players solving multiple puzzles at the exact same time. No matter what difficulty you may prefer there is a daily game out there for you.
Before fully spoiling today’s Wordle answer we wanted to provide a few hints for those who may just need a little push in the right direction.
Hint 1
There are no repeating letters.
Hint 2
The answer is used as an adjective or adverb.
Hint 3
The vowels are in the 3rd & 5th position.
Hint 4
A short distance away.
Today’s Wordle Hints (September 19th #822)
Today’s Wordle answer is CLOSE.
Not a very difficult word for the day but it still took us a few guesses to get it right. We began our game with the starting word POUND, this only provided a single misplaced vowel. Moving forward we tried CLONE. This clearly unlocked the day’s answer for us by providing four of the five letters needed, and all were in the right spots, but there were a few choices to be made.
Our third guess was CLOVE, which proved to be incorrect. With the choices dwindling we finally scored a solid Wordle win-in-four with the correct answer, CLOSE.
Wordle is a web-based word-guessing game developed by Josh Wardle that took the world by storm in 2021. Players are given a five-letter word to guess and have six attempts to get the word correct. When they get a letter correct, it will mark itself as green if it’s in the correct position and yellow if it is the correct letter in the wrong position. A yellow letter also means that letter could appear more than once. Wordle was purchased by The New York Times Company in 2022 and added to their website and app, keeping the core game free to play as promised – with additional words and other bonuses available through subscription, and is available via browser, iOS, and Android.
The annual New York Greek Film Expo has been set for Village East Cinema in Manhattan and the Barrymore Film Center in Fort Lee, N.J. on October 5-15.
The event will screen the latest Greek films, along with a retrospective of the films of acclaimed director, screenwriter and actor Renos Haralambidis, which will be shown at the Museum of the Moving Image (MoMi).
Haralambidis will be in attendance throughout the festival, along with many of the filmmakers whose films are being presented. Filmmaker Q&A’s will follow the screenings.
Film historians Andrew Horton (University of Oklahoma) and Foster Hirsch (Brooklyn College), along with David Schwartz, founder of Cinema Projects and former MoMI chief curator, will conduct interviews with Haralambidis following each of his screenings.
Four of the filmmaker’s movies will be shown at the fest: “Four Black Suits” (2010), “No Budget Story” 1997), “The Heart Of The Beast” (2005) and “Cheap Smokes” (2000).
Other film screening at the fest include “DODO,” “Dignity,” “Broadway” (pictured above), “Iman” and “Black Stone.”
“The New York Greek Film Expo will be showcasing the best of the current Greek film season,” says Jimmy DeMetro, Hellenic Film Society president. “And we are pleased to offer a retrospective of the works of Renos Haralambidis, as we give New Yorkers an opportunity to reassess the work of this important Greek filmmaker.”
A panel discussion on the state of Greek cinema moderated by Nicholas Alexiou, Professor of Sociology, Queens College, CUNY, will be held at the Greek Consulate in New York on October 11.
“The Hellenic Film Society is proud to present the works of Renos Haralambidis,” says George Stephanopoulos, curator of the retrospective and HFS board member. “This retrospective pays tribute to one of Greece’s true auteur directors whose life’s work is his art, encompassing his talents as a director, actor, writer, musician, and dancer. Renos represents the best of Greece and Greek cinema with his personal reflections on modern Athenian life at the core of each of his films.”
The bad news first, Olivia Rodrigo won’t be visiting Australia later this week. The good, she’ll be back next year.
The U.S. pop phenomenon has canceled her trip Down Under at short notice, citing “unforeseen circumstances.”
The “Vampire” singer was scheduled to visit Sydney for a fan Q&A event this Friday, Sept. 22, a session that was to include “an exclusive once-in-a-lifetime Q&A,” along with chances to win a meet and greet with the artist. “I can’t wait to get down to Australia,” she enthused in a statement issued Sept. 1, announcing the promo excursion. “I’ve never been and I’m so excited to meet everyone. I’ll see you soon Livies”.
Those plans are now scrapped.
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“We regret to inform you that due to unforeseen circumstances Olivia Rodrigo’s trip to Australia has been cancelled,” reads a statement from Universal Music Australia. “Unfortunately the fan Q&A event on Friday 22nd September will no longer be going ahead.”
The message contains a caveat. “Olivia is devastated that she won’t be able to make it,” the note continues, “however she’s so excited to see her Australian Livies in 2024.”
That hint at things to come is bound to keep fans on their toes. Just last week, Rodrigo announced two separate waves of dates for her Guts World Tour, which includes stops across North America, the U.K. and Continental Europe, but nothing in Australia.
Rodrigo’s popularity right now in Australia is, like elsewhere, sky-high. Her sophomore album Guts is the current No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart, and all 12 tracks from it impact the national singles chart. Guts is the followup to Sour, Rodrigo’s 2021 debut which logged eight non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 in Australia. All told, three of her singles have led the official ARIA Chart: “Vampire,” “Drivers Licence” and “Good 4 U.”
Proceeds from each ticket for the Guts World Tour will benefit her new Fund 4 Good initiate, which will support community non-profits that work toward girls’ education, reproductive rights and prevent gender-based violence.
Google-owned YouTube has suspended advertisements on videos by comedian and actor Russell Brand after allegations of rape and sexual assault.
YouTube said it had suspended the monetization of Brand’s channel for “violating our Creator Responsibility policy,” adding that the action was in order to “protect” its users.
“If a creator’s off-platform behaviour harms our users, employees or ecosystem, we take action,” said a YouTube spokesperson said on Tuesday.
Brands channels remain on YouTube. One of them has 6.6 million subscribers, while the others range from 20,000 to 426,000.
The allegations against Brand were first made in a joint investigation by The Times of London, The Sunday Times and Channel 4 documentary “Dispatches” over the weekend. They saw four women accuse Brand of sexual assault and, in one case, rape.
The BBC and Banijay, who employed the comedian at the time the incidents were said to have taken place, have launched an investigation into the claims.
Brand has strenuously denied the allegations. He pre-emptively denied the allegations in a YouTube video titled “So, This Is Happening,” where he said he “absolutely refutes” the “litany of astonishing, rather baroque, attacks.”
Meanwhile, the London Metropolitan police has received a report about an assault that allegedly took place in 2003. A police spokesperson said: “Officers are in contact with the woman and will be providing her with support.”
The YouTube move is the latest in a series of Brand cancellations. His live tour “Bipolarisation” has been postponed, with the first show to be affected at the Theatre Royal Windsor on Tuesday. On Monday, his publishing deal with Pan Macmillan imprint Bluebird was suspended.
The son of prominent Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar spoke publicly for the first time since his father’s killing.
At a memorial marking three months since Nijjar’s death, his son Balraj Nijjar said he was surprised by Monday’s announcement from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Nijjar spoke from the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey, where his father was killed in his truck, in the Gurdwara’s parking lot the evening of June 18.
“When I talked to IHIT, CSIS or any of these agencies, they keep telling me that it’s a process so I wasn’t expecting anything so soon,” the 21-year-old told Global News.
“Three months is a long time, but overall, in general, I wasn’t expecting anything. So when news did come out, I was surprised but it kind of drove away a little bit of anxiety that we were feeling.”
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A closer look at Hardeep Singh Nijjar
As the House of Commons resumed Monday, Trudeau informed Parliament there were “credible allegations” of a “potential link” between “agents of the government of India” and the murder.
Nijjar said the loss of his father is still fresh, especially given the circumstances of his death.
“It’s been hard, obviously. You generally don’t expect something like this to happen even in terms of like age, because he’s only 45,” Nijjar shared.
“If it were something like natural causes, it might be a little bit easier to believe and convince yourself of, but the way it went down. He had just come to the Gurdwara to pray and speak from the stage as he usually would every Sunday. It was like a weekly occurrence, not something new.”
On June 18, Hardeep Singh Nijjar was found suffering from multiple gunshot wounds inside a vehicle.
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The RCMP’s Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) initially sought two suspects described as “heavier-set males wearing face coverings.” However, they later said the men were not acting alone.
Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s supporters claim the Indian government was trying to silence him because of his push for an independent Sikh state in India called Khalistan. The Indian government claimed Nijjar was a terrorist and last year, put a bounty on his head.
B.C. reaction after prime minister accuses Indian government of involvement in Surrey murder
His son says there is relief from Monday’s announcement, but adds, for months he and his father were warned of potential danger from India.
Balraj Nijjar shared a direct message to the Canadian government at Monday’s memorial.
“Sikhs all around the world believe this is not the end. This is just the first step,” Nijjar explained.
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“Hopefully, Mr. Trudeau and the rest of the Canadian leaders take a stand.”
Nijjar says Monday’s revelation helps ease the burden on him, his family and the wider Sikh community.
“In terms of responsibility, it fell on my shoulders. My mom took it the hardest. My brother is younger, so it’s harder for him. My grandparents are seniors, so it’s kind of difficult for them as well,” Nijjar admitted.
“So, my role became, ‘how do I try to ease them and also try keeping them a little busy so it doesn’t just become the only thing in their minds?’ Once you just keep thinking those thoughts, it becomes a big burden on yourself.”
Sophie Turner, 27, looked as happy as could be while filming her new show, Joan, in Spain on Thursday. The actress, who recently made headlines due to her and Joe Jonas‘ divorce announcement earlier this month, flashed a big smile as she was photographed wearing a blue short-sleeved bodysuit and high-waisted jeans while in character on the set. She also showed off short blonde hair and rocked bright red lipstick and gold hoop earrings.
Sophie plays jewel thief Joan Hannington in the series, and has been busy filming scenes on location for the past few weeks. Before her latest appearance, she was spotted filming while smoking a cigarette on Sept. 12. It was the first public sighting of her since her and Joe’s divorce news went public, and she looked relaxed while wearing a black tank top and gray biker shorts. She was also seen kissing co-star Frank Dillane during the filming.
Sophie at an event in March. (Marc Patrick/BFA.com/Shutterstock)
Sophie first started working on Joan four months ago. The new role has led her to spend a lot of time in Europe, and it’s unclear when she’ll finish working on the project.
Back on Sept. 6, both Sophie and Joe released a joint statement confirming their split after a Sept. 3 report said they were having “serious problems” with their marriage for six months. Joe also filed for divorce on the same day as their announcement.
“After four wonderful years of marriage, we have mutually decided to amicably end our marriage,” the former lovebirds wrote in the statement. “There are many speculative narratives as to why, but truly this is a united decision, and we sincerely hope that everyone can respect our wishes for privacy for us and our children.”
At the time of their separation, Sophie and Joe, who were married in May 2019, share two children, including daughter Willa, 3, and a one-year-old daughter whose name has yet to be publicly revealed. Joe asked for joiny custody during the divorce filing and “frequent and continuing contact with both parties,” according to TMZ.
LYON, France — Four-time Oscar winner Alfonso Cuarón and “Time Bandits” helmer Terry Gilliam will join a star director-studded lineup at this year’s Lumière Film Festival including Wes Anderson, Alexander Payne and Wim Wenders.
Cuarón (“Roma,” “Gravity”) is returning to Lyon – where he was a guest of honor in 2018 – to present a selection of films by Swiss filmmaker Alain Tanner (“Charles Dead or Alive,” “The Salamander,” “Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000”).
Gilliam will screen the newly restored version of his 1995 sci-fi thriller “Twelve Monkeys.”
One of Anderson’s latest shorts, “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” part of four Roald Dahl adaptations to be released on Netflix later this month, will screen at Lyon’s plush 2,000-seat Auditorium, where he will give a masterclass.
Like other guests, he will not only be introducing a retrospective of his own films but works by others, as part of an ongoing drive by the festival “to strengthen the link between the past and the present of cinema,” said Maelle Arnaud, head programmer at Lyon’s high-energy Lumière Institute which organizes the fest.
“From the start, we created this link by asking actors and filmmakers of today to talk about classic films. But we also wanted them to present contemporary films because it’s the history of cinema [that’s in the making],” she explained to Variety.
Alexander Payne (“Sideways,” “The Descendants”), for instance, will deliver a masterclass and premiere his Toronto buzz title, “The Holdovers.”
As already announced, this mid-October’s 15th edition will see the festival’s only prize, the Lumière Award for lifetime achievement, go to German filmmaker Wim Wenders.
“It was important for us to celebrate Wim Wenders because he’s a complete artist: He’s a photographer, a writer, and a filmmaker. He is interested in cultural disciplines and artists from around the world. His work as a documentary filmmaker, for example, bears witness to the kind of person and artist he is: he has, among others, made films about a Brazilian photographer (“The Salt of the Earth,” about Sebastião Salgado, 2014), a German dancer (“Pina,” about Pina Bausch, 2011), and a Japanese filmmaker (“Tokyo-Ga,” about Yasujirō Ozu, 1985),” Arnaud explained.
Wenders will pay tribute to U.S. playwright and collaborator Sam Shepard, writer of “Paris Texas,” and will present a selection of his film favorites which includes Terrence Malick’s “Days of Heaven” (written by Shepard) and “Beau Travail” by Claire Denis, who was his assistant early on in her career. Wenders’ photography will also be exhibited at three galleries run by the Institute.
Organised by the Lumière Institute, headed by Cannes Festival general delegate Thierry Frémaux, the Lumiere Film Festival has shared in exclusivity with Variety its rich 2023 full program. This includes more than 400 screenings, world premieres of both fresh classic film restorations and new titles, apart from its multiple masterclasses by A-list guests.
The Lumière crowd will be spoilt for choice with French premieres including Hayao Miyazaki’s latest offering, “The Boy and the Heron,” and masterclasses by the likes of Taylor Hackford (“Ray,” “White Nights”), Jean-Jacques Annaud – whose “The Name of the Rose” will close the festival on Oct. 22; Pedro Almodóvar muse Marisa Paredes, and Japanese director Rintaro, who will screen his first anime in 14 years, short film “Nezumikozo Jirokichi: A Manga Film Dedicated to Sadao Yamanaka.”
French A-listers attending the festival include Michel Hazanavicius, the director of best picture Oscar-winner “The Artist,” in town for the 30th anniversary of his cult parody “La Classe Américaine,” which consists exclusively of classic Warner Bros film clips, re-edited and dubbed with fresh dialogues to create a radically different film.
The festival’s Permanent History of Women Filmmakers sidebar, which spotlights the work of iconic women in film, will be dedicated to Spanish actress-turned-director Ana Mariscal. “These are splendid restorations by our partner institute, the Filmoteca Española – we are delighted to put Ana Mariscal not only on the map of Spanish cinema but of world cinema,” enthuses Arnaud, who adds that the coveted Lumière Classics label, which showcases recent restorations during the festival, is a much sought-after launchpad to raise films’ international visibility.
As every year, filmgoers will be able to enjoy brand new restorations of classics by the likes of Stanley Kubrick (“Fear and Desire”) and Francois Truffaut (“Vivement Dimanche!”) as well as rare gems from Korea, Estonia, or Madagascar, carefully curated by the Lumière team throughout the year.
Other retrospectives will focus on the work of Robert Altman, rare works by Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu and pre-New Wave director Denys de La Patellière. The latter, explained Arnaud, is part of the festival’s wish to shine the light on French cinema which has been “discredited by the Nouvelle Vague, and still suffers from a preconceived notion that it is old-fashioned when, in fact, it is incredibly modern.”
On the final night of the festival, audiences will have a chance to attend a rare “Star Wars” trilogy all-nighter as part of Disney’s 100th anniversary celebrations. Other Disney classics, including newly restored versions of “The Jungle Book” and “Cinderella,” will be screened at special kids’ events throughout the festival.
The Lumière Film Festival kicks off in Lyon on Oct. 14, running through Oct. 22. The 11th edition of the International Classic Film Market (MIFC) will take place alongside the event over Oct. 17-20.
Alfonso Cuarón, Terry Gilliam, Wes Anderson, Alexander Payne
Colorado State defensive back Henry Blackburn is on the receiving end of death threats after laying a controversial hit on Travis Hunter during Saturday’s game … and now, university police tell TMZ Sports an investigation into the hateful messages is underway.
Blackburn received a ton of heat for his massive late hit on the Colorado receiver in the first half of the Rams vs. Buffaloes matchup… which left Hunter sidelined for weeks with a lacerated liver.
Some looked at Blackburn’s tackle as targeting … including LeBron James, who went on X to say, “That was blatant and uncalled for IMO!”
Travis Hunter was hit after the play by a dirty player on Colorado State named Henry Blackburn. pic.twitter.com/x1I6l7QRDa
Shortly after the tackle went viral on social media, the safety and his family were singled out by furious fans … and we’re told cops are taking the interactions seriously.
“CSUPD is aware of death threats against CSU football player Henry Blackburn, and the investigation is ongoing,” a university police spokesperson told us on Monday.
“The police department will continue to monitor the situation, and the university is actively supporting the player and his family.”
CSUI athletic director Joe Parker told Pete Thamelof ESPN he’s concerned for Blackburn … saying Henry never meant to hurt Hunter or anyone on the field.
“It’s not what we teach or coach,” Parker said. “We hope that the irrational vitriol directed at Henry stops immediately.”
Pooja Entertainment and Kriti Sanon released her first look from her upcoming film Ganapath. They took to Instagram and shared posters in different languages, revealing that Kriti is set to display her action side in the movie. In the poster, Kriti appeared in a rugged look. She sports a scar underneath her eye and has a nose ring as well. She appeared to be ready to dive into action. The team also revealed that her character’s name in the movie is Jassi.
Sharing the poster, Pooja Entertainment wrote, “She is fierce. She is unstoppable. She is ready to kill. #MeetJassi #Ganapath in cinemas this Dussehra, 20th October.” Fans are excited to see Kriti in an action avatar. “Aag lgega ❤️❤️,” a fan wrote. “Action queen with action kingliterally goosebumps Gauranted..#first day first show ❤️,” added another.
“Bhai kya look h yrr jassi ka to❤️,” a third added. “What a great poster yaar Kritsu! You’re roaring ✨What a fabulous poster yaar! Literally gives me again goosebumps yaar! FIRE HAI BOSS!THIS IS REALLY UNBELIEVABLE! FINALLY! OUR GANAPATH KI JASSI IS HERE WITH US!!!!!READY TO ROAR!!!!!! ALL THE BEST JASSI…..@kritisanon,” a fourth fan wrote.
On Monday, Tiger Shroff’s first look from the movie was released. In the poster, Tiger Shroff is seen showing off his intense looks, as he clinched the red fighting gloves with his teeth. Apart from his bulbous biceps in a grey vest, the actor is surrounded by people cheering for him in the background. The actor shared the poster with the caption, “Usko koi kya rokega…jab Bappa ka hai uspe haath. Aa Raha Hai Ganapath… karne ek nayi duniya ki shuruwat #GanapathAaRahaHai #Ganapath in cinemas this Dussehra, 20th Oct.”
Ganapath is directed by Vikas Bahl. The film is produced by Vashu Bhagnani, Jackky Bhagnani, Deepshikha Deshmukh, and Vikas Bahl. The film is set for a worldwide release in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada on October 20, 2023.
Dishya Sharma, Chief Sub Editor, is part of the entertainment team at News18. She eats, sleeps, and drinks entertainment. While Indian films have fuel…Read More
Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige first announced a third ride for Avengers Campus at the 2022 D23 Expo, promising fans the ability to “battle alongside all the Avengers” and against a new villain, King Thanos.
A year later, Disney has updated fans on how they will traverse the Multiverse and the Avengers helping to pull it off.
New Details on King Thanos Avengers Ride
At the 2023 Destination D23, Disney shared a new look at the ride vehicle for its Avengers Campus King Thanos attraction.
According to Disney, this high-tech vehicle is designed to jump “between worlds and even realities – on planet Earth and beyond.”
Disney
It will also combine “portal technology and flight capabilities to maneuver through the skies, allowing heroes (and recruits) to deploy wherever they are needed.”
While the story and the overall ride experience, such as its movement and speed, have yet to be revealed, Walt Disney Imagineering teased “physical” and “large-scale” environments, as well as “immersive media.”
In short, this is more than just a simulator or screen-based ride.
It was also revealed that three different MCU franchises contributed to the creation of the reality-jumping vehicle as, according to Marvel, the design is inspired by Tony Stark’s time suits from Avengers: Endgame, Xandarian jump points from Guardians of the Galaxy, and Black Panther Wakandan technology.
But now that Marvel fans know how they will travel to different worlds and timelines, it’s important to note who they will be encountering all the way.
Original concept art revealed for this attraction featured an assemblage of heroes unlike any other, from Thor and both Captain Americas to Ms. Marvel and Daredevil – even animated characters from What If…?will be included.
Disney
But that’s not all. In addition to a white-bearded King Thanos, Kevin Feige teased foes from “anywhere and everywhen.”
Disney
This suggests Marvel baddies from phases past could return as well.
But just like the MCU itself, the story of Avengers Campus is connected to other Marvel theme park experiences around the globe, serving as “a Variant of the main MCU timeline” and one that “mirrors” MCU canon.
This is why Iron Man and Black Widow are still alive and able to cross paths with new characters from the latest MCU movies and Disney+ shows.
But once this epic new ride debuts, a Variant timeline won’t only be an explanation for Disney’s Marvel experiences but rather a story all its own and one that allows Avengers Campus to explore the Multiverse alongside the MCU.
Disney’s King Thanos Avengers ride has not yet received an opening date.
Blue Beetle is facing challenges due to changes in the franchise and the actors’ union strike, but it is still performing better than expected thanks to its appeal to the Latino community.
With a lower budget compared to other DC films, Blue Beetle has a higher chance of making a profit and is garnering support from a dedicated fan base.
The movie follows Jaime Reyes as he becomes the new host of the scarab, an artifact that grants him powerful abilities and sets him on a journey to protect his family and honor his father’s legacy.
Blue Beetle is determined to be a moderate but considerable success even if that exclusively depends on the fans hard work to promote the movie, which it seems to be working out.
Jaime Reyes’ introduction to the world of superheroes on the big screen has come in the worst possible time. First of all, Angel Manuel Soto’s picture got caught in the middle of the many changes the franchise is going through. Last year, Warner Bros. Pictures merged with Discovery, and a new CEO came in. David Zaslav knew the DCUneeded a fresh start urgently, and named James Gunn and Peter Safran as the heads of DC Studios, a division in charge of developing and supervising all the projects related with the brand, including movies, tv shows, animated projects and videogames.
Unfortunately, four movies were already set to be release: Shazam! Fury of the Gods, The Flash, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and Blue Beetle. The first two ended up being huge disappointments at the box office, which seems a very unfavorable scenario for Xolo Mariduena’s led film to come out.
But that’s not all. Last months, the actors’ union joined the writers’ on strike, demanding better working conditions, better deals when it comes to residual payments now that streaming exists, rules on the use of AI in the industry, among many other stuff. This means that the stars from the movie cannot promote it, which of course doesn’t help to get people to go to theaters to see the film.
Blue Beetle May Perform Better Than Originally Expected
Warner Bros. Pictures
Even in the middle of all of that, Blue Beetle‘s projections are getting better, especially because the movie is aiming to the Latino community, a market where is doing pretty well. According to recent report from Deadline, the film is now tracking to gross $30 million dollars during its debut weekend, which is lower than what The Flash did. But Andy Muschietti’s movie had a budget of $200 million, while Blue Beetle’s near $120 million, so it needs much less money in order to make a profit.
Blue Beetle has another huge advantage, which is the fans. While a big part of DC fans and the media didn’t support The Flash, mostly because of the VFX and all the conflicts around Ezra Miller, Blue Beetle is being fully supported by a considerably large portion of the audience, even beyond the Latino community. So projections could still go higher for the next DC film.
The movie follows Jaime Reyes, a young man recently graduated from college who returns home to find out his family is going through a hard time financially. In order to help them, he tries to get a job with the help of Jenny Kord, part of the family behind one of the most powerful companies in the city.
While trying to honor her father’s legacy, Jenny steals an ancient artifact that her aunt had to create weapons, and gives it to Jaime to guard it for her. Which none of them expected was that the artifact, known as the scarab, would choose the young man to be the new host of its powers.
In a couple of weeks’ time, Jack Dorsey will be running Square’s business again. Dorsey founded the fintech company in 2009 before expanding its services and renaming it Block by the end of 2021. Square itself, the financial platform for small-to-medium businesses, became one of the businesses under the new company. Block also owns Cash App, installment payment provider Afterpay, website creator Weebly and a controlling stake in music streaming service Tidal. In February this year, Alyssa Henry was named the CEO of Square after years of serving as its EVP and head of its seller unit. Now, according to a regulatory filing seen by CNN, Henry is stepping down and leaving the company on October 2.
Dorsey will take on the additional role as “Square Head” in addition to helming Block, though it’s unclear if he will fill the seat permanently or will serve as a temporary leader until the next CEO takes over. “As CEO of Square, Alyssa Henry helped transform the business into a software-led technology company, guided the team during the uncertainty of global pandemic lockdowns, and expanded our breadth of services for small businesses around the world,” a Block spokesperson told CNN. “Square is what it is today in large part because of Alyssa’s leadership and we wish her the best in her future endeavors.”
Prior to joining Square, Henry led Amazon Web Services’ storage services division and oversaw software development, operations, as well as inbound and outbound product management for several teams. Her LinkedIn page still lists Square as her employer and doesn’t say where she’s headed next. Henry’s reason for departure also remains unknown, and Block didn’t say whether it was connected in any way to the outage Square experienced a few days ago. As Payments Dive notes, Square was out for almost a whole day, leaving merchants unable to process payments.
In a recent interview with Deadline, Anderson says that he believes his style is recognizable because he films sequences in a specific way that “is not so typical for everybody. And I do it a lot.” Anderson clarified that he believes he doesn’t have an aesthetic but has “an invention” that changes with each project he works on.
“What I was doing in Bottle Rocket was what I had. That was my aesthetic,” Anderson said. “And it changed in this one. And, every time, so much of the next movie is informed by something we did in the one before. Like, people often refer to me doing these kinds of dolly shots, and Asteroid City begins with a long one. We go from one place to the next, and we run around. It’s a certain kind of way to film a sequence that is not so typical for everybody. And I do it a lot.”
Anderson’s signature dolly shot started on Bottle Rocket when the day of filming on the baseball field. Unfortunately, the field was flooded by an earlier storm. In problem-solving mode, Anderson knew that he had to film on the baseball diamond between home plate and third base, and decided to put everything facing one dugout and film the scene all the way that way.
“When I did it, I thought, ‘Well, I liked that. That was interesting and I enjoyed it.’ And so I feel like I’ve been doing variations of that ever since. That’s why I do those—because the baseball diamond was too flooded.”
‘The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar’Credit: Courtesy of Netflix
Each project Anderson pursues brings something new to how he approaches his next project. From stop motion to animatics to building sets that can pull away and come back together, Anderson is constantly challenging himself to push his visual style.
“And often I feel like that’s the way things kind of evolve when you’re doing movies,” Anderson says in the interview. “You know, you find the thing you like, and then you do it again, do it a bit differently, and then you say, ‘OK, I’m going to try a different thing here. I’ll go another direction.'”
While we might believe that Anderson has a specific aesthetic, Anderson sees his visual style as something that naturally evolves as he continues to make movies. He has a way that he likes to film, but he is open to challenging himself and evolving around the unique problems that inevitably come to each set.
Anderson is not afraid to experiment with new ideas and styles, and his work is always evolving, just as your work should always continue to grow as you keep making films, commercials, music videos, or TV shows. Never push yourself into a corner that you can’t grow out of. Never limit your imagination because it could stunt your creativity. But, it must be said, it’s not a bad thing to have an aesthetic. It just means that you know what you like and you are good at achieving that particular look. It’s a natural consequence of being a great storyteller.
Do you think Wes Anderson has an aesthetic? Let us know in the comments.
Legendary director, Lee Tamahori, who is behind such iconic movies as ‘Once we were Warriors’, ‘The Edge’ and the James Bond classic, ‘Die Another Day’ is back again focusing on a passion of his: the Maori tribes. This time, master Tamahori is painting the story of a preacher, played by the splendid, mesmerizing Guy Pearce, who arrives at a British settlement in New Zealand in the 1830s. His violent past is soon drawn into question and his faith will be put to test as he finds himself caught in the middle of a rageful war between Maori Tribes. This is a movie to be only seen on the big screen as the scope captured by Tamahori’s camera is simply breathtaking. You feel every texture, every nuances of the Maori culture in the middle of an inner transformation. ‘The Convert’ is a beautiful film to savor for it will free your soul and restore your inner faith in Life.
We were lucky to catch, for a moment in his busy schedule, Mr. Lee Tamahori.
Q: How are you enjoying TIFF and what does this festival means to you?
Lee: I tremendously enjoy Toronto. I have always admired Toronto because there is no jury judging your movie here. The audience decides what is the best movie and I love that. I love the relationship that I establish with the audience. I think it’s a bit more egalitarian to be appreciated by the audience and not a jury of industry members.
Q: What inspired you to make this film, how did it come about?
Lee: What is funny is that I didn’t want to direct this movie, at first. It was brought to me by producers who wanted me to fix the script. And I’m not a fan of religious characters, especially religious zealots. They carry too much baggage and it’s hard to argue with them. My producer friends were insisting for me to try to fix the script and to make it more interesting. I decided that this character, Thomas Munro, played by Guy Pearce was not a man of God but a Humanist. He is a man hiding out in religious clothes, from something he is trying to avoid. It’s not that he is agnostic, especially in these times, you had to believe in God. So, I went ahead, and I started to rewrite this character and the script. The more I got into the screenplay, the more I started to like the world I was dwelling into. By the end of my writing process, I agreed to direct it. And the rest is history. I really had a great time making this movie. This film is a little bit of a John Ford homage and there is a lot of ‘Fort Apache’ in it.
Q: Tell me about the various key challenges you faced making this movie?
Lee: There were really two main challenges. The first one was to be as honest and as accurate we could be with such a difficult period movie and to recreate that world as it was in the 1830’s. I really wanted to be true to the Maori characters and not betray their culture. There are no photograph and only sketches from that period and from the Maori cultures. So, it wasn’t simple to bring to life these characters and these battles. It’s also from a European perspective. So, we did as good as we could with all the historical elements we could find in order to remain as accurate as possible. Everything in this film was built as truthfully as possible by lots of people who did some hard research to find out about the various weapons, the costumes, the buildings, etc. Another challenge was to be as accurate as possible about the Maori language. The one you hear in the film is not really the one for the 1830’s, that language was lost but it is close enough from the real language spoken in those times. The other big challenge was finding and creating a landscape that was in prestige condition to be able to film our picture. But we found such places that had not be touched by European colonization.
Q: What do you think this film is truly exploring, themes wise, messages wise?
Lee: It’s really about respect for each other cultures. It’s about two cultures not truly understanding each other. It’s also a love story. It’s a unfulfilled love story between two human beings. There is no sexual relationship involved. It’s about respect and admiration for each other. At the end the preacher understands how this woman is giving herself to her worse enemy’ son to stop the war between the two tribes.
Q: What did you learn about making this movie and did it transform you in any ways?
Lee: I learned I could still make a movie at my age! On top of that I had a deficient ankle and therefore it was quite a physical challenge to make this film. I couldn’t walk very well, and I had to be driven around in a golf course. It proved to me I could do such an epic picture. Also, making an independent movie, outside of the Hollywood system, is a great adrenaline shot for me. I made studios movies and independent movies and I really enjoy the freedom you get from making independent movies.
Q: Ultimately what is the takeaway for you with The Convert and what do you hope the audience gets from watching your movie?
Lee: It’s a period drama that I hope will entertain people, even so it has a few bells and whistles in its heart. I hope the audience will now have a better appreciation and understanding of the Maori culture. I hope it’s an inspiring movie that will give hope we can transcend our difference and reach out to each other to get to a certain level of Peace.
In an exit interview with Vulture, Winning Time EP Kevin Messick the producers never had a time frame for how long the series might run, saying: “I think we always took it season by season. Before the [WGA] strike happened, we had just started to talk about what would’ve happened in Season 3, but all that was curtailed and cut short.”
Season 2 was intended to end with the Lakers’ churning loss to the archrival Boston Celtics in the 1984 NBA Finals. That version was sent to critics as the season began, but the tweaked version that aired featured Lakers owner Jerry Buss (John C. Reilly) and his daughter and future team owner Jeanie Buss (Hadley Robinson) sprawled on the Forum logo celebrating the better times. That was followed by a montage about the key players’ later fates.
That ending montage “could have run at the end of any season,” Messick said. “But it works no matter how long we got to make the story because the success and the accomplishments of each of our characters are true no matter what year it airs.”
He added: “All I can say is I don’t think there was a magic number of seasons, but if you read Jeff Pearlman’s book, and the subsequent books that he wrote about the Lakers afterward, there are definitely more stories to tell..”
The Lakers went on to win the NBA title in 1985 and back-to-back in 1987 and ’88.
Featuring exquisitely depicted period-specific production design, the series starred the likes of DeVaughn Nixon, Delante Desouza, Jimel Atkins and Quincy Isaiah as players, Jason Clarke as GM Jerry West, Adrien Brody as coach Pat Riley and Jason Segel as ill-fated coach Paul Westhead.
Fans of scary films don’t have to spend an arm and a leg to celebrate Halloween. Shout! TV and Scream Factory TV once again present the 31 Nights of Horror streaming event in 2023, which can be seen for free on each service. Every night in October will include a double feature from the horror genre starting with Night ofthe Living Dead and Day of the Dead on Sunday, October 1.
The 5th annual 31 Nights of Horror begins at 8 p.m. EDT each night. Fans can watch the edited versions of the double-feature selections on Shout! TV, while Scream Factory TV will present them uncensored. Check out the announcement trailer for this year’s 31 Nights of Horror below:
Mario Bava’s Black Sabbath (October 3), which stars the incomparable Boris Karloff, is among one of the many high-profile horror flicks joining this year’s stacked lineup. The Exorcist III is scheduled as the second feature on October 6, while John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 and the horror comedy Saturday the 14th have the honor of being programmed on one of the scariest days of the year: Friday, October 13.
Celebrate Halloween with some of the besthorror films this fall. On Tuesday, October 10, Vincent Price’s Last Man on Earth will stream during Shout! TV and Scream Factory TV’s 31 Nights of Horror. Meanwhile, Hammer Film Productions’ Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde brings its new twist to author Robert Louis Stevenson’s gothic, 1886 novel on October 27. And possibly the worst movie ever made, Plan 9 from Outer Space, makes this year’s roster on October 28.
Fans can check out the complete list of double features which appear during this year’s 31 Nights of Horror (below). And it’s worth glancing over the list of films in its entirety because footage from Sleepaway Camp, starring Felissa Rose, is definitely shown in the announcement trailer. But Sleepaway Camp is not included on this year’s schedule, at the time of this writing.
40 years ago in 1983, Rose was 13 years old when she portrayed the character whose jaw-dropping reveal left 1983 audiences stunned in their seats! Rose participated in an interview conducted for Shout Factory’s retrospective titled At the Waterfront After the Social: The Legacy of Sleepaway Camp. Rose discussed the iconic horror movie moment and how she knew it would be a game changer, even at such a young age:
“I just remember my mom being very — because they shot it separately: my night and the gentleman who was wearing… you know whose [SPOILER], the man whose [SPOILER] is the… you know, the star of the film. They were very good about making sure I didn’t see much. Like I’m just sitting there, and it’s him. And it was all kind of in play, and fun, and light, and everybody laughing. But it was clear to me that it was an intense moment. And it was clear to me that this was going to be shocking.”
For those who already know Angela’s (Rose) big “secret,” and want to celebrate the Sleepaway Camp’s 40th anniversary now, the classic is available to stream for free on a number of sites, including Shout! TV, Pluto, Tubi and Crackle. And check out the endless viewing options and the complete schedule for 2023’s 31 Nights of Horror now.
For those who are looking for a more family friendly approach to celebrating All Hallows’ Eve by watching movie marathons, check out Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween. There will also be special anniversary screenings for The Exorcist, House of 1000 Corpses and The Birds in select theaters, while TCM, AMC, Shudder and MeTV’s scary selections will surely combine with all the other festivities to make 2023 an unforgettable and spooky celebration.
The true story behind multi-hyphenate Tyler Perry’s rise to fame is at the center of documentary “Maxine’s Baby: The Tyler Perry Story,” which is set to make its world premiere at the 2023 AFI Fest.
The Amazon Studios and Bekele Films documentary will be the centerpiece screening at this year’s AFI Fest, taking place October 25 through 29 in Los Angeles. “Maxine’s Baby” will screen Friday, October 27 at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles.
Gelila Bekele and Armani Ortiz direct the film, which takes audiences into the inner world of Tyler Perry, whose story has never fully been told. Perry is billed as a father and a media mogul with a mission to pave his own road to the top. “The film is a profound lesson on remembering where you came from to know where you want to go,” the description states.
AFI President and CEO Bob Gazzale teased the documentary ahead of the AFI Fest premiere.
“Tyler Perry is a creative force of nature – a multi-hyphenate who forged his own path to seismic impact in the world of storytelling while also inspiring the next generation to follow in his footsteps,” Gazzale said. “‘Maxine’s Baby’ is an epic celebration of a modern maverick, and it is AFI’s honor to shine a proper light upon Mr. Perry and the film at AFI FEST.”
The film’s co-directors Bekele and Ortiz added, “We are honored to premiere ‘Maxine’s Baby’ at AFI Fest. Working on this film for the past decade has been a life-changing journey for the both of us. Getting intimately acquainted with the man behind the icon while witnessing the transformative impact of Mr. Perry’s work within various communities has been truly awe-inspiring. We hope this film is more than a road to success story, but rather, a meditation on healing, unconditional love, and an inspiration to audiences.”
Perry currently has a four-picture film deal to write, direct, and produce movies for Amazon Studios. He recently helmed Netflix melodrama “A Jazzman’s Blues” which was decades in the making.
This year’s AFI Fest is set to open with the world premiere of Sam Esmail’s “Leave the World Behind” starring Ethan Hawke, Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Myha’la Herrold, and Kevin Bacon. The drama is based on Rumaan Alam’s 2020 novel about an Airbnb vacation turned apocalyptic for two families.
The 2023 AFI Fest will close with Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro,” following the film’s debut at Venice and its North American premiere at NYFF.
Legendary film noir director and actress Ida Lupino may be fist-pumping from the grave over the superior neo-noir Valleyheart, written and directed by Kathryne Isabelle Easton. Jane Francis (Easton) is pounding on the door of a house in the San Fernando Valley, begging her ex-husband David (Anthony Goes) to let her in. Crying from the porch, she says she regrets how their marriage fell apart after David joined the Van Nuys police force.
“…someone shoots Jane in the back, and the mobsters drag Tommy away…”
Jane is going through all this because her brother, Tommy (Jack Herholdt), is in big trouble with the mob he has been doing the books for. She pleads to the closed door for David to please help Tommy and to let her in. She then collapses on the porch, bleeding from a gunshot wound. Jane comes to in a cheap North Hollywood motel with David dressing her wounds and asking Jane who shot her. She says Tommy asked her to empty her account and bring $10,000 to the park with the giant snake statue. Jane is supposed to hand the money to mob henchmen Ivan (Collin Babcock) and Dell (Scott Babock) so they’ll let Tommy go. During the transaction, someone shoots Jane in the back, and the mobsters drag Tommy away with the money.
David lets Jane know he isn’t a cop anymore, and she bled all over his Air BnB. But he reaches out to his old partner, Gene (Jeremy S. Walker). It turns out he has been siphoning mob money through cryptocurrency investments and is dead if he doesn’t come up with $40,000 more. Meanwhile, the dark currents that flow through the Valley start coiling around everyone like the giant stone snake in the park that started this nightmare scenario.
Mwah! Puckering up on camera is a major part of many celebrities’ careers — and some stars were fortunate enough to have good kisses from the start.
Taylor Swift, for example, ended up in a relationship with the boy who smooched her for the first time. “I was one of the last of my friends to ever kiss a guy. It wasn’t a bad kiss,” the “Look What You Made Me Do” singer told Tiger Beat in 2013. “I think it was cute. We ended up dating for a year!”
Similarly, Milo Ventimiglia said his first kiss, which happened when he was a freshman in high school, was scary, but very sweet. “I was shocked and terrified and in love and feeling something I’d never really felt before,” he told W magazine in June 2017. “And it was amazing and I wanted it again.”
Khloé Kardashian, on the other hand, remembers the circumstances surrounding her first kiss, but can’t recall details of the person she shared it with. “It was on a family vacation in Hawaii when I was 12 or 13,” she wrote in a blog post on her website in April 2016. “The teenagers were allowed to be out until 10 p.m. and we were in an arcade where the hotel kids hung out. I remember I kissed some guy there and I thought I was so cool and so grown. I don’t remember the boy and I can’t tell you anything else about the experience.”
After the Wizards of Waverly Place alum opened up in March 2020 about her awkward smooch with Dylan Sprouse while filming The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, the actor’s twin brother, Cole Sprouse, poked fun at him. Gomez called the moment “one of the worst days of my life” on The Kelly Clarkson Show, leading the Riverdale star to quip via Instagram, “@dylansprouse I can safely say I’ve never had a girl say this about me.”
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Making matters a bit more complicated was Gomez’s crush on Cole. “I was obsessed with that show, and I thought we were going to be together one day,” she recalled on the talk show.
Keep scrolling to get all the cringeworthy details of celebs’ awkward first kisses!
The veteran actor, producer and entrepreneur sat down with Cigar Aficionado to cover the publication’s September/October issue, in which he opens up to Marvin R. Shanken about his past, present and future business pursuits. Notably, the 52-year-old blockbuster star questions how much longer he can stand in front of cameras.
“Well, I’m certainly working harder now than ever. Certain businesses, you kind of build them, pass them on or you exit. Hopefully my kids, we’ll see what their interests are, but I don’t think that I’ll be acting that much longer at the pace I am now,” he explains, referencing his four children with wife Rhea Durham. “That’s for sure. Because that’s the most difficult thing.”
That pace led to a slate of recent films on the acting side that includes Me Time, Father Stu, Uncharted, Infinite, Joe Bell and Spenser Confidential and upcoming titles like Arthur the King, The Union, The Family Plan, Flight Risk and The Six Billion Dollar Man. During the wide-ranging conversation, Wahlberg spoke about family, faith and how creating his own opportunities as a producer helped him diversify his Hollywood résumé.
“I started becoming a producer out of necessity,” he says. “I didn’t want to sit around waiting for Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise or whoever was already established before me and were the guys at the time, and Leo [DiCaprio] to go and pass on a movie until I could get my hands on it. I was always proactive in trying to find material and things that I could produce, that I knew was right for me, create my own destiny.”
On that note, Wahlberg admits he may continue to stretch his talents by hopping in the director’s chair by “working with some of the other great talents,” among them the next generation. In the meantime, he’s busy building his empire that includes the tequila brand Flecha Azul.
Fans of his past filmography may appreciate what he had to say about taking on the role of porn performer Dirk Diggler in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1997 film Boogie Nights. “When I first heard about the film the subject matter was not appealing to me. I came from the whole Marky Mark thing, pulling down my pants, Calvin Klein underwear — I didn’t know if this was just the next level of exploiting me and now all of a sudden we have to lose the underwear,” he recalls. “My agents kept pushing me. So I read the first 25, 30 pages, and I kind of put it down. I was like this could be something great, or this could be absolutely terrible.”
The day will soon arrive: 24 Hour Plays is coming to Los Angeles on Oct. 2.
Set to take place at the Hudson Theatres on Santa Monica Boulevard, the creative experiment finds collaborators putting their heads together to write, rehearse and perform new plays and musicals in a 24-hour time span. The one-night only fundraiser will serve as a benefit for the Entertainment Community Fund, a nonprofit that supports entertainment industry workers all year long and one that has ramped up activity amid Hollywood’s dual strikes.
Actors confirmed to participate in the L.A. show include Clark Gregg (The Avengers), Sasheer Zamata (Saturday Night Live), Shannon Purser (Stranger Things), Olivia Holt (Kickin’ It), Drew Tarver (The Other Two), Daryl Sabara (Sky Kids), Jessica Rothe (Happy Death Day), Vico Ortiz (Our Flag Means Death), Francesca Reale (Stranger Things), Nicole Kang (Batwoman), Lewis Pullman (Top Gun: Maverick), Midori Francis (Grey’s Anatomy), Nico Greetham (American Horror Story), Lisa Gilroy (Glamorous), Josh Ruben (Scare Me), Alice Kremelberg (Orange Is The New Black), Coral Peña (The Post) and others.
Writers scheduled to participate include Steve Yockey (The Flight Attendant), Kristin Newman (That ’70s Show), Ariana Berkowitz (Carol’s Second Act), Laura Jacqmin (Grace and Frankie) and Ken Greller (Dickinson). Directors scheduled to participate include David Wain (Wet Hot American Summer), Nick Lieberman (Theater Camp), Bridey Elliott (Clara’s Ghost), Nell Teare (Bolivar) and Lovell Holder (Loserville). Additional creative team members will be announced soon.
“The 24 Hour Plays are the perfect way to promote creativity and raise awareness during this difficult time,” said Chelsea Frei, a producer on the event who will also host the festivities. “I’ve joined their annual return to Los Angeles as a producer to work with this group of wildly talented artists to raise money for an important cause.”
Added Jacqmin, a participating writer and WGA strike captain: “The 24 Hour Plays show up for artists at the outset of their careers and never stop showing up. Almost as soon as the WGA went on strike, The 24 Hour Plays came through yet again to highlight our work and our struggle.”
Tickets are now available online starting at $50, with a limited number of discounted tickets available for WGA and SAG-AFTRA members.
What do “Barbie,” “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning” and “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” have in common? Besides being the summer’s big-budget movies, they were made in Britain, filmed in part at some of the country’s most esteemed studios.
Big Hollywood productions are a critical part of Britain’s film and television industry. For years, they have brought in money, jobs and prestige, and helped make the sector a bright spot in Britain’s economy. But now, that special relationship has brought difficulty.
The strikes by actors and screenwriters in the United States, which have ground much of Hollywood to a standstill, are also being strongly felt in Britain, where productions including “Deadpool 3,” “Wicked” and Part 2 of “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning” stopped filming. Throughout the late summer months, when the industry would be at its busiest to take advantage of the long days, soundstages at Pinewood, Britain’s largest studios, were instead nearly empty.
Film crews, like camera workers and costume designers, are out of work after productions abruptly stopped. Bectu, the British union for workers in behind-the-scenes roles in creative industries, surveyed nearly 4,000 of its film and TV members and 80 percent said their jobs had been affected, with three-quarters not working.
“Irrespective of whether you think the studios are right or whether the unions are right, there are people who are suffering in the U.K.,” said Marcus Ryder, the incoming chief executive of the Film and TV Charity, which supports workers who are struggling financially.
In August, the charity received more than 320 applications for hardship grants, compared with 37 a year earlier.
Since the first “Star Wars” movie was filmed partly in a studio in England in the mid-1970s, British film studios have been a top destination for American productions, and that impetus gathered pace in the past decade thanks to generous tax incentives and moviemakers’ demand for experienced crews. More recently, Netflix, Amazon Prime and other streaming services have snapped up studio space so quickly they set off a boom in studio building.
These big-budget productions employ thousands of local workers, and pour billions into the economy. Last year, a record 6.3 billion pounds ($7.8 billion) was spent on film and high-end TV productions in Britain, according to the British Film Institute. Nearly 90 percent came from American studios or other foreign productions.
The number of films or television shows delayed in Britain since mid-July, when Hollywood actors joined the writers’ strike, is relatively small, maybe about a dozen, but they are the big productions that require lots of crew and support an ecosystem of visual effects companies, catering and other services.
Charlotte Sewell, an assistant costume designer living in London, was working on the “Mission: Impossible” movie when the strikes stopped production. For a few weeks, she was able to work one day a week, but now that has ended, too.
“Now my one-day week has gone, I’ll be trying to find some something somewhere,” she said. “I’m not sure where yet.”
Ms. Sewell, who is also the chair of the Bectu committee for costume and wardrobe department workers, said she supported the strikes, and she was confident she would be able to return to “Mission: Impossible” when the disputes ended.
In the meantime, she’s nervous about her finances, especially paying her next self-employment tax bill, which is due in January.
“Because I’ve been in the industry a long time, I suppose, mentally, I’m more equipped to deal with the downtime, but financially not,” she said.
She started in the business in 1992. Back then, the film industry was in “dire straits” after a funding slump, Ms. Sewell said, but recent years have been “amazing.” There has been a noticeable shift in her work toward big American productions.
“We depend so much on U.S. studio-based productions for our work,” she said, because British productions have died down. “I used to work in independent film all the time. I haven’t done it for years because it just isn’t there.”
The problems for British workers has been exacerbated by a slowdown in domestic production, said Philippa Childs, the head of Bectu. The BBC’s funding from viewers, through a license fee, was frozen by the government for two years until April 2024, and other British broadcasters are struggling with a drop in advertising revenue, restricting their ability to commission new work, especially as production costs are high. At the same time, film workers have been facing a squeeze on their own budgets from stubbornly high inflation.
Bectu is supportive of SAG-AFTRA, the Hollywood union that represents actors, Ms. Childs said, in part because the issues that have provoked the U.S. walkout, like the use of artificial intelligence by studios, will “inevitably” have a big impact in Britain, too.
Most workers in the industry are freelancers, but unions say that does not mean the work is always precarious. After the pandemic lockdowns, demand for workers was high, and the industry was full of stories of people suddenly moving to other productions for better pay.
“We’ve gone from feast to famine,” Ms. Childs said.
The ripple effects from the strikes are mostly on productions with stars who are SAG-AFTRA members — who tend to be U.S.-based actors. But the impact is expected to grow, affecting more workers. Many parts of the British film industry are insulated from the strikes, however; domestic productions, with British actors or British union agreements, have gone on.
That could change. Equity, the British actors union, is closely watching the Hollywood negotiations ahead of contract renewals in Britain. A request for a 15 percent pay increase has been submitted to the production companies and will be followed by negotiations on working rights and conditions. Equity has a campaign called “Stop AI Stealing the Show,” arguing that British law is failing to protect the rights of performers.
“We’re obviously going to want what the Americans want,” said Paul Fleming, the general secretary of Equity. “So we are facing the prospect of industrial unrest in the middle of next year.”
For the past 13 years, Ian Ogden has worked as a grip, a crew member who moves and supports the camera. He was on reshoots for Disney’s live-action remake of “Snow White” when strikes shut down filming in July.
“It’s been pretty bleak ever since,” he said.
Last month, Mr. Ogden said, he earned three-quarters of what he needed, and was using savings set aside for his two young children to pay for groceries. For weeks, he struggled to find new work as the productions still running tended to be smaller, not requiring as many cameras or grips, he said. Recently, he has found work on a British television production.
A member of Bectu who also holds a position in a charitable organization for grips, Mr. Ogden said, “I support the fight for rights.” But he does not support the strike, he said, because it is hurting the offscreen workers who don’t have the kind of financial support that Hollywood actors do.
“The people that it’s affected in this country — we’re not millionaires,” he said.
“Every Brilliant Thing,” a clever, interactive solo performance piece by British theater artists Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe, counts the joys that make life livable.
Ice cream, water fights, the color yellow, to name three that appear at the top of the narrator’s list. These items are read by audience members at the request of Daniel K. Isaac (“Billions”), the affable performer who has randomly assigned theatergoers slips of paper with itemized pleasures written on them in advance of the show, which opened Thursday at the Geffen Playhouse’s Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater.
List numbers are called out and civilian spectators are expected to promptly supply their item. No. 6: Roller coasters. No. 24: Spaghetti and meatballs. No. 25: Wearing a cape.
The list grows beyond the initial goal of 1,000 things. This exercise isn’t an idle one for the narrator. His project begins when he’s 7 years old, after his mother’s suicide attempt. It’s the first of several attempts that mark his life as indelibly as such happy landmarks as his first serious kiss and high school graduation.
The narrator provides some specifics about his life without getting lost in detail. We learn about his first experience of death in childhood. An audience member is drafted to play the role of the kindly veterinarian who had to put his beloved dog down.
The scene is enacted with a careful balance of poignancy and humor. The awkwardness of a nonprofessional coming onto the stage to perform the death-administering role is inherently funny. But the heartbreak of pet loss is one that most people can readily identify with.
Another audience member is conscripted to play the narrator’s father, a taciturn man whose moods are communicated by the selection of jazz records he plays alone in his study. A tough paternal task awaits him: He must try to communicate to his young son the reason his mother is in the hospital.
The son’s response to everything his father says is the same: “Why?” Why must he buckle his seat belt? Why did his mother try to hurt herself?
Comprehension will have to wait but coping cannot be postponed. Hence the idea of the list, a gift to his mother and to himself. Both need to be reminded of the everyday delights around them.
The boy wants his mother to stick around. But he also doesn’t want to fall into the same pit of despair. Suicide isn’t a solitary matter. “It’s common for the children of suicides to blame themselves,” he explains. Did he fail his mother in any way, he can’t help wondering. The answer is no, but the question never goes away.
“Every Brilliant Thing” premiered at Britain’s Ludlow Fringe Festival in 2013, came to New York the following year and was broadcast by HBO in 2016. The show was presented at the Broad Stage‘s Edye in Santa Monica in 2017. The production starred Donahoe, the British comedian, writer and performer who helped adapt the piece with Macmillan (author of the wrenching play about addiction “People, Places & Things”) from Macmillan’s short story “Sleeve Notes.”
The Englishness of the piece — evident in the use of ‘brilliant” in the title — was part of the work’s understated charm. Anxiety and grief found playful ways around the reserve of a culture that has difficulty addressing painful topics directly.
The Geffen Playhouse production, directed by Colm Summers, is at once more abstract and more emotionally forthcoming. Isaac’s smiling affability lends the piece a different tone than Donahoe’s bashful bloke demeanor. Where Isaac seems to relish making contact with the audience, Donahoe proceeded with a sheepish grin, as though recognizing the mutual embarrassment in a performance that wore its melancholy like a second skin.
I wondered if Isaac might have benefited from modifying the script more assertively to fit his own performance. “Every Brilliant Thing” has enormous flexibility but the universal pattern it traces is made more vivid by character-centered specificity.
The performance is nonetheless a delight, with Isaac bounding around the Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater, which has been reconfigured for the occasion into a circular group therapy arrangement with the audience. The set by Sibyl Wickersheimer is full of sunshiny touches suggesting the work of a child creating a magical space to ward off domestic sadness.
Music, which plays such a crucial role in the family life of the protagonist, is seamlessly incorporated by sound designer Stephanie Lynn Yackovetsky. Ray Charles’s “Drown in My Own Tears,” a favorite of the narrator’s mother, captures the play’s somber exuberance.
The audience plays a crucial role in determining the production’s success. Choosing a reluctant or timid person to play a role can take the steam out of an exchange. On opening night at the Geffen Playhouse, I was aware that not all audience volunteers are created equally. The chuckling mood was all-forgiving but the playfulness sometimes felt like one-way traffic.
Isaac’s performance has an antic quality that over time reveals itself to be a defense against the depression that has been bequeathed to him. After a relationship (involving a game stand-in from the audience) crashes, he can no longer maintain the same frenetic pace. The low is made all the more real by the descent from a manic high.
The list in “Every Brilliant Thing” approaches a million items. Many of them are super quirky (“peeing in the ocean and nobody knows,” “inappropriate songs played at emotional moments,”), but each reminds us of those glimmers of delight that are as much a part of our lives as our heaviest sorrows.
‘Every Brilliant Thing’
Where: Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater at Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave., L.A.
When: 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Fridays, 3 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Ends Oct. 15
Everyone loves a good animal movie. Whether dogs, cats, birds, or some other cute creature, audiences love to cheer on the innocent and adorable, rooting for them as they overcome hardship and peril. Cats are a little more complicated, though– some are simply sweet, others are monstrously ferocious, while still more are nearly sarcastic in their indifference toward human affairs.
There have been many movies made throughout the years about these feline friends. Many of these were excellent while others were questionable. Some hairball choices include the cinematic Cats (2019), Catwoman (2004), and Fritz the Cat (1972), which was the first X-rated animated movie and shocked the world with its adult content. While these movies have been critically abhorred, there are many good cat films worth watching. Thus, if you’re looking for the purr-fect movie to watch, alone or with your cat companion cuddled close, here are our picks for the best cat flicks of all time.
Updated on September 18th, 2023, by Timothy Lindsey: This article has been updated with additional content to keep the discussion fresh and relevant with even more information and new entries.
12 Garfield (2004)
20th Century Fox
The 2004 Garfieldmovie is loosely based on the popular American comic strip created by Jim Davis. While this movie may not have landed well with critics, it is goofy, fun, and enjoyable to watch, thanks largely to the strangely perfect casting of Bill Murray as the titular kitty.
Of course, he swears to have only taken the role because he believed one of the Coen Brothers was directing. While this is no Tragedy of Macbeth, it’s still a lot of mindless fun. Join Garfield and Odie as they get into mischief and learn the true meaning of friendship, sort of.
11 Hocus Pocus (1993)
Walt Disney Pictures
The 1993 cult classic is the ultimate family Halloween movie. Hocus Pocusintroduces viewers to a boy named Max, his sister Dani, and their friend named Allison as they accidentally conjure up three evil witches set on sucking the life out of all the children of Salem, Massachusetts so that they can live forever.
This comes 300 years after they turned a boy named Thackery Binx into a cat after he tried to save his sister from the witches. Still a cat, Thackery helps the kids find a way to destroy the witches so that the children of Salem can be saved, and his cat curse can end. The award-winning film is still one of the most-watched films around the time of Halloween annually.
10 The Aristocats (1970)
Buena Vista Distribution
“Everybody wants to be a cat.“In The Aristocats,there simply is no better life. Duchess and her three cats (Marie, Berlioz, and Toulouse), live a pampered life in Paris with their owner. However, everything changes when the family butler drugs Duchess and her kittens and abandons them in the countryside in a scheme to claim the family fortune.
As Duchess and her kittens journey home, they make many new friends along the way, including the handsome Thomas O’Malley. This classic cat character study features great old-school music, ebullient voice acting, and a light, pleasant vibe throughout.
9 Puss in Boots (2011)
Paramount Pictures
Shrekwas a major success for DreamWorks Animation, with everyone falling in love with the clumsy, loveable green ogre. In 2004, DreamWorks released the sequel, Shrek 2, introducing the world to a new character– the adorable, fluffy Puss, who audiences loved so much that he got his spinoff movie in 2011, Puss in Boots.
Chronicling the epic tales of Puss and his adventures before meeting Shrek, the film features delightful voice acting from Salma Hayek, Billy Bob Thornton, Zach Galifianakis, and Amy Sedaris, but the real draw is watching the cute kitty incongruously voiced by the sexy Spaniard Antonio Banderas.
8 Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties (2006)
20th Century Fox
The sequel to the first live-action Garfield film, Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties(2006) follows the beloved feline (Bill Murray) as he follows his owner John (Breckin Meyer) across the pond to London. John is going there to propose to his girlfriend Liz (Jennifer Love Hewitt). Garfield and John’s dog Odie find a way to break out of the kennel and sneak into John’s luggage. After getting to London, Garfield and Prince XII (a cat) of Carlyle Castle get mixed up with one another.
Additionally, the evil Lord Dargis (Bill Connelly) has a plan to take over the Prince’s estate, which includes getting rid of the feline Prince himself. Garfield and Prince XII must find a way to prevent him from doing exactly that. The film has a grade of “B+” on CinemaScore, and it showcased the classic humor from the comedic cat that made him one of the best animal cinematic and television characters ever.
This 1993 Disney classic is a remake of the 1963 film The Incredible Journey, which is also based on the book of the same name and inspired by true events. In Homeward Bound, the pets Shadow, Chance, and Sassy are all left at a friend’s ranch when their owners go on vacation.
However, the animals worry that they have been left by accident, so they embark on an incredible journey through the California wilderness to try and find their way back home to family. Homeward Bound stars Michael J. Fox as Chance, the energetic and curious American bulldog, Don Ameche as Shadow, a wise golden retriever, and Sally Field as Sassy, a prim and proper cat who steals the show with her snappy dialogue. The real-life animals are brilliantly trained and a joy to watch.
6 The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride (1998)
Walt Disney Home Video
The sequel to the iconic 1994 Disney classic, which readers will later see on this list, tells another story around Pride Rock. The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride introduces audiences to Simba (Matthew Broderick) and Nala’s daughter Kiara. Kiara meets Kovu, the son of Scar. However, the two are forbidden to see each other because Kovu is a part of “the Outsiders”, a group of lions banished to the Outlands because of what Scar did in the previous film.
Kiara and Kovu believe that they can unite both groups, even if Kovu’s mother, Zira, has plans to get revenge on Simba for killing Scar. Despite an approval rating of just 62% on Rotten Tomatoes, the 1998 sequel provides viewers with a family film with a touch of Romeo and Juliet in the place where “everything the light touches”.
5 Coraline (2009)
Focus Features
Based on the dark children’s fantasy novel of the same name by English author Neil Gaiman, Coralineis a girl who is tired of living life in her ordinary world. While exploring her new home, Coraline (Dakota Fanning) discovers a secret door that leads to an alternate world much like her own.
However, this new world appears to be much better but has a strange, haunting catch, so Coraline recruits the help of a talking cat to rescue her parents and save her world. The cat is a perfect manifestation of all the indifferent, individualistic but still lovable feline friends in the world– snarky, sarcastic, and more intellectual than any dog could ever be.
4 The Ghost and the Darkness (1996)
Paramount Pictures
Most cat movies are family-friendly, but The Ghost and the Darknessis one exception. Based on true events, the film is a fictionalization of an actual event regarding two male lions that attacked and devoured workers in Tsavo, Kenya during the building of a new railway in 1898.
Directed by Stephen Hopkins, this 1996 historical adventure film stars Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer as the two men sent to tame (or kill) the bloodthirsty beasts. The film received mixed reviews among critics and moviegoers, yet is hauntingly remembered as one of the most quietly terrifying films about wild animals. The film used its Oscar-winning sound effects editing to create a dark, growling tension.
3 The Cat in the Hat (2003)
DreamWorks Pictures
The Cat in the Hat(2003) is one of the best live-action films that adapted a children’s book. Based on the legendary book written by Dr. Seuss, this film tells the story of a goofy cat (Mike Myers) who comes to the home of Conrad (Spencer Breslin) and Sally Walden (Dakota Fanning) while their mom (Kelly Preston) is at work.
Together, the kids learn from the cat how to have a day filled with fun. However, a massive mess is left behind by them, and the group must clean it up before their mom gets home to host a work party there. The film grossed over $38 million on its opening weekend, which made it the No. 1 box office film in North America.
One of the best animated films of all time, The Secret Life of Pets(2016) simply tells the story of what pets do when their owners are away for the day. Now, the film specifically focuses on two dogs named Max (Louis C.K.) and Duke (Eric Stonestreet) who try to become friends after Duke moves in after being adopted by Max’s owner Katie (Ellie Kemper). The movie was the most profitable animated movie of 2016 as it nearly totaled a net profit of $375 million.
However, there is a lazy and uninterested cat in the film named Chloe (Lake Bell), who is a part of Max’s friend group of pets. She has many notable scenes throughout the movie, including eating a whole turkey from her owner’s fridge and at a party being thrown by dogs, she is thrown into a dishwasher, a punch bowl, and a container of Cheetos. Yes, the film centers around two dogs. But it is also about the lives of pets, and Chloe is one of the many bright spots in the film.
1 The Lion King (1994)
Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
The Lion King (1994) is one of Disney’s most successful animated films, grossing over $1 billion and garnering intense adoration from critics and fans alike. This movie is a celebration of the animal kingdom, with specific attention to the best of friendships, hardships, love, and sacrifice between cats.
Additionally, the film immortalized classic songs like “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King” and “Hakuna Matata,” along with a beautiful set of songs by the renowned Sir Elton John and a cast of famous voices like James Earl Jones, Matthew Broderick, Whoopi Goldberg, and Jeremy Irons. The Lion King once again took over the big screen with the controversial The Lion Kingremake in 2019 after many years of success on Broadway, and a prequel is set to be released soon. Surely, the film features the most recognizable and adored cats in cinema.
Starting in January 2024, the proposed Unity Runtime Fee would apply to games that meet a minimum revenue threshold and have passed a minimum lifetime install count.
According to Bloomberg, Unity staff were informed of tentative changes to the policy during an all-hands meeting on Monday. They include:
Limiting fees to 4% of a game’s revenue over $1 million.
Installations counted toward reaching the threshold will no longer be retroactive.
Installations will no longer be tracked by proprietary tools. Instead, Unity will rely on users to self-report the data.
“I don’t think there’s any version of this that would have gone down a whole lot differently than what happened,” Unity CEO John Riccitiello claimed during today’s meeting. “It is a massively transformational change to our business model.”
However, he acknowledged, “I think we could have done a lot of things a lot better.”
Last week Unity closed two offices and cancelled a planned town hall meeting following what was reportedly a “credible death threat”.
Wildscreen has launched its first short film fund in partnership with On the Edge, to catalyse new and creative projects by emerging filmmakers to bring new perspectives and fresh approaches to the natural history filmmaking genre.
The fund will provide grants of up to £15,000 to 6 emerging filmmakers or teams, to produce new, innovative, out-of-the-box short films that resonate with GenZ audiences and spotlight Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) species and zones. The fund also aims to elevate emerging storytellers from backgrounds currently underrepresented within natural world storytelling, and platform original storytelling from filmmakers and communities that are deeply connected to the natural world and EDGE zones.
Successful grantees will also benefit from a wrap-around support programme including training and mentoring from leading industry figures in the wildlife and environmental film community to guide them through the filmmaking process.
The final films will be showcased as part of a special screening event at the next Wildscreen Festival 2024, further helping to grow their industry networks and advance the filmmakers careers.
Dates for the Wildscreen Festival 2024 are also announced today as 14-18 October 2024. The world’s biggest wildlife film and TV Festival, hosted in Bristol, UK, will continue as a hybrid format to support industry accessibility and inclusion and allow people to attend the Wildscreen Festival from anywhere in the world.
Lucie Muir, Wildscreen CEO said: “We’re so excited to be partnering with On the Edge on this fund and to have the opportunity to move Wildscreen more into the film funding space. Through the Edge of Nature: Short Film Fund, we hope to grow and democratise the global ecosystem of natural world storytelling talent, by shaking up traditional entry points and by disrupting the stories being told and who they are being told by. We’re looking for experimental filmmakers and teams exploring new natural history styles; approaches that push boundaries and break the mould.
EDGE species and zones are little known with many of their stories untold. We can’t wait to see their stories brought to the mainstream for a GenZ audience whilst supporting unheard voices, new perspectives and narratives.”
Dr Alex Bowmer, Director of Natural History at On the Edge said: ‘This is an exciting opportunity to support emerging filmmakers in Natural History, those who want to tell new stories and change how nature is portrayed on our screens. Not only that, but for the first time, we are casting the spotlight on Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) species and spaces, those who receive little to no attention. Think of them as nature’s underdogs, and this fund as the opportunity to tell their stories.
By partnering with Wildscreen, we will be able to reconnect audiences with nature through authentic and entertaining storytelling. Not only will the species and spaces captured be new to most, but also the means by which they are presented’.
About EDGE Species and Zones
EDGE species are Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered species in the plant, fungi and animal kingdoms. They collectively represent billions of years of evolutionary history. When they’re gone, there’s no replacing them.
EDGE Zones add up to less than 1% of earth’s land collectively but hold one-third of the planet’s terrestrial vertebrates. They are spread across five continents, from the humid forests of Madagascar to the mountainous Western Ghats region of India.
How to apply
Applications for the fund open today. The deadline for submissions is 5 October 2023. Shortlisted filmmakers will receive pitch training and then pitch to an industry panel led by Wildscreen and On the Edge, in late October, with the recipients announced November 2023.
Find out more about the On the Edge Short Film Fund and apply here.
Grab your black hooded capes, The Traitors is officially coming to Canada! The international format which has spawned US, UK, Australian and New Zealand versions (among others) is coming North for its inaugural English season starting October 2nd on CTV.
Hosted by Canadian actor Karine Vanasse, the murder-mystery competition will see 20 Canadians compete for up to $100,000— if they can suss out the secret group of Traitors who walk amongst them.
If you’re not a Traitor you’re known as a Faithful, and if you make it to the end with your fellow Faithfuls you’ll split the prize money. If a Traitor or Traitors make it to the end, they’ll take the entire prize pot.
Similar to the US version, the Canadian cast includes people you might recognize from the world of reality TV. This includes former MuchMusic VJ Rick The Temp Campanelli, Survivor winner Erika Casupanan, Big Brother Canada winner Kevin Martin and Canada’s Drag Race alumn Miss Fiercalicious.
Here’s the full cast list:
1.
Erika Casupanan (she/her)
2.
Rick Campanelli, a.k.a. “Rick The Temp” (he/him)
4.
Kuzie Mujakachi (she/her)
7.
Miss Fiercalicious (she/her in drag; he/him/they out of drag)
Well, comedy nerds, the time has come to debate the merits of verisimilitude in standup comedy. Should standups only tell the truth about the mundanity of life, or are they permitted to, in Emerill’s parlance, kick it up a notch with some good, old-fashioned exaggeration? What if there are fabrications in the set-up? What about tags? Act outs? Are those also subject to fact-checking? Of course, the only answer to this question is a question: “Is the joke funny?” Nevertheless, the discourse is hungry and it shall feed.
Whoopi Goldberg weighs in on this whole “aliens are real” thing
On The View, Whoopi Goldberg came out in favor of exaggeration, responding to criticisms against Hasan Minhaj, who recently admitted to fabricating material, by reminding her audience “That’s our job.”
“That’s what we do, tell stories, and we embellish them,” she told her audience. Looking a little confused by the whole argument, Goldberg didn’t wade into the specifics of the claims made in The New Yorker’s profile of Minhaj, but she did recall the time a reporter asked about her degree from NYU, which she doesn’t have. Goldberg remembered that one of her characters, Fontaine, had the degree, and the reporter had mistook her joke for truth.
“If you’re going to hold a comic to the point where you’re going to check up on stories, you have to understand, a lot of it is not the exact thing that happened because why would we tell exactly what happened? It ain’t that interesting,” she continued. “There’s information that we will give you as comics that will have grains of truth but don’t take it to the bank. That’s our job, a seed of truth. Sometimes truth and sometimes total BS.”
Comedian Hasan Minhaj Responds After Being Accused Of Fabricating Stories | The View
Over the weekend, Minhaj admitted to the New Yorker that he exaggerated events for comedy, including a joke about worrying his daughter ingested anthrax. She’s fine, but he did receive white powder in the mail and worried it was anthrax. In another instance, he joked about his prom date rejecting him the night of the dance because of his race. However, the woman said she broke up with him days before their date and denied that she did so because of he is Muslim (Minhaj disagrees with her version of events). Furthermore, she accused the comedian of failing to protect her identity in the joke, effectively doxing her, leading to years of online harassment. Elsewhere in the piece, The New Yorker reports that three women accused his show, Patriot Act, of “gender discrimination, sex-based harassment, and retaliation,” which seems lost in the conversations surrounding exaggerating real-life events for comedy.
Minhaj, who was a frontrunner for The Daily Show until this recent controversy took over headlines, says he is within his rights to invent jokes, premises, and situations for comedy. “All my standup stories are based on events that happened to me. Yes, I was rejected from going to prom because of my race. Yes, a letter with powder was sent to my apartment that almost harmed my daughter. Yes, I had an interaction with law enforcement during the war on terror,” he said in a statement to Variety. “I use the tools of standup comedy—hyperbole, changing names and locations, and compressing timelines to tell entertaining stories. That’s inherent to the art form.”
Welcome back to Equestria, where pony magic is everywhere. With friends Zipp, Sunny, Izzy, Pipp and Hitch leading the way, adventure is sure to follow!
Certificate:TV-Y Designed to be appropriate for all children
Status: Returning Series”My Little Pony: Make Your Mark” is a TV show produced by Entertainment One. The show was originally broadcast on Netflix and premiered on September 26th 2022. So far there have been 2 seasons (comprising of 15 episodes) of “My Little Pony: Make Your Mark”. The most recent episode aired on June 13th 2023 and more seasons are expected in the future.
Watch the trailer for “My Little Pony: Make Your Mark”
The Union Solidarity Coalition — founded over the summer by a group of writer-directors moved to support crewmembers amid the strike — launched an eBay auction last week with lots so unique, it seems they were dreamed up in a writers room. And the bids have been rolling in fast and thick.
A sampling of the offerings and current bids (as of publication time) include dinner with Bob Odenkirk and David Cross ($10,200); the cast of Bob’s Burgers singing a custom song ($7,200); Natasha Lyonne helping solve the New York Times Sunday crossword via Zoom ($6,100); Lena Dunham painting a mural in your home ($5,100); John Lithgow painting a watercolor portrait of your dog ($4,450); a pottery class with Busy Philipps in New York ($3,500); Adam Scott walking your dog in L.A. for one hour ($2,500); a Zoom with Barry Jenkins and Nicholas Britell ($1,250); and a relationship advice squabble over Zoom with Rosemarie Dewitt and Ron Livingston ($1,136).
The above lots served to introduce the initiative, and due to popular demand and the creative offerings of other celebrity volunteers, TUSC updated the eBay site Friday with another batch. The latest round features a Zoom with Nicole Kidman and Lulu Wang; an “exquisite corpse drawing Zoom” with Charlie Day and Mary Elizabeth Ellis ($2,025); an L.A. gay bar hop with Triangle of Sadness star Dolly De Leon ($610); a personal David Krumholtz serenade via Zoom ($510); and a one-hour Mortal Kombat gaming session with Kumail Nanjiani while his wife and creative partner Emily V. Gordon adds commentary ($1,025). “The crew works harder than any actor on set so we want to support them during this time when they are unable to work. Also, we love playing video games,” offers Nanjiani.
“People started coming out of the woodwork and being really creative because it’s a strike,” explained writer-producer Liz Benjamin, one of TUSC’s founding members, during a Zoom interview alongside cohorts Amy Seimetz and Susanna Fogel. “People didn’t want to promote a movie or a project they’ve been in, they wanted to do something different, so it forced people to think outside the box.” Once they did, the offers started rolling in. “It kind of just snowballed, like everything in Hollywood does once you get the train moving,” Seimetz adds. “Everyone wants to get involved.”
The auction is the latest push by TUSC to raise funds and support crew during Hollywood’s dual strike by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA. The organization previously hosted Solidarity Night! in Los Angeles on July 15. That event, along with other efforts, raised an initial $315,000, and the next batch of funds from the auction will go to the same cause — helping crewmembers, via the TUSC Motion Picture & Television Fund, who have lost or are at risk of losing health care by covering premiums to ensure access to high-quality health care. (TUSC is also partnered with Entertainment Health Insurance Solutions.)
As the story goes, the idea for an organization started as a brainstorm in a WGA-DGA WhatsApp thread. The full list of founding TUSC members includes Benjamin, Fogel, Seimetz, Dunham, Rachel Lee Goldenberg, Tara Miele, Alex Winter, Frankie Shaw, Josh Locy, Justine Bateman, Antonio Campos, Malik Vitthal, Paul Scheer, Zoe Lister-Jones, Andrea Savage, Tony Phelan, Julie Plec, Crystal Moselle and Sarah Adina Smith. Many of those chipped in to contact friends, peers and onetime collaborators to see if and what they could contribute to the auction.
“TUSC as an organization has two missions,” says Fogel, a writer-director-producer. “The first is fundraising to directly help crew who are suffering; the second is community-building events that can help give us that family feeling we experience on set when we’re working together. This auction is an encapsulation of both: It’s a way to raise money, but it’s also a way to demonstrate that we take care of each other. Our plan is to continue this type of outreach and fundraising not just through the end of the strikes but beyond. Crew unions have their own negotiations coming up, and the more we can stand together the better, as we collectively fight for fair contracts — whatever that means to our individual unions.”
The auction — now live through Friday, Sept. 22, at 4 p.m. PT — snagged so much attention out of the gate that countless social media users borrowed the unique items as inspiration to create faux lots. On X (formerly Twitter), a user teased “varnish a cabinet with David Lynch for $10,000,” and it even caught Lyonne’s eye as she replied, “Were it real, I’d bid on it all day.” Other posts offered Toni Collette screaming at you from across a dinner table for $10,000; a “degradation session” with Succession star J. Smith-Cameron; Jesse Williams saving you from a home invasion for $620; a five-hour ASMR session with Patrick Stewart impersonating Borat for $6,350; and Steve Zahn helping you remember what you’ve seen him in without getting impatient for $9,128,083, to name a few.
TUSC’s auction is part of a larger trend of creative fundraising amid Hollywood’s dual strike. Insiders mounted a WGA Garage Sale that benefited the Entertainment Community Fund and featured items like a crystal consultation with Spencer Pratt, a custom speech penned by WGA negotiating committee co-chair Chris Keyser, and getting “pooped on” by Triumph the Insult Comic Dog via custom video. Pay Up Hollywood is selling lawn signs to support WGA and SAG members. More recently, Better Things creator Pamela Adlon took to Instagram to show off the contents of a storage locker, which she plans to sell via custom website to benefit ECF.
Coming up next month, a team of collaborators that includes Marta Kauffman, Paul McCrane and Paul Scheer are mounting a live telethon-style fundraiser at L.A.’s Orpheum Theater titled “The Give Back-ular Spectacular.” That event is set to take place Oct. 25 as a benefit designed “to raise awareness that this strike is adversely affecting not just writers and actors, but the entire community of artists, craftspeople, technicians, production assistants and support staff.” It will raise funds to cover COBRA and health care premiums for members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), Teamsters, Laborers’ International Union of North America and other workers who are being financially impacted by the work stoppage.
The TUSC insiders say it’s not a surprise to see how their peers have responded. “We’re a bunch of self-starters who love working in film and TV, which is all about collaboration and being creative. We [keep asking ourselves], “OK, how can we expand this and keep going and keep going?” Seimetz explained. “We keep growing because we have so many people who are willing to jump in, like with this auction Liz jumped in and said she knew how to do it and then people just take the lead and others help out. It’s a really inspiring thing to be a part of during this time when it feels divided.”
Benjamin said Seimetz “hit the nail on the head” with that statement. “[TUSC] is a leaderless organization. I’ve never experienced anything like it. It’s a group made up of people who are all willing to jump in and say, ‘Yes, how can I help?’ It’s delivering a lot of positivity to a very scary time for people during an interminable strike. We’re all about lifting each other up.”
As for their response to seeing their auction lifted up online and in dozens of news reports, Fogel says it’s been both shocking and thrilling. “We did not anticipate this. This is wild and so fun. You can never predict what will go viral or catch fire online, but seeing the memes that have been generated is endlessly entertaining and so encouraging. It’s also so insane and wild. Hopefully, that translates into money raised, but it’s also just kind of giving us a nice boost of adrenaline.”
One of the great things about Documentary Now! is its specificity. Viewers know that when Documentary Now! parodies Werner Herzog or Agnes Varda, creators Bill Hader, Fred Armisen, and writer John Mulaney won’t miss. Unsurprisingly, that commitment to hyper-specific references extends to text messages between Hader, Mulaney, and Armisen.
The A.V. Club’s best shows of 2022 No. 4
Last week, Bill Hader appeared on hour 17 of The Best Show’s 24-hour live stream, wherein—god love him—host Tom Scharpling spent an entire day fielding calls on The Best Show. During their delightfully loopy, sleep-deprived chat, Scharpling steered the conversation toward the Van Halen brothers at the behest of Best Show regular and Superchunk drummer Jon Wurster. Turns out, not only does Hader do a great Eddie and Alex Van Halen complaining about former singer David Lee Roth at the 1996 MTV VMAs, but also he revealed that he had a text chain with Fred Armisen and John Mulaney where they roleplay as the Van Halen brothers getting into a fender bender.
Bill Hader does his Van Halen impression
“John Mulaney, Fred Armisen, and I had a text chain as the Van Halen brothers rear-ending somebody,” he tells Scharpling. “They had a press conference about the rear-ending, and nobody cared about it, but they assumed it was going to be a thing. They would be up at the [podium], and no one was asking questions, but Eddie Van Halen was going, ‘One at a time! One at a time!’”
Apparently, Hader has a whole Van Halen chunk that the world is just learning about. Elsewhere in the interview, the Barry star talks about calling Wurster and Fucked Up singer Damien Abraham in character as the Van Halen brothers. As with his Documentary Now! work, this is an impression based on a very specific interview that was, at one point, a fixture of VH-1 rock ’n’ roll feud shows but is now lost to the sands of time. We did uncover part of it, though, including the part where Eddie says, “His work ethic sucked.” However, the search for Hader’s favorite part, Eddie and Alex repeatedly saying, “He was very disrespectful to Beck,” continues.
WeCreateTv with Van Halen
Thankfully for Scharpling, The Best Show’s 24-hour stream ended on September 13, but the team over there is breaking the whole thing up into bite-size morsels. Scharpling interviews Nathan Fielder, Samantha Bee, Tony Shalhoub, Bob Odenkirk, Marc Maron, Sarah Squirm, Tim Heidecker, and more. He even got a call from CSNY’s Graham Nash (as played by Matt Berry).
TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2023 REVIEW! A drive out to the boonies to a secluded motel for a tryst with a girl who promises a guy her virginity is too good to be true in director Jeon Woo-sung’s Bargain. But co-writers Woo-Sung, Choi Byung-Yoon, and Kwak Jae-Min give viewers much more than they bargained for by entering the world of ruthless human organ auctions. The bait is hot young girls that men connect with on an online dating app with the promise of sex for $ 1,000.
The film starts with a very intriguing, funny, and sexy cat-and-mouse Hitchcockian conversation between the client, No Hyung-Soo (Jin Sun-Kyu), and the girl, Park Joo-Young (Jun Jong-Seo). It’s verbal foreplay. But things take a more serious turn when the client realizes that his girl for hire might not be a virgin, so he wants to pay her $170 instead. She all too easily accepts the lower fee but tells him he must shower before they get busy. It is clear Park Joo-Young’s got other plans for him.
“…as the second pair of kidneys are to be sold, a devastating earthquake collapses the entire motel…”
The tables turn sinister in a short time as the bait places the lure in a vulnerable position for the henchmen to grab Hyung-Soo. Soon enough, he’s prepped to have his entire body go onto auction for over a dozen very eager scumbag clients who desperately need an AB-positive host. Park Joo-Young, who is one of many girls who work there in the same capacity, now becomes the auctioneer of her client’s body. A hilarious auction commences. Just as the second pair of kidneys are to be sold, a devastating earthquake collapses the entire motel, complete madness and mayhem ensue, and the survival of the fittest begins.
Bargain is a mousetrap of running away from insane, basement-dwelling brothers, evil pimp gangsters, and a surviving auction client, who doesn’t know how to read the room, and still wants the kidney he paid for. The six episodes climax into a tense, gory, claustrophobic, and hilarious adventure. The set design is excellent. A considerable gap opens up in the middle of the motel, opening up several stories down into a watery abyss where the aforementioned psychotic brothers live. Their dwelling would make Leatherface envious. The crumbling inn is also quite uncomfortable and believably dilapidated by the quake.
South Korean horror films continue to reach outside the box by telling fresh stories about the horror humans put each other through. Bargain knows that how people react to natural disasters and prove their humanity by helping others makes for solid drama. The girls of this motel are victims who become sociopaths through no fault of their own, and the viewer will sympathize with them and their will to survive. Another season could reveal more of the shady world of these criminal enterprises because the ending is open to a variety of interpretations. I would welcome another stay with these crazy people under such dire circumstances.
Soap opera star Billy Miller’s mother is speaking out in the wake of her son’s death at 43 years old.
In a statement to Soap Opera Digest on Monday, Patricia Miller said the Daytime Emmy-winning star died after “a long hard valiant battle with bipolar depression.”
Miller — who is best known for roles on General Hospital and The Young and the Restless — died on Friday ET confirmed on Sunday — which would have marked his 44th birthday.
Miller’s family said that Miller died in Austin, Texas, and that “The actor was struggling with manic depression when he died.”
“I would like to share the following thoughts,” Patricia began her statement Monday. “I want to personally thank the many fans & personal friends for the overwhelming amount of love, prayers & condolences sent to me and my family on the devastating death of my beautiful son BJ — Billy Miller. He fought a long hard valiant battle with bipolar depression for years. He did everything he could to control the disease. He loved his family, his friends and his fans but in the end the disease won the fight and he surrendered his life. The other causes of death being told are not true. I wish they were but they just aren’t. We all loved him so much and are desperately trying to deal with our loss. I will have nothing further to say. Thanks for the love and support.”
Miller’s career began as a model, signed to Wilhelmina. In 2007 he had a role as Richie Novak on All My Children, where he stayed until 2008. From 2008-2014, Miller starred as Billy Abbott on The Young and the Restless. A role that got him three Daytime Emmy awards. After exiting The Young and the Restless in 2014, Miller went on to play Jason Morgan and Drew Cain on General Hospital until 2019.
After leaving soaps, Miller appeared in five episodes of the USA drama Suits, where he played the brother of Harvey Spector, Marcus.
Following the news of Miller’s death, his co-stars in the daytime television community took to social media to mourn the loss.
General Hospital‘s executive producer, Frank Valentini, took to X (formally known as Twitter) to mourn.
“I am devastated to hear news of the incredibly talented Billy Miller’s passing. On behalf of the entire @GeneralHospital family, our hearts go out to his family and friends during this difficult time,” he wrote.
Instacart on Monday priced its shares at $30 each for its initial public offering, at the top of its expected range, in a sign of renewed demand for tech stocks.
The shares will begin trading on Tuesday on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker symbol CART.
Instacart’s offering showcases one of the largest gaps between a company’s private and public market valuations, serving as a reality check for other highly valued, closely held start-ups. Many companies that raised money during the boom times of 2020 and 2021 have slashed their soaring valuations over the last year.
But the fact that Instacart pulled off an I.P.O. at all could give hope to other companies seeking to tap the public markets. Before last week, this had been the worst year for I.P.O.s since 2009, according to EquityZen, a marketplace for private stocks.
Instacart’s pricing follows last week’s successful debut for the chip designer Arm. Arm’s stock was priced at the top of its proposed range and rose 25 percent on its first day of trading.
After Arm’s I.P.O., Instacart raised its proposed price range.
Instacart’s path to the public market, alongside that of Klaviyo, a marketing tech company that will also list its shares this week, has been closely watched from Silicon Valley to Wall Street. A positive reception could persuade more companies to tap the public markets to raise money.
Founded in 2012, Instacart was one of many “gig economy” start-ups that use networks of contract workers to deliver on-demand services like takeout, housecleaning and rides at the tap of a button on an app. Many such companies went out of business or were sold, while the largest players — Lyft, DoorDash and Uber — have struggled to turn a profit.
Instacart managed to do so by expanding into more profitable businesses like advertising and software tools under Fidji Simo, a former Meta executive who took over as the start-up’s chief executive in 2021. The company brought in $2.5 billion in revenue last year, up 39 percent from a year earlier, with $428 million in net profit.
Still, it has endured turbulence. After a surge in orders from people stuck at home during the first year of pandemic lockdowns, Instacart’s growth slowed drastically in 2021. Last year, its grocery orders grew 18 percent from 2021, and orders in the first half of this year were flat compared with a year earlier.
Instacart tried projecting confidence about its public offering by securing a $175 million investment in its I.P.O. shares from PepsiCo before its listing. Sequoia Capital, which owns a 19 percent stake in Instacart, and D1 Capital, which owns 14 percent, were also among a group of firms that said they were interested in buying $400 million of Instacart’s I.P.O. shares.
It was enough to lure Wall Street investors back to the table after several years of rocky performances from young tech companies.
Apoorva Mehta, the Instacart co-founder who stepped down as chief executive in 2021, owns an 11 percent stake. At $30 a share, his holdings are worth $869 million.
Meredith Kopit Levien, The New York Times’s chief executive, sits on Instacart’s board.
“I’m told the replay of Nick Chubb getting injured is not to be seen,” ’s Joe Buck said on the ABC broadcast tonight. In the background just after, you could hear the stadium crowd react to the footage being shown onscreen.
“Yeah, we’re not going to show it. It’s as bad as you can imagine,” replied analyst Troy Aikman.
Chubb, the Cleveland Browns’ star running back, was on a short run near the end zone when he was hit low by Steelers safety Minkah Fitzpatrick and went down at the 3 yard line. He immediately grabbed his left leg and took off his helmet. You can see the play below, without the gruesome close-up.
Joe Buck: “I am told that the replay of Nick Chubb getting injured is not to be seen.”
The groan from the Pittsburgh crowd probably tells us all we need to know. Chubb was carted off.
Minkah Fitzpatrick was also hurt on the play but was later seen on Pittsburgh’s bench. pic.twitter.com/QGYMKzuFBy
Chubb was quickly carted off the field, with Buck reporting cheers for him from the crowd as he left.
For longtime NFL fans, the injury recalled that of Joe Theismann in 1985. As he was tackled, Theismann’s leg was bent in a similarly unnatural way, causing compound fracture of the tibia and fibula. His hall-of-fame career was over.
While times – and sports medicine – have changed, the NFL later announced that Chubb’s season, at least, was over, citing what it termed “a significant knee injury.”
It’s the second potentially season-ending injury in as many weeks on MNF, which last Monday saw the New York Jets’ brand new superstar, Aaron Rodgers, go down four plays into the game.
Many fans instantly wondered how involved Majors would be in the MCU going forward, even theorizing that his character could be recast. Considering how he already filmed Season 2 of Loki, promotional material featured the actor, and it seemed he would remain as a cast member at least for the Disney+ show.
Jonathan Majors’ ‘Big’ Loki Season 2 Role
Marvel
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Loki Season 2 executive producer Kevin Wright talked about the extent of Jonathan Majors’ role in the upcoming Disney+ project.
Wright first talked about Majors’ character, Victor Timely (a Kang the Conqueror Variant), and talked about how “excited” he and the rest of Marvel Studios are that Timely will be portrayed in Loki:
“Victor Timely is somebody that we are very, very excited about. When you look at Kang, he has a very funny comic backstory. He has all these iterations.”
The executive producer then revealed that Majors’ character will “be a big part of the show,” obviously confirming that Majors himself will be featured in an extensive way despite his ongoing assault case and real-world controversy:
“Timely was one that we’ve always wanted to do in ‘Loki.’ And I think we’re really excited about how that integrates into the season. It’s a big part of the show.”
How Much Will Jonathan Majors Be in Loki?
A recent report detailed that Jonathan Majors will be featured in around three of the six episodes in Loki Season 2, so fans can expect to see him a decent amount in the upcoming show.
It is entirely possible and maybe even likely that Majors will not only portray Victor Timely in Season 2 but other Kang Variants as well – maybe even Kang the Conqueror again.
Since Kang is slated to be the major antagonist of the MCU for the foreseeable future, it would make sense for him (and/or his Variants) to be involved with Loki in a “big” way.
However, only time will tell just how much Marvel Studios will put the actor on-screen, but it will probably be a substantial amount.
Recently, we learned that a newly discovered type of snake was named after Indiana Jones. Well, after the actor who portrayed him. Now, we’ve got that topped. Because that’s just one snake after all. Thanks to the folks atGizmodo, we’ve learned that Brazilian scientists from the Emilio Goeldi Paraense Museum have found three new species of spiders, which they are naming after the “Big Three” of Enterprise bridge crews from Star Trek—Captain James T. Kirk, Mister Spock, and Doctor Leonard “Bones” McCoy. The spiders belong to the Roddenberry genus, which is of course named after Star Trek’s creator Gene Roddenberry.
Paramount, Alexander Sánchez-Ruiz & Alexandre B. Bonaldo
The scientists discovered these spiders across different locations in Latin America. They found R. kirk in Costa Rica, while they discovered R. spock in Campeche, Mexico, and R. mccoy in Big California Sur, also in Mexico. Co-authors Alexander Sánchez-Ruiz and Alexandre B. Bonaldo identified both a male and female specimen of the spider R. kirk. However, they only discovered a female R. spock and male R. mccoy. Unlike Indiana Jones, they named these spiders after the characters, not the actors. So no R. shatner or R. nimoy in this bunch, sadly.
Paramount
The original Star Trek series inspired researchers after noticing how the arachnid anatomy resembled that of various starships seen in the iconic franchise. We’re not really sure we see that ourselves at all. Maybe the Enterprise saucer section a bit? But we guess they kind of look like some Klingon ships we’ve seen in the series. We bet these scientists were just super big Star Trek fans, and wanted to immortalize their favorite characters for eternity. We can’t say we blame them. Hey, maybe they discover some new species as time goes on, and we got a few spiders with names like R. uhura, R. sulu, R. scotty, and R. chekov. Get the whole Enterprise bridge crew their own arachnid counterparts.
When Foamstars was revealed during May’s Playstation Showcase, the internet’s judgment was swift and brutal–it’s just a Splatoon rip-off. Case closed. But after playing four rounds of suds-fuelled multiplayer action at Gamescom 2023, the reality is a little bit more complicated.
Foamstars is a four-versus-four party shooter game pitched by Square Enix as “filling a gap” in the online multiplayer shooter market. In a sense, it is, if you are absolutely determined to ignore the gigantic ink-covered squid in the room. The basic gameplay sees two teams of four players fight across a map, spraying colored foam that sticks to surfaces and damages opposing players, with developers promising a suite of adversarial game modes.
Every player can surf across foam–fast if it’s your team’s color, and much slower if it’s the opposing team’s. If a player is coated with enough foam, they are immobilized in a giant foam ball. Surfing into an enemy in this state knocks them out, scoring a point for your team, and surfing into a foamed teammate breaks them free to fight again.
Players choose from a roster of characters with varied weapons and special moves, offering various playstyles from precise ranged combat to in-your-face anarchy. All four rounds we played featured a mode called Smash The Star, in which teams battle to knock out seven opposing players, after which that team’s star player becomes marked. Knocking out the other team’s star player wins the game.
With the game’s fundamentals out of the way, it’s absolutely impossible to believe that Foamstars isn’t a very targeted, legally distinct variation on Splatoon, and an attempt to translate Nintendo’s successful multiplayer franchise to a non-Nintendo audience. From its bubblegum color palette to its twee anime-adjacent character design, denying Splatoon’s heavy influence on Foamstars would require committing to a frankly astonishing level of cognitive dissonance. However, there are a few nuanced differences that do make Foamstars feel unique.
While the contrasting colored foam that coats the maps during each battle initially seems to be only a minor variation on Splatoon’s ink, the foam persists as a three dimensional asset on the map that can be built upon, changing the topography of the level as the match progresses. Across a three-minute round the map becomes a mountain range of technicolor bubbles, brought into relief by the chaotic battles playing out across the previously flat arena.
Though it was difficult to get to grips with in our short play time, it’s easy to see how an organized team could create defensive structures or platforms to rain down foamy destruction on their adversaries. Even outside of expert play, seeing the map transform in three dimensions as the action played out was undeniably entertaining, and will surely add a significant level of tactical nuance for those who seek it.
Meanwhile, each of Foamstars’ characters have bespoke weapons and special attacks, opening up distinct offensive and defensive possibilities when combined in a team of four. Characters’ specialties vary from shotgun-style close-quarters action to foam rocket launchers and even heavy machine gun-style hoses that seem designed to embrace the anarchic spectacle of seemingly never-ending sprays of colored bubbles. It appears there is nothing to stop you from loading up your team with four identical characters, but a clever combination of roles and specialties seems fundamental to success on the battlefield.
Playing as four different characters across the four rounds, I was pleasantly surprised by how distinct each character felt, with movement speed, weapon selection, and special moves making for an interesting variety in gameplay style. Special attacks such as a foam grenade or a spiraling cartwheel complement the personality and playstyle of each character, who also have a spectacular hero shooter-style ultimate move that invariably results in a vast area of the map being covered in foam.
Are 3D morphing maps and hero shooter elements enough to entirely differentiate Foamstars from Splatoon? Maybe not. But having played a few rounds of Foamstars, the foamy chaos on display was undeniably endearing, and it’ll be interesting to see how an audience responds to the tweaks Foamstars has made, however minor, to the tried and true Splatoon formula for different platforms.
The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors.
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Throughout an entire junket day as well as a special screening tonight at the TCL Grauman Chinese Theatre, The Creatorfilmmaker Gareth Edwards showed his solidarity for the pic’s cast as the SAG-AFTRA strike continued into its 67th day.
Earlier today in a series of press video interviews at the London Hotel, Edwards donned rotating black T-shirts with the name of actors in his cast; a visual spirited shoutout to the actors that starred in the $80M New Regency/20th Century Studios/Disney sci-fi movie. The pic’s cast includes John David Washington, Gemma Chan, Allison Janney, Madeleine Yuna Voyles, Ken Watanabe, among several others.
All of this culminated in Edwards having the Chinese Theatre audience tonight record a special message to the striking cast.
20th Century Studios
Recording the video on his phone, Edwards told his cast “Hi everyone, really miss you, wish you could all be here, but I made some new friends and they all want to send you a message of love and support,” at which point the entire theatre gave a huge cheer. You can watch the video below.
Edwards was very prescient when it came to making The Creator in that the pic deals with a war between humans and A.I. robots. And you know if there’s one thing on the minds of many in town, from studio execs to WGA and SAG-AFTRA members, it’s the impact of A.I. Washington’s spy mercenary in the film has a relationship with a woman, Maya, (Chan) who is the architect behind the A.I. robots ruling the globe — in particular a robotic child who is to be the lynchpin in the robots’ war on humans. During the pic, Washington’s character Joshua, is protecting the child and searching for Maya. Edwards co-wrote the movie with his Rogue One: A Star Wars Story scribe, Chris Weitz.
Added Edwards tonight about his latest movie, “No one is really creating original sci-fi blockbusters anymore, it’s an endangered species.”
At a recent trailer drop, Edwards said that when he pitched the film, executives wanted to know the backstory as to why there was a war between humans and A.I.; if artificial intelligence was a good idea. “The setup of that movie is pretty much the last few months,” Edwards said at the time.
“A.I. was the fairy tale of this story. A.I. was like the other — the people that were different to us, that we kind of want to get rid of,” he explained back on Aug. 29. “But the second you make an A.I., all kinds of fascinating things start to happen.”
The Creator hits theaters on Sept. 29 and can also be seen then in Imax and PLF screens.
ABC will air ten more Monday Night Football games due to the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes stripping the fall schedule.
Although the WGA confirmed today that they would be restarting talks with the AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers), networks are still scrambling to fill their fall schedule. For ABC, this means a lot more Monday Night Football.
Per The Associated Press, ABC will air an additional ten Monday Night Football games that were originally set to appear only on ESPN. Most networks will be struggling this fall with fewer scripted originals due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, but live sports still bring in viewers, so networks will be leaning on those pretty hard. This means that ABC will have a game all 18 weeks of the regular football season, as well as simulcasts of two playoff games.
Variety added that audiences who tune in to Monday Night Football on ESPN will see a new music video featuring Chris Stapleton, Snoop Dogg, and drummer Cindy Blackman Santana performing Phil Collins’ In The Air Tonight. The long-time Heavy Action theme will still remain a part of the show.
The WGA officially went on strike on May 2nd, with SAG-AFTRA following suit on July 14th. There have been several failed attempts at reaching a new agreement with the studios, but little progress has been made. The news that talks will resume is promising, so hopefully this is the first stage towards WGA and SAG-AFTRA members receiving a fair deal.
“The WGA and AMPTP now have a confirmed schedule to bargain this week, starting on Wednesday,” reads the WGA statement. “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. We’ll reach out again when there is something of significance to report. In the meantime, please continue to demonstrate your commitment and unity by coming out to the picket lines – for yourselves and fellow writers, SAG-AFTRA, other unions’ members, and all those in our community who are impacted by the strikes.“
Love is Blind alums Jackie Bonds and Josh Demas are calling it quits after over a year of dating.
The reality TV couple, who fans will remember for their highly publicized love triangle during season 4 of the Netflix series, announced their break up on Monday.
Jackie revealed during a recent livestream — which was shared in a TikTok video by @realityashley — that she ended things with Josh after speaking with his ex-girlfriend, Monica Rodriguez, but did not elaborate on exactly what was said.
“I’m still sick about it. I love that man,” Jackie said during the livestream. “I was like, ‘Damn, I had all these life plans with you and then you just don’t even care.’ And I’m like, ‘That’s crazy.'”
Jackie continued, “I tried doing everything I could and what’s crazy is looking back on these messages I look like a begging a** b**** and I never beg no one to be with me.”
For his part, Josh took to Instagram on Monday saying that his and Jackie’s breakup was mutual. “After a lot of thinking, Jackie and I both agreed that it’s best that we end the relationship.”
Josh Demas Instagram
Jackie and Josh’s relationship initially began in 2022 while filming in the “pods” on season 4 of Love is Blind. However, Jackie ended up choosing her connection with Marshall Glaze over that with Josh and went to get engaged to Marshall.
However, throughout the season Jackie and Marshall’s relationship began to deteriorate and the two ended their engagement while filming in Seattle.
Josh and Jackie reunited during the series and went on a successful date.
After the show aired in March 2023, the couple was still going strong and had even moved in together.
For more on the Love is Blind romances, check out the links and video below.
“Skylines” was produced by Mirabelle Pictures Productions, Artbox, Fasten Films, Media Finance Capital, M45 Productions, Hydraulx, Gifflar Films Limited and Lipsync Productions with a budget of $70m.
Gavin Newsom said in an interview today that he has been “deeply involved with talking” to both sides of the long-running Writers Guild strike and “we’re going to be meeting again later this week.”
In an exclusive sit-down with Dana Bash, clips of which aired on CNN, the California governor responded to her question by saying he hasn’t been out on the picket line — as New York Gov. Kathy Hochul briefly was last month — but said he’s in “a different position.”
When she asked why, he continued: “[I’m] trying to be constructive on both sides, to utilize the formal authority I have as governor, the convening capacity I have as governor, the moral authority I can bring into the conversation to try to get everybody to the table.
Newsom added: “I’m encouraged by the conversations over this last weekend. I’m not going to overstate that, and I’m encouraged that they’re meeting again later this week.”
Bash then noted that Newsom supports the United Auto Workers in its strike against the Big 3 U.S. automakers “but you don’t want to go that far when it comes to” WGA and SAG-AFTRA.
“That’s the same question,” he replied. “I absolutely support what their concerns are. I support WGA and SAG as it relates to their existential stress as it related to streaming and how it’s radically changing the business model, as it relates to artificial intelligence. One thing I know about artificial intelligence is that we don’t know what we don’t know. And that anxiety stacked upon all the stress and anxiety that we’ve all been feeling around income and wealth disparities and all the challenges post-pandemic that we’ve gone through makes the perfect stew of stress that’s leading to a lot of anxiety that we’re experiencing all across the country.”
He added: “You’re seeing it more broadly as labor’s exercising more muscle out of more fear and stress about the world we’re living in. And I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I think, fundamentally, that’s a good thing. I believe in collective bargaining. I believe working families and the working poor do better when they organize together. … There’s not a state in our nation that does more to support that framework and those bargaining units.”
When Bash said experts estimate that the writer and actor strikes already have cost the state $5 billion — and Newsom interrupted, saying, “Probably more.”
You can watch CNN’s full Newsom interview above; the WGA strike discussion starts at the 6:45 mark.
– English Audio Description
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