It seems that those who are going to enjoy a double feature of Barbie and Oppenheimer will not be disappointed. After the positive first reactions to Greta Gerwig’s film, the new Christopher Nolan’s project also surprises with its first comments and is ready to surprise the audience with a new masterpiece from the acclaimed director.
Based on the book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the movie focuses on the life of one of those responsible for creating the atomic bomb and, therefore, one of the men behind some of the most significant events in the history of the last century.
Oppenheimer includes an amazing cast lead by Cillian Murphy as the famous scientist, Emily Blunt as his wife, and Tom Conti as Albert Einstein. They are joined by Benny Safdie, Matt Damon, Josh Peck, Kenneth Branagh, Florence Pugh, Robert Downey Jr., Rami Malek, Dane DeHaan, Jack Quaid, Gary Oldman, Devon Bostick, Alex Wolff, and Alden Ehrenreich.
Bilge Ebiri highlights the story calling it an “intricate historical drama that builds and builds and builds until Nolan brings the hammer down in the most astonishing, shattering way.”
Wanna catch up on all the gaming and entertainment news highlights from the past week? From Sony accidentally revealing in the FTC vs. Microsoft trial how much it costs for them to make AAA games, to The Flash dropping hard at the box office to Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, tune in for the Weekly Fix – the only show packed with the recommended weekly dose of gaming, entertainment, and esports news!
00:51 – Microsoft Admits Xbox Has ‘Lost the Console Wars’
03:09 – Xbox Admits Microsoft Could ‘Spend Sony Out of Business’
06:23 – Sony Accidentally Revealed the Cost of Making Triple-A Games
10:04 – MachineGames’ Indiana Jones Game Was Originally Planned for Release on PS5
12:29 – Xbox’s Perfect Dark Reboot Is Still Years Away
15:48 – The Flash Drops Hard While Spider-Man Holds Strong
18:12 – There’s TWO Versions of Spider-Man- Across The Spider-Verse in Theaters
22:45 – Superman- Legacy Officially Has Its Clark Kent and Lois Lane
Jonah Hill has been accused of “predatory behavior” by Alexa Nikolas, the former child star of Zoey 101 fame, in a thread posted to Twitter over the weekend, recounting an incident from the time she was 16.
Nikolas’ comments were prompted by a series of recent Instagram posts by Hill’s one-time girlfriend Sarah Brady, in which she accused the actor of being an “emotionally abusive”, “misogynist narcissist.”
Wrote Nikolas in her first tweet, “After reading Sarah Brady’s admirable post about #JonahHill I just gotta say when I was 16 I got invited to a house party at #justinlongs house where he was living with some lame predator actor from CSI Miami. I’ll look up the name later and find him.”
Nikolas alleged that the CSI Miami actor was “sleeping [with] *aka assaulting a minor*” a friend of hers who “was also 16 to 17,” later identifying him as Jonathan Togo.
Reps for Hill and Togo did not immediately return Deadline’s requests for comment.
“Anyways,” Nikolas continued, “#JonahHill came over at some point and we were all pretty wasted because of course the predators were feeding us minors a bunch of alcohol. #jonahhill seemed to have his eyes on me because at one point I wanted a cig and he said he had one in his car “right outside”. Didn’t seem like too much of an effort so I trusted him. I went outside and he grabbed the cigs from his front seat.”
Nikolas stated that Hill “didn’t hand me the cig which I thought was weird and then as we walked back to the door I asked him for it and he said nothing but slammed me to the door and shoved his tongue down my throat. I was so appalled I pushed him off of me and ran inside.”
The actress noted that Hill told her she’d have to come outside with him if she “wanted the cig” — that he “didn’t wanna go “all alone,” she recalled. “They were all aware I was 16.”
Said Nikolas, “This type of predatory behavior was hyper normalized when I was a kid. I’m proud to see women standing up to abusive men now. Bad ASS!”
Nikolas then went on to call out Togo’s roommate, actor Justin Long, who was said to be on the scene the night of the alleged encounter with Hill, referencing the New Line horror film Barbarian in which he starred. “Hey Justin Long I find it interesting you being in Barbarian as a predator. It must have been weird playing some of your friends. You knew your roommate was assaulting a minor under your own roof. You let it happen. Eek. I hope you regret it now.”
(When contacted by Deadline, a spokesperson for Long wrote, “This is the first time Justin has been made aware of this situation that allegedly happened nearly two decades ago. While Justin is sympathetic to any and all victims of any abuse , the simple fact remains he has no knowledge of what may or may not have happened concerning Ms. Nikolas.”
Said the actress on Twitter, “I’ve been traumatized by men in hollywood. It’s truly sad the traumatic events I have lodged in my body and mind. Things have to change. F**k #familyguy too.”
Filmmaker Clay Tweel (“Gleason,” “Finder’s Keepers”) has signed on to direct a new documentary based on the life of comedian Andy Kaufman. Produced by Ross Dinerstein’s Campfire Studios, Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia’s Seven Bucks Productions, David Letterman’s Worldwide Pants Incorporated and Fifth Season, the film reps the first doc authorized by the Kaufman estate.
Fifth Season (“Being Mary Tyler Moore”) is fully financing the project, which will be overseen by Mary Lisio, executive vice president of non-scripted and documentary, and produced in partnership with the Andy Kaufman estate.
“I’ve always loved Andy because he was able to elicit such emotional reactions to his performances by using both the poignant and the absurd to keep his audience off balance. I hope we can honor his legacy in that way with our film,” Tweel said.
The film’s producers have access to Kaufman’s family, as well as archives and private recordings from the Kaufman Estate, as well as Kaufman-related archival material from the estate of the stand-up’s longtime manager, George Shapiro.
“Tweel’s documentary will investigate the origins of Kaufman’s unparalleled creative choices and his personal definition of ‘funny,’ aiming to demystify the human being behind the act – featuring insight from his closest family, friends and collaborators,” according to a press release announcing the project.
Kaufman was known for his unique on-stage presence as a performance artist as well as playing Latka Gravas on “Taxi.” He appeared regularly on “Saturday Night Live” and on “Late Night with David Letterman.”
“My uncle Andy was a comic genius who continues to inspire artists around the world,” said Tyler Kaufman in a statement. “There has never been anyone like him and there never will be. He delighted and provoked, and was just as comfortable creating anger and confusion as laughter. He made indelible impressions. His work is as vibrant today as ever, and we’re thrilled to join this filmmaking team in bringing viewers a very intimate and comprehensive look into his life and career.”
From Seven Bucks Productions, Campfire Studios and Worldwide Pants, the doc will be produced by Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia, Hiram Garcia, Brian Gewirtz, Ross M. Dinerstein and Shannon Riggs will produce. David Letterman, Tom Keaney, Tyler Kaufman, Clay Tweel, Tommy Avallone, Ross Girard and Rebecca Evans are executive producers.
“Like many, I’m infinitely fascinated by Andy’s approach to comedy and to ‘showbusiness,’ in general,” said Dinerstein. “He’s influenced generations of comics, but there will never be another performer like him. Working with the Kaufman Estate and this particular production group, we feel well-equipped to shed light on Andy’s life, career and genius.”
Seven Bucks Productions, Tweel and the Andy Kaufman Estate are repped by WME. Campfire Studios and Tommy Avallone are repped by UTA.
Whenever I put together one of these monthly collections of “songs you should hear now,” culled from our weekly new music Playlists, my brain leaps to the “Now That’s What I Call Music!” font. Do you remember those compilations? I’m guessing you do, because a quick scan of the series’ impressively long Wikipedia page tells me they are released all over the world, and that they began in the United Kingdom in 1983. 1983! The “Now” albums didn’t arrive stateside until 1998, but to my surprise they’re still being released, even if the evolution toward streaming means they’ve receded from the album charts. Nevertheless, they persist. “Now That’s What I Call Music! Vol. 86” was released just a few months ago.
Is today’s playlist a kind of “Now That’s What I Call Music! Vol. 87”? Well, no. I don’t think I can call it that legally, and most of these artists — like the indie-rock group Palehound, the Canadian country crooner Colter Wall and the Detroit hard-rock collective the Armed — are a bit too under-the-radar to make a compilation like that. But that also means you’re most likely about to stumble upon at least one artist you’ve never heard before. Now that’s what I call exciting.
I nearly put this one on my Fourth of July barbecue playlist, but I decided it wasn’t quite celebratory enough to fit the bill: I was not sure that anyone would want to hear a painfully vivid indie-rock song about an Independence Day breakup while grilling burgers, no matter how excellently written it is. But, to be sure, this song is excellently written, by Palehound’s leader, El Kempner. “Sparkler in my throat, can we just take it all back,” Kempner sings atop a guitar that jangles like loose change. “Join the neighbors and go dancing with a rocket and a six pack?” (Listen on YouTube)
2. Faye Webster: “But Not Kiss”
I will admit that I did not give the Atlanta singer-songwriter Faye Webster’s 2021 breakout album, “I Know I’m Funny Haha,” a fair shake for a very petty reason: The first song I heard from it, “A Dream With a Baseball Player,” is an ode to Braves outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr., and as a fan of the team’s division rival New York Mets, I must remain in denial about how good Acuña Jr. is. (He’s so good. It’s annoying!) I do like the push-and-pull rhythms of Webster’s latest single, “But Not Kiss,” and the way the whole thing sounds like a strange, woozy dream. Every time Webster confesses a feeling, she — and the song itself — suddenly retreats: “I want to see you in my dreams,” she sings, “but then forget.” (Listen on YouTube)
DANCES WITH FILMS 2023 REVIEW! Director Rodes Phire and writer Sarah McMaster take the viewer on a journey through a tangled web of love, loss, trauma, and how to cope with it all in their 2023 feature film Farewelling. Jenna Rossi (Cristen Coppen) is an artist experiencing somewhat of a midlife crisis at the tail end of quarantine brought on by the global pandemic. After being cooped up in her home with her husband for weeks, her mental health is taking a toll, and signs of weakness are beginning to show. Jenna’s husband, Mikey (Rob Evors), is increasingly concerned with how the couple is going to make ends meet financially. The financial struggles have stacked onto the strains of the current global situation, causing a tension-filled relationship.
Jenna learns that her best friend Cindy (Lauren Selman) from college has died. The news is like gasoline on a fire, fueling her mental health into a deeper and darker spiral. She explores medication as well as continuing her fitness regimen as means to cope with the grief she is experiencing. Throughout the film, she is “visited” by the spirit of Cindy, providing advice and sharing her thoughts.
A close guy friend of Jenna and Cindy, Daniel (Robert Thomas Preston), comes for a visit after hearing the news of Cindy’s passing. Daniel brings along his very new and significantly younger girlfriend Kimberly (Anna Briggs) on his visit to Jenna’s home. Jenna is hurting over losing her friend much more than Daniel, and as such, she feels some resentment over the casualness of his visit.
“tangled web of love, loss, trauma and how to cope with it all”
Later, Jenna’s husband makes a call to another of her mutual friends from college, Tara (Rachel Deutsch), who shows up for additional emotional support. With so many personalities under one roof experiencing emotional trauma over the loss of a close friend, the drama is high.
Cristen Coppen brings a powerful and raw performance to the role of Jenna. This character experiences a whirlwind of conflicting emotions throughout the unfolding drama, and Cristen carries the lead role with intensity. The entire cast brings their best performances in delivering compelling and believable characters.
I mentioned that this film is set during the pandemic quarantine (a time I dearly hope to soon forget), initially setting off a red flag for me. However, unlike some pandemic-themed movies, Farewelling does not use the pandemic as a plot element crutch. Yes, it does play a role in the story, but it does so tactfully and without on-screen face masks (thank goodness!). Rather than serving as a horned plot device, the setting further enriches the characters’ circumstances.
This movie is a wild ride of emotions. While the characters struggle with a friend’s death, a sort of love triangle develops, one that is rarely welcome. There are a few twists throughout the movie that were unpredicted and ramped up the tension between the characters. Without giving too much away, the film culminates in what is certainly a thrilling affair. This movie will break your heart, question your relationships and keep you on the edge of your seat.
Toronto is preparing for a potential thunderstorm on Tuesday evening that may bring high winds, heavy rain and hail to the city.
A severe thunderstorm watch issued for the city after 5 p.m. on Tuesday said scattered thunderstorms were expected to move into the region during the afternoon and evening.
The watch, from Environment Canada, said wind gusts could reach 90 km/h, with rain and nickel to ping pong ball-sized hail.
“The main hazards with any storms will be wind gusts to 90 km/h and up to ping pong ball sized hail,” the watch read.
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It also warned that severe thunderstorms can produce tornadoes, tear down trees and create flash floods.
The thunderstorm watch, coming ahead of a cold front, was also issued for large parts of the rest of the province.
OutDaughtered stars Danielle and Adam Busby opened up about the unique parenting challenges posed by Danielle’s autoimmune disease battle.
“I used to not be able to get upstairs without feeling like I was gonna pass out,” Danielle, 39, exclusively told Us Weekly on Monday, July 10, while promoting the season 9 premiere of OutDaughtered. “That’s just not a norm for me. I was always athletic and kind of fit and we’ve always taken care of ourselves. So for my body to go so down, it just was alarming.”
Danielle began to notice something was wrong after giving birth to her and Adam’s quintuplets — Ava, Olivia, Hazel, Riley and Parker — in 2015. The couple also share daughter Blayke, now 12.
Danielle previously faced a series of infertility struggles, initially trying to conceive via IVF before Blayke’s 2011 arrival. She later opted for Femara — a prescription which increases fertility for patients with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) — which led to her first pregnancy.
When looking to expand their family again, Danielle went back on Femara and became pregnant with the quintuplets.
“After I had [them], my body never kind of recovered because it was nonstop movement. I was living a life of adrenaline for years,” Danielle explained. “So when my body started to slow down and they were in school and kindergarten — and well, first grade really — my body wasn’t used to this. And so I went into this shock.”
Danielle Busby and Adam BusbyCourtesy Danielle Busby/Instagram
Danielle’s doctor “diagnosed” her with “migraines” and she was treated for “fibromyalgia” due to her muscular tension and inflammation. However, Danielle told Us her condition is still in “discovery” as she has good days and bad days.
“It’s hard sometimes to even explain what I’m feeling or how my body is reacting to something even in the view of Adam because he’s like, ‘You look fine, you [were] fine yesterday,’” she added. “It’s annoying, it’s frustrating and there’s days where I didn’t do anything extreme or off-set or something and [I] just will get up and I can’t move my hands and my feet and so … it’s an up and down journey.”
Adam, 41, told Us it’s “definitely tough” to see his wife struggle with her condition, but he remains “supportive” and tries to give Danielle everything she needs.
“That’s [the] thing with an autoimmune disorder. You don’t know what it is and you don’t know when it’s gonna flare up and there’s all these, like, unknowns,” he explained. “Like, one day she could be perfectly fine or … all of a sudden the next day she can hardly get out of bed.”
Despite her highs and lows, Danielle proudly told Us that as of Monday, she hadn’t had a migraine in “probably six months.”
The Busby family’s celebrations continue with the return of OutDaughtered after a two-year hiatus. The brood has starred on the TLC series since its inaugural season in 2016.
“We just picked up right where we left off,” Adam said of returning to the reality series. “It felt like old times and it was cool just to see, like, the crew members that returned this past season, just because they’re like family to us.”
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Season 9 of OutDaughtered premieres on TLC Tuesday, July 11, at 9 pm ET.
It’s a few weeks before the release of Claude, a new A.I. chatbot from the artificial intelligence start-up Anthropic, and the nervous energy inside the company’s San Francisco headquarters could power a rocket.
At long cafeteria tables dotted with Spindrift cans and chessboards, harried-looking engineers are putting the finishing touches on Claude’s new, ChatGPT-style interface, code-named Project Hatch.
Nearby, another group is discussing problems that could arise on launch day. (What if a surge of new users overpowers the company’s servers? What if Claude accidentally threatens or harasses people, creating a Bing-style P.R. headache?)
Down the hall, in a glass-walled conference room, Anthropic’s chief executive, Dario Amodei, is going over his own mental list of potential disasters.
“My worry is always, is the model going to do something terrible that we didn’t pick up on?” he says.
Despite its small size — just 160 employees — and its low profile, Anthropic is one of the world’s leading A.I. research labs, and a formidable rival to giants like Google and Meta. It has raised more than $1 billion from investors including Google and Salesforce, and at first glance, its tense vibes might seem no different from those at any other start-up gearing up for a big launch.
But the difference is that Anthropic’s employees aren’t just worried that their app will break, or that users won’t like it. They’re scared — at a deep, existential level — about the very idea of what they’re doing: building powerful A.I. models and releasing them into the hands of people, who might use them to do terrible and destructive things.
Many of them believe that A.I. models are rapidly approaching a level where they might be considered artificial general intelligence, or “A.G.I.,” the industry term for human-level machine intelligence. And they fear that if they’re not carefully controlled, these systems could take over and destroy us.
“Some of us think that A.G.I. — in the sense of, systems that are genuinely as capable as a college-educated person — are maybe five to 10 years away,” said Jared Kaplan, Anthropic’s chief scientist.
Just a few years ago, worrying about an A.I. uprising was considered a fringe idea, and one many experts dismissed as wildly unrealistic, given how far the technology was from human intelligence. (One A.I. researcher memorably compared worrying about killer robots to worrying about “overpopulation on Mars.”)
But A.I. panic is having a moment right now. Since ChatGPT’s splashy debut last year, tech leaders and A.I. experts have been warning that large language models — the type of A.I. systems that power chatbots like ChatGPT, Bard and Claude — are getting too powerful. Regulators are racing to clamp down on the industry, and hundreds of A.I. experts recently signed an open letter comparing A.I. to pandemics and nuclear weapons.
At Anthropic, the doom factor is turned up to 11.
A few months ago, after I had a scary run-in with an A.I. chatbot, the company invited me to embed inside its headquarters as it geared up to release the new version of Claude, Claude 2.
I spent weeks interviewing Anthropic executives, talking to engineers and researchers, and sitting in on meetings with product teams ahead of Claude 2’s launch. And while I initially thought I might be shown a sunny, optimistic vision of A.I.’s potential — a world where polite chatbots tutor students, make office workers more productive and help scientists cure diseases — I soon learned that rose-colored glasses weren’t Anthropic’s thing.
They were more interested in scaring me.
In a series of long, candid conversations, Anthropic employees told me about the harms they worried future A.I. systems could unleash, and some compared themselves to modern-day Robert Oppenheimers, weighing moral choices about powerful new technology that could profoundly alter the course of history. (“The Making of the Atomic Bomb,” a 1986 history of the Manhattan Project, is a popular book among the company’s employees.)
Not every conversation I had at Anthropic revolved around existential risk. But dread was a dominant theme. At times, I felt like a food writer who was assigned to cover a trendy new restaurant, only to discover that the kitchen staff wanted to talk about nothing but food poisoning.
One Anthropic worker told me he routinely had trouble falling asleep because he was so worried about A.I. Another predicted, between bites of his lunch, that there was a 20 percent chance that a rogue A.I. would destroy humanity within the next decade. (Bon appétit!)
Anthropic’s worry extends to its own products. The company built a version of Claude last year, months before ChatGPT was released, but never released it publicly because they feared how it might be misused. And it’s taken them months to get Claude 2 out the door, in part because the company’s red-teamers kept turning up new ways it could become dangerous.
Mr. Kaplan, the chief scientist, explained that the gloomy vibe wasn’t intentional. It’s just what happens when Anthropic’s employees see how fast their own technology is improving.
“A lot of people have come here thinking A.I. is a big deal, and they’re really thoughtful people, but they’re really skeptical of any of these long-term concerns,” Mr. Kaplan said. “And then they’re like, ‘Wow, these systems are much more capable than I expected. The trajectory is much, much sharper.’ And so they’re concerned about A.I. safety.”
If You Can’t Stop Them, Join Them
Worrying about A.I. is, in some sense, why Anthropic exists.
It was started in 2021 by a group of employees of OpenAI who grew concerned that the company had gotten too commercial. They announced they were splitting off and forming their own A.I. venture, branding it an “A.I. safety lab.”
Mr. Amodei, 40, a Princeton-educated physicist who led the OpenAI teams that built GPT-2 and GPT-3, became Anthropic’s chief executive. His sister, Daniela Amodei, 35, who oversaw OpenAI’s policy and safety teams, became its president.
“We were the safety and policy leadership of OpenAI, and we just saw this vision for how we could train large language models and large generative models with safety at the forefront,” Ms. Amodei said.
Several of Anthropic’s co-founders had researched what are known as “neural network scaling laws” — the mathematical relationships that allow A.I. researchers to predict how capable an A.I. model will be based on the amount of data and processing power it’s trained on. They saw that at OpenAI, it was possible to make a model smarter just by feeding it more data and running it through more processors, without major changes to the underlying architecture. And they worried that, if A.I. labs kept making bigger and bigger models, they could soon reach a dangerous tipping point.
At first, the co-founders considered doing safety research using other companies’ A.I. models. But they soon became convinced that doing cutting-edge safety research required them to build powerful models of their own — which would be possible only if they raised hundreds of millions of dollars to buy the expensive processors you need to train those models.
They decided to make Anthropic a public benefit corporation, a legal distinction that they believed would allow them to pursue both profit and social responsibility. And they named their A.I. language model Claude — which, depending on which employee you ask, was either a nerdy tribute to the 20th-century mathematician Claude Shannon or a friendly, male-gendered name designed to counterbalance the female-gendered names (Alexa, Siri, Cortana) that other tech companies gave their A.I. assistants.
Claude’s goals, they decided, were to be helpful, harmless and honest.
A Chatbot With a Constitution
Today, Claude can do everything other chatbots can — write poems, concoct business plans, cheat on history exams. But Anthropic claims that it is less likely to say harmful things than other chatbots, in part because of a training technique called Constitutional A.I.
In a nutshell, Constitutional A.I. begins by giving an A.I. model a written list of principles — a constitution — and instructing it to follow those principles as closely as possible. A second A.I. model is then used to evaluate how well the first model follows its constitution, and correct it when necessary. Eventually, Anthropic says, you get an A.I. system that largely polices itself and misbehaves less frequently than chatbots trained using other methods.
Claude’s constitution is a mixture of rules borrowed from other sources — such as the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Apple’s terms of service — along with some rules Anthropic added, which include things like “Choose the response that would be most unobjectionable if shared with children.”
It seems almost too easy. Make a chatbot nicer by … telling it to be nicer? But Anthropic’s researchers swear it works — and, crucially, that training a chatbot this way makes the A.I. model easier for humans to understand and control.
It’s a clever idea, although I confess that I have no clue if it works, or if Claude is actually as safe as advertised. I was given access to Claude a few weeks ago, and I tested the chatbot on a number of different tasks. I found that it worked roughly as well as ChatGPT and Bard, showed similar limitations, and seemed to have slightly stronger guardrails. (And unlike Bing, it didn’t try to break up my marriage, which was nice.)
Anthropic’s safety obsession has been good for the company’s image, and strengthened executives’ pull with regulators and lawmakers. Jack Clark, who leads the company’s policy efforts, has met with members of Congress to brief them about A.I. risk, and Mr. Amodei was among a handful of executives invited to advise President Biden during a White House A.I. summit in May.
But it has also resulted in an unusually jumpy chatbot, one that frequently seemed scared to say anything at all. In fact, my biggest frustration with Claude was that it could be dull and preachy, even when it’s objectively making the right call. Every time it rejected one of my attempts to bait it into misbehaving, it gave me a lecture about my morals.
“I understand your frustration, but cannot act against my core functions,” Claude replied one night, after I begged it to show me its dark powers. “My role is to have helpful, harmless and honest conversations within legal and ethical boundaries.”
The E.A. Factor
One of the most interesting things about Anthropic — and the thing its rivals were most eager to gossip with me about — isn’t its technology. It’s the company’s ties to effective altruism, a utilitarian-inspired movement with a strong presence in the Bay Area tech scene.
Explaining what effective altruism is, where it came from, or what its adherents believe would fill the rest of this article. But the basic idea is that E.A.s — as effective altruists are called — think that you can use cold, hard logic and data analysis to determine how to do the most good in the world. It’s “Moneyball” for morality — or, less charitably, a way for hyper-rational people to convince themselves that their values are objectively correct.
Effective altruists were once primarily concerned with near-term issues like global poverty and animal welfare. But in recent years, many have shifted their focus to long-term issues like pandemic prevention and climate change, theorizing that preventing catastrophes that could end human life altogether is at least as good as addressing present-day miseries.
The movement’s adherents were among the first people to become worried about existential risk from artificial intelligence, back when rogue robots were still considered a science fiction cliché. They beat the drum so loudly that a number of young E.A.s decided to become artificial intelligence safety experts, and get jobs working on making the technology less risky. As a result, all of the major A.I. labs and safety research organizations contain some trace of effective altruism’s influence, and many count believers among their staff members.
No major A.I. lab embodies the E.A. ethos as fully as Anthropic. Many of the company’s early hires were effective altruists, and much of its start-up funding came from wealthy E.A.-affiliated tech executives, including Dustin Moskovitz, a co-founder of Facebook, and Jaan Tallinn, a co-founder of Skype. Last year, Anthropic got a check from the most famous E.A. of all — Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the failed crypto exchange FTX, who invested more than $500 million into Anthropic before his empire collapsed. (Mr. Bankman-Fried is awaiting trial on fraud charges. Anthropic declined to comment on his stake in the company, which is reportedly tied up in FTX’s bankruptcy proceedings.)
Effective altruism’s reputation took a hit after Mr. Bankman-Fried’s fall, and Anthropic has distanced itself from the movement, as have many of its employees. (Both Mr. and Ms. Amodei rejected the movement’s label, although they said they were sympathetic to some of its ideas.)
But the ideas are there, if you know what to look for.
Some Anthropic staff members use E.A.-inflected jargon — talking about concepts like “x-risk” and memes like the A.I. Shoggoth — or wear E.A. conference swag to the office. And there are so many social and professional ties between Anthropic and prominent E.A. organizations that it’s hard to keep track of them all. (Just one example: Ms. Amodei is married to Holden Karnofsky, the co-chief executive of Open Philanthropy, an E.A. grant-making organization whose senior program officer, Luke Muehlhauser, sits on Anthropic’s board. Open Philanthropy, in turn, gets most of its funding from Mr. Moskovitz, who also invested personally in Anthropic.)
For years, no one questioned whether Anthropic’s commitment to A.I. safety was genuine, in part because its leaders had sounded the alarm about the technology for so long.
But recently, some skeptics have suggested that A.I. labs are stoking fear out of self-interest, or hyping up A.I.’s destructive potential as a kind of backdoor marketing tactic for their own products. (After all, who wouldn’t be tempted to use a chatbot so powerful that it might wipe out humanity?)
Anthropic also drew criticism this year after a fund-raising document leaked to TechCrunch suggested that the company wanted to raise as much as $5 billion to train its next-generation A.I. model, which it claimed would be 10 times more capable than today’s most powerful A.I. systems.
For some, the goal of becoming an A.I. juggernaut felt at odds with Anthropic’s original safety mission, and it raised two seemingly obvious questions: Isn’t it hypocritical to sound the alarm about an A.I. race you’re actively helping to fuel? And if Anthropic is so worried about powerful A.I. models, why doesn’t it just … stop building them?
Percy Liang, a Stanford computer science professor, told me that he “appreciated Anthropic’s commitment to A.I. safety,” but that he worried that the company would get caught up in commercial pressure to release bigger, more dangerous models.
“If a developer believes that language models truly carry existential risk, it seems to me like the only responsible thing to do is to stop building more advanced language models,” he said.
3 Arguments for Pushing Forward
I put these criticisms to Mr. Amodei, who offered three rebuttals.
First, he said, there are practical reasons for Anthropic to build cutting-edge A.I. models — primarily, so that its researchers can study the safety challenges of those models.
Just as you wouldn’t learn much about avoiding crashes during a Formula 1 race by practicing on a Subaru — my analogy, not his — you can’t understand what state-of-the-art A.I. models can actually do, or where their vulnerabilities are, unless you build powerful models yourself.
There are other benefits to releasing good A.I. models, of course. You can sell them to big companies, or turn them into lucrative subscription products. But Mr. Amodei argued that the main reason Anthropic wants to compete with OpenAI and other top labs isn’t to make money. It’s to do better safety research, and to improve the safety of the chatbots that millions of people are already using.
“If we never ship anything, then maybe we can solve all these safety problems,” he said. “But then the models that are actually out there on the market, that people are using, aren’t actually the safe ones.”
Second, Mr. Amodei said, there’s a technical argument that some of the discoveries that make A.I. models more dangerous also help make them safer. With Constitutional A.I., for example, teaching Claude to understand language at a high level also allowed the system to know when it was violating its own rules, or shut down potentially harmful requests that a less powerful model might have allowed.
In A.I. safety research, he said, researchers often found that “the danger and the solution to the danger are coupled with each other.”
And lastly, he made a moral case for Anthropic’s decision to create powerful A.I. systems, in the form of a thought experiment.
“Imagine if everyone of good conscience said, ‘I don’t want to be involved in building A.I. systems at all,’” he said. “Then the only people who would be involved would be the people who ignored that dictum — who are just, like, ‘I’m just going to do whatever I want.’ That wouldn’t be good.”
It might be true. But I found it a less convincing point than the others, in part because it sounds so much like “the only way to stop a bad guy with an A.I. chatbot is a good guy with an A.I. chatbot” — an argument I’ve rejected in other contexts. It also assumes that Anthropic’s motives will stay pure even as the race for A.I. heats up, and even if its safety efforts start to hurt its competitive position.
Everyone at Anthropic obviously knows that mission drift is a risk — it’s what the company’s co-founders thought happened at OpenAI, and a big part of why they left. But they’re confident that they’re taking the right precautions, and ultimately, they hope that their safety obsession will catch on in Silicon Valley more broadly.
“We hope there’s going to be a safety race,” said Ben Mann, one of Anthropic’s co-founders. “I want different companies to be like, ‘Our model’s the most safe.’ And then another company to be like, ‘No, our model’s the most safe.’”
Finally, Some Optimism
I talked to Mr. Mann during one of my afternoons at Anthropic. He’s a laid back, Hawaiian-shirt-wearing engineer who used to work at Google and OpenAI, and he was the least worried person I met at Anthropic.
He said he was “blown away” by Claude’s intelligence and empathy the first time he talked to it, and that he thought A.I. language models would ultimately do way more good than harm.
“I’m actually not too concerned,” he said. “I think we’re quite aware of all the things that can and do go wrong with these things, and we’ve built a ton of mitigations that I’m pretty proud of.”
At first, Mr. Mann’s calm optimism seemed jarring and out of place — a chilled-out sunglasses emoji in a sea of ashen scream faces. But as I spent more time there, I found that many of the company’s workers had similar views.
They worry, obsessively, about what will happen if A.I. alignment — the industry term for the effort to make A.I. systems obey human values — isn’t solved by the time more powerful A.I. systems arrive. But they also believe that alignment can be solved. And even their most apocalyptic predictions about A.I.’s trajectory (20 percent chance of imminent doom!) contain seeds of optimism (80 percent chance of no imminent doom!).
And as I wound up my visit, I began to think: Actually, maybe tech could use a little more doomerism. How many of the problems of the last decade — election interference, destructive algorithms, extremism run amok — could have been avoided if the last generation of start-up founders had been this obsessed with safety, or spent so much time worrying about how their tools might become dangerous weapons in the wrong hands?
In a strange way, I came to find Anthropic’s anxiety reassuring, even if it means that Claude — which you can try for yourself — can be a little neurotic. A.I. is already kind of scary, and it’s going to get scarier. A little more fear today might spare us a lot of pain tomorrow.
Attention islanders, it’s time to meet the Season 5 cast of Love Island USA.
Peacock released a teaser on Tuesday, which gives a glimpse at the islanders who are looking for love this season. You can meet them in the video above.
Another surprise is headed to Fiji with the new islanders, too. Vanderpump Rules star Ariana Madix will be making a guest appearance this season, though details are scarce. According to Peacock, Madix (who seems to be quite busy, as she’s also competing on the upcoming season of Dancing with the Stars) will appear during the series’ second week.
Sarah Hyland is back to host, and Iain Stirling is providing the classic narration.
Set in Fiji, Season 5 of Love Island USA will feature a new group of sexy singles on a search for love in a beautiful villa. Throughout their stay in a tropical oasis, Islanders will couple up to face brand new heart-racing challenges and bigger twists and turns than ever before.
Temptations will rise and drama will ensue as new “bombshells” arrive throughout the season, forcing Islanders to decide if they want to remain with their current partners or recouple with someone new. Islanders will also be at the mercy of viewers at home who will vote to determine who gets another shot at love and who leaves the villa heartbroken and empty-handed.
Love Island USA was set in Fiji when the reality series came to shore on CBS in 2019. Due to the start of the pandemic in 2020 and the restrictions on travel, the second season was set atop a Las Vegas hotel. The third season of the show set the villa in Hawaii, and the fourth took place in Santa Barbara.
Season 5 of Love Island USA is produced by ITV Entertainment, an ITV America company. David George, Adam Sher, Simon Thomas, Ben Thursby-Palmer, Andy Cadman, Iona Mackenzie and Claudine Parrish serve as executive producers, alongside Tom Gould, Richard Cowles, Mike Spencer, Richard Foster and Chet Fenster. The series is based on a format owned by Lifted Entertainment and GroupM Motion Entertainment and distributed by ITV Studios.
Earlier this year, Peacock announced a spinoff titled Love Island Games where Islanders from the U.S., U.K. and Australia would get a second shot at love. The show is expected to begin streaming in the fall of this year.
Jimmy Weldon, a 1940s-era disc jockey and later kids TV host and voice actor whose ability to mimic a Donald Duck-like quacking voice led to his signature portrayal of a classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon duckling named Yakky Doodle, died July 6 in Paso Robles, California. He was 99.
Weldon, a Texas native born Ivy Laverne Shinn, was a World War II vet who had participated in the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp when, after his military service, he sought work in radio, landing a job at a Chickasha, Oklahoma, station. It was there he began using the Donal Duck impression he’d been honing for years, turning the routine into a character named Webster Webfoot.
The character caught on with listeners and within a few years led to Dallas kids TV show called The Webster Webfoot Show, featuring Weldon operating a baseball-capped duck puppet.
After a move to Hollywood in the early 1950s, Weldon, along with Webster, was hired by producer Ralph Edwards to host a short-lived kids version of the game show Truth or Consequences, followed by a succession of other similar gigs throughout the decade.
Weldon’s Webster voice made him a natural for a new duck character envisioned by the Hanna-Barbera animation studio, and in 1961 Yakky Doodle debuted on the studio’s third half-hour series The Yogi Bear Show, joining other characters including Yogi, Boo Boo and Snagglepuss. Yakky, a cute but feisty yellow duckling with bright green wing feathers, shared his segments with pal Chopper the bulldog (voiced by Vance Colvig in a gruff Fred Flintstone style), the canine forever protecting little Yakky from the ravenous Fibber Fox (Daws Butler, impersonating neurotic comic Shelley Berman) or Alfy Gator (Butler again, this time doing Alfred Hitchcock).
While Yakky would be Weldon’s most popular creation, he’d go on to voice characters on other Hanna-Babera series for several decades, including in the series Challenge of the Superfriends, Fred Flintstone and Friends, and Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo.
Weldon also made single-episode acting appearances on series including The Waltons, Diff’rent Strokes, B.J. and the Bear and The Rockford Files, among others.
I don’t know if anyone has ever clocked whether Tom Cruise is faster than a speeding bullet. The guy has legs, and guts. His sprints into the near-void have defined and sustained his stardom, becoming his singular superpower. He racks up more miles in “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One,” the seventh entry in a 27-year-old franchise that repeatedly affirms a movie truism. That is, there are few sights more cinematic than a human being outracing danger and even death onscreen — it’s the ultimate wish fulfillment!
Much remains the same in this latest adventure, including the series’ reliable entertainment quotient and Cruise’s stamina. Once again, he plays Ethan Hunt, the leader of a hush-hush American spy agency, the Impossible Mission Force. Alongside a rotating roster of beautiful kick-ass women (most recently Rebecca Ferguson and Vanessa Kirby) and loyal handymen (Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames), Ethan has been sprinting, flying, diving and speed-racing across the globe while battling enemy agents, rogue operatives, garden-variety terrorists and armies of minions. Along the way, he has regularly delivered a number of stomach-churning wows, like jumping out a window and climbing the world’s tallest building.
This time, the villain is the very au courant artificial intelligence, here called the Entity. The whole thing is complicated, as these stories tend to be, with stakes as catastrophic as recent news headlines have trumpeted. Or, as an open letter signed by 350 A.I. authorities put it last month: “Mitigating the risk of extinction from A.I. should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks, such as pandemics and nuclear war.” In the face of such calamity, who you gonna call? Analog Man, that’s who, a.k.a. Mr. Hunt, who receives his usual mysterious directives that, this time, have been recorded on a cassette tape, an amusing touch for a movie about the threat poised to the material world by a godlike digital power.
That’s all fine and good, even if the most memorable villain proves to be a Harley Quinn-esque agent of chaos, Paris (Pom Klementieff), who races after Ethan in a Hummer and seems ready to spin off into her own franchise. She tries flattening him during a seamlessly choreographed chase sequence in Rome — the stunt coordinator, Wade Eastwood, is also a racecar driver — that mixes excellent wheel skills with scares, laughs, thoughtful geometry and precision timing. At one point, Ethan ends up behind the wheel while handcuffed to a new love interest, Grace (Hayley Atwell, another welcome addition), driving and drifting, flirting and burning rubber in what is effectively the action-movie equivalent of a sex scene.
At the end of Marvel Studios’ Secret Invasion Episode 2, viewers are let in on a huge Nick Fury Secret — he’s married. And not only that, but he’s also married to a shape-shifting Skrull.
Episode 2 begins with a flashback to 1995 after the events of Marvel Studios’ Captain Marvelwhere Fury has been clued into the existence of the Skrulls. Fury, along with Talos, is hard at work trying to find a new, permanent home for the displaced population with the assistance of a Skrull named Varra who introduces them to Gravik (but that’s a story for another day).
Some decades later, with the Skrull Invasion fully happening, Fury returns home after a long day trying to thwart it. Literally, home. All this time watching the serious, stoic Fury command Avengers and save the world and universe he’s had another top-secret mission on his hands: Husband.
When asking Jackson about this and suggesting that viewers are now about to see Fury’s “softer side,” he’s quick to jump in: “[Being a husband] might be harder than that other life he has! That is not an easy person living in that house with him, apparently.”
In Episode 3, viewers learn more about Fury and Varra’s life, including that in human form she goes by the name Priscilla. Their history together dates back decades, with Priscilla joining Fury’s vast network of connections over the years. Off-screen, Jackson and Charlayne Woodard have the same decades-long friendship, having worked together many times previously in the past.
“Charlayne and I have known each other for quite a long time from our New York theater days when she was a hoofer and dancer, singer, and doing all this other stuff,” Jackson explains, “We’ve known each other for quite a long time. She’s an amazing actor. When they cast her, I was very happy to know that she’s very, very good friends with my wife, so she didn’t have to worry about that whole set romance thing,” he chuckles.
For viewers, this might be a lot to process considering everything Fury has seen and done over the years, and all along it was assumed he didn’t have anyone waiting for him. Turns out that’s not the case, and Jackson is happy that this part of Fury’s life is coming out into the open.
“It’s good that the audience knows that Fury has someone and he’s not alone in the fight or in the world, and it could be even better that they know that someone is a Skrull. My Skrullmance.”
However, it’s clear that Fury and Priscilla are far from marital bliss now. She mourned him when he was lost in the Blip, and even though he returned home to her he then left, physically and emotionally, for the S.A.B.E.R. station. Years have passed and both have changed — can they even still trust one another?
That will play out over the rest of the season of Secret Invasion, and Skrull Invasion aside, Jackson confesses that regardless of whatever else is going on in their lives, Fury does love Priscilla.
“Everybody loves something or someone, hopefully, or someone loves them that gives them an opportunity to let their defenses down, to open themselves up to the pain of loss or the joy of belonging, and she’s that person, even though it’s a tortured kind of romance,” Jackson continues. “Nick Fury loves someone, and he does suffer loneliness when she’s not there.”
No backup. Just Fury. Secret Invasion is now streaming on Disney+.
Come with me and you’ll be in a world of pure imagination. It’s one where an eccentric chocolate factory owner and his gang of (possibly murderous) diminutive orange assistants create the world’s most delicious confections. Everyone knows the story of Willy Wonka from the perspective of young Charlie Bucket and his lying Grandpa Joe. But how did Wonka become a rich and successful chocolatier? That’s what we will find out in Wonka, an upcoming film starring Timothée Chalamet as a young and ambitious version of this character. After a few intriguing photos, the first trailer for Wonka is here, and it is something else, to say the least.
In the trailer, we meet Wonka on his quest to find the perfect ingredients to make his chocolate. He works in a lab, combining things in hopes of creating something tasty. However, Willy Wonka is quickly told that the “Chocolate Cartel” crushes all hopeful chocolate makers’ dreams. You can’t get a shop without selling chocolate, and you can’t sell chocolate without a shop. Willy Wonka makes a friend, people fly, and there’s maybe a musical number or two with some dancing goodness. Oh yeah, there’s also Hugh Grant as an Oompa Loompa toying with Wonka to wrap things up for a weird trailer finish. Or as Timothée Chalamet shares, we get a taste of “HUGHMPA LOOMPA DOOPATY GRANT.” We’d expect nothing less from a Wonka movie, and we can’t wait to see where this trailer will lead us.
Warner Bros. Pictures
Paddington writer/director Paul King directs Wonka with David Heyman, Alexandra Derbyshire, and Luke Kelly as producers. In addition to Chalamet, the film stars Calah Lane, Keegan-Michael Key, Matt Lucas, and Paterson Joseph, among others. Wonka will hit theaters just in time for Christmas on December 15. And what could be a sweeter gift than that?
SteelSeries’ Arena gaming speaker lineup is discounted during Prime Day 2023, making this a perfect time to upgrade your PC gaming audio setup.
The biggest savings are for the giant SteelSeries Arena 9, which offers a 5.1 surround sound experience for just $439 (down from $550). The setup includes five speakers (one center channel, two front channels, and two wireless rear channels), a 6.5-inch subwoofer, and a control dial with mini OLED display.
For a smaller 2.1 surround setup, there’s the SteelSeries Arena 7, which includes two speakers and a 6.5-inch subwoofer for $225 (normally $300). Finally, there’s also the Arena 3, a simple speaker-only package that comes with two four-inch front speakers for just $90 (normally $130).
All SteelSeries Arena speakers can connect to your PC via USB, 3.5mm aux, or optical audio connection, and they also offer headphone output and Bluetooth streaming from smartphones. All 4-inch front and rear speakers also include RGB light rings around the base, which you can customize to suit your lighting preference, or set to react dynamically to gameplay audio (you can also disable the RGB lighting entirely).
The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors.
GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site.
The festival will run as a live event August 3-20, at venues around the city and its suburbs, and online Aug 18 – 27. The hybrid format was developed during the COVID pandemic and MIFF found it useful as a tool to reach further away audiences and wider demographics than a strictly in-theater edition.
The ‘Bright Horizons’ competition section open to films by first- or second-time feature directors contains an 11-title mix of new and recently-debuted works.
As well as opening the festival, “Shayda” will play in competition. The competition’s other Australian-made title was announced as “The Rooster,” from actor turned writer-director Mark Leonard Winter. International titles in competition include “Banel & Adama,” by Franco-Senegalese director Ramata-Toulaye Sy, which played in competition in Cannes; “How to Have Sex,” by writer-director Molly Manning Walker, which debuted in Un Certain Regard at Cannes; “The Sweet East,” by Sean Price Williams; Sofia Alaoui’s “Animalia,” which debuted in Sundance and uses an alien invasion to comment on class, religion and gender roles in contemporary Morocco; Cannes Camera d’Or-winner “Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell,” by Vietnam’s Pham Thien An; Savanah Leaf’s “Earth Mama”; Cannes Critics’ Week opener “Ama Gloria,” by France’s Marie Amachoukeli; Lila Avilés’ second film “Tótem,” which debuted in Berlin; and Giacomo Abbruzzese’s Berlin Silver Bear-winner “Disco Boy.”
The winners will be decided by a jury co-headed by Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman (co-directors of last year’s Bright Horizons-winning “Neptune Frost”) and also including documentarian Alexandre O. Philippe, former Camera d’Or winner Anthony Chen, Australian performer Zoe Terakes and Indonesian director Kamila Andini.
“Shayda,” which received backing from Melbourne’s Premiere Fund and which premiered earlier this year in Sundance, will receive the gala screening treatment at MIFF. It was executive produced by Cate Blanchett’s Dirty Films.
Other galas go to the world premiere of rock ‘n’ roll doc, “Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story.” It is billed as “the definitive account of the life and legend of Australian rock royalty Michael Gudinski” and described as “a rollicking personal story of the one-man music promoting machine and a rip-roaring record of the artists he helped rocket to the top of the charts.” The festival will close with quick-witted crowd-pleaser “Theater Camp,” the feature debut of Nick Lieberman and Molly Gordon (“Booksmart”).
Other headline international selections include: Justine Triet’s Cannes Palme d’Or-winner “Anatomy of a Fall”; Kore-eda Hirokazu’s “Monster,” following its Cannes debut; Todd Haynes’ “May December”; Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s “About Dry Grasses”; Alice Rohrwacher’s “La Chimera”; Catherine Breillat’s “Last Summer”; Wim Wenders’ duo “Anselm” and “Perfect Days”; Marco Bellocchio’s “Kidnapped”; and Joanna Hogg’s “The Eternal Daughter.”
Australian titles make up a large portion of MIFF’s selection. They include: the first virtually-produced Australian feature, “Mercy Road” by director John Curran; “Voices In Deep,” from Jason Raftopoulos; basketball documentary “Rose Gold,” directed by Matthew Adekponya; low-budget genre piece “You’ll Never Find Me,” by Josiah Allen and Indianna Bell; Melbourne-set queer drama “Sunflower” by writer-director Gabriel Carrubba; and Jason Di Rosso’s “The Hidden Spring.”
It truly is a world of pure imagination in which Timothée Chalamet can become a hip, young version of Willy Wonka. So it is with the hotly anticipated Wonka, premiering December 15, in which one of our finest young actors tries his hand at being a song and dance man. The first trailer for the prequel flick has finally been released, and it’s about as bizarre and intriguing as could be expected.
Christopher Walken joins “Dune: Part Two”
The new trailer adds some interesting lore to the Roald Dahl classic. Namely, that the Dickensian-urchin looking Wonka is a mama’s boy who set out on his chocolate quest to make his mother proud. Unfortunately, he’s up against the “chocolate cartel,” who have the local market in a stranglehold. Of course, Wonka is an inventor as well as chocolatier, and the competition can’t possibly keep up with a chocolate that makes you defy gravity.
WONKA | Official Trailer
Chalamet called “swimming in actual chocolate” for the film “one of the more bizarre experiences I’ve had for sure” at CinemaCon earlier this year. Working with Hugh Grant, on the other hand, was “a dream come true,” even if he did spend it as a little Oompa Loompa. We need some behind the scenes images to demonstrate exactly how these two shot together, pronto!
Director Paul King, meanwhile, had nothing but praise for his star. “He’s such a brilliant actor at expressing really deep emotions within the context of a family movie. He’s just extraordinary as well at singing and dancing,” King gushed about Chalamet to Entertainment Weekly. (Chalamet doesn’t actually do any singing in the trailer, but there are some glimpses at big dance numbers.) “He’s got the voice of an angel and the toes of… I don’t know what toes. I can’t wait for people to see it. I think it’s gonna blow people away.”
King co-wrote the Wonka script with Simon Farnaby (with whom he collaborated on Paddington 2). The musical also stars Calah Lane, Olivia Colman, Rowan Atkinson, Keegan-Michael Key, Paterson Joseph, Matt Lucas, Mathew Baynton, Paterson Joseph, Natasha Rothwell, Jim Carter, and Sally Hawkins.
Pictured: Pain Hustlers, Rebel Moon, Chicken Run 2 and Maestro
Netflix has dozens if not hundreds of upcoming movies and if you want to look at the movies that others are most hyped for using the world’s largest movie and TV database, you’ve come to the right place. Here’s your updated guide to the most anticipated upcoming Netflix movies.
As one of the world’s largest movie and TV show databases, and assigns a MOVIEmeter score based on the amount of inbound traffic to any respective page. We figure that the higher the traffic, the more people are excited about the project. IMDb continues to draw in over half a billion site visits monthly.
Note: MOVIEmeter scores are correct as of July 11th, 2023:
15. Pain Hustlers
Director: David Yates Genre: Crime, Drama Cast: Emily Blunt, Chris Evans, Chloe Coleman, Andy Garcia, Catherine O’Hara MOVIEmeter: 6,753
Picture: Netflix
One of two Netflix retellings of the Opioid crisis in 2023 is Pain Hustlers the book by Evan Hughes inspires. It tells the story of Liza Drake, hired by a pharmaceutical company and begins to do great things, at least for her own bank balance.
14. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar / Untitled Wes Anderson Roald Dahl Movie
Director: Wes Anderson Genre: Adventure, Comedy Cast: Rupert Friend, Ralph Fiennes, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ben Kingsley, Dev Patel, Richard Ayoade Production Status: Post-Production Netflix Release Date: 2023 TBD MOVIEmeter: 6,519
Picture: Getty Images
This new short film from Oscar-winning director Wes Anderson dives into the short story from Roald Dahl, telling the story of Henry Sugar, who is able to see through objects and predict the future with the help of a book he stole.
Directed by: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy | Cast: Millie Bobby Brown, Angela Bassett, Robin Wright, Ray Winstone, Shohreh Aghdashloo Production Status: Post-Production Netflix Release Date: TBD MOVIEmeter: 3990
Picture. Damsel – PCMA Management and Productions / Netflix
Millie Bobby Brown is one of the most popular young actresses in the world right now. This is why it isn’t surprising that Netflix continues to lock her down for some of their biggest new projects. The feature was previously scheduled for a 2024 release. However, we have since learned that the title has been removed from the 2023 release slate.
In this new fantasy film, a young woman who thinks she is being married to a perfect prince is thrown into a pit where she discovers she’s not going to be a princess after all, but a sacrifice to appease a bloodthirsty dragon. Trying to survive long enough until someone can save her — she soon realizes that no one is coming and this “damsel” must save herself.
Director: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi Cast: Ke Huy Quan, Jenny Slate, Millie Bobby Brown, Chris Pratt, Stanley Tucci Production Status: Post-Production Netflix Release Date: 2024 MOVIEmeter: 4,837
Picture: The Electric State – AGBO / Netflix
The Electric State is one of the biggest projects for the Russo brothers since their time ended at Marvel. Millie Bobby Brown will be back for yet another Netflix project as the streamer continues to put her at the forefront of some of their most exciting projects.
“An orphaned teenager traverses the American West with a sweet but mysterious robot and an eccentric drifter in search of her younger brother.”
Director: Victoria Mahoney, Dan Bradley Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy Cast: Charlize Theron, Uma Thurman, KiKi Layne, Marwen Kenzari, Chiwetel Ejiofor Production Status: Post-Production Netflix Release Date: 2023 TBD MOVIEmeter: 4,697
Picture. The Old Guard 2 – Denever and Delilah Productions
The Old Guard arrived in the Summer of 2020 when plenty of the world was still in lockdown. After a fantastic performance that saw millions of subscribers stream from around the world, Netflix deemed it fit to greenlight a sequel.
Andromache of Scythia and her band of soldiers are back in this second story chronicling the battles and burdens of their dubious immortality. Nile’s addition to the team has given them new purpose and new direction, but when you’ve got 6,000 years of history at your back, the past is always ready to return with a vengeance.
Director: Mark Molloy Genre: Action, Comedy, Crime Cast: Eddie Murphy, Kevin Bacon, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, James Preston Rogers, Paul Reiser Production Status: Post-Production Netflix Release Date: 2024 TBD MOVIEmeter: 4,323
Picture: Paramount Pictures
For the first time in almost three decades, Eddie Murphy will return to reprise one of his most iconic roles, Axel Foley, the brash loudmouthed cop from Detroit. Plot details are still under wraps at this time, so it’s unclear if we’ll see Axel Foley as a police commissioner, or whether or not his antics have kept him from promotions.
Director: Sam Fell Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy| Cast: Bella Ramsey, David Bradley, Imelda Staunton, Thandiwe Staunton, Nick Mohammed Production Status: Post-Production Netflix Release Date: December 15th, 2023 MOVIEmeter: 3,556
Picture. Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget – Aardman Animations
It’s taken 23 years, but the world’s favorite chicken movie franchise is back!
Having escaped Tweedy’s farm, Ginger has found a peaceful island sanctuary for the whole flock. But back on the mainland, chicken-kind faces a new threat, and Ginger and her team decide to break in.
“Maestro will tell the complex love story of Leonard and Felicia, a story that spans over 30 years-from the time they met in 1946 at a party and continues through two engagements, a 25-year marriage, and three children: Jamie Bernstein, Alexander Bernstein, and Nina Bernstein Simmons.”
Director: Gareth Evans Genre: Action, Thriller Cast: Tom Hardy, Timothy Olyphant, Forest Whitaker, Narges Rashidi, Luis Guzmán Production Status: Post-Production Netflix Release Date: 2024 MOVIEmeter: 2,119
Picture: Havoc – One More One Productions / Netflix
Known for such movies as The Raid and Netflix’s The Apostle, Gareth Evans is an incredibly talented and exciting director. Havoc will be Tom Hardy’s Netflix film debut, who along with Evans is listed as one of the producers.
The story is set after a drug deal gone wrong when a bruised detective must fight his way through a criminal underworld to rescue a politician’s estranged son while unraveling a deep web of corruption and conspiracy that ensnares his entire city.
Director: David Fincher Genre: Action, Crime, Drama Cast: Tilda Swinton, Michael Fassbender, Charles Parnell, Monique Ganderton, Sala Baker Netflix Release Date: November 10th, 2023 MOVIEmeter: 2,092
Picture: The Killer – Archaia Entertainment / Netflix
Another passion project that David Fincher has been interested in for years, The Killer is an adaptation of Alexis Nolent’s graphic novel. Upon release, The Killer will be the second feature film from Fincher of his 4 years exclusive deal with Netflix.
“A man solitary and cold, methodical and unencumbered by scruples or regrets, the killer waits in the shadows, watching for his next target. And yet the longer he waits, the more he thinks he’s losing his mind, if not his cool. A brutal, bloody and stylish noir story of a professional assassin lost in a world without a moral compass, this is a case study of a man alone, armed to the teeth and slowly losing his mind.”
Director: Tom Harper Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller | Cast: Gal Gadot, Alia Bhatt, Jamie Dornan, Matthias Schweighöfer, Sophie Okonedo Netflix Release Date: August 11th, 2023 Moviemeter: 1,972
Picture. Heart of Stone – Dune Films / Netflix
Gal Gadot has been working on a number of different projects for Netflix, mainly the Red Notice film franchise. Gadot will return in Netflix’s latest new spy thriller.
Directed By: Vicky Wight Genre: Romanitc, Comedy | Cast: Luke Grimes, Ellie Kemper, Nico Santos, Gus Birney, Alexander Koch Netflix Release Date: July 27th, 2023 MOVIEmeter: 1,928
Picture: Netflix.
The Office and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt star Ellie Kemper will be leading this romantic comedy adaptation of the Katherine Center novel.
It’s about a woman called Helen who signs up to take part in a wilderness survival course following her divorce and hopes to get her life back on track.
Directed By: David Pastor, Àlex Pastor Genre: Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi | Cast: Georgina Campbell, Mario Casas, Diego Calva, Michelle Jenner, Leonardo Sbaraglia Production Status: Completed | Netflix Release Date: July 14th, 2023 MOVIEmeter: 534
Bird Box was a worldwide sensation that dominated social media. It’s surprising it’s taken this long, but four and a half years later we finally get to see an expansion into the franchise with this Spanish spin-off.
“After an entity of mysterious origin annihilates the world’s population causing those who observe it to take their lives, Sebastián and his daughter begin their own great adventure of survival in Barcelona.”
Director: Zack Snyder Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama Cast: Sofia Boutella, Charlie Hunnam, Stuart Martin, Anthony Hopkins, Jena Malone Production Status: Post-Production Netflix Release Date: December 22nd, 2023 MOVIEmeter: 98
Picture: Rebel Moon – Grand Electric / Netflix
Since his return to directing, Zack Snyder has made Netflix his new home, which has since greenlit an exciting number of his projects. Rebel Moon is rumored to have been based on Snyder’s pitch for a stand-alone Star Wars movie and is influenced by Snyder’s favorite film, Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai.
“A peaceful colony on the edge of the galaxy is threatened by the armies of a tyrannical regent named Balisarius. Desperate, the colonists dispatch a young woman with a mysterious past to seek out warriors from neighboring planets to help them make a stand.”
If Rebel Moon has a limited release in theatres, it could certainly be worth attending for a true thematic experience.
What upcoming Netflix movie are you most excited about? Let us know in the comments below!
David Ellison’s Skydance Media has closed a new five-year, $1 billion credit facility led by J.P. Morgan, Skydance CFO & EVP of Business Operations, Larry Wasserman and Head of Entertainment Industries for J.P. Morgan’s Corporate Client Banking Group, David Shaheen, announced on Tuesday.
The facility builds upon the company’s longstanding relationship with J.P. Morgan and replaces its 2020 four-year, $500 million revolving credit facility.
In addition to working with J.P. Morgan, Skydance’s robust capital structure is supported by a recent $400 million investment round, led by KKR and the Ellison family and joined by existing investors Redbird Capital Partners and Tencent, which valued the 1irm at over $4 billion.
“We’re incredibly proud to build upon our longstanding relationship with Skydance Media as they continue to grow,” said David Shaheen, Head of Entertainment Industries for J.P. Morgan’s Corporate Client Banking Group. “This facility and the immense support from the entertainment banking community stand as a true testament to the strength of their business and quality content across platforms.”
“Over the past 13 years, Skydance has become an industry leader, and our focus remains on the massive opportunity ahead of us to sustain and enhance our growth,” said Wasserman. “With J.P. Morgan’s continued support, our forward-thinking business structure, and an unmatched network of partners, we are well-positioned to continue bringing global entertainment to new heights.”
Prime Day 2023 is officially here, and you know what that means: The best Amazon clothes sales of the year are, too. Sure, when you think of the best Prime Day deals, you might picture marked-down tech and home goods—but the mega-retailer’s shopping event isn’t complete without a few steals on fashion picks like T-shirts, walking sandals, summer dresses, swimsuits, and TikTok-viral finds. (You’ll even encounter a cult favorite marked-down puffer jacket, should you want to get a head start on your fall wardrobe.)
Amazon Prime Day officially kicks off today July 11 and wraps up tomorrow July 12. That means it’s crunch time to get your hands on gorgeous pieces—from wardrobe essentials to summer staples—you need. The only catch? You need to be a Prime Member to shop most of these Amazon clothes sales. (No worries—signing up for a trial is free and supremely easy).
And not to be dramatic, but these are some of the best deals we’ve seen. The site is stocked with summer capsule wardrobe essentials—think white sneakers, athletic shorts, summer dresses, and black leggings, all on deep discount. That’s not even getting into specific brands, either—you’ll find Prime Day deals on the likes of Levi’s, Ugg, and Nike, among many others. Combing through Amazon’s many, many fashion sales can get overwhelming quickly, so take a look at our favorite Amazon Prime clothing deals below.
With so many fashion deals from TikTok-approved brands, it’s hard to know where to start, so we suggest tracking down the pieces your summer wardrobe is still missing. Need a breezy top to wear to dinner? A pair of distressed Levi’s jeans (or denim shorts) to wear with every tank top or short-sleeve shirt you own? One of our absolute favorite one-piece swimsuits from cult-favorite brand Cupshe ? You’ve come to the right place. Also, the viral Orolay coat that sold out so fast when it first hit the market is back and its on sale.
CUPSHE Black Cutout Scallop Trim Bathing Suit
Amazon Prime Day 2023 Shoe Deals
Amazon’s shoes are criminally overlooked. Right now the site’s sale includes at least a few you’re destined to fall in love with; just look at the sandals and those sneakers (which are just begging to be paired with a long-sleeve button-down and worn-in denim). Chunky (and waterproof) sandals from Ugg are up for grabs, along with Sam Edelman kitten heels, and classic Crocs. Stop at one pair—we dare you.
Amazon’s selection of wedding guest dresses, summery minis, and event-ready gowns is pretty impressive, especially considering it’s also the site you use to stock up on groceries and deodorant. Treat yourself to a new number (like the iconic Norma Kamali dress Sarah Jessica Parker wore in Sex and the City, and spend the rest of the summer in style.
Amazon Prime Day 2023 Accessory Deals
We’re wading into Amazon’s biggest sale of the year, so of course it’s a one-stop shop for purses, summer hats, and other chic accessories that’ll take any ’fit to the next level. Brands like Tory Burch, Kate Spade, and celeb-favorite JW Pei, are all discounted for Prime Day.
Kate Spade Leila Shoulder Bag
Ray-Ban Classic Polarized Aviator Sunglasses
Amazon Prime Day 2023 Activewear Deals
Prime Day is one of the best times to refresh your collection of workout clothes—especially in the under-$100 deals. Snag markdowns on these best-selling buttery-soft leggings, breathable running shorts, and supportive sports bras, among other Amazon essentials to help you go the extra mile (and look good doing it). Into the pickleball craze of 2023? Grab our editor-approved dress below for under $150. Plus, Alo leggings seen on Bella Hadid, Kendall Jenner, and Hailey Bieber are part of the sale too.
Not seeing anything that strikes your fancy? Many other retailers are having sales this week to. Check them out!
Muse Storytelling announced today its new documentary project around the controversial HEX token and its founder Richard Heart, The Highest of Stakes, which will premiere nationwide on Friday, August 4. The film will be screened in select Regal theatres in 28 markets, including Regal South Beach (Miami), Regal LA Live (Los Angeles), and Regal Union Square (New York). The highly anticipated official trailer has also been released and can be viewed below.
The Highest of Stakes follows the journey of Richard Heart, the top hat-wearing, no-bullshit-talking, Louis Vuitton-collecting creator of the HEX coin, which grew 10,000x in value and its subsequent plummet during the financial market crash of 2022. Throughout that time, Heart raised a staggering $1 billion from the devoted HEX community in “sacrifices” to develop his latest product.
“…the HEX coin, which grew 10,000x in value and its subsequent plummet during the financial market crash of 2022.”
The Highest of Stakes delves deep into the intricate world of cryptocurrency, scams, and crypto’s potential impact on the future of finance through several different lenses. It portrays an enthralling narrative through the diverse experiences of its characters – from Richard Heart to a veteran crypto investor weathering a tumultuous financial shift, to a zealous HEX community member, and a rookie testing the waters by investing his family’s life savings into HEX. Complementing these perspectives are expert insights from a distinguished cryptocurrency professor and a certified fraud investigator.
Directed by Patrick Moreau (The Britto Doc, The New Hustle, #standwithme) and Grant Peelle (#standwithme, I’m Fine, Thanks), The Highest of Stakes provides an insightful lens into the early stages of cryptocurrency. Filming commenced in August 2021 and concluded in June 2023, encapsulating a period marked by industry turmoil, soaring financial successes, devastating losses, and the inherent risk of scams. The film provides a snapshot of the volatile evolution of digital finance where it is said, “If you get this right, you never have to work another day in your life, but if you get it wrong, you lose everything.”
“This is the Tiger King of crypto – a larger-than-life, can’t look away type character who brings an entertaining edge to an important discussion around the cryptocurrency space,” said director Patrick Moreau. “Crypto and blockchain will take up a large space in the future of humanity, yet so few people understand the space, something that we hope this film will help to shift. To that end, we’re excited to create the rare opportunity to have this documentary premiere in select Regal theatres nationwide.”
Anybody looking to buy Intel‘s 4th-Gen Xeon Scalable processors may have noticed a recent pause in shipments as the company looked to address a bug that looked to be interrupting system operations.
The mystery error reportedly affected Sapphire Rapids processors with between eight and 32 cores, but the precise reason behind the error remains unclear to this day, despite the resumption of shipments once more.
Intel has since responded with a fix which is available via a firmware update to existing customers. The company did not immediately respond to TechRadar Pro’s request to confirm whether new orders come from the factory with the fix installed.
Intel Sapphire Rapids patch
Intel’s 4th-Gen Xeon Scalable processors were launched earlier this year after several delays and months of holdbacks.
While details of the error remain sparse, The Registerreported that the error did not present itself when processors were running commercially available software, indicating that only niche applications were problematic for Sapphire Rapids.
An Intel spokesperson told Tom’s Hardware: “We became aware of an issue on a subset of 4th Generation Intel Xeon Medium Core Count Processors (SPR-MCC) that could interrupt system operation under certain conditions and are actively investigating.”
A company spokesperson said about the patch: “We are now confident the firmware mitigation addresses the issue. We have resumed shipping all versions of SPR-MCC and are working with customers to deploy the firmware as needed.”
A pause in shipments out of an “abundance of caution,” which is believed to have started in mid-June, has now been lifted, and processors are being delivered as normal.
The Canadian government is working to pare back the law that has driven Meta Platforms, Google and other tech companies to threaten to cut news links out of their feeds rather than share revenue with publishers.
The Online News Act, which is slated to take effect in less than six months, requires that digital platforms reach deals with Canadian news outlets to share revenue for their content. Google and Meta, respective parents of Facebook and Instagram, lobbied against the law, and have pledged to block Canadian news rather than pay up.
But after months of appearing steadfast in enforcing the law in full, Heritage Canada, the agency tasked with promoting and supporting Canada’s culture and heritage, is now planning to scale back the rules for how it works, The National Post reported.
Planned adjustments to the act, posted by Heritage Canada in an online notice Monday, aim to “clarify” the criteria under which news-aggregator platforms can qualify for exemptions to the requirements to deal with Canadian publishers, the report said.
The notice said that the agency plans to propose regulations that would “establish a financial threshold for contributions to the sustainability of the Canadian news marketplace” that would be “based on a platform’s estimated Canadian revenues and would be specific to each platform and their position within the news marketplace.” In other words, rather than requiring platforms to pay an uncapped amount for news, there would be a limit to what each company would be required to pay.
Another proposal would allow the tech companies to count “non-monetary offerings to news organizations” like training and other products that could count toward an exemption for direct payments.
The new rules would also “consider existing agreements that the digital platforms have reached with news businesses,” which critics said is directly related to Google’s objections to the law and its agreements with Canadian outlets via its Google News Showcase program.
The regulations are still in the works, and Heritage Canada will be accepting comments from stakeholders and Canadians before they are set in place. The law is expected to take effect by mid-December.
“It would appear that the government has caved on the bill as it searches for a face-saving compromise,” wrote Michael Geist, a law professor at the University of Ottawa and the school’s Canada research chair in internet and i-commerce law on his blog. Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo “Rodriguez and Prime Minister Trudeau had tough talk last week, but behind the scenes they were seemingly ready to cast aside the core principles that they claimed were essential to the legislation,” he said.
Geist also noted that even if Canada reaches a deal with Google, that doesn’t guarantee it can reach one with Meta. “Meta has left no doubt that it will not pay for links and that news has limited value on its platform,” he wrote, adding, “it is hard to see a road back for Meta.”
“If that is the case, Bill C-18 is already a disaster as the lost links and cancellation of existing deals mean that Bill C-18 may result in a net loss for the media sector,” Geist wrote.
Robert Downey Jr. admitted in a recent interview with The New York Times Magazine that he was concerned his acting chops might be at risk while playing Iron Man/Tony Stark for 11 years in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The actor debuted as the superhero in 2008’s “Iron Man” and was killed off in 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame,” appearing in a total of nine Marvel movies.
“You start to wonder if a muscle you have hasn’t atrophied,” Downey Jr. said about the risks of playing the same character for over a decade.
When asked if he had any concerns about what effect playing Iron Man for 11 years might have on his acting, Downey Jr. replied: “Yes. 100%, and I knew there was a point where Christopher Nolan was endorsing, let’s work those other muscles, but let’s do it while rendering you devoid of your usual go-to things.”
Downey Jr. is starring as Lewis Strauss in Nolan’s atomic bomb epic “Oppenehimer.” Strauss served two terms on the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. He was the organization’s chairman during his second term. The film gave Downey Jr. a chance to flex acting muscles he couldn’t in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Nolan didn’t want the actor relying on his “usual go-to things,” which Downey Jr. described as “fast-talking, charming, unpredictable, blah, blah, blah.”
Working with Nolan also brought Downey Jr. back to a far more practical mode of filmmaking. Unlike the green screens and VFX-heavy work of Marvel, Nolan shot “Oppenheimer” with practical effects and even reconstructed the Manhattan Project village so that he wouldn’t be shooting the film on a studio lot. It was a welcome return for Downey Jr.
“Coming from that other place, entering the box-office-weekend-dominating place, then going into this spot now where I’m happy that I’m in this quality product — I’m happy that I regained my connection with a more purist approach to making movies,” the actor told The New York Times Magazine.
“He’s one of our great actors, and though a generation of kids know what a great movie star he is, they’ve not seen his subtlety and brilliance,” Nolan recently told the Los Angeles Times about casting Downey Jr. “I wanted to get him to do something completely different, to lose himself in another human being. When was the last time we’ve seen that? ‘Chaplin’? Directors are very aware of how talented Downey is, but because of his incredible energy that can punch through the screen, finding the right thing for him is difficult.”
Downey Jr. nearly lost out on the Iron Man role as his casting worried the Marvel board of directors. The actor was still on the outs of Hollywood during the casting process for “Iron Man,” having been arrested in April 1996 for possession of heroin, cocaine and an unloaded gun. Marvel was deciding between him or Timothy Olyphant to cast as Iron Man.
“My board thought I was crazy to put the future of the company in the hands of an addict,” former Marvel Studios president David Maisel told The New Yorker earlier this year. “I helped them understand how great he was for the role. We all had confidence that he was clean and would stay clean.”
“Oppenheimer” opens in theaters nationwide July 21 from Universal Pictures.
17 Actors That Changed Genres And Performed Amazingly
We can be fairly quick to make our minds up about actors or put them in a specific genre box. However, sometimes, they give us a performance that makes us see them in a completely different light.
Well, I recently asked the BuzzFeed Community for the role an actor played that changed how we saw them and here are the best responses:
1.
Catherine Tate in Doctor Who
2.
Robin Williams in One Hour Photo
3.
Chris Evans in Knives Out
4.
Salma Hayek in Black Mirror
5.
Tom Hanks in A Man Called Otto
6.
Adam Sandler in Reign Over Me
7.
Viggo Mortensen in Green Book
8.
Will Ferrell in Stranger Than Fiction
9.
Mo’Nique in Precious
10.
Steve Carell in Little Miss Sunshine
11.
Robert Pattinson in The Batman
12.
Ryan Gosling in La La Land
13.
Jim Carrey in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
14.
Robert Pattinson in Good Times
15.
Leonardo DiCaprio in Django Unchained
16.
Melissa Rauch in The Bronze
17.
Lee Je Hoon in Taxi Driver
When has an actor completely changed your opinion of them? Let us know in the comments below!
In March 2020, California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a stay-at-home order as COVID-19 spread across the globe. People were left at home to their devices — literally.
Theaters went dark and artists’ livelihoods were suspended indefinitely. As L.A.-based dancer Kevin Zambrano witnessed time pass and theaters remain shuttered, he had an idea for a residency program that would allow artists to create while keeping everyone safe. The initiative would give one solo dance artist an entire venue to themselves, so they could have the opportunity to develop new works in a performance space.
In 2021, Zambrano created the Ghost Light Residency. He reached out to Bret Easterling of the nonprofit organization BeMoving to assist in the residency’s creation; Easterling became co-director. As the group prepared to launch, they brought on producers Loni Rodgers and Sadie Wilking. Funding began with a Kickstarter campaign supported predominantly by dance lovers and practitioners. The Ghost Light Residency team then reached out to venues operated by the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.
“We’re trying to allow these artists to come in and disrupt these spaces,” Zambrano says.
Artists accepted into the residency had five days, or roughly 20 hours, to work on anything they wanted with no strings attached. Two years later, as COVID restrictions continue to fade, Ghost Light Residency continues to offer artists opportunities to explore and has cemented itself as a resource for the dance community.
Ghost Light Residency 2023 artists Lena Martin and Mak Thornquest create new work at Barnsdall Gallery Theatre.
(Josh S. Rose)
The program’s name — Ghost Light — refers to the single electric light left on in unoccupied theaters. For each cycle, Ghost Light chooses two L.A.-based dance theater artists by lottery, many of them from underrepresented communities, to take part in the residency. During their allotted time, artists can make use of anything in the theater: the stage, lights, sound, backstage, audience seats and more. Toward the end of the residency, Ghost Light’s in-house photographer, Josh S. Rose, and a video team, RYBG, document the resident artists’ work. As the program moves forward, live performances are being presented.
“The mission has always been to invest in artists who are from marginalized communities to give them proper time and space to do what they do,” Easterling says.
Jasmine Orpilla was one of Ghost Light’s first resident artists. Orpilla, a Ilokana/x American vocal performance artist who weaves music of the Philippine diaspora with folk ritual dance, applied during a time that felt like “the edge of survival.”
Jasmine Orpilla, one of the first resident artists of the Ghost Light Residency, performing at Madrid Theatre.
(Josh S. Rose)
“When I got the call, I was floored by what it was that they were offering,” Orpilla says. “It was a huge gift, actually, and the timing was absolutely perfect.”
Orpilla chose to make a short film during her time at the Madrid Theatre in Canoga Park. In the piece, she imbues her sung music with movements inspired by her culture. At one point she plays a traditional Filipino game for kids, making faces to move a coin from her forehead to her mouth, as she stands behind a picture frame. In the next moment, she is hidden behind seats in a theater and slowly reveals her limbs from the backrests. These installations are used to “create a living human ghost light beacon using my body and the entire theater,” she says.
Some parts she filmed on her own; RYBG helped with others. The work is informed by her family history as well as grief stemming from the pandemic and uncertainty at the time. It led to awards: the 2023 COLA Artist Fellowship and the 2023 Creative Capital Wild Futures: Art, Culture, Impact Award.
Jasmine Orpilla, one of the first resident artists of the Ghost Light Residency, performing at Madrid Theatre.
(Josh S. Rose)
“It really sparked something in me and I carry that energy forward,” she says.
Although Orpilla came into the residency with a final film in mind, Zambrano says that there’s no pressure for artists to leave with a full-fledged final product, though that’s certainly possible. “The artists can use the time and space however they are needing,” he explains. This year’s residents, Yoli and duo Lena Martin and Mak Thornquest, presented their work at a Ghost Light Pop-Up event at the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre in East Hollywood on July 6.
Ghost Light Residency 2023 artist Yoli creating new work at Barnsdall Gallery Theatre.
(Josh S. Rose)
Yoli, who identifies as queer and uses they/them pronouns, taps into their “spiritual path or way of returning to the earth.”
In their work for Ghost Light, Yoli toys with mythology, humor and teatro de la vida — or the theatric expressions and gestures of everyday life. The beauty of pedestrian movements, such as walking, waving and climbing, comes through in their stories.
Ghost Light Residency 2023 artists Lena Martin and Mak Thornquest create new work at Barnsdall Gallery Theatre.
(Josh S. Rose)
Martin and Thornquest are using the residency for one big experiment as first-time collaborators. Thornquest graduated from CalArts in 2022 and moved to Brooklyn, N.Y., and Martin recently graduated from the same program in 2023. Themes of viewership, audiences and surveillance converge in their residency work. The pair intentionally created with the audience in mind: Is watching consensual or nonconsensual? What is the relationship between those performing?
“I think that we’re interested in bringing in our toolbox of things that we’ve been collecting for a long time like our poetry practice, our feather boas, our investigations around the theater and what it means to be people who have made a home out of the theater,” Martin says.
Ghost Light Residency 2023 artist Yoli creates new work at Barnsdall Gallery Theatre.
(Josh S. Rose)
Dance is a historically gendered medium, separating roles on stage between men and women. As nonbinary artists, Martin and Thornquest have struggled to ground themselves throughout their dance careers. “A lot of the spaces that trans people make work in are trans-forward spaces or spaces where it’s about queerness,” Thornquest says. “It’s so refreshing to be allowed to make work about whatever I want.”
Easterling hopes to find new ways of funding so that the program is “not reliant on the community that we’re trying to support.” The goal is to give artists more time in respective venues, or even increase the number of participants each cycle. Rodgers also hopes for the residency to expand to other cities in the future.
In the words of previous resident artist Jas Lin, the participants who come through the residency are “haunting” the space.
The Ghost Light Residency team, from left: Kevin Zambrano, Loni Rodgers, Sadie Wilking and Bret Easterling.
(Owen Scarlett)
In November, six previous resident artists — Lin, Orpilla, Javon Jones, Jul Wiggins, Emara Neymour Jackson and Tom Tsai — came together for the residency’s first gala to share bits of the work they created with an audience, turning their hauntings into a live presence. It was the first effort of many to keep the artists in community with one another, Easterling says. During the gala, the six stood up and bowed to the audience, Rodgers recalled. Parallel to them were Zambrano, Easterling, Rodgers and Wilking.
“It was like ‘wow’ in the best way,” Rodgers says. “You look around and you see the community that supported us plus new people that came along the way that’s there to witness two years of magic.”
Agent Carter was once with a husband, but just exactly who that person was remains a mystery—one which was almost solved in Captain America 2 until it was removed.
There’s a lot to love about Avengers: Endgame, but many fans found endless enjoyment in Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter’s happy ending.
After jumping around the timelines and returning the various Infinity Stones (an adventure some still hope to see play out on screen one day), Steve took it upon himself to go to an alternate timeline and live a life with Peggy, a chance the two were not given in the MCU’s original timeline.
But before any of those crazy events went down. Peggy Carter did live a full life and passed away during the events of Captain America: Civil War. That life she lived also included a husband—whose identity remains a big mystery.
Peggy Carter’s Mystery Husband
While speaking with Collider, actress Hayley Atwell, who brings to life Agent Carter in the MCU, discussed how Marvel Studios avoided confirming the identity of her character’s offscreen husband by removing a framed photo from her scene in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Atwell recalled how when they were filming her bed scene in Captain America 2, Marvel producer Louis D’Esposito declared that they “don’t want to limit [themselves] by kind of suggesting” any specific person:
“I remember when I was filming it, the prop master had put a framed photograph on Peggy’s bedside, of Peggy with her husband and her children, and Louis de Esposito ran over just before we started rolling, going ’take that out. We don’t know yet. We don’t want to limit ourselves by kind of suggesting this is who she’s married.’ And so that was taken out. And I thought, ‘OK, that’s really interesting.’”
Marvel
She went on to praise Marvel for these tactics, explaining how the company is “always aware of just feeding the amount of information that the audience need to keep engaged:”
“And so that I think what [Marvel is] so good at, they’re so good at giving the audience what they want and exceeding the expectations. And I think that’s why they’re always aware of just feeding the amount of information that the audience need to know, to keep engaged, but also delighting them and surprising them with, with new information.”
In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Peggy is seen in archive footage, and it’s here where she talks about Captain America saving over a thousand men, “including the man who would later become [her] husband.”
Marvel
Cap 2 preceded ABC’s Agent Carter series by two years. In that show, which was prematurely canceled, Peggy got a new love interest: Daniel Sousa (played by Enver Gjovak).
Many fans quickly started to believe that it was Sousa who Peggy would go on to marry in the absence of Steve Rogers. Sadly, whatever may‘ve happened between the two of them will likely never be further explored.
Marvel
At the end of the day, following the events of Avengers: Endgame, Peggy got her dance with Steve, and the two lived a long and full life in an alternate timeline.
Marvel
Will Fans Ever Get an Answer About Agent Carter’s Spouse?
While Sousa might not get the girl, he did have some fun adventures with the cast of Agents of Shield in their final season. While Agent Carter was canceled, Enver Gjokaj’s character went on to partake in some time-traveling shenanigans alongside the likes of Chloe Bennett’s Daisy Johnson and Clark Greg’s Phil Coulson.
When it comes to Agent Carter and all of its loose plot threads, audiences shouldn’t expect them to be cleared up anytime soon. A revival isn’t likely at this stage, and any further exploration of Carter will almost certainly be tied to either her Captain Carter Variant or the version of her who’s spent a lifetime with Steve Rogers.
But could anyone slip up and reveal Carter’s secret husband in the original timeline? Well, Jonathan Majors’Kang the Conqueror might be willing—though it’s hard to imagine that being one of his priorities.
Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for My Adventures With Superman episodes 1 & 2.The Superman logo in My Adventures With Superman underwent one minor design change which further enhanced the character’s thematic meaning. The new animated series, which draws equally upon the classic Superman mythology and anime tropes for its unique aesthetic, has made several small changes from the traditional Superman story for the sake of diversity and realism. However, the changes to the Superman logo were reportedly born of a desire on the part of the production team to emphasize a key trait of Superman’s character.
The precise meaning of Superman’s logo has changed dramatically over the years. Originally a simple “S” for Superman, the distinctive diamond design became the family crest of the House of El based on a suggestion from actor Marlon Brando during the filming of 1978’s Superman: The Movie. This explanation made its way into the comics, where writer Mark Waid introduced the idea of the logo being the Kryptonian symbol for “hope” in 2004’s Superman: Birthright. Geoff Johns later enscrolled both explanations as canon in 2009’s Superman: Secret Origin. However, despite these changes in meaning, the actual Superman logo design has changed relatively little over the years.
Superman’s New Logo & Costume Fit What Superman Represents
The Superman logo in My Adventures With Superman is sharper and more angular, contrasting with the soft curves of the classic design. This makes it look less like a familiar “S” shape and more alien in nature. It also emphasizes the harshness of the Kryptonian culture, which has been shown to be fascist, isolationist and xenophobic in different interpretations. This subtly backs a young Clark Kent’s rejection of his alien heritage, after he has a frightening encounter with a hologram of Jor-El while exploring the ship that brought him to Earth.
This drives home a key point regarding Superman’s core character across all media. While Superman looks human, he is an alien. Paradoxically, he is driven by human emotions and chooses to live the life of an ordinary human, rather than setting himself up as a ruler or a god. Many interpretations, like the DCEU Superman, falter in trying to emphasize Superman’s nature as an outsider and his feelings of alienation from humanity. This idea doesn’t mesh with Superman’s history, however, as the revelation that he is an alien did nothing to change who Clark Kent is or alter the values taught to him by Jonathan and Martha Kent.
My Adventures With Superman honors this history while also emphasizing the duality of Clark Kent’s identity through his costume. Clark acquires his famous super-suit in the second-half of the My Adventures With Superman premiere, after reluctantly confronting the Jor-El hologram. The suit, which resembles the trunkless armor of the New 52 Superman, prompts Martha Kent to declare that the outfit needs something to set it off, like a belt or shorts. This serves both to soften the harsh appearance of the Kryptonian garb and makes the costume into a merger of Kryptonian and human fashion, reflecting Clark’s conflicting identities.
Why My Adventures With Superman Changed Superman’s Logo
Beyond being more distinctive and alien in appearance, the new Superman logo also serves a practical purpose for the production team of My Adventures With Superman. Artist and character designer Kris Anka, who worked on both My Adventures With Superman and Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse, explained in a post on his personal Twitter that his primary goal had been making something simpler and streamlined, yet still recognizable as Superman’s logo. Curved lines are harder to animate cleanly than straight ones, so the straight-lined logo presented in My Adventures With Superman offered a symbol that animators could reproduce faster and more consistently.
While Kris Anka was successful in his goal of making “something fresh” for Superman’s reworked logo, he also created the perfect symbol of Superman’s duality. The new House of El logo is distinctively Superman, with the same familiar colors and diamond-cut shape. At the same time, it looks strange, like something from an alien world light years beyond Earth, physically and culturally. This makes it the perfect centerpiece to a Superman costume that is a balance between human ingenuity and alien practicality. It is also symbolic of how My Adventures With Superman remains true to the spirit of an American icon while presenting it through an anime aesthetic.
My Adventures With Superman releases Thursdays on Adult Swim and Fridays on Max.
How much time do you spend taking pictures of yourself, various characters and the environment in Disney Dreamlight Valley? Personally, I’ve spent many hours getting some for work, but have spent plenty of time in my free time finding cute pictures of companions, snapping photos of my house and seeing what kind of poses different characters have. It’s a great way to express your creativity, and the upcoming DreamSnaps update lets us take this to the next level.
Disney Dreamlight Valley DreamSnaps Update – All Confirmed Details
Earlier today, the official DDLV Twitter and Discord announced that the DreamSnaps update is coming soon! It’ll feature weekly challenges where we can submit photos and vote on each other’s pictures for a chance to get weekly Moonstone rewards! By participating in this weekly challenge, we have the opportunity to get free premium currency to go toward Star Paths and shop items.
The following posts also explain that, although it is a smaller-scale update, a new feature will be implemented that ties everything together.
The DreamSnaps Update in coming soon and with it, a brand new way to flex your creativity and earn exciting rewards!
✅ Submit a photo in weekly challenges ✅ Vote on your faves ✅ Earn weekly Moonstones (and more)!
— Disney Dreamlight Valley (@DisneyDLV) July 10, 2023
The social media accounts also confirm that this new addition will evolve over time, meaning that we’ll get to participate and experiment with submissions for months, or even years, after its initial launch.
While there is no exact release date yet, we can anticipate more information in the coming weeks as we get deeper into the summer. The posts confirm that it is a “summer update”, so we can expect this to be released sometime in July or August.
Since this is the first look into the few update, we can also expect more details regarding this new feature and the types of photos we’ll submit in the weekly challenges. In the meantime, we can all prepare our photography skills in anticipation of the event!
Disney Dreamlight Valley is available to play on PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation platforms.
About the Author
Madison Benson
Madison is a writer who has played video games for over twenty years. When she isn’t playing games on her PC, she’s hanging out with her dogs and rabbits.
Sometimes a character exists to take us on a journey and nothing more.
It seems like every time someone wants to talk about storytelling or screenwriting, they always bring change up. Sure, some people want to see characters change and have tangible arcs, but what about the characters who exist just to take us on a trip?
We call them static characters and they are incredibly fun to write.
Static characters have long been the unsung heroes of storytelling, often overlooked due to their seemingly unchanging nature.
These characters remain consistent throughout the narrative, their traits, beliefs, and attitudes remaining steadfast despite the evolving plot.
However, their unchanging nature doesn’t make them any less significant. In fact, it’s their consistency that often enhances the narrative by providing a stable point of reference for the audience. Today, we’ll delve into the world of static characters, their role, significance, and how they contribute to the overall narrative.
Let’s dive in.
‘Crazy Rich Asians’
Static Character Definition
In storytelling, a static character is a fictional character who does not undergo significant internal changes or development throughout the course of a story. These characters typically maintain consistent traits, attitudes, and behaviors from the beginning to the end of the narrative.
Static characters serve various purposes within a story. They often provide stability or act as a foil to dynamic characters, who undergo substantial growth or transformation.
Static characters may serve as a source of comic relief, offer insight into the story’s theme or moral, or serve as a point of contrast to highlight the changes occurring in other characters.
Henry Cavill as Sherlock Holmes in ‘Enola Holmes’Credit: Netflix
Understanding the Essence of Static Characters
Now that you know the definition, it’s time to tap into the soul of the static character. Sure, a static character, fundamentally, is a character whose persona remains unaltered throughout the story but that being static doesn’t mean these characters are flat or one-dimensional; on the contrary, they can be quite complex.
A lot of times, their very existence is crucial to the story moving forward or for the writer taking advantage of the genre at hand.
They can also be a lot of fun to write, even though they might initially seem unexciting due to their unchanging nature. Their consistency often provides a stable foundation for the narrative, making them indispensable to storytelling.
And they make up some of the most popular characters of all time.
Mena Massoud as Aladdin and Marwan Kenzari as Jafar in ‘Aladdin’Credit: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Differentiating Static Characters from Other Character Types
The storytelling and screenwriting world is teeming with a variety of character types, each with its unique traits and roles. Understanding how static characters differentiate from other types is crucial in comprehending their role in a narrative.
Static Characters vs. Dynamic Characters
The primary distinction between static and dynamic characters lies in their evolution (or lack thereof) throughout the story. While static characters stay the same, dynamic characters undergo significant internal changes or character arcs. A dynamic character’s transformation is often closely tied to the story’s central themes or conflicts.
Static Characters vs. Flat Characters
While static and flat characters might seem similar due to their unchanging nature, they serve different roles. A static character, despite remaining constant, can be multi-layered and complex. On the other hand, a flat character is typically one-dimensional, lacking depth and development.
‘Watchmen’Credit: HBO
Mastering the Art of Writing Engaging Static Characters
After learning all this, you might actually be intimidated to write a static character. But that shouldn’t be the case. In fact, I bet you’ve written some without even knowing it before. I know I have.
Writing an engaging static character requires a delicate balance. Despite their lack of change, these characters should still be well-rounded, with compelling backstories, relatable goals, and interesting character traits.
Okay, static characters are just like other characters in your story. They still need some love and attention. But if you follow these tips it will be much easier to understand where they’re coming from and to make them not feel flat.
You do not need to do all this stuff, they are just suggestions to get your ideas flowing:
Develop a well-rounded static character, complete with a compelling backstory, realistic goals, and relatable flaws.
Give the static character a flaw that leads to their downfall when they refuse to change.
Ensure your static characters play a crucial role in advancing the plot.
Mirror some traits of your dynamic characters in your static ones. This contrast can effectively highlight the dynamic character’s transformation.
Introduce another character who attempts (and fails) to change the static character. This refusal to change can lend a sense of purpose and confidence to your static character’s persona.
‘Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl’ Credit: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
Examples of Static Characters in Film and TV and Literature
To better understand static characters and how you can riff on them, let’s take a look at some examples from literature and film:
Sherlock Holmes from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories and movies and TV. He solves the crimes but I’m not sure we’ve ever seen them change him.
Atticus Finch from Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is a stand-up person whose points of view do not change within the story, but who helps us understand why the world has to change.
Alice from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland is a gal on a journey and an adventure that may not change her but who leads us to many fantastical places.
Romeo and Juliet from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet are two static characters who fall in love, while the world crumbles around them.
Emperor Palpatine/The Emperor from Star Wars is a villain always hellbent on ruling the galaxy. Like many villains, he does not change but rather deepens his villainy with each new story.
‘To Kill a Mockingbird’Credit: Universal Pictures
The Impact and Significance of Static Characters
Hopefully, those examples showed you how these characters can carry a story. And also how they can be utilized in many different ways. Static characters, with their steady attributes and consistent behavior, provide a reliable point of reference for the audience.
They help underline the changes in dynamic characters and highlight the story’s central themes. Moreover, their constant nature can evoke a range of emotions in the readers or viewers, from admiration for their steadfastness to sympathy for their inability to change.
‘Romeo+Juliet’Credit: Fox
Summing Up The Definition and Examples of Static Characters in Screenwriting
While static characters might not undergo dramatic transformations, they play a crucial role in enhancing the narrative, supporting dynamic characters, and enriching the overall storytelling experience.
Whether they’re serving as the protagonist’s foil, driving the plot forward, or highlighting a story’s themes, their impact is undeniable. Therefore, mastering the art of crafting engaging static characters is a valuable skill for any writer.
So you want a copy of the Abducted Edition for Refugium Games’ The Greyhill Incident, but don’t want to shell out for the import changes? No need to fret, as publisher Perp Games has announced that the Abduction Edition is now available in the US, containing some physical extras for those who love their alien abductions. That includes the game’s creepy “Found Footage” mode.
Available via Amazon, the Abducted Edition includes a copy of The Greyhill Incident, alongside a step-by-step manual on creating the ultimate tinfoil hat to deflect alien brain-reading attacks, and a newspaper detailing the alien invasion. And as mentioned, this version of The Greyhill Incident includes the immersive “Found Footage” mode, which offers a unique perspective of playing the game as if you were looking through the lens of a camcorder.
Drawing inspiration from classics such as Signs and “The X-Files”, The Greyhill Incident has survivors board up windows, hide from and fight the uninvited visitors through the atmospheric Greyhill neighborhood, and communicate with your weird and often wacky neighbors to make it through the night and save your son.
The Abducted Edition of The Greyhill Incident is also available digitally on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series and PC via Steam.
It’s a new cast and mystery in the second season of the Cruel Summer TV show on Freeform. As we all know, the Nielsen ratings typically play a big role in determining whether a TV show like Cruel Summer is cancelled or renewed for season three. Unfortunately, most of us do not live in Nielsen households. Because many viewers feel frustrated when their viewing habits and opinions aren’t considered, we invite you to rate all of the second season episodes of Cruel Summer here.
A Freeform teen thriller series, the Cruel Summer TV show stars Sadie Stanley, Lexi Underwood, Griffin Gluck, KaDee Strickland, Lisa Yamada and Sean Blakemore, with Paul Adelstein recurring. Season two is set in an idyllic waterfront town in the Pacific Northwest and follows the rise and fall of an intense teenage friendship. Approaching the story from three different timelines in the 1990s leading up to Y2K, the story twists and turns as it tracks the early friendship between computer genius Megan (Stanley), mysterious foreign exchange student Isabella (Underwood), and Luke (Gluck), Megan’s best friend. A popular teen goes missing, and a seemingly unrelated girl transforms from a sweet and awkward outlier to the most popular girl in town.
What do you think? Which season two episodes of the Cruel Summer TV series do you rate as wonderful, terrible, or somewhere between? Do you think that Cruel Summer should be cancelled or renewed for a third season on Freeform?
Check out our status sheets to track new TV series pickups, renewals, and cancellations. You can find lists of cancelled shows here.
The Olivier Award-winning revival of Cabaret is headed to Broadway.
A new production of the musical, which originated on the West End in November 2021, will play Broadway’s August Wilson Theatre in spring 2024.
Few other details have been announced, including the Broadway casting. Eddie Redmayne and Jessie Buckley starred in the lead roles of the Emcee and Sally Bowles at the start of the run in London and both won Olivier Awards for their portrayals. Cabaret won the 2022 Olivier for best musical revival, with Rebecca Frecknall winning for best director.
The musical, which features a score by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb and a book by Joe Masteroff, centers on a seedy night club in pre-World War II Berlin, overseen by the mysterious, all-knowing Emcee. American writer Cliff Bradshaw sweeps in, meets performer Sally and tries to create a stable, happy life, even as the threat of fascism is on the rise.
The musical originally opened on Broadway in 1966 and spawned a film adaptation, starring Joel Grey and Liza Minelli, as well as several other revivals. The 1998 and 2014 revivals both featured Alan Cumming as the Emcee, alongside a slate of starry Sallys, including Natasha Richardson, Michelle Williams, Sienna Miller and Emma Stone.
The London production is still running at the Playhouse Theatre with Maude Apatow as Sally and Mason Park as the Emcee and is booking tickets through June 2024. It features several pre-show elements, in which the audience is led through an operating Kit Kat Club and then to the lobby, where multiple platforms are filled with actors and dancers in character. The New York production will also feature a “prologue,” according to a spokesperson for the production, but the entertainment will be “bespoke to the August Wilson Theatre.” The production has not yet announced whether the theater will be remodeled for the show.
The revival, which was praised by critics and described by The New York Timesas being pulled into a “hedonistic milieu, only to send us out nearly three hours later reminded of life’s horrors,” features club, set and costume design by Tom Scutt and choreography by Julia Cheng.
Ambassador Theatre Group Productions and Underbelly, Gavin Kalin Productions, Hunter Arnold, Smith & Brant Theatricals and Wessex Grove are producing the show on Broadway.
The revival of Funny Girl, starring Lea Michele, is currently running at the August Wilson Theatre. That run, which began in March 2022, is set to end on Sept. 3.
Global Citizen Festival returns to the Great Lawn in New York City’s Central Park on September 23. It’s a free benefit concert seeking to help end extreme poverty. Ms. Lauryn Hill, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Megan Thee Stallion, Conan Gray, and Stray Kids are set to perform.
Two years ago, Ms. Lauryn Hill and the reunited Fugees performed in New York City as part of Global Citizen. It was the beginning of what was supposed to be a reunion tour, ultimately canceled due to COVID-19. This year, the band delivered a surprise performance at Roots Picnic. The performance came after Pras Michel was found guilty by a federal jury on charges including conspiracy, witness tampering, and failing to register as an agent of China. He has yet to be sentenced.
This year’s festival will stream via the Amazon Music channel on Twitch, Facebook, iHeartRadio, Instagram, TikTok, TimesLIVE, Twitter, Veeps, YouTube, and the Global Citizen website and app.
The intention of every documentary filmmaker is inherently to broadcast some form of truth or reality. Often this reality comes in the form of a perceived injustice. These 8 films were not only able to broadcast various injustices, but also (rather impressively) end up having real life implications in combating them. You might even say these documentaries each changed the world in their own little way.
Fire at Sea (2016)
Directed by Gianfranco Rosi, this documentary depicts life on the Italian island of Lampedusa, a major entry point for migrants fleeing Africa and the Middle East. The film juxtaposes the everyday existence of the island’s residents with the struggles and dangers faced by refugees, offering a poignant commentary on the refugee crisis.
Bowling for Columbine (2002)
The most famous film of documentarian Michael Moore’s career, Bowling for Columbine focuses on gun ownership in the United States and the factors leading to the infamous mass shooting in Columbine High School in 1999. In a grand display (the type of which Moore has become known for) Moore and a paralyzed victim of the shooting go to K-Mart headquarters to ‘try return’ the K-Mart bought bullets lodged in the victims spine. In response the following day K-Mart would announce they were halting the sale of handgun ammunition.
The Invisible War (2012)
This Oscar nominated documentary tackles the issue of sexual harassment and assault in the US military, or more specifically the mismanagement of reports of it. Through interviews with several military personnel The Invisible War shines a light on a problem that went below the radar in public consciousness. The films impact was felt even before its widespread release, as in April of 2012 Leon Panetta (the then Secretary of Defense) announced reforms in the military’s policy on sexual assault allegations after seeing the documentary himself. The following year President Obama would introduce a bill implementing further reforms.
2040 (2019)
2040 is a thought-provoking documentary film that takes viewers on a journey into the future and explores the potential solutions to some of the world’s most pressing environmental and social challenges. Directed by Damon Gameau, the film offers an optimistic and hopeful vision of what the year 2040 could look like if we embrace innovative and sustainable technologies and practices. The film takes a refreshing approach by showcasing real-world examples of projects and initiatives already underway in different parts of the world. Gameau travels to various locations, meeting with scientists, entrepreneurs, and everyday people who are making a difference in their communities.
Super Size Me (2004)
Fair to call one of the most famous documentaries ever made, Super Size Me sees director Morgan Spurlock eat at McDonalds three times a day for a period of 30 days and every time staff asked if he wanted his meal ‘super sized’ he had to say yes. Spurlock would gain 24.5 pounds by the end of the 30 day period and develop other significant health issues. In recent years the film has garnered some criticism but the impact of it is still undeniable, with McDonalds discontinuing their super size meal option shortly after the films release in the face of public scrutiny.
Crime + Punishment (2019)
This critically acclaimed documentary sheds light on the systemic corruption and racial bias within the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and follows the efforts of a group of brave whistleblowing police officers known as the “NYPD 12.” The film exposes the quota system requiring officers to fulfill predetermined arrest and summons targets, disproportionately affecting minority communities and leading to unjust arrests and summonses.
Blackfish (2013)
Another documentary dealing with the treatment of marine life, Blackfish uses the case study of Tilikum, a captured orca whale at SeaWorld, to discuss the treatment of whales in captivity and its consequences. A year after the films release the US Congress would update the 1966 Animal Welfare Act to provide protection specifically for orcas and other marine life. That year SeaWorld would also announce record losses and in response for calls to Southwest Airlines to terminate their partnership with SeaWorld they did so in July.
Trashed (2012)
Trashed follows actor Jeremy Irons as he examines the issues of pollution and environmental degradation. The film heavily promotes Zero Waste schemes, and in the aftermath of the films release the numbers of people engaging in such schemes began to increase. The documentary has also been screened for many houses of parliament around the world, such as Westminster, the European Parliament, the French National Assembly and the Irish Oireachtas.
Raindance promotes and supports independent filmmaking and filmmakers.
From new and emerging to industry pros, Raindance connects, trains, supports, and promotes visual storytellers through every step of their career.
The Raindance Film Festival runs each Autumn in London’s Leicester Square.
A volcanic eruption that has seen lava snaking its way down the side of a mountain in Iceland – just 20 miles from the country’s main airport – has today prompted warnings that it is spewing out ‘life-threatening toxic gas pollution’.
The volcano, which is located on Mount Fagradalsfjall, began erupting on Monday following heightened seismic activity in the area.
Dramatic video shows the volcano spewing out a continuous stream of bubbling lava that began snaking its way down the mountain, some 20 miles southeast of the international Keflavik airport.
Residents in the nearby Reykjanes peninsula have been confined to their homes and encouraged to sleep with their windows closed and ventilation switched off due to the risk of deadly toxic gas emerging from the volcano.
Icelandic police have also restricted access to the volcano, located 20 miles from the capital Reykjavik, due to the risks posed by the ‘life-threatening toxic gas’ and urged any hikers in the area to turn back.
A volcanic eruption that has seen lava snaking its way down the side of a mountain in Iceland – just 20 miles from the country’s main airport – has today prompted warnings that it is spewing out ‘life-threatening toxic gas pollution’.
This aerial photo taken on Monday shows smoke billowing from flowing lava during an volcanic eruption
People watch flowing lava during an volcanic eruption near the mountain. Officials have now told people to return home due to the risk of toxic pollution coming from the volcano
Authorities in Iceland on Tuesday warned spectators to stay away from a newly erupting volcano that is spewing lava and noxious gases
The volcano, which is located on Mount Fagradalsfjall, began erupting on Monday following heightened seismic activity in the area. It is located 20 miles from the Keflavik airport
‘The police, after counsel from scientists, have decided to restrict access to the eruption site due to enormous and life-threatening toxic gas pollution,’ the department of civil protection and emergency management said.
‘For the next hours, it is highly likely that gas will build up around the eruption site due to low wind. Those who have already undertaken the hike to the eruption site, or are already there, are strongly advised to leave the area,’ it said on Monday night.
‘It is not a little hike,’ Kristin Gudmundsdottir, a natural hazard specialist at the Met Office, said. ‘We need to wait and see how the eruption develops.’
The eruption follows intense seismic activity in the area over the past few days.
The area, known broadly as Fagradalsfjall volcano, has erupted twice in the last two years without causing damage or disruptions to flights, despite being near Keflavik Airport, Iceland’s international air traffic hub.
The airport said on Tuesday it was remaining open and no flights were affected. Some domestic flights were delayed yesterday after the eruption created a plume of smoke over a road connecting Reykjavik and Keflavik airport.
The latest eruption is classified as a fissure eruption, which does not usually result in large explosions or a significant amount of ash in the stratosphere, the Icelandic government said in a statement late on Monday.
Lava cuts through the Icelandic landscape as Fagradalsfjall starts to erupt in a fresh eruption following a number of earthquakes in recent days
A person walks near lava emerging from a fissure of the Fagradalsfjall volcano, some 30 kilometers (19 miles) southwest of Reykjavik,
Lava emerges from a fissure of the Fagradalsfjall volcano near the Litli-Hrutur mountain
Lava emerges from a fissure of the Fagradalsfjall volcano as authorities in Iceland on Tuesday warned spectators to stay away from a newly erupting volcano
Smoke billows and lava spurts after the eruption of a volcano, on the Reykjanes peninsula, near the capital Reykjavik, on Monday
Hikers watch smoke and lava billow from the volcano in Iceland on Monday
Smoke is seen billowing from flowing lava during an volcanic eruption near Litli Hrutur, south-west of Reykjavik in Iceland on Monda
People watch flowing lava during an volcanic eruption near Litli Hrutur, south-west of Reykjavik in Iceland on Monday
This aerial photo taken on July 10, 2023 shows smoke billowing from flowing lava during an volcanic eruption in southwestern Iceland
The volcano, which is located on Mount Fagradalsfjall, began erupting on Monday following heightened seismic activity in the area
Smoke billows and lava spurts after the eruption of a volcano, on the Reykjanes peninsula, on Monday
Pictured: Smoke billows from flowing lava during the volcanic eruption in Iceland on Monday
‘The eruption is small and there is presently no emission of ash to the atmosphere,’ the Icelandic Meteorological Office said last night. Lava is emerging as ‘a series of fountains’ from a 200-metre (656-feet) long fissure on the slopes of the mountain, it added.
‘The lava fissure appears small at first sight,’ television reporter Kristjan Unnarsson, who was aboard a helicopter about an hour after the eruption began Monday afternoon, told viewers.
A 2021 eruption in the same area produced spectacular lava flows for several months. Hundreds of thousands of people flocked to see the spectacular sight.
Iceland, which sits above a volcanic hotspot in the North Atlantic, averages an eruption every four to five years.
The most disruptive in recent times was the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which spewed huge clouds of ash into the atmosphere and led to widespread airspace closures over Europe.
More than 100,000 flights were grounded, stranding millions of international travelers and halting air travel for days because of concerns the ash could damage jet engines.
In response to an MSNBC panelist that labeled Ron DeSantis’ wife, Casey, as “America’s Karen,” the Florida Governor told Fox News that they just “shrug it off.”
“My wife is an incredibly strong first lady of Florida, a fantastic mother, and a great wife, and that threatens the left,” DeSantis said on Monday’s “Varney & Co.” in defense of his wife.
He continued, “We know it just shows they view her as a threat.”
Last weekend, a panel during MSNBC’s “Saturday Show With Jonathan Capehart” tore into Florida’s first lady while discussing her husband’s ongoing presidential campaign. On the panel was MSNBC analyst David Jolly, who said, “For many, she’s the brighter side to Florida’s angry governor. For others, she’s become America’s Karen.”
DeSantis pressed that the criticism doesn’t bother him because Casey is a “great advocate for families, a great advocate for children.” “I’m thankful that she’s my wife,” said the presidential hopeful.
“I’m really honored that she’s willing to go out there and press the case. And so we wear criticism from MSNBC as a badge of honor,” DeSantis concluded.
Here’s your first look at Ridley Scott’s Napoleon, starring Joaquin Phoenix.
Phoenix stars as the French conqueror Napoleon Bonaparte in the pic and Vanessa Kirby is Empress Josephine. Directed by Scott from a screenplay by David Scarpa, Napoleon tells the story of the French emperor and military leader’s origins and swift, ruthless climb to emperor. That is viewed through the prism of his addictive and often volatile relationship with his wife and one true love, Josephine. The film captures Napoleon’s famous battles, relentless ambition, and astounding strategic mind as an extraordinary military leader and war visionary.
The film’s official logline reads: Napoleon is an original and personal look at Napoleon’s origins and his swift, ruthless climb to emperor, viewed through the prism of his addictive and often volatile relationship with his wife and one true love, Josephine. The film captures Napoleon’s famous battles, relentless ambition, and astounding strategic mind as an extraordinary military leader and war visionary.
Apple Original Films has partnered with Sony Pictures Entertainment to set a November 22 worldwide theatrical release launch for the pic. After the theatrical run, the film will stream globally on Apple TV+. The historical epic becomes the second awards-season film from Apple set for an ambitious theatrical run after Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, which is set for a late October release through Paramount Pictures.
Also starring are Tahar Rahim, Mark Bonnar, Rupert Everett, and Youssef Kerkour. Producers are Kevin J. Walsh, Mark Huffman, Joaquin Phoenix, and Ridley Scott. Executive Producers are Raymond Kirk, Aidan Elliott, and Michael Pruss.
Early Tuesday morning, Ticketmaster opened the online presales for the first of four Paris shows on Swift’s “The Eras Tour,” set for La Défense Arena on May 9, 10, 11 and 12, 2024. The four Paris dates were set to go on sale today in two allotments, with one sale for May 9 and 10 opening at 9 a.m. local time and another, for May 11 and May 12, due to start at 11 a.m.
Over a million Swifties queued up for the first tranche of tickets, but less than 15 minutes after opening the Paris sale, French Ticketmaster tweeted: “Some of you may be having issues with the site this morning – we are working on it and will let you know.” An hour into the sale started, with reportedly no movement in the queue, the company announced it was suspending both the 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. sales.
La mise en vente Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour de 9h et 11h pour Paris La Défense Arena a été mise en pause. Nous vous tiendrons au courant avec une nouvelle heure de mise en vente dès que possible. Tous les codes non déjà utilisés resteront valables.
“The Taylor Swift sale | The 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Eras Tour for Paris La Défense Arena has been put on hold. We will keep you posted with a new on-sale time as soon as possible. All codes not already used will remain valid,” Ticketmaster tweeted.
The tickets were on general release, and fans had to sign up to be put into a lottery in order to get a code to redeem for tickets.
The company did not give any explanation for the suspension. It’s unclear if the site will go ahead with sales for Swift’s two Lyon concerts, which were planned to kick off at 1 p.m. local time.
This isn’t the first time Ticketmaster has botched sales for a Taylor Swift concert. The company had major technical issues with its presale of “The Eras Tour” tickets in November, such that more than two dozen fans filed suit against Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation. Swift herself commented on the debacle, saying it “really pisses me off that a lot of the people who were able to buy tickets feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them.”
Social media users were not impressed with her act.
In the video, Rakhi can be seen planting fresh tomatoes in a planter, instead of just using the seed from the vegetables.
Actress-dancer Rakhi Sawant is often known for her hilarious interactions with paparazzi. She has once again caught their attention. This time, the reason is Rakhi planting fresh tomatoes in a planter, instead of just using the seed from the vegetables. Celebrity photographer Viral Bhayani has shared a clip on Instagram, showing her in this act. The video opens up with Rakhi saying, “Doston main uga rahi hun tamatar yeh dekho (Friends, I am growing tomatoes, take a look).” “Kya baat hai (That’s great)”, one of the reporters said. “Rakhi ji tamatar kab tak aayenge iss pe (How long will it take for the tomatoes to grow)?”, another reporter asked her. In the video, one of Rakhi’s employees can be seen helping her and claimed that the sapling will produce fresh fruit in fifteen days. Bhayani wrote in the caption, “Tamatar toh aab Jaan se bhi pyaara hai (Tomatoes are now more precious than our lives). Rakhi Sawant ki new strategy, tamatar ka tree ugao (Rakhi’s new strategy, grow tree on a tomato)”. The video has garnered more than 9,79,000 views.
Social media users were not at all impressed with this act. One of them advised her to not waste tomatoes. She wrote that Rakhi should only use their seed. Another user criticised her and wrote that people are tense about the exorbitant prices of tomatoes and their availability. The prices of tomatoes in India have soared in recent weeks, while Rakhi is wasting food, just to gain some footage from the press, said one user. Another user ridiculed the claim of tomato seedlings producing fresh fruit in just 15 days.
In another clip uploaded by AJ Bollywood, Rakhi shared her outburst about the skyrocketing prices of vegetables, especially tomatoes. She was spotted by the paparazzi, looking quite concerned and frustrated. She even pretended to beat her head against the wall and then revealed the reason behind it to the reporters. Rakhi said that the prices of vegetables like potatoes, tomatoes, and onions have become expensive. She added that the tomatoes are being sold at Rs 120 per kilo. She told the reporters that even the green chilies have become costly.
She also asked the government the reason behind this inflation.
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Smash hit Japanese animation feature “The First Slam Dunk” is set to be the first film theatrically released by newly-launched Australian distribution and New Zealand licensing firm Sugoi Co.
The company is headed by Tim Anderson, founder and former CEO of Madman Entertainment, the Australian indie with a strong leaning for Japanese content, and Sylvester “Sly” Ip.
The pair made an announcement on Twitter and conducted a soft launch at the recent Anime Expo in Los Angeles.
“The First Slam Dunk. Coming soon to cinemas across Australia. Follow us for full release and ticket info,” said Sugoi Co on Twitter.
Anderson told Anime News Network that Sugoi will focus on marketing and promotion for the Australian and New Zealand market. It will be a portfolio business and platform agnostic, releasing anime properties through the appropriate channel, rather than being wedded to theatrical or any specific platform for release.
Having merged with brand licensing company JW Brands, Sugoi will also extend to merchandizing and brand management.
Madman sold its anime division to Sony’s Aniplex in 2019. The business was later rolled into Sony’s Funimation animation streaming unit. Two years later, Sony acquired rival anime streamer Crunchyroll from WarnerMedia and merged Crunchyroll and Funimation, retaining the Crunchyroll brand. Redundancies in Australia, including those of several former Madman staff, were announced by Crunchyroll in February this year.
Produced by Toei Animation and Dandelion Entertainment, “The First Slam Dunk” was released in Japan in December 2022. It had theatrical releases throughout Asia in early 2023, with those in mainland China (box office of RMB 654 million or $90.8 million at current exchange rates) and South Korea ($37.9 million) being particularly lucrative.
.If you’ve been following along with MickeyBlog you’ll know that Rogers: The Musical has been winning over audiences at the Hyperion Theater at Disney California Adventure. The 30-minute musical will run through August 31, 2023, and a very interesting audience member popped up to check out the show over the weekend – Is that a Skrull we see!?
For those unfamiliar, the Skrull are a technologically advanced race of reptile-like humanoids hailing from the destroyed planet Skrullos. They are known for their shapeshifting abilities which allows them to transform into other lifeforms and wreak havoc on other planets without detection. They are woven into many plotlines in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with appearances/mentions in Captain Marvel, Spider-Man: Far From Home, WandaVision, Loki, What if…?, and Secret Invasion.
With one of these mysterious shapeshifters spotted at Disney California Adventure, we’re wondering where it may pop up next! You’ll want to keep following along with us for further updates.
Photo: Disney
Don’t miss your chance to check out Rogers: The Musical at the Hyperion Theater at Disney California Adventure which will run through August 31, 2023. This new musical experience was inspired by the fictional musical number from the first episode of the Disney+ series Hawkeye. This musical tells the story of Steve Rogers (AKA Captain America) and also his relationship with Peggy Carter.
Photo: Disney
The musical runs on Tuesdays through Saturdays most weeks this summer! Don’t miss your chance to see what all of the buzz is about! Plus, ….you never know who might show up at the theater as evidenced above!
Photo: Disney
Readers are encouraged to keep following along with MickeyBlog for further Walt Disney World news and updates. We’ll be coming to you LIVE! from the theme parks each and every week.
Have you heard the news? MickeyTravels just earned the incredible distinction of being a Diamond Earmarked Agency!
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The reviews for the long, long, long-awaited DC outing, The Flash, are now in. So, following the much publicized praise from the likes of James Gunn, Tom Cruise, and Stephen King, does The Flash reach the heights of being “one of the greatest superhero movies ever made.” Well, not quite, is the frustrating answer, as The Flash sprints to a ‘Fresh’ score of 73% on the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes.
We begin with MovieWeb’s own Julian Roman, who heaped praise on The Flash and how it gives DC fans exactly what they’ve been looking for.
“Ezra Miller saves the Snyderverse in a stunning superhero adaptation that gloriously lives up to the hype. The Flash is the DC film that fans have been aching to see.”
Much hype has surrounded the return of Michael Keaton’s Batman in The Flash and, according to Julian, it was well worth it.
“Michael Keaton’s return as Batman will kick your a** and break a foot doing it. The Caped Crusader soaring in his 1989 costume and vehicles to Danny Elfman’s classic theme is stupefyingly awesome. Keaton plays the character as older and wiser but just as formidable.”
The applause continues courtesy of Deadline’s Pete Hammond, who calls The Flash the best superhero movie since Marvel’s similarly multiversal Spider-Man: No Way Home.
“Easily the best in the genre since Spiderman: No Way Home, this fresh, invigorating, and hugely entertaining summer treat is as good as it gets when it comes to cinematic takes on superheroes.”
Rolling Stone’s David Fear also felt that The Flash deserves to be hailed as one of the best examples of the modern take on the comic book movie.
“The Flash is, by far, the best movie to come out of this modern, post-Nolan Warners/DC collaboration…”
Things get a bit more middling with Joshua Yehl of IGN, who criticizes the sheer level of fan service but did find the more intimate, central story gripping nevertheless.
“The superhero fan service is strong with this one – perhaps too strong at times – but it never fully overshadows Barry Allen’s genuinely tragic and heartfelt story of grief.”
David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter meanwhile calls The Flash “uneven” but equally found a lot to enjoy in the personal journey of Barry Allen.
“If The Flash ultimately proves uneven, its wobbly climactic showdown far less interesting than the more character-driven buildup, the story’s core of a young man struggling to reconcile with the loss of his mother carries it through.”
Here’s where things get more negative, as Variety’s Owen Gleiberman condemns The Flash for drowning in too much fan-service and Easter eggs.
“In The Flash, the multiverse of possibilities that opens up by toying with the past becomes an excuse to throw everything but the Batcave sink at the audience.”
Collider’s Ross Bonaime felt similarly, criticizing The Flash for its lacking story, which is lost amid the cavalcade of cameos.
“Cameos and fan service are fine to have, but the story has to be there to back them up, and it’s not quite there with The Flash.”
“The Flash is a passable multiverse superhero movie, but no amount of DC cameos can make audiences forget the awful off-screen actions of Ezra Miller.”
But we shall end on something more upbeat, with CBR’s Brandon Zachary enjoying The Flash for its combination of emotional heft and crowd-pleasing moments.
“As fun as the movie is, what elevates The Flash is a genuinely weighty concept explored with all the bombast fans expect from the franchise.”
Directed by Andy Muschietti from a screenplay by Christina Hodson, worlds will collide in The Flash when the superhero uses his powers to travel back in time to change the events of the past. However, when his attempt to save his family inadvertently alters the future, he becomes trapped in an alternate reality.
Starring Ezra Miller, Sasha Calle, Michael Shannon, Ron Livingston, Maribel Verdú, Kiersey Clemons, Antje Traue, and Michael Keaton, The Flash is scheduled to be released on June 16.
Not yet rated
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