Hasan Minhaj is open to the idea of hosting “The Daily Show” — but it’s not a decision he would make alone. “That’s a family conversation now,” Minhaj tells Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast. “It’s a very different conversation then when I first got hired at the show, when I was 29. My life is in a very different place. And so that’s a bigger convo.”
Minhaj’s recent Netflix stand-up special, “The King’s Jester,” includes a deeply personal look by the comedian at the evolution of his family, from being infertile to eventually raising two children with his life — and how that has changed a lot of things in his life, including his career choices and his on-stage routines.
“Other people have to live with the consequences of what I say,” he notes. “And I just want to make sure everybody if that were to ever come to fruition. ‘Hey, are we all on board with this?’”
In our wide-ranging conversation with Minhaj, we touch on parenthood, mortality, Twitter, “The Daily Show,” tussling with Saudi Arabia, his upcoming movie and so much more. Listen below!
“The King’s Jester” tackles a wide range of subjects, including the effect of social media and “clout” on the brain. Minhaj shot his special long before Elon Musk took control of Twitter, but what has happened to that service in recent months makes Minhaj’s perspective all the timelier. And as a guest host on “The Daily Show” in March, he deleted his Twitter account on the show.
“There’s always been this idea of is the is social media and what happens on social media real or not?” he says. “And I think it’s safe to say now that tweets and what you see on the internet is used in congressional testimony and litigation and lawsuits. It’s no different than fiat currency. It’s the same amorphous idea. But it’s real. It’s both of those things. It’s nothing and everything at the same time. And I learned that in my years at ‘The Daily Show,’ when I saw the rise of Donald Trump. I was like, Oh, wow, you can use and manipulate this thing to create something that was ostensibly nothing into something.
“It has a profound effect on me,” he says. “You see the likes, the comments, the retweets, the engagement. And in a way, it has root access to your brain starting at 8:15 in the morning.”
Asked what’s on or off limits with his wife and kids when it comes to his routine, Minhaj says it’s been a learning process. “The thing I’ve talked to my partner about is, as she told me, ‘you get to say whatever you want on stage, and we have to live with the consequences.’ And there’s oftentimes a frustration, which I understand is, it feels like I get to be driving the steering wheel of our family’s life with maximum amount of agency,” he says. “And they get very little of that. Fundamentally, isn’t fair.
“So, the rule I’ve had with my with my wife is, ‘Hey, is it cool? If I open mic and workshop this at the comedy clubs, but before it goes to theaters, or Netflix? Can we go over the Google Doc, and say, yea or nay,’” he adds. “It’s having the artistic freedom to say and be whoever I want to be. But then for us, before we hit publish, for us as a family to go, ‘Hey, are we cool with this because once we hit play on this, it crosses this Rubicon.”
As for his recent experience returning to “The Daily Show,” Minhaj said he was surprised at “how fun” guest hosting was. “I’ve loved seeing the gamut of talent, between someone like Leslie Jones, and then Marlon Wayans, and then John Leguizamo, to Chelsea Handler to Sarah Silverman, and everybody’s got their own different take or spin on things,” he says. “And I think it definitely has added a level of unpredictability to the to the form.”
Despite some of the dark headlines about the world around us these days, Minhaj says he remains optimistic about the future. “And in a weird way, as a guy who’s built his career off of making jokes about the headlines, if you actually take the time to zoom out, 10,000, 20,000 30,000 feet out, it’s remarkable how far we’ve come and what we’ve accomplished,” he says.
Variety’s “Awards Circuit” podcast, produced by Michael Schneider, is your one-stop listen for lively conversations about the best in film and television. Each week “Awards Circuit” features interviews with top film and TV talent and creatives; discussions and debates about awards races and industry headlines; and much more. Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or anywhere you download podcasts. New episodes post weekly.
The Talos Principle 2 – Reveal Trailer | PS5 Games
Although it was shot through with mystery and philosophical problems, Croteam’s 2014 The Talos Principle was also just one of the most fun puzzle games we’d encountered in years, filled with interesting problems, fun toys, and a whole bunch of brain-bending conundrums. Although the trailer for its sequel goes heavy on the philosophy, light on the “okay, where the hell do I put this disruptor so I can get to the next gate” stuff, we remain hopeful that it’ll scratch that itch again.
What started out as a mere idea from the fantastic brain of George Lucas – the mind behind another cult classic, Star Wars – has since become a mainstay of popular culture. With the idea to create a James Bond-inspired spaghetti-western type archeologist, Lucas paired up with Steven Spielberg, and the rest is history.
Initially set out to be named Indiana Smith, the initial idea for the character back in 1973 could have led the franchise in a whole new direction. Luckily, by the time Raiders of the Lost Ark was released in 1981, Lucas had taken Spielberg’s advice and changed the character’s name to Indiana Jones, known by his friends as Indy. The prequel, The Temple of Doom was released three years later, followed by a sequel, The Last Crusade, in 1989.
Over time, Indiana Jones infused itself into popular culture and inspired a wide range of media, such as TV shows, short parody films, comic books, video games, novels, and film franchises. Online slot games from Megaways casino like Temple Tumble, Gonzos Quest, and 5 Lions, have gameplay with similar themes to the expeditions in The Temple of Doom and Raiders of the Lost Ark, encouraging players to uncover and collect hidden artifacts from ancient kingdoms.
Almost two decades after The Last Crusade, it was revealed that this was, in fact, not Indy’s last crusade. Instead, the franchise took a risk with The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008). The twist – aliens – was incredibly divisive, and fostered mixed opinions. On one hand, Indiana Jones purists were confused as to why the archaeologist would stray away from his wheelhouse of finding religious artifacts – especially as he does it so well. On the other hand, critics like Inverse thought felt it was the push it needed to bring it up-to-date and redefine the franchise’s genre entirely.
What’s next for Indiana Jones?
The newest – and final – installment of the film franchise is Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023), starring, of course, Harrison Ford, as well as Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Antonio Banderas, John Rhys-Davies, Toby Jones, Boyd Holbrook, Ethann Isidore, and Mads Mikkelson, directed by James Mangold, and featuring music by the epic John Williams.
This fifth film has always been planned as the ending to the franchise, ever since George Lucas negotiated four sequels to Raiders of the Lost Ark back in the 70s – and, as the most expensive film out of them all, no expense has been spared on giving Indy a fitting send off.
Dial of Destiny was filmed throughout Morocco, Italy, and the United Kingdom, seeming to find locations that were both surprising and previously under-utilized (but no less fitting) backdrops to such a cult franchise. Particularly, Indiana Jones fans in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne were whipped into a frenzy after spotting Harrison Ford walking along the world-famous Quayside – nearby Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland can be spotted in the trailer.
Since premiering, Dial of Destiny has received mixed reviews. That said, it reports to give a final ending for the character that has been at the center of popular culture for over four decades.
Turns out Twitter Spaces isn’t the best place to make a major announcement.
Ron DeSantis learned this the hard way on Wednesday evening, when the Florida governor was scheduled to kick off his presidential campaign during a live audio conversation with Elon Musk on Twitter Spaces after filing paperwork with the Federal Election Commission earlier on Wednesday.
More than 20 minutes after the conversation was scheduled to begin, DeSantis wasn’t even able to speak as the live audio room repeatedly crashed and featured echoing audio, which Musk said was due to Twitter’s servers being overloaded by the number of listeners in the room. The Space appeared to be cut short after 21 minutes, and a recorded version of the conversation-that-wasn’t noted 347,000 users had tuned in.
Though the conversation later moved to a new room with fewer technical difficulties, the snafu also didn’t go unnoticed by Joe Biden’s social media team, which tweeted out a link to Biden and Kamala Harris’ re-election campaign with the comment, “This link works.”
DeSantis’ presidential announcement on Wednesday was poised to be a major event for Twitter Spaces, the live audio service that Twitter first launched in 2021 in response to the popularity of live audio platforms like Clubhouse. It’s not immediately clear what kind of resources are now allocated to Spaces under Musk, especially given that the mass layoffs that hit Twitter shortly after Musk’s takeover included key employees who worked on Spaces.
Later in his conversation with Musk and moderator David Sacks, who is a vocal DeSantis supporter and ally of Musk, DeSantis said he plans to continue his legal fight with Disney over the Reedy Creek special district.
The standoff continued last week when Disney said it was abandoning its plans to build a new campus in Florida and relocate around 2,000 staffers to the state due to “considerable changes that have occurred since the announcement of this project, including new leadership and changing business conditions.”
DeSantis, during his Twitter Spaces conversation, said he believed Disney abandoned the campus for financial reasons and claimed that “nobody probably has made Disney more money than me because they were open during COVID [in Florida] and they were closed in California.”
Google just combined DeepMind and Google Brain into one big AI team, and on Wednesday, the new Google DeepMind shared details on how one of its visual language models (VLM) is being used to generate descriptions for YouTube Shorts, which can help with discoverability.
“Shorts are created in just a few minutes and often don’t include descriptions and helpful titles, which makes them harder to find through search,” DeepMind wrote in the post. Flamingo can make those descriptions by analyzing the initial frames of a video to explain what’s going on. (DeepMind gives the example of “a dog balancing a stack of crackers on its head.”) The text descriptions will be stored as metadata to “better categorize videos and match search results to viewer queries.”
This solves a real problem, Google DeepMind’s chief business officer Colin Murdoch tells The Verge: for Shorts, creators sometimes don’t add metadata because the process of creating a video is more streamlined than it is for a longer-form video. Todd Sherman, the director of product management for Shorts, added that because Shorts are mostly watched on a feed where people are just swiping to the next video instead of actively browsing for them, there isn’t as much incentive to add the metadata.
“This Flamingo model — the ability to understand these videos and provide us descriptive text — is just really so valuable for helping our systems that are already looking for this metadata,” Sherman says. “It allows them to more effectively understand these videos so that we can make that match for users when they’re searching for them.”
The generated descriptions won’t be user-facing. “We’re talking about metadata that’s behind the scenes,” Sherman says. “We don’t present it to creators, but there’s a lot of effort going into making sure that it’s accurate.” As for how Google is making sure these descriptions are accurate, “all of the descriptive text is going to align with our responsibility standards,” Sherman says. “It’s very unlikely that a descriptive text is generated that somehow frames a video in a bad light. That’s not an outcome that we anticipate at all.”
Flamingo is already applying auto-generated descriptions to new Shorts uploads
Flamingo is already applying auto-generated descriptions to new Shorts uploads, and it has done so for “a large corpus of existing videos, including the most viewed videos,” according to DeepMind spokesperson Duncan Smith.
I had to ask if Flamingo would be applied to longer-form YouTube videos down the line. “I think it’s completely conceivable that it could,” Sherman says. “I think that the need is probably a little bit less, though.” He notes that for a longer-form video, a creator might spend hours on things like pre-production, filming, and editing, so adding metadata is a relatively small piece of the process of making a video. And because people often watch longer-form videos based on things like a title and a thumbnail, creators making those have incentive to add metadata that helps with discoverability.
So I guess the answer there is that we’ll have to wait and see. But given Google’s major push to infuse AI into nearly everything it offers, applying something like Flamingo to longer-form YouTube videos doesn’t feel outside the realm of possibility, which could have a huge impact on YouTube search in the future.
Tina Turnerregretted not taking better care of her kidneys … admitting two months before her death that her approach put her in “great danger.”
The legendary singer opened up about her struggles with hypertension, high blood pressure, and kidney issues in a March 9 post on her Instagram page, talking about her health struggles for International World Kidney Day.
At the time, Tina admitted … “My kidneys are victims of my not realizing that my high blood pressure should have been treated with conventional medicine. I have put myself in great danger by refusing to face the reality that I need daily, lifelong therapy with medication. For far too long I believed that my body was an untouchable and indestructible bastion.”
Waiting for your permission to load the Instagram Media.
Tina died Wednesday, 11 weeks after she talked about her kidney issues. The cause of death is unclear but she was reportedly battling a “long illness.”
In addition to her IG post for International World Kidney Day, Tina also shared more about her health issues in a blog post for Show Your Kidneys Love.
There, Tina revealed she was diagnosed with hypertension way back in 1978 … though she says she “didn’t care much about it” and “didn’t really try to control it.”
She said she found out her kidneys had lost 35% of their function after her 2009 stroke.
Tina said she had to start dialysis to survive and admitted it was “depressing to be connected to a machine for hours.” She said she was lucky to get a kidney transplant in 2017 from her second husband, Erwin Bach.
After her kidney transplant, Tina said her body tried to reject the organ and she was often hospitalized as a result. She said she would often feel nauseous and dizzy and had problems with her memory. She also said she was scared.
If I didn’t like Nicole Holofcener’s latest film, would I tell her?
OK, sure, it wouldn’t be so odd for a critic to give an unvarnished opinion. But what about a sibling? Or a spouse? If they didn’t care for Holofcener’s movie, what’s more important: Being honest or making a loved one feel good about themselves? Do any of us really want straightforward feedback or do we just want emotional support?
That’s the rich vein that Holofcener, a master of nagging neuroses, mines so expertly in “You Hurt My Feelings” – a film that I very much adored. I swear.
For Holofcener, something as commonplace as little white lies between a married couple is just as fertile territory as, say, time travel is to Christopher Nolan. To her, such a minefield of insecurity is a playground. And in “You Hurt My Feelings,” it’s glorious — albeit in a profoundly awkward way that can be mortifying — to watch her at play.
Beth (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), a writer, and her husband, Don (Tobias Menzies), a therapist, are a long-married New York couple whose harmonious if humdrum life runs into a crisis at Paragon Sports on Broadway. The trouble isn’t infidelity or even a nasty fight over athletic socks. Don is chatting there with his brother-in-law, Mark (Arian Moayed of “Succession”), when Beth and her sister Sarah (Michaela Watkins) come to meet them.
They approach slowly, wanting to hear what they’re talking about. When they get near, Beth is horrified to hear Don confessing that he hates Beth’s new book. He has always supported her writing. He’s read every draft and only offered encouragement. So this revelation is for Beth like a betrayal, and it shatters her trust in him.
Middle-aged Manhattanites with hurt feelings, of course, may not seem like the end of the world. Surely Holofcener’s title is a little ironic, like something a child would say. But she is brilliant in finding the major heartache in minor slights. For Beth, her husband’s confession isn’t just a blow to her ego but goes to the heart of whether her husband truly loves her. Beth’s work is herself, she thinks, so how can he not like it?
Louis-Dreyfus, working with Holofcener for the second time following 2013’s also great “Enough Said,” is incredibly good here. We all know by now that Louis-Dreyfus is one of our greatest comic actors ever, but she’s a much stronger dramatic performer than tends to be acknowledged. When Beth’s need for reassurance and validation crashes in “You Hurt My Feelings,” Louis-Dreyfus is movingly crestfallen.
This isn’t the only story running here, either, though. With a terrific ensemble, “You Hurt My Feelings” digs into the half-truths that keep self-doubt at bay in all of these characters.
Don, himself, might not be such a great therapist, a realization that he’s coming to. “He’s an idiot,” one patient (Zach Cherry) mutters while exiting an appointment. David Cross and Amber Tamblyn, married in real life, play a bitterly bickering couple who agree on nothing except that they want their money back from Don after years of sessions. Sarah, too, is nursing Mark’s acting dreams with words of encouragement while her interior-design clients reject all her ideas.
No one in “You Hurt My Feelings” seems to be all that great at their jobs. Holofcener’s film is remarkably perceptive in its characters’ faults while subtly arguing that we should overlook them.
After a prolonged argument, Beth begins to realize how she, too, sweetly lies to prop up her husband. It really crystallizes as a parent. When their son, Elliot (Owen Teague), is depressed after a breakup, what mother or father in their right mind would do anything but tell him what he wants to hear? White lies, maybe, make the world go round.
Would you, too, agree? This was a good review, right? Please be honest.
“You Hurt My Feelings,” an A24 release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for language. Running time: 93 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.
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While the world has come to know Downey mostly as the one and only Iron Man, in a different timeline, he could have been the infamous Fantastic Four villain.
In The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which was published in late 2022, the book casually dropped a quote from Favreau that “Marvel had already met with [Robert Downey Jr.] before… to play Doctor Doom.”
It isn’t confirmed alongside the quote, but it’s assumed that it was for 2005’s Fantastic Four.
Kevin Feige Confirms Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom Talks
Marvel
In a new video celebrating the 15th anniversary of Iron Man, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige and the 2008 film’s director, Jon Favreau sat down to discuss the big milestone.
In their conversation, Favreau revealed how he remembered Marvel “had all met with [Robert Downey Jr.] already for like Dr. Doom,” a statement that was met with a nod of acknowledgment from Feige himself:
“I remember that Robert had come in for a general on it and I remember you had all met with him already for like Dr. Doom or something on another project… I think he had come through on… like Fantastic Four… So everybody sort of knew who he was and I remember sitting down with the guy and I was like geez he just got… that spark in him and his eye, and he’s ready. And that’s when we were in your (Kevin Feige) office and we were pointing to his headshot and saying we got to try to figure this out.”
This isn’t the first time that Downey Jr.’s talks for Doctor Doom were revealed, but it is the only place where Kevin Feige acknowledged those discussions.
In his conversation with Feige, the director also shared that it wasn’t until the leading man was cast that he “fully understood what the take was:”
“It wasn’t really until we cast Robert [Downey Jr.] that I fully understood what the take was and once it was Robert… every decision became a lot easier.”
Feige admitted that casting Downey Jr. as Tony Stark was “probably one of the greatest decisions in the history of Hollywood:”
“… I think that’s probably one of the greatest decisions in the history of Hollywood and everybody has good days and bad days and I remember on later movies we’ll talk about in 15th anniversary of those there were dark days and I would say, ‘Robert, we wouldn’t be in this mess if it wasn’t for you’ (laughs). Meaning we wouldn’t have a studio if it wasn’t for him or [Jon Favreau].”
Marvel
The Doctor Doom That Never Was
While Robert Downey Jr. never got to put on the Doctor Doom set of armor, he instead got to become one of the biggest superheroes in all of pop culture—so everything worked out in the end.
Downey Jr. is a fantastic actor, so he’d undoubtedly make for an incredible Doctor Doom if given the chance.
Sadly, it doesn’t even look like Robert Downey Jr. will get to interact with anyone from the iconic family. A crossover like that is a much harder feat these days, as Tony Stark is dead in the MCU.
Though, with an event like Avengers: Secret Wars on the table and the Multiverse being a key focus, anything could happen. Maybe Marvel will even let Downey Jr. bring to life an alternate Doctor Doom—the one that never was.
Marvel Studios’ Fantastic Four is set to hit theaters on February 14, 2025, while Avengers: Secret Wars is aiming for May 1, 2026.
The future of the Arrowverse is in question after the finale of The Flash series. Originating in 2012 with the action-adventure series Arrow, the shared setting that became known as the Arrowverse was one of the most ambitious achievements in the history of fiction. Originally unifying the DC Comics superhero series created for The CW network, the Arrowverse grew to encompass every adaptation of a DC Comics property ever produced for film and television, from the 1966 Batman television series starring Adam West to the cinematic DCEU.
SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAYSCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT
The Arrowverse peaked with an adaptation of the classic comic book miniseries Crisis on Infinite Earths in 2019, which reset the multiple realities making up the core Arrowverse onto a single shared world dubbed Earth-Prime. Unfortunately, a number of factors averted the increased potential for more crossover events between series promised by the Post-Crisis Arrowverse. The series stagnated, and now the fate of the Arrowverse setting has been called into question in the wake of a wave of cancelations and new management at both DC Studios and The CW.
The Arrowverse Is Essentially Done After The Flash
Coming to a close after a nine season run, The Flash is the last of the series set on the Arrowverse Earth-Prime. With The CW having ended development of the spinoff series Justice U, there are no plans for any further shows set on Earth-Prime after The Flash finale. Featuring prominent cameos by the leads of other Arrowverse shows that have already come to a close, like Batwoman‘s Ryan Wilder and Arrow‘s Oliver Queen, it seems that The Flash season 9 has been turned into a capstone for the Arrowverse setting as a whole, as well as The Flash series.
Despite this apparent winding down, The Flash showrunner Eric Wallace has said that there is nothing to stop the Arrowverse from continuing after The Flash ends. In an interview with FlashTVNews, Wallace revealed that there is one moment in The Flash series finale which will show that it is “just the beginning of the Arrowverse and the adventures of The Flash. Not the end.” This may suggest an ending similar to that of Stargirl, which closed with the words “NEVER THE END,” after a flash-forward revealing that the series’ heroes grew up to reform the Justice Society. It is unclear, however, how the Arrowverse might continue literally, if not spiritually.
Superman & Lois Could Continue And Return To The Arrowverse
The strongest avenue for the continued existence of the Arrowverse is Superman and Lois. Focusing upon Clark Kent and Lois Lane’s adventures as they raise twin sons in Smallville following the death of Clark’s mother, Superman and Lois was originally believed to be set on Arrowverse Earth-Prime, with Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch playing the same characters they portrayed in Crisis On Infinite Earths. However, it was revealed in the Superman and Lois season 2 finale that Clark Kent was the only superhero on his Earth, confirming that the Superman and Lois was set on another world entirely.
With the story of Superman and Lois season 3 centering around a new wave of super-soldiers being created by Intergang, it is possible that new heroes, similar to those on Earth-Prime, might rise up to join Superman. Todd Helbing, the showrunner of Superman and Lois, has also voiced his support of the idea that Earth Prime’s heroes might make cameo appearances on Superman and Lois after The Flash comes to a close. Indeed, he specifically singled out Barry Allen and Iris West-Allen, saying it would be fun to pair Iris up with reporters Lois and Clark.
The only problem with this possibility is that Superman and Lois has yet to be renewed for a fourth season. While the show is one of The CW’s most popular series, it is also one of their most expensive. With the current owners of The CW proven to be incredibly budget conscious, the best hope of a continuing the Arrowverse may rest upon Superman and Lois being picked up by the Max streaming service. Yet even that prospect is not as certain as it once seemed.
Why The Arrowverse Is Ending Explained
Budgetary concerns are the chief reason why the Arrowverse is in such dire straits. While some Arrowverse series, like Supergirl and Arrow, came to a close because their lead actors were ready to move on to new projects, most of them were canceled because they were seen as too expensive to produce relative to their ratings. This was the case for Legends of Tomorrow, which was canceled after Warner Bros. declined to renew the lease on the Vancouver soundstage where the show was filmed, despite Legends of Tomorrow season 7 being one of the few on-goings series at The CW to see its ratings go up in 2022.
Another factor is the new management of The CW, which was sold to Nexstar Media Group in late 2022. Almost immediately after the sale, Nexstar announced plans to shift the network’s focus, producing less original dramas and reducing the network’s licensing fees. This was taken as a bad sign for the continuation of the Arrowverse, even before it was confirmed that Justice U had been shelved. Hopes are not high for the network’s last two superhero shows, Gotham Knights and Superman and Lois, surviving to see 2024.
Could Arrowverse Characters Return In Future DC Movies & Shows?
The final nail in the coffin of the Arrowverse is a reorganization at Warner Bros. which named filmmakers James Gunn and Peter Safran as co-CEOS of DC Studios. The two spearheaded a radical new plan for establishing a new DC Comics cinematic multiverse. However, this new design seems to be cleaning house, with most of the original series based on DC Comics properties at Max having been canceled, including Titans and Doom Patrol. This seemingly ended any chance of the Arrowverse being revived on Max, despite a wildly successful fan campaign to #SaveLegendsOfTomorrow that continues to trend on Twitter over a year after the show ended.
Despite this, James Gunn has responded positively to the #SaveLegendsOfTomorrow campaign on social media. While he has yet to green light a final season of Legends of Tomorrow or a direct to Max movie that would address the show’s cliffhanger ending, Gunn seems agreeable to considering the possibility. While noting that his immediate focus was on building a new DCU, Gunn mentioned on Twitter that “we are listening & open to everything as we embark on this journey, & will continue to do so for the next few years.”
This means that it is entirely possible that actors from the Arrowversemight be able to return to their roles for new projects at DC Studios after the first chapter of the new DC Universe begins. Both Stephen Amell and Grant Gustin have expressed an interest in recreating their roles as Barry Allen and Oliver Queen for the right project. While this might not be the definitive answer as to the final fate of the Arrowverse, the possibilities are, much like the DC Universe itself, near infinite.
The Flash series finale airs Wednesday, May 24, on The CW.
Alan Wake 2, the sequel to Alan Wake, will be released digitally only. This information comes directly from the official Alan Wake 2 FAQ on the game’s website.
Alan Wake 2 is releasing on October 17, 2023, but the team did not want to have to ship a game on a disn that would require an additional download.
Alan Wake 2 Will Not Have A Physical Release To Keep Costs Down
In the day and age of major day-one passes, download codes in physical boxes, and a massive shift to digital collection, it makes sense that Alan Wake 2 would switch to digital-only to reduce costs for the consumer.
“There are many reasons for this. For one, a large number of have shifted to digital only. You can buy a Sony PlayStation 5 without a disc drive and Microsoft’s Xbox Series S is a digital only console. It is not uncommon to release modern games as digital-only.
Secondly, not releasing a disc helps keep the price of the game at $59.99 / €59.99 and the PC version at $49.99 / €49.99.
Finally, we did not want to ship a disc product and have it require a download for the game — we do not think this would make for a great experience either.”
Subject Matter, the nonprofit organization that supports social issue documentary films and other nonprofits, announced that its second annual round of grantees have been awarded a total of $100,000.
Subject Matter and Tribeca Festival unveiled that Tribeca’s Documentary Film Program’s “Breaking the News” and “Every Body” have both been awarded $25,000 grants. The documentaries’ corresponding nonprofits, The 19th* nonprofit with “Breaking the News” and interACT nonprofit with “Every Body,” have also received $25,000 grants.
Subject Matter will present “Breaking the News” and “Every Body” at the Tribeca Festival in an effort to raise awareness and support for the selected nonprofits.
“Breaking the News” follows a group of women and LGBTQ+ journalists who launch a news startup for those who have been excluded from mainstream coverage. Directed by Heather Courtney, Princess A. Hairston and Chelsea Hernandez, “Breaking the News” was produced by Diane Quon, Courtney, Hairston and Hernandez.
The 19th* will be the organizational grant recipient that works to assist in supporting news outlets’ coverage of voting rights, reproductive health and LGBTQ+ rights as the 2024 election cycle approaches.
The second documentary recipient, “Every Body,” explores the lives of three intersex people, each who “emerged from childhoods marked by secrecy and non-consensual surgeries to come out as their full, authentic, joyous selves,” reads the official logline. The film is directed by Julie Cohen and Tommy Nguyen and Molly O’Brien produced.
The second nonprofit, interACT, will receive $25,000 to support its Youth Leadership Program, which provides support for the next generation of young intersex leaders.
“By inviting audience members to join us in raising funds to support interACT’s Youth Leadership Program, tied to the screening of ‘Every Body,’ and The 19th’s coverage of voting rights, reproductive health and LGBTQ+ rights, tied to ‘Breaking the News,’ we aim to create an impactful and hopeful moment in response to the stories, while shining a light on the people working towards solutions,” said Colleen Hammond, Subject Matter’s co-executive director.
“’Every Body’ and ‘Breaking the News’ both bring to light important social justice issues through spirited storytelling and showcase some of the courageous people working towards solutions,” added Tribeca programmer Jose Rodriguez.
Subject Matter launched in July 2022, spearheaded by former Tribeca Film Institute leaders David Earls and Colleen Hammond, and has now awarded $220,000 in grants to a total of six documentaries.
Subject Matter is collaborating with Tribeca Festival to sell VIP Z Passes as a fundraiser for their year-round work, which are available here.
If “What’s Love Got To Do With It” is the definitive musician biopic, it’s because Bassett gave the definitive biopic performance as Tina Turner. If you watch the film today with Tina and her various Turner-isms in mind, you might experience some whiplash. Wisely, Bassett seemed to understand from the start that a stage and screen presence as idiosyncratic, highly identifiable, and utterly intense as Turner’s couldn’t be replicated. So why try?
Among the great actors of her generation, Bassett is one who you could say has her own idiosyncratic, intense, highly identifiable style. The rigid jaw, the stammering exclamations, the balletic physicality, magnanimous laugh, and ability to make any inconsequential line of dialogue sound like it’s coming from Hamlet — those are Bassett’s trademarks, and they differ starkly from Turner’s. Her stage presence is so unique and so invigorating it almost can’t be described. Her unpredictable kicks and spins, campy ha-cha-cha jaw rolls, alternation between staccato spoken word and booming vibrato belting, wordless, almost spiritual synchronization with her background dancers, and the limitless energy she relentlessly burns through. The differences are so great they virtually eclipse the similarities.
But Bassett seemed to understand the uncanny valley one can fall into when portraying real famous people: Get too close and all anyone will see are the slight failures to conform, but stay too far away and they’ll dismiss your performance whole cloth as disrespectful editorializing. Bassett went through rigorous movement and vocal coaching to become Turner, even being coached by Turner herself. But by strategically diverting in certain respects, she created a performance that stands on its own two feet while honoring Turner’s inherent incomparability.
Brian Cox says the death of the Roy family patriarch during the final season of Succession came too soon.
The Emmy-nominated actor shared his view on the show’s choice to deliver Logan Roy’s long-awaited death during the third episode of season four of the hit HBO show while speaking to BBCNews’ Amol Rajan ahead of Succession’s finale.
While Cox acquiesces that Logan’s death happened in “a pretty brilliant way,” he said he saw it “wrongly” as a form of rejection. He also suggested that it would have made more sense to do it later in the season, during either the fifth or sixth episode.
“I was fine with it ultimately, but I did feel a little bit rejected. You know, I felt a little bit, oh, all the work I’ve done and finally I’m going to, you know, end up as an ear on a carpet of a plane,” he told the BBC.
In an interview on the Succession podcast, series creator Jesse Armstrong said he chose an early episode to allow the show to explore the aftermath for the Roy family.
“He was always going to die. It felt like that had to happen,” Armstrong told host Kara Swisher. “That was always coded into it once we decided it was going to be the final season. Occasionally, when I was going crazy about what the end would be I would think, most tragedies end with the death at the end and we go back and look at that as a shape. But it really was this feeling of wanting to see how they would cope afterwards that was the prevailing one.”
While Armstrong is firm that Logan is dead, Cox suggests that his character’s death could have been a ruse, before clarifying that he was “just saying that could have been a supposition.”
“This could be part of an elaborate ruse to find out. Well, if you think about it, from Logan’s point of view, he has to find out, how are his children going to behave when he dies, what will then happen?” he said. “And the only way to do that is to fake his death and actually, at some distant point he’s observing the chaos that is following.”
At another point in the interview, Cox shares how he helped ensure the plot details around his character’s death didn’t leak before the series-changing episode aired.
He recalls filming his character’s funeral scenes over a year and a half ago and being told that he was no longer required to shoot additional false scenes, which were designed to avoid anyone suspecting it was Logan who had passed. Recognizing that paparazzi may be suspicious if he was not seen on set, Cox says he went “on [his] own volition” so that Logan would be seen alive, at what ended up being his own funeral.
To keep the spoiler from getting out, the scene was also labeled as a service for James Cromwell’s character, Ewan. Taking place during the show’s penultimate episode, the funeral episode was directed by Mark Mylod, who said having Cox on the set “was all good fun.”
“It felt oddly Shakespearean, having this ghost hanging around the church. Brian agreed to come along as part of the misdirect that it was Ewan’s funeral,” he continued. “We asked him to pull up at a very public time outside of the church, so that if there were paparazzi or people looking for those breadcrumbs, they would see him turning up as if he was coming for Ewan’s funeral. So he hung out with us in the church as well, very much as part of the smoke screen to keep the secret.”
The supersized season finale of Grey’s had us on edge!
The romance was definitely in the air, and by the end of Grey’s Anatomy Season 19 Episode 20, Teddy was coding on the floor, and the interns were caught in one hell of a mess.
Grey’s Anatomy round tablers, former TV Fanatic Meaghan Frey and Jasmine Blu, chatted about all the excitement of that finale and what they’d love to see in the next season. Join us!
Meredith made headway in her cure for Alzheimer’s. Do you think she should’ve played it safe and cautious or went full force ahead sharing her theory even if people think she’s crazy and it’s controversial?
Meaghan: I’ll be very honest; my eyes were rolling throughout the entire storyline. Of course, Mer is going to find a cure for Alzheimer’s. Is there anything the woman can’t do?
Even when she’s left the show, she still continues to be treated like a god. I didn’t really understand why everyone felt like she needed to keep her theory a secret. I get that she contradicts all the existing research, but aren’t they funding her to do this specific research?
Did they just expect her to come to the same conclusions as everyone else? It seems like a waste of time and money if that’s what they wanted. It doesn’t hurt to share the theory as long as it’s made clear that it’s just that, a theory until she can do more research.
Jasmine: She’s the Sun, Meaghan! Did we expect any less from the Sun? I love that you and I can joke about how this series has always been too far up Mer’s derriere.
When they walked in on her buried in paperwork, muttering to herself, I did roll my eyes and laughed. It was a lot.
But I understood where Webber was coming from, and I got why he wanted her to tread lightly with what she was doing. Not to get all tinfoil conspiracy theorist, but I guess the way I see it, there’s a multi-billion dollar industry in being unable to cure certain things completely.
I can see where the fear lies in her introducing a groundbreaking theory that essentially undoes everything and every approach taken.
She’s a woman with a predisposition to Alzheimer’s as well, and it could be a little Mad Scientist on her end. I guess I don’t underestimate the ego of medicine and what we already feel like we know, the money angle of things, and how often and easily we write off women in the field and so forth.
Nick and Mer have officially made amends and are back together. React!
Meaghan: We all knew it was coming — and I personally was still against it by Grey’s Anatomy Season 19 Episode 18— but it was still great to see the two of them get out of their own way and reconcile.
I’m a huge Nick fan, and before they went and ruined it all, I was a huge fan of Mer and Nick together. Out of all the men they’ve tried to replace Derek with since his death, Mer’s connection to Nick has always felt most genuine.
From the moment we met Nick, I’ve been shipping them. Mer deserves a happy ending. I’m just wondering what this means for Nick’s future on the show. We need him to teach these residents!
Jasmine: OK, but how did it turn into Nick apologizing to Meredith? I swear I was scratching my head trying to figure out why he needed to make another grand declaration, and she barely had to do the same.
But alas, I digress. Besides that, I like Mer and Nick together, and I’m happy for them. They deserve to be happy, and I’m glad they’ve found that in each other.
I also wonder what all of this means. Ironically, I like Nick outside of Mer when he’s mentoring the interns, namely Lucas, and interacting with the other characters because he has a different, chill vibe than everyone else at Grey Sloan.
After all of this, I’d like to see if he’s still a recurring or guest-starring character. I’d hate to lose him altogether.
Maggie and Winston reunited yet appear content with their respective careers where they are. What are your thoughts on their open-ended relationship and Winston’s promotion to Chief of Cardio?
Meaghan: The chemistry between them was palpable in this episode; whether they loved each other was never the question. Leaving things up in the air between them may work now, given how focused they are on their careers, but eventually, one will meet someone else. I can’t help but wonder if they are delaying the inevitable.
Their chemistry was palpable, making me think about how enjoyable they are sometimes. They seemed cool, but you’re right; they’re delaying the inevitable at this point. I still don’t know what they were doing, messing with that pairing the way that they did only to get here.
On a scale of 1-10, how much are you enjoying the Mika and Helm relationship?
Meaghan: 10. After watching Helm pine away over Meredith in an obsessive fan-girl way for years, I’m glad she’s found a healthy relationship. This episode was so steamy, and Mika and Helm were no exception. Eventually, their work dynamic will cause problems, but I’m willing to forget that fact and enjoy them for now.
Jasmine: I’ll give it a solid 8. I’m thrilled that Helm has a personality of her own outside of that girl who had a crush on Meredith.
She and Mika are absolutely adorable together, from what we’ve seen. But I also need to see more of them. It’s like we keep catching their flirting but not much else, and I want a better idea of what kind of couple they can actually be instead of the giggly high school type of thing.
Discuss your reactions to Simone running away from her wedding, that steamy Lucas and Simone hookup, and where you think they go!
Meaghan: Finally, they finished what they started in that bedroom.
There was not a single Grey’s Anatomy fan who thought they were going through with the wedding. A small part of me wondered if they would switch things up a bit for the same drama, though. I’m glad they didn’t. The two of them deserve the chance to see where things can go between them without any obstacles in the way.
Jasmine: Hehehehehe! I wanted to be mad that he literally walked away in the middle of his shift, and they went into a dingy on-call room to have sex.
But it was a sweet and steamy scene, and they both looked so pretty, and I was just happy that we got our Lumone progress during Grey’s Anatomy Season 19 Episode 19, even if it started to get rocky by the second hour.
I just very much enjoy this pairing and both characters individually, so I’m happy that we didn’t get the wedding and that Simone came to her senses.
That said, I’m worried about what comes next. Simone isn’t above letting someone like Trey get into her head.
After everything he said about Lucas’ pedigree protecting him but how he could bring her down, we ended the finale with her choosing to side with him in their attempt to save Sam and it failing.
I’m worried they’ll have a rocky road ahead of them of push/pull, even though they know how they feel about each other. They didn’t escape this finale with any happily ever after vibe, just a different type of obstacle and new conflict.
How did you feel about that Jolink love confession in the rain?
Meaghan: I’m all for a good declaration of love in the rain.
As I’ve mentioned in my previous answers, none of these related developments were shocking, but they all feel earned. JoLink was a ship I never thought I would be on board with, but here I am.
The writers put in the work, Chris Carmack and Camilla Luddington, have natural chemistry. I haven’t always been Jo’s biggest fan, but the woman deserves happiness and to feel loved and supported. Dear writers, please, just let them be.
Jasmine: It was such a classic Grey’s love confession.
They were bringing all the rom-com quality. Interestingly, someone has to take that staple as the primary romantic pairing of the series, and Towen doesn’t cut it; they demolished Magston, Mernick is gone, and the interns haven’t earned all of that yet.
It leaves Jolink, and they’ve poured it all into them, and I constantly say that Chris Carmack oozes romantic lead, so it works. And it was overdue and good for them.
But I’m not going to lie; I was incredibly annoyed that their pagers and phones must not have been working because while they were making out in the rain, all hell was breaking loose in that OR!
Was Miranda Bailey the perfect person to win the Catherine Fox Foundation Award?
Meaghan: When Mer walked up to present the award, and Ben showed up, I knew they were giving it to her, and I couldn’t be happier. Bailey has never gotten the appreciation she deserves as a physician, and it was about time she got her flowers.
But I believe you mentioned in your review, Jasmine, that it felt odd not to include Addison, and I agree entirely.
There’s no doubt that Bailey has been doing incredible work in her fight to ensure women get the healthcare they deserve, but Addison is a huge part of that as well. I would’ve loved to see them both share that moment together after everything they’ve been through this season.
Jasmine: The cutest thing was how Bailey went from miffed that she wasn’t announcing as she planned to look around for the real recipient without realizing it was HER. She was so precious; I’m so glad Bailey got her flowers. She deserved them for so many damn things!
But it was just so odd that Addison wasn’t even acknowledged. It’s like they wanted to wrap up the arc with Bailey, Addy, and women’s healthcare, and it made it “worth it” after all the doxxing and pain, but it didn’t feel right that they didn’t acknowledge Addison at all.
I was so happy for Bailey, though, and she and Ben were such a power couple as he just got the Medal of Valor on Station 19 Season 6 Episode 18. I just love their love, their accomplishments, all of it.
What was your favorite of the Blue/Kwan-centered storylines from the finale? Do you think there’s a future for him and Jules?
Meaghan: Blue is fighting for the boy and his mother. It showed us so much about his character. It reminded me of storylines during the series’ first few seasons where Alex would let down his hard exterior and show his true colors. He and Jules stand a chance, but it won’t be easy. They both have walls up and will have to chip away at them slowly.
Jasmine: Blue is definitely the Alex of this MAGYK.
He’s the intern who has had the least amount of screentime and consistency all season, but he’s also had the most growth when he’s shown, which doesn’t seem like it should be plausible, but it is.
And he absolutely slayed this entire finale. From his advocation with the boy and his mother one minute to how passionate he was about Maxine in the next, he got some truly great content, and Harry Shum Jr was awesome, with these back-to-back episodes being Blue’s strongest yet.
I loved the importance of his advocating for the son and mother because it shows you how all these systems, criminal, medical, or a combination of the two, can further disenfranchise.
When you sit and think of the ramifications of that case had he not been there, it’s enraging, and that could’ve changed the trajectory of that mother and son’s life forever.
But I did cringe over how they essentially used the “Greater good” argument with Blue defying Max’s DNR and DNI because it worked out in the end. Regardless of the good intentions, we can’t keep glorifying that sort of thing.
Do you think Webber has really relapsed?
Meaghan: No, but that might just be wishful thinking. We’ve already gone down this road with Richard; I’m not ready to head down again. The only good thing to come out of this was Bailey swatting the drink out of his hand on the plane. I could not stop laughing. It was comedic perfection.
Jasmine: I don’t want to believe he relapsed because I can’t fathom them repeating this storyline with him, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they did. I’m not happy about this development.
But Bailey slapping that drink out of his hand was top-tier entertainment. That entire plane sequence had me giggling, from Winston’s pettiness and digs at Amelia (the quote about the sisters being single made me snort), stoned Catherine, drink slap, and Nick being so damn chill the whole time. I was cackling.
On a scale of 1-10, how shocking was that cliffhanger? What are your Teddy predictions, and do you think Sam survived?
Meaghan: 8. Once Teddy started complaining about her tooth, I knew something was coming, but I didn’t expect it would end up with her dying on the floor. I don’t think she will die, but it caught me off guard at the moment.
Sam’s future doesn’t look so bright right now, but it would be a huge win for Simone and Lucas if they did actually manage to save his life. If he survives, it will also go a long way in keeping them out of trouble.
Jasmine: I can agree with that 8. The second time she mentioned her tooth, I had a feeling something would happen, but I still didn’t anticipate THAT! And it was incredibly shocking to see them trying to resuscitate her right in the OR like that.
It looked like the absolute worst for Sam’s fate; he even had a kid named after him already. But I hope some miracle got pulled off for the interns’ sake.
What was your favorite storyline, moment, etc., from the finale?
Meaghan: I loved the moment between Maxine and Blue when she told him about her coworker who was the victim of domestic violence that she never spoke up about.
Maxine has been one of my favorite additions to the series, and every time we see her, she becomes more layered. I’ve been the first to complain about how overcrowded the series is, but I wouldn’t be mad if they made her a series regular and have her start volunteering at the hospital.
Jasmine: The plane shenanigans were pure entertainment for me. I definitely feel like Blue did a lot of the quietly great work during this finale and managed to stand out because of it with all of his moments.
Jules’ way of expressing her love for Blue was such a great moment, and I appreciate how they’re doing something different with that pairing that’s refreshing, careful, thoughtful, and almost more mature, for lack of a better word.
How would you grade the finale? How would you grade the season?
Meaghan: I’d give the finale a B+.
It was the perfect end to a season that has finally revitalized Grey’s Anatomy. It was a better finale for the interns than for the older cast, but I don’t mind one bit. My only complaint is that some things felt too open-ended.
For instance, I wish we had a scene of Mer asking Nick to move to Boston. With Ellen officially done as a series regular, I don’t love the idea of any of her storylines still being up in the air come next season. Or Winston and Maggie need to come to an actual conclusion about their relationship.
Kelly is no longer on the series, so I almost would’ve preferred them to decide to divorce, but amicably. Not every storyline can be wrapped up, but we can’t leave them all open.
Overall this season gets an A from me. This has been the first time in a very long time that I’m actually excited about the series. The interns have breathed new life into the series. For the first time, the writers are embracing the future of the series rather than trying to hold on to its past.
Jasmine: You’ve honestly said it all about how great this series has been this season. The interns have genuinely been a breath of fresh air and have succeeded at carrying the mantle of this series. I look forward to their scenes more than anything.
With Grey’s Anatomy Season 19, it has felt less like my going through the motions watching out of habit and more like me genuinely being excited about what came next.
The finale was incredibly strong, albeit a bit busy. I could’ve made some tweaks with some of the storylines, but overall, I was OK with everything they managed to squeeze in, and it didn’t feel like it meandered or anything like that.
What would you like to see next season? Do you have any predictions?
Meaghan: Next season, I’d love to see a continued focus on the interns.
As we see with Richard, the older characters have already gone through almost every storyline imaginable, and it now feels like we are just rehashing old ones. With the interns, there is a chance to explore so much new material and old storylines with a contemporary twist.
Hopefully, they will continue their approach to current issues impacting the world, like the women’s healthcare crisis. They found the right balance this season and could address them without becoming a PSA.
Also, please, throw all the money at Kate Walsh and bring back Addison Montgomery full-time. She was such a standout this season, and we need more of her.
Jasmine: YES! More of the interns! I look forward to continuing to peel back the layers of these new characters who I already love.
We need to meet Lucas’ mother and learn which Shepherd’s sister she is. I’d love to meet some of Mika’s sisters or something, watch Jules and Blue continue to knock down their respective walls, and even interact with the other interns more, as they tend to feel the most isolated.
If you’ve been following along with the Grey’s Anatomy Reviews, you’ll know how much I’ve been gushing about the newbies. They’re rich with possibilities, and yes, they get to introduce new storylines and plots or reconfigure older ones and put a newer or more modern spin on things. I’m all-in with Grey’s: The Next Class.
I definitely would love more Kate Walsh, anything and everything. I want Nick to have a presence still. Teddy needs to be OK because she’s truly in her element as chief. Building on what they’ve done this season is honestly what would work for me.
Over to you, Grey’s Fanatics.
Meaghan and I enjoyed chatting about the season finale, but it’s now your turn.
Hit the comments below with all of your thoughts about it.
Jasmine Blu is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. She is an insomniac who spends late nights and early mornings binge-watching way too many shows and binge-drinking way too much tea. Her eclectic taste makes her an unpredictable viewer with an appreciation for complex characters, diverse representation, dynamic duos, compelling stories, and guilty pleasures. You’ll definitely find her obsessively live-tweeting, waxing poetic, and chatting up fellow Fanatics and readers. Follow her on Twitter.
Twenty minutes into Florida governor Ron DeSantis’ highly publicized 2024 presidential campaign launch, which was scheduled Wednesday with an assist from Elon Musk via Twitter Circles, the platform went from stuttering along to going completely offline before the politician even had a chance to speak.
At its height, the Twitter Circles room appeared to have 650,000 listeners and counting, a overload that a flustered Musk called “massive” while trying to explain away the delay 15 minutes in.
“It just keeps crashing, huh?” moderator David Sacks could be heard saying to Musk midway through.
Just before 6:30 p.m. ET, the room was back up and running with DeSantis taking the mic to announce his bid.
On May 16, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, and New York City Police Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell held a press conference announcing that rappers Sheff G, real name Michael Williams, and Sleepy Hallow, real name Tegan Chambers, were arrested as part of a 32-person, 140-count gang indictment alleging murder, attempted murder, gun possession, and other crimes. Gonzales claimed that the men charged are members of the 8 Trey Crips and 9 Ways gangs, who collectively waged war on the Folk Nation Gangster Disciples and ICG Babiiez over a period starting in March 2019.
The indictment attributes 12 shootings to the gangs, including the fatal October 2020 shooting of Theodore Senior, AKA Sniper Blixky, an alleged member of the Folk Nation Gangster Disciples and ally of Sheff G rival 22GZ. During the press conference, Gonzales said, “What we allege and what we learned during the course of this investigation is that Sheff G used a lot of the money he earned to help facilitate further gang activity, encouraging gang members to participate in violent crimes.” Sheff G is an RCA Records artist and founder of the Winners Circle label and crew, where Tegan and rapper Eli Fross are signed. He’s regarded as a pioneer of the Brooklyn drill scene, best known for his “No Suburban,” “We Gettin Money,” and “Weight On Me” singles, which have amassed hundreds of millions of streams on DSPs and YouTube. Investigators allege that Williams rewarded people who carried out shootings for him with jewelry, appearances in videos, and money.
Williams is accused of ordering, coordinating, and bankrolling Brooklyn shootings, and allegedly being a getaway driver for an April 6th, 2021 Flatbush shooting. Surveillance footage allegedly captured Williams driving defendants Olivel Martinez, Tony Darden, and Kenrick Austrie in a Trackhawk registered in his name. The three men got out of Williams’ car and shot at a rival, instead hitting a 53-year-old man and a 43-year-old woman who were on the scene. The video captured the men running from the shooting back into Williams’ car. The next day, Darden allegedly shared a news report about the shooting in a group chat with Williams and others.
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The indictment frames the shooting as revenge for a member of the Babiiez shooting at Williams’ home in Short Hills, New Jersey the day before. “Over the next several months, Williams and some of the other defendants allegedly embarked on a campaign to seek revenge against the rival Babiiez gang and an 8 Trey member who they believed betrayed Williams by giving the rivals his address in New Jersey,” the indictment claims. In June, 10 defendants are alleged to have kidnapped the 8 Trey member and assaulted him at a Brooklyn cemetery until they were stopped by cops.
Tegan, a platinum artist and close friend of Williams known for his “Deep End” and “2055” singles, is framed as a conspirator in the gang in part for being in a video in possession of a gun with codefendants, being present with codefendants when they had guns, and a social media post where he’s purportedly “throwing down” the Folk Nation hand gesture, which investigators perceive as a sign of disrespect. The indictment also references Tegan making phone calls and texts with codefendants Jovanie Choloutte and Daniel Jean Louis in October 2021, the same day Choloutte allegedly stole a car that codefendant Kamondre Demattu is accused of using in a Flatbush mass shooting that killed Theodore Senior and injured five other alleged Folk Nation members. After Senior was killed, investigators claim Williams held a celebratory dinner for nine people at Manhattan’s Brooklyn Chop House. Tegan is also charged in the indictment as a co-conspirator for attending the dinner.
The police were heavily surveilling the defendants, with the indictment teeming with alleged records of phone calls, text messages between members, and social media posts. The indictment alleges that the defendants frequently used coded pig latin in an attempt to evade surveillance. During one alleged phone call, defendant March Wright used pig latin and english when asking codefendant Jaquan Brown, “Bro, you think cops can understand Pig Latin?” he added, “Bro, you know how I know they can’t understand Pig Latin? Cause . . . they was asking [Kamondre Demattu] ‘what’s that shit you talking on the phone.’ They don’t understand that shit bro.”
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During an alleged February 2022 phone call between Williams and his sister Crystal Williams, they discussed the police raiding Martinez and Darden’s homes on the same day. Williams allegedly told his sister “[T]his is something. . . . They rush Ollie crib and Micc crib at the same time…That mean for the same shit.” On the same call, Tegan joined the line and Williams noted, “Listen, let me tell ya’ll if it’s seven oh it’s it’s over bro, clip bro…If it’s seven oh, it’s clipped gangsta,” allegedly referring to the 70th NYPD precinct where the April 6th, 2021 shooting occurred. Williams was incarcerated at the time of the February phone call. He has six months left on a two-year sentence for a state gun charge and was anticipating an early release in June.
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There are two instances of rap lyrics being mentioned in the indictment. Investigators recall Williams posting, “FOR GANG…FOR GANG SHIT !…out here playing for the members,” in March 2019. The lyrics are from his February 2018 “For The Members” song, but were framed in the indictment as “a message about committing shooting on behalf of the 8 Trey Crips.” In another instance they retrieved Olivel Martinez writing “All of them soft if you ask me / I was on a drill last week / He tried to run like a athlete / Shit got him shot on the ass cheeks” in a January 2021 phone note. The lyrics were entered a week after investigators alleged that he shot a Folk Nation member in the buttocks.
Like a peckish panda let loose in a showroom for bamboo patio furniture, the modern audience’s craving for true-life stories is seemingly insatiable. And like said ursine gnawing greedily on a flavorful teakwood club chair, nonfiction has been steadily gobbling up narrative filmmaking, with almost every major news item of the last 40 years being dutifully reimagined as a prestige limited series. And sure, projects like HBO’s Love and Death or Hulu’s The Dropout can help fill the void abdicated by the mid-budget studio drama, but where does that leave actual documentary movies—or documentary filmmakers for that matter?
While there’s certainly not an overabundance of industry support out there for emerging nonfiction filmmakers, there is at the very least the Film Independent Documentary Lab. And today, we’re thrilled to welcome seven new Fellows and six new projects to the 2023 Doc Lab cohort. “Documentary filmmakers remain at the forefront of innovative cinema, telling real stories with urgency and accessibility,” says Daniel Cardone, Film Independent’s Manager of Nonfiction Programs, “Our selections [for this year’s Lab] emphatically demonstrate this, tackling important cultural issues and events with compassion and limitless creativity.”
Designed for filmmakers currently in post-production on their feature-length films, the Doc Lab is an intensive program advancing the careers of its Fellows by providing creative feedback and an introduction to professionals advising on both the craft and business of documentary film.
This year’s Lead Creative Mentors are Chris Shellen (Mickey: The Story of a Mouse, Marwencol) and Ivete Lucas (Naked Gardens, Pahokee), alongside Editing Mentors Bo Mehrad (The Punk Singer, Call Me Miss Cleo) and Amy Foote (Hail Satan?, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed). Guest Speakers include Isabel Castro (Mija), Keetin Mayakara (Free Solo), Larissa Rhodes (The Social Dilemma), Diane Quon (Bad Axe), Alysa Nahmias (Wildcat) and Columbia University’s Alece Oxendine. The Doc Lab’s industry partner is the UCLA Doc Law Clinic.
This year’s Film Independent Documentary Lab supported projects are:
Title: Black Snow
Director/Cinematographer: Alina Simone
Producer: Kirstine Barfod
Logline: When residents of a remote Siberian coal mining settlement discover an old Soviet mine has caught fire beneath their neighborhood, they turn to homemaker-turned-journalist Natalia Zubkova for help. But after Natalia’s independent news coverage goes viral, she finds herself the target of a massive government disinformation campaign.
Title: Flamingo Camp
Director: Chris Coats
Logline: Set in the off-grid squatter town known as Slab City, Flamingo Camp documents the thriving golden days of a queer and trans community on the fringe of society and its tragic collapse after one of its members is brutally murdered.
Title: For Venida, For Kalief
Director/Producer/Cinematographer: Sisa Bueno
Logline: A late mother’s poetry echoes a New York movement for criminal justice reform. This lyrical film is an intentional departure from current storytelling approaches, and will instead focus on his impact and the potential closing of Rikers Island to inspire us to reimagine a new legacy for Kalief Browder.
Title: Matininó
Director: Gabriela Díaz Arp
Logline: Matininó tells the story of the Villanueva family, a multi-generational family of Puerto Rican women transforming their experience of violence into a science fiction film.
Title: She Cried That Day
Director: Amanda Erickson
Logline: She Cried That Day investigates the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’s crisis through the lens of one woman haunted by her sister’s unsolved murder. We bear witness as she battles police and societal apathy towards MMIW, thus laying bare the complex story of America’s treatment of Indigenous peoples.
Title: You Have the Floor
Director: Adina Luo
Logline: You Have the Floor follows a nationally ranked high school Model United Nations team, where aspiring ambassadors debate the world’s most pressing issues. As diplomatic strategies collide and social tensions mount, each of our students discovers what victory truly means to them.
Those are the projects, but now let’s meet the filmmakers. Here are your 2023 Film Independent Documentary Lab Fellows…
Alina Simone
Alina Simone is a Ukrainian-American journalist and author whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Guardian Long Read, California Sunday, Slate and NPR, among many others. For seven years, she was a regular contributor to the international news radio show The World, a co-production of the BBC. Her articles have been featured on best-of lists in The Atlantic, NPR and Rolling Stone, and have been optioned for film by major studios. She is the author of an essay collection and a novel, both published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and has taught writing at Yale University. Simone is the recipient of a Logan Nonfiction Fellowship, the Andrew Berends Film Fellowship, a NYSCA/NYFA Film Fellowship, and a Mountainfilm Emerging Filmmaker Fellowship. Black Snow is her first film.
Kirstine Barfod
Kirstine Barfod is an accomplished producer who has received numerous accolades for her work in the film industry. She was awarded an Emmy, a Cinema Eye award for Outstanding Achievement in Production, a Peabody award and a 2020 Academy Award nomination for producing The Cave, a documentary directed by two times Oscar-nominated director Feras Fayyad (Last Men in Aleppo). Over the course of her career, Kirstine has produced and co-produced a dozen feature documentaries and documentary series, including Reunited (CPHDOX), The Magic Life of V (Sundance) and Ibrahim (TIFF). In recognition of her contributions to the film industry, she was invited to become a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2019. In 2022, Kirstine established her new production company, Nordland Pictures, which promises to be another exciting chapter in her career.
Chris Coats
Chris Coats is an accomplished writer and director of film, music videos and branded content. In 2012, he joined the roster of The Masses, a filmmaking collective started by director Matt Amato and the late Heath Ledger. With The Masses, Chris directed music videos that were featured on acclaimed music websites such as Pitchfork, The Fader and Filter. He has brought his visual voice to content for brands like Adidas, Nike, Jack in the Box and the burlesque superstar Dita Von Teese. His most recent short film, Content, had its world premiere at Outfest 2019, screened at numerous film festivals and was recently acquired by the streaming platform Revry.
Sisa Bueno
Originally from New York City, Sisa Bueno is a Black and Indigenous Latina film and multimedia maker who is fascinated by people of all cultures and seeks to awaken our own empowerment via artful storytelling. She studied both film production and interactive technologies at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University (NYU). Sisa spent years filming Indigenous and Afro-Latine social movements in South America, and completed a short film for Aljazeera/AJ+ related to Afro-Bolivian constitutional movement. The NBC Network named Sisa a “Latino Innovator” for her work in Bolivia, and she is a recipient of the ITVS-PBS production grant, Hot Docs CrossCurrents grant, BAVC MediaMaker fellowship, Camden/PNI North Star Fellowship, International Documentary Association (IDA) Pare Lorentz grant, Firelight Media Lab Fellow and Sundance Documentary Fund fellow for her current work in progress, For Venida, For Kalief. Sisa was also a 2018-2021 Member of the NEW INC tech incubator program within the New Museum working with Augmented Reality (AR) to create new modes of storytelling with more tech integration. She is also currently an Adjunct Instructor at her alma mater, Tisch-NYU and Film Instructor for DCTV and other non-profits in the NYC area.
Gabriela Díaz Arp
Gabriela Díaz Arp is a filmmaker and producer whose work pushes the boundaries and form of documentary storytelling as means to break binary modes of perception and better understand the complexities of being human. She is currently directing her first feature-length hybrid film Matininó in her motherland of Puerto Rico. The film follows a multigenerational family of women who are exploring how violence travels through generations, space and time as they write and star in a science fiction film. She also directed the short virtual reality film and installation, Meeting a Monster, which examines one woman’s descent into the white supremacy movement and her attempt to get out. The film premiered at Tribeca Film Festival, won Best Immersive Experience at NBFF and was featured in WIRED magazine. Gabriela’s work has been supported by the Sundance Documentary Fund, Doc Society, Topic, CNN, Points North Institute and Adobe and screened at festivals around the world including Tribeca, Cannes NEXT, Hot Docs and Sheffield DocFest. Gabriela has been a fellow with the Sundance New Frontier x Knight Program, the DOC NYC x Video Consortium Storytelling Incubator and the American Stories and BAVC fellowship.
Amanda Erickson
Amanda Erickson is born for the San Carlos Apache of the White Water Clan on her father’s side. But growing up outside of her community, she often wondered about her Indigenous roots. Her journey of reconnection to culture and community would take 38 years and be the catalyst for her first feature documentary, She Cried That Day. Before making her directorial debut, Amanda worked as a non-fiction TV Producer for 15 years, where she created compelling programming for networks like: Travel Channel, National Geographic WILD, Investigation Discovery and CuriosityStream. Amanda is a member of Brown Girls Doc Mafia, Array Crew and resident Teaching Artist for newportFILM. Through her company, Sees Clearly Productions, Amanda aims to inspire social change by amplifying issues facing Indigenous communities.
Adina Luo
Adina Luo is a filmmaker and media executive. Most recently, Adina produced Black Mothers Love & Resist (dir. Débora Souza Silva), a feature length documentary following the mothers behind Black Lives Matter, with support from Sundance, Tribeca, IDA, SFFILM and HotDocs, among others. Adina is also the director, writer and producer of The Kids Table, which screened at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival and won at the Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival. As Director of Strategy at Participant, she has supported impact driven films like Judas and the Black Messiah, John Lewis Good Trouble, and My Name is Pauli Murray. Adina’s work has been featured in VICE, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Blavity and The Verge. Adina studied business at the Wharton School and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania.
Past Fi Doc Lab supported projects of note include the Oscar-nominated films Ascension by Jessica Kingdon and Minding the Gap from Bing Liu and Diane Quon; as well as Sara Dosa and Shane Boris’s Seer and the Unseen; Sarity Khurana and Smriti Mundhra’s A Suitable Girl; Dyana Winkler and Tina Brown’s United Skates; and Kit Vincent and Ed Owles’ Red Herring, a recent True/False Film Festival premiere.
Additionally, Black Snow and Alina Simone will receive the Cayton-Goldrich Family Foundation Fellowship—an unrestricted $10,000 cash grant awarded to a Jewish filmmaker accepted into a Film Independent Artist Development Program.
The Film Independent Documentary Lab is supported by the Clayton-Goldrich Family Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
For more information on any of our Artist Development Labs or the projects that have been developed in them, please contact us. Additional information can be found at filmindependent.org. 2023 marks 30 years of Film Independent Artist Development.
Film Independent promotes unique independent voices by helping filmmakers create and advance new work. To become a Member of Film Independent, just click here. To support us with a donation, click here.
Alberta RCMP said an autopsy performed on human remains found in the North Saskatchewan River Saturday determined that the person was a victim of homicide.
EXCLUSIVE: Freestyle Digital Media has acquired U.S. rights to the adventure thriller Survive, starring Emmy nominees Sophie Turner (Game of Thrones) and Corey Hawkins (BlacKkKlansman), slating it for release on VOD on June 20th.
The film directed by by Mark Pellington (Arlington Road), which is based on the same-name 2012 novel by Alex Morel, was originally conceived as a “movie in chapters” for the now-defunct streaming platform Quibi, with its story broken out into segments of 10 minutes or less in length. It tells the story of what happens when two ordinary people, Jane (Turner) and Paul (Hawkins), have to fight for their lives when their airplane crashes on a remote snow-covered mountain, leaving them as the only survivors. Soon, this unlikely duo will have to find a way to get back to society, all while Jane struggles with her own personal demons, and Paul does everything he can to keep her safe and lead their journey out of the wilderness.
Richard Abate & Jeremy Ungar adapted the screenplay for the film, which Gunpowder & Sky produced alongside EMH Consulting Group. Cary Granat, Ed Jones and Richard Abate produced, with Van Toffler, Floris Bauer and Barry Barclay exec producing for Gunpowder & Sky.
“Survive is an exciting, intense, and harrowing action-packed movie — an emotional tale of resilience and determination — and I am very proud to be presenting this feature-length version of our film,” said Pellington in a statement to Deadline. “Anchored by two great performances by Sophie Turner and Emmy-nominated Corey Hawkins, Survive is a wonderfully scripted tale of a young woman who fights to stay alive after considering that life wasn’t worth living as she engages with a fellow survivor in a semi-tragic tale of sacrifice and healing. Shot in Latvia and the Italian Alps, Survive is a visual and sonic treat capturing natural beauty in peril.”
Freestyle Digital Media negotiated the deal for Survive directly with Michaela Johnson-Carroll of Gunpowder & Sky. View the film’s trailer by clicking above.
Around the time that the F.B.I. was examining the equipment recovered from the Chinese spy balloon shot down off the South Carolina coast in February, American intelligence agencies and Microsoft detected what they feared was a more worrisome intruder: mysterious computer code appearing in telecommunications systems in Guam and elsewhere in the United States.
The code, which Microsoft said was installed by a Chinese government hacking group, raised alarms because Guam, with its Pacific ports and vast American air base, would be a centerpiece of any American military response to an invasion or blockade of Taiwan. The operation was conducted with great stealth, sometimes flowing through home routers and other common internet-connected consumer devices, to make the intrusion harder to track.
The code is called a “web shell,” in this case a malicious script that enables remote access to a server. Home routers are particularly vulnerable, especially older models that have not had updated software and protections.
Unlike the balloon that fascinated Americans as it performed pirouettes over sensitive nuclear sites, the computer code could not be shot down on live television. So instead, Microsoft on Wednesday published details of the code that would make it possible for corporate users, manufacturers and others to detect and remove it. In a coordinated release, the National Security Agency — along with other domestic agencies and their cyber counterparts in Australia, Britain, New Zealand and Canada — published a 24-page advisory that referred to Microsoft’s finding and offered broader warnings about a “recently discovered cluster of activity” from China.
Microsoft called the hacking group “Volt Typhoon” and said that it was part of a state-sponsored Chinese effort aimed at not only critical infrastructure such as communications, electric and gas utilities, but also maritime operations and transportation. The intrusions appeared, for now, to be an espionage campaign. But the Chinese could use the code, which is designed to pierce firewalls, to enable destructive attacks, if they choose.
So far, Microsoft says, there is no evidence that the Chinese group has used the access for any offensive attacks. Unlike Russian groups, the Chinese intelligence and military hackers usually prioritize espionage.
In interviews, administration officials said they believed the code was part of a vast Chinese intelligence collection effort that spans cyberspace, outer space and, as Americans discovered with the balloon incident, the lower atmosphere.
The Biden administration has declined to discuss what the F.B.I. found as it examined the equipment recovered from the balloon. But the craft — better described as a huge aerial vehicle — apparently included specialized radars and communications interception devices that the F.B.I. has been examining since the balloon was shot down.
It is unclear whether the government’s silence about its finding from the balloon is motivated by a desire to keep the Chinese government from knowing what the United States has learned or to get past the diplomatic breach that followed the incursion.
On Sunday, speaking at a news conference in Hiroshima, Japan, President Biden referred to how the balloon incident had paralyzed the already frosty exchanges between Washington and Beijing.
“And then this silly balloon that was carrying two freight cars’ worth of spying equipment was flying over the United States,” he told reporters, “and it got shot down, and everything changed in terms of talking to one another.”
He predicted that relations would “begin to thaw very shortly.”
China has never acknowledged hacking into American networks, even in the biggest example of all: the theft of security clearance files of roughly 22 million Americans — including six million sets of fingerprints — from the Office of Personnel Management during the Obama administration. That exfiltration of data took the better part of a year, and resulted in an agreement between President Barack Obama and President Xi Jinping that resulted in a brief decline in malicious Chinese cyberactivity.
On Wednesday, China sent a warning to its companies to be alert to American hacking. And there has been plenty of that, too: In documents released by Edward Snowden, the former N.S.A. contractor, there was evidence of American efforts to hack into the systems of Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications giant, and military and leadership targets.
Telecommunications networks are key targets for hackers, and the system in Guam is particularly important to China because military communications often piggyback on commercial networks.
Tom Burt, the executive who oversees Microsoft’s threat intelligence unit, said in an interview that the company’s analysts — many of them veterans of the National Security Agency and other intelligence agencies — had found the code “while investigating intrusion activity impacting a U.S. port.” As they traced back the intrusion, they found other networks that were hit, “including some in the telecommunications sector in Guam.”
Microsoft published a blog post on Wednesday with detailed indicators about the code, to allow the operators of critical infrastructure to take preventive steps.
In a coordinated announcement, the N.S.A. published a technical report about Chinese intrusions into American critical infrastructure. The U.S. report described a broad range of Chinese-origin threats.
The Biden administration has been racing to enforce newly created minimum cybersecurity standards for critical infrastructure. After a Russian ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline in 2021 that resulted in an interruption of gasoline, diesel and airplane fuel flow on the East Coast, the administration has used the authorities of the Transportation Security Administration — which regulates pipelines — to force private-sector utilities to follow a series of cybersecurity mandates.
A similar process is now underway for water supplies, airports and soon hospitals, all of which hackers have targeted in recent times.
The National Security Agency’s report is part of a relatively new U.S. government move to publish such data quickly in hopes of burning the Chinese operations. In years past, the United States usually withheld such information — sometimes classifying it — and shared it with only a select few companies or organizations. But that almost always assured that the hackers could stay well ahead of the government.
In this case, it was the focus on Guam that particularly seized the attention of officials who are assessing China’s capabilities — and its willingness — to attack or choke off Taiwan. Mr. Xi has ordered the People’s Liberation Army to be capable of taking the island by 2027. But the C.I.A. director, William J. Burns, has noted to Congress that the order “does not mean he has decided to conduct an invasion.”
In the dozens of U.S. tabletop exercises conducted in recent years to map out what such an attack might look like, one of China’s first anticipated moves would be to cut off American communications and slow the United States’ ability to respond. So the exercises envision attacks on satellite and ground communications, especially around American installations where military assets would be mobilized.
None is bigger than Guam, where Andersen Air Force Base would be the launching point for many of the Air Force missions to help defend the island, and a Navy port is crucial for American submarines.
“In Our Day,” the new Hong Sang-soo film premiering later this week as the Cannes Film Festival’s closing night film, has been acquired by Cinema Guild. A theatrical release is planned following its North American festival premiere later this year.
The picture stars Kim Min-hee, Song Seon-mi, Gi Ju-bong and Ha Seong-guk. This character dramedy marks Hong’s 30th feature film, this time using long, elaborate takes to articulate simple pleasures like an interspecies encounter, the discovery of a new drink and a game of rock, paper, scissors.
“Adding to the rich tableau of his work, Hong Sang-soo’s ‘In Our Day’ not only makes us laugh, it makes us think about what it means to be alive,” Cinema Guild president Peter Kelly said in a statement. “It’s a gift that we hope continues and continues.”
The deal was negotiated by Peter Kelly of Cinema Guild with Suh Young-joo of Finecut.
“In Our Day” marks Hong’s 12th film to premiere at Cannes, where he most recently unveiled “In Front of Your Face” in 2021. Cinema Guild now handles 20 films by the director. Their first collaboration was “The Day He Arrives,” which premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2011 and will be released for the first time on Blu-ray later this year.
Cinema Guild’s upcoming releases include Claire Simon’s “Our Body” and Angela Schanelec’s “Music.” Recent releases include Hong Sang-soo’s “Walk Up,” Helena Wittmann’s “Human Flowers of Flesh” and Laura Citarella’s “Trenque Lauquen.”
Editor’s note:Deadline’s It Starts On The Page features 10 standout drama series scripts in 2023 Emmy contention.It showcases the critical role writer’s work plays in a show’s success.All materials (the script and writers intro) were submitted before the WGA strike began on May 2.
Craig Mazin followed his Emmy-winning limited series Chernobyl with The Last of Us, which he co-created with Neil Druckmann. The HBO post-apocalyptic zombie drama starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey launched to strong reviews and enthusiastic response from fans of the video game it is based on.
Then Episode 3 came along, taking pop culture by storm. It transcended genre to attract audiences who had never played the game or watched a zombie show and catapulted a 50-year-old Linda Ronstadt song to the top of the music charts.
Titled “Long Long Time” after Ronstadt’s song, the episode, hailed as one of the best hours of television in 2023 — and possibly ever — was written by Mazin and directed by Peter Hoar. It guest stars Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett as Bill and Frank, two survivors of the zombie outbreak who find love amid the destruction.
Here is the script of Episode 3 with an introduction by Mazin about what went into writing it and what he hopes viewers take away from watching:
The Last of Us is a love story, and that’s not always good news.
Love can blind us, move us to violence, harden our hearts to strangers, or paralyze us with grief.
But in the world Neil Druckmann and I built for this show, it was just as important to show how love could still flourish in a positive way. I wanted to explore how two very different kinds of love— the nurturing, generous and beautifying, as well as the protective and possessive— could exist in balance.
Bill and Frank embodied these two kinds of love. And for me, as someone who has been married for over 25 years, it was just as important to portray that kind of love… the lasting, well-worn love that is a product not merely of attraction or chemistry, but of commitment.
My hope was that people would see in Bill and Frank’s relationship the victory of honest, achievable, realistic love… even in Bill and Frank’s ending. After all, each of us will end. That’s not failure for any life well-lived, or for any love we share. It’s simply the final act of what was hopefully a beautiful play. And if we’re lucky, as Bill is, we leave behind a lesson that inspires others to live as we did. Frank changes Bill for the better. Bill changes Joel for the better. Joel changes Ellie for the better.
This is what love can do.
I was lucky enough to have a brilliant director in Peter Hoar and the perfect cast in Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey, Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett. They all had the greatest respect for the text I wrote, and in turn, I have the greatest respect for the way they brought it to life. And as I said to Nick when I sent him the script, “I don’t know how to write better than this, so I sure hope you like it.”
I say the same to you, and I thank you so much for reading and watching our show.
Now Ariel is in the singer Halle Bailey’s hands. And it’s not that she can’t keep par with the original’s illustrators. It’s that this movie isn’t asking her to. It takes the better part of an hour for the flesh-and-blood Ariel to go mute. And when she does, whatever carbonation Bailey had to begin with goes flat. This Ariel has amnesia about needing that kiss, taking “cunning” off the table for Bailey, too.
With her sister, Bailey is half of the R&B duo Chloe x Halle. They’ve got a chilling, playful approach to melody that Bailey can’t fully unleash in this movie. For one thing, she’s got two songs, one of which — the standard “Part of Your World” — does manage to let her quaver some toward the end. But what’s required of her doesn’t differ radically from what Jodi Benson did in the first movie. Ostensibly, though, Bailey has been cast because her Ariel would differ. Bailey’s is Black, with long copper hair that twists, waves and locks. Racially, the whole movie’s been, what, opened up? Diversified? Now, Ariel’s rueful daddy, King Triton, is played by a stolid Javier Bardem, who does all the king’s lamenting in Spanish-inflected English. Instead of the Broadway chorines of the original, her mermaid siblings are a multiethnic, runway-ready General Assembly.
The prince, Eric (Jonah Hauer-King), is white, English and now seems to have more plot than Ariel. “More” includes meals with his mother, Queen Selina (Noma Dumezweni), who’s Black, as is her chief servant, Lashana (Martina Laird). The script, credited to David Magee, John DeLuca, and the director Rob Marshall, informs us that the queen has adopted the prince (because somebody knew inquiring minds would need to know). As the bosomy, tentacled Ursula, who’s now Triton’s banished, embittered sister, McCarthy puts a little pathos in the part’s malignancy. She seems like she’s having a fine time, a little Bette Midler, a little Mae West, a little Etta James. And the sight of her racing toward the camera in a slithery gush of arms and fury is the movie’s one good nightmare image. But even McCarthy seems stuck in a shot-for-shot, growl-for-growl tribute to her cartoon counterpart and Pat Carroll’s vocal immortalization of it.
The cartoon was about a girl who wanted to leave showbiz. She and her sisters performed follies basically for King Triton’s entertainment. The songs by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken aimed for the American Songbook’s Disney wing. The voices and evocations were Vegas and vaudeville. Dry land was, entertainment-wise, a lot dryer, but that was all right with Ariel. This new flesh-and-blood version is about a girl who’d like to withdraw her color from the family rainbow and sail off with into “uncharted waters” with her white prince.
Tabloids are reporting that Tom Hanks appeared to become “uncharacteristically frustrated” and “miffed” at the Cannes Film Festival — and Rita Wilson Cannes not even.
On Tuesday, the “Jingle All the Way” and “Kimi” actor laughed off a Daily Mail story claiming that she and her husband, Hanks, “exchanged some heated words” with a staff member at Cannes during the premiere of their new film, “Asteroid City.”
The article’s sensational headline read, “Raving Private Ryan! Tom Hanks and wife Rita Wilson remonstrate with a red carpet staffer as they attend the 76th Cannes Film Festival premiere of Asteroid City.” The report also included several photos of Hanks pointing his finger, cupping his ear, balling his fist and staring intently at said staffer during their allegedly “terse interaction” on the red carpet.
According to Wilson, however, she and Hanks were simply trying their best to focus on the employee’s instructions amid the elegant chaos of the event.
“This is called I can’t hear you. People are screaming. What did you say? Where are we supposed to go?” Wilson wrote on her Instagram story.
“But that doesn’t sell stories! Nice try. We had a great time! Go see Asteroid City!”
Hanks and Wilson attended Tuesday’s screening of director Wes Anderson‘s latest feature alongside Scarlett Johansson, Jason Schwartzman, Maya Hawke, Bryan Cranston, Matt Dillon, Jeffrey Wright, Steve Carell and other members of the star-studded cast.
Hanks plays a lonely grandfather in the quirky extraterrestrial comedy, which received a six-minute standing ovation at the festival, according to Variety. Wilson is also credited on the IMDb page for “Asteroid City” in an unspecified role.
Though Wilson claims her husband didn’t lose his temper at Cannes, Hanks has been known to get testy at work in the past — or so he says. During the recent press tour for his debut novel, the “Forrest Gump” and “Cast Away” star attempted to hedge his reputation as one of the nicest folks in the biz by admitting that he has occasionally behaved badly behind the scenes.
“Not everybody is at their best every single day on a motion picture set,” he told the BBC.
“I’ve had tough days trying to be a professional when my life has been falling apart in more ways than one and the requirement for me that day is to be funny, charming and loving — and it’s the last way I feel.”
Unfortunately, Marvel Studios is in a tough position after Majors found himself facing assault and abuse charges, which he and his team continue to deny as his court case gets underway in New York.
With all that being said, it’s time to look at every movie and TV show that could include Kang or his Variants during the Multiverse Saga.
1.) Loki Season 2 (Victor Timely, Confirmed)
Marvel Studios
The post-credits scene from Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania introduced the sixth new Kang Variant in Victory Timely, who gave a presentation on time to a highly intrigued crowd from the early 20th century. In that audience were Tom Hiddleston’s Loki and Owen Wilson’s Mobius, confirming that Majors would play a role in Loki Season 2 just as he did in Season 1.
The Victor Timely take on Kang is one who went back in time to 1901 and founded a town called Timely, Wisconsin, establishing it as a technological with his knowledge from across multiple timelines. And with the Multiverse now in chaos after Loki Season 1 and Ant-Man 3, the MCU’s Timely now appears to be using his influence on the timeline in a similar manner in order to plant his flag more firmly.
What If…? Season 1 delivered nine unique stories centered on the Infinity Saga’s biggest characters, featuring wild mix-ups like T’Challa Star-Lord and Gamora, Daughter of Thanos. One episode even highlighted the Mad Titan himself in a new light, with Brolin’s Thanos actually becoming a Ravager under T’Challa’s lead.
With Kang being such a big part of the MCU’s next huge saga, it would be shocking to see him not have a role in this series in some form, whether it becomes canon with the live-action movies or not. Particularly considering that this show utilizes the Multiverse so heavily, it would be easy to put any kind of Kang Variant into any story Marvel Studios wanted to tell.
Should they decide to, Marvel could even make this show fully canon with the live-action stories if they used a Kang Variant that was confirmed to split off from Majors’ original Franklin Richards in the MCU’s future. No matter if that happens, however, Kang in What If…? wouldn’t be shocking in any form as the animated show looks to make its return to Disney+.
3.) Moon Knight Season 2
Marvel Studios
At the moment, there are no signs pointing to when Moon Knight will return for its second season, although rumors have indicated that it’s in the works behind the scenes at Marvel Studios. Marc Spector even has some ties to the master of the Multiverse, Kang, thanks to one particular Variant that’s been teased.
Episode 3 of Moon Knight included an Easter Egg teasing the Egyptian pharaoh Rama-Tut, who is actually a Kang Variant that went back in time to rule over Egypt. Then, in Ant-Man 3‘s mid-credits scene, Rama-Tut made his live-action debut as part of the Council of Kangs, serving as one of the three leading variations on Kang alongside Immortus and the Scarlet Centurion.
More recently, rumors pointed to Rama-Tut actually being part of Moon Knight Season 2 in some capacity, which would almost certainly bring back Majors to reprise the role after Ant-Man 3‘s mid-credits scene. This would give Oscar Isaac his first chance to interact with the MCU’s next big bad while also potentially setting him up for a role in one or both of the next two Avengers movies.
4.) Deadpool 3
Marvel Studios
Deadpool 3 is rumored to be the first MCU movie that will fully tackle the Multiverse in all its glory, largely thanks to Hugh Jackman‘s Wolverine taking on a semi-leading role alongside Ryan Reynolds‘ Merc With a Mouth. That alone sets up Kang for a possible small role in the threequel, although the film will also include something with which Kang is already awfully familiar.
Rumors have resurfaced that tease the Time Variance Authority playing a major role in Deadpool 3, with Owen Wilson‘s Mobius and Tara Strong’s Miss Minutes specifically being teased for appearances in the movie. And with He Who Remains being the one who created and ran the TVA, it would only make sense to have some kind of nod to the Kang Variant at some point during Deadpool’s journey through the Multiverse.
With Deadpool 3 also releasing only six months before Kang’s leading appearance in Avengers 5, this would be the perfect time to remind fans that Kang is out there after three Earth-based movies in Captain America: New World Order, Thunderbolts, and Blade. And considering the jokes that Ryan Reynolds could pull with such a big threat in the picture, it’s almost a no-brainer to include Kang in the story in some form.
But with their solo movie currently sitting as the final theatrical release on Marvel Studios’ slate before Avengers 5, there’s no denying that Kang could play even a small role in the story, potentially being used in a post-credits scene. Marvel Studios producer Stephen Broussard even kept the possibility open by teasing that “there will be no corner of the MCU” where Kang’s presence won’t be felt when asked if the villain could show up in this movie.
6.) Doctor Strange 3
Although there are no signs pointing to when Doctor Strange 3 will join the MCU timeline, the ending of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness all but confirms that the Multiverse will play a role in its story. And with the Multiverse comes the chance for yet another Kang Variant to come into play, especially with the Incursions that are forming thanks to Doctor Strange’s antics.
The end of the last solo movie introduced Charlize Theron’s Clea, Strange’s best-known love interest from the comics, who slashed a portal to the Dark Dimension as Strange showed off his new Third Eye. And on top of a potential return for Dormammu, it wouldn’t be shocking whatsoever to see Kang the Conqueror looking to make his presence felt in a place as dangerous as the Dark Dimension.
Early leaked plot details for Avengers 5 point towards Kang being the star of this movie in the same way that Thanos was for Avengers: Infinity War. The story will shed new details about Nathaniel Richards’ origin story as fans “learn about him conquering worlds across the entire Multiverse.”
Rumors have even pointed to the He Who Remains Variant from Loki actually teaming up with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes to help them defeat their biggest foe to date. But with Kang and his Variants playing such a huge role in Avengers 5, there’s no telling how many versions of this antagonist will show up.
8.) Avengers: Secret Wars
Marvel Studios
As is the case with Avengers 5, the expectation is that Kang will play an equally big a role in that movie as he will in 2026’s Avengers: Secret Wars. And while no plot details have hit the rumor mill yet for the Multiverse Saga’s biggest movie, the expectation is that Kang will live past its predecessor and come back with a vengeance for the MCU’s most ambitious movie to date.
Many expect Secret Wars to adapt the storyline of the same name from the comics, which brings together the best of the best Marvel heroes from all across the Multiverse for a grand high-stakes battle for supremacy and survival. Marvel is even rumored to be looking at some of the most iconic actors from non-MCU Marvel legacy movies to bring more heroes into one movie than anything prior.
Kang likely wouldn’t be the only villain to be part of the story in Avengers 6, with its comic counterpart also featuring appearances by Doctor Doom and the Beyonder. But considering how high the expectations are for Kang to remain a force in the MCU’s sixth Avengers outing, seeing him take a back seat is the last thing that most fans think will happen.
Marvel is reportedly looking at potential options for replacement actors that could take over for Majors as a worst-case scenario, with his domestic abuse trial still taking place two months after the allegations first arose.
But no matter how this situation is resolved, the next few years will feature plenty of Kang in plenty of different forms all across Marvel Studios’ continually expanding story.
This summer, DC will be releasing a very special swimsuit edition anthology starring one of the most interesting Green Lanterns of all time… G’Nort! Check out all the details below!
DC ANNOUNCES ‘G’NORT’S ILLUSTRATED SWIMSUIT EDITION’
G’nort’s Illustrated Swimsuit Edition Available at Local Comic Shops on August 23, 2023
G’nort’s Illustrated Swimsuit Edition cover by Vasco Georgiev (main)
You may know G’nort as the bumbling Green Lantern who protects Space Sector 68. Then again, you may not know G’nort at all. Whatever the case, get ready to see him in his newest role as host and proprietor of this very special swimsuit edition comic! Join our favorite fuzzball as he showcases some of DC’s best swimsuit covers and most swim-tacular stories! From the Flash in Speed Force Racing Briefs to Batman in a bat(hing) suit, this very special one-shot is summer fun from (bikini) top to (bikini) bottom.
G’nort’s Illustrated Swimsuit Edition cover by J. Scott Campbell (variant)
Featuring 48 pages of art by Amanda Conner, Paul Pelletier, Nicola Scott, Mikel Janín, Jeff Dékal, Daniel Sampere, Gleb Melnikov, Derrick Chew, Stanley “Artgerm” Lau, Emanuela Lupacchino, Joëlle Jones, Megan Huang, Terry Dodson, Babs Tarr, Pete Woods, Joe Quinones, Hélène Lenoble, Otto Schmidt, Michael Allred, Sweeney Boo, David Talaski, Jenny Frison, and others, G’nort’s Illustrated Swimsuit Edition will publish on August 29, 2023, available in comic book shops and participating digital retailers.
G’nort’s Illustrated Swimsuit Edition collects some of the splashiest, steamiest, swimsuit covers from DC’s best talent, all in one place for the very first time, along with Steve Orlando and Paul Pelletier’s Midnighter and Apollo story, “Out There,” from DC Cybernetic Summer, a new 8-page story featuring The Penguin—clad in the tightest bathing trunks you can imagine—by Julie Benson and Shawna Benson drawn by Meghan Hetrick, and more.
Plus,G’nort’s Illustrated Swimsuit Edition will have its very own centerfold! There are three potential centerfolds for your viewing pleasure—but who will grace your issue? You’re not going to want to miss the all-new center-stapled pin-ups of DC’s beach-body babes! DC will reveal the centerfold characters and artists in the coming summer months!
G’nort’s Illustrated Swimsuit Edition will feature a main cover by Vasco Georgiev along with open-to-order cardstock variant covers by J. Scott Campbell and Adam Hughes and a 1:25 variant cover by Pablo Villalobos.
Natasha Irons, Supergirl, Superboy and Power Girl by Otto Schmidt
For the latest information on the World’s Greatest Super Heroes, check out the official DC website at www.dc.com, and follow @DCComics and @thedcnation on social media. The DC UNIVERSE INFINITE digital subscription platform (DCUI) has an incredible selection of classic issues of DC’s comic books, in addition to a great lineup of titles featuring Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Aquaman, and more. For more information and a free trial, visit the website at www.dcuniverseinfinite.com. DC UNIVERSE INFINITE is not available in all countries and is not intended for children.
DC, part of Warner Bros. Discovery, creates iconic characters and enduring stories and is one of the world’s largest publishers of comics and graphic novels. Its creative work entertains audiences of every generation around the world with DC’s stories and characters integrated across Warner Bros. Discovery’s film, television, animation, consumer products, home entertainment, games, and themed experiences divisions and on the DC Universe Infinite digital comics subscription service. Learn more at DC.com.
Explore the corners of a surrealistic post-human world to give life on Earth a second chance in this touching story about sacrifice and hope Play as Gaia, the Spirit of Life, and navigate stunning platforming environments in an abstract world to salvage the souls of extinct animals. Revive these creatures after learning their final fate: the last whale harpooned, the final eagle caged, the last deer hunted down, and more, while you survive encounters with dangerous, oil-covered Devourers that roam the wasteland in search of remaining life. In this emotional journey from the creators of the critically acclaimed Arise: A Simple Story, you alone can restore life to the planet.
Sony unveils its widest point-and-shoot vlog camera yet.
As we covered last week with Canon’s announcement of their new PowerShot V10 Vlog Camera, the long-held arms race between digital photo and video camera manufacturers has run a bit off course as of late. Instead of chasing the new flagship mirrorless or cinema cameras as they had been for years, it appears like everyone is doubling down on point-and-shoot and vlog-style content.
To not be outdone by their biggest rival, Sony has launched a successor to their popular (with millennials, probably) Sony ZV-1 with a new Sony ZV-1 Mark II camera which aims to add an even wider lens for more expansive coverage and pack a faster sensor for (slightly) better video.
Let’s take a look at this new vlog-focused point-and-shoot from Sony to see how it might be right for your own projects and shoots, and how it might differ just enough from the aforementioned Sony ZV-1 or the cheaper Sony ZV-1F.
Introducing the Sony ZV-1 Mark II Digital Camera
According to Sony, this new camera was developed for “carefree, effortless creation,” the Sony ZV-1 II is the ideal point-and-shoot vlog camera for those looking to do just that. As in, not care or spend much effort in any settings or setups, in favor of turning the camera on and pointing and shooting it at themselves. Fr a certain type of run-and-gun creator, this can of course be quite appealing.
The biggest offering points for this new Mark II version of the ZV-1 which make it stand out from its predecessor really have to do with the new 18-50mm-equivalent f/1.8-4 wide-angle zoom lens which has expanded the frame for content creators without long arms or those simply looking to get more of their picturesque backgrounds into their travel vlogs.
While the specs appear mostly the same, the 20.1MP 1″ Exmor RS stacked CMOS sensor and BIONZ X image processor are indeed a bit faster too which should allow for upgraded autofocus features including multiple face recognition tech so you can keep your friends in frame if you’re shooting content with a buddy.
Comparing the ZV-1 Mark II to Other Cameras
For the sake of argument though, it is worth pointing out that this Mark II isn’t that much different from the original ZV-1. Which, from all accounts, has done quite well for Sony in the prosumer market and can be found at most Best Buys and basic camera stores.
What’s a bit more puzzling though might be that Sony also has a ZV-1F vlogging camera as well, which is a bit cheaper than the ZV-1 yet also contains the same sensor and most of the same specs and features.
If you’re truly starting off with digital video, and photo perhaps, for the first time, it might be a bit confusing trying to decide which of these three cameras in particular you might be interested in (to say nothing of all of the other Canon and other competitors’ vlog cameras out there as well).
Still, if you know what you’re doing at least a little bit in this vlog style of content creation, then you might know enough to have a preference for lenses and coverage, as well as want some specific types of AF technology under the hood. So, if that’s the case, this Mark II should be exciting to you and a worthy companion for your travels.
Yup, that’s a vlog camera!Credit: Sony
Full Specs and Pricing
Nevertheless, the Sony ZV-1 Mark II is absolutely a quality camera from a quality brand that can serve as a good gateway purchase to learn more about video content and build a career, or perhaps as a fun companion camera to your usual setup which you can keep in your pocket and take for your more exotic travels.
Here are the full specs and pricing details:
For Vloggers and Content Creators
20.1MP 1″ Exmor RS BSI CMOS Sensor
Wide-Angle 18-50mm-Equiv. f/1.8-4 Lens
UHD 4K30p Video w/ HLG & S-Log3/2 Gammas
3″ Side Flip-Out Touchscreen LCD
Intuitive Touch Focus & Exposure Control
Real-Time Tracking & Eye AF
Bokeh Switch & Face Priority AE
Cinematic Vlog Setting, S&Q Shoot Mode
Product Showcase Setting
Price: $898.00
Pre-orders for the Sony ZV-1 Mark II are set to start at 10 a.m. ET on Wednesday, May 24th with shipments going out hopefully soon after.
What do you think of this new vlog camera from Sony? Any interested in the Sony ZV-1 Mark II?
The epic, three-part “Vanderpump Rules” reunion is finally here.
The reunion’s focus — as the focus of all the show’s online chatter the last two months — will be on the cast cheating scandal.
Back in early March — after filming had wrapped on Season 10 — news broke that original cast member Tom Sandoval was secretly cheating on his longtime girlfriend Ariana Madix with her best friend Raquel Leviss. The scandal was dubbed “The Scandoval” — which you can learn all about here — and sent shockwaves through the entire cast of the reality show.
Production resumed to capture the fallout, which aired in last week’s season finale. As with most Bravo reality shows, the reunion was taped as the final episodes were airing. It marked the first time the cast fully reunited since “The Scandoval” broke. Read on to learn more about the “Vanderpump Rules” reunion, where you can watch it and who’s participating.
When does the “Vanderpump Rules” Season 10 reunion air?
The “Vanderpump Rules” reunion will air in three parts over the next three weeks. Here’s a breakdown of each episode:
“Reunion Part 1” airs Wednesday, May 24 at 9 – 10 p.m. ET/PT
In the explosive and larger-than-life first part of the reunion, Andy Cohen sits down for intimate one-on-one interviews with Ariana, Tom and Raquel to get to the bottom of the cheating scandal that shocked the world. James nearly comes to blows with Sandoval over the affair. Katie and Schwartz rehash the implosion of their divorce. Lala defends herself when the group calls attention to her stance on cheating. Lisa is left speechless when Ariana reveals her stance on her relationships in the group. Raquel watches the reunion from afar due to her restraining order against Scheana.
“Reunion Part 2” airs Wednesday, May 31 at 9 – 10 p.m. ET/PT
The Season 10 reunion continues as Andy Cohen presses Scheana for details of the altercation that led to Raquel’s restraining order. James’ girlfriend, Ally, takes the stage to discuss James’ temper and the future of their relationship. The group debates the origins of the infamous open relationship rumor. Scheana gives up her spot for Raquel, who must face the group for the first time since news of the affair became public.
“Reunion Part 3” airs Wednesday, June 7 at 9 – 10:15 p.m. ET/PT
The reunion comes to an electrifying close as Raquel faces her former friends. The group revisits the disastrous girls’ trip to Las Vegas and Lake Havasu. They discuss Tom Schwartz’s alleged role in covering up the affair. Ariana breaks down while discussing the betrayal from her ex-boyfriend and ex-best friend. Andy questions Sandoval and Raquel about the status of their relationship and pushes them to reveal if they’re in love.
“Secrets Revealed” airs Wednesday, June 14 at 9 – 10 p.m. ET/PT
In one of the most shocking secrets revealed episodes in “Vanderpump Rules” history, fans will get a deeper glimpse into the fallout of the group post-#Scandoval. Never-before-seen moments from the summer will shed a new light on glaring secrets that have since been revealed. Plus, fans will see bonus footage from months before Season 10 began as Tom and Katie face the reality of their divorce while still living together.
Is the “Vanderpump Rules” reunion streaming?
Peacock, the streaming home of Bravo, will exclusively stream “Vanderpump Rules: Pumped Up Edition,” a first-of-its-kind extended version of the three reunion episodes beginning on Thursday, May 25 as well as a super-sized version of “secrets revealed” on Thursday, June 15. The uncensored extended versions will feature additional never-before-seen footage of the Bravo offerings, exclusively on Peacock.
Which “Vanderpump Rules” cast members are attending the reunion?
As mentioned above, the entire “Vanderpump Rules” cast — Lisa Vanderpump, Katie Maloney, Tom Sandoval, Scheana Shay, Tom Schwartz, Lala Kent, James Kennedy, Raquel Leviss and Ally Lewber will be at the reunion.
However, due to the restraining order Leviss filed against Shay, the two cannot be in the same space together. Shay will appear in person in Part I with Leviss watching remotely, and then she will give up her spot in Part 2 for Leviss.
Are there viewing parties for the “Vanderpump Rules” finale?
On Wednesday, June 7, Bravo will host live watch parties of the reunion part three for fans in Los Angeles at SUR Restaurant & Lounge and New York City at Haswell Green’s. Tickets will be available to purchase in the coming week. For more information, please visit @BravoTV on social.
Fans are also holding their own viewing parties. If you’re in the Tri-State area, here’s a list of where you can attend.
Has “Vanderpump Rules” been renewed for Season 11?
Yes, “Vanderpump Rules” has been renewed for an eleventh season.
However, Madix said she will never film again with Sandoval or Leviss, so that complicates a storyline that viewers will be clamoring to see.
The cast of Vanderpump Rules is coming back together for a three-part reunion that will see Ariana Madix coming face-to-face with her ex-boyfriend Tom Sandoval and ex-best friend Raquel Leviss. Bravo is airing the first part of the reunion on Wednesday, May 24 starting at 9 p.m. ET with Peacock making the episode available online the next day.
Andy Cohen sits down for intimate one-on-one interviews with Madix, Sandoval and Leviss to get to the bottom of the cheating scandal that shocked the world. James Kennedy nearly comes to blows with Sandoval over the affair. Katie Maloney and Tom Schwartz rehash the implosion of their divorce. Lala Kent defends herself when the group calls attention to her stance on cheating. Lisa Vanderpump is left speechless when Madix reveals her stance on her relationships in the group. Leviss watches the reunion from afar due to her restraining order against Scheana Shay.
Peacock subscribers online will also get a special “Pumped Up Edition” of the reunion episodes which are uncensored and extended versions of the episodes featuring additional never-before-seen footage.
See what the schedule looks like for the rest of the Vanderpump Rules Reunion episodes below.
“Reunion Part 2” airs Wednesday, May 31 at 9:00 – 10:00 p.m. ET/PT The season 10 reunion continues as Andy Cohen presses Scheana for details of the altercation that led to Raquel’s restraining order. James’ girlfriend, Ally, takes the stage to discuss James’ temper and the future of their relationship. The group debates the origins of the infamous open relationship rumor. Scheana gives up her spot for Raquel, who must face the group for the first time since news of the affair became public.
“Reunion Part 3” airs Wednesday, June 7 at 9:00 – 10:15 p.m. ET/PT Supersized Episode The reunion comes to an electrifying close as Raquel faces her former friends. The group revisits the disastrous girls’ trip to Las Vegas and Lake Havasu. They discuss Tom Schwartz’s alleged role in covering up the affair. Ariana breaks down while discussing the betrayal from her ex-boyfriend and ex-best friend. Andy questions Sandoval and Raquel about the status of their relationship and pushes them to reveal if they’re in love.
“Secrets Revealed” airs Wednesday, June 14 at 9:00 – 10:00 p.m. ET/PT In one of the most shocking secrets revealed episodes in “Vanderpump Rules” history, fans will get a deeper glimpse into the fallout of the group post-#Scandoval. Never-before-seen moments from the summer will shed a new light on glaring secrets that have since been revealed. Plus, fans will see bonus footage from months before season 10 began as Tom and Katie face the reality of their divorce while still living together.
Booksmart is a movie for the kids who never went to parties in high school and still turned out okay. Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) and Molly (Beanie Feldstein) are those kids, more focused on getting into Ivy League schools than partying. They only realize they should’ve taken more time to enjoy high school and be teenagers when it’s almost too late. It’s graduation eve, and Molly wants to make up for lost time over one wild night. Dever and Feldstein believably play longtime friends and they’re great, but the supporting cast help this movie truly shine as the night unravels. The “teen” cast of this movie is something special — Noah Galvin’s karaoke scene is one of the movie’s funniest moments, Skylar Gisondo as wannabe popular kid Jared might be the movie’s MVP, Billie Lourd gets some of the movie’s best recurring bits, and the rest of the teen ensemble (including Mason Gooding, Molly Gordon, and Diana Silvers) perfectly capture the teenage desire to have a reputation for better or worse. As we head into graduation season, Booksmart is the perfect watch.
With the Cannes Film Festival heading towards its conclusion on Saturday, the first awards are starting to trickle out. Sidebar Critics’ Week, which is devoted to first and second features, closed this evening, honoring Amanda Nell Eu’s debut Tiger Stripes with its Grand Prize. (Scroll down for the full list of winners).
Tiger Stripes, which is also eligible for the Camera d’Or which will be handed out on Saturday, is a coming-of-age story that explores teenage rebellion in a stifling society through the tale of a 12-year-old girl whose body starts to change at an alarming and horrifying rate as she hits puberty. Fearing she will be labeled a monster, she tries to conceal her changed appearance until one day she decides she no longer wants to hide away.
The French Touch Prize of the Jury went to Il Pleut Dans la Maison (It’s Raining in the House) by Paloma Sermon-Daï. Shot against the backdrop of the picturesque Eau d’Heure lakes region of Belgian’s French-speaking Wallonia region, the hybrid drama follows two teenagers left to their own devices by their mother over the summer in a squalid house.
Note that the French Touch Prize last year went to Charlotte Wells’ breakout Aftersun, beginning a groundswell that led all the way to an Oscar nomination for lead Paul Mescal.
Scoring a win for the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award is Jovan Ginić in Vladimir Perišić’s Lost Country.
Venice 2021 Golden Lion laureate Audrey Diwan presided over the Critics’ Week jury this year.
Here’s the full list of winners:
Grand Prize Tiger Stripes, dir: Amanda Nell Eu
French Touch Prize of the Jury Il Pleut Dans la Maison (It’s Raining in the House), dir: Paloma Sermon-Daï.
Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award Jovan Ginić for Lost Country
Leitz Cine Discovery Prize for a Short Film Boléro, dir: Nans Laborde-Jourdàa
Gan Foundation Award for Distribution Pyramide Films, French distributor for Inshallah a Boy
SACD Award Iris Kaltenbäck, writer of Le Ravissement (The Rapture)
Canal + Award for Short Film Boléro, dir: Nans Laborde-Jourdàa
On January 1st, 1984, New York’s public television station would make TV history with its transnational live broadcast, “Good Morning, Mr. Orwell.”
Challenging the technical possibilities of television at the time, the event linked live satellite broadcasts between New York, Paris, South Korea and Germany to celebrate the dawn of the new year with host George Plimpton and a suite of performers, including Laurie Anderson, Salvador Dalí, Merce Cunningham, John Cage, Peter Gabriel, Philip Glass and many more.
The brain child of video artist Nam June Paik, “Good Morning, Mr. Orwell” was a response to the evolving media landscape. “GeorgeOrwellwasthefirstmediaprophetandphilosopher, however,heemphasizedonlythenegativeaspects of the media: TVasBigBrother.. . Thisshowissymbolicofhowtelevisioncancrossinternationalbordersandprovidealiberatinginformation/communicationsservice,” said Paik.
Produced by WNET/Thirteen’s experimental Television Laboratory, in which Paik was artist-in-residence, the live studio footage shot in New York was directed by WNET’s staff director, Bob Morris. Morris spoke to American Masters about his time working with Paik and his memories from that monumental day in 1984.
How did “Good Morning, Mr. Orwell” come to WNET and how did you get involved?
I’m not sure how “Good Morning, Mr. Orwell” came to Thirteen. I had worked on many projects with Nam June Paik in the TV Lab so we were well acquainted with each other. I don’t know if he requested me or if it was because I was a staff director. That being said, I was honored to work on this project.
We are all used to live broadcasts and live streams nowadays, but in 1984 this must have felt revolutionary. How were you and people around the office talking about this exciting moment of intercontinental live broadcasting?
Nam June Paik, “Good Morning, Mr Orwell,” photo courtesy of Lorenzo Bianda.
Short of the Olympics, there were very few projects in which you could reach a global audience. Technology what it was in those days was not the same as it is today. Today, you could do a FaceTime video with anyone, any place in the world, but in 1984 the technology was very different. So in one sense we felt like we were doing a regular television program, but in another sense we were doing something that was really innovative.
There are not many times when you get to do an intercontinental – interactive program. I was one of two directors who worked on this program. I directed the studio portion and Emile Ardolino directed the effects that went into the program. So if my memory serves me, I would direct the studio, send the feed to Emile and he would send it back with certain effects that Nam June would instruct him to do and I would put them on the air.
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Did anything stressful or funny happen live?
I think that it was more stressful knowing that we were reaching an audience of 24 million people, but in the big picture, whenever you’re directing it’s no different than if your audience is two people or 24 million, you’re always trying to do your best. For me, the easiest thing to do is to direct cameras in your studio in which you have total control. In one instance, we were supposed to do a scene where Merce Cunningham was dancing with himself. This was to be achieved by sending our signal of Merce dancing to Paris, and they would send it back. The signal from Paris because of satellite time was 2 seconds delayed and would become the background for Merce. However, when Merce started dancing, Paris did not send the delayed image back to us. I quickly tried to do a digital delay to compensate for this lack of a background. Thankfully after a few seconds, Paris came through. It was a tense moment.
So many great artists participated, including Laurie Anderson, Peter Gabriel, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Philip Glass and Oingo Boingo. What was your favorite performance from the show?
I have a lot of favorite memories of that day. I loved the Thompson Twins, Merce Cunningham and John Cage (who was already a major artist).
How do you view Nam June Paik’s relationship to public media?
I don’t think anyone really realized what a major force Nam June was at that time. Nam June was an artist whose work was very counter to broadcast television standards. He loved spontaneity, he loved entropy – those were concepts that were not ordinary in broadcasting. I am not sure whether the larger viewing audience was ready to accept his view of art.
Broadly speaking, how do you view public media’s role in the arts?
These days, broadcasters of every type are searching for audiences. Public media’s role is to introduce new art forms to the public. No one else in the broadcasting landscape is doing this and we can hardly afford to do this. If you want the same-old-same-old programs, go some place else. But I think as a public television station, we are obligated to give the viewing public something they have never seen before. So, perhaps, as a viewer, you didn’t like “Good Morning, Mr. Orwell,” but afterwards you can say you know who John Cage was, you know who Allen Ginsberg was, or you discovered Merce Cunningham. If that’s all we accomplished, it was a good day.
The Little Mermaid will hit theaters on May 26, 2023
The full trailer was released during the 2023 Oscars on March 12.
Halle Bailey and Melissa McCarthy star in the film.
The Little Mermaid is one of the most highly-anticipated films of 2023. Halle Bailey is starring in the live-action version of this fairytale, which will be released this Memorial Day weekend. On March 8, Disney unveiled the official Little Mermaid poster, featuring Halle Bailey’s Ariel sitting on a rock in the ocean, just like the visual from the original film. Disney then released the full trailer during the 2023 Academy Awards on March 12. On May 8, the cast came together for the Los Angeles world premiere of the film. Halle has been doing many interviews promoting her life-changing movie.
Words can’t describe how immensely honored I feel to play the mermaid of my dreams, Ariel in Disney’s The Little Mermaid. Come under the sea with me, in theaters May 26, 2023 ??♀️ pic.twitter.com/EEkxvLpt7q
The original version of The Little Mermaid made a huge splash when it was released in 1989, and Ariel became one of the most beloved Disney Princesses. The film’s success initiated the Disney Renaissance, a period of animated Disney classics that also included The Lion King, Aladdin, and Beauty and the Beast.
The original Little Mermaid won two Oscars: Best Original Song for “Under the Sea” and Best Original Score. The upcoming live-action film is sure to make waves in Hollywood just like its predecessor. HollywoodLife has all the latest updates about the live-action Little Mermaid.
The Little Mermaid Footage
Fans anxiously waited for the D23 EXPO, which unveiled the first teaser trailer for the live-action film on September 9, 2022. The footage did not disappoint.
The 1-minute teaser trailer showed Halle Bailey’s Ariel swimming under the sea. The live-action version of Ariel’s look is gorgeous. The final moments of the trailer feature Halle singing the iconic “Part of Your World.” As of April 2023, the teaser trailer has over 28 million views on YouTube. The official trailer, which was released on March 12, has over 12 million views.
— Walt Disney Studios (@DisneyStudios) March 8, 2023
In The Little Mermaid teaser that dropped in February, fans got their first look at Melissa McCarthy’s Ursula and Ariel’s stunning underwater world. “Words can’t describe how immensely honored I feel to play the mermaid of my dreams, Ariel in Disney’s The Little Mermaid. Come under the sea with me, in theaters May 26, 2023,” Halle tweeted last year.
A new exclusive sneak peek of the film was released during the MTV Movie & TV Awards on May 7. In the clip, Halle and Jonah Hauer-King were pictured in the famous boat scene where Ariel and Prince Eric have a romantic evening and nearly share a kiss before they land in the water. Daveed Diggs‘ character, Sebastian, also made a cameo in the clip.
The Little Mermaid will be released in theaters on May 26, 2023. The movie has not been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic and is expected to release exclusively in theaters.
Halle Bailey as Ariel in ‘The Little Mermaid.’ (Disney)
The Little Mermaid will not premiere simultaneously on Disney+ with Premier Access. As theaters recover in the wake of the pandemic, Disney has stopped simultaneous releases. After its initial theater run, The Little Mermaid will likely become available on Disney+ at a later date.
The Little Mermaid Live-Action Cast & Crew
Halle Bailey stars as Ariel in the live-action Little Mermaid. Director Rob Marshall released a statement in July 2019 about Halle after her casting was announced: “After an extensive search, it was abundantly clear that Halle possesses that rare combination of spirit, heart, youth, innocence, and substance — plus a glorious singing voice — all intrinsic qualities necessary to play this iconic role.”
Halle opened up about her audition process in a May 2023 interview with Glamour. “I was almost just paralyzed with fear,” Halle said, revealing that her sister Chloe Bailey helped her with the process. “We’d run it and we’d run it and we’d run it, over and over,” she said. Speaking about the moment she learned she got the part, Halle said, “I freaked out, I was screaming I was like, Is this real life? I was catapulted into this new world.”
Halle’s casting sparked some cruel online backlash over a Black actress playing the role, and the singer/actress broke her silence about playing Ariel in August 2019. “I feel like I’m dreaming and I’m just grateful and I don’t pay attention to the negativity,” Halle told Variety. “I just feel like this role was something bigger than me and greater and it’s going to be beautiful. I’m just so excited to be a part of it.”
In an August 2022 interview with Variety for their annual Power of Young Hollywood issue, Halle revealed that she got words of wisdom from her grandparents when dealing with casting criticism. “It was an inspiring and beautiful thing to hear their words of encouragement, telling me, ‘You don’t understand what this is doing for us, for our community, for all the little Black and brown girls who are going to see themselves in you,’” Halle said.
— Walt Disney Studios (@DisneyStudios) March 8, 2023
Halle again addressed the backlash towards her casting in an April 2023 interview with Entertainment Weekly. She noted that there’s “been a lot of different opinions and comments” about her role in the film. “I just have to block out the noise,” Halle said. “I don’t really see a lot of the comments. I choose to not read them, or delete Twitter, things like that, and just accept this moment for me what it is, which is a big, beautiful blessing and opportunity for me.”
Halle has shared what it means to be the first Black actress to play Ariel. “I really hope that I put my own stamp on her character by showing more of her vulnerability,” Halle told Glamour. “I felt like I could relate to her growing up in a big family and having older sisters to guide you, and having a father that’s very protective and overbearing at times but loves so hard.”
When filming wrapped in July 2021, Halle posted a long message about how “grateful” she was to be a part of this movie. She also shared a photo of herself as Ariel on the ocean shore.
“And just like that..that’s a wrap after auditioning for this film when i was 18 just about to turn 19 , to now finishing filming through a pandemic when i turned 21 ..we have finally made it… i feel so grateful to have experienced this film in all of its glory..it has been the toughest experience being away from everything and everyone i’ve ever known, to feeling self doubt/ loneliness, but also feeling such freedom and perseverance as i’ve reached the end,” Halle wrote. “This experience has made me so much stronger than i ever thought i could be. i’m so grateful to have such lovely and talented people in the cast like @jonahhauerking that will be my friend for infinite lifetimes, @jacobtremblay who i’m so proud of and legends like @bardemantarctic @melissamccarthy @awkwafina @daveeddiggs who are masters of their craft but are so welcoming and open to little old me..as well as to the rest of the beautiful cast and crew. i cannot wait for time to speed up so you all can watch this film because it was made with so much love (plus blood sweat and tears) lol thank you sardinia for a wonderful ending!!!”
Prior to The Little Mermaid, Halle starred in the Freeform series grown-ish alongside her sister, Chloe Bailey. The sisters are also a musical duo called Chloe x Halle. They have 5 Grammy nominations under their belt since 2018.
Jodi Benson, who voiced Ariel in the 1989 Disney movie, praised Halle and revealed to The Hollywood Reporter why she’s the perfect actress to play Ariel: “Her pure spirit, her joy, the love. Her unbelievable vulnerability, her authenticity, her bravery, her courage. It’s just a beautiful, beautiful telling of the Ariel story. I’m so proud of her.”
Jonah Hauer-King plays Prince Eric, the human prince whom Ariel falls in love with after she makes a deal with Ursula to become human. Jonah is a British actor known for his roles in films like The Last Photograph and A Dog’s Way Home, as well as the TV miniseries Howards End and Little Women.
“For me, this experience and playing this character was about bringing as much three-dimensionality to this as I could and making him as well-rounded a person as possible,” he told The Hollywood Reporter at the May 8 premiere. “I wanted to be able to connect with him on a deeper level, regardless of anyone else. I wanted to understand who he was and give him more of a backstory, understand what he wants in the world, understand what troubled him. I think ultimately what was special about that is in getting to know him better we got to know him and Ariel’s relationship better.”
Melissa McCarthy will play Ursula, the evil sea witch. Melissa rose to fame on Gilmore Girls and earned Oscar nominations for Can You Ever Forgive Me? and Bridesmaids. “I play Ursula, the sea witch. It is so fun, we’re just in rehearsals. It’s been an absolute blast,” Melissa said on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2020. “Stepping into the world of Rob Marshall, it’s like a fever dream, I just went to London for a week, I was like, ‘I don’t get to go to dance camp for a week.’ All day he’s like, ‘Do you want to slide down this 40-foot clam shell?’ I’m like, ‘Yes! Of course I do. What are you, crazy?’ It’s been wildly creative.”
Melissa McCarthy as Ursula. (Disney)
Melissa toldEntertainment Weekly that she “100 percent” used drag as an influence for her role in The Little Mermaid. “There’s a drag queen that lives in me,” Melissa said. “I’m always right on the verge of going full-time with her. Melissa also said that “there’s such an edge” to her version of Ursula.
Javier Bardem is starring as King Triton, Ariel’s father and the King of Atlantica. Javier was recently nominated for his role as Desi Arnaz in Being the Ricardos.
Daveed Diggs will voice Sebastian, the worrisome crab who watches over Ariel. Daveed spoke EXCLUSIVELY with HollywoodLife about Halle’s portrayal of Ariel. “I just think that Halle is just the perfect choice for Ariel…everyone is going to fall in love with her immediately,” the actor said. “She is so, so good. Her voice is not of this world. The things she can do vocally is something — I have never heard anything like it.”
Room star Jacob Tremblay voices the role of Flounder, Ariel’s best friend who is a tropical fish. Awkwafina will voice Scuttle, the diving bird who is a friend to Ariel. For the live-action Little Mermaid, Scuttle will be a female diving bird instead of a male seagull.
There’s been some controversy over Flounder’s look in the film. Some fans think the fish could be bigger and more similar to the animated version. “I couldn’t really imagine it a different way, if that makes sense. I think it worked perfectly; they were really smart about it,” Jacob told The Hollywood Reporter about Flounder’s look in the live-action movie.
Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric. (Disney)
Additional cast members include Jude Akuwudike as Grimsby, Lorena Andrea as Perla, and Kajsa Mohammar as Karina, along with Noma Dumezweni, Jessica Alexander, Russell Balogh, Adrian Christopher, Emily Coates, and Bridgerton breakout Simone Ashley in undisclosed roles.
Rob Marshall is directing The Little Mermaid. Rob had nothing but praise for Halle as soon as he saw her audition. “Halle had this incredible facility to be able to dig deep, find the truth of Ariel’s passion and her heart,” he told Variety. “It was like watching a great film actor being born.”
Rob is also producing the film with John DeLuca, Marc Platt, and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Lin-Manuel is the lyricist for the film and co-wrote original songs for The Little Mermaid remake. Alan Menken, who was the composer of the original Little Mermaid, is returning for the live-action film as the composer for the score and songs. The screenplay was penned by Jane Goldman and David Magee.
Will There Be Changes From The Original?
The new Little Mermaid is loosely based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale of the same name. The movie is a remake of the animated Disney classic which follows Ariel, a mermaid princess who strikes a deal with a sea witch to become human so she can be with the human prince she’s fallen in love with.
Ariel in the animated ‘Little Mermaid.’ (Disney/Everett Collection)
Many of your favorite Little Mermaid songs from the original movie will be a part of the remake. Halle admitted during an Oscars pre-show that “Part of Your World” was her “number one” song.
Rob revealed that the live-action version of “Part of Your World” won’t be an exact recreation of the original. “[Halle] sings that moment up an octave from the original,” Rob revealed to Variety. “It’s the most chilling, and the most thrilling, film moment because it crystallizes not just her incredible vocal ability but the emotional passion she has in singing it.”
The director also noted that Halle’s Ariel will have red hair. Halle will have her signature locs with some looser tresses. “She looks stunning in red hair; not everybody does,” he said.
However, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Alan Menken are teaming up to also write new songs for the film’s soundtrack. “I actually didn’t write any new songs for Sebastian the Crab because I love his songs so much. I was like, ‘I can’t. Nope, not me. I can’t do it.’ I did get to write for some of the other characters in that movie. Every song you love in The Little Mermaid is still in The Little Mermaid, we just found some new moments to musicalize,” Lin-Manuel told Collider.
Production Trivia
Director Rob Marshall made his feature directorial debut with Chicago in 2002. He’s no stranger to the Disney universe. Rob has directed Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Into The Woods, and Mary Poppins Returns.
Development on the live-action Little Mermaid goes back all the way to 2016. Filming was supposed to begin in early 2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Principal photography at Pinewood Studios in England began in January 2021.
The movie was also filmed in Sardinia, Italy, for around three months. Production was halted in June 2021 after crew members tested positive for COVID-19. Filming eventually resumed and wrapped on July 11, 2021.
Harry Styles turned down the role of Prince Eric. (Shutterstock)
There were several notable names in talks for roles in The Little Mermaid. Harry Styles was in discussions for the role of Prince Eric, but he ultimately turned down the role. “I want to put music out and focus on that for a while,” he told The Face. “But everyone involved in it was amazing. So I think it’s going to be great… I’ll enjoy watching it, I’m sure.” Director Rob Marshall confirmed to Entertainment Weekly that he spoke to Harry about the role of Prince Eric, but the “As It Was” singer “really felt like he wanted to go off and do the movies that he ended up doing which were sort of darker.”
Singer Kacey Musgraves was reportedly in talks for the role of Vanessa, Ursula in her human form. However, the casting never came to fruition.
When it comes to cyberattacks as a whole, hackers don’t really differentiate between small and medium-sized businesses (SMB), and enterprises (organizations with 1,000+ employees). However, when it comes to deploying ransomware specifically, they’re more attracted to enterprises, new research has claimed.
The latest 2023 Hybrid Security Trends Report from Netwrix says among organizations of all sizes, 68% suffered a cyberattack in the last 12 months.
For ransomware, the stats are somewhat different – 48% of enterprises experienced this form of attack in the last year, compared to 37% of organizations of all sizes. Malware attacks seem to be less common in the cloud, as just a fifth (21%) of enterprise respondents said they suffered one of these.
Big operations = big expenses
For Dmitry Sotnikov, VP of product marketing at Netwrix, targeting enterprises makes sense, as these organizations are capable of making big payouts, and with ransomware operators – it’s all about profits.
“Ransomware operators want to maximize their profits, so they consider which organizations are most able to pay a ransom to reduce business downtime — and the larger an organization is, the costlier an operational disruption will be,” he said.
“On the other hand, larger organizations have more tools to spot the attack that might stay unnoticed for SMBs. In addition, enterprises have bigger infrastructure with more endpoints that statistically increases the chance of the security incident.”
That being said, this next part of the report also lines up perfectly – the enterprise sector experienced larger expenses due to cyberattacks, compared to SMBs. For a quarter (28%) of enterprises, the financial damage was north of $50,000. The average, for companies of all sizes, is 16%.
“Smaller companies often underestimate their risk of attack, reasoning that cybercriminals tend to target enterprises because they store more intellectual property (IP) and other sensitive data. But our survey shows that organizations suffer cyberattacks with a similar frequency regardless of their size,” says Dirk Schrader, VP of security research at Netwrix.
“Every organization has valuable data, such as customer and employee information, and is, therefore, a target for attackers. What’s more, SMBs are not only a target on their own but as a way into the larger enterprises that consume their services.”
Next to business email compromise (BEC), ransomware is the most popular form of cyberattack out there, and in recent years it has developed into an entire industry. Some threat actors work as service providers, offering to encrypt networks that have been previously compromised by other groups. There are also groups that act as negotiators, trying to get the best value for the data stolen in the attack, as well as for the decryptor.
Law enforcement agencies advise against paying the ransom demand, as there’s no guarantee the hackers will provide the decryptor, or that the program will work as intended. There’s also no guarantee the stolen data won’t make it to the dark web anyway, nor is there’s guarantee the company won’t suffer another attack again.
Instead, firms are advised to tighten up on cybersecurity, set up robust backups, and educate their employees on the dangers of phishing and social engineering attacks.
A24 on Wednesday unveiled the first trailer for its surreal comedic feature Problemista, marking the feature directorial debut of Los Espookys co-creator Julio Torres, who stars opposite Academy Award winner Tilda Swinton.
Slated for theatrical release on August 4th, Problemista tells the story of Alejandro (Torres), an aspiring toy designer from El Salvador, struggling to bring his unusual ideas to life in New York City. As time on his work visa runs out, a job assisting erratic art-world outcast Elizabeth (Swinton) becomes his only hope to stay in the country and realize his dream.
A four-time Emmy nominee, Torres directed from his own script, also producing alongside Fruit Tree’s Dave McCary, Ali Herting and Emma Stone. RZA, Greta Lee, Catalina Saaverdra and James Scully are among those rounding out the cast, with Isabella Rosselini providing narration.
In her review of the film out of SXSW, where it world premiered, Deadline’s Valerie Complex called Problemista “a certified hit.”
Said Complex, “Torres has an active imagination and whatever he is thinking is exactly what we see on screen. He’s taken a simple story about immigration and human connection, and turned it into a comedic, surrealist fantasy that serves as an epic critique of capitalism. Even if the concept is kookie, it’s still a style of storytelling that distinctly belongs to Torres; no one would be able to pull this off except him.
“Problemista is about authenticity and learning to be confident enough to take up space, continued Complex in her review. “Especially as a person of color who often feel invisible, or feel they must shrink themselves in order to fit in. Sometimes you’ve got to cause a little chaos and let that anxiety push you to succeed, which I’m sure Torres had to deal with a degree of chaos to make this film happen.”
View the first trailer for the new A24 film above.
CrimeCon has opened submissions for its second annual Clue Awards, which single out true crime storytelling across television, documentary film, podcasts and publishing.
“The response we received to the inaugural Clue Awards was overwhelmingly positive and incredibly encouraging,” said Kevin Balfe, CrimeCon founder and executive producer. “These awards were designed to honor creators who, responsibly and poignantly, highlight stories of justice, tragedy and advocacy. In recognizing and amplifying these powerful projects, we hope Clue can be a positive force in the true crime space.”
The Clue Awards honor work in the following categories:
Television: Outstanding Episodic Series Television: Outstanding Docuseries Podcasting: Outstanding Episodic Series Podcasting: Outstanding Docuseries Outstanding Documentary Film True Crime Book of the Year
The awards will also feature the “Crimefighter of the Year” award, which spotlights an indiviual or organization’s impact on and commitment to justice for crime victims. Last year, this honor was given to the Black and Missing Foundation, which was the feature of HBO’s 2021 limited series “Black and Missing.”
Natalie and Derrica Wilson of BAMFI receiving award at 2022 Clue Awards. Photo courtesy of CrimeCon
Michael Buzzelle Photography
Submissions will be accepted for consideration through July 31. See below for the full timeline:
Submissions Open: May 22 Deadline for Early Submissions, discounted rate: June 9 Deadline for Regular Submissions: July 10 Deadline for Final Submissions: July 31 Nominations Announced: August 2023
The 2023 CrimeCon Clue Awards Ceremony will take place on Sept. 23 at the World Center Marriott in Orlando, Fla. The submission portal can be found here.
“I’m super happy for him. I’m super excited,” Lily-Rose told ET Canada while at Cannes, where Johnny Depp choked up during a seven-minute standing ovation after the “Jeanne du Barry” world premiere. “And it’s so awesome that we get to do projects that we’re super proud of.”
The opening night premiere for “Jeanne du Barry” marked a comeback for Johnny Depp on the international film stage following his 2022 trial against ex-wife Amber Heard. Although the jury sided in Depp’s favor, the actor remains sidelined by Hollywood as a result of abuse allegations that surfaced during the trial. A U.S. distributor has yet to pick up “Jeanne du Barry” for an American release.
Depp arrived to the Cannes opening night gala and was welcomed by thousands of supportive fans, who carried signs outside the Palais and trembled as they tried to touch their idol. Many were successful in making contact with Depp, who worked the fan line and signed autographs for five full minutes before walking the carpet.
“I don’t feel boycotted by Hollywood, because I don’t think about Hollywood,” he said. “It’s a strange, funny time where everybody would love to be able to be themselves, but they can’t. They must fall in line with the person in front of them. If you want to live that life, I wish you the best.”
As for “The Idol,” the shocking HBO series was met with a five-minute standing ovation and earned polarizing reviews from critics. Lily-Rose Depp plays a pop star who falls under the control of a self-help guru, played by the Weeknd. Lily-Rose walked the red carpet alongside the Weeknd and series creator Sam Levinson.
“It was the first time that I had watched it with a [big] audience,” Lily-Rose told ET Canada about the series’ world premiere at Cannes. “But it was incredible. It felt like such a beautiful celebration and a culmination of everything that we’ve been through together, and just kind of a beautiful process that was in the show, and creating this little family together, and it just felt really, really nice.”
Lily-Rose continued, “Especially to get to celebrate together, and we’re just so happy for the response from the room. It felt really nice to watch the reaction and everything, and finally get to share something with the world that we’re all so proud of.”
In March, it was rumored that Peggy Lu’s Mrs. Chen from Venom and Venom: Let There Be Carnagewas set for a live-action cameo in Across the Spider-Verse. Considering the crossover potential in this sequel to Into the Spider-Verse, it’d seem like a no-brainer.
A post on Facebook seemed to spoil Chen’s cameo and that she would interact with The Spot. This is not to mention that aside from “the Venom live-action universe,” this animated sequel will also explore “the LEGO universe.”
The Return of Venom’s Mrs. Chen
A new TV spot for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was unveiled, showing The Spot appearing in Tom Hardy’s Venom universe and stealing from Peggy Lu’s Mrs. Chen.
Sony
However, it only annoys Mrs. Chen, and she asks him, “What do you want?”
Sony
The Spot plucks what appear to be mints or gum from her stand, declaring, “I’m robbing you ’cause I’m a bad guy,” accompanied by an eye roll from the store owner.
Sony
You can watch the full spot below:
This TV spot reuses footage and unused shots from Venom: Let There Be Carnage. For example, the opening shot of the TV spot is ripped straight from that movie when Michelle Williams’ Anne Weying enters the store to ask Chen about Venom.
Sony
All that was done to the footage was the contrast and brightness being increased, along with zooming in on Mrs. Chen. It even included what appears to be the same line read of “What do you want?” by Chen’s actress, Peggy Lu.
Will Venom Live-Action Crossover Accomplish More in Spider-Verse 2?
Some fans may be disappointed to learn that the rumors of a live-action inclusion of Mrs. Chen and Venom’s live-action universe in Across the Spider-Verse will be reduced to unused footage from Let There Be Carnage. It’s unfortunate to see it executed in this TV spot since it’s obvious that Chen isn’t reacting to The Spot.
It’s also telling how The Spot’s compositing into the scene is poorly done, with the lighting on his model not matching his surroundings, which seems likely with the production quality of this movie. So will this be a scene in the film or is this simply a marketing stunt?
The quality of the scene points to the latter, but how did this rumor of Mrs. Chen appearing in the movie make the rounds in March? It’s possible that this commercial was mistaken for the film itself.
Fans will find out when Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is released in theaters on Friday, June 2.
Writers: J.M. DeMatteis, Robert Kanigher, Mike W. Barr, Dave Manak Artists: Fred Carrillio, Pat Broderick, John Celardo, Bob Hall, Jerry Ordway, Dave Manak, Dan Spiegle Color Artists: Adrienne Roy, Jerry Serpe Letterers: Ben Oda, Esphid (Esphidy) Mahlium, John Costanza, Milt Snappin, Shelly Lefferman
With the news that an animated series is in the work and has already been cast, DC has polished, repackaged and re-released the classic tales featuring the original team of Creature Commandos, in a shiny new 2023 collected edition.
Creature Commandos (2023 Edition)
Here’s the pitch from Penguin Random House:
“Named by James Gunn as an influence for “Gods and Monsters”, the first chapter of the new DC Universe film and television slate! This volume inspires the upcoming animated TV series CREATURE COMMANDOS.
In one of DC’s strangest comics ever, a werewolf, a vampire, a gorgon, and a patchwork monster fight the German forces during World War II.
Originally published in the early 1980s, The Creature Commandos laid the groundwork for series like FRANKESTEIN, AGENT OF S.H.A.D.E.
Collecting Weird War Tales #93, 97, 100, 102, 105, 108-112, 114-119, 121 and 124 – Creature Commandos is the perfect mix of supernatural and sci-fi!”
Summary
This great new book collects pages from all the original Weird War Tales issues the featured the characters, but also the classic covers by comics legends Joe Kubert, Ross Andru & Romeo Tanghal, Rich Buckler & Dick Giordano, Jim Aparo, Joe Staton & Bruce Patterson, Rich Buckler & Frank Giacoia, Mike DeCarlo, Gil Kane, and Trevor Von Eeden!
Also included are the two “Monster Marines” tribute/comedy strips by Dave Manak, from Weird War Tales #104 and #107.
Created by J.M. DeMatteis and Pat Broderick for Weird War Tales #93 (November 1980), the original Creature Commandos were a platoon of scientifically created monsters, designed to terrify the enemy and battle the Nazis in World War II (1939-1945). A far cry from the benevolent experiments that created Marvel’s legendary Captain America, this weird science gave the world a vampire named Vincent Velcro, a werewolf called Warren Griffith, and a Frankenstein’s monster-like patchwork man named Elliot “Lucky” Taylor.
Velcro agreed to be experimented on to avoid court martial, Griffith was a meek, timid, stuttering farm-boy, and Taylor, after barely surviving treading on a landmine, was pieced back together like Mary Shelley’s legendary creation. Of course, this was the still the mid-20th century, so the results of these experiments were far from flawless.
All three men were good people to start with, but Velcro’s new blood-lust sometimes overcame him, Griffith’s transformations couldn’t be controlled, and Taylor, while strong and virtually unstoppable, was a pacifist at heart and rendered mute by his condition.
The team was later joined by Dr. Myrna Rhodes, a brilliant and beautiful medic, who was transformed by toxic chemicals into a snake haired, gorgon-like, warrior. The team was led by Lt. Matthew Shrieve, a character who, while still 100% human, was the nastiest, ugliest, and biggest monster of them all, in terms of his character.
The Creature Commandos also teamed up with the first two G.I. Robots on occasion (J.A.K.E. I and II).
Positives
This book was a revelation. I had read a few of these stories before, but I was only around 11 years old when they came out, so they were just action, bluster and horror to me at that age. Reading them again as an adult, and as a father, some of the tales collected in this volume were definitely ahead of their time. One story in particular really had an effect on me, and I was genuinely shocked that it even saw print, particularly at a time when the Comics Code Authority was still in full effect.
J.M. DeMatteis, still one of my all-time favorite comics writers, created a team who were arguably even more shunned by society at large than even the X-Men or Doom Patrol. Many of Marvel’s mutants look human, but the Creature Commandos are exact doppelgängers of the monsters from the most famous horror novels and movies. This means that we get to see the heroes of the stories – and, apart from Shrieve, they ARE heroes, through and through – experiencing depression, persecution, anxiety and even suicidal thoughts. That’s all deep stuff from a 1980s comic book!
The surprises don’t end there, either. We see dinosaurs, innocents taken down in rains of gunfire and, in the shocking “Children’s Crusade” story, the most horrific scenes I’ve ever witnessed in a comic book that didn’t have a mature readers label on it. I’m not going to spoil the story, but if you think what the U.S. did to create the Creature Commandos was bad, just wait until you find out who the Nazis experimented on!
This story sent a chill down my spine and broke my heart. The final pages are simply shocking, and this story was published long before the notorious Alan Moore Swam Thing tales, or the launch of the adult reader Vertigo imprint.
Negatives
These are tales from another era, so some of the dialogue and exposition heavy storytelling hasn’t aged that well. However, the stories themselves and the messages they deliver are as powerful now as they were forty years ago. Also, the art of lettering has come a long way over the years, and any hand-lettered comic will suffer from inconsistent fonts, and sometimes imperfect panel placement.
Another, even smaller, gripe is that we only meet the original team. I’m hoping that DC sees fit to republish the 2000 series, the adventures that take place after this volume, and the New 52 run that updated the team to a point where modern viewers will more readily identify with them. By the casting and designs of the upcoming TV series, it looks like the members of the team will be a mix of the classic 80s run, and the newer versions. Frankenstein from the Agents of S.H.A.D.E. is NOT the same patchwork monster as “Lucky” Taylor.
Verdict
Minor niggles aside, the new 2023 collection of Creature Commandos is a terrific book. Nostalgia buffs will love it, fans coming into comics from the upcoming Tv show will want it, and anyone wanting to read comics that aren’t filled with superheroes in skin-tight costumes will get something different. Most importantly, this collection clearly shows that DC started the journey to grown up comics four or five years earlier than I’d previously believed.
This volume is well worth investing 25 bucks in.
Images Courtesy of DC Entertainment. Review copy courtesy of Penguin Random House.
It’s not unusual to hear of countries using NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware to surveil the public, but there are now concerns one government is spying on itself. Sources for The New York Times and The Washington Post claim Pegasus has been found on the phone of Mexico undersecretary for human rights Alejandro Encinas, a longtime ally of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, as well as at least two members of Encinas’ office. While there’s no firm evidence pointing to a culprit, this comes as Encinas has been investigating alleged military abuses of power since 2018, including the notorious disappearance of 43 students in Iguala in 2014.
The University of Toronto-based Citizen Lab research team detected Pegasus in a 2022 audit, according to a source speaking to The Post. Encinas’ phone has been compromised more than once, The Times says, including last year as he was heading the commission covering the Iguala disappearances. He blamed the tragedy on the police, military, certain officials and drug traffickers. Encinas apparently briefed Obrador about the spying this March, but has remained silent since.
Encinas, Citizen Lab and the Mexican Defense Ministry have already declined to comment. NSO Group tells The Times in a statement that it looks into “all credible allegations” of misuse, and ends contracts when it finds problems.
In a press conference, Obrador has minimized the alleged snooping and doesn’t believe the military is to blame. However, anti-corruption critics Ángela Buitrago and Eduardo Bohorquez are worried the Mexican army may be using Pegasus to retaliate against Encinas, revealing a lack of effective government oversight in the process.
NSO Group itself has faced widespread criticism. The US banned trade with the company in 2021 for allegedly selling spyware to authoritarian governments that used the tools to eliminate dissent by surveilling activists and journalists. NSO has denied enabling abuses and even hired a libel attorney who accused some journalists of misrepresenting its business.
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Hong Sangsoo’s In Our Day, the closing night film at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight sidebar, has sold to Cinema Guild for North America.
Sangsoo’s 30th feature will release in North American theaters later this year following a North American festival premiere.
In Our Day follows a woman in her 40s, temporarily living at the home of a friend, and a man in his 70s living alone, who both have visitors with serious questions to ask.
The deal was negotiated by Peter Kelly of Cinema Guild with Youngjoo Suh of Seoul-based sales agent Finecut. “Adding to the rich tableau of his work, Hong Sangsoo’s In Our Day not only makes us laugh, it makes us think about what it means to be alive,” said Cinema Guild President Peter Kelly. “It’s a gift that we hope continues and continues.”
Finecut earlier this week soldIn Our Day to France’s Capricci, Spain’s L’Atalante Cinema and Ama Films for Greece. North American buyer Cinema Guild has handled two-thirds of Hong’s films in the U.S. and Canada.
In Our Day is Hong’s twelfth to premiere at Cannes, with the most recent being 2021’s In Front of Your Face.
It’s been a while since we’ve had a Marvel Disney+ show, hasn’t it?
If you’re keeping track (and I certainly am), over eight months will have elapsed from the season finale of 2022’s She-Hulk: Attorney at Law last October and the upcoming premiere of Secret Invasion on June 21st on the streaming service.
In the past two years of small-screen superhero content, there was never more than three months between Marvel Disney+ shows, so this eight-month gap is certainly unprecedented (and more than likely a product of both the change in Disney leadership and the crisis affecting the visual effects industry).
Additionally, the fact that the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s (MCU’s) first 2023 show is premiering nearly halfway into the calendar year is a far cry from the five live-action series announced at last summer’s San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) as being slated for a 2023 release. These titles included the aforementioned Secret Invasion, as well as the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever spin-off Ironheart, the WandaVision spin-off Agatha: Coven of Chaos, the Hawkeye spin-off Echo, and the long-awaited second season of 2021’s Loki.
Thankfully, just this past week, we received confirmation via reporting from Variety that the MCU is planning to release two more shows before the year is out, with premiere dates officially set for Loki Season 2 and Echo as October 6th and November 29th, respectively. Thank goodness for more content!
But there’s a catch.
If you look a little closer at both the Variety report and just a regular calendar, that’s when the concerns become apparent.
For starters, both of these shows will be airing episodes in the month of November, which just so happens to also be the same month that the MCU’s third and final film of 2023, the Captain Marvel sequel, The Marvels, comes out in theatres. A film, if you’ll recall, that has already possessed four prior release dates, including one in late July that just changed to November a few months back.
In a year where each new Marvel project so far has enjoyed at least a month-long buffer on either side of its release window, to now have three projects jockeying for space in the second-to-last month of the year just feels odd, and unnecessary.
As well, assuming Loki’s second season releases just one episode per week (as the majority of the Marvel Disney+ shows have done in the past), then its sixth and final episode will hit the streamer on the exact same day that The Marvels hits theatres, November 10th.
To this, I just have to ask – why?
Why set the schedule so that an MCU show’s finale, of all episodes, directly overlaps with their next movie?
I thought this type of cannibalization from Marvel was a whisper of the past – you know, back in 2021 and 2022, when COVID delays meant that they simply had more shows and movies already completed than they had available release windows, – but I guess not.
The generation of online discourse is a massive part of what makes any project successful, and also what absolutely plays a significant role in a movie’s overall box office haul. Part of the appeal of these Marvel shows and these Marvel movies are all the theorizing and analyses they invite fans to partake in, so it’s just plain bizarre to me that Marvel is essentially forcing its audience to choose which project they care about more in the second weekend of November.
This scenario is especially confounding given that the only reason this direct overlap is happening is that Loki will inexplicably come out on Fridays, which is something Marvel has strayed from ever since its very first two streaming shows, 2021’s WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. In fact, it was the first season of Loki itself that bucked the trend of Friday episodes, becoming the first show to shift the schedule to Wednesdays (the thought at the time was to avoid overlap with the day-and-date release of Black Widow in July 2021).
This pattern continued for the next four MCU shows, until She-Hulk went to Thursdays last August, presumably to avoid Andor, the Star Wars Rogue One prequel series that would come out on Disney+ on Wednesdays, halfway into She-Hulk’s run.
At the time, the She-Hulk move made sense – the show just before it, Ms. Marvel, was high in praise but low in views, at least partially due to its first three of six episodes directly overlapping with the Star Wars show Obi-Wan Kenobi. It was understandable that Marvel didn’t want to repeat that same mistake with She-Hulk. It should also be noted, though, that with Secret Invasion this June, Marvel returns to its usual Wednesday slot, which only furthers my frustration that Loki Season 2 will then be on Fridays.
Some people have postulated that maybe Marvel is claiming Fridays this fall because another Star Wars show, this time the Mandalorian spin-off Ahsoka, is currently set for release in August (precise date not yet confirmed), and likely on Wednesdays. Doing the math, though, if six-episode Loki and eight-episode Ahsoka were to share the typical Wednesday release date, at most they would overlap for three episodes – which, as stated above, has happened before – and, if Ahsoka comes out in early August, these two shows won’t cross paths at all.
Now, all these minutiae about release schedules and the days of the week may seem exceptionally tedious to most people, but in the current streaming climate, this stuff matters – a lot. Kevin Feige himself, when speaking to Entertainment Weekly about his franchise earlier this year, acknowledged the challenge of trying to have each Marvel property make an impact in an overcrowded pop culture landscape:
“It is harder to hit the zeitgeist when there’s so much product out there — and so much “content,” as they say, which is a word that I hate. [Laughs]”
In light of that comment, this whole current situation would be head-scratching enough, but I haven’t even gotten to the worst part yet. Included in the same Variety article from earlier was the announcement that the Echo series will not only be coming just two-and-a-half weeks after Loki finishes and The Marvels begins its theatrical run – I don’t even need to get into why this is a problem, because it’s basically the same reason I mentioned above – it’ll actually be receiving the binge model treatment.
For the first time ever for one of Marvel’s live-action shows (and the first time since the collection of I Am Groot animated shorts dropped all at once last August), Echo will be releasing all (presumably) six of its episodes at once on November 29th. No weekly release for Echo unfortunately then translates to no weekly Twitter discourse, no weekly theory videos, no weekly review articles, no weekly podcast breakdowns, no weekly episode reaction content on YouTube – you get the idea.
As a friend remarked upon breaking this news to me last week, “[Marvel] really said ‘we expect no anticipation’.” She followed that up with, “the Echo part I’m just finding truly offensive,” and I very much agree. A quick perusal of Twitter, Reddit, YouTube, etc. further exemplifies just how ubiquitous this sentiment is amongst Marvel fans – the general consensus already being that an Echo binge release demonstrates a lack of faith in the show – so there’s virtually no chance that the Marvel Studios marketing department couldn’t have predicted that this is how this decision would be perceived. I know it’s still early, but they also certainly haven’t done anything so far to assuage those fears and suspicions about the show and its quality.
“I’ll tell you what, it gives me the ick a little bit. It does not sit right with me. I think it either means that they don’t have faith in this show, or, if it is about the “they think people will be impatient [for Daredevil and Kingpin to show up],” they’ve never cared about that before. I don’t know, it’s a show about a woman of colour with a disability and it’s the first one on their roster that they’re like [makes a dumping gesture] “Here it goes,” and I don’t know, all the Disney+ shows that do this don’t seem to get any traction… Maybe there’s a good reason, maybe it’s gonna be an amazing binge… but it doesn’t sit right with me.”
Even if we do eventually come to find out that there’s a completely logical storytelling reason for Echo to be consumed in the all-at-once format, or even if it really is just a case of Marvel wanting to experiment a bit with its Disney+ release strategy, that doesn’t change the already-present narrative that this show is something Marvel doesn’t seem to care about. (If you don’t believe me, look no further than the fact that Marvel Studios’ official social media announcement of these Loki and Echo release dates was a combined post, rather than two separate posts, you know, for these two completely separate shows, and on Instagram, the title card for Loki is the only thing users see when scrolling, hiding Echo entirely unless they actually pause to swipe to the next image on the post…)
And as Jirak highlighted, it’s not an especially favorable look for Marvel to set up a show as diverse and groundbreaking as Echo (Alaqua Cox, who portrays the Native-American deaf superhero, is also an amputee with a prosthetic leg, which has become incorporated into the Echo character herself) to be subjected to this type of pessimistic commentary half a year before its release.
On top of everything, why release Echo on this particular late November date? Why release it the week after the American Thanksgiving holiday weekend, and in the middle of the week, no less (Echo marks a shift of Marvel Disney+ content back to Wednesday, for some reason)? It just doesn’t make sense.
This concern was echoed by Jirak’s podcast co-host, Jenna Anderson, on the same Phase Zero episode:
“I will also say on the binging argument – like, I’ve seen people be like, “Well, what’s wrong with the binge model?” I’m not saying that there’s not value to it, but I think dropping this on a Wednesday, people are not going to have six hours of their time on a Wednesday to be able to binge this show, and avoid spoilers, and be able to be part of the conversation. And so that kind of bums me out a little bit, too, because I feel like the conversation around this show is gonna be so siphoned off, just by people who either saw screeners ahead of time, or are able to do that binge, immediately, on a Wednesday. So that just kind of depresses me a little bit.”
This treatment of Echo feels especially egregious because of a follow-up point that was made by Feige in that same Entertainment Weekly interview cited above. As the President of Marvel Studios told the EW interviewer:
“We want Marvel Studios and the MCU projects to really stand out and stand above. So, people will see that as we get further into Phase 5 and 6. The pace at which we’re putting out the Disney+ shows will change so they can each get a chance to shine.”
“So that they can each get a chance to shine,” huh? How does inundating November with the same number of Marvel projects as the first nine months of this year accomplish this, exactly? How does sandwiching one of the movies between two of the shows let any of these three projects “stand out and stand above”? How does dropping all (again, presumably) six episodes of a show on a random Wednesday, which is something Marvel has never done before for its episodic shows, not even for the animated and mostly-anthology series What If?…, indicate any sign of confidence in that show?
If it wasn’t already clear, as a longstanding MCU supporter, this whole situation implicating the likes of Loki Season 2, Echo, and The Marvels, infuriates and just plain baffles me.
But in the case of Echo specifically, it also disappoints me. I’ve genuinely loved the experience of watching a new episode of a Marvel show each week, and I was very much looking forward to doing the same with Maya Lopez’s solo outing when the time came. I always crave the ritualistic nature of staying up late, watching a new installment in a Marvel Disney+ series the moment it’s available, checking Twitter for insights from fans who did the same as me, and then consuming various reactions and reviews over the next week until it’s then time for the subsequent episode. Some of my favorite memories from Phase Four of Marvel have come from specific episodes on Disney+, as have several of my favorite characters.
How am I supposed to connect with Echo, then, if it releases all at once? Some shows, like She-Hulk and Moon Knight, earned my affection over time, in large part thanks to having witnessed fans around me find elements in each of those shows to cherish each week. And what if I say that I actually really appreciate the weeklong anticipation of hearing the Marvel Studios fanfare at the top of each episode, as well as the creative credits sequences and the theme music? And isn’t a major goal of these Disney+ series to get audiences endeared to lesser-known or under-appreciated heroes? To do that comes with time and word-of-mouth, neither of which Maya Lopez and her supporting characters will be afforded.
I don’t even know a whole lot about the lead character or the premise of this series at this point in time – but I would have loved the opportunity to have six weeks to be pleasantly surprised by it.
And finally, assuming Marvel does have some business or other undisclosed financial reason that necessitates releasing Echo in this bingeable fashion, then at the very least, why aren’t they just waiting until next year to put it out as a bingeable precursor to Daredevil: Born Again? That would make far more sense than dropping it hot on the heels of two projects it has no connection to, but maybe that’s just me.
Overall, I hope I’m wrong to have these qualms with Marvel’s updated release schedule. Both as a Marvel fan and a supporter of the entertainment industry in general, I hope each of these upcoming projects succeeds in their own right – confounding release schedules notwithstanding.
I hope Loki’s sophomore season is well-received and serves as a proof-of-concept to encourage green-lighting second seasons of more Disney+ shows.
I hope The Marvels enjoys a healthy theatrical run and achieves box office success, and doesn’t fall victim to its primary fan base being stretched too thin on its opening weekend.
And for the sake of the show and all the diverse creatives involved, I really hope Echo catapults Maya Lopez into fandom stardom – the same way characters like Wanda Maximoff and Sam Wilson, and Kamala Khan have all luxuriated in the Disney+ spotlight – but thanks to Marvel, the odds are stacked against her.
(As well, should there end up being 18 weeks next year devoted to releasing the 18 episodes of Daredevil, when they couldn’t even find six spare weeks for Echo, let it be known that this Marvel fan will not be impressed.)
MUBI has acquired the film for North America, U.K., Latin America, Turkey, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Benelux and India. MUBI will release the film theatrically in the U.S., U.K., and additional territories with release plans to be revealed soon.
“The Settlers” is set in Chile at the beginning of the 20th century. A wealthy landowner hires three horsemen to mark out the perimeter of his extensive property and open a route to the Atlantic Ocean across vast Patagonia. The expedition, composed of a young Chilean mestizo, an American mercenary, and led by a reckless British lieutenant, soon turns into a ‘civilizing’ raid.
“If something is controversial, it’s a good sign. It means it’s interesting. I am trying to provoke with my film, because this conversation is far from over,” Gálvez told Variety about the film.
mk2 negotiated the deal with MUBI.
The film is produced by Giancarlo Nasi, Benjamín Domenech, Santiago Gallelli, Matías Roveda, Emily Morgan, Thierry Lenouvel and Stefano Centini. It is co-produced by Katrin Pors, Eva Jakobsen, Mikkel Jersin, Kristina Börjeson, Anthony Muir, Ingmar Trost, Fernando Bascuñán; and executive produced by Alex C. Lo, Constanza Erenchun and Amy Gardner.
Written by Gálvez and Antonia Girardi (in collaboration with Mariano Llinás), “The Settlers” stars Mark Stanley, Camilo Arancibia, Benjamín Westfall, Alfredo Castro, Mishell Guaña, Agustín Rittano, Mariano Llinás, Sam Spruell, Adriana Stuven, Luis Machín and Marcelo Alonso.
The film is presented by Cinema Inutile (U.S.), produced by Quijote Films (Chile), Rei Cine (Argentina), Quiddity Films (U.K.) and Volos Films (Taiwan); in co-production with Cine Sud Promotion (France), Snowglobe (Denmark), Film I Väst (Sweden), Sutor Kolonko (Germany); in association with: Finite Films (U.K.), mk2 Films (France), and Dulac Distribution (France).
(L to R) Justice Smith plays Simon, Chris Pine plays Edgin, Rege-Jean Page plays Xenk, Sophia Lillis plays Doric and Michelle Rodriguez plays Holga in ‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ from Paramount Pictures and eOne.
Roll for initiative! The fantasy adventure movie based on the popular tabletop role-playing game ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ may be arriving on Paramount+ this month.
What happens when a Bard, a Barbarian, a Wizard, and a Druid meet at a tavern? Chaos, naturally. In ‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’, directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein (both worked on ‘Game Night’) found the perfect balance of bringing elements of the original tabletop game and an epic fantasy adventure to the big screen. The film incorporated enough easter eggs from the game lore for the fans while making it appealing and interesting to those who have not played the game.
The official synopsis for ‘Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ is below:
“A charming thief and a band of unlikely adventurers undertake an epic heist to retrieve a lost relic, but things go dangerously awry when they run afoul of the wrong people. ‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ brings the rich world and playful spirit of the legendary roleplaying game to the big screen in a hilarious and action-packed adventure.”
‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ opened in theaters on March 31st to $37.2 million domestically and has grossed over $203.2 million worldwide since its release. Critics and audiences reacted positively to the movie, warranting the film 91% and 93% score on Rotten Tomatoes respectively.
(L to R) Michelle Rodriguez plays Holga, Justice Smith plays Simon, Chris Pine plays Edgin and Sophia Lillis plays Doric in ‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ from Paramount Pictures and eOne.
From Tabletop To The Big Screen
Tabletop Roleplaying games (or TRPG) have become increasingly popular, especially with the exposure from shows like ‘Stranger Things’, live-play web series from groups such as Dimension 20 and Critical Role, as well as the animated Prime Video series ‘The Legend of Vox Machina’ (also created by Critical Role).
There’s a fine line between adapting the game to screen – how do you fit in all the lore while embracing the hilarity and havoc from a session and still tell an epic high fantasy adventure story? D&D fans may recall the ill-fated 2000 ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ movie. So bad it received a 9% score from critics and 20% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. However, thanks to the well-crafted script for ‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’, it manages to capture both the heart and comedy of the story and the amazing chemistry of the cast gives this movie a +2 to Charisma.
(L to R) Justice Smith plays Simon, Chris Pine plays Edgin, Sophia Lillis plays Doric and Michelle Rodriguez plays Holga in ‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ from Paramount Pictures and eOne.
Ahead of filming, the cast did play a one-shot session of D&D together prior to filming, which is the best method of researching when it comes to prepping for their roles in the film. After all, what better way to study your character and bond with your cast mates than spending an hour planning out what you’ll do in the dungeon crawl just to have the entire plan go up in flames because of one failed dice role?
One of the great things about this ‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ is that it is just as much for the well-versed D&D players as it is for the general audience who may not have ever rolled a d20. Yes, those who have played the game might get an all-knowing chuckle at seeing Simon cast a spell to speak with the dead at the cemetery. Still, the scene was executed so well that the general audience would never feel lost from the references and easter eggs.
Aside from the cast of main characters and dungeon crawls, the film is filled with creatures and easter eggs from Dungeons & Dragons lore such as the original characters from ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ Saturday morning cartoon, a gelatinous cube, a mimic, displacer beast, the beholder, and more.
‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ from Paramount Pictures and eOne.
Where Can I Watch ‘Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’?
The film premiered at SXSW on March 10, 2023, and was released theatrically in the United States on March 31, 2023. While the movie is available to rent on digital, it is better experienced in the theater so be sure to check below for showtimes in your area. ‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ has a total runtime of 2 hours and 14 minutes.
Watch the official trailers for ‘Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ below:
Can’t make it out to the theater? You have the option to rent or purchase the movie on VOD. Services such as Amazon Prime Video, Direct TV, Google Play, Vudu, YouTube, AppleTV, AMC On Demand, and Redbox allows you to rent the movie for $19.99 or purchase it for $24.99.
As for as streaming goes, an official date hasn’t been confirmed. The movie is released by Paramount so it is likely to end up on Paramount+ once it is ready to go to streaming. Seeing as the movie premiere on March 31, it is closing in on its 45-day theatrical release window. If it follows the same timeline, we could see the fantasy-adventure streaming on Paramount+ as soon as mid-May.
(L to R) Sophia Lillis plays Doric, Justice Smith plays Simon, Chris Pine plays Edgin and Michelle Rodriguez plays Holga in ‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ from Paramount Pictures and eOne.
More High Fantasy Adventures Like ‘Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’:
The MTVVideo Music Awards return to New Jersey’s Prudential Center on Tuesday, September 12, the network announced Tuesday. The show will air live at 8 p.m. ET and PT.
“Celebrating one of our biggest nights in music with the Garden State’s incredible fans has been our goal since last year’s highly successful event,” said Bruce Gillmer, President of Music, Music Talent, Programming & Events, Paramount and Chief Content Officer, Music, Paramount+.
Last year’s show was hosted by Nicki Minaj, who was honored during the show with the Video Vanguard Award, while the Global Icon Award was given to the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Performers for last year’s show included Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Blackpink, Bad Bunny, Anitta, Jack Harlow, Kane Brown and others.
Last year’s winners included Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version)” for video of the year; Bad Bunny for artist of the year; Nicki Minaj ft. Lil Baby’s “Do We Have A Problem?” for best hip-hop; Dove Cameron for best new artist; Anitta’s “Envolver” for best Latin; Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Black Summer” for best rock; LISA’s “LALISA” for best K-pop; Harry Styles’ “Harry’s House” for best album; Lil Nas X and Jack Harlow’s “Industry Baby” for best collaboration; Billie Eilish’s “Happier Than Ever” for song of the year; Måneskin’s “I Wanna Be Your Slave” for best alternative; Harry Styles’ “As It Was” for best pop; The Weeknd’s “Out Of Time” for best R&B; and BTS for group of the year.
The VMAs will air across MTV linear and digital platforms in more than 150 countries and territories, the network said.
