Month: April 2020
Last week, Disney updated its release schedule, including new dates for nearly every Marvel Cinematic Universe movie and pushing back Indiana Jones 5 an entire year. (Harrison Ford will be 80 years old when it comes out.) The company also announced that Artemis Fowl, a $125 million adaptation of Eoin Colfer’s novel, is going straight to Disney+, where it will rest alongside Mr. Boogedy and junk like Beauty and the Beast. That might not be the only upcoming Disney movie to be released straight on the streaming service, according to Disney executive chairman and former-CEO Bob Iger.
“There are some we’ve decided to put on Disney+. We already announced one, Artemis Fowl, that would have been released in theaters. Others we’ve simply delayed. In some cases we’ve moved things onto Disney+ faster than we would have,” Iger told Barrons, referring to Frozen 2 and Onward, among others. He continued, “In terms of movies going ahead after Artemis, there may be a few more that we end up putting directly onto Disney+, but for the most part a lot of the big tentpole Disney films, we’ll simply wait for slots. In some cases we’ve announced new ones already, but later on in the calendar.”
What direct-to-Disney+ movies could Iger be referring to? Nothing from the Marvel Cinematic Universe or Pixar, obviously; Mulan, Jungle Cruise, and Cruella are almost certainly off-limits, too. Maybe The One and Only Ivan, a live-action/CGI hybrid starring Bryan Cranston, Sam Rockwell, Angelina Jolie, and Danny DeVito that I’ve never heard of until now, or Raya and the Last Dragon, which actually sounds good. Then there’s The New Mutants, the most cursed movie in existence. A deal would have to be reached between Disney and HBO for the frequently-delayed X-Men universe spin-off to come out on Disney+, although, at this point, I would watch it in 10-minute chunks on Quibi.
Please someone, anyone, release The New Mutants.
(Via Barrons)
Brokeback Mountain (2005) earned eight Oscar nominations (and three wins, although it lost Best Picture to Crash), including nods for Heath Ledger (Best Actor) and Jake Gyllenhaal (Best Supporting Actor) in the romantic drama. Notably at the Academy Awards ceremony, Gyllenhaal appeared as a presenter while Ledger declined to do so. Or at least, he declined to do so according to Jake Gyllenhall, who opened up for the first time on the subject while speaking with Another Man magazine.
The topic arise when Brokeback Mountain came up, specifically about how some old TV interviews about “gay cowboys” appeared to be rather homophobic with jokes and banter. Gyllenhaal then brought up how Ledger was bothered by that perception of the film, and he put his foot down with the Academy, which wanted to play up the humorous feel during the show’s opening. Here’s what Gyllenhaal said:
“I mean, I remember they wanted to do an opening for the Academy Awards that year that was sort of joking about it,” he says. “And Heath refused. I was sort of at the time, ‘Oh, okay… whatever.’ I’m always like: it’s all in good fun. And Heath said, ‘It’s not a joke to me – I don’t want to make any jokes about it.’” I say how smart of Ledger that seems, in retrospect. “Absolutely,” says Gyllenhaal.
Ledger obviously went on to earn more awards acclaim by winning a posthumous award for portraying the Joker in 2008’s The Dark Knight, and his legacy shall continue. The above instance can only build upon that legacy with Ledger standing firm and saying plenty by refraining from (publically) saying anything at all about a planned Oscars opening number that would not have gone well.
(Via Another Man)
Ever wished you could be one of the people who creates Disney theme park attractions? Disney has released a fantastic online course that teaches you how its famous Imagineers work their magic. The class also lets you take a shot at creating your own.
Imagineering in a Box comes at a perfect time when children are stuck at home and schools are closed across the country. It’s a great way to stimulate their imagination while teaching valuable science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) skills.
The online course was created in a partnership with Pixar and The Khan Academy.
The curriculum includes 35 online videos featuring actual Imagineers and their projects.
via Khan Academy
The course is a great way to inspire you and your family’s creative spirit. It’s also a lot of fun to learn the secret techniques that Disney uses to create its signature magic.
One great technique they use — that can cross-apply to countless other disciplines — is “Blue Sky” brainstorming. At the beginning of creating something new Imagineers let their imaginations soar as far as they like to come up with the most amazing ideas possible. Cost and practicality are not a concern.
The three main topics of the course are “Creating worlds,” Designing attractions,” and Bringing characters to life.”
In each section, actual Imagineers explain in detail how they apply their craft. After watching the videos, course-takers can try their hand at designing attractions, characters, and creating environments.
The curriculum provides exercises to help you create your own land.
It also has a ride simulator for you to design your own roller coasters.
via Imagineering in a Box
Your new land and rise need characters. So it also has a simulator that lets you create animatronic characters for your attractions.
The videos include the behind-the-scenes work of creating actual attractions to use as examples.
The Imagineers featured in the video reveal that processes they use to create Cars Land at California Adventure, Pandora: The Land of Avatar in Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and Treasure Cove in Shanghai Disneyland.
The videos do a great job of explaining how STEM skills are invaluable tools that bring Disney’s art and imagination into reality.
You may have a great idea for a roller coaster, but it takes a team of engineers to figure out how to move 700 people a day through the ride safely.
Disney Imagineers want to see the wonderful creations of those who take the online course.
So, after you’re done creating a spectacular theme park, you can upload your work to Instagram using #Disney, #BetterTogether, and #ImagineeringinaBox; and tag @WaltDisneyImagineering. Some responses will be shared on the official Walt Disney Imagineering Instagram page.
A “motivational” message has been circulating during the coronavirus lockdown, which is allegedly supposed to kick our butts into gear since most of us now have more time on our hands.
Here’s one version:
On its face, it may sound logical. We often don’t do things because we lack time—or think we do—so now that we supposedly have more time, we should be doing those things now, right?
Just one thing though—there’s a deadly global pandemic and massive economic crisis happening, which might be just the tiniest bit distracting right now, Jeremy.
A trauma psychologist from Beirut weighed in on this idea that we should be extra productive right now, and she didn’t mince words. Alaa Hijazi’s Facebook post has been shared 19,000 times, so people are clearly appreciating her wisdom. She wrote:
I thought I was spared the horrid ‘motivational’ phrase going around now—’If you don’t come out of this with a new skill, you never lacked time, you lacked discipline’—until I saw it on my local yoga studio page.
As a trauma psychologist, I am utterly utterly horrified, enraged, and bewildered about how people can believe and spread this phrase in good conscience.
We are going through a collective trauma, that is bringing up profound grief, loss, panic over livelihoods, panic over loss of lives of loved ones. People’s nervous systems are barely coping with the sense of threat and vigilance for safety, or alternating with feeling numb and frozen and shutting down in response to it all.
People are trying to survive poverty, fear, retriggering of trauma, retriggering of other mental health difficulties. Yet, someone has the nerve to accuse someone of lack of discipline for not learning a new skill, and by a yoga teacher!
This cultural obsession with [capitalistic] ‘productivity’ and always spending time in a ‘productive,’ ‘fruitful’ way is absolutely maddening.
What we need is more self-compassion, more gentle acceptance of all the difficult emotions coming up for us now, more focus on gentle ways to soothe ourselves and our pain and the pain of loved ones around us, not a whipping by some random fucker making us feel worse about ourselves in the name of ‘motivation.'”
Indeed. Even those of us who are still employed full-time are finding it difficult to focus some days like we used to. The enormity of this pandemic and the global shutdown over it weighs heavy on all of us. Our sense of normality has been turned upside down and the uncertainty over what even the near future holds makes sustained attention a challenge.
Add in the fact that many people now have children at home who used to be at school or childcare, many are struggling to figure out how they’re going to pay rent or buy groceries, many are watching businesses or careers they’ve spent years building crumble before their eyes, many have health conditions that make them anxious about catching the virus, and it’s not hard to see how neither “time” nor “discipline” are our big problems right now.
If you want to go read books on hustling and build up some skill set, Jeremy, go for it. But let’s not lay a guilt trip on people who are going through a traumatic experience that none of us have experienced before and none of us were prepared for.
Most people aren’t leaving their homes much these days as the coronavirus pandemic continues to encourage social distancing. One on occasion where members of the band Whitney went out this past weekend, though, they found themselves at the wrong end of a bad situation, as they were robbed at gunpoint in Portland, Oregon.
On Sunday, the band’s Josiah Marshall shared a photo of himself and other members of the group, and wrote, “heyyyy. we all just got robbed at gunpoint a few blocks from our house. we’ll be without our phones for a bit. stay safe out there. weird times.” So, it appears their phones were taken, and based on the screenshot of an email inbox also included in the post, it looks like their credit cards were stolen as well.
After the news broke, the band addressed the situation on Instagram, re-sharing the photo and writing, “Hey yall. Not something we really wanted to publicize in the first place but we’ve seen some websites posting about it so I guess it’s out there. Me Max and Jos along with our good bud John Mooney were robbed at gunpoint yesterday while on a random walk. We appreciate everyone reaching out to show support but obviously there are so many other people that need your love right now. Reach out to them. We’re ok. Stay safe <3.”
In more positive news, the group recently participated in the hilarious viral video of indie musicians singing Blink-182’s “Miss You.”