Month: April 2022

Time was — for well over a century — people made movies then played them in theaters so as to turn a large profit. It worked out pretty well for them. Then Netflix decided to try something different. Since 2015, they’ve been spending blockbuster bucks on big movies with big stars — Red Notice, Bird Box, The Irishman, The Adam Project, etc., etc. — then dumping them on their streaming service, free to anyone already paying a subscription. Now they’re mysteriously having financial problems. But perhaps there’s someone they can turn to: people who run movie theaters.

As per The Hollywood Reporter, John Fithian, president and CEO of the National Association of Theatre Owners (whose acronym, NATO, is not to be confused with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization), has offered Netflix the chance to make extra money off their expensive original motion pictures. (It would also help them recoup losses accrued during the pandemic, which got so bad they spent a fortune on an ad in which Nicole Kidman begs people to return.)

“We love those guys [at Netflix],” Fithian said at a presentation at CinemaCon in Las Vegas. “Ted Sarandos [its co-CEO] knows movies and TV better than anyone in Hollywood. Our doors are open to give broader play to Netflix movies. We’d love to play more of their movies.”

Fithian also pointed out that the day-and-date release strategy adopted by some major Hollywood studios, such as Warner Bros., during the pandemic is a proven failure. Simply look at how films like Dune, The Suicide Squad, and The Matrix Resurrections underperformed in theaters or worse.

“I am pleased to announce that simultaneous release is dead as a serious business model, and piracy is what killed it,” Fithian told the crowd. “When a pristine copy of a movie makes its way online and spreads, it has a very damaging impact on our industry.”

For the record, Netflix hasn’t entirely skipped theaters. They have a deal with Cinemark to give some of their films a limited theatrical release. How well has that worked for them? Red Notice, one of the streamer’s most-watched films, made a total of $178,143 in theaters off a reported budget of $200 million.

Will you one day be able to watch the threatened Red Notice on a big screen with loud sound and strangers and everything? Netflix has always been stubborn about that option, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

(Via THR)

Watching things play out with the censorship of books in schools and public libraries across the country has been a wild ride. Whereas one day you can grab a copy of “Catcher in the Rye” as you peruse the shelves between classes, the next it’s banned. (Though, I think Salinger’s Holden Caulfield escaped being tossed into most burn piles, but I imagine that foul-mouthed teen makes several lists.) The books that are being banned are the ones that promote diversity in any form. At first glance you can almost see the legitimacy of banning these books, but once you actually look at their titles and contents, it’s clear that they’re pretty consistently displaying themes of diversity and inclusion.

It’s peculiar that books that depict what it’s like growing up in a world with two moms or living in America with brown skin would be removed from libraries at schools. Libraries are there to transport us into a different reality than our own. For some people living in small towns with not much diversity, there is little exposure to people that look or think differently than they do, and this can lead to a narrow view of the world. Libraries provide a bounty of free books, some taking you to giants in faraway lands and others showing you what it’s like to grow up feeling like you exist in the wrong body. There’s no limit to the worlds that books inside a library can expose you to, and they can bridge the gap between lived experiences and empathy for others you only read about.

When some states began banning books from their local schools and libraries, in some cases, people took notice and protests started to happen. Four librarians in Texas formed #FReadom Fighters and created a website to sell merchandise to support the larger movement of teachers, students, authors and parents fighting against the banning of books across the country. Now the New York Public Library is joining the fight against censorship by allowing children as young as 13 who live in states where certain books are banned to check them out via its app through the end of May. Typically only residents of New York with a valid library card can check out books, not people from out of state.

Vandergrift student Banned Book club speaking at Spring into #FReadom rally in Cedar Park this morning.pic.twitter.com/OT3KjHcf61

— FReadom (@FReadom)
1650728301

Tony Marx, president of the New York Public Library, told NCPR, “The recent instances of both attempted and successful book banning—primarily on titles that explore race, LGBTQ+ issues, religion, and history—are extremely disturbing and amount to an all-out attack on the very foundation of our democracy … Knowledge is power; ignorance is dangerous, breeding hate and division … Since their inception, public libraries have worked to combat these forces simply by making all perspectives and ideas accessible to all.”

Brooklyn Public Library also announced a similar program called Books Unbanned aimed at ages 13-21. The American Library Association reported that there had been 729 challenges to library, school and university materials in 2021. This is the highest it’s been since it began tracking the information in 2000.

.@aaslpresident Jennisen Lucas tells @WBUR’s @anthonygbrooks: The more we talk about the book bans happening in libraries, the more people who don’t believe in censorship will stand up. #UniteAgainstBookBans #aaslslm #SchoolLibraryMonthhttps://wbur.fm/3uZ1Sis

— American Library Association (@American Library Association)
1650464461

Books are far more than pieces of paper bound together to look pretty and they serve a larger purpose outside of teaching math and science. Books help the reader understand what it’s like to be in someone else’s shoes. They can teach tolerance, acceptance and critical thinking. Banning books is so much larger than not wanting your individual child to learn about the world around them, it’s telling a child with two dads that there’s something wrong with them. It’s telling students that they’re not important enough to have themselves represented in the stories their class reads.

New York Public Library’s mission to combat the banning of books is admirable. Finding ways around this ban can help more students feel seen, as they watch the communities around them and far away fight to represent all students.

Before there was BTS, there was “Gangnam Style.” Yes, it was only a few short years ago that K-pop superstar Psy was breaking Youtube records and paving the way for K-pop to become the international force that it is now. “Gangnam Style” might’ve been dismissed by many as a tongue-in-cheek gimmick track, but they’d be underestimating the wide-ranging appeal of Psy’s playful pop style.

His newest single, “That That,” might have a cowboy feel based on the cover art he shared on Instagram announcing the track’s release — it’s also produced by none other than Suga of BTS. He also shared a brief snippet of the video, and perhaps the song itself, which you can check out above.

The song will lead off Psy’s new album, Psy 9th, which will come out this Friday (!) As for the single though, both Suga and Psy talked about how working together on it brought them together.

“At first, because he’s many years my senior and someone who’s well-respected in the business I was quite nervous,” Suga said in another clip shared to Instagram. “It felt like working with a childhood friend so it made the songwriting process that much more fun. We became besties in a way.”

“I don’t want to be someone who’s hard to approach,” Psy says. “He just wasn’t my junior in the business but also he truly feels like a friend. It was hard to feel any age gap. If he thinks of me as a bestie, that’s great for me.”

The single and the album drop this Friday, so keep an ear out for new music from Psy.

Fans of the HBO series Winning Time might be enjoying the throwback outfits and John C. Reilly’s hairstyles, but people who were actually there are not huge fans of the basketball show, which is based on Jeff Pearlman’s book Showtime.

Though the show is a fictitious telling of Lakers’ history, the real people who are being portrayed on screen haven’t been happy with it. Last week, Lakers legend Jerry West demanded an apology from HBO over his“false and defamatory portrayal” in the series.

HBO didn’t buy it! In a statement made to The Hollywood Reporter, the network insists that the show is not a documentary, and there are creative liberties that were taken for the drama of it all.

HBO has a long history of producing compelling content drawn from actual facts and events that are fictionalized in part for dramatic purposes. Winning Time is not a documentary and has not been presented as such. However, the series and its depictions are based on extensive factual research and reliable sourcing, and HBO stands resolutely behind our talented creators and cast who have brought a dramatization of this epic chapter in basketball history to the screen.

West isn’t the first person to critique the series: basketball great Kareen Abdul-Jabbar also slammed the show in a personal blog post (that’s how you know it’s real), saying the show is not only inaccurate but “dull” and “bland.” He did have some pretty solid research to back it up too! Either way, it doesn’t seem like HBO will care. They already made the show, after all.

Rootin’ tootin Lauren Boebert’s so excited about freedom that she apparently doesn’t see the absurdity of how she’s engaging with users on Twitter. That’s normal for her, even more so than how she bashed student loan forgiveness, but she’s been extremely thrilled with Elon Musk’s latest saga, which involves him plunking down more money than most people can dream of to buy Twitter.

Boebert’s all about “free speech,” like most GOP-ers who don’t believe that you should “say gay” in school. No, that contradiction doesn’t make much sense, and just think, Boebert might soon have an edit button if all goes as Elon plans. Notably, he hasn’t responded to any of her many recent tweets that tag him, but she’s thrilled about “taking back what is ours.” That’s a confusing sentiment, too, and it doesn’t even begin to touch how Boebert is now tweeting at a user by the handle of “@catturd2.”

“.@catturd2 we need you to get better quickly!” Boebert exclaimed. “We are pulling for you. You’ve got to be here in full force for the free speech era of Twitter!”

Yup, this is a member of Congress on one end of the tweeting. And if you were blissfully unaware of who “@Catturd2” is, well, I couldn’t tell you why there’s a 2 on the end of the handle. However, this is apparently a right-wing podcaster who co-hosts a series called “In The Litter Box.” And former Trump Strike Force attorney Jenna Ellis, naturally, has appeared as a guest on the show. Yes, the internet is a very strange place. Always has been, and always will be.

Before Sam Raimi was set to direct Doctor Strange 2, he released a pre-MCU Spider-Man way back in 2002, which is over two decades old at this point because that’s how math works. While the movie is still the best Spider-Man, not all of the jokes hold up! As expected, things that were considered “fine” in 2002, actually weren’t.

In the original movie, there is a slightly homophobic joke in which teenage Peter Parker (played by 27-year-old Tobey Maguire) tries to be witty with an opponent. Peter quips, “That’s a cute outfit. Did your husband give it to you?” before attempting to defeat him. Over the weekend, that line was removed from a broadcast on the British network ITV. Instead, Peter just says “That’s a cute outfit.” Which is a nice thing to say to someone before beating them up.

In a statement to Variety, ITV said, “We carefully consider the suitability of content we broadcast and appropriateness of language used to ensure that it meets audience expectations, especially when intended for family viewing.”

Though it was a small edit, the fact that some networks are doing this in a positive way might be a good thing. Disney has been famously editing out things they see as “controversial” like same-sex kisses or references to queer people at all, and quietly refusing to take a stance on homophobic bills. Other countries have been known to cut out characters altogether. To edit out a joke that could be offensive is a small step in the right direction!

There is a brand new Harry Styles interview today, complete with lots of lovely, quirky photos, and insight into the pop star’s latest album, Harry’s House. This feature is right on time since we had lots of Harry content via the last two weekends of him performing at Coachella, and now that the biggest music festival of the year is over, fans need more to go on before the album drops in a few weeks. So, what’s the scoop in this new interview? Well, a recurring subject that seems to come up over and over again — Harry’s sexuality.

Though he’s often engaged in gender bending activity, like wearing dresses and launching a makeup line, and he’s completely, 100% adamant in his support of the queer community, the conversation around how Harry himself identifies has been one that unrelentingly rages online simply because? He’s kept it to himself.

In his new interview, Styles said he finds the idea that he should have to submit his sexuality to the public for consumption as something that’s “outdated” — and frankly, he’s right. “I’ve been really open with it with my friends, but that’s my personal experience; it’s mine,” he said. “The whole point of where we should be heading, which is toward accepting everybody and being more open, is that it doesn’t matter, and it’s about not having to label everything, not having to clarify what boxes you’re checking.”

Read the full interview right here.

There’s a famous story about how Aaron Paul’s Jesse Pinkman was supposed to die during season one of Breaking Bad. But creator Vince Gilligan came to his senses and “it became clear to me that Aaron Paul was an absolute asset to the show. I’d no more kill him off now than cut off one of my pinkies,” he explained in a 2010 interview.

I’m not sure if Euphoria creator Sam Levinson had any intention of killing Cassie, the character played by Sydney Sweeney on the hit HBO series. But she was certain he was going to in the season two premiere. It’s a good thing he didn’t.

“I thought that Sam was killing me. I thought that I was going to get killed,” Sweeney said on Entertainment Weekly‘s “The Awardist” podcast. “And the hanging out the window, actually, was just me hanging out the window. It was just random and very in the moment.” She continued, “When I read it, I thought that Cassie was getting killed off. I was really bummed. But then it turned into this weirdly sensual, dangerous connection between [Cassie and Nate, played by Jacob Elordi]. And it became what it became.”

If Levinson does one day decide to kill Cassie, good luck breaking the news to Sweeney’s grandmother.

(Via People)

The Miami Heat suffered not just their first loss of the series in Game 3 in Atlanta, but also the loss of Kyle Lowry with a hamstring injury that looms large for the East’s top-seed as they look to move deep in the playoffs. Despite Lowry’s absence, the Heat dominated Game 4 to take a 3-1 series lead back to Miami, led by the continued spectacular play of Jimmy Butler.

There’s an argument to be made that Butler has been the best player in the playoffs so far — although with competition for that title from Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jayson Tatum — as he has been the driving force for the Heat taking a stranglehold on the series. However, Butler is apparently dealing with some knee inflammation and the Heat announced on Tuesday afternoon that they will try to close out the series later that night without his services or Kyle Lowry’s.

That is a considerable absence and one that will make life very difficult for Miami, as they will be without their two veteran creators. Tyler Herro figures to play a more prominent role and maybe being the focal point of the Heat offense can get him going a bit. Max Strus will need to continue his stellar play in support and overall the Heat will have to find ways to create easy opportunities in transition to ease the burden of halfcourt creation without Lowry and Butler.

A few years ago, Machine Gun Kelly decided to give pop-punk music a try, shying away from the rap that made him famous. On a commercial level, that turned out to be a terrific idea, as MGK’s two rock albums, 2020’s Tickets To My Downfall and last year’s Mainstream Sellout, where his first ones to go No. 1 in the US. He’s apparently not done with rap yet, though, as he’s now saying he wants to get back to making that type of music.

In a new Audacy Music interview (as Rap-Up points out), Kelly said of what’s next for him:

“I’m going to make a rap album for myself, for no other reason, no point to prove, no chip on my shoulder. If I keep doing things to prove things to people, I’m going to one: drive myself crazy, and two: not make a good product. I made Tickets and Mainstream Sellout because I wanted to make them. I need to now also make people miss that sound. […] I’m going to do this tour and I’m gonna step into where I left Hotel Diablo and expand on my storytelling as a rapper and find a new innovative sound for the hip-hop Machine Gun Kelly. That’s where my excitement is and where me as a music archaeologist wants to explore.”

While pop-punk has brought Kelly his biggest commercial success, he wasn’t exactly slouching in his early rap days: All of his albums were top-5 on the charts, save for 2017’s Bloom, which peaked at a respectable No. 8. Bloom, however, yielded Kelly’s biggest hit song, as the Camila Cabello collaboration “Bad Things” peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it his only top-5 (or even top-10) single.

Watch the interview above.