Category: News

The Netflix series The Crown is a series very much based in reality, but the government the show follows would very much like to remind you that it’s mostly fiction. The Netflix drama, which recently saw its fourth season hit the streaming service, has seen some pressure from the UK government to add a disclaimer on its episodes that makes clear the show is a fictionalization of real events and not an historical reenactment of sorts.

UK culture secretary Oliver Dowden has apparently put pressure on Netflix to make it more clear to viewers that The Crown, which is written by Peter Morgan, is based on actual events in the British monarchy but is dramatized for the sake of, well, a TV show. According to Deadline, Dowden has told other outlets that Netflix needs to make it more clear to viewers that significant parts of the show are fabricated for the screen.

Speaking to The Mail on Sunday, Dowden said: “It’s a beautifully produced work of fiction, so as with other TV productions, Netflix should be very clear at the beginning it is just that.”

The minister, who plans to write to Netflix this week outlining his concerns, added: “Without this, I fear a generation of viewers who did not live through these events may mistake fiction for fact.”

It’s a delicate situation for the UK government, of course, as The Crown is quite literally about the more dramatic and scandalous moments of the British monarchy. And Season 4 in particular is growing closer to the present and involves more people who are still alive to deal with those moments being portrayed to millions of people on a streaming drama. Much of the latest season, for example, deals with the relationship between Prince Charles and Princess Diana.

Deadline also laid out some instances where portions of the show’s content have been fictionalized, or at least emphasized to heighten the drama on screen that historians say doesn’t match reality.

Morgan heightened a real-life interview Hawke did with current affairs show 4 Corners, emphasizing the ex-PM’s skepticism for the royal family by having him refer to the Queen as a “pig.” In reality, he never uttered such words.

Elsewhere, Princess Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, has been among those to voice concern about the show after Emma Corrin portrayed his late sister.

“Americans tell me they have watched The Crown as if they have taken a history lesson. Well, they haven’t,” he told ITV last weekend. “It is very hard, there is a lot of conjecture and a lot of invention, isn’t there? You can hang it on fact but the bits in between are not fact.”

It’s unclear if Netflix will honor the UK government’s wishes, but it’s important to note the show isn’t immune to disclaimers. Several Season 4 episodes come with a warning that they depict an eating disorder and offer resources to those struggling with the same things that Dianna is shown battling on the show.

In an unrelated story, Netflix will also now pay tax on revenues made in the UK rather than channel it through the Netherlands.

Fans recently flocked to Twitter to slam the new reboot of Saved By The Bell after a recent episode from the show made light of Selena Gomez’s kidney transplant, which she first spoke about back in 2017. The episode mentioned the transplant in two separate scenes, one that showed the question “Does Selena Gomez even have a kidney?” written on the wall of the school’s hallway, and another that found the characters speculating who the donor behind her new kidney was.

In this discussion, names like Justin Bieber’s mom and her “best friend” and Demi Lovato were brought up. After fans shared their frustrations with the platform, Peacock issued a statement and apologized for making “light of Selena’s health.”

“We apologize. It was never our intention to make light of Selena’s health,” Peacock, NBC Universal, and the show’s executive producer’s said in a statement given to The Hollywood Reporter. “We have been in touch with her team and will be making a donation to her charity, The Selena Gomez Fund for Lupus Research at USC.”

The response from fans to the scene, which occurred in the sixth episode of the show’s reboot, found them labeling it as “disgusting,” “disrespectful,” “unnecessary,” and more. As a result of their comments on Twitter, fans made the phrase “Respect Selena Gomez” trend on the social media site. The incident also occurred a few months after the singer first shared an image of her kidney transplant scar on Twitter to “feel confident.”

(via The Hollywood Reporter)

Thanksgiving weekend is traditionally one of the biggest box office weekends of the year, and despite the pandemic, 2020 is no exception. The difference, of course, is the size of the numbers. In past years, movies like Frozen, Moana, and Knives Out have put up huge Thanksgiving weekend numbers, while this year, the top film at the box office almost broke $10 million, which technically makes it the biggest opening of the pandemic.

Tenet opened on Labor Day weekend, and Warner Bros. reported that it earned $20 million, but that figure was wildly misleading because it included a Thursday-to-Monday Labor Day gross plus an entire week’s worth of grosses in Canada. The actual figure for the three-day weekend was closer to $9.4 million.

For this three-day weekend, Croods: A New Age has bested Tenet, scoring $9.7 million. For the five-day Thanksgiving weekend haul, it earned $14.3 million. That would be considered a huge flop on any other Thanksgiving weekend, but by 2020 standards, that’s an actual hit.

In fact, for the weekend, Croods: A New Age has earned $35 million worldwide, which suggests that the film could actually break even with its $65 million budget theatrically once all the grosses are in around the globe. Still, the real revenue for the Croods sequel is not likely to roll in until Christmas, when it’s made available digitally as part of Universal’s new strategy with various theaters — AMC, Cinemark, and Cineplex — to shrink the theatrical window. The window has been shortened so that they can roll it out on PVOD by Christmas Day.

The downside, unfortunately, is that $14 million worth of ticket buyers went to the movies in the midst of the biggest surge of COVID-19 of the year, which — along with Thanksgiving get-togethers — may contribute to an even bigger surge ahead of a vaccine that will roll out in the coming months. Croods: A New Age, however, is likely the biggest release until Wonder Woman 1984, which hits theaters and HBO Max on Christmas Day. Beyond WW, major releases don’t start rolling out again until March with Raya and the Last Dragon, which was supposed to be released this Thanksgiving weekend.

For the record, Croods: A New Age is scoring well with audiences. It received an A Cinemascore and a 95 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, compared to a 72 percent from critics, of which I was one, who gave it a generally good review (I also liked the original).

As for the rest of the weekend’s box office? There’s not much to say, Freaky, the body-swapping horror comedy starring Vince Vaughn, earned $1 million, which was good enough for second place. It’s earned $7 million at the box office, so far. It’s a decent haul for a pandemic, but again, it’s part of a strategy to use the theatrical release to essentially market its PVOD release, which is this Friday, only 17 days after its theatrical release (I’m actually very excited about it).

In at number three is Robert DeNiro’s War with Grandpa, which has quietly earned a respectable $17 million in 7 weeks of release. In fourth place is Kevin Costner’s Let Him Go, which is now out on PVOD, but nevertheless scored $400,000 to bring its three-week total to $8.7 million, which honestly is probably as well as a Kevin Costner and Diane Lane movie would have done in normal times against much stiffer competition.

Speaking of Frozen, the original was released on Thanksgiving weekend in 2013 and earned $93 million over its first five day. It was re-released this weekend by Disney, but came up woefully short of that, earning only $120,000, or $88 per screen. It’s been a long year.

Source: Box Office Mojo, Deadline

The incredible technology that goes into F1 cars makes them fast, nimble and, hopefully, safe. And that effort seems to have paid off on Sunday after a driver walked away from a fiery crash that split his car in half on the very first lap of the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Driver Roman Grosjean caused a red flag almost immediately when his car made contact with the front of one driven by Daniil Kvyat, who had slowed down because of drivers ahead of him doing the same. Grosjean’s car veered right, then barreled straight through the barriers on the side of the track, breaking in two on impact and creating a massive fireball.

This is what the crash looked like initially, with no real sign of the car except the fireball it just created when it made contact with the wall.

According to Racer, the accident happened on the opening lap of the event. Though it’s an extremely harrowing image, Grosjean was shown on camera being helped from the fireball by track officials. And though Grosjean apparently suffered some burns, amazingly no one else on the track was injured amid all the chaos.

“He’s doing OK, he had light burns on his hands and ankles, but he’s conscious,” Haas team director Guenther Steiner told Sky TV.

The team subsequently confirmed that Grosjean has been transferred to a nearby hospital with a possible broken rib in addition to his light burns.

No course marshals are believed to have been injured in the incident.

Drivers tweeted their concern and relief upon hearing that Grosjean was OK.

The race was also suspended 45 minutes so the course’s barriers could be repaired and, you know, the fire was put out. But amazingly, everyone managed to escape in much better shape than it initially looked on Sunday morning.

David Prowse, the man who brought Darth Vader to life in the original Star Wars films, is dead at 85. The actor who first wore Vader’s suit died Saturday, as reported by his management team and later confirmed by multiple outlets. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Prowse died early Sunday morning at age 85.

David Prowse, the champion English weightlifter and bodybuilder who supplied his 6-foot-7 frame — but not the voice or the deep breathing — to portray Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy, died early in the morning on Saturday. He was 85.

Prowse’s death was confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter by his agent Thomas Bowington on Saturday night. The company also wrote on Twitter, “It’s with great regret and heart-wrenching sadness for us and million of fans around the world, to announce that our client Dave Prowse M.B.E. has passed away at the age of 85.”

Prowse gave one of the most famous movie characters ever his physical presence, while James Earl Jones famous gave Vader his voice. But Prowse was a fixture of Star Wars fandom even in his later years, often posing with those who made their own Vader costumes to wear to conventions and expos.

Mark Hamill, who played his (spoilers!) on-screen son Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars films, tweeted his condolences early Sunday morning, sharing images of Prowse and calling him a “kind man” and “much more” than Darth Vader.

C-3PO actor Anthony Daniels also commented on the loss, noting that while their characters never quite squared off, Prowse was a pivotal figure in what made the movie villain so powerful.

Prowse had many other acting roles over his career, using his hulking frame to play characters in James Bond’s Casino Royale, Frankenstein in The Horror Of Frankenstein and Monster From Hell. He also played a role in A Clockwork Orange. But his work as Darth Vader will be what he’s remembered for best by millions of fans for whom his on-screen presence is unmistakable.

This was quite the weekend for NBA players stepping off the floor and into other sports, with Stephen Curry teaming with Peyton Manning and losing to Charles Barkley and Phil Mickelson in The Match III on Friday and, on Saturday night, Nate Robinson was in the final undercard fight against Jake Paul on the Mike Tyson-Roy Jones Jr. pay-per-view fight.

Robinson’s boxing debut went, well, very poorly as he got knocked down in the first round — which likely should’ve ended the fight but he was allowed to continue — and then, in the second round, was put out cold by an uppercut, short hook combination from Paul that caused Robinson to bounce face first off of the mat.

The former NBA dunk contest champion’s debut drew plenty of eyeballs, including those of his former peers in the league who reacted the same as everyone else. Initially, it was a lot of “DAMN” tweets, followed by everything from concern to jokes to memes.

Paul Pierce’s live video reaction was maybe the best as the disappointment was palpable.

Despite the jokes, a lot of guys also made sure to voice their support for Nate for stepping into the ring and giving it his all, appreciating his effort even if the results of his boxing debut didn’t go as planned.

Halsey was one of the many deserving artists who were completely overlooked for a nomination at the Grammys this year, even though her latest album, Manic, was excellent. What we lose when artists are continually given the message that only a certain kind of music, or a certain kind of artist, can get nominated and win, has been a subject of much discussion this week following the announcement of this year’s nominations.

Outrage over The Weeknd not getting a single nomination for his new album After Hours was further stoked by rumors that his competing performance at the Superbowl might’ve had an impact on his snub. Earlier today, Halsey responded to the situation with The Weeknd, her own snub for Manic, and her thoughts about The Grammys process at large:

“I’ve been thinking and wanted to choose my words carefully because a lot of people have extended sympathy and apology to me since the Grammy nominations,” she began, in an Instagram story post earlier today. “The Grammys are an elusive process. It can often be about behind the scenes private performances, knowing the right people, campaigning through the grapevine, with the right handshakes and “bribes” that can be just ambiguous enough to pass as “not-bribes.” And if you get that far, it’s about committing to exclusive TV performances and making sure you help the Academy make their millions in advertising on the night of the show.

Perhaps sometimes it is (!!) but it’s not always about the music or quality or culture. Just wanted to get that off my chest. @TheWeeknd deserves better, and Manic did too. Perhaps it’s unbecoming of me to say so but I can’t care anymore. While I am THRILLED for my talented friends who were recognized this year, I am hoping for more transparency or reform. But I’m sure this post will blacklist me anyway.”

Well, glad she spoke her truth — and it will be interesting if any other artists weigh in on the “bribes” comment.

Saturday night’s sports lineup was, somehow, headlined by a Roy Jones Jr.-Mike Tyson boxing pay-per-view in the year of our lord 2020. The last fight on the undercard, which featured some actual, sanctioned fights, was another questionable exhibition bout scheduled for six rounds between YouTuber Jake Paul and former NBA dunk contest champion Nate Robinson.

Paul was a pretty healthy betting favorite at -225, as he has previous boxing experience, knocking out fellow YouTuber AnEsonGib on a DAZN card in 2019. Robinson was stepping into a boxing ring for the first time and despite his best efforts to prepare, his discomfort in the ring was evident from the jump and he struggled from the beginning. He was knocked down in the first round on what he seemed to believe was a rabbit punch to the back of the head, but did survive the round.

However, in the second round, there was no doubt as to whether Paul’s second knockdown was legit as he put the former NBA star out cold with a combination that began with a right uppercut and finished with a short right hook that put Robinson face first on the canvas.

It was scary for a minute as Robinson was out cold, but he did come to and was able to leave the ring. He’ll certainly need medical evaluation and, likely, will call it a boxing career after a rather disastrous debut. Paul moves to 2-0 in his strange boxing career with a pair of knockouts.

The NBA is slowly trickling out information on what the upcoming season is going to look like. While there are still tons of unknowns about how the 2020-21 campaign will function, the league did announce its preseason slate, which will commence next month. And on Saturday, the NBA laid out its key dates for the preseason, regular season, and playoffs.

Here’s how things will shake out, per a release from the league:

Dec. 1-5: Individual player workouts, Media “Week”
Dec. 6: Group player workouts begin
Dec. 11-19: Preseason games
Dec. 22, 2020 — Mar. 4, 2021: First Half of Regular season.

At this point, the league will hold an All-Star break from March 5-10. While the NBA has announced that it will move Indianapolis’ turn as the All-Star hosts to 2024, there is word that it plans on doing something during this period. Here is how things will shake out from there:

Mar. 11 — May 16: Second Half of regular season
May 13-15: Class of 2020 Hall of Fame Enshrinement
May 18-21: Play-In Tournament
May 22 — July 22: 2021 NBA Playoffs

This would, of course, let the league achieve its state goal of ending the year in time for the Summer Olympics, which are currently scheduled to begin on July 23, 2021. There are still plenty of outstanding questions even beyond the slate of games, particularly on things like the trade deadline.

In the end, Amazon’s Utopia had a much longer and somewhat more dramatic journey to the screen than it did on it. The fantasy drama about comic book fans stumbling into a world-altering pandemic was originally an HBO project that finally hit streaming in 2020 on Amazon, but it won’t go past a single season.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Utopia was officially canceled at Amazon after mixed reviews and uncertain streaming totals. The show, which was picked up by HBO in 2014, actually had a six-year journey to screen that saw Gillian Flynn lead the show at Amazon.

Originally developed and picked up straight to series in 2014 at HBO with David Fincher reuniting with his Gone Girl collaborator Flynn, the drama about a group of comic book fans who stumble on a deadly pandemic landed at Amazon four years later. Flynn had an overall deal with HBO and moved it to Amazon along with Utopia, though Fincher was no longer attached.

Amazon, like other streamers, does not release traditional viewership data. The drama was not met with warm reviews when it launched Sept. 25. The series has a 51 percent rating among critics on RottenTomatoes.com and, perhaps in a sign of a failure to cut through, does not have an audience score. In her review, THR TV critic Inkoo Kang called Utopia “Too hackneyed to be timely, too grim to be escapist.”

The project marked the first time Flynn, who wrote the novel Gone Girl and helped Fincher make it a movie, served as a TV showrunner. As THR noted, the show was an admittedly tough watch in a reality that has a much more realistic pandemic actually taking place. And despite the star-studded cast that included Rainn Wilson and John Cusack, all American viewers will apparently get is its initial nine episode first season.

[via THR]