Dr. Rick Bright, a leading government virologist, testified about the retaliation he faced after raising concerns over Trump’s support for hydroxychloroquine as a coronavirus treatment.
“We’re going to have more cases. We’re going to have more deaths,” the governor said.
Andrea Circle Bear told her grandmother she had pneumonia when prison officials took her to a nearby hospital. She was put on a ventilator the next day and had to give birth two months early.
First some good news: Legendary director George Miller is finally making another movie in the Mad Max franchise. Some news you may find even better: It will be about Furiosa, the one-armed badass who all but stole the last outing, the delightful Fury Road. Some less good news: It won’t star Charlize Theron.
Friday the 15th marks the five year anniversary of Fury Road, which revived the long dormant franchise to the tune of boffo box office, a whipping 11 Oscar nominations, and instant cult status. To celebrate, The New York Times ran an oral history of the next-level actioner, and on Thursday they confirmed with Miller — who’s been talking follow-ups ever since the movie’s release — that he’s indeed working on a Theron-less Furiosa project.
Why no Theron? Because it’s a prequel. As per NYT, the film will explore Furiosa’s history, with Miller searching for an actress in her 20s. He says he did consider using CGI tech to de-age his star, now 44, but that he decided recasting was a better route.
Just don’t expect it any time soon. Miller has another film to finish first, the drama Three Thousand Years of Longing, which stars Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba — which, alas, has been delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Still, be excited: Production designer Colin Gibson promises the next Mad Max movie, presumably sans Max Rockatansky, will be even bigger, with crazier cars.
(Via NYT)
Well before the coronavirus pandemic shuttered movie theaters entirely, action stars and filmmakers had already started flocking to Netflix. They gave Michael Bay a ton of money to make the nutty 6 Underground, and they let Mark Wahlberg and Peter Berg reboot a classic character with Spenser Confidential, released earlier in March. Wahlberg apparently had such a good time that he’s heading back to the streaming giant for another go.
This comes from Variety, which reports that Wahlberg is in early talks to produce and star in Our Man in Jersey, in which the actor would play, as they put it, “a blue-collar 007 James Bond-type character.” The title is a twist on Our Man in Havana, Graham Greene’s classic comedic spy novel, about an agent who starts making up reports that he sends to his superiors. It’s not clear what the plot will be, but the script will come from David Guggenheim, who penned the 2012 Denzel Washington-Ryan Reynolds thriller Safe House as well as another, very different Netflix movie, The Christmas Chronicles, starring Kurt Russell.
Spenser Confidential was, as per Netflix, a big hit, watched by over 85 million households in its first six weeks, although since they only release select streaming data — and only when something does well — such claims are to be taken with a grain of salt. Still, if they’re willing to give Wahlberg more money to make the kind of fare that once filled multiplexes, it’s safe to assume at least someone’s watching him.
(Via Variety)
The two Percy Jackson arrived with mixed results, but fans of the books have long hoped that the beloved series would get a live-action adaptation that’s on par with the Harry Potter films. You might not know it, but the two series are neck-in-neck in popularity with young readers, so there’s a very good reason why news of a Percy Jackson series coming to Disney+ was met with a groundswell of excitement.
The reveal was delivered by Percy Jackson author Rick Riordan, who has been petitioning Disney to give his books a faithful adaptation once he learned the House of Mouse would acquire the live-action rights through its purchase of Fox, and it looks like his campaigning worked. Riordan posted a video on his Twitter account announcing the new series along with the following statement:
Hey Percy Jackson fans, for the past decade, you’ve worked hard to champion a faithful on-screen adaptation of Percy Jackson’s world. Some of you have even suggested it would be a great series for Disney Plus. We couldn’t agree more! We can’t say much more at this stage but we are very excited about the idea of a live-action series of the highest quality, following the storyline of the original Percy Jackson five-book series, starting with The Lightning Thief in season one. Rest assured that Becky & I will be involved in person in every aspect of the how. There will. be much more news in the future, but for now, we have a lot of work to do! Buckle up, demigods. It’s going to be a fantastic, exciting ride!
In an especially classy move, actor Logan Lerman, who played Percy in the films, offered his support for the project and joined fans in hoping for a series that will stay true to the books this time around.
Excited to see this! Hope it gets the adaptation the books deserve. Congrats @rickriordan https://t.co/ReE6EjJICV
— Logan Lerman (@LoganLerman) May 14, 2020
Lerman is no doubt aware of Riordan’s displeasure with the Fox films. In a lengthy 2018 blog post, Riordan got very candid about how his attempts to “save” the first movie and even shared his emails to producers where he derided their attempts to “sex up” his books that were aimed at a 9-12 year old audience. The author also revealed a little known secret that even the biggest authors have very little say in Hollywood adaptations of their works. In the same post, Riordan expressed his hope that Disney would take another stab at the Percy Jackson series even while acknowledging that this could lead to yet another scenario where he’s not creatively involved. But it certainly looks like that’s not the case, and the author appears to be jazzed to bring the series to Disney+.
You can watch Riordan’s announcement video below:
Pssst. Hey, demigods . . . pic.twitter.com/7ep4aeyS3I
— Rick Riordan (@rickriordan) May 14, 2020
(Via Rick Riordan on Twitter)