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ENTERTAINMENT AND CULTURE NEWS:
TELEVISION - From Deadline: NBC has passed on a third season of its sitcom, "American Auto."
MOVIES - From Deadline: Martyn Ford is among four new cast members added to New Line's "Mortal Kombat 2."
SCANDAL - From THR: Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey says that if he is found "not guilty" in his U.K. sexual assault trial people are ready to hire him again. He is set to appear in court June 16th and he is facing four counts of sexual assault against three men.
DISNEY - From Deadline: Director and Oscar-winning screenwriter, Sarah Polley, is in early talks to direct a live-action version of Disney's legendary animated feature film, "Bambi."
DISNEY - From Variety: Disney has shaken up its release date schedules, announcing delays and date changes for its Marvel Studios and "Avatar" films, with the final Avatar film, "Avatar 5," not arriving until 2031.
POLITICS - From TheAP: Billionaire investor turned philanthropist George Soros is ceding control of his $25 billion empire to a younger son, Alexander "Alex" Soros. Soros, who is Jewish, is frequently the target of right wing conspiracies because his donations to human rights causes and to organizations promoting democracy around the world. The 37-year-old Alex plans to continues his father's work, but be "more policital" and also to broaden his father's "liberal aims" to include issues such as voting rights and abortion rights.
TELEVISION - From Deadline: Fox News has sent a "cease and desist" letter to its former property, Tucker Carlson." Although Fox fired him, he is still under contract through the end of 2024, and they don't want him doing a show on Twitter. He has already completed at least two episodes of his "Tucker on Twitter" show.
TONY AWARDS - From Deadline: The winners at the 2023 / 76th annual Tony Awards have been announced. "Kimberly Akimbo" was the big winner, taking five awards, including "Best Musical" and "Lead Actress" for Victoria Clark. "Leopoldstadt" won four Tonys, including "Best Play."
BOX OFFICE - From BoxOfficePro: The winner of the 6/9 to 6/11/2023 weekend box office is Paramount Pictures' "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts" with an estimated take of 60.5 million dollars.
From Here: A review of "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts" by Leroy Douresseaux.
TELEVISION - From Deadline: Actor Kelsey Grammar explains his choice of a British co-star, actor Nicholas Lyndhurst, for his reboot of his long-running, Emmy-winning NBC TV series, "Frasier." The series is set for Paramount+ later this year.
MOVIES - From Variety: In a new documentary about his career, actor Arnold Schwarzenegger says that he was embarrassed by the flop that was his 1993 action-fantasy-comedy film, "The Last Action Hero." In a phone call, his friend, director James Cameron, said Arnold sounded like he wanted to cry over the film's reception.
MUSIC/LGBTQ+ - From Deadline: Grammy Award-winning country music legend, Garth Brooks, says that he will serve all beers, including "Bud Light," which is the subject of backlash and boycotts, at his new Nashville bar, "Friends in Low Places Bar & Honky Tonk." Brooks says the bar will be welcoming to everyone and will be a safe space.
ANIMATION - From BloodyDisgusting: Eli Roth and author James Frey are teaming up with DreamWorks Animation on a new 2D animated series for "older teens" entitled "Fright Krewe." Still early in development, the series will focus on a group of misfits teens in charge of saving New Orleans from a great demonic threat. The first season of 10 episodes will debut on Hulu and Peacock.
OBITS:
From WashPost: Former U.S. military analyst and American political activist and whistleblower, Daniel Ellsberg, has died at the age of 92, Friday, June 16, 2023. Ellsberg is best known for leaking the "Pentagon Papers," a top-secret study and history commissioned by the U.S. Pentagon and concerning the U.S. government's decision-making in relation to the Vietnam War. He leaked the study first to "The New York Times" and then, to "The Washington Post." Ellsberg's activities were the subject on the Oscar-nominated documentary film, "The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers," which also won a Peabody Award. Ellsberg also appears in the 1974 Oscar-winning documentary film, "Hearts and Minds."
From Deadline: English actress and politician, Glenda Jackson, has died at the age of 87, Thursday, June 15, 2023. Jackson won two "Best Actress" Oscars, for "Women in Love" (1969) and "A Touch of Class" (1973), and was nominated twice more. She also won two Primetime Emmy Awards and one Tony Award. Jackson was also a member of the British Parliament from 1992 to 2015 as a member of the Labour Party.
From Variety: American author, Cormac McCarthy, has died at the age of 89, Tuesday, June 13, 2023. He is best known for his novels, "All the Pretty Horses" (1992), "No Country for Old Me," (2005), and "The Road" (2006), all of which were adapted into film. The 2007 film adaptation of "No Country for Old Me" won four Academy Awards," including "Best Picture." "The Road" won the 2007 "Pulitzer Prize for Fiction."
From Variety: Stage, film, and television actor, Treat Williams, has died at the age of 71, Monday, June 12, 2023. Williams died as the result of motor vehicle accident near Dorset, Vermont. Williams is best known for his roles in such films as the musical, "Hair" (1979), Steven Spielberg's WWII comedy, "1941" (1979), "Prince of the City" (1981), and the cult film, "Deep Rising" (1998), to name a few. He played the lead road in The WB drama, "Everwood" (2002-06). He received a Primetime Emmy nominations for his work in the 1996 TV movie, "The Late Shift" (HBO).
From Deadline: The family of actor the late actor Treat Williams has released a statement regarding his passing. Williams died Monday evening (Mon., June 12th) when a car hit the motorcycle he was riding.
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WRITERS STRIKE:
From THR: Studios won't give writers better pay, and now, are laying off janitors.
From Deadline: The Directors Guild of America (DGA) has reached a tentative new three-year deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). So what does the Writers Guild (WGA), currently on strike and negotiating with the AMPTP, think of that deal.
From Deadline: Netflix shareholders declined to support the 2023 pay packages of top executives during a non-binding vote at the company’s annual shareholder meeting on Thursday. The vote won't prevent these execs from getting their loot (an total of $166 million), but this is a rare public rebuke. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) has urged shareholders to vote "No" because the pay was "inappropriate" at this time.
From Deadline: Warner Bros Discovery chief David Zaslav gave the commencement address at Boston University. There he was met with jeers and also chants of "pay your writers" from picketers and from some in the audience.
From Deadline: President Joe Biden speaks on the Writers Guild of America strike.
From Deadline: Retaliation! The studios have starting informing writer-producers who have "overall" and "first-look" deals that such deals are being suspended.
From Deadline: Retaliation! Prolific HBO creator, David Simon, who is best known for "The Wire," is one of the many writers who have had their overall deals suspended the studios due to the WGA strike. Simon has been with HBO for 25 years.
From Deadline: The Writers Guild of America (WGA) is on strike.
From Deadline: Disney, HBO/HBO Max, and CBS have sent letters to showrunners (the TV equivalent of film directors) instructing them to return to work, inspite of the writer's strike.
From Deadline: The WGA's chief negotiator, Ellen Stutzman, talks about the state of the writers' strike, including the lack of engagement on the part of the strike's other party, AMPTP.
From Deadline: What went wrong between the WGA and AMPTP? What could they not agree on that led to a strike?
From Deadline: The site explains the WGA strike: the issues, the stakes, movies and TV shows affected, and how long it might last.
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, 
) and Quentin Tarantino (
, 
) present two-full length movies in their horror double feature, Grindhouse. The film is an ode to theatrical double and triple features shown at grindhouse theatres (called such because these theatres would grind out one movie after another). Most of the films shown at grind houses were exploitation films involving sex, violence, crime, sci-fi/horror, or race (blaxploitation). Rodriguez and Tarantino’s Grindhouse also includes four fake trailer segments for non-existent movies – an homage to how grindhouse theatres would show many trailers for upcoming films between double features.
, in which a small Texas town finds itself inundated by fellow townsfolk who have mutated into flesh-hungry zombies. A mysterious trucker named Wray (Freddy Rodriguez) and a go-go dancer named Cherry Darling (Rose McGowan), who had her right leg ripped off by zombies, join forces to fight the monstrous invasion. Wray eventually replaces Cherry’s missing leg with an automatic rifle, and the pair lead an group of accidental warriors in a bid to stop Lt. Muldoon (Bruce Willis), a rogue military officer, from making the all-ready dire situation worse.
theatres, I am somewhat familiar with exploitation films. In fact, I’ve seen enough of those to know that well before 
, Rodriguez and Tarantino’s films were capturing the vibe of 1970’s exploitation cinema.
, although not quite as good as 
. It’s one of the best zombie films to come around since Resident Evil kick-started this horror sub-genre back to life in 2002.
and 
.