Saturday, December 21, 2019

Negromancer News Bits and Bites from December 15th to 21st, 2019 - Update #30

by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"

Support Leroy on Patreon:

MOVIES - From YahooHuffPost:  Eddie Murphy still regrets turning down the lead role in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"

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POLITICS - From WashPost:  Rep. Matt Shea, a Washington state GOP state legislator, has been found to have participated in a act of domestic terrorism.

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BOX OFFICE - From THR:  At the Chinese box office, "The Rise of Skywalker" is being beaten by local blockbusters.

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STREAMING - From Variety:  Hulu's planned TV series based on novelist Anne Rice's "Vampire Chronicles" book series (which begins with "Interview with a Vampire") is not happening.  The rights are being shopped around... at a high price.

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TELEVISION - From Variety:  Epix is producing a TV series based on Stephen King's short story, "Jerusalem's Lot."  Adrien Brody is set to star.

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TELEVISION - From TheWrap:  A jury has award 8.6 million dollars to the parents of John Bernecker, the stuntman who died in July 2017 during the filming of a stunt for "The Walking Dead."

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TRAILER - From SlashFilm:  Here is the first official trailer for Christopher Nolan's next mind-bending film, "Tenet," with a breakdown of the contents of the trailer by the article's writer.  "Tenet" opens July 17, 2020.

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MOVIES - From Deadline:  Focus Features will distribute Paul Thomas Anderson's next film, an untitled high school film set in the 1970s.  Anderson's previous film was the Oscar-nominated, "The Phantom Thread."

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MOVIES - From Esquire:  Adam Sandler, getting rave reviews and Oscar buzz for his film, "Uncut Gems," says he got a phone call from Oscar-winning actor, Daniel Day-Lewis, who praised Sandler for his performance in the film.

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TELEVISION - From YahooEntertainment:  Comedian/talk show host Wayne Brady is the winner of Fox's competition reality show, "The Masked Singer" Season Two.

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ANIMATION - From Variety:  Dave Green will direct the animation/live-action hybrid, "Wile E. Coyote" movie, "Coyote vs Acme."

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MOVIES- From EW:  The site has an exclusive first look at Christopher Nolan's secret film project, "Tenet," starring John David Washington and Robert Pattinson.

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TELEVISION - From Deadline:  The CW is looking to reboot its former TV series, "The Game," which it debuted in 2006 and cancelled in 2009.  BET revived the series, where it ran from from 2011 to 2015.

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STREAMING - From Deadline:  Morfydd Clark has been cast as a young "Galadriel" in Amazon's "The Lord of the Rings."  Galadriel is the character played by Cate Blanchett in Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" film trilogy.

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MOVIES - From EW:  Here, is a first look, some images from the third "Bill & Ted" film, "Bill & Ted Face the Music."  The film, starring Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, is due August 21, 2020.

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POLITICS - From TheWhiteHouse:  Well... President Trump to Speaker Pelosi.

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MOVIES - From Variety:  Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Productions have tapped Keith Thomas to direct their "Firestarter" remake.  Both the 1984 original film (which starred a 9-year-old Drew Barrymore) and the reboot are based on Stephen King's 1980 novel of the same name.

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MOVIES - From ScreenRant:  David Ayer ("Suicide Squad") will direct Warner Bros' remake of "The Dirty Dozen" (1967), the classic World War II action film.

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DISNEY+ - From Variety:  Disney+ is in early development of a TV series based on the 1989 Tom Hanks' man-dog buddy comedy, "Turner & Hooch."

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MOVIES - From Deadline:  Viola Davis are among the actors added to Sandra Bullock's Netflix drama about life after incarceration.

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STAR TREK - From Variety:  The streaming service, CBS All Access, has renewed "Star Trek: Picard" for a second season, although the first season has not yet debuted.

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MOVIES - From IndieWire:  Quentin Tarantino is apparently leaving his R-rated "Star Trek" behind, and if he makes one more film, it will be "smaller."

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SCANDAL - From THR:  Disgraced movie mogul, Harvey Weinstein, says that he is a "forgotten man," meaning people have forgotten the great things that he has done in the American movie business.  Harvey is scheduled to go to trial in January 2020 for charges of rape, predatory sexual assault and criminal sexual act against two women.

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BOX OFFICE - From BoxOfficeMojo:  The winner of the 12/13 to 12/15/2019 weekend box office is "Jumanji: The Next Level" with an estimated take of 60.1 million dollars.

From Variety:  "Frozen II" becomes the sixth Disney movie to reach one billion dollars in global box office in 2019.

From Variety: The Emilia Clarke-Henry Golding holiday film, "Last Christmas," has now grossed the 100 million dollar mark in global box office.

From Forbes:  New box office release, "Richard Jewell" and "Black Christmas," fail in their box office debuts.

From Patreon:  My "Queen & Slim" review.

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CELEBRITY - From BleedingCool:  Did you know actor Samuel L. Jackson's voice can be your Amazon "Alexa" voice.

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SPORTS - From CBSSports:  The 2019 Heisman Trophy winner as the best player in college football is Joe Burrows, quarterback for the #1 ranked LSU Tigers.  Burrows, the second Louisiana State University football player to win the Heisman, won the award by the largest margin in the history of Heisman voting.  His 2608 points were 1846 points higher than the second place finisher, Jalen Hurts, QB of the Oklahoma Sooners.

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MOVIES - From Vulture:  Yes, what is the best Adam Sandler movie?


Friday, December 20, 2019

The Women Behind "Star Wars" and Lucasfilm Talk About Innovation

The Women Behind "The Rise of Skywalker" Reveal What Drives Innovation in the World of "Star Wars"

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker opens in theaters today, and it marks the epic conclusion to a saga that began more than 40 years ago with the release of Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope. At the new film’s center is Rey (Daisy Ridley), a powerful young Jedi-in-training whose journey has been a driving force in the latest trilogy and who continues the great tradition of heroic women in the Star Wars universe. That tradition can be traced back to 1977 and the onscreen debut of Princess Leia Organa, played by the late Carrie Fisher, who makes her final appearance in the role—now known as General Organa—in The Rise of Skywalker.

There is also a powerful team of women working behind the scenes at Lucasfilm, bringing the galaxy far, far away to fans on the big screen with The Rise of Skywalker, as well as on Disney+, where The Mandalorian is currently captivating fans and where Ewan McGregor is set to reprise the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi in an upcoming series planned for the streaming service. Some of these talented women recently gathered at the Porsche Experience Center in Los Angeles for a special panel discussion about what “drives” them, hosted by the sports car manufacturer, which teamed up with Lucasfilm Ltd. on the design of a spacecraft that can be seen in The Rise of Skywalker.

The panelists couldn’t help but compare the thrill of making a Star Wars film to the excitement of racing around a track. “I love being scared, which is probably why I came to visual effects—because we’re constantly terrified,” laughed Lucasfilm Executive Vice President and General Manager Lynwen Brennan. But Brennan emphasized the appreciation she has for the fear and uncertainty that goes hand in hand with innovation. “If you’re not terrified, you’re not pushing the envelope,” she stated.

Michelle Rejwan, senior vice president of live action development & production for Lucasfilm and one of the producers of The Rise of Skywalker, echoed that feeling of being on the edge of her seat as she and the other filmmakers put the finishing touches on the massively anticipated film. “It’s Star Wars. It’s quite inspiring because it means so much to so many people,” she said. “There’s not one detail that you don’t talk about tirelessly and weigh.” The unbridled passion from the fans—a group to which all of the panelists proudly belong—galvanizes the filmmakers. “We want this to be a satisfying, emotional ending to the story,” Rejwan stressed.

And while the Star Wars films have inspired countless advancements that have been implemented throughout the entertainment industry (and led to the creation of Lucasfilm’s groundbreaking Industrial Light & Magic VFX and animation studio), everyone involved with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker believes that story must always come before innovation. “You want to have the foundation of a good screenplay and something you’re grounded with. And then you can push the technology,” Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy emphasized.

That technology is increasingly used in service of new kinds of stories told by new storytellers who grew up with the franchise and have their own personal connection to the world of Star Wars. “It’s important for us to maintain that kind of emotional legacy that George [Lucas] created but add more of it that speaks to our filmmakers’ own interests and experience and what they want to say inside of Star Wars,” noted Lucasfilm’s director of development, Rayne Roberts.

Victoria Mahoney, second unit director for The Rise of Skywalker, is a relative newcomer to the galaxy far, far away, though she can recall vividly a childhood wish for a Star Wars spacecraft to land in her backyard. She praised the “clarity of vision” shared by director J.J. Abrams, Kennedy, Rejwan and screenwriter Chris Terrio, which was apparent from her earliest days on the film. “They all have such a clear sense of what this world is, what the mythology is, what the audiences love, what works, what doesn’t work, what’s honest, what’s a betrayal—and the [idea that] something could be cool but it doesn’t belong,” she said. “I think that’s a very brave and bold decision, that it can’t just be cool; it has to be honest and authentic.”

That authenticity is at the heart of why Kennedy believes Star Wars is the cultural icon that it is, and why it has been shared across multiple generations. She also points to one other important quality that’s inherent to every Star Wars story: optimism. “There’s optimism and aspiration, and that’s something that we’re constantly using as a touchstone,” Kennedy said, explaining that the characters and stories then develop from that emotional goal. “Everything that we do, we’re creating from whole cloth. We don’t have source material. We don’t have 700-page novels to adapt,” Kennedy said. “We have ourselves, the people sitting here. And so our conversations often begin [with] people sitting around saying, ‘What do you love about Star Wars? What does it make you feel? And that optimism and aspiration are very much a part of that.”

As the Skywalker Saga draws to a close and audiences embark upon new adventures in the world of Star Wars, the goal hasn’t changed since the beginning: to create original stories that take fans to places they’ve never been before. And in doing so, the Lucasfilm team will re-create for fans—and for themselves—that rush of excitement and feeling of hope they experienced the first time they journeyed to a galaxy far, far away.

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Thursday, December 19, 2019

"Malignant," James Wan's Upcoming Horror Flick, Has Finished Shooting

James Wan’s Original Horror/Thriller “Malignant” Wraps Production

Independently Financed by Starlight Media and Midas Innovation, a Presentation of Atomic Monster, Starlight Media and New Line Cinema, Warner Bros. Pictures set for Global Distribution, Excluding China

BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Shooting has wrapped in Los Angeles on Atomic Monster’s “Malignant,” the latest creation from “Conjuring” universe architect James Wan (“Aquaman,” “Furious 7”). The film marks director Wan’s return to his roots with this new original horror thriller.

“Malignant” stars Annabelle Wallis (“The Loudest Voice,” “The Mummy,” “Annabelle”), Maddie Hasson (YouTube Originals’ “Impulse,” “Novitiate,” “I Saw the Light”), George Young (“A Bread Factory” Parts 1 & 2, “Containment,” HBO Asia’s horror mini-series “Grace”), Michole Briana White (“Lila and Eve,” “She Hate Me,” “Encino Man”), Jake Abel (“Another Life,” “Dirty John,” “Love & Mercy”), Jacqueline McKenzie (Netflix series “Pine Gap,” “Halifax: Retribution,” “Romper Stomper: Next Gen”), and Ingrid Bisu (“The Nun,” “Toni Erdmann”).

Wan directed from a screenplay by Akela Cooper (“M3GAN,” “The Nun 2”) and JT Petty, story by James Wan & Ingrid Bisu. Plot details are being kept under wraps. The film is produced by Wan and Michael Clear, with Richard Brener, Eric McLeod, Bisu, Judson Scott and Starlight Media’s Peter Luo serving as executive producers. The film is being independently financed through Starlight Media and Midas Innovation.

Behind the scenes, Wan was joined by his frequent collaborators, director of photography Don Burgess and editor Kirk Morri (“Aquaman,” “The Conjuring 2”) and production designer Desma Murphy (art director, “Aquaman,” “Furious 7”), as well as costume designer Lisa Norcia (“Insidious: The Last Key”).

Scheduled for release on August 14, 2020, “Malignant” is a presentation of Wan’s banner, Atomic Monster, Starlight Media and New Line Cinema, and will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, and in China by Starlight Media.

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Tuesday, December 17, 2019

"Best Picture of 2019" Academy Award Has 344 Suitors

344 FEATURE FILMS IN CONTENTION FOR 2019 BEST PICTURE OSCAR®

Three hundred forty-four feature films are eligible for the 2019 Academy Awards®, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today.

To be eligible for 92nd Academy Awards consideration, feature films must open in a commercial motion picture theater in Los Angeles County by December 31, and begin a minimum run of seven consecutive days.

Under Academy rules, a feature-length motion picture must have a running time of more than 40 minutes and must have been exhibited theatrically on 35mm or 70mm film, or in a qualifying digital format.

Feature films that receive their first public exhibition or distribution in any manner other than as a theatrical motion picture release are not eligible for Academy Awards in any category.  The “Reminder List of Productions Eligible for the 92nd Academy Awards” is available at http://www.oscars.org/oscars/rules-eligibility.

Nominations for the 92nd Academy Awards will be announced on Monday, January 13, 2020.

The 92nd Oscars® will be held on Sunday, February 9, 2020, at the Dolby Theatre® at Hollywood & Highland Center® in Hollywood, and will be televised live on the ABC Television Network.  The Oscars also will be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.

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Monday, December 16, 2019

BOOM! Studios from Diamond Distributors for December 18, 2019

BOOM! STUDIOS

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Dark Horse Comics from Diamond Distributors for December 18, 2019

DARK HORSE COMICS

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DC Comics from Diamond Distributors for December 18, 2019

DC COMICS

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