Category: media

Summer flops are to blame this year – think Alien: Covenant and King Arthur (or rather, don’t think about them; no one else did) – but that’s not the only problem. “The long-term decline in attendance reflects systemic challenges facing the industry. Audiences are spending less time going to the movies and are consuming more entertainment on small screens and through streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon that are spending billions on original video content.”

It’s weird to say this about a Disney-owned film in a franchise that has arguably made war more popular and famous than any other film could, but The Last Jedi is different. It’s a film that “struggles to distance itself from the most toxic elements of Star Wars in order to chart a more progressive terrain.”

“The five-year grant will fund a localized version of “Sesame Street,” distributed through television and digital devices, and home visits using “Sesame Street” content for an estimated 1.5 million children. Instead of the stars that Americans grew up with, like Big Bird, Elmo and Oscar the Grouch, the characters would be tailored to the region, speaking Arabic and Iraqi Kurdish.”

“An unnamed FBI agent who watched the film as part of a larger FBI program aimed at detecting and neutralizing Commie influences in Hollywood … uncovered that ‘those responsible for making It’s a Wonderful Life had employed two common tricks used by Communists to inject propaganda into the film.'”

The two were suspended two weeks ago over allegations of “inappropriate conduct”; following an investigation, they were dismissed on Thursday. “It’s a stunning end for two of WNYC’s most recognizable voices: Lopate interviewed everyone from Barack Obama to Liza Minnelli on his long-running weekday show, while Schwartz maintained a devoted following for his weekend program dedicated to the American Songbook.”

Kathleen Kennedy has set her sights on perhaps the most pernicious industry villain of all: sexual misconduct and abuse. She is spearheading the creation of an anti-harassment commission, backed by more than two dozen of the entertainment industry’s biggest bigwigs, that, in a stroke of marquee casting, will be led by Anita Hill.

Justice League, Bohemian Rhapsody, and more than one Star Wars film had directors quit or get fired in the middle of the project. “The person in the director’s chair has come to be increasingly viewed as a more disposable commodity than the intellectual property he or she was entrusted to bring to the screen. To hear it from a writer-director who has long operated at the highest echelons of popcorn movie-making, … this anti-auteur shift occurred over the last two years.”

Alyssa Rosenberg: “From the moment he arrives at the villa where he’s to spend the summer, Oliver feels almost shockingly American … [The film] felt like a gently twisty examination of what’s appealing and disappointing about Americanness, as seen from an outsider to it.”

“Some working actors would see their taxes almost quadruple, according to an analysis by the stage actors union Actors’ Equity. The new bill appears to be regressive: the poor suffer the worst increases, the middle-class gets hit hard, and the wealthy benefit from tax cuts. The same effect will hit writers, directors and screen and television actors. Producers could be affected too, as well as below-the-line workers with agents or other significant business expenses.”