Category: media

A number of series, including ‘Pirates of the Caribbean,’ have practically collapsed on arrival in the past few months. Can Hollywood survive? (And which franchises will help?)

Arnaud Valois didn’t expect much from the new film “120 Beats Per Minute.” Indeed, “after shooting the film last year, he returned to the Montorgueil area, his sophrology and his clients. (They all went on hiatus during filming, he said, and they all returned when he came back.) His practice ‘helped me to not have a baby blues after the shooting,’ he said. ‘Starting something real and simple. Not having assistants, and someone who comes to your house in the morning and drives you, and hair and makeup … a real life.'”

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s latest work, an art exhibit for the Manchester international festival, brings the 1947 partition of India to full and painful life. She knows it’s intense: “This is personal. It’s an ode to my grandparents’ generation. How did it feel that, when you left your home, it not only stopped being your home, but became part of an enemy country?”

“Twenty years ago [Monday] the Supreme Court issued a landmark decision and unanimously overturned congressional legislation that made it unlawful to transmit ‘indecent’ material on the Internet if that content could be viewed by minors. The justices ruled that the same censorship standards being applied to broadcast radio and television could not be applied to the Internet.” David Kravets recounts the history.

They say that “the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers has pushed for ‘outrageous rollbacks'” during negotiations. The contract covers 160,000 performers in film and TV, so … that’s a lot.

Yay, more stories for South Asian Muslims! Well, South Asian Muslim men, straight men, with white girlfriends, anyway. “This fantasy doesn’t have much room for South Asian women. Their choices are reflective of the stubborn limitations of an industry where straight men still dominate, and where whiteness remains an integral component to what love looks like onscreen.”

Why Netflix? Well, “plot points include a pignapping, Mija’s desperate pursuit, a bumbling Animal Liberation Front troop, an insecure corporate villainess (played with pitch-perfect iciness by Ms. Swinton) and a foray into the grisly mechanics of factory farming.” The last bit is where studios drew the line.

The journalist, Kevin Powell, is suing based on many similarities to his work, including that of a character who in his seris of 1990s Vibe articles was a “composite character.” In addition, he “argues that a bulk of the film appears to be based on his jailhouse interviews with [Tupac Shakur].”

“What are some references you’ve used to frame the storytelling on the show and move the characters and narratives forward?
“A lot of Shakespeare. I’ve used Richard III because he’s ruthless in getting what he wants and then ghosts of the people he killed start haunting him.”