Category: media

“For a while, the only time you’d ever see a psychologist comment publicly about video games was in the context of blaming violent ones for all manner of societal ills – most famously, for school shootings.” Now a pair of psychologists is arguing that such blame is – well, not quite as ridiculous as “reefer madness,” but …

“We thought if Iron Man and Thor and Captain America are Marvel superheroes,” Disney chief of motion picture production Sean Bailey tells Drew Taylor, “then maybe Alice, Cinderella, Mowgli, and Belle are our superheroes, and Cruella and Maleficent are our supervillains.”

The filtering issue was highlighted in a video on Thursday by British user Rowan Ellis, who suggested that YouTube’s restricted mode appeared to have “some kind of targeted effect” for L.G.B.T. individuals. Over the weekend, many video creators and users complained on Twitter, recycling the hashtag #YouTubeIsOverParty, which was trending worldwide by Sunday night.

This feat would make it the first $100-million opener of 2017 (beating out the $88-million opening of “Logan” as the year’s best so far), as well as the highest March opener ever, edging just past the $166 million grossed by “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice” last year. It would also shatter the $135-million record held by “Finding Dory” for the largest opening of a PG-rated movie.

Though, to be utterly clear, there were Black and Asian British people (and visitors to Britain) in any historical times a drama could cover, the costume dramas have no roles for them. Thandie Newton: “I love being here, but I can’t work, because I can’t do Downton Abbey, can’t be in Victoria, can’t be in Call The Midwife – well, I could, but I don’t want to play someone who’s being racially abused.”

And despite setbacks and many, many, many denials from the studios, the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers earned that dreamer (and Fox, which finally took on the project) billions.

One of its five public strategies to meet that goal: “Netflix is now dividing up its subscriber base into 1,300 taste communities, which are solely based on past viewing behavior. Each and every user can belong to multiple such communities, and all of these communities spread across the globe. Sure, Yellin admitted, German comedians may be more popular in Germany, but there’s also plenty of users in the U.S. who turn into their shows.”

Seriously: FilmStruck and Warner Archive Instant will make certain you never leave your house again, if you like classics.

The studio may be cheap with its actors about some things (stories abound), but “with such past box-office winners in its fold including Cinderella ($544 million) and Jungle Book ($967 million), stars are clamoring to sign on for the studio’s live-action offerings.” This weekend’s huge take for the live-action “Beauty and the Beast” may only accelerate that trend.

Jack Gray devoted most of his life to protecting the rights of freelance scriptwriters for film, radio and television in this country –a group he believed were the most vulnerable to exploitation in the creative industries. A talented playwright himself in his younger years, he gradually gave up imaginative writing in favour of reports, speeches and policy papers for the cause he passionately believed in.