Category: media

A lot of actors start production companies in which they’re not all that involved in the actual producing. Not Kidman with Big Little Lies: she got the rights to the book, got Reese Witherspoon on board, and the two of them lined up a director, a screenwriter, a big-name cast, and the studio themselves. Sarah Lyall gets the story.

“The issue of what, exactly, makes a film or TV show genuinely Canadian is suddenly gripping the industry, after a series of government moves to shake up long-standing regulations. Creators are worried the moves, which would allow even more American talent into our movies and shows in the name of making the content more likely to sell internationally, will water down the distinct Canadian perspective just when it is finally starting to gain real traction around the world.”

“Without that truth-seeking ecosystem of healthy small- and mid-size daily newspapers to explain national news in terms local readers can understand, Americans are left stewing in separate echo chambers, one urban, educated, and liberal, the other working-class, rural, and spoiling for a fight. Not only do the inhabitants of these echo chambers not talk to each other; they barely speak the same language.”

The film about Hollywood – perhaps unsurprisingly – looks like it will cruise to an Oscar Best Movie win. Then there’s Viola Davis, “probably the single most purely charismatic performer of all the nominated talent on show at the Baftas, and it is excellent that she has won best supporting actress for her supremely intelligent and sympathetic portrayal of the long-suffering Rose Maxson in the sonorous drama Fences. There aren’t many actors who can stand up to Denzel Washington in full flood and match him in acting power line for line, speech for speech, but that is what Viola Davis does. It is masterclass stuff.”

Not only did this weekend top ratings for the comedy sketch show, which starred Melissa McCarthy as Sean Spicer and Alec Baldwin as the president, but the season overall is doing really well. “Viewership of the show for the season to date is up 22% in total viewers (10.6 million) and 19% in adults 18-49 (3.5) compared to the same period last season. That makes it the most-watched ‘SNL’ season in 22 years, since the 1994-95 frame.”

The show is edited for length and then broadcast “two hours after the ceremony takes place – but the programme-makers [will] do their best to reflect the essence of any speeches made. ‘This is not a political event,’ the spokesperson said. ‘Actors and actresses have a right to air their views. It’s our duty to reflect their views.'”

“Pirate content is back in the news with a court case by the Motion Picture Association, which represents Disney, Paramount, Sony Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Studios and Warner Bros, against nine Irish internet service providers or ISPs.”

“The Los Angeles city attorney cracked down on Hollywood’s pay-to-play casting workshop scene on Thursday, announcing cases against five prominent casting firms and 25 individuals allegedly involved in schemes that violate the Krekorian Talent Scam Prevention Act, a rarely enforced state labor law.”

Hollywood keeps trying to make one, but time after time, it seems, they’re critical disasters and U.S. box-office bombs (though some do wery well overseas). Top directors tend to either avoid the genre or try it once, get burned, and then avoid it. Is a truly good big-screen adaptation of a video game even possible? Yes, argues David Sims, and, arguably, it’s happened already.