#The WB's new Thursday

[seagull-scribbles]

Mr.United States Canada Mexico Panama

[silvyysthings]

Dune news !!

#DunePartTwo Red Carpet event in Korea 🇰🇷 will be on 17:40 Thursday 22 Feb 2024, at the Yeongdeungpo IMAX, and will be attended by Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Austin Butler, Stellan Skarsgård and Denis Villeneuve.

The event will be streamed on WB Korea TikTok (warnerbroskorea)

[somuchyoudontknow]

CAA is omnipresent?

A wonderful friend has dug up some interesting information that I am about to share about CAA.

Jan 2023: The move cements the separation of their assets from the pan-European Wild Bunch AG film group, which was created in 2015 out of the merger of their original French company Wild Bunch and Germany’s Senator Film and is now majority-owned by German entrepreneur Lars Windhorst. This means Wild Bunch AG no longer owns its 20% stake in the independent standalone international sales company Maraval and Chioua and their 15-strong team launched in 2019 under the banner of Wild Bunch International (WBI). The company is now been majority owned by Maraval and Chioua and its staff, with CAA also holding a 20% stake. The pair are in the process of securing a new name but the public dropping of the Wild Bunch moniker marks a decisive move for them and their team as they continue to build the new company.

DEADLINE: Wild Bunch International has existed as a standalone company since 2019. Why have you decided only now to split from the iconic brand name you created in 2002 but no longer own? BRAHIM CHIOUA: When we created Wild Bunch International in 2019, Wild Bunch took a 20% stake in exchange for allowing us to use the Wild Bunch brand in our name under a signed three-year agreement. We had a second commercial cooperation deal for the same period under which Wild Bunch International continued to sell and manage Wild Bunch’s international catalogue for a fee, and also had access to the group’s back-office services, for which we paid a fee. This deal came to an end in November 2022 with a get-out clause for both parties. We opted to buyout Wild Bunch’s equity share.

DEADLINE: You have always worked closely with CAA. How does this move impact your relationship with the agency?

MARAVAL: CAA has been an historical partner and they allowed us to start the new company three years ago. Our relationship is probably one we are the most proud of because this goes beyond a simple business relationship. Together with Roeg Sutherland’s team, we built a unique business model of synergies and connection in term of promotion, financing , talent representation that benefit the talent and the producers we are working with such as Alice Diop, Nadine Labaki, Claire Denis, Rebecca Zlotowski, Ladj Ly, Jacques Audiard or Gaspar Noé for example.

DEADLINE: As well as continuing to work on international sales, the new company seems more directly involved in producing... MARAVAL: International sales is no longer our only activity. We’re much more involved as active co-producing partners whether it’s through Le Collectif 64 or Wild West. It’s not like in the past when a company such as Fidelité would come to us with a film, and we would say ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Now, we participate in the development, financing and packaging of projects. Changes in the industry meant we had to reformat ourselves. We don’t have to sell the films produced by Getaway Films, Wild West or Le Collectif 64 because with those companies we’re wearing a co-producer hat with an active role. We need to find the best solution for each film, which won’t necessarily involve us selling it internationally on a territory basis.

Source:

It's interesting that WBI separated from WB AG in November 2022.

In the end of March 2023 they revealed their new name Goodfellas

February 2023: Still WBI has boarded sales on Amelia's children

November 2021: Former NBCUniversal Vice Chairman and CAA Co-Founder Ron Meyer Named CEO of Wild Bunch

So, CAA has 20% stake at Goodfellas (former WBI), their partner WB AG is run by a former CAA co-founder Ron Meyer. Another ex-CAA co-founder Michael Ovitz is one of Jinx partners. Omnipresent CAA

More about WB AG:

It looks like transatlantic cooperation, that's why pairing up an American actor and a European actress makes sense to attract not only domestic but also an international audience. As we know Chris is not well-known in Europe, if he wants more international fame and financing for the Kelly project from a non-US company, this pr rl might be a good chance for him.

Industry people have been informed about WBI and WB AG deal since 2019, Seb and Aly, Chris and Lily, and now Chris and Alba appeared in 2020. Actresses are from Europe.

The industry is changing due to many factors. Chris is trying to survive like many actors. He doesn't have his Marvel role too. It's a new start for him, he needs to build a solid foundation. Industry-wise, he is not RDJ or DJ, he doesn't have a pull to make people go to watch his movies as a lead, he needs pr.

Chris' case is also different because of Amelia's children and his 2 movies. And we don't know about Jinx marketing plans.

[seeksstaronmewni]

7 years have passed since Samurai Jack got back to the past...

Highlights of events regarding Genndy Tartakovsky and the like during this time include the following:

Genndy in interviews talked about the importance of visual storytelling (including an obvious disliking for "This is me"-type openings in animated movies), reducing dialogue in the script for a sexual animated comedy called Fixed (produced by New Line Cinema, Sony Pictures Animation, and Renegade Animation), and the viewpoint that "Character design informs posing, and it all works together."

Samurai Jack has the Checkered Past lineup on [adult swim] joined, airing on Fridays (soon to be Thursdays) at 6:00 PM... technically like around 5:59 PM, due to other Checkered Past shows having end credits time-compressed. Cartoon Network's social media accounts promoted this with a clip from EPISODE XCVIII, which is the second post they made regarding specifically Season 5 since their first one, in which they used Mao Mao x Samurai Jack fan art to promote Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time... which is now deleted due to Warner Bros. Discovery purging Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart in an effort to save $3 billion.

Speaking of WBD's animation purge: Cartoon Network Studios' building is now abandoned as the crew was forced to relocate to a new building joining Warner Bros. Animation with affiliate CNS as another cost-cutting move. The Cartoon Network logo on the building was originally moved to the new building, but it was soon sold off letter by letter.

As if things couldn't grow worse; after MGM (on the home entertainment level, still an affiliate with Warner Bros. Home Entertainment/Studio Distribution Services) turned 100, Primal Screen, the studio behind much of Cartoon Network's branding including the Powerhouse era, announced that they were to shut down (likely due to financial issues - thanks a lot Warner Bros. Discovery). Buck's Pastel / Prism / Split-Screen branding is by far the cheapest, blandest, and ugliest one CN ever used, and the negative consequences of Discovery on Turner & WB make this era of CN truly the worse, with little sign of any improvement in their branding and their programming.

Unicorn: Warriors Eternal got the ACME Night marathons and airings it was promised to have, but that is unlikely to happen again since Cartoon Network stopped at 5PM with the debut of Checkered Past, causing ACME Night to be part of [as] as well (that may be just technical laziness on Discovery's part - they're already forcing Turner channels to use Discovery's rating & closed captioned screenbugs). Any future airing of Unicorn on TV, if any, so far will remain with the [adult swim] label, even on ACME Night (even though it was supposed to be for CN).

Relative to samurai in general; the Looney Tunes Cartoons episode "Yosemite Samurai" made its TV debut on Cartoon Network, though airing minutes earlier than the 9:30 AM schedule due to longer episode lengths.

Teen Titans GO! celebrated the 100th anniversary of Warner Bros. in October 2024 (was planned for September but was pushed in part due to revisions), and apparently "JACK, SAMURAI" was on the list! Dexter and Dee Dee, along with The Powerpuff Girls (in altered versions of the 2016 models), made cameos as well.

Tara Strong (a Zionist Jew and the voice of Ashi as well as Ilana Lunis) became controversial due to posts she made and liked speaking against the attacks against Jews by the Hamas, a terrorist group in Palestine. I may suffer from flack over this, but I honestly doubt that she is ultimately racist with the people of Palestine in general - just speaking against a terrorist group in Palestine killing people of her own race. May be that we're just too woke about racism?

The Powerpuff Girls Season 10 (the Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe revival; I personally count the 2016 "reboot" as Seasons 7-9 for a number of reasons) is still in production with people from Titmouse on the crew.

Dexter's Laboratory: The Complete Series DVD is set to release in June 2024... featuring the long overdue official US DVD release of Dexter's Laboratory: Ego Trip! There was a planned US DVD release long ago.

Warner Bros. may be 101 years old now (impressive considering that Discovery put them at over 60% risk of bankruptcy by December 2023), but they're not finished with celebrating their 100th anniversary; a screening of various WB (and affiliate-owned) shorts including Cartoon Network episodes like Dexter's Laboratory and the Steven Universe pilot "The Time Thing" (on which Genndy was the timing director) was announced for Annecy 2024.

Relative to a block that Samurai Jack used to rerun on; [adult swim] announced another nostalgic block: Toonami Rewind! This is so far exclusive to anime.

Personally, Cartoon Network entering into the Pastel era was bad enough, but Discovery exercising more control of WB affiliate Turner Broadcasting System pretty much killed CN for me (regardless of the many older shows airing on special occasions that weren't rerun on the network in years and even decades). I still remain faithful to a fair extent to CN, but, as you can see, there's a lot about the animation industry that's crumbling.

I'll add more to this post if I find anything else that happened.

Highlights of Year Passing 1

Highlights of Year Passing 2

Highlights of Year Passing 3

Highlights of Year Passing 4

Highlights of Year Passing 5 (incomplete; I know)

Highlights of Year Passing 6 (also incomplete)

[forest-of-stories]

Throwback Thursday, Fandom Edition: Holy Creative Nostalgia, Batman!

Last January marked twenty-five years since the premiere of Batman Beyond, which ran for three seasons on (what was then) the family programming block of (what was then) the WB.  Younger Sister and I caught as many episodes as we could at the time that they were airing, but I didn’t watch the entire show until my local cartoon-watching group screened it in 2014.  It mostly held up then, and I think it would mostly hold up now: the characters were compelling, the visual style was distinctive, and the storylines balanced the established Batman mythology with teenage angst in (what was then) a science-fiction future.  In one of my favorite episodes, a school counselor uses mind-control technology to manipulate students into Doing Crimes; in another, animal DNA splicing becomes the hottest new fashion trend.  And so on.  Batman Beyond introduced me to a lot of the tropes surrounding the teen superhero who has to balance school and romance and family with a secret crime-fighting life, and gave me some of my earliest opportunities to unpack and re-examine and reshape the associated archetypes of "hero" and "damsel in distress" and "mentor" and "villain," which I am still interested in doing to this day.

This post is less about the show itself, however, than about the way thirteen-year-old Nevanna folded it into the stories that she was already scribbling on every available scrap of paper, at every opportunity, often alongside one or two friends.  I had never heard the words “fanfiction” or “fandom” or “crossover,” but I delighted in pulling characters from every piece of media that I enjoyed and writing them into nonsensical scenarios.  And in the first half of 1999, most of those scenarios involved characters from Batman Beyond.

There are two primary reasons why these crossovers took the direction that they did, and the first is a lot less embarrassing than the second:

I almost certainly had a crush on the hero of the show, Terry McGinnis, and wouldn’t even admit it to myself.

I liked when stories had “cool girls” in them, but had a very narrow, 1990s-influenced idea of what made a female character “cool,” and it definitely didn’t involve waiting around for a boy or needing to be rescued.  Maybe I didn't think that Dana, Terry’s civilian girlfriend, met my standards for what he “deserved.”*  There were one or two ladies in the supporting cast who probably would have, but instead of pairing him with one of them, or creating what we’d now call a self-insert, or even exploring Dana’s character to give her more agency and interiority, I grabbed a “girl warrior” character from a book series that I was reading at the time, literally dropped her into Futuristic Gotham City, and went about establishing that she was absolutely, definitely Not Like Other Girls.

From there, I continued to run with any idea that floated into my head, unconstrained by the laws of time, space, pre-existing characterization, or narrative plausibility.  Should I also introduce characters from Discworld and The Adventures of Pete & Pete to Futuristic Gotham City? Sure, why not? Should I establish a connection with the Wayside School books, which already featured students named Terrence and Dana? Sure, why not? Should I send my central characters on a time- and dimension-hopping quest to “correct” some of the fictional events that annoyed me personally, with a detour to the Land of Oz, whose princess almost brainwashed Terry into marrying her? Sure, why not? Twenty-five years later, although I like to think that I have a better grasp of storytelling logic and have worked through some of my issues around gender roles and victimhood, I respect, and sometimes even envy, younger Nevanna’s “sure, why not?” approach to her writing, and am happy when I can approach a project with even a fraction of that attitude.

The X-Men introduced me to superhero comics, and I still probably have the strongest connection with that universe even if I haven’t followed recent continuity in years.  Still, Batman – in a variety of forms – gave me the first superhero media that I really loved.  To date, that love hasn’t carried over into online fandom, no matter how many “Batfamily” posts about Crime-Fighting Found Family Shenanigans cross my Tumblr dashboard.**  Even though I’ve rewatched it in the years since it aired, I still associate Batman Beyond with my pre-Internet fannish life.  But if nothing else, through my drive to imagine new and improbable adventures for the characters and comment (in a very limited way) on its genre tropes, it was one of my childhood favorite shows that pointed me toward the world of transformative fandom that I didn’t even know existed.

*I don’t have any legitimate complaints about Dana as a character.  ”Superhero’s civilian girlfriend” is a pretty thankless narrative role, and one that invites deconstruction.  Catherynne M. Valente’s The Refrigerator Monologues is a personal favorite example, and I recommend seeking it out; even if you’re crying and raging along with the narrators, you’ll probably giggle at least once at the rant about her Batman stand-in. **The closest I’ve gotten is Young Justice, which I adore and you should all watch if you haven’t.  I truly love Crime-Fighting Found Family Shenanigans, even if some individual stories have pushed my buttons harder than others.

[incarnateirony]

lmaooo

someone just sent me some shit that I know fandom is gonna chicken little over and meanwhile i'm just

And now we're getting to the meat and potatos of what's likely to survive long term, and why on a few top properties, WB and CBS chose to coproduce and have other production houses.

Breaking news: Two ancient white people that survived the first CW genocide getting evicted because yeah, unscripted is going to become a majority TV and those other licensed products from international waters that we talked about, and sports, hence just looking for 3-5 shows to invest in.

We've also discussed age of show. For example, at current, S&L is pegged at 5M/ep to make but it mostly makes that value back with both lives and digitals. But Superman is a property with a cap. And DC is changing. I honestly don't know GK's long term fate. The deal was for two years but DC is a mystery to me at all times and I'd be lying to pretend to know their thoughts. I know we're good for this season, and the ten thousand chicken little cancellations were bogus, but beyond that, hands off, I do not know.

The article clarifies it's not that scripted development is gone, it's that they got rid of the expensive suits, and other scripted development people are running it now, hence the HAHAHAHAHA BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, along with my history, for those of you who have followed me long enough to track that.

Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Yeah the Destiel is sweet but a decade or two of backed up syndication revenge is sweeter, you guys wouldn't understand

GK Lady is saying goodbye to them. I do not care. Bye. heads of development just like renee. but they were old CW's heads. I'm sure Natalie felt comfortable working with them but BYEEEEEEEEEEE

[brookston]

Holidays 8.31

Holidays

Baloch-Pakhtun Unity Day

Cow Chip Tossing Day

Crop Dusting Day

Day of Solidarity and Freedom (Poland)

Festal Day (Order of the Eastern Star)

Flag Day (India)

Hari Kebangsaan (Malaysia)

International Blog Day (a.k.a. International Day of Blogs and Bloggers)

International Day for People of African Descent (UN)

International Overdose Awareness Day

Limba Noastra (Day of Our Language; Moldova)

Love Litigating Lawyers Day

Merdeka Day (Malaysia)

National Box Car Day

National Dan Day

National Diatomaceous Earth Day

National HalfCut Day (Australia)

National Leslie Day

National Matchmaker Day

National South Carolina Day

North Borneo Self-Government Day

National Zoo Awareness Day (UK)

Opioid Misuse Prevention Day

Overdose Awareness Day

Princess Diana Memorial Day

Rabbit Rabbit Day [Last Day of Every Month]

Romanian Language Day (Romania)

Sărbătoarea (a.k.a. Limba noastră; Language Day; Moldova)

Take a Seat Day

Tank Day (Lešany, Czech Republic)

Walnut Day (French Republic)

We Love Memoirs Day

White Rose Day (Australia)

Withdrawal of the Last American Soldier Anniversary Day (Afghanistan)

World Distance Learning Day

World Sanskrit Day

World Solidarity Day

Food & Drink Celebrations

Bacon Day [also 12.30]

Eat Outside Day

Grape Blessing Day (Armenia)

Invent A New Sandwich Day

National Trail Mix Day

Vegetable Day (Japan)

5th & Last Thursday in August

National Banana Pudding Day [Last Thursday]

National Cabernet Sauvignon Day [Last Thursday]

Thoughtful Thursday [Thursday of Be Kind to Humankind Week]

Independence Days

Befshire (Declared; 2016) [unrecognized]

Kyrgyzstan (from USSR, 1991)

Malaysia (from UK, 1957)

Trinidad and Tobago (from UK, 1962)

Feast Days

Aidan of Lindisfarne (Christian; Saint)

Alter Ego Day (Pastafarian)

Aristides of Athens (Christian; Saint)

Cuthburh (Christian; Saint)

Dominguito del Val (Christian; Saint)

Fourth Onam (Rice Harvest Festival, Day 4; Kerala, India)

Frey’s Blot (Pagan)

Gai Jatra (Cow Festival, in remembrance of people who died the previous year; Kathmandu Valley, Nepal)

Henry (Muppetism)

Isabel (Christian; Saint)

Joseph of Arimathea (Christian; Saint)

Jouffroy (Positivist; Saint)

Nicodemus (Christian; Saint)

Paulinus of Trier (Christian; Saint)

Paul Reubens Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Raymond Nonnatus (Christian; Saint)

Roger Dean (Artology)

Wala of Corbie (Christian; Saint)

Waltheof, Earl of Northumbria (Christian; Saint)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Butsumetsu (仏滅 Japan) [Unlucky all day.]

Lucky Day (Philippines) [48 of 71]

Premieres

All Or Nothing At All, recorded by Frank Sinatra (Song; 1939)

American Idiot, by Green Day (Song; 2004)

Andor (TV Series; 2022)

Bad, by Michael Jackson (Album; 1987)

The Big Sleep (Film; 1946)

Bolero (Film; 1984)

Bugsy and Mugsy (WB LT Cartoon; 1957)

The Commuter, by Philip K. Dick (Short Story; 1953)

The Constant Gardener (Film; 2005)

Document, by R.E.M. (Album; 1987)

Fly, by Dixie Chicks (Album; 1999)

Foundation and Earth, by Isaac Asimov (Novel; 1986) [Foundation #5]

Get Rich Quick (Disney Cartoon; 1951)

Goat’s Head Soup, by The Rolling Stones (Album; 1973)

The Great Gildersleeve (Radio Series; 1941)

Jack Ryan (TV Series; 2018)

Only Murders in the Building (TV Series; 2021)

Orient Express, by Graham Greene (a.k.a. Stamboul Train; Novel; 1932)

Pluto’s Judgement Day (Disney Cartoon; 1935)

The Psychology of Intelligence, by Jean Piaget (Science Book; 1947)

Raising Demons, by Shirley Jackson (Memoir; 1957)

The Threepenny Opera, by Bertolt Brecht (Play with Music; 1928)

Wildest Dreams, by Taylor Swift (Song; 2015)

The World According to Garp, by John Irving (Novel; 1978)

Today’s Name Days

Paulinus, Raimubd (Austria)

Josip, Nikodem, Optat, Paulina (Croatia)

Pavlína (Czech Republic)

Bertha (Denmark)

Arved, Arvi, Arvid (Estonia)

Arvi (Finland)

Aristide (France)

Aidan, Anja, Paulinus, Raimund (Germany)

Bella, Erika (Hungary)

Aristide (Italy)

Aigars, Aira, Labite, Vilma (Latvia)

Raimunda, Raimundas, Vilmantas, Vilmantė (Lithuania)

Berta, Berte (Norway)

Bohdan, Paulina, Rajmund, Rajmunda, Świętosław (Poland)

Nora (Slovakia)

Ramón (Spain)

Arvid, Vidar (Sweden)

Aden, Aidan, Aiden, Ayden, Edan, Edana, Eden, Edina, Egan, Egon (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 243 of 2024; 122 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 4 of week 35 of 2023

Celtic Tree Calendar: Coll (Hazel) [Day 24 of 28]

Chinese: Month 7 (Geng-Shen), Day 16 (Xin-You)

Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)

Hebrew: 14 Elul 5783

Islamic: 14 Safar 1445

J Cal: 3 Aki; Threesday [3 of 30]

Julian: 18 August 2023

Moon: 99%: Waning Gibbous

Positivist: 19 Gutenberg (9th Month) [Jouffroy]

Runic Half Month: Rad (Motion) [Day 4 of 15]

Season: Summer (Day 71 of 94)

Zodiac: Virgo (Day 10 of 32)

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 8.20

Holidays

Bad Hair Day

Bamboo Celebration Day

Dial the Phone Day

Dogfight Day

Father’s Day (Nepal)

Feast of Asmá’ (Bahá'í)

First Onam (Parts of India)

Indian Akshay Urja Day (India)

International Amy Adams Day

International Andrew Garfield Day

International Day of Medical Transporters

International FinOps Day

John Deere 820 Day

Meitei Language Day (Manipur, India)

Missy Elliot Appreciation Day

Moon’s Birthday (Aztec)

National Accessible Air Travel Day

National 820 Day

National Exotic Dancer Day

National Fintech Day

National Latina Day

National Radio Day

National Scientific Temper Day (India)

Nepali Bhasa Manyata Diwas (Sikkim, India)

Neymarzetes Day (Brazil)

Nuremberg Code Anniversary Day

Puffball Day (French Republic)

Renewable Energy Day (India)

Rest Day (Hungary)

Saint Stephen’s Day (Hungary)

1619 Day

Southern HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

Stop and Smell Your Dog Day

Virtual Worlds Day

World Issue Day (Lagos)

World Mosquito Day

World Union Day

Food & Drink Celebrations

Chocolate Pecan Pie Day

International Hawaiian Pizza Day

Lemonade Freedom Day

National Bacon Lover’s Day

National Honey Day (Sweden)

National Lemonade Day

World Day of French Fries (Spanish-speaking Countries)

Independence & Related Days

Anniversary of the FALINTIL (East Timor)

Candalia (Declared; 2019) [unrecognized]

Estonia (from USSR, 1991)

Iska Akaliazen (Declared; 2018) [unrecognized]

Lucena City Charter Day (Philippines)

Revolution Day (Morocco, Western Sahara)

3rd Tuesday in August

International Chalk the Walks Day [3rd Tuesday]

Taco Tuesday [Every Tuesday]

Tapas Tuesday [3rd Tuesday of Each Month]

Target Tuesday [Every Tuesday]

Tater Tot Tuesday [Every Tuesday]

Trivia Tuesday [Every Tuesday]

Trusting Tuesday [3rd Tuesday of Each Month]

Two For Tuesday [Every Tuesday]

Weekly Holidays beginning August 20 (3rd Full Week of August)

Friendship Week (thru 8.26)

Festivals Beginning August 20, 2024

DakotaFest (Mitchell, South Dakota) [thru 8.22]

Dutchess County Fair (Rhinebeck, New York) [thru 8.25]

MUTEK Montreal (Montreal, Canada) [thru 8.25]

Nice Jazz Festival (Nice, France) [thru 8.23]

Peterborough Beer Festival (Peterborough, Great Britain) [thru 8.24]

Feast Days

Alan Lee (Artology)

Amadour (Christian; Saint)

Benvenuto Cellini (Positivist; Saint)

Bernard of Clairvaux (Christian; Saint)

Birth of the White Buffalo (Lakota)

Boil-Over Thursday (Shamanism)

Cuitlahac Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

The Day of Total Victory (Unification Church)

Expensive Rum Day (Pastafarian)

First Light Altar Day (Starza Pagan Book of Days)

Georg Häfner, Blessed (Christian; Saint)

Glam Dicind (Celtic Book of Days)

Greg Bear (Writerism)

Harpo Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Helena (Muppetism)

Heliodorus of Bet Zabdai (Christian; Saint)

H. P. Lovecraft (Writerism)

H. R. Van Dongen (Artology)

Maria De Mattias (Christian; Saint)

Media Aestas II (Pagan)

Oswine of Deira (Christian; Martyr)

Philibert of Jumièges (Christian; Saint)

Samuel (Christian; Prophet)

William and Catherine Booth (Church of England)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Taian (大安 Japan) [Lucky all day.]

Tycho Brahe Unlucky Day (Scandinavia) [28 of 37]

Unfortunate Day (Pagan) [43 of 57]

Unglückstage (Unlucky Day; Pennsylvania Dutch) [21 of 30]

Very Unlucky Day (Grafton’s Manual of 1565) [37 of 60]

Premieres

Angie, by The Rolling Stones (Song; 1973)

The Black Stallion, by Walter Farley (Novel; 1941)

Coonskin (Animated Film; 1975)

1812 Overture, by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Concert Overture; 1882)

Elias: The Little Rescue Boat (Animated TV Series; 2005)

Feather Finger (WB MM Cartoon; 1966)

Garden State (Film; 2004)

Graffiti Bridge, by Prince (Album; 1990)

Hot Dogs (Ub Iwerks Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Disney Cartoon; 1928)

I Never Changes My Altitude (Fleischer Popeye Cartoon; 1937)

Islandia, by Austin Tappan Wright (Novel; 1942)

A Kiddie’s Kitty (WB MM Cartoon; 1955)

Lego DC Batman: Family Matters (WB Animated Film; 2019)

Mice Follies (WB LT Cartoon; 1960)

Mickey Blue Eyes (Film; 1999)

Oh, Johnny, Oh, Johnny, Oh, by Orrin Tucker (Song; 1939)

Perfect Blue (Anime Film; 1999)

Picnic at Hanging Rock, by Joan Lindsay (Novel; 1967)

Pocket Full of Kryptonite, by The Spin Doctors (Album; 1991)

Scary Crows (Color Rhapsody Cartoon; 1937)

Scooby Doo! Stage Fright (WB Animated Film; 2013)

Slow Train Coming, by Bob Dylan (Album; 1979)

The Talk of the Town (Film; 1942)

Teaching Mrs. Tingle (Film; 1999)

Trailer Life, featuring Farmer Al Falfa (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1937)

Valley of the Dolls, by Jacqueline Susann (Novel; 1966)

Yo Gabba Gabba! (Children’s TV Series; 2007)

Today’s Name Days

Bernd, Bernhard, Ronald (Austria)

Samuil (Bulgaria)

Bernard, Samuel (Croatia)

Bernard (Czech Republic)

Bernhard (Denmark)

Benno, Bernhard, Päärn, Pääro, Pärn, Pärno, Pearn, Pearu (Estonia)

Sami, Samu, Samuel, Samuli (Finland)

Bernard, Samuel (France)

Bernhard, Bernd, Ronald, Samuel (Germany)

Samouel (Greece)

István (Hungary)

Bernardo (Italy)

Bernhards, Bierants, Biernis, Boriss (Latvia)

Bernardas, Neringa, Tolvinas (Lithuania)

Bernhard, Bernt (Norway)

Bernard, Jan, Sabin, Samuel, Samuela, Sieciech, Sobiesław, Świeciech, Szwieciech (Poland)

Anabela (Slovakia)

Bernardo, Samuel (Spain)

Bernhard, Bernt (Sweden)

Eustace, Ostap, Samuel (Ukraine)

Barnard, Bernard, Bernardo, Filbert, Philbert, Rey, Reyna, Reynalda, Reynaldo, Reynold (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 233 of 2024; 133 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 2 of Week 34 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Coll (Hazel) [Day 18 of 28]

Chinese: Month 7 (Ren-Shen), Day 17 (Bing-Chen)

Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025) [Wu-Chen]

Hebrew: 16 Av 5784

Islamic: 14 Safar 1446

J Cal: 23 Purple; Twosday [23 of 30]

Julian: 7 August 2024

Moon: 99%: Waning Gibbous

Positivist: 8 Gutenberg (9th Month) [Benvenuto Cellini]

Runic Half Month: As (Gods) [Day 13 of 15]

Season: Summer (Day 62 of 94)

Week: 3rd Full Week of August

Zodiac: Leo (Day 30 of 31)

[j2memories]

CNN entertainment article (October 20th 2020)

‘Supernatural’ stars reflect on show’s plot twists until the very end

By Sandra Gonzalez, CNN

Updated 4:00 PM EDT, Thu October 8, 2020

Like a plot line from an episode of “Supernatural,” the trouble started on a Friday the 13th.

Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki were filming their show in Vancouver, Canada, with two episodes worth of production standing between them and the conclusion of a story that’s taken 15 years to tell.

Then, on March 13, production on the show about a pair of monster-hunting brothers that have survived more than an apocalypse or two over the years was shut down amid the spread of coronavirus.

“When we went on pause, all focus then shifted to, ‘What is this pandemic going to be like?’ ‘Are we on the doorstep of the apocalypse?” Ackles remembers on an early afternoon Zoom call with Padalecki and CNN.

Other television series that were shuttered opted to wrap their seasons early as a result of the widespread production shutdowns, forgoing their planned season finales and instead finding as natural of a place as they could to close out their stories for the year.

“Supernatural,” with its end set in stone, didn’t have that luxury. And for months, they felt like firemen, Ackles says, waiting for the call that would have them report for duty as road-tripping duo Sam and Dean Winchester once again.

It eventually came and on Thursday, the show will begin airing its final seven episodes on The CW.

“It’s been a rollercoaster to say the least,” Padalecki tells CNN. (“Supernatural” is produced by Warner Bros. TV, which like CNN is owned by WarnerMedia.)

In more ways than one, really.

The Road So Far

“Supernatural” began in 2005 on the now-defunct WB Network. For context, Twitter launched the next year, and Netflix didn’t begin offering streaming until 2007.

Ackles and Padalecki — now both married with six kids between them — were 26 and 23, respectively, when they dove into roles that would see their characters go to hell and back, literally.

The show also went through trials — the merging of WB with UPN (which created The CW), new showrunners and writer’s strikes, to name a few.

But it chugged on, earning a loving reputation among the cast and crew as being “the little show that could” and growing its “Supernatural” family on camera (with key additions like Misha Collins) and off. Thanks to streaming and syndication, it boasts a generationally diverse fanbase and a wider spectrum of viewers than anyone ever anticipated them to have, Ackles says.

“I’ll never forget the first time that I was signing autographs and a girl, a woman and an older woman all came up to me and it was a mom, daughter and the granddaughter – three generations. And they all watched the show together,” he says. “And we started seeing that more and more that the audience was becoming younger.”

They get a first-hand evidence of this during “Supernatural” conventions, which, during non-pandemic years, fill hotel ballrooms across the country with thousands of fans several times a year.

At one event, a fan asking a question looked so young, Padalecki inquired about her age.

“Not in a creepy way!” Padalecki interrupts, as Ackles recounted the story.

“Yes, not in a creepy way! Just like, ‘Wow, you seem awfully young to be asking a question about a show that’s been on [so long],’” Ackles says. “And I knew where you were going. You were wanting to see if the show was older than she was, and it was.”

The actors talk like that a lot when they’re together – finishing each other’s story or thought midway. It’s a side effect of 15 years worth long nights on set and countless press days together.

On this morning, Padalecki, on a road trip back home to Texas from Vancouver, is chatting from a hotel in Idaho. In Austin, he will soon begin production on a reboot of “Walker, Texas Ranger,” in which he plays the title role.

Ackles will for his next gig – a role in Amazon’s “The Boys,” which is run by “Supernatural” creator Eric Kripke – once again work in Canada.

They admit it will be an adjustment.

“For me, I’m now a guest in somebody else’s house. As for Jared, he’s going to be building a new house with a whole group of new faces,” Ackles says. “So it will be different, and that’s probably when he and I will call each other and be like, ‘I miss you so much!’”

Padalecki hopes he can recreate a version of what they built on “Supernatural” with his new fellow cast members and crew.

“It takes a while. A true relationship is built over time,” he says. “On ‘Supernatural,’ we went through deaths and births and marriages and divorces… and heartbreak and the honeymoon phase of falling in love – [and] not just us. We both started dating our wives that are now the mothers of our kids during the show.”

“Oh, I thought you meant we fell in love,” Ackles quips.

“We fell in love, too,” Padalecki jokes.

When I add that plotline was only in fan fiction, Ackles retorts, “Or was it?”

Padalecki erupts in laughter.

“There it goes the internet.”

Swan song

Padalecki and Ackles say their love for the show runs deep, especially so now that it’s in the rear view mirror. They wrapped just days before we spoke.

The day before, Padalecki says, he caught the last minutes of the season 2 finale – the first that used Kansas’ “Carry On Wayward Son” during the recap of the season, something that became a tradition. The episode was airing on television while he was at a gym and he nostalgically couldn’t resist watching. (He says he’d really hoped someone would catch him watching himself on TV, but no one did.)

“It’s a great show, and I’m not talking about Jensen or myself. I’m just talking about the show is awesome,” Padalecki says. “It’s really humbling, and it’s so cool to have been a part of. And, I guess, be a part of forever.”

Both say they’d like to do conventions again, especially since by that point, the finale will have aired, and they can speak about it openly.

Until then, they can only tease that it was an emotional conclusion.

“If you’re not crying before the last scene, then you don’t have a soul,” Padalecki says, but it’s not clear if he notes the irony of the statement, considering his character lost his soul at one point.

Though television shows are typically filmed out of order, efforts were made to have the last moments of the show be the last scene they filmed.

This, combined with the lack of cell service at their location, allowed them to be fully present, they said.

“In a really strange way, the finale that we just finished last Thursday is, in hindsight, the finale I would have always wanted,” he said.

The tears viewers see on screen will be real, they both said.

“I think it’s actually a really beautiful moment, not just for he and I, but for the crew and for everybody there, because there was a finality to it,” Ackles said. “And then we popped some corks and had some speeches, and it was a really nice moment.”

A celebration, you could say, of “the little show that could” and all it did.

Link to the article

[first-impressions-gaming]

GAMING RECAP (November 1-7)

Rockstar Set To Release First Trailer For Grand Theft Auto 6 in December

Rockstar Games will release the first trailer for its highly anticipated sequel to 2013's Grand Theft Auto V, which became the most profitable entertainment product of all time in 2018, next month. As of August, Grand Theft Auto V has sold more than 185 million copies since its release 10 years ago. 

Official news of this trailer from the Rockstar Twitter account comes less than a day after a Bloomberg report that states Rockstar will reveal the sequel, presumably titled Grand Theft Auto VI or Grand Theft Auto 6, this week with a trailer for it arriving sometime next month; Since the release of this report yesterday, Rockstar has confirmed a trailer for the next Grand Theft Auto will, in fact, be released in December. 

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Capcom has a "major unannounced title" to launch before March 2024

According to Capcom's latest financial report, it expects to reach its year-end sales targets by launching a "major unannounced title" before the end of its current financial year, which is March 2024. The report doesn't hint at what the game is, but its biggest franchises are Resident Evil and Monster Hunter, both of which would have the ability to help Capcom reach its target.

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Sony confirms it’s delayed half of its 12 planned live service games

SIE had previously said it planned to have 12 live service titles in the market by its fiscal year ending in March 2026 – up from three during its last business year ended this March.

During an earnings call on Thursday, Sony president, COO and CFO Hiroki Totoki seemingly confirmed that this review had resulted in some games being pushed back due to quality concerns.

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PlayStation Plus Monthly offers Mafia 2 and Aliens Fireteam Elite for November

Subscribers will be able to add Mafia 2: Definitive Edition, Aliens Fireteam Elite, and asymmetrical multiplayer game Dragon Ball: The Breakers to their library at no extra cost from 7th November.

As well as the three monthly games, PS Plus members are getting extra benefits with the Sony Pictures Core app which launched last month. From today until the end of the month, all PS Plus subscibers will receive a 15 percent discount on all purchases or rentals from Sony Pictures Core.

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Warner Bros Promises Even More Live-Service Games

During Warner Bros Games’ 2023 Q3 earnings call, WB Discover CEO David Zaslav explained that the publisher behind games like Batman: Arkham Knight and Suicide Squad will focus on creating more always-online, free-to-play, live-service games.

During November 8’s earnings call, Zaslav opened with a summary of the company’s ongoing projects, finances, and plans across film, TV, and games. Zaslav called WB Games’ library of popular franchises, a real “growth opportunity” and a key asset in its “arsenal.” He also made it clear that single-player games like Arkham City aren’t really on the menu anymore.

“Our focus is on transforming our biggest franchises from largely console and PC based with three-four year release schedules to include more always on gameplay through live services, multiplatform and free-to-play extensions,” explained Zaslav. “The goal [is to] have more players spending more time on more platforms.”

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Blizzard Reveals Next Three Overwatch 2 Heroes

Blizzard Entertainment has revealed the next three heroes of Overwatch 2, including Mauga, a new duel-wielding tank hero that hits the game next month. Plus, the Overwatch 2 team teased a new DPS hero and Support hero hitting the roster sometime down the line. 

Mauga was actually playable for free as a part of a limited-time trial run for the tank hero this past weekend, but he's already out of the game; his real debut happens alongside Overwatch 2's Season 8 launch on December 5. "Equipped with two chain guns (Gunny and Cha-Cha), Mauga is ready to bash through the front lines of his opponents and tear through anyone that stands in his way with tons of fire-power," Blizzard says about the hero. 

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New Mass Effect 5 Trailer Teases Original Trilogy, Andromeda

BioWare, the developer behind EA's Dragon Age and Mass Effect franchises, has released a new trailer for its next Mass Effect game and it teases a connection to the original trilogy and the Andromeda sequel, and maybe even a new protagonist. Since yesterday was November 7, known as N7 Day in the Mass Effect community as a reference to the N7 Systems Alliance military in the series, BioWare launched a countdown on a special Mass Effect "Epsilon" web page. 

A decoded message says the following on the site now:   

/////ACCESS CODE: EPSILON

/////ACCESS CODE ACCEPTED

/////SECONDARY ENCRYPTION DETECTED

/////VJBSVU-XXXX-XXXXXXXX

/////ANDROMEDA DISTRESS SIGNAL DETECTED

/////YEAR SENT: [REDACTED]

/////AUDIO TRANSCRIPT: ALTHOUGH THEY SHOULD KNOW BY NOW NOT TO UNDERESTIMATE HUMAN [REDACTED]

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The End Of Activision Blizzard's $120 Million Overwatch League is Here

Activision Blizzard has confirmed the end of the Overwatch League, its massive bet to cash in on the rise of esports with an NFL-style franchise system. It will reportedly pay the 20 teams involved $120 million as everyone quietly parts ways from what was reportedly a financial debacle—despite its cultural impact for fans of Overwatch and beyond.

“We are transitioning from the Overwatch League and evolving competitive Overwatch in a new direction,” a spokesperson for Activision Blizzard wrote in a statement. “We are grateful to everyone who made OWL possible and remain focused on building our vision of a revitalized esports program. We are excited to share details with you all in the near future.”

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Embracer COO confirms departure following ‘rough’ year for the games giant

Egil Strunke shared the news on Monday and claimed he’d left the holding company – which owns many game developers such as Gearbox and Crystal Dynamics – last week.

In June, Embracer announced the appointment of an interim COO, which would be filled by Saber Interactive boss Matthew Karch.

“Last week I left Embracer Group as COO, and it’s with mixed feelings I am parting ways this global company phenomenon, rooted in Karlstad, Sweden,” Strunke wrote on Monday.

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Resident Evil 4 Remake Is Coming To Apple Devices In December

The game won't be available to all iPhone owners, however. Resident Evil 4 Remake will only be available on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, meaning you'll have to grab the newest product in order to play this game on the go. That said, it will also be available on iPads and Macs with the M1 chip or later.

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Ubisoft's latest layoffs set to affect 124 people worldwide

Ubisoft Montreal is the latest company hit by ongoing cuts as 75 members of staff have been laid off at the Canadian studio.

As reported by Kotaku, the staff cuts come as part of a "reorganisation" of the studio's general and administrative teams, Ubisoft IT, and its SFX studio Hybride (which worked on Disney Plus Star Wars series The Mandalorian).

In a notice to the government of Quebec, the company said: "Ubisoft is proceeding with a collective dismissal in its Montreal establishment within the framework of a reorganisation of its production support services across Canada, by consolidating these functions Canada wide, Ubisoft will be able to optimise its resources to be more sustainable in the long term."

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Bungie tells Destiny fans ‘we know we’ve lost your trust’

Bungie has addressed its community for the first time since news earlier this week that it was laying off as many as 100 employees.

Writing on its website, Bungie has called this week “one of the most difficult… in our studio’s history” and acknowledged that it’s “lost a lot of [players’] trust” with its recent Destiny content.

“This has been one of the most difficult weeks in our studio’s history, as we’ve parted ways with people we respect and admire,” it wrote. “We’ve spent this week supporting one another, including those who are at the studio, as well as friends and colleagues who no longer are.

“We want to acknowledge the feedback and concerns you have about Lightfall and recent Seasons, as well as your responses to the reveal of The Final Shape. We know we have lost a lot of your trust. Destiny needs to surprise and delight. We haven’t done this enough and that’s going to change.”

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Nintendo developing live-action The Legend of Zelda movie

Still doubtless beaming from the runaway success of this year's Super Mario Bros. movie, Shigeru Miyamoto has confirmed a live-action The Legend of Zelda movie is in the works.

Details are sparse at present, but Miyamoto, announcing the news on Nintendo Japan's Twitter/X account, said the project has already been in development for "many years now". As per an accompanying press release, Miyamoto will produce the movie - which is being co-financed by Nintendo and Sony Pictures Entertainment (Sony will also handle worldwide theatrical distribution) - with Avi Arad, responsible for "many hit films", also producing.

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[msclaritea]

Disney Sued By Film Finance Partner For Using ‘Hollywood Accounting’ – Deadline

Hey, everybody should read the absolute vitriol dripping from these comments, towards mainly, again, DISNEY. Check this one out:

Anonymous

on August 15, 2023 3:21 pm

Why so reticent to criticize Disney?? They’ve been the biggest film studio in box office gross for a decade now, they do have a lot more to answer for than others.

It seems like every time somebody decides to criticize a legacy studio vs Amazon or Netflix, everyone just does their “what about streamers” routine. Streamers have their problems, but legacy studios have been screwing creatives for a century now.

It’s interesting that the propaganda machine that protects studios like Disney, Universal, Paramount and to a lesser extent WB is still working well with some people even in the middle of a strike.

Nobody has contributed more to franchise fatigue, media consolidation and the destruction of mid budget adult dramas aka cinema, like Disney. Nobody has ruined cinema going more with their frontloaded event-making of movies that celebrates OW as the be all end all discussion of “success” for movies these days like Disney. And nobody has more a too big to fail mentally like Disney.

It’s the reason people stopped going to the theaters. You have less consumer choice, at ever increasing costs, and more infantile, lowest common denominator entertainment that is only praised as successful because they screen them every 15 minutes and spend 100 million on marketing when that could’ve been spent making 2-3 decent adult-geared movies.

Barbie cost more to market than the entire production negative. It had over 30 screenings on a “preview day” thursday, every 10 minutes.

Some defend this system as demand driving more screenings but there is clearly an aspect of “you give me the screens, I’ll give you the marketing spend”.

Too-big-too-fail releases distort the marketplace and clearly aren’t even guaranteeing success as we’ve seen this summer.

These fuckers are seriously trying to destroy Disney because of it's strong Children's programs and box office competition. I guarantee that's why. This is a part of the attacks against public education and our economy. Look up TSG Entertainment and their list of investments. A large majority of the films they backed are foreign, mainly coming from the UK. They've also worked with Disney competitors a lot.

"...Today, like many land-grant universities, WVU sits at the convergence of several cultural and economic tectonic shifts that are working in tandem to radically transform education. Foremost among these shifts is the changing economic climate of higher ed. WVU, like many higher-education institutions, has been plagued by gross financial mismanagement by administrators and consultants who have funneled money into massive administrative bloat and capital projects at the expense of faculty hires and support for faculty and graduate students. The university is currently facing a $45 million budget gap, and is seemingly uninterested in shrinking administrator salaries, creating artificial conditions for austerity.

This shift to massive administrative salary costs and, relatedly, software and tech expenditures, came about as federal funding of higher education massively slowed, particularly after George W. Bush’s cuts in 2007–08. Fifty years of cuts to higher education have accounted for losses of between 30 to 50 percent of funding for some land-grant schools. Facing state austerity and a culture war on public goods, especially public education, state funding for higher education continues to decline, forcing public universities to rely more on private donors, who impart new controls on higher education professionals.

Meanwhile, higher education has become a major political target for the right. One only needs to look at the takeover of the New College of Florida (to name but one example of the GOP’s “war on woke”) to see how academic expertise has come under fire as a political wedge issue in this campaign season—while the GOP’s privatization program, perfected under Reagan, funnels public money into both tax cuts for the wealthy and various grifts. The book bans, censorship, purges of area studies programs, and targeting of academics at public institutions (particularly in the South) are all calculated to decrease the public’s confidence in public education so that it can be dismantled and replaced with private corporations, which lack regulation and oversight..."

[theblotsays]

Enter the Dragon Screen Print by Matt Needle x Bottleneck Gallery

Today, Bottleneck Gallery will be releasing a new movie poster for Enter the Dragon by artist Matt Needle! As BNG explained, “Enter the Dragon is THE martial arts film for us, and to celebrate WB 100th anniversary, we’re stoked to have Matt bring his creative design work to this classic film.” Enter the Dragon by Matt Needle is a 24”x36” hand numbered screen print. Limited to 100 pieces, it will go on sale at 12pm ET on Thursday, April 13th, at BottleneckGallery.com for $50. http://dlvr.it/SmRmCf

[themovieblogonline]

New Lord of The Rings Movies Coming

In a stunning announcement, Warner Bros. Discovery will be releasing new Lord Of The Rings movies. Yes, NEW movies are coming based on the beloved book series. Now what makes this stunning is the fact that the Lord of the Rings series by Peter Jackson is still fresh in most fans' minds. This is even more shocking considering that Amazon is producing its own Lord of the Rings stories in Rings of Power. Those stories are seemingly not contradicting anything in the Peter Jackson series and seem like a companion series to that trilogy. The news comes from Variety which shares the following: On a Thursday earnings call, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav announced that newly-installed studio leaders Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy have brokered a deal to make “multiple” films based on the beloved J. R. R. Tolkien books. The projects will be developed through WB label New Line Cinema. The first “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, helmed by Peter Jackson, grossed nearly $3 billion worldwide; Jackson’s follow-up trilogy based on Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” matched those grosses. Now I know what you guys are thinking: What Does Peter Jackson have to say about this? And that's a very valid question as he was the steward and director of the franchise for 6 movies. While it isn't explicitly said that Jackson is going to be working on this he is confirming that he is aware: Jackson and his main “Lord of the Rings” collaborators Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens said Warner Bros. and Embracer “have kept us in the loop every step of the way.” “We look forward to speaking with them further to hear their vision for the franchise moving forward,” This isn't even a little bit of confirmation of their involvement. What I find comforting is that "kept us in the loop every step of the way" part. This is more than we can say for Rings of Power. Some of you might know that Jackson mentioned in the past that he was initially contacted about Rings of Power but got ghosted when he asked to see a script. Now what isn't clear, to me anyway, is if these new movies will be remakes or adaptations of other stories. I could imagine them remaking the originals but I would hope that they would adapt other stories. The Silmarillion is often brought up when people discuss other stories to adapt and I think that could work. There are a ton of stories in that book and I'd love to see them adapted. Can you imagine a story about how Saurdon and Melkor, (Sauron's boss), rose to power? I can't find any more details on this, yet, but I will be scouring the web for more concrete details. That's all I have for now.     Read the full article

[znewstech]

Arms being smuggled to create unrest in north Bengal: Mamata Banerjee | India News - Times of India

Arms being smuggled to create unrest in north Bengal: Mamata Banerjee | India News – Times of India

RANAGHAT (WB): West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday alleged that arms are being smuggled from Bihar and across international borders to create unrest in north Bengal with an intention to divide the state. She alleged that vehicles belonging to VIPs, with tinted glass, are being used to smuggle firearms and money into West Bengal, while directing the police to increase…

[irvinenewshq]

Whatd You Consider Black Adam?

Picture: Warner Bros. It’s taken 15 years and a number of other pandemic-forced delays, and now Black Adam has lastly arrived in theaters. Dwayne Johnson’s been hooked up to the movie since 2007 when his star energy was nowhere close to what it’s at right now. The thought of this film getting made, a lot much less popping out, appeared inconceivable as Johnson continued to construct his star energy by means of varied movies, exhibits, and wrestling gigs, to say nothing of how the state of DC’s theatrical movies appears to alter each few weeks. So how is the movie itself? Effectively….eh. Reactions to the movie are blended, not less than for critics. As is commonly the case, those who’ve been capable of groove with the movie have actually taken a shine to it, and those who haven’t have made their dislike (both gentle or spicing scorching) for it fairly clear. Audiences appear to be grooving with it a bit of extra, although, and that seems to be the principle metric of success for Johnson. (Past the field workplace, clearly.) Having seen the movie on Thursday, Black Adam may very well be worse, however it may additionally stand to be quite a bit higher. (Actually, it could most likely be extra enjoyable if it was prepared to be worse.) For all of the memes there’ve been in regards to the hierarchy of energy within the DC Universe altering, the movie itself doesn’t have something new to supply that you just couldn’t get anyplace else, both on this period of DC motion pictures particularly or the superhero style basically. There’s no rule stating superhero movies need to be transcendent, and whereas Johnson is nice on this, he’s been higher in different issues, and the movie truthfully feels prefer it’s making an attempt too exhausting. A film that places such an emphasis on its lead character being completely different from different superheroes through killing would most likely carry extra weight if one in all this 12 months’s largest exhibits didn’t contain superheroes casually crushing spines and lasering folks to demise. However hey, perhaps you’re feeling in another way. Tell us within the feedback beneath what you consider Black Adam. I’d say to be conscious of spoilers, however the one actual one which the movie has is one which WB’s had no hassle all however outright admitting these previous few days, so… Need extra io9 information? Try when to count on the newest Marvel and Star Wars releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on movie and TV, and every thing that you must learn about Home of the Dragon and Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Energy. Originally published at Irvine News HQ

[incarnateirony]

I asked the question about 'overall" deal and "first look". I looked up the difference and was just trying to get more info on the differences and why they would change it. Also, wondered if they really did change it or if one of the articles about CM's deal with WB was incorrect? The Variety article back in 2020 definitely said overall deal. I thought the first look deal might be better for CM? Really is a legit question. I want TW renewed, and want to understand the impact of digital numbers. TFW2 is printing how TW is trending down, but with digital numbers, we should be good, right?

Yeah, your ask is legit, but why did the ask exist? Because 2po threw decontextualized nonsense about the deals into the water and people are suddenly talking about the thing. Then, if I don't nail down real fast how reality works, people start running around like chicken little about the thing. I'm sure you've noticed this pattern by now.

Either way. Honestly? Yes, it's technically better for us. BOTH deals are considered high status to get, but each are conditional to a company's situation. When CM was new, going all in overall deal with WB both secured their licensing and early footing. But they're established now, they got what they needed squared. They might wanna think outside of WB. WB still wants to look at their shit first but Jensen isn't stuck. So yes, it's actually better for us, which is why watching the other noodles try to connect the dots is funny as shit.

First rule of thumb ignore literally anything 2po says about ratings. He has proven time and time again he has no idea what he's talking about and, like many things, googled it poorly but enough to just talk about it, cuz he loves hearing himself talk.

If we're gonna talk about trending down I'd love to discuss how a show that premiered at 0.37 only 2 years ago is running a season average of 0.08 new episodes at 8PM prime top tier Thursday space, even with heavy marketing helping it out. The man understands NOTHING of how to track things like audience retention rates. He's about to google what those are now to try to prove in a convenient soon upcoming post that he does, and so on. He doesn't know the value of timeslots, he doesn't understand the workings of the media weatherdome, he doesn't understand the difference between a rerun at 8P, a live show at 8P, and a live show at 9 P. He doesn't understand that different nights have different values in different seasons, and what the network expectations here are. He doesn't understand why the 9P slot increasing 50% demo is a good thing, not something you can spin as "decline."

He just doesn't get it. He fundamentally has zero grasp of the topic he tries to talk about, so that's the first thing to remember whenever he's trying to talk. He's literally just googling through it and talking out his ass to find an angle of argument, not actually educating himself on an industry to find the truth. Because that both takes too much work for him and is full of answers he deep down knows he doesn't want.

We're fine. Our numbers are fine. Our digitals are *crushing it*. I promise you Nexstar isn't just randomly double airing a show that isn't making them money. The idea of "making it back" that's not how it works dipshits that's the opposite. If a show isn't making money it's replaced with a show that makes money. They double book the show that makes money. I'm not sure why they're acting like this is fucking rocket science or something they even have room to speculate in, and I don't know why this fandom lets it work when you could ask a lot of these questions to yourself and realize like "WOW! THIS IS HORSE SHIT!"

Fandom needs to start learning how to think for itself, because the level of transparency and rapid rate failure coming out of certain people should be speaking for itself as the squeal louder and louder.

Stop even considering his arguments. You could give a toddler alphabet soup in a highchair and they'd probably be able to slam together ratings about as accurate and well understood as 2po does. Stop humoring his results. Stop entertaining him. You've seen him fail over and over and over. You've seen him be caught in lie after lie. You've seen him blow thousands of dollars failing out. You've seen him be resolved with simple google searches, seen him try to pretend a reddit thread is a secret source.

You've seen it. These are literally just angry trolls with attention seeking personality disorders distilled into their most compressed state and about to explode, and until then, there's just nonsense spraying out nonstop.