#author/screenwriter!bill

[mostlysignssomeportents]

On September 22, I'm (virtually) presenting at the DIG Festival in Modena, Italy. On September 27, I'll be at Chevalier's Books in Los Angeles with Brian Merchant for a joint launch for my new book The Internet Con and his new book, Blood in the Machine.

It's been 21 years since Bill Willingham launched Fables, his 110-issue, wide-ranging, delightful and brilliantly crafted author-owned comic series that imagines that the folkloric figures of the world's fairytales are real people, who live in a secret society whose internal struggles and intersections with the mundane world are the source of endless drama.

Fables is a DC Comics title; DC is division of the massive entertainment conglomerate Warners, which is, in turn, part of the Warner/Discovery empire, a rapacious corporate behemoth whose screenwriters have been on strike for 137 days (and counting). DC is part of a comics duopoly; its rival, Marvel, is a division of the Disney/Fox juggernaut, whose writers are also on strike.

The DC that Willingham bargained with at the turn of the century isn't the DC that he bargains with now. Back then, DC was still subject to a modicum of discipline from competition; its corporate owner's shareholders had not yet acquired today's appetite for meteoric returns on investment of the sort that can only be achieved through wage-theft and price-gouging.

In the years since, DC – like so many other corporations – participated in an orgy of mergers as its sector devoured itself. The collapse of comics into a duopoly owned by studios from an oligopoly had profound implications for the entire sector, from comic shops to comic cons. Monopoly breeds monopoly, and the capture of the entire comics distribution system by a single company – Diamond – was attended by the capture of the entire digital comics market by a single company, Amazon, who enshittified its Comixology division, driving creators and publishers into Kindle Direct Publishing, a gig-work platform that replicates the company's notoriously exploitative labor practices for creative workers. Today, Comixology is a ghost-town, its former employees axed in a mass layoff earlier this year:

https://gizmodo.com/amazon-layoffs-comixology-1850007216

When giant corporations effect these mergers, they do so with a kind of procedural kabuki, insisting that they are dotting every i and crossing every t, creating a new legal entity whose fictional backstory is a perfect, airtight bubble, a canon with not a single continuity bug. This performance of seriousness is belied by the behind-the-scenes chaos that these corporate shifts entail – think of the way that the banks that bought and sold our mortgages in the run-up to the 2008 crisis eventually lost the deeds to our houses, and then just pretended they were legally entitled to collect money from us every month – and steal our houses if we refused to pay:

https://www.reuters.com/article/idINIndia-58325420110720

Or think of the debt collection industry, which maintains a pretense of careful record-keeping as the basis for hounding and threatening people, but which is, in reality, a barely coherent trade in spreadsheets whose claims to our money are matters of faith:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/12/do-not-pay/#fair-debt-collection-practices-act

For usury, the chaos is a feature, not a bug. Their corporate strategists take the position that any ambiguity should be automatically resolved in their favor, with the burden of proof on accused debtors, not the debt collectors. The scumbags who lost your deed and stole your house say that it's up to you to prove that you own it. And since you've just been rendered homeless, you don't even have a house to secure a loan you might use to pay a lawyer to go to court.

It's not solely that the usurers want to cheat you – it's that they can make more money if they don't pay for meticulous record-keeping, and if that means that they sometimes cheat us, that's our problem, not theirs.

While this is very obvious in the usury sector, it's also true of other kinds of massive mergers that create unfathomnably vast conglomerates. The "curse of bigness" is real, but who gets cursed is a matter of power, and big companies have a lot more power.

The chaos, in other words, is a feature and not a bug. It provides cover for contract-violating conduct, up to and including wage-theft. Remember when Disney/Marvel stole money from beloved science fiction giant Alan Dean Foster, whose original Star Wars novelization was hugely influential on George Lucas, who changed the movie to match Foster's ideas?

Disney claimed that when it acquired Lucasfilm, it only acquired its assets, but not its liabilities. That meant that while it continued to hold Foster's license to publish his novel, they were not bound by an obligation to pay Foster for this license, since that liability was retained by the (now defunct) original company:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/04/30/disney-still-must-pay/#pay-the-writer

For Disney, this wage-theft (and many others like it, affecting writers with less fame and clout than Foster) was greatly assisted by the chaos of scale. The chimera of Lucas/Disney had no definitive responsible party who could be dragged into a discussion. The endless corporate shuffling that is normal in giant companies meant that anyone who might credibly called to account for the theft could be transfered or laid off overnight, with no obvious successor. The actual paperwork itself was hard for anyone to lay hands on, since the relevant records had been physically transported and re-stored subsequent to the merger. And, of course, the company itself was so big and powerful that it was hard for Foster and his agent to raise a credible threat.

I've experienced versions of this myself: every book contract I've ever signed stipulated that my ebooks could not be published with DRM. But one of my publishers – a boutique press that published my collection Overclocked – collapsed along with most of its competitors, the same week my book was published (its distributor, Publishers Group West, went bankrupt after its parent company, Advanced Marketing Services, imploded in a shower of fraud and criminality).

The publisher was merged with several others, and then several more, and then several more – until it ended up a division of the Big Five publisher Hachette, who repeatedly, "accidentally" pushed my book into retail channels with DRM. I don't think Hachette deliberately set out to screw me over, but the fact that Hachette is (by far) the most doctrinaire proponent of DRM meant that when the chaos of its agglomerated state resulted in my being cheated, it was a happy accident.

(The Hachette story has a happy ending; I took the book back from them and sold it to Blackstone Publishing, who brought out a new expanded edition to accompany a DRM-free audiobook and ebook):

https://www.blackstonepublishing.com/overclocked-bvej.html

Willingham, too, has been affected by the curse of bigness. The DC he bargained with at the outset of Fables made a raft of binding promises to him: he would have approval over artists and covers and formats for new collections, and he would own the "IP" for the series, meaning the copyrights vested in the scripts, storylines, characters (he might also have retained rights to some trademarks).

But as DC grew, it made mistakes. Willingham's hard-fought, unique deal with the publisher was atypical. A giant publisher realizes its efficiencies through standardized processes. Willingham's books didn't fit into that standard process, and so, repeatedly, the publisher broke its promises to him.

At first, Willingham's contacts at the publisher were contrite when he caught them at this. In his press-release on the matter, Willingham calls them "honest men and women of integrity [who] interpreted the details of that agreement fairly and above-board":

https://billwillingham.substack.com/p/willingham-sends-fables-into-the

But as the company grew larger, these counterparties were replaced by corporate cogs who were ever-more-distant from his original, creator-friendly deal. What's more, DC's treatment of its other creators grew shabbier at each turn (a dear friend who has written for DC for decades is still getting the same page-rate as they got in the early 2000s), so Willingham's deal grew more exceptional as time went by. That meant that when Willingham got the "default" treatment, it was progressively farther from what his contract entitled him to.

The company repeatedly – and conveniently – forgot that Willingham had the final say over the destiny of his books. They illegally sublicensed a game adapted from his books, and then, when he objected, tried to make renegotiating his deal a condition of being properly compensated for this theft. Even after he won that fight, the company tried to cheat him and then cover it up by binding him to a nondisclosure agreement.

This was the culmination of a string of wage-thefts in which the company misreported his royalties and had to be dragged into paying him his due. When the company "practically dared" Willingham to sue ("knowing it would be a long and debilitating process") he snapped.

Rather than fight Warner, Willingham has embarked on what JWZ calls an act of "absolute table-flip badassery" – he has announced that Fables will hereafter be in the public domain, available for anyone to adapt commercially, in works that compete with whatever DC might be offering.

Now, this is huge, and it's also shrewd. It's the kind of thing that will bring lots of attention on Warner's fraudulent dealings with its creative workforce, at a moment where the company is losing a public relations battle to the workers picketing in front of its gates. It constitutes a poison pill that is eminently satisfying to contemplate. It's delicious.

But it's also muddy. Willingham has since clarified that his public domain dedication means that the public can't reproduce the existing comics. That's not surprising; while Willingham doesn't say so, it's vanishingly unlikely that he owns the copyrights to the artwork created by other artists (Willingham is also a talented illustrator, but collaborated with a who's-who of comics greats for Fables). He may or may not have control over trademarks, from the Fables wordmark to any trademark interests in the character designs. He certainly doesn't have control over the trademarked logos for Warner and DC that adorn the books.

When Willingham says he is releasing the "IP" to his comic, he is using the phrase in its commercial sense, not its legal sense. When business people speak of "owning IP," they mean that they believe they have the legal right to control the conduct of their competitors, critics and customers:

https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/

The problem is that this doesn't correspond to the legal concept of IP, because IP isn't actually a legal concept. While there are plenty of "IP lawyers" and even "IP law firms," there is no "IP law." There are many laws that are lumped together under "IP," including the big three (trademark, copyright and patent), but also a bestiary of obscure cousins and subspecies – trade dress, trade secrecy, service marks, noncompetes, nondisclosues, anticirumvention rights, sui generis "neighboring rights" and so on.

The job of an "IP lawyer" is to pluck individual doctrines from this incoherent scrapheap of laws and regulations and weave them together into a spider's web of tripwires that customers and critics and competitors can't avoid, and which confer upon the lawyer's client the right to sue for anything that displeases them.

When Willingham says he's releasing Fables into the public domain, it's not clear what he's releasing – and what is his to release. In the colloquial, business sense of "IP," saying you're "releasing the IP" means something like, "Feel free to create adaptations from this." But these adaptations probably can't draw too closely on the artwork, or the logos. You can probably make novelizations of the comics. Maybe you can make new comics that use the same scripts but different art. You can probably make sequels to, or spinoffs of, the existing comics, provided you come up with your own character designs.

But it's murky. Very murky. Remember, this all started because Willingham didn't have the resources or patience to tangle with the rabid attack-lawyers Warners keeps kenneled on its Burbank lot. Warners can (and may) release those same lawyers on you, even if you are likely to prevail in court, betting that you – like Willingham – won't have the resources to defend yourself.

The strange reality of "IP" rights is that they can be secured without any affirmative step on your part. Copyrights are conjured into existence the instant that a new creative work is fixed in a tangible medium and endure until the creator's has been dead for 70 years. Common-law trademarks gradually come into definition like an image appearing on photo-paper in a chemical soup, growing in definition every time they are used, even if the mark's creator never files a form with the USPTO.

These IP tripwires proliferate in the shadows, wherever doodles are sketched on napkins, wherever kindergartners apply finger-paint to construction-paper. But for all that they are continuously springing into existence, and enduring for a century or more, they are absurdly hard to give away.

This was the key insight behind the Creative Commons project: that while the internet was full of people saying "no copyright" (or just assuming the things they posted were free for others to use), the law was a universe away from their commonsense assumptions. Creative Commons licenses were painstakingly crafted by an army of international IP lawyers who set out to turn the normal IP task on its head – to create a legal document that assured critics, customers and competitors that the licensor had no means to control their conduct.

20 years on, these licenses are pretty robust. The flaws in earlier versions have been discovered and repaired in subsequent revisions. They have been adapted to multiple countries' legal systems, allowing CC users to mix-and-match works from many territories – animating Polish sprites to tell a story by a Canadian, set to music from the UK.

Willingham could clarify his "public domain" dedication by applying a Creative Commons license to Fables, but which license? That's a thorny question. What Willingham really wants here is a sampling license – a license that allows licensees to take some of the elements of his work, combine them with other parts, and make something new.

But no CC license fits that description. Every CC license applies to whole works. If you want to license the bass-line from your song but not the melody, you have to release the bass-line separately and put a CC license on that. You can't just put a CC license on the song with an asterisked footnote that reads "just the bass, though."

CC had a sampling license: the "Sampling Plus 1.0" license. It was a mess. Licensees couldn't figure out what parts of works they were allowed to use, and licensors couldn't figure out how to coney that. It's been "retired."

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/sampling+/1.0/

So maybe Willingham should create his own bespoke license for Fables. That may be what he has to do, in fact. But boy is that a fraught business. Remember the army of top-notch lawyers who created the CC licenses? They missed a crucial bug in the first three versions of the license, and billions of works have been licensed under those earlier versions. This has enabled a mob of crooked copyleft trolls (like Pixsy) to prey on the unwary, raking in a fortune:

https://doctorow.medium.com/a-bug-in-early-creative-commons-licenses-has-enabled-a-new-breed-of-superpredator-5f6360713299

Making a bug-free license is hard. A failure on Willingham's part to correctly enumerate or convey the limitations of such a license – to list which parts of Fables DC might sue you for using – could result in downstream users having their hard work censored out of existence by legal threats. Indeed, that's the best case scenario – defects in a license could result in downstream users, their collaborators, investors, and distributors being sued for millions of dollars, costing them everything they have, up to and including their homes.

Which isn't to say that this is dead on arrival – far from it! Just that there is work to be done. I can't speak for Creative Commons (it's been more than 20 years since I was their EU Director), but I'm positive that there are copyfighting lawyers out there who'd love to work on a project like this.

I think Willingham is onto something here. After all, Fables is built on the public domain. As Willingham writes in his release: "The current laws are a mishmash of unethical backroom deals to keep trademarks and copyrights in the hands of large corporations, who can largely afford to buy the outcomes they want."

Willingham describes how his participation in the entertainment industry has made him more skeptical of IP, not less. He proposes capping copyright at 20 years, with a single, 10-year extension for works that are sold onto third parties. This would be pretty good industrial policy – almost no works are commercially viable after just 14 years:

https://rufuspollock.com/papers/optimal_copyright.pdf

But there are massive structural barriers to realizing such a policy, the biggest being that the US had tied its own hands by insisting that long copyright terms be required in the trade deals it imposed on other countries, thereby binding itself to these farcically long copyright terms.

But there is another policy lever American creators can and should yank on to partially resolve this: Termination. The 1976 Copyright Act established the right for any creator to "terminate" the "transfer" of any copyrighted work after 30 years, by filing papers with the Copyright Office. This process is unduly onerous, and the Authors Alliance (where I'm a volunteer advisor) has created a tool to simplify it:

https://www.authorsalliance.org/resources/rights-reversion-portal/

Termination is deliberately obscure, but it's incredibly powerful. The copyright scholar Rebecca Giblin has studied this extensively, helping to produce the most complete report on how termination has been used by creators of all types:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/04/avoidance-is-evasion/#reverted

Writers, musicians and other artists have used termination to unilaterally cancel the crummy deals they had crammed down their throats 30 years ago and either re-sell their works on better terms or make them available directly to the public. Every George Clinton song, every Sweet Valley High novel, and the early works of Steven King have all be terminated and returned to their creators.

Copyright termination should and could be improved. Giblin and I wrote a whole-ass book about this and related subjects, Chokepoint Capitalism, which not only details the scams that writers like Willingham are subject to, but also devotes fully half its length to presenting detailed, technical, shovel-ready proposals for making life better for creators:

https://chokepointcapitalism.com/

Willingham is doing something important here. Larger and larger entertainment firms offer shabbier and shabbier treatment to creative workers, as striking members of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA can attest. Over the past year, I've seen a sharp increase in the presence of absolutely unconscionable clauses in the contracts I'm offered by publishers:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/27/reps-and-warranties/#i-agree

I'm six months into negotiating a contract for a 300 word piece I wrote for a magazine I started contributing to in 1992. At issue is that they insist that I assign film rights and patent rights from my work as a condition of publication. Needless to say, there are no patentable inventions nor film ideas in this article, but they refuse to vary the contract, to the obvious chagrin of the editor who commissioned me.

Why won't they grant a variance? Why, they are so large – the magazine is part of a global conglomerate – that it would be impractical for them to track exceptions to this completely fucking batshit clause. In other words: we can't strike this batshit clause because we decided that from now on, all out contracts will have batshit clauses.

The performance of administrative competence – and the tactical deployment of administrative chaos – among giant entertainment companies is grotesque, but every now and again, it backfires.

That's what's happening at Marvel right now. The estates of Marvel founder Stan Lee and its seminal creator Steve Ditko are suing Marvel to terminate the transfer of both creators' characters to Marvel. If they succeed, Marvel will lose most of its most profitable characters, including Iron Man:

https://www.reuters.com/legal/marvel-artists-estate-ask-pre-trial-wins-superhero-copyright-fight-2023-05-22/

They're following in the trail of the Jack Kirby estate, whom Marvel paid millions to rather than taking their chances with the Supreme Court.

Marvel was always an administrative mess, repeatedly going bankrupt. Its deals with its creators were indifferently papered over, and then Marvel lost a lot of the paperwork. I'd bet anything that many of the key documents Disney (Marvel's owner) needs to prevail over Lee and Ditko are either unlocatable or destroyed – or never existed in the first place.

A more muscular termination right – say, one that kicks in after 20 years, and is automatic – would turn circuses like Marvel-Lee/Ditko into real class struggles. Rather than having the heirs of creators reaping the benefit of termination, we could make termination into a system for getting creators themselves paid.

In the meantime, there's Willingham's "absolute table-flip badassery."

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/15/fairy-use-tales/#sampling-license

Image: Tom Mrazek (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:An_Open_Field_%2827220830251%29.jpg

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

--

Penguin Random House (modified) https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/707161/fables-20th-anniversary-box-set-by-bill-willingham/

Fair use https://www.eff.org/issues/intellectual-property

[saintmeghanmarkle]

📋 𝐌𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐌𝐌 𝐯𝐢𝐚 𝐀𝐑𝐎, 𝐀𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐭𝐲𝐩𝐞𝐬 𝐏𝐨𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝟒𝟎𝐱𝟒𝟎 📋

📌 ARO jam recipients (as of May 27th, 2024)

Tracy Robbins (designer, wife of Paramount Pictures CEO Brian Robbins) *

Delfina Balquier (Argentine socialite, wife of Nacho Figueras) * and Nacho Figueras (professional polo player) *

Kelly Mckee Zajfen (friend, Alliance of Moms founder) *

Mindy Kaling (actress and comedian) *

Tracee Ellis Ross (actress, daughter of Diana Ross)

Abigail Spencer (friend, Suits co-star) *

Chrissy Teigen (television personality, wife of John Legend)

Kris Jenner ('Momager') *

Garcelle Beauvais (actress, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills) *

Heather Dorak (friend, yoga instructor) *

📌 Archetypes podcast guests

Serena Williams 🏆

Mariah Carey 👑

Mindy Kaling (actress and comedian) *

Margaret Cho (comedian and actress)

Lisa Ling (journalist and tv personality)

Deepika Padukone (Indian actress)

Jenny Slate (actress and comedian)

Constance Wu (actress)

Paris Hilton (entrepreneur, socialite, activist)

Iliza Shlesinger (comedian and actress)

Issa Rae (actress and writer)

Ziwe (comedian and writer)

Sophie Grégoire Trudeau (former wife of Canadian PM Trudeau)

Pamela Adlon (actress)

Sam Jay (comedian and writer)

Mellody Hobson (President and co-CEO of $14.9B Ariel Investments, Chairwoman of Starbucks Corporation, wife of George Lucas)

Victoria Jackson (entrepreneur, wife of Bill Guthy: founder of Guthy-Renker, leading direct marketing company)

Jameela Jamil (actress, television host)

Shohreh Aghdashloo (Iranian and American actress)

Michaela Jaé Rodriguez (actress and singer)

Candace Bushnell (Sex and The City writer)

Trevor Noah (South African comedian)

Andy Cohen (talk show host)

Judd Apatow (director, producer, screenwriter)

source

📌 40x40 participants

Adele 🌟

Amanda Gorman (poet and activist)

Amanda Nguyen (activist)

Ayesha Curry (actress, cooking television personality)

Ciara (singer and actress)

Deepak Chopra (author and alternative medicine advocate)

Dr. Nadine Burke Harris (former Surgeon General of California)

Elaine Welteroth (former Editor-in-Chief of Teen Vogue)

Dr. Ibram X Kendi (professor and anti-racism activist)

Fernando Garcia (creative director of Oscar de la Renta)

Gabrielle Union (actress)

Gloria Steinem (feminist journalist and social-political activist)

Hillary Clinton (politician, wife of former US President Bill Clinton)

Katie Couric (journalist) *

Kerry Washington (actress)

Chef José Andrés (founder of World Central Kitchen)

Melissa McCarthy (actress)

Princess Eugenie (member of British Royal Family)

Priyanka Chopra (actress)

Sarah Paulson (actress)

Sofia Carson (actress)

Sophie Grégoire Trudeau (former wife of Canadian PM)

Stella McCartney (fashion designer, daughter of Paul McCartney)

Dr. Theresa "Tessy" Ojo - CBE, FRSA (Diana Award CEO)

Tracee Ellis Ross (actress, daughter of Diana Ross)

Unconfirmed - Edward Enninful (former Editor-in-Chief of British Vogue)

Unconfirmed - Daniel Martin (makeup artist) *

An official list of all "40x40" participants was never disclosed

source 1 // source 2 // source 3

📌 Notes:

Names with an asterisk (*) indicate that they follow ARO on Instagram

Notably missing from these lists: Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos and wife Nicole Avant, Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez, Beyoncé, Tina Knowles, Tyler Perry, Oprah Winfrey, Gayle King, Kevin Costner, Ellen DeGeneres, Portia Rossi *, Brooke Shields, John Travolta, Kelly Rowland, Holly Robinson Peete, Misan Harriman *, Michael Bublé

Wedding guests missing from these lists: Jessica Mulroney, George and Amal Clooney, David and Victoria Beckham, Idris Elba and Sabria Dhowre, James Blunt and Sofia Wellesley, Janina Gavankar, Elton John and David Furnish, James Corden and Julia Carey, Patrick J. Adams and the rest of the cast of Suits, Joss Stone, Tom Hardy and Charlotte Riley, Carey Mulligan and Marcus Mumford [Source]

Sunshine Sachs must've called in a LOT of favors to get so many famous names on board the Archetypes Podcast and the 40x40 project. Vanity projects that went... nowhere.

Without Sunshine Sachs, IMO it's highly unlikely that M will ever be able to reach the same level of celebrity access on her own.

If there are any names missing from these lists, please comment below 👇

Post link

author: SeptièmeSens

submitted: May 27, 2024 at 06:44PM via SaintMeghanMarkle on Reddit

disclaimer: all views + opinions expressed by the author of this post, as well as any comments and reblogs, are solely the author's own; they do not necessarily reflect the views of the administrator of this Tumblr blog. For entertainment only.

[moorheadthanyoucanhandle]

WHAT NOT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU'RE EXPECTING

Opening this weekend:

Monkey Man--The title character, also known variously as "Kid" and "Bobby," wears an ape mask in the ring in the underground fights from which he ekes out a living. He's a man on a mission; he wants to get close enough to the corrupt officials in the Indian city where he lives who caused the death of his mother and the destruction of his neighborhood when he was a child. In flashback, we see the saintly woman telling him stories of Hanuman, the heroic monkey-god from the Ramayana.

Our hero works his way up from floor-scrubber to waiter in the human-trafficking club where these creeps hang out, and from there, lots of blood-splattered mayhem ensues. Grievously wounded, he finds refuge in a religious community of transgendered people who become his allies against the bad guys.

This is the feature directorial debut of Dev Patel, who also wrote the story, co-wrote the script and stars. Patel, the kid from Slumdog Millionaire, has already shown his badass bona fides in 2018's overlooked, believable thriller The Wedding Guest, among other films, and he's a true action star here too, though he never loses a certain sympathetic callowness.

Other memorable cast members include the Jon Lovitz type Pitobash (known to American audiences from Million Dollar Arm) as the comic relief, gorgeous Ashwini Kalsekar as the sinister boss at the club, Vipin Sharma as the serene leader of the trans order, and Sharlto Copley as the shady fight manager. The standout, however, is Sikandar Kher as the brutal but shrewd police chief; his clashes with the Monkey Man are the high points of the film.

Shot in garish, lurid tones by Sharone Meir and slickly edited to propulsive Indian music, Monkey Man is extremely bloody, to be sure, at least by wide-release standards. I'm not sure that, at its bones, it's anything but a standard revenge tale, in the manner of a spaghetti western; Kid/Bobby/Monkey Man is a classic Man With No Name. But as such, it's helped by a gallery of seriously odious villains that help you invest in the hero's vengeance. Whether it's a healthy feeling or not, it's enormously satisfying every time the Monkey Man lands a punch.

The First Omen--Just a couple of years shy of its half-century mark, the original version of The Omen, enormously influential both on the horror genre and on society in general, is still spawning movies. In this prequel, set in Rome in 1971, Margaret (Nell Tiger Free), a young American novice raised in Massachusetts, arrives at a Catholic orphanage and quickly realizes that something is very wrong behind the scenes.

Directed by Arkasha Stevenson, who was also among the screenwriters, this account of the diabolical Damien's nativity has its merits. It starts well, with a setting and a hapless heroine that suggest a tale from Sade. It has a brooding period atmosphere, some nightmarish imagery and sequences, and a cast stocked with veterans like Bill Nighy, Sonia Braga, Charles Dance and the bassoon-voiced Ralph Ineson as an Irish priest investigating the matter.

It's also potentially interesting on a thematic level, in that the plot to bring the Antichrist into the world, it turns out, is reactionary; deliberately concocted to create a concrete Evil which will drive people away from the rebellious, authority-questioning counterculture of the time and back to the Church. Something provocative could have been done with this idea.

So it's by no means an unintelligent piece of moviemaking. But it's a tiresomely unpleasant movie. The story concerns the effort to find a suitable mother for the little devil, which results in many extended scenes of restrained women groaning and whimpering and pleading and gasping, to a degree that felt to me uncomfortably close to torture porn at times.

It's possible that this movie's non-consensual gynecological and obstetric procedures are reflective of a post-Roe sensibility, and thus can claim political validity. But that doesn't make them any more watchable. Perhaps this First Omen should also be the last Omen. 

[incarnateirony]

Every time I hear someone go "but my author fave can do this because Technicality And Guild Difference."

Just. Did you guys even listen.

"Add to that, no promotion of movies or television shows and famous faces on the picket lines and social media speaking directly to their customers. For the tech companies and the mega corporations, that should be their nightmare scenario: WGA and SAG-AFTRA side by side. Our bargaining agenda may not be identical, but our cause is the same. Our army of labor, defending labor has increased 17-fold in the past two weeks alone."

Did they fucking stutter. is this unclear. or will fandom realize Well Technically Specifically My Fave's OG Limit Lines Makes This Ok If Turned Sideways is not. fuckin. it.

Also, since this was July 26, please remember this in context to some recent posts here:

"

So what can we expect from the companies as all of this plays itself out? They will try to convince Wall Street that taking a strike, prolonging it unnecessarily, losing their content stream in the process—that all of that is just smart business and no reason for investor concern. We will be talking to Wall Street too, and reminding them that for all these companies, all of 'em including Netflix, the bill, the price for making nothing, will eventually come due. And Wall Street is listening already. Here's Michael Pachter, managing director of equity research at Wedbush on Yahoo Finance the other day: “I think the studios are completely wrong on this one. Content is their lifeblood. They're feeling really foolish about this."

Wall Street isn't the only one listening. We've been talking to union pension funds too about the risks the companies are taking. We talked to CalPERS, the largest public pension plan in the country, talked about the loss of programming and the cost to the industry, and we heard strong support from its board for our struggle and the promise that the companies will be hearing from them, from CalPERS, and demanding answers on behalf of its 2 million members."

I wonder what fandom thinks the endgoal of this part of leverage is:

"Two unions on strike willing to exercise their power, despite the pain, to ensure their members get the contract they deserve. For us, that means addressing the relentless mistreatment of screenwriters, which has only been exacerbated by the move to streaming; the continued denial of full MBA protection to comedy variety and other appendix A writers when they work in streaming; and the self-destructive unsustainable dismantling of the process by which episodic television is made and episodic television writers are paid.

It means addressing the existential threat of AI and the insufficiency of streaming residual formulas, including the need for transparency and a success-based component. All of these will need to be addressed for there to be a deal because in this strike it is our power and not their pattern that matters, not their strategy. Their strategy has failed them. Now they're in the midst of a streaming war with each other, an admittedly difficult transition. And as they face the future, their interests and business models could not be more different from Disney to Sony to Netflix to Amazon.

We root for their success, all of them. They root for each other's failure. We are the creative ammunition through which they will succeed. They are each other's apex predators. And yet, in a singular shared dedication to denying labor, they have shackled themselves together in what increasingly seems like a mutual suicide pact, as the 2023-24 broadcast season and the 2024-25 movie schedule and its streaming shows disappear, melt away week by week."

Can't wait for fandom to figure out they've been fighting against the obvious to the point of embarrassing.

[scribedhorror]

still insists he sees the ghosts || independent  IT/crossover RP .  

william "BILL" denbrough : author, screenwriter,  LOSER.   selective  + mutuals only .  personals  +  minors  DNI  /  reblog

highley headcanon based, book / mini-series / 2017 + 2019 films influenced || all headcanons and verses are my own || asks always open

graphics created by cerberuscommissions 

𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐛𝐲 || skye  .  she/her . 25+ .  CARRD . 

[fuckyeahlegionm]

From the LegionM.com website... The news broke last week in Variety that screenwriter Rob Edwards will be attaching to the Legion M project in development, Defiant. Rob has been brought on board to write a graphic novel adaptation of this feature film in development, which details the incredible true story of Civil War hero Captain Robert Smalls.

Rob Edwards’ prolific 13 year writing career spans both features and TV. His credits include two classic films for Walt Disney Feature Animation, the Academy Award nominated The Princess and the Frog and Treasure Planet. He has also written projects for Showtime, Sony, Mofac, and Marvel Studios, consulted on Tangled, Wreck-It Ralph, and Frozen, and written/produced for iconic television shows including The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Full House, and In Living Color. Collaborating alongside Legion M on the project are Marvin “Krondon” Jones III (Black Lightning, Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse), award-winning best-selling author Robert Blake Whitehill, the Wolper Organization (Roots), Chris Cooper (Legion M Exec), and legendary actor, director, producer and Legion M advisor Bill Duke (Mandy, Predator, Black Lightning).

[sloshed-cinema]

The Eternal Daughter (2022)

With her recent films, Joanna Hogg has delved deep into her own lived experiences, reflecting on them and turning them into delicate little gems of movies.  The Eternal Daughter takes a more broad and abstract approach to this process than did the two Souvenir films, considering mother-daughter dynamics, the relationship between place and memory.  That the film is even a meta-narrative to begin with unfolds slowly, revealed over the course of its minimalist arc.  Initially, Julie’s softly hyperbolic reactions to her mother’s statements come off as a bit odd, the daughter weeping every time she feels she offended her mother, or lashing out at seeming slights by the older woman.  This plays a role in the ghost story thread of the film, more than just an emotionally high-strung person.  The space they’re staying in, a hotel which used to be the childhood residence of Julie’s mother, is charged with the phantoms of memories. Julie has a negative reaction to this, unable to sleep at night, haunted by the past, but her mother is more ambivalent: “that’s what rooms do, they hold stories.”  She is at peace, at rest.  Whenever Julie’s mother is moved to reflect on remembered moments, Julie is quick to latch on, recording these conversations on her phone, begging to draw out extra details.  But the implications of painful memories draw outsized responses from her, the experience fraught for a woman trying to grapple with her mother’s life.  There is an eloquence to this ghost story in this sense, but the narrative also reflects in a sense the filmmaker’s own feelings on exploring familial relationships such as these.  Julie confides to hotel estate groundskeeper Bill that she’s not certain whether it’s right for her to go down this path.  It’s a challenging process, grieving or writing.

Tilda Swinton has become a vessel of creative energy for Joanna Hogg in this trilogy of sorts.  Granted, she’s always been associated with Hogg, even starring in the director’s student film, something which factors in a major way into The Souvenir, Part II.  The mother figure in the Souvenir films, she now takes on both mother and daughter roles in a casting decision which makes for a clever narrative choice, an internalization of the relationship between the two women.  With the improvisatory approach Hogg takes to her scene-crafting on the shoot, The Eternal Daughter feels in the process a bit clunkier than earlier efforts with a similar approach.  Conversations rotate in circles, the same point being brought up time and again, emotions re-litigated within minutes of the initial apology.  With the benefit of the full picture, this was a perfect choice rather than an oversight, an author hashing through emotions, holding up and trying to capture the spirit of someone through words and ideas.

Though this emotional through-line is important, the film is first and foremost a classic English gothic ghost story.  From the first frame it positively oozes atmosphere, a rural estate swathed in fog and ringed in wintry trees bare of leaves.  Lilting flute paints an eerie soundscape when the ear isn’t being drawn by bumps in the night or the haunting noises of the wind.  The prevalence of flute again links diegesis and non-diegesis, Bill admitting at one point that he plays the flute to entertain his own ghosts, to connect with the memory of his deceased wife much as Julie is trying to chart out her connection with her mother through screenwriting.  The touches of a ghostly presence are subtle but haunting, a vague shadow in a window or a door creaking open.  Julie for her part is on some level aware that she’s in this sort of tale, constantly reading ghost stories by Rudyard Kipling and others during spare moments.  The form of the ghost story is a powerful and varied canvas on which to paint, and Hogg takes full advantage, crafting a simple tale which is a little funny, a little creepy, a little heartwarming, a little sad.  Rooms may hold stories, but they rely on people in them to experience and recall them, to acknowledge the past.

THE RULES

SIP

Someone says ‘room’.

Flute begins to play.

Julie is a bad hotel guest.

Wind noises.

BIG DRINK

The car picks up the receptionist.

Julie mentions her film.

Hint of a ghostly presence.

[brookstonalmanac]

Birthdays 1.10

Beer Birthdays

William Copeland (1834)

Nancy Johnson (1961)

Todd Alstrom (1969)

Eric Salazar (1973)

Frances Michelle (1987)

Five Favorite Birthdays

Pat Benatar; rock singer (1953)

Jim Croce; pop singer (1943)

Donald Fagen; musician (1948)

Bernard Lee; actor, "M" (1908)

Max Roach; jazz musician, drummer (1925)

Famous Birthdays

John Acton; English historian (1834)

Stephen Ambrose; historian, writer (1936)

Earl Bakken; inventor (1924)

Sune Bergström; Swedish biochemist (1916)

Katherine Blodgett; inventor, scientist (1898)

Ray Bolger; actor (1904)

Francis X. Bushman; actor, director, and screenwriter (1883)

Jared Carter; poet and author (1939)

Shawn Colvin; singer (1956)

Eldzier Cortor; painter (1916)

Roy E. Disney; businessman, Disney CEO (1930)

Dean Dixon; American-Swiss conductor (1915)

Aynsley Dunbar; English drummer and songwriter (1946)

George Foreman; boxer (1939)

Cynthia Freeman; author (1915)

Al Goldstein; pornographer (1936)

Evan Handler; actor (1961)

Ronnie Hawkins; rockabilly singer (1935)

Paul Henried; actor (1908)

Barbara Hepworth; sculptor (1903)

Rosella Hightower; ballerina (1920)

Walter Hill; film director (1942)

David Horowitz; activist and author (1939)

Frank James; outlaw (1843)

Robinson Jeffers; poet, writer (1887)

Janet Jones; actor (1961)

Jeffrey Catherine Jones; comics and fantasy artist (1944)

Donald Knuth; mathematician, computer scientist (1938)

Philip Levine; poet (1928)

Martin Lichtenstein; German physician and explorer (1780)

Linda Lovelace; pornstar (1939)

Willie McCovey; San Francisco Giants 1B (1938)

J.P. McEvoy; writer (1897)

Sal Mineo; actor (1939)

Cyril Neville; musician (1948)

Milton Parker; businessman, co-founder of the Carnegie Deli (1919)

Johnnie Ray; singer-songwriter and pianist (1927)

Charles G. D. Roberts; Canadian poet and author (1860)

John Root; architect (1850)

Michael Schenker; German guitarist and songwriter (1955)

Tony Soper; English ornithologist (1929)

Rod Stewart; pop singer (1945)

Scott Thurston; American guitarist and songwriter (1952)

Bill Toomey; Olympic gold medalist for Decathlon (1939)

Robert Woodrow Wilson; physicist and astronomer (1936)

Johannes Zick; German painter (1702)

Johann Rudolf Zumsteeg; German composer (1760)

[denimbex1986]

'"All of Us" Strangers is much more layered and deeper than just being billed as an LGBTQ film, as it talks about everyday situations in a way that few people do in a way that's honest and poignant. Our spoiler-free review of Andrew Haigh's work.

This is not a criticism, but rather a recommendation, because it is difficult to find any fault in the fifth work of Andrew Haigh, whose most important and personal cinema it can be felt. Based on Jamada Taicsi's 1987 book Strangers , the film is much more than a simple adaptation, as such personal threads are interwoven from the threads of the director's own life that we are actually not getting a reworking, but an intimate confession.

According to the story, Adam (Andrew Scott) lives alone and lonely in a newly built apartment tower in the suburbs of London, works as a screenwriter and is about to start a new work of his own, in which he returns to the tragedy of his parents who died in a car accident in 1987 and his childhood trauma. In order to do this, he begins to take the train home to the small town where he lived until the age of 12, when the accident occurred, and regularly visits his home, which has not changed since the tragedy, and his parents, (Claire Foy and Jamie Bell), who appear as a vision as Adam knew them before the accident. . With the same looks and the same personality and mindset. The screenwriter goes home more and more and spends more and more time with the ghosts of his parents, he gets to know them more and more as people, while he also shares with them his anxieties, questions, and pains that continue to this day and also confesses his homosexuality to his parents.

At the same time, a young drunken man, Harry (Paul Mescal), appears at the door of his apartment one night - with whom the two of them live in that huge block of flats - and wants to invite himself to Adam for an evening together, who then resists him. Then, when Adam returns from his parents' on the first night, he runs into Harry in the elevator and thrusts his waist. A slowly building and amazingly deep, intimate relationship develops between the two men. While the developing emotional bond becomes closer and closer, the walls caused by years of suppression, trauma and inhibitions are increasingly breaking down for the two strangers.

A fleeting moment is just our earthly brilliance

As far as the love between a man and a woman unfolds in the Japanese author's original work from 1987, Andrew Haigh not only places the story in a Western context, but by incorporating his own life material into the work, he builds on the love relationship of two homosexual (more precisely, queer) men. If one could criticize the film, it would perhaps be that it portrays the traumas of experiencing and processing homosexuality from a narrow and privileged, intellectual-middle-class perspective, and despite the accuracy and detail of the film, it does not go far enough in terms of social issues, while with such depths, this dimension would also have deserved a place. (Though, of course, this is less the fault of All of Us Strangers than the mainstream film portrayal of otherness.)

What's more, Haigh's work also stands out from the mainstream in that here the LGBTQ theme does not appear as an often aimless, sweat-smelling and to-be-ticked device, as is typical of Hollywood mass films, but as an added value that adds to the story's message and the emotional for a shock effect that the film experience gradually builds up. Homosexuality does not play a central role in the film, but it shows the struggling process of processing grief and re-connecting with others, while looking for answers to questions through the perspective of an emerging man's love, how can a person reconnect after such a great loss, and accept the approach of others again , to love again, and how you experience hugs, kisses, sex.

On the other hand, the film is also a painful thought experiment about what it would be like if we could say goodbye to those who will never be with us in a dignified way, resolving all conflicts and unsewn threads, while we come to terms with each other, with who we have become and no longer weighs on our shoulders. the burden of the unbearable lightness of being.'

[greensparty]

Movie Reviews: The Greatest Hits / Civil War

This week I got to review two very different films:

The Greatest Hits

This week sees the Hulu release of the recent SXSW hit The Greatest Hits, a romantic drama fantasy. What got my attention was star Lucy Boynton, who has very quietly become a standout in multiple films notably the dream girl in Sing Street, which I named my #1 Movie of 2016. She is widely known for playing Freddie Mercury's fiance in Bohemian Rhapsody, an uneven music biopic, but no denying the lead performances. Here, she is the lead carrying the movie. No second billing 'cause she's a star now!

movie poster

Boynton plays Harriet, a woman who is still mourning the passing of her boyfriend Max. She is finding that certain songs can transport her back to a particular place and time - literally. Upon hearing a song on the radio or in a coffee shop, she goes back to a point and time in the relationship. This causes her to go through her entire record collection and note which albums do and don't have that effect. Then while at her support group, she meets David, who is dealing with loss of his own. They hit it off, but she's having trouble letting go of the past and pondering if she should change the past too.

Music geekdom in pop culture is usually male-driven, which is why the TV version of High Fidelity, where Zoe Kravitz took over the John Cusack role in the film, was so exciting. The idea of a female-driven music geek movie about a protagonist who browses record stores and organizes her record collection is something pop culture should catch up with. Why does it have to be male-driven movies about music geeks? I say this as a male music geek who frequents record stores and organizes my music collection! But in terms of this movie, I think I liked the idea of it better than the actuality. The movie itself had an interesting concept about the way that a song can take you back to another place and time, but then it just fell into romantic tear-jerker tropes. But the thing is I really wanted to like this, especially since Boynton deserves a star-vehicle of her own.

For info on The Greatest Hits

2.5 out of 5 stars

Civil War

British author / writer / director Alex Garland has had a mixed bag as a writer/director. His 1996 book The Beach was adapted by Danny Boyle in 2000, which had its moments but more or less became a star vehicle for Leonardo DiCaprio. That lead to Garland's screenwriting with Boyle directing 28 Days Later and Sunshine. For the former, I dug the first two-thirds and then it fell apart in the last third. However I will say that there's an alternate ending on the DVD that they didn't film, but show the storyboards with voiceover and that would've been a much stronger ending and movie as a whole. The later I don't remember too well, but remember liking it when I saw it. Over the last decade, Garland has brought his dystopian bleak view of the world to the director's seat with mixed results. His best work IMHO was 2014's Ex Machina, which came out just as Siri and Alexa were becoming commonplace and had something to say about AI. If Stanley Kubrick was alive in the 2010s, that's exactly the kind of movie he would've made (NOTE: I said "kind of" not "exactly like"). Now Garland's back with another bleak future, this one about the Divided States of America in Civil War, which opens this week from A24.

movie poster

In a war-torn U.S., there's a civil war raging with some states resisting the current president (a wasted Nick Offerman, who is barely in it). In NYC, veteran war photographer Lee (Kirsten Dunst) is covering a protest and saves Jesse (Cailee Spaeny), a young photographer just starting out who is actually a fan of Lee's. The next day Lee and her journalist partner Joel (Wagner Moura) are getting ready to drive from NYC to D.C. in the midst of this chaos in hopes of scoring an interview with the president before the rebels get to the White House first. Along for the ride is Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson), an older New York Times reporter, and to Lee's dismay, Jesse. Along the way, they see a lot in this dystopian horror-show. Lee and her team get up close for their coverage. As Lee says in the movie (not a spoiler) their job is not to ask questions, just to photograph and let others ask questions.

I had a lot of issues with this movie. First of all, it only scratched the surface. This movie brings up some hot button issues and it's being released in an election year and yet it doesn't really dive too deep only scratches the surface. The film gives no context as to how any of this happened. I don't need everything answered for me in a movie and I'm all for ambiguity when it works, but this just seemed like a missed opportunity. There could've been something to say about the left and the right and where that leaves the middle ground or something to say about Trump waging war on the press, but instead it said, well, not too much. Kirsten Dunst, who is always reliable, was easily the highlight of the film. She is among the greatest child actors who continued to deliver great performances as an adult. Between all of her collaborations with Sofia Coppola (The Virgin Suicides, Marie Antoinette, and The Beguiled), the excellent Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Melancholia (an uneven movie but truly elevated by Dunst), TV's Fargo, and her Oscar-nominated performance in The Power of the Dog, she has quite an impressive filmography. And did I mention she was excellent as MJ in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy! Here, she pulls off an internalized role of a hardened veteran. It's all in her eyes with this performance. But the biggest issue I have with Civil War is that is trying to be deep, profound and meaningful...and by the end it felt like - that's it?!?! Axl Rose singing "what's so civil about war anyways?" was more deep than this!

For info on Civil War

2 out of 5 stars

[doamarierose-honoka]

Black Widow's track record in the Marvel Cinematic Universe hasn't always been flawless. The highs ("Captain America: The Winter Soldier") were certainly high, but the lows ("Avengers: Age of Ultron") were just as low. Still, the operative otherwise known as Natasha Romanoff was always the MCU's secret weapon. She practically ran away with every film she appeared in, and for a large part of the franchise's initial run, she was one of the few female characters making a consistent impact. But as Johansson continued to turn in solid supporting performances, it was hard to ignore the fact that she'd yet to get a chance to stand on her own.

By the time Marvel finally delivered a solo Black Widow project, it felt like way too little, too late. "Black Widow" found itself somewhere in the middle of the franchise's 15-year output: it did its title character justice, in a way, but it wasn't exactly worth the wait either. It didn't help that the film came hot on the heels of Natasha's shocking sacrifice in "Avengers: Endgame," perhaps as a conciliation prize for over a decade of demand for more female-centered stories.

"Black Widow" was only the second MCU film to feature a female lead after 2019's "Captain Marvel." Why exactly did it take so long for Marvel to give the people what they want; to recognize that the future is, in fact, female? The answer is tangled in a whole lot of red tape, but the behind-the-scenes book "MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios" boils down years of conflict to one pervasive issue: the obstinance of former Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter.

A tentative start

A Black Widow movie had been a topic of discussion even before the formation of the MCU. Conversations were taking place as far back as 2004 when Lionsgate optioned the rights to adapt the character in a feature film. Back then, Black Widow was considered the easiest Marvel character to bring to the big screen: there was already a precedent for spy films with the rise of Jason Bourne and his gritty, jet-setting contemporaries.

"X-Men" screenwriter David Hayter had been tapped to write and direct for Lionsgate — but whatever progress he made was halted by a new wave of ill-received action vehicles. "Unfortunately, as I was coming up on the final draft, a number of female vigilante movies came out," Hayter told the "MCU" authors. Some — like "Tomb Raider," "Underworld" and "Kill Bill" — were bankable hits. Others, however, weren't so lucky. After the less-than-auspicious release of the Charlize Theron-led "Æon Flux," Lionsgate pulled the plug on its Black Widow movie.

"'Æon Flux' didn't open well," Hayter recalled. "And three days after it opened the studio said, 'We don't think it's time to do this movie.'"

Hayter went on to develop Zack Snyder's "Watchmen" and Netflix's "Warrior Nun," but still looks back with regret on Lionsgate's canceled plans. "I accepted their logic in terms of the saturation of the marketplace, but it was pretty painful," he continued. "I had not only invested a lot of time in that movie, but I had also named my daughter, who was born in that time period, Natasha."

Designing Natasha

When Black Widow made her MCU debut in "Iron Man 2," Hollywood was still acclimating to the idea of a female-fronted superhero film. Fans seemed to want a solo Black Widow film right off the bat, but Marvel and its notoriously meddlesome Creative Committee remained lukewarm to the idea.

Johannson, meanwhile, was working hard to prime Black Widow for an imminent solo film. With the help of Joss Whedon, Nastaha's appearance in "The Avengers" felt much more grounded and nuanced. "Joss Whedon and I talked about her past," Johansson said. "Who is she? How does she get to be a mercenary? What path do you follow in order to get to that place? We both wanted to see the darker side of her — why did she have to learn those skills?"

Johansson's conversations with Whedon would lay the groundwork for Natasha's long-gestating solo film. "The Avengers" established her strong relationship with fellow Avenger Clint Barton, spun a compelling tale of her time before S.H.I.E.L.D., and reintroduced her as an operative with her own agenda. Johansson seemed much more at home in the role, which only made her performance that much more captivating. Natasha was holding her own with a handful of superpowered men. But that, in turn, raised an "obvious question": if Thor, Captain America, and Iron Man got to continue their arcs in their own films, why couldn't Black Widow?

Trouble in the toy aisle

As years passed, Marvel continued to drag its feet on a solo Black Widow movie. "There's no definitive plans," Kevin Feige said in 2011. "But we have started talking, and talking with Scarlett, about what a Widow movie could be."

But despite Feige's claims of progress, Marvel seemed no closer to greenlighting a Black Widow film. At the end of the day, the argument kept circling back to merchandise sales. "Toymakers will tell you [female heroes] won't sell enough," Whedon said in 2013. And given that the head of Marvel at the time, Ike Perlmutter, had made his name in the toy business, he had no problem clinging to that philosophy. For years, Black Widow action figures were conspicuously missing from toy shelves. The same goes for the female characters that followed in her footsteps, like Zoe Saldaña's Gamora from "Guardians of the Galaxy."

Things seemed to come to a head in 2015 when IndieWire's "Women and Film" blog uncovered an email sent from Perlmutter to a Sony executive. The message was brief, containing a short list of female-led superhero movies and their respective box office takeaways. Perlmutter cited "Catwoman" and "Elektra" as financial disasters, likely to discourage Sony from investing in a female action hero. (In 2014, Sony had announced its plans to develop a female-centered story for the Spider-Man Universe — just days before Perlmutter sent his email to Sony's Michael Lynton.)

Kevin Feige's last straw

By the time Perlmutter's email was leaked to the public, the outcry had reached its zenith. Female fans seemed more visible than ever, but female heroes continued to be sidelined in the MCU. It wasn't just Black Widow; fans were also disappointed in Marvel's decision to exclude the Wasp from "The Avengers," despite her being a founding member of the supergroup in the comics. Though she'd later appear in "Ant-Man," the 2015 film didn't do quite enough with her character. "Guardians of the Galaxy," meanwhile, had pulled a large female audience in its theatrical run (more than 40% of the audience was female). Change was certainly in the air, but Marvel remained unmoved by it.

Even Marvel head Kevin Feige had seemingly had enough and all-but-directly addressed Perlmutter's emails in a 2014 interview with Comic Book Resources. "I very much believe that it's unfair to say, 'People don't want to see movies with female heroes,' then list five movies that were not very good," he said. "And they don't mention 'Hunger Games,' 'Frozen,' 'Divergent.' You can go back to 'Kill Bill' or 'Aliens.' These are all female-led movies. It can certainly be done."

Feige's "unusually blunt criticism" of Perlmutter and the Creative Committee was one sign of his efforts behind the scenes. In 2017, Vanity Fair reported that Perlmutter had been "quietly sidelined" in "a long-overdue" management restructuring at Disney. Sources close to Marvel cited Perlmutter's "outdated opinions about casting, budgeting, and merchandising" — as well as his financial support of then-President Donald Trump — for the studio's switch in leadership.

The next generation

Once Feige was promoted to Chief Creative Officer, the MCU immediately pivoted to make its projects more inclusive. With films like "Black Panther" and "Captain Marvel," the franchise was finally beginning to mirror its audience. Those efforts paved the way for "Black Widow" to finally bow in 2021 — but even with all that red tape finally cleared, the film would have its own set of problems.

Still, for all that frustration, at least we know why it took so long to get more women-centered films off the ground. Marvel has since introduced a handful of powerful female heroes, all of whom owe some measure of debt to Black Widow, and to Johannson. It is, of course, a shame that she never got to truly enjoy the fruits of her labor: with Natasha's death in "Endgame," the MCU lost one of its most nuanced characters. "Black Widow" proved that she still had plenty to give, all while offering a brief glimpse into the sort of blockbuster vehicles that fans (and actors) have been denied for years.

Alas, such is the nature of a trailblazer. Marvel is still grappling with a new set of issues in its latest phase, but with Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova, it's safe to say that the Black Widow mantle is in good hands. Hopefully, we won't have to wait another 10 years to see her solo vehicle.

[saintmeghanmarkle]

The Producers by u/Mickleborough

The Producers We’ve all seen the announcements about the Sussexes acquiring rights to adapt some tedious-sounding, unnecessarily tortured romance into a film? series? for Netflix.The current thinking now is that it was Netflix which bought the rights for £2.3 m / $3 m for some mysterious reason:Why?Telegraph: archived / unarchivedSo what does producing a film involve? Googling tells us that producers:- Are at the financial, practical, and creative heart of a film.- ’Option’ - ie obtain - scripts.- Decide on the scale and budget of the film, and source financing and approve costs.- Work with creative ideas from the director.- Spot and solve potential problems during the entire process.- Approve locations and hire staff for the production.See Screen Skills, which also explains the characteristics good producers need.Can anyone see the Sussexes doing any work, let alone any of the above? Bill Simmons of Spotify, who knew them, called them ‘f***ing grifters’, which implies an absence of a work ethic. Meghan certainly will do lunch at the Polo Lounge, or throw her weight about generally, but actually do any of the above?But the Sussexes may have solved one problem: getting a script amidst the strike by the Writers Guild of America:Interesting. The Independent is a British newspaper.What’s Ms Fortune’s role in ‘bringing‘ her book to the screen? Normally when a producer secures the rights to a work, they turn it over to a screenwriter to write a script. At this moment, there’s an inconvenient strike by the WGA, which prevents its members working on scripts. It‘s a bit difficult to follow the WGA’s membership requirements, but it seems to be script writers based in the US. Ms Fortune is a Canadian journalist turned writer who lives in Toronto - so notionally isn’t bound by the strike. There’s no suggestion that Ms Fortune actually is writing the screenplay. post link: https://ift.tt/jEizRW9 author: Mickleborough submitted: August 09, 2023 at 12:34AM via SaintMeghanMarkle on Reddit

[thcbarrens]

multi for novel-based IT muses . 20+ mutuals only . written by aj . carrd

MOVED TO @aranostra

muselist:

>>   beverly rogan ://   born 1947, she/her. verses main // a fashion designer who has recently left her abusive husband.

>>   eddie kaspbrak ://   born 1947, he/him. verses main // owner of a limousine company in new york.>>  

>> mike hanlon ://   born 1947, he/him. verses main // librarian in derry, maine.

>> stan uris :// born 1947, he/him. verses main // accountant in atlanta, georgia.

>> bill denbrough :// born 1946, he/him. verses main // horror novelist, screenwriter

>> audra denbrough ://   born 1949, she/her. main // a well-known actress, married to author bill denbrough. 

>> henry bowers ://   born 1946, he/him. verses main // a bully, institutionalized after killing his father. recently escaped.

guidelines:

  001 ://   this blog is 20+ only. i do not feel comfortable interacting with anyone younger than that. 

002 ://   i don't use fcs or icons for this blog and use minimal graphics. this is not my primary blog, so i want to put all of my energy into the writing aspects. 

003 ://   although my interpretations are book-based, i also incorporate my own headcanons and will not include the racism and sexism from the book. i do not incorporate 'that scene.' i write henry as a bully and a terrible person, but i don't feel comfortable including his racism. however, due to the nature of these muses, some content you may see includes: violence, abuse, trauma, and drug addiction. i will tag as necessary.

  004 ://   i am hesitant to write any childhood threads, because i've seen some weirdness in fandoms that include children before. if i do, it needs to be with someone i talk to so i know we're on the same page. the book itself includes some things i'm not comfortable with writing. 

005 ://   if you have a concern or issue about something i've posted, please contact me personally. if you have the desire to write a vague post, i would prefer that you block me. vague posts cause a great deal of anxiety for me. if you ever suspect i'm vague posting about you, also feel free to contact me, but i promise that i don't vague post; i will speak directly about any issues i have or keep my mouth shut entirely.

  006 ://   i use the tag negativity cw on any post i make that is negative about anything including rpc or life in general. please block the tag if negativity brings you down! 

007 ://   i have a full time job and a neurodivergent brain, so my activity will come and go. please be patient with me, and please do not message me unless we're mutuals. 

008 ://   i am aj, my pronouns are he/they, i have been rping for years and years and years and i have too many blogs. please feel free to message me on discord if we're mutuals at uncertainlogic.

[billmaher]

HBO Real Time Nov. 17, 2023

[[MORE]]

Guest List: November 17, 2023

The Interview:

Albert Brooks is an Oscar-nominated actor, comedian, director and screenwriter.

Follow: @AlbertBrooks

Rob Reiner is the Director of the new HBO original documentary Albert Brooks: Defending My Life.

Follow: @robreiner

The Panel:

Donna Brazile is a Georgetown University Professor and Emmy and Peabody-award-winning media contributor to ABC News, USA Today, and The Hill. She is a veteran political strategist and previously served as interim Chair of the Democratic National Committee.

Follow: @donnabrazile

Adam Kinzinger is former Republican Congressman from Illinois and author of Renegade: Defending Democracy and Liberty in Our Divided Country. He is the founder of pro-democracy organization Country First and publisher of Not Just Another Political Substack.

Follow: @AdamKinzinger

Watch Bill and his guests continue their conversation on Overtime, airing Fridays at 11:30pm on CNN’s “Laura Coates Live” and Saturdays on the Real Time YouTube channel.

[tilbageidanmark]

Movies I watched this Week # 144 (Year 3/Week 40):

“Are you girls ready for the greatest weekend of your life?"

- You say that every weekend! -

"Well, yeah, we’re doing that again”

People, places, things used to be my one of favourite movies to re-watch with Adora 6-7 years ago, as we were all struggling with the dynamics of the similar, sudden changes in our lives. A very sweet Brooklyn Indie about a single dad to cute 6 year old twin daughters. Genuine and delicate romance with sharp dialogue about love and hurt. It was my introduction to a group of ‘minor’ actors I had followed since, Jemaine Clement, Regina Hall, Jessica Williams, Michael Chernus. Feel Good and heart warming. 10/10.

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3 Film Noir with Gloria Grahame:

🍿 The Big heat, Fritz Lang's 1953 paranoid Noir about honest homicide detective Glenn Ford going against all-city police corruption. With young Lee Marvin, playing a creepy “Heavy”, as well as Marlon Brando’s sister. 8/10.

🍿 The following year, Fritz Lang again directed Glenn Ford as a straight up train engineer as he falls again for Gloria Grahame in Human desire. But the woman is not a heartless Femme fatale. She's an abused wife, with a history of being harmed by men her whole life, who can't find any easy way to survive. Based on 'La Bête humaine' by Émile Zola (which I didn't read).

🍿 Re-watch: Nicholas Ray’s In a lonely place. Humphrey Bogart is rage-filled, entitled writer, who becomes a suspect in a murder while falling for Grahame who lives across the courtyard of his Hollywood apartment. A mystery about a dark and self-centered male, who's allowed to be aggravated and aggressive when he doesn't get his way. (Photo Above).

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“Oy! Keep your fingers out of my soup!”

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, my third Guy Ritchie / Matthew Vaughn crime caper. I really don't understand why I resisted checking them out up to now. This, Snatch, Layer cake, all terrific, gritty, multi-layered Tarantino-style black comedies. 8/10.

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2 by French screenwriter Emmanuèle Bernheim, both directed by François Ozon:

🍿 My favorite random discovery of the week: Swimming pool. An erotic thriller with bookish Charlotte Rampling as a middle-aged British author, single and reserved, who travels to a summer villa in Avignon. Like most stories of Northerners in the South of Europe, she falls into a trap of unexpected dreams and desires, when a young promiscuous girl invades her vacation. Ambiguous play of realty and fantasy leaves this a bit of a mystery, like the books she usually writes.

🍿 5X2 is a small story about the disintegration of a middle class marriage, told in reverse order. The first of five episodes, (each lasting exactly 18 minutes), starts at a lawyer's office, reading the terms of the divorce between a husband and wife. And the other chapters go back into other times in the relationship. All the way to the first one years ago when they met at an Italian resort. It's an engaging and bitter-sweet drama, but without any conclusive and clear insights: Yes, love is impossible, sex is unexplained, nobody is at fault.

Between each episode, Italian pop songs from the 1960's comment on the meaning of each move. 7/10.

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Gregory’s Girl, the feel-good Scottish comedy by Bill Forsyth, about an awkward teenager who falls for a soccer playing girl. A wholesome coming-of-age, sweet and charming.

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Martin Scorsese X 2:

🍿In a 25-minutes conversation with GQ, Scorsese breaks down his most iconic films, 'Taxi Driver,' 'Gangs of New York,' 'Goodfellas,' 'The Departed,' 'Raging Bull,' 'The Wolf of Wall Street,' 'Mean Streets,' 'The Irishman,' 'Silence,' and 'Killers of the Flower Moon.

🍿 I wished I had seen Mean Streets decades ago, before all of his other gangster movies; Now I must compare it to 'Goodfellas' and 'Casino'. Obviously it's still a younger filmmaker at the beginning of his mastery of the craft. It's odd to observe De Nero as a total 'Loser', a small time, good for nothing, deadbeat wannabe. A character study more than an action film.

🍿

Ram Dass, going home, a quiet documentary about spiritual "guru" Baba Ram Dass at the end of his life, dispensing ancient words of wisdom as he reflects on life and death at his home in Maui. Sagely, meditatively, peacefully, it's a simple and peaceful poem of spirituality.

🍿

3 classic comedies:

🍿 The bank dick, WC Fields as Egbert Sousé, a goofy drunk. Written by his alias Mahatma Kane Jeeves, filmed and presented in Lompoc, CA, and much of the story centered around The Black Pussy Cat bar. It ends with a hilarious car race that is both wild and hilarious.

🍿 First watch: Buster Keaton’s last great film, the 1928 The Cameraman. "The worst mistake of his life" he called it, because with his move to MGM and various studio politics, he lost his ability to control his productions. Agile and romantic.

🍿 Triple trouble is an unusual Charlie Chaplin 2-reeler from 1918. It combines a number of primitive Chaplin-directed scenes, which were edited by Essaney Studio, against his wishes, as he left them to form his own. A patchwork of pratfalls, slapstick, and visual jokes, that don't form a coherent story.

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The trailer for the restored Belle De Jour tempts me to watch this subversive masterpiece again and again!

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An experimental short by infamous Danish surrealist artist Wilhelm Freddie, (together with Jørgen Roos) Eaten horizons. 21 years after Buñuel‘s ‘Andalusian Dog’, it demonstrates unfiltered inspiration from the master.

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While waiting for his ‘Zone of interest’, here is Jonathan Glazer’s banned commercial for Cadbury’s Flake chocolate. Recently I watched the many commercials he directed on his old YouTube channel, (for example, his Guinness black swim),

but now I also saw his music videos, which he directed between his four features. 33 in total. "Today I learnt" that I don’t care much for music videos.

🍿

(My complete movie list is here)