#erika knocked it out of the park with this concept

[puzzlingphronistes]

On back to back seasons too. I think Jake may have changed dnd forever.

[heytherecentaurs]

Burrow's End is an absolute masterpiece.

In the span of ten episodes Aabria and Co. weave an exciting and emotional adventure story about a family of sentient stoats. It delivers huge laughs, interesting societal criticism, remarkably emotional and well-acted scenes and concludes with a series of epilogue scenes that feel appropriate for each character, some heartfelt and subdued and others bigger than life and all the funnier for it.

Siobhan and Izzy play the perfect pair of siblings. They fight and argue but they also love each other. Jaysohn (Siobhan) looks up to Lila (Izzy) and believes she's the smartest stoat in the world (and by the end she probably is) and Lila hypes up her little brother's athletic skills. They both fully embodied these kids and I could watch them do fun stuff for more episodes. Give me a version of Saved by the Bell with them. Stoat by the Bell.

Brennan and Rashawn, playing sisters, also knock it outta the park, showing a more mature sibling dynamic. Brennan portrays Tula as the quintessential overtired single mother of excitable kids, and Rashawn as younger sister Viola straddles a very interesting line of being intimidating to outsiders but very much more naive and looking to her older sister when she starts a family.

Jasper as Thorn, a guy everyone just lets be a cult leader because he really wanted to, is fantastic. His is a difficult role as the only non-blood relative. Jasper plays Thorn with such real humanity of a guy in over his head and letting his ambition wife call the shots, but also one who agrees with her goal, really loves her and has moments of real menace. He has some very funny scenes, his big speech is perfect, and I just enjoy him.

Erika is wonderful. They play the epitome of generational trauma as many have said but as much trauma as Ava has, she is also loving and willing to learn. The fact Erika took this adversarial role is incredible. The tense dramatic scene primarily between Ava, Tula and Viola is amazing. They act their asses off and make hard choices that I imagine are difficult even for such an experienced player.

Aabria's DMing always feels fun. She doesn't get bogged down in the rules. She knows them. She plays by them. But as a master, she knows how and when to break them too. Her seasons on Dimension 20 have all had a tenseness, a particular edge to them that can give me anxiety during dramatic scenes between two characters. It always feel like one of her NPCs may say something devastating and the tension between characters reaches really thrilling heights. This is present in other seasons, but I don't think anyone does it as well as she does. The first season of hers to have battle maps, Aabria really swung for the fences and gave us some of the wildest maps to date.

Shout out to Carlos Luna's voice acting. He did an incredible job. And shout out to the whole crew who have put together one of the best seasons of D20. They keep finding ways to build on what's come before and they should be commended for it.

Dimension 20 is most successful when the concept is very streamlined. They don't do huge 100 episode campaigns capable of handling huge winding complex narrative, but short focused D&D stories, which is why many of the Side Quests have been so fantastic. They embody this philosophy most clearly, but it's apparent in the most beloved Intrepid Heroes seasons as well—John Hughes/High Fantasy, Game of Thrones/Candyland, Retrofuturism, Film Noir but in a Brain... Burrow's End fits this perfectly. It's streamlined concept paired with great storytellers and great chemistry sets it up to be a smash hit before it begins. And goddamn does it deliver.

Thanks Stupendous Stoats!

[weekendwarriorblog]

WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND May 17, 2019  - JOHN WICK CHAPTER 3, A DOG’S JOURNEY, THE SUN IS ALSO A STAR

Well, the summer is grinding along at a rather slow pace. Granted, it’s only the third or fourth official weekend, depending on when you started counting, and if you live in New York City, it doesn’t really feel like summer at all, but as has been the case since starting my beat at The Beat, I hope people will be reading this for the limited releases and repertory stuff, which I try to make fairly comprehensive and complete.

Normally, I wouldn’t be too impressed with Lionsgate’s decision to release Keanu Reeves’ JOHN WICK CHAPTER 3 - PARABELLUM in the summer, but surprise, surprise, I actually liked this one. A LOT! I already reviewed the movie for The Beat, a review which you can read here, but I do think that most of the people who liked the first movie will like this one, too, as it adds the likes of Halle Berry, Asia Kate Dillon  (Orange is the New Black) and Mark Dacascos to flesh out the mythology while sending John Wick on the run as he’s excommunicated from the assassin’s guild.

I don’t have as much an opinion about the doggie sequel A DOG’S JOURNEY (Universal). I mean, I like dogs just fine, but I never got around to seeing A Dog’s Purpose, and I’m not sure I can follow this movie’s high-concept premise without having seen it. Apparently, a dog dies and then keeps coming back as another dog in order to protect Dennis Quaid’s daughter… no, I don’t get how that works either, but I’ll probably never see this.

The other movie I’ve seen which opens Friday is Ry Russo-Young’s THE SUN IS ALSO A STAR (Warner Bros./MGM), based on the novel by Nicola Yoon, starring Yara Shahidi (black-ish,grown-ish) and Charles Melton from Riverdale. If you know me at all, then you can probably guess that I’ve never seen those shows, but I have seen Russo-Young’s other films, and she’s a director that’s definitely grown on me as she’s taken on YA adaptations. I’m not going to write a full review of this one (due to time constraints and illness) but I was generally mixed on it. I thought the two young actors were fantastic, and this was a perfectly nice romantic film that generally used its New York locations well, but there were definitely parts where I was just bored and not that into the story. It’s a shame, because I usually buy into the whole fate and destiny thing, especially when it come to romance, but this one just gets silly at times.

You can find out what I think of the above film’s box office prospects over at The Beat.

LIMITED RELEASES

This is a very busy week for limited releases with a lot of things coming out of the woodwork at the last minute… and honestly, most of what I’ve seen is just okay, at best.

Jack O’Connell plays Cameron Todd Willingham in Ed Zwick’s TRIAL BY FIRE (Roadside Attractions), based on the true story of the Texas man accused of murdering his three young daughters via arson in 1991. He spent 12 years on Death Row before his case found its way to writer Elizabeth Gilbert, played by Laura Dern, who tries to negate the evidence against Willingham. I wanted to like this movie more than I did, because it is an interesting story with a decent script written by Oscar winner Geoffrey Fletcher (Precious), based on an article by New Yorker writer David Grann (apparently all of his articles become movies, so he has a good agent, huh?). The movie is generally okay, mainly due to the fantastic rounded performance by O’Connell but it’s also quite long-winded and didn’t need to be over two hours to get its point across.

Joanna Hogg’s autobiographical British indie THE SOUVENIR (A24) stars Honor Swinton Byrne (yes, that’s Tilda’s daughter) as film school student Julie who encounters and gets involved with a gregarious and opinionated older man named named Anthony (Tom Burke) who turns out to be a heroin junkie who effectively sabotages the film she’s trying to get made. While I can generally understand what Hogg was trying to do with this movie, I found it very long and drawn-out, and I was even more shocked to learn that this was meant to be the first of a two-part movie, but no, I won’t bother with Part 2 even if it does star Robert Pattinson, probably as another dick who tries to derail Julie’s career, cause that’s what men do.

The Lunchbox director Ritesh Batra returns to India for the romantic drama PHOTOGRAPH (Amazon) about Rafi (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), a man from a poor village who takes a picture of student named Miloni (Sanya Malhotra) and sends it to his grandma, saying it’s his new girlfriend, so she’ll get off his back about marrying. Rafi sends his grandma a picture of Miloni, but then has to convince Miloni to play along and meet his grandmother when she comes to Mumbai. As the two spend more time getting to know each other, a romance begins. It’s a nice movie, maybe not quite as great as The Lunchbox, but a nice date night movie for sure.

Opening at the Metrograph, which is in the midst of a Ryusuke Hamaguchi retrospective, is the Japanese filmmaker’s most recent film ASAKO I AND II (Grasshopper Films), based on the novel by Tomoka Shibasaki. It begins with a romance between a shy girl from (Asako, played by Erika Karata) who falls for a young man named Baku (Masahiro Higashide), who suddenly vanishes on her. She ends up moving to Tokyo and meeting another man named Ryohei, who is Baku’s spitting image – maybe because he’s also played by Higashide. A relationship develops between them until Asako learns what happened to Baku. This is definitely a strange but mostly satisfying romance story that would be a great date night double feature of Photograph.

From Sweden comes Pella Kagerman and Hugo Lilja’s sci-fi thriller ANIARA (Magnet Releasing), which takes place on the title spaceship which is taking the three-week journey to Mars full of thousands of passengers when it’s knocked off course. The problem is that it might take years to get back on course, which immediately throws everyone on board into a panic. At the center of it is Emelie Jonsson’s woman who runs a “Mima chamber” where people can go to relax, a chamber that gets increasingly more busy until it breaks down and then things just get completely crazy.  If you wondered what Passengersmight have been like if Gaspar Noe directed it then Aniarais the movie for you, but I did like Jonsson’s character arc as she ends up starting a relationship with a woman officer on the ship and where that story goes.

Karen Gillan stars in Collin Schiffli’s ALL CREATURES HERE BELOW (Samuel Goldwyn), which is written by and co-stars David Dastmalchian from Ant-Manand other films. It deals with a couple living in poverty, forcing him to break the law, as they set off to find refuge in Kansas City. I haven’t seen it but it sounds interesting with that casting.

Shirley Jackson’s 1962 mystery novel WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE (Brainstorm Media)is adapted by filmmaker Stacie Passon with an all-star cast including Taissa Farmiga, Alexandra Daddario, Sebastian Stan and Crispin Glover. Farmiga plays Merricat who lives with her sister Constance (Daddario) and uncle (Glover), the only survivors of a poisonic that killed the rest of their family five years earlier. When their cousin Charles (Stan) arrives, asking about the family’s finances, it begins a battle for control as tragedy looms.

Now playingat the Film Forum is The Third Wife (Film Movement), Ash Mayfair’s Vietnamese drama set in the 19th Century about a 14-year-old named May, who becomes the third wife of a much older man. With a mostly female cast and crew, the film has drawn comparisons to Zhang Yimou’s Raise the Red Lantern and some of the flashbacks in The Joy Luck Club (which I recently rewatched and cried my eyes out, but don’t tell anyone).

Then opening Friday at the Film Forum is Andrey Paunov’s documentary Walking on Water (Kino Lorber), about artist Christo and his late wife Jeanne-Claude, who had built some of the most amazing large-scale installations including the famous “The Gates” in Central Park and their most recent project “The Floating Piers” over Lake Iseo in Italy. The movie will open in L.A. and San Fran next Friday, May 24.

Johnny Depp stars in Wayne Roberts’ The Professor (Saban Films), a movie that seems to be getting dumped into theaters after a DirecTV release. Depp plays Richard, a college lecturer who discovers he has six months to live so he turns into a party animal, much to the shock of his wife (Rosemarie DeWitt) and chancellor (Ron Livingston). Also costarring Zoey Deutch, it opens in select cities.

Kevin and Michael Goetz’s A Violent Separation (Screen Media) stars Brenton Thwaites as Norman Young, deputy of a midwstern town who is forced to arrest his older brother Ray (Ben Robson) for murder. Things get more difficult when Norman gets involved with the victim’s younger sister (Alycia Debnam-Carey). It opens at New York’s Cinema Village and a few other theaters as well as On Demand.

Now playing at the Roxy Cinema in New York is Matt Hinton’s doc Parallel Love: The Story of a Band Called Luxury (Abramorama) about the small-town band Luxury, whose career almost ended in a wreck, but who continue to make records even as three members become priests.

Another music-related doc out this week is the Cordero Brothers thriller Room 37 - The Mysterious Death of Johnny Thunders (Cleopatra Entertainment), which as you might guess from the title is about famed rocker Johnny Thunders (Leo Ramsay) and how his trip to New Orleans to get his life together turned deadly.

This week’s Bollywood offering is Aki Ali’s De De Pyaar De, starring Ajay Devgn, Tabu and Rakul Preet Singh in a London-based love triangle.

Opening in New York this Friday, then in L.A. May 24 and VOD June 21 is Eddie Alcazar’s Perfect  (Breaker Films), exec. produced by Steven Soderbergh, which stars Garrett Wareing as a troubled young man sent to a clinic by his mother (Abbie Cornish) to help with his dark visions.

Next up is Rachel Carey’s Ask for Jane  (Level Film) starring Cait Cortelyou in a timely movie set in Chicago 1969 where abortion is punishable by prison and two women try to find a doctor to help a pregnant student at the University of Chicago has tried to kill herself. The two women end up forming the Jane Collective, an organization that helps women get safe abortions.

Asa Butterfield, Finn Cole, Hermione Corfield, Michael Sheen, Margot Robbie, Nick Frost and Simon Pegg star in Crispian Mills’ horror-comedy Slaughterhouse Rulez set in a British boarding school where monsters have been unleashed from a sinkhole. The movie was a hit in England but is barely getting a release in the States even with that amazing cast.

STREAMING AND CABLE

Not much of note on Netflix except Kate Melville’s rom-com Good Sam, a movie about a reporter who is trying to find a stranger who is leaving bags of money all around New York City.

I probably haven’t been paying enough attention to the streaming service MUBU, but in honor of the Cannes Film Festival that started this week, the service is doing a “Cannes Takeover” which includes Gus Van Sant’s Paranoid Park, Crisi Piu’s The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, Alejandro Innaritu’s Amores Perrosand other films that broke out of the French film festival.

REPERTORY

METROGRAPH (NYC):

Sci-fi author Samuel R. Delaney will be at the Metrograph for Delaneymania, a collection of films selected by him including This Island Earth (1955), Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal  (1957), Jean Cocteau’s Orpheus  (1950), as well as Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil: Director’s Cut  (1958). The series will also include Fred Barney Taylor’s doc about Delany called The Polymath and more. Playtime: Family Matinees is also getting involved into Delanwymania with screenings of The Boy with the Green Hair (1948) on Saturday and Sunday morning. Also this weekend is the firstMetrograph Book Fair of the year with lots of rare and vintage books and magazines on sale.This week’s Late Nites at Metrographincludes screenings of Michael Mann’s Thief  (1981) and more screenings of Gasar Noé’sClimax, which seems to be Metrograph’s new go-to movie. (Sorry, Carol!)

THE NEW BEVERLY (L.A.):

Weds and Thursday seems double features of Elaine May’s Mikey & Nicky  (1976), starring Peter Falk and John Cassavetes, and Between the Lines (1977), while Friday and Saturday’s double feature is Martha Coolidge’s 1983 film Valley Girl (with Coolidge and special guests on Saturday!) and Sofia Coppola’s 1999 debut The Virgin Suicides.  The Sunday/Monday double feature is two from Dorothy Arzner, Merrily We Go To Hell (1932) and First Comes Courage(1943).Friday’s midnight is Tarantino and Rodriguez’s 2007 anthology Grindhouse, while Saturday at midnight, you have another chance to watch The Love Witch from 2016.  The weekend’s KIDDEE MATINEE is Agnieszka Holland’s 1993 film The Secret Garden  (which is being remade next year). On Monday afternoon, there’s a screening of Josie and the Pussycats… no, I’m not sure why either.

FILM FORUM (NYC):

Sadly, the Trilogies series ends Thursday, but the Film Forum will screen a 4k restoration of Alain Resnais’ Last Year at Marienbad (1961), and this weekend’s Film Forum Jr.offering is Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands  (1990), starring Johnny Depp. Dan Streible is back with his eclectic of shorts called More Orphans of New York.

EGYPTIAN THEATRE (LA):

On Friday, you can catch a “New York Sleaze Triple Feature” (yes, in L.A.) with Fulci’s The New York Ripper (1982),Nightmares in a Damaged Brain  (1981) and Abel Ferrar’s The Driller Killer  (1979). The Cassavetes & Scorsese: Love is Strangeseries continues on Saturday with Goodfellas and Husbands, plus the 1965 film The 10th Victim is showing as part of the Art Directors Guild Film Society Series on Sunday. Also on Sunday, Spanish filmmaker Ivan Zulueta (who died ten years ago) gets a tribute with a screening of 1979’s Arrebato.

AERO  (LA):

This week, the Aero begins the Passion of Pier Paolo Pasolini series (probably in conjunction with Abel Ferrara’s film, which finally gets a theatrical release) with a series of double features: Solo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975) and Pigsty (1969) on Thursday, The Decameron  (1970) and Oedipus Rex (1967) on Friday, The Canterbury Tales (1971) and Teorema (1968) on Saturday, and Arabian Nights (1974)and Medea (1969) on Sunday. On Monday, they’ll screen a rare 35mm print of Pasonlini’s The Gospel According to St. Matthew(1964). Since I really enjoyed Ferrara’s new film starring Willem Dafoe, I’m bummed I missed the Metrograph’s retrospective of Pasolini last year, but this is a good chance to see this prolific Italian filmmaker’s often-controversial work.

QUAD CINEMA (NYC):

Another great series begins at the Quad this weekend with Fighting Mad: German Genre Films from the Margins, based around Dominik Graf’s two-part documentary A Journey Through German Film. Graf programmed the series with Olaf Müller, who presents a few of the screenings. It’s a pretty rich series with no films that I personally have had a chance to see – I have a couple screeners to watch – but there are sure to be a few gems in there if you have time to see some of the 17 movies.

IFC CENTER (NYC)

Waverly Midnights: ParentalGuidance  will screen Roman Polanski’s horror classicRosemary’s Baby (1968) and James Cameron’s Aliens (again). Weekend Classics: Love Mom and Dad screens Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1962 film Mamma Roma, while Late Night Favorites: Spring shows the Coens’ Fargo, David Fincher’s Fight Club and Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.

BAM CINEMATEK (NYC):

Black 90s: A Turning Point in American Cinema continues this weekend with Waiting to Exhale, The Five Heartbeats, Fear of a Black Hat, House Party, a 20thAnniversary screening of The Best Man and a lot more. It’s a really good series with a lot of movies worth checking out.

MOMA (NYC):

Abel Ferrara: Unrated continues with 1986’s Crime Story on Wednesday, 1993’s Dangerous Game on Thursday, Welcome to New York  (2014) on Sunday and Piazza Vittorio (2017) and 4:44 Last Day on Earth  (2011) on Sunday. The series will continue through May 31. MOMA is also doing a Jean-Claude Carriereseries, honoring the amazing prolific work of the French screenwriter, including Louis Malle’s Milou en Mai  (1964), Milos Forman’s Taking Off (1971) and many more, which will be screened between now and June 16.

ROXY CINEMA (NYC)

A new addition! The theater in the Roxy Hotel in Tribeca is showing Joanna Hogg’s earlier film Archipelego (2010), as well as Sally Potter’s 1992 film Orlando in 35mm!

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE (NYC):

On Saturday, MOMI is doing a Filmmaker Memorial for John Singleton, put together by The Black Filmmaker Foundation and the Black Film Critics Circle with BFCC President Michael Sargent and other critics discussing Singleton’s work. Otherwise, MOMI is finishing up Panorama Europe.

LANDMARK THEATRES NUART  (LA):

This week’s midnight movie on Friday is the Japanese horror filmHouse (Hausu) from 1977.

That’s it for this week. Next week, we get Guy Ritchie’s Aladdin, starring Will Smith; Olivia Wilde’s hilarious Book Smart and the James Gunn-produced Brightburn. Oh, yeah, and it’s Memorial Day weekend!

[thevanitychariot]

The Chariot: Issue IV

Original Publication Date: 02 September 2017

Pioneering the Asian Age By: Aramis Giordano

The Carlsburgh Mysteries finale signaled the end of The Stagnant Age, which spanned three years (2013-2016) starting with The Eternal Fire (April 16, 2013) and ending with Inferno (November 11, 2016), and gave rise to the new era in the entertainment industry – The Asian Age - which began with Death Note (March 24, 2017). The growing interest towards the Asian culture, history, and language began in Davis Wylde’s revolutionary short-lived series Dandridge (2016) through his incorporation of various taboo storylines and diverse characters. One of the main supporting characters, Daniella Kobayashi, played by Keira Kuyama, drew public interest in the Japanese and Korean cultures through her weekly vlogs reacting to Korean popular music videos, trying out Japanese and Korean cuisines, and her vacation video blogs in Asian countries. Through Keira’s videos, her viewers, who are mostly avid fans from the Western hemisphere of both Carlsburgh Mysteries and Dandridge, celebrate various Asian cultures with her – something that is unprecedented in the White-majority entertainment industry.

This growing interest in Asian culture lead to the MC Company (now MC-Wylde) releasing the first live adaptation of Death Note, which was initially criticized for casting White actors for its major roles. The success of Death Note prompted then-MC Company to release more live adaptations of Japanese anime (the Sword Art Online series and Your Lie in April). Interest in Korean films followed with the release of Boys Over Flowers after an increase in KPOP react videos by Keira Kuyama herself.

​During the promotion tour for ALfheim Online in the summer of 2017, Keira stayed in Seoul, South Korea to immerse herself in the Korean culture, which led to a number of Korean videos further increasing the public’s growing interest on the cultural and historical videos outside the White Western media. This fast-growing interest of both Japanese and Korean cultures is the reason Davis Wylde created a new series manufacturing new celebrities, called Surveillance, which will go against The X Factor after the show faced backlash earlier in the year for its lack of diversity.

Former X Factor director, Omar Vanderkoff, steps down and is replaced by Alistair Sullivan for the upcoming ninth season after facing criticism of how he handled the diversity issue in Season 8. Omar Vanderkoff helmed the successful series since its conception in 2012, which saw the rise of Music Generation’s Aubree Jones. With his resignation as The X Factor’s director, Hollywood Studios President, Lawrence Harland, acknowledged his contribution to the entertainment industry in the last five years and promoted him as the company’s chairman (who is also responsible for the Ross Awards) after the previous chairman, Francis Daehler, resigned last week. Hollywood Studios has recently been facing a lot of backlash due to its lack of diversity in its movies. In this year’s contenders for the Ross Awards, Hollywood Studios is releasing Omelas and 1872, both studded with White casts, and the studio is facing a growing pressure to incorporate more diversity in its workplace and movies.

MC-Wylde, officially used for the first time in Your Lie in April, is aiming to release more movies within the next few years that celebrates diversity, especially catering to the Asian wave. Davis Wylde particularly incorporates celebrities from very diverse backgrounds in his films, gaining public approval after an unprecedented hiring of Asian directors for Death Note (Itsuki Nakamura), Sword Art Online (Erika Yamamoto), and Your Lie in April (Eliza Maleenon), and casting Asians of different nationalities in major roles such as Rohan Kumar (Boys Over Flowers) and Park Jungmin, Riza Yuki, and Bodhi Zhao (You Lie in April). Davis cites that he wants to “normalize diversity in the entertainment industry by acknowledging the creative contributions of non-White artists” amid criticism from his White viewers accusing him of racism towards Whites. “People of color are very underrepresented since the conception of the entertainment industry in 2009. I cannot name a movie or a show with a Latin American or Asian as its lead”. Davis further defends his stance by saying he wants to provide a platform for people of color to catch up on the achievements that White celebrities have experienced in the last eight years. This year’s contenders for the Ross Awards are very racially and culturally diverse; and frankly, this might be a very exciting era of change and progress.

Indiana Jenkins: Dead in Phuket By: Aramis Giordano Original Publication Date: 10 September 2017

Phuket, Thailand. It was supposed to be a fun weekend for the group consisting of Indiana Jenkins and her fiancé Rutherford Jackson, and the couple Emilio Rojas and Madison Leigh Stewart, which ended in Indiana’s body washing ashore Raya Island in the evening of Friday, September 9, 2017. The Thai police was notified of Indiana’s disappearance early morning Friday when her friend, Madison Leigh, found her missing in the yacht they were aboard on. The four left Los Angeles to Phuket on Wednesday, September 6, 2017, and stayed at a local hotel upon arrival. Madison Leigh claims that the couple has been arguing over Indiana’s nightclub life over the labor day weekend a few days before, but didn’t treat it as something worrisome. The four planned to board the yacht on Thursday evening, September 7, 2017, which was rented by Rutherford Jackson as a getaway. Indiana invited Madison Leigh for the trip last week without any arguments from Rutherford. “It was very last minute and Diana said that Rudy was very excited about it”, Madison Leigh claims.

As this story progresses, Vanity Chariot has interviewed both Madison Leigh as the memories are still fresh in her head. “We went drinking at a club near where the yacht was docked,” Madison Leigh starts. “We’ve had a few drinks, but Indiana maybe had a little bit more wine”. Madison Leigh describes Rutherford as “quiet” and “reserved” that night, which is completely different than his usually loud personality. “Something was odd that night and I thought it was just from their argument earlier”. It was Indiana’s idea to go drinking before they boarded the yacht, which Rutherford was against with. Before leaving the hotel room, Madison Leigh overheard them from the other room arguing over Indiana wanting to go out, and Rutherford worrying over her “throwing herself to another guy”. She heard the door slam and Indiana knocked on her door asking if she’s ready.

It was an hour after they arrived at the club when Rutherford catches up to Indiana, Madison Leigh and Emilio. Rutherford had a blank expression on his face and didn’t seem angry. It was Indiana’s fifth shot when she started dancing with Emilio, in which Madison Leigh wasn’t worried about.

Half an hour later, Rutherford walked Indiana, Madison Leigh, and Emilio to board the Serendipity. There was a small dinner set up for the four, but Indiana wanted to rest for a while. Rutherford asked Madison Leigh and Emilio to go ahead and finish the dinner and he’ll set up another one just for the two of them later in the night. He walked Indiana to the bedroom, and that was the last time Madison Leigh saw Indiana that night.

The captain of the yacht, Klahan Chankul, claimed not to hear any suspicious arguments throughout the rest of the night.

Meanwhile, Madison Leigh and Emilio had dinner and went to the game room around midnight - an hour after Rutherford walked Indiana to the bedroom. Madison Leigh wanted to check up on Indiana, but Emilio told her to not bother the couple. That was the last memory Madison Leigh had before crashing on the couch.

Around 2:30 AM, Madison was the first one to wake up, noticing Emilio absent in the game room. She found him sleeping on the deck, but neither Indiana nor Rutherford were around. Madison Leigh checked the bedroom to see Rutherford pacing back and forth sweating - he asked Madison Leigh if she had found Indiana yet and said that he fell asleep when he was supposed to be watching over her. They both go to the captain and Emilio who have not seen her. After looking through the yacht, the captain of the yacht found that the dingy has been detached. That was when Madison tried calling Indiana, but to no avail. The captain docked the yacht and asked Madison to phone the police.

A search was conducted throughout dawn and there were still no signs of Indiana. Thai police took Rutherford Jackson into custody for questioning and as a possible suspect. Emilio and Madison followed.

Rutherford was held until early afternoon where he called his parents in Los Angeles about the issue.

Later in the evening, Thai police contacted Rutherford, Emilio, and Madison that Indiana’s body had been found. Upon initial inspection, she had multiple bruises throughout her arms and legs, but no signs of bleeding. Her body is being sent back to Los Angeles upon her parents’ requests for autopsy. Thai police asks Rutherford to stay for further questioning.

The Vanity Chariot will continue reporting as the story progresses.

The Asian Saga By: Aramis Giordano Original Publication Date: 30 October 2017

The Asian Age has been conquering the entertainment industry ever since it started with Death Note on March 24 this year. Following the release of the first movie of the trilogy, MC-Wylde introduced more Japanese-based movies, the Sword Art Online series and Your Lie in April. Even after the success of these movies, Davis Wylde starts off another avalanche by announcing the Asian Saga – a proposed five to ten Korean-based movies to be released throughout the first six months of 2018. Production for four confirmed Asian Saga movies have already concluded: Erica Maleenon’s Descendants of the Sun (February 24, 2018) stars Evan Tanaka, Keira Kuyama, Park Jungmin, and Joanna Park, Jang Minho’s W and W2 (November 3, 2017 and March 9, 2018) stars Park Jungmin, Joanna Park, Nam Taemin, and Lee Jiyeon and is the first movie to ever be studded with an entire Korean cast, Anh Siyeon’s Feral (January 12, 2018) stars Lee Jiyeon, Yoon Jaehwa, and Jeong Minhyuk, and Choi Soohyun’s The Pinocchio Syndrome and The Pinocchio Syndrome 2 (March 16 and March 30, 2018) stars Nam Taemin, Song Yeonhee, and Jeong Minhyuk.

Due to the complicated plot lines and the anticipation and hype surrounding Jang Minho’s W, Davis Wylde confirmed that the original movie will be split into two parts – with the release of the first movie being moved up to November 3, just a week prior to the Grand Nomination Event on November 11. This year marks the first time Davis will be participating in the Ross Awards competition as the president of an established film studio. He cites the unprecedented movie with W to his confidence on the success of the movie and the dedication of the fans to the Asian wave. W2 remains in its March 9, 2018 slot to mark the weekly release of the Asian Saga movies.

Following the move of splitting W into two movies was another announcement of a two-parter, The Pinocchio Syndrome and The Pinocchio Syndrome 2 to be both released alongside the other Korean-based movies. With The Pinocchio Syndrome, Davis was dedicated on presenting and elaborating a storyline that would be too dense for one movie and he is optimistic that the two films would greatly contribute to the success of the Asian Saga. Together with the news of The Pinocchio Syndrome, two more Korean-based movies have been greenlit and are ready for production: I Can Hear Your Voice and While You Were Sleeping. Davis opened Surveillance: Reel 2 to fill the cast of the future Asian Saga movies with the chosen housemates, all of Asian descents. The first two evicted housemates, Jeon Jihoon and Rio Tran are confirmed to have been casted for the Asian Saga.

In response to his unconventional casting, Davis shares his fear of what is now called the Spencer-McKinley Syndrome, in which the same actor is casted for all the main roles. In some cases, the actor plays a similar role in every movie, known as typecasting, due to its success from their previous similar roles. The combination of typecasting and Spencer-McKinley Syndrome lead to audience fatigue, which was very prevalent during the Stagnant Age. Although, this has been plaguing the industry since the Golden Age, it did not come into scrutiny until the previous age, notably with Jaci Spencer and Shannon McKinley. Davis plans to have different actors playing the main roles in each of the Asian Saga movies to avoid the syndrome and hoping to prolong the current prosperous era.

During an interview about the future of the entertainment industry beyond the Asian Saga, Davis Wylde teased the remake of Carlsburgh Mysteries for its five-year anniversary in 2019 with a working title of just Carlsburgh alone; he also continued hinting that iCarly will also be released that same year to celebrate its ten-year anniversary. Any further information on the two future movies are not shared until closer to the production dates.

2018 is right around the corner and MC-Wylde has already finished filming nine movies for the next year’s awards season proving to be a tough competition for Lawrence Harland’s Hollywood Studios, which has been facing backlash on its attempt to join in the Asian Age by confirming the production of Daisy Campbell’s Tokyo Ghoul, slated to be released April 14, 2018. The backlash started from the announcement of Alexander Avanda and Riella Harland playing the main characters Ken Kaneki and Touka Kirishima, both of whom are of Japanese descent. No comments have been made from the representative of the studio, although it is certain that the movie will be released without any changes in its cast.