#good warner hunting
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absolutely despicable behavior from WB to plunder a fan film from 15 years ago just because their corporate greed led them to want to make their own (likely soulless even with PJ’s involvement) version with the exact same title.
UPDATE: the copyright has been released and the fan film The Hunt for Gollum is back on YouTube and can be watched. Though, it's still really telling of the capitalist corruption of WB and Hollywood that their first move and publicity for this (unnecessary) movie was to directly attack the fans for something produced over a decade ago.
#the hunt for Gollum#Lord of the Rings: the Hunt for Gollum#Lord of the Rings#anti Warner Bros#anti Hollywood#everyone acting like they’re optimistic about this as though yall haven’t spent the last decade dragging the Hobbit trilogy#Hollywood is twice as worse now as it was then#attacking the fans is never a good look#common WB L#mine#1k#2k#3k#4k#5k#6k#7k#8k
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I'm bored...I'm gonna analyse a GIF.
This year marks Ed, Edd n Eddy's 25th anniversary. I may not talk about it much on this blog, but it's one of my all time favourite cartoons. I'd watch it constantly during my childhood and to this day "Big Picture Show" is my favourite series finale. So, given how much I enjoy the show, I was happy to see more tweets about it than usual on my Twitter (yes I'm still calling it that) timeline because of the anniversary.
The influx of tweets (yes I'm still calling them that) about the show led me to this tweet. There's a very good analysis of the moment here on Tumblr, but here's a screenshot from a reply under the tweet of what the user said.
It made me think of other similar moments of character acting in animation, and of course I started thinking of examples from Animaniacs.
There's many to be found across the original show and the reboot, but one example I really like is this moment here:
For context, all three Warners are making similar jokes about the size of a hunter's feet.
It's not the dialogue I wanna talk about, this moment is brief and ultimately not that important, but I just love how the Warners are animated here. It tells you a lot about them based only on the character acting and body language:
Yakko
Yakko is the first to come onscreen to make a comment, indicating that he's the leader. He calmy walks into frame holding one hand out conversationally, before standing with both arms behind his back. Compared to the other two's stances, this makes him look more reserved and professional. This not only indicates that he's older, but also suggests he's cool-headed and not as reliant on physical action as his sibs, hence why his arms are behind his back; he only really needs his voice. He gives a smug grin, so even without hearing what he's saying you know he's being snarky right now, which contrasts with his body language, showing he's purposefully maintaining a deceptively non-aggressive demeanour and is likely a smart aleck in general.
Wakko
Wakko is the only one who doesn't come in from the side, instead he enters frame from below, indicating that he's the most unconventional of the three. He flails his arms around rather than keeping them in one place like Yakko, which not only suggests that he's more wild and energetic, but (as I said earlier) is more reliant on physical action than Yakko. Wakko does a sort of "don't worry about it" motion with his left arm with a simple smile on his face, a smile that lacks any smugness. This suggests that he's a little friendlier in comparison. He sticks out his tongue like a dog and eventually settles on T-rex arms, indicating that he's more animalistic than his sibs.
Dot
Dot quickly hops into frame from the side, almost like a pounce, with a determined and somewhat aggressive facial expression, showing energy and spunk. She punches the air, which only emphasizes her feistiness. Her movements suggest she's more prone to being outwardly aggressive than her brothers. Her expression softens to more of a cute smile, showing that she's not all aggression and is quite cute and jovial too. She settles with her hands on her hips, a typical pose used to show that a character is sassy and/or confident, hence indicating that Dot is too.
Basically I just think the way animation can be used to establish characters without us having to hear a word out of them is really cool.
#animaniacs#yakko warner#wakko warner#dot warner#the warner siblings#yakko wakko and dot#animaniacs 2020#animaniacs reboot#character acting#body language#animation#the gif is from “Good Warner Hunting” for those who are curious#although it's not an example of character acting I'd also like to shoutout OG Powerpuff Girls' intro#the way the music summarises each girl's personality is expertly done
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#percy jackson#percy jackson series#harry potter#harry potter series#shatter me#shatter me series#folk of the air#folk of the air series#chronicles of narnia#chronicles of narnia series#a court of thorns and roses#acotar#anne of green gables#hunting adeline#the inheritance games#throne of glass#a good girls guide to murder#aaron warner#pjo hoo toa#hogwarts#salil singh#books and reading#books#book boyfriends#book boyfriend#lord of the rings#the hobbit#return of the king#the two towers#please vote
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just found out today that David Warner plays a Peter Vincent-alike in a movie called "My Best Friend is a Vampire" (1987) and now im desperate to watch it. he even has the same wardrobe colors, a peter gun, AND a trunk full of vampire huntin tools🫨
(thank u to @ropermike's amazing whump archives that span decades of cinema and tv series🙏)
#my best friend is a vampire#im tellin yall fright night 1985 brought vampires back from the dead in horror comedy and more. everybody remember to thank tom holland#david fuckin warner as a vampire hunting professor holy balls#phuz drabbles#been spending my sunday morning perusing Guys in Trouble for my faves in situations#no cush or price or any of my olds sadly but i still commend this man for his dedication to the craft#lots of good costas mandalore content there#future spoopybus material here? we shall see!!
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Hoo boy there is already Hunt for gollum from 2009...
youtube
Warner bros did you take small unofficial lotr film from 2009?
What next warner bros? Maybe a small unofficial lotr film from 2009 Born of hope?
youtube
They’re making The Gollum Movie for real Apollo’s dodgeball strikes again 😭
#I remember my unoffical lotr movies warner bros#you aint looking good warner bros#lotr#Youtube#the hunt for gollum
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──── ୨ৎ CHRISTMAS WITH YOU — AARON WARNER + READER ‧₊˚
a/n: hiii lovelies!! this is probs the most random fic ive ever written (im at tennis and got bored so here we are) but im in a christmas mood so expect a few xmas themed fics to come ur wayyy 🤭🤭 ALSO THE NEXT PART OF THE GRAY FIC WILL BE UP SOON!!!
aaron didn’t like holidays, okay? he really didn’t like them. the needless dressing up for halloween, the crazy amount of chocolate consumed on easter, the countdown and partying on new years. it was all just very pointless to him. christmas was his least favorite though.
he despised the horrible holiday.
the unnecessary money spent on pointless gifts that people will forget about in two weeks and the false sense of cheer and merriment that dies the second christmas is over are just some of his many reasons why he dislikes the holiday.
or maybe it was the fact that is father used to come home over christmas. he doesn’t like to dwell too much on that one.
so imagine his luck when he finds out the girl of his dreams, the love of his life is obsessed with the holiday, he's torn.
he tried. he really tried to put up with it, but at some point enough is enough and he has to leave the house, the amount of christmas decorations you have put up - which according to you is not enough but according to everyone else is a sickening amount - is driving him insane.
he loves you, but hanging tinsel inside your closet was a bit too much for him. so he escaped. to the front porch. he wasn't actually going anywhere, that's just stupid, why would he leave on christmas eve? thats basically just him begging for kenji to hunt him down and attempt to kick his ass.
so obviously he didn't leave, thats just childish.
but he did sit down on the steps of his house and rested his head in his hands. breathing in the cold fresh air. it's been snowing all day, and its only just paused, he's grateful for that. usually the only reprieve he receives is late at night when you're running your hands through his hair and murmuring sweet nothings into his ear. so this moment is nice - it would be nicer with you, but he always thinks that.
the moment's disturbed when he hears the front door open and your soft footsteps that follow.
"what are you doing out here, aaron?" your voice is soft and calming, he loves your voice, it always seems to bring him peace.
"i was just getting some fresh air," he answers and you watch the steam leave his mouth. okay yeah it's pretty cold, maybe he shouldn't have come out here in only a sweatshirt and plaid flannel plants - matching with yours - you let him because it seemed like he needed a moment. but in only pajamas? not that smart.
but damn does he look good in them.
actually you applaud yourself getting him to wear the outfit. he wasn't thrilled when you suggested matching pj's and watching christmas movies all day. but the fact he still put them on makes your heart warm.
you know he's not a fan of the christmas thing. and maybe some part of you wanted to try and get him to love it, but clearly shoving christmas-y themed things in his face wasn't the way to go.
you sit down on the step next to him and wrap the blanket you dragged out here around his shoulders.
"i'm sorry for forcing all the christmas things on you," you say resting your head on his shoulder.
"don't be, love," he says his voice low. "it's me not you, never you."
"i kinda just pushed everything onto you, though, and expected you to love it," you sigh. "i know christmas isn't your favorite holiday, so i was just trying to make it special for you, its our first christmas together i wanted it to be extra special."
"it is special," aaron answers. "its special because you're here with me. its special because you're trying to make it special for me. its special because you love me enough to try and do all this," he waves his hand back towards to the house.
you smile at that, shivering slightly from the cold. how is aaron not cold right now?
"lets head inside, love," he murmurs wrapping his arms around you and gently helping you up. "we can go watch that christmas movie i know you've been dying to watch."
"its okay," you hum as he wraps his arms around your waist and kisses the crook of your neck as you walk. "we don't have to do that."
"i want to, for you. and maybe, maybe i'll start to like christmas, but only if its with you."
𐔌 . ⋮ 🏷️ tags .ᐟ ֹ ₊ ꒱
@arqbella, @midiosaamor, @reminiscentreader, @maybxlle, @sweetreveriee, @kozumesphone
@tornqdowarnings @benny1989fredd, @shiftingtomydrs, @ruriloveshim, @sheinstyou
#ems writes ᯓ★#aaron warner#aaron warner anderson#aaron warner x reader#aaron warner x fem!y/n#aaron warner x you#aaron warner x fem!reader#shatter me#unravel me#ignite me#defy me#restore me#imagine me#believe me
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🌈 Queer Books Coming Out in August 2024 🌈
🌈 Good afternoon, my bookish bats! Here are a FEW of the stunning, diverse queer books you can add to your TBR before the year is over. Happy reading!
[ Text list below ⤵ ]
❓What was the last queer book you read?
[ Release dates may have changed. ]
❤️ Failure to Comply - Sarah Cavar 🧡 I Spit On Your Celluloid - Heidi Honeycutt 💛 You're Embarrassing Yourself - Desiree Akhavan 💚 Death of the Hero - Briona Johnson 💙 Between Dragons and Their Wrath - Devin Madson 💜 The Crimson Crown - Heather Walter ❤️ Sacrificial Animals - Kailee Pedersen 🧡 Oath of Fire - K. Arsenault Rivera 💛 The Palace of Eros - Caro De Robertis 💙 This Ravenous Fate - Hayley Dennings 💜 Mistress of Lies - K.M. Enright 🌈 Wolf Bite - T.J. Nichols
❤️ In the Valley, A Shadow - Samantha Tano 🧡 Follow My Lead - Adrian J. Smith 💛 The Last Woman I Kissed - Venetia Di Pierro 💚 Full Shift - Jennifer Dugan & Kristen Seaton 💙 Hers for the Weekend - Helena Greer 💜 Come Out, Come Out - Natalie C. Parker ❤️ Rules for Ghosting - Shelly Jay Shore 🧡 How to Leave the House - Nathan Newman 💛 Plot Twist - Carmen Sereno 💙 On the Far Side of a Crescendo - Kalyn Hazel 💜 Tiny Oblivions and Mutual Self Destructions - Maxwell I. Gold 🌈 Daylan and the River of Secrets - Edd Tello
❤️ The Italy Letters - Vi Khi Nao 🧡 The Gender Binary Is a Big Lie - Lee Wind 💚 The House Where Death Lives - Alex Brown 💙 Ash's Cabin - Jen Wang 💜 The Avian Hourglass - Lindsey Drager ❤️ The Heart Wants - Krystina Rivers 🧡 A Grand Love - Janna Barkin 💛 You Can't Go Home Again - Jeanette Bears 💜 Libertad - Bessie Flores Zaldivar 🌈 Her Golden Coast - Anat Deracine
❤️ Mighty Millie Novak - Elizabeth Holden 💛 Rise and Divine - Lana Harper 💚 Dying for You - L Flowers 💙 I'll Have What He's Having - Adib Khorram 💜 Changing Her Tune - Amanda Kabak ❤️ Monogamy? In this Economy? - Laura Boyle 🧡 The Rainbow Age of Television - Sayna Maci Warner 💛 Medusa of the Roses - Navid Sinaki 💙 Confounding Oaths - Alexis Hall 💜 Idol Lives - K.T. Salvo 🌈 Brother's Keeper - Quinn Cameron
❤️ Key Lime Sky - Al Hess 🧡 Crushing It - Erin Becker 💛 The Husky and His White Cat Shizun - Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou 💚 Not for the Faint of Heart - Lex Croucher 💙 Tasting Temptation - JJ Arias 💜 Ami - S. Jae-Jones ❤️ You're the Problem, It's You - Emma R. Alban 🧡 Cubs & Campfires - Dylan Drakes 💛 The Dark We Know - Wen-yi Lee 💙 Practical Rules for Cursed Witches - Kayla Cottingham 💜 Riyati Rebirth - Kalani Shimizu 🌈 The Brujos of Borderland High - Gume Laurel III
❤️ A Bánh Mì for Two - Trinity Nguyen 🧡 Dance of the Starlit Sea - Kiana Krystle 💛 Scattered Snows, to the North - Carl Phillips 💚 Beyond a World Apart - Caitlin Myers 💙 Don't Let It Break Your Heart - Maggie Horne 💜 Nothing Heals Me Like You Do - Harper Bliss ❤️ How It All Ends - Emma Hunsinger 🧡 How Do I Sexy? - Mx. Nillin Lore 💛 The Palace of Eros - Caro De Robertis 💙 Prince of the Palisades - Julian Winters 💜 Better Left Buried - Mary E. Roach 🌈 Back to Back - Jo Fletcher
❤️ DITCHLAPSE / [REALLY AFRAID] - Tommy Wyatt 🧡 The Love Archives: Bonus Scenes & Excerpts for Palestine - Various 💛 Guardian: Zhen Hun - Ying Priest 💚 The Sunforge - Sascha Stronach 💙 Queering Reproductive Justice - Candace Bond-Theriault 💜 Gender Explained - Diane Ehrensaft & Michelle Jurkiewicz ❤️ The Unlikely Pair - Jax Calder 🧡 In Universes - Emet North 💛 We Love the Nightlife - Rachel Koller Croft 💙 Lessons from Cruising - Martin Goodman 💜 Wild Ginger in the Rhubarb - Eule Grey 🌈 Not My Circus - Delicia Niami
❤️ Asunder - Kerstin Hall 🧡 The Phoenix Keeper - S.A. MacLean 💛 Encounters with James Baldwin - Various 💚 Verity's Game - Jennifer Giacalone 💙 Hunt Me! I Crave the Chase - Fae Quin 💜 The Audacity Omnibus - Carmen Loup ❤️ Haunted to Death - Frank Anthony Polito 🧡 Blood Orange - Paige Grunewald 💛 The Bad Things We Did - Chris Archeske 💙 Dark Restraint - Katee Robert 💜 Worth the Wait - Kenna White 🌈 The Maid and the Crocodile - Jordan Ifueko
❤️ Loving Corrections - Adrienne Maree Brown 🧡 The Last Witch in Edinburgh - Marielle Thompson 💛 The Duchess of Kokora - Nikhil Prabala 💚 The Scales of Seduction - Rien Gray 💙 Survival Is a Promise - Alexis Pauline Gumbs 💜 Loka - S.B. Divya ❤️ The Every Body Book of Consent - Rachel E Simon 🧡 Southern Lights - Liz Arncliffe 💛 Then Things Went Dark - Bea Fitzgerald 💙 Death at Morning House - Maureen Johnson 💜 The Last Doorbell - William Parker 🌈 The Pairing - Casey McQuiston
#queer books#queer fiction#queer romance#queer#sapphic#sapphic books#sapphic romance#wlw romance#wlw fiction#gay romance#gay pride#gay#bisexual romance#bisexual visibility#bisexual pride#bisexuality#bi books#bisexual#books#book releases#book release#booklr#batty about books#battyaboutbooks#reading#reading books
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Songs that remind me of IWTV and the characters:
You think you’re a good person because you won’t punch me in the stomach
You’re not special you’re evil, you don’t get to tell me to calm down
Time casts its spell on you, but you won’t forget me
I’ll follow you down till the sound of my voice will hunt you
There ain’t nothing we can do to protect you
Have you left a seat for me? Is that such a stretch of the imagination?
Turns out I’m not real, just something you paid for. What was I made for?
I’ve been big and small. And big and small. And big and small again. And still nobody wants me, still nobody wants me.
#iwtv amc#amc interview with the vampire#interview with vampire armand#armand interview with the vampire#interview with the vampire#lestat de lioncourt#the vampire armand#the vampire lestat#the vampire chronicles#the vampire claudia#the vampire louis#armand iwtv#armand#louis du lac#louis de pointe du lac#ldpdl#iwtv lestat#rockstar lestat#lestat x louis#sam reid lestat#amc lestat#armand x louis#claudia#claudia de pointe du lac#claudia de lioncourt#sam reid#assad zaman#jacob anderson#delainey hayles#bailey bass
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Another role for Dad
Eddie Redmayne has frequently named Julia Roberts as dad Richard Redmayne’s favorite actress, and now the actor has been cast to co-star with her and Elizabeth Olsen in a major Warner Bros. feature with Good Nurse + Jackal overtones — “a paranoid thriller that has tonal influences of Silence of the Lambs and involves the hunt for a cyber terrorist.”
Contractually, the film is set for a theatrical release before heading to streaming services. Filming timetable is TBD, and it remains to be seen when The Day of the Jackal will shoot its second season.
[Eddie & Julia seen above at 2015 SAG Awards, where she presented him with his Leading Actor trophy for The Theory of Everything.]
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I can't find a lot of these movies that have my beautiful man in them 😭
Alas, this is the curse when coveting precious material with our dear friend Claude...but! There are some sources that could that can hopefully help you out!
A good chunk of Claude movies are available free-to-watch via YouTube and we'll link a playlist here!
Numerous others are available to stream on Tubi, which is another free service that has a lot of good movies. Here's a list of all the Claude movies currently available to watch!
If you don't have time to watch the movie, why not peruse a pressbook? The Internet Archive has scanned copies of old Warner Bros. pressbooks (booklets featuring interviews and promotional materials) as well as full-length movies. For example, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington can be found right here!
Another website is ok.ru, which we believe has every single Claude Rains movie up to watch for free. This channel has all of them!
Alternatively, you can always check out your local library for DVD copies and some libraries give you free access to online borrowing services such as Hoopla or Libby that may have copies.
Hopefully this helped and good luck and happy hunting! :)
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"🦸♀️🦇The Heroes"
🦇🌙Batty Midnight: Watch out, bad guys! I'm changing from the Dark Night since Inktober of 2022 (Link Here) to an amazon warrior who never back down! With my lasso of truth on hand, I'll make sure to be ready when facing off danger and help everyone in need. I'm not coming alone as I'm with these two female super pets that will helping me in battle. Krypto the Superdog and the rest were to busy facing off the big bad somewhere, but nothing we can handle a problem with my pet friends. Sure hope the Justice League will be proud of us when its over. 😊👍
🇵🇷Me: I'm sure they'll do, Batty. BTW, you seen that female cat character included; which was from 2022's DC League of Super-Pets animated movie if you know. I even made my first fanart that time if you haven't check it yet. ➡️(Link Here)
🇵🇷Me: I know already this cat character's minor villainous role from said film as I'd mentioned. This is my "What If" depiction of her; redeemed form instead of being a bad kitten who worked for an evil guinea pig antagonist. Again, didn't watched this animated film or something. Just the concept that it counts when watching some clips on YouTube. At least I'd tried to work it out when doing this Inktober post share today. Just imagine if Whiskers turned good that I can't help myself think about for a bit. 🤔
And some video clips from “DC League of Super-Pets” to see what I mean. ⬇️
youtube
youtube
Batty Midnight (as Wonder Woman) created by me; BryanVelasquez87 (Bryan360)
PB the Pig and Whiskers the Cat - DC League of Super-Pets (2022); Warner Bros Animation Group, DC Entertainment
Previously: ⬇️
“⬛️⬜️🪦The Grave” - Link Here #1
“🦝🦝The Raccoons” - Link Here #2
“🐿️💕❄️The Climbers” -Link Here #3
“🐱🎸🐶 The Guitarist” - Link Here #4
“🐰👮The Cops” - Link Here #5
“🐶🏴☠️👑The Joy” - Link Here #6
“🦔🦊💍The Rings” - Link Here #7
“🦦🐟The Fish” - Link Here #8
“🐱👢🌙 The Cuteness” - Link Here #9
“🎧🦨 The Beats” - Link Here #10
“🔴🐼🐶 The Dogs” - Link Here #11
”🐿️🐰🎸The Band” - Link Here #12
“🦊🔵 The Tallest” - Link Here #13
“🌳😟 The Hunted” - Link Here #14
“🤗❤️ The Hugging” - Link Here #15
“🐭🐩🎞️The Classics” - Link Here #16
“🐷🍫The Chase” - Link Here #17
“🎈🦫The Drifting” - Link Here #18
“🕵️👧🏻The Spies” - Link Here #19
“🐑📖👨⚕️The Member” - Link Here #20
“🐰🦄🦁The Painters” - Link Here #21
“🐔🥚🐰The Egg” - Link Here #22
Tagged: @murumokirby360 @shadowredfeline@alexander1301 @sammirthebear2k4
#day 23#inktober#inktober 2024#the heroes#dc#dc comics#dc league of super pets#warner bros#warner bros animation#batty midnight#bat#girl bat#young girl bat#animal oc#wonder woman#pb#pb the pig#pig#whiskers#whiskers the cat#kitten#reformed#my own version#cosplay#costumes#superheroes#action#of course whiskers was actually the villian from the dc league of super pets movie but I personally change her to be reformed I dont care#reformed whiskers#etc.
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It's time to vote on January's pick: Debut Books! Feel free to vote even if you're not part of book club; we'll be voting amongst the top three in our Discord. If you'd like to join the book club, send me a message and I'll give you the link! Book summaries are under the cut!
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson
Everyone in Fairview knows the story.
Pretty and popular high school senior Andie Bell was murdered by her boyfriend, Sal Singh, who then killed himself. It was all anyone could talk about. And five years later, Pip sees how the tragedy still haunts her town.
But she can’t shake the feeling that there was more to what happened that day. She knew Sal when she was a child, and he was always so kind to her. How could he possibly have been a killer?
Now a senior herself, Pip decides to reexamine the closed case for her final project, at first just to cast doubt on the original investigation. But soon she discovers a trail of dark secrets that might actually prove Sal innocent…and the line between past and present begins to blur. Someone in Fairview doesn’t want Pip digging around for answers, and now her own life might be in danger.
The Last Bloodcarver by Vanessa Le
Nhika is a bloodcarver. A coldhearted, ruthless being who can alter human biology with just a touch.
In the industrial city of Theumas, Nhika is seen not as a healer, but a monster that kills for pleasure. And in the city’s criminal underbelly, the rarest of monsters are traded for gold. When Nhika is finally caught by the infamous Butchers, she’s forced to heal the last witness to a high-profile murder.
As Nhika delves into the investigation, all signs point to Ven Kochin, an alluring yet entitled physician’s aide. Despite his relentless attempts to push her out of his opulent world, something inexplicable draws Nhika to him. But when she discovers that Kochin is not who he claims to be, Nhika will be faced with a greater, more terrifying evil lurking in the city’s center…
Her only chance to survive lies in a terrible choice—become the dreaded monster the city fears, or risk jeopardizing the future of her kind.
Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
After her mother dies in an accident, sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews wants nothing to do with her family memories or childhood home. A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC-Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape—until Bree witnesses a magical attack her very first night on campus.
A flying demon feeding on human energies.
A secret society of so called “Legendborn” students that hunt the creatures down.
And a mysterious teenage mage who calls himself a “Merlin” who attempts—and fails—to wipe Bree’s memory of everything she saw.
The mage’s failure unlocks Bree’s own unique magic and a buried memory with a hidden connection: the night her mother died, another Merlin was at the hospital. Now that Bree knows there’s more to her mother’s death than what’s on the police report, she’ll do whatever it takes to find out the truth, even if that means infiltrating the Legendborn as one of their initiates.
She recruites Nick, a self-exiled Legendborn with his own grudge against the group, and their reluctant partnership pulls them deeper into the society’s secrets—and closer to each other. But when the Legendborn reveal themselves as the descendants of King Arthur’s knights and explain that a magical war is coming, Bree has to decide how far she’ll go for the truth and whether she should use her magic to take the society down—or join the fight.
Leigh Howard and the Ghosts of Simmons-Pierce Mansion by Shawn M Warner
Leigh’s life has been ripped apart.
Orphaned, she goes to live with incredibly wealthy relatives she never knew she had. Struggling to fit into her new world, she can’t let go of her grief. When the police tell her the investigation into her parents’ murder has hit a brick wall, she knows the only way she will ever know peace is to solve the mystery herself. With a new family and friends, which includes a ghost with multiple personality issues, Leigh risks everything to find her answers.
Join Leigh on her adventure through the brutal world of organized crime and betrayal.
My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Korede’s sister Ayoola is many things: the favorite child, the beautiful one, possibly sociopathic. And now Ayoola’s third boyfriend in a row is dead, stabbed through the heart with Ayoola’s knife.
Korede’s practicality is the sisters’ saving grace. She knows the best solutions for cleaning blood (bleach, bleach, and more bleach), the best way to move a body (wrap it in sheets like a mummy), and she keeps Ayoola from posting pictures to Instagram when she should be mourning her “missing” boyfriend. Not that she gets any credit.
Korede has long been in love with a kind, handsome doctor at the hospital where she works. She dreams of the day when he will realize that she’s exactly what he needs. But when he asks Korede for Ayoola’s phone number, she must reckon with what her sister has become and how far she’s willing to go to protect her.
Solitaire by Alice Oseman
Tori Spring isn’t sure how to be happy again. Then she meets Michael Holden, and they try to unmask the mysterious Solitaire (and survive high school) in Alice Oseman’s stunning, unflinchingly honest debut novel, which first introduced her fan-favorite Heartstopper characters Nick and Charlie.
The Shadow in the Glass by JJA Hartwood
Once upon a time Ella had wished for more than her life as a lowly maid.
Now forced to work hard under the unforgiving, lecherous gaze of the man she once called stepfather, Ella’s only refuge is in the books she reads by candlelight, secreted away in the library she isn’t permitted to enter.
One night, among her beloved books, of far-off lands, Ella’s wishes are answered. At the stroke of midnight, a fairy godmother makes her an offer that will change her life: seven wishes, hers to make as she pleases. But each wish comes at a price and Ella must decide whether it’s one she’s willing to pay…
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ROUND 3: SIDE 1: Max Goof (Disney)/Yakko Warner (Animaniacs) VS Sora (Kingdom Hearts)/Jim Hawkins (Treasure Planet) VS Johnny Bravo (Johnny Bravo)/Samurai Jack (Samurai Jack)
*Mun Note: There are three options because Sora/Jim and Johnny/Jack tied last round, so this round is a three-way matchup. Only the winning ship will advance to the next round.
Propaganda for Max Goof/Yakko Warner:
I just like them. I think its cute. Romeo and juliet vibes because theyre from different studios, Disney vs warner brothers. They're both funny, dorky guys, and they bring out the best in each other. Plus only child vs overworked older child turned parent is a really good dynamic too.
YAX SWEEP
#YAX SWEEEEEEEEP!!!!!!
#yakko x max opened my third eye #this needs to be a thing
Cameo of Max's VA expressing approval of the ship~!
#YAX SWEEP #LETS GOOO
#yax propagandists ASSEMBLE
#yax sweep #they deserve it
Propaganda for Sora/Jim Hawkins:
I just think they're cute and they should put a Treasure Planet world in Kingdom Hearts.
I can't believe I have to choose! Jimmy/Timmy had a nice dynamic in their specials, but I just can't help but vote for Sora/Jim because of what we don't have. I'd love for Sora and Jim to get together, I think they'll have a lot to talk about! #HEY SORA AND JIM ARE IMPORTANT TO ME #VOTE FOR THEM
Propaganda for Johnny Bravo/Samurai Jack:
A man physically out of time and a man mentally out of time. In that little laundromat, these two men exchange a conversation filled with sexual tension. Jack overwhelmed by Johnny’s strength. Johnny overwhelmed by Jack’s sense of calm. Despite all the ways it shouldn’t work, there’s a real affection simmering under that surface. Mutual attraction, that if they acted in it, could transform their lives in such a myriad of ways. With Jack’s endless hunt for Aku and Johnny’s endless hunt for sex, the only barrier between their happiness is their sense of duty holding them back.
#i cant help but smile and giggle a bit at the propaganda for jack and johnny because yeah. yeah exactly this. this is what its all about #I <3 GAY PEOPLE
#alright now seriously PLEASE VOTE FOR JOHNNY BRAVO X SAMURAI JACK!!!!!!!! #WHEN I FOUND OUT ABOUT THAT SHIP MY BRAIN EXPLODED #and then i forgot this ship existed for. 4 years (????) if i didn't find this poll i would never remember it
#remider to support Samuraibravo
Art Credit: Max/Yakko art by @/doodle-poofes Sora/Jim art by @/smovs Johnny/Jack screencaps are from the laundromat short
#Crossover Ships Tournament#Tournament Poll#Max Goof#Goof Troop#A Goofy Movie#Yakko Warner#Animaniacs#Sora#KH Sora#Kingdom Hearts#Jim Hawkins#Treasure Planet#Samurai Jack#Johnny Bravo
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"people just don't seek out music anymore and that's why spotify is such a vital service in helping artists get discovered and paid"
hey. buddy. listen 2 me. my fixation on the band sElf is because twenty seconds of a song of theirs was backing a monster hunter world gameplay clip someome posted to a now-dead twitter account. A hand-curated music playlist for a VRChat world I accidentally typo'd my way into introduced me to Superorganism's "It's All Good" a few years ago. Crumb's two albums Jinx and Ice Melt are among the highest number of full-album playthroughs in my library because i caught a shitty recording of Locket playing in-car over a snippet of someone's dash cam footage audio that was lifted for a youtube clip compilation channel someone else runs. back in 2011 my high school forced my entire grade to watch an anti-bullying PSA that ran on for 40 minutes but the credits had Dabrye's "Making It Pay" playing over it and that set me on the path to exploring all of Ghostly International's available music releases i could get my paws on at the time.
like. i've discovered music in the most obtuse places, often via the most unlicensed conduits those tunes could've possibly accompanied, and i can say with one hundred percent sincerity that the $9 i've spent just once on a digital album or two so i could listen to it again and again has probably put more food on the table of these musicians than spotify's "minimum one thousand streams annually per-song before payouts" discovery playback ever could achieve across a decade for many of these folks. i promise this isn't a brag, I just don't know how else to explain that spotify really isn't the only viable path forward when music permeates every facet of this world and all you have to do is take note when something catches your ear. the only thing truly making it harder to discover new music is licensing restrictions, automated Content-ID matching, and the universal/sony/warner music trio regularly leveraging both of the former to ensure your favorite song has an expiration date by tamping down on all of this, and unless you can hunt down a copy to save locally, a time will come when you'll never be able to hear that favorite song again. this isn't a threat; you and me both are going to outlive this service, as we've outlived many other online-only services before it.
(and i say this with complete sincerity to those not in a financially viable place to buy albums on the reg: just slurp the .wav off youtube homie. compared to spotify, the net gain to the individual artist is exactly the same. who knows, maybe you'll be able to inadvertently pass it along to someone else who's able to go and make that purchase, as others have unknowingly done to me. word of mouth alone is a /very/ powerful discovery tool)
#txt#this is not aimed at anyone here#it is however aimed at one specific user of an obscure gaming forum i frequent who had some really confusing takes on the topic a year ago#i still think about it sometimes#i don't understand how you can place so much faith in a single app in this day and age. like. you've seen how disasterous that can be right
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Ben Affleck's interview w/ The Hollywood Reporter (10 October 2012)
Confessions of Ben Affleck
Argo's Oscar-baiting director, newly 40, talks about his career turnaround, how anxiety drives him, what Matt Damon's wife might think when he comes over, and what he emailed J. Lo.
By Stephen Galloway
On Aug. 15, Ben Affleck — Oscar-winning wunderkind of Good Will Hunting, other half of “Bennifer,” skyrocketing superstar who soared, sank and sizzled again thanks to his directing endeavors Gone Baby Gone and The Town — turned 40.
He celebrated with a dinner party thrown by his wife, Jennifer Garner, at their Pacific Palisades home, attended by a handful of close friends on the brink of middle age, including Matt Damon, his WME agent Patrick Whitesell and Disney production president Sean Bailey.
“It was not fun for me,” says Affleck of entering his fifth decade. “It’s this moment of bifurcation between youth and middle age. One wants to think of oneself as young. One does not want to think: ‘Wait a minute! How can I be halfway to death?’ ”
Halfway to death, perhaps, but sitting with him one late September morning at Santa Monica’s Hotel Casa del Mar, this actor-turned-director — the Hollywood embodiment of nine lives — seems anything but as he bristles with nervous energy, words spilling out of him about his roller-coaster past and glittering present.
“He’s gone to the top and then to the bottom and now to the top again,” says Damon, his friend since the two met as children. “He’s gotten the full measure of what this life in Hollywood can offer, and now he is comfortable with it.”
Nearly a decade after Affleck had one of the most ignominious falls in Hollywood history — thanks in part to Gigli and dubious PR stunts like kissing Jennifer Lopez‘s derriere in a music video — he has emerged, unexpectedly and almost suddenly, as one of the best directors of his generation. Warner Bros.’ Argo, an Iranian hostage drama that he helmed, is an early leader in the awards race. Set to open Oct. 12, it was called a “tight and tense political thriller” by THR‘s Todd McCarthy and has earned the kind of raves that once would have seemed impossible for the star of Armageddon.
All this is the hard-earned climax to a deeply considered shift Affleck embarked on eight years ago, when he set out his goals and determined never again to do work he was ashamed of. “I made the decision: ‘I’m never, ever, ever going to do anything where I don’t absolutely kill myself to get it right,’ ” he recalls.
Vanished is the man who dwelt on his deep insecurity when he and this reporter last sat down about five years ago. During that conversation, he admitted the Gone Baby Gone shoot had left him physically sick from stress. “I’m very insecure,” he said. “I’m human, just like anybody else.”
Vanished, too, is the tabloid pinata with his colorful love life, personal drama (including a stint in rehab) and career highs and lows. “I tried to ignore it as much as possible,” he says of the fuss. “There was only one way to handle a situation like that: Go straight through it.”
He addresses all this with an openness and even sweetness that would surprise those used to the more coiled figure onscreen. “I was shocked at how warm he is,” says Alan Arkin, who plays a Hollywood producer in Argo. “He’s got a great deal of warmth, and he’s not afraid to show it. He has a wonderfully open, youthful quality that you don’t see a lot in the characters he plays.”
Sitting by a window overlooking the Pacific, in jeans and a blue-checkered shirt, unshaven and sipping from a plastic cup of soda, with flecks of gray in his beard and a gold tooth he’s never bothered to replace, he has embraced the very doubts that once assailed him. “Anxiety is a kind of fuel that activates the fight-or-flight part of the brain in me,” he says. “It makes sure that a velociraptor isn’t around the corner and that you do as much as you possibly can to survive. Because Hollywood has a lot in common with Jurassic Park and its primeval-dinosaur universe.”
Affleck, the one-time party boy, now gets up at 6, goes to bed at 9 and has been married for seven years with three children (Violet, Seraphina and Samuel) under age 7. As he discusses married life, Garner, about to fly to New York, calls on his cell.
“Hey, love, are you on the plane?” he asks gently. “I’m in an interview right now, but I love you very much.” Then he quips that her trip is doubly traumatic for the actress, “First, ’cause she’s away from the kids, second, ’cause I’m in charge.”
She might have reason to worry, given how consumed Affleck is by work. “There are so many decisions to be made, and it’s more than you can get to each day,” he says. “There is this underlying anxiety not just about getting the movie done but getting it done really well. It keeps my head spinning — even when I am giving the kids a bath. I can be giving them a bath or feeding them, and sometimes they say, ‘Dad, pay attention!’ ”
When he’s not with his family, he’s at home working in a “sort of little office hut” or developing material through Pearl Street Productions, the Warners-based company he runs with Damon, who has remained a lodestar throughout the ups and downs and who now lives down the street from him. “We see each other almost too often,” laughs Affleck. “I wonder if his wife is thinking, ‘Is he really going to come over every night?’ “
When he’s on his own, he reads and consumes films avidly. He has just finished Laurence Gonzales‘ nonfiction book Surviving Survival, about how individuals cope with horrific incidents like being attacked by sharks; he also has been reading novelist Gillian Flynn‘s suspense drama Gone Girl and David Mitchell‘s Cloud Atlas.
Rather than watch television, he recently has immersed himself in a trip through some of the greatest films ever made — from the 2011 Mexican movie Miss Bala to director Victor Fleming‘s The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind, which he viewed back-to-back — as if he wants to quench a raging thirst for the knowledge that will allow him to seize the ring within his grasp. He is intrigued to hear about Memo From David O. Selznick, a collection of the Gone With the Wind producer’s notes, and orders it immediately by phone after his interview.
He also spends time at a coastal getaway near Savannah, Ga., and in his New York apartment, where he expects to move with Garner when their kids have grown up. He plays poker on a regular basis with actor Hank Azaria and his Argo producer Grant Heslov. “It’s very, very psychological,” he explains of his attraction to the game. “It’s about weakness and strength and divining whether the other person is strong or weak.”
He goes skeet shooting and admits to owning several guns — which he has embraced since his wife faced a stalker.
“The stalker had been to our house many times and ultimately came to my children’s school and was arrested,” notes Affleck of Steven Burky, who was deemed insane in 2010 then placed in a mental ward and ordered to stay away from the Affleck family for 10 years. “It gave me a stronger sense of feeling protective about my family. There’s a lot of crazy, weird people out there. It’s an ugly world.”
Affleck has given up any notion of reforming it. After once being rumored to want a career in public office, he now says, “I loathe politics.” He supports President Obama but has not actively campaigned — partly because of his workload, partly because of his political disillusionment and partly because he is convinced the president will win the election despite the Oct. 3 debate. “I watched it backstage at Jimmy Kimmel,” he says. “It wasn’t his best performance. But I am still going to vote for him, and I am very, very confident he will win.”
As to his other interests: “Kids eat up that kind of hobby time,” he admits. “I used to ride motorcycles. I used to play basketball. And now basically I’m at home with them, or I work.”
The work itself will have its greatest test with Argo. Affleck was fresh off 2010’s The Town and in talks to helm another movie at Sony when Warners showed him Chris Terrio‘s script about real-life CIA operative Tony Mendez and his little-known plan to free six men and women who had fled the U.S. embassy in Tehran when it was seized in 1979. The escapees took refuge with two Canadian diplomats, and Mendez set about creating a phony Hollywood film, Argo (that title derives from a CIA in-joke — “Ah, go f– yourself” — though it is not presented that way in the movie), as a front to squirrel them out of the country.
The moment he read it, Affleck called Heslov and George Clooney, who had been developing the project through their Smoke House production company, “and I just launched into what my take was and didn’t stop talking for 45 minutes.”
Heslov and Clooney were sold.
“This film tonally is a very tricky piece, and he had very intelligent things to say about that,” recalls Heslov, describing the movie’s tightrope balance of comedy and suspense. “His idea was to push the thriller aspect a little more than we’d originally talked about. And he was right.”
Initially, Affleck had envisioned reworking the script himself, but the draft was so impressive and his relationship with Terrio so good that he allowed Terrio to make the changes. Together, they added a new opening that succinctly explains the Iranian revolution and how it led to the capture of more than 50 Americans, who would remain captive for 444 days within the embassy.
They also worked on redefining Affleck’s character, based on Mendez. “He was a little bit more broken in the draft that we got,” notes Affleck. “He was older, an alcoholic. And I changed that and made his personal stuff revolve more around his family and losing his marriage.” Ultimately, he says, that was “the wrong choice because I ended up cutting most of it out. I cut out six or seven minutes from the final film, which is a lot.”
Other characters were merged, and some situations simplified, which later would lead to complaints from former Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor that his country hadn’t been given its due. Affleck addressed those concerns with a card at the end of the film that explains how the CIA plot complemented Canadian efforts, which he expands on in a long interview planned for the DVD.
In preparation for the movie, he flew to Maryland and met with Mendez, who took him to a bar that turned out to be a CIA hangout — the very hangout where agent-turned-spy Aldrich Ames had met some of his Soviet contacts. He was surprised how taciturn Mendez was. “He was extremely withdrawn and very unassuming,” says Affleck, adding that he only came to understand this when he saw the 2001 Errol Morris documentary about the operative, The Little Gray Man, showing how blandness was crucial to his work, allowing him to blend into alien environments.
With Mendez on board (joined by John Goodman as real-life Hollywood makeup man John Chambers, Bryan Cranston as a CIA staffer and Arkin as a fictionalized producer), the CIA opened its doors beyond anything Affleck had experienced when he’d worked with the agency on 2002’s Tom Clancy thriller The Sum of All Fears.
Invited to visit, he was astonished that “every hallway had a pretty elaborate lock on it, and every door had a lock, and there were no windows to see in any of the rooms, so everything was secure. Some of the offices had two computers at every desk, one with huge stickers that said: ‘This is connected to the Internet. No classified information.’ I wanted to use that, except there were no computers in 1979.”
He also was surprised how low-key the place seemed, even when he stepped into its holy of holies, the futuristic Operations Center, where supersecret material and personnel were whisked away before he arrived. His impression of inactivity changed two weeks later, “when they killed Osama bin Laden.”
Thanks to the CIA’s reverence for Mendez, Affleck received permission to shoot several sequences at the agency’s headquarters in Langley, Va. — though “that meant having the trucks show up at 2 in the morning, so they could all be searched down to the screw. I’ve shot in a prison, and the search they put you through was nothing like this.”
Most of the film, remarkably, was filmed in and around Los Angeles, with a Hancock Park mansion standing in for the Canadian ambassador’s residence, where the escapees hid out. (In reality, they were kept in two separate places in Tehran.) Zsa Zsa Gabor‘s home was used for the Hollywood producer’s (she was upstairs during shooting, but too sick to come down), and the Ontario International Airport, 35 miles east of L.A., substituted for Tehran’s.
A 65-day shoot began in California then relocated to Istanbul, Turkey, for a month. Affleck had hoped to use real-life Iranian immigrants in Turkey for all the crowd sequences but well into filming found that “we couldn’t get one person of Iranian descent who speaks Farsi to be in the movie because they’re all so terrified of what that would mean for their family back home. We were completely f–ed.”
(Some of those scenes later were re-staged in Los Angeles, where there are about a half-million Farsi speakers, says Affleck. They and the CGI shots that transformed signs in English gave the film a rare authenticity and allowed it to be made for a modest $44.5 million.)
Shooting in Istanbul had its challenges, especially when Affleck came down with the flu while still acting and directing. “He was really, really sick, with a fever, the whole thing, and he didn’t take a day off,” says Heslov. “At the worst point, he left a bit early, and he had to be feeling really terrible to do that.”
His enthusiasm was matched by the extras, who often numbered around 2,500 and occasionally got out of hand, especially once when Affleck was in his car. “People were yelling and chanting and throwing stuff and having fun — and it all sort of bled over,” he explains. “I was a little scared, although I tried to summon up that director’s arrogance. All the great directors, I think, are arrogant; so I thought, ‘This is the time when I get out the bullhorn and say, ‘Back off!’ ”
He didn’t, alas. “I must not be doing something right,” he jokes.
Contrary to his image as a working-class “Southie” in Good Will Hunting, and later in The Town, Affleck, the elder of two sons (his brother Casey also is an actor), grew up in relative comfort in Cambridge, Mass. His mother, Chris, had been one of the original freedom riders who went into the Deep South during the 1960s to fight for civil rights. Both she and his father, Tim, were intellectuals who gave their son the middle name Geza after a Holocaust survivor they admired. (Affleck comes from Protestant stock but is agnostic.)
Damon — who was 10 when he met his 8-year-old near-neighbor Ben — remembers the cut-and-thrust of discussions in the Affleck home. “That dinner table was one of the funnest places to be growing up because of all the debates that went on — on any subject. You had to craft an argument and a good one to survive. Ben really honed his debating skills there. He’s not a guy you want to get in a debate with.”
Adds Affleck: “My mother taught public school, went to Harvard and then got her master’s there and taught fifth and sixth grade in a public school. My dad had a more working-class lifestyle. He didn’t go to college. He was an auto mechanic and a bartender and a janitor at Harvard.”
He also was an alcoholic, a predisposition Affleck inherited. “His life sort of hit the skids when I was in my teens,” he says. “It was difficult. When one’s parent is an alcoholic, it’s hard. It was a little scary and trying, but then he got sober when I was twentysomething, and he’s been sober ever since.”
The two maintain a cordial relationship, though they don’t see each other much, says Affleck. “My father has positional vertigo, and if he flies he gets really dizzy, so he has to drive out to California, which he does a couple times a year. We talk, but we e-mail mostly.”
The problems at home peaked when Affleck’s parents split before his teens and filtered into his life at the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, where he sought refuge in plays, appearing as Damon’s son in Friedrich Durrenmatt‘s The Visit before both started auditioning for professional roles.
“I was a bit of a f–up,” he says. “I got really good grades until the last two years, and then I didn’t. I was having issues around my dad and my mom, and things just weren’t that stable — though that puts the responsibility on them, when really I just lost focus and stopped caring.”
While Damon went to Harvard, Affleck attended the University of Vermont, where he majored in Middle Eastern Affairs before switching to Los Angeles’ Occidental College, embarking on an acting career while he and Damon were roommates in Eagle Rock, an East Los Angeles neighborhood.
He found minor success with such films as 1992’s School Ties and 1993’s Dazed and Confused. But it was Good Will Hunting — the script Affleck and Damon sold to Castle Rock Entertainment for $600,000, which went to Miramax in turnaround — that made them stars. At the Oscars, they brought their moms and soon were double-dating with Gwyneth Paltrow (Affleck) and Winona Ryder (Damon). America was enchanted. With an Academy Award for best original screenplay, Affleck was a mere 25 years old and as hot as they get.
Then something went wrong. Instead of following Hunting with equally impressive material, Affleck chose roles in such action pictures as 1998’s Armageddon and 2001’s Pearl Harbor, while Damon starred in Saving Private Ryan. Partly, says Damon, this was because these were big breaks for a relative newcomer and partly because Affleck thought he could fix scripts that didn’t work — only to discover the director is the fixer.
His movie choices solidified a lightweight image that, combined with romantic escapades, made him perfect fodder for an exploding celebrity press. When he went from dating Paltrow to media-magnet Lopez (buying her a multicarat pink diamond ring, to boot), he no longer was just an actor — he was part of a phenomenon known as Bennifer (version one). Their Bentley rides, engagements, breakups-and-makeups were chronicled almost in real time. Affleck, who had risen to earn a reported $10 million to $15 million per picture, now was more infamous than famous.
“To watch the entire world have the totally wrong idea about somebody you care about and admire was painful, just as his friend,” says Damon. “I can’t imagine what it felt like to him. I remember Ben calling and saying: ‘I can sell magazines and not movies. I’m in the worst possible place I can be.’ “
Over the next few years, everything he had built came crashing down. He already had gone into rehab for unspecified causes in 2001; then came the disappointment of his superhero-in-tights spectacle Daredevil and the disaster of Gigli, the 2003 picture in which he starred with Lopez before their relationship collapsed.
“I went to rehab for being 29 and partying too much and not having a lot of boundaries and to clear my head and try to get some idea of who I wanted to be,” explains Affleck, declining to go into further detail. “It was more a ‘let me get myself straight,’ before it became a rite of passage.”
He stays in touch with Lopez, just as he does Paltrow and his high school girlfriend, Cheyenne Rothman. “We don’t have the kind of relationship where she relies on me for advice,” he says of J.Lo, “but we do have the kind of relationship where there’ll be an e-mail saying, ‘Oh, your movie looks great.’ I remember when she got American Idol. I said: ‘This was really smart. Good luck.’ I touch base. I respect her. I like her. She’s put up with some stuff that was unfair in her life, and I’m really pleased to see her successful.”
Despite the media onslaught, Affleck’s closest friends remained convinced his talent was supreme.
“What always struck me was how smart he is,” says his longtime agent Whitesell. “He had the biggest disconnect of anybody between the way the world saw him and the way he really is. We talked to each other and said, ‘It’s going to be a long road back, but we will get there.’ “
When Affleck took the risk of going behind the cameras with Gone — a mystery about two investigators tracking a missing 4-year-old girl, released by Miramax in the post-Harvey Weinstein era — Hollywood insiders were stunned that this apparent featherweight had such depth. But the movie still was perceived either as a fluke or too dark to make Affleck a candidate for bigger films. Only Warners executive Jeff Robinov pursued him with absolute conviction.
“Gone Baby Gone was not at all financially successful,” notes Affleck. “But Robinov brought me into his office and said: ‘I think you’re a hell of a filmmaker, actor. What do you want to do? Tell us, and we’ll do it.’ And I wasn’t having those meetings with every studio.”
Affleck opted for The Town, a $37 million drama that earned $92 million domestically. Its success shocked even cynics. The flameout, who had become a byword for has-been, was now one of Hollywood’s most promising directors.
Getting there was a direct result of the decision Affleck made around 2004.
“I was frustrated with the movies that I had done,” he explains. “I knew that I had something to offer. I said: ‘Here are the things I’d like to do: I want to direct movies, and I want to be in a movie that I’m enormously proud of. I want to have kids.’ I set out goals. It was a bold thing because when one is accustomed to falling short, as I had been, one becomes fearful of making predictions. But I did.”
Garner, whom he met on Daredevil, contributed to this thinking. “Jennifer played such a profound role in making me a better person,” says Affleck. “We don’t have a perfect marriage, but she inspired me; and finding myself in that marriage and having a child dovetailed with getting to be a little more mature.”
Asked what drew him to his wife, he considers. “She truly is kind,” he says. “She means no one any harm. She doesn’t have ill will for any person. She’s not competitive with other people. She’s not spiteful.” He laughs. “It’s one of those things where it becomes almost aggravating at times. Every time I go, ‘F– him!’ I see in her face that she just thinks that’s petty and small.”
Now Affleck is concentrating on the meaningful and large. He is developing a movie adaptation of Stephen King‘s The Stand and plans to reteam with Damon on Whitey, the story of James Joseph “Whitey” Bulger Jr., a Boston crime figure who went on the run for 16 years before being captured outside his Santa Monica apartment in 2011. Affleck will direct, and Damon will star.
But other matters are beginning to weigh on him just as much as film. “One gets older,” he reflects, “and the things that you didn’t realize were absences in your life now feel like real vacancies.”
In November, he will make his seventh visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo, where bloody civil war has lasted 14 years (despite peace accords signed in 2003) and cost 5.4 million lives. It has become his abiding concern ever since “I came across this passage about how 10 times as many people have died in Congo in the wars since 1997 [as in Darfur] and was stunned that I didn’t know.”
The filmmaker first went there in 2007. “I saw terrible things,” he says. “You know: the amount of sexual-based violence against women; people suffering from preventable disease; child soldiers who needed to be integrated into society; children without schooling at all. So we started to get involved in those areas.”
Two years ago, he helped form the Eastern Congo Initiative, which provides developmental aid for local communities, working with farmers who grow cacao, among other activities.
Affleck’s commitment to Congo has not been risk-free. On one occasion, he was in a single-engine plane caught in a hailstorm, with a pilot who didn’t know his way. “We were flying through Sudan, and the hail was really banging up the plane. The pilot was saying he didn’t have enough fuel to fly back to Juba. I was terrified. It was the only time in my life where I really thought, deep in my heart, I might die.”
It’s a flash of the old insecurity that still remains, buried deep inside. He’s older, wiser, glowing in the gleam of his new film, but the fears and anxieties still have to be held at bay. Even in his work.
“Sometimes I get insecure about being a real director because I look at the great directors, and they have such command,” he says. “But maybe that keeps me critical of myself. Maybe it keeps me moving forward.”
#ben affleck#matt damon#argo#gone baby gone#the town#early childhood#teenage years#on family#on addiction#on mental health#on directing#on working together#on politics#on fame#jennifer garner#jennifer lopez#interview#the hollywood reporter#2012#originals
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I know everyone on Reddit pretty much is already aware but haven’t seen it mentioned too much on tumblr but
A bunch of people have been archiving all of roosterteeths videos including all of ah/fh/screw attack etc videos. This also includes any videos posted to the website, anything that was first members only etc.
There is a good possibility all YouTube videos might go private at some point as Warner bros has a history of doing this with channels they’ve shut down (see Machinima) and we lose access to years of history. The website will also be shutdown.
If you’re interested in any of those videos head over to
Archiveofpimps.com
They also have a discord where they’re still actively working to make sure everything is archived properly, hunting down videos, tools on how to archive yourself and if you want to support the archive website.
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