#sony production awards

[demifiendrsa]

DEATH STRANDING 2（Working Title）- TGA 2022 Teaser Trailer

The sequel to Death Stranding is in development for PlayStation 5.

Logo

Poster

Screenshots

[almalvo]

About An Official Spiderverse Artist...

Please do not just scroll past this post; read it.

If you guys follow me on twitter, you probably already know.

But if you dont or still want to read this anyway - here you go:

I aint big, but I got a growing platform that I see as important for me to use as a force for things that matter.

So here I am.

And I got something to say about a certain "artist".

There are so many fucked up people who call themselves artists who are so heavily worshipped by us who both get and or dont get outed in the world for things they do and for their general piss-poor behaviours and persons.

Im here to talk about one in particular (and certainly wont be the last).

There is an artist that basically EVERYONE here has seen art from before, printed in the official Sony artbooks too.

If you have seen this:

Then you have seen this artist before.

His name is Alberto Mielgo. He goes by @/pinkman_himself on twitter.

He is a HUGE part of the art direction and stylisation of the spiderverse movies, if that isnt already obvious. Because he was the former original art director of Into The Spiderverse.

Yes. Former.

Cuz he got "mYsTeRiOuSlY fiReD" from Sony 2 years into pre-production and completely removed from the project.

You may have also seen this character before:

Yes. THAT asian character from Netflix's Love Death + Robots, from the episode "The Witness".

Familiar? Yeah. Because this episode was also made by the same guy, Mielgo.

I aint going to talk about what happens in that episode and hesitate to encourage anyone to watch it - cuz all it basically is is a megalo-misogynistic, assault "glorified for the sake of aRtT", racially fetishised showcase of this crazy makeup/haired bdsm stereotyped asian girl sex worker who essentially gets murdered over and over and over after running for her life completely naked through the city for all of us to see for some fucking reason.

BUt yeah anyways, you can see it in the first pic, but Ill put it here to show more clearly - this here is NOT the character from LDR. But I can understand why you might think so:

Yeah. You read that name in the bottom right corner correctly. This is Peni Parker. His concept art of Peni Parker. A 13 YEAR OLD CHILD. Lookin suspiciously like and dressed as the adult person from LDR with ALSO the crazy hair, make up - WITH AN O-RING CHOKER AND BALL-GAG LIPSTICK (BDSM).

13. year. old. child.

This man only sees east asian women this way.

He likes them crazy, sexy, broken--

and young.

Cuz this man also wrote this on a now-deleted post on his website:

Yeah. He, this whole ass middle-aged white cishet male spaniard thirstin for kids since he was 18 for 12 year old girls.

Cuz 12 year old girls are a fuckin "KNOCK OUT" when they grow up, when they ripen up into adulthood, to this man Alberto Mielgo, aka @/pinkman_himself, this creature.

And if auctioning NFTs isnt bad enough (cuz yes, ofc he does that too - its literally the first option on his website) -

His entire fucking portfolio is of drawing women he had sex with.

His fucking PROFESSIONAL PORTFOLIO is all of painting and drawing women in very compromising, questionable ways of the VERY SAME WOMEN HE HAD SLEPT WITH THROUGH HIS LIFE.

They look as creepy as they are.

But the scariest part?

While I myself had only just found out about this some days ago as of writing this, some of us have known about this man and his antics for years.

And he keeps getting greenlit by the industry, over and over and over; winning awards, getting respected, praised, admired, even by fellow at-home artists like many of you out there if you dont already do so.

And nothing will happen to him cuz he is a white cishet male artist who has money and a following and connections and influence and power.

So yeah.

I just wanted to talk about a certain official Spiderverse artist to just let yall know there are freaks everywhere, and that no matter how small it is, it's people like me and you who need to do what we can to keep up awareness and warn our communities and protect our most vulnerable.

My suggestion is to take heed of what I said, ask questions about everything you will ever see again from anyone around you, no less the industry, THINK for once, and actually give a fuck.

Keep away.

Do not support this man.

But the decision is ultimately yours.

Stay awake, yall.

-------

(His face, publicly available as his imdb profile):

scary.

[canmom]

Animation Night 189: Nonphotorealistic

There is a funny trend in animation-related terminology to define things by what they aren't. Animation is any technique for creating film that isn't live action. Limited animation is any style of 2D animation that doesn't follow the conventions of Disney's 'full animation' on 1s and 2s - a category that includes a wildly diverse range of approaches and techniques, as this wonderful history by Animation Obsessive describes.

In 3DCG circles, there is a similar term: nonphotorealistic. Which describes, naturally, anything that isn't trying to look like a photograph of a real scene. There has been a real boom in this of late, and just like the other terms, it really doesn't narrow it down very much. Other terms like 'hybrid animation' add a bit more hints.

Of course, if you've been anywhere near animation in the last few years, you'll probably know another term: 'Spiderverse style'.

There is no denying that Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse (2018) by Sony Pictures Animation was an absolute landmark for animation. (I wrote about it way back on AN21, focusing more on the cultural angle.) The ludicrously stylish film pretty much set the direction for animation in the 2020s - making a bunch of money and awards and thus finally throwing open the door to 3DCG animation that doesn't look like the style set by Pixar/Dreamworks in the 2000s. Its sequel, Across the Spiderverse (2023), was even more ambitious and successful (despite a troubled production involving a lot of needless crunch). We'll be showing that soon in a Spiderverse double bill so look forward to it!

So perhaps not surprising that when people see the use of graphical styles, 2D elements, limited framerates and the like in 3DCG these days, Spiderverse comes to mind. In its wake have come various films and series that apply these and related techniques: 3DCG animation is more varied than ever, and it's cool.

It isn't really a style, tho.

Here I'm indebted to youtuber Camwing who has made a nice video overview breaking down the animation of recent movies in this vaguely defined paradigm. Among them we have The Mitchells vs the Machines (2021, also Sony), Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022, Dreamworks), and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023, animated at the French/Canadian studio Mikros animation), and of course over on Netflix you got the wildly popular League of Legends spinoff series Arcane (2021, Fortiche Productions), and the romance film Entergalactic (2022, DNEG), tying in with an album of the same name.

None of these films has exactly the same style, but they all pull from a related bag of tricks. The core techniques are animating on reduced framerates for a 'snappy', high-clarity feeling, the combination of 2D and 3D elements in some fashion, and taking inspiration from traditional media such as paintings or comic books.

For example, Arcane and Entergalactic both use the trick of 2D backgrounds/projecting paintings onto 3D geometry, inhabited by 3D characters with a stylised shader. Arcane is dripping with 2D visual effects. Puss in Boots drops the framerate during its action scenes - the opposite of the old paradigm of full animation, where fast actions would get more frames. Spiderverse draws 2D expressions onto its 3D models to push them further, and is full of all kinds of colourful stylised rendering - screentone effects, kirby dots, outlines, the works.

It's tempting to link this to 2D-in-3D animation, and certainly many of these films apply this technique - this is the major niche where Blender has found its way into industry pipelines. But using 2D isn't mandatory to count here. For example, TMNT Mutant Mayhem has an incredibly striking storybook-painting style, accomplished largely by clever shader work and a strong sense of graphic design. Genndy Tartakovsky's canned 2014 Popeye project was planning to use a ton of 2D-style posing and squash-and-stretch, accomplished largely with rigged 3D models. There are many paths to take!

And mind you, I haven't even covered one of the biggest angles here. Search for nonphotorealistic 3DCG on Youtube and what you'll probably find most is information about cel-shading - aka 'anime style'. This has also advanced considerably in the last few years, with the techniques pioneered by Arc System Works in Guilty Gear such as editing the normals of characters for more precise control over shading, and minute adjustments to break up the mechanical feeling of 3D, becoming widely copied in both games and films. (And particularly, animated porn.)

Vtubers in particular have really run with this technique, generally speaking using cel-shaded models with edited normals, inverted eyes, etc. etc. to try and get the feeling of an anime character come to life. [You can see a lot of these state of the art techniques if you download Pixiv's free VRoid Studio software and import the model into Blender using the VRM plugin.]

Naturally this kind of cel-shaded approach has found a particular home in Japan. In anime, the biggest champions of it are certainly Studio Orange, whose hybrid approach involves planning out shots with 2D animation before matching them with the rigs. We've covered their adaptation of Houseki no Kuni in great detail on Animation Night 97; their Trigun reboot was perhaps even more popular. But cel-shaded techniques, 3D previs and the like have also made their way into big films like Eva 3.0+1.0 (AN66).

Although this type of rendering aims to recreate the look and feel of 2D animation as much as possible, it always ends up being something new: character models that would be too complex to draw, an ease to 3D movements and camerawork that would be challenging in 2D, and generally a new hybrid style. This is good! 2D animation is already very good at being 2D animation - it's fascinating to see what 3DCG becomes with that inspiration.

So with that brief overview, where does that take us tonight?

I'm not quite ready to do a Spiderverse double bill tonight, so instead the plan is to check out a couple of recent American franchise films that are taking on the new suite of techniques. I've mentioned them up above, but let me introduce them more fully here.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is a sequel to a fairly unpopular spinoff about a side character of the Shrek franchise (AN75). Not, on its face, very promising - which is why it is all the more striking that I was told on all sorts of sides that I must watch this movie. I'm finally going to make good on that.

The title character is a kind of feline musketeer type, now facing the end of his swashbuckling career as he's lost 8 of his 9 lives. Not wanting to hang up his hat, he goes on a quest to restore them. What makes it stand out its the action scenes, which go all in on the anime-influenced, extreme perspective and lighting, limited framerate style that we're discussing above. Apparently it looks sick as shit.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is a fresh reboot of the venerable TMNT franchise, which pretty much describes itself in the title: four turtles (named after Renaissance painters, of course!) live in a sewer as ninjas, led by their aging master who is a rat. Starting as a comic book, it became one of the iconic toyline-driven TV shows of the 80s - but it's still going! Indeed, Turtles has been on a roll of late (at least going by animator scuttlebutt), with Australian studio Flying Bark Productions turning a lot of heads with their neo-Kanada School style (and for really stretching the definition of 'storyboard').

This new film takes a different approach to the bombastic action of Rise. It focuses on a new origin story for the turtles, telling a kind of coming of age story - but what makes it unique is the animation style and cinematography. Cinéma vérité is not a phrase you really expect to be associated with ninja turtles, but the film seems to really go all out in a way you wouldn't really expect from a franchise movie, shooting the young turtles in a handheld style and focus heavily on character. Marcel Reinhard's shader work, allowing the animators to isolate lights to specific objects and characters and introducing graphical elements of cross-hatching, stippling, etc. etc. to the lighting, gives it a uniquely painting-like feeling, augmented by a lot of 2D creativity in lighting and effects.

Turtles has never really been my thing, but this film looks unique enough that I really want to see it - and I hear it's a good film too.

So that's our bill for tonight! Puss and Turtles. Let's see what the big studios have been cooking of late...

Animation Night 189 will be starting around 10pm UK time (roughly three hours hence) and carrying on til about 2-3am same! We'll be on twitch.tv/canmom as usual. Hope to see you there!

[ilikethisacompletelynormalamount]

EXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures Classics has acquired worldwide rights to Blue Moon, the new film from Academy Award nominee Richard Linklater (Hit Man), on which we were first to report, and which will be his next effort after all, with production commencing in Dublin, Ireland this summer.

Ethan Hawke is set to star, in his ninth collaboration with Linklater. Others aboard for roles include Margaret Qualley (The Substance), Bobby Cannavale (Ezra) and Andrew Scott (Ripley).

[tobiasdrake]

Have you seen the new Nintendo Direct? There's a couple things in it that I thought would interest you

I've seen a couple trailers from it. Super hyped about the the new Zelda featuring Zelda herself as the main player character for the first time since Wand of Gamelon. And we don't talk about Wand of Gamelon.

Happy to see Metroid Prime 4 materializing. I've always maintained that Prime 4 was a PR stunt that they're now obligated to make, but I look forward to seeing the final product all the same.

Mario & Luigi Brothership looks sweet. Nice to see that subfranchise still going strong.

Lego Horizon Adventures wins the award for most What The Actual Fuck. Horizon: Zero Dawn is arguably the best post-apocalypse game ever made - eat shit, Last of Us (which is also good) - but I was not expecting Nintendo Direct to announce a Lego adaptation of a first-party Sony Exclusive. ...okay! I guess this is happening now!

Tales of the Shire looks like LOTR-themed Animal Crossing. I'm more of a Stardew Valley person myself, so it's not for me. It is, however, undoubtedly the LOTR game that Gandalf himself (and his big naturals) would most want to play.

Like Metroid Prime 4, I have cynical opinions about Ace Attorney Investigations Collection. I'm excited for an official English release of Investigations 2, but I knew this was coming so my excitement is tempered. They're trying to milk this franchise, so they were going to rerelease every last game in their backlog before resorting to making a new one. It was only a matter of time. So it's hype, but only so much as an obvious inevitability can be.

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

🗞️📖 Bookish News 📖🗞️

🦇 Extra, extra. Read all about it! 📖 Good evening, bookish bats! A lot happened in the publishing industry last month, but here are a few highlights you may have missed!

Adaptations Jennifer Lopez's production company and Netflix - Emily Henry's Happy Place Laika (Travis Knight directing) - Susanna Clarke's Piranesi Universal (Taika Waititi directing?) - Percival Everett's James We Were Liars adds Rahul Kohli to the cast Patrick Dempsey and Sarah Michelle Gellar have joined the cast of the Dexter prequel, Original Sin Chris McKay to direct Brynne Weaver’s Butcher and Blackbird Ayvan Williams, Jessica Belkin & Savannah Lee Smith casted for Becky Albertalli's The Upside of Unrequited First looks for Heartstopper S3 are out Apple TV - Laura Lippman's The Lady in the Lake Adult Swim - Anthony Bourdain’s graphic novel series, Get Jiro! UCP - Chris Witaker's All the Colors of the Dark The Best Christmas Pageant Ever - Barbara Robinson A24 - Jennifer Lawrence starring - Paul Rainey's Why Don't You Love Me? Netflix - Richard E. Grant and Tom Ellis casted for The Thursday Murder Club Sony - Michael Crichton and James Patterson's Eruption Renee Zellweger starring in 12 Months to Live Awesomeness - Melissa De La Cruz's Blue Bloods The Uglies adaptation has a release date after 18 years (September 13) The trailer for Elin Hilderbrand's The Perfect Couple is up Ursula K. Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea is being adapted into a graphic novel Prime - Colin Firth joins the cast of Young Sherlock Universal - Omid Scobie's Royal Spin Netflix - Bridgerton Season 4 lead announced Amazon - Fourth Wing series adaptation is a go Apple TV - The trailer for Pachinko! Season 2 is up An adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Nickel Boys will open the 62nd New York Film Festival Patton Oswalt’s comic book Minor Threats is being adapted into a live-action series HBO - Dune: Prophecy releases in November

Cover Reveals Babylonia - Costanza Casati The Get Off - Christa Faust The Ragpicker King - Cassandra Clare What Does It Feel Like - Sophie Kinsella Wake Up and Open Your Eyes - Clay McLeod Chapman Ageless - Renee Schaeffer The Thirteenth Child - Erin A. Craig Song So Wild and Blue: A Life With Joni Mitchell - Paul Lisicky The Meadowbrook Murders - Jessica Goodman On Her Terms - Amy Spalding Onyx Storm - Rebecca Yarros The River Has Roots - Amal El-Mohtar The Wind Weaver - Julie Johnson In Gad We Trust - Josh Gad The Life of Herod the Great - Zora Neale Hurston (posthumous) The Other People - CB Everett How My Neighbor Stole Christmas - Meghan Quinn

Upcoming Releases I Saw the TV Glow director Jane Schoenbrun has a debut novel coming out, Public Access Afterworld Carol Moseley Braun is writing a memoir, Trailblazer: Perseverance in Life and Politics New memoir by Hilary Rodham Clinton The Road is Good - Uzo Aduba Leo Martino Steals Back His Heart - Eric Geron Viola Davis is co-writing with James Patterson

News Macmillan is launching a "new adult fiction" imprint. The 2024 Locus Award winners were announced The 2024 Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards were announced Nebula Award winners were announced Random House is buying Boom! Studios

[askgildaseniors]

Join us for an inspiring conversation with Nely Galán, an Emmy Award-winning producer and media mogul, as she shares her journey of business success and financial literacy. Nely discusses her experience as an immigrant and how her determination and strategic decision-making skills led her to become a self-made businesswoman. Learn about her time working with industry giants like HBO, Avon, CBS, ESPN, Sony, NBC, FOX, and figures such as Joan Rivers, Rupert Murdoch, Norman Lear, and Gene Simmons. This video is packed with valuable insights on entrepreneurship, business leadership, and overcoming obstacles. Nely Galán offers practical tips on how to start your own business, manage risk, and develop entrepreneurial skills. Whether you're looking to enhance your career development, improve your business strategy, or find inspiration from success stories, this video has it all. Nely Galán has achieved substantial success in real estate by focusing on strategic property investments. Her philosophy, encapsulated in the phrase "Don't buy shoes, buy buildings," emphasizes the importance of purchasing affordable properties, especially in emerging markets. Nely also emphasizes the importance of networking, calculated risk-taking, and financial literacy in achieving business success. Discover her unique "Nelyism" approach and gain knowledge from one of the most inspiring women in leadership today. Perfect for anyone interested in business, entrepreneurship, and Latina empowerment.

DISCLAIMER: The following program contains material, situations, and/or themes that may disturb some viewers. Viewer discretion is advised.

A National CORE Production supporting the Hope Through Housing Foundation. Join us to uncover the art of turning dreams into reality.

CHAPTERS: 00:00: How Latino Entrepreneurs Overcome Financial Obstacles 02:42: The Road to Financial Freedom 04:30: How I Became a Young Journalist 07:30: Defying Expectations 12:32: The Hidden Value of Education 15:40: How to Prioritize What Matters 18:49: Failure Isn't the End 22:11: Find Your Voice 24:56: Overcoming Self-Doubt and Limiting Beliefs 27:29: How I Rebooted My Life and Found True Success 34:21: A Message of Empowerment and Inspiration

[twh-news]

‘The Life Of Chuck’: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan & Jacob Tremblay Join Stephen King Adaptation From Mike Flanagan And Trevor Macy’s Intrepid Pictures

Chiwetel Ejiofor (Rob Peace), Karen Gillan (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3) and Jacob Tremblay (The Toxic Avenger) have joined the cast of The Life of Chuck, the latest of many Stephen King adaptations from filmmaker Mike Flanagan (Doctor Sleep), which kicked off production in Alabama under an interim agreement earlier this month. Tom Hiddleston and Mark Hamill lead the ensemble of the pic, written and directed by Flanagan, as we were first to tell you.

Also now involved is QWGmire, the production and financing entity known for the indie horror Agnes and the forthcoming Lovely, Dark and Deep, which has made a major equity investment in the independently financed feature.

Stated QWGmire partners Molly C. Quinn, Matthew M. Welty and Elan Gale, “We are thrilled to partner with Mike and Trevor [Macy] on this project. Mike is a master storyteller and we can’t wait to bring his inspirational adaptation of Stephen King’s short story to audiences.”

Based on three interconnected stories from King’s 2020 anthology If It Bleeds, The Life of Chuck examines the existence of its subject Charles Krantz in reverse, beginning with his death aged 39 from a brain tumor and ending with his childhood in a house believed to be haunted. Flanagan is set to produce the feature adaptation alongside his long-time Intrepid Pictures partner, Macy. WME Independent is repping domestic sales, with FilmNation Entertainment overseeing the international front.

Best known for his Academy Award-nominated role in 12 Years a Slave, Ejiofor’s recent credits include the Showtime sci-fi drama series The Man Who Fell to Earth, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and the Sundance-opening sci-fi rom-com The Pod Generation with Emilia Clarke. Starring alongside Camila Cabello, Michael Kelly and more in Rob Peace, his sophomore feature on the heels of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, he’ll also soon be seen in Netflix’s The Old Guard 2 and a Venom threequel from Sony.

Gillan over the summer closed out her run as Guardians of the Galaxy‘s Nebula in the James Gunn-helmed Vol. 3, which grossed over $845M worldwide. Other recent credits for the actress include The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, Thor: Love and Thunder and the Mali Elfman-helmed indie genre-bender Next Exit. She’ll next be seen in the Lisa Steen comedy Late Bloomers, which world premiered at SXSW earlier this year, and also stars up opposite Russell Crowe in the forthcoming crime thriller Sleeping Dogs.

[dugdale100]

CBS is embracing the Piano Man.

Ahead the Super Bowl, the network announced it would stream Billy Joel’s 100th concert at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, April 14 at 9 pm ET/PT. The two hour special, titled The 100th: Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden — The Greatest Run Of All Time, marks the first time a Billy Joel concert will air on a broadcast network. It will be filmed at his March 28 show, and will also be available to stream live and on demand on Paramount+.

The news comes as Joel is set to end his MSG residency this July with his 150th career performance at the New York arena. His first came in late 1978, when Joel, who was touring on behalf of his 52nd Street album, headlined the venue for his first time. In early 2014, he began a monthly residency as MSG’s first “music franchise,” and has sold out every show since. He’s shrewdly changed up his set list from performance to performance, and recruited special guests like Tony Bennett, Bruce Springsteen and Olivia Rodrigo.

The final show of his residency is set for July. It will be his 104th show in the series, and his 150th performance there. “I’m kind of flabbergasted that it lasted as long as it did,” Joel said at a news conference last year. “My team tells me that we could continue to sell tickets, but 10 years, 150 shows — all right already!” All told, the record-setting residency is expected to gross more than $250 million, according to Pollstar. Joel has no plans to retire, however; in fact, he’s scheduled to criss-cross the country later this year, headlining baseball stadiums with opening acts like Stevie Nicks, Sting and Rod Stewart.

The televised concert announcement arrives a week after Joel premiered his new single, Turn the Lights Back On, live at the Grammy awards, also on CBS. The romantic ballad, produced by Freddy Wexler, was the 74-year-old singer’s first original song in 17 years. Sample line: “I’m late / But I’m here right now / And I’m trying to find the magic.” Despite prolific stage work, the last time Joel shared new music was way back in 2007, when he released the love song All My Life and protest tune, Christmas in Fallujah.

The CBS/Paramount concert special is a co-production of Sony Music Entertainment and Enliven Entertainment. Steve Cohen, Barry Ehrmann and Paul Dugdale will serve as executive producers, with Dugdale also set to direct. Sony Music Vision is the distributor. It follows other popular televised concert events, including those featuring Elton John, Adele and Taylor Swift.

[film-classics]

Myrna Loy - The Queen of Hollywood

Myrna Loy (born Myrna Adele Williams in Helena, Montana on August 2, 1905 ) was an American actress who reigned as one of America’s leading movie stars in the 1930s and the 1940s. Millions of fans idolized her as ‘the perfect wife,’ a paragon of charm, sophistication and intelligence, earning her the title as "The Queen of Hollywood."

Of Welsh, Scottish, and Swedish ancestry, Loy moved to Culver City in her early teens. She first attended the exclusive Westlake School for Girls. When her teachers objected to her extracurricular participation in theater, her mother enrolled her in Venice High School.

To help the family, she wroked at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre, where she performed in prologues, musical sequences that served as preliminary entertainment before the feature film. This led to work as an extra in Hollywood productions in 1925 and then a contract with Warner Bros. in 1926.

With the advent of sound films, she then became associated with musicals, and when they began to lose popularity, her career slumped. In 1934, after Loy's move to MGM, John Dillinger was shot to death after leaving a screening of her film Manhattan Melodrama (1934). She received widespread publicity, with some newspapers reporting that she had been Dillinger's favorite actress.

Loy gained further fame from the box office hit, The Thin Man (1934), which spawned five sequels. This marked a turning point in her career, and she was cast in more important pictures and became one of Hollywood's busiest and highest-paid actresses,

With the outbreak of World War II, Loy focused on the war effort, becoming an active member of the Hollywood Chapter of 'Bundles for Bluejackets,' helping run a Naval Auxiliary Canteen, going on fundraising tours, and volunteering for the Red Cross.

In the coming decades, she continued acting alongside her activism work. She organized opposition to the House Unamerican Activities Committee in Hollywood through radio broadcasts and petitions, worked with the federal government, and served in UNESCO.

In 1975, Loy was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent two mastectomies. She kept her diagnosis and subsequent treatment from the public. This resulted in her progressive retirement from acting; her last film performance was in 1980 and her last acting role on TV in 1982.

In failing health, Loy died at age 88 in a Manhattan hospital during surgery following a long, unspecified illness.

Legacy:

Received an Honorary Academy Award in 1991 in recognition of her life's work both onscreen and off

Bears the likeness of the 7-foot statue outside Venice High School, titled 'Inspiration," created in 1922 and has since become a symbol of the school and the community

Has a building named after her at Sony Pictures Studios, formerly MGM Studios, built in 1935

Named Queen of the Movies in a 1936 national poll by New York Daily News

Honored with a block in the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in 1936

Listed by the Motion Picture Herald as one of America’s top-10 box office draws in 1937 and 1938

Served as the full-time assistant to the director of military and naval welfare for the Red Cross from 1941 to 1945

Became a member-at-large of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO from 1949 to 1954, the first Hollywood celebrity to do so

Has been the namesake of Venice High School's annual speech and drama awards, the 'Myrnas' since 1953

Served as Co-Chair of the Advisory Council of the National Committee against Discrimination in Housing from 1961 to 1962

Became a founding board member of The American Place Theatre in 1963

Commemorated with a cast of her handprint and her signature in front of Theatre 80, on St. Mark's Place in New York City in 1971

Appeared in John Springer's "Legendary Ladies" series at The Town Hall in 1973

Presented with the 1979 Career Achievement Award by the National Board Review

Honored by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards in 1983 with the Career Achievement Award

Published an autobiography, Myrna Loy: Being and Becoming, in 1987

Was the winner of the 1988 Kennedy Center Honors

Honored by the Steel Pole Bath Tub with a song on their 1991 album Tulip that is both named after Loy and samples dialogue from one her film, The Thin Man Goes Home (1945).

Named by The Guardian named her one of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination in 1991

Has been the namesake for The Myrna Loy Center for the Performing and Media Arts in downtown Helena since 1991

Honored as Turner Classic Movies Star of the Month for December 2016

Has a song named after her in Josh Ritter's 2017 album Gathering

Has a star on the  Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6685 Hollywood Boulevard for motion picture

[chasingshadowsblog]

Review: The Pirates! In an Adventure With Scientists - The Pirate of the Year

Title: The Pirates! In and Adventure with Scientists Directed by: Peter Lord, Jeff Newitt Written by: Gideon Defoe, Kevin Cecil, Andy Riley Animation Studio: Aardman Animation Starring: Hugh Grant, Martin Freeman, David Tennant, Imelda Staunton Year: 2012

In the absolute best way possible, there is nothing in The Pirates! that you wouldn't find in any other Aardman Studios production. Pure demented fun and games, The Pirates! follows the Pirate Captain and his crew - the Pirate With a Scarf, the Pirate With Gout, the Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate, the Albino Pirate, and the Pirate Who Likes Sunsets and Kittens - as he endeavours to win this year's annual Pirate of the Year Award. A chance run-in with Charles Darwin, prompts the Pirate Captain to travel to London to take part in the Scientist of the Year competition and make a fortune that will surpass those of his competitors.

The script is tight and full of gags that clue in the viewer but leave the characters blithely ignorant. For example, the decision to not reveal the identity of the Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate, but to let viewers in on the secret is both fun and hugely satisfying. Another involving the Pirate Captain's belief that the sea monsters painted onto maps are really there, almost gets past us but returns in the end in a delightful twist!

The biggest of these set-ups is Polly, a dodo who has been mistaken for a parrot by the entire crew and what started off as another joke between the film and viewer turns into the point on which the entire plot spins. I don't know what else to say, other than that this is a very clever film in many different ways. When you think the story is going to take one direction, it veers in another, best seen in the motivations of its main antagonist, Queen Victoria, and its use of the Polly joke. This is a film I've been meaning to watch for twelve years and it was absolutely worth the wait.

Other bits:

the soundtrack has no right to slap as hard as it does

is this the beginning of Hugh Grants weird phase?

we stan a children's film that presents the arrogance of the British Empire as the main villain

I can't say this enough, the gags in this film are so good

in all fairness to Sony, they don't always knock it out of the park, but they're not afraid to try out different formulas

[sidowsobrino]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: The World's No.1 Superstar Dies After Choking on a French Fry.

Sidow Sobrino serves up a hilarious Halloween twist in the new "Happy Halloween" music video, now streaming on all primary services.

NEW YORK, LOS ANGELES, UNITED KINGDOM, AUSTRALIA, CANADA, MEXICO, COLOMBIA, & TOKYO. - September 10, 2024 — The internationally acclaimed Pop Icon returns with his most shocking and comedic project yet: The Happy Halloween Music Video. What starts as a casual visit to his niece Kylie in Dunbar, Pennsylvania, takes a gut-busting turn when the singer-songwriter meets his untimely demise—choking on a simple French fry. But in classic Sidow style, the tragedy transforms into an uproarious journey of resurrection, led by none other than Dr. Nulife, played by Richard Sidow-Sobrino.

The visual production introduces the unforgettable Monster Friken Fry, a wild character decked out in fishnet stockings and a vinyl leotard, dancing through a haze of smoke and laser lights. This playful parody of Frankenstein's monster is pure Sidow Sobrino—fun, flamboyant, and impossible to ignore.

"This video pushes the boundaries of what fans expect. We turned a simple horror concept into something outrageous, fun, and unforgettable," said the living legend. "Halloween is the perfect time for creating the unexpected, and this video delivers on all fronts!"

Richard Sidow-Sobrino, as the eccentric Dr. Nulife, hilariously brings the SAG-AFTRA member back to life. "Reviving my husband on-screen was a blast. Even with all the over-the-top modern methods available, it only took two fingers, making it as funny as it was bizarre. And trust me, the Monster Friken Fry is unlike anything you've ever seen," Richard quipped.

Happy Halloween, the song featured in the music video, is part of Sidow Sobrino's My Amir album, which is currently under consideration for two GRAMMY® Award nominations in the prestigious categories of Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album (Pop & Dance/Electronic). The album is distributed globally by The Orchard, the leading distribution and services company that partners with independent labels and artists, and a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment.

Shot on location in California and Pennsylvania, with scenes from Uniontown, PA, the video packs in special effects, high-energy choreography, and Sidow's signature sound. Fans can stream *The Happy Halloween Music Video* now on TheWorldsNo1Superstar.com and major platforms worldwide.

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[the-essex-serpent-tv]

Three BAFTA TV Craft nominations for 'The Essex Serpent'

Costume Design Sponsored by Screenskills High-End Television Skills Fund Amy Roberts – “The Crown” – Left Bank Pictures, Sony Pictures Television / Netflix Becky Sloan, Joe Pelling – “Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared” – Blink Industries / All 4 Jane Petrie – “The Essex Serpent” – See-Saw Films / Apple TV+ Phoebe de Gaye – “The English” – Drama Republic, Eight Rooks / BBC Two

Production Design Sponsored by Microsoft Alice Normington – “The Essex Serpent” – See-Saw Productions/ Apple TV+ Becky Sloan, Joe Pelling – “Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared” – Blink Industries / All 4 Chris Roope – “The English” – Drama Republic, Eight Rooks / BBC Two Kave Quinn, Tim Blake, Stella Fox, Penny Crawford, Emily Norris – “Pistol” – FX, wiip / Disney+

Titles & Graphic Identity Balázs Simon, BBC Creative, Gas Music – “Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics” – BBC Sport, Blink Ink, Gas Music / BBC Two Peter Anderson Studio – “Bad Sisters” – Merman, Abc Signature/ Apple TV+ Tom Hingston, Markus Lehtonen, Sam Norris – “Life After Life” – House Productions / BBC One Yu+Co – “The Essex Serpent” – See-Saw Productions/ Apple TV+

[thelensofyashunews]

TIA WOOD RELEASES GORGEOUS DEBUT SINGLE “DIRT ROADS” WITH STUNNING ACCOMPANYING VIDEO

Plains Cree and Coast Salish singer-songwriter Tia Wood releases her highly anticipated debut record “Dirt Roads” on Sony Music Entertainment Canada.

Tia was born and raised in Saddle Lake Cree Nation, a community of about 6000 people in Treaty 6 territory, a roughly two-hour drive east of the Alberta capital of Edmonton, and her family carries a rich musical and cultural heritage. Her father, Earl Wood, co-founded and was a member of the legendary JUNO Award-winning and Grammy-nominated powwow drum group Northern Cree; her mother, Cynthia Jim, was in an all-women drum group; and her sister, Fawn Wood, is also a JUNO Award-winning singer. A seasoned entertainer in her own right, Tia has amassed an audience of over three million followers across Instagram and TikTok, creating and sharing Indigenized sounds and content that is by turns hilarious and poignant. 

In 2020, Tia followed her wanderlust and set out for Los Angeles, turning a two-week stay into a semi-permanent move. The result is “Dirt Roads,” a song both about the thrill of “sunny days and happy faces in the land where dreams are made,” and also about feeling displaced so far from home. “Should I take out my braids or leave them in? They look at me like I’m a Martian,” Wood sings stirringly, invoking imagery and emotions relatable for anyone who’s left home for a new beginning in the city, especially Indigenous youth, as Tia grappled with the loss of access to her culture and traditions while in LA. 

But it’s the song’s refrain that echoes a comforting familiarity: “Dirt roads lead me back home.” The song is at once a love letter to Saddle Lake and her people, and a heartfelt reminder for so many others who feel the pull of family and home while following dreams in the big city. 

“It’s about leaving home and kind of stepping out into a new world,” says Tia. “Because when I used to live on the rez, I feel like the reason why I left is because I wanted to go see the world and figure out who I was. So that’s kind of the theme of it all. It’s just kind of being a young adult and going through young adult things.” The track, co-written and produced by Cameron (Cambo) Bartolini (Doja Cat, Walker Hayes), features Tia’s soulful voice and lush production and sets the stage for the stirring music video, also out today.

In the video, Tia returns to Saddle Lake, and is surrounded by family and loved ones, firmly rooted in the culture and community on the rez. Directed by Yana Malik, viewers are immersed in Tia’s home, and those “Dirt Roads” she longed for when she was far away. Beautiful, soaring shots of Indian Horse Relay racing; her mother braiding her hair; driving with her sister and friend; eating and living and loving together. The video is intimate and grand and up to the task of matching Tia’s songwriting and vocals – which also pull off the difficult trick of feeling both larger-than-life and quietly revealing. 

There is so much more to come from Tia Wood. We can’t wait to share it. 

[sweetdreamsjeff]

USA

The Times, 6/6/97, Friday

Prince of darkness

By Caitlin Moran

Life was hard for Jeff Buckley. What will be hard for the rest of us is getting through our own lives without him

There is a hole in your record collection that will never be filled - it looks as though Jeff Buckley is dead. Only one album into his career, Buckley was already approaching legendary status, so laughably beyond any ongoing musical scene it was untrue.

Buckley was a touch of the Dark Stuff. He chronicled the rabid black poisons of love, life's extreme moments, the queasy dialogue of dreams. He was the new Van Morrison, the next Kate Bush, someone whose extraordinary vocal range and musical versatility would spark an astonishing career.

But yesterday week, while working on the follow-up to his 1995 debut album, Grace , which won him Rolling Stone magazine ' s Best New Artist Award, Buckley and a friend, Keith Foti, wandered down to a Memphis marina with a portable stereo and a guitar. They played and sang for an hour, before Jeff decided to swim out into the Mississippi River, fully clothed. He waded into the water, still singing, and tried to cajole Foti into following him. When the wake of a passing boat splashed the marina, Foti rescued the stereo and placed it on the bank to keep dry. When he turned back, Buckley had disappeared, apparently sucked under by the wake of the boat. Buckley was 30.

The son of the revered US folk-rock god Tim Buckley, Jeff had a troubled upbringing. In his short life, Tim Buckley released eight albums, a witchy brew of folk, rock, jazz and blues. Although critically acclaimed as

everything short of the cure for cancer, Tim's record sales were in the low thousands, and he took to drugs for comfort like a child sucks its thumb. Tim left Jeff's mother when Jeff was six months old.

Jeff's mother, Mary Guibert, immediately hit the road, chasing work wherever and whenever it became available. Their rootless existence, said Jeff, "gave me strength, insight, resolve. At the same time, it depleted my understanding of what it's like to have a home, or even your own dog for more than a year." Tim Buckley was 28 when he died of a heroin overdose in 1975. Jeff had never met him.

Mary married again, but the pressures of work meant Jeff was left to bring up his younger brother. "I feel I was born old," he said in 1995. "I don't wake up and feel happy if it's a sunny day. You get happy in five-second

bursts, and then you wait for the next five-second burst. I've always felt I know too much to be happy."

As his father had, Buckley turned to music for release and redemption. "To feel the music soar through you changes you utterly," he said. "It changes your posture: you raise your chin, throw your shoulders back, walk with a swagger. When I sing, my face changes shape; it feels like my skull changes shape."

When Buckley sang, it wasn't only his skull that changed shape. Audiences melted in front of him, and the first few rows would buckle when he kicked up one of his vocal twisters. He could go from full-frontal Kurt Cobain scream to operatic lullaby in a breath.

Starting his career in crowded folk cafes in New York, Buckley would start off singing soft and low, pulling the audience in with impassioned whispers, before snapping into vertical take-off and stripping the paint from the

ceiling.

Within months, he was signed by Sony. His first album, Grace , was astonishing. Although the production veered towards big Queen-like rock at times, the occasional dose of guitar bombast couldn't swamp the ambitious scope of the album; the dolorous, harmonium-led hymn of Lover, You Should Have Come Over still sounds like spring rain after a funeral. Dream Brother , dedicated to his father, is a queasy, nightmarish examination of Tim's life, an echo-laden mourning which never concludes or resolves.

Buckley sounded like a scared child, lost in endless darkness. On Grace' s release, a herd of adjectives was lassoed into the Hyperbole Corral. Buckley's haunted eyes and pop-royalty cheekbones stared from countless magazines and, while he loathed the star-system and the fuss, Sony prepared itself to guide the career of a high-sales prestige artist.

However, various rumors started to circulate through the industry. Many concerned a suspected heroin problem - and Buckley's behavior certainly became erratic. He told of dreams in which a sculptor took a razorblade to his skin, and started plaiting and twisting the strands until Buckley became a living, immobile work of art. Work on Grace' s follow-up was delayed. Buckley told his band to leave town while he wrote new songs. Last December, he posted a note on his Internet Website, explaining that he was "in the middle of some wild s**t right now. Please be patient. I'll come out of my hole and will make bonfires out of ticket stubs come the autumn."

But the last concert was probably to an audience of one, on the banks of the Mississippi River, eight days ago.

[denimbex1986]

'Don’t be a stranger, All of Us Strangers!

There are plenty of fans who love certain films and are ready to buy physical copies of those projects. In this current state of video-on-demand where movies constantly switch up streaming services and are sometimes completely erased from a streamer’s catalog, fans have become even more protective of the films they enjoy and make it a point to purchase physical copies on DVD or Blu-ray.

To be clear, All of Us Strangers is currently available for streaming on Hulu. You can also buy a digital copy of the movie via Apple TV or Amazon. But as huge stans of such a beloved queer film like All of Us Strangers, we’re not sure if it’s ever getting a physical copy for sale.

On Feb. 13, X account @TheFilmStage shared some unverified information that reads:

“Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers will not receive a physical disc release (via @AJYeend).”

The source used by this X account is Adam J. Yeend, a features writer for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences digital publication. Though we’re unable to identify the original report or social media post from Yeend that was used as a source for this X post, he did respond to AOUS fans asking about physical copies of the film, writing:

“[Parent company Disney] continually shows a lack of reverence for the Searchlight and 20th Century titles, which are often mostly just dumped on streaming. They don’t know what to do with films like this. They’re a branding company first, and a studio second.”

The discourse about Disney-owned Searchlight Pictures movies not getting physical copies stems from a reported agreement for “Sony to take over all of Disney’s physical media production going forward,” which was detailed on The Digital Bits and confirmed on Variety.

The specific concern related to All of Us Strangers is happening between social media pages and blogs, as reported on World of Reel, which directly alleges that “the latest Searchlight film, Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers, will not be released on physical media.” And yet, the source used for this particular tidbit of information is also not found.

If you don’t understand why Disney and Sony are involved, here’s the tea: All of Us Strangers was released by Searchlight Pictures, formerly known as Fox Searchlight Pictures, which was acquired as part of the Disney deal to buy Fox. In turn, Sony (the parent company, not the movie studio) is the largest manufacturer and distributor of physical DVD and Blu-ray discs.

Generally speaking, the move to slow down the making, distribution, and sale of physical discs is something that is happening to the entertainment industry as a whole. In Oct. 2023, for instance, Variety broke the news that Best Buy will phase out sales of DVDs and Blu-ray in brick-and-mortar stores as well as online, starting in early 2024.

All things considered, small-budget LGBTQ+ movies that were potential award contenders but didn’t get as much love from voters as expected are now all at risk of never even getting physical copies so that dedicated fans can purchase them.

It’s a sad reality for fans of physical copies of movies that they love, and a genuine concern in terms of titles being removed from streaming services seemingly out of nowhere. Hopefully, we’ll get new updates concerning physical copies of All of Us Strangers… but things aren’t looking great right now, let’s just say that!'