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disneytva · 4 years

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Bob Iger Returns To Chairman And Chief Executive Officer Of The Walt Disney Company Due COVID-19 Crisis At Disney

Bob Iger has taken CEO responsibilities back from Bob Chapek at The Walt Disney Company.

"A crisis of this magnitude and its impact on Disney actively treat and help Bob Chapek. Especially for the company that lasts 15 years."

The former C.E.O. thought he was riding into the sunset. Now he’s reasserting control and reimagining Disney as a company with fewer employees and more thermometers.

The Walt Disney Company turned franchises like Marvel and “Star Wars” into the biggest media business in the world, and last fall it was putting the finishing touches on the image of a storied character: its chief executive, Bob Iger.

In late September, Mr. Iger, 69, published “The Ride of a Lifetime,” an engaging work of self-hagiography. The handsome executive, who seriously considered running for president this year, spent the next month on the kind of media tour that Disney is known for: he reveled in the successful start of a streaming service that immediately rivaled Netflix, was hailed as “businessperson of the year” by Time and described as “Hollywood’s nicest C.E.O.” in an article in the The Times by Maureen Dowd. Even his friends wondered if the soft-focus Instagram ads produced for his MasterClass on leadership were a bit much.

It all went so well that Mr. Iger decided it was time to do something he had postponed four times since 2013: retire as C.E.O.

In early December, Disney executives say, he told his board that he was ready to leave. Around that time, a handful of people in Wuhan, China, began developing mysterious coughs.

At the end of January, a few days after Disney was forced to close its Shanghai theme park as the coronavirus spread, Mr. Iger and the board stuck with their plan, agreeing that he would step back to become executive chairman and that the low-profile head of the parks and cruise business, Bob Chapek, would take over immediately as chief executive. They finalized the arrangement even as the stock market began to shudder. And on Feb. 25, they shocked Hollywood with the news that Mr. Iger’s 15-year run had ended.

The seemingly abrupt announcement prompted intense speculation about the reasons for Mr. Iger’s exit. “Sex or health?” one media executive who knows him texted another that night. Two weeks later, a different question emerged: Had Mr. Iger, with his deep ties to China and legendary timing, seen the coronavirus about to devastate his global realm? Did he get out just in time?

Mr. Iger, who has always carefully managed his image, told me in an email, there was no more than met the eye.

“No surprises … nothing hidden … nothing different or odd to speculate about ….,” he wrote, ellipses and all.

In fact, people close to Mr. Iger and the company said in interviews that the real question wasn’t whether he saw the crisis coming — but whether his focus on burnishing his own legacy and assuring a smooth succession left him distracted as the threats to the business grew. No big media company is more dependent on its customers’ social and physical proximity than Disney, with its theme parks and cruise lines. Few have been hit harder by the pandemic.

And now, Mr. Iger has effectively returned to running the company. After a few weeks of letting Mr. Chapek take charge, Mr. Iger smoothly reasserted control, BlueJeans video call by BlueJeans video call. (Disney does not use Zoom for its meetings for security reasons.)

The new, nominal chief executive is referred to, almost kindergarten style, as “Bob C,” while Mr. Iger is still just “Bob.” And his title is “executive chairman” — emphasis on the first word.

Mr. Iger is now intensely focused on remaking a company that will emerge, he believes, deeply changed by the crisis. The sketch he has drawn for associates offers a glimpse at the post-pandemic future: It’s a Disney with fewer employees, leading the new and uncertain business of how to gather people safely for entertainment.

“It’s a matter of great good fortune that he didn’t just leave,” said Richard Plepler, the former HBO chief. “This is a moment where people first and foremost are looking to an example of leadership that has proved itself over an extended period of time — and Bob personifies that.”

The story of the Walt Disney Company since Mr. Iger’s predecessor, Michael Eisner, took it over in 1984 is one of astonishing growth that has become the model for the modern, global media business. The company turned its tatty icons like Mickey Mouse into cash cows. Mr. Iger has spent more than 40 years working for companies that are now part of Disney, and has earned his reputation through bold acquisitions. He bought Pixar, then Marvel, then Lucasfilm, for single-digit billions, and quickly created many more billions in value with them. Mr. Iger had the greatest job on earth, ruling not just a company but a “nation-state,” as California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, described Disney recently.

But Disney’s much-imitated model was almost perfectly exposed to the pandemic. The shift from on-screen entertainment into in-person experiences helped Disney become the biggest media company in the world. But those businesses have been impossible to protect from the pandemic. The company’s largest division brought in more than $26 billion in the year ending last June by extending its brands to cruise ships and theme parks. Those are all shuttered now. It has three new cruise ships under construction in Germany, their futures unclear. The jewel in its second largest division, television, is ESPN, which in a sports-less world is now broadcasting athletes playing video games. The third group, studio, had expected to bring in most of its revenue from movie openings in theaters, which are now closed.

There has been a glimmer of good news in the introduction of Disney+. The company’s troubled share price jumped about 7 percent in after-hours trading last Wednesday on the news that the streaming service had attracted 50 million subscribers. But the project is still an investment, years away from generating revenue that could replace a big movie opening in theaters. And the service is desperate for new content — at a time when television and film production has ground to a halt.

This all means the company is losing as much as $30 million or more a day, the media industry analyst Hal Vogel estimated in an interview. The company borrowed $6 billion at the end of March, a sign both of its desperate plight and lenders’ confidence that it could rebound.

In an emergency like this, Mr. Iger said, he had no choice but to abandon his plan to pull back.

“A crisis of this magnitude, and its impact on Disney, would necessarily result in my actively helping Bob [Chapek] and the company contend with it, particularly since I ran the company for 15 years!” he said in his email.

That realization appears to have hit just after the company’s March 11 annual shareholder gathering in Raleigh, N.C., which served as Mr. Chapek’s debut and was staged as a carefully scripted handoff.

“I’ve watched Bob [Iger] lead this company to amazing new heights, and I’ve learned an enormous amount from that experience. I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to work closely with him during this transition,” Mr. Chapek said at the meeting. (A Disney spokeswoman declined to make Mr. Chapek available for an interview.)

The men flew from there to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., to meet executives worried about the effect of social distancing on their business; they announced the park’s closing the next day. Then, they flew back to Los Angeles and on the way, said a person familiar with their conversation, they discussed the depth of the crisis. Mr. Iger made clear that he would remain closely involved.

The next day, March 13, was their last in the office. In early April, Mr. Chapek sent a bleak internal email announcing a wave of furloughs. He pushed immediate cuts and freezes on everything from development budgets to contractors’ pay.

The company employed 223,000 as of last summer, and won’t say how many workers are furloughed, but the numbers are huge. It includes more than 30,000 workers in the California resort business alone, according to the president of Workers United Local 50 that represents some of those workers, Chris Duarte. Another 43,000 workers in Florida will be furloughed, the company confirmed on Sunday. All the workers will keep their benefits, but their last paychecks come April 19.

The mood at Disney is “dire,” said a person who has done projects with the company. “They’re covering the mirrors and ripping clothes.”

Mr. Iger, meanwhile, is trying to figure out what the company will look like after the crisis. One central challenge is to establish best practices for the company and the industry on how to bring people back to the parks and rides while avoiding the virus’s spread — using measures like taking visitors’ temperatures.

Mr. Iger also sees this as a moment, he has told associates, to look across the business and permanently change how it operates. He’s told them that he anticipates ending expensive old-school television practices like advertising upfronts and producing pilots for programs that may never air. Disney is also likely to reopen with less office space. He’s also told two people that he anticipated the company having fewer employees. (Mr. Iger said in an email on Sunday evening that he had “no recollection of ever having said” that he expected a smaller work force. “Regardless, any decision about staff reductions will be made by my successor and not me,” he added.)

Mr. Iger’s own narrative had been written to a neat conclusion. Now, his legacy will probably be defined in the unexpected sequel of one of the great American companies fighting for its life.

And Disney’s endlessly troublesome question of succession — which had finally, for a couple of weeks, seemed settled — may be open again. One person close to the company said Mr. Iger assured Mr. Chapek that the extraordinary circumstances would be taken into consideration in the board’s evaluation of Mr. Chapek’s performance. But in reality, two hard, unpredictable years will determine if he can hold the job. Two other executives who were passed over for Mr. Chapek — Kevin Mayer and Peter Rice — remain at the company. Nobody knows when Americans will go to the movies again, much less get on cruise ships.

And nobody knows when — or whether — Mr. Iger will have another moment to leave on top.

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violetsmoak · 5 years

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Appetence [7/?]

AO3 Link:https://archiveofourown.org/works/20251420/chapters/47997634

Blanket Disclaimer

Summary: Red Robin is investigating the disappearance of a friend and stumbles into a spot of supernatural trouble. He doesn’t expect to be saved by Jason Todd, miraculously alive five years after his death and now with the inexplicable ability to commune with the dead. Meanwhile, when Jason returned to Gotham he meant to maintain a low profile and not get involved with Bat business. That was before he found out how hot his Replacement is.

Rating: PG-13 (rating may change later)

JayTimBingo Prompts This Chapter: N/A

First Chapter

Author’s Note(s): Apologies for the wait. As you may know I had an adventure with my dropbox wherein I backed up all my files because I had to restore my laptop, and all of the files ended up mixed up in the wrong folders and I've been tracking down files one by one for the past week. I hate technology. I mean, I guess I should be happy the files didn't get deleted, but it's still a pain in the ass to re-organize manually.

Beta Reader: I’ll get back to you on that.

________________________________________________________________

Tim stares at the business card in his hand long after Jason disappears, thumbing over the false name and phone number with a reverence once reserved for clandestinely captured photographs.

Victor Shelley, Paranormal Investigator.

He wonders if Jason was trying to be funny choosing that name. Given what Tim’s heard about him in the few instances where Dick or Alfred talk about him, and what he saw for himself in the past, he thinks it’s entirely likely.

God, Dick and Alfred.

He knows they’re going to be just as blindsided about this as Bruce when they find out.

If they find out.

Guilt flickers through him now at the promise he made to Jason.

Why the hell would he promise a man he doesn’t really know—a man he’s spent a grand total of an hour and twenty-three minutes in conversation with—that he won’t let his adopted father knows he’s not dead.

That he hasn’t been dead for years.

That he’s in Gotham right now.

Tim wishes he could say it was one hundred percent his shock at Jason being alive, but that would be lying to himself. His mind flashes back to Jason’s face, his slow smirk and the smooth, deep voice, and he swears, letting his head fall against the counter.

Apparently, I promised him because he’s pretty.

It’s a new feeling for Tim. He’s never been easily swayed by looks, but something about Jason is attractive enough to put him off-guard, or at least loosen his lips more than normal.

I thought I was over this…

“I know that face.”

Tim startles and glances up at the bartender—Trista—who he had forgotten was there. He’d forgotten he was sitting in a bar, to be honest.

“Judging by the ass on that man, I can guess what it’s about,” she continues in a wry tone. Then she’s sliding a shot of amber liquid toward him. “Here. To steady your nerves.”

Tim stares at the alcohol in numb confusion.

“That’s on the house, but only because he talked more with you tonight than I’ve seen him do with anyone since he got here,” she goes on. “We’ll both pretend I don’t know you’re underage.”

Tim is too flustered by everything she’s just said to do anything other than accept the shot under her knowing gaze. Then, he beats a hasty retreat from the bar as fast as humanly possible without it looking like he’s running away.

Distracted, he returns to his apartment in the Theater District, trying to parse the events of the night from an objective viewpoint. He’s not entirely sure he didn’t dream it all up, considering whatever that incubus did to him, and so he runs tox-screens on his blood and gives himself a full physical just to make sure.

Other than spikes in several hormone levels—adrenaline, dopamine, and serotonin—his results are normal. Nothing that would really alter his perceptions of reality, the way Scarecrow or Poison Ivy’s concoctions tend to do.

That confirmed, he should be able to leave the matter alone for now. There are more pressing matters to deal with—Dante’s continued disappearance being one of them.

But thoughts of Jason continue to assault Tim’s thoughts.

Something has been bothering him since his conversation with Jason, something he wondered before but couldn’t ask because Jason got skittish and made a run for it

How the hell did Constantine cross paths with Jason anyway?

Aside from his inexplicable presence in Gotham at some point in the past five years without attracting the attention of Batman, what would interest him in a teenaged John Doe with no identity or memory?

Sliding into the chair in front of the computer in the Nest, Tim calls up the autopsy report, even though he doesn’t really need to see it. He memorized it years ago. Still, if he’s going to investigate this, he needs concrete facts, not just his memory.

It’s not difficult to create a timeline of events, between Jason’s official death and now. Or to search a list of John Does at various hospitals in Gotham within the last five to ten years, whose condition upon admittance matches the description of Jason’s injuries at death.

He finds the information he’s looking for within twenty minutes.

As it turns out, things didn’t happen quite as neatly or quickly as Jason’s story suggested. His stay at Gotham General was a lot longer than he let on, and Tim’s stomach twists as he reads the medical reports.

Various physicians left their comments on the patient, a young man of about fifteen or sixteen, severely beaten and malnourished, picked up several miles from the hospital.

The file includes a mugshot of a heavily bandaged youth, head shaved from what records indicate were several procedures to repair brain bleeds, skull, and facial fractures. Bruises and swelling make his features almost unrecognizable, except to someone who has memorized pictures of that face since he was ten years old. Someone who knows the cut of that jaw and the color of those eyes, however bleary and vacant they are as they stare into the camera.

“God, Jason…”

Tim reads over the doctors’ notes that span the course of a year, cataloging how well the boy is healing considering the heavy damage he sustained, and how he would be considered a miracle patient but for the fact whatever happened to him caused significant brain damage.

Clear psychological damage, hearing voices, incapable of speech, easily upset.

On several occasions, the boy became unaccountably terrified, screaming and yelling and trying to claw out his own eyes. Sometimes it even became violent, and in his struggles, he put three doctors, a nurse and two orderlies in the emergency room.

I’m surprised it was only that many people. Considering his training, he could have done a lot more damage.

Eventually, he always had to be drugged and restrained.

Demonic possession, maybe?

It’s not the first thing Tim would think of, but if Constantine’s involved in all this, it would make sense. And coming back from the dead like Jason says he did, it had to have side effects.

Except, there’s no mention of anything superhuman or beyond the realm of possibility regarding Jason’s strength. Surely the doctors would have made note of anything beyond the abilities of a normal, scared teenager—especially in Gotham, where strange behavior was a sad norm.

No mention of anything resembling supernatural or metahuman abilities anywhere here.

Jason was eventually placed permanently in the psych ward and likely would have stayed there for the rest of his days, except the hospital’s budget was cut in his eighth month there. Space issues required moving patients to other hospitals, and—

“Oh, no. No-no-no, tell me they didn’t,” Tim murmurs, heart sinking as he scrolls down the page of the report, knowing exactly what he’s going to find.

They sent him to Arkham.

If Tim was horrified before by the notion of Jason’s resurrection and his condition afterward, it’s nothing to how sick he feels to learn that his predecessor was sent to the cesspool that is Arkham Asylum.

He needs to turn away from his computer for a few seconds and breathe, close his eyes and concentrate on not hearing the lilting, singsong voice and tinny voice in his head.

Hush, little baby, don’t say a word, Mama’s gonna buy you a mockingbird.

Ever since his kidnapping, it’s the one place in Gotham Tim won’t venture—he’s not sure what would happen if he did. Whether he’d suffer a crippling attack of flashbacks, or march into the high security ward and slit the Joker’s throat with one of his birdarangs.

If Bruce realized Tim honestly can’t decide which would be the worse outcome, he knows he’d be benched for the rest of his life. He might not be Robin anymore, but the Family would find a way.

It’s fear of that more than anything else that helps him get a handle on his panic, tethers him back to reality better than anything else. Tim takes another series of deep, grounding breaths, before he feels confident enough to be able to get back to his research into Jason.

At least they didn’t put him anywhere near the Joker, it seems, he notices as he goes through the room assignments and Arkham floorplans. That’s about the only good thing about it, though.

Jason’s ward was for the non-communitive patients, the ones the experts considered untreatable. The ones that get forgotten about in the mayhem of the monthly outbreaks and pandemonium.

Tim’s stomach clenches tight again as he remembers incidents and dates over the years where Batman visited inmates at Arkham to interrogate them on the latest escapes or crimes happening in the city, or just to test the security there. Based on the location of Jason’s cell and Batman’s usual route, there are times when the two were only a floor apart

Tim’s heart aches for them both.

They were so close to each other! If only they’d known—!

And just as suddenly as Jason was transferred to Arkham, all records of him vanish. There’s no information about patient transfers or deaths or releases; instead, like many a nameless patient to be lost to the asylum over the years, he just vanishes.

People don’t just vanish. And in this case, I know he didn’t.

Tim goes on to cross-reference the potential dates of Jason’s disappearance with any visitors to the asylum. It doesn’t take much to identify the only visitor to the asylum for a span of weeks as a certain Chandler Ravenscar—names which another quick search link to aliases used by John Constantine in the past.

That brings Tim to a whole other avenue of research, refocusing him investigation on Constantine himself and his movements over the past years. He tends to keep to the UK, but every now and again travels to various mystical hotspots around the world.

There’s a backlog of security footage to weed through, occultist forums discussing the man and his exploits. Half of what’s written about him online is clearly conspiracy theories, a quarter of it related to some punk rock band called Mucous Membrane and something to do with the Reagan assassination. Those who have actually worked with him either seem too terrified or pissed off to say much about him.

Even harder is finding a video of the man; cameras and other surveillance devices appear to stop working around him. It’s even more of a challenge to catch a glimpse of the teenaged assistant that starts being mentioned several months after Jason’s disappearance from Arkham.

A chance freeze-frame from an airport in Beijing, however, is all Tim needs to confirm it’s Jason.

It’s hours later when Tim sits back, exhausted but now having at least a general timeline of what happened.

One thing is for damn sure—I can’t take this to Bruce.

The story is too painful, too unbelievable. If it doesn’t break him all over, it will have him lashing out at Tim for making up stories about a touchy subject. There’s enough tension between them both right now that he’s likely to question anything suspect Tim brings to him.

Or he would insist it was a trick, that someone had faked all of this. He wouldn’t take Tim’s word for it, would investigate himself, prepare himself for an interrogation when what Jason needs is to have a face to face with his adopted father and mentor.

And Jason’s story still has too many holes in it for Tim to tell it, begging more questions than answers.

Like why Constantine took you from Arkham in the first place. And also…there’s one other thing that doesn’t make sense.

Well, a lot of things don’t make sense, but this stands out.

Tim goes back to the hospital records, scanning for the section where he remembers reading the information.

John Doe’s injuries in the medical files are all consistent with those in Jason’s autopsy, with every scar and broken bone accounted for and described.

Except for an autopsy scar.

That would have been the first thing medical professionals remarked upon when Jason was admitted, but it’s not mentioned anywhere. Which must mean that somehow, Jason no longer has it.

So why did that heal and nothing else did? Could it have something to do with what brought him back?

There’s a sudden dull, clunk in the background and the slide of elevator doors, and Tim glances up to watch Stephanie Brown stride into his base of operations.

“I was on the way out and Babs sent me to check on you,” she tells him. “Apparently someone missed work today without calling in and isn’t answering their phone.”

Tim startles at that, glances at the clock in the corner of his screen and swears when he realizes she’s right. He was supposed to be at Wayne Enterprises an hour ago. When he glances at his cellphone, he sees twelve text messages and three missed calls from Lucius, Dick and Bruce.

“I didn’t even notice,” he groans. He was so caught up in finding out more about Jason that he lost track of time. He quickly taps out a group message reassuring them he’s fine and will be in soon.

“At least being flaky is characteristic of billionaire teenagers,” Steph says as she wanders over.

Tim quickly minimizes his search and swivels around in his seat to face her. “Why are you even awake this early?”

Given the way she spends her nights, Steph made a point of having all of her classes in the afternoon. She’s possibly less of a morning person than Tim is, to the point where even coffee doesn’t make her a little more human.

“Blame my new roommate,” she grumbles, and that earns a surprised look because it’s the first time he’s heard of this. “Right, I didn’t tell you, did I? So, a couple of weeks ago this cat shows up on the fire-escape outside my window. And I didn’t mean to feed it, but it looked so sad and pathetic and I had to, so now it won’t leave me alone. What am I supposed to do? I don’t have time to be a pet owner.”

“Cat’s don’t actually take that much care.”

“That’s what they want you to think. And then one cat becomes two, and two becomes three and the next thing I know, I’m going to be the crazy cat lady on the block,” Steph complains. “And not to cool, sexy, Selina kind of cat lady but the sad, single shut-in.”

“You could never be a shut-in. No four walls can keep your raw joie de vivre inside,” Tim says in a flat tone.

“You’re just saying that because you’re my boyfriend. Ex-boyfriend.” She frowns in confusion. “Are we in an on-again or an off-again right now? I forget.”

Tim remembers Jason’s cocky grin and muscular thighs and his mouth goes dry. “Off. Definitely off.”

Steph’s eyebrows disappear into her hairline. “That was weirdly assertive. Am I sensing a pretty girl behind that sentiment? Do I need to give a shovel talk?�� Something occurs to her and she scowls. “It’s not that Lynx chick, is it? Trust me when I say that would be a bad idea.”

“There’s no girl,” Tim mumbles. “Trust me.”

“Okay,” she allows, slow and still somewhat dubious. “But you’d tell me, right? If you were seeing someone? Only so I don’t go crossing lines or causing jealous rage or something.”

“There’s nothing going on, yes I would tell you, can we please move on?” Tim huffs. “Tell me about your cat.”

“He’s not my cat.”

“You fed him, he’s your cat.”

“Stop changing the subject. You’re being evasive—there so is a girl.”

“There’s no girl!” Tim groans, half tempted to tug at his hair. “Who could look at another woman after being with you?”

“I don’t know whether to take that as a compliment or as an insinuation I was so horrible that I turned you off women for good,” Steph says, eyes narrowed in suspicion. A beat later, she tilts her head to one side as if something has occurred to her. “Wait. That’s it, isn’t it? It’s a guy. This someone’s a guy. You know you can tell me, right? That would totally be okay—would actually explain a lot, actually—you know, you liking guys—”

“One guy does not equate guys.”

“Oh my god! There is! There’s a guy!” Steph squeals. “Who is it? It’s that friend of yours, that went missing, isn’t it? Dante something? That’s why you’ve been so obsessed with finding him!”

“I’m determined to find him because he’s my friend,” Tim counters, a bit irritated. “The same way I’d be determined to find Ives or Bernard or anyone I cared about. And I’d be doing that right now if someone wasn’t distracting me.”

Two someones, but she doesn’t need to know about Jason’s role in it.

“And I’d believe that if you weren’t looking at me like you wanted to jump out of your skin. There’s something going on here, Ex-Boy Wonder.”

“There’s nothing going on.”

“Lies!”

“For something to be going on, you have to actually spend more than an hour with someone. You have to have known them for more than an hour.”

“Not if you have chemistry,” Steph points out. “Sometimes, it’s just like. Bang.” She grins. “And then you have to bang.”

Tim rolls his eyes.

“Do I need to give you the safe sex talk?” Steph asks with concern that’s only half teasing. “The gay-sex safe sex talk? Because to be honest, I don’t think I’d be able to do it with a straight face.”

“Steph, that was awful. As a former Robin, you should be ashamed.”

“And as a former Robin, you should be better at lying. So, spill. What’s going on?”

Tim studies her, chewing on his tongue; he knows she won’t let it go unless he gives her something. “Okay. Fine.”

“Hah! I knew it!”

“Not that. This is…something else,” he says. “Sort of.”

“Okay?”

“What would you do if…say you found out something really important to a person you care about. But you promised someone else you wouldn’t tell anyone about that something because of…reasons. Personal reasons.”

Steph crosses her arms. “Is this about me?”

“Not everything is about you.”

“Then it’s about Mystery Boy.”

“It’s not about—” Tim gives up, and then sighs, because it’s just easier to give her that one. “Fine. It’s Mystery Boy. He asked me not to say something that’s really important. I figure it’s because he wants to say himself in his own time. Except. Except it’s a huge thing.”

“Starbucks discontinuing pumpkin spice lattes’ huge, or ‘Hush trying to destroy B’ huge?”

“Closer to the second. Not dangerous like that,” he adds quickly when he sees her face. “It’s just…serious stuff that could hurt if it’s not handled the right way. Or if certain parties found out later and thought they were having stuff kept from them.”

“Well, now I’m curious…”

“I’m not telling you.”

“I know that. I’m just saying.” Steph sticks out her tongue at him, but then becomes contemplative. “I guess I’d keep my mouth shut. Or try to, at least. Stuff like that always tends to come out eventually. But if you’re worried it could hurt someone, maybe you can convince Mystery Boy it’s in his best interest to tell someone.”

“Yeah, that didn’t go over too well.”

“Well, whatever you do, don’t get into your micromanaging, control-freak headspace,” she tells him. “That’s one of the things that torpedoed you and me, and if you want things to work out with this guy, you should respect his wishes.”

“I never said anything about wanting anything to work out with anyone,” Tim protests. “I just met the guy.”

“And somehow he got you to promise not to tell something that’s apparently really important. Which means you already value him somehow, and that only happens to you when you really like someone. Also, you might be able to straight-up bluff Batman or Ra’s al Ghul, but I know how you look when you like someone and don’t want anyone to know it.” There’s a beeping noise and Steph digs out her cellphone. “And with those pearls of wisdom, I have to get going. My mom found the cat and she’s having a conniption.”

She turns to leave, pauses once she enters the elevator and turns back around, jabbing a finger at him.

“Shower, eat, go to work, stop obsessing about stuff you can’t control—and don’t try to control stuff that’s not your business.”

Tim bristles. “Yes, Mother.”

“Oh, you did not just go there,” she growls as the elevator doors close and Tim grins until she’s gone.

He knows that Steph’s right, to a certain extent. This whole Jason thing isn’t his business—he was only ever an outside observer, a legacy after the fact. And even if it was his business, it’s not his predecessor’s sensibilities he should be protecting.

Ill-advised crush aside, he doesn’t have any connection loyalty to Jason Todd. He does owe Bruce—he should be going straight to him about this.

Except…

Except, Tim really doesn’t want to be added to the list of people who betrayed Jason’s trust. Especially given how fragile it is given their short acquaintance.

Tim groans and leans back against his chair, wishing for an easy solution. He’s usually able to figure out what to do, even when it comes down to the hard choices.

“Stop obsessing about stuff you can’t control—and don’t try to control stuff that’s not your business.”

Steph’s right.

He’ll do as Jason asked.

Or, at least he’ll give it a week.

If he hasn't figured out any other way to deal with the situation, he'll go to Bruce.

In the meantime—he has an investigation to get back to.

⁂⁂⁂

Next Chapter

#jaytimweek2019 #jaytimweek #jaytim #fanfic #prompt: supernatural #jaytim fic #tim drake #drama #mystery #angst #romance #instant attraction #steph being awesome #tim being nosy

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getitsharing-blog · 5 years

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Soundbar

Before we go into the details of the latest R Series middle-end soundbar, let's have a mindset of what criteria to look into while coming to the purchase of soundbar irrespective of the brands.

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How many channels?

While choosing the soundbar, many of Getit customers will first ask "how many watts?". Fairly to say, there are other more important factors or technologies other than the number game of the watt as usually highlighted by most of the China OEM budget soundbar.

Firstly you should look into how many channels sound output delivered by that soundbar. There are soundbar with 2, 3, 5 and even 7 channels to provide you a much more immersive theater experience.

Secondly, the sound format it can support. Recently, the most popular sound format is Dolby Atmos. I will cover this in our high-end Q Series soundbar in the coming weeks.

Thirdly, other value-added features delivered by the soundbar such as the delay of certain sound output which is synced with the action on the TV.

It is advisable to only look for a soundbar with at least 3 or more channels. For budget users, we also launch 2 channels soundbar to satisfy this market segment. It is basically a mini-stereos of which Astro is delivering this sound format in most of their broadcast.

On the other hand, soundbar with 3 or more channels, you can simulate surround sound for a more immersive experience.

Wireless subwoofer or Active soundbar?

Active soundbar means soundbar that come with built-in amplifiers. The price can be a bit pricey. This might not be worth it unless you're trying to save space or want a 2-for-1 solution.

On the other hand, we suggest you look for a soundbar with a wireless active subwoofer. This allows you to hide the subwoofer away from the living room. This makes your home entertainment modern, neat and simple.

All the Samsung Middle-End soundbar come with this wireless subwoofer.

Where you should place your soundbar?

Do you prefer hanging it on a wall or laying it on a table? Aesthetically speaking, your soundbar shouldn’t be any wider than your TV.

The perfect spot for your soundbar should be centered underneath the TV. We will normally suggest our customer to wall mount to the wall with a specific distance from your Samsung UHD/ QLED TV.

How about connectivity?

Nowadays, mostly all the branded soundbars come with Wi-Fi and/or Bluetooth-enabled, so you can easily stream music from any computer, phone, or tablet. This makes your soundbar a stereo (change the sound mode to music in any Samsung soundbar with one-touch button).

Depending on the connectivity option of your TV and soundbar. Commonly, we will recommend either HDMI or Optical cable.

Personally, I prefer to use an optical cable. It is simple while I just need to transmit sounds from my TV to soundbar with no picture signal transmission needed. Whether HDMI or optical cable, they are both perfect for transmitting digital sounds such as Dolby Digital.

For most setups, the sound will be just as good with optical as with HDMI. All the Samsung soundbar comes with optical input.

Samsung surrounds sound expansion expands the listening area both sideways and up to emanate sound.

Now you can enjoy great sound with truly immersive surround effects. You feel the power, a new dimension to your home audio experience.

Elevate your TV sound with Built-in center speaker.

You can experience crystal clear dialogue with a dedicated center channel speaker. It provides a balanced sound from one end to the other. It beautifully completes your home entertainment experience.

Elevate your TV sound with Powerful bass. Powerful bass where you need it. Don’t let wires get in the way of your bass.

Set the soundbar with wireless subwoofer anywhere in your space and surround yourself with powerful, deeper bass.

Connect the Soundbar to your Samsung TV* with ease and without the clutter of wires via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. You†ll be able to enjoy all your content instantly with clearer, more impactful sound.

The soundbar automatically analyzes your sound sources to optimize the audio track for your specific content. Whether it’s a loud sports match or a drama with quiet dialogue, you

can count on the best soundbar to provide clear sounds for optimized TV viewing.

You can plug in your console and get the amazing sound effects you expect, right away. The auto settings optimize your sound to the game you’re playing while cross-talk cancellation technology removes distracting sounds so you hear clear audio from the right direction to help you gain the advantage.

Samsung Soundbar uses Bluetooth for easy wireless connections to other devices. Enjoy music from your mobile in top audio quality anywhere, no strings attached.\

We have initiated 3 different pricing for third different customers as follow:

1) P.w.P with any Samsung QLED, UHD in a single receipt. This is claimed as the most value for money package.

2) Getit's Samsung QLED, UHD customers. A slight price increment than the above for any customers who bought Samsung QLED, UHD TV from us BEFORE.

3) Offer price for Walk-in customers who have never bought Samsung TV from us.

The following are our customers' review on Getit for your reference. You can access the similar contents in the Review section of our FB page.

Was looking for a good 4K TV as our current coming-7 year old 46” TV is starting to show its age. Asked a friend for a good place to buy one and was recommended to check out Getit.com.bn for their pricing relating to value, latest models availability, and after sale service — all of which are crucial to me for a big purchase.

Reached out Getit via FB messenger and was attended to instantly and is technically very knowledgeable of which I learned a lot more about the latest audio and video technologies, such as the pros and cons between and features in UHDs, PUHDs, QLEDs, competitors’ OLEDs, curved vs flat, and etc. Of course I also did research from other sources to avoid unbiased views.

So I ended up getting the Samsung 65” Curved 4K PUHD TV at a really good price. 😊😊Personally it is the best TV you can get when you think of the pricing territory. It comes with an assuring 2-year warranty from Samsung as well.

Got interested and bought the Samsung HWN650 Soundbar as well for its price, features (the acoustic beam technology especially) and its minimalism (less clutter and wiring compared to our almost 7-yr old home theater).

These are still on their way but I am confident that they will be delivered on time 😉

Definitely will come again to Getit as the boss there, Angus, sure did bring confidence in my purchase. 👍🏻

Getit.com.bn provide another level of shopping experience in a country that is fairly brick and mortar based. Shopping experience with getit.com.bn is entirely virtual- the customer contact the provider and request information of a particular item and when both parties reach an agreement the customer pay for the item online and within a few days it is delivered to the doorstep.

My experience purchasing a front-loading Samsung washer was painless and saves my time too. Angus sent me several information leaflets and websites to look at from Facebook Messenger and I was able to make an informed decision when purchasing the washer.

The washer itself is exactly what I was expecting and Angus went to great lengths to get me started with Q-Rator app. A very approachable and knowledgable man, Angus never hesitate and gave me concise information about the washer. An overall positive experience.

I believe this was the best shopping experience that I ever encounter. Not just because the value for the money but mostly on their product knowledge which makes it even more interesting in choosing the product.

Their customer service is of a quality standard, Angus and team will try to accommodate to the customer needs and budget.

Overall shopping with this company is a must for every customers looking for a perfect TV.

Getit, I had a great experience with this company, I really like the idea of development of online business, not only does it reduce the cost of operations, but helps customers get a better price for the Product. So I decided to purchase my TV from this company, the Sales guy was very enthusiastic, and insisted that I come and visit him in he’s Samsung school.

This made me feel that this was a legit business and made me confident in dealing with him.

The Samsung School, has educated me in all the new technology’s that 4K TVs has to offer, he showed me the difference between a sense of Depth from the Curve TVs and the difference between a Premium UHD and a standard one.

I had so many old TVs in my house not being used and Getit managed to sell them.

The TV arrived in a week, there was very coordination involved. I would say the customer service is excellent and very professional.

Shopping at getit.com.bn is a great experience. When you already know what you want then all you have to do is tell Angus and he does the rest. When you are not sure what to get then Angus is there to advice. I am a returning customer and I am a very satisfied one everytime.

Fantastic service. Stopped by their store with enquiries for a washer I saw on their website but ended up purchasing a Samsung 55" UHD Curved TV (after a brilliant sales pitch by the boss) and a Samsung 13kg washer. After looking around many different electronic stores in Brunei, I've concluded Getit has the lowest price (even when other stores are on sale).

Delivery was prompt and communication between Getit was flawless as the boss updated me on the delay/expected delivery day/time. Stress free purchase with installation and set up included. I would highly recommend everyone to purchase from them and would purchase my future electronics from them.

Outstanding service from Mr Angus and Ms Meera. Exceptional and vast knowledge on the products. Initial plan was just to buy TV, but ended up buying 55 UHD curved TV and curved Soundbar.

Mr Angus suggested the best product based on our requirement and budget. Now, both my wife and I are enjoying the products. No regrets! Well done!!! Will definitely buy more products from you in the future.

Been scouting for a new 4k and came across getit.com from Facebook. Very competitive price compared to other shops. Attended their Samsung UHD school by Mr Angus and learnt a lot of info on their 4K TV and Soundbar. High recommended. would shop again in the future.

Thank you

Excellent information from Getit Samsung School. The knowledge shared and showing us the difference between Flat and Curve TV.

With all the information being shared and learned, didn't need to think twice about purchasing it from Getit.

Now enjoying my Curve TV + Soundbar

Excellent online shop. great customer service. Planning to buy the 43", but end up bought the 49". If you guys wanna buy a new Samsung TV, so here is your right choice. Excellent service, really fast online shopping. Just 1 day, I repeat, just 1 DAY. my item arrive. Thank you sir Angus!

Great customer service. Was showcased detailed explanation of the different TVs and their advantages and disadvantages. Would definitely hit them up again next time I'm looking for a new TV

Excellent online shopping. The knowledge shared its really worth it, good customer and after sales service.

A real good experience from this place. Quick response and super efficient. The Samsung Smart tv is real good!!

Getit outstanding service i had great experience. This company suggested the TV based on our budget. Fantastic service. Excellent online shop. Now my family are enjoying the product. No regret if we buy from Getit. Well done Getit!!👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Recently bought a TV from here and really happy with the price and services provided by them. Got the TV delivered + installed fast as well with no extra charge. Salesman was very informative and managed recommend me according to my needs.

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kenro199x · 5 years

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*I’m going to cut and paste the entire thing here as to avoid being stuck in a paywall for future readers.

Overlooked No More: Debra Hill, Producer Who Parlayed ‘Halloween’ Into a Cult Classic

Hill rose through Hollywood’s ranks, setting an example as a successful Hollywood producer at a time when there were few women in the industry.

May 22, 2019

Overlooked is a series of obituaries about remarkable people whose deaths, beginning in 1851, went unreported in The Times.

By Melena Ryzik

Perhaps the most famous babysitter in all of moviedom, Laurie Strode, the teen heroine of “Halloween,” is stalked by a crazed predator and survives — repeatedly. Laurie was resourceful and kind, “quiet but defiant,” said Debra Hill, who helped create the character.

Once a babysitter herself, with a taste for 1950s B-horror flicks, Hill wrote and produced “Halloween” with the director John Carpenter. Laurie endured as a symbol of female resolve, fending off her attacker and rebuilding her life.

“Here was a woman who didn’t run from danger, but stepped up to it,” Hill later told the author David Konow for his book “Reel Terror.”

Hill, those who knew her said, was equally audacious.

“Being a woman in show business is a scary situation,” Jamie Lee Curtis, who starred as Laurie and befriended Hill, said in a phone interview. “It’s a boys’ club, and she established herself, very early on, as a very thorough and capable producer.”

At the time, Hill was a rare female producer who grew to be a mentor for a pivotal generation of women in Hollywood — “part den mother, part cheerleader,” as Stacey Sher, her former employee and now a producer in her own right (“Erin Brockovich,” “Django Unchained”), put it.

Hill nurtured talent wherever she found it — the filmmaker James Cameron was once her visual effects guy; a second assistant director, Jeffrey Chernov, became a producer of “Black Panther” — and had the confidence not to fear that others would leapfrog over her if she gave them a steppingstone.

She later grew frustrated, friends and colleagues said, that the system in which she excelled as a producer did not welcome more women as directors. But even that did not dim her passion for the industry, and she spent the last few years of her life — she died in 2005 — working on a romantic thriller that would be her directorial debut.

Hill considered herself, above all, a storyteller, starting with “Halloween,” which she and Carpenter, her boyfriend at the time, wrote in three weeks. It catapulted them into major careers.

Released in 1978, “Halloween” had a shoestring budget, about $320,000, and went on to earn $70 million globally (around $200 million in today’s dollars), a record for an independent movie. A slasher classic that revitalized the genre, it’s now in the National Film Registry. Hill also championed Curtis, then 19, for “Halloween,” her first feature, presenting a model of female camaraderie in a male-dominated field.

Hill worked or was credited on most of the “Halloween” sequels — last year’s blockbuster installment, also starring Curtis, and made long after Hill’s death, was the 11th in the franchise — and collaborated with Carpenter on other seminal horror and sci-fi thrillers, including “The Fog” and “Escape from New York,” after their romantic relationship ended.

She was an exacting producer. As she told The Los Angeles Times in 1982: “I discovered very early that there are two ways for a woman producer to go. You could be aggressive, or you can be very nice. So I arrive on the set, in my tight jeans, and people wonder. Then they see I’m nice. Then, finally, they see I mean business.”

Curtis recalled that Hill scrutinized every receipt, keeping track of how many spools of thread and rolls of gaffer tape were used — and yet, said Curtis, Hill was “beloved” by her overwhelmingly male crews.

“She brought the proof that a woman can do anything in successful filmmaking that men do,” said Jeanine Basinger, a film historian. “They can make top box office blockbusters, they can make action films and genre films and horror films. She brought originality.”

In the 1980s Hill teamed up with Lynda Obst, a former studio executive, in one of the first female producing partnerships. Their movies included “The Fisher King,” “Clue,” based on the board game, which was Hill’s idea to develop for the screen, and “Adventures in Babysitting,” the directorial debut of Chris Columbus (“Home Alone,” “Mrs. Doubtfire,” “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”).

“Debra knew how to do every job on a set,” from positioning cameras to fine-tuning lighting, Obst said. She remembered Hill standing “with her arms on her hips, like Peter Pan arriving in Neverland,” surveying every shot. “She just was able to solve a problem, imaginatively.”

On “The Fisher King” (1991), when the director Terry Gilliam suddenly decided during a location scout that he wanted to create an elaborate dance with 1,000 waltzing extras in Grand Central Terminal, Hill figured out how to pull it off. The sequence was among the most lauded in the film, which earned multiple Oscar nominations and won one (best supporting actress, Mercedes Ruehl).

Debra Gaye Hill was born on Nov. 10, 1950, in Philadelphia, to Frank and Jilda Hill. Her mother was a nurse and her father, who had been a Hollywood art director before her birth, eventually became a salesman, including on a car lot. The family, among them Hill’s younger brother, Franklin Robert Hill Jr., known as Bob, moved often.

Once, when house-hunting in Connecticut, their parents parked the children, then 10 and 11 or so, in a local movie theater. “I think Deb and I saw ‘Gone With the Wind’ four times a day,” said Bob Hill, a retired tugboat captain.

They later settled in Haddonfield, N. J., which Hill used as inspiration for the fictional Haddonfield, Ill., setting of “Halloween.” Horror, she observed, always struck in small, under-policed towns and sleepy suburbs, where it seemed, tantalizingly, like nothing could go wrong.

“The idea of pulling off the veneer and seeing what lies beneath has always intrigued me,” she told Konow, the author of “Reel Terror” (2012).

After receiving her bachelor’s degree in sociology from Temple University, she became a flight attendant, then lingered in Jamaica, getting involved with a jazz musician.

That led to writing liner notes for albums, her brother said, which evolved into more writing gigs. She landed in California and, through her father’s connections, worked as a production assistant and a script supervisor, or “script girl,” as it was then called, on low-budget movies (including Carpenter’s first feature, “Assault on Precinct 13”) before moving her way up to producer.

Off the set, Hill liked to give dinner parties, cooking for up to 20 people. (She made a mean matzo ball soup, said her friend Diane Robin, an actress, and poached her salmon in the dishwasher.) Hill would gather guests around her piano to sing and coax them to dance. Sometimes, she pulled out a baton and did a majorette routine that she had learned as a teenager. Later, because of the cancer that would take her life, her legs were amputated; undeterred, she threw a disco-themed birthday party and danced along in her wheelchair.

Hill was 54 when she died on March 7, 2005. Her directorial debut never happened, but in a speech she gave in 2003 in accepting an award from the organization Women in Film, it was clear she knew her importance in the industry.

“I want every producer, studio executive and agent in this room to include me in their directors list,” she said, “along with the women who have come before me, and the women directors who will come after me. If you need me, you’ll find me — I’ll be sitting by my pool, reading scripts and waiting for your numerous offers.”

In 2005 the Producers Guild, where she was a board member, named a fellowship in her honor, for women and men “whose work, interests, professionalism and passion mirror that of Debra Hill.” A dozen people have been recipients thus far, furthering her reach within the industry.

“There weren’t a lot of women to emulate or follow or learn from when I came to Hollywood in 1975,” Hill said in 2003. “Women struggled to have their voices heard, but I refused to struggle along with them. I realized that a woman can be successful in a man’s world.”

#halloween #producer #new york times #debra hill #horror #john carpenter #hollywood

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oscar-isaacs-number-one-bitch · 5 years

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The Friendly Film Fan Mini Reviews (2018)

Due to time constraints and the nature of finals week being intensely busy, I’m not able to give my full time and attention to every movie I see in theaters in terms of writing up a full-length review (though I did just write up two for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Bumblebee, so go check those out). Occasionally as well, I get busy enough after seeing one that by the time I actually do have time to write a full-length review, the relevance of said review has passed with time. With this in mind, I do a set of mini-reviews each year that are more like short summaries of what I thought of each film, along with the usual score on a scale of 1 to 10. Not every movie I didn’t write a full review for this year will get one, but I’ll try to cover the ones I feel that I need to for this list. Here are The Friendly Film Fan’s mini reviews for the calendar year of 2018:

A Simple Favor:

A Simple Favor provides a decent showcase for Blake Lively’s acting abilities with style for days, but the mystery really isn’t anything special, playing off as a sort of discount version of Gone Girl that forgot why that movie worked so well, but Anna Kendrick is cute, and at least it has some good performances amidst lackluster dialogue. Really expected more from this one. 6.4/10.

Leave No Trace:

Please never let director Debra Granik leave us for this long again, even though the result of it is perhaps the best movie to come out about post-war veteran life in a really long time. Ben Foster puts on a great performance that’s par for the course for him at this point, but the standouts here are Thomasin McKenzie, a genuine talent that should get a lot more work after this, and a script that respects its audience just as well, if not better, than it respects its subject matter. 9.8/10.

A Prayer Before Dawn

A terrifically performed but occasionally difficult to watch, brutally hard-hitting movie with a career best turn from Joe Cole, A Prayer Before Dawn firmly establishes A24 as not just one of, if not the, best independent movie studio working today, but also the most ambitious. It tackles things like drug addiction and gang violence while also being a uniquely inspiring coming-of-age character piece. The film being set in a Taiwanese prison without subtitles (until Cole’s character learns to speak the language that is) truly lends to the sense of the world, and the result is really quite special. 9.4/10.

You Were Never Really Here

Lynne Ramsay’s meditation on humanity’s obsession with violence is a stunning watch, as the film actively chooses to refuse to let the audience partake in such brutal acts as depicted in a tour de force performance (perhaps a career best) from Joaquin Phoenix. The film is always focused on how badly people want to see the violence and then forces you to reflect on why you wanted to in the immediate aftermath of its happening. The editing, direction, and Phoenix’s performance all add up to a seriously impactful watch. 9.4/10.

The Clovehitch Killer

Many people were wondering if I was going to give this movie a full review, given that both my younger sisters are in it, but given how low it flies on the radar being a VOD release simultaneous with its limited theatrical run, a full review may not have gained a lot of traction. That being said, this is a really solid example of how to do a good film on a low budget; it’s noticeable, but it doesn’t detract from the overall narrative as much as it typically would in a movie like this. The first act takes a bit to pick up some steam, but once Charlie Plummer finds a box in a barn, it’s a pretty tense ride the rest of the way. 7.2/10.

The Kindergarten Teacher

Netflix has been picking up some pretty good stuff lately, and while I haven’t yet viewed 22 July or The Ballad of Buster Scruggs yet (still waiting for ROMA as well), this is a pretty good indicator as to how they’ll get into the awards circuit. It’s good, and Maggie Gyllenhaal is really good in it, but the protagonist is just too unlikable for me to want to keep watching. Gyllenhaal plays the part well, but it’s difficult to root for someone to kidnap a child (which is a thing that happens). 7/10.

Ralph Breaks the Internet

No, it’s not as good as the widely beloved first film, and that’s largely because what made the first one so special was its emphasis on classic arcade style video games as a means to tell a story but not the point of the story, a self-growth tale about Ralph learning to not be insecure about his place in the broader world he occupied, and also an arc that’s immediately forgotten as this one starts. The sequel aims to mostly just show off everything Disney owns in animated form since it takes place in the internet, but much like the internet, it seems much more concerned with selling you something rather than actually making a new point, though given Disney animation’s storytelling pedigree, you still have a good bit of fun along the way. 8.2/10.

Boy Erased

If there’s a singular film I’m more disappointed in than any other this year, it would be Joel Edgerton’s Boy Erased, an LGBT drama about the dangers of conversion therapy that doesn’t really seem to make any greater point other than “conversion therapy is bad.” Everyone in it does solid performance work, but it’s all just pretty good work where it could be great, there’s a whole rape scene that’s never really addressed by the movie except for briefly after it happens but not in context to the main character, and the whole thing is so drab and colorless right from the get-go that it feels like Edgerton doesn’t want you to feel any sense of joy even before the bad stuff happens. It’s not a bad movie, but it feels incredibly lackluster given the talent involved. 6.9/10.

Bohemian Rhapsody

And if there were any film this year people probably should be more disappointed by, it’s this paint-by-numbers recap of the highlights of classic rock legend Freddie Mercury, with his time in the band Queen serving as the main backdrop. Rami Malek’s physical performance is too devoted and genuinely astounding to not garner him some awards attention, and the use of a Mercury sound-a-like he lip syncs over shouldn’t be held against him in terms of that, but it does make a little bit of a difference since one can tell it’s definitely not Malek’s voice in the singing parts. The re-creation of the Live Aid concert is a true work of art, but getting there is such a plain ride, it’s honestly kind of boring. In fact, there’s whole edits in the film where one of Queen’s hit songs will start being written, and then it cuts away to a concert version of it but doesn’t bother to stay in any one spot for more than a few seconds at a time, and the moment either gains momentum too quickly or loses it entirely. This film needed to be great in order to justify being more than just another fairly average Brian Singer movie, and in my view at least, it didn’t accomplish that. 6.1/10.

Lean on Pete

Another foray into small film territory from A24, this coming-of-age tale starring Charlie Plummer in the role that will almost certainly propel him to stardom if he’s not there already is a terrific, moving portrait of grief, hope, loss, and love so subtly rendered by the script that by the time it rips your heartstrings out at the end, you barely realize the impact of the journey you just went on and the credits are already rolling. And hey, it’s always nice to see Steve Buscemi get work that unexpectedly fits him since he’s becoming such a recognizable chameleon of an actor; we may always recognize his face, but his performances just keep getting deeper. 9.4/10.

And those are all of my mini-reviews for the calendar year of 2018. Any you didn’t see on the list that you’d hoped to? Any verdicts you’re surprisingly elated or disappointed by? Let me know in the comments below! Thanks for reading, and keep an eye out for my next review, coming soon!

#Mini Reviews #2018 #The Friendly Film Fan #Movie Review #Film Review #Movie Reviews #Film Reviews #A Simple Favor #Leave No Trace #A Prayer Before Dawn #You Were Never Really Here #The Clovehitch Killer #The Kindergarten Teacher #Ralph Breaks the Internet #Wreck-It Ralph 2 #Boy Erased #Bohemian Rhapsody #Lean on Pete

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2nd-rate-film-school · 6 years

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Hey Jules! i think this is like the 6th question ive asked u im in super beginner mode. I really want people to see my film whenever it comes out and i just feel like i want to be informed abt everything b4 submitting my script to production companies and the thing that i cant figure out is the box office. I just for some reason cant get my head around how films are sold. What do u think are the factors that make a film “commercially” successful??

Hi again!

I’m glad to know you are learning all you can before taking your script to production companies. That’s a really smart move and it will save you a lot of time (and money).

If you’re looking at how films are sold, I recommend my crash course on how screenplays are sold, as that process is massively important to getting a film made.

To clarify, I’m assuming by “commercially successful” you are referring to Hollywood/Hollywood-style films that make money. For a film to make money, it usually has to earn double it’s production budget its opening week. The reason this is the case is because advertising costs aren’t included in the budget (and advertising usually costs as much as it did to make the film!) It also has to make it opening weekend because, after that, subsequent weeks (individually) won’t sell as many tickets as the first week.

So which films do really well? What films draw the largest audience and are the highest grossing films? Franchises.

Take a look at the top 10 grossing films of the week. At the time I’m writing this post, 7 of the 10 are either remakes or sequels. Of the top 20 grossing films worldwide, only 2 are original (aka, not sequels, remakes, or based on a book). Sadly, most audiences don’t like new things. They like the comfort of walking into a theater to see familiar characters and stories. As long as the story is just different enough, they will eat it up. And production companies, which are first and foremost businesses, know this about their audiences and are much more willing to invest in films that already have an existing fanbase.

Now that you’re probably depressed, I’ll save the rant about the studio system and talk about the good news: You can make money and still make original films! In fact, many of the most profitable film’s are actually low-budget horrors. So lets look at some elements that can make a “commercially successful” film:

Low Budget v. Names and Brands. Low budget films are a wise choice for first-time filmmakers trying to get funding for their original film. Production companies are more willing to take a chance on a film if they don’t have as much to loose. In fact, low budget films can be very rewarding. To make a long story short, Lower budget + large ticket sales = huge profit. On the other side of the spectrum, big names and brands can draw in audiences. This is why many companies, when purchasing scripts, want a name attached to a project. People will go see a film with Jennifer Lawrence that they wouldn’t normally see if they like her as an actress. The same works for directors.

Knowing Your Audience. Again, audiences like to know what they’re going to see before they see it. If your film is a sci-fi, your audience will expect spaceships, time travel, or aliens. If they don’t find those elements in a film that is supposedly sci-fi, they won’t like it. (This is also where good marketing comes in handy. If the marketing team doesn’t know how to sell a film, it will attract the wrong audience. Many genre-defying films have this problem.) This also applies to recognizing when you have a niche audience. Films that are made for film festivals are much different than blockbusters.

Know Your Buyer. Just like you need to know who will watch your movie, you need to know who will buy it. Pixar isn’t going to buy a gritty horror thriller and A24 isn’t looking for franchises. Do research on the production companies you like to see what kind of films they are making. If they aren’t interested in your type of film, move along and find a company that is interested.

Theme/Concept. If your concept sucks, no one will see it (usually). If your theme is muddled or contradicts itself, people won’t like it. I Feel Pretty, which recently came out and flopped at the box office, followed all the conventions of the genre, but ultimately failed because its theme and concept failed to send the intended message.

Script Structure. A vast majority of films (even many of the experimental ones) follow 3 act structure. For better or for worse, it’s a tried and true method that’s been repeated for almost all of film history. As a writer, if you can master classic Hollywood structure, you are automatically a head above the rest when it comes to getting your script sold (and your film made). For evidence of this, just look at Pixar. Pixar’s writers are masters of script structure

Characters. Even more important than plot or structure is your characters. A strong character has 1) a defined voice and personality 2) a clear want and need, 3) an emotional and visual conflict, 4) flaws and redeeming qualities, 5) and is relatable and/or sympathetic. Characters are the reason we care about a story. They are the reason we will watch a million sequels and spinoffs and why fan fiction exists. A good fictional character feels real, no matter the role they play or how fantastic the story.

Artist’s Voice. At the script level, the types of stories, they way they are told, and how characters act are all indicative of a writer’s voice. The same goes for directors, who tend to have certain styles used to tell stories. Quentin Tarantino, Diablo Cody, The Coen Brothers, Spike Lee, Wes Anderson, Shonda Rhimes... each of these filmmakers have very distinct styles in their stories, dialogue, characters, and genres. The more you can set yourself apart from others and tell the stories only you can tell, the more your work stands out and can find an audience.

So those are some of the the elements of a commercially successful film. Formulaic? Yes. But there is also a lot of room for creativity. You could follow every rule in every book, but without a unique perspective, it won’t interest audiences. If you are passionate about your project and put in the effort, it will show through.

#ask box #commercial success #successful #films #screenplays #the biz #film industry #selling your film #selling your screenplay

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chicagoindiecritics · 4 years

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New from Every Movie Has a Lesson by Don Shanahan: EDITORIAL: Lessons on the New Future of Movie Theaters

Image: pxfuel.com

During this last month or so of our collective national and international quarantine, I’ve been holding the topic of re-opening movie theaters from my usual “What We Learned This Week” columns on the Feelin’ Film podcast for a “Soapbox Special.” There have been so many articles, so many perspectives, and so many rapidly evolving updates and changes that I couldn’t distill them down into one little lesson or column entry.

With several regions of America starting to re-open (including my own state of Illinois and city of Chicago), it was time to get on the stump and arm the cannons. I put some of what follows into spoken word recently on an episode of Mike Crowley’s “You’’ll Probably Agree” podcast, but the issue has grown since then. Click into the multitude of links in the lessons for the deeper referenced stories. They are well worth their reads and your attention. The theme of this all can be summarized as cautiously optimistic.

LESSON #1: WHAT WOULD IT TAKE TO GO BACK TO THEATERS — I’ll open this rant back in late May with polling from Variety. It featured a survey of consumer comfort. Here are some bulleted results in numerical order:

91% requested hand sanitizer stations

90% say the most important factor is a cure for COVID-19.

86% supported limited screenings for cleaning time

75% support employees temperature checks

70% would rather watch a first-run feature at home

61% would feel better about mandatory face coverings

60% support audience temperature checks

47% were comfortable buying concessions

46% were comfortable using public restrooms at theaters

There’s more there in that article, but those were the highlights. Beyond even that poll, you’ve got more and more segments of the population who won’t feel comfortable with any public event, let alone a movie, without a vaccine in place. Putting any number of these initiatives in place would be costly, especially for theater chain companies reeling on the edge of bankruptcy.

LESSON #2: WHAT DOES THAT FUTURE LOOK LIKE — Any of those changes from Lesson #1 would make for a very different setting than the “normal” way we’ve been going to the movies for the last century. Many editorials and articles (Seattle Times in May, Vulture in May, and Quartz in June) have tried to talk that out exhaustively with every guess in the clouds. For example, many of us have embraced reserved seating as a way to select our spots, skip crowds, and guarantee seats even if we walk in last minute to avoid 20 minutes of senseless trailers (I know that’s not just me, *wink*). The activity timeline changes upward if we are to stand in a line for temperature checks and even downward if there are no concession lines or needs anymore, which is a tremendous business hit to the theater chains that have been bolstering their kitchen capabilities and choices beyond candy and popcorn for the better part of the last two decades. The other word in there everyone wants to avoid is “crowds.” Can that be accomplished with roped off sections, skipped seats, or an all-reserved seating model (which some older theaters don’t fully have)? In the meantime, you’ve got companies fumbling financial footballs and poking public outcry bears (bravo Michael Phillips) over requiring or not requiring masks (and reversing courses) and other measures before they even open. Do you really trust them to get all of this right on the first try here in July?

LESSON #3: THE OPTION OF AUTOMATION — Piggybacking off of Lesson #2, one potential solution could be artificial intelligence, as crazy at that sounds. According to Variety in May, some theaters in Korea were considering “contact-free” technology. Theater chain CJ-CGV replaced its human staff with AI robots and automated kiosks for scanning and handling ticket transactions. Concession stands were replaced with app-powered and LED-controlled pick-up/delivery boxes. Leave it to tech-savvy Asia to be the tip of that spear. Could the likes of AMC or Regal pull stuff like that off, again, while teetering on financial failure? How do data-danger-minded consumers feel about that?

LESSON #4: COMPANY SURVIVAL IS PERILOUS — The first three lessons constitute a forecast and some great ideas, but who or what can afford those measures? After months of virtually complete closure, save for some door-front concession hawking, large theater chains, especially AMC (which includes the Carmike brand), are in the financial toilet. Bailouts and loans are hard to come by and “junk” status is hitting stock reports. You even have Amazon interested in gobbling up AMC, which would be quite interesting. It may require a rescue such as that. This peril is international as well with CineEurope reporting a possible $20–31 billion loss for the year. Even reopening isn’t an instant cure. The majority of profits for these companies are dependent on concessions because of the high ticket receipt percentages going back to the studios, a gouge that has been increasing over the years at the high blockbuster level (Thanks, Disney). If the food areas are closed due to viral fears and health code regulations, that destroys earnings. 50% capacities of social-distanced seating doesn’t help theaters either. Even 50% might be optimistic. There are theaters opening at barely 25% capacity.

LESSON #5: “TOO BIG TO FAIL” IS LOOKING FAILURE STRAIGHT IN THE FACE — And with that we reach the studios’ level of wallet hit with an inactive theater distribution market. Even with their demanded big bites of the pie, half-filled (or less) theaters do not help them either. This is especially the case at the blockbuster level. No matter the anticipation demand or potential staying power of a really big hit flick with less competition, it is exponentially harder to recoup $200 million-budgeted tentpoles and their $100+ million marketing campaigns if sizable fractions of the screens holding butts are gone or entire chains are shuttered. That’s why the really big stuff like Tenet, Mulan, Fast 9, No Time to Die, and more are not automatically landing on streaming services or VOD outlets. Even at a Trolls: World Tour-equivalent $20 price tag per rental (and its modest success), those giants cannot recoup those huge red balances versus getting a ticket for every head instead of every household. A little thing like The Lovebirds or Irresistible can land in the green with VOD, but not Wonder Woman or Black Widow. A business with a blockbuster class level of movies that once looked too big to fail making its worldwide billions is now failing because they have no place to go and no one able to come to their shows.

LESSON #6: STUDIOS DID SOME THIS TO THEMSELVES — Believe it or not, the studios have slowly damaged their own theatrical success/potential for years with the incremental shortening of the windows between big-screen premieres and home media release dates. Folks my age remember the months of interminable wait back in the VHS and cable TV eras before streaming services were even a glimmer in someone’s eye. For example, Forrest Gump hit theaters over the July 4th weekend of 1994. It didn’t land on VHS until late April 1995 after a long theatrical run and a winter Oscar bump. After that, it wouldn’t hit paid cable for another bunch of months and then years before basic cable made it “free.” By comparison, Joker opened on the first weekend of October last year, hit store shelves the first weekend of January 2020, and no one cares if it comes to HBO or Showtime because Netflix, Hulu, or VOD is cheaper and better. What used to be six months at the minimum (or even an entire year if you were a Disney release) has shrunk to merely 90 days on average. Sure, both Forrest Gump and Joker raked for their times, but it’s an indictment on patience versus money-grabbing. People that are willing to wait can now weather a pretty comfortable amount of time compared to the past for their 4K players and big-screen TVs in their dens. In our current COVID-19 state, we’ve all got nothing but time on our hands to do just that. Why risk health if personal patience versus some “fear of missing out” can pay one $20–30 digital download/disc price to watch a movie repeatedly instead of hauling the entire family plus concessions once, especially for something they don’t deem “big screen worthy?” The studios trying to keep the buzz constant with shorter waits will now see leverage backfire in favor of the consumer. For a current case of that, just look at Disney/Pixar’s Onward and the mere weeks it took to cave from the VOD rental level to dismissively dishing it to everyone in Disney+. With studios building their own streaming shingles, you’re going to see more of that or see more wins for Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon.

LESSON #7: THE PRICE POINT OF DIGITAL — Let’s go further with the digital wants of consumers versus the new risks and hassles of theaters. Circling back to that opening Variety polling again, remember that 70% would rather watch a first-run feature at home. And that was back in May. Imagine now knocking on the door of Independence Day, no matter how much antsy-pant anticipation and hope is out there. That same Variety polling screened respondents on online pricing with some keen results. It asked how much a “reasonable” price would be to stream top-quality productions in their home. Here are those results in numerical rank:

47%- $10

20%- $20

19%- only if it was free

6%- $30

3%- $40

1%- $50, $60, or $80%

That’s 67% holding firm at $20 or under and studios need to do their own projections of math. Regardless, welcome to a more than a little bit of the #firstworldproblems portion of this entire “Soapbox Special.” Movies are wants, not needs, period. They are lovely fulfillment, but non-essential. For every one of those 6% hardcore FilmBros and cinephiles with the disposable income to drop $40 or more to see their precious Christopher Nolan film, over 95% aren’t budging or can’t afford it. Check your privilege.

LESSON #8: ADAPT OR DIE — One way or another, change is needed at the highest level that trickles down to every screen in America. A popular industry that has weathered the advent of television, cable, and now streaming opponents and competition in its century of existence should be able to survive this. Or can they? With the Paramount Accords lapsed, is it time for studios to buy or build their own sustainable theaters to show off their own wares and keep all the profits they used to share with the chains? If studios instead mine the digital landscape successfully, do we really need multiplexes anymore? That is a question posed recently in The New Yorker by Richard Brody in a good read. They’ll need smaller budgeted films to do that, scaling so many things down. Go back to the roots. You can make a dozen solid indies or five or more star-driven mid-budget programmers like the industry used to do in the 1990s with the cost of a single MCU film. Reverting back to that level of business would require some baths and haircuts, but it would rescue the industry. It’s time to embrace those needs. In another angle, columnist Nick Clement on Back to Movies says the film industry is “f — ked.” In many respects, I highly agree with him and his fantastic stump piece speaking on unemployment and the public state of some of those aforementioned #firstworldproblems. Time and patience are the biggest needs.

LESSON #9: “ABSENCE AWAY MAKES THE HEART GROW FONDER” — I’ve used this lesson before in “What We Learned This Week” and it’s time to end with it again. Shed away all the polling and conjecture. We all know the love for movies is there or we wouldn’t be talking about it. Look at the success of early openings and the lined-around-the-block comeback of drive-in movie theaters. It will be a topsy-turvy year, without question, even with a full return. We’ve had a zero-budget film named Unsubscribe streaking at an empty box office only to be dethroned by revival screenings of Jurassic Park putting it back to #1 in the nation, George Foreman-style, 27 years after it last ruled the multiplexes. If the year ended today, Bad Boys For Life would get the “biggest movie of 2020” championship belt in the record books. Just like Field of Dreams says, “people will come.” They just need to wait. Everyone, for that matter, from the greedy studio execs and sidelined movie stars to the lowly theater ushers and concession stand workers, needs to wait. This has sucked and it will keep on sucking, but the best answer is to wait and get through this better and healthier, personally and financially, than rushing and screwing it all up. The movies will be there. We want all the people to be there too.

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newsall2019-blog · 5 years

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The Texas Chain Saw Massacre[note 1] is a 1974 American slasher film directed by Tobe Hooper and written and co-produced by Hooper and Kim Henkel. It stars Marilyn Burns, Paul A. Partain, Edwin Neal, Jim Siedow and Gunnar Hansen, who respectively portray Sally Hardesty, Franklin Hardesty, the hitchhiker, the proprietor, and Leatherface. The film follows a group of friends who fall victim to a family of cannibals while on their way to visit an old homestead. The film was marketed as being based on true events to attract a wider audience and to act as a subtle commentary on the era's political climate; although the character of Leatherface and minor story details were inspired by the crimes of murderer Ed Gein, its plot is largely fictional.

Hooper produced the film for less than $140,000 ($700,000 adjusted for inflation)[3] and used a cast of relatively unknown actors drawn mainly from central Texas, where the film was shot. The limited budget forced Hooper to film for long hours seven days a week, so that he could finish as quickly as possible and reduce equipment rental costs. Due to the film's violent content, Hooper struggled to find a distributor. Louis Perano of Bryanston Pictures eventually purchased the distribution rights. Hooper limited the quantity of onscreen gore in hopes of securing a PG rating, but the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) rated it R. The film faced similar difficulties internationally.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was banned in several countries, and numerous theaters stopped showing the film in response to complaints about its violence. While it initially drew a mixed reception from critics, it was highly profitable, grossing over $30 million at the domestic box office, equivalent with roughly over $150.8 million as of 2018, selling over 16.5 million tickets in 1974. It has since gained a reputation as one of the best and most influential horror films. It is credited with originating several elements common in the slasher genre, including the use of power tools as murder weapons, the characterization of the killer as a large, hulking, faceless figure, and the killing of victims. It led to a franchise that continued the story of Leatherface and his family through sequels, prequels, a remake, comic books and video games.

Sally Hardesty, her paraplegic brother Franklin, and their friends, Jerry, Kirk, and Pam visit the grave of the Hardestys' grandfather to investigate reports of vandalism and grave robbing. Afterwards, they decide to visit the old Hardesty family homestead. Along the way, they pick up a hitchhiker, who talks about his family who worked at the old slaughterhouse. He borrows Franklin's pocket knife and cuts himself, then takes a single Polaroid picture of Franklin, for which he demands money. When they refuse to pay, he burns the photo, and slashes Franklin's left arm with a straight razor. The group forces him out of the van and drive on. They stop at a gas station to refill their vehicle, but the proprietor tells them that the pumps are empty.

They continue toward the homestead, intending to return to the gas station once it has received a fuel delivery. When they arrive, Franklin tells Kirk and Pam about a local swimming-hole, and the couple go to find it. They stumble upon a nearby house, and Kirk calls out for gas, entering through the unlocked door, while Pam waits outside. Leatherface, a large mute man wearing a mask made from human skin, suddenly appears and kills Kirk with a hammer. Pam enters soon after, and trips into a room filled with furniture made from human bones. She attempts to flee, but Leatherface catches her, and impales her on a meathook, making her watch as he butchers Kirk with a chainsaw. Jerry heads out to look for Pam and Kirk at sunset. He sees the house and finds Pam, still alive, inside a freezer. Before he can react, Leatherface kills him.

With darkness falling, Sally and Franklin set out to find their friends. As they near the neighboring house and call out, Leatherface lunges from the darkness and kills Franklin with a chainsaw. Sally runs toward the house, and finds the desiccated remains of an elderly couple upstairs. She escapes from Leatherface by jumping through a second-floor window, and flees to the gas station. The proprietor calms her with offers of help, but then ties her up, gags her, and forces her into his truck. He drives to the house, arriving at the same time as the hitchhiker, now revealed as Leatherface's brother. The hitchhiker recognizes Sally, and taunts her.

The men torment the bound and gagged Sally while Leatherface, now dressed as a woman, serves dinner. Leatherface and the hitchhiker bring down one of the desiccated bodies from upstairs, that of their Grandpa. He is revealed to be alive when he sucks blood from a cut on Sally's finger. They decide that Grandpa, the best killer in the old slaughterhouse, should kill Sally. He tries to hit her with a hammer, but he is too weak. In the ensuing struggle, she breaks free, leaps through a window, and flees to the road. Leatherface and the hitchhiker give chase, but the latter is run over and killed by a passing truck. Leatherface attacks the truck with his chainsaw, and when the driver stops to help he knocks Leatherface down with a pipe wrench, causing the chainsaw to cut his leg. The driver flees, and Sally escapes in the back of a passing pickup truck as Leatherface maniacally flails his chainsaw in the air.

Production

Development

The concept for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre arose in the early 1970s while Tobe Hooper was working as an assistant film director at the University of Texas at Austin and as a documentary cameraman.[6] He had already developed a story involving the elements of isolation, the woods, and darkness.[7] He credited the graphic coverage of violence by San Antonio news outlets as one inspiration for the film[8] and based elements of the plot on murderer Ed Gein, who committed his crimes in 1950s Wisconsin;[9] Gein inspired other horror films such as Psycho (1960) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991).[10][11][12][13] During development, Hooper used the working titles of Headcheese and Leatherface.[14][15]

I definitely studied Gein ... but I also noticed a murder case in

Houston

at the time, a serial murderer you probably remember named

Elmer Wayne Henley

. He was a young man who recruited victims for

an older homosexual man

. I saw some news report where Elmer Wayne ... said, "I did these crimes, and I'm gonna stand up and take it like a man." Well, that struck me as interesting, that he had this conventional morality at that point. He wanted it known that, now that he was caught, he would do the right thing. So this kind of moral schizophrenia is something I tried to build into the characters.

— Kim Henkel[16][17]

Hooper has cited changes in the cultural and political landscape as central influences on the film. His intentional misinformation, that the "film you are about to see is true", was a response to being "lied to by the government about things that were going on all over the world", including Watergate, the 1973 oil crisis, and "the massacres and atrocities in the Vietnam War".[8] The "lack of sentimentality and the brutality of things" that Hooper noticed while watching the local news, whose graphic coverage was epitomized by "showing brains spilled all over the road", led to his belief that "man was the real monster here, just wearing a different face, so I put a literal mask on the monster in my film".[11] The idea of using a chainsaw as the murder weapon came to Hooper while he was in the hardware section of a busy store, contemplating how to speed his way through the crowd.[12]

Hooper and Kim Henkel cowrote the screenplay and formed Vortex, Inc.[18] with Henkel as president and Hooper as vice president.[19] They asked Bill Parsley, a friend of Hooper, to provide funding. Parsley formed a company named MAB, Inc. through which he invested $60,000 in the production. In return, MAB owned 50% of the film and its profits.[20] Production manager Ron Bozman told most of the cast and crew that he would have to defer part of their salaries until after it was sold to a distributor. Vortex made the idea more attractive by awarding them a share of its potential profits, ranging from 0.25 to 6%, similar to mortgage points. The cast and crew were not informed that Vortex owned only 50%, which meant their points were worth half of the assumed value.[19][21]

CastingMain article:

List of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre characters

ActorRole

Marilyn Burns

Sally Hardesty

Allen Danziger

Jerry

Paul A. Partain

Franklin Hardesty

William VailKirk

Teri McMinn

Pam

Edwin Neal

"The Hitchhiker" Nubbins Sawyer

Jim Siedow

"The Proprietor" Drayton Sawyer

Gunnar Hansen

Leatherface

John Dugan

Grandpa Sawyer

John Larroquette

Narrator

Many of the cast members at the time were relatively unknown actors—Texans who had played roles in commercials, television, and stage shows, as well as performers whom Hooper knew personally, such as Allen Danziger and Jim Siedow.[22][23][24] Involvement in the film propelled some of them into the motion picture industry. The lead role of Sally was given to Marilyn Burns, who had appeared previously on stage and served on the film commission board at UT Austin while studying there.[23] Teri McMinn was a student who worked with local theater companies, including the Dallas Theater Center.[23] Henkel called McMinn to come in for a reading after he spotted her picture in the Austin American-Statesman.[25] For her last call-back he requested that she wear short shorts, which proved to be the most comfortable of all the cast members' costumes.[23]

Icelandic-American actor Gunnar Hansen was selected for the role of Leatherface.[26] He regarded Leatherface as being mentally retarded and having never learned to speak properly. To research his character in preparation for his role, Hansen visited a special needs school and watched how the students moved and spoke.[12][27] John Larroquette performed the narration in the opening credits.[28]

Filming

The farmhouse used for

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

was moved from

La Frontera

Kingsland, Texas

, and restored as a restaurant.

[29]

The primary filming location was an early 1900s farmhouse located on Quick Hill Road near Round Rock, Texas, where the La Frontera development is now located.[29] The small budget and concerns over high-cost equipment rentals meant the crew filmed seven days a week, up to 16 hours a day. The environment was humid[21][30] and the cast and crew found conditions tough; temperatures peaked at 110°F (43 °C) on July 26.[31] Hansen later recalled, "It was 95, 100 degrees every day during filming. They wouldn't wash my costume because they were worried that the laundry might lose it, or that it would change color. They didn't have enough money for a second costume. So I wore that [mask] 12 to 16 hours a day, seven days a week, for a month."[32]

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was mainly shot using an Eclair NPR 16mm camera[14][33] with fine-grain, low-speed film that required four times more light than modern digital cameras.[34] Most of the filming took place in the farmhouse, which was filled with furniture constructed from animal bones and a latex material used as upholstery to give the appearance of human skin.[35] The house was not cooled, and there was little ventilation. The crew covered its walls with drops of animal blood obtained from a local slaughterhouse.[8] Art director Robert A. Burns drove around the countryside and collected the remains of cattle and other animals in various stages of decomposition, with which he littered the floors of the house.[35]

The special effects were simple and limited by the budget.[36] The on-screen blood was real in some cases,[37] such as the scene in which Leatherface feeds "Grandpa". The crew had difficulty getting the stage blood to come out of its tube, so instead Burns's index finger was cut with a razor.[38] Burns's costume was so drenched with stage blood that it was "virtually solid" by the last day of shooting.[23] The scene in which Leatherface kills Kirk with a chainsaw worried actor William Vail (Kirk). After telling Vail to stay still lest he really be killed, Hansen brought the running chainsaw to within 3 inches (8 cm) of Vail's face.[33] A real hammer was used for the climactic scene at the end, with some takes also featuring a mock-up. However, the actor playing Grandpa was aiming for the floor rather than his victim's head.[39] Still, the shoot was somewhat dangerous, with Hooper noting at the wrap party that all cast members had obtained some level of injury. He stated that "everyone hated me by the end of the production" and that "it just took years for them to kind of cool off."[39][40]

Post-production

The production exceeded its original $60,000 (about $305,000 adjusted for inflation) budget during editing.[41] Sources differ on the film's final cost, offering figures between $93,000 (about $472,000 inflation-adjusted) and $300,000 (about $1,500,000 inflation-adjusted).[26][42][43][44] A film production group, Pie in the Sky, provided $23,532 (about $120,000 inflation-adjusted) in exchange for 19% of Vortex.[45] This left Henkel, Hooper and the rest of the cast and crew with a 40.5% stake.[19] Warren Skaaren, then head of the Texas Film Commission, helped secure the distribution deal with Bryanston Pictures.[20] David Foster, producer of the 1982 horror film The Thing, arranged for a private screening for some of Bryanston Pictures' West Coast executives, and received 1.5% of Vortex's profits and a deferred fee of $500 (about $2,500 inflation-adjusted).[19]

On August 28, 1974, Louis Peraino of Bryanston agreed to distribute the film worldwide, from which Bozman and Skaaren would receive $225,000 (about $1,100,000 inflation-adjusted) and 35% of the profits. Years later Bozman stated, "We made a deal with the devil, [sigh], and I guess that, in a way, we got what we deserved."[19] They signed the contract with Bryanston and, after the investors recouped their money (with interest),—and after Skaaren, the lawyers, and the accountants were paid—only $8,100 (about $41,200 inflation-adjusted) was left to be divided among the 20 cast and crew members.[19] Eventually the producers sued Bryanston for failing to pay them their full percentage of the box office profits. A court judgment instructed Bryanston to pay the filmmakers $500,000 (about $2,500,000 inflation-adjusted), but by then the company had declared bankruptcy. In 1983 New Line Cinema acquired the distribution rights from Bryanston and gave the producers a larger share of the profits.[46]

Release

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre premiered in Austin, Texas, on October 1, 1974, almost a year after filming concluded. It screened nationally in the United States as a Saturday afternoon matinée and its false marketing as a "true story" helped it attract a broad audience.[47][48] For eight years after 1976, it was annually reissued to first-run theaters, promoted by full-page ads.[49] The film eventually grossed more than $30 million in the United States and Canada[50] ($14.4 million in rentals), making it the 12th highest-grossing film initially released in 1974, despite its minuscule budget.[51] Among independent films, it was overtaken in 1978 by John Carpenter's Halloween, which grossed $47 million.[52]

The film which you are about to see is an account of the tragedy which befell a group of five youths, in particular Sally Hardesty and her invalid brother, Franklin. [...]

— The opening crawl falsely suggests that the film is based on true events, a conceit that contributed to its success.

Hooper reportedly hoped that the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) would give the complete, uncut release print a "PG" rating due to its minimal amount of visible gore.[53][54][55] Instead, it was originally rated "X". After several minutes were cut, it was resubmitted to the MPAA and received an "R" rating. A distributor apparently restored the offending material, and at least one theater presented the full version under an "R".[56] In San Francisco, cinema-goers walked out of theaters in disgust[57] and in February 1976, two theaters in Ottawa, Canada, were advised by local police to withdraw the film lest they face morality charges.[58]

After its initial British release, including a one-year theatrical run in London,[59] The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was initially banned on the advice of British Board of Film Censors (BBFC) Secretary Stephen Murphy, and subsequently by his successor, James Ferman.[60][61] While the British ban was in force the word "chainsaw" itself was barred from movie titles, forcing imitators to rename their films.[62] In 1998, despite the BBFC ban, Camden London Borough Council granted the film a license.[63] The following year the BBFC passed The Texas Chain Saw Massacre for release with an 18 certificate (indicating that it should not be seen or purchased by a person under 18),[64] and it was broadcast a year later on Channel 4.[65][66]

The Australian censors refused to classify the 83-minute version of the film in June 1975;[67] the board similarly refused classification of a 77-minute print in December that year.[68] In 1981, an 83-minute version submitted by Greater Union Organization Film Distributors was again refused registration.[69] It was later submitted by Filmways Australia and approved for an "R" rating in 1984.[70][71] It was banned for periods in many other countries, including Brazil, Chile, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Singapore, Sweden and West Germany.[72][73][74] In Sweden, it would also symbolize a video nasty, a discussed topic at the time.[75]

Reception

Critical response

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre received a mixed reaction upon its initial release. Linda Gross of the Los Angeles Times called it "despicable" and described Henkel and Hooper as more concerned with creating a realistic atmosphere than with its "plastic script".[76] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times said it was "as violent and gruesome and blood-soaked as the title promises", yet praised its acting and technical execution.[77][78] Donald B. Berrigan of The Cincinnati Enquirer praised the lead performance of Burns: "Marilyn Burns, as Sally, deserves a special Academy Award for one of the most sustained and believable acting achievements in movie history."[79] Patrick Taggart of the Austin American-Statesman hailed it as the most important horror film since George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968).[80] Variety found the picture to be well-made, despite what it called the "heavy doses of gore".[81] John McCarty of Cinefantastique stated that the house featured in the film made the Bates motel "look positively pleasant by comparison".[82] Revisiting the film in his 1976 article "Fashions in Pornography" for Harper's Magazine, Stephen Koch found its sadistic violence to be extreme and unimaginative.[83]

Horror and exploitation films almost always turn a profit if they're brought in at the right price. So they provide a good starting place for ambitious would-be filmmakers who can't get more conventional projects off the ground.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

belongs in a select company (with

Night of the Living Dead

and

Last House on the Left

) of films that are really a lot better than the genre requires. Not, however, that you'd necessarily enjoy seeing it.

— Roger Ebert, writing for the Chicago Sun-Times[77]

Critics later frequently praised both the film's aesthetic quality and its power. Observing that it managed to be "horrifying without being a bloodbath (you'll see more gore in a Steven Seagal film)", Bruce Westbrook of the Houston Chronicle called it "a backwoods masterpiece of fear and loathing".[84] TV Guide thought it was "intelligent" in its "bloodless depiction of violence",[85] while Anton Bitel felt the fact that it was banned in the United Kingdom was a tribute to its artistry. He pointed out how the quiet sense of foreboding at the beginning of the film grows, until the viewer experiences "a punishing assault on the senses".[86] In Hick Flicks: The Rise and Fall of Redneck Cinema, Scott Von Doviak commended its effective use of daylight shots, unusual among horror films, such as the sight of a corpse draped over a tombstone in the opening sequence.[87] Mike Emery of The Austin Chronicle praised the film's "subtle touches"—such as radio broadcasts heard in the background describing grisly murders around Texas—and said that what made it so dreadful was that it never strayed too far from potential reality.[88]

It has often been described as one of the scariest films of all time.[89] Rex Reed called it the most terrifying film he had ever seen.[90] Empire described it as "the most purely horrifying horror movie ever made" and called it "never less than totally committed to scaring you witless".[91] Reminiscing about his first viewing of the film, horror director Wes Craven recalled wondering "what kind of Mansonite crazoid" could have created such a thing.[92] It is a work of "cataclysmic terror", in the words of horror novelist Stephen King, who declared, "I would happily testify to its redeeming social merit in any court in the country."[93] Critic Robin Wood found it one of the few horror films to possess "the authentic quality of nightmare".[94] Based on 58 reviews published since 2000, the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 88% of critics gave it a positive review, with an average score of 7.9/10. The site's critical consensus states, "Thanks to a smart script and documentary-style camerawork, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre achieves start-to-finish suspense, making it a classic in low-budget exploitation cinema."[95]

Cultural impact

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is considered one of the greatest—and most controversial—of horror films,[96][97] and a major influence on the genre.[44][98] In 1999 Richard Zoglin of Time commented that it had "set a new standard for slasher films".[99] The Times listed it as one of the 50 most controversial films of all time.[100] Tony Magistrale believes the film paved the way for horror to be used as a vehicle for social commentary.[101] Describing it as "cheap, grubby and out of control", Mark Olsen of the Los Angeles Times declared that it "both defines and entirely supersedes the very notion of the exploitation picture".[102] In his book Dark Romance: Sexuality in the Horror Film, David Hogan called it "the most affecting gore thriller of all and, in a broader view, among the most effective horror films ever made ... the driving force of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is something far more horrible than aberrant sexuality: total insanity."[103][104] According to Bill Nichols, it "achieves the force of authentic art, profoundly disturbing, intensely personal, yet at the same time far more than personal".[105] Leonard Wolf praised the film as "an exquisite work of art" and compared it to a Greek tragedy, noting the lack of onscreen violence.[106]

Leatherface has gained a reputation as a significant character in the horror genre,[107][108] responsible for establishing the use of conventional tools as murder weapons and the image of a large, silent killer devoid of personality.[109][110] Christopher Null of Filmcritic.com said, "In our collective consciousness, Leatherface and his chainsaw have become as iconic as Freddy and his razors or Jason and his hockey mask."[111] Don Sumner called The Texas Chain Saw Massacre a classic that not only introduced a new villain to the horror pantheon but also influenced an entire generation of filmmakers.[112] According to Rebecca Ascher-Walsh of Entertainment Weekly, it laid the foundations for the Halloween, Evil Dead, and Blair Witch horror franchises.[113] Wes Craven crafted his 1977 film The Hills Have Eyes as an homage to Massacre,[114] while Ridley Scott cited Hooper's film as an inspiration for his 1979 film Alien.[115][116] French director Alexandre Aja credited it as an early influence on his career.[117] Horror filmmaker and heavy metal musician Rob Zombie sees it as a major influence on his work, including his films House of 1000 Corpses (2003) and The Devil's Rejects (2005).[118][119]

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was selected for the 1975 Cannes Film Festival Directors' Fortnight[59] and London Film Festival.[51] In 1976, it won the Special Jury Prize at the Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival in France.[120] Entertainment Weekly ranked the film sixth on its 2003 list of "The Top 50 Cult Films".[121] In a 2005 Total Film poll, it was selected as the greatest horror film of all time.[96][122] It was named among Time's top 25 horror films in 2007.[123] In 2008 the film ranked number 199 on Empire magazine's list of "The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time".[124] Empire also ranked it 46th in its list of the 50 greatest independent films.[125] In a 2010 Total Film poll, it was again selected as the greatest horror film; the judging panel included veteran horror directors such as John Carpenter, Wes Craven, and George A. Romero.[126] In 2010, as well, The Guardian ranked it number 14 on its list of the top 25 horror films.[127] It was also voted the greatest horror film of all time in Slant Magazine's 2013 list of the greatest horror films of all time.[128] It was also voted the scariest movie of all time in a 2017 list by Complex[129] and voted the best horror movie of all time in a 2017 list by Thrillist.[130] It was also voted the scariest movie of all time in a 2018 list by Consequence of Sound[131] and voted the best horror movie of all time in a 2018 list by Esquire.[132]

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was inducted into the Horror Hall of Fame in 1990, with director Hooper accepting the award,[133] and it is part of the permanent collection of New York City's Museum of Modern Art.[44] In 2012, the film was named by critics in the British Film Institute's Sight & Sound magazine as one of the 250 greatest films.[134] The Academy Film Archive houses the Texas Chain Saw Massacre collection, which contains over 50 items in a collection representing many original elements of the film.[135]

Themes and analysis

Contemporary American lifeHooper's apocalyptic landscape is ... a desert wasteland of dissolution where once vibrant myth is desiccated. The ideas and iconography of

Cooper

Bret Harte

and

Francis Parkman

are now transmogrified into yards of dying cattle, abandoned gasoline stations, defiled graveyards, crumbling mansions, and a ramshackle farmhouse of psychotic killers.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

[is] ... recognizable as a statement about the dead end of American experience.

— Christopher Sharrett[136]

Critic Christopher Sharrett argues that since Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) and The Birds (1963), the American horror film has been defined by the questions it poses "about the fundamental validity of the American civilizing process",[137] concerns amplified during the 1970s by the "delegitimation of authority in the wake of Vietnam and Watergate".[138] "If Psycho began an exploration of a new sense of absurdity in contemporary life, of the collapse of causality and the diseased underbelly of American Gothic", he writes, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre "carries this exploration to a logical conclusion, addressing many of the issues of Hitchcock's film while refusing comforting closure".[139]

Robin Wood characterizes Leatherface and his family as victims of industrial capitalism, their jobs as slaughterhouse workers having been rendered obsolete by technological advances.[140] He states that the picture "brings to focus a spirit of negativity ... that seems to lie not far below the surface of the modern collective consciousness".[141] Naomi Merritt explores the film's representation of "cannibalistic capitalism" in relation to Georges Bataille's theory of taboo and transgression.[142] She elaborates on Wood's analysis, stating that the Sawyer family's values "reflect, or correspond to, established and interdependent American institutions ... but their embodiment of these social units is perverted and transgressive."[143]

In Kim Newman's view, Hooper's presentation of the Sawyer family during the dinner scene parodies a typical American sitcom family: the gas station owner is the bread-winning father figure; the killer Leatherface is depicted as a bourgeois housewife; the hitchhiker acts as the rebellious teenager.[144] Isabel Cristina Pinedo, author of Recreational Terror: Women and the Pleasures of Horror Film Viewing, states, "The horror genre must keep terror and comedy in tension if it is to successfully tread the thin line that separates it from terrorism and parody ... this delicate balance is struck in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in which the decaying corpse of Grandpa not only incorporates horrific and humorous effects, but actually uses one to exacerbate the other."[145]

Violence against women

The underlying themes of the film have been the subject of extensive critical discussion; critics and scholars have interpreted it as a paradigmatic exploitation film in which female protagonists are subjected to brutal, sadistic violence.[146][147] Stephen Prince comments that the horror is "born of the torment of the young woman subjected to imprisonment and abuse amid decaying arms... and mobiles made of human bones and teeth."[148] As with many horror films, it focuses on the "final girl" trope—the heroine and inevitable lone survivor who somehow escapes the horror that befalls the other characters:[149][150] Sally Hardesty is wounded and tortured, yet manages to survive with the help of a male truck driver.[151] Critics argue that even in exploitation films in which the ratio of male and female deaths is roughly equal, the images that linger will be of the violence committed against the female characters.[149][152][153] The specific case of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre provides support for this argument: three men are killed in quick fashion, but one woman is brutally slaughtered—hung on a meathook—and the surviving woman endures physical and mental torture.[154] In 1977, critic Mary Mackey described the meathook scene as probably the most brutal onscreen female death in any commercially distributed film.[155] She placed it in a lineage of violent films that depict women as weak and incapable of protecting themselves.[155]

In one study, a group of men were shown five films depicting differing levels of violence against women.[156] On first viewing The Texas Chain Saw Massacre they experienced symptoms of depression and anxiety; however, upon subsequent viewing they found the violence against women less offensive and more enjoyable.[154] Another study, investigating gender-specific perceptions of slasher films, involved 30 male and 30 female university students.[157] One male participant described the screaming, especially Sally's, as the "most freaky thing" in the film.[157]

According to Jesse Stommel of Bright Lights Film Journal, the lack of explicit violence in the film forces viewers to question their own fascination with violence that they play a central role in imagining.[158] Nonetheless—citing its feverish camera moves, repeated bursts of light, and auditory pandemonium—Stommel asserts that it involves the audience primarily on a sensory rather than an intellectual level.[158]

Vegetarianism

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre has been described as "the ultimate pro-vegetarian film" due to its animal rights themes. In a video essay, film critic Rob Ager describes the irony in humans being slaughtered for meat, putting humans in the position of being slaughtered like farm animals. Director Tobe Hooper has confirmed that "it's a film about meat"[159] and even gave up meat while making the film, saying, "In a way I thought the heart of the film was about meat; it’s about the chain of life and killing sentient beings."[160][161] Writer-director Guillermo Del Toro became a vegetarian for a time after seeing the film.[162]

Post-release

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

screening at the

Hollywood Theatre

Portland, Oregon

, in July 2014.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre has appeared on various home video formats. In the US, it was first released on videotape and CED in the early 1980s by Wizard Video and Vestron Video.[163][164] The British Board of Film Classification had long since refused a certification for the uncut theatrical version and in 1984 they also refused to certify it for home video, amid a moral panic surrounding "video nasties".[165] After the retirement of BBFC Director James Ferman in 1999, the board passed the film uncut for theatrical and video distribution with an 18 certificate, almost 25 years after the original release.[166] The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was initially released on DVD in October 1998 in the United States,[167] May 2000 in the United Kingdom[168] and 2001 in Australia.

In 2005 the film received a 2K scan and full restoration from the original 16mm A/B rolls,[169] which was subsequently released on DVD and Blu-ray. In 2014 a more extensive 4K restoration, supervised by Hooper, using the original 16mm A/B reversal rolls, was carried out.[170] After a screening in the Directors' Fortnight section of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival,[171] this was also released on DVD and Blu-ray worldwide. Dark Sky Films' US 40th Anniversary Edition was nominated for Best DVD/BD Special Edition Release at the 2015 Saturn Awards.[172]

In 1982, shortly after The Texas Chain Saw Massacre established itself as a success on US home video, Wizard Video released a mass-market video game adaptation for the Atari 2600.[173] In the game, the player assumes the role of Leatherface and attempts to murder trespassers while avoiding obstacles such as fences and cow skulls.[173] As one of the first horror-themed video games, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre caused controversy when it was first released due to its violent nature; it sold poorly as a result, because many game stores refused to stock it.[174][175]

The film has been followed by seven other films to date, including sequels, prequels and remakes. The first sequel, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986), was considerably more graphic and violent than the original and was banned in Australia for 20 years before it was released on DVD in a revised special edition in October 2006.[176] Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990) was the second sequel to appear, though Hooper did not return to direct due to scheduling conflicts with another film, Spontaneous Combustion.[177] Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation, starring Renée Zellweger and Matthew McConaughey, was released in 1995. While briefly acknowledging the events of the preceding two sequels, its plot makes it a virtual remake of the 1974 original.[178] A straight remake, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, was released by Platinum Dunes and New Line Cinema in 2003.[179] It was followed by a prequel, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, in 2006. A seventh film, Texas Chainsaw 3D, was released on January 4, 2013.[179] It is a direct sequel to the original 1974 film, with no relation to the previous sequels, or the 2003 remake.[180][181] Another prequel, Leatherface, was released exclusively to DirecTV on September 21, 2017, before receiving a wider release on video on demand and in limited theaters, simultaneously, in North America on October 20, 2017.[1

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torentialtribute · 5 years

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Sir Dave Brailsford defends backers Ineos with protests set to overshadow debut race

Sir Dave Brailsford defends supporters of Ineos with protests overshadowing the new look debut race

Team Sky changed to Team INEOS at a launch in Yorkshire on Wednesday

Sir Dave Brailsford has been convicted of allowing petrochemical giant to take over his all-dominating cycling team

Press Association Reporter

Published: 15:08 BST, May 1, 2019 | ] where environmental activists are expected to determine the route to express their anger about Ineos' record in the field of fracking and plastics.

It seems to be far removed from Sky & # 39; s & # 39; Pass on plastic & # 39; and & # 39; Ocean Rescue & # 39; campaigns that have decorated horsemen jerseys for the past year, but Brailsford claimed the facts had said otherwise.

<img id = "i-b365481070cab7da" src = "https://dailym.ai/2VGB6dF. jpg "height =" 402 "width =" 634 "alt =" <img id = "i-b365481070cab7da" src = "https://dailym.ai/2Lgwqau -6981011-image-m-78_1556719726174.jpg "height =" 402 "width =" 634 "alt =" Sir Dave Brailsford defended the new owners of his team when Team Sky became Team Ineos

Sir Dave Brailsford defended the new owners of his team when Team Sky became Team Ineos

In conversation with Ineos chairman Sir Jim Ratcliffe and four-time Tour de France winner, Chris Froome, Brailsford said: & I am not an expert in chemicals, I am an expert in trying to make Chris ride his bike faster

& # 39; But when I did, I learned to teach myself. I realized that there is a very simplistic picture and if you dive into it and take the trouble, you see that there is a very different view. I am very satisfied with the situation we are in. & # 39;

Brailsford said Sky had promoted recycling campaigns, & # 39; if anyone can do something about it, it's these guys & # 39 ;.

Ratcliffe defended the business operations of his company by saying that Ineos did groundbreaking work with new methods for recycling plastic.

<img id = "i-121f61d2e5a321df" src = "https://dailym.ai/2VEwkNK -62_1556719500728.jpg "height =" 438 "width =" 634 "alt =" <img id = "i-121f61d2e5a321df" src = "https://dailym.ai/2vwBqgA 15 / 12957768-0-image-a-62_1556719500728.jpg "height =" 438 "width =" 634 "alt =" <img id = "i-121f61d2e5a321df" src = "https://dailym.ai/2uS4u1n /1s/2019/05/01/15/12957768-0-image-a-62_1556719500728.jpg "height =" 438 "width =" 634 "alt =" Team INEOS owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe (L) with Chris Froome (c ) and Brailsford during the launch "INEOS owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe (L) with Chris Froome (c) and Brailsford during the launch"

Team INEOS owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe (L) with Chris Froome (c ) and Brailsford during the launch

Regarding fracking, he said that the majority of environmental groups are & # 39; ignorant & # 39; about the facts and said it was a cheap energy source.

[ 1 9459014] & # 39; I find it outrageous that the government has listened to a noisy, tiny minority instead of looking at science, & # 39; he said. on the side of the road this week, and questions about fracking and plastics dominated the Ineos launch press conference, which was held far away from the public gazing at a secluded North Yorkshire pub.

As the richest man in Britain, Ratcliffe has the deep pockets needed to ensure that the team remains the best funded sport – a budget that has helped them win six of the last seven Tours de France.

We have worked on the Ineos project for 30 years and made it very large and very profitable.

& # 39; Said Ratcliffe

& # 39; We earn US $ 5-7 billion a year in profits, so it is not harmful to invest the modest amount of it in very worthy sporting efforts that we enjoy. If they inspire people for a healthier lifestyle, that's a good thing, but there's nothing wrong with investing money in something that is just fun. I love the theater, I like opera. But I prefer sport. & # 39;

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ultralifehackerguru-blog · 6 years

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New Post has been published on http://www.lifehacker.guru/11-reasons-to-pack-your-bags-and-head-to-seattle-now/

11 Reasons to Pack Your Bags and Head to Seattle Now

Seattle is a place known for having it all: good food, delicious coffee, friendly faces, and a vibrant metropolitan center bubbling over with local flavors. Yes, if you’re looking for an unforgettable time, this seaport city located in the tip-top corner of the Pacific Northwest is the way to go.

But do you want to know why you should pack your bags and head to the Emerald City now? No, not next week, or next month, or even next year — I’m talking right now. Well, simply put, Seattle is so much more than a place to get a tasty meal and a mind-stimulating cup of joe. This is a place echoing with adventure. With majestic mountains in the distance, calming waters within reach, and evergreen forests waiting to be explored, Seattle isn’t just a travel destination . . . it’s a rejuvenating experience. To further the allure, ahead are 11 more reasons to book your trip!

You can kick off your morning with a serene ride around the Puget Sound.

Image Source: Flickr user Ian D. Keating

Because Seattle is situated between the Puget Sound and Lake Washington, it’s no surprise why the majority of locals spend so much time on the water. Not only is this a great gateway for serenity — especially with the gorgeous Mount Rainier in the background — but it’s also the perfect excuse to escape the buzzing city center.

Looking to get on the water yourself? Well, you’re in luck! From ferries to sailboats, there are plenty of options for rides taking place all throughout the day. You can check out the daily schedule here. And although the snow-capped mountain can be quite captivating once you start gliding, don’t forget to look back toward the city, as a breathtaking view of the skyline will be waiting to grab your attention.

There are a ton of happy hour deals, even in the morning!

Image Source: Flickr user Alejandro De La Cruz

Don’t think you’ll need to wait until midafternoon to stumble upon fantastic food and drink deals when in Seattle. When it comes to this corner of the Northwest, this city is known for its budget-friendly finds all day long. Yes, even in the morning!

For instance, if you’re craving hearty breakfast classics, make your way over to the quirky American diner known as 5 Spot. Here, you can score amazing deals starting at 8 a.m. (even on drinks!) every weekday morning. Another happy hour worth noting is the one taking place at Skillet Diner (pictured above). From shrimp and watermelon skewers to hush puppies and garlic hand-cut fries, you’ll find discounts every day of the week.

But if you’re really hungry, be sure to check out Beth’s Cafe. Known for its infamous 12-egg omelet, this eatery is an iconic staple around Seattle and is open around the clock, 24/7!

You can get to know the city from high above by hopping aboard a seaplane.

Image Source: Flickr user Ed Schipul

Forget about climbing to the top of the Space Needle for spectacular views. Why not get to know the city from even higher by hopping aboard a seaplane instead? During this 20-minute ride, you’ll cover over 31 miles of Seattle, taking in both the area’s natural and man-made beauty. And if you don’t want to stop the good times just yet, you can even extend your scenic flight to discover more of the Northwest by checking out the neighboring islands. Talk about an unforgettable experience!

You can travel back in time by climbing atop the city’s oldest skyscraper.

Image Source: Flickr user Tony Kent

While it might not seem as dominating today, Seattle’s renowned Smith Tower used to be among the tallest skyscrapers outside of New York City at the time of its completion in 1914. In fact, it remained the tallest building on the West Coast until the Space Needle took the crown in 1962.

Nonetheless, this 484-foot tower will always be recognized as the oldest skyscraper in this city. Visitors are encouraged to climb the 38 floors to the world-famous observatory and take in the phenomenal 360-degree views of Seattle and beyond!

You can take part in rebuilding a beloved work of art.

Image Source: Flickr user N i c o l a

Looking to contribute to the greatness of Seattle? Well, the Market Theater Gum Wall is the perfect place to do so. Tucked away downtown in Post Alley (right under Pike Place Market), you will find a brick wall covered in used chewing gum. As strange as it might sound, the infamous Gum Wall has become a local landmark over the years.

Although the wall was cleaned back in 2015 — workers removed over 2,350 pounds of gum — it is slowly being rebuilt, one chew at a time. So hey, if you are tired of blowing bubbles and want to contribute your own sticky gum to the wall, you’re encouraged to do so. Just remember to bring hand sanitizer!

You will uncover a new appreciation for books.

Image Source: Flickr user Andrew E. Larsen

Prepare to be amazed once you stumble upon the city’s Central Library. Serving as the flagship for the Seattle Public Library, this 11-story building is way more than a place for book storage. Just one look will be all it takes to realize this glass-and-steel institution is an architectural masterpiece!

As a matter of fact, this building was once voted No. 108 on the American Institute of Architects’ list of Americans’ 150 favorite structures in the United States. With its unique, striking appearance and over 362,000 square feet to explore, this library is certainly worth checking out. You can even join an architecture tour to learn more!

You can become caffeinated in the world’s coffee capital.

Image Source: Flickr user digitalcolony

If you ask me, Seattle and coffee go hand in hand. I mean, hello, it was the first home for Starbucks.

Although the Emerald City is known for having some of the best coffee in the world, these days it’s not the megachains that are brewing the tastiest beans. No, if you want an extraspecial jolt of caffeine, you’ll have to hit up the more local roasters. Just don’t be surprised if it’s love at first sip, as Seattle has built the reputation of being the specialty coffee capital of the entire planet throughout the last few years! So you can rest assured knowing your cup of joe will certainly be one to remember.

Slate, Milstead & Co., and Preserve and Gather are just a few of the many, many beloved cafes scattered around the city.

You can witness the infamous salmon run at the Locks.

Image Source: Flickr user jc.winkler

Witnessing the salmon migration is one experience that should be on everyone’s Seattle bucket list. In fact, these salmon swimming upstream is so mesmerizing, it’s become an annual event in the city called Salmon Seeson. (Get it?)

During this time, you can watch thousands of salmon migrate up the fish ladder in Ballard Locks. Professional naturalists also provide daily talks throughout this celebration and offer free one-hour tours.

There is an abundance of green space and awe-inspiring views.

Image Source: Flickr user Kristin Wall

With jaw-dropping views of downtown Seattle, the Space Needle, Elliot Bay, and — if you’re lucky — Mount Rainier, there is no doubt Kerry Park is one of the most beloved spots in the entire city, both by residents and tourists alike. But what makes this 1.26-acre park even more unique is the serenity that comes along with it, especially as the evening pulls the sun under for the day.

And if you happen to be in the mood for more green space and captivating views, don’t think you’ll have to venture very far, as Parsons Garden — another tranquil hidden gem — is just a short walk away. Furthermore, the lush Green Lake Park and breathtaking Seattle Arboretumare two additional peaceful spots to reconnect with nature.

You can taste what’s in season at one of the country’s oldest farmers markets.

Image Source: Flickr user Michael Righi

Of course, what would be a trip to the Emerald City without stopping by Pike Place Market? While this is the place of the original Starbucks, did you also know it is the home to one of the country’s oldest farmers markets? But wait, it gets better.

Since its opening in 1907, Pike Place Market has transformed into more than just a staple for fruits and veggies. Today, this market is a vibrant, lively community comprising hundreds of farmers, craftspeople, small businesses, and residents. In other words, you’ve got to check it out. And with nine acres to explore, get ready for the ultimate multisensory experience!

Thrills and chills await on the iconic Seattle Great Wheel.

Image Source: Flickr user Edward Kim

Located at Pier 57 on the Puget Sound is where you’ll find the thrilling Seattle Great Wheel. Standing strong at a height of 175 feet, this gigantic, 170,000-pound ride was once the tallest Ferris wheel on the West Coast when it opened in 2012. Nowadays, it’s the ultimate viewing experience. As passengers are lifted high above, they can feast their eyes on magnificent views of the city, sound, and mountains, all while taking in the calming waterfront glistening below their feet.

If you ask me, this is the perfect time to commemorate and reminisce on your Northwest adventure . . . as well as plot your return.

(C)

#Seattle #Travel

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weekendwarriorblog · 6 years

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WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND – Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, Skyscraper and More

With the 4thof July behind us, there are only a few more weeks of July, then we hit August where things can slow down considerably. Every summer, there’s at least one weekend where two movies both have great potential to be #1, and this week is no exception as we have a second sequel to a hit animated movie featuring Adam Sandler and friends, while Dwayne Johnson -- arguably one of the biggest Hollywood stars right now -- offers us something we haven’t seen much this summer… an original movie!

HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 3: SUMMER VACATION (Sony)

I honestly couldn’t tell you if I’ve seen Hotel Transylvania 2, because I just can’t remember, but I did see the original Hotel Transylvania, probably sometime before the Toronto International Film Festival where it premiered. Honestly, I wasn’t too surprised that it was another hit for Adam Sandler before moving over to Netflix, but I didn’t realize it would be his biggest hit.

The original Hotel Transylvania opened in late September 2012 with $42.5 million, the second highest opening for Sandler after The Longest Yard, which got some help by opening on Memorial Day. Its sequel opened three years later with $48.5 million, trashing Sandler’s previous record on its way to $169.7 million, which is also a record for Sandler… and then he went over to Netflix and has been there ever since. It’s hard to believe but this will be Sandler’s first nationwide theatrical release in three years, although it’s hard to tell whether his presence of that of any of the voice cast will be that much of a draw rather than the characters and situation.

Family cruises are fairly typical things these days that will give this film a relatability that might have been missing from the previous movies, although we’re still dealing with a comedy featuring some of the greatest movie monsters of all time (or rather versions of them). Animation king Genndy Tartakovsky is back helming the third movie, this time co-writing it as well, as Sandler focuses on his Netflix stuff but still provides his voice and sense of humor as well as all his friends… and the always great Mel Brooks once again voices Dracula’s father.

Not sure what more can be said about Hotel Transylvania 3 other than the fact it’s the first in the series to get a summer release (after getting a kick-off at Cannes!), and it has a number of distinct advantages over Dwayne Johnson’s new action-thriller Skyscraper in that it will be in more theaters (over 4,000) and it has relatively little family competition, basically The Incredibles II in its fifth weekend (so that will likely lose a few hundred screens).

Another thing to consider is that family sequels don’t always do well as previous movies, although that hasn’t always been the case with animated movies (as was the case with Pixar’s sequels). That said, last year’s Despicable Me 3 had a noticeable dip from the previous movie, though.

It seems likely that this movie will have another $40 million plus opening, but we’ll have to see if it does more than $45 million or spreads its business out over the rest of summer, and Hotel Transylvania 3 should be good for $130 million or so domestically.

SKYSCRAPER (Legendary/Universal)

Next up is that Dwayne Johnson movie, an action-thriller that reunites him with Central Intelligence director Rawson Marshall Thurber, as well as with Legendary and Universal, the latter who wisely brought Johnson onto 2011’s Fast Five, which in turn helped solidify the former WWE superstar as a bankable box office star.

Central Intelligence did well enough in the summer of 2016 by teaming Johnson with Kevin Hart to the tune of $127 million domestic and $217 million worldwide that Johnson and Thurber looked for another project when Skyscrapercame along. By now, you’ve already seen the trailer which makes the movie look a lot like a modern-day pastiche of Die Hard meets The Towering Inferno with Johnson trying to rescue his family, who are trapped high up in a skyscraper. This is new territory for Thurber, who had comedy hits with 2004′s Dodgeball (a cult classic, for sure) and 2013’s We’re the Millers before directing Johnson and Hart in their 2016 hit.

Johnson had an interesting year in 2017, as The Fate of the Furious dipped from 2015’s franchise record-holder Furious 7, but still grossed $226 million domestic. Paramount’s failed Baywatch remake followed a month later, and that bombed with just $58 million domestic, but Johnson ended the year with Sony’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, which reunited him with Hart. That opened meekly with $36.2 million before Christmas, but then it exploded over the holidays and in January of this year, grossing an astonishing $404 million. That’s about as good an example as any that if a movie is good and funny and delivers an experience as good or better than trailers, then it will have decent legs. In April, Johnson starred in Rampage, which looked like a summer blockbuster with giant monsters, but that barely hit $100 million after opening with around $36 million.

In fact, a $35 to 36 million opening is a pretty solid benchmark for Johnson other than Baywatch, and reviews which broke on Tuesday have generally been better than expected.

Basically, this should end up in that same $35 to 36 million range, which puts it in direct competition with last week’s Ant-Man and the Wasp for second place, and that should be a fairly tight race. Then again, with the summer heat and humidity and audiences looking for something to see, this could be a better choice than the Marvel movie and the animated one, so it could break out and surprise.

Mini-Review: Let’s face it that if you’re interested in seeing this movie, it’s because you’re a fan of Dwayne Johnson, and Johnson’s fans probably won’t be disappointed, because Skyscrapergives him another chance to basically be… Dwayne Johnson. It’s actually kind of funny that an actor with so little range could become one of the world’s biggest action stars, but maybe that’s what’s necessary, since none of the past great – Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Willis, Van Damme, etc. – had that much range, but they were good at doing what they did, and people loved them for it.

In this case, Johnson is Will Sawyer, some sort of military hostage negotiator who is injured on duty but has an opportunity to get a job as the security advisor for the hi-tech Hong Kong high-rise The Pearl. In fact, he moves his whole family in as the Pearl is getting ready to open its residential floors, but he soon learns that the friend who got him the gig is actually part of a plan to destroy the tower and its billionaire creator Zhao Long Ji (Chin Han) by the evil mercenary Kores Botha (Roland Møller).

That’s probably the best I can do with the plot since I was pretty distracted as the film started by a group of “seat-fillers” being herded in, including the one who knocked over a large soda that was pooling by my feet as the film began. Needless to say, it’s a far more complicated plot than should be necessary in trying to explain what the bad guys are doing there and how Will’s family ends up trapped in this enormous building on fire.

Sure, there are lots of questions and problems because the general concept is so ridiculous at times, as is The Pearl itself. While Will is being given the grand tour, he is shown so much high-tech stuff that clearly is only there to act as a plot device later in the film, and that’s exactly what happens. But Johnson himself is quite good, as is Neve Campbell, who is terrific as his wife, and even the kids are decent, but they can’t make up for some of the over-the-top performances from Møller and Noah Taylor as the building’s insurance broker who is so clearly tied to the terrorists.

Put it this way, Skyscraper is better than Central Intelligence in the same way that Rampage was better than San Andreas, and this is about as much fun as Rampage despite it not being even remotely a comedy and being more in the disaster realm of San Andreas. Got all that?

There are more than enough nail-biting moments and solid action scenes that you can almost forgive the weak script and the low-budget casting to allow the majority of the budget to be used on the CG-heavy setting and Johnson himself.

Rating: 7/10

SORRY TO BOTHER YOU (Annapurna Pictures)

Beyond the two wide releases, Annapurna Pictures will be expanding Boots Riley’s much-lauded directorial debut into 805 theaters* on Friday and with so many weak offerings in the bottom half of the top 10, there’s a good chance it can end up as high as 7thplace with just under $4 million. It’s all going to depend on how many theaters Sicario and Uncle Drew retain, since they’re shooting for around the same general $3.5 to 4 million territory.

Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man and the Wasp opened below expectations, probably not helped by it being released during the quiet weekend post 4thof July, but we’ll have to see how it holds up in its second weekend, because it has direct competition for family audiences and for older males from the new movies.

1. Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (Sony Pictures Animation) - $43.6 million N/A

2. Skyscraper (Legendary/Universal) - $36.3 million N/A

3. Ant-Man and the Wasp (Marvel/Disney) - $35 million -54%

4. The Incredibles 2 (Disney-Pixar) - $17.1 milliom -40%

5. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (Universal) - $13.5 million -53%

6. The First Purge (Blumhouse/Universal) - $8 million -55%

7. Sorry to Bother You (Annapurna) - $4 million*

8. Sicario: Day of the Soldado (Sony) - $3.6 million

9. Uncle Drew (Lionsgate) - $3.5 million

10. Ocean’s 8 (Warner Bros.) - $3 million -40%

*Upped this number to reflect the 800+ theaters that will be playing Boots Riley’s directorial debut

Before I get to this week’s limited releases, I want to give a shout-out to the annual FANTASIA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL of Montreal, which kicks off on Thursday with the World Premiere of Mick Garris’ Nightmare Cinema, the Asian film Last Child and Daniel Roby’s Dans la Brume. One can expect a bunch of movies that have played previous festivals like Fantastic Fest and Sundance including Panos Costmatos’ Mandy, starring Nicolas Cage and Andrea Riseborough, Piercing, Summer of ’84 and Anna and the Apocalypse (none of which I’ve seen yet!), while also having a premiere screening of Blumhouse’s upcoming horror sequel Unfriended: Dark Web. I’m still dying to see Jenn Wexler’s The Ranger, the directorial debut from Larry Fessenden’s wife/producer, and I’m also interested in Yoko Yamanaka’s Amiko and Robert Krzykowski’s The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot, starring the great Sam Elliot, who will be there in person.I’m not going to be able to go to Montreal this year for the festival, which runs through early August, but I hope to catch some of the films I haven’t seen remotely via links once the World Cup ends.

LIMITED RELEASES

There are two really solid specialty releases this weekend and another one that’s pretty decent. (And unfortunately, due to time issues, I wasn’t able to finish this up but will have the rest added by sometime Friday morning.)

Comedian, actor and musician Bo Burnham’s directorial debut Eighth Grade (A24) was one of my favorite movies from Sundance, this one starring newcomer Elsie Fisher as 13-year-old Kayla, who has to get through her last week of middle school with hopes of making a mark after being selected as “Most Quiet.” It’s an amazing coming-of-age film on par with last year’s Lady Bird that shows off the great talent of Fisher and Josh Hamilton as her father. I wrote more about this fantastic film out of Sundance, but don’t let this one pass you by because you may be worn out on coming of age films.

I also can highly recommend Rob Reiner’s Shock and Awe (Vertical/DirecTV), which is getting a moderate release into a couple hundred theaters this weekend. This one is a political drama about the reporters at the small Knight Ridder news network, who questioned America’s decision to go to war in Iraq after 9/11. It stars Woody Harrelson, James Marsden, Tommy Lee Jones and Reiner himself as the journalist who tried to get the story on record and ended up being the only ones to “get it right.” Honestly, this is one of Reiner’s best films in years, pretty much his Spotlight or The Post, part of which can be credited to screenwriter Joey Hartstone, who was able to cull the life stories of journalists Joseph Galloway, Jonathan Landay, Warren Strobel and John Walcott into a fantastically entertaining film. Don’t miss this one either!

Also good and worth checking out is Gus Van Sant’s Don’t Worry He Won’t Get Far On Foot (Amazon), a biopic (of sorts) about Seattle cartoonist John Callahan, as played by Joaquin Phoenix, a man who was paralyzed after being a passenger in a drunk driving car accident (driven by a completely blotto Jack Black). The film follows John’s battle against alcoholism, helped by a new-agey guru, played by Jonah Hill, and an odd group of people offering support. The cast also includes Rooney Mara, Carrie Brownstein from Portlandia and Kim Gordon, formerly of Sonic Youth.

Another artist biopic is Gaugin: Voyage to Tahiti (Cohen Media), starring Vincent Cassel, which opened on Wednesday at the Quad and Paris Theaters in New York. I haven’t seen it but this film by Edouard Deluc is based on Gaugin’s memoir Noa Noa and it takes place around 1891 when the artist got tired of the civilized world and deserted his family to live in Tahiti where he finds hisnew muse Tehura.

Also, Keanu Reeves and Molly Ringwald star in Siberia (Saban Films), Matthew (Frank & Lola) Ross’ new thriller about a diamond merchant (Reeves) and his love being caught in a crossfire between buyers and federal agents when a deal goes wrong…. And hard to believe for Saban’s latest almost direct-to-digital movie, but reviews are atrocious.

I’m far more intrigued by Norwegian filmmaker Iram Haq’s What Will People Say (Kino Lorber), which opens in New York at the IFC Center and will open in L.A. at the Laemmle Music Hall on August 3. The semi-autobiographical film stars Maria Mozhdah as 16-year-old Nisha, living in Norway and trying to fit in while also being the perfect Pakistani daughter. When her father catches her with a boy, she’s sent to live her extended family in Pakistan, where she has to adapt.

This week’s IFC Midnight offering is Aislinn Clarke’s The Devil’s Doorway (IFC Midnight), which will also play the IFC Center on Friday and Saturday night. Set in Northern Ireland in 1960, it involves two Catholic priests who are sent to the Vatican to investigate a statue of the Virgin Mary weeping blood. There, they discover “a depraved horror show of sadistic nuns, satanism, and demonic possession” – sounds like MY kinda party.

youtube

Some of this week’s docs…

Fans of jazz and swing might want to check out Jake Meginsky’s doc Milford Graves Full Mantis (Cinema Guild), opening at the Metrograph Friday then in L.A. on July 27. It’s not the usual talking heads music doc either, but it was a little too esoteric for my tastes, even though I dug the music and performances. Probably the most interesting aspect of this doc was going to Wikipedia to learn more about Graves and reading this:

“In 2013, Milford Graves along with Drs.Carlo Tremolada and Carlo Ventura received a patent for an invention that relates to a process of preparing a non-expanded tissue derivative, that is not subjected to cell proliferation in vitro, which has a vascular-stromal fraction enriched in stem and multipotent elements, such as pericytes and/or mesenchymal stem cells, or for preparing non-embryonic stem cells obtained from a tissue sample or from such tissue derivative, wherein the tissue derivative or such cells are subjected to vibrations derived from a heart sound to control the degree of differentiation or possible differentiation of the stem and multipotent elements into several other types of cells and optimize their potency. The invention relates also to a device for carrying out the process, to stem cells obtainable by the process as well as a drug for the regeneration of an animal tissue.”

(I was lost after that first sentence.)

I was even less of a fan of Jonathan Hacker’s Path of Blood (Paladin), based on his book of the same name, that assembles some raw footage of captured jihadi home movies filmed by a group of Muslim terrorists. To me, this was a little bit too much like found footage without commentary, which is certainly a valid documentary technique but not my favorite.

Sadly, I didn’t have an opportunity to see Kimberly Reed’s Dark Money (PBS), which opens at the IFC Center on Friday with tons of QnA opportunities, but it’s very timely in dealing with corporate money being used to influence elections and elected officials. Sound familiar? It premiered at Sundance and won the “David Carr Award for Truth in Non-Fiction Filmmaking” at the Montclair Film Festival, and if you don’t know who David Carr was, then please stop reading this column immediately. Thanks.

From Bollywood comes Shaad Ali’s Soorma (Sony Pictures Releasing), an inspiring sports drama about an athlete who came back after a freak accident.

#Movies Reviews WeekendWarrior WhatToWatchThisWeekend Skyscraper HotelTransylvania3

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funnythingshere0-blog · 6 years

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Media Mogul Byron Allen Is Betting Billions on an Empire Anchored by The Weather Channel

New Post has been published on http://funnythingshere.xyz/media-mogul-byron-allen-is-betting-billions-on-an-empire-anchored-by-the-weather-channel/

Media Mogul Byron Allen Is Betting Billions on an Empire Anchored by The Weather Channel

Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures’ Byron Allen will take center stage at CinemaCon April 25. He’s scheduled to welcome the National Association of Theatre Owners to the 28,000-square-foot Palace Ballroom for an early breakfast and keynote address.

Unless, you know, he doesn’t.

“I think I’m going to go,” said Allen April 17 from the Culver City set of “Funny You Should Ask.” He produces the gameshow that’s broadcast on his Comedy.TV, one of eight 24-hour networks he owns. That afternoon, he served as audience cheerleader and unofficial director, not only anchoring its quintet of comedian-panelists but also instructing “Baskets” Emmy-winner Louie Anderson and “Saturday Night Live” veteran Jon Lovitz to deliver their set-ups and punchlines again, from the top.

Read More:Byron Allen Released the Highest-Grossing Indie of the Year, but Won’t Be Satisfied Until He’s the Next Walt Disney

Presuming he does find himself in Vegas, he should find a rapt audience. People want to hear from Allen, if only to figure out what the hell he’s driving at. While ESMP’s founder, owner, chairman, and CEO still does audience warmup for the shows he owns, his company released the #2 indie last year, shark caper “47 Meters Down,” which grossed $44.3 million domestic. Then it released two would-be Oscar plays, “Hostiles” and “Chappaquiddick,” and last month paid $300 million cash for The Weather Channel.

Mandy Moore in “47 Meters Down”

Entertainment Studios

Recognizing Allen’s throughline in all of this would be nice, but ESMP theatrical distribution president Mark Borde suggests that may be too much to hope for.

“Listen, he runs a television empire, he runs a movie empire, he runs a number of other things,” Borde told IndieWire by phone the morning after the gameshow shoot. “Com[ing] out at 7:30 on a Wednesday morning to meet and greet exhibitors [at CinemaCon] is not necessarily something that he has to do. It would be nice to have him say a few words, but if he can’t make it, that’s no harm, no foul.”

While Allen appears to be a jack-of-all-trades, self-made media millionaire, Borde is a second-generation film distributor with 44 years in the business. Allen acquired his Freestyle releasing in October 2015, and Borde will have a team of 15 at CinemaCon. His mandate, he said, is to make ESMP competitive with the major studios, releasing 12 to 17 films per year in a minimum of 1,500 theaters.

“I think what he relied on me and my team mostly for is our knowledge of dealing with the intricacies of the exhibition-distributor relationship,” said Borde. “I’ve grown up in the movie business. Now he’s getting into the movie business, and he is bringing that energy, that enthusiasm, that excitement, and to a degree that innocence into a brand-new field.”

Mark Borde at the premiere of “47 Meters Down”

John Milne/SilverHub/REX/Shutterstock

Borde has been teaching Allen a lot about time — everything from how long it takes to ready a movie for audiences to how much wining, dining, and glad-handing theater-circuit heads require. To Allen, who came of age in the daily television grind, Borde guesses that a release date six months in the future sounded like a “lifetime” until not too long ago.

“I’m learning to take the time to really go deeper, understand the details,” said Allen. “I have more of an optimistic mind, so I really focus on how to make it work, versus all the reasons why it won’t work … I’m learning to better understand where’s the psychology of the audience today, what is it they’re feeling, that they’re needing, what’s missing, how do we connect with them?”

Read More:An Open Letter to Byron Allen, Indie Film’s Newest Savior: Please Slow Down, Before You Hurt Yourself

ESMP has released three films this year. “Hostiles” and “Chappaquiddick” outperformed tracking estimates, with “Hostiles” taking home $30 million in domestic receipts and “Chappaquiddick” earning $14 million since it opened on April 6. However, “The Hurricane Heist” from “Fast and the Furious” and “xXx” director Rob Cohen fared worse. Budgeted at $35 million, it made $6.1 million on 2,400 North American screens.

Byron Allen at the “Hostiles” premiere with star Christian Bale, producer Carolyn Folks, writer/director/producer Scott Cooper, and actors actresses Q’Orianka Kilvcher, Rory Cochran, and Wes Studi

MediaPunch/REX/Shutterstock

“No! I was not happy with how that did,” said Allen, who now questions its April release date instead of “just mak[ing] it a summer fun movie” with a longer promotional lead-up. “We don’t expect all of our movies to knock it out of the park,” he said, calling the process “a science that no one’s perfected.”

He’s got at least three shots at improvement this year. August will bring Keanu Reeves in “Replicas,” in which a biologist loses his family in a car accident and experiments with bringing them back to life. Then there’s “Animal Crackers,” an animated film hoping to capitalize on the massive box-office success of “A Quiet Place,” despite a very different target audience. It also stars John Krasinski and Emily Blunt as married parents — only this time, eating animal crackers turns them into, well, animals, and they help save a circus.

In September, ESMP will also release the fourth installment of the “God’s Not Dead” franchise, “God Bless the Broken Road.” The original 2014 release made more than $60 million at the domestic box office; however, last month’s “God’s Not Dead: A Light in Darkness” grossed $5.5 million on 1,693 screens.

Keanu Reeves in “Replicas”

Entertainment Studios

“Our movies are very commercial, and we like to go very broad with them,” said Allen, who last year told IndieWire that he was “chasing Walt Disney.”

“He’s a master salesman,” said “Chappaquiddick” producer Chris Cowles. “He’s incredibly bright about the business and just about the marketplace, so I would say that that’s where he was really hands-on and very focused … I’ve made a bunch of movies [and] everyone promises you the world and everyone puts their best foot forward when you first get into business with them. And it’s very rare that someone actually does follow through in a real way, and I feel like Byron absolutely did, had total confidence and faith in the movie.”

“Chappaquiddick” star Jason Clarke with Byron Allen at the film’s Los Angeles premiere

Eric Charbonneau/REX/Shutterstock

Meanwhile, “47 Meters Down” director Johannes Roberts is drafting a sequel, “48 Meters Down,” that’s already set for a summer 2019 slot. ESMP recently announced another 2019 title, Joe Carnahan’s “Boss Level,” which turns “Groundhog Day” into a thriller: An Army veteran (Frank Grillo) experiences a new death every day. With a $45 million budget and a supporting cast that includes Mel Gibson, Naomi Watts, and Ken Jeong, Borde said ESMP will also co-produce.

“When I owned Freestyle, I didn’t do this many films, this wide, this often,” Borde said; Freestyle was a service operation that largely serviced the films and the handled booking for distributors, who took all the risk. “I was not in the P&A business; Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures is in the P&A business.”

However, Freestyle was in business with Netflix, which means that ESMP is now in business with Netflix. Borde said Freestyle signed its Netflix output deal five or six years ago, and it lasts through 2018. “We’re negotiating an extension,” said Borde. Disney’s output deal with the streaming service also expires December 31, and Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos has criticized output deals in the past. If Netflix doesn’t come through, Borde said it will find another partner.

After two years with Allen, Borde remains impressed with his energy and enthusiasm. “I don’t think he ever sleeps,” he said. “I’ve gotten calls from him in the middle of the night, I get calls from him early in the morning, he runs around the office dealing with everything from what time is the TV spot going to run … to how many theaters did we holdover this week.” Borde also praised Allen’s encyclopedic recall of the release schedule.

Christian Bale in “Hostiles”

Entertainment Studios

And then there’s The Weather Channel. “He’s handing me some beautiful movies to distribute, and then all the sudden he waltzes in here and goes, ‘We’re going to buy The Weather Channel.’ “I was like, ‘Excuse me?’ I was blown out of the water.”

The Weather Channel became Allen’s eighth 24-hour network last month, after Entertainment Studios was the top bidder in what Allen described as a heated competition; Blackstone, Bain Capital, and Comcast/NBC Universal paid $3.5 billion for the network in 2008. (IBM bought the channel’s website and digital operations in 2016; only the TV division is part of Entertainment Studios.)

“It gave us a network that broke the barrier to be distributing in 80-plus million homes,” said Allen. “It gave us a starting point of sitting with advertisers for our other properties — because we own seven other networks, right? — that basically didn’t know our name or know what we do. It’s helping us to grow in the way of distribution, ads, and just infrastructure.”

Only after making the purchase did Allen visit The Weather Channel’s six-acre Atlanta campus that serves as a workplace for 350 employees. With 90,000 square feet in office space, “We could produce easily half a dozen 24-hour news networks out of that campus,” he said. “They happen to do one, and it happens to focus on weather. We can — will — do multiple networks [out of] that campus.”

Byron Allen

Courtesy of Entertainment Studios

Allen, who contends that he will spend billions acquiring content over the next five years, said Entertainment Studios remains “very acquisitive.” As always, Disney remains his true north: “When you look at the media companies that have gotten big, it has been through some organic growth, and quite a bit of acquisition,” he said, citing the “transformative transactions” of Lucasfilm, Marvel, and Pixar.

Allen’s buying mindset extends to his personal life: in February, he plunked down $22.8 million for a Hawaiian estate. There’s a small chance he’s in for a massive payout from Charter and Comcast; he filed a $10 billion racial discrimination lawsuit for their failure to license his channels. (AT&T settled a similar suit in 2014 and now carries seven Entertainment Studios channels.) “We’re optimistic that the ninth circuit will see our way,” he said.

While his CinemaCon status remains in flux, Allen’s commitment to making entertainment is not. “It’s not a job,” he said. “Someone asked me what are my hobbies. I love what I do. I don’t need a hobby.”

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usnewsaggregator-blog · 7 years

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New York Today: New York Today: Finding the Perfect Tree

New Post has been published on http://usnewsaggregator.com/new-york-today-new-york-today-finding-the-perfect-tree/

New York Today: New York Today: Finding the Perfect Tree

Photo

The holiday season is here. Credit Victor J. Blue for The New York Times

Good morning on this seasonable Friday.

As you figure out what to do with your Thanksgiving leftovers, it’s time for many New Yorkers to begin preparing for the next holiday season.

Buying the perfect Christmas tree for a tiny studio apartment or a spacious living room can feel overwhelming. So we sat down with veterans in the business to collect the best tree-hunting tips.

What tree should you buy?

The most popular tree you’ll see being sold on New York sidewalks is the Frasier Fir. This bushy evergreen has a mild, aromatic scent. “It has the least amount of needle fall, which people appreciate,” Scott Lechner, the manager of SoHo Trees, said.

The Balsam Fir is well known for its strong and spacious branches, which makes it a perfect tree for ornamentations. It’s also one of the most aromatic species. “They’re more Rockwellian, more traditional, more Americana,” Mr. Lechner said.

Continue reading the main story

The Noble Fir is the “Cadillac of Christmas trees,” according to Greg Walsh, owner of Greg’s Trees. These regal evergreens are mostly shipped from the Northwest, which makes them pricier than other trees.

Continue reading the main story

The Nordmann Fir, vendors said, is the rarest and most expensive of all Christmas trees. Originally from the Caucus Mountains, the Nordmann Fir is known for its attractive foliage and silver hue. “It’s the most elegant of Christmas trees,” Mr. Lechner said.

What’s a good price for a Christmas tree?

Average prices range from about $35 to $200.

Prices primarily vary according to the size of the tree. (The most common size for New York apartments is 5 to 6 feet tall.)

Trees shipped from the Northwest Pacific states and Canada tend to be more expensive because of high shipping costs.

And like city real estate, location matters. Sellers adjust their prices for the neighborhood they’re selling in — places like SoHo and Williamsburg tend to have pricier trees.

But you can negotiate. Vendors said it’s part of the tradition, and they’ll help you find a tree that fits your budget.

Where can you buy a Christmas tree?

Garden stores, sidewalk vendors, and supermarkets and big-box stores, like Whole Foods and Home Depot.

There are also 18 designated parks and playgrounds with vendors — like Washington Market Park in Manhattan and McCarren Park in Brooklyn.

Continue reading the main story

And you can buy trees online.

Where do Christmas trees come from?

Oregon, North Carolina, Michigan and Pennsylvania harvest the most Christmas trees in the nation. Frasier Firs sold in New York are mostly shipped from North Carolina, while Douglas Firs are largely from Pennsylvania, sellers said. High-quality sellers in New York said they also ship their trees from Canada, especially from the Beauce region near Quebec.

Here’s what else is happening:

Weather

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= temp °= temp_unit = c_high ° = c_low °

With a high near 50, it’s like the weather knows it’s time for sidewalk shopping. Now all you need is some hot cider.

Be sure to look up from your phone or shopping bags this Black Friday and appreciate the clear skies and crisp fall temperature. Saturday is looking to be even nicer, with a high in the mid-50s. Then things will cool a bit on Sunday.

In the News

• Security was prominent at this years Thanksgiving Day parade, but paradegoers seemed to mostly focus on the balloons and floats passing by. [New York Times]

Photo

The singing Christmas tree float, a new addition to this year’s parade. Credit Vincent Tullo for The New York Times

• Despite losing their homes to a fire that ripped through an apartment building in Upper Manhattan, dozens of families joined together for a Thanksgiving dinner. [New York Times]

• The Trump SoHo hotel, struggling financially, is dropping the president’s name. On a recent night, some guests embraced the brand, while others were simply there for a cheap room. [New York Times]

• A man from Sudan’s dream to move to the United States came true when he obtained a visa and settled into Brooklyn. Now he dreams of one day reuniting with the wife he left behind. [New York Times]

• After spending 28 years in prison, a Connecticut man was freed the day before Thanksgiving when he entered an Alford plea: pleading guilty to lesser charges without admitting guilt. [New York Times]

Photo

Leroy Harris, left, greeted his sister and niece outside New Haven Correctional Facility. Credit Jessica Hill for The New York Times

• The former congressman Maurice D. Hinchey, who built a reputation as a champion of environmental advocacy and blue-collar workers, died at 79. [New York Times]

Continue reading the main story

• Meet the two men who are competing for what may be the most coveted job on Wall Street: running Goldman Sachs. [New York Times]

• Nickelodeon’s relentlessly cheerful animated character, SpongeBob SquarePants, has made his Broadway debut with a $20 million musical that “explodes off the stage.” [New York Times]

• The New York Police Department named Terence Monahan the new chief of department. [New York Post]

• In a class-action suit filed against the city, a family living in New York City Housing Authority units claim their child’s health was damaged as a result of lead-poisoned water. [NBC New York]

• Today’s Metropolitan Diary: “The Cranky Fishmonger”

• For a global look at what’s happening, see Your Morning Briefing.

Coming Up Today

• Burn off that turkey with guided hikes through Alley Pond Park in Queens, Central Park in Manhattan, Willowbrook Park on Staten Island, Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx and Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Times vary. [Free]

• Join the National Park Service and Lower Manhattan Historical Association to celebrate the end of the American Revolution, with a parade, performances and more at Federal Hall and Evacuation Plaza. 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. [Free]

• George Balanchine’s “The Nutcracker” returns for the season with performances by the New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center, through Dec. 31. 8 p.m. [Ticket prices vary]

Continue reading the main story

• Laugh off your Thanksgiving leftovers at “Decorative Soap: The Truth is in the Turkey,” a soap opera-themed comedy show at the Peoples Improv Theater Loft in Chelsea. 9 p.m. [$7]

• Nets host Trail Blazers, noon. (YES). Islanders at Flyers, 4 p.m. (MSG+). Devils host Canucks, 7 p.m. (MSG+). Rangers host Red Wings, 7 p.m. (MSG 2). Knicks at Hawks, 7:30 p.m. (MSG).

• Alternate-side parking remains in effect until Dec. 8.

• Weekend travel hassles: Check subway disruptions and a list of street closings.

The Weekend

Saturday

• Check out the Holiday Train Show, a display of model locomotives zipping through famous city landmarks, at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. [Prices vary]

• The Brooklyn Holiday Bazaar brings local vendors, food and drink, live music and activities to 501 Union and the Green Building in Gowanus, Brooklyn. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., through Sunday. [Free admission]

• Take a Thanksgiving kitchen tour, where you can learn about colonial cuisine while tasting some old-world recipes, at Historic Richmond Town on Staten Island. 1 to 5 p.m., through Sunday. [$8]

• See the musician and singer Oscar D’León, “El Gigante De La Salsa,” in a concert at the Lehman Center for the Performing Arts in the Bronx. 8 p.m. [Tickets start at $50]

• Islanders at Senators, 7 p.m. (MSG+). Devils at Red Wings, 7 p.m. (MSG+2). Knicks at Rockets, 8 p.m. (MSG).

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Sunday

• Children can jam out to the music of Bob Marley during a family-friendly concert at Brooklyn Bowl in Williamsburg. 11:30 a.m. [$12]

• A choir and symphony orchestra perform “Messiah…Refreshed,” a modern take on Handel’s “Messiah,” at Carnegie Hall in Midtown Manhattan. 2 p.m. [Ticket prices vary]

• … And the New York Eastern Symphonic Orchestra plays a concert celebrating Albanian Independence Day at St. George Theatre on Staten Island. 7 p.m. [Tickets start at $50]

• Looking ahead: On Wednesday, TimesTalks hosts an advance screening of “I, Tonya,” a film about the scandalous American figure skater Tonya Harding, followed by a conversation with the actor Margot Robbie and director Craig Gillespie.

• Jets host Panthers, 1 p.m. (FOX). Rangers host Canucks, 2 p.m. (MSG). Nets at Grizzlies, 6 p.m. (YES).

• For more events, see The New York Times’s Arts & Entertainment guide.

And Finally…

Photo

A Manhattan tree market in 1903. Credit via Library of Congress

How did Christmas trees first pop-up on New York City sidewalks?

It is long believed that a woodsman from the Catskills by the name of Mark Carr was the first to sell Christmas trees in New York — in 1851. A couple of weeks before Christmas Day that year, Mr. Carr loaded two ox sleds with “thrifty young firs and spruces” and headed for the city, according to an 1878 New York Daily Tribune article.

He paid a silver dollar for the right to sell his lot of trees on a strip of sidewalk at Vesey and Greenwich Streets in TriBeCa. His evergreens quickly sold out. He returned the next year and other peddlers followed his lead, establishing the prosperous holiday sidewalk tree industry.

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By 1880, more than 200,000 trees were being shipped to New York each year.

In the 1930s, the former Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia, seeking to reduce street peddling, established regulations that would require vendors to apply for selling permits. After much public outcry, the City Council in 1938 adopted what has been called the “coniferous tree exception,” which allows vendors to sell and display Christmas trees on a sidewalk without a permit in December as long as they have the permission of owners fronting the sidewalk and keep a corridor open for pedestrians.

The rule has brought flocks of vendors from across the country and the pleasant smell of pine trees to New York City ever since.

New York Today is a morning roundup that is published weekdays at 6 a.m. If you don’t get it in your inbox already, you can sign up to receive it by email here.

For updates throughout the day, like us on Facebook.

What would you like to see here to start your day? Post a comment, email us at [email protected], or reach us via Twitter using #NYToday.

Follow the New York Today columnists, Alexandra Levine and Jonathan Wolfe, on Twitter.

You can find the latest New York Today at nytoday.com.

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WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND – MAY 18

After a couple slower weekends with no new movies grossing more than $20 million, we get the second doozy of a summer sequel in Fox’s Deadpool 2, which will try to recapture the magic of the 2016 movie that became one of Fox’s biggest hits to date, just behind Avatar and a couple of the Star Wars prequels. So let’s get to that one first…

DEADPOOL 2 (Fox)

The second big release of the summer is this sequel to the action-comedy that grossed

$363 million domestically after opening with $132 million over the Presidents Day weekend in 2016. The original Deadpool was quite an eye opener for Fox and other studios, because it was the first absolutely ginormous R-rated blockbuster in quite some time, and it was only one of three R-rated movies to gross over $300 million. That success helped pave the way for Fox to allow filmmaker James Mangold to make the R-rated Logan, which would become the highest-grossing spin-off from the X-Men franchise after Deadpool with $226 million. What do we learn from this lesson? Superhero movies are still frequented by 17 to 34 year old males who don’t like their action watered down.

Ryan Reynolds had been talking about playing Deadpool for years, but his appearance in X-Men Origins: Wolverine was a disappointment for the fans of the character. Undaunted, Reynolds continued to push to get an R-rated Deadpool movie made, teaming with Zombieland creators Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick to write and produce Deadpool. That drive to make the movie proved wise, and that writing team has been reunited for the sequel, joined by director David Leitch, who directed the first John Wick movie and last year’s Atomic Blonde. (Leitch is also attached to direct the Fast and Furious spin-off starring Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham’s Hobbs and Shaw.)

Besides changing many minds in Hollywood about R-rated fare,��Deadpool really turned things around for Reynolds who had been floundering after the back-to-back disappointments of X-Men Origins and Green Lantern, although the former did considerably better than the latter. Reynolds still had a few hits after that including the action-thriller Safe House with Denzel Washington and the DreamWorks Animation family film The Croods, but there were some definite misfires. R.I.P.D. was one of the bigger ones, an expensive FX movie that grossed just $33 million, an amount that was actually pretty good for his drama Woman in Gold with Helen Mirren. Self/Less and Criminal both bombed, and sadly, the excellent Mississippi Grind, directed by Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden of next year’s Captain Marvel, didn’t get much theatrical attention. 2016’s Deadpooldoubled the domestic gross of Reynold’s biggest previous film, and that might have helped his 2017 action-comedy The Hitman’s Bodyguardwith Samuel L. Jackson, which grossed $75 million after a $21 million opening, based on a $30 million budget. It definitely seems like Deadpoolhas made Reynolds a bankable star once again.

As you can read in my review, I really enjoyed the movie, and reviews have generally been decentfor a non-Marvel comic book movie, and that will help drive up the excitement for this event movie that could see it bringing in $20 million or more in Thursday previews and probably $60 million or more when that’s compiled into Friday’s box office.

Deadpool 2 is opening in 4,332 theaters, which is the widest release for an R-rated film, which is no surprise, because Fox’s marketing has really been on point, driving up anticipation for the movie that should help it gross $150 million or more this weekend. Earlier in the summer, I thought it might open even bigger but had to bring my expectations down to something more realistic.

And that just leaves us with the week’s Deadpool 2 counter-programming…

BOOK CLUB (Paramount)

Somewhat of an anomaly in terms of counter-programming is this comedy from Paramount that is targeted specifically towards the older women who were probably out in force last Sunday for Mother’s Day. This one stars Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen, so if you’re a woman over 50, this probably is your Avengers: Infinity War.

It’s the feature film debut of Bill Holderman, who made the film independently before Paramount decided to get behind it, which will probably end up being a wise move since there’s so few movies for women over the next month. Sure, there’s last week’s Life of the Party and Breaking In, but neither movie received decent reviews or audience ratings, so they probably will fall away, and this film’s warm and fuzzy story about older women finding their sexuality through reading E.L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey might seem like a solid bet. (No, I have no idea why Universal, who made the movies based on James’ books, didn’t pick this one up for a possible DVD box set somewhere down the line.)

It’s odd that this movie didn’t open over Mother’s Day weekend, as it might have done very well, but it’s still in pretty good shape to make around $10 million depending on whether the cast gets out there for talk shows, which they seem to be doing. Essentially, it’s up for third place against last week’s openers Breaking In andLife of the Party with Global Road’s family film Show Dogs acting as a possible surprise spoiler.

SHOW DOGS (Global Road)

In a summer that’s surprisingly devoid of family and kids films, Global Road will try to get in one more family film before Disney-Pixar’sThe Incredibles 2next month. This one involves talking dogs (always popular with the kiddies), and it’s directed by Raja Gosnell (Big Momma’s House, The Smurfs), who has a lot of experience with talking dogs between Scooby-Dooand Beverly Hills Chihuahua, both which were huge hits.

There’s certainly a young audience out there for Show Dogs, which features Will Arnett and the voices of Alan Cumming, Stanley Tucci, Gabriel Iglesias (who seems to do more voice work than actual acting), Ludacris and Shaquille O’Neal, as well as Rupaul and Natasha Lyonne, which might make this the craziest cast ever put together for a family film. (Maybe second to Disney’s G-Force?)

Even though the fledgling Global Road (formerly Open Road) is releasing the movie into over 3,100 theaters, there just doesn’t seem to be much buzz around the movie, so business might be spread out thinly among them, but who knows? The only thing even remotely approaching a “family friendly” film are the two Marvel movies currently in theaters, and there’s a definite vacuum at a time when family films could thrive. Even so, Show Dogs– not to be confused with the Cuba Gooding Jr. hit Snow Dogs-- is likely to end up with between $8 and 9 million, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it explodes with the weather getting warmer and bored kids needing something to do. (Or rather, parents needing something to keep those bored kids entertained.)

POPE FRANCIS: A MAN OF HIS WORD (Focus Features)

Opening moderately into 350 theaters is this new doc by Wim Wenders about the current pope, which is more about following him around on his day-to-day then telling his life story. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival over a year ago, but Focus picked it up as part of their recent incentive to release more docs. (They also have the Mr. Rogers doc Won’t You Be My Neighborcoming out next month.) Depending on whether the Catholic Church backs the movie and helps promote it might help determine how well it does, but I think an opening between $1 and 2 million is doable, putting it somewhere in the bottom of the top 10 or just outside with Magnolia’s RBG, which will expand into the same number of theaters. (I was supposed to see this on Monday but flaked out on the screening, though I’ll be making up for it on Thursday night at a special preview screening, so I might have some thoughts later this week.)

This week’s Top 10 should look something like this…

1. Deadpool 2 (20thCentury Fox) - $153.2 million N/A

2. Avengers: Infinity War (Disney/Marvel) - $29 million -53%

3. Book Club (Paramount) - $9.2 million N/A

4. Breaking In (Universal) - $8.8 million-50%

5. Life of the Party (New Line / WB) - $8.4 million -54%

6. Show Dogs (Global Road) - $8.1 million N/A

7. Overboard (MGM/Pantelion) - $5.5 million -45% 8. A Quiet Place (Paramount) - $4.2 million -35%

9. I Feel Pretty (STXfilms) - $2 million -38%

10. Rampage (New Line / WB) - $1.6 million -56%

-- Pope Francis: A Man of His Word (Focus) - $1.5 million N/A

LIMITED RELEASES

For those who aren’t quite religious enough to see a Pope Francis doc but still want to alleviate any post-Easter guilt, there’s Paul Schrader’s excellent dramatic thriller First Reformed (A24), starring Ethan Hawke as a Catholic pastor who runs the First Reformed Church in Upstate New York that’s getting ready to celebrate its 200thanniversary. When he meets a young pregnant woman (Amanda Seyfried) whose husband is having issues, he throws himself into helping them, but things get dramatically worse as he gets involved. I’ve been hit or miss on Schrader’s films in recent years, but First Reformed is his best movie in a very long time. It’s definitely a slow build of a movie, but the tension Schrader creates building up to the amazing ending makes me want to see it again.

I can also recommend Dominic Cooke’s On Chesil Beach (Bleecker Street), a period drama starring Saoirse Ronan and Billy Howle (both of whom appeared in last week’s The Seagull), which is an adaptation of Ian McEwan’s novel of the same name. The young actors play Florence and Edward, two youngsters who meet and fall in love, but whose wedding night is disastrous, to say the least. We watch the two on their wedding night with flashbacks to when they first meet, and it’s a pretty heavy-duty drama, rather difficult to watch at times, but Ronan and Howle are amazing in it.

Jim Carrey stars in Alexandros Avranas’ thriller Dark Crimes (Saban Films), playing a police officer named Tadek who begins to similarities between an unsolved murder and a crime from a book by writer Krystov Kozlov (Marton Czokas), so he begins tracking the writer and his sex-club worker girlfriend (Charlotte Gainsbourg). Carrey is kind of mixed when playing non-comedic roles, but this is also his first starring role in a feature in a very long time, so maybe it’s worth a look? It opens in select cities and will be On Demand after a month-long run on DirecTV.

Göran (The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975) Olsson’s doc That Summer (IFC Films) acts as a prequel to the Maysles’ iconic documentary Grey Gardens, as it assembles some never-before-seen footage of Edith and Edie Beale and their Long Island home, which once saw the likes of Andy Warhol, Mick Jagger and Truman Capote pass through it.

Another intriguing doc is Saving Brinton (Northland Films), a portrait of Mike Zahs, an eccentric Iowa collector who discovers a number of rare showreels from William Franklin Brinton, including footage of Teddy Roosevelt and some of Georges Melies’ early work, part of the collection of moving pictures that Brinton brought to the Heartland.

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The Hollow Child is a supernatural thriller from Jeremy Lutter (Reset), which Vertical Entertainment just picked up out of Cannes last week. It stars Jessica McLeod as troubled teen Samantha who wants to expose a supernatural imposter and rescue her foster sister. Here’s an intriguing trailer for it:

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I’m kind of intrigued by Champion, the Korean arm-wrestling movie being released by Well Go USA and starring Ma Dong-seok (Train to Busan). It’s the feature debut of director Kim Yong-wan, and it’s a sports comedy (influenced by Sylvester Stallone’s Over the Top) about a Korean adoptee who becomes an arm wrestling champion. It is also opening almost a year to the date of ANOTHER movie called Champion. Go figure.

Apparently Matthew Portfield’s narrative Soller’s Point (Oscilloscope) already opened in Baltimore last weekend, but it opens in New York this Friday and L.A. on May 25. It stars McCaul Lombardi as Keith, a 24-year-old living with his father (Jim Belushi) on house arrest in Baltimore after his release from prison as he tries to create a new life. It also stars Deadpool 2’s Zazie Beetz, so if you’re in New York, you can do a double feature!

Ian (King Corn) Cherney’s doc The Most Unknown (Abramorama / Motherboard) is an experiment which follows a group of scientists as they explore new fields and places, and it’s probably no surprise that filmmaker Werner Herzog was an advisor on the film being that it crosses over with his own interests in science.

Netflix has a really great movie streaming this weekend called Cargo, an Australian post-Apocalyptic film starring Martin Freeman, which I saw at the Tribeca Film Festival. Directed by Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke, this is an amazing film set in the Australian Outback that’s so different from The Walking Deadand all the other zombie movies being made in its wake. Like the show, it does deal more with the living than the dead, but it has such an interesting array of characters. You can read more about it in my Tribeca mini-review here.

Netflix is also offering the South-African romantic dramedy Catching Feelings from Kagiso Lediga (who also stars in the film), which I know absolutely nothing about.

Me? I’ll probably be spending most of my weekend at the Metrograph, seeing the movies in the Sylvia Chang retrospective, some more Kubrick, Hitchcock’s The Birdsand Ghost Dogfrom Jim Jarmusch.

#TheWeekendWarrior Movies BoxOffice Deadpool2 BookClub PopeFrancis FirstReformed ShowDogs

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