As someone who has known Alex Jones for over a decade, he is enjoying every minute of playing censorship victim. When social media platforms began shutting down his accounts, it gave him more angry rant videos to make rousing up his patriot movement followers along with getting his name back out again in the mainstream news. As with Donald Trump, Alex knows how to work the media to keep the money flowing into his bank accounts.
Now that Twitter has made their decision to not ban his account, this takes a bit of steam out of Jones argument that all or corporate America is trying to censor him. “Alex knows he goes too far, and he revels in that since he’s able to gain media attention from it,” a former worker at InfoWars said. “This is why he loves Donald Trump so much because they work from the exact same media blueprint and love all the negative attention they receive. With Twitter not banning his account, Alex can’t claim that everyone is out to get him after all.”
Alex Jones, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey defended his company’s decision not to ban right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his “Infowars” show, as many other social media platforms have done, saying he did not break any rules.
Facebook, Apple, YouTube and Spotify took down over the past week material published by Jones, reflecting more aggressive enforcement of their hate speech policies after rising online backlash and raising pressure on Twitter to do the same.
Jones’ Facebook account has also been suspended for 30 days, but he still has a “verified” Twitter account. A separate Twitter account for “Infowars” is also still running.
“We didn’t suspend Alex Jones or Infowars yesterday,” Dorsey said in a series of tweets late Tuesday. “We know that’s hard for many, but the reason is simple: he hasn’t violated our rules. We’ll enforce if he does.”
Dorsey said Twitter did not want to take “one-off actions to make us feel good in the short term, and adding fuel to new conspiracy theories.”
He said he wanted the company to avoid succumbing to outside pressure but instead impartially enforce straightforward principles “regardless of political viewpoints.” He also linked to a blog post Tuesday by the company’s vice president for trust and safety, Del Harvey, outlining the company’s policies.
“Twitter is reflective of real conversations happening in the world, and that sometimes includes perspectives that may be offensive, controversial, and/or bigoted,” she said. “While we welcome everyone to express themselves on our service, we prohibit targeted behavior that harasses, threatens, or uses fear to silence the voices of others.”
Twitter is reflective of real conversations happening in the world and that sometimes includes perspectives that may be offensive, controversial, and/or bigoted. While we welcome everyone to express themselves on our service, we prohibit targeted behavior that harasses, threatens, or uses fear to silence the voices of others. We have the Twitter Rules in place to help ensure everyone feels safe expressing their beliefs and we strive to enforce them with uniform consistency.
Our policies and enforcement options evolve continuously to address emerging behaviors online and we sometimes come across instances where someone is reported for an incident that took place prior to that behavior being prohibited. In those instances, we will generally require the individual to delete the Tweet that violates the new rules but we won’t generally take other enforcement action against them (e.g. suspension). This is reflective of the fact that the Twitter Rules are a living document. We continue to expand and update both them and our enforcement options to respond to the changing contours of online conversation. This is how we make Twitter better for everyone.
We are continually working to update, refine, and improve both our enforcement and our policies, informed by in-depth research around trends in online behavior both on and off Twitter, feedback from the people who use Twitter, and input from a number of external entities, including members of our Trust & Safety Council.
A few examples of how our rules have changed*:
In August 2013, we added a section explicitly prohibiting “targeted harassment” to the Twitter Rules under the “Abuse and Spam” category.
In December 2015, we added a separate “Abusive Behavior” section to the Twitter Rules.
In November 2016, we shared more details around hateful conduct and how we enforce policy violations.
Since then, we’ve updated the list of abusive behaviors we prohibit to include unwanted sexual advances, posting or sharing intimate photos or videos of someone that were produced or distributed without their consent, wishes or hopes of harm, and threats to expose or hack someone.
Last year we expanded hateful conduct and media policies to include abusive usernames and hateful imagery. We also updated rules around violence and physical harm to include the glorification of violence and violent extremist groups.
Similarly, our enforcement options have expanded significantly over the years. We originally had only one enforcement option: account suspension. Since then, we’ve added a range of enforcement actions and now have the ability to take action at the Tweet, Direct Message, and account levels. Additionally, we take measures to educate individuals that have violated our rules about the specific tweet(s) in violation and which policy has been violated. We also continue to improve the technology we use to prioritise reports that are most likely to violate our rules and last year we introduced smarter, more aggressive witness reporting to augment our approach.
Given the scale of Twitter, we will not always get it right. We believe we have to rely on a straight-forward principled approach and focus on the long term goal of understanding – not just in terms of the service itself – but in terms of the role we play in society and our wider responsibility to foster and better serve a healthy public conversation.
Jones, who has 858,000 followers on Twitter, has built up his profile while promulgating conspiracy theories, including the claim that the 9/11 terror attacks were carried out by the government. He is perhaps most notorious for claiming that the 2012 Sandy Hook mass school shooting, which left 26 children and adults dead, was a hoax and that the surviving relatives are paid actors. Family members of some of the victims are suing Jones for defamation.
Jones is currently facing a precedent-setting lawsuit brought by the parents of a child who died in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, who’ve experienced years of harassment due to a conspiracy theory Jones popularized which argues that the shooting never happened and that the victims’ parents are “crisis actors.” In response to growing public contempt of him, Apple, Facebook, Spotify, YouTube, Stitcher, and even Pinterest and MailChimp have all summarily banned Jones and Infowars from their platforms, citing various violations of their content policies ranging from child endangerment to harassment.
Dorsey said that it’s up to journalists to “document, validate, and refute” rumors and sensationalized issues spread by accounts like Jones’s so “people can form their own opinions.”
Twitter is taking other steps besides account deletions to combat misuse in its battle to rein in hate and abuse even as it tries to stay true to its roots as a bastion of free expression. Dorsey acknowledged last year that the company hasn’t done enough to curb such abuse and protect users.
Jones says his shows, which are broadcast on radio and online platforms and had been available on YouTube, reached at least 70 million people a week. It’s unclear how big his audience is now after the latest bans.
When news broke of Margot Kidder’s passing away at the age of 69 last May, the cause of death was reported as ‘unknown.’ Many of us who knew her, knew what had happened. She would have wanted people to know that she had taken her own life hoping that it might help others going through similar problems.
Now the “Superman” actresses death has been ruled a suicide, and her daughter said Wednesday it’s a relief to finally have the truth out.
Kidder, who played Lois Lane opposite Christopher Reeve’s Superman in her most famous role, was found by a friend in her Montana home on May 13.
At the time, Kidder’s manager, Camilla Fluxman Pines, said Kidder died peacefully in her sleep.
A statement released Wednesday by Park County coroner Richard Wood said she “died as a result of a self-inflicted drug and alcohol overdose” and that no further details would be released.
Maggie McGuane, Kidder’s daughter by her ex-husband Thomas McGuane, told media outlets in a phone interview that she knew her mother died by suicide the moment authorities took her to Kidder’s home in Livingston, a small town near Yellowstone National Park.
“It’s a big relief that the truth is out there,” she said. “It’s important to be open and honest so there’s not a cloud of shame in dealing with this.”
Kidder’s death is one of several high-profile suicides this year that include celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain and fashion designer Kate Spade.
McGuane noted that Montana has one of the highest suicide rates in the nation and she urged people with mental illness to seek help.
“It’s a very unique sort of grief and pain,” McGuane said. “Knowing how many families in this state go through this, I wish that I could reach out to each one of them.”
Kidder struggled with mental illness much of her life, and it was made worse by a 1990 car accident that left her in debt and led to her using a wheelchair for almost two years.
Kidder and Reeve starred in four Superman movies between 1978 and 1987. She also appeared in “The Great Waldo Pepper” with Robert Redford in 1975, Brian De Palma’s “Sisters” in 1973 and “The Amityville Horror” in 1979.
She later appeared in small films and television shows until 2017, including “R.L. Stine’s the Haunting Hour.” She received a Daytime Emmy Award as outstanding performer in a kids’ series in 2015 for that role.
Kidder, a native of Yellowknife, Canada, was a political activist who was arrested in 2011 in a Washington, D.C., protest over the proposed Keystone XL pipeline from Canada’s oil sands.
Her final years were troubled by conflicts with people who were down on their luck that she took into her home. Between August 2016 and her death in May, authorities were called to her house 40 times on reports of people trespassing, theft and other disturbances, according to police logs released to media outlets under a public-records request.
The calls include responses by ambulances five times in seven months, including at the time of her death.
Joan Kesich, a longtime friend who found Kidder’s body, said Kidder was fearless and always spoke the truth, regardless of the consequences.
“In her last months, she was herself — same kind of love, same kind of energy,” Kesich said. “The challenges that she had were very public. I want what I know about her to be out there because it was glorious. She was really a blazing energy.”
For anyone who knew her or only met her once, you knew what a joy and zest she had for life. She was feisty, funny and would get just as excited watching her new Roomba vacuum cleaner in action as she would discussing politics.
We were lucky to have interviewed she and her daughter several times for a documentary project, and it was always a pleasure to hang out with them in their bucolic town of Livingston.
Heroes rise and fall and even become villains if they live long enough. Superheroes having ups and downs and sometimes dragging the people around them is no different with our teen heroes Cloak and Dagger.
In the last two episodes of Cloak and Dagger, we see our heroes continue to evolve into their comic book counterparts. But apart from Lotus Eaters, we have yet to see the dynamic duo work together. However, in the episode Ghost Stories, we finally get to see Tyrone turn into comic book Cloak, actually wearing and using his brother Billy’s cloak in an effort to bring Officer Connor to justice with the help of O’Reilly. Hopefully, Tyrone will continue to use Billy’s cloak.
We see the pair somewhat turn into the heroes we know in the comics, but there has to be that time in the story which spoils that momentum and gives the characters that terrible point in the time of their lives, and us viewers that dreaded bad moment. Even as a writer I forget what that’s called where some antagonist really gives the lead character/s a hard time just when things are getting good. That time is tackled in the episodes Ghost Stories (8) and Back Breaker (9).
In Ghost Stories, Tyrone succeeded in bringing Connors in with the help of O’Reilly and Tandy finally confronts Roxxon’s Peter Scarborough on the death and dishonor of her father, Nathan Bowen. In the comics, Nathan wasn’t much of a father to begin with. Tandy’s image of her father is only from her younger self, but Scarborough hints she doesn’t know her father too well. It’s also suggested in Lotus Eaters that Nathan is much to blame for the rig incident as per the repeating experience of Ivan Hess. It also suggests a little negligence on Nathan’s part for letting little Tandy wait out in the rain. Peter Scarborough offers Tandy cash in exchange for Tandy’s collected evidence, but she declines. Despite her more selfish motive, and the fact that she declines a boatful of cash which she and her mother desperately need, bringing Scarborough to justice for the deaths of the people in the rig makes Tandy a hero.
However, she experiences a shock when she finds out how abusive her father really was, destroying the good image of her father in her mind. When you lose what you fight for, you tend to lose yourself and the hero goes in a downward spiral as what Father Delgado is teaching in his class which is the theme of the episode. Tandy ends up accepting Scarborough’s offer in spite; and later crashes and burns and practically becomes a villain as she drains various people of their hopes, seemingly becoming addicted. Can she do that?
Again, in a twist to the source material, it turns out that Tandy can technically drain people of their life force, their ‘hopes.’ By draining their hopes, it leaves her victims physically weak and distraught while she gains an almost orgasmic experience. In the comics, Tyrone is the one that does the draining, the one who craves for the light and grows weak without it. Tyrone drains has victims of their ‘light’ while subjecting them to their greatest fears at the same time. Tandy/Dagger replenishes that light in case Cloak/Tyrone goes overboard. The writers and producers have certainly made Cloak and Dagger quite interesting by playing with their power sets. Should the whole series become a hit, could these changes make it to the comics as well? The reversal of their powers already happened at least twice in the comics but not the way the TV show depicts.
Tandy returns to her life of crime victimizing young rich men. She then bails out Liam and addictively victimizes him too but not before draining Mina Hess despite Mina’s good intentions of getting Tandy employed at Roxxon. What she does suggests an addiction, almost without thinking but full of jealousy and resentment to Mina’s happiness. In the case of Tyrone, there’s no real draining, at least for now. Tyrone simply physically and emotionally lashed out at the people around as all his efforts in bringing Officer Connors to justice seems to have gone to waste, thanks to the seeming indifference of his parents whom he expected to be happy, grateful and celebrating. It’s quite easy to relate as I myself put great value in appreciation of effort. Besides, he literally put his life on the line.
Tyrone gets called to detention by Father Delgado due to Tyrone’s brutal involvement in a fight and gets into an argument with the priest. He accidentally sees Delgado’s fear, and at the same time Tyrone accidentally stumbles into Tandy’s dimension and stops her from draining Liam. This quells Tyrone’s anger with a dose of sympathy, further lowered when Evita confronts him, and his mother explains to him the reason why they weren’t so ecstatic with his good news. Tandy arrives while he’s talking with Evita, Tandy touches Evita to get back at Tyrone, but Evita is attuned to Tandy’s power and pushes her out. She also figures out that Tandy is the other half of the Divine Pairing.
It’s pretty tough seeing Tandy really bitching out in this episode over one scene involving her parents. But disappointment, another emotion I can relate to, really hurts the brighter the appointment torch burns. Can we really blame her? It seems shallow of her to take everything out on the people around her because of one scene, but teenage minds and emotions tend to be volatile. Seems cliché but the way our heroes acted in Back Breaker is realistic.
The narrative around Back Breaker episode 9, centers around Delgado’s lecture to his students about the rise and fall of heroes. The intense personal challenges they face that become turning points to failure or villainy. What disappointed me here is that Delgado never acknowledged neither the Avengers nor the Defenders. He talked about historical heroes, and I was really hoping for a name drop of any of the MCU’s stars. Connected, really? Anyway, as Delgado talks, the other hero in the equation, O’Reilly also suffers from what happened to Fuchs. She also gets led to a party, where Connors suddenly shows up to beat her as the other cops watch, suggesting how deep the drug and corruption problem already is. Could she turn vigilante and become the character Mayhem before the season ends?
And just to be consistent with this spoiler ‘review’, Liam leave with Tandy’s stash, probably to get back at her and since he no longer hopes of marrying Tandy. Mina Hess meanwhile witnesses the same darkforce leak that Tyrone and Tandy saw in Ivan’s mind. The leak infects a couple of Roxxon employees which will surely spell trouble for the citizens of New Orleans. Tandy goes home and finds her mom being assaulted by the woman who killed Greg. I really dislike cliffhangers because I can’t wait for what happens next. Agents of SHIELD may be out till next summer, but Cloak and Dagger is keeping us entertained.
Ah, yes. It’s that time of the year again. The holiday season or a birthday is here for that special NFL fan in your life. Aren’t people with hobbies the easiest to buy gifts for?
Well, not always. You see, this isn’t just an NFL fan—you, my friend, are dealing with a super fan. I’m talking about that friend that broke your TV remote because you made the mistake of hosting a watch party when your team was playing the New England Patriots.
I’m talking about that friend who would not be caught dead without their lucky Denver Broncos t-shirt on any given Sunday. The one that has probably never washed that Aaron Rodgers jersey despite wearing it three times a week.
They’ve got the hats, the beanies, the jerseys, the shirts, the bobbleheads, the pants, and even the Miami Dolphins mittens that they’ve only actually worn once when they traveled to see them take on the New York Jets.
So, yeah, you can get them a t-shirt. You can get them a jersey for the team’s first-round draft pick. But that’ll go right in the closet with the other 100 shirts and 50 jerseys that they shun in favor of their lucky 2006 NFC South Division Champions shirt that doesn’t really fit anymore.
That’s not what they want. They want something new. Something exciting. If you’re Bill Gates, then you should just buy them their favorite team. For the rest of us, that isn’t really an option. So, instead, here are some unique NFL gift ideas (short of buying a franchise).
Replica Super Bowl Ring
If your friend is a fanatic of the Cleveland Browns or a Jacksonville Jaguars fan, then you can go ahead and skip to the next one. If their team wins regularly (especially if they’ve won recently), then why not snag them a shiny reminder of that victory?
Replica Super Bowl rings are available for every single big game from the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl I to the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LI. They normally come with the MVP’s name on the side, but you can almost always find the quarterback as well.
You can find these rings on a number of websites, but sites like Amazon should have everything you need. Replicas range from $20 to $100+ depending on how detailed you’re looking to get. And, hey, if you’re looking to splurge, throw in a nice ring display box.
NFL Hall of Fame Memorabilia
Your friend has every helmet, jersey, and decal available for the New Orleans Saints or Baltimore Ravens, so try getting him something a little more general instead of team-specific. The Pro Football Hall of Fame is a great place to start.
The Hall of Fame is a well-respected, much-liked staple in the NFL. You could snag your friend a Pro Football Hall of Fame replica helmet, an exclusive t-shirt, a framed picture of the induction of his favorite NFL legend, or even a trip to the Hall itself in Canton, Ohio, if you live nearby or are looking to travel a little as well. Why not make it a treat for both of you?
Houston Texans and Jags fans will have to wait on this one too, unfortunately, but a commemorative piece from your friend’s favorite NFL legend goes a long way, and it’s different that the hundreds of team shirts and jerseys. Check here to find a wind range of gifts you never would have thought of.
Fathead Wall Decals
These are one of my personal favorites: Fathead wall decals. If your friend has everything Arizona Cardinals, he certainly has quite the man cave. How do you make the perfect Tennessee Titans man cave even better? Slap a massive team logo on the wall, of course!
Fatheads come in all shapes and sizes, from minis to life-sized. Nothing will make a big Pittsburgh Steelers fan happier than a life-sized Antonio Brown on his wall. Or get your favorite Seattle Seahawks fan a Legion of Boom set of mini player graphics.
Graphic options include everything from players to logos, stadium views, mascots, and helmets. There’s something for everyone, no matter what team they support.
You can find all of their wall decals here, and you’ll be happy to know they do more than just NFL. They cover NHL, MLB, NBA and every superhero you love.
Custom Jersey Frame or Football Case
Okay, this one may require a little assembly on your part (or their part if you don’t like them that much), but the final unique NFL gift idea is a custom frame or case for their signed memorabilia.
If your friend is a real super fan, he’s bound to have stacks of autographed photos, a hanger full of signed jerseys, and a box of inked footballs and helmets. I find that with many big time collectors, a lot of their crazy pieces aren’t visible because they don’t have enough frames or anything to properly display them in.
Let’s say he has a beautiful signed Aaron Rodgers Green Bay Packers jersey hanging in the closet. That’s quite the piece, and it should definitely be proudly displayed.
Put together a frame for it! Or, buy a frame online and get a nice custom plaque for the bottom of the frame with the player’s name, team, and an accolade or two. Screw it on there, and you’re done.
Now, instead of his signed Ray Lewis jersey collecting dust in his closet, he can proudly display his favorite piece for all to see. You can find a plethora of NFL jersey’s here to choose from.
It came as no surprise that Tom Cruise’s latest “Mission Impossible” installment would easily cruise past “Christopher Robin” giving Disney a rare moment of having a new film only top out in the second box office spot.
Tom Cruise sped past Winnie-the-Pooh at the box office to lead all films for the second straight week with an estimated $35 million in ticket sales for “Mission Impossible — Fallout.”
The success of Paramount Pictures’ sixth, stunt-filled “Mission: Impossible” installment, along with muted enthusiasm for the Walt Disney Co.’s “Christopher Robin,” made for a seldom-seen result: A Disney movie debuting in second place. It sold about $25 million in tickets in North America, but it’s a long way from breaking even at the over $100 million mark.
In a year where the studio has already notched three $1 billion films worldwide (“Black Panther,” ″Avengers: Infinity War” and, as of this week, “Incredibles 2”), the more modest Winnie-the-Pooh live-action revival opened with a relatively ho-hum $25 million. As a reminder that “Christopher Robin” was a minor release for Disney, “Black Panther” on Sunday became the third film to ever cross $700 million domestically, a feat only previously accomplished by “Avatar” and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”
Made for an estimated $75 million plus tens of millions to market, Marc Forster’s “Christopher Robin” stars Ewan McGregor as a grown-up Christopher Robin reunited with the beloved characters of the Hundred Acre Wood: Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and the rest (who are rendered digitally but convincingly felt-like). While reviews were mixed, audiences gave it an “A″ CinemaScore.
Cathleen Taff, head of distribution for Disney, said there’s room for non-tentpole releases in the Disney slate.
“It’s one of our smaller films, and it’s really focused on character and emotion,” said Taff. “We’re happy with where it’s at, and we think it’s got some runway being one of the only family options going forward.”
Taff confirmed that “Christopher Robin” has been denied a release in China, locking the release out from the world’s second-largest film market. While China provides no reason for the films it doesn’t select for its theaters, government sensors have recently been blocking images of Winnie-the-Pooh after bloggers began using him to parody Chinese president Xi Jinping.
Rival studios were eager to position “Christopher Robin” as a misfire for Disney, which has achieved runaway success at the box office over the last three years. Among the six biggest film studios, Disney currently ranks No. 1 in terms of domestic market share for 2018, with 35 percent. The next closest studio is Universal, with 14 percent.
Truth be told, “Christopher Robin” can lose money and still be considered a success inside Disney. If nothing else, the film raised the profile of the 92-year-old Pooh, who still generates more than $1 billion in merchandise sales annually for Disney. “Christopher Robin” also represents an improvement from Disney’s previous attempt at big-screen glory for the befuddled bear: “Winnie the Pooh” only took in $27 million over its entire run in 2011. (It only cost about $30 million to make, however.)
The late-summer success of “Mission: Impossible” — which has made $124.5 million thus far along with $205 million internationally — is helping solidify a comeback summer for Hollywood. The summer box office is up 10.6 percent from last year’s record-low season, according to comScore, and year-to-date ticket sales are up 8 percent.
“As we head into what is almost always the slowest month at the summer box office, we have some nice momentum going,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for comScore. “With a 10.6 percent increase over the summer last year, we’re going to maintain a solid advantage when we get to the end of the month.”
Not all the news was great. Comedy continues to struggle at the box office. The R-rated action-comedy “The Spy Who Dumped Me,” starring Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon, debuted in third with $12.4 million for Lionsgate.
And a pair of poorly reviewed releases sputtered in nationwide release. Fox’s young-adult dystopian thriller “The Darkest Minds” (19 percent “fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes) opened with $5.7 million on 3,127 screens. And right-wing filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza’s “Death of a Nation” (0 percent “fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes) debuted with $2.3 million on 1,032 screens.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to comScore. Where available, the latest international numbers for Friday through Sunday also are included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
“Mission: Impossible — Fallout,” $35 million ($76 million international).
“Christopher Robin,” $25 million ($4.8 million international).
“The Spy Who Dumped Me,” $12.4 million.
“Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again,” $9.1 million ($19.3 million international).
“The Equalizer 2,” $8.8 million.
“Hotel Transylvania 3,” $8.8 million ($18 million international).
“Ant-Man and the Wasp,” $6.2 million ($11.2 million international).
“The Darkest Minds,” $5.8 million ($4.1 million international).
“Incredibles 2,” $5 million ($19 million international).
“Teen Titans Go! To the Movies,” $4.9 million.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada), according to comScore:
“Mission: Impossible — Fallout,” $76 million.
“Hello Mr. Billionaire,” $64.5 million.
“Along With the Gods: The Last 49 Days,” $37.3 million.
“Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again,” $19.3 million.
“Incredibles 2,” $19 million.
“Hotel Transylvania 3,” $18 million.
“Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings,” $12.5 million.
President Donald Trump effort to knock out Barack Obama’s auto industry fuel efficiency requirements could truly wind up having life or death consequences. He is stating that better fuel efficient vehicles could drive prices up leaving driver to not purchase the new safer models. In his view, older cars would stay on the road leading to more air pollution. There are no studies he is basing this on.
The Trump administration is overstating claims of auto safety and reduced costs in justifying its proposal to weaken Obama-era fuel economy requirements that were aimed at making cars more fuel efficient.
On Thursday, the Environmental Protection Agency and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration urged a freeze of fuel efficiency standards at 2020 levels, rather than toughening them through 2026.
Currently, vehicles would have to get around 30 miles per gallon in real-world driving by 2020. The agencies contend that freezing standards would make roads significantly safer, but auto experts say the administration’s claims stretch credulity.
A look at these claims:
EPA and NHTSA: “The administration is focused on correcting the current standards that restrict the American people from being able to afford newer vehicles with more advanced safety features, better fuel economy, and associated environmental benefits.” — news release Thursday.
NHTSA Deputy Administrator Heidi King added at a news briefing that if the Obama EPA’s standards are left in place, they will raise the average cost of vehicles by $2,340 through 2025. The price increase would deter people from replacing older cars, keeping more of them on the road. Without the increase, more people could afford to replace older vehicles with newer ones that are safer and pollute less.
THE FACTS: The agencies are overstating the impact of potential price increases. Auto industry experts say vehicle prices already are on the rise because people are switching from cars to more expensive trucks and SUVs. They’re willingly paying more, pushing the average price to a record $35,000 this year.
Even if higher mileage requirements raise prices by $2,340, they say it won’t deter many people from buying new vehicles. Most people buy based on the monthly payment, analysts say. That increase would cost only around $34 per month, says Jeremy Acevedo, an analyst with the Edmunds.com auto pricing website.
“That’s not much at all,” he said.
EPA, citing potential benefits from freezing mileage standards: “Increased vehicle affordability leading to increased driving of newer, safer, more efficient and cleaner vehicles … Over 12,000 fewer crash fatalities over the lifetimes of all vehicles built through model year 2029. Up to 1,000 lives saved annually.” — EPA fact sheet released Thursday.
THE FACTS: These claims overstate the safety benefits. While newer vehicles are safer due to better engineering and safety features such as more air bags, automatic emergency braking and blind spot detection, auto safety experts say the difference between vehicles made 10 years ago and now isn’t that huge, and the number of lives saved can’t really be calculated.
Decade-old vehicles have anti-lock brakes and electronic stability control which stop drivers from losing control, two major safety advances. And vehicles with reduced mass actually can be safer because newer metals can be stronger than heavier steel.
“The car I traded in two cars ago already had anti-lock brakes and electronic stability control, said Giorgio Rizzoni, an engineering professor and director of the Center for Automotive Research at Ohio State University. “From a safety perspective, I’m not sure that they’re significantly, really vigorously less safe than they are today.”
EPA assistant administrator Bill Wehrum: “We’ll leave the standards at a place where we’re not imposing undue costs on manufacturers.” — news briefing Thursday.
THE FACTS: Not exactly. Even if the U.S. freezes its mileage requirements, the European Union, China, Japan and other nations will continue to increase theirs, which already are more stringent. Since most automakers sell vehicles worldwide, they’ll have to develop new technology such as electric cars anyway to satisfy other markets. The U.S. may not get the new technology as quickly as elsewhere. If new technologies aren’t sold in the U.S., the cost per vehicle is higher, Rizzoni says.
“The best way to reduce the cost of new technology is to spread it over as many vehicles as possible,” he said.
President Donald Trump is crediting his tariffs with persuading U.S. Steel to open a half dozen new plants. That’s not so.
TRUMP at a Pennsylvania rally Thursday night: “U.S. Steel is opening up seven plants.” On Tuesday, he told supporters in Florida: “U.S. Steel just announced that they’re building six new steel mills.”
THE FACTS: The Pittsburgh-based company has made no such announcement. U.S. Steel spokeswoman Meghan Cox declined to comment on Trump’s claim but said any “operational changes” such as the opening of new mills would be “publicly announced” and “made available on our website” if it occurred.
Osric Chau was just in the Philippines enjoying the spotlight with Tye Sheridan and Finn Jones at the Asiapop Comicon Manila 2018. But Supernatural’s prophet and 2012’s monk is not here for religious purposes, seeing the sights and playing DOTA. He is actually in the Philippines for a larger purpose, which is to produce his very own Indie film.
That’s right. Osric talked about the stuff he wanted to do before he turns 40 at the main stage of AsiaPop Comiccon 2018 event and one of them is to produce his own film with him as the lead. The film will be entitled Empty by Design which will star him opposite Filipina actress Jasmine Curtis-Smith along with Australian-Chinese actor Chris Pang (I, Frankenstein, Marco Polo, Crazy Rich Asians). Chau describes it as a passion project with his friend Andrea Walter who will be directing the film.
The film as Osric described would be a drama film about two people who return to the Philippines after being away for so long, in search of belonging. They started out as young foreigners in the Philippines, spent some time growing up, headed back to their native countries and became foreigners there themselves and did not feel at home. They become outsiders in their own countries. They head back to the Philippines to once again feel at home.
Unfortunately, this cash-strapped writer can’t afford an expensive meet and greet ticket, but I did smuggle myself into his stage discussion. First thing I luckily did when I got to the convention. Questions I would have loved to ask would include:
Why the Philippines?
Will you be speaking Tagalog/Filipino in the film since you’d be a guy of Filipino-Chinese descent?
If so, have you learned much of the language during your stay so far?
What made you choose Ms. Curtis? How do you know her?
Aside from Ms. Curtis, have you tapped other known Filipino talents for the film?
One fan did manage to ask how his initiation into the inner SPN family went. How did the brothers prank him? They did of course, continuously until he turned the tables on Jared Padalecki. He describes Jared as the most notorious prankster on set. It turns out that he’s the one responsible for Jared’s arm on a sling in Season ten. The boys attributed the injury to a demon which turns out to be Osric, who Jared challenged to a wrestling match. Osric knew some martial arts and took on the challenge. One thing led to another and Jared dislocates his shoulder.
Will he be returning to Supernatural? He’s not exactly sure but his fate is still in the wind because when Chuck gave that upgrade, we’d assume he’s an angel. But the angels are in very limited supply, and he’s not among the ones in heaven. Those who want to see more of Kevin, he’s in another paranormal-themed show, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency on Netflix.
Osric and his friends seemed to be enjoying themselves at the con, and there are plenty of SPN fans present though none in costume. I would have come as Castiel, but my trench coat got stuck at the cleaners. I thought I saw one as Castiel, but he said he was the Tenth Doctor. Nice to know Doctor Who has a following in the Philippines, but I’m actually a Fourth Doctor guy.
Empty by Design is still currently under development, but it would be interesting to see it and listen to Osric speaking Tagalog. It will be something to watch out for.
Last week, Comic-Con saw the first footage of the truly expanded DC Extended Universe. Yes, although Warner Bros has managed to stumble five films through their supposed Marvel Cinematic Universe rival, they haven’t done so with quite the same amount of finesse as their rival studio, having met with divisive critical and audience reactions, and a bona fide box office bomb in Justice League, which has rather thrown the fate of the universe going forward in the balance.
Of the films that have been outright successes, neither of them shared much connective tissue to the supposed flagship films of the franchise. Wonder Woman played as a straightforward prequel, divorced chronologically from any of the other superheroes, and Suicide Squad focused on a completely different, more obscure set of anti-heroes in an attempt to ape Guardians of the Galaxy‘s success (which, it must be said, it managed to do, at least commercially).
However, the zippy, upbeat trailers for Aquaman and Shazam have shown that a broadening of the creative vision beyond Zack Snyder’s ultra-serious and grim aesthetic may yet reap the rewards. Aquaman seeks to expand on the underwater king’s character in a post-Justice League world, while Shazam, with its titular hero’s bright, old-fashioned outfit and literal childlike wonder at being his own Superman looks like it’s had a healthy injection of Tom Hanks’ Big, which honestly more films should try and use as a cinematic reference.
In short, these films are still attracting interest and audiences seem ready to go back to the world as long as it appeals to them – Aquaman‘s trailer currently sits at 26 million YouTube views. Coming out at the end of 2018, it will be interesting to see how it performs against competition mostly aiming for Oscars. Nevertheless, this shows a problem with the DCEU itself – it’s not its own thing. While the films may individually bring their own critical and commercial merits to Warner Bros, they are showing that the studio has realized, in the light of its complete mishandling by Snyder, is to simply ape Marvel. You can see it in the quippy way the characters are speaking, in the way the trailers are edited, and even in the narrative – Aquaman, with its story of two family members fighting for the throne of a reclusive kingdom, seems to share more than a little of its DNA with Black Panther.
Those looking for slightly different superhero fare next year could do worse than to check out Hellboy. The demonic character has proven popularity based on the cult status attached to the two films that Guillermo del Toro delivered us last decade, and his darker, more twisted adventures should provide an appealing alternative.
Overall, though, it just feels safer. When Man of Steel released, as bewildering and divisive as it was, it felt like the groundwork was set for a universe that offered an alternative to what Marvel was doing. Batman v Superman, for all its flaws, felt similarly interesting to watch. Now we just have DC characters done in the Marvel mold.
Even Wonder Woman 1984, which has me salivating at the thought of how great the production design will be, has to contend with coming out after Captain Marvel, which has its own period-specific 90s setting. DC and Warner Bros have sacrificed creative drive for commercial safety, and the result is a disparate group of films whose connective tissue across properties only makes their lack of creative endeavor stand out further.
As a psychologist who researches and writes about fandom, and as a passionate fan myself, I was fascinated by an innovative group called Legion M who had a presence at this year’s Comic-Con. Actually, they had a physical presence, as in they took over the bottom floor of the Harbor House restaurant in Seaport Village and turned into the Legion M fan lounge. Fans could come and take a break from the heat and the hectic and relax, while perusing the new offerings from Legion M, including a preview of their upcoming film Mandy, starring Nicolas Cage. Legion M has been involved with recent films like Bad Samaritan (David Tennant, Dean Devlin), Colossal (Anne Hathaway, Jason Sudeikis), Mandy (Nicolas Cage), and The Field Guide to Evil (Ant Timpson), as well as digital series like Pitch Elevator (Leonard Maltin), and the first-ever VR interview series, Icons (Stan Lee, Kevin Smith).
I met up with Legion M co-founders Paul Scanlan and Jeff Annison early on Friday morning. We decided to do the interview outdoors because it was a bit quieter and the San Diego temperature hadn’t yet climbed to unbearable temperatures.
Lynn with Legion M Co-Founders Paul Scanlan and Jeff Annison
Me: So give me a little bit of the background on why you decided to do this and what the evolution of Legion M is?
Paul: Well, we started it because fundamentally we believe that an entertainment company should be owned by fans. One that is owned by fans has a competitive difference compared to an entertainment company that’s owned by Wall Street. Today most of the big ones are owned by Wall Street and there’s nothing wrong with that, but it does lead them in a certain direction and makes it tricky for them to do the things that a fan-owned entertainment company can do.
Me: Do you think a fan-owned company has an advantage because you have an understanding of what fans want sort of from the inside?
[At this moment a helicopter flew overhead, making it almost impossible to talk over the sound – so much for our decision to do the interview outside…]
Me: Figures. Okay I’m just gonna yell. So, because from a fan standpoint you understand better what fans want? Studios certainly don’t always understand what fans want.
Jeff: I think that’s part of it. It’s also that we have a company that’s owned by a large audience where those people are literally emotionally and financially invested in the products, which just gives you a competitive advantage.
Paul: I mean Disney, they’ve got a lot of shareholders, probably hundreds of thousands, but most of those shareholders are Wall Street investors.
Me: They may not even know about the thing, let alone care.
Jeff: Your company has to be owned by somebody. So if it’s actually owned by a large group of fans who actually care about what you’re doing and want to be taken behind the scenes and want to have a say and have an influence, that is enormously powerful in creating the grassroots buzz that big studios would kill for but money can’t buy
Me: And they’re passionately invested, so it’s not just a built in audience but a motivated one. They also must feel like they had a part in creating this.
Paul: They do. It’s both of those things. It’s them having a voice, which makes us better at what we’re doing – finding and developing projects. When we do bring projects to market, they are also a movable fan base. One of the challenges the big studios have, and the reason we see a lot of sequels and reboots, is those are trusted and safe investments. They have a fan base so the worst case scenario is the fans go see the film. But in our case, we can do that same thing but we’re not limited to existing IP [intellectual property].
Me: Right, right.
Paul: We can create a brand new Star Wars and bring it to market.
Me: And it still has the built in fan base. What’s your model for how you incorporate the fans’ voices and how do you figure out what they are invested in?
Paul: That’s a great question, because we say there are two sides to Hollywood. There’s the art side – like, is this a good story, is this a good IP? And having a legion of fans is great for that – we’ve got the world’s best focus group, a legion of scouts, whereas a big studio has to pay people to find out what’s hot right now.
Me: So you’ve really got a constant influx of what’s going on and what people are into.
Paul: Yes, and we’re constantly figuring out ways that we can creatively engage our community.
Jeff: And ways to harness the wisdom of our community.
Me: I just joined.
Paul and Jeff: woohoo!
Me: So you’ve built a community on your platform?
Jeff: First and foremost, it’s a community. And secondarily, it’s an entertainment company. The community is our core and where we get our super powers. So we’re investing in the technology and the tools that allow us to give the community a voice and learn from them. We have a scout program, we have a reading club. We have a new thing called “the pulse” [impulse]? that you’ll be hearing about soon. Even simple things like, what do you want our next movie to be? Rated R? PG? Sci fi? Thriller? We’re not going to be successful if we’re not developing projects that our community wants.
Me: But you have your built in focus group to do that.
Paul: Yes, it’s like pilot season on amazon. To us, that’s important. But there is another side, and that’s the business side of Hollywood. And we firmly believe that you don’t make great art by committee. So first of all, we’re constantly finding ways to engage our fan base, but it’s not like we’re all gonna vote on plot points or something. We use the community to guide us. When it comes to projects, we’re finding creators and investing in them. We don’t want to second guess their creative vision – we’re backing them and getting out of their way. It’s not like our community gets to give notes to the director.
Me: No, but they’re helping to identify and select the creators and the projects so they’re in line with what they’re wanting.
Jeff: So as an example, our impulse tool. These are 15 log lines of movies that we are either talking to the creators or inventing to say maybe this is somewhere we should be, looking for projects, and allowing people to rate and evaluate them. And that’s data for us. If one of those is off the charts, that lets us focus our efforts. It’s the same as like at Sundance film festival – there are hundreds of movies and there’s no time to watch every single one. Even deciding, it would take a long time to go through everything and then you just have one person’s opinion.
Me: And maybe it’s an idiosyncratic opinion…
Jeff: Yes, so in our case we can put this out to our Legion. They’re invested, a lot of them would love to go to Sundance, or may be going. We can crowd source that, and now it’s not an opinion, it’s data. Taking advantage of the wisdom.
Me: And you already know your audience is excited about it.
Paul: The other ingredient that’s crucial is an understanding of the business and the financial ramifications or deal structures. A lot of that is confidential, so to balance we’ve got the fans on one side and this incredible advisory board on the other. People who have proven track records. We’re using those people to help us find the universe of projects to consider, and then putting them in front of our fans.
Me: So it’s a curated menu.
[A gigantic tractor trailer comes rumbling by, followed by a giant bus]
Me: I feel like every vehicle at comic con is coming down this street…
Paul (undaunted): There’s another aspect of opening the gates to Hollywood and that is some of the things we’re developing might also come from the community. The first one we’ve developed is a level playing field called the Pitch Elevator. Anyone can give us a pitch for a television show or a movie or a VR project. They give their pitch in an elevator that we built.
Me: (laughing) Wait, you have an actual prop elevator?
Jeff: Yes. but it’s really a combination of everything that makes Legion M great. You’ve got people with great ideas – our philosophy is ideas can come from anywhere, a seven year old can have a great idea. Get in there and give your pitch. But most people don’t have the connections – they’re not friends with M. Night Shyamalan…
Me: I don’t pitch to him!
Paul: We’re pretty clear that we might get hundreds of pitches and we won’t develop all of them, but they get voted on by the community. So they get an opportunity to pitch and to vote and that narrows it down. We then take that to our expert panel and we’re turning it into a tv show.
Me: And that’s a route that doesn’t exist anywhere else.
Paul: An anomaly yeah, totally
Jeff: So the ten finalists get to pitch to this live panel of scouts and agents. That in and of itself is cool. We have amazing people – maybe M. Night Shyamalan can be there…
We ended that part of the interview laughing, and then we filmed a little video to explain more of what Legion M is all about, which you can watch below.
If you’d like to find out more about Legion M or join the community, you can go to https://legionm.com/.
I discovered Midnight Texas last year at Comic-Con when I went to one of the “Experience” installations. I was immediately intrigued by the show’s emphasis on outsiders and how that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I enjoyed Season One, so I was excited to see what Season Two would have to offer.
The panel this year was in a bigger ballroom and was well attended, which always bodes well. The audience was enthusiastic and eager to hear from cast members Francois Arnaud (Manfred), Dylan Bruce (Bobo), Parisa Fitz-Henley (Fiji), Arielle Kebbel (Olivia), Peter Mensah (Lem) and Jason Lewis (Joe) joined by showrunners Nicole Snyder and Eric Charmelo and executive producer David Janollari. We were treated to a sizzle reel of last season and then a glimpse of what’s to come this year – which left me very excited for Season 2!
Nicole Snyder, Eric Charmelo, David Janollari – Midnight Texas Panel
Snyder and Charmelo are new showrunners for Season 2, so fans wanted to know what would be different.
Eric: We wanted to do justice to Season One, so we knew Season Two had to be big. And we wanted to continue to explore the themes of Season One. Midnight is a town built of outcasts and outsiders and people who are marginalized for being different and often persecuted. So what we wanted to propose was, if that which makes you different was a choice and you can change that to assimilate, would you? Or would you choose to stay different because that which makes you different also makes you special?
A provocative question indeed!
There are changes coming to Midnight in Season 2, including a new spa resort – now that should change the character of the town a bit! That also brings a couple of new regulars.
Manfred is suffering from terrible nightmares, which are really a kind of “demon cancer.”
Francois: So he sees himself at night hurting his friends, the people he loves most, and then he wakes up in the morning and isn’t sure if it really happened.
The preview reel was definitely not G rated, so it looks like in addition to the exploration of trauma, there’s going to be a whole lot of hooking up going on, with Lem and Olivia and Bobo and Fiji too. Some of it is rather explicit – and some of it was carried on while the characters are levitating. I’m sure that was fun to film!
Dylan: They’re like really sweet and cute and goo goo eyes for each other, and then Bobo almost dies every second of the day.
Parisa: Something is amiss… and it seems like it’s connected to their connection.
I guess being psychically connected to someone can really wreak havoc with your sex life.
Big changes are coming for Joe too, the resident town angel. In the trailer, we see him encounter a mysterious new character in the middle of a fight.
Jason: Joe’s been hiding from the world, denying who he is. He was born a warrior, a creature of demon destruction, and in comes this hot cowboy who’s all about killin’ demons and there’s something fun and enticing about the guy…
And who is “that guy”?
Eric: He’s a gay demon hunter cowboy. I mean, no, he doesn’t hunt gay demons!
Nicole: It’s Brokeback Midnight.
What that will do to Joe’s happy longterm relationship is something that will no doubt cause drama in Season 2!
Midnight Texas Cast and Producers
The entire cast thanked the fans for helping them get a Season 2, which was considerably delayed.
Arielle: It’s been a long road to Season 2, and it means so much to all of us to be here. You kept asking for it on social media and you didn’t give up on us and here we are and we all know that’s because of you.
After the panel, I headed to the press room. The press room ran very late, and I had back to back appointments, so I was only able to catch a few people to chat a bit more about the new season. I was glad to be able to talk to new showrunners Nicole and Eric, because they were formerly writers on my favorite show in the history of ever, Supernatural. It was nice to see them again and briefly reminisce about drinks and chats back in the day.
Before I could even get my video up and running, they told me they’d brought a lot of what they’d learned from Supernatural to Midnight – especially how powerful it is to combine the scary and suspenseful with the emotional.
Eric: And we’re excited to keep exploring the themes that were set up last season, about this town of misfits and outsiders. If you had a choice, would you choose to not be different and to assimilate? Some will look at their differences as crosses to bear and some as gifts.
The new showrunners will be bringing some changes too.
Nicole: I think what we bring is a little bit of camp, it’s sexier and raunchier, scarier…and a little more sarcastic.
Someone at our table: I like every single one of those adjectives.
Nicole: Did we mention nobody’s wearing clothes?
Me: Why didn’t you bring that to Supernatural???!!!
Nicole and Eric: (in unison) We tried!
Me: Thank you for trying!
They also teased a bit more about Walker, the gay demon hunter cowboy, who has a run in with Joe early on.
Nicole: Walker awakens this instinct in Joe that he’s buried deep for millennia.
Hmmmm. I’m intrigued.
Here’s our complete video chat with Nicole Snyder and Eric Charmelo –
We also got to talk to Jason Lewis about what Season 2 will bring for Joe, especially all about that demon hunter cowboy who’s coming to town.
Jason said he’s excited that they’re getting to explore their characters more deeply this season.
Jason: Joe had a secret Season one, now he’s in a whole new space. He’d denied an aspect of who he is for so long. So that means I get to do stuff!
Me: Are you surprised that you’re going to get some romantic drama as well?
Jason: Not so surprised so much as I think there’s a real decency and honesty there, going toward the identity crisis he’s having. Sometimes when we have a relationship, we overlook the relationship we need to have with ourselves.
At this point Jason got a coy little smile on his face.
Jason: So maybe Joe acts out a little bit, maybe…. Yeah, I’m gonna stop there, cuz I think I should.
Me: (silently) That was adorable.
Me: (not silently) What you said makes so much sense though.
Jason said that new cast member Josh Kelly, who plays Walker, has been really fun to work with, and it sounds like we have a lot of sparks flying to look forward to! Jason is also excited about some upcoming fight scenes he has, giving lots of credit to their talented stunt coordinator and the rest of the amazing crew they’re lucky enough to have.
I also asked if they were surprised that they got a Season 2, and Jason said that they were. It’s obvious the cast is tremendously relieved and excited about that.
Jason: I think it’s a really special show. As a fan, it’s something I really relate to – stories that let you know that you’re not alone and there are people who are just like you, and we don’t have to be all the same.
Me: Yeah, like different – and different is okay.
Jason: (smiling) Yeah, different rocks! There’s a lot of hate out in the world right now but I think we’re also seeing some reactionary voices saying that difference does rock, and I love that this story participates in that. All walks of life, come on in!
I think I may have fallen a bit in love with Jason in that moment. This entire cast seems to have those beliefs and be passionate about them.
Check out the rest of our video interview with Jason Lewis here –
I’m intrigued to see what Midnight Texas has in store for us in Season Two, and excited to have Supernatural alums Nicole Snyder and Eric Charmelo at the reins – catch Midnight Texas (premiering Friday, October 26 at 9 pm) on NBC this fall!
Breaking an ankle on “Mission Impossible: Fallout” didn’t hurt Tom Cruise or Paramount’s latest franchise entry as it topped the box office charts this weekend. This is the sixth film in the series, and not counting for inflation, the highest grossing opening weekend.
Tom Cruise breaking his ankle during filming for Mission Impossible: Fallout.
Paramount Pictures had plenty riding on this film, and if it had gone differently, it would have been a commentary on the sad shape of affairs in Hollywood. Fallout got movie goers excited, and the rapturous reviews only helped.
After six movies, 22 years, countless bruises and a broken ankle, Tom Cruise’s death-defying “Mission: Impossible” stunts continue to pay off at the box office.
“Mission: Impossible — Fallout” easily took the No. 1 spot on the domestic charts this weekend. Paramount Pictures estimates that it earned $61.5 million from 4,386 North American theaters.
Not accounting for inflation, it’s a best for the long-running franchise, which has grossed $2.8 billion worldwide, and one of Cruise’s biggest too (just shy of “War of the Worlds’” $64.9 million debut in 2005). Internationally, the film earned $92 million from 36 markets which is also a franchise best.
Directed by Christopher McQuarrie, “Fallout” has scored some of the best reviews in the series and has been in the news cycle for almost a year. Talk about the film started early, in August of 2017, when Cruise broke his ankle performing a stunt in London with video to prove it.
“Paramount was strategically perfect in their marketing and publicity game,” said comScore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “They showed how important a star’s presence is in marketing the movie early on. Tom Cruise broke his ankle, and they made that into a positive for the movie — it fed the Tom Cruise ‘Mission: Impossible’ mystique.”
“I’m seeing the numbers come in from around the world, and they’re just fantastic,” Jim Gianopulos, who took over as Paramount’s chairman last year, said by telephone early Sunday from Greece, where he has a home. He credited Mr. Cruise, who did his own stunts, and Christopher McQuarrie, who directed and wrote “Fallout.” “It’s a mature franchise, but they have kept it incredibly fresh,” Mr. Gianopulos said.
The 22-year-old “Mission: Impossible” film series, which is based on the 52-year-old TV show, does not have the same financial power it once did. In 2000, “Mission: Impossible II” collected $86.3 million in initial domestic ticket sales, after adjusting for inflation. And profitability for “Fallout” is still a long way off. The film cost Paramount and its financing partners, including David Ellison’s Skydance Media, roughly $320 million to make and market worldwide.
The reception for “Fallout” was impressive nonetheless, improving on opening-weekend ticket sales for its 2015 predecessor, “Rogue Nation,” even after adjusting for inflation. (“Rogue Nation” ultimately took in $736 million worldwide.) “Fallout” also received stronger reviews — an achievement of critical importance for the franchise going forward; if audiences are satisfied with one sequel, they are likely to go to the next one.
Ticket buyers gave “Fallout” an A grade in CinemaScore exit polls. It was the highest grade in the franchise’s history.
The film’s success recertifies Mr. Cruise as an A-list star after wobbly turnout for his last drama, “American Made,” and the failure of his last big-budget film, “The Mummy.”
And Paramount now has undeniable momentum — something the historic studio, which is owned by Viacom, has not mustered in years. The unconventional thriller “A Quiet Place” became a smash hit in April. “Book Club,” aimed at older women, has been a sleeper success. Coming up later this year: “Nobody’s Fool,” a comedy that marks Tiffany Haddish’s first major role since her breakout performance in “Girls Trip,” and a spinoff of the “Transformers” series called “Bumblebee.”
Paramount is still in last place among Hollywood’s six biggest movie studios in terms of domestic market share, but Mr. Gianopulos has returned Paramount to modest profitability. He has also pushed ahead long-gestating movies like “Top Gun: Maverick,” which stars Mr. Cruise in a return to his role from the 1986 original and is scheduled for release next July.
“You’re always just a few good movies from turning things around,” Mr. Gianopulos said.
Many cinephiles bemoan sequels, but the masses still seem avid for them. Sequels have been No. 1 for the last seven weekends running: “Fallout,” “Hotel Transylvania 3,” “The Equalizer 2,” “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” “Incredibles 2” and “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,” which placed first twice.
At the same time, nonsequels like “Life of the Party,” starring Melissa McCarthy, and “Skyscraper,” starring Dwayne Johnson, have fizzled. (“Skyscraper” has made up ground in China, where it has taken in $85.3 million.)
Second place went to “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again,” which fell 57 percent in its second weekend in theaters, to earn $15 million. It was a much steeper decline than the first film, which dropped only 36 percent between its first and second weekends.
Denzel Washington’s “The Equalizer 2” slid to third with $14 million in weekend two, and “Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation” took fourth with $12.3 million.
The animated “Teen Titans Go! To the Movies,” a feature spinoff of the Cartoon Network television show about Robin and some of the lesser-known DC superheroes, was the only major film to open against “Fallout.” The Warner Bros. release earned $10.5 million and landed in fifth place.
The film earned positive reviews from critics and younger audiences, but also faced a fair amount of animated competition from both “Hotel Transylvania 3” and “Incredibles 2,” which is still going strong in its seventh weekend and headed toward the $1 billion mark. As of Sunday the Disney/Pixar sequel had earned an estimated $996.5 million globally.
But although $10.5 million might seem on the lower side, “Teen Titans” also cost only $10 million to produce.
“Family movies like this will play for a lot of weeks,” said Warner Bros.′ domestic distribution president Jeff Goldstein. “The whole objective of this movie was to work with our cousins in other Warner units for brand identification.”
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to comScore. Where available, the latest international numbers for Friday through Sunday are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
“Mission: Impossible — Fallout,” $61.5 million ($92 million international).
“Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again,” $15 million ($26.6 million international).
“The Equalizer 2,” $14 million ($1.9 million international).
“Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation,” $12.3 million ($31 million international).
“Teen Titans Go! To the Movies,” $10.5 million ($1 million international).
“Ant-Man and The Wasp,” $8.4 million ($11.5 million international).
“Incredibles 2,” $7.2 million ($20 million international).
“Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,” $6.8 million ($10.9 million international).
“Skyscraper,” $5.4 million ($17.7 million international).
“The First Purge,” $2.2 million ($4.5 million international).
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada), according to comScore:
“Hello Mr. Billionaire,” $129.5 million.
“Mission: Impossible — Fallout,” $92 million.
“Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings,” $42.9 million.
The Magicians returned to San Diego Comic Con to celebrate the upcoming Season 4, and I couldn’t wait to chat with the cast and producers again. It’s one of my favorite shows – I love the creativity of it, the imagination, the willingness to go wherever the story takes them even when that is sometimes the last place you expect it to go! Not to mention the amazing actors and writers who bring the sometimes surprising story to life, based on Lev Grossman’s fascinating books.
The press room for the show was first, so I headed to the Hilton Bayfront and grabbed a table. First to our table were showrunners Sera Gamble and John McNamara. I was ecstatic to see Sera again – she’s the former showrunner and writer for Supernatural and was literally the first person from Supernatural who took the time to talk with me when I started researching fandom and writing books about the show, and she contributed some valuable insights to my first few books. I will be forever grateful for her generosity in answering my questions, facilitating my research, and always encouraging my writing over the many years since.
Sera and John summed up where we ended the last season, which was with everyone in quite a dilemma.
John: No one knows who they are.
Sera: Alice does, but she’s locked in a prison in the library. So it’s a very interesting first episode because our characters have no fucking clue who they are.
Not to mention Eliot is now the monster…
Me (with my psychologist hat firmly on): Are you treating this like the characters have amnesia, and it’s almost like a trauma for them?
John: It’s more like you are that person, an entirely different human being.
Sera: They even look different.
John: When they look in the mirror, they see someone different.
Sera: We’ll explain why in the first episode, but we’ve actually got two sets of actors. It required a lot of explaining when we were producing the first episode, but it makes sense when you watch it.
Me: Oooh that’s intriguing…
John and Sera: (cagey grins)
Apparently, this will make for some interesting dilemmas for the characters. Josh, for example, has sexually transmitted lycanthropy, but Isaac (his new persona) doesn’t know that – so it’s not something he can disclose. Uh oh.
Only on The Magicians, btw. See why I love it?
Of course, we asked about another musical episode.
John: (rubbing his hands together)… How shall I answer…
Sera: Just say yes.
John: Okay the answer’s yes.
Me: Yay!!!
As our time with them ended, I gave Sera a message of love from the SPNFamily, and she had a message back – along with an ‘I like your shirt’ since I was wearing my Family Don’t End With Blood tee shirt. I think I need to send one to her.
Watch our complete interview with Sera and John here for all the scoop –
Next up was Olivia Taylor Dudley, who plays Alice.
She had a chance to talk about her love of animals (and that she wasn’t upset about harming any cats last season since it was a stuffed cat…)
Olivia Taylor Dudley
Olivia: I think Alice is going through a bit of a redemption story, trying to redeem herself in the eyes of her friends – if she ever finds them. I’m kind of going back to Season One Alice in how I approach her. She’s been through a lot of trauma and a lot of things. She depends on her brain, and it failed her last season. This is more like Season One, a more innocent Alice.
Olivia also talked about the impact of Alice losing her dad.
Olivia: We have a lot of stories to tell. It’s my job; if I don’t see that dealt with in the script because we don’t have that time, it’s my job to put that somewhere deep in Alice. And hopefully those little things come through, I think all of our actors do a good job with that.
Me: Definitely. Would you be happy if they do go back to it? Sometimes people have trauma and repress it for a long time…
Olivia: We’ll see. I mean, Alice has died and come back, and we’ve never really dealt with that. (laughing). There’s no dealing with everything – nor do you deal with it all in life.
Me: So true.
I feel like all my favorite shows have characters who repeatedly die, and I’m not sure what that says about me. Hmmm.
Check out our full interview with Olivia here:
Stella Maeve (Julia) joined us next.
We asked how was it to not have or even know about magic?
Stella Maeve
Stella: I’m so bummed. Julia seems okay with it, but Stella was like NOOOO!
She did say that last season, Julia came to a place of acceptance. That as humans we have both bad things happen and good things happen and at the end, acceptance is the key – to accept where you are.
What would Stella like to see happen?
Stella: I’d love to get to work with Hale, with Eliot, and with Margo.
Someone at our table asked what it would be like since there’s another version of Penny who was in love with Julia, but now they don’t know each other.
Stella: (coyly) Or do they?
Everyone: Ooooh.
Stella: Ever play that game when you’re young, like am I hot? Warm, hotter, hot? You’re very very hot.
Once again: Oooooh.
More from Stella in our video chat here –
Summer Bishil (Margo) was next at our table; my phone, unfortunately, decided it was incapable of taking any more video after back to back press rooms, so I quickly switched on my audio recorder. Press rooms are stressful!
She gave us some insight into how she’ll be playing a new character (Janet) who’s not really a new character at all. Janet is into fashion, so that’s intriguing.
Summer: I can only speak for my character, but as Janet, for me the choice I made as an actor is I still am who I am at my core. All that’s changed is my knowledge that magic is real and that I am a magician. So Margo had a life before Brakebills. Her identity and her mannerisms and her core needs and her motivations and faults are still there. So I’m still who I am, but without something that really did define the character. Janet is not as fearless; she gets spooked a lot easier. Margo, from confronting magical circumstances, became pretty fearless over time. So small tweaks here and there. But I do think she would have been in fashion, and I have had some lines that I’m super excited about. And she’s still a champion of change, and she still feels very strongly about a lot of things that are important to her. I don’t want to spoil anything, but maybe she’s gonna change the world of fashion as well!
Finally, we were missing only Hale Appleman and Jason Ralph, but time was growing short – which means I was getting increasingly nervous. Eliot is my favorite character on The Magicians, so I was especially happy (and relieved) to have a chance to chat with Hale Appleman. Last year in the press room, we bonded over a mutual love of classic Lou Reed music. This year, I was devastated that my phone ran out of video recording space before Hale sat down at our table. NOOOOOOO!
I rallied, however, to ask my question. Interestingly, two of my favorite characters from two of my favorite shows (Supernatural’s Dean Winchester and The Magicians’ Eliot) are not themselves this season, though still played by the same actors. I wondered how both of them were feeling about that, and asked Eliot at the roundtable.
Me: Do you sort of miss Eliot this season? You’ve been playing him for a long time, and now you’re not.
Hale: Kind of, but I’m honestly having such a good time exploring this new character that I don’t know…. (smiling) maybe you’ll fall in love with him.
Hale Appleman
Me: Pretty sure I’ll always love Eliot.
Hale: You’ll always love Eliot? Well, okay, cool – I hope you get him back at some point because, I really don’t know…
Me: (silently) NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Hale: I miss him, I do. I do miss him. I don’t know where Eliot is and you don’t know what the monster is going to do at any given moment. So you’re kinda set up for the rug to be pulled out from under you at any moment. He’s a nine-year-old without any empathy or self-control and a lot of power. Ungodly power. Godly power. Maybe a little of both.
All photos: Lynn Zubernis aka @FangasmSPN
Me: (silently) I mean, what could go wrong??
Hale: He’s pretty scary, you guys. But he’s innocent too. He’s just doing what he thinks he needs to do. He’s not the villain of his own story; he’s the hero of his story. He just has a hit list of people that he needs to murder. I mean, he’s been trapped for thousands of years. How would you feel?
I get the feeling that Hale is enjoying this way too much – he’s disturbingly good at doing that creepy ‘Will you play with me?’ thing and now I’m feeling a little empathy for his character, which is like, NO.
Hale: He needs to stretch his new Eliot legs and learn how to walk. And…. Shed some blood.
Everyone: lol
Hale: He can do whatever he wants, as many narcissists do. I’m figuring out who he is as we go, so my guess is as good as yours as to what’s going to happen. I hope you guys like it, I hope you’re not like oh, that monster thing was okay, but can we have Eliot back? My goal is for you guys to fall in love with the monster at least a little bit. Maybe have a little Sophie’s Choice moment.
Me: (is skeptical)
Hale: There’s always some rationale behind decisions each villain makes. I mean, this monster is destructive by nature, so he doesn’t know it’s bad, it’s part of who he is. And he doesn’t necessarily have a context for human compassion. He’s trying to gain experience.
I’m all for that, but gotta say, I’m also all for the return of Eliot. Guess I’ll just have to cross my fingers and hope for the best!
Hale left our table and headed over to the table where Jason was chatting. He slid into a chair beside Jason and put his arm around him, and the two gave that lucky table a bit of impromptu #Queliot. I silently regretted my table choice.
Especially because our table never did get any time with Jason, so some of my paranoia was not in fact paranoia at all. I stopped to say hello on my way out, and Jason graciously took a photo to make up for the lack of discussion time.
Magicians Jason Ralph gives our Lynn some quality time at Comic-Con 2018
I left the press room feeling super excited about the new season, and eager to catch The Magicians panel – luckily the Ballroom 20 line wasn’t too insane, so my friend Laurena and I were able to get halfway decent seats.
The panel was standing room only, with series stars Jason Ralph, Stella Maeve, Olivia Taylor Dudley, Summer Bishil and Hale Appleman, and showrunners Sera Gamble and John McNamara. Felicia Day moderated, which thrilled me as a Supernatural fan – Felicia plays Charlie on Supernatural (and Poppy on The Magicians).
Jason and Stella were raising money for Covenant House, a homeless youth shelter – The Magicians is another cast who cares about making a difference in the world. Note their tee shirts. The panel kicked off with a kickass video review of the last season, which ended with everyone in bad shape.
Sera: We have an unspoken rule that at the end of a season of a TV show, as good luck for getting another season, you just fuck everybody as hard as you can.
As we heard in the press room, the vast majority of the characters ended last season with a bad case of amnesia – as in, they have no idea who they are. And Eliot is someone else all together, namely possessed by a monster.
Eliot mostly says “Will you play with me?” in the creepiest way possible throughout the hilarious new season preview footage, which we also got to watch.
Felicia to Hale: What is with you, you’re creepy?
Hale: (totally creepy) Will you play with me?
Felicia: Sera, what is going on with Hale? Did you just look at him and say he’s too beautiful, I have to make him creepy and beautiful?
Sera: We didn’t not have those thoughts, but… basically I like to throw interesting and difficult material to actors I know are really good.
Olivia: Why am I the only one who has to stay the same miserable character?
The entire panel was gloriously off the rails (okay, semi off the rails) and peppered with four-letter words just like the series.
Sera: Can you tell we were just doing tequila backstage?
I honestly love this entire cast and this show so much. It’s not afraid to play fast and loose and see what happens, and that makes it one of the most creative shows on television right now.
Felicia: Jason, what were your favorite parts of Season 3? Anyone in particular who you worked with?
Jason (laughing): One of my favorite things, and I think Hale and I share this sentiment a little bit….(he pauses to let the audience anticipate)… and it’s that working with Summer is the best.
Everyone: lol.
Jason: No, when we were shooting episode 5, the A Life In The Day episode…
Audience breaks into howls of joy…
[That episode, if you haven’t seen it, is all about the relationship between Quentin and Eliot, and it’s a huge fan favorite]
Jason: That was a real gift, and one that we knew was gonna be really special from the first read and that we were really excited to get to do. Our show is very fast paced and it’s about life and death, and it was very nice to have the opportunity to slow things down a little bit… There’s so much in the books about what happened between Eliot and Quentin, their relationship is so rich, so to have the opportunity to investigate those things on the show was a treat.
Hale: I second that, it was a beautiful opportunity for us to invest in the mundanity of everyday life between these two people and to allow the depth of the connection between Quentin and Eliot to live onscreen. So, thank you for that.
Felicia: It was a beautiful episode, it made me cry.
The entire cast was enthusiastic about everything from the musical episode and singing (which might happen again…) to playing “new” characters this season.
Sera teased Season four and one of its themes as being an exploration of how far people are willing to go in being authoritarian,
Sera: The library is very influential. At what point are you regulating things that need to be regulated and at what point are you a fascist?
That’s a question that their Dean Fogg might have to answer.
Sera: And it has nothing to do with our country… like at all…
Felicia: Are there any relationships you’re looking forward to exploring this season?
Olivia: I mean, I wish Alice and Quentin would get back together, but I don’t think I could get between these two! (Hale and Jason)
Hale: You can try…
The fan questions began with one about the Eliot and Quentin kiss in A Life In The Day.
Fan: Even though you were currently possessed, will there be any progression in that relationship?
Everyone: ooooh
Hale: I haven’t seen Eliot again at all this season, so… I hope so?
Sera: Doing stuff like that when you’re possessed is weird and rapey.
Hale: But I will say that the monster and Quentin, I mean Bri-guy, have a close bond, according to the monster at least.
Jason: winks at Hale
Another fan asked Hale what it’s been like bringing a queer character to life.
Hale: Thank you so much. There wasn’t really a character like Eliot when I was growing up, like I didn’t have a queer king, so I’m really grateful that I get to play a character as multi-faceted as Eliot who is queer, or fluid, or however you view him. He’s deep and he’s complicated and he likes dudes.
Audience: cheers
Hale: And we should be seeing more queer characters period. Until it’s not a conversation anymore and we all just fuck who we fuck.
[More cheers]
Felicia: Thre is a lot of sexuality fluidity in the show. Is that just your kink?
John: Well, I do like musicals.
Sera: It is in the books though.
John: There is some fluidity or pansexuality in the books, but it’s very tossed off, there’s no big tea and sympathy moment. Eliot is Eliot, and Eliot and Quentin are gonna sleep together and Alice is angry but not because it’s bisexuality but because Eliot lied to her. And I think that’s really interesting, and for people of my generation because I’m way older, it was a huge deal to come out, no one in my high school did, it was incredibly a taboo thing until I was in my forties. This is the way society has thank god settled down.
Felicia: And Jason, did it surprise you, the twists and turns… I was trying to make an innuendo, but it didn’t work…did Quentin’s proclivities surprise you? Or was it just natural for him to love who he loves?
Jason: So you haven’t read the books…
Felicia: I read the books! Lev sent them to me!
Everyone: Is laughing
Jason: No, it’s something that’s a part of Quentin. It’s something that’s relatively undiscussed and I think that’s a little bit of the beauty of it. I don’t think we get to see a lot of that in television or in media. I believe sexuality is a spectrum and Quentin is somewhere in the middle. It’s the one thing in his life that he’s not anxious about and I like that. It was important to Hale and me when we were shooting the Life in a Day episode that after the kiss that we have, that the morning after wasn’t like a weird bumbling like oh we shouldn’t have done that.
Hale: We didn’t have to explain it, it exists, chemistry is chemistry.
There was also some discussion of favorite swear words on the show, which is an awesome thing to be able to discuss. To the surprise of no one, Sera just loves the word fuck.
At one point, Gamble called on the audience to peer pressure Felicia Day to come back to the show as Poppy, which the entire ballroom was more than happy to do.
Felicia: Sure, I need health insurance for my baby. But no, seriously, working with Jason, I think I am a better actor for it. You guys raise the bar for each other and I’d love to work with all of you.
There was also an unlikely discussion about how well hung the centaur was who was part of last season.
Sera: We kept having to send it back with ‘it’s gotta be bigger, guys…’
Felicia: The show is like a 9-year-old with no moral compass.
I’m not sure what this says about me, but maybe that’s why I love it. Also, I totally left the panel a #Queliot shipper. And a fan who cannot wait for Season 4!!!
The Magicians Season 4 premieres soon on SyFy – keep a lookout for the release date!
