Negromancer News Bits and Bites from November 20th to 30th, 2022 - Update #22

by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"

You can support Leroy via Paypal or on Patreon:

ENTERTAINMENT AND CULTURE NEWS:

TELEVISION/STREAMING - From Deadline:  Layoffs are underway at CBS Studios and at Paramount TV Studios.

AWARDS - From Deadline:  "Everything Everywhere All at Once" wins the "Best Feature" award at the 2022 / 32nd Annual Gotham Awards, one of two wins for the film.

From IndieWire:  The nominations for the 2023 Film Independent Spirit Awards have been announced.   "Everything Everywhere All at Once" leads with eight nominations.  The winners will be announced March 4th, 2023.

From Variety:  The nominations for the 2022 / 32nd Annual Gotham Awards were announced a month ago.  Todd Field's "Tar" leads with five nominations.  The winners will be announced Monday, November 28th.

BOX OFFICE - From BoxOfficePro:  The winner of the 11/25 to 11/27/2022 Thanksgiving weekend box office is Disney/Marvel Studios' "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" with an estimated take of 45.9 million dollars.

From Here:  Leroy Douresseaux's review of "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever."

MOVIES - From Deadline:  Antonio Banderas, who has played the character, "Zorro," in two films, says that if there is a reboot he would like to see "Spider-Man" actor, Tom Holland, take the role.

SPORTS - From Deadline: Thursday's (11/24/2022) Thanksgiving Day game between the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys, who won 28-20, is the most watched regular season NFL game ever.  42 million viewers apparently tuned into the game broadcast on FOX.

HISTORY - From Deadline:  Friday, November 25, 2022 marked the 75th anniversary of the birth of the "Hollywood Blacklist," which began with the "Waldorf Declaration" on November 25, 1947.

MOVIES - From Variety:  Ice Cube lost a $9 million dollar payday because he didn't want to get the required COVID vaccination for the film, "Oh Hell No."

MOVIES - From Deadline:  Director James Mangold says that actor Harrison Ford was "de-aged" for "Indiana Jones 5" so that he could look like he did in the first three films from the 1980s.

MARVEL STUDIOS - From Variety:  Quentin Tarantino says that actors in Marvel Studios are not movie stars and that, for instance, Captain America is the star.

DISNEY - From Variety:  Bob Chapek is out as CEO of The Walt Disney Company.  After three years of retirement, Bob Iger, has been reinstated as CEO of Disney.

BOX OFFICE - From BoxOfficePro:  The winner of the 11/18 to 11/20/2022 weekend box office is Disney/Marvel Studios' "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" with an estimated take of 67.3 million dollars.

MOVIES - From Deadline:  Actor John Leguizamo said that he based his character, "George Diaz," from the new film, "The Menu," on action movie star Steven Seagal, says "He's kind of a horrible human."

WALKING DEAD - From Deadline:  The lawsuit over profits from "The Walking Dead" television series that pit the series' network, AMC, against the series' original showrunner, Frank Darabont, and his talent agency, CAA, has come to an end. According to Deadline: “The Settlement Agreement provides for a cash payment of $200 million (the “Settlement Payment”) to the plaintiffs and future revenue sharing related to certain future streaming exhibition of The Walking Dead and Fear The Walking Dead...”

RUST - From Deadline:  The police report produced by the Sante Fe County Sheriff's Office on its investigation into the shooting on the New Mexico set of the Western, "Rust," has been made public.  Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed after being shot by an accidental discharge from a pistol held by actor Alec Baldwin.

OBITS:

From Variety:  English musician and singer-songwriter, Christine McVie, has died at the age of 79, Wednesday, November 30, 2022.  She was best known for her association with the British-American rock band, Fleetwood Mac, and was a member during the band's greatest success and greatest sales.  As a member of the band, she shared the 1978 Grammy Award for "Album of the Year" for the album, "Rumors" (1977).  McVie also released four solo albums.

From Deadline:  Film and television actor and theater professor, Clarence Gilyard, Jr., has died at the age of 66, Monday, November 28, 2022.  Gilyard was best known for playing the role of "Conrad McMasters" on NBC's former mystery legal drama, "Matlock" (1989-93) and for the role of "Ranger James Trivette" on CBS' former action-crime drama, "Walker, Texas Ranger" (1993-2001).  His best known film roles were playing Tom Cruise's co-pilot in "Top Gun" (1986) and playing "Theo" a terrorist computer expert in "Die Hard" (1988).

From THR:  Hawaiian-born, American film director, Albert Pyun, has died at the age of 69, Saturday, November 26, 2022.  He was known for directing, low-budget, high-concept films that became cult classics, such as the sword and sorcery film, "The Sword and the Sorcerer" (1982).  His best known film may be the 1989 Jean-Claude van Damme martial arts/sci-fi film, "Cyborg."  He is also known for directing the low-budget 1990 film, "Captain America," based on the Marvel Comics character.

From Variety:  Actress, singer, and songwriter, Irene Cara, has died at the age of 63, Friday, November 25, 2022.  Cara appeared in the 1980 film, "Fame," and sang the title song, "Fame," which won the "Best Song" Oscar for its songwriters.  Later, Cara would win an Oscar for co-writing the song, "Flashdance... What a Feeling" from the film, "Flashdance" (1983).  She also won two Grammys for her work on "Flashdance... What a Feeling."

From Deadline:  Former child actor, Mickey Kuhn, has died at the age of 90, Sunday, November 20, 2022.  Kuhn was the last surviving credited-cast member of  the legendary film, "Gone with the Wind."  Kuhn worked in the film industry from 1934 to 1956 before leaving for good.

From Deadline:    The actor Jason David Frank has died at the age of 49, Saturday, November 19, 2022.  Frank was best known for playing the role of Tommy Oliver" the "Green Ranger"/"White Ranger" on the the TV series, "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" (1993-96).  He also appeared in several other TV series in the "Power Rangers" franchise.

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BRITTNEY GRINER:

From NBCNews:   Brittney Griner will enter a system of isolation, grueling labor and psychological torment when she is transferred to a penal colony, the successor to the infamous Russian gulag, to fulfill a nine-year sentence handed down Tuesday in Moscow, former prisoners and advocates said.

From NBCNews:  A Russian court has rejected Brittney Griner's appeal of her nine-year prison sentence on (fake) drug charges.

From Reuters:  Russia says that it is ready to talk prisoner swamp for Brittney Griner and U.S. Marine veteran Paul Whelan, but also scolds the U.S. Embassy.

From TheDailyBeast:   Legendary NBA bad boy and champion (Detroit Pistons, Chicago Bulls), Dennis Rodman claims that he has been given permission to go to Russia and help free imprisoned hostage, WNBA star, Brittney Griner.

From Vox:  Vox's Jonathan Guyer talks the Brittney Griner case with Danielle Gilbert, a Dartmouth professor who is writing a book about states and rogue actors that take hostages.

From ESPN:   A Russian court sentenced WNBA star Brittney Griner to nine years in prison Thursday, Aug. 4th.  Griner was arrested Feb. 17 for bringing cannabis into the country and pleaded guilty July 7, though the case continued under Russian law.

From ESPN:  The Biden administration has offered a deal to Russia aimed at bringing home WNBA star Brittney Griner and another jailed American, Paul Whelan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday.

From RSN:  "Will Support From LeBron James, Joe Rogan, Kim Kardashian, and Other Celebrities Help Free Brittney Griner From a Russian Prison?" by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar via Substack

From ESPN:  Detained WNBA star Brittney Griner pleaded guilty on Thursday to bringing hashish oil into Russia, telling a judge that she had done so "inadvertently" while asking the court for mercy.

From CBSSports:  The Brittney Griner situation explained.

From RSN:  According to The Washington Post Editorial Board: "Brittney Griner is a hostage, plain and simple."

Negromancer News Bits and Bites from July 11th to 17th, 2021 - Update #21

by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"

You can support Leroy via Paypal or on Patreon:

ENTERTAINMENT AND CULTURE NEWS:

CANNES - From Variety:  At the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, the "Palme d'Or" goes to director Julia Ducournau's horror film, "Titane."

BOX OFFICE - From Variety:   The animated/live-action hybrid film, "Space Jam: A New Legacy," which stars NBA mega-star, LeBron James, is set to win the weekend box office over Disney's "Black Widow."

TELEVISION - From Deadline:  The long-running lawsuit between AMC and Frank Darabont, the original showrunner of "The Walking Dead," and his agency, CAA, has been settled with AMC giving Darabont and CAA 200 million dollars. 

CANNES - From Deadline:  Kira Kovalenko’s Russian drama, "Unclenching The Fists," won the Grand Prize in Cannes Film Festival’s "Un Certain Regard" sidebar this year.

DISNEY - From Deadline:   Oscar-nominee Antonio Banderas is joining fellow Oscar-nominee Harrison Ford in "Indiana Jones 5."  James Mangold is directing the film.

TELEVISION - From TheWrap:   The site published excerpts from 360 pages of complaints that supporters of former President Trump made to the FCC about "Saturday Night Live" and its comedy skits about Trump.

BOX OFFICE - From Deadline: "Black Widow" has the best non-holiday Monday at the pandemic box office (7.16 million dollars) and now has the best pandemic box office Tuesday (7.6 million dollars).

STAR TREK - From Deadline:   Director Matt Shakman guided Disney+/Marvel's "WandaVision" to 23 Emmy nominations, including one for himself.  Now, his next project is Paramount's next "Star Trek" movie, which is being fast-tracked to begin production next spring.

PIXAR-TRAILER - From CBC:   Pixar has released a teaser trailer for its film, "Turning Red" (Spring 2022), and Toronto residents are happy to see that their city is the backdrop for the film.

EMMYS - From Variety:   The nominations for the 2021 / 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards have been announced.  The article includes a complete list of nominees.  The winners will be announced on September 19th in a ceremony broadcast on CBS and streamed on Paramount Plus and hosted by Cedric the Entertainer.

From Variety:  Cedric the Entertainer has been named host for the 2021 Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony.

LGBTQ-EMMYS - From Variety:   Mj Rodriguez has become the first transgender performer to pick up an Emmy nomination in a major acting category.  The category is "Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series" for FX's "Pose."

THE RACISTS - From SkyNews:  One of the three Black English football players receiving racist abuse from English football fans speaks out.  Tyrone Mings rightly calls out Home Secretary "Pissy" Priti Patel for her hypocrisy.

BOX OFFICE - From BoxOfficePro:  The winner of the 7/9 -7/11/2021 weekend box office is Disney/Marvel's "Black Widow" with an estimated take of 80 million dollars. 

From Negromancer:  A review of "Black Widow" by yours truly.

From Deadline:  "Black Widow" leads the international box office with its 78.8 million dollar debut.

From Deadline:  The concert documentary, "Summer of Soul (...Or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)" leads the specialty box office with a 1.4 million dollars.  The film is distributed by Searchlight Pictures and also streams on Hulu.

CANNES - From Variety:  Director Wes Anderson's long-awaited film, "The French Dispatch" dazzles the crowd at the 2021 edition of the Cannes Film Festival.

SPORTS/AWARDS - From Deadline:  If you care, here is the full list of winners at the 2021 ESPY Awards, the awards given out by cable network, ESPN.

OBITS:

From Deadline:   Rapper, singer, DJ, and actor, Biz Markie, has died at the age of 57, Friday, July 16, 2021.  Biz was best known for the hit song, "Just a Friend" (1989), which was a top ten hit on the "Billboard Hot 100" music chart was certified platinum.

From Deadline:  Rock guitarist, Jeff LaBar, has died at the age of 58, Wednesday, July 14, 2021.  LaBar was best known as a guitarist for the 1980s hair/glam metal band, "Cinderella," which he joined in 1985, replacing an original member, Michael Schermick.  LaBar played on all four of Cinderella's four studio albums and was a fixture with the band during its heyday from the mid-1980s to the 1990.

From Variety:   Veteran television and film actor, Charlie Robinson, has died at the age of 75, Monday, July 12, 2021.  Wilson was best known for his role as clerk court, "Mac Robinson," in the former NBC sitcom, "Night Court" (1984-92), beginning in the series second season.  Wilson was a series regular or had a recurring role in a number of other sitcoms, including "Buffalo Bill," "Love & War," "Home Improvement," and "Mom," to name a few.

Warner Bros. Starts Production on "Godzilla"

Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures Announce Cast and Start of Production for “Godzilla”

BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures announced today the final principal cast for the upcoming tent pole “Godzilla.” Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ken Watanabe, Elizabeth Olsen, and Juliette Binoche are starring in the film, with David Strathairn and Bryan Cranston.

The companies also announced that principal photography began today on location in Vancouver.

Gareth Edwards is directing the film from a screenplay by Max Borenstein, Frank Darabont and Dave Callaham. Legendary’s Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni are producing with Mary Parent and Brian Rogers. Alex Garcia and Patricia Whitcher are serving as executive producers alongside Yoshimitsu Banno and Kenji Okuhira.

A presentation of Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures, “Godzilla” will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, except in Japan, where it will be distributed by Toho Co., Ltd. Legendary Pictures is a division of Legendary Entertainment.

Slated to open on May 16, 2014, the film is expected to be presented in 3D.

Actor Michael Clarke Duncan Dies at 54

Earlier this evening, I was saddened to hear about the passing of actor Michael Clarke Duncan.  Duncan apparently suffered a myocardial infarction on July 13 and never fully recovered, dying Monday morning at a hospital in Los Angeles.

CNN.com and The Wrap have obituaries.

Duncan is probably best known for his appearance in the 1999 Frank Darabont film, The Green Mile, for which he earned Oscar and Golden Globe nominations.  Duncan played John Coffey, a man wrongly convicted of rape and murder. Coffey had supernatural powers in his hands that allowed him to heal and to even bring back the dead, and he strikes up a friendship with the character played by Tom Hanks, Paul Edgecomb.  Duncan also appeared in four films starring Bruce Willis, who became Duncan's friend after the two appeared in the 1998 blockbuster, Armageddon.

Negromancer offers ours condolences to Michael Clarke Duncan's family and friends.  Rest in peace, Mr. Duncan.

Review: Frank Darabont's Take on "Stephen King's The Mist" Has a Sh*tty Ending

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 138 (of 2007) by Leroy Douresseaux

Stephen King’s The Mist (2007)
Running time: 127 minutes (2 hours, 7 minutes)
MPAA – R for violence, terror, gore, and language
DIRECTOR: Frank Darabont
WRITER: Frank Darabont (based upon the novella by Stephen King)
PRODUCER: Frank Darabont and Liz Glotzer
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Ronn Schmidt
EDITOR: Hunter M. Via

HORROR/DRAMA with elements of sci-fi

Starring: Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden, Andre Braugher, Toby Jones, William Sadler, Jeffrey DeMunn, Frances Sternhagen, Alexa Davalos, Chris Owen, Sam Witwer, Robert C. Treveiler, David Jensen, and Nathan Gamble

Writer/director Frank Darabont has previously adapted two Stephen King works of fiction into movies: the multiple Oscar-nominated films, The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. His latest King-to-film work is the horror flick, Stephen King’s The Mist, and it’s the kind of horror film that will still be on your mind quite a while after you leave the theatre, if not for a good long time afterwards.

The setting of The Mist is a pretty, Maine village populated by simple, rustic folks, but it is also the home of wealthy New Yorkers seeking a pastoral refuge from the hustle and bustle of the city life that has done well by them. Following a violent thunderstorm, a peculiar white mist creeps towards the small town community. Artist David Drayton (Thomas Jane) and his son, Billy (Nathan Gamble), are getting emergency supplies at a grocery store in the local shopping center when this unnatural mist moves in to cover the entire area.

Unusual as the mist is, the store’s occupants soon discover that there may be something monstrous prowling inside the thick, white mess. The customers barricade themselves inside the grocery story, and Drayton and a small band of customers plot survival and eventually escape after creatures in the mist start attacking the store. However, Drayton and company soon find themselves in a test of wills and a small war with Mrs. Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden), a local self-proclaimed psychic, who insists that only a blood sacrifice to the “God of Israel” will save them all. Her congregation of fear, formed out of the customers who have fallen under her sway, is all too willing to kill for her. Then, there’s the enemy outside that they can’t even see and that is attacking with increasing frequency.

The Mist, the film, is like “The Mist, the novella upon which is based (and which first appeared in the 1980 horror fiction anthology, Dark Forces), is about more about the conflicts among the occupants of the grocery store than it is about the supernatural boogeymen waiting in the mist outside. The monsters certainly are terrifying, even when their CGI creators make them look somewhat comical, perhaps, because Darabont maintained an element about which King was clear in the original story – these beasts hiding in that thick, mean mist are so very lethal. Their constant attacks on the grocery store’s structural integrity make this slightly two-hour-plus film actually seem lean, mean, and spry.

However, Darabont captures the most delicious aspect of King’s story and transforms his film from yet-another-King-adaptation into something memorable – a brutish and shockingly pessimistic human drama. Darabont suggests that the humans are just as capable of being killers as the creatures outside are. What can bring about the change? It’s fear, because as the movie’s tagline says – “Fear changes everything.”

All the mist does is quickly peel back the thin veneer of civility and civilization to reveal the ugly side of people just waiting to show itself the first time the comforts of modern life – utilities and machines – stop working. Whether it is the hellfire, hellfire, and more hellfire with a side of brimstone Mrs. Carmody and her demands for expiation (making amends to God via blood sacrifice) or Andre Braugher’s loud-mouthed NYC attorney, many of the characters take their fears and insecurities and use that to separate the customers into two groups, “them” and “us.”

The only thing really disappointing about the movie (well, besides the really downer of an ending) is not the execution of the movie. It is the fact that when a disaster, natural or supernatural, starts to break down institutions like the family, local authority, community bonds, etc., then, many of us will act pretty much the way the characters in this gem of a horror flick do  And that's not the movie's fault, is it?

7 of 10
B+

Sunday, November 25, 2007

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