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☆ Scarlett Johansson is a full-fledged Disney adult despite that lawsuit
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Alli Rosenbloom | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Scarlett Johansson may have sued Disney in 2021 for breach of contract, but the “Black Widow” star still is – and always has been – a full-fledged Disney adult. (A Disney adult can be defined in many ways depending on one’s level of fandom, but the term tends to refer to a grown person that is a dedicated Disney fan.) “We had annual passes to Disney World, and I have a real passion for the Disney parks,” Johansson said, adding that the obsession with Disney began when her family lived in Florida for two years when she was younger. The star even said her dream job is to have a “corner office” on the Disney studio lot when she appeared on Bruce Bozzi’s “Table for Two” podcast in 2022. Johansson sued the studio in 2021, alleging Disney breached her contract by releasing “Black Widow,” a 2021 Marvel film she starred in, on home streaming platform Disney+ the same day it was released in theaters.

LOS ANGELES, May 8 (Reuters) - Writing for a new season of "The Handmaid's Tale" and a coming "Game of Thrones" prequel was halted as a nearly week-long strike by thousands of film and television writers rippled across Hollywood on Monday. Writing of the dystopian drama stopped when the Writers Guild of America (WGA) called a strike last week, Chang told Reuters on Monday. Martin said in a blog post that the writers' room for prequel series "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight" was "closed for the duration of the strike." Warner Bros has not announced a release date for "The Hedge Knight." The second season of "House of the Dragon," another "Game of Thrones" prequel, began filming in April, Martin said, and will continue in London and Wales.

☆ Video shows police yelling at a driverless Waymo taxi to stop before it runs over a fire hose
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Tim Levin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Footage obtained by San Francisco news site Mission Local shows police trying to stop a Waymo driverless taxi. The driverless taxis ferrying passengers throughout San Francisco are a technological marvel — and sometimes a nuisance. Waymo operates autonomous taxis in San Francisco and Phoenix, and customers can hail rides through an app. As impressive as they are, the driverless taxis on roads today still have trouble reacting to unusual situations like blocked streets or commands from first responders. A recent viral Tik Tok video shows a police officer repeatedly gesturing for a Waymo taxi to pull over.

☆ Hollywood writers' strike halts production of 'Stranger Things,' 'Severance,' Marvel's ‘Blade’
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

More than 11,000 film and television writers, who say their compensation doesn't match the revenue generated in the streaming era, are on strike for the first time since 2008. Since then, a number of notable films and shows have halted or wrapped production early, including Netflix's "Stanger Things," Disney and Marvel's "Blade," AppleTV+'s "Severance" and Paramount's "Evil." Beyond the delayed production, and likely delayed releases, of these titles, industry experts worry the work pause could have a financial toll greater than that of the previous writers' strike. A number of productions with finished scripts, like Amazon's "The Rings of Power," have decided to continue filming without writers or showrunners on set. "While we're excited to start production with our amazing cast and crew, it is not possible during this strike.

☆ ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ Delivers $100 Million-Plus Debut for Disney’s Marvel
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Robbie Whelan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ is the 32nd consecutive Marvel release to debut No. Photo: Marvel /Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures /Everett Collection“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” tallied $114 million in domestic ticket sales this weekend, giving Walt Disney’s Marvel Studios a strong but tepid start to the aging franchise’s release. The latest movie did better in its debut weekend than the first “Guardians” in 2014 but not as well as the second movie in 2017.

☆ Marvel's 'Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3' kicks off summer movie season with $114 million opening
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Disney and Marvel Studio's "Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. "Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. It also fell short of the $146.5 million "Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 2" collected in 2017. "'Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. The release of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.

☆ Striking Writers Guild of America members say they work second jobs in retail, food service, and more to make ends meet: 'I never know when work is going to dry up'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( Aaron Mcdade | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Writers Guild of America members are currently on strike after their contract expired with no new deal with TV and movie studios. Many have complained of low pay, especially when writing for a show on a streaming service. Several said they applied to or were working retail jobs when they found out they were nominated for awards. Dozens of users responded and quoted the tweet with their support for Carter and other striking writers, saying they assumed writers on successful TV shows made enough to live between writing jobs. "When I got nominated for a Canadian Screen Award (Canada's Emmy) - I was applying for a job at a coffee shop.

☆ ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ Review: A Space Raccoon Story
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Kyle Smith | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) Photo: MarvelIt’s been a superhero’s journey for writer-director James Gunn : He rose to great heights, was ruined, then re-emerged more powerful than ever. Five years ago Marvel Studios’ corporate parent, Disney, publicly fired Mr. Gunn as he started work on his third “Guardians of the Galaxy” movie over some inappropriate jokes he’d made years earlier on Twitter. A year later Mr. Gunn got himself uncanceled. He is now not only the sole writer and director of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. Mass production of comic-book movies has stretched thin the talents of Mr. Gunn and most of his fellow toilers on the superhero assembly line.

☆ The 12 Best Movie and TV Comedies to Watch Right Now
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Wsj Arts In Review Staff | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Here’s a roundup of the most noteworthy movie and TV comedies to watch right now, as covered by The Wall Street Journal’s critics. Rachel Brosnahan and Reid Scott Photo: Amazon StudiosStill breathless after all these years, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” enters its fifth and final season, a marvel in many ways and—doing what? Will the show flash forward to show its title character evolving into a road-hardened comedy legend who is as brittle as her jokes? Or will she finally heed the advice of her in-laws, give up all this showbiz meshugas, attend to her children and make sure they don’t grow up to hate her, or go live on a kibbutz?

☆ Rugby league-'Marvel' coach Bennett hailed ahead of 900th match
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Ian Ransom | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Some 36 years on and seven National Rugby League (NRL) titles later, the 73-year-old supercoach will plot the Sharks' downfall again on Saturday when he coaches the Dolphins in his 900th championship match. Emotions may run high during the game, but the famously taciturn Bennett will likely have his usual poker-face on while looking to engineer victory. Tributes from players, fellow coaches and NRL head office have rained down on the luminary this week. No NRL coach has come close to Bennett's tally of games, with second-placed Tim Sheens, the 72-year-old Wests Tigers manager, yet to crack 700. He wandered into it when asked to mentor a junior side at Queensland's police academy after the team's coach fell ill.

☆ AMC earnings a hit on Wall Street as 'Ant-Man' attracts more moviegoers
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

May 5 (Reuters) - AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc (AMC.N) beat Wall Street estimates for first-quarter revenue on Friday, as a string of hit films including the latest installment of Marvel's "Ant-Man" drove more moviegoers to theaters. Shares of the Leawood, Kansas-based company, which operates over 900 theaters globally, rose nearly 4% in trading before the bell. AMC has been trying different combinations to attract audiences to its theaters, including options where moviegoers can choose different seating options to meet their viewing preferences. Revenue for the quarter was $954.4 million, compared with analysts' expectation of $948.5 million, according to Refinitiv IBES data. Reporting by Tiyashi Datta and Yamini Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'SilvaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Summer movie preview 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Dan Heching | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +12 min

CNN —Most moviegoers can pinpoint one summer movie – or perhaps, a summer of movies – in their formative years that really and truly cemented their love for going to the cinema, whether it be 1975’s “Jaws,” “E.T. And while streaming has clearly siphoned off part of the audience, particularly for more serious films, what we think of as “summer movies” still have the potential to rake in cash just like the old days. (CNN and DC are both part of the same parent company, Warner Bros. Courtesy Warner Bros. PicturesInitially meant for streaming platforms, this vehicle will herald the cinematic arrival of DC Studios’ first Latino superhero, played by Xolo Maridueña of “Cobra Kai” and “Parenthood” fame. If the fast-paced trailer is any indication, the movie looks sure to whisk those dog days of summer doldrums away quite nicely.

And so whenever I get one of those notifications, I know I’m going to have a good time there. kevin roose[LAUGHS]: I actually don’t think I could’ve told you what IBM stood for. kevin rooseSo I’ve thought a lot and written a lot about how and when AI actually is a threat to jobs. The third category is just the jobs that I think are going to be protected, the jobs that we won’t let AI do. But I don’t actually think the speed of it matters at all.

☆ Chris Pratt's Met Gala post sparked conversation
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Marianne Garvey | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —Chris Pratt has upset some on the internet by showing off his toe. The “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. Playing off his role in “Guardians,” one commenter suggested the Marvel group help. “You want a toe, I can get you a toe,” they quipped. “You need the guardians of Podiatry.”

[1/5] Cast member Chris Pratt attends the premiere of 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. Pratt had seen one or two short unfinished sequences of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3," but at the premiere he took the time to savor the entirety of the swan song in Marvel’s “Guardians” trilogy. “I wanted to be swept away on the journey alongside my friends, my family, all of the fans in the audience, the cast and crew. While that wasn’t the actual moment that Pratt and Gunn had, the two recalled feeling the emotional weight of saying goodbye to the “Guardians” movies together.

☆ TV and film writers are fighting to save their jobs from AI. They won’t be the last
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

A powerful new crop of AI tools, trained on vast troves of data online, can now generate essays, song lyrics and other written work in response to user prompts. While there are clearly limits for how well AI tools can produce compelling creative stories, these tools are only getting more advanced, putting writers like August on guard. But as part of their demands, the WGA is also fighting to protect their livelihoods from AI. Stephanie Elam/CNNWhile film and TV writers in Hollywood may currently be leading the charge, professionals in other industries will almost certainly be paying attention. “Watch this #WGA strike carefully,” Justine Bateman, a writer, director and former actress, wrote in a tweet shortly after the strike kicked off.

☆ DC Studios' future begins with Marvel's 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +15 min

And, for once, the success of a Marvel film could bode well for the future of its longtime adversary. On the theatrical side, DC Studios has announced five new projects that will roll out starting in 2025 with Gunn's own "Superman: Legacy." "And I think Marvel Studios, sooner rather than later, needs to tell us what's going on with Spider-Man." He sees this as the result of predictable plotlines within the genre that are repeated across both studios' films. Marvel Studios

☆ ‘God’s Time’ Review: Out for Revenge on New York’s Streets
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( John Anderson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Ben Groh Photo: IFC FilmsThere’s nothing nostalgic, per se, about “God’s Time”—the characters walk and talk and bike and roll and spatter each other with vulgarities within a very contemporary New York; they shatter the fourth wall with impunity; they occasionally instruct the camera. God’s Time Friday, AMC+Mr. Antebi may have a very casual attitude about structured narrative, but there’s little room for formality in “God’s Time,” which the writer-director has clearly based on his exposure to 12-step meetings and the occasional windbag therein: Regina (the startling Liz Caribel Sierra ) holds forth regularly about her addiction and—more persistently—about her unspeakable boyfriend. And the apartment from which he evicted her. And her dog, which he appropriated. After vowing to kill him, she inevitably reverses course, saying she’s going to pray that Russel ( Jared Abrahamson ) gets what’s coming to him “in God’s time.”

☆ Universal Studio Group’s UCP teams up with Nigeria’s Comic Republic in new TV series deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Aisha Salaudeen | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

In the Vanguards Universe, heroes come together as humankind’s first line of defense, protecting the people of Lagos from members of the first race seeking to punish them. Since its inception 10 years ago, Comic Republic has created and conceptualized dozens of comic book characters and stories. Through his studio, Mad Massive Entertainment, Hinds will work with UCP and the Comic Republic team to execute the production. “I’ve always wanted to show that you can provide quality output out of Africa, because at the time we started, there wasn’t any such thing coming out of the continent,” said the Comic Republic CEO. He added that Comic Republic is well-suited for this deal because the company has worked hard over the past 10 years to build an interconnected superhero universe in its comics.

☆ The first movie to cross $1 billion so far this year wasn't a superhero movie — it's 'The Super Mario Bros.'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Will Gendron | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

'The Super Mario Bros. Movie' continues to dominate the global box office. It has become the first movie of 2023 and the first video game movie ever to reach this benchmark. Over the weekend, "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" officially surpassed the $1 billion mark at the global box office. It grossed more than double the box office of the second highest-grossing movie of the year, Marvel's "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania," per Box Office Mojo. Meanwhile, "The Super Mario Bros." has a tight run time of just 92 minutes.

☆ ‘Super Mario Bros. Movie’ set to become 10th animated film to cross $1 billion at the global box office
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Alli Rosenbloom | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —Nearly one month after “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” premiered with an impressive opening weekend at the box office, the animated film is expected to hit another major milestone. The movie is set to cross $1 billion at the global box office on Sunday, according to a news release from Universal, continuing to break box office records as it remains in the No. “Super Mario Bros.” will become the 10th animated film in history to cross $1 billion, making it the 10th biggest animated movie of all time globally, beating out the $942.5 million that “Minions: The Rise of the Gru” grossed in 2019. “Super Mario Bros.” surpassed Marvel’s “Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” at the time, which brought in $225.3 million globally during its February opening. “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” follows Brooklyn plumbers Mario and Luigi as they’re transported down a mysterious pipe while working underground to fix a water main.

☆ 40 years ago, a US Navy aircraft carrier ran aground as thousands of sailors' families watched
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Miguel Ortiz | We Are The Mighty | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

On April 28, 1983, USS Enterprise arrived in San Francisco after an eight-month deployment. Imagine, then, the frustration felt by sailors and family members alike when a ship ran aground right before it docked. USS Enterprise sails under the Golden Gate Bridge as it returns from a deployment in April 1983. 4,500 sailors and 3,000 family members could now just see each other, but were still far from being reunited. "Our vessel is the Starship Enterprise and this is the USS Enterprise," he later said, "We've got a new drink—Enterprise on the Rocks."

☆ 'Citadel': Priyanka Chopra Jonas on what her latest show gets right about diversity
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Sandy Thin | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Within the first scene of new Prime Video series “Citadel,” Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Richard Madden have a conversation that flits from English to Mandarin to German to Spanish and finally, back to English. But it is also a statement of intent from the series, indicating the radical ambition of the project the creative team is embarking upon. Chopra Jonas – the star of over 50 Bollywood films – told CNN, “What we’re trying to do has never been attempted – in TV, features, long-form, short-form, anything. Prime VideoGiven the international scope of the world Prime Video hopes to create, it’s no surprise they have turned to two titans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to steer the ship. There are very few things that bind us together in this increasingly divisive world, and stories are one of them.”“Citadel” is available of Prime Video from April 28.

☆ Wrexham: An intoxicating tale of Hollywood glamour and sporting romance
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Aimee Lewis | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +22 min

In an often brutal and bleak world, the recent resurgence of Wrexham, the city as well as the soccer club, lifts the soul. The Turf pub is a must-see for Wrexham fans. But now, there’s Wrexham with a story that, in hindsight, feels as if it was just waiting for Hollywood. One of Wrexham city center's shopping areas, pictured on April 22. Wrexham fans celebrate on the pitch after their team beat Boreham Wood at the Racecourse Ground.

☆ Amazon's $300 million new spy series 'Citadel' debuts to mediocre reviews and could be another high-profile miss for the streamer
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Amazon's ambitious new spy series, "Citadel," starring Priyanka Chopra, premiered today. Costing as much as an estimated $300 million, it stands to be one of the most expensive series ever made. It has a 56% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 41 reviews. Amazon has a lot riding on its new ambitious spy series, "Citadel," but so far critics are less than impressed. Rotten Tomatoes deems a 60% score or less to be "rotten."

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