Nine days after the nominations for the 88th Academy Awards were announced and the ‘Oscars So White’ backlash grew, the Academy responded with change to diversify its membership.
The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Friday; they approved a sweeping series of substantive changes designed to make the Academy’s membership, its governing bodies, and its voting members significantly more diverse in a unanimous vote Thursday night. The Board’s goal is to commit to doubling the number of women and diverse members of the Academy by 2020.
“The Academy is going to lead and not wait for the industry to catch up,” said Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs. “These new measures regarding governance and voting will have an immediate impact and begin the process of significantly changing our membership composition.”
Oscar Diversity Effort Breakdown
Beginning later this year, each new member’s voting status will last 10 years, and will be renewed if that new member has been active in motion pictures during that decade. In addition, members will receive lifetime voting rights after three ten-year terms; or if they have won or been nominated for an Academy Award. We will apply these same standards retroactively to current members. In other words, if a current member has not been active in the last 10 years they can still qualify by meeting the other criteria. Those who do not qualify for active status will be moved to emeritus status. Emeritus members do not pay dues but enjoy all the privileges of membership, except voting. This will not affect voting for this year’s Oscars.
At the same time, the Academy will supplement the traditional process in which current members sponsor new members by launching an ambitious, global campaign to identify and recruit qualified new members who represent greater diversity.
In order to immediately increase diversity on the Board of Governors, the Academy will establish three new governor seats that will be nominated by the President for three-year terms and confirmed by the Board.
The Academy will also take immediate action to increase diversity by adding new members who are not Governors to its executive and board committees where key decisions about membership and governance are made. This will allow new members an opportunity to become more active in Academy decision-making and help the organization identify and nurture future leaders.
The 88th Academy Awards will be held February 28 live from the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, hosted by Chris Rock.
DC Comics relaunched their universe in 2011 with 52 titles starting over at issue one. This concept was met with mixed reaction to put it mildly as it turned the Universe on its head, reinventing classic characters and eliminating others.
Now it appears a reboot is coming this summer to align with the DC Comics Cinematic Universe.
Bleeding Cool is reporting that the relaunch will happen in June and the new line of books will be dominated with Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and Harley Quinn/Suicide Squad-related titles. All books tied to film and/or TV show like Flash and Green Arrow will survive the relaunch, other might not fair so well.
DC Comics is not calling this a reboot or relaunch, it’s a rebirth according to Dan Didio, DC Comics Co-Publisher.
Alan Tudyk and Diamond Comics Distributors released a video promoting Tudyk’s involvement in Free Comic Book Day on May 7.
Tudyk, perhaps best known for his role as Hoban ‘Wash’ Washburne in the cult sci-fi Western series Firefly, has teamed up with co-star Nathan Fillion to present the first Spectrum comic from their highly successful web series, Con Man! Tudyk will pen with comic with novelist/producer PJ Haarsma (The Softwire Series) and artist Sarah Stone (Transformers).
Con Man’s Spectrum FCBD 2016 Edition will be available for free at select comic shops nationwide only on May 7. For the copmplete list of FCBD books and participating stores vist freecomicbookday.com.
Milos Forman isn’t concerned with history in Amadeus. Accuracy is here in a primal sense, aesthetically. But beyond certain elements, a lecture on period accuracy was never the director’s plan. No, Forman is concerned primarily with mood, atmosphere, and most of all, an unbridled energy. That energy is at the core of what makes Amadeus so completely brilliant. This is a period drama about a legendary classical composer, painted with a punk-rock sensibility and attention to all the right things which make it universal. It explodes from the screen like the insanely falsetto rattle of Mozart’s laugh, the hedonism not only shaping the character, but classifying the entire picture. Despite the seething jealousy driving our antagonist, Amadeus and his film will live on forever. This jealousy we speak of, it will die. It will wither away in a madhouse, inside the black heart of a bitter old man.
That bitter old man, the driving force of the narrative, is Antonio Salieri, played by F. Murray Abraham in his Oscar-winning performance. Salieri’s tale of how he eventually killed Mozart is the framing device for the film. We meet him in his last days, confined to an insane asylum and consumed by guilt, bitterness, and spite toward God for never giving him the gifts he sought. Salieri poured his heart and soul into becoming a composer, a great composer, even vowing celibacy if it would allow him the success he desires. He tells his story to a young priest (an extension of God, that’s important) who is concerned for his “lost soul.” Salieri, now convinced there is no God, smirks at the earnestness of this young priest, and begins his tale in a subconscious effort to prove this man of the cloth has devoted his life to nothing in the end.
Salieri’s first glimpse of Mozart as a young man sets the table. In this stuffy world of Viennese Classicism, full of powdered wigs and stodgy clothing, constricted by formality, a world in which Salieri is devoutly invested, comes Mozart, a debauched young man who is everything Salieri is not and can never be in many ways. Introduced into the film chasing his future bride across the floor, speaking backwards, using words like “fart” and “shitwit,” Amadeus is a man from a modern world, trapped in a time where his sensibilities don’t belong. He is anti-authoritarian, slanted by a punk-rock mentality. His powdered wigs enhance this angle, spiked at times, a hint of pink at others. His clothes are purple, or blue, with a bit more shine than everyone else. And his laugh, created using the historical claims of women who knew him, has a rat-a-tat insanity, breaking apart the stuffy sitting rooms and formality.
This effortlessly brilliant composer is bucking the system because he can, and it almost immediately consumes Salieri.
Mozart insults Salieri from the beginning, changing one of his concerto’s and in the process elevating it beyond anything Salieri could have created within his own limitations. “How could this,” Salieri asks, “be the voice of God?” It is God with whom Salieri battles more openly; his desire to ruin Mozart is a secret mission which consumes him and, ultimately, ruins him. It’s not God who works through Mozart, it is Mozart himself who creates these masterpieces one after another, effortlessly. The picture is very much placed in this mindset. And Antonio Salieri’s devotion to his spiritual leader is a fallacy, a God who tortured him with the ear for perfection, but the creativity of a bargain-basement hack.
In the third act, darkness consumes the gleeful madness of the film and ultimately destroys both men. Salieri’s desire to ruin his adversary manifests itself beyond his mind, the gloom personifying in the film’s physical representation of Mozart’s father’s ghost. It is a chilling final act, almost belonging in a horror. And it is most certainly is horror – of the mind and the soul, and Salieri has now officially given up on his God.
Amadeus breezes through its three-hour run time because of Forman’s dedication to the energy and madness at the core of the story, his willingness to permeate the entire structure with this punk-rock persona, a perfect fit for 1984. This is a period drama about a classical composer, but it is a most modern film. Part of its universal modernity comes in Forman’s conscious decision to have the actors use their regular accents so as not to distract them or the picture. It remains relevant, wily and painted with a modern brush of mad genius. It is full of universal truths which transcend any historical era. This brilliant madman, gleefully anti-establishment, destroys another madman, poisoned by jealousy and, eventually, left without his God. The music is an important element, of course, and it’s well-documented accuracy creates a wonderful world of unforgettable sound. Everything here is entirely gorgeous and brimming with creative wonder. The film won a staggering eight Academy Awards from 11 nominations, and each is entirely earned. Like Mozart’s music, his film will live beyond us all.
Momentum Pictures released the trailer for the western Forsaken, starring Donald and Kiefer Sutherland.
In 1872, JOHN HENRY CLAYTON (Kiefer Sutherland) retires as a gunfighter and returns to his hometown of Fowler, Wyoming in hope of repairing his relationship with his estranged father, REVEREND CLAYTON (Donald Sutherland). However, he soon learns that the town is in turmoil, as the railroad will be coming through the area and a criminal gang is terrorizing ranchers who refuse to sell their land. John Henry is the only one who can stop them, but his father does not want his son to return to a life of violence.
With Michael Wincott and Brian Cox as the main villains, take my money, please.
Forsaken is directed by Jon Cassar of 24 fame, for a script by Brad Mirman. Miran worked on the script for Highlander: The Final Dimension, with Mario Van Peebles as Kane (unwanted movie trivia).
Forsaken also stars Demi Moore Landon Liboiron, Siobhan Williams, and has a release date of February 19.
The CW’s The 100 returned this Thursday evening after a long hiatus, finally giving viewers some answers to the questions left hanging after Clarke (Eliza Taylor) and Bellamy’s (Bob Morley) genocidal act which saved their people and brought an unsteady truce with the Grounders.
Ultimately, we were treated with more of what The 100 has given to us in the past, only to be a little let down with the obvious fact that it’s resetting pieces in order to hopefully kick them all over a cliff after kissing them on the lips.
Three months after the Mt. Weather incident, former members of the Ark are gardening, kids are playing soccer, contraceptive implants are being removed and people are generally enjoying life on earth. This is where we find our friends in the newly dubbed camp, “Arkadia”.
Bellamy and Lincoln (Ricky Whittle) have seemingly taken up the mantle of leading the non-adult troops and training them in the physical ways of the Grounders. Not shying away from the eye candy the show is wont to provide, we get a glimpse of Bellamy and Lincoln shirtlessly and brutally sparring. This friendship seems easy now but it is sure to be a lulling technique that I won’t trust for long.
Gearing up for a routine scout mission, they round up their crew which includes a drunken, apathetic Jasper (Devon Bostick), a now fully Grounded Octavia (Marie Avgeropoulos), Monty (Christopher Larkin) and Raven (Lindsey Morgan). On this scout, they receive a distress signal from what seems to be another piece of the Ark fallen to Earth– Farm Station. Bellamy makes the call to check out the signal without notifying the Chancellor because it’s Marty’s home station and the station from which Nathan’s (Jarod Joseph) boyfriend is from (the first sign this season that this show is indeed The 100 that we all know and love — a character is gay, no big deal). Instead of finding more Sky Folk, they are greeted by a team of Grounders from Ice Nation who have taken Farm Station’s homing beacon as a souvenir for reasons unknown. Octavia tries to deescalate the situation as the Grounder leader asks for the location of a certain “Wanheda” but an off-his-rocker Jasper gets himself in trouble, forcing a firefight which leaves the Grounders killed or incapacitated. So much for that uneasy truce…
Meanwhile, our friend Clarke is setting up panther traps with sweet innocent bunnies and jumping out of trees with a huge knife. Clarke has been surviving off these trappings and killings, taking her goods to a local Grounder trading post. Now sporting long red locks and an incessantly muddy countenance, she trades her goods with the woman at the outpost, Niylah, and their flirtatious manner isn’t subtext (in CW shows, even downtrodden outpost clerks are stunning human specimens). Soon, a member of the Grounder Ice Nation enters carrying a makeshift wanted poster depicting the Wanheda — Clarke.
The Ice Nation Grounder is sent away and the outpost woman tends to Clarke’s wounds, telling her that Waneda means “Commander of Death”. The Grounders look at Clarke as both a savior and another thing to conquer. Many Grounders believe that they can attain the powers of whatever they kill and “Commander of Death” is a pretty savory title to ingest. Clarke shifts the power back into her court as she reverses on Niylah and kisses her. Clarke and Niylah make love leaving the audience to question what Clarke is really trying to achieve with this act. Clarke is a woman who hates being out of control, but is also known to make some notable mistakes in learning her boundaries.
Soon, this mistake is personified when Clarke leaves Niylah sleeping in bed in the outpost and she is greeted outside by the Ice Nation Grounder as he places a knife against her throat.
Picking back up from where we left our Destiny-driven Jaha (Isaiah Washington) and notorious nihilist Murphy (Richard Harmon), things hang in a similarly precarious balance. Murphy ends up trapped in that strange luxury obelisk for nearly 90 days where he is forced (but seemingly just chooses to) watch that horrific home movie over and over again which details where our friendly (?) AI friend, A.L.I.E., came from and possibly how the earth was scorched over a hundred years ago. Finally let loose from this prison and on the edge of suicide, Murphy is able to make his way to the mansion where Jaha is now content with his new computer friend and disfigured servant-person, Gideon. Jaha is seen meditating where he claims that he is able to visit the City of Light and tries to persuade Murphy to ingest a strange disc so he can see it in all its glory as well. Murphy being Murphy, he isn’t about to follow Jaha on more pipe dream delusions, even in this particular one seemed to come to some sort of fruition.
It seems that Jaha was able to help the AI unlock the secrets in creating a sustainable energy source from the nuclear warhead. As Jaha is about to catch a boat to head back to the “mainland”, Murphy insists he’s done with this search. It isn’t until he sees the traitorous woman with the disfigured hand he befriended, Emori, (and who thusly gave them the clue essential to getting Jaha and Murphy to this point) captaining the boat. He’s back on board… for now.
The only moment that took me out of this particular episode comes toward the end when we get an unnecessary cameo from singer Shawn Mendes where he plays the piano and sings a poignant song over a montage of our heroes traveling to their next destinations. For a show that has come to redefine what it means to be a “CW show”, this struck a little too close to the dark past when many shows would end with this “hip” moment. The 100 resorting back to its most juvenile material since the pilot isn’t something I enjoy but will take with a grain of salt that we either get more of Mendes’ character, or this sort of thing is just a one-off.
This being the first entry of a two-part pilot, it leaned heavily on set up and exposition with very many questions left dangling which will certainly either be solved next week or throughout the course of the season. Bellamy has a new girlfriend. Lincoln and Octavia share a troubled Romeo and Juliet relationship, Monty deals with his best friend’s instability. Intra-Grounder politics and territories come to light. Clarke is no doubt thinking about Lexa. Kane (Henry Ian Cusick)and Abigail (Paige Turco) handle being effectively second-in-command to these kids who are no longer really kids and must come to terms with their own relationship.
There’s no reason to not look forward to more socially poignant, feminist, delicious storytelling yet to come. I can’t wait to have my heart ripped out again and again.
“The outside world means nothing. In the City of Light, we’re all kings.” – Jaha
Early this month the rumor mill got very hot with the possibility of Cate Blanchett joining the cast of Thor: Ragnarok. Then Mark Ruffalo let slip in an interview that he was very excited that Blanchett was a baddie in the movie. The only two realistic options for a female villain in Thor: Ragnarok were the Enchantress and Hela. Geek is reporting that the main villain in the film will be Hela.
If you put Ruffalo’s statement with the Geek article, Marvel Studios wants Blanchet to portray Hela in Thor: Ragnarok. No official announcement has been made by Marvel Studios, at this point, we are just connecting the dots.
The article by Geek also claims to have a partial plot of the film and Hela’s impact on Avengers: Infinity War.
The article suggests that Hela could replace the physical embodiment of Death that Mad Titan Thanos falls in love with when he obtains the Infinity Gauntlet in the comic books on which the Avengers: Infinity War movies are loosely based.
In ‘Thor: Ragnarok,’ Hela and Loki will have set their plan well in motion by the time Thor gets wise to what’s going on. Hela ends up creating the incident to Thor’s journey in the film. According to our sources, when Thor confronts Hela, things do not go well. Not only does she banish Thor from Asgard, but she destroys Mjolnir!
Hela ‘Queen of the Dead’ The three Asgardian goddesses of fate, the Norns, are said to have warned the Asgardian gods that Hela would prove to be a great danger to them. Odin, ruler of the Asgardian gods, decreed that Hela would become goddess and ruler of the spirits of the dead on the day of her maturity. These spirits were in the other-dimensional realms of Hel and Niflheim, two more of the Nine Worlds, both of which Hela ruled. However, Odin himself directly ruled the souls of Asgardians and their human worshippers who died in battle as heroes, and had the palace of Valhalla built in a distant section of Asgard to house them.
Thor: Ragnarok is directed by Taika Waititi, Christopher Yost and Craig Kyle are working on the script, and the film stars Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Tom Hiddleston, Jaimie Alexander, Ray Stevenson, and Anthony Hopkins.
Thor: Ragnarok will destroy the universe on November 3, 2017.
Deadpool will be hitting theaters in less than a month, and the Merc with a Mouth has another message for his fans. This time, he’s reaching out to his good friends in Australia. In this latest trailer, the Merc with a Mouth praises Australia, saying he’d fit right in with its
“shady criminal past, it’s predilection for blackout drinking, and unrelenting condescension towards New Zealand.” However, he says he can’t forgive Australia for giving the world Wolverine.
The character Wolverine is Canadian while
“I’ve got no problems with Hugh, I mean he’s a delightful guy,” Deadpool clarified. “But the movie [X-Men Origins: Wolverine], that was a career low for me.”
Based upon Marvel Comics’ most original anti-hero, Deadpool tells the origin story of former Special Forces operative turned mercenary Wade Wilson, who after being subjected to a rogue experiment that leaves him with accelerated healing powers, adopts the alter ego Deadpool. Armed with his new abilities and a dark, twisted sense of humor, he hunts down the man who nearly destroyed his life.Starring Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, T.J. Miller, Ed Skrein, Gina Carano, and Brianna Hildebrand, Deadpool is set to be released on February 12.
The world is abuzz with the recent trailer for Suicide Squad and a more thorough introduction of the characters we’ll be meeting this summer. Now while Harley Quinn and Deadshot get the focus of the trailer, the hand that guides the team makes a small appearance. Talking about finding ‘the worst of the worst’ and ‘throwing them in a hole and throwing away the hole’ is Amanda Waller, and she just might be the most dangerous character in the film.
Portrayed by Emmy Winner Viola Davis (How to Get Away with Murder), Amanda Waller is a serious mover and shaker in the DC Universe. Making her first appearance in 1986, Waller is one of the few non powered characters you don’t want to cross. She is usually seen as tasked with recruitment and assignments for the Suicide Squad, but has filled other roles in her various appearances throughout the DC Universe.
Amanda Waller (voiced by CCH Pounder)
Her first appearance outside of the comics was in the Justice League Unlimited animated series as director of Project Cadmus. She was responsible for various plots to discredit the Justice League. She commissioned the creation of the Ultimen, a corporate sponsored superhero team, and also helped to engineer Galatea, a clone of Supergirl. Waller would end up assisting the Justice League at the end of season one and help them to defeat a merged Lex Luthor/Brainiac super entity. Also known as ‘The Wall’, she has made multiple appearances throughout various DC animated movies and a video game appearance in Batman: Arkham Origins.
Her prior live action appearances in the ninth season of Smallville, and currently in Arrow and The Flash have her as head of Checkmate and A.R.G.U.S. respectively. No powers, but all the stroke and influence she needs to get the job at hand done. One of her defining moments is during season one of JLU is when Batman asks who she is and her response is “I wouldn’t probe too much, rich boy”.
She has little problem telling the most powerful beings in the world what the score is, and has a penchant for getting them to do what she wants them to do, be it by leverage, blackmail, or other means.
If you would like to familiarize yourself with Amanda Waller prior to seeing Suicide Squad this summer, you can find her in Justice League Unlimited on Netflix, various episodes of Arrow or The Flash, season nine of Smallville, and the direct to video release Batman: Assault On Arkham
Suicide Squad releases nationwide on August 5, 2016
The X-Files make it’s highly anticipated return to television and finds itself in a world not all that different from the one it left behind. The X-Files was groundbreaking and ushered in a new age of science fiction television. However, the show fizzled out in May of 2002 as the world sought out television that had heroes thwarting terrorists and avoided programming where the government was the bad guy.
It’s 14 years later; The X-Files certainly has a place in the post-Snowden world. The mistrust of our government is at an all-time high, and outsiders like Fox Mulder are getting more brazen as they attempt to figure out the truth. Even with the right sentiment, the premiere episode of this revival will turn the hardcore fans into skeptics. At the beginning of the first episode, the audience is treated to a rousing refresher course on the X-Files and opening notes of Mark Snow’s iconic theme song hits positive notes that few shows have during the recent TV revival craze. FOX is not trying to play only to the die-hard fans of the series but appeal to a new audience in concert. It gets fans, new and old, hooked right away.
This first episode is a bit of a slow burn. Writer and Director Chris Carter didn’t attempt to cram a whole mess of nostalgia into the first episode but certainly laid the groundwork for a potentially fantastic six episode arch. Joel Mchale plays a political pundit whose interests are similar to Mulder’s. Mchale’s character claims to not only know the truth about aliens but claims to have proof, which he will share with the world on his TV Show. Mulder and Scully stumble into a conspiracy that could center around government deceit about the alien phenomenon. Are we alone? Not likely… but are there darker presences controlling all of this? That’s the question left unanswered.
David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson have a realistic amount of chemistry in the first episode. It would have been highly suspect if Scully and Mulder picked up right where they left off, so having a guarded amount of chemistry was the right call. We have to remember, Scully and Mulder have a history together, and it wasn’t all moonbeams and sunshine.
Carter does an excellent job laying out a plausible set of events that not only draw Scully and Mulder into investigating the X-Files, but it sets up who potentially could have been at the center of all this intrigue from the start. Carter does this in such way, X-Files superfans will swoon. And the new fans (like myself) will be deeply satisfied and wanting to see where this all leads. Overall, after a 14-year-old layoff and everything that this first episode had to accomplish, the first episode of the X-Files revival is a rousing success, and there is ample reason for optimism.
At the helm of the middle episodes are Glen and Darin Morgan, who wrote or co-wrote some of the series’ all-time classics (“Blood,” “Humbug”, and “Jose Chung’s from Outer Space”). “The Truth is Out There” and the truth is that the X-Files reboot is off to a great start.
