The Business: News, Rumours, Analysis, and More

[sdpfeiffy]

According to Collider:

 

Brad Copeland has been hired to write the script and now Chris Pratt and Danny McBride are "in talks” for Knight Rider.

 

At first glance, I think a comedy might be easier to sell than a straight drama.  Talking cars aren't all that revolutionary now, right?

[DollEyes]

Tom Hiddleston has been cast to play Hank Williams Sr. in I Saw the Light. I think he's a great choice because he can not only act the part, he can sing and play guitar as well.

[methodwriter85]

    I am relieved that they didn't cast a white guy to play Uriah in Insurgent. It's so annoying when that happens.

[Raja]

After noticing in the Transformers movie that time was taken to say the Chinese People's Liberation Army was going to help and all the talk of the blockbusters being aimed at the Chinese audience also it occurred to me that at least from The Karate Kid remake forward we have a bunch of single child families. And I can't recall the brother or sister of a movie parent making an appearance.

[Athena]

This is a general topic for the movies business. It can include any news or rumours from the business. This can be casting, greenlit projects, revived projects, shakeups in Hollywood, or what have you. 

[King of Birds]

That's what I'm talking about. Linklater to do Dazed and Confused "sequel"?

[Rick Kitchen]

James Corden, who plays the Baker in Into the Woods and also stars in the current release Begin Again, is rumored to be the replacement for Craig Ferguson on Late Night.

[AimingforYoko]

Warner Bros. blinks in date conflict with Marvel.

[methodwriter85]

That's what I'm talking about. Linklater to do Dazed and Confused "sequel"?

 

   Oh, god, I hope that happens. I've been dying for a great definitive 80's nostalgia movie.

[Jazzy24]

I didn't know where to put this but R.I.P Robin Williams you will be missed :-(

[bmoore4026]

I feel so numb about it.  Robin Williams was/is such a icon.  You never expect such people to die.

[A Boston Gal]

Just so hard to process.....and selfishly, selfishly, I mourn the loss of laughter he would have provided us in the future. Dammit.

 

RIP, Mr. Williams.

[Jazzy24]

I'm heartbroken he was such a huge part of my childhood and so masterful in his craft, and only 63yrs old I'm crying tears right now :-(

[VCRTracking]

Still in tears. I didn't realize how hard this news would hit me. 

Edited August 11, 2014 by VCRTracking

[methodwriter85]

Wow, things really do come in threes. At least in her case, she lived a long and full life. R.I.P. Lauren Bacall.

[King of Birds]

Believe it or not... 

 

"Believe it or not, George isn't home.
Please leave a message after beep.
I must be out or I'll pick up the phone.
Where could I be?
Believe it or not, I'm not home."

 

eta: I realize now that this is a MOVIE thread, and not a TV one. Not sure what's comparable in the TV thread- let me know kthanksbye.

Edited August 30, 2014 by King of Birds

[BatmanBeatles]

Oh come on, DC! Would it hurt to have some humor in your films?

 

http://www.hitfix.com/motion-captured/why-dcs-serious-superman-may-give-marvel-the-big-screen-edge

Edited August 30, 2014 by BatmanBeatles

[Ambrosefolly]

I am going to respond to the iCloud hacker scandal in this thread, since it is news.
 

I obviously don't have enough information to be convinced one way or the other either. That said it wouldn't be surprised if either was true. To me the biggest issue with the whole thing is that yes it is a crime, but it also shows how big an issue online security is. And if you are storing stuff on a cloud, you are basically storing it on someone else's computer and leaving the security up to them. So really it is more like someone breaking into someone else's poorly secured house and stealing your stuff.  Either way it is still a crime and the criminals should still be arrested, but it doesn't mean that people shouldn't take care with respect to their belongings or their information.
It is not about asking for it or slut-shaming or crap like that. It would be the same issue if someone stole Jennifer Lawrence's tax returns because she had them stored online. The fact that it is naked pictures sort of makes the issue a bit more weird when it comes to the media.

I have said I found the concept of storing personal stuff in a cloud systems foolish in my initial post. It might be dangerous even on a personal computer. My quibble is that a lot of these actresses and celebs that have been hacked have gotten the lionshare of the blame, not this asshole that probably spent countless hours over a matter of months hacking into tons of accounts and stealing private property. 

 

As someone at another site wrote these people that stored their photos remotely are already suffering the consequences, their photos have been leaked, it is just no one is condemning this guy first. 

[ribboninthesky1]

Yeah, I agree.  I'm also skeptical of the overreaction of storing things in the cloud, Internet security, blah.  Would *I* store something like nude pics? No. I certainly advocate caution, especially for celebrities, but I call BS on the whole "you're entrusting your information to a server and exposing it to millions of people, thus you kinda deserve what you get when you're hacked" stuff.  Yes, that is technically true, but the cloud isn't the first instance where we've handed over sensitive information to someone/something else for "safekeeping." I still think it's not much different than someone breaking into your home, but mileage varies.

 

I imagine the fallout will be that actors and actresses, as well as other celebrities, will take extra measures to encrypt or otherwise secure their digital property. But you know what? I guarantee someone will still hack and steal their property. Because as mentioned, it's totally not about what the celebrities did/did not do, it's about some disturbed/entitled person with time to waste and an obsession to mine. Let's give it another couple of years. 

[Ambrosefolly]

Turns out that Mary Elizabeth Winstead deleted the photos that were leaked, so what more could she have done other than reformat her computer or whatever the equivalent is to that.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

I am going to respond to the iCloud hacker scandal in this thread, since it is news.

 

I have said I found the concept of storing personal stuff in a cloud systems foolish in my initial post. It might be dangerous even on a personal computer. My quibble is that a lot of these actresses and celebs that have been hacked have gotten the lionshare of the blame, not this asshole that probably spent countless hours over a matter of months hacking into tons of accounts and stealing private property. 

 

As someone at another site wrote these people that stored their photos remotely are already suffering the consequences, their photos have been leaked, it is just no one is condemning this guy first. 

And the thing is, its really just another way to be an asshole to people you don't and never will know. Not to mention a perv with too much damn time on your hands.

[Ohwell]

Thinking that people should be more careful of what they keep on their telephones is NOT the same as slut-shaming.  God, I hate that phrase.

I hate that phrase, too, just like I'm tired of referring to someone as a misogynist if they dare to criticize a woman for anything. 

[Julia]

But we live in a world of criminals. Why do things that make it easy for them when there are common sense ways to protect yourself? We all do know that nothing we send out online is ever going to be truly private, right? Just look at what the NSA is doing.

 

I'm going to guess that the people haxxor guy wanted to see naked weren't chosen for their sophisticated appreciation of the modern surveillance state. I think youth might have had a bit more to do with it. 

 

I vote with the people who are disgusted with the victim blaming.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

Since I'm the one who brought up slut-shaming, I feel the need to elaborate. I'm usually the last person to call something an 'ism', because I think folks can be way too quick to see 'isms' in perfectly innocuous behavior. I don't care for the fact that 'mansplaining' is apparently a real word now, either, because IMO it seems like a blanket statement about intention. As a guy who'll be forty-five in eight days, I think it is totally possible to disagree with a woman about whatever without it being assumed that I'm being condescending.

 

However.

 

As it relates to this particular incident, I do notice that this blatant invasion of these actresses' privacy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead had deleted the pictures of herself, and they got hacked anyway, for God's sake) has, for some people, become a discussion of how they could have done things differently rather than how this asshole could have chosen not to be an asshole, with apparently thousands of hours to fart around hacking people's accounts so he can perv on them. And then get other people to perv on them. And when I say 'some people', I don't really have anyone specific in mind. I'm referring to the general mass of people who likely ran off to look at these pictures while simultaneously criticizing the actresses in question for the pictures existing in the first place. Maybe that's not slut-shaming, I don't know, and I don't particularly enjoy using the word because of reasons.

 

Would I take naked pictures of myself, then put them on the Cloud? Probably not, and if I did and they got leaked I doubt folks would be rushing off to look at them, because God knows I'm no matinee idol. But if it was my fat ass being exposed to the general public because of some idiot with no life, the reaction wouldn't have the same tone to it, IMO. I can see how not everyone hears the tone, but I don't feel like I'm just pulling it out of my butt that it's there.

[galax-arena]

But we live in a world of criminals. Why do things that make it easy for them when there are common sense ways to protect yourself? We all do know that nothing we send out online is ever going to be truly private, right? Just look at what the NSA is doing.

On that note, let’s never use credit cards again because credit card fraud and identity theft are so rampant. (/shamelessly stealing Irlandsea’s analogy from the celeb news post)

 

Here’s the thing. Victim-blaming can have as much to do with the timing of your comments as the actual content. If my friends and I were talking about naked selfies in general, I might say, “Dude, you shouldn’t ever take nude pics, you never know what sort of creeper will hack into your computer!” If my friend came up to me crying about how her ex had sent her nude pics to a revenge porn site, I would not say, “Wow, why did you even take those pics in the first place?” The latter would make me an insensitive, victim-blaming POS, IMO. Rhetorically speaking, the two comments are not on the same level. And yes, I realize that we’re all just commenters on a web site, and that (I hope) nobody here is personally going up to Mary Elizabeth Winstead and saying, “Why’d you take those pics in the first place?” but it still contributes to that overall toxic atmosphere and culture where the victim is put on trial as much as the perp. 

 

It’s good to teach people caution. But it’s pretty telling that on the whole, we mostly only resort to saying “well, that’s what you get for…” / “what did you do to cause this?” to women when they’re victims of a sexual offense. Victims of other, non-sexual offenses do not get the same attitude at all. Earlier this year, I was the victim of credit card fraud; my card wasn’t physically stolen, but someone somehow managed to get ahold of my numbers and went for a joyride. You know how many times people insinuated that I had it coming and that I should have been more careful? Zero. 

 

Also, I’ve noticed that when women are sexually assaulted, they’re criticized for not being careful enough. But when you have women writing essays like Schrodinger’s Rapist, they’re criticized for letting fear rule their lives and being unfair to men. Seems like we can’t win either way.

 

I walk alone at night a lot. I’ve managed to go almost 8 years here in the city (NYC) without being attacked. Good to know that if something were to happen to me, the most prominent thing on some people’s minds would be, “Why were you walking alone at night in the first place?”

 

I can guess that it was something along the lines of, "Well, you're the idiot who had these pictures of yourself, so of course it's totally your fault."

It varied. People did say, “Then don’t take nude pictures of yourself, dumbass.” Others said that it seemed like she was enjoying the attention or she wouldn’t have said anything at all on twitter. Another person - this one I’m hearing about secondhand - allegedly told her that she had it coming and he didn’t give a shit because it’s not like girls like her gave the time of day to guys like him.

 

 

Yeah, I agree.  I'm also skeptical of the overreaction of storing things in the cloud, Internet security, blah.  Would *I* store something like nude pics?

And let’s not forget that the way things are uploaded to the cloud can be notoriously wonky. I don’t know about iCloud, but I just got a Chromebook, which automatically syncs your files to Google Drive. I spent over an hour last night trying to figure out how to disable the automatic sync. And for some weird reason, the Google Drive storage had a couple of my videos plus my resume. Those videos and resume were in a folder that had other videos and other docs; I don’t know why only those videos were stored to Google Drive. I deleted them; they weren’t incriminating at all, but WTF Google?

 

I guess what I’m trying to get at is, these cloud services are fucking weird, and can upload things that you don’t even mean to upload. In a lot of these celebs' cases, I don't think it was really people going, "Where would be an awesome place to store nude pics? I know, IN THE CLOUD!" 

 

From what I hear, iCloud has a setting where things are automatically synced to your cloud, and it’s opt-out instead of opt-in.

Edited September 4, 2014 by galax-arena

[Rick Kitchen]

From what I've been reading, it wasn't a matter of hacking iCloud.  The "hackers" were resetting people's passwords by responding to their password reset questions "What is your mother's maiden name?"  "Where were you born?"

[galax-arena]

The "hackers" were resetting people's passwords by responding to their password reset questions "What is your mother's maiden name?"  "Where were you born?"

The spec I’ve heard is that the hackers were using brute-force attacks and that Apple wasn’t doing enough to safeguard against that. A lot of the sites I use freeze out your account if you guess a password wrong too many times.

[ancslove]

Could have been a bit of both.  The security questions are personal, but at the same time, generic.  And celebrities have so much personal information on public record - where they were born, names of their pets, favorite colors and foods, childhood nicknames, mother's maiden names.  Jennifer Lawrence's fan club probably knows the answer to all of those that I just listed, mined from various interviews she's given over the years as well as general info on record.  You wouldn't even have to guess, just find her most detailed fan site.

[Mindymoo]

Which is why my tactic for those security questions is to pick some random word and use that for the answer to every question. "What's your favorite color?" Zimbabwe. "Who was your favorite high school teacher?" Zimbabwe. That way, when you have an account for a long time, you don't have to remember what your favorite pet was named 13 years prior when you have to change a password. It's a lot easier that way.

[DollEyes]

  My thoughts on the celebrity hacking scandal: I'm on the victims' side. I wouldn't even consider posting nude photos of myself on the internet, let alone do it, but if I did, if they're a part of my private collection, then they should stay that way. If I deleted them, then I shouldn't have to worry about some asshole finding them, restoring them and showing them to the whole fucking world. These women may not have shown the best judgment by taking these pictures in the first place, but IMO, saying that they deserve to be publically humiliated is like saying that women who wear sexy clothes in public deserve to be raped. Constructive criticism of women who make mistakes is one thing; victim-blaming is another. It's pointless, cruel and just plain wrong. These women not only have feelings, they have families. They have parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins and, in some cases, they even have kids of their own who will be hurt by this, in one way or another.

 

 If anyone's to blame for this, it's the perps, not the victims. These fuckwads have probably planned this for months, if not years. As far as I'm concerned, these turd blossoms are sexual predators who should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. This isn't just another prank. I'm calling for exactly what I believe it is: emotional rape. Like any rape, this isn't about sex; it's about violence and control. Anyone who uses these pictures for financial gain-like the shitheads who are planning an art exhibit of them in St. Petersburg, FL-are just as guilty as the actual thieves themselves, the way I see it. By their standards, what few (if any), they have, if they have daughters who become famous, it's OK for any shithead to invade their privacy and exploit them, whether they like it or not. News flash, douchebags: stars are people,too. Just because they make way more money, that doesn't make them less human.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

Someone linked me to this re the hacker scandal, and I thought it was so awesome that I should share:

 

 

http://theunravellingofallthings.tumblr.com/post/96845136817

Enjoy!

[bosawks]

Someone linked me to this re the hacker scandal, and I thought it was so awesome that I should share:

Enjoy!

What's that stage that's beyond awesome?

Because that's what that is.

[CaughtOnTape]

I think there is a big time misconception here.

 

No one posted ANYTHING online (other than the hackers).  They were not posted on a website or stored on a private section of a flickr account.  They were on phones and what's more is they were DELETED photos.

 

So....if we're gonna continue to blame victims then be careful of what's on your phone.  Never know what someone will hack into and take.

 

And yes, blaming them or stating anything along the lines of "well they shouldn't have taken naked pictures of themselves" is slut shaming.

[Dejana]

I guess this would be the thread, since this covers casting and the business, in a sense. In the movie trailer thread, there were comments about Jennifer Lawrence having looks that are too contemporary for a movie set during the Great Depression, or anything before the 1950s. I see that criticism a lot about certain actors being too modern for certain roles, and sometimes I get it, but other times it seems sort of bogus. Obviously, you wouldn't want to stick someone overly Botoxed or with breast implants or a guy with a waxed 12-pack into a Civil War movie, but a big part of why people seem out of place in a period piece has to do with things like speech patterns or mannerisms or posture, and not necessarily their physical appearance per se.

 

All of these actors who supposedly look too modern to exist in the past are descended from people who were alive eighty or a hundred years ago, and those people probably weren't perceived as looking "strange" back then. Especially someone like JLaw, who AFAIK doesn't have some sort of ancestry that would've stood out as unusual in 1930s America. This isn't really about some huge defense of Lawrence, just that I see the "too contemporary" criticism bandied about from time to time and it makes me question if there's too much of a reliance on a narrow set of images of how people supposedly looked in any given era. I also think part of it has to do with movie star baggage and the inability of actors to completely shed it, when it doesn't necessarily suit the role in question.

Edited September 18, 2014 by Dejana

[Cobalt Stargazer]

I guess this would be the thread, since this covers casting and the business, in a sense. In the movie trailer thread, there were comments about Jennifer Lawrence having looks that are too contemporary for a movie set during the Great Depression, or anything before the 1950s. I see that criticism a lot about certain actors being too modern for certain roles, and sometimes I get it, but other times it seems sort of bogus.

As it relates to Jennifer Lawrence, what's ironic is that when she was cast as Katniss Everdeen, there were comments about her looks not being contemporary enough to fit the time period.

[methodwriter85]

Which doesn't make sense, as The Hunger Games takes place in the future.

 

 My only real bitch about Jennifer Lawrence is that they keep casting her in roles that would be more appropriate for 30-somethings. Case in point- she's about to play a 30-something single mother from Long Island who invents a mop that eventually leads to her riches.

Edited September 18, 2014 by methodwriter85

[Athena]

This isn't really about some huge defense of Lawrence, just that I see the "too contemporary" criticism bandied about from time to time and it makes me question if there's too much of a reliance on a narrow set of images of how people supposedly looked in any given era. I also think part of it has to do with movie star baggage and the inability of actors to completely shed it, when it doesn't necessarily suit the role in question.

 

I think when this gets mentioned for actors, it's actually a criticism of their range. Some actors just do well in period pieces more than others. Someone like Helena Bonham Carter looks and acts comfortably in settings before World War Two. Not to say HBC doesn't do well in contemporary films, but even her personal style edges on Edwardian. I can think of many actors who look and can act in movies as if they were really there. Jennifer Lawrence is not necessarily one of them, but I haven't seen her in these roles so who knows how well she actually makes it believable. My main issue with her is also that she keeps getting cast for roles much older than her actual age too.

[JBC344]

As it relates to Jennifer Lawrence, what's ironic is that when she was cast as Katniss Everdeen, there were comments about her looks not being contemporary enough to fit the time period.

Wasn't that more about a "color/ethnicity" issue though?  Katniss's skin tone is supposed to be darker than Jennifer Lawrence's.  The idea being that in the future of the books there is a much bigger mix of ethnicities so the average person's complexion is a little darker.

[King of Birds]

she's about to play a 30-something single mother from Long Island who invents a mop that eventually leads to her riches.

I think Jennifer was on Conan (publicity for American Hustle) and mentioned how much she likes cleaning and different soaps.  After I saw that, and heard she was involved with the Miracle Mop movie, I thought it was fate.

[Shannon L.]

Well now, this is interesting:  'American Hustle' Sparks $1 Million Libel Suit Filed by Former 'New Yorker' Writer

 

On one hand, they did use his name, on the other hand, it was a fictional character (and one who was a bit crazy) who said it.  I think it's frivolous--I doubt too many people would believe this after all these years of living with microwaves.

[crimsongrl]

Sony’s New Movies Leak Online Following Hack Attack

At least five new movies from Sony Pictures are being devoured on copyright-infringing file-sharing hubs online in the wake of the hack attack that hobbled the studio earlier in the week.

 

Copies of DVD screeners of four unreleased Sony movies including the upcoming “Annie” are getting some unwelcome early exposure, but nothing compared to the frenzy enveloping “Fury,” the war pic still in theaters since bowing last month.

Another big Sony movie, “Annie,” is also being pirated, this one three weeks ahead of its own wide release. Other Sony movies being downloaded include “Mr. Turner,” “Still Alice” and “To Write Love on Her Arms.”

 

*I might know someone who's seen Annie and what they did with the song 'Maybe' was unacceptable!

[Dejana]

Sony is investigating possible North Korean involvement, in retaliation for The Interview, scheduled to be released this Christmas. Who knows, but even if it's garden variety American hackers, blaming North Korea gives the movie a nice, free and timely publicity boost.

Edited November 30, 2014 by Dejana

[ancslove]

That email hack leaves no one at Sony looking good.  Personally, I'd rather have a Cleopatra movie than another biopic of Steve Jobs.  

[tearbender]

I'd rather have a Cleopatra movie without the lazy and uninspired casting of Angelina Jolie.

[galax-arena]

Marvel wants a fresh start with Spider-Man. 

 

Because what we really need is another Spider-Man movie. 

[Rick Kitchen]

I'd rather have a Cleopatra movie without the lazy and uninspired casting of Angelina Jolie.

 

Not if she's executive producing it.

[ChelseaNH]

If she doesn't want the role for herself, I can see her being more willing to cast people who aren't white in significant roles.

[ancslove]

Cleopatra was Greek, with a little bit of Persian.  Julius Caesar, Octavian, and Mark Antony were white, by modern definition of white.  A lot of Cleopatra's court were Greek.  

 

Jolie herself is definitely too old for the role - she would have been great about 10 years ago.  (Actually, a large number of people who see a pic of her as Olympias, mislabel her as Cleopatra.)

[ChelseaNH]

Cleopatra was Greek, with a little bit of Persian.  Julius Caesar, Octavian, and Mark Antony were white, by modern definition of white.

 

If white people can play African Egyptians, then non-white people can play Greek Egyptians.

[ancslove]

Yes, although making Cleopatra black (as a specific example) could change her entire dynamic as a foreign conqueror.  But as long as the script makes clear that she is a foreign conqueror, I don't care what the actress' race is.  I just meant that in this particular case, casting many of the significant roles with white actors is not whitewashing.