The House of Representatives, historically known for its excellent priorities, passed a bill on March 13 that could ban short-form video app TikTok in the U.S. The app has over 150 million users in America as of last year, and over a billion people use it worldwide. TikTok is used primarily for entertainment,…
Sam Raimi was so impressed by Lee Cronin’s feature directorial debut, the 2019 horror film The Hole in the Ground, that he not only hired Cronin to contribute to his short-lived anthology series 50 States of Fright, he also gave the filmmaker the chance to write and direct the latest entry in the Evil Dead franchise, Evil Dead Rise. In addition to Raimi’s production company, that movie came to us from Warner Bros. Pictures and their subsidiary New Line Cinema. Obviously the studio executives liked what Cronin did with Evil Dead Rise, because The Hollywood Reporter has now broken the news that Cronin is teaming up with John Keville and Macdara Kelleher of Wild Atlantic Pictures to form a genre-focused production company called Doppelgängers, which has secured a first-look deal with New Line Cinema!
Evil Dead Rise made $147 million at the worldwide box office for Warner Bros. / New Line. The first project in development as part of their new deal with Cronin is a horror thriller called Thaw.
The Hollywood Reporter notes that, “The Doppelgängers banner will develop genre-focused feature film and television projects for Cronin to write and direct. Cronin will also produce alongside Keville and Kelleher, whose credits range from R-rated comedy Cocaine Bear to acclaimed art house fantasy The Green Knight, which starred Dev Patel.“
Keville also produced The Hole in the Ground. Cronin provided the following statement about the decision to form a company with Keville and Kelleher: “Aligned in our hunger and ambition to create striking stories for wide audiences, we decided to seize the opportunity to formalize our partnership with this new venture.” As for the New Line Cinema deal, “Following a wonderful journey working on Evil Dead Rise, the brilliant team at New Line Cinema have offered us the perfect home for the movies we want to bring to life on the big screen. We couldn’t be more thrilled to continue building our relationship with them.“
Keville and Kelleher sent out a joint statement: “Lee is an inventive creator who always strives to engage audiences with his character driven stories. We are thrilled to be building Doppelgängers around his vision and are excited to forge relationships with the most ambitious writers and directors. Collectively, we want Doppelgängers to become a destination for the very best storytellers.“
Are you glad to hear Lee Cronin has secured a first-look deal with New Line Cinema? Share your thoughts on this news by leaving a comment below.
In the meantime, Raimi is making sure the Evil Dead franchise will continue beyond Cronin’s contribution. It was recently announced that Sébastien Vaniček will direct the next entry.
The post Evil Dead Rise director Lee Cronin signs first-look deal with New Line Cinema appeared first on JoBlo.
It’s powdered wigs on parade in the new Franklin trailer, starring Michael Douglas as the calculating Newton of Electricity, Benjamin Franklin! As someone who performed miserably in history class throughout his schooling career, I was sure Apple’s upcoming limited series would not be to my liking. However, Michael Douglas transforms Benjamin Franklin into a charismatic, cryptic, and conniving figure. This portrayal is the jolt I needed to get interested in this fascinating television event.
Based upon A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America by Pulitzer Prize winner Stacy Schiff, the series will “explore the thrilling story of one of the greatest gambles of Benjamin Franklin’s career. At age 70, without any diplomatic training, Franklin convinced France – an absolute monarchy – to underwrite America’s experiment in democracy. By virtue of his fame, charisma, and ingenuity, Franklin outmaneuvered British spies, French informers, and hostile colleagues, all while engineering the Franco-American alliance of 1778 and the final peace with England of l783. The eight-year French mission stands as Franklin’s most vital service to his country, without which America would not have won the Revolution.” In addition to starring as Benjamin Franklin, Michael Douglas will also executive produce the series alongside Kirk Ellis, Tim Van Patten, Richard Plepler, and Tony Krantz. Stacy Schiff is also a co-executive producer.
This limited series will be Kirk Ellis’ third time bringing Benjamin Franklin to life. He also wrote and produced HBO’s John Adams mini-series (in which Tom Wilkinson played Franklin) and wrote History’s Sons of Liberty (in which Dean Norris played Franklin).
Noah Jupe joins Michael Douglas in the series as William Temple Franklin, with Marc Duret playing Monsieur Brillon, Eddie Marsan as John Adams, Daniel Mays as Edward Bancroft, Ludivine Sagnier as Madame Brillon, Théodore Pellerin as Lafayette, Asaad Bouab as Beaumarchais, Jeanne Balibar as Helvetius, Murat Subasi as Ayaz.
Apple TV+‘s Franklin trailer depicts dangerous times in France during the 18th century. With several factions starved for power and brazen strategists willing to risk lives for a chance at victory, Franklin paints a dark portrait of America’s history.
What do you think about Apple TV+’s Franklin trailer? Pretty intense, no? As I’d said, I’m usually not the target audience for this sort of thing, but I find myself intrigued. Let us know if you will watch Franklin in the comments section below.
The post Michael Douglas shines as the Prophet of Tolerance in a gripping trailer for the Franklin limited series appeared first on JoBlo.
It’s powdered wigs on parade in the new Franklin trailer, starring Michael Douglas as the calculating Newton of Electricity, Benjamin Franklin! As someone who performed miserably in history class throughout his schooling career, I was sure Apple’s upcoming limited series would not be to my liking. However, Michael Douglas transforms Benjamin Franklin into a charismatic, cryptic, and conniving figure. This portrayal is the jolt I needed to get interested in this fascinating television event.
Based upon A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America by Pulitzer Prize winner Stacy Schiff, the series will “explore the thrilling story of one of the greatest gambles of Benjamin Franklin’s career. At age 70, without any diplomatic training, Franklin convinced France – an absolute monarchy – to underwrite America’s experiment in democracy. By virtue of his fame, charisma, and ingenuity, Franklin outmaneuvered British spies, French informers, and hostile colleagues, all while engineering the Franco-American alliance of 1778 and the final peace with England of l783. The eight-year French mission stands as Franklin’s most vital service to his country, without which America would not have won the Revolution.” In addition to starring as Benjamin Franklin, Michael Douglas will also executive produce the series alongside Kirk Ellis, Tim Van Patten, Richard Plepler, and Tony Krantz. Stacy Schiff is also a co-executive producer.
This limited series will be Kirk Ellis’ third time bringing Benjamin Franklin to life. He also wrote and produced HBO’s John Adams mini-series (in which Tom Wilkinson played Franklin) and wrote History’s Sons of Liberty (in which Dean Norris played Franklin).
Noah Jupe joins Michael Douglas in the series as William Temple Franklin, with Marc Duret playing Monsieur Brillon, Eddie Marsan as John Adams, Daniel Mays as Edward Bancroft, Ludivine Sagnier as Madame Brillon, Théodore Pellerin as Lafayette, Asaad Bouab as Beaumarchais, Jeanne Balibar as Helvetius, Murat Subasi as Ayaz.
Apple TV+‘s Franklin trailer depicts dangerous times in France during the 18th century. With several factions starved for power and brazen strategists willing to risk lives for a chance at victory, Franklin paints a dark portrait of America’s history.
What do you think about Apple TV+’s Franklin trailer? Pretty intense, no? As I’d said, I’m usually not the target audience for this sort of thing, but I find myself intrigued. Let us know if you will watch Franklin in the comments section below.
The post Michael Douglas shines as the Prophet of Tolerance in a gripping trailer for the Franklin limited series appeared first on JoBlo.
What Do We Know About Dune Prophecy? More than you may think. With the second part of Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s classic science fiction novel a critical and box office success, it is going to be several years before we see the next feature film in the series, Dune Messiah. Luckily, production on the small-screen prequel /spin-off was concurrent with Dune: Part Two which means before the end of the year we are going to return to the fictional realms of Arrakis, Geidi Prime, and more via Max.
While not much in the way of footage has made its way online, there have been quite a few reveals about Dune Prophecy, so let’s jump in and discuss.
The original plan was for Villeneuve to helm the series in addition to his big screen directorial duties. The series, originally announced as Dune: The Sisterhood, went into production in November 22 with Chernobyl director Johan Renck behind the camera. Why wouldn’t the visionary director of the feature films be making the series? It all came down to timing. With Legendary originally acquiring the rights to the Herbert novels in 2016 and announcing Villeneuve as director in 2017, he was deep into the project by the 2019 announcement of Dune: The Sisterhood. While Jon Spaihts was showrunner for the series, he departed in 2019 to focus on Dune: Part Two, something Villeneuve also opted to make his primary project. That shifted the series to Dana Calvo as showrunner alongside executive producers including novelist Kevin J. Anderson, co-writer of dozens of Dune prequels and sequels alongside Brian and Kim Herbert, the children of Frank Herbert.
Taking things way back, Dune Prophecy is set ten thousand years before Paul Atreides joined the Fremen to lead an uprising on Arrakis to take down House Harkonen. Using the deep mythology created by Frank Herbert and the expanded novels including Sisterhood of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, the series centers on sisters Valya and Tula Harkkonen, the founders of the mysterious all-female order called the Bene Gesserit. For the layperson, these are the witch-like advisors seen in the films played by Rebecca Ferguson, Charlotte Rampling, and Florence Pugh. In Dune Prophecy, the siblings, played by Emily Watson as Valya and Olivia Williams as Tula, combat forces that threaten the future of humankind. That leads to the next question.
This is something we do not know for certain, but excuse me while I nerd out a little here. In Dune Part Two, Princess Irulan notes the time as being the year 10191 and Prophecy is set ten thousand years earlier. Fans of the Dune novels know that the lack of any computers in the world of Dune is due to an event that happened known as the Butlerian Jihad. This was a massive conflict throughout the known universe between an A.I. consciousness that enslaved humanity and the people who fought back. When humans defeated the machines, computers were outlawed, leaving the world a different place, hence the use of complex machines instead of computers. The Butlerian Jihad occurred more than 10000 years before Dune which means Prophecy will find the houses of Atreides, Harkonnen, and Corrino in a very different place than we have seen before. While I would imagine if the films keep making money for Warner Bros, we may see a Butlerian Jihad series of its own while Prophecy will focus on the early conflicts between the human families as they begin their exploration of the galaxy.
Prophecy has a solid cast, led by the aforementioned Watson and Williams. Shirley Henderson, originally set to play Tula Harkonnen, left the production early along with director Johan Renck. Indira Varma, who was going to play Empress Natalya, was replaced by Jodhi May. The cast also includes the great Mark Strong as Emperor Javicco Corrino with Josh Heuston as his illegitimate son, Constantine. Sarah Sofie Boussnina plays Princess Ynez a woman struggling with her pressures as heir to the throne. There are some familiar names with Vikings star Travis Fimmel playing a soldier named Desmond Hart while Chris Mason portrays Keiran Atreides, a swordsman with an unexpected connection to the royal family. Shalom Brune Franklin will play Mikaela, a Fremen servant to the royal family. There are more names sure to come out as we get closer to release, but you can already see the seeds planted similar to how House of the Dragon connects to Game of Thrones.
While Villeneuve and Spaihts departed to make Dune Part Two, Prophecy underwent some shifts behind the scenes. Dana Calvo was replaced by Diane Ademu John as showrunner, who in turn was replaced by Alison Schapker. Renck left early in 2023 and was replaced as director by Anna Foerster, best known for helming the Netflix action movie Lou as well as episodes of Outlander, Carnival Row, and Westworld. Sigur Ros frontman Jonsi was set as composer but was replaced by Volker Bertelmann in October 2023. We also know that production kept going during the SAG AFTRA strike thanks to the cast and crew in Budapest being aligned with the UK based union Equity. Production began in late 2022 and wrapped December 2023. We also know that the series did not use StageCraft technology revolutionized by Disney and Lucasfilm series The Mandalorian and Ahsoka, instead opting for physical production values and practical sets.
This is the ultimate question. All marketing signs point to late 2024 for Dune Prophecy to premiere on Max. I would imagine late Fall would make the most sense for special effects work to be completed as well as rebuilding the momentum for Dune Part Two’s Oscar run.
What do you expect to see in the upcoming Dune series? Let us know in the comments and click the like and subscribe to follow all of our latest original videos.
The post Dune Prophecy: Everything We Know About the TV Spin-Off appeared first on JoBlo.
What Do We Know About Dune Prophecy? More than you may think. With the second part of Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s classic science fiction novel a critical and box office success, it is going to be several years before we see the next feature film in the series, Dune Messiah. Luckily, production on the small-screen prequel /spin-off was concurrent with Dune: Part Two which means before the end of the year we are going to return to the fictional realms of Arrakis, Geidi Prime, and more via Max.
While not much in the way of footage has made its way online, there have been quite a few reveals about Dune Prophecy, so let’s jump in and discuss.
The original plan was for Villeneuve to helm the series in addition to his big screen directorial duties. The series, originally announced as Dune: The Sisterhood, went into production in November 22 with Chernobyl director Johan Renck behind the camera. Why wouldn’t the visionary director of the feature films be making the series? It all came down to timing. With Legendary originally acquiring the rights to the Herbert novels in 2016 and announcing Villeneuve as director in 2017, he was deep into the project by the 2019 announcement of Dune: The Sisterhood. While Jon Spaihts was showrunner for the series, he departed in 2019 to focus on Dune: Part Two, something Villeneuve also opted to make his primary project. That shifted the series to Dana Calvo as showrunner alongside executive producers including novelist Kevin J. Anderson, co-writer of dozens of Dune prequels and sequels alongside Brian and Kim Herbert, the children of Frank Herbert.
Taking things way back, Dune Prophecy is set ten thousand years before Paul Atreides joined the Fremen to lead an uprising on Arrakis to take down House Harkonen. Using the deep mythology created by Frank Herbert and the expanded novels including Sisterhood of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, the series centers on sisters Valya and Tula Harkkonen, the founders of the mysterious all-female order called the Bene Gesserit. For the layperson, these are the witch-like advisors seen in the films played by Rebecca Ferguson, Charlotte Rampling, and Florence Pugh. In Dune Prophecy, the siblings, played by Emily Watson as Valya and Olivia Williams as Tula, combat forces that threaten the future of humankind. That leads to the next question.
This is something we do not know for certain, but excuse me while I nerd out a little here. In Dune Part Two, Princess Irulan notes the time as being the year 10191 and Prophecy is set ten thousand years earlier. Fans of the Dune novels know that the lack of any computers in the world of Dune is due to an event that happened known as the Butlerian Jihad. This was a massive conflict throughout the known universe between an A.I. consciousness that enslaved humanity and the people who fought back. When humans defeated the machines, computers were outlawed, leaving the world a different place, hence the use of complex machines instead of computers. The Butlerian Jihad occurred more than 10000 years before Dune which means Prophecy will find the houses of Atreides, Harkonnen, and Corrino in a very different place than we have seen before. While I would imagine if the films keep making money for Warner Bros, we may see a Butlerian Jihad series of its own while Prophecy will focus on the early conflicts between the human families as they begin their exploration of the galaxy.
Prophecy has a solid cast, led by the aforementioned Watson and Williams. Shirley Henderson, originally set to play Tula Harkonnen, left the production early along with director Johan Renck. Indira Varma, who was going to play Empress Natalya, was replaced by Jodhi May. The cast also includes the great Mark Strong as Emperor Javicco Corrino with Josh Heuston as his illegitimate son, Constantine. Sarah Sofie Boussnina plays Princess Ynez a woman struggling with her pressures as heir to the throne. There are some familiar names with Vikings star Travis Fimmel playing a soldier named Desmond Hart while Chris Mason portrays Keiran Atreides, a swordsman with an unexpected connection to the royal family. Shalom Brune Franklin will play Mikaela, a Fremen servant to the royal family. There are more names sure to come out as we get closer to release, but you can already see the seeds planted similar to how House of the Dragon connects to Game of Thrones.
While Villeneuve and Spaihts departed to make Dune Part Two, Prophecy underwent some shifts behind the scenes. Dana Calvo was replaced by Diane Ademu John as showrunner, who in turn was replaced by Alison Schapker. Renck left early in 2023 and was replaced as director by Anna Foerster, best known for helming the Netflix action movie Lou as well as episodes of Outlander, Carnival Row, and Westworld. Sigur Ros frontman Jonsi was set as composer but was replaced by Volker Bertelmann in October 2023. We also know that production kept going during the SAG AFTRA strike thanks to the cast and crew in Budapest being aligned with the UK based union Equity. Production began in late 2022 and wrapped December 2023. We also know that the series did not use StageCraft technology revolutionized by Disney and Lucasfilm series The Mandalorian and Ahsoka, instead opting for physical production values and practical sets.
This is the ultimate question. All marketing signs point to late 2024 for Dune Prophecy to premiere on Max. I would imagine late Fall would make the most sense for special effects work to be completed as well as rebuilding the momentum for Dune Part Two’s Oscar run.
What do you expect to see in the upcoming Dune series? Let us know in the comments and click the like and subscribe to follow all of our latest original videos.
The post Dune Prophecy: Everything We Know About the TV Spin-Off appeared first on JoBlo.
TikTok is on the clock, as the U.S. House of Representatives has approved a bill that could lead to a nationwide ban of the social media trend creator, prompting backlash from its American users and those who opposed the decision. This will come about if ByteDance – the company which owns TikTok – doesn’t sell the app, which the U.S. government believes is susceptible to Chinese influence.
The primary belief within the U.S. government is that China could access user data and also further use the app to spread misinformation. Notably, TikTok is largely used by and targeted towards teens. The bipartisan bill was approved by a vast majority, with the final vote being 352-65. It will next move to the Senate floor, while President Joe Biden has already said he will approve the ban should it reach his desk.
As Republic representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers put it, “We have given TikTok a clear choice: Separate from your parent company ByteDance, which is beholden to the CCP (the Chinese Communist Party), and remain operational in the United States, or side with the CCP and face the consequences. The choice is TikTok’s.” Fellow Republican Mike Gallagher, said, “What we’re after is, it’s not a ban, it’s a forced separation…The TikTok user experience can continue and improve so long as ByteDance doesn’t own the company.”
This potential ban on TikTok has been generating controversy for some time, but now that it could actually be passed into law, there is an uproar within its community of devotees, which is reported to exceed 1 billion active users. Where oh where will they find out about the latest trends? How will they build their internet clout? What will become of all of those social media influencers… and Martin Scorsese?!
One democrat who opposed the bill, representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, tweeted, “Congress needs to focus on regulating social media companies’ unchecked habit of collecting user data without their consent.” Some of the criticism has also been targeted directly at the U.S. government, who has placed their prioritization on the TikTok ban over items such as gun control and socioeconomic issues. Some have further argued that such a ban could violate First Amendment rights.
How do you feel about a potential ban on TikTok in the U.S.? How would that affect your social media habits? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
The post TikTok bill approved by House; is a nationwide ban imminent? appeared first on JoBlo.
TikTok is on the clock, as the U.S. House of Representatives has approved a bill that could lead to a nationwide ban of the social media trend creator, prompting backlash from its American users and those who opposed the decision. This will come about if ByteDance – the company which owns TikTok – doesn’t sell the app, which the U.S. government believes is susceptible to Chinese influence.
The primary belief within the U.S. government is that China could access user data and also further use the app to spread misinformation. Notably, TikTok is largely used by and targeted towards teens. The bipartisan bill was approved by a vast majority, with the final vote being 352-65. It will next move to the Senate floor, while President Joe Biden has already said he will approve the ban should it reach his desk.
As Republic representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers put it, “We have given TikTok a clear choice: Separate from your parent company ByteDance, which is beholden to the CCP (the Chinese Communist Party), and remain operational in the United States, or side with the CCP and face the consequences. The choice is TikTok’s.” Fellow Republican Mike Gallagher, said, “What we’re after is, it’s not a ban, it’s a forced separation…The TikTok user experience can continue and improve so long as ByteDance doesn’t own the company.”
This potential ban on TikTok has been generating controversy for some time, but now that it could actually be passed into law, there is an uproar within its community of devotees, which is reported to exceed 1 billion active users. Where oh where will they find out about the latest trends? How will they build their internet clout? What will become of all of those social media influencers…and Martin Scorsese?!
One democrat who opposed the bill, representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, tweeted, “Congress needs to focus on regulating social media companies’ unchecked habit of collecting user data without their consent.” Some of the criticism has also been targeted directly at the U.S. government, who has placed their prioritization on the TikTok ban over items such as gun control and socioeconomic issues. Some have further argued that such a ban could violate First Amendment rights.
How do you feel about a potential ban on TikTok in the U.S.? How would that affect your social media habits? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
The post TikTok bill approved by House; is a nationwide ban imminent? appeared first on JoBlo.