It’s true that the film isn’t a direct product of Qanon, but Pizza Gate took place in 2016, which ignited the trafficking narrative exclusively in conservative circles. And Eduardo Verástegui is a known quantity (as is Caviezel). Listen, it’s hard to get a film made, and no one wants children to be hurt, but it’s not…

Maybe we’re just trapped in a mindset that any superhero film earning anything less than a billion+ just feels like a so-so performance, whatever the accountants might think. Maybe the truth is that superheroes can still make money but that the heyday is long gone. 

You know, that was RIGHT THERE and I completely overlooked it because it’s animation (shame on me). Yes, an inclusive and inventive film proves superheroes can be thrilling, financially successful and what everyone’s most annoying family members would call “woke.”

Proof that someone can simultaneously have phenomenal and awful instincts. Thinking to engage Gerwig to write/direct? Brilliant. Tapping Gadot as Barbie? WTF are you smoking? 

If this film fails, I hope people properly blame the genre, not the cultural backgrounds of its leads and creative team. But, whatever happens, it’s not as if Gunn-Safran will be hostile to inclusive films, TV, etc.

We call it “going full Caviezel.”

Collectively we’re becoming the smartest and dumbest we’ve ever been as a species. It’s wild stuff. 

Ali G and Borat were truly breakthrough bits of comedy in their day — that late 90s/early aughts era typified by clueless/casually mean characters that elicited laughs from an audience who recognized their awfulness (that was the whole joke!). The original (and even American) Office is another perfect example.

Calm down, everyone, Elon Musk is just looking out for the fertility of trans people. That’s definitely what all his vitriol is about. HELPING people. 

The million typing monkeys in his brain finally landed on something.

I don’t even know what Dr. Vegas is but I feel like I should consumer some edibles and watch it ASAP. 

Neither Sheen nor Lowe were “the star.” Sheen would go large swaths offscreen. It truly became more of an ensemble cast, with the president and his staffers sharing the spotlight. At no point was a single star really the main focus, though maybe that had been the original plan. I see the Sopranos mentioned here, but…

I think that (largely) I’m thinking of high concept comedies that can be done for a modest budget. A lot of these would likely be mashups. As others have said, if horror fans are drawn by the genre itself, maybe a comedy Blumhouse basically makes the concepts the draw — Ferris Bueller x Hot Tub Time Machine (that…

Comedy and horror both benefit from live audiences — bringing an extra level of energy to the experience. Yet only horror is thriving. Is it that comedy tastes are too fragmented while horror fandom is less so? Or is it as simple as horror benefitting from the heightened audio/visual experience of a theater (similar…

Solid stuff. 

I think two things can be true. “The man” absolutely unfairly squashes fair use and uses overlong copyright to squeeze value out of things that have richly rewarded original rights holders many times over. Yet it’s also true that authors and other creators are getting casually screwed by people who mistake…

If you’re talking about a commercial assignment, sure, word counts are where you begin (especially if word counts are tied to payouts). A creative work like a memoir functions completely differently. No writer of merit ever began with “hmmm, what should the word count target be?” Except cases like Dickens — and only…

Does anyone understand the difference between legal due process and just, like, people’s opinions? They are not the same, silly! One has the weight of serious consequences, including financial penalties, incarceration or even death. The other is...opinions.

Sorry, he will always have my heart for his classic line in Barfly: “I wouldn’t want to be you if I was me.”

This isn’t luddism; it’s about control over intellectual works. Buying books does not give the purchaser ownership rights over the content. Anymore than buying an iPhone gives you ownership of the design specs. You want to train a platform (for profit or not) on my work? 1) Ask my permission. 2) Pay me.