Malala has lengthy been identified for her world activism, however now she’s turning her sights stateside – to Hollywood.
Talking Wednesday at Selection’s Energy of Ladies occasion, Malala Yousafzai, who grew to become an activist after being shot by the Taliban, referred to as out Hollywood for its lack of illustration for Muslims and different Asian individuals. She intends to alter that.
“I don’t anticipate Hollywood to alter as a result of it’s the correct factor to do, and even as a result of it’s good for enterprise. I need you to do it since you’re artists and you realize that artwork belongs to everybody,” Malala mentioned. “In case you are an artist who has heard your story, or have been instructed that you’re too younger, that you simply don’t have the correct background, then come sit at my desk and let’s work collectively.”
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However the Nobel Laureate and training activist isn’t simply in search of illustration, she mentioned Wednesday.
“To me, illustration is only a comfort prize,” she mentioned. “I need our reveals and our mates to be the mainstream.”
Final 12 months, Malala inked a multi-year partnership with Apple to develop unique programming for its streaming service Apple TV+. Her choices are supposed to span dramas, comedies, documentaries, animation, and youngsters’s sequence, all by means of her manufacturing firm Extracurricular.
The primary slate of these tasks is presently in growth on the streaming service, she instructed Selection.
“We now have so many younger, numerous roles on TV. Simply have a look at ‘By no means Have I Ever,’ ‘Intercourse Training,’ ‘Ms Marvel,’ and ‘Coda’ received finest image. All of that’s true and I’m so grateful for each alternative to see new faces and listen to new tales,” Malala mentioned Wednesday. “However for each I simply talked about, I do know that the executives have handed [on] dozens of high quality, equally superb tasks as a result of they thought that the characters or the creators have been too younger, too brown, too international, too poor.”
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Although 25% of the world’s inhabitants is Muslim, a research printed in 2022 discovered that Muslims make up simply 1% of talking characters on tv.
One other report, printed in 2021, discovered that feminine Asian and Pacific Islander characters are extra doubtless than feminine characters of some other race to be objectified on display screen.
“A lot of my mates are younger ladies of shade,” Malala mentioned to the viewers of Hollywood executives and creatives. “We’re watching ‘Ted Lasso,’ ‘Succession,’ ‘The Crown,’ all of it. So please ask yourselves, if we will love these tales what makes you assume that individuals received’t be fascinated about ours?”
Identical twins with opposite personalities are as big a part of thrillers as creepy kids are to horror. And if a romantic interest gets involved, the story becomes even more twisted. The Image of You follows Anna and Zoe (Sasha Pieterse, Pretty Little Liars), twin sisters who are close, but nothing alike. When Anna meets charismatic stock broker Nick (Parker Young, Call Me Kat), she thinks is perfect. Zoe is not so trusting and is determined to find out if he is really as great as he seems to be.
Erotic thrillers are at their best when the focus is teasing the audience. That is certainly the case with The Image of You. The film provides plenty of titillating moments and sexy lingerie. Pieterse and Young have the smoldering looks and chemistry to make sure that anyone watching never looks away. It is a throwback to the halcyon days when the genre ruled late night cable.
It really should not work. The plot is too derivative, the constant split screen is distracting, and the mystery lacks any tension. Yet, everything comes together thanks to some outrageous twists and the film’s willingness to never take itself too seriously. The Image of You is very much a case of style of substance, and it knows it.
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While there are outliers, sex scenes in movies have decreased dramatically. Once a right of passage for teenagers, erotic thrillers have all but disappeared. The Image of You will not be the start of a resurgence of either, but it does stand out in today’s more sterile cinematic landscape. It is the type of entertaining fluff there is not enough of anymore.
The Image of You is out now on digital
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Sam Rubin, the KTLA entertainment journalist, died Friday at 64. Rubin became a fixture of Los Angeles television after joining the station in 1991 as a reporter on “KTLA Morning News.” He worked alongside Carlos Amezcua, a co-anchor of the innovative morning show. In his own words, Amezcua remembers his friend and longtime colleague.
Sam Rubin was the spark that ignited the success of “KTLA Morning News.” His passing leaves a huge void not only in our hearts but also in the Hollywood entertainment community.
He was loved and even revered in some circles. All who needed attention for their films, music, TV shows and comedy could count on Sam to be there for them. He had a giant personality with a soft touch and was equal parts mischievous and solid journalist.
He was all those things to those who watched and interacted with him, but to me, he was my friend Sammy. He really didn’t like to be called that any more than I liked him calling me Chuck, but such was our relationship. On the air, we carried on with laughter, sarcasm and wild-eyed enthusiasm. He knew what our audience wanted and delivered every single time — he never failed, not once.
When he came to us, Barbara Beck and I were told to go easy on this new guy they were bringing in. They wanted to try him out to be the Hollywood reporter. I don’t know what the bosses were afraid of, but we were welcoming and kind to this brash young man, full of bravado and quirky mannerisms. He sat down, delivered his stories and began to engage us in conversation, which surprised us. That was the beginning of the magic that Sam Rubin would bring to “KTLA Morning News.” I loved his wit, his smarts, his daring approach to entertainment coverage. He was not to be denied!
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A “KTLA Morning News” reunion for the 20th anniversary of the show. From left: Michelle Ruiz, Jennifer York, Mark Kriski, Barbara Beck, Sam Rubin, Carlos Amezcua and Eric Spillman.
(KTLA)
I began to learn what buttons to push and what would set him off. I challenged his movie reviews and caught him in a fib now and again. It was sport for Barbara, Mark Kriski and I, and we loved every minute of it. The show became a hybrid news and entertainment program, unlike anything Los Angeles or America had seen before.
What I often say about Sam is that he connected us to Los Angeles. He knew L.A. better than any of us. He knew the people, the showbiz players and he spoke their language. Sam and I had many spirited conversations about what he was doing, and I told him we would all back him up if the bosses ever got in his way. To their credit, the bosses never did, and our show became one of the most successful programs in L.A. history. For more than 30 years he gave it all he had. He was unwavering, cheerful, magnanimous and driven. At 64, he could outwork any reporter half his age.
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The last time we had drinks together, we were both a bit melancholy. Time had passed too quickly, and we talked about all the stuff we still wanted to do in our old age. He was excited about his family, especially his children, and we shared stories about our kids. He was a very loving man who made everyone around him better. He loved his entertainment team, who worked tirelessly to fulfill his creative and sometimes kooky ideas.
For me personally, I will always be grateful that he listened to my suggestion that we promote Latino talent. Sam invited a young George Lopez and a parade of Latino actors, writers and musicians who were not seen on any other morning show in the country. My Latino community loved him, and I respected his efforts and was grateful that he made all of that happen.
KTLA’s Sam Rubin and Jessica Holmes.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
The whole morning news team experience in those early years was like lightning in a bottle. The daily roll call, as the show started, declared who you would see on the show: “Carlos Amezcua, Barbara Beck, Mark Kriski — weather, Sam Rubin — entertainment, Eric Spillman, Michele Ruiz and Jennifer York in Skycam5!” What a lineup, what bravado! It took a large and dedicated team to make it all work, though Sam would sheepishly love to take most of the credit!
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There is no denying that he was the central catalyst that made “KTLA Morning News” the powerhouse that it continues to be today. His mark on the broadcast is undeniable and indisputable. He was an original, a genius, my colleague, but most of all, he was my dear friend. I’ll miss you, Sammy. Rest in peace. Love, Chuck.
Nearly sixty years removed, it is perhaps all too easy to forget just how radical of a work Franklin J. Schaffner’s original “Planet of the Apes” truly was. In adapting Pierre Boulle’s “La Planète des singes” novel into a feature film, Schaffner and co. maintained the book’s hard science-fiction intellectualism while also infusing it with a radical counterculturalism that resonated so deeply with younger audiences of the time. The resulting film often plays like a feature-length “Twilight Zone” episode in the best of ways, balancing more traditionally thrilling action sequences out with headier diatribes on the human condition, and fittingly so, seeing as it was co-written by Rod Serling himself.
After decades of sequels and one sensationally ill-advised attempt at a Tim Burton-helmed remake in 2001, the “Planet of the Apes” franchise half-stumbled into something remarkable in the 2010s. While “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” was a critical and commercial success, it wasn’t until that film’s sequel, “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,” that a new legacy was truly cemented, with the addition of writer-director Matt Reeves. Reeves’ films, “Dawn” and “War for the Planet of the Apes,” brought a raw and immediate emotionality to the work that, when paired with similarly excellent elements such as Andy Serkis’ phenomenal lead performance and Michael Giacchino’s decadent musical score, truly brought “Planet of the Apes” to a new generation. In many ways, just as Schaffner’s 1968 film reflected the fears and anxieties of its era and spoke directly to audiences of the day in primal form, so too did Reeves’ films for modern audiences of the 2010s.
It is into this legacy that Wes Ball’s quasi-sequel/quasi-reboot/quasi-legacy-sequel, “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” enters. And while Ball’s film is perfectly functional, competent, and resplendent in its technical achievements, “Kingdom” spends its entire runtime shouldering the burden of the franchise’s history, to its own detriment.
5. WEAK SPOT: THE OPENING
It truly cannot be overstated what a colossal misstep “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” takes in its literal opening frames. Opening on the deathbed and funeral pyre of Andy Serkis’ Caesar from the previous trilogy, surrounded by characters from those films, “Kingdom” delivers a fond farewell to these characters and drops its title card, right before hard cutting to a full 300 years later. This is so bizarre for so many reasons (the in-film ‘many generations later’ text is laugh-inducing) but chief among them is that it actively works to put distance between the audience and Noa, the primary character of this film.
Noa doesn’t know who Caesar was and is going to spend the next two-and-a-half hours of runtime finding that out as well as hearing apes debate over Caesar’s teachings and legacy. So opening with Caesar on his deathbed, surrounded by characters who mean nothing to this film, is indulgent at best and detrimental at worst. It prioritizes a quick dopamine hit of nostalgia that serves no purpose over the audience’s actual connection to the present-tense characters and story.
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4. THOSE MONKEYS THOUGH
The visual effects, spearheaded by the fantastic team at Wētā FX, continue to be absolutely incredible here. With each successive film in the previous trilogy, the bar was raised for exactly how authentically a human actor’s performance could be translated to the face of a digital ape. “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” proudly continues this tradition, allowing its actors’ performances to truly shine through the digital augmentation.
In addition to this, the ape-on-ape action sequences are well-staged here, especially an early one that kicks off Noa’s Campbellian hero’s journey. There’s a visceral quality to the speed and momentum with which the Apes move, which is a fantastic blend of human movement and digital enhancement from Wētā FX. Furthermore, there’s a ton of little details throughout “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” that Wētā FX gets precisely right in fascinating ways, specifically in regards to artifacts and artifice of the camera and how the apes look within the frame. The delicate way in which focus shifts occur, the way lens flares react through this digital interface—it’s all exquisitely well-constructed.
3. WEAK SPOT: REHASHING
Director Wes Ball has spoken a lot about how “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” takes place 300 years after “War” to introduce audiences to an “Apes” world with exciting new story possibilities. In theory, that sounds perfect for a franchise running for nearly sixty years. However, in execution, that’s not at all what “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” delivers.
For many Fox-owned properties, the Disney acquisition has led to surprisingly passionate and off-the-wall new films: Dan Trachtenberg’s “Prey,” Arkasha Stevenson’s “The First Omen,” etc. But “Kingdom” doesn’t feel like a passion project brought to fruition; it feels more like Disney looked at a spreadsheet and realized “Planet of the Apes” was among the most consistently profitable franchises in their new stable and commissioned a new one regardless. Instead of new ideas or stories, “Kingdom” mostly rehashes things audiences have seen before in this franchise.
The sheer number of beats and story ideas that feel recycled, in whole or in part, from either “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” or Schaffner’s original “Planet of the Apes” is staggering. Even the film’s attempt at an emotional, stakes-heightening climax sets up more conflicts we’ve already seen. Despite the lip-service to paving the way for new stories, “Kingdom” feels like someone shuffled their “Planet of the Apes” greatest hits playlist, and this is what we got.
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2. THE HOOK OF RELIGIOUS THEMING
The film’s most intriguing concept is treating Caesar like ape Jesus, despite the absurdity of the notion.
By exploring the idea that Caesar’s ancient teachings have been distorted over centuries to serve the agendas of those with darker motives, “Kingdom” stumbles upon fertile creative territory. Like previous entries in the “Planet of the Apes” franchise, the film has the potential to offer a unique commentary on its contemporary era.
In today’s polarized American society, we witness manipulative figures weaponizing religious texts for personal gain. The antagonist, Proximus Caesar, and his cohorts seem poised to symbolize this phenomenon, offering the beginnings of a pointed allegorical critique.
1. WEAK SPOT: A FAILURE TO ENGAGE WITH SAID THEMING
“Kingdom” initiates an intriguing premise but fails to delve deeper into its potential. While it deserves recognition for introducing this captivating concept, the film disappointingly fails to explore it meaningfully, merely skimming the surface.
As the narrative unfolds, this deficiency becomes more apparent, culminating in a final conflict that feels rushed and disconnected from the central themes. Despite feeble attempts to link the religious motif with human involvement, it devolves into mundane ape versus human conflict, devoid of substance or relevance to the overarching theme.
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“Kingdom” misses a golden opportunity to parallel Caesar’s legacy with that of the “Planet of the Apes” franchise itself. The potential for a poignant reflection on how messages can be distorted over time, akin to the franchise’s impact on generations of audiences, remains largely unexplored. Instead, the film succumbs to repetitive storytelling, recycling familiar tropes and narratives without self-awareness or innovation.
In essence, “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” falls victim to its own lack of originality, mirroring the very phenomenon it could have examined critically.
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