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    Ray Fisher Slams 'Dangerous' DC Films President, Says He'll Never Work With Him

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    The tension between Fisher and Warner Bros. started after Fisher, who plays Cyborg in DC superhero movies, alleged unprofessional conduct on the set of ‘Justice League’ back in July.

    Dec 31, 2020
    AceShowbiz – Fans seemingly won’t see Ray Fisher’s Cyborn in DC’s upcoming movie “Justice League”. The actor took to Twitter on Wednesday, December 30 to put DC Films president Walter Hamada on blast, calling him “the most dangerous kind of enabler.”
    “His lies, and WB PR’s failed Sept 4th hit-piece, sought to undermine the very real issues of the Justice League investigation,” Fisher wrote on the blue bird alongside a link to Hamada’s Sunday interview with the New York Times. Later, he vowed that he “will not participate in any production associated with him,” before adding, “A >E,” which refers to “Accountability >Entertainment.”

    Ray Fisher blasted DC Film president Walter Hamada.
    The tension between Fisher and Warner Bros. started after Fisher alleged unprofessional conduct on the set of “Justice League” back in July. “Joss Wheadon’s [sic] on-set treatment of the cast and crew of Justice League was gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable,” he tweeted at the time.

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    In response to the allegations, WarnerMedia released a statement on the evening of the Friday of Labor Day weekend. “In July, Ray Fisher’s representatives asked DC Films President Walter Hamada to talk to Mr. Fisher about his concerns during the production of Justice League. The two had previously spoken when Mr. Hamada asked him to reprise his role as Cyborg in Warner Bros.’ upcoming Flash movie, together with other members of the Justice League,” said the statement.
    “Notably, Mr. Hamada also told Mr. Fisher that he would elevate his concerns to WarnerMedia so they could conduct an investigation. At no time did Mr. Hamada ever ‘throw anyone under the bus,’ as Mr. Fisher has falsely claimed, or render any judgments about the Justice League production, in which Mr. Hamada had no involvement, since filming occurred before Mr. Hamada was elevated to his current position,” the statement continued.
    The studio added, “While Mr. Fisher never alleged any actionable misconduct against him, WarnerMedia nonetheless initiated an investigation into the concerns he’d raised about his character’s portrayal. Still not satisfied, Mr. Fisher insisted that WarnerMedia hire an independent third party investigator.” It also denied not reaching out to Fisher about the investigation, saying, “This investigator has attempted multiple times to meet with Mr. Fisher to discuss his concerns but, to date, Mr. Fisher has declined to speak to the investigator.”
    Fisher reprised his Cyborg role in the extra shoots of Zack Snyder’s “Justice League” 10-episode cut, which is scheduled to hit HBO Max next year. Additionally, he participated in the DC Fandome panel for the feature recut and was in talks to return as Cyborg in the upcoming “The Flash” movie. It remains to be seen if things will go as planned considering the tension.

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    Gemma Arterton Intimidated to Play Dusty Springfield in Movie

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    The ‘Clash of the Titans’ actress admits to feeling ‘terrified’ to portray the legendary ‘Son of a Preacher Man’ hitmaker in an upcoming ‘intimate’ biopic.

    Dec 31, 2020
    AceShowbiz – Gemma Arterton is “a bit terrified” of portraying Dusty Springfield in a movie.
    The “Clash of the Titans” actress will play the late music legend in an upcoming biopic and while she’s excited about the “intimate” project, she admitted she’s daunted by the idea of stepping into the “Son of a Preacher Man” singer’s shoes.
    “It won’t be sort of like Bohemian Rhapsody or Rocketman – it’s not that kind of film,” she told Britain’s Daily Mirror newspaper. “It’s much more intimate. I am kind of a bit terrified by it but at the same time really excited.”
    “It’s about a specific moment in her life when she made Dusty in Memphis and went to America for the first time and did that amazing incredible album and defied everybody’s expectations.”

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    And Gemma confirmed she’s been working hard at improving her singing.
    “Her voice … you know. We will see! I have done a little bit of practicing. I am not ready to publicly out her yet. I really hope I get to do it justice,” she smiled.
    The movie will focus on a period where Dusty fled to Memphis to escape scrutiny over her sexuality, but damaged her voice with drugs, cigarettes and alcohol. Gemma admitted it was a really “bleak” time in the “Wishin’ and Hopin” singer’s life.
    “Her career just slid away from her in the 70s and didn’t come back until the 80s when she worked with The Pet Shop Boys,” Gemma said.
    “There was a really bleak time – she used to go into drag clubs and do Dusty Springfield acts and pretend to be Dusty in order to win $100 or $50. And sometimes she didn’t win!”

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    Joe Clark, Tough Principal at New Jersey High School, Dies at 82

    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyJoe Clark, Tough Principal at New Jersey High School, Dies at 82Bullhorn in hand, he roamed the hallways as he imposed discipline, expelling “miscreants” and restoring order. Morgan Freeman portrayed him in the film “Lean on Me.”Joe Clark in 1988 in a hallway of Eastside High School in Paterson, N.J., where he gained renown for his tough-love approach as the principal.Credit…Joe McNally/Getty ImagesDec. 30, 2020Updated 6:04 p.m. ETJoe Clark, the imperious disciplinarian principal of a troubled New Jersey high school in the 1980s who gained fame for restoring order as he roamed its hallways with a bullhorn and sometimes a baseball bat, died on Tuesday at his home in Gainesville, Fla. He was 82.His family announced his death but did not specify a cause.When Mr. Clark, a former Army drill sergeant, arrived at Eastside High School in Paterson in 1982, he declared it a “caldron of violence.” He expelled 300 students for disciplinary problems in his first week.When he tossed out — “expurgated,” as he put it — about 60 more students five years later, he called them “leeches, miscreants and hoodlums.” (That second round of suspensions led the Paterson school board to draw up insubordination charges, which were later dropped.)Mr. Clark succeeded in restoring order, instilling pride in many students and improving some test scores. He won praise from President Ronald Reagan and Reagan’s education secretary, William J. Bennett. With Morgan Freeman portraying him, he was immortalized in the 1989 film “Lean on Me.” And his tough-love policies put him on the cover of Time magazine in 1988, holding his bat. “Is getting tough the answer?” the headline read. “School principal Joe Clark says yes — and critics are up in arms.”Mr. Clark, who oversaw a poor, largely Black and Hispanic student body, denounced affirmative action and welfare policies and “hocus-pocus liberals.” When “60 Minutes” profiled him in 1988, he told the correspondent Harry Reasoner: “Because we were slaves does not mean that you’ve got to be hoodlums and thugs and knock people in the head and rob people and rape people. No, I cannot accept that. And I make no more alibis for Blacks. I simply say work hard for what you want.”Mr. Clark in 2001 as director of the Essex County Juvenile Detention Center in New Jersey. He was criticized for excessive use of physical restraints in disciplining inmates.Credit…Keith Meyers/The New York TimesTo get control of a crime-ridden school, Mr. Clark instituted automatic suspensions for assault, drug possession, fighting, vandalism and using profanity against teachers. He assigned students to perform school chores for lesser offenses like tardiness and disrupting classes. The names of offenders were announced over the public address system.And, in 1986, to keep thugs from entering the school, he ordered the entrance doors padlocked during school hours. Fire officials responded by having the locks removed, citing the safety of students and teachers. A year later, the city cited him for contempt for continuing to chain the doors.“Instead of receiving applause and purple hearts for the resurgence of a school,” Mr. Clark said after a court hearing, “you find yourself maligned by a few feebleminded creeps.”Though the padlocking episode put him in conflict with the Paterson school board, his no-nonsense style led to an interview for a White House job in early 1988. Before turning it down, he insisted that if he took the job it would not be because of any pressure from the board.“I refuse to let a bunch of obdurate, rebellious board members run me out of this town that I’ve worked in so assiduously for 27 years,” he told The Washington Post in 1988. A Post headline called him “The Wyatt Earp of Eastside High.”Joe Louis Clark was born on May 8, 1938, in Rochelle, Ga., and moved with his family to Newark when he was 6. He earned a bachelor’s degree from what is now William Paterson University, in Wayne, N.J., and earned his master’s at Seton Hall.After serving as a drill instructor in the Army Reserve, he started his education career as an elementary-school teacher and principal in New Jersey and then as director of camps and playgrounds for Essex County, N.J. Then he was appointed to turn Eastside High around.“A school’s going where the principal is going,” William Pascrell, the Paterson school board president, told the North Jersey newspaper The Record. “Eastside is a school ready to take off. Joe Clark is the guy who can do it.”Morgan Freeman played Mr. Clark as a no-nonsense high school principal in the 1989 movie “Lean on Me.” Beverly Todd played a high school teacher.Credit…Warner BrothersIn 1989, his final year at Eastside, Mr. Clark spent time away from the school promoting “Lean on Me” and was on the road when a group of young men stripped down to their G-strings during a school assembly. Mr. Clark was suspended for a week for failing to supervise the gathering.He resigned from Eastside in July 1989 two months after heart surgery.After six years on the lecture circuit, often calling for rigorous academic standards, Mr. Clark resurfaced as the director of the Essex County Youth Detention Center in Newark. Again his tactics drew fire. Both the New Jersey Juvenile Justice Commission and the state’s Division of Youth and Family Services criticized him at different times for excessive use of physical restraints, including shackling and cuffing some detainees for two days.Mr. Clark stepped down as director in early 2002 after the juvenile justice commission accused him of condoning putting teenagers in isolation for long periods.His survivors include his daughters, Joetta Clark Diggs and Hazel Clark, who were both Olympic middle distance runners; a son, J.J., the director of track and field at Stanford University; and three grandchildren.Mr. Clark’s image got a dramatic reimagining in the climax of “Lean on Me.” As Mr. Clark, Mr. Freeman is sent to jail for violating fire safety codes, only to persuade students rallying for his release to disperse. (He’s released by the mayor in the movie.)Mr. Clark never went to jail, and the film’s director, John Avildsen, admitted that the scene was fictional.“Now, if he hadn’t taken the chains off the doors in reality,” Mr. Avildsen told The Times in 1989, speaking of Mr. Clark, “and if he had gone to jail, then what happened in the movie could very well have happened.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    Connie Nielsen Demands 'Zack Snyder's Justice League' Include Her Stunt Cut by Joss Whedon

    Warner Bros. Pictures

    The actress, who plays Amazon queen Hippolyta in the DC Extended Universe, only agreed to the ‘Justice League’ reshoots after director Zack Snyder said yes to her demand.

    Dec 31, 2020
    AceShowbiz – Connie Nielsen only agreed to be part of Zack Snyder’s “Justice League” reshoots if he agreed to include a stunt she filmed which was cut from director Joss Whedon’s movie.
    Like many of the stars who shot scenes for “Justice League”, the actress was far from happy with the blockbuster, which was completed by Whedon after Snyder was forced to step down.
    But when Zack agreed to fan requests to rework his vision of the superhero movie, Connie was one of the first people he called.

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    The actress, who plays Hippolyta in the “Wonder Woman” films, reveals fans will see more of her and her fellow Amazons in the new project than they did in the original 2017 theatrical release of “Justice League”.
    “Zack called me to ask if I would be OK with a reissue of the film with changes,” Nielsen tells The Hollywood Reporter, “and I asked him, ‘Well, will you bring back the Amazon chapter the way you had written it and had filmed it?’ And he said, ‘Absolutely.’ And then I said, ‘And Zack, will you also bring back my quite incredible stunt, running up the walls?’ And he said, ‘You got it.’ So I said, ‘Yeah, definitely. You’ve got my blessing. Absolutely.’ ”
    Connie admits she was shocked to see little of what she filmed in the original “Justice League”, “What was really sad was how much stuff we filmed that wasn’t in the film. I think that’s part of what made Justice League less cohesive as a viewing experience. The intent was not the same during the editing as it was during shooting.”
    Snyder’s Directors Cut will arrive in four parts on HBO Max in 2021.

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    'Star Wars' Novelist Blocked From Writing Potential Romance Between Finn and Rey

    Walt Disney Pictures

    The author hired to pen ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ novel reveals that Disney bosses blocked him from writing any potential romance between John Boyega’s and Daisy Ridley’s characters.

    Dec 31, 2020
    AceShowbiz – Novelist Alan Dean Foster has claimed he was told to remove a potential romance between John Boyega’s Finn and Daisy Ridley’s Rey in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”.
    The writer, who was brought on to pen the official novelisation for the 2015 movie, also known as “Episode VII”, by J.J. Abrams.
    But in a new interview with Midnight’s Edge, Foster has alleged his initial idea for a budding romance between Finn and Rey was shot down by bosses at Disney.
    “There were a couple of things in there, and a couple of things that happened subsequently that bothered me,” he said. “I’m going to tell you one thing they made me take out because enough time has passed, I don’t think it matters. There was obviously the beginnings of a relationship between John Boyega’s character and Daisy Ridley’s character. I expected to see that developed further in Episode VIII (The Last Jedi), and zero happened with it.”

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    Instead, the movies tried to develop a romance between Finn and Kelly Marie Tran’s Rose Tico – but the plot was abandoned in 2019’s “The Rise of Skywalker”.
    LucasFilm has yet to comment on Foster’s allegations.
    John Boyega previously slammed Disney bosses for allegedly using the black characters in the new “Star Wars” movies as tokens. The “Attack the Block” star alleged his character was marketed as “much more important in the franchise than they are and then have them pushed to the side.”
    He later revealed that one of the producers reached out to him following his complaint, “I got on a phone call with Kathleen Kennedy and she verbally showed support and we got to have a really nice, transparent, honest conversation that is beneficial to both of us.”

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    When Is a Comedy Special Also a Corporate Synergy Message?

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyOn ComedyWhen Is a Comedy Special Also a Corporate Synergy Message?Two year-end shows from Amazon and Netflix deliver some laughs, yes, but also serve as veiled ads for the streaming services themselves.Samuel L. Jackson in “Death to 2020,” a new Netflix comedy special.Credit…Saeed Adyani/NetflixDec. 30, 2020, 11:00 a.m. ETAt the start of “Death to 2020,” a reporter played by Samuel L. Jackson sits alone in an abandoned office listening to a disembodied voice explain he’s looking back at the past year. “Why would you want to do that?” Jackson responds, with an additional curse for emphasis.The question haunts the next hour. One reasonable answer is that hearing Samuel L. Jackson swear is one of the finest pleasures in popular culture. Another: Where else are you going to go for some new jokes by famous people right now? The last week of the year is traditionally rich with live comedy events, but the pandemic has sidelined beloved annual shows from Sandra Bernhard and Dave Attell. Two streaming services have tried to fill the void by creating their own new genre. With talent-rich one-off specials, “Death to 2020” (on Netflix) and “Yearly Departed” (on Amazon) are comedy’s answer to journalism’s year-end lists.“Death,” slickly produced by Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones, the pair behind “Black Mirror,” is a fake documentary starring a fantasy team of actors, while “Yearly,” a more stripped-down affair hosted by Phoebe Robinson, imagines a funeral for things lost in 2020 attended by a cast of superb female comics. But both conceits are essentially thin pretexts to throw a bunch of jokes together recapping recent news under socially distanced conditions. Some of the bits are solid, others aren’t. But they never add up to more than fine diversions.“Death to 2020,” which lists no fewer than 18 writers, presents an array of talking heads, all caricatures, quipping about a highlight reel of news events: Tom Hanks getting Covid-19, Trump talking about injecting bleach, Biden in the basement and more of the greatest hits. There isn’t a strong perspective here outside of ugh, this year, can you believe it? And there’s fun to be had with these performances, including Hugh Grant playing a foppishly pretentious academic with impeccable condescension.Phoebe Robinson is the host of “Yearly Departed,” on Amazon.Credit…Nicole Wilder/Amazon StudiosGrant, who has aged into a masterful player of villains, always begins in seriousness before veering into dumb absurdity. Describing the fires that ravaged many parts of the world early in the year, he states: “It left these areas utterly inhospitable,” before pausing for the punchline: “Even to Australians.” Then there’s: “People think democracy is permanent and unchanging,” he says. “In truth, it’s something you must perpetually nurture like a woman. Or a professional grudge.”Many of the actors don’t play new characters so much as version of ones that have been popular elsewhere. As Dr. Maggie Gravel, Leslie Jones alternates between abrupt rage and pleading lustfulness. And in a turn that will delight fans of “The Comeback,” Lisa Kudrow turns a pathologically lying White House aide into hilarious cringe comedy.My favorite is Cristin Milioti’s Kathy Flowers, the ultimate Karen, whose series of monologues add up to the closest thing to a fleshed-out character arc here, starting in placid suburban normalcy before the internet radicalizes her, shifting into eye-bursting, conspiratorial madness. It’s silly sketch comedy performed with the commitment of an elite actor. More often in this special, the joke takes precedence over character, and the monologues have the feel of a collection of punch lines doled out like cards at a table.“Yearly Departed” also looks back in anguish, but instead of actors playing types, standup comics act as eulogists, taking turns at a lectern to pay their respects. Tiffany Haddish bids farewell to casual sex, and Natasha Rothwell speaks about giving up on “TV cops.” Everyone appears to be together, watching each other, but they were all filmed separately and cut together with reaction shots. The resulting feel is oddly uncanny.Not only are there seasoned stars like Sarah Silverman, but they mix in some new breakouts like Ziwe Fumudoh and up-and comers like Patti Harrison, who delivers one of the funniest, most acutely observed eulogies on the obsolescence of “rich girl Instagram influencers.” With mock poignancy, she asks: “Who could forget your surface-level love for photography, which you tried to get people to call ‘memory remembering,’ a term you coined.”The guest “eulogists” include Patti Harrison mourning the loss of “rich girl Instagram influencers.”Credit…Nicole Wilder/Amazon StudiosThe comic Natasha Leggero has a sharp set on the death of her desire to have kids, where she speaks for many parents during the pandemic saying: “I love my daughter, but I love her in the same way I love LSD. In microdoses.”Along with the stand-ups, some actors made cameos including Sterling K. Brown, laying on the floor to illustrate the span of six feet, along with Rachel Brosnahan, perhaps to remind you that “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” can be seen on Amazon. Her flat set about the death of pants is a reminder that playing a stand-up is not the same as being one. “Yearly” is hit or miss, but so are most stand-up sets at clubs, and by showing us a well-curated collection of female talent, there were more good jokes than in “Death to 2020.” And fewer stale ones.And yet watching both these shows repeatedly bemoan the miseries of the past year, I couldn’t help but think how the streaming services producing them actually did very well. Just as the pandemic has disproportionately hurt marginalized and disadvantaged groups, it has devastated small theaters and clubs while benefiting digital behemoths.That Jeff Bezos made $90 billion during the pandemic goes unmentioned on Amazon’s “Yearly Departed.” And while the script for “Death to 2020” points out how people stuck at home during lockdown spent more time on Netflix, name-dropping the reality shows “Love Is Blind” and “Floor Is Lava” amid the tragic news events makes you wonder if this was self-mocking comedy or corporate synergy? Spoiler alert: It’s both.In our ever more consolidated culture, where product placement is the norm and only a few companies produce the vast majority of large-scale entertainment, Netflix covers all the bases, pumping out escapist content for an audience stuck at home, then poking fun at themselves for doing it. “Death to 2020” was billed as a departure for the creators of “Black Mirror,” a comedy instead of a haunting vision of technology gone awry. And yet, seen from a different angle, it might be their darkest dystopian production yet.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    She’s Starring Opposite Tom Hanks. She’d Never Heard of Him.

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyShe’s Starring Opposite Tom Hanks. She’d Never Heard of Him.Helena Zengel is a giggly, chatty 12-year-old, whose movie roles take her into psychological territory that even adults would find tough.Helena Zengel in Berlin on Dec. 17. “I stand in front of the camera, I know what I want, and I do it,” she said.Credit…Katrin Streicher for The New York TimesDec. 30, 2020, 7:08 a.m. ETBERLIN — When the director Paul Greengrass was gearing up to make his new film, “News of the World,” about a Civil War veteran in 1870s Texas who escorts an orphaned girl to her relatives across the state, he was anticipating one major challenge. “This is the first film I made with a child actor at the heart of it,” he said recently by phone.The casting would be difficult on multiple levels, he realized. Although the character is onscreen for much of the movie, she has only a few lines of dialogue. Tom Hanks had already signed on as the lead, so she would have to go “toe to toe” with a superstar, Greengrass said. “It was a very, very hard ask.”One of the first children he saw during the casting in 2019, however, was Helena Zengel, a then 11-year-old from Berlin with a tomboyish energy and platinum hair. “She was the only person I really had to look at,” he said. “It was the easiest decision in the film.”Zengel on the set of “News of the World.”Credit…Bruce W. Talamon/Universal PicturesPaul Greengrass, center, the movie’s director.Credit…Bruce Talamon/Universal Pictures“News of the World,” which opened Dec. 25 in theaters in the United States and Canada, and will be available on Netflix in other countries from February, is an international breakthrough for Zengel, who has already become one of the most talked-about actors — let alone child actors — to emerge in Germany in recent years.She garnered widespread praise last year for her portrayal of a semi-feral 9-year-old in the movie “System Crasher,” which went on to be Germany’s official submission to the Academy Awards. That performance won her best actress this spring at the Lolas, Germany’s equivalent of the Oscars, making her the youngest recipient of that prize.In “News of the World,” Zengel’s character, Johanna Leonberger, is left orphaned after her German parents are violently murdered on their farm when she is four. Taken in and raised by the Kiowa tribe, she is later removed by soldiers, and a traveling veteran, played by Hanks, agrees to bring her to a surviving aunt and uncle.Zengel has received strong reviews for her performance, with critics praising her ability to imbue her defiant and alienated character with a sense of warmth and intelligence, and for channeling the emotional horrors of Johanna’s back story in near silence. Most of her lines are in Kiowa, a language she had to learn for the part.Zengel, left, and Tom Hanks in “News of the World.”Credit…Bruce Talamon/Universal PicturesSpeaking via Zoom recently, Ms. Zengel was far gigglier and chattier — which is to say, far more like a regular 12-year-old — than her recent roles might suggest. She said that, like most children in Germany, she had spent most of this year at home, and that she was currently quarantined because classmates had tested positive for the coronavirus.Before being cast in the film, she said, she had never heard of Hanks. “I think I’d seen the ‘Da Vinci Code’ before, but I didn’t know who he was,” she said. “I thought it was just some actor.”In an email, Hanks praised Zengel’s skill of performing “with no buildup, no apprehension and no self-consciousness,” and said he wished he had “her same ease, her simplicity.”Zengel said she had never taken an acting class, “because I’m not sure if there was much for me to learn.”“I stand in front of the camera, I know what I want, and I do it,” she said, matter-of-factly.This focus and willpower, her mother, Anne Zengel, explained, has been her daughter’s hallmark ever since she was a toddler. Her earliest forays into acting, at age 4, had emerged largely out of parental frustration, she said, because her daughter had “three times as much intensity” as other children and would act out if she was denied something she wanted.“She had to function in society, so we had to figure out how to redirect her energy,” she said.“The thing about acting is that you just need to do it, and as long as you’re happy with it, then you’re doing it right,” Zengel said.Credit…Katrin Streicher for The New York TimesShe enrolled Helena in ice-skating classes, and encouraged her to try acting. After a few small roles in German TV crime shows, as a bank robber’s daughter or a girl who falls from a bridge, she eventually landed a lead role in a German art-house film, “Dark Blue Girl,” at age 7.“At some point, the thing happened that I hoped would happen,” her mother said. “She was actually valued for being so intense.”In 2017, Zengel caught the attention of Nora Fingscheidt, the German director of “System Crasher,” a harrowing drama centered on a girl named Benni who is abused as a baby and abandoned by her mother, and who later lashes out at her caregivers and the society around her. The movie included a number of upsetting scenes, including of violence between children. In an interview, Fingscheidt said she needed a child actor who could convey Benni’s often terrifying physicality, while shouldering the psychological burden of the part.She was struck by Zengel’s “cinematographic quality, with almost translucent white skin, white hair that make her look like an angel, but with an ambivalence that is fascinating,” she said. During the child actor’s audition, in which she was asked to improvise a scene in which she “freaks out” by screaming and throwing things, Fingscheidt said that she was drawn in by the way her “eyes sparkled when I told her she could behave as badly as she wanted.”To help Zengel distinguish herself from her traumatized character, Fingscheidt said, the two would mime a little scene once shooting was over, with the director holding her hand like a shower head and the child actor pretending to wash underneath it, to indicate her transition back to herself. Zengel also wrote a journal, to help her process her feelings, the director added.Zengel said the experience of making “System Crasher” helped her prepare for her role as Johanna, which she conceded was “not as extreme.”“News of the World” was released in movie theaters in the United States and Canada on Dec. 25; it will be available on Netflix in other countries from February.Credit…Bruce Talamon/Universal PicturesNow Zengel is confronting the strange reality of international fame while being stuck at home, finishing seventh grade. This fall, Variety magazine selected her as one of its “actors to watch” and she said she had received offers for other roles in recent months, but that she was waiting until the pandemic subsided before making any decisions.She said she was open to moving to the United States, though her mother said she was intent on her daughter having a normal childhood, and that she was comforted by Germany’s comparatively low-key celebrity culture.“The thing about acting is that you just need to do it, and as long as you’re happy with it, then you’re doing it right,” Zengel said. “Also, it’s very fun to run around and scream.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    Steven Soderberg Admits to Working on 'Philosophical Sequel' to 'Contagion'

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    During an interview on on the ‘Happy Sad Confused’ podcast, the ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ director reveals he has reteamed with the 2011 thriller film’s screenwriter Scott Z. Burns to develop its follow-up.

    Dec 30, 2020
    AceShowbiz – Filmmaker Steven Soderbergh is working to fast-track a “philosophical sequel” to “Contagion” in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
    The “Ocean’s Eleven” director reveals he’s reteamed with the 2011 thriller’s screenwriter Scott Z. Burns to develop the follow-up.
    “I’ve got a project in development that Scott Burns is working with me on, that’s a kind of philosophical sequel to ‘Contagion’ but in a different context,” Soderbergh explained on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast.
    “You’ll kind of look at the two of them as kind of paired but very different hair colours. So, Scott and I had been talking about, ‘So, what’s the next iteration of a ‘Contagion’-type story?’ We have been working on that. We should probably hotfoot it a little bit.”

      See also…

    The news emerges months after “Contagion”, which starred Gwyneth Paltrow as a woman who brings home a mystery viral illness during a business trip to Asia, soared in popularity on streaming services as people tried to make sense of the coronavirus crisis.
    At the time, Burns insisted he wasn’t surprised by the pandemic, because during his research for the movie, he learned such a global outbreak was inevitable.
    “The scientists I spoke to, and there were a lot of them, all said that this was a matter of when, not if,” he told Slate in March. “So, I guess my feeling as someone who believes in science is that when scientists tell us those things, we would do well to listen.”

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    Ireland Baldwin Continues Defending Stepmom Hilaria: I Don’t See the Significance in Bullying Anyone

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