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After Passage Of Anti-Abortion Bill, Film Industry Boycott Looms Over Georgia

After Passage Of Anti-Abortion Bill, Film Industry Boycott Looms Over Georgia

Georgia is already feeling the economic fallout from the radical anti-abortion law signed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, as several major film and television productions have pulled out of the state in protest.

A film starring Kristin Wiig and The Power, a major television show for Amazon Studios, have already abandoned plans to film in Georgia, according to a Tuesday TIME report.

“We had no problem stopping the entire process instantly,” Reed Morano, an Emmy-winning director working with The Power, told TIME. “There is no way we would ever bring our money to that state by shooting there.”

As movies and television shows pull out, workers in Georgia’s $9 billion-a-year entertainment industry are afraid of the damage that could result thanks to what their state lawmakers have done.

“We’re in panic mode,” Kathy Berry, a location scout who was scheduled to work on The Power before Kemp signed the bill into law, told TIME. “The sky is falling.”

Berry added that she’d heard of at least two more productions postponing plans to begin shooting in Savannah because of the Republican-backed law.

The boycott, spearheaded by actress and activist Alyssa Milano, targeted Georgia after Kemp signed an extreme abortion ban into law earlier this month.

The law criminalizes abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy — or just two weeks after a missed period, before many women know they’re pregnant. The law threatens up to 10 years in jail for both doctors performing the procedure and the women getting it. Because it’s difficult to tell an early abortion from a natural miscarriage, the law will expose people who have miscarriages to potential prosecution.

“I understand that some folks don’t like this new law. I’m fine with that,” Kemp said dismissively at a recent Republican retreat. He said he is proud of his radical anti-woman law “even though that makes C-list celebrities squawk.”

Kemp may try to speak like a tough guy in front of a friendly audience — but he was so afraid of facing film industry representatives and protesters that he canceled a planned trip to Hollywood.

And while Kemp is making light of the boycott, Georgia workers are the ones who will suffer from Kemp’s callous extremism.

“We used to film here in the summertime like crazy,” said Tim Jordan, an experienced cameraman who worked on several major motion pictures. “Now there’s this void. It feels like with this abortion law, they’re going to wait and see what happens.”

Morano, who worked on previous shoots in Georgia, said the hardest part is knowing how the boycott will impact great folks she has worked with. But she stands by her decision.

“I’m sorry if the work moves away from where you live,” she told TIME. “But having this basic fundamental right for women is more important than anything in this moment in time.”

Published with permission of The American Independent. 

 

 

2016 Golden Globes Nominations Blur The Boundaries Among Genres

2016 Golden Globes Nominations Blur The Boundaries Among Genres

By Josh Rottenberg, Los Angeles Times (TNS)

When it comes to comedy, there is the kind of funny that makes you go “ha!,” and there’s the kind of funny that makes you go “huh?”

This year’s roster of Golden Globe nominees in the comedy or musical category encompasses both definitions. It’s reflective of the distinctive identity of the Globes themselves — the only major award that separates drama and comedy — and the complicated nature of some of today’s movie comedies from filmmakers such as the Coen brothers and Wes Anderson.

Among the major Hollywood awards shows, the Globes have the biggest tent, taking in traditional Oscar fare — which has increasingly come to mean smaller, darker independent fare — and the kind of populist movies that the Motion Picture Academy generally overlooks, as well as a few outliers that may not have been on anyone’s radar. This year is no exception, especially in the comedy or musical category.

Alongside two broad crowd-pleasing movies clearly aimed almost entirely at getting laughs — Melissa McCarthy’s Spy and the raunchy Amy Schumer rom-com Trainwreck — are three films that, to varying degrees, stretch the definition of what might be considered a comedy: Joy, The Big Short and The Martian.

All have comedic elements, but none is what you’d call a nonstop laugh riot, nor are they designed to be. Two of the films — David O. Russell’s Joy and Adam McKay’s The Big Short — can be seen as commentaries on the corruption and depletion of the American economy — while Ridley Scott’s The Martian is a sci-fi adventure in which the fate of Matt Damon’s stranded astronaut is at stake.

The films in the drama category are for the most part more traditional award season bait — Carol, The Revenant, Room and Spotlight — although the fifth nominee, Mad Max: Fury Road, is the kind of high-octane action flick rarely acknowledged this time of year.

Whatever the Globes may lack in predictive power for the Academy Awards (as can’t be repeated too often, Globes nominations are made by a small group of members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, not film industry professionals), they frequently make up for in their surprising array of nominations, and a Globes win can imbue a film with a sense of momentum as the awards season rolls on.

That’s especially relevant for The Big Short, which has solidified its standing as an Oscar force to be reckoned with in recent weeks, with a slew of nominations and critics awards. It was directed by one of the industry’s most successful comedy filmmakers, McKay, who also brought us Anchorman and Talladega Nights.

But the film’s subject matter — the 2008 financial crisis — couldn’t be more serious, and alongside many moments of darkly hued comedy, the film delivers a sobering look at the greed and corruption that led to the brink of an economic doomsday.

McKay told The Times recently that he had been looking for years for an opportunity to push beyond the traditional boundaries of comedy.

“The studios like certainty, so I’m a comedy guy and they’ll let me make any comedies I want,” he said. “But there was a little bit of resistance on different types of projects. I just love movies. I’ve always admired Danny Boyle — the way he’s able to jump genres at will.”

The inclusion of Scott’s The Martian raised eyebrows among many who felt that calling the film about an astronaut fighting for survival alone on Mars a comedy bordered on category fraud.

“A comedy’s a film whose #1 goal is to make people laugh,” Spy director Paul Feig tweeted in response. “If that wasn’t the filmmakers’ top goal, it’s not a comedy.”

For his part, Damon said in an interview last fall that comedy was an essential ingredient of the film from the start, as his character, Mark Watney, uses his wry sense of humor to keep his desperation at bay.

“That was one of the things Ridley and I talked about in our first meeting: How do you hold on to the terror and danger and the enormity of what the stakes are for this person and also retain the humor?” Damon said.

The fact is, the Globes’ nominations may simply be reflecting the fact that, both in film and on television, once-rigid genre distinctions are blurring more than ever — something McKay, for one, is happy to see.

“I don’t think genres are as restrictive as they used to be,” he said. “I’d like to keep not obeying the genre so much. The movie I always think about is Something Wild. That had a shocking tone shift halfway through, but it worked.”

The broad spectrum of films nominated by the HFPA is best reflected in the directing category. Five filmmakers who made vastly different movies — including George Miller’s gonzo action film Mad Max: Fury Road, Alejandro Inarritu’s western The Revenant and Todd Haynes’ period romance Carol — will face off.

But while Tom McCarthy’s ensemble drama Spotlight is among the few certified Oscar front-runners, some are predicting the HFPA may give the award to Ridley Scott in part to recognize his entire career.

The acting categories will see Hollywood veterans such as Lily Tomlin, Al Pacino and Jane Fonda face off against relative newcomers such as Schumer, Paul Dano and Alicia Vikander. In a nomination that surely struck a nostalgic chord with older moviegoers, Sylvester Stallone proved a Globes contender for supporting actor in a drama for his understated performance as Rocky Balboa in Creed — 39 years after his last Globes nod for the original Rocky.

“I remember reading that Eugene O’Neill’s father (actor James O’Neill) played the Count of Monte Cristo for 30 years — and I’m past that,” Stallone told The Times of his history playing the perennial underdog boxer. “It’s the one character I actually wanted to follow in perpetuity until maybe his final demise. There’s just something about this journey.”

Now that that journey has taken Stallone to the Globes, could it soon take him all the way to the Hollywood title fight that is the Oscars? Stallone laughed off the prospect.

“My God,” he said, shaking his head. “Listen, I’ve been more than blessed with my share of good fortune.”

©2016 Los Angeles Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Photo: Joe Shlabotnik via Flickr

 

 

Robin Williams Was In Early Stages Of Parkinson’s Disease, Wife Says

Robin Williams Was In Early Stages Of Parkinson’s Disease, Wife Says

By Veronica Rocha, Los Angeles Times

Robin Williams, who was found dead from an apparent suicide earlier this week, was battling the “early stages” of Parkinson’s disease at the time, his wife said in statement Thursday.

Susan Schneider also said Williams’ sobriety was intact as “he struggled with his own battles of depression, anxiety as well as early stages of Parkinson’s Disease, which he was not yet ready to share publicly.”

“It is our hope in the wake of Robin’s tragic passing, that others will find the strength to seek the care and support they need to treat whatever battles they are facing so they may feel less afraid,” she stated.

Williams was found dead by his personal assistant Monday inside his home in the San Francisco Bay Area community of Tiburon. Authorities said it appeared the cause of death was “asphyxia due to hanging,” although toxicology reports for a final report will take weeks.

The full statement reads as follows:

“Robin spent so much of his life helping others. Whether he was entertaining millions on stage, film, or television, our troops on the frontlines, or comforting a sick child — Robin wanted us to laugh and to feel less afraid.

“Since his passing, all of us who loved Robin have found some solace in the tremendous outpouring of affection and admiration for him from the millions of people whose lives he touched. His greatest legacy, besides his three children, is the joy and happiness he offered to others, particularly to those fighting personal battles.

“Robin’s sobriety was intact and he was brave as he struggled with his own battles of depression, anxiety as well as early stages of Parkinson’s Disease, which he was not yet ready to share publicly.

“It is our hope in the wake of Robin’s tragic passing, that others will find the strength to seek the care and support they need to treat whatever battles they are facing so they may feel less afraid.”

AFP Photo/Tiziana Fabi

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Tributes For Robin Williams After Apparent Suicide

Tributes For Robin Williams After Apparent Suicide

By Veronique Dupont

Los Angeles (AFP) — Tributes poured in Tuesday for Robin Williams after the Oscar-winning actor and comedian apparently took his own life following a battle with severe depression.

Williams, 63, known for high-energy, rapid-fire improvisation, and clowning, was one of the most beloved entertainers of his time. One publication called him the funniest man alive.

The star of films such as “Good Will Hunting,” “Good Morning Vietnam,” and “Mrs Doubtfire” was found dead at his home outside San Francisco shortly before midday on Monday.

President Barack Obama led tributes to an entertainer he described as “one of a kind.”

Hollywood titan Steven Spielberg, a close friend, hailed Williams as a “lightning storm of comic genius.”

Fans turned William’s star along Hollywood’s Walk of Fame and a park bench in Boston that featured in “Good Will Hunting” into miniature shrines in his honor.

And radio stations across the United States played Williams’ “Good Morning Vietnam” wake-up holler on their rush-hour shows.

A statement Monday from Marin County Sheriff’s Office said Williams’ death appeared to be “suicide due to asphyxia.”

An autopsy was scheduled for Tuesday, as well as a coroner’s press conference at 1800 GMT.

Described in 1997 by Entertainment Weekly as “the funniest man alive”, Williams suffered from “severe depression” prior to his death, his publicist Mara Buxbaum said.

The comedian and father-of-three, who wedded his third wife Susan Schneider in 2011, had himself spoken openly in the past about his battles with alcoholism and drug abuse.

“Cocaine is God’s way of telling you you are making too much money,” he once quipped.

After beginning his career as a stand-up comic, Chicago-born Williams rose to fame in the U.S. sitcom “Mork & Mindy”, channeling his anarchic, high-energy style into his role as an extra-terrestrial struggling to fit in on Earth.

He later reeled off a string of big-screen hits throughout the 1980s and 1990s in roles which often showcased his fast-talking, improvisational skills.

Those abilities were showcased in 1987’s “Good Morning, Vietnam,” where his performance as motormouth military disc jockey Adrian Cronauer earned him the first of four Oscar nominations.

Other nominations followed his performance as the inspirational English literature teacher John Keating in 1989’s “Dead Poets Society” and for playing a mentally ill homeless man mourning the loss of his wife in 1991’s “The Fisher King.”

He finally landed an Academy Award for 1997’s “Good Will Hunting,” which earned him a best supporting actor statuette and helped launch the Hollywood careers of co-stars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.

Williams appeared most recently on film in “The Angriest Man in Brooklyn,” after playing president Dwight D. Eisenhower in “Lee Daniels’ The Butler.”

He is due to return to the silver screen posthumously in “Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb,” scheduled for release before Christmas.

“Robin Williams was an airman, a doctor, a genie, a nanny, a president, a professor, a bangarang Peter Pan, and everything in between. But he was one of a kind,” said Obama, vacationing in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.

“He arrived in our lives as an alien — but he ended up touching every element of the human spirit.

Spielberg mourned the loss of “a comic genius … Robin a lightning storm of comic genius and our laughter was the thunder that sustained him.”

“He was a pal and I can’t believe he’s gone,” added the director, who regularly phoned Williams to cheer himself up during filming of his 1994 Holocaust drama “Schindler’s List.”

“He was a giant heart, a fireball friend, a wondrous gift from the gods. Now the selfish bastards have taken him back,” said British actor, director, and Monty Python alum Terry Gilliam.

“I could not be more stunned by the loss of Robin Williams, mensch, great talent, acting partner, genuine soul,” added comedian Steve Martin, breaking a self-imposed hiatus from Twitter.

Poignant tributes also came from members of the U.S. military, for whom Williams frequently performed in USO live shows in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I feel Mr. Williams’ passing is worthy of lowering the flags,” wrote U.S. army veteran Zach Reid on the USO’s Facebook page. “One of the last things America agreed on is gone now.”

AFP Photo/Tiziana Fabi

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