<p>Going into M3GAN, I was fully prepared for a chilling experience. The story is about an AI-powered, talking doll going rogue, after all. And indeed, the movie often does maintain a creepy feeling and a sense of dread. And towards the end, it enters into downright terrifying territory. But I was not at all ready for how wacky and hilarious the movie would be. Directed by Gerard Johnstone (whose Housebound should be on the watchlist of every horror comedy lover) and written by Akela Cooper, the film is both a departure and a homage to creepy doll movies like Annabelle and Chucky franchises.</p>

<p>Allison Williams' Gemma works as a roboticist in a company that makes high-tech robotic companion toys for children. She has been developing a secret prototype for a lifelike doll with advanced capabilities like sentience, heightened intelligence, realistic facial expressions, and she can also learn and adapt to her environment by processing information fed through her "eyes". Like other products of the company, M3GAN (Model 3 Generative Android) is meant to care for kids, both physically and emotionally, in their parents' absence but has not been properly tested.&nbsp;</p>

<p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BRb4U99OU80" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></p>

<p>Gemma is saddled with the responsibility of her niece, Cady (Violet McGraw) whose parents died in a car accident. Conveniently for Gemma, for whom guardianship is strange and scary, Cady comes as a perfect subject for M3GAN. The little girl is paired with the robot as a primary user.&nbsp;</p>

<p>M3GAN is naturally protective of Cady, and Gemma allows herself some work while the child is under the care of the robot. But what she did not anticipate was the strength and sentient mind of her own creation. To paraphrase that great chaotician, Ian Malcolm, she was so preoccupied with whether she could, she didn’t stop to think if she should. The consequences are gradually disastrous.&nbsp;</p>

<p>M3GAN was programmed to protect Cady from each and everything she deems to be a threat to her ward, and she does not possess a sense of conscience or any other human qualities that may make her rethink her decisions. An excitable neighbourhood dog, a bully at school, potentially even Gemma — anyone endangering Cady or even raising her anxiety levels is a menace to be eliminated. Even when Gemma wants Cady to eat her vegetables, M3GAN looks at her with a frightening awareness that she will utilise later in the film.&nbsp;</p>

<p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OoDHM_A1axc" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></p>

<p>Universal's marketing campaign for M3GAN is a legend by now, though I took great care to steer clear of it (which involves muting related keywords on Twitter, and so on. I am nothing if not thorough). And turned out to be great. M3GAN should ideally be watched without learning anything about it. Due to my job, I had to see the trailer. But they were, thankfully, not too spoiler-ish. I managed to avoid posters, promo clips, interviews, and even reviews.&nbsp;</p>

<p>M3GAN is a joy from start to finish, irrespective of your general opinion on creepy doll movies. For the titular doll is a thing of dark majesty, and a far cry from the mostly passive dolls in other horror media. The design is extremely careful and deliberate to evoke a sense of uncanny valley, instead of hyperrealism. M3GAN's eyes look shadowed and always seem to possess a devilish intelligence that is far beyond human capacity. The doll is frightening in a primal way, and way before it actually begins to wreak havoc.&nbsp;</p>

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/critically-speaking-is-avatar-the-way-of-water-worth-the-hype-543816/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

<p>The throughlines are a bit pat and done better in other movies: dangers of AI,&nbsp;kids' relation to gadgets, and so on. But you will be hard pressed to notice any of that, M3GAN&nbsp;is so consistently entertaining.</p>

<p>And despite all the horror, gore, and screams, M3GAN, the movie that is, remains winking and self-reverential. Even a couple of deaths are funny — &nbsp;never mind the clotting blood on the slit throat — and you will not even feel guilty for laughing.</p>

<p>I cannot for the life of me understand what took Johnstone so long to direct a movie again. He has retained his keen sense of combining the winking humour and the macabre in a delicious, irresistible combination. Cooper's script is almost entirely without a weak spot.&nbsp;</p>

<p>M3GAN is an unadulterated joy.</p>


Going into M3GAN, I was fully prepared for a chilling experience. The story is about an AI-powered, talking doll going rogue, after all. And indeed, the movie often does maintain a creepy feeling and a sense of dread.

Going into M3GAN, I was fully prepared for a chilling experience. The story is about an AI-powered, talking doll going rogue, after all. And indeed, the movie often does maintain a creepy feeling and a sense of dread. And towards the end, it enters into downright terrifying territory. But I was not at all ready for how wacky and hilarious the movie would be. Directed by Gerard Johnstone (whose Housebound should be on the watchlist of every horror comedy lover) and written by Akela Cooper, the film is both a departure and a homage to creepy doll movies like Annabelle and Chucky franchises. Allison Williams' Gemma works as a roboticist in a company that makes high-tech robotic companion toys for children. She has been developing a secret prototype for a lifelike doll with advanced capabilities like sentience, heightened intelligence, realistic facial expressions, and she can also learn and adapt to her environment by processing information fed through her "eyes". Like other products of the company, M3GAN (Model 3 Generative Android) is meant to care for kids, both physically and emotionally, in their parents' absence but has not been properly tested. Gemma is saddled with the responsibility of her niece, Cady (Violet McGraw) whose parents died in a car accident. Conveniently for Gemma, for whom guardianship is strange and scary, Cady comes as a perfect subject for M3GAN. The little girl is paired with the robot as a primary user. M3GAN is naturally protective of Cady, and Gemma allows herself some work while the child is under the care of the robot. But what she did not anticipate was the strength and sentient mind of her own creation. To paraphrase that great chaotician, Ian Malcolm, she was so preoccupied with whether she could, she didn’t stop to think if she should. The consequences are gradually disastrous. M3GAN was programmed to protect Cady from each and everything she deems to be a threat to her ward, and she does not possess a sense of conscience or any other human qualities that may make her rethink her decisions. An excitable neighbourhood dog, a bully at school, potentially even Gemma — anyone endangering Cady or even raising her anxiety levels is a menace to be eliminated. Even when Gemma wants Cady to eat her vegetables, M3GAN looks at her with a frightening awareness that she will utilise later in the film. Universal's marketing campaign for M3GAN is a legend by now, though I took great care to steer clear of it (which involves muting related keywords on Twitter, and so on. I am nothing if not thorough). And turned out to be great. M3GAN should ideally be watched without learning anything about it. Due to my job, I had to see the trailer. But they were, thankfully, not too spoiler-ish. I managed to avoid posters, promo clips, interviews, and even reviews. M3GAN is a joy from start to finish, irrespective of your general opinion on creepy doll movies. For the titular doll is a thing of dark majesty, and a far cry from the mostly passive dolls in other horror media. The design is extremely careful and deliberate to evoke a sense of uncanny valley, instead of hyperrealism. M3GAN's eyes look shadowed and always seem to possess a devilish intelligence that is far beyond human capacity. The doll is frightening in a primal way, and way before it actually begins to wreak havoc. The throughlines are a bit pat and done better in other movies: dangers of AI, kids' relation to gadgets, and so on. But you will be hard pressed to notice any of that, M3GAN is so consistently entertaining. And despite all the horror, gore, and screams, M3GAN, the movie that is, remains winking and self-reverential. Even a couple of deaths are funny — never mind the clotting blood on the slit throat — and you will not even feel guilty for laughing. I cannot for the life of me understand what took Johnstone so long to direct a movie again. He has retained his keen sense of combining the winking humour and the macabre in a delicious, irresistible combination. Cooper's script is almost entirely without a weak spot. M3GAN is an unadulterated joy.

M3GAN movie review: This horror movie is a creepy, madcap delight

Every major video game movie, TV show in development: 'The Last of Us', 'Death Stranding', 'Borderlands'

<p>The Golden Globe Awards 2023 were given out on Tuesday morning in Beverly Hills, California. Informally known as the Globes, these awards are presented by HFPA (Hollywood Foreign Press Association), a nonprofit outfit made up of journalists and photographers on the entertainment beat in different media like newspapers, magazines, books, radio, and TV broadcasting mainly working on Hollywood movies and shows. Many movies and TV shows competed for the trophies. In films, Martin McDonagh's 'The Banshees of Inisherin' emerges as the big winner, garnering three trophies out of eight nominations. In television, Quinta Brunson's 'Abbott Elementary' was the winner, taking home five awards.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Also Read:<strong>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/live-coverage-golden-globe-awards-2023-follow-live-updates-here-551267">Golden Globe Awards 2023: 'RRR' creates history, 'The Banshees of Inisherin' the big winner</a></strong></p>

<p>The <strong><a href="https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/golden-globe-awards-2023-full-list-of-winners-551269">Golden Globe</a> </strong>ceremonies are considered more relaxed and informal than compared to its bigger cousin and more prestigious Oscars, which only award films. Hosted by comedian-actor Jerrod Carmichael, this ceremony came on the heels of numerous controversies that have plagued HFPA. And while the ceremony was fine (and controversy-free, for the most part), it felt too stretched.</p>

<p>Also Read:&nbsp;<strong><a href="https://www.wionews.com/photos/golden-globes-2023-meet-the-big-winners-of-the-night-551327/#steven-speilberg-best-director-551377">Golden Globes 2023: Meet the big winners of the night</a></strong></p>

<h1>Here are the best and worst moments at the Golden Globe Awards 2023:</h1>

<h2>Ke Huy Quan's victory speech</h2>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Our Golden Globe ✨ winner ✨ for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture, Ke Huy Quan! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GoldenGlobes?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GoldenGlobes</a> <a href="https://t.co/Ed5Y86H9Tr">pic.twitter.com/Ed5Y86H9Tr</a></p>
— Golden Globe Awards (@goldenglobes) <a href="https://twitter.com/goldenglobes/status/1612994394763792384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 11, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<p>There is something inherently adorable and nice about Ke Huy Quan, an actor who made a mother of all comebacks to acting with the Daniels multiversal adventure 'Everything Everywhere All at Once'. The actor, who first garnered attention by playing the role of Short Round in 1984's 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom', starred opposite a star like Michelle Yeoh, and yet managed to hold his own. He was judged the trophy for Best Supporting Actor. And here's what he said amid tears: “When I started my career as a child actor in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, I felt so very lucky to have been chosen. As I grew older, I started to wonder if that was it, if that was just luck. For so many years, I was afraid I had nothing more to offer, that no matter what I did, I would never surpass what I achieved as a kid. Thankfully, more than 30 years later, two guys thought of me, they remembered that kid, and they gave me an opportunity to try again.”</p>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">"You did it, baby!" Congrats on your win for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture, Ke Huy Quan! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GoldenGlobes?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GoldenGlobes</a> <a href="https://t.co/qkTbf4ketE">pic.twitter.com/qkTbf4ketE</a></p>
— Golden Globe Awards (@goldenglobes) <a href="https://twitter.com/goldenglobes/status/1613000826510770177?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 11, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<h2><strong><a href="https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/golden-globes-2023-big-win-for-india-rrr-wins-best-original-song-for-naatu-naatu-551290">MM Keeravani accepts the award for 'Naatu Naatu'</a></strong></h2>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">The winner for Best Song - Motion Picture is <a href="https://twitter.com/mmkeeravaani?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@mmkeeravaani</a> for their song "Naatu Naatu" featured in <a href="https://twitter.com/RRRMovie?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RRRMovie</a>! Congratulations! 🎥✨🎵 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GoldenGlobes?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GoldenGlobes</a> <a href="https://t.co/ENCUQEtns3">pic.twitter.com/ENCUQEtns3</a></p>
— Golden Globe Awards (@goldenglobes) <a href="https://twitter.com/goldenglobes/status/1613005687377854465?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 11, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<p>The legendary film composer MM Keeravani accepted the award for 'Naatu Naatu', the incredibly catch dance number from SS Rajamouli's 'RRR' that has become more popular than the film itself. Featuring the film's two main stars NT Rama Rao Jr and Ram Charan, the song was a favourite and went on to take the trophy. Keeravani's speech was to the point, in which he graciously acknowledged the contributions of lyricist Chandrabose and the dance performances of the actors.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Also Read:&nbsp;<strong><a href="https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/hollywood/news-golden-globe-awards-2023-snubs-and-surprises-551381">Golden Globe Awards 2023: Snubs and surprises</a></strong></p>

<h2>Colin Farrell's unexpected praise for Ana de Armas</h2>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Soak in the WIN! Congratulations to our winner for Best Actor - Motion Picture - Musical/Comedy, Colin Farrell! ✨😌<br />
<br />
Watch the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GoldenGlobes?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GoldenGlobes</a> LIVE on NBC and Peacock now! <a href="https://t.co/TDgxB9rPZy">pic.twitter.com/TDgxB9rPZy</a></p>
— Golden Globe Awards (@goldenglobes) <a href="https://twitter.com/goldenglobes/status/1613001777380483073?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 11, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<p>Colin Farrell, it turns out, is not a village dunce. Though he was eerily believable in 'The Banshees of Inisherin'. He was awarded the trophy in the Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy category. Even before he could thank his producers, directors, and castmates, he took the time to praise the presenter Ana de Armas' performance in 'Blonde'.</p>

<p>"I just thought you were extraordinary. I cried myself to sleep the night I saw your film, Blonde. I cried myself to sleep. One thing had to do with the music that played at the moment when the shot opens and just seeing her ankles at the edge of the bed. It messed me up so bad." When the audience began to laugh, he added, "Not a joke, but you're welcome to laugh. It's not my place to say what's appropriate laughter in this world."</p>

<h2><strong><a href="https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/golden-globe-awards-2023-ukraine-president-volodymyr-zelensky-gives-a-message-of-peace-read-full-speech-here-551345">Volodymyr Zelensky's appearance</a></strong></h2>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="ht">Sean Penn introduces Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GoldenGlobes2023?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GoldenGlobes2023</a> <a href="https://t.co/wpF3QlryIL">pic.twitter.com/wpF3QlryIL</a></p>
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) <a href="https://twitter.com/THR/status/1613014904822431744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 11, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<p>We can all laud Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky's courage as he leads his country during the unprovoked Russian invasion. But it must be admitted, it's all wearing thin — not least because of Zelensky's team's attempts to get him any award show platform they can get. Also, despite Zelensky's background as a comedian and actor, his appearance at the Globes felt out of place. "There will be no World War III arising out from the conflict. It is not a trilogy. Ukraine will stop the Russian aggression on our land," Zelensky said in the speech.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>Jokes at the expense of Will Smith</h2>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EddieMurphy?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#EddieMurphy</a> just made a Will Smith joke during his acceptance speech at the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GoldenGlobes2023?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GoldenGlobes2023</a><br />
<br />
Legend!<a href="https://t.co/2WfWKQwoBm">pic.twitter.com/2WfWKQwoBm</a></p>
— Abhimanyu Mathur (@MadCrazyHatter_) <a href="https://twitter.com/MadCrazyHatter_/status/1613037862806773760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 11, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<p>It can be said that what Will Smith did at the 2022 Oscars was awful (the <strong><a href="https://www.wionews.com/videos/will-smith-chris-rock-slapping-incident-will-smith-reveals-how-floyd-mayweather-supported-him-549045">slap</a></strong>, remember?), but jokes on him by Carmichael and Eddie Murphy (who was bestowed with a lifetime achievement award) were a year too late. Will Smith has been banned for 10 years by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, gents, and the world has moved on.</p>

<p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="350" loading="”lazy”" src="https://www.wionews.com/live-tv/embed?autoplay=1&amp;mute=1" width="100%"></iframe></p>


The Golden Globe Awards 2023 were given out on Tuesday morning in Beverly Hills, California. Informally known as the Globes, these awards are presented by HFPA (Hollywood Foreign Press Association), a nonprofit outfit made up of journalists and photographers on the entertainment beat in different media like newspapers, magazines, books, radio, and TV broadcasting mainly working on Hollywood movies and shows.

The Golden Globe Awards 2023 were given out on Tuesday morning in Beverly Hills, California. Informally known as the Globes, these awards are presented by HFPA (Hollywood Foreign Press Association), a nonprofit outfit made up of journalists and photographers on the entertainment beat in different media like newspapers, magazines, books, radio, and TV broadcasting mainly working on Hollywood movies and shows. Many movies and TV shows competed for the trophies. In films, Martin McDonagh's 'The Banshees of Inisherin' emerges as the big winner, garnering three trophies out of eight nominations. In television, Quinta Brunson's 'Abbott Elementary' was the winner, taking home five awards. Also Read: Golden Globe Awards 2023: 'RRR' creates history, 'The Banshees of Inisherin' the big winner The Golden Globe ceremonies are considered more relaxed and informal than compared to its bigger cousin and more prestigious Oscars, which only award films. Hosted by comedian-actor Jerrod Carmichael, this ceremony came on the heels of numerous controversies that have plagued HFPA. And while the ceremony was fine (and controversy-free, for the most part), it felt too stretched. Also Read: Golden Globes 2023: Meet the big winners of the night Here are the best and worst moments at the Golden Globe Awards 2023: Ke Huy Quan's victory speech Our Golden Globe ✨ winner ✨ for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture, Ke Huy Quan! #GoldenGlobes pic.twitter.com/Ed5Y86H9Tr — Golden Globe Awards (@goldenglobes) January 11, 2023 There is something inherently adorable and nice about Ke Huy Quan, an actor who made a mother of all comebacks to acting with the Daniels multiversal adventure 'Everything Everywhere All at Once'. The actor, who first garnered attention by playing the role of Short Round in 1984's 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom', starred opposite a star like Michelle Yeoh, and yet managed to hold his own. He was judged the trophy for Best Supporting Actor. And here's what he said amid tears: “When I started my career as a child actor in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, I felt so very lucky to have been chosen. As I grew older, I started to wonder if that was it, if that was just luck. For so many years, I was afraid I had nothing more to offer, that no matter what I did, I would never surpass what I achieved as a kid. Thankfully, more than 30 years later, two guys thought of me, they remembered that kid, and they gave me an opportunity to try again.” "You did it, baby!" Congrats on your win for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture, Ke Huy Quan! #GoldenGlobes pic.twitter.com/qkTbf4ketE — Golden Globe Awards (@goldenglobes) January 11, 2023 MM Keeravani accepts the award for 'Naatu Naatu' The winner for Best Song - Motion Picture is @mmkeeravaani for their song "Naatu Naatu" featured in @RRRMovie! Congratulations! 🎥✨🎵 #GoldenGlobes pic.twitter.com/ENCUQEtns3 — Golden Globe Awards (@goldenglobes) January 11, 2023 The legendary film composer MM Keeravani accepted the award for 'Naatu Naatu', the incredibly catch dance number from SS Rajamouli's 'RRR' that has become more popular than the film itself. Featuring the film's two main stars NT Rama Rao Jr and Ram Charan, the song was a favourite and went on to take the trophy. Keeravani's speech was to the point, in which he graciously acknowledged the contributions of lyricist Chandrabose and the dance performances of the actors. Also Read: Golden Globe Awards 2023: Snubs and surprises Colin Farrell's unexpected praise for Ana de Armas Soak in the WIN! Congratulations to our winner for Best Actor - Motion Picture - Musical/Comedy, Colin Farrell! ✨😌 Watch the #GoldenGlobes LIVE on NBC and Peacock now! pic.twitter.com/TDgxB9rPZy — Golden Globe Awards (@goldenglobes) January 11, 2023 Colin Farrell, it turns out, is not a village dunce. Though he was eerily believable in 'The Banshees of Inisherin'. He was awarded the trophy in the Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy category. Even before he could thank his producers, directors, and castmates, he took the time to praise the presenter Ana de Armas' performance in 'Blonde'. "I just thought you were extraordinary. I cried myself to sleep the night I saw your film, Blonde. I cried myself to sleep. One thing had to do with the music that played at the moment when the shot opens and just seeing her ankles at the edge of the bed. It messed me up so bad." When the audience began to laugh, he added, "Not a joke, but you're welcome to laugh. It's not my place to say what's appropriate laughter in this world." Volodymyr Zelensky's appearance Sean Penn introduces Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the #GoldenGlobes2023 pic.twitter.com/wpF3QlryIL — The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) January 11, 2023 We can all laud Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky's courage as he leads his country during the unprovoked Russian invasion. But it must be admitted, it's all wearing thin — not least because of Zelensky's team's attempts to get him any award show platform they can get. Also, despite Zelensky's background as a comedian and actor, his appearance at the Globes felt out of place. "There will be no World War III arising out from the conflict. It is not a trilogy. Ukraine will stop the Russian aggression on our land," Zelensky said in the speech. Jokes at the expense of Will Smith #EddieMurphy just made a Will Smith joke during his acceptance speech at the #GoldenGlobes2023 Legend!pic.twitter.com/2WfWKQwoBm — Abhimanyu Mathur (@MadCrazyHatter_) January 11, 2023 It can be said that what Will Smith did at the 2022 Oscars was awful (the slap, remember?), but jokes on him by Carmichael and Eddie Murphy (who was bestowed with a lifetime achievement award) were a year too late. Will Smith has been banned for 10 years by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, gents, and the world has moved on.

Golden Globe Awards 2023: Best and worst moments

<p>The <strong><a href="https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/live-coverage-golden-globe-awards-2023-follow-live-updates-here-551267Golden Globe Awards 2023: As it happened">80th Golden Globe Awards</a></strong> honoured the best in film and television on Tuesday evening. The awards are handed out by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA). Going on into the ceremony, Martin McDonagh's 'The Banshees of Inisherin', a dark comedy about the breaking of a friendship, led with eight nominations. In the television side, 'Abbott Elementary' was the favourite with five nods. But the competition in every single category was fierce. Just like every year, this year's Golden Globes did not satisfy everybody. There were significant misses and even a few happy surprises. Here are snubs and surprises in Golden Globe Awards 2023:&nbsp;</p>

<p>Also Read:&nbsp;<strong><a href="https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/golden-globe-awards-2023-full-list-of-winners-551269">Golden Globe Awards 2023: Full List of Winners</a></strong></p>

<h2><strong><a href="https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/golden-globes-2023-big-win-for-india-rrr-wins-best-original-song-for-naatu-naatu-551290">'Naatu Naatu' (Surprise)</a></strong></h2>

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">And the GOLDEN GLOBE AWARD FOR BEST ORIGINAL SONG Goes to <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NaatuNaatu?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NaatuNaatu</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GoldenGlobes?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GoldenGlobes</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GoldenGlobes2023?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GoldenGlobes2023</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RRRMovie?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#RRRMovie</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://t.co/CGnzbRfEPk">pic.twitter.com/CGnzbRfEPk</a></p>
— RRR Movie (@RRRMovie) <a href="https://twitter.com/RRRMovie/status/1612989220045611008?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 11, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="#" id="jqclosemark">×</a></div>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>&nbsp;A truly amazingly choreographed song with a catchy tune, it has captured the imagination of millions around the world. It may even be the best-known thing about the film. There are few other songs in the category that stand a chance against 'Naatu Naatu'. Yes, the song was one of the favourites in the category, but it still had to beat songs involving internationally-renowned artists such as Taylor Swift, Rihanna, and Alexandre Desplat. And, happily, it did! But it should have won in the other category too.</p>

<h2>'RRR' (Snub)</h2>

<p>There is no question as to the Argentine historical drama 'Argentina, 1985' is a superb movie. So was the German anti-war movie 'All Quiet on the Western Front', Park Chan-wook's 'Decision to Leave', but 'RRR' probably deserved that trophy for being such an unapologetically over-the-top and astounding experience.</p>

<h2><strong><a href="https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/hollywood/news-how-better-call-saul-outdid-breaking-bad-508671">'Better Call Saul' (snub)</a></strong></h2>

<p>A spinoff prequel and occasionally, and ultimately, a sequel, Better Call Saul' did to Bob Odenkirk's slimy, fast-talking lawyer what 'Breaking Bad' had done to Bryan Cranston's high school Chemistry teacher-turned-drug-kingpin: tell a painstakingly plotted, dramatic and compelling origin story of a character. The two shows had common writers, much of the crew, and many cast members, and there were a few thematic similarities, but the two shows were fairly distinct. The show ended with a whimper that was somehow as effective as a bang, a quietly devastating finale that was both sparingly and exceedingly well-written. A satisfying end to one of the greatest shows ever. It is a shame then that the show was overlooked in both the nominated categories: Best Television Series (Drama) and Best Performance in a Television Series – Drama (Actor).&nbsp;</p>

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Enjoy every second of it, Martin McDonagh. Congratulations on your 👏 WIN 👏 for Best Screenplay - Motion Picture for the film <a href="https://twitter.com/Banshees_Movie?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@banshees_movie</a>! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GoldenGlobes?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GoldenGlobes</a> <a href="https://t.co/PMrNx62RxE">pic.twitter.com/PMrNx62RxE</a></p>
— Golden Globe Awards (@goldenglobes) <a href="https://twitter.com/goldenglobes/status/1613013647449821184?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 11, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="#" id="jqclosemark">×</a></div>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<h2>'Everything Everywhere All at Once' (snub)</h2>

<p>The Daniels' uber-fun, fast-paced multiversal adventure 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' did win two trophies. But it probably deserved this particular award (Best Television Series — Musical or Comedy) more than 'The Banshees of Inisherin', which should have writer-director Martin McDonagh a Best Director trophy instead. ‘Everything…’ riffed on everything from ‘The Matrix’ to ‘Ratatouille’ to Hong Kong martial arts movies, and yet felt fresh and inventive. And insane, bizarre, brilliant, and endlessly clever. The English language will run out of adjectives before ‘Everything…’ can be described in a fitting manner.</p>

<p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="350" loading="”lazy”" src="https://www.wionews.com/live-tv/embed?autoplay=1&amp;mute=1" width="100%"></iframe></p>


The 80th Golden Globe Awards honoured the best in film and television on Tuesday evening. The awards are handed out by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA).

The 80th Golden Globe Awards honoured the best in film and television on Tuesday evening. The awards are handed out by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA). Going on into the ceremony, Martin McDonagh's 'The Banshees of Inisherin', a dark comedy about the breaking of a friendship, led with eight nominations. In the television side, 'Abbott Elementary' was the favourite with five nods. But the competition in every single category was fierce. Just like every year, this year's Golden Globes did not satisfy everybody. There were significant misses and even a few happy surprises. Here are snubs and surprises in Golden Globe Awards 2023: Also Read: Golden Globe Awards 2023: Full List of Winners 'Naatu Naatu' (Surprise) And the GOLDEN GLOBE AWARD FOR BEST ORIGINAL SONG Goes to #NaatuNaatu #GoldenGlobes #GoldenGlobes2023 #RRRMovie pic.twitter.com/CGnzbRfEPk — RRR Movie (@RRRMovie) January 11, 2023 × A truly amazingly choreographed song with a catchy tune, it has captured the imagination of millions around the world. It may even be the best-known thing about the film. There are few other songs in the category that stand a chance against 'Naatu Naatu'. Yes, the song was one of the favourites in the category, but it still had to beat songs involving internationally-renowned artists such as Taylor Swift, Rihanna, and Alexandre Desplat. And, happily, it did! But it should have won in the other category too. 'RRR' (Snub) There is no question as to the Argentine historical drama 'Argentina, 1985' is a superb movie. So was the German anti-war movie 'All Quiet on the Western Front', Park Chan-wook's 'Decision to Leave', but 'RRR' probably deserved that trophy for being such an unapologetically over-the-top and astounding experience. 'Better Call Saul' (snub) A spinoff prequel and occasionally, and ultimately, a sequel, Better Call Saul' did to Bob Odenkirk's slimy, fast-talking lawyer what 'Breaking Bad' had done to Bryan Cranston's high school Chemistry teacher-turned-drug-kingpin: tell a painstakingly plotted, dramatic and compelling origin story of a character. The two shows had common writers, much of the crew, and many cast members, and there were a few thematic similarities, but the two shows were fairly distinct. The show ended with a whimper that was somehow as effective as a bang, a quietly devastating finale that was both sparingly and exceedingly well-written. A satisfying end to one of the greatest shows ever. It is a shame then that the show was overlooked in both the nominated categories: Best Television Series (Drama) and Best Performance in a Television Series – Drama (Actor). Enjoy every second of it, Martin McDonagh. Congratulations on your 👏 WIN 👏 for Best Screenplay - Motion Picture for the film @banshees_movie! #GoldenGlobes pic.twitter.com/PMrNx62RxE — Golden Globe Awards (@goldenglobes) January 11, 2023 × 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' (snub) The Daniels' uber-fun, fast-paced multiversal adventure 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' did win two trophies. But it probably deserved this particular award (Best Television Series — Musical or Comedy) more than 'The Banshees of Inisherin', which should have writer-director Martin McDonagh a Best Director trophy instead. ‘Everything…’ riffed on everything from ‘The Matrix’ to ‘Ratatouille’ to Hong Kong martial arts movies, and yet felt fresh and inventive. And insane, bizarre, brilliant, and endlessly clever. The English language will run out of adjectives before ‘Everything…’ can be described in a fitting manner.

Golden Globe Awards 2023: Snubs and surprises

<p>Every year, the <strong><a href="https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/golden-globe-awards-2023-date-time-how-to-watch-live-streaming-nomination-list-host-and-venue-details-550644">Golden Globe Awards</a></strong> are given out to honour the best in film and television. This year, Martin McDonagh's 'The Banshees of Inisherin', a dark comedy about the breaking of a friendship, leads with eight nominations. This is the most nods by any film since 2004's 'Cold Mountain'. Multiversal adventure 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' is the runner-up with six nods. 'Babylon' and 'The Fablemans' follow with five nominations. On the television side, 'Abbott Elementary' is leading with 5 nominations. 'The Crown', 'Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story', 'Only Murders in the Building', 'Pam &amp; Tommy', &nbsp;and 'The White Lotus', each have 4 nods. India's 'RRR' has also <strong><a href="https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/rrr-at-golden-globes-2023-will-ss-rajamoulis-epic-film-score-a-trophy-548307">scored two nods </a></strong>in the Best Original Song and&nbsp;Best Non-English Language Film categories.</p>

<p>Also Read:&nbsp;<strong><a href="https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/golden-globes-return-after-hollywood-boycott-550397">Golden Globes return after Hollywood boycott</a></strong></p>

<p>These awards, unlike the more sober Academy Awards or Oscars, are considered less serious, but not necessarily less prestigious. Instead, the Golden Globe Awards are deemed less serious and more relaxed. While the lists of nominees and winners are released publicly every year. How those films, TV shows, actors, actresses, writers, and so on are chosen is more obscure. That is in stark contrast to the Oscars, which nearly everybody knows, are chosen by an elected jury.</p>

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/exclusive-shekhar-kapur-talks-about-whats-going-wrong-with-bollywood-531104/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

<p>Here is a brief explainer on everything that goes behind the scenes of the Golden Globe Awards and how nominees and winners are decided.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>HFPA explained — the shady organisation behind the Golden Globes</h2>

<p>HFPA or Hollywood Foreign Press Association is the organisation behind the awards. HFPA is a nonprofit outfit made up of journalists and photographers on the entertainment beat in different media like newspapers, magazines, books, radio, and TV broadcasting in the United States. As the word 'foreign' implies, most of the members of HFPA are&nbsp;non-US citizens. At the time of writing this, HFPA consists of 105 members from 55 countries.</p>

<p>Also Read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/hollywood/news-golden-globe-awards-2023-full-list-of-nominations-542343">Golden Globe Awards 2023: Full list of nominations</a></p>

<p>You would think with journalists from so many countries, HFPA is likely a pretty diverse organisation. But for a long time, accusations of racism, coteries blocking the entry of journos outside the 'circle', bribery from studios in exchange for awards, and lack of transparency have stalked HFPA. It all came to a boil after a Los Angeles Times expose from February 2021, a week before the Golden Globes of that year was broadcast, detailed these accusations, focussing on a lack of transparency and diversity. The organisation then had 87 members, the report noted, and there were people of colour, but not a single black person.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/wion-fineprint-male-hollywood-stars-their-own-introduce-beauty-lines-550817/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

<p>The LA Times report also quoted former HFPA president Philip Berk. ”Territorial protectionism” in the organisation was “carried to the extreme”, Berk had admitted in the book.</p>

<p>Berk, incidentally, was accused by actor Brendan Fraser, currently enjoying a lease of life for his career, of groping him in 2003. HFPA had reportedly conducted an internal investigation, finding out that Berk meant no harm. Er...</p>

<h2>So HFPA chooses nominations and winners?</h2>

<p>Essentially, yes. Each member of the organisation is sent a ballot and a list of films sent by the studios that are eligible. The eligibility requires movies being released in the US during the duration the awards will be handed out. The members rank the film from 1 to 5. Accounting firm Ernst &amp; Young tallies the ballots similar to the Oscars (in which PricewaterhouseCoopers does the same job). Both Ernst &amp; Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) are one of the big 4 accounting firms. This is how the nominees are decided.</p>

<p>Also Read:&nbsp;<strong><a href="https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/hollywood/news-golden-globes-2023-prediction-who-will-win-in-comedy-or-musical-categories-550837">Golden Globes Awards 2023 prediction: Who will win in Comedy or Musical categories?</a></strong></p>

<h2>How does HFPA decide winners?</h2>

<p>Once the nominations are in, the process becomes simpler. HFPA members are shown films in screenings throughout the year. Members vote for their favourite films privately.</p>

<h2>How do Golden Globes differ from the Oscars?</h2>

<p>The Oscars are given out by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (often shortened to just the Academy). The ever-changing membership of the Academy hovers around 8000-9000 (which is way more than the Globes). Also, unlike the Globes, which are essentially bestowed by journalists of HFPA, the Academy consists of people actively involved in the film industry: directors, writers, actors, editors, production designers, cinematographers, and so on.</p>

<h2>Where to watch Golden Globe Awards 2022?</h2>

<p>In the US, the Golden Globes will be telecast live on NBC at 8:00 PM ET on Tuesday. The network will also stream the awards live on the streaming service Peacock. In India, the awards will be streamed live on <strong><a href="https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/hollywood/news-golden-globes-awards-2023-to-stream-on-lionsgate-play-in-india-549464">Lionsgate Play </a></strong>from 6:30 am on Wednesday.<br />
&nbsp;</p>


Every year, the Golden Globe Awards are given out to honour the best in film and television. This year, Martin McDonagh's 'The Banshees of Inisherin', a dark comedy about the breaking of a friendship, leads with eight nominations.

Every year, the Golden Globe Awards are given out to honour the best in film and television. This year, Martin McDonagh's 'The Banshees of Inisherin', a dark comedy about the breaking of a friendship, leads with eight nominations. This is the most nods by any film since 2004's 'Cold Mountain'. Multiversal adventure 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' is the runner-up with six nods. 'Babylon' and 'The Fablemans' follow with five nominations. On the television side, 'Abbott Elementary' is leading with 5 nominations. 'The Crown', 'Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story', 'Only Murders in the Building', 'Pam & Tommy', and 'The White Lotus', each have 4 nods. India's 'RRR' has also scored two nods in the Best Original Song and Best Non-English Language Film categories. Also Read: Golden Globes return after Hollywood boycott These awards, unlike the more sober Academy Awards or Oscars, are considered less serious, but not necessarily less prestigious. Instead, the Golden Globe Awards are deemed less serious and more relaxed. While the lists of nominees and winners are released publicly every year. How those films, TV shows, actors, actresses, writers, and so on are chosen is more obscure. That is in stark contrast to the Oscars, which nearly everybody knows, are chosen by an elected jury. Here is a brief explainer on everything that goes behind the scenes of the Golden Globe Awards and how nominees and winners are decided. HFPA explained — the shady organisation behind the Golden Globes HFPA or Hollywood Foreign Press Association is the organisation behind the awards. HFPA is a nonprofit outfit made up of journalists and photographers on the entertainment beat in different media like newspapers, magazines, books, radio, and TV broadcasting in the United States. As the word 'foreign' implies, most of the members of HFPA are non-US citizens. At the time of writing this, HFPA consists of 105 members from 55 countries. Also Read: Golden Globe Awards 2023: Full list of nominations You would think with journalists from so many countries, HFPA is likely a pretty diverse organisation. But for a long time, accusations of racism, coteries blocking the entry of journos outside the 'circle', bribery from studios in exchange for awards, and lack of transparency have stalked HFPA. It all came to a boil after a Los Angeles Times expose from February 2021, a week before the Golden Globes of that year was broadcast, detailed these accusations, focussing on a lack of transparency and diversity. The organisation then had 87 members, the report noted, and there were people of colour, but not a single black person. The LA Times report also quoted former HFPA president Philip Berk. ”Territorial protectionism” in the organisation was “carried to the extreme”, Berk had admitted in the book. Berk, incidentally, was accused by actor Brendan Fraser, currently enjoying a lease of life for his career, of groping him in 2003. HFPA had reportedly conducted an internal investigation, finding out that Berk meant no harm. Er... So HFPA chooses nominations and winners? Essentially, yes. Each member of the organisation is sent a ballot and a list of films sent by the studios that are eligible. The eligibility requires movies being released in the US during the duration the awards will be handed out. The members rank the film from 1 to 5. Accounting firm Ernst & Young tallies the ballots similar to the Oscars (in which PricewaterhouseCoopers does the same job). Both Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) are one of the big 4 accounting firms. This is how the nominees are decided. Also Read: Golden Globes Awards 2023 prediction: Who will win in Comedy or Musical categories? How does HFPA decide winners? Once the nominations are in, the process becomes simpler. HFPA members are shown films in screenings throughout the year. Members vote for their favourite films privately. How do Golden Globes differ from the Oscars? The Oscars are given out by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (often shortened to just the Academy). The ever-changing membership of the Academy hovers around 8000-9000 (which is way more than the Globes). Also, unlike the Globes, which are essentially bestowed by journalists of HFPA, the Academy consists of people actively involved in the film industry: directors, writers, actors, editors, production designers, cinematographers, and so on. Where to watch Golden Globe Awards 2022? In the US, the Golden Globes will be telecast live on NBC at 8:00 PM ET on Tuesday. The network will also stream the awards live on the streaming service Peacock. In India, the awards will be streamed live on Lionsgate Play from 6:30 am on Wednesday.

Explained: How Golden Globe Awards winners are chosen

<p><strong>'The Pale Blue Eye' movie review:</strong> It's 1830s America. The corpse of a cadet at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York has been found hanged, and later at the mortuary its heart is ripped out with the precision of a surgeon. The military summons Christian Bale's veteran detective Augustus Landor to solve the crime. Also at the academy as a cadet is Harry Melling's young Edgar Allan Poe—the future literary maven. His way with words may come in handy with the mysterious half-torn note found clutched in the hands of the cadet. And before you ask, no, all this is fiction, and the events of this film did not happen.&nbsp;</p>

<p>This story fictionalises Poe's actual years as a cadet. Though a dreamy-eyed individual, the lad appears to be intelligent and perceptive and becomes an unofficial, clandestine Dr Watson to Landor's Sherlock. Soon enough, another cadet is found brutally murdered in the nearby woods, his heart too carved out from his chest—though, this time the procedure appears cruder.</p>

<p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/J7tpfLV4-TQ" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></p>

<p>Not only are murders tragic enough on their own for the community, the act of the said blood-pumping organs being ripped out hints at arcane, Satanic occult rituals. It may not be just a murderer with quotidian motives like greed or jealousy, but perhaps something much darker, like an occultist sacrificing cadets to Satan for some nefarious, un-Christian purpose. Unless somebody has a desperate case of heart fetish, that is.</p>

<p>It's a classic setup. A world-weary, brooding detective is called in to solve a case that confounds him like no other. The setting is&nbsp;cosy&nbsp;in a wintry way, with&nbsp;snow-blanketed environs. Japanese cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi manages to evoke a stunning sense of place. In such mysteries, the elements are one of the characters, and Cooper and Takayanagi recognise that.</p>

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/critically-speaking-is-avatar-the-way-of-water-worth-the-hype-543816/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

<p>The only out-there thing about it is Poe himself. Brilliantly cast (and styled, the hair is exactly right), the wide-eyed, awkward, and earnest Poe may have secrets of his own pertaining to the murders. And those secrets create a rift between Landor and Poe. Will Poe end up being the one Landor is searching for?</p>

<p>I cannot in good conscience say that it wasn't nice to see Melling portraying Poe, but apart from a couple of Easter eggs related to the author's works, it could have been any young man with a literary bent. It wouldn't have changed naught else in the story.&nbsp;</p>

<p>That said, he does play off brilliantly well against each other, Poe and Landor. While one is a romantic, the other is hard-edged and cynical. One cannot get enough books, the other wants to have nothing to do with them. Even in the murders, the interpretation of the heart being ripped out is taken to be by Poe as an act of romance, a twisted kind of love, which amuses Landor. The performances by Bale and Melling are excellent, particularly the latter, who delivers the best work of his career. I would watch the hell out of a buddy movie or even series involving these two actors playing these very characters, solving crimes across the United States.</p>

<p>The mystery's resolution appears predictable until you find out half an hour is still to go and the movie reveals a twist teased throughout the movie. From the very first still, even. It's smart and well done and features one of the best one-on-one scenes I've had the pleasure to watch in a while. Well-written and acted. Toby Jones, Timothy Spall, and Gillian Anderson also appear in supporting but solid roles.</p>

<p>Love mysteries and do not mind a bit of occult thrown in? 'The Pale Blue Eye' is for you.</p>

<p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="350" loading="”lazy”" src="https://www.wionews.com/live-tv/embed?autoplay=1&amp;mute=1" width="100%"></iframe></p>


'The Pale Blue Eye' movie review: It's 1830s America. The corpse of a cadet at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York has been found hanged, and later at the mortuary its heart is ripped out with the precision of a surgeon.

'The Pale Blue Eye' movie review: It's 1830s America. The corpse of a cadet at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York has been found hanged, and later at the mortuary its heart is ripped out with the precision of a surgeon. The military summons Christian Bale's veteran detective Augustus Landor to solve the crime. Also at the academy as a cadet is Harry Melling's young Edgar Allan Poe—the future literary maven. His way with words may come in handy with the mysterious half-torn note found clutched in the hands of the cadet. And before you ask, no, all this is fiction, and the events of this film did not happen. This story fictionalises Poe's actual years as a cadet. Though a dreamy-eyed individual, the lad appears to be intelligent and perceptive and becomes an unofficial, clandestine Dr Watson to Landor's Sherlock. Soon enough, another cadet is found brutally murdered in the nearby woods, his heart too carved out from his chest—though, this time the procedure appears cruder. Not only are murders tragic enough on their own for the community, the act of the said blood-pumping organs being ripped out hints at arcane, Satanic occult rituals. It may not be just a murderer with quotidian motives like greed or jealousy, but perhaps something much darker, like an occultist sacrificing cadets to Satan for some nefarious, un-Christian purpose. Unless somebody has a desperate case of heart fetish, that is. It's a classic setup. A world-weary, brooding detective is called in to solve a case that confounds him like no other. The setting is cosy in a wintry way, with snow-blanketed environs. Japanese cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi manages to evoke a stunning sense of place. In such mysteries, the elements are one of the characters, and Cooper and Takayanagi recognise that. The only out-there thing about it is Poe himself. Brilliantly cast (and styled, the hair is exactly right), the wide-eyed, awkward, and earnest Poe may have secrets of his own pertaining to the murders. And those secrets create a rift between Landor and Poe. Will Poe end up being the one Landor is searching for? I cannot in good conscience say that it wasn't nice to see Melling portraying Poe, but apart from a couple of Easter eggs related to the author's works, it could have been any young man with a literary bent. It wouldn't have changed naught else in the story. That said, he does play off brilliantly well against each other, Poe and Landor. While one is a romantic, the other is hard-edged and cynical. One cannot get enough books, the other wants to have nothing to do with them. Even in the murders, the interpretation of the heart being ripped out is taken to be by Poe as an act of romance, a twisted kind of love, which amuses Landor. The performances by Bale and Melling are excellent, particularly the latter, who delivers the best work of his career. I would watch the hell out of a buddy movie or even series involving these two actors playing these very characters, solving crimes across the United States. The mystery's resolution appears predictable until you find out half an hour is still to go and the movie reveals a twist teased throughout the movie. From the very first still, even. It's smart and well done and features one of the best one-on-one scenes I've had the pleasure to watch in a while. Well-written and acted. Toby Jones, Timothy Spall, and Gillian Anderson also appear in supporting but solid roles. Love mysteries and do not mind a bit of occult thrown in? 'The Pale Blue Eye' is for you.

'The Pale Blue Eye' movie review: Christian Bale, Harry Melling are top-notch in this atmospheric mystery

<p>The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney, is going to <strong><a href="https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/hollywood/news-disney-to-lose-rights-to-mickey-mouse-as-the-character-enters-public-domain-but-theres-a-caveat-547569">lose its marquee character Mickey Mouse</a></strong> at the end of this year. As per the US copyright law, the rights to characters expire 95 years after publication (for works published or registered before 1978). However, don't expect writers or directors and rival studios to cash in on the opportunity to make their own Mickey Mouse movies and shows as only the 'Steamboat Willie' version of the character will go out of copyright. 'Steamboat Willie', in case you don't know, was a 1928 animated short that marked the first appearance of Mickey. It was quite different from the wholesome and lovable anthropomorphic rodent we know him as today.</p>

<p>The more modern Mickey Mouse, the cuddly mouse with red shorts and rounded features, is still under the grubby paws of Disney. While it still must be a fairly big loss, I doubt anybody at the House of Mouse is shedding a lot of tears. The media and entertainment conglomerate possesses some of the biggest and most profitable franchises in the world. The list includes the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean, Pixar movies, 'Avatar', countless animated classics like 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' and 'The Lion King', Indiana Jones, and many more.&nbsp;</p>

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/disney-will-soon-lose-copyright-to-mickey-mouse-547704/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

<p>The truth is, the execs at Disney could not care less at the loss of Mickey Mouse, particularly the less pleasant version of the character. But the reason it has taken 95 years for 'Steamboat Willie' Mickey Mouse to go out of Disney's stables makes for an interesting and a little unsettling story.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>How Disney affected US copyright laws</h2>

<p>The first federal copyright law in the US came into existence in 1790. It guaranteed "fourteen years from the time of recording the title thereof", with a provision for renewal for 14 more years if the author survived. The law was about books, maps, and charts, and excluded music and paintings. They were included in the future. By the time Disney, founded by Walt and Roy O. Disney, came into existence in 1923 as Disney Brothers Studio (it later underwent two name changes and was called Walt Disney Studio and Walt Disney Productions at different points in time), the amendments in the copyright law (the latest was in 1909) allowed 56 years of protection of published works. This included the initial 28 years and an option to renew for 28 more years.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Also Read:&nbsp;<strong><a href="https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/hollywood/news-why-disney-could-lose-the-rights-to-mickey-mouse-494564">Why Disney could lose the rights to Mickey Mouse</a></strong></p>

<p>As per this, 'Steamboat Willie' should have gone out of copyright in 1984, sending the character to the dreaded (by Disney, anyway) public domain. But Disney began to make serious efforts with Congress (also called lobbying) to further amend the law and extend the expiration duration. It did make a sort of sense, as there had been no changes in the law since 1909. The world, on the other hand, had changed radically, including the wider prevalence of new forms of media like film, TV, and radio.</p>

<p>The Walt Disney Company's efforts paid off when Congress enacted the Copyright Act of 1976. It allowed published works to be under copyright for the whole life of the author plus half a century more, or 75 years if the said work was owned by corporations. Mickey Mouse was now protected until 2003.&nbsp;</p>

<p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BBgghnQF6E4" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></p>

<h2>So why did 'Steamboat Willie' not enter the public domain in 2003?</h2>

<p>For the simple reason that Disney was still loathe to let go of its first animated film. Emotional value and so on. Who am I kidding, this was more likely a case of a corporation wanting to squeeze the last ounce of profit from an 80-year-old film. So as 2003 came closer Disney, again, lobbied for Congress to further extend the copyright expiration date. The efforts again bore fruit. And thus, in 1998, Congress enacted the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998. Derisively called 'The Mickey Mouse Protection Act', it retained the copyright to the author's lifetime and added 70 years. For works of corporate authorship, like with Disney, the act allowed 95 years from the work's original publication or 120 years from the creation, whichever expires first.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>Will Disney again lobby to impede the expiration of 'Steamboat Willie''s copyright?</h2>

<p>Unlikely. As said above, Disney is in charge of by far the biggest collection of pop culture franchises in the world. It only became bigger with its acquisition of 20th Century Fox. The future in which Disney pretty much owns everything you watch on the telly or in theatres is not as unlikely as it looks any longer. Disney is like a mythical monster like the Greek Hydra or the African Kammapa, which gobbles every IP it can get, and grows ever larger. The company may have an image of a provider of cute, cuddly content but the reality is much darker.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Disney does not need 'Steamboat Willie' or even Winnie the Pooh (AA Milne's 1926 stories set in the Hundred Acre Wood went out of copyright in 2021). It has absolute command over the box office with the MCU movies, almost every one of which grosses close to $1 billion even in the pandemic-affected times. It owns the 'Avatar' franchise, each film of which will likely gross $2 billion, and the fifth and final film may cross that incredible $3 billion mark.</p>

<p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="350" loading="”lazy”" src="https://www.wionews.com/live-tv/embed?autoplay=1&amp;mute=1" width="100%"></iframe></p>


The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney, is going to lose its marquee character Mickey Mouse at the end of this year. As per the US copyright law, the rights to characters expire 95 years after publication (for works published or registered before 1978).

The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney, is going to lose its marquee character Mickey Mouse at the end of this year. As per the US copyright law, the rights to characters expire 95 years after publication (for works published or registered before 1978). However, don't expect writers or directors and rival studios to cash in on the opportunity to make their own Mickey Mouse movies and shows as only the 'Steamboat Willie' version of the character will go out of copyright. 'Steamboat Willie', in case you don't know, was a 1928 animated short that marked the first appearance of Mickey. It was quite different from the wholesome and lovable anthropomorphic rodent we know him as today. The more modern Mickey Mouse, the cuddly mouse with red shorts and rounded features, is still under the grubby paws of Disney. While it still must be a fairly big loss, I doubt anybody at the House of Mouse is shedding a lot of tears. The media and entertainment conglomerate possesses some of the biggest and most profitable franchises in the world. The list includes the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean, Pixar movies, 'Avatar', countless animated classics like 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' and 'The Lion King', Indiana Jones, and many more. The truth is, the execs at Disney could not care less at the loss of Mickey Mouse, particularly the less pleasant version of the character. But the reason it has taken 95 years for 'Steamboat Willie' Mickey Mouse to go out of Disney's stables makes for an interesting and a little unsettling story. How Disney affected US copyright laws The first federal copyright law in the US came into existence in 1790. It guaranteed "fourteen years from the time of recording the title thereof", with a provision for renewal for 14 more years if the author survived. The law was about books, maps, and charts, and excluded music and paintings. They were included in the future. By the time Disney, founded by Walt and Roy O. Disney, came into existence in 1923 as Disney Brothers Studio (it later underwent two name changes and was called Walt Disney Studio and Walt Disney Productions at different points in time), the amendments in the copyright law (the latest was in 1909) allowed 56 years of protection of published works. This included the initial 28 years and an option to renew for 28 more years. Also Read: Why Disney could lose the rights to Mickey Mouse As per this, 'Steamboat Willie' should have gone out of copyright in 1984, sending the character to the dreaded (by Disney, anyway) public domain. But Disney began to make serious efforts with Congress (also called lobbying) to further amend the law and extend the expiration duration. It did make a sort of sense, as there had been no changes in the law since 1909. The world, on the other hand, had changed radically, including the wider prevalence of new forms of media like film, TV, and radio. The Walt Disney Company's efforts paid off when Congress enacted the Copyright Act of 1976. It allowed published works to be under copyright for the whole life of the author plus half a century more, or 75 years if the said work was owned by corporations. Mickey Mouse was now protected until 2003. So why did 'Steamboat Willie' not enter the public domain in 2003? For the simple reason that Disney was still loathe to let go of its first animated film. Emotional value and so on. Who am I kidding, this was more likely a case of a corporation wanting to squeeze the last ounce of profit from an 80-year-old film. So as 2003 came closer Disney, again, lobbied for Congress to further extend the copyright expiration date. The efforts again bore fruit. And thus, in 1998, Congress enacted the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998. Derisively called 'The Mickey Mouse Protection Act', it retained the copyright to the author's lifetime and added 70 years. For works of corporate authorship, like with Disney, the act allowed 95 years from the work's original publication or 120 years from the creation, whichever expires first. Will Disney again lobby to impede the expiration of 'Steamboat Willie''s copyright? Unlikely. As said above, Disney is in charge of by far the biggest collection of pop culture franchises in the world. It only became bigger with its acquisition of 20th Century Fox. The future in which Disney pretty much owns everything you watch on the telly or in theatres is not as unlikely as it looks any longer. Disney is like a mythical monster like the Greek Hydra or the African Kammapa, which gobbles every IP it can get, and grows ever larger. The company may have an image of a provider of cute, cuddly content but the reality is much darker. Disney does not need 'Steamboat Willie' or even Winnie the Pooh (AA Milne's 1926 stories set in the Hundred Acre Wood went out of copyright in 2021). It has absolute command over the box office with the MCU movies, almost every one of which grosses close to $1 billion even in the pandemic-affected times. It owns the 'Avatar' franchise, each film of which will likely gross $2 billion, and the fifth and final film may cross that incredible $3 billion mark.

How Disney routinely exerted influence on the US copyright law to keep its greatest asset — Mickey Mouse

30 most anticipated Hollywood movies of 2023: 'Oppenheimer', 'Dune 2', 'Mission Impossible 6', and more

<p>I first read Don DeLillo's 'White Noise', the book that serves as the source material for Noah Baumbach's new eponymous film, as a precocious teen. Having grown up on a diet of plot-heavy fantasy books like 'The Hobbit', this weird, rambling book proved to be too much for yours truly, and I gave it up less than a hundred pages through. I re-read the whole thing a decade or so later, and while I appreciated its layers and themes, it was still difficult to finish. The book, you see, deliberately does not have a plot per se for roughly half its length and the dialogue is fewer lines that people say to each other, and more like philosophical musings of tortured, obsessed minds.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Still, it was fascinating in its portrayal of 1980s America, with its infatuation with technology, media, consumer culture, disasters, and conspiracies. Add the fear of death, a universal theme across all cultures, and you have a potent cocktail of ideas. These themes have only become more relevant with the times, never more so today, when we stand on the verge of 2022's end. And somehow, the reaction of the characters to the central event has eerie parallels to what we in the real world faced during the (still ongoing, mind you) COVID-19 pandemic.&nbsp;</p>

<p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SgwKZAMx_gM" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></p>

<p>But I would never have imagined that the book could be distilled into a 2-hour odd movie and still neatly capture the themes and the story, but Baumbach, behind the brilliant and heartbreaking 2019 film on the slow and painful destruction of a marriage 'Marriage Story', has done exactly that.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig (also Baumbach's wife) are Jack and Babette Gladney, a seemingly loving couple residing in a small but prosperous town. Together they raise a host of children and step-children. Jack is a professor of 'Hitler Studies' at the cutely named College-on-the-Hill. Only, he does not know German, something he would like to keep hidden so as not to give others a chance to others to impugn his expertise in the field.&nbsp;</p>

<p>A fellow professor Murray Siskind (Don Cheadle) studies American culture but wants to specialise in the field of 'Elvis Presley and as he puts it do to the King of Rock and Roll what Gladney did to the führer. One of the film's most entertaining scenes has the two faux-competing over the respective figures in a classroom.</p>

<p>Disaster strikes. A truck crashes into a train carrying some toxic chemical and the result is an explosion that creates a huge monster of a noxious cloud, which then rains. Dubbed 'Airborne Toxic Event', it causes a hurried evacuation and massive traffic jams. Stopping to refuel the car, Jack is exposed to the rain which he is told at their destination, a quarantine camp, may or may not significantly decrease his life expectancy.</p>
<img alt="white noise" data-caption="'White Noise', the film, like the novel takes about halfway through to get moving." data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="8ad32f92-6213-496a-8560-a29d4d7372f2" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/white-noise%20%281%29.png" />
<p>Even as this goes on, and Jack's fears of his potentially-forthcoming death mount, he keeps the diagnosis (if it was that) a secret, and he learns that his wife is taking a mysterious pill called Dylar that is not listed in the records. After finding out behind her back, he finally confronts her.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Literary critics who swear by Don DeLillo's tome would disagree, but I would go so far as to say that the film gets across what the novel wished to say more efficiently. There is less rambling and extraneous stuff. You might say the novel was never about the plot, it was about making the reader vicariously feel what its protagonist is feeling. When life is really going, as the plot is, it usually ends, soon. I do enjoy smart self-references in my stories, but I think I understand Baumbach's thought process: it probably would not have translated nicely to the screen. But there is a monologue on the 'plot' in the movie that I believe the book's fans will enjoy.</p>

<p>The film like the novel takes about halfway through to get moving. But in all the philosophy, Baumbach lets his trio&nbsp;Driver, Gerwig, and Cheadle shine. They all are great, and Driver particularly is scarily believable in the role of a man drowning in the fear of mortality. If actors can keep your attention when there is hardly anything happening, keep them close.&nbsp;</p>

<p>I must warn you that 'White Noise' is not everyone's cup of tea. It will not be an easy watch for most of you. It is not an escapist experience, especially not in the post-pandemic world. The world it depicts and the characters it showcases with their strained faces might feel too authentic for comfort. Though it is itself a sort of heightened reality and even a slight parody of our world. But thanks to Baumbach's mostly faithful direction—in spirit, if not in body—and the enduring relevance of the book's themes that are somehow more applicable now than they were in the 1980s, 'White Noise' is demanding and even chaotic, but it is also packed with interesting ideas and ultimately if you have the patience,&nbsp;is&nbsp;a worthwhile watch.</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="350" loading="”lazy”" src="https://www.wionews.com/live-tv/embed?autoplay=1&amp;mute=1" width="100%"></iframe></p>


I first read Don DeLillo's 'White Noise', the book that serves as the source material for Noah Baumbach's new eponymous film, as a precocious teen. Having grown up on a diet of plot-heavy fantasy books like 'The Hobbit', this weird, rambling book proved to be too much for yours truly, and I gave it up less than a hundred pages through.

I first read Don DeLillo's 'White Noise', the book that serves as the source material for Noah Baumbach's new eponymous film, as a precocious teen. Having grown up on a diet of plot-heavy fantasy books like 'The Hobbit', this weird, rambling book proved to be too much for yours truly, and I gave it up less than a hundred pages through. I re-read the whole thing a decade or so later, and while I appreciated its layers and themes, it was still difficult to finish. The book, you see, deliberately does not have a plot per se for roughly half its length and the dialogue is fewer lines that people say to each other, and more like philosophical musings of tortured, obsessed minds. Still, it was fascinating in its portrayal of 1980s America, with its infatuation with technology, media, consumer culture, disasters, and conspiracies. Add the fear of death, a universal theme across all cultures, and you have a potent cocktail of ideas. These themes have only become more relevant with the times, never more so today, when we stand on the verge of 2022's end. And somehow, the reaction of the characters to the central event has eerie parallels to what we in the real world faced during the (still ongoing, mind you) COVID-19 pandemic. But I would never have imagined that the book could be distilled into a 2-hour odd movie and still neatly capture the themes and the story, but Baumbach, behind the brilliant and heartbreaking 2019 film on the slow and painful destruction of a marriage 'Marriage Story', has done exactly that. Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig (also Baumbach's wife) are Jack and Babette Gladney, a seemingly loving couple residing in a small but prosperous town. Together they raise a host of children and step-children. Jack is a professor of 'Hitler Studies' at the cutely named College-on-the-Hill. Only, he does not know German, something he would like to keep hidden so as not to give others a chance to others to impugn his expertise in the field. A fellow professor Murray Siskind (Don Cheadle) studies American culture but wants to specialise in the field of 'Elvis Presley and as he puts it do to the King of Rock and Roll what Gladney did to the führer. One of the film's most entertaining scenes has the two faux-competing over the respective figures in a classroom. Disaster strikes. A truck crashes into a train carrying some toxic chemical and the result is an explosion that creates a huge monster of a noxious cloud, which then rains. Dubbed 'Airborne Toxic Event', it causes a hurried evacuation and massive traffic jams. Stopping to refuel the car, Jack is exposed to the rain which he is told at their destination, a quarantine camp, may or may not significantly decrease his life expectancy. Even as this goes on, and Jack's fears of his potentially-forthcoming death mount, he keeps the diagnosis (if it was that) a secret, and he learns that his wife is taking a mysterious pill called Dylar that is not listed in the records. After finding out behind her back, he finally confronts her. Literary critics who swear by Don DeLillo's tome would disagree, but I would go so far as to say that the film gets across what the novel wished to say more efficiently. There is less rambling and extraneous stuff. You might say the novel was never about the plot, it was about making the reader vicariously feel what its protagonist is feeling. When life is really going, as the plot is, it usually ends, soon. I do enjoy smart self-references in my stories, but I think I understand Baumbach's thought process: it probably would not have translated nicely to the screen. But there is a monologue on the 'plot' in the movie that I believe the book's fans will enjoy. The film like the novel takes about halfway through to get moving. But in all the philosophy, Baumbach lets his trio Driver, Gerwig, and Cheadle shine. They all are great, and Driver particularly is scarily believable in the role of a man drowning in the fear of mortality. If actors can keep your attention when there is hardly anything happening, keep them close. I must warn you that 'White Noise' is not everyone's cup of tea. It will not be an easy watch for most of you. It is not an escapist experience, especially not in the post-pandemic world. The world it depicts and the characters it showcases with their strained faces might feel too authentic for comfort. Though it is itself a sort of heightened reality and even a slight parody of our world. But thanks to Baumbach's mostly faithful direction—in spirit, if not in body—and the enduring relevance of the book's themes that are somehow more applicable now than they were in the 1980s, 'White Noise' is demanding and even chaotic, but it is also packed with interesting ideas and ultimately if you have the patience, is a worthwhile watch.

'White Noise' movie review: Adam Driver is brilliant in Noah Baumbach's dark comedy

<p>Had he been alive today, <strong><a href="https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/hollywood/news-stan-lee-documentary-in-development-at-disney-but-will-it-present-the-marvel-legends-darker-side-547524">Stan Lee</a></strong> would have been 100 years old. He passed away in 2018 and left behind a peerless legacy. Said to have co-created some of the most iconic characters in pop culture, including Spider-Man, Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, and more. Yes, controversies plagued his career from the very beginning. Creatives who worked with him like Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby accused him of stealing the credit for their work. To the younger generations, however, he was that jolly old man and a Marvel legend who played cameos in nearly every Marvel movie, and even a DC movie (yes, Google it). In many ways, Stan Lee and Marvel are synonymous.&nbsp;</p>

<p>His work at Marvel is extremely well-documented, but little known is his work at DC. He created his own versions of DC Comics' greatest superheroes!</p>

<h2>Did Stan Lee really work with DC?</h2>

<p>As a matter of fact, yes! That happened long after Lee was out of Marvel. He had left the company he helped popularise in the 1990s, though he drew an annual salary of $1 million a year. In the early 2000s, he got to work with what he called the Distinguished Competition. The comic-book line was called 'Just Imagine...' and featured reimagined versions of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Green Lantern, and more.</p>

<p>Here are the descriptions of his redesigned versions of the DC trinity: Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman:</p>

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/10-marvel-dc-characters-who-need-their-own-movies-511168/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

<h2>Batman</h2>

<p>This is not the classic Bruce Wayne Batman. This Batman was an African-American and was called Wayne Williams. Currently, he is in the peak human condition and is filthy rich just like Bruce Wayne. But his origin story is quite different. His father was a cop who was killed in an ambush. Wayne was framed for the crime and is imprisoned. In the prison, he learns how to "develop his mind" as well as bodybuilding from the scientist Frederick Grant. He also learns that his mother is also dead. During a prison riot, he rescues the warden and is granted a pardon. He then goes on a quest for revenge against the leader of the gang called Handz that is responsible for framing him.&nbsp;</p>

<p>To earn money, he becomes a wrestler and assumes the persona called 'Batman'. He becomes a superstar and earns a fortune even as he continues to search for Handz. He teams up with his old friend at the prison Grant to take on the organisation. He later becomes the symbol of justice.&nbsp;</p>

<p><img alt="stan lee just imagine" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="4ae83652-2785-42e6-bf89-836cf7a89389" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/stan-lee-dc-just-imagine%20%281%29.png" /></p>

<h2>Superman</h2>

<p>Lee's Superman was an alien, all right. But a lot about him was different from Clarke Kent. He was called Salden and similarly had superstrength and superspeed. But he was the weakest member of the Kryptonian Police Force on his home planet. He captures a dangerous criminal but the said criminal sends himself and Salden to a very primitive earth. Both arrive at different places and discover that they have amplified abilities. The criminal declares himself the king of the jungle tribe. Salden tries to build technology to return to his world. But the earth is riven with war and poverty. So Salden decides to become a superhero to solve these issues and begins to call himself Superman.</p>

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/five-great-superhero-movies-that-are-not-dc-or-marvel-510918/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

<h2>Wonder Woman</h2>

<p>Lee's Wonder Woman is not Diana Prince. She is called Maria Mendoza. She is an activist who is protesting against the excavation of a holy Incan site near her home. The CEO of the company in charge of the excavation wishes to gain power from the holy site and becomes the ruler of the world. After Maria's father is kidnapped by the man and taken to the site, she follows but is too late to save him. The CEO has gained demonic powers from the possessed objects at the site and Mria finds the staff of Manco Capac, and gains the powers of the Incan Sun god. She becomes a superhero and takes the name of Wonder Woman.</p>

<p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="350" loading="”lazy”" src="https://www.wionews.com/live-tv/embed?autoplay=1&amp;mute=1" width="100%"></iframe></p>


Had he been alive today, Stan Lee would have been 100 years old. He passed away in 2018 and left behind a peerless legacy. Said to have co-created some of the most iconic characters in pop culture, including Spider-Man, Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, and more.

Had he been alive today, Stan Lee would have been 100 years old. He passed away in 2018 and left behind a peerless legacy. Said to have co-created some of the most iconic characters in pop culture, including Spider-Man, Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, and more. Yes, controversies plagued his career from the very beginning. Creatives who worked with him like Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby accused him of stealing the credit for their work. To the younger generations, however, he was that jolly old man and a Marvel legend who played cameos in nearly every Marvel movie, and even a DC movie (yes, Google it). In many ways, Stan Lee and Marvel are synonymous. His work at Marvel is extremely well-documented, but little known is his work at DC. He created his own versions of DC Comics' greatest superheroes! Did Stan Lee really work with DC? As a matter of fact, yes! That happened long after Lee was out of Marvel. He had left the company he helped popularise in the 1990s, though he drew an annual salary of $1 million a year. In the early 2000s, he got to work with what he called the Distinguished Competition. The comic-book line was called 'Just Imagine...' and featured reimagined versions of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Green Lantern, and more. Here are the descriptions of his redesigned versions of the DC trinity: Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman: Batman This is not the classic Bruce Wayne Batman. This Batman was an African-American and was called Wayne Williams. Currently, he is in the peak human condition and is filthy rich just like Bruce Wayne. But his origin story is quite different. His father was a cop who was killed in an ambush. Wayne was framed for the crime and is imprisoned. In the prison, he learns how to "develop his mind" as well as bodybuilding from the scientist Frederick Grant. He also learns that his mother is also dead. During a prison riot, he rescues the warden and is granted a pardon. He then goes on a quest for revenge against the leader of the gang called Handz that is responsible for framing him. To earn money, he becomes a wrestler and assumes the persona called 'Batman'. He becomes a superstar and earns a fortune even as he continues to search for Handz. He teams up with his old friend at the prison Grant to take on the organisation. He later becomes the symbol of justice. Superman Lee's Superman was an alien, all right. But a lot about him was different from Clarke Kent. He was called Salden and similarly had superstrength and superspeed. But he was the weakest member of the Kryptonian Police Force on his home planet. He captures a dangerous criminal but the said criminal sends himself and Salden to a very primitive earth. Both arrive at different places and discover that they have amplified abilities. The criminal declares himself the king of the jungle tribe. Salden tries to build technology to return to his world. But the earth is riven with war and poverty. So Salden decides to become a superhero to solve these issues and begins to call himself Superman. Wonder Woman Lee's Wonder Woman is not Diana Prince. She is called Maria Mendoza. She is an activist who is protesting against the excavation of a holy Incan site near her home. The CEO of the company in charge of the excavation wishes to gain power from the holy site and becomes the ruler of the world. After Maria's father is kidnapped by the man and taken to the site, she follows but is too late to save him. The CEO has gained demonic powers from the possessed objects at the site and Mria finds the staff of Manco Capac, and gains the powers of the Incan Sun god. She becomes a superhero and takes the name of Wonder Woman.

When Stan Lee reimagined DC superheroes

<p>When it comes to<strong><a href="https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/hollywood/news-_022-in-pop-culture-will-smith-oscar-slap-kanye-west-rants-depp-heard-trial--other-defining-moments-542744"> pop culture</a></strong>, as in pretty much everywhere else, we are obsessed with nostalgia. That is not a bad thing. For humans' ability to remember events from decades ago has helped play a part in making us the dominant species on earth. Memories make humans, well, human.&nbsp;The studios in charge of our movies and even TV shows are perfectly aware of that, and this is why it has become so rare to see money being spent on so little original stuff. Entries in existing franchises and projects related to recognisable IPs do tend to get successful. And 2022 was no different. In fact, the first eight movies in the list of highest-grossing movies of the year worldwide are either sequels to popular movies or part of a well-known intellectual property.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Also Read:&nbsp;<strong><a href="https://www.wionews.com/photos/top-10-hollywood-movies-of-2022-top-gun-maverick-barbarian-and-the-batman-540599">Top 10 Hollywood movies of 2022: 'Top Gun Maverick', 'Barbarian', and 'The Batman'</a></strong></p>

<p>Nostalgia, like God, works in mysterious ways. Sometimes it makes us happy, and sometimes sad. But mostly it's both. Happy because we are watching something we loved when we were younger. Sad because we can never get back to those good old days again. The word 'nostalgia' is a compound from Greek made up of 'nóstos', which means homecoming, and álgos, which means sorrow or pain.&nbsp;</p>

<p>2022 was chock-full of nostalgia. And that is not just limited to film. In TV, as well, shows that captured the discourse were big-budget iterations of previously established franchises. So what were the shows and movies that gave us our nostalgia fix, and how did they manage to do it? Let's explore nostalgia through both films and TV shows of 2022 briefly:</p>

<p>Also Read:&nbsp;<strong><a href="https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/hollywood/news-avatar-the-way-of-water-movie-review-visually-gorgeous-james-camerons-film-repeats-originals-mistakes-543654">'Avatar The Way of Water' movie review: Visually gorgeous, James Cameron's film repeats original's mistakes</a></strong></p>

<h2>'Top Gun: Maverick' and 'Avatar: The Way of Water'</h2>

<p>Not even Tom Cruise would have imagined that 'Top Gun: Maverick' would be a success big enough to left every other 2022 film in the dust. And yet, it grossed almost $1.5 billion. Directed by Joseph Kosinski and written by Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, and Christopher McQuarrie from a story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks, 'Maverick' was the sequel to the 1986 classic 'Top Gun' and brought back Cruise in the role of Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, who is now a test pilot and flight instructor. Armed with the modern technology behind the scenes, the film was pure adrenaline rush with some of the best action set pieces in quite a while.&nbsp;</p>

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/critically-speaking-is-avatar-the-way-of-water-worth-the-hype-543816/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

<p>The film is the highest-grossing movie of 2022 globally, though the other film we will discuss, 'Avatar: The Way of Water', will almost certainly dwarf it.</p>

<p>'Avatar: The Way of Water’, the second film in James Cameron's science-fiction franchise and the first of four sequels, features fresh adventures for Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) a paraplegic marine who sided with the Na’vi in the conflict against humans in the original and became one of the tall, lithe, and blue-hued natives himself. He and his native wife Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) have children now: three of theirs and two adopted. The stakes are higher than ever before.</p>

<p>As the old foes at the RDA return to complete what they started in the first film with a renewed sense of vengeance, Jake and Neytiri flee their homeland with their children to protect the Omaticaya clan.</p>

<p>Also Read:&nbsp;<strong><a href="https://www.wionews.com/photos/top-10-tv-shows-of-2022-better-call-saul-barry-andor-on-the-list-541904">Top 10 TV shows of 2022: 'Better Call Saul', 'Barry', 'Andor' on the list</a></strong></p>

<p>They find themselves among the Metkayina, a water-loving Na’vi clan with a paler blue skin colour to mirror the sea. They live around a reef and have amphibious qualities, allowing them to inhabit both worlds. Initially unwilling and hostile, the leaders of the clan, Tonowari (Cliff Curtis) and Ronal (Kate Winslet) eventually take the fugitives in and teach them their aquatic ways. Unbeknown to them, the Sullys have brought the war right to their shores.</p>

<p>The film, not surprisingly for Cameron and the franchise, is a humongous hit, and in all likelihood will end up with more than $2 billion in worldwide box office gross—and these are conservative estimates.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>'House of the Dragon' and 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power'</h2>

<p>Also Read:<strong><a href="https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/hollywood/news-the-lord-of-the-rings-the-rings-of-power-review-a-majestic-fantasy-tv-series-worthy-of-jrr-tolkien-511819">&nbsp;'The Lord of the Rings The Rings of Power' review: A majestic fantasy TV series worthy of JRR Tolkien</a></strong></p>

<p>This year marked the great clash between two rival fantasy TV series. Both were prequels. While HBO's 'House of the Dragon' was a prequel to the megahit 'Game of Thrones', 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power' was set thousands of years before 'The Lord of the Rings' (both JRR Tolkien tome and Peter Jackson-directed trilogy). Unlike 'GoT, the series' contenders, unlike the War of the Five Kings, are all within the same house: the Targaryens.</p>

<p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DotnJ7tTA34" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></p>

<p>'House of the Dragon' introduces Paddy Considine's tragic King Viserys Targaryen I, the reigning monarch, who is good at heart but has a quality that is otherwise noble but detrimental in a king: wanting to please everybody. If you have power over millions and enforce that position with the help of armed forces, it is inevitable that you will displease several sections of your realm. He declares as his heir his daughter and then the only surviving child Princess Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock as young Rhaenyra, with Emma D'Arcy as adult version), kicking off a chain of events that would eventually lead to the Dance of the Dragons.</p>

<p>Also Read:&nbsp;<strong><a href="https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/hollywood/news-house-of-the-dragon-season-1-review-hbo-pull-off-a-worthy-game-of-thrones-successor-528175">'House of the Dragon' Season 1 review: HBO pull off a worthy 'Game of Thrones' successor</a></strong></p>

<p>After his wife dies in childbirth, the King eventually marries again to Alicent Hightower (Emily Carey as the younger version, and Olivia Cooke as the adult). She bears him children, and prodded by her conniving father Ser Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), the Hand of the King, Alicent, who was fast friends with Rhaenyra when young, grows up to be resentful of the latter's position as the future Queen of the Seven Kingdoms.</p>

<p>The stage is set for war, and this one is going to be especially fiery. Not metaphorically either. Both sides have dragons, and when dragons will fight, the realm will burn. The war does not really start until the finale, but the season features loads of intrigue, conspiracies, betrayals, and backstabbing to satisfy any fan who loves this world for precisely those things.</p>

<p>Also Read:&nbsp;<strong><a href="https://www.wionews.com/photos/yearender-2022-remembering-the-stars-weve-lost-this-year-546341">Yearender 2022: Remembering the stars we’ve lost this year</a></strong></p>

<p>Some might say 'Game of Thrones' just ended in 2019, so 'House of the Dragon' cannot be called a nostalgia piece. And you'd think that's true, except nostalgia has no relation to how old a thing it is.</p>

<p>With 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power', Amazon's aim was to do what HBO did with 'Game of Thrones'. Which is: to set a new bar for fantasy television and create a cinematic-level experience on the small screen. The last time the streaming service adapted a fantasy epic ('The Wheel of Time')... let's just say it did not work out so well. Amazon, due to the Tolkien fanboi that Jeff Bezos is, put an unheard-of $1.25 billion to bring this series into existence. Despite a few flaws, 'The Rings of Power' is a winner. The world-building is intimate and expansive at the same time. Even the newbies to the franchise should not have any problem following the events of the show. The major characters, a few of which (Galadriel and Elrond) would be familiar to the fans of the film trilogy, are all sketched with impressive detail. The production quality and filming in actual locations lend a sense of realness to a story that, ironically enough, comes under fantasy.</p>

<p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/x8UAUAuKNcU" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></p>

<p>It gets the basics right when it comes to a Middle-earth adaptation. Even in the screeners I was provided with, with all the annoying watermarks, 'The Rings of Power' looked absolutely lush. Ironically, it is so good that even in its episodic form, it looks more suited to be viewed in cinemas than on TV. There are shots of imposing edifices and grand statues that tower over the mountains. There are also familiar vistas showcasing landscapes, hills, valleys, rivers, and faithful recreations of locations like Lindon -- every single frame looks stunning.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>Will nostalgia-baiting continue?</h2>

<p>As you probably know, nostalgia is not exactly a bad thing. But in films and shows, it is going overboard. Studios are refusing to spend a lot of money on original ideas. And franchise and popular IP projects meanwhile get $200 to $300 million as they have a ready-made audience. It can also make the film industry creatively bankrupt, since writers and directors, particularly those who are new and have little say in the matter, will force to write and direct projects that were made only because the previous projects in the franchise were successful. And that's not good.&nbsp;</p>

<p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="350" loading="”lazy”" src="https://www.wionews.com/live-tv/embed?autoplay=1&amp;mute=1" width="100%"></iframe></p>


When it comes to pop culture, as in pretty much everywhere else, we are obsessed with nostalgia. That is not a bad thing. For humans' ability to remember events from decades ago has helped play a part in making us the dominant species on earth.

When it comes to pop culture, as in pretty much everywhere else, we are obsessed with nostalgia. That is not a bad thing. For humans' ability to remember events from decades ago has helped play a part in making us the dominant species on earth. Memories make humans, well, human. The studios in charge of our movies and even TV shows are perfectly aware of that, and this is why it has become so rare to see money being spent on so little original stuff. Entries in existing franchises and projects related to recognisable IPs do tend to get successful. And 2022 was no different. In fact, the first eight movies in the list of highest-grossing movies of the year worldwide are either sequels to popular movies or part of a well-known intellectual property. Also Read: Top 10 Hollywood movies of 2022: 'Top Gun Maverick', 'Barbarian', and 'The Batman' Nostalgia, like God, works in mysterious ways. Sometimes it makes us happy, and sometimes sad. But mostly it's both. Happy because we are watching something we loved when we were younger. Sad because we can never get back to those good old days again. The word 'nostalgia' is a compound from Greek made up of 'nóstos', which means homecoming, and álgos, which means sorrow or pain. 2022 was chock-full of nostalgia. And that is not just limited to film. In TV, as well, shows that captured the discourse were big-budget iterations of previously established franchises. So what were the shows and movies that gave us our nostalgia fix, and how did they manage to do it? Let's explore nostalgia through both films and TV shows of 2022 briefly: Also Read: 'Avatar The Way of Water' movie review: Visually gorgeous, James Cameron's film repeats original's mistakes 'Top Gun: Maverick' and 'Avatar: The Way of Water' Not even Tom Cruise would have imagined that 'Top Gun: Maverick' would be a success big enough to left every other 2022 film in the dust. And yet, it grossed almost $1.5 billion. Directed by Joseph Kosinski and written by Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, and Christopher McQuarrie from a story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks, 'Maverick' was the sequel to the 1986 classic 'Top Gun' and brought back Cruise in the role of Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, who is now a test pilot and flight instructor. Armed with the modern technology behind the scenes, the film was pure adrenaline rush with some of the best action set pieces in quite a while. The film is the highest-grossing movie of 2022 globally, though the other film we will discuss, 'Avatar: The Way of Water', will almost certainly dwarf it. 'Avatar: The Way of Water’, the second film in James Cameron's science-fiction franchise and the first of four sequels, features fresh adventures for Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) a paraplegic marine who sided with the Na’vi in the conflict against humans in the original and became one of the tall, lithe, and blue-hued natives himself. He and his native wife Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) have children now: three of theirs and two adopted. The stakes are higher than ever before. As the old foes at the RDA return to complete what they started in the first film with a renewed sense of vengeance, Jake and Neytiri flee their homeland with their children to protect the Omaticaya clan. Also Read: Top 10 TV shows of 2022: 'Better Call Saul', 'Barry', 'Andor' on the list They find themselves among the Metkayina, a water-loving Na’vi clan with a paler blue skin colour to mirror the sea. They live around a reef and have amphibious qualities, allowing them to inhabit both worlds. Initially unwilling and hostile, the leaders of the clan, Tonowari (Cliff Curtis) and Ronal (Kate Winslet) eventually take the fugitives in and teach them their aquatic ways. Unbeknown to them, the Sullys have brought the war right to their shores. The film, not surprisingly for Cameron and the franchise, is a humongous hit, and in all likelihood will end up with more than $2 billion in worldwide box office gross—and these are conservative estimates. 'House of the Dragon' and 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power' Also Read: 'The Lord of the Rings The Rings of Power' review: A majestic fantasy TV series worthy of JRR Tolkien This year marked the great clash between two rival fantasy TV series. Both were prequels. While HBO's 'House of the Dragon' was a prequel to the megahit 'Game of Thrones', 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power' was set thousands of years before 'The Lord of the Rings' (both JRR Tolkien tome and Peter Jackson-directed trilogy). Unlike 'GoT, the series' contenders, unlike the War of the Five Kings, are all within the same house: the Targaryens. 'House of the Dragon' introduces Paddy Considine's tragic King Viserys Targaryen I, the reigning monarch, who is good at heart but has a quality that is otherwise noble but detrimental in a king: wanting to please everybody. If you have power over millions and enforce that position with the help of armed forces, it is inevitable that you will displease several sections of your realm. He declares as his heir his daughter and then the only surviving child Princess Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock as young Rhaenyra, with Emma D'Arcy as adult version), kicking off a chain of events that would eventually lead to the Dance of the Dragons. Also Read: 'House of the Dragon' Season 1 review: HBO pull off a worthy 'Game of Thrones' successor After his wife dies in childbirth, the King eventually marries again to Alicent Hightower (Emily Carey as the younger version, and Olivia Cooke as the adult). She bears him children, and prodded by her conniving father Ser Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), the Hand of the King, Alicent, who was fast friends with Rhaenyra when young, grows up to be resentful of the latter's position as the future Queen of the Seven Kingdoms. The stage is set for war, and this one is going to be especially fiery. Not metaphorically either. Both sides have dragons, and when dragons will fight, the realm will burn. The war does not really start until the finale, but the season features loads of intrigue, conspiracies, betrayals, and backstabbing to satisfy any fan who loves this world for precisely those things. Also Read: Yearender 2022: Remembering the stars we’ve lost this year Some might say 'Game of Thrones' just ended in 2019, so 'House of the Dragon' cannot be called a nostalgia piece. And you'd think that's true, except nostalgia has no relation to how old a thing it is. With 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power', Amazon's aim was to do what HBO did with 'Game of Thrones'. Which is: to set a new bar for fantasy television and create a cinematic-level experience on the small screen. The last time the streaming service adapted a fantasy epic ('The Wheel of Time')... let's just say it did not work out so well. Amazon, due to the Tolkien fanboi that Jeff Bezos is, put an unheard-of $1.25 billion to bring this series into existence. Despite a few flaws, 'The Rings of Power' is a winner. The world-building is intimate and expansive at the same time. Even the newbies to the franchise should not have any problem following the events of the show. The major characters, a few of which (Galadriel and Elrond) would be familiar to the fans of the film trilogy, are all sketched with impressive detail. The production quality and filming in actual locations lend a sense of realness to a story that, ironically enough, comes under fantasy. It gets the basics right when it comes to a Middle-earth adaptation. Even in the screeners I was provided with, with all the annoying watermarks, 'The Rings of Power' looked absolutely lush. Ironically, it is so good that even in its episodic form, it looks more suited to be viewed in cinemas than on TV. There are shots of imposing edifices and grand statues that tower over the mountains. There are also familiar vistas showcasing landscapes, hills, valleys, rivers, and faithful recreations of locations like Lindon -- every single frame looks stunning. Will nostalgia-baiting continue? As you probably know, nostalgia is not exactly a bad thing. But in films and shows, it is going overboard. Studios are refusing to spend a lot of money on original ideas. And franchise and popular IP projects meanwhile get $200 to $300 million as they have a ready-made audience. It can also make the film industry creatively bankrupt, since writers and directors, particularly those who are new and have little say in the matter, will force to write and direct projects that were made only because the previous projects in the franchise were successful. And that's not good.

From 'Top Gun Maverick' to 'House of the Dragon', how 2022's pop culture was one big shot of nostalgia

<p>It will not be an overstatement to say that Dirk Maggs has revolutionised sonic storytelling. Currently, the British writer-director, who exlusively works in audio entertainment has become the foremost name in the field. That's mainly due to the massive success of his adaptations of Neil Gaiman's DC comic-book series 'The Sandman' for Audible, Amazon-owned audiobook and podcast service. Notably, the series was also adapted as a TV series by Netflix.</p>

<p>Directed by Maggs and co-written by him with Gaiman, the adaptations sport an all-star voice-cast with names like James McAvoy, Kat Dennings, Taron Egerton, Samantha Morton, Bebe Neuwirth, Andy Serkis, Michael Sheen, and Riz Ahmed. It spawned a Hindi adaptation in India with Vijay Varma, Tabu, Kubbra Sait, among others in the cast.</p>

<p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NjQk1uQ0Hzw" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></p>

<p>In audio, direction works much as it does in film and TV. And Maggs is to audio entertainment what Denis Villeneuve is to cinema. He creates almost hypnotic auditory experiences that go way beyond a simple audiobook, which is a straightforward narration of the written word. Under his direction, entire worlds come alive. Using sound effects and layered soundscapes, he builds audio experiences that even without the presence of visual elements feel rich and immersive.</p>

<p>A megahit with the readers in the 80s and 90s, 'The Sandman' stories, which centre around a powerful, elemental being called Dream and his journey towards redemption, have found a whole new, not to mention much bigger, audience thanks to Maggs.&nbsp;</p>

<p>He spoke to Wion about how he got into the field, how he does what he does, the advantages audio has over video, his collaboration with Douglas Adams, and more. Here are edited excerpts from the interaction.</p>

<h2>Q. How did you get into this field?</h2>

<p>I wanted to be a filmmaker. I thought I would be making films. And when I joined the BBC as a trainee studio manager, I said to everybody on the course, 'I'm out of here as fast as I possibly can. I'm going into TV, then I'm going to go into films.' And within a year, I had worked on a film in a film studio in Canada on a feature film, and I'd worked and I was doing an attachment a secondment to BBC television, and I hated both of them. There was a lot of waiting around. It was such a literal medium. What was on the screen... that was it. There was no ability to weave the story in and out of the thing. And in those days, it wasn't HDTV. We didn't have CGI. So to be fair, it might be a little different now. But I went back into audio and I began to play with what was possible. And when I had the opportunity to make stories in the medium, it was mainly comedy. But that was a good thing, which I'll explain. But I realised as soon as I was hearing sound effects, I was seeing something as soon as I heard a background, if you hear just city skyline, you have a vision of a city, it's in your head. Your brain will create these images. It's a bit like when you're falling asleep, after a very big dinner, relaxing on your chair, and someone somewhere in the house drops a teaspoon or a book, and your brain will incorporate that into the dream you're having. And the brain is an amazing thing you don't need to do stuff that goes in through the front door, you go in through the side doors, and the picture still happens in your mind. I realised &nbsp;the power of the medium. The first thing I did was a Superman docudrama to celebrate the superhero's 50th birthday. Sheer sheer chance. I thought I can make a Superman movie here. I can have all the special effects and you know, 'wooshes' and so on. And that was it. I was hooked. But I knew it was going to be hard work at the same time. I thought for the rest of my life, I'm going to be listening to stuff till my brain runs out of my ears. But it has been a joyful journey. And I love that it's a hidden art. I love that. You're not seeing it being created. You were just entering a world.</p>

<p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YhYflz3eSrI" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></p>

<h2>Q. You said the first thing you did at BBC was comedy, and that was a good thing. Why?&nbsp;</h2>

<p>A. Comedy is the best teacher of how to do drama. There was this&nbsp;actor who on his deathbed&nbsp;was asked what's it like to die. And he said 'Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.' And it kind of is in a way. One of the first shows I did was a weekly topical satire. It was jokes about the news, but it was an audience show so we had 300 people every week, with the performers working two microphones at the audience. So you hear the audience laughing on the track. They're part of the show. But you had to get those laughs. You couldn't have them sitting there silently. So the script had to be funny. And if you're doing that on a weekly basis, no exceptions. That's tough work. And so you learn the rhythms of comedy. In order to get the laugh, you plant the idea, you develop the idea, and then you spring the surprise. And then the audience laughs because they weren't expecting that. Well, drama is pretty much the same thing. And a really good storyteller like Neil Gaiman is very much into comedy. I think comedy and drama are really close. Because in the end, you're there to set up an idea, develop it, and then you pay it off. Now, the payoff can be a joke or dramatic beat in the story.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>Q. I loved Netflix's 'Sandman'. But even with the advantage of visuals, I connect on a deeper level with the audio adaptation. What advantages do you think audio has over video specifically when it comes to storytelling?</h2>

<p>A. Well, the joke answer would be you can do your ironing at the same time. *pause* I love pictures. At the end of the day, if I've been working in sound all day, I'll just go and put my feet up and veg out to a movie. So there's nothing wrong with visual media. In audio we let you, the listener, be the focus all the effort. At the same time, you are part of the creation of the thing, you are a partner in the enterprise. And without your participation what we do isn't the same and interestingly, different listeners interpret audio stories differently. How you see Dream in our stories is entirely up to you. It might be the Dream of the comic books or it might be something else. So you have the choice of creating any world you want, and we will supply everything else and put you in that world. How you choose to see it is your affair. And I love that we are working in partnership together.</p>

<h2>Q. While adapting written material into audio, how do you ensure that the essence of the original story is kept intact even as you add your own voice? I think you succeeded on that level with 'Sandman'.</h2>

<p>A. It's brilliant that you saw that. It's a case of wanting to represent it accurately. How many movies have we all seen, for example, where they seem to have thrown the book out the window and just done their own way? I hate that. If it's someone as important as Neil, I want to show that the guy's genius in every facet. So it wasn't that hard to do [with 'Sandman']. Comic books aren't hard to do in audio because we aren't fighting the image, we can live comfortably alongside the image in the book. There are moments where I have to slightly explain more, and hopefully, my dialogue then doesn't sound too clunky. There have been very few problems and they have more to do with the years that have passed since the comics were written (in late 1980s and 1990s). Attitudes have slightly changed. The way he introduces these issues is slightly out of date. So I can massage that. When you get to the second act of Sandman in which we have a whole storyline about a trans person, and that didn't need substantial work. But there are serial killers, and a whole scene in a diner where people are being murdered. You don't want to step away from it, you want to be as graphic. But at the same time, you want to be sensible. But I think the one thing I'm really pleased with Kshitij is that we I managed to get inside Neil's head. I knew that there would be a TV series quite early on. And my approach to this changed completely at that point. I threw out the script when I was about halfway through episode one. Because I knew I had to absolute, I knew that a TV series would change things, it would be a different kind of experience because it is. So in our version, I decided the listener is going to be sitting on Neil's shoulder as he imagines this. You will be in his head as the pictures come. And so when Neil said, if you're having a narrator, I'd quite like to do the job if you'd have me. And I said 'Yes, please!' immediately because I didn't want to give him a minute to change his mind.&nbsp;</p>
<img alt="dirk maggs with neil gaiman" data-caption="Dirk Maggs with Neil Gaiman." data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="645a5097-63fd-4611-9a7c-dc358efb13af" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/dirk-maggs%20%281%29.png" />
<h2>Q. Can you describe your process of adapting stories and how the words you write will or should sound when they are voiced? Do you have any control?&nbsp;</h2>

<p>A. Well, I'm very fortunate in that I direct as well as write. So having written the script, I'm in the room with the actor as they are saying the lines. The process with James McAvoy who played Morpheus for us was that he and I had about three long zoom calls, with just him sitting in his kitchen and me here talking through how we saw the character and where Morpheus was coming from. And how, and this is really interesting about the character, he is not a hero, he can be despicably mean. It was quite a complicated thing, and we had to find a way into it. And there were technical things like James has a Scottish accent. But he can do any accent. I said he needs to have a straight English accent here. And I'm certain that Vijay Varma, as Morpheus would have had the same conversation with the team directing the Hindi version. I was always at the end of the phone, if somebody had a problem.</p>

<h2>Q. What are some of the challenges that you have faced while adapting stories for audio? You also worked with Douglas Adams.</h2>

<p>A. I'm lucky because Douglas and I got to discuss everything, you know, and then, and then it didn't happen. And then it did happen after he died. So thank God I had that conversation with him. You know, I didn't have to use a seance to check stuff with him. There's always the risk of making it clunky. Most of my problem-solving is with sound effects, getting sound effects to tell the story so the actors don't have to, and that can be magic at times and other times a real headache because you don't know how to. I mean, gun in my hand is loaded is quite easy. If you just hear a gun cocked, for example, that tells you a gun is in the room. And if the line is 'I'm gonna kill you', you know that this is the guy who's probably holding the gun.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Neil and I disagree a lot about narrators. Neil likes narrators, and I don't. But when Neil offers to be the narrator, you say 'fine!'. I try not to have a narrator because I like the challenge of telling the story as if it was a movie, where dialogue and sound effects and music bring that emotional warmth to it. And of course, you've listened to 'Alien' dramas. So you know one of the key characters in the alien drama doesn't have language. It's just a kid. So then you really have to be inventive. After a bit, it becomes fun to challenge yourself to tell a story without words as crutches, and isn't as Douglas said once to me, "You don't have to tell the audience everything, they will work it out." And it's just how far can you push that is really my thing.</p>

<h2>Q. You have a great relationship with Neil Gaiman. Do you actively have conversations with authors whose books you are adapting while you are writing the script?</h2>

<p>A. Very much so. I asked Neil if he still had the scripts of 'Sandman' and thank goodness he did. So I could get those and see what he'd written and that was important because I literally wanted to take what he'd said. And that also helps because sometimes he would write in the original scripts. There's a sort of preface where he says, 'I've had a terrible week. I've written this story three times, I can't make it work. So I've started again, here it is.' And you realise that it's not easy for him. And in the same way, I'm talking to Douglas Adams, 30 years ago in the basement of his house in London. And somebody's just written a script, supposedly for the first episode of the third series of 'Hitchhikers', and he hates it. And he rang me in my office at the BBC and said, 'Can you come around?' and I turn up at the house. He's sitting in the basement at his laptop, typing out a script as it should be. And he's done about two pages. And then he slams the laptop saying, "I can't write this twice. And I said, "Well, I'll do it." And then he goes, "Oh, yeah, alright, you do it." And you can take the credit. But so you get a sense of how hard it is to do creative work. And with Douglas we had a lot of technical conversations about 'How do we solve this? How do we do this?' What's really interesting about these stories is that have created such rich mythologies for people, but at the end of the day, you have to approach it like an engineer — taking apart a machine, taking a toolkit and, and using a wrench to undo the bolts and take the top off and lift off the lid and look inside and think, 'Oh, my God, you know, how could this still be running when it's such a mess?' But you see the trial and error that helped Douglas and Neil arrived at a result and how finely judged something is when you see a director's cut of a movie that isn't as good as the movie you remember, things like that.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Editorial choices are so subtle and tight. When I can talk to the authors or see their work... not their final work, but the prep work. That works.&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>Watch WION live here:</strong></p>

<p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/live-tv/embed?autoplay=1&amp;mute=1" width="100%"></iframe></p>


It will not be an overstatement to say that Dirk Maggs has revolutionised sonic storytelling. Currently, the British writer-director, who exlusively works in audio entertainment has become the foremost name in the field.

It will not be an overstatement to say that Dirk Maggs has revolutionised sonic storytelling. Currently, the British writer-director, who exlusively works in audio entertainment has become the foremost name in the field. That's mainly due to the massive success of his adaptations of Neil Gaiman's DC comic-book series 'The Sandman' for Audible, Amazon-owned audiobook and podcast service. Notably, the series was also adapted as a TV series by Netflix. Directed by Maggs and co-written by him with Gaiman, the adaptations sport an all-star voice-cast with names like James McAvoy, Kat Dennings, Taron Egerton, Samantha Morton, Bebe Neuwirth, Andy Serkis, Michael Sheen, and Riz Ahmed. It spawned a Hindi adaptation in India with Vijay Varma, Tabu, Kubbra Sait, among others in the cast. In audio, direction works much as it does in film and TV. And Maggs is to audio entertainment what Denis Villeneuve is to cinema. He creates almost hypnotic auditory experiences that go way beyond a simple audiobook, which is a straightforward narration of the written word. Under his direction, entire worlds come alive. Using sound effects and layered soundscapes, he builds audio experiences that even without the presence of visual elements feel rich and immersive. A megahit with the readers in the 80s and 90s, 'The Sandman' stories, which centre around a powerful, elemental being called Dream and his journey towards redemption, have found a whole new, not to mention much bigger, audience thanks to Maggs. He spoke to Wion about how he got into the field, how he does what he does, the advantages audio has over video, his collaboration with Douglas Adams, and more. Here are edited excerpts from the interaction. Q. How did you get into this field? I wanted to be a filmmaker. I thought I would be making films. And when I joined the BBC as a trainee studio manager, I said to everybody on the course, 'I'm out of here as fast as I possibly can. I'm going into TV, then I'm going to go into films.' And within a year, I had worked on a film in a film studio in Canada on a feature film, and I'd worked and I was doing an attachment a secondment to BBC television, and I hated both of them. There was a lot of waiting around. It was such a literal medium. What was on the screen... that was it. There was no ability to weave the story in and out of the thing. And in those days, it wasn't HDTV. We didn't have CGI. So to be fair, it might be a little different now. But I went back into audio and I began to play with what was possible. And when I had the opportunity to make stories in the medium, it was mainly comedy. But that was a good thing, which I'll explain. But I realised as soon as I was hearing sound effects, I was seeing something as soon as I heard a background, if you hear just city skyline, you have a vision of a city, it's in your head. Your brain will create these images. It's a bit like when you're falling asleep, after a very big dinner, relaxing on your chair, and someone somewhere in the house drops a teaspoon or a book, and your brain will incorporate that into the dream you're having. And the brain is an amazing thing you don't need to do stuff that goes in through the front door, you go in through the side doors, and the picture still happens in your mind. I realised the power of the medium. The first thing I did was a Superman docudrama to celebrate the superhero's 50th birthday. Sheer sheer chance. I thought I can make a Superman movie here. I can have all the special effects and you know, 'wooshes' and so on. And that was it. I was hooked. But I knew it was going to be hard work at the same time. I thought for the rest of my life, I'm going to be listening to stuff till my brain runs out of my ears. But it has been a joyful journey. And I love that it's a hidden art. I love that. You're not seeing it being created. You were just entering a world. Q. You said the first thing you did at BBC was comedy, and that was a good thing. Why? A. Comedy is the best teacher of how to do drama. There was this actor who on his deathbed was asked what's it like to die. And he said 'Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.' And it kind of is in a way. One of the first shows I did was a weekly topical satire. It was jokes about the news, but it was an audience show so we had 300 people every week, with the performers working two microphones at the audience. So you hear the audience laughing on the track. They're part of the show. But you had to get those laughs. You couldn't have them sitting there silently. So the script had to be funny. And if you're doing that on a weekly basis, no exceptions. That's tough work. And so you learn the rhythms of comedy. In order to get the laugh, you plant the idea, you develop the idea, and then you spring the surprise. And then the audience laughs because they weren't expecting that. Well, drama is pretty much the same thing. And a really good storyteller like Neil Gaiman is very much into comedy. I think comedy and drama are really close. Because in the end, you're there to set up an idea, develop it, and then you pay it off. Now, the payoff can be a joke or dramatic beat in the story. Q. I loved Netflix's 'Sandman'. But even with the advantage of visuals, I connect on a deeper level with the audio adaptation. What advantages do you think audio has over video specifically when it comes to storytelling? A. Well, the joke answer would be you can do your ironing at the same time. *pause* I love pictures. At the end of the day, if I've been working in sound all day, I'll just go and put my feet up and veg out to a movie. So there's nothing wrong with visual media. In audio we let you, the listener, be the focus all the effort. At the same time, you are part of the creation of the thing, you are a partner in the enterprise. And without your participation what we do isn't the same and interestingly, different listeners interpret audio stories differently. How you see Dream in our stories is entirely up to you. It might be the Dream of the comic books or it might be something else. So you have the choice of creating any world you want, and we will supply everything else and put you in that world. How you choose to see it is your affair. And I love that we are working in partnership together. Q. While adapting written material into audio, how do you ensure that the essence of the original story is kept intact even as you add your own voice? I think you succeeded on that level with 'Sandman'. A. It's brilliant that you saw that. It's a case of wanting to represent it accurately. How many movies have we all seen, for example, where they seem to have thrown the book out the window and just done their own way? I hate that. If it's someone as important as Neil, I want to show that the guy's genius in every facet. So it wasn't that hard to do [with 'Sandman']. Comic books aren't hard to do in audio because we aren't fighting the image, we can live comfortably alongside the image in the book. There are moments where I have to slightly explain more, and hopefully, my dialogue then doesn't sound too clunky. There have been very few problems and they have more to do with the years that have passed since the comics were written (in late 1980s and 1990s). Attitudes have slightly changed. The way he introduces these issues is slightly out of date. So I can massage that. When you get to the second act of Sandman in which we have a whole storyline about a trans person, and that didn't need substantial work. But there are serial killers, and a whole scene in a diner where people are being murdered. You don't want to step away from it, you want to be as graphic. But at the same time, you want to be sensible. But I think the one thing I'm really pleased with Kshitij is that we I managed to get inside Neil's head. I knew that there would be a TV series quite early on. And my approach to this changed completely at that point. I threw out the script when I was about halfway through episode one. Because I knew I had to absolute, I knew that a TV series would change things, it would be a different kind of experience because it is. So in our version, I decided the listener is going to be sitting on Neil's shoulder as he imagines this. You will be in his head as the pictures come. And so when Neil said, if you're having a narrator, I'd quite like to do the job if you'd have me. And I said 'Yes, please!' immediately because I didn't want to give him a minute to change his mind. Q. Can you describe your process of adapting stories and how the words you write will or should sound when they are voiced? Do you have any control? A. Well, I'm very fortunate in that I direct as well as write. So having written the script, I'm in the room with the actor as they are saying the lines. The process with James McAvoy who played Morpheus for us was that he and I had about three long zoom calls, with just him sitting in his kitchen and me here talking through how we saw the character and where Morpheus was coming from. And how, and this is really interesting about the character, he is not a hero, he can be despicably mean. It was quite a complicated thing, and we had to find a way into it. And there were technical things like James has a Scottish accent. But he can do any accent. I said he needs to have a straight English accent here. And I'm certain that Vijay Varma, as Morpheus would have had the same conversation with the team directing the Hindi version. I was always at the end of the phone, if somebody had a problem. Q. What are some of the challenges that you have faced while adapting stories for audio? You also worked with Douglas Adams. A. I'm lucky because Douglas and I got to discuss everything, you know, and then, and then it didn't happen. And then it did happen after he died. So thank God I had that conversation with him. You know, I didn't have to use a seance to check stuff with him. There's always the risk of making it clunky. Most of my problem-solving is with sound effects, getting sound effects to tell the story so the actors don't have to, and that can be magic at times and other times a real headache because you don't know how to. I mean, gun in my hand is loaded is quite easy. If you just hear a gun cocked, for example, that tells you a gun is in the room. And if the line is 'I'm gonna kill you', you know that this is the guy who's probably holding the gun. Neil and I disagree a lot about narrators. Neil likes narrators, and I don't. But when Neil offers to be the narrator, you say 'fine!'. I try not to have a narrator because I like the challenge of telling the story as if it was a movie, where dialogue and sound effects and music bring that emotional warmth to it. And of course, you've listened to 'Alien' dramas. So you know one of the key characters in the alien drama doesn't have language. It's just a kid. So then you really have to be inventive. After a bit, it becomes fun to challenge yourself to tell a story without words as crutches, and isn't as Douglas said once to me, "You don't have to tell the audience everything, they will work it out." And it's just how far can you push that is really my thing. Q. You have a great relationship with Neil Gaiman. Do you actively have conversations with authors whose books you are adapting while you are writing the script? A. Very much so. I asked Neil if he still had the scripts of 'Sandman' and thank goodness he did. So I could get those and see what he'd written and that was important because I literally wanted to take what he'd said. And that also helps because sometimes he would write in the original scripts. There's a sort of preface where he says, 'I've had a terrible week. I've written this story three times, I can't make it work. So I've started again, here it is.' And you realise that it's not easy for him. And in the same way, I'm talking to Douglas Adams, 30 years ago in the basement of his house in London. And somebody's just written a script, supposedly for the first episode of the third series of 'Hitchhikers', and he hates it. And he rang me in my office at the BBC and said, 'Can you come around?' and I turn up at the house. He's sitting in the basement at his laptop, typing out a script as it should be. And he's done about two pages. And then he slams the laptop saying, "I can't write this twice. And I said, "Well, I'll do it." And then he goes, "Oh, yeah, alright, you do it." And you can take the credit. But so you get a sense of how hard it is to do creative work. And with Douglas we had a lot of technical conversations about 'How do we solve this? How do we do this?' What's really interesting about these stories is that have created such rich mythologies for people, but at the end of the day, you have to approach it like an engineer — taking apart a machine, taking a toolkit and, and using a wrench to undo the bolts and take the top off and lift off the lid and look inside and think, 'Oh, my God, you know, how could this still be running when it's such a mess?' But you see the trial and error that helped Douglas and Neil arrived at a result and how finely judged something is when you see a director's cut of a movie that isn't as good as the movie you remember, things like that. Editorial choices are so subtle and tight. When I can talk to the authors or see their work... not their final work, but the prep work. That works. Watch WION live here:

Dirk Maggs: 'In audio entertainment, you are a partner in the enterprise'

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