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Here's Steven Soderbergh’s version of 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'

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Steven Soderbergh’s "remake" of Raiders of the Lost Ark might be better than the original.

Over on his website, Extension 765, the director and producer has re-envisioned Steven Spielberg’s 1981 film by adding a soundtrack that sounds like it was ripped from a Nicolas Winding Refn film, stripping the dialogue, and making the film black and white. Why did he do this? Well, he's nerding out about staging:

So I want you to watch this movie and think only about staging, how the shots are built and laid out, what the rules of movement are, what the cutting patterns are. See if you can reproduce the thought process that resulted in these choices by asking yourself: why was each shot—whether short or long—held for that exact length of time and placed in that order? Sounds like fun, right? It actually is. To me. Oh, and I’ve removed all sound and color from the film, apart from a score designed to aid you in your quest to just study the visual staging aspect.

Soderbergh was so enamored with Spielberg’s knack for staging, he built a new version of the film around this concept, therefore directing our eyes away from the love story and action sequences to a whole new visual field. With this refocus, the opening scene takes on a completely different tone. 

You can watch the whole film here.

Screengrab via Extension 765


Hulu nabs J.J. Abrams for adaption of Stephen King's bizarre JFK novel

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In its ongoing quest to deliver the type of high-end programming Netflix has offered, Hulu has stepped up to bring us the time travel/conspiracy thrill ride we didn't know we were waiting for: an adaptation of Stephen King's Kennedy assassination thriller 11/22/63.

Though the choice may seem an odd one—a 24-style string of attempts to stop JFK from driving past that grassy knoll seems a bit bland—the creative team behind the series is formidable: J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot production company will be producing the series, with Bridget Carpenter, fresh from Sundance's original series The Red Road, serving as writer and executive producer. 

The story centers on an English teacher who abandons his modern life to travel back in time to attempt to stop the assassination of JFK. As often happens in time travel scenarios, things don't exactly pan out as expected. Though the novel is a break away from King's traditional horror, it was hailed as a success by critics. King said in a statement that he was looking forward to the adaptation:

If I ever wrote a book that cries out for long-form, event TV programming, 11/22/63 is it. I’m excited that it’s going to happen, and am looking forward to working with J.J. Abrams and the whole Bad Robot team.

Adapting a King novel is a safe bet for Hulu as it struggles to compete with Netflix's original programming. King adaptations have always been a solid ratings win, from the early ratings grabs of mini-series like It and The Stand to the more recent wins. Bag of Bones, while critically panned, was a top ratings draw for cable network A&E in 2012, and Under the Dome continues to pull a hefty viewership for CBS.

Hulu's adaptation will air in nine, hour-long episodes over a single season, though the concept could lend itself to further episodes.

“I’ve been a fan of Stephen King since I was in junior high school,” Abrams said. “The chance to work with him at all, let alone on a story so compelling, emotional and imaginative, is a dream. We are thrilled to be working with Hulu on this very special project."

Photo via Wikimedia Commons; CC-BY-S.A-3.0

Landmark ruling on music copyright could spell trouble for satellite radio

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Flo and Eddie said enough was enough.

After hearing their solid gold hits, "Happy Together," "Eleanor," and "She’d Rather Be With Me" played on satellite radio station Sirius XM and Pandora without any royalties, the founding members of the Turtles went to court seeking $100 million in settlement fees. In what will be a major blow to satellite radio programmers, the Central District Court of California has ruledagainst Sirius XM and in favor of Flo & Eddie Inc. over not paying to play pre-1972 music on the satellite radio station.

Keep in mind, we’re talking more than the Turtles here. Any pre-1972 copyright-holding artist, including The Beatles, Elvis, Motown, much of the Rolling Stones catalog, and countless others, would need to be compensated each time Sirius XM or online music services play their music. The federal copyright rules are somewhat murky for music prior to 1972, with protection offered under a number of inconsistent, unclear state laws. The U.S. Copyright Office has issued a report stating that it believes recordings made prior to 1972 should be covered under federal law and has made that recommendation to Congress.

“Federalization would best serve the interest of libraries, archives and others in preserving old sound recordings and in increasing the availability to the public of old sound recordings,” the U.S. Copyright Office stated. Under federal law, copyrights held by the original owners of the music would run 95 or 120 years, until 2067 at the latest.

Satellite and online radio stations such as Pandora have been skating on thin legal ice for a few years waiting for the copyright issue to reach the courts. Earlier this year, Capitol Records sued Pandora in New York state court for failure to pay royalties for pre-1972 music. In 2013, Sony Music Entertainment, UMG Recordings and Warner Music Group sued SiriusXM over its use of pre-1972 music.

Being forced to pay royalties to play music prior to 1972 will have a major economic impact on satellite and online radio. SiriusXM has stations that exclusively play songs from the ‘50s, ‘60s and ’70s, so the addition of royalties would force the satellite network to either pay up, eliminate those channels, or pass the cost onto customers with higher subscription fees. The same challenges face Pandora, Spotify, and similar competitors, as the addition of royalty fees would cut seriously into their already thin margins. 

As a means to move forward, music industry insiders have called for “an oldies law” that would move pre-1972 music under federal copyright law. Earlier this year, Reps. George Holding (R-N.C.) and John Conyers (D-Mich.) brought HR 4772 to the floor, which would require royalty payments to pre-1972 artists. In July, the proposed law was referred to subcommittee.

H/T Gigaom | Photo via thephotographymuse/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Here's the full-length trailer for James Franco's 'The Interview'

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Shots fired: The official trailer for The Interview has been released.

Sony Pictures released the controversial film's official full-length trailer today. The Interview stars James Franco and Seth Rogen as tabloid journalists who are hired by the CIA to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. From the trailer, which offers glimpses at cameo roles by Rob Lowe and celebrity chef Guy Fieri, it appears to return the frequent comedic collaborators to familiar, improvisational ground that they previously enjoyed in films like This Is the End and Pineapple Express.

However, not everyone is eagerly anticipating the film's release. North Korea's Korean Central News Agency deemed the film's release an act of war (not to be confused with Franco's film Your Highness, which was simply a declaration of war on good comedy). The statement came in response to a teaser trailer that was released in June.

If the North Korean leader makes good on his promise, the first wave of attacks will come on Dec. 25.

Screengrab via Sony Pictures Entertainment/YouTube

Sam Pepper accused of sexual assault by fellow YouTuber

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Just hours after calling the prank video in which he grabbed girls’ butts a “social experiment,” popular YouTuber Sam Pepper has been accused of assaulting a female vlogger.

The accusation comes from Dottie Martin, a British vlogger on YouTube known as thisbedottie. She posted the video, titled “A Cautionary Tale,” Tuesday to her more than 54,000 subscribers, noting to her Twitter followers that she was pretty nervous about posting it.

Martin started out her story—one she said she had never planned to tell—in general terms. She went to a popular YouTuber’s meet-and-greet about two years ago when she was 16, and he invited her to the movies later on. While there, they kissed, and when he tried to push things further, she pushed his hands away. When she called him out on it later, he accused her of tricking him, suggesting that she owed him something.

“It suggests that one, I had agreed to do anything more than go to the cinema with him; two, because I let him kiss me he was entitled to do anything else; and three, that his niceness only lasted as long as I held sexual promise,” she said.

At the end of the video, she reveals the YouTuber in question is Pepper, who was 23 at the time. He had taken advantage of her as a minor and a fan, she explained, and she felt she had a responsibility to share her story so that it doesn’t happen to anyone else.

It’s just the latest controversy for Pepper this week. Many prominent members of the YouTube community signed an open letter to Pepper to remove his prank video (which was eventually removed from YouTube for violating its “policy on nudity or sexual content”) in which he appears to be sexually assaulting women, and he was banned from attending Playlist Live and VidCon. His apology video, where he calls the prank video a “social experiment,” rubbed many the wrong way.

The YouTube community, which came out in support of the girls and women who accused YouTube musicians Alex Day, Tom Milsom, and about a dozen others in March, is stepping up again for Martin. Some of the comments are defending Pepper, but the majority of them are showing their full support.

Martin is touched by many of the comments she’s received from followers.

We've sent Collective Digital Studio and Pepper a request for comment, and we'll update if we get a response.

Photo via thisbedottie/YouTube

Can YouTube convince young people to vote?

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OurTime.org, one of the nation's largest voter empowerment organizations targeted at young voters, partnered with YouTuber Jenn McAllister, better known as JennXPenn, to apply her popular top 10 format to a video about the joys of being 18 and how voting is one of the many things you can engage in once you cross the threshold into adulthood.

“Through using YouTube I’ve been put in this position where a lot of people look up to me,” McAllister told the Daily Dot. “I have the ability to talk about whatever I want to talk about. I think it’s good for me to talk about issues like this because I think it’s important, and a lot of my viewers are around the same age as me, or a little bit younger, so it’s something that’s going to be coming up soon. So I thought I’m in a good position to talk about it.”

In the video, she lists several other, more scandalous things you can do at 18, including playing the lottery and getting a tattoo, as well as registering to vote. McAllister, who is newly 18 and registered to vote, says she gets her political information from a mix of traditional media and the new media where she makes her living.

“I actually watch the news a lot; it’s something I kind of have playing in the background,” she said. “And of course there’s so much information in your fingertips on the Internet. It gives you a way to stay informed and gives you a way to come up with your own stand on [issues].”

Matthew Segal, the founder of OurTime.org (not to be confused with OurTime.com, the dating site for seniors), says partnering with pop culture figures and social media outlets is key to the site's mission of reaching young voters where they live.

“Fewer spokespeople elicit more trust and authenticity than YouTubers like JennXPenn,” he told the Daily Dot via email. “It's my prediction that more and more political entities will reach out to YouTube stars in the future because they have a greater capacity to mobilize audience online than many traditional celebrities do.”

YouTubers have lent their voices to politics in the past, like when several influential creators met with President Obama at the White House and developed videos about health care registration, a video that won a Streamy this past summer. Segal says smart and talented young creators like McAllister are a natural alignment for organizations such as his, and that he is confident audiences will respond to YouTube spokespeople about social and political issues.

“Millennials are one of the most socially-conscious generations in history and apathy, to us, is a turnoff,” Segal explained. “We also know that YouTubers like Tyler Oakley and Laci Green have galvanized tremendous audiences around issues such as LGBT rights and feminism. Social and political issues drive engagement.”

Screengrab via OurTime/YouTube

Emma Watson has the perfect counter to threats of nude-photo leak

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Emma Watson’s recent speech to the U.N. was praised by very nearly everyone thanks to its impassioned feminist message. We say it was praised by nearly everyone because as it turns out, for a small group of 4chan messageboard users, the popularity of Watson’s speech was too much to handle. She had to be stopped. 

In the words of one of the 4chan posts, “she makes stupid feminist speeches at UN, and now her nudes will be online, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH.” One commenter wrote about wanting to hunt down and share unpublished paparazzi upskirt shots that Watson had once mentioned in an interview. Another reported 4chan user created a website, which is currently counting down to 12am EST on Sept. 24. The implication is that it’s counting down to another nude photo leak.


 

There is no proof that anyone has any nude photos of Emma Watson, or that the countdown site is actually tied to 4chan. This is almost certainly a case of trolling. But in the light of the attention paid to leaked nude photos of other female celebrities, it’s still a blatant intimidation tactic. No human being is so perfectly squeaky-clean in their private life that something can’t be dug up to discredit them, and the aim of this game is to discourage Watson—and other women—from speaking publicly about feminism.

The nude photo threat was coupled with a celebrity death hoax using the #RIPEmmaWatson hashtag, along with fake news headlines claiming that she had been found dead in her hotel room.

Contrary to what CNN might think, 4chan is far from a homogenous entity. However, the site’s notorious /b/ board does have a long history of cyberbullying, doxing, and most recently, the public sexual harassment of female celebrities. The backlash against Watson is relatively minor when compared to the kind of abuse fielded by game developer Zoe Quinn, but that says more about the severity of online misogynist attacks than it does about Watson’s 4chan harassment.

So far, Watson has taken the high road and ignored any negative attention sent her way, only tweeting to publicize her #HeForShe gender equality campaign. It’s already caught on, with a number of celebrities, including Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Rashida Jones taking part. 

Considering Watson’s response to the celebrity photo leaks last month, however, she is definitely already aware of the darker side of the Internet.

Photo via Joella Marano/Wikimedia (CC-BY-SA-2.0)

A YouTuber wore blackface in old videos, and the community is furious

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In the wake of YouTube’s Sam Pepper controversy, viewers are calling out other YouTubers on the questionable content of their videos. One such YouTuber is Shane Dawson, who reaches more than 6 million subscribers and has, in the past, painted his face black to portray African-American characters.

Twitter user OhDionne called Dawson out on his history of blackface and wrote about the exchange on her Tumblr. Another post shows an exchange where Dawson defends his use of blackface when portraying talk show host Wendy Williams. Dawson responded on Twitter that the screencaps of him in blackface were from old videos years ago that he has removed from his official channel and for which he has subsequently apologized.

However, there are still videos on his official channel of him playing a “ghetto” character named Shanaynay, and in scenes of the video a woman playing a “scared white mom” says "I've seen Tyler Perry movies; I know what black people do." With or without the face paint, Dawson’s video could still be perceived as perpetuating racial stereotypes.

The controversy hits Dawson just as his film, Not Cool, hits theaters with less than positive reviews. The L.A. Timesdescribed the film as “a waste of time” and a “stab—no, a frantic machete swipe—at comedy that only date-rapists, racists and sociopaths could love." The film "begins with rapid-fire gags about overweight, undersexed losers; coitus with vegetables; loose bowels, rivers of puke and slut-shaming. And the film finds a way to tumble downhill from there.”

Angry viewers have called for an apology from Dawson, and for the YouTube community as a whole to be as sensitive to racial issues as they are to misogyny and homophobia. As Tumblr user chescaleigh writes:

Sam was banned from Vidcon over ONE video. Shane has done his modern day minstrel show act AT VIDCON and faced no repercussions. It’d be nice if he’d acknowledge why these thing are problematic, apologize to his audience and stop doing them. …

Start the conversation about why this isn’t ok. Normalizing racism has serious consequences, the same way sexism and homophobia have consequences. Unfortunately the majority of the YouTube audience isn’t going to listen or care unless it comes from a high profile (ahem WHITE) content creator.

Photo via Gage Skidmore (CC BY SA 2.0) | Remix by Jason Reed 

The serial hoax artists behind the Emma Watson nude-photos countdown

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A website promising the release of stolen nude photos of actress Emma Watson is a hoax—and 4chan is not behind it.

Emmayouarenext.com is the work of SocialVevo, a team of social media pranksters who previously preyed on NASA during the government shutdown, took emotional advantage of Family Guy fans following the “death” of a beloved character, and sent the Daily Dot a wave of bogus Twitter followers in a spam attack.

Now it appears that SocialVevo has again duped some of the world’s top news organizations into falling for its shenanigans.

Emma Watson nude-photos countdown


Because of 4chan’s celebrated seedy side, and its ephemeral nature, nearly every single burp or whisper surrounding Celebgate has been blamed on the notorious imageboard. 

Its bad reputation is compounded by the fact that, unlike Reddit, 4chan does not employ a public-relations professional to fact check the media. The only official 4chan “employee” is Christopher “moot” Poole, the site’s founder, administrator, and muse. And unless he’s called into court, he’s not one to discuss 4chan drama openly.

The Emma Watson-branded website was created in the wake of the second round of leaks in Celebgate (or “The Fappening”), the release of hundreds of nude photographs of celebrities, such as Jennifer Lawrence, Kaley Cuoco, and Hayden Panettiere. The first round of leaks originated on an obscure NSFW imageboard known as AnonIB but quickly gained traction on 4chan’s /b/ board, notorious for its pornography, pranks, and love of animals

Following the initial round of celebrity leaks on Aug. 30, news organizations like Vox, the International Business Times, the Washington Post, and the New York Times parachuted into /b/ to try to make sense of the community and gulp down that delicious traffic nectar. 

This has resulted in a massive spike in 4chan popularity, according to Google:

4chan Google search trends


It’s also resulted in a lot of misreporting. 

On Monday, Business Insider, the Washington Post, the Belfast Telegraph, the BBC, and others ran articles claiming that 4chan was behind emmayouarenext.com. The Daily Dot also reported on the countdown. (Editor's note: James Cook, the author of the Business Insider article, is a former staff member of the Daily Dot.)

Business Insider 4chan Emma Watson

BBC 4chan Emma Watson

4chan article

Telegraph Emma Watson article


None of these stories provide any proof that /b/ was actually behind this. Not one screengrab from /b/ discussing the prank is included. The only thing these organizations cite as proof of the imageboard users’ involvement is the 4chan logo featured on the countdown site.

What all four of these news organizations and others failed to realize—or at least fail to mention in their articles—was a report from a shady blog called FoxWeekly, published a day earlier, alleging 4chan’s connection to emmayouarenext.com.

Emma Watson nude photo countdown site


This lack of evidence connecting 4chan to the Watson site led redditors, 4chan users, and folks from 8chan (a 4chan clone) on a massive quest that connected FoxWeekly and emmayouarenext.com to SocialVevo.

For starters, the Internet sleuths pieced together evidence that shows emmayouarenext.com is hosted on the same server as a company called Rantic Marketing.

A search for Rantic turned up its website and Twitter account. On its site, Rantic claimed to have worked with almost the exact same list of companies as SocialVevo. And on Twitter, hundreds of fake accounts that tweeted links to emmayouarenext.com are following Rantic’s Twitter handle, @RanticMarketing.

On @RanticMarketing is where these sleuths found a now-deleted tweet praising FoxWeekly for its 4chan coverage:

Rantic deleted tweet

FoxWeekly has, for the past six months, lifted dozens of copyrighted articles from the BBC, the New York Times, CNN, and the Associated Press. The site was founded by someone who calls himself Joey, joey b, and juice7292—the names used by SocialVevo’s founders.

A small group of Internet marketers, SocialVevo (also known as Swenzy) capitalizes off of trending topics and major news events by manipulating social media and creating prank websites that it uses to sell YouTube views, Facebook likes, and Twitter followers. 

During the Oct. 2013 government shutdown, for example, SocialVevo built a site called rememberte13th.com, which featured a rocketship and a countdown that alleged NASA planned to release the “biggest discovery that will shake the Earth” on Nov. 13. The top-left corner of the page displayed the official NASA logo.

NASA SocialVevo prank


Once Reddit users discovered that the site was a hoax, SocialVevo moved up the release date which turned out out to be a lousy music video from an artist named Beeki Vendi. 

Since its NASA hoax, SocialVevo’s pranks have followed a similar pattern. Each one has involved exploiting some pseudo-national news item, the creation of a countdown site promising to release some sort of scintillating information related to the news event, collecting mass media attention, a revision to the countdown because of people snooping around, and wrapping up the countdown with resulting links to one of SocialVevo’s sites or social media accounts.

Below are some other examples of SocialVevo’s countdown sites from the past year or so:

SocialVevo prank 1

SocialVevo prank 2

SocialVevo prank 3


After having looked over all this information Tuesday, the connection between Rantic, FoxWeekly, and SocialVevo wasn’t strong enough. So I reached out to “juice” (one of the SocialVevo founders) to find out if any of it was true. He denied having any part of emmayouarenext.com.

“[T]hose 4channers are just eating on that article you published about the fox site,” he told me via Skype chat. “[M]e and simon [one of the other alleged founders of SocialVevo] are trying to find out who owns the countdown too. [I]t started in 4chan. [W]e keep getting our emails hacked by 4chan users and ppl emailing us about the countdown its [sic] annoying as fuck.”

Hours after this conversation, Rantic completely overhauled its website (the original site can be seen here) to reflect the alleged drama with 4chan. This is what Rantic’s site looks like now:

Rantic 1

Rantic 2


So when the timer on emmayouarenext.com runs out, will it reveal some nudes of Watson? Not likely—especially since, as of midnight Tuesday, the site now redirects to rantic.com

Photo via David Shankbone/Flickr (CC BY 2.0) | Remix by Jason Reed 

Dan Patrick's 'Sports Jeopardy' fumbles at the line of scrimmage

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Dan, I’ll take disappointing game shows for $1,000.

Proving that even the best ingredients sometimes result in a webseries misfire, Crackle’s Sports Jeopardy gets off on a slow, tedious start resulting in a disappointing, dull half-hour of sports Q&A less far less fun than $2 draught trivia night at the local pub. Not even Dan Patrick, the ex-ESPN, Emmy Award-winning daily talk show host who doubles as Sunday Night Football pre-game guy, could save this from becoming a major borefest.

While it might not seem like it based on two of its first four episodes, the show was more than a decade in the making, Sports Jeopardy executive producer Harry Friedman told the Daily Dot. “We had some success about 15 years ago with Rock & Roll Jeopardy! which lasted 105 episodes on VH1, so we knew it could be done,” Friedman said. “Since then, sports has grown exponentially and this idea always [was] in the back of our mind. We were waiting for the right time, the right delivery system, and the right host.”

Friedman agrees that Patrick is the ideal person to be the show’s ringleader. “Dan is more than just a sportscaster,” Friedman said. “His [daily talk] show is more than a sports show. He gets into topics such as legislation, rules issues, debates about the role of concussions in sports, and other topics of the day.”

The executive producer also thinks the new format for this Web-delivered quiz show, which rewards points toward a season-ending tournament, will create some compelling drama when it comes to Final Jeopardy wagering. Contestants have to decide whether they want to win that episode (which also comes with a $5,000 cash prize) or try to better some of the previous high totals for a spot in the finals.

Friedman goes on to say that the 52 episodes that Crackle has committed to will be delivered via the Web to allow young audiences to watch it whenever, wherever, on whatever device they want. In short, we’re looking at Jeopardy for a new generation.

That said, Jeopardy, which has been around since my family only had one black-and-white TV, is an iconic broadcast property that has become part of our cultural consciousness with such phrases as “put that in the form of a question” and a ready ballast for a number of hilarious spoofy bits on Saturday Night Live and even SCTV. To take that legendary quiz show, with its own special je ne sais quoi, and attempt to add to its franchise by building a man cave set, tossing in some somewhat arcane sports trivia questions, and calling it good programming, is a recipe for disaster. 

Dan Patrick tries his best to liven things up, but the show’s staging provides him little elbow room to engage with his guests with his familiar quick quips and singular interviewing style. But the biggest issue is the contestants. They sure may know who won the Stanley Cup in 1975 (Philadelphia Flyers), but man, they are deadly dull. Which leads me to wonder…

Back in 1985, several lifetimes ago, I was a contestant on the “real” Jeopardy, a reincarnation of the original version (1964-1979) when Art Fleming was the host. The process of being selected as a contestant was far more than being better than your competition at knowing the capital of Peru (Lima) or the name of Dumbo’s mother (Jumbo, which I answered incorrectly). In order to get on that very selective show, you had to exude that “ready to jump out of your skin” level of excitement. Clearly, the process of selecting the folks for Sports Jeopardy omitted the bubbly personality phase of the pregame bootcamp. The six contestants in the two preview shows were as stiff as statues with facial expressions that emoted fear, not fun.

As punchless as the question-and-answer part of the show is, there is a strange postgame huddle in which Dan and his announcer/sidekick, Kelly Miyahara, sit around and schmooze with the players to recap the game. But the losing contestants are in no mood to relive the mistakes they just made, so this painful segment is marked by a series of blank stares. This oddly conceived video suffix is an off-base take on The Box Score, a regular part of Dan Patrick’s weekday talk show in which his crew (The Danettes) talk about the highlights from that day’s broadcast. Over there, it works; on Sports Jeopardy, it bombs. As a suggestion, it would be great to see more of the highly accomplished Miyahara, who has long been a member of (the regular) Jeopardy Clue Crew and a veteran Ironman athlete.

To me, the biggest disappointment is the misuse of Dan Patrick, a true sports star, but one whose talents go far beyond the playing field. He has been a featured player in nearly all of Adam Sandler’s films, the best of which is his cameo in Just Go With It. Surely he can do better than this.

Screengrab via Sony Pictures Entertainment

Casting Society of America gives first nods to webseries

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In the webseries world, much attention is given to the faces in front of the camera, but the skillful casting teams that got those faces on the screen in the first place are often ignored. The Casting Society of America aims to change that by adding a new webseries category to its annual awards show.

For 30 years, CSA has honored the best in casting efforts across television, movies, theater, and, now, digital series. While the five series nominated skew more toward traditional television formats than the types of webseries honored at industry-specific events such as the Streamy Awards, shows like the Streamys have yet to honor casting teams as part of their technical awards. Two of the nominees were produced by Crackle, one via CW Seed that secured a television run, one is a Hulu original, and only one series saw a YouTube run via Machinima. There’s also a double-nomination for Matthew Lessall, who cast both Aim High and Mortal Kombat: Legacy. The nominees include:

Aim High (Crackle)

Casting: Matthew Lessall

Aim High focuses on the life of a top U.S. government agent with a twist: The star is a 16-year-old high school student. Twilight’s Jackson Rathbone plays main character Nick Green, and the series deals with the juxtaposition of Green’s school life with his agent life. The McG-produced project debuted in 2011, but it was picked up by Crackle for its second season with a more traditional TV-style format.

Backpackers (CW Seed)

Casting: Stephanie Gorin

This Canadian series has a rocky road to the screen. It follows two friends backpacking through Europe after one experiences cold feet over his wedding; then, when his entire personal journal goes missing—and then viral—they head off on an adventure to recover it. The series aired as eight webisodes on CW Seed before making the jump to television. However, CW abruptly removed it from the lineup after only two episodes.

Chosen (Crackle)

Casting: Josh Einsohn

Another Crackle production, Chosen (stylized as Ch:os:en) follows a lawyer and father played by Milo Ventimiglia, who receives a mysterious package one day with instructions to kill another person. He realizes he’s been thrust into a high-stakes game against his will and must play to stay alive. 

Deadbeat (Hulu)

Casting: Adam Caldwell, Cindy Tolan

Hulu gave this series a massive marketing push in the spring, which follows a slacker medium who helps ghosts resolve various issues so they can move on to their final resting place. Tyler Labine plays the stoner medium, who sometimes gets help from his drug dealer (played by Brandon T. Jackson). The series didn’t reach widespread acclaim, but it did get a second season pick-up.

Mortal Kombat: Legacy(Machinima)

Casting: Matthew Lessall

Adapted from the Mortal Kombat video game series, the first season of the show is a prequel to the video game that sets up why the competitors entered the tournament featured in the game, while season 2 documents the actual tournament. The series originally was pitched as a movie, but was only greenlit as a webseries. There have been several casting shakeups for the series, so this nomination seems especially apt since Lessall has had to change actors often.

What’s surprising is a lack of some of the industry’s awards darlings, series like Video Game High School and The Lizzie Bennet Diaries,which have scooped up Primetime Emmys, Streamy Awards, and general praise. Both function in shorter-format episodes and air on YouTube instead of a specialized platform.

The Casting Society of America doles out its 30th annual Artios Awards Jan. 22.

Screengrab via Machinima/YouTube

Bizarre international OkCupid date is definitely hitting the big screen

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Clara Bensen’s story about her three-week date with a man she met on OkCupid is now going to be a movie, Variety reported.

Adam Brooks, whose previous work includes Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason and Wimbledon, will helm the screenplay about the candidates for “World’s Most Unlikely Pair,” which is currently titled No Baggage. New Line picked up the rights to the project in April and will produce the film.

Bensen, a writer based in Austin, originally wrote about her “craziest OkCupid date ever” for Salon in November 2013. Before she even met Jeff, he suggested to her the idea of booking an outbound flight to an international airport and traveling on a whim with no change of clothes and only the bare essentials. She only met him when they were about to fly out to Istanbul.

They traveled to eight countries and across more than 3,500 miles in three weeks, and the experimental date turned out to be life-changing.

“Materially speaking I was as empty-handed as the day we started, but I actually carried a great deal back home across the Atlantic,” Bensen wrote. “Traveling with no luggage and no plans was much more than a minimalist lesson in living well with less. It was an intense, in-your-face invitation to the unknown.”

There’s no release date or casting announcements yet, but the final product will inevitably end up being a good first OkCupid date idea—or maybe second.

H/T Variety | Photo via Trevor Hurlbut/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Kirsten Dunst and the price of fame in the viral age

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Celebrities are people too. 

Believe that or not, filmmaker Matthew Frost enjoys tackling the issues around the price of fame. As a creator of video shorts, the former master of the music video possesses just the right directorial touch to capture the subtle drama and humor that intersect when Kirsten Dunst and Jessica Chastain walk among mere mortals. His latest, "Aspirational," featured in the current issue of Vs. Magazine, is a dark yet comedic view of celeb fame in the digital age as seen through the eyes of a popular actress.

What makes "Aspirational" work is Dunst’s incredulousness over a short—and perhaps all-too familiar—interaction with a pair of fans who drive by her home only to stop and gawk at the star. As she goes from trepidation to polite interaction to total bewilderment, we join Dunst on this ride that moves beyond the cynical to something sad and creepy. Two and a half minutes is not a lot of cinematic real estate, but Frost maximizes every second.

It’s worth also looking at Frost’s earlier short film featuring Chastain, star of The Help and Zero Dark Thirty. In that piece, shot to coincide with Vogue’s cover story on Chastain, the actress comes up with a clever surprise for the fan who quietly stalks her while sitting alongside on a New York park bench. 

Who said Hollywood types have no sense of humor?

Screengrab via Matthew Frost/Vimeo

Don't be fooled by Apple ads that tell you to bend your iPhone 6

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Some pranksters from 4chan are trying to convince iPhone 6 owners to bend their phones.

The effort by /b/, 4chan’s random imageboard and pit of sin, follows news reports of people intentionally and unintentionally bending their brand new phones.

The objective of /b/’s prank is to use various Apple-inspired ads to convince gullible owners to bend their phones as a way to improve their screen angle and give it a “unique shape.”

The prank has been unofficially called Bend.

 

The following screengrabs are from one of the threads /b/ users used to share their ads. To see them larger, visit here and here.

 

This prank follows just a week after /b/ tried fooling people into microwaving their iPhone 6’s in order to unlock some special feature. That prank was called iWave.


In case you don't trust your BS meter (or know an iPhone user who's particularly dupable), here are some of the other /b/ Bend ads to watch out for.

 

Photos via 4chan

The 'Transparent' cast talks Jeffrey Tambor, binge-watching, and Amazon Studios

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A daughter who’s just unexpectedly encountered her father dressed in women’s clothing is sitting with him trying to make sense of what she’s seeing.

“Just help me out here,” she says. “Are you saying that you’re going to start dressing up like a lady all the time?”

The father laughs and shakes his head. “All my life, my whole life I’ve been dressing up like a man.”

Rewind. Repeat. Try not to cry.

That gut-punching encounter caps off the trailer for Transparent, Amazon Studios’ latest original offering. The moment doesn’t happen until the second episode, but it’s far from a spoiler. The series, which deals with a father’s late-life transition to living as a woman named Maura, wasn’t intended to be about secrecy at all.  

“Jill [Soloway, the show’s creator, writer and director] didn’t want to launch the show with a long process of secrecy,” explained Amy Landecker, who plays Sarah, the daughter coming to terms with her father’s identity. “She wanted to launch the show with the truth. There’s something about that moment that makes everybody tear up. We all have that thing—when it’s said the right way, you get it. There’s an understanding. It’s so moving and so eloquently put.”

“You’re watching two beautiful actors, but you forget that they’re actors,” said Judith Light, who plays Maura’s ex-wife Shelly in the series. “They’re having this intimate experience between the two of them. They’re just so tender and truthful. Everybody knows universally what it means for their parent to tell you a truth about themselves that’s so infrequent and so rare; you are wide open. I think that happens between the two of them in that scene.”

Transparent follows Maura, played by Arrested Development’s Jeffrey Tambor, as she opens up to her family about her female identity. While the show may hinge on Tambor as Maura and Maura’s journey to an authentic self, the rest of the family isn’t played simply for laughs or background moments. Each of their characters is crafted intricately and has his or her own individual complexities that contributes to the overall complexities of the entire ensemble.

“It is Jeffrey’s character that is the catalyst for this story,” explained Light. “His performance is beyond compare. What’s interesting to me about it is there’s a lot of what happens when someone does something that changes the entire dynamic of an entire family. But that’s just the content … of the story. Jeffery’s character chooses to live his authentic life as Maura, and in doing so goes through a process. Her process is something that we watch and follow. I think it’s the same for the rest of [the characters], except we’re not in as authentic of a process as she is. "I think that’s what makes for the humor, and I think that’s what makes for the complexities. I can say that the overall context is this family that loves each other deeply is in a great deal of shift and change.”

For some of the casting, Soloway took nontraditional routes. For the role of Josh, Maura’s only son, she first connected with fellow director Jay Duplass to see if he had any ideas. Over the course of a dinner, she realized Duplass might be the perfect person for the role himself and eventually cast him. Carrie Brownstein had her role created when Soloway began reshoots on the pilot and realized there was space for a character, Syd, whom Brownstein describes as having a triangulated relationship between Josh and his sister Ali, played by Gaby Hoffmann.

“I think her journey is both as an observer of the family, which she has been for many years, but also kind of figuring out her own agency in her own life,” said Brownstein. “Trying to figure out who she is away from these people who have taken up a lot of her time and energy.” 

Light, who has a storied television career, told the Daily Dot she fell in love with Soloway’s Sundance film Afternoon Delight and “no pun intended, was delighted.”

“I was just really consumed with wanting to be in this project,” she continued. “I’d been involved in the LGBT community for so long, and I knew where she was coming from … She wanted to change the culture in a powerful way, and I believe that she was going to do it with this show. And I believe that she is doing it.”

Landecker, whose Sarah is going through her own coming out during the series as she reunited with her former college-era lesbian lover while still married to her husband, said she too was affected by Afternoon Delight in accepting her role.

“It’s in my top 10 films I’ve ever seen,” said Landecker. “I’ve never seen my personal identity as a single mother [and] sexual being represented so well. I thought, 'Whatever she did to make all of that happen, if she’s going to use those powers, I will do anything to be a part of that.'”

The series, which premieres Sept. 26 on Amazon, will follow the Netflix route of releasing all episodes at once, allowing for the audience to binge-watch the whole season. That’s a thrilling but also scary prospect for some of the cast.

“For me it’s exciting and a little overwhelming that we just finished shooting six weeks ago and in a week everyone is going to see everything we did,” said Duplass. “A lot of times you end up waiting a very long time having your stuff come out, but this is so fast and immediate.”

“A couple of my friends have offered to have viewing parties with me and I was like, ‘No!,’ explained Landecker. “I don’t want to watch the whole thing with people. It’s very personal. But I do binge-watch things, I watched House of Cards and I watched Scandal during a flu epidemic where I spent 14 hours in bed.”

Her costar Light claims to never have binge-watched anything, but she says aside from that technological advantage, there are other benefits to working with a digital-based network like Amazon. 

“I remember being on the set and a whole bunch of the executives from Amazon came over,” Light said. “For those of us who’ve been on network television for a long time, you start wondering, ‘Why are you here, did we do something wrong?’ And they go, ‘Hey, we love the show, we just wanted to come hang out!’ It’s not just our story; it’s everybody’s baby.”

Landecker explained that the unique position of a well-funded network that only needs to please a small group of people in order to accomplish what they’re trying to accomplish was important to her.

“You get this incredibly niche art that’s produced with the budget of a network television show,” she said. “There’s not a mandate on it that there is on network television, where something wonderful can get canceled when there’s not enough eyes on it. This whole experience started three years ago with [Soloway’s] own father, and in three years she’s written, produced, directed and will be releasing an entire television show based on this life experience. That’s unheard of in Hollywood.”

For some cast members, like Duplass, the lines between digital and mainstream have already blurred for his personal consumption of media.

“For me, I watch Amazon on my TV,” he explained. “I watch HBO on HBO Go. It all comes through my TV, whether it’s Web-based content or TV-based content, or usually movie content because I have young kids right now. In a weird way, to me, there’s really no difference between watching an HBO show or an Amazon show. I don’t know how many people are doing that, but it’s already at a point to me where I don’t perceive the difference.”

Amazon is banking on the propensity for viewers to expect TV-quality art from their digital shows with this week’s premiere, but Landecker stressed that the unique delivery system gives the show a chance to both make a splash and take its time to gain an audience if needed.

“What’s great about a show like this is if it doesn’t catch fire in September, you have plenty of time,” she said. “It’s out there and word of mouth can spread.”

If the trailer and the reviews from early viewers are any indication, Transparent is poised to become an Amazon success story.

It just has to come out first.

Photo via Amazon Studios


Taylor Swift turned the best Taylor Swift meme into a T-shirt

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If you spend any time on Tumblr, you may have encountered this now-legendary post:
 

The meme has proved so popular, in fact, that Taylor Swift herself “liked” it shortly after joining the blogging service. That alone was enough to make her fans shriek with delight, but then this happened:

Which led to Swiftians losing their minds altogether—as they should; it’s a marvel that Taylor Swift spends as much time on the Internet as we do.

Obviously, the shirt is already for sale.

Photo by Eva Rinaldi/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

'Tiny Detectives' is the 'True Detective' parody we've been waiting for

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When HBO announced that the second season of True Detective would star yet another pair of white men—in this case, Vince Vaughn and Colin Farrell—the Internet was predictably disappointed. This tweet from an anti-feminism parody account sums up one of the most common complaints:

In short, the casting decision was less than inspirational, particularly from a series that received such fervent attention during and after its debut season.

Thanks to a new Funny or Die video, however, the Internet can imagine what it might have been like if two actresses who are short in stature but tall in talent were cast as the leads for True Detective season 2. These "Tiny Detectives" aren't the heroes HBO wants, but they are the heroes the Internet deserves.

Screenshot via Funny or Die

YouTuber Sam Pepper faces additional allegations of sexual misconduct

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Sam Pepper, the YouTube prankster who came under fire this week for a video in which he pinched women’s behinds without consent, has officially been dropped by Collective Digital Studio, the multichannel network that represented him.

New Media Rockstars reported that less than a week after the offending video hit YouTube, Pepper had been dropped despite posting videos earlier this week claiming that the original video was part of a series he called a “social experiment” to raise awareness about consent and abuse. His video was met with disbelief from many fellow YouTubers and YouTube fans.

The news of his release from CDS—confirmed this morning by the Daily Dot—comes in the wake of many more accusations of Pepper having engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct with women in the U.S. and U.K. Dottie Martin, a British vlogger, posted a video to her channel on Tuesday describing Pepper’s aggressive advances on a past date. Another user, who has chosen to remain anonymous, posted a 15-minute video Wednesday describing her encounter with Pepper that she says included non-consensual sex. (Warning: This video contains content that may be NSFW or triggering to some viewers.)

Meanwhile, Laci Green, the sex-positive YouTuber who spoke out against Pepper and penned an open letter cosigned by other notable YouTube users asking for an apology from the creator, tweeted this week that Pepper has been sending her harassing emails.

After some discussion on Twitter regarding the legality of free speech in relation to sexual harassment claims, Green posted a video discussing the controversy and some of the allegations and information she’s heard from people claiming to have been harassed and violated by Pepper in the past. 

A BuzzFeed report also shared several screenshots of alleged interactions between Pepper and female fans asking for nude photos.

Pepper claims that someone is spoofing his unused email address, but he has yet to address any of the sexual allegations against him or comment on his MCN having dropped him from their roster.

A PR representative for Collective Digital Studio confirmed Pepper's release, but said the network had no further comment.

Pepper is not the first YouTuber to be embroiled in a sexual abuse scandal. In March, several prominent YouTubers including Alex Day and Tom Milsom came under fire for accusations of abusive and coercive relationships, often with underage fans.

H/T New Media Rockstars | Photo via Gage Skidmore/Flickr (CC BY SA 2.0)

Bad Lip Reading gives the 'Walking Dead' zombies a catchy theme song

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The maestro of YouTube comedy, Bad Lip Reading, is back and hungry for brains. The folks who brought you "Medieval Fun-Time Land" and endlessTwilightparodies are back with a homage to The Walking Dead season 4, complete with rap lyrics, mushy turtles, and oh, yes, a zombie musical uprising.

While it doesn't quite top my personal fave BLR moment—"You can eat sand, young man!" from the group's Game of Thrones parody—the Walking Dead take has everything the original has: intense zombie standoffs, apocalyptic arguments, and Norman Reedus being Norman Reedus-y. But it also has typical Bad Lip Reading genius: heated debates over dolphins and apples, hammy zombies, and Carl Grimes busting out an impassioned, incoherent hip-hop anthem in anger at his dad to the tune of, what else, a thousand crooning members of the undead horde. 

The channel has also released Carl's rap song, "Carl Poppa" as a downloadable single, available from iTunes.

Screengrab via YouTube

Fans angered by rape joke in 'Simpsons'/'Family Guy' crossover

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Family Guy and The Simpsons: a match made in heaven? Not so much, according to the Simpsons fans objecting to Family Guy infecting their favorite show with rape jokes.

The two shows are airing an hourlong crossover episode this Sunday, promoted using a trailer in which Stewie Griffin and Bart Simpson are prank-calling Moe the bartender. Unfortunately, Stewie’s idea of a prank call is to say, “Moe, your sister’s being raped,” and then hang up. Needless to say, this “joke” is not getting the most positive feedback.

This is one of the very few occasions when feminists and a Christian censorship advocacy group are in agreement. "I was blown out of my shoes when I saw the scene with the rape joke in it," said Tim Winter of the Parents Television Council. "It really troubled me." (The scene in question starts at 0:48.)

The joke may have been intended to court controversial publicity. The target audience for Family Guy is people who enjoy edgy humor, and part of that enjoyment often comes from the satisfaction that you’re rebelling against so-called political correctness. This wouldn’t be the first time Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane has been upbraided for including a rape joke in the show, after all.

This 30-second scene is actually a very appropriate summary of the difference between the two shows: Bart Simpson’s dumb, schoolboy humor versus Stewie Griffin escalating massively in a bid for attention. It probably won’t do much damage to the crossover’s viewing figures, though. Fans of Family Guy will already be familiar with this kind of joke, and the number of people complaining from the Simpsons side can only be a small fraction of their overall audience.

Neither Fox nor MacFarlane has issued a statement on the controversy.

H/T Uproxx | Photo via Dailymotion

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