There's a fundamental disconnect between the trailer for Blockers and the actual movie. The trailer shows an all-too familiar story: After finding out that their daughters have pledged to lose their virginity on prom night, a group of protective parents decide to do everything in their power to stop them. In all fairness, the idea of parents as ill-equipped to deal with their daughters' burgeoning sexuality isn't all that hard to buy. But the fact that the preview appears to frame their cause as morally righteous feels distinctly out of touch in today's cultural landscape, to the point that the initial reaction to the preview was one of dubious caution. Really? Another movie about the importance of female purity? After all, one John Cena butt-chugging scene does not a subversive film make. But in reality, Kay Cannon's directorial debut goes far beyond the usual virginity scare trope (and that butt-chugging scene in question, it must be said, is masterfully done). The film is far more concerned with the intent and agency of its teenage protagonists — who, unlike what their parents believe, are very aware of the consequences of the choice they've made — than it is with reinforcing a message of puritan abstinence. It's almost as though the people in charge of marketing the film didn't know how to deal with its progressive messaging, and reverted to what they knew best. But this isn't a movie about virginity; it's a movie about sexual choice. And when the movie in question is an R-rated comedy about teenage girls from a major studio, directed by a woman, that feels downright revolutionary. The real key to Blockers is the way in which the film takes the time to zoom in on the motivations of each of its distinct characters, rather than mashing them all together in a protective parents vs. promiscuous teens divide. Take our three best friends: The more girly-girl of the trio, Julie (Kathryn Newton), has been dating her boyfriend Austin (Graham Phillips) for six whole months (practically a lifetime in high school). They've passed the "I love you stage," and are ready to consummate. And while her candy and rose petals fantasy of losing virginity might seem old school, don't be fooled — she knows what she wants, and how she wants it. Soccer star Kayla (Geraldine Viswanthan), on the other hand, is more pragmatic than romantic: she just wants to get the virginity thing over and done with so she can move on, and informs her lab partner that he's the lucky chosen one. And perhaps most compelling of all is Sam (Gideon Adlon), who buys into the pact as a way to remain connected to her best friends with college separation looming, even as she struggles to tell them that she's actually into girls. (In a Gen-Z twist that also showed up in this year's Love, Simon, it's not so much that she's worried about their judgment than she is about the status quo changing.) And then there's the parents, thrown together in a circumstantial friendship of their own: Julie's single "cool mom" Lisa (Leslie Mann), who really just wants to protect her daughter from the bad experiences she's had with sex; Sam's degenerate deadbeat dad Hunter (Ike Barinholtz), who, having long guessed that his daughter is gay, wants to shield her from peer pressure; and finally Kayla's sensitive beefcake dad Mitchell (John Cena), the more traditional of the bunch who's struggling to come to terms with the idea of his daughter as a sexual person. ("I can't even hug her anymore without feeling her boobs!" he laments at one point.) The saving grace where they're concerned is how self-aware they are about this whole thing. They know that they're playing into a double standard that demands that women remain innocent while men are encouraged to experiment. That's all fine in theory — but we're talking about their kids, damn it! Fuck progressive. Oh, and about John Cena — the casting in Blockers is phenomenal. Mann is almost manic in her best role in years, grounding the more boorish comedy of her male co-stars. (The scene shown in the trailer of them trying to decipher teen emoji speak is the rare time that's actually worked). Cena is basically what every dad pictures himself as when fantasizing about beating up a daughter's suitor, while Barinholtz vacillates between lovable doofus and, somewhat astonishingly, the voice of reason. Newton and Adlon are both great, but it's Viswanathan who emerges as a true comic find. Her timing is spot-on, and she injects some boyish swagger in a power dynamic that would traditionally have her simpering. (In one scene towards the end, she demands oral sex from her date, the first time I've ever seen anything like it onscreen.) The script by Brian and Jim Kehoe feels fresh, and reinvigorates a genre that's been put through its paces since Knocked Up hit the scene in 2007 (unsurprisingly, both were produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg). The film also owes much to the successes of Bridesmaids and Girls' Trip, both of which proved that there is an audience for women being raunchy. Still, that theory's never been tested in a teen-focused comedy, and that's where Cannon's expertise as writer of the Pitch Perfect franchise really shines through: in the many small details that make these girls feel real. Most cinematic portrayals of young women relegate them to the roles of shy prude or bitchy slut. These girls are assertive, yes, but they're not mean. They value their friendships. They talk about sex and make dick jokes because — shocker — women do that. But more importantly, they are the product of a generation who have been taught that they're entitled to make their own decisions when it comes to their sexuality, but also that they must listen to each other, and, crucially, consent. There's no one-sided pleading from a sex-starved boy trying to bargain with his girlfriend, and definitely no coercion. In fact, this movie is as much a positive example for how young men should act, as it is for young women. And those parents could learn a thing or two as well.

Sometimes you just don’t want to watch a movie based on a comic book, reboot, or three-quel. No, sometimes you just want to go back to basics and watch a classic movie. But since there are so many classic movies out there, which one should you choose to add to your Netflix queue? Thankfully, you can turn to the stars for guidance and choose a classic movie based on your zodiac sign. Whether you’re a big rom-com fan or prefer a feel-good drama, there are a number of must-sees out there for you. But with such a long list of titles — some of which might sound unfamiliar — it’s easy to get overwhelmed with the choices. Should you make it a Scorsese or Spielberg night? Luckily, you can let your zodiac sign do the choosing for you — at least to get you started. Here’s the classic movie you should watch based on your zodiac sign: ARIES Since Aries is a fire sign, you naturally like movies that let you channel your aggressive and passionate energy, which is why you’d prefer a high-energy thriller like Martin Scorcese’s Goodfellas. Nominated for a boatload of Oscars and starring Robert DeNiro, the film about the high-stakes Italian American crime syndicate, aka the Mafia, is your go-to. TAURUS Taurses love to laze around on the couch and have anything light, frothy, and super funny distract them from their own reality. You’ll love the comedy Some Like It Hot, starring Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon as two musicians posing as women to escape from the mob. Marilyn Monroe co-stars and is, of course, perfect. GEMINI Geminis love anything that keeps their minds moving, so they’ll enjoy a good mystery or thriller with a twisty plot. Cue the Alfred Hitchcock classic North By Northwest, starring Cary Grant as a man who’s mistaken for a government spy. CANCER Cancers prefer anything that is light on the drama and heavy on the glitz, glam, and feel-good vibes. If you haven’t watched My Fair Lady starring Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle in a musical version of Pygmalion, you haven’t experienced life yet. LEO Leos secretly (or not) dream of being the star of their own show, which is why they’ll love to catch A Star is Born with Judy Garland, hailed by many as the greatest musical of all time. (P.S. Lady Gaga will star in the remake later this year.) VIRGO Virgos prefer to be wowed by anything science fiction or, conversely, anything rooted in reality. Although Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind isn’t exactly based on true events…we don’t know if we’re truly alone, do we? LIBRA Libras love anything light-hearted, charming, and filled with love — much like themselves. If that sounds like you, then you need to check out When Harry Met Sally… and then everyone will “want to have what you’re having” (watch the movie, you’ll get it). SCORPIO The mysterious Scorpio loves anything scary — from gory thrillers to cheesy horror movies — because they actually like to be scared. Which is why if you haven’t watched the Oscar-winning Silence of the Lambs yet, then what are you waiting for? SAGITTARIUS Sagittarians love, love, and also love anything related to travel and lands far, far away. They’ll adore the fantasy love story The Princess Bride starring Cary Elwes and Robin Wright, and the romance between their respective characters, Westley and Princess Buttercup. CAPRICORN Capricorns are secretly animation lovers. They love the flashy characters, the music, the colors, and the witty dialogue. Watch Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, and see where the Disney magic all started. AQUARIUS Anything that is true to life is what an Aquarius really wants to watch. They love to think while also looking at the world in a different way. Watch Sally Field in Norma Rae, a film about a North Carolina textile factory worker who becomes involved in the labor union activities, and prepare to be inspired. PISCES Pisces are the natural dreamers of the zodiac. They love to escape their reality but also love rainbows, happy endings, and anything that puts a pep in their step. Their go-to movie is obviously The Wizard of Oz.

At one time the Flash movie was supposed to be released in early 2018, just a few months after Ezra Miller's full introduction as the Scarlet Speedster in Justice League, but a number of behind-the-scenes setbacks resulted in the movie being set aside and retooled. Last summer at San Diego Comic-Con, it was announced that The Flash was now being called Flashpoint, meaning that it would adapt the 2011 storyline of the same name. However, a new tidbit of information has us wondering if DC and Warner Bros have decided not to have Flash's first movie be Flashpoint-related anymore. Buried in its report about Dan Mazeau being hired to pen the screenplay for Armada, an adaptation of the 2015 novel written by Ready Player One author Ernest Cline, THR mentioned that Mazaeu worked on the Flash movie "when it was titled Flashpoint." Making this even more curious is that Borys Kit, who wrote the article, said on Twitter that all he noted was that the Flash movie is no longer being called Flashpoint, not that the movie itself won't adapt that storyline. For those unfamiliar with the original Flashpoint, it saw Barry Allen waking up in a radically different version of the main DC Comics timeline, with changes including Thomas Wayne being Batman, Aquaman and Wonder Woman being at war with one another, and Superman having been imprisoned by the U.S. government since infancy. Flashpoint was later adapted as the Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox animated movie and within Season 3 of The Flash TV series. While certain updates, from Gal Gadot reportedly reprising Wonder Woman in the movie to DC president Geoff Johns saying that the movie would contain Batman elements, have indicated that this Flashpoint could be a relatively faithful adaptation of the original story, in February it was rumored that the movie would make some radical changes, which included Captain Cold, Heat Wave and Dr. Light being the main villains. Regardless, in the wake of Justice League's underwhelming critical and commercial performance, the DC films division has been going through restructuring, and it's possible that as a result, it was decided to make the Flash movie a more conventional standalone story rather than a massive event on the same level as Justice League, if not bigger. As things stand now, all we officially know about the Flash movie's current development is that Game Night directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein have officially signed on as the directors, the position previously held by Seth Grahame-Smith and Rick Famuyiwa. Assuming the Flash movie is indeed not adapting Flashpoint anymore, it's also possible that Daley and Goldstein were the catalyst for this change, as they preferred to helm a movie firmly centered on Barry Allen rather than involving other major DC heroes. Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more updates concerning the Flash movie, including when it's expected to come out. For now, you can look forward to the next chapter of the DCEU unfolding when Aquaman swims into theaters on December 21.

Marvel's Ghost Rider movies didn't have the warmest of receptions. Not even Nicolas Cage is a fan, and he starred in them! Cage played the flaming vigilante Johnny Blaze in a 2007 film and a 2011 sequel — neither of which gave the actor the creative freedom he'd hoped for, it seems. During a chat with JoBlo, Nicolas Cage claimed that his and writer David S Goyer's vision for a grittier, R-rated story was blocked by producers. "Ghost Rider was a movie that always should've been an R-rated movie," Cage explained. "David Goyer had a brilliant script which I wanted to do with David, and for whatever reason they just didn't let us make the movie." Given the success of R-rated Deadpool, Cage remains hopeful that Ghost Rider will eventually get the gruesome big-screen adaptation it deserves — although the actor thinks his time in the role has passed. "That movie is a still a movie that should be made, not with me obviously, but it should be an R-rated movie," he argued. "Heck, Deadpool was R-rated and that did great. Ghost Rider was designed to be a scary superhero with an R-rating and edge, and they just didn't have it worked out back then." Since the release of Cage's Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, the rights to the character have reverted to Marvel Studios. This has resulted in the Robbie Reyes version of the character recently turning up in Agents of SHIELD, as played by Gabriel Luna. There's even been talk of SHIELD's version of Ghost Rider getting his own gritty spin-off at some point.

Once it comes out, Hollywood can just stop trying, because it doesn't get any better than this. There were a few 2018 movies that really grabbed our attention. The Hurricane Heist was one, which was basically Twister meets Ocean's 11, from the director of The Fast & The Furious. Amazing. There was also Rampage, in which The Rock fights giant monsters in the city because... plot? Also amazing. But ever since The Meg was first announced, there was never going to be any competition for Best Movie of 2018, if not the best movie of all time. While it does sound like the spin-off movie for the daughter from Family Guy, it is actually about... no, you know what? We're going to let the official synopsis do the talking for us... In the film, a deep-sea submersible — part of an international undersea observation program — has been attacked by a massive creature, previously thought to be extinct, and now lies disabled at the bottom of the deepest trench in the Pacific… with its crew trapped inside. With time running out, expert deep-sea rescue diver Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham) is recruited by a visionary Chinese oceanographer (Winston Chao), against the wishes of his daughter Suyin (Li Bingbing), to save the crew —and the ocean itself — from this unstoppable threat: a pre-historic 75-foot-long shark known as the Megalodon. What no one could have imagined is that, years before, Taylor had encountered this same terrifying creature. Now, teamed with Suyin, he must confront his fears and risk his own life to save everyone trapped below…bringing him face to face once more with the greatest and largest predator of all time.” Yep, The Meg is short for the Megalodon shark, a giant, ancient shark that Jason Statham has to kill. The Meg is a movie about Jason Statham fighting a giant shark. Do you understand now why this is the greatest movie of all time? Oh, and did we mention the budget for this movie is $150,000,000? This is a HUGE blockbuster, and we might finally be getting some kind of spiritual sequel to Deep Blue Sea, and we are 100% here for that. Statham, Bingbing and Chao are joined by Cliff Curtis (Die Hard 4.0), Rainn Wilson (The US Office), Ólafur Darris Ólafsson (Lady Dynamite) and Ruby Rose (John Wick Chapter 2), and is all directed by Jon Turteltaub (National Treasure, While You Were Sleeping). Oh, and we totally forgot the best bit. The movie is based on a 1997 book (yes, seriously) titled Meg: A Novel Of Deep Terror, which is the first of EIGHT novels about the giant killer shark. So if The Meg is a hit, which it definitely will be because it involves Jason Statham fighting a giant shark, then we can potentially expect at least seven more movies in this franchise. The Meg is due to arrive in Irish cinemas on Friday 10 August, and we will be checking back in each and every month until it comes in, because a movie of this magnitude (Meg-nitude?) deserves all the attention we can give it.

Fox has cast “Riverdale” star K.J. Apa in its drama “The Hate U Give,” two months after the studio dropped Kian Lawley from the project over videos that surfaced in which he uttered racist slurs. Fox 2000 has authorized more than a week of re-shoots in Atlanta. Lawley was set to play the boyfriend of the film’s star, Amandla Stenberg, in the movie based on Angela Thomas’ novel of the same name, which centers on race and police brutality. He was fired from the project on Feb. 5. Lawley apologized at the time, saying, “I respect Fox’s decision to recast this role for ‘The Hate U Give’ as it is an important story, and it would not be appropriate for me to be involved considering the actions of my past. I understand the impact and I have grown and learned since then. From now on I plan to use my voice for positive change.” The role of the boyfriend is a key component of “The Hate U Give,” which also stars Regina Hall, Russell Hornsby, Algee Smith, Lamar Johnson, and Common. Stenberg plays a 16-year-old girl named Starr who grew up in a poverty-stricken area, but now attends a suburban prep school. After she witnesses a police officer shoot her unarmed best friend, she’s torn between her two very different worlds as she tries to speak her truth. Bob Teitel and Marty Bowen are producing. George Tillman Jr. is directing from Audrey Wells’ script. Apa, a native of New Zealand, stars as Archie Andrews in the CW’s “Riverdale,” which has been renewed for a third season. He is also starring in “The Last Summer,” a drama about a group of high schoolers who spend a final summer together before college, for Gulfstream Pictures. Apa is repped by UTA, Red11 Management, and Luber Roklin Entertainment. The news was first reported by Deadline.

Perhaps the most surprising moment in God’s Not Dead: A Light in the Darkness — the third installment in the wildly popular and commercially successful Christian movie franchise — comes when the beleaguered Pastor Dave (David A.R. White) goes to visit Pastor Roland (Gregory Alan Williams), the minister at the nearby predominantly black church, and Roland reads him the riot act. It’s a startling moment because it’s one of several in the movie in which it seems that the God’s Not Dead series might have become self-aware. Dave is certain that his church, St. James, is under attack from people who harbor an anti-religious political agenda against Christians. When Roland counsels him to pray and be patient, Dave is not having any of it, telling Roland that he might feel differently if it were his church being attacked. Roland looks at him in disbelief, and for just a moment, his voice gets heated. “Brother, who do you think you’re talking to?” he says to Dave. “I’m a black preacher in the Deep South. I could build a church with all the bricks that have been thrown through my windows.” In this moment and a few others, it seems like A Light in the Darkness is about to reevaluate the God’s Not Dead series’ own narrative about Christians in America, one that’s been far more interested in bolstering a certain sort of persecution complex than in encouraging its audience toward Christlike behavior. But in the end, this God’s Not Dead installment is just like the others: putting on a pious face but failing to imagine what real sacrifice might look like. God’s Not Dead has never been warmly welcomed by mainstream critics. The problem isn’t really the production value (which is mostly fine), or even the statement in the title, a contradiction of a willful misreading of Nietzsche that’s so generic and bland that few people would find it offensive. But the movies are offensive, and not only to those who aren’t in their target audience. (This is where I state my bona fides: I’m a lifelong Christian who was raised in a conservative evangelical home, and I’ve been writing about these movies since I was the chief film critic at Christianity Today, the evangelical magazine started by Billy Graham.) Most people outside the series’ target bubble notice its outsize, navel-gazing persecution complex right off the bat. The thesis of the God’s Not Dead series is that Christians and Christianity are under attack in America, and that the way to fight back is through exercising First Amendment rights, mostly in educational settings. In the first film, a college freshman named Josh Wheaton (Shane Harper, who returns as a campus minister in the new film) intellectually conquers his caustically atheistic philosophy professor in three classroom rounds of debates about the existence of God. The professor gets hit by a car at the end and dies, but not before he becomes a Christian. In the second, a high school teacher named Grace Wesley (Melissa Joan Hart) lands in court after answering a student’s question about Jesus by quoting the Bible. She wins the case, defeating the ACLU lawyer (Ray Wise) who vows to prove that God really is dead. In this third installment, the historic building in which the St. James congregation meets was damaged in a fire caused by an act of vandalism that killed Dave’s co-pastor, Pastor Jude (Benjamin A. Onyango). Following the fire, the board of Hadleigh University, on whose campus the St. James building has been located for 150 years, has been trying to seize the property under eminent domain laws in order to build a student center. Hadleigh argues that it’s unfair to favor one religion over another — that some student religious groups can’t even get funding, while the one hosted by St. James gets support from the university — but Pastor Dave thinks it’s because the university wants the public Christian presence off the campus. (And, privately, some of the board members think that would be best for the students and the university’s image as well.)

Following the box office success of “Ready Player One,” Universal has hired Dan Mazeau to write a new draft of its sci-fi thriller “Armada,” based on Ernest Cline’s 2015 novel. Cline, who authored “Ready Player One” and co-wrote the screenplay, wrote an earlier draft of the “Armada” screenplay. Universal said Tuesday that Cline will remain in collaboration with Mazeau and producers on the forthcoming draft. “Armada” centers on a teenage player of an online video game in which players defend against an alien invasion. He discovers that the game is actually simulator to prepare him and others to defend against an actual alien invasion. Dylan Clark (“Planet of the Apes”) and Dan Farah, one of the “Ready Player One” producers, are producing “Armada” through their Dylan Clark Productions and Farah Films banners, respectively. Scott Stuber will executive produce. “Ready Player One,” directed by Steven Spielberg, launched last weekend with a solid $181 million worldwide, eight years after Warner Bros. and De Line Pictures bought the movie rights before the novel was published. Universal acquired the “Armada” movie rights in 2012. Mazeau’s credits include “Wrath of the Titans,” “World’s Most Wanted,” “Section 6” and “Van Helsing.” Jon Mone and Jay Polidoro will oversee the project on behalf of Universal. Beau Bauman will oversee for Dylan Clark Productions. Mazeau is represented by CAA, Circle of Confusion, and Lee Rosenbaum at Katz Golden Rosenman, LLP. The news was first reported by Deadline.

The X-Men film franchise has been going for nearly 20 years, and X-Men: Dark Phoenix will make the seventh installment in the main series of movies. That means it's not only important for Dark Phoenix to be too similar to its predecessors, but also distinguish itself among the numerous other superhero movies that are coming out each year. To help accomplish that, Tye Sheridan, a.k.a. Scott Summers/Cyclops, says that those involved with Dark Phoenix saw the movie as being more of a drama rather than a conventional superhero movie. As Sheridan explained: Everyone was on the same page with the idea that we were approaching it as much more of a grounded drama versus a superhero movie. Something that's getting old with those universes and all the Marvel movies is that they all look the same and they're all doing the same thing. We really wanted to shake it up, in that sense, and take a different approach to this. Simon Kinberg, who wrote the past three X-Men, directed Dark Phoenix, and I'm super, super excited about it. I think it will turn out well and that it will be a different X-Men than we've ever seen before, so that's exciting. While the Marvel Cinematic Universe is still a box office powerhouse year after year, as Tye Sheridan noted, one criticism that's been directed towards that particular superhero franchise is that its movies feel too similar to one another. That's not something that X-Men: Dark Phoenixwanted to suffer from, hence why Simon Kinberg (who is making his directorial debut after years of writing and producing) and the other creative talents are making sure that Dark Phoenix is framed in a more dramatic lens, as Sheridan told Collider. Given that there will still be mutants running about using their special abilities, it will be interesting to see just what steps Dark Phoenix has taken to feel like a "grounded drama," as the earlier X-Men movies certainly had their fair share of dramatic moments. Of course, it would be foolish not to point out that one way in which X-Men: Dark Phoenix will feel similar to an earlier X-Men movie is the fact that it's adapting The Dark Phoenix Saga. 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand already did that, and the end result was not received well critically. This time around, Dark Phoenix will be following the source material more closely, although it won't be quite as "intergalactic" as the original story. Nevertheless, with Sophie Turner's Jean Grey losing control of her Phoenix abilities and her X-Men teammates desperately trying to stop her from wreaking havoc on Earth, you can bet that's going to be emotionally exhausting for all involved, and some will even die in the process. X-Men: Dark Phoenix was originally supposed to be released on November 2, but last week it was pushed back to February 14, 2019, reportedly due to scheduling involving the reshoots.

Finn was one of the many new protagonists introduced in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and going into Star Wars: The Last Jedi, he continued to be an important player in the story revolving around the conflict between The First Order and The Resistance. However, if you look through The Last Jedi's deleted scenes, you'll notice that a lot of them include Finn. Lest some of you might think that means that Rian Johnson doesn't care for John Boyega's character, the director/writer set the record straight and explained that many of the cut Finn scenes were removed because they simply helped with transitioning from one moment to another. As Johnson put it: A lot of the Finn scenes that were cut are connective material. For instance, there's a scene where he's on the ship, and BB-8 comes in and shows him... basically, BB-8 shows him a recording he made of Rey saying goodbye to him. That's when he decides, 'Oh my God, I'm going to go save Rey'. In a scene like that, it was totally lovely. But once we realised that we could take it out and the audience would know he's holding Rey's beacon, and 'oh, he's going to save her', and they would make that leap -- suddenly, you can't justify that scene being there. Putting a movie together is difficult, and sometimes even if a director likes a scene, it becomes necessary to remove it for the betterment of the final product. In the case of these deleted Finn scenes in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, it sounds like while they were certainly well shot, in the end they were redundant, and there were other moments that helped move the story along at a more efficient pace. As Rian Johnson noted to Digital Spy, these quick Finn moments contrasted with the extended moments featuring Daisy Ridley's Rey. Johnson continued: I think as opposed to Rey, where somebody like Rey had longer sequences on the island that were with Luke -- with Finn, because his was a little more plotty in terms of it, there were more little scenes like that where we were like, 'Oh, we can do without this, we can do without that', and have his character arc still hold up. Among the notable Finn scenes that didn't make Star Wars: The Last Jedi's final version was the extended sequence of him infiltrating Supreme Leader Snoke's ship with Rose Tico and DJ, as well as the alternate fight between him and Captain Phasma. However, even with so many of his scenes cut out, Finn still had a strong presence during the movie, and Rian Johnson made sure to compliment John Boyega for his work on the movie, saying that the actor "at his worst is better than most people at their best." Besides, it's not like Finn was the only character in The Last Jedi who had one or more of their scenes cut out due to redundancy. As an example, Johnson removed an emotional moment between Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa because he felt the same beat was being hit in the scene between Luke and R2-D2 aboard the Millennium Falcon. Star Wars: The Last Jedi is now available one Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD. Finn, Rey, Poe Dameron and the rest of the current trilogy gang will return when Episode IX is released on December 20, 2019. But before that, you can travel back to a galaxy far, far away when Solo: A Star Wars Story hits theaters on May 25.

According to the latest report, Woody Harrelson will play Carnage in Venom. Sony’s own venture in building a new cinematic universe starts later this year with the Ruben Fleischer-directed flick. Featuring Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock aka. Venom, the project also stars Michelle Williams as Anne Weying, Riz Ahmed as Dr. Carlton Drake, Scott Haze as Roland Treece, and Jenny Slate as Dora Skirth. Story details are still scant at the moment, in fact, it’s still uncertain if the film will connect to the MCU considering rumors of Tom Holland’s Peter Parker/Spider-Man having a cameo in the movie. Nonetheless, filming on Venom already wrapped. Harrelson joined Venom quite late in its production, and Sony still has not confirmed which character he’s playing in the movie. Before his casting, word was that Ahmed was playing Carnage, but with news suggesting that he’ll take on a different role, all eyes quickly shifted on the Cheers alum as the best candidate to bring Cletus Kasady to life. A sadistic killer in the pages of the comics, the villain is usually pitted against Spider-Man and Venom after his reformation to become the lethal protector. A new report from Bleeding Cool sourcing an anonymous tipster reveals that Harrelson will indeed play Carnage in Venom. No other information was given aside from the aforementioned detail, but this corroborates persistent speculations that the Solo: A Star Wars Story actor will take on the role of the serial killer psychopath. Rumors of Harrelson playing Carnage in the Hardy-starrer have been going on for months now. In early February, a report circulated online revealing the casting and how Carnage fits into the story of Venom. As it turns out, while Kasady will be introduced in the forthcoming Sony superhero production, he won’t be one of the main players in the narrative. Instead, his appearance is more of a set-up for the sequel, in which he would be the primary antagonist. Chances are that we won’t even see him as Carnage. If anything, we will only get a tease of his villainous nature. What’s tricky here is if Venom isn’t well-received enough to merit a follow-up, Harrelson’s set-up for the sequel will go to waste and that would be a shame considering the actor’s talent. The first Venom teaser trailer was divisive and barely revealed anything that could get fans hyped up for what could be the dark horse comic book movie of 2018. That said, it’s not wise to bet against Hardy. The actor has done a great job meticulously choosing his projects in the last several years, and everything he’s appeared in so far has been at least good. If he chose to come back to the superhero genre via the Sony production, perhaps the upcoming R-rated flick has something special to offer.

CBS submitted an initial offer today to acquire Viacom in an all-stock deal that values its corporate cousin at below its current market value of $12.3 billion. The special committee of CBS board members proposed installing CBS CEO Leslie Moonves and Joe Ianniello, the network’s chief operating officer, to run the merged companies, sources confirmed. That sets the bar and ushers in a period of more intensive deal talks this month. From the Justice Department’s antitrust battle against a proposed AT&T-Time Warner merger, to the high-stakes bidding war over British pay TV giant Sky that threatens to spoil Disney’s planned acquisition of 21st Century Fox assets, the mash-up of two conglomerates is never a simple process. Wall Street saw it as a sign of strength for CBS, whose shares rose 4% on the day to $52.86, while Viacom’s tumbled 4% to $29.42. The point of the planned recombination is to create scale by joining CBS’s valuable broadcast assets with Viacom’s cable networks and Paramount Pictures. But compared with all of the other major M&A deals lately, it brings complexity all its own. Here are the major questions, going in. Even though Viacom’s waning fortunes were self-inflicted by past management, do its shareholders deserve better than a lowball offer that has put its share price in a downward spiral since it was first revealed Monday and again today? Will the re-combining of CBS and Viacom result in layoffs at a time when the media business will be drowning in pink slips after Disney cherry-picks the pieces of Fox and rids itself of potentially thousands of people? Would the discussed two year-deal for Les Moonves to sit atop the fused CBS-Viacom afford enough time for him to re-integrate two large companies, and can the Redstones afford to lose an executive who has been a winner for so long at Warner Bros Television and CBS? Can Viacom Chief Executive Bob Bakish aid his own turnaround with the extra muscle that CBS brings? How will it help Jim Gianopulos’ efforts to restore luster to Paramount Pictures? Why is this marriage a better idea now than in 2016, when Shari Redstone explored the merger and Moonves made it clear he wasn’t in favor of it? And finally, will government regulators allow the whole thing to happen? Investment banker Lloyd Greif says CBS’s initial below-market bid is not as crazy as it sounds. “This is equivalent to Disney offering less in a stock-for-stock deal for Fox than Comcast was offering and yet winning the bid,” Greif told Deadline. “Just as Rupert [Murdoch] wanted Bob Iger and Disney, Shari [Redstone] wants Leslie Moonves and CBS.” The initial offer is a signal of Moonves playing hardball, Greif says. He’s telegraphing that he’ll only do the Viacom merger on his terms, and he’ll be calling the shots if and when the deal closes. It’s also sign that he feels Viacom is overvalued in the marketplace, perhaps because of investor reaction to rumors last fall about a possible deal that drove up the company’s stock price. “The argument that Leslie is making is, ‘I’m bringing all this value to the table, therefore my shareholders, my management team and I deserve a bigger slice of the pie,’” Greif said. In terms of the question “why now?” the clear answer is size. Viacom’s market capitalization stands at $12.7 billion, while CBS is at $19.4 billion. Together, CBS-Viacom (one interesting matter, of course, will be what name would go on a re-merged entity) would be valued at $32 billion, a level that is dwarfed by many traditional media rivals and certainly by Silicon Valley. “Our point of view is you can’t be a $15 billion company, the way each of CBS and Viacom are,” said Needham & Co. media analyst Laura Martin. “You must scale up to compete against a $500 billion Facebook.” While it remains unclear whether a merger of CBS and Viacom ultimately will be consummated, analysts estimate that Viacom could fetch a 15-30% premium in an all-stock deal. Steven Cahall at RBC Capital Markets wrote that Viacom likely will command a premium because CBS management cares more about control than price and wants to get the deal done, it would help avoid shareholder lawsuits and it would compensate Viacom for its turnaround efforts. A hypothetical 20% premium would yield $500 million in annual cost savings, observes Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst Jessica Reif. (The Discovery-Scripps combo netted $350 million, by comparison.) Plus, there are potentially hundreds of millions more in synergies from bundling film and television content sales, deploying more over-the-top products or tapping into Viacom’s international footprint to boost distribution of CBS shows. While many analysts agree with Reif that some kind of premium is likely, even many bulls aren’t certain. In a report in February in which he upgraded Viacom’s stock to “sector perform” from “sector underperform,” RBC’s Cahall predicted an ultimate deal price “at or near market prices.” Despite abundant upside for Viacom in a CBS get-together, he added, “getting to long-term operating income growth is a bit of a leap of faith.” CBS’s aggressive posturing is said to disappoint Shari Redstone, who is pushing for the merger. She believes that combining CBS and Viacom makes the most sense for the future, especially at a time when the media landscape dominated by giants. Any deal that gets done must benefit both sets of shareholders. The Redstone family’s holding company, National Amusements, might not back a deal that tilts too heavily in favor of CBS, or hands over control solely to the network’s top executives — as CBS’s initial offer proposes. The combined company won’t look like a broadcast network, but rather a media conglomerate with diversified holdings in film, television and online. The executive team should have the expertise in leveraging all the company’s assets, the thinking goes. At 94, Sumner Redstone has kept the faith for many a decade. Since building a global media operation out of a handful of movie theaters still run by Boston-based holding company, National Amusements, the Redstone family controls CBS and Viacom with a nearly 80% share of voting stock. The media mogul, who is in failing health, will cast only one vote among the seven National Amusements directors in deciding the fate of CBS and Viacom, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Department of Justice and Federal Communications Commission treat the two media companies as if they are the same, from the point of view of granting broadcast licenses and cross-ownership restrictions, Martin notes. “The good news here is that if CBS and Viacom decide to merge, we foresee no regulatory hurdles,” Martin wrote in a recent analyst note. Reporters don’t interact these days with the senior Redstone, whose title has been chairman emeritus since an epic legal struggle over control of the companies that put cringe-inducing details about Redstone’s mistresses and medical condition out in the open. Sources who do talk to him frequently today insist he is aware of the latest discussions about his onetime empire. He now communicates with the aid of an iPad loaded with short responses — “yes,” “no” and “f— you” — recorded in his voice, the Journal reports. Shari Redstone, his once-estranged daughter, has reconciled and focused on leading the charge to get the companies back together. The key motivation, as Martin noted, is how dramatically the media landscape has changed since the last time these two companies were last at the altar in 2016. The industry is undergoing a dramatic period of consolidation. AT&T is pursuing an $85 billion merger with Time Warner. The Walt Disney Co. proposed a $52.4 billion deal for 21st Century Fox film and TV assets. Discovery Communications just closed its $14.8 billion acquisition of Scripps Networks interactive. Meanwhile, technology companies like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and Facebook are investing billions of dollars in original content that competes directly with television programming. Skinny-bundle services, beginning at $20 a month for an array of channels with no annual contract, are allowing consumers new choices in terms of how much they watch and pay. Traditional video subscriptions, which have been called “the cash cow” by many distributors testifying and email evidence introduced in Washington in the AT&T-Department of Justice trial, are dropping as a result. It’s now a race to see who can most effectively make up the difference on the streaming side. Martin said a CBS acquisition of Viacom would advance the network’s aggressive streaming strategy. CBS already has attracted 5 million subscribers to its CBS All Access and Showtime streaming services, and expanded its portfolio of digital offerings to include CBS News, CBS Sports HQ and a celebrity-rich Entertainment Tonight product to launch this fall. Paramount Pictures’ deep, rich film library, which includes such classics as the The African Queen and It’s a Wonderful Life and poplar franchises like Mission Impossible—would increase the popularity of these streaming services. Some analysts have appraised it at north of $1 billion given the streaming economy and the lack of comparable assets. Paramount Television has grown its production output dramatically by tapping into the library with shows like Shooter for USA or Jack Ryan for Amazon. “You’re going to have better over-the-top subscription adoption if you have deep libraries,” Martin said. “Another thing that adds value: if you have a hit movie and you put it on CBS. That’s a cool thing.” Combining CBS’s top-rated broadcast network with Viacom’s two-dozen cable networks would strengthen its negotiating position with traditional pay TV distributors, as well as with the new crop of internet TV providers. “If there’s an anchor tenant called CBS that everybody must carry, CBS is going to be in every skinny bundle,” Martin said. “Every skinny bundle, they’re going to say, ‘If you want us in the bundle you’ve got to talk to us about the other 24 channels.” The long, tangled saga of the two Redstone-controlled entities would provide more than enough material for a long-running serialized drama on CBS. Or at times, maybe Paramount’s Friday the 13th slasher-movie franchise. In 2005, after the company had operated as one large entity for five years, Sumner Redstone decided to split it in two. The move was seen as a way to appease investors and Wall Street analysts, who saw AOL’s disastrous combination with Time Warner as a cautionary tale. Bigger, the feeling was then, wasn’t necessarily better. A funny thing happened soon after the conscious uncoupling—Viacom’s fortunes drifted south while CBS kept powering its way to more broadcast TV dominance and a more cohesive story for investors. The drags on Viacom then, as now, were faltering cable network ratings. Plus, while many would associate this knock with the era of Philippe Dauman, compensation started raising questions about Dauman’s predecessor, Tom Freston. Despite Freston’s bona fides as one of the principal architects of MTV and a magnet for creative people, some critics felt the CEO was lining his pockets even as the company was floundering. Freston’s 25-year run at Viacom ended in a bizarre Labor Day episode in 2006, when he was summoned to Redstone’s Beverly Hills mansion and summarily fired. Ironically, one cause of the shocking move was Freston “missing out” on buying MySpace, which Rupert Murdoch had swooped in to acquire (much to his later regret). The ouster followed soon after Redstone ended Tom Cruise’s long and fruitful association with the studio due to an array of factors, but not helped by his “couch jumping” episode with Oprah Winfrey. (They later patched things up.) Former Viacom executives recall the rationale for the split, which became official in 2006. Internally, CBS was viewed as the value stock, the stodgier of the two media companies, one that would grow slowly and pay predictable dividends. Viacom, with its youth-focused cable networks, was considered the growth play. Insiders expected it would grow like mad, fueled by such buzzy shows as MTV’s Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County. With turmoil marking Viacom’s first year as a stand-alone business (turmoil that would reach operatic levels in the years to come), CBS got on a hot streak and turned the tables, becoming the more appealing stock to Wall Street. Under Moonves, a onetime actor and producer known for his programming savvy, CBS launched a string of hits including The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, NCIS: Los Angeles and The Good Wife and profited around the world from its productions. It also invested $1.8 billion building a web presence with its acquisition of CNET, started its own film studio and, eventually, adapted to changing consumer viewing habits with the introduction of streaming subscription services, starting with CBS All Access. Along the way, it shed non-core assets like outdoor advertising and radio to become even more of a pure-play operation. Viacom, meanwhile, became the conservative player under Dauman, who rose to power as Redstone’s personal attorney. It emphasized stock buybacks over acquiring assets that could grow the studio’s business, taking a pass on Marvel Entertainment even through its Paramount Pictures unit distributed Marvel’s first four films (it sold the rights to The Avengers and Iron Man 3 to Disney). The film studio was further hampered by severed ties with CBS-owned Showtime. Without a lucrative premium-cable output deal, Paramount teamed with Lionsgate and MGM on the launch of Epix, an enterprise that came out of the gate slowly, though it has since matured. Dauman, meanwhile, was widely seen as enriching himself (he commanded some of the top paydays of any corporate CEO earlier this decade) while starving the film studio and cable television networks of resources needed to develop fresh programming or innovate online. Talent also started a mass exodus—first top executives and then on-air talent like John Oliver and Stephen Colbert (who, with an extra twist of the knife, decamped Comedy Central for a top-rated run as David Letterman’s successor on CBS). Jon Stewart, probably the biggest star who ever walked on a Viacom set during his run at The Daily Show, has described feeling that Dauman treated him indifferently. Soon after Trevor Noah was named the show’s host, Stewart announced a new animated project at HBO. That show later fizzled but in any case a cornerstone star had officially left the Viacom fold, making a statement about Viacom’s culture at the time. “Culture is everything in a media company,” former MTV executive Jason Hirshhorn once told Vanity Fair, in a profile of Dauman. “Because what culture breeds is a subconscious sense of working harder, because you care. When you don’t like your C.E.O., when you don’t hear from him, when you read all these terrible things, when your friends get fired, when you don’t get the bonuses, when the stock has dropped . . . and you have a guy that doesn’t even talk about the programming . . .” At that point, according to the story, Hirschhorn’s voice trailed off in disgust. Bakish, the seasoned company veteran who has been CEO of Viacom since December 2016, is well regarded internally and on Wall Street. One area where he has stabilized things is distribution. Dauman alienated many MVPDs by pushing hard for increased carriage fees and found some big players – like Suddenlink, now owned by Altice USA – dropping Viacom channels. Bakish has worked to mend a lot of fences, negotiating a peace treaty with Altice and ending the Suddenlink outage after nearly two years of darkness. With former Fox Studio chairman Gianopulos setting Paramount on a more promising course (at least by 2019, the studio vows) and some upticks in ratings at MTV and VH1, “People are excited to work there again,” said one former executive said. Still, there is plenty of work to be done. During the AT&T trial in Washington, Warren Schlichting, head of Dish Network’s Sling TV skinny bundle service, was asked which network groups offered “must-have” programming. He rattled off the names of those he considered “the five families” – Turner, Disney-ABC, NBCUniversal, CBS and 21st Century Fox. A government lawyer asked him why Viacom wasn’t on the list. “They would have been considered ‘must-have’ 5-6-7 years ago,” he replied. “But they generally stopped investing in their product.”

Anonymous Content has acquired screen rights to Foe, the upcoming thriller novel by Iain Reid which drew other bids. Reid’s previous novel I’m Thinking Of Ending Things is in the works at Netflix with Charlie Kaufman attached to direct and write. Anonymous Content’s Kerry Kohansky-Roberts and Steve Golin will produce and the author will be exec producer. The novel is set slightly in the future, after severe climate change has ruined the farmlands across the north and created devastating fires that has scarred the landscape. A farmer and his wife live a solitary life, struggling on one of the last remaining farms, where they raise cattle and harvest grain. A knock on the door changes things. A stranger tells the farmer he has been selected to travel far from the farm, with a group of settlers looking to relocate. Arrangements have been made so that when he leaves, his wife won’t miss him because a “replacement” has been arranged, who’ll join the wife on the farm while he’s gone. Anonymous Content’s VP of Literary Affairs Kevin Cotter brought in the project. Simon & Schuster publishes the book in North America this Fall. S&S UK and multiple other foreign territory publications will follow. The author is repped by Paradigm on behalf of Samantha Haywood of Transatlantic Agency.

Horror films might have not lost their popularity, but a vast majority of them these days prove the well-worn genre is losing its mojo. Heightened sound effects and music cues are all-too-predictable ways to try to scare audiences, but truly innovative or classic contemporary examples — with the occasional exception of a not easily defined hybrid that comes along to break the mold like Get Out — are not easy to find. Well, I have found one. A Quiet Place is a genuinely effective, brilliantly executed piece of horror, a truly terrifying movie that earns its screams by essentially turning off the sound. Not since a blind Audrey Hepburn turned off the lights in Wait Until Dark a half-century ago have I had this kind of anxiety watching a movie. Director John Krasinski — who also co-wrote with Bryan Woods and Scott Beck, co-produced, and co-stars with wife Emily Blunt — has delivered an edge-of-your-seat nail-biter that just might be too intense for some, so be warned. As I say in my video review (click the link above to watch), it is essentially a silent film where the silence is cranked up to deafening levels. I had lost hope for original studio horror masterpieces on the level of The Exorcist, Alien and a few others, but in following its own unique path, A Quiet Place is one for the ages. It will freak you out and set off nightmares. Set after an apocalyptic nightmare in which ugly-ass blind giant insect-y creatures (looking like atomic grasshoppers) have done in most of the planet, Krasinski’s film focuses on one family in rural New York who have abandoned their farmhouse to live in the barn where it is easier to control the sounds they make. The gist is these creatures, which reside just out of sight, pop up and eat their prey at the slightest hint of noise of any kind. Their hearing is sensitively attuned to the highest possible levels, and they have no hesitance to attack if even a pin drops. I promise you that you will not hear a pin drop in theaters when watching this play out. Krasinski and Blunt play Lee and Evelyn, a couple with three kids. Unfortunately, one of them doesn’t last long when his toy goes off at the wrong place and the wrong time. The other two are nicely played by young British actor Noah Jupe and the hearing-impaired actress Millicent Simmonds, so fine in the recent Wonderstruck. Their daily lives consist of sign language and keeping communication down to a whisper. Any movement can be life threatening, though Lee discovered huge waterfalls nearby where he takes his son and explains that loud, overwhelming sounds like that make it OK to talk. A complication is thrown into the mix with Evelyn’s pregnancy and the impending birth of another child. The sequence where she has the baby, alone, is a master class in acting on the part of Blunt, who has never been better. It’s a helluva role, and it is all in her eyes. For much of the movie the creatures are just seen in the distance or lurking around corners, but if you think Krasinski is going to keep them completely hidden, think again. Just like Hitchcock did in his own way in The Birds, once the battle between this family and their stalkers intensifies, he sticks the hideous creations right in our face. I have seen a ton of movie aliens and creatures of all sorts, but these things — which appear to be all teeth and no face — are truly horrific. I can’t get them out my head, but I need to. Bravo to the effects team, and really bravo to the sound team, which have created a brilliant sound design that appears deceptively to be devoid of sound or music at all. But it’s there, if not in obvious ways (Marco Beltrami’s unobtrusive score is one of his best and most restrained works). The horror of it all aside, A Quiet Place is first and foremost a family story, a tale of survival, resilience and the will to stay together against all odds. On that level, this is as powerful a story of human perseverance as you are likely to see. In a world that seems to devalue life a little more every day, this film proves inspirational. In addition to exceptional onscreen work from Blunt and Krasinski, both Jupe and particularly Simmonds are riveting. The technical credits are superior down the line including sharp editing from Christopher Tellefsen, economically inventive production design from Jeffrey Beecroft and team, as well as the cinematography that doesn’t miss a beat from Charlotte Bruus Christensen. Krasinski, who is emerging as a strong filmmaking talent after also delivering a different sort of family story with the underrated The Hollars, knows exactly what he is doing here and exactly how to do it. Producers are Michael Bay (!), Andrew Form, and Bradley Fuller. Paramount Pictures releases it Friday.

It’s strange to call an essentially tragic limited series magical, but the word applies to “National Treasure: Kiri.” The four-part series fits squarely into the top tier of U.K. crime dramas, which means few characters start out with any contentment, and things deteriorate from there. But Jack Thorne’s writing for both seasons of “National Treasure” never slides into the lazy habits of misery porn. “Kiri,” like its predecessor, is both brisk and illuminating, providing compassionate and honest character studies. Each character in the latest incarnation of “National Treasure,” as was the case with the stellar first version, feels alive and specific and believably capable of a great many things. Wondering what each person might do next gives the drama a thrumming undercurrent of suspense, but Euros Lyn’s direction allows “Kiri” to breathe at the right moments, too. It’s well-paced and contemplative, a tough combination to pull off, but “Kiri” makes it look easy. It helps that each edition of “National Treasure” has featured a stellar cast. There’s no plot overlap between the first season and the second, but the production values and acting are of a similar high caliber. “Kiri,” which follows the fallout of a momentous decision of an English social worker, may recall “Happy Valley” for those who saw Sarah Lancashire in that Netflix crime series. In “Kiri,” the great Lancashire plays Miriam Grayson, a veteran social worker who has a young girl named Kiri Akindele in her care. Kiri (Felicia Mukasa) has a Nigerian grandfather, Oluwatobi “Tobi” Akindele, who dotes on her. But the girl’s father, Nathaniel, is a former jail inmate with a violent past, and her mother, a former drug addict, is dead. For years, Kiri has lived with an upscale, white foster family who loves her deeply. But Alice (Lia Williams) and Jim Warner (Steven Mackintosh) have a host of problems in their lives, not least a teenage son, Simon (Finn Bennett), who is more than a little strange. The couple’s final adoption paperwork is about to go through when Miriam decides to let Kiri have an unsupervised visit with her grandfather and his wife. A crime follows, and much of the story of “Kiri” is told through the lens of race and class. The Warners, who are given a press liaison by the police, go on a media tour that makes them momentarily famous. The sympathy for them is as bountiful as is the hatred for the prickly (and relatively poor) Miriam, who thought it important to allow Kiri to spend time with family members who look like her. As a black girl, she would “othered” all her life, Miriam explains angrily to the reporters who wait on her doorstep after the case becomes national news. Miriam, who is white but has a multi-racial client pool, asks her bosses and media critics why Kiri shouldn’t be allowed to have a space in which that othering would not occur. Shouldn’t her biological family’s culture and values inform the girl’s life? Some call Miriam’s decision — which conformed to social work protocols in her department — “anti-white.” And though she is partly to blame — and Lancashire depicts her regret with indelible, heart-rending precision — the system turns Miriam into a culprit, in large part so her superiors can avoid a series of thorny questions they would rather not contemplate. But “Kiri” does not only examine its central crime from the perspective of white characters. The series’ revelation is an intense, complicated performance from Lucian Msamati as Tobi. His relationship with his son, his past mistakes, and his own soul-altering grief are all explored in mesmerizing ways. Though he is a very proper, religious man and no one’s idea of a radical, he slowly begins to accept the idea that the police are railroading his son — about whom he has his own doubts. Both seasons of “National Treasure” explore the idea that family relationships can be the most treacherous terrain of all. Most characters in “Kiri” start to believe that they don’t really know the people closest to them, and the questions they have scare them. Miriam begins to seem exceptional because, despite having spent three decades seeing the worst of human behavior as a social worker, she still possesses a few scraps of optimism. She is innately kind, quick with a quip, and still visits those who were in her care decades ago, simply because she’s curious about how they’re doing. As was the case with the first installment of “National Treasure,” a few story paths would have benefited from more exploration. In particular, the Warner family’s troubles probably needed a little more set-up, but that said, Williams, Bennett and Mackintosh are all exceptional in their roles. Also deserving of mention is Wunmi Mosaku as the lead detective on the Kiri case; like Miriam, she’s in a no-win situation. She is navigating a system that favors families like the Warners, and is also under pressure to find the tidy, predictable solution that the media clearly wants. But the narrative of the case — and of “Kiri” — is as unexpected and contradictory as life itself, and that is its chief selling point. Executive producers, Jack Thorne, George Ormond, George Faber. TV Review: 'National Treasure: Kiri' on Hulu Limited series; Four episodes (four reviewed); Hulu, Weds. April 4. Cast: Sarah Lancashire, Lucian Msamati, Steven Mackintosh, Lia Williams, Finn Bennett, Wunmi Mosaku, Felicia Mukasa, Paapa Essiedu, Andi Osho, Sue Johnston

The NCAA mens’ basketball championship game between Michigan and Villanova saw significant declines in the ratings compared to last year. Airing on TBS, TNT, and truTV, the game averaged 16.5 million viewers, down approximately 28% from 2017’s 23 million when the game aired on CBS. In addition, this year’s game pulled in a 10.3 rating in Nielsen metered market households, the lowest such rating ever recorded for a college basketball national championship game. Such viewership declines are not uncommon as the championship game alternates between broadcast and cable. 2017’s viewership was up 29% compared to the 17.8 million who watched on the Turner networks in 2016. 2016’s game was itself down 37% from the 2015 game on CBS, which drew an 18-year high 28.3 million viewers. In terms of household ratings, this year’s game was down approximately 29% from the 14.5 rating in 2017. 2016 saw a 12.0 household rating for the game on cable. This year’s game also likely suffered due to its one-sided nature, with Villanova dominating Michigan with a 79-62 victory. Despite the declines, this year’s game was easily the most-watched telecast of the night, with the closest competition on broadcast being NBC’s “The Voice” with 9.9 million viewers. Fox aired no original programming against the championship game, while CBS aired only one: the freshman sitcom “Living Biblically” at 9:30 p.m. The nearest competition on cable was the first hour of WWE’s “Monday Night Raw,” which averaged 3.4 million viewers in the hour.

AG-AFTRA is investigating several companies that may have been scamming members by falsely representing themselves as real employers in the advertising industry. The union, which represents about 160,000 performers, posted a message Tuesday on its official web site: “In an effort to protect our members from abuse and harm in the advertising industry, SAG-AFTRA has launched an investigation into several companies we believe have falsely represented themselves as real employers.” SAG-AFTRA later sent a message to members saying that the missive was based on “clear information” from members and their reps. It did not cite specific instances. It also said, “the union is increasingly concerned that performers’ earnings, safety, and rights are at serious risk when hired by companies that are not, in fact, real employers. This includes: payment delayed or never received, uncontrolled product conflicts, theft or unauthorized use of performances, and other abuses tied to compensation.” SAG-AFTRA members generate more than $1 billion in annual earnings under the union’s contract with the ad industry. But large portions of the industry produce commercials that are non-union. SAG-AFTRA members who perform non-union work can be subject to union discipline. Here’s the entire letter from SAG-AFTRA: Dear Member, Earlier today, we posted the following message on our website: In an effort to protect our members from abuse and harm in the advertising industry, SAG-AFTRA has launched an investigation into several companies we believe have falsely represented themselves as real employers. Based on clear information from members, their professional representatives and other stakeholders in the industry, the union is increasingly concerned that performers’ earnings, safety and rights are at serious risk when hired by companies that are not, in fact, real employers. This includes: payment delayed or never received, uncontrolled product conflicts, theft or unauthorized use of performances, and other abuses tied to compensation. In addition, in an era when the union is expanding its protection against harassment and discrimination, it is particularly critical that we are able to hold these companies legally and financially responsible for their conduct. As the advertising industry rapidly changes, the only way to ensure that SAG-AFTRA has the power to protect performers is if the real company that employs them signs their contracts. We will continue to keep you informed about this ongoing investigation.

Apple is shuffling showrunners on its much-anticipated morning show drama starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon. Drama veteran Kerry Ehrin (“Bates Motel”) is expected to take the helm of the series, produced by the startup Media Res. Jay Carson had been on board as creator and showrunner but he has parted ways with the project over creative differences. Apple is in the midst of closing an overall deal with Ehrin. The untitled morning show drama marks Apple’s first major swing in the premium drama arena. The tech giant’s fledgling video arm in November set a massive two-season, 20-episode deal with Michael Ellenberg’s Media Res banner. More to come

The Directors Guild of America has announced that the 71st annual DGA Awards will take place on Feb. 2, 2019, at the Hollywood & Highland Center’s Ray Dolby Ballroom. Guillermo del Toro won the DGA Award for outstanding directorial achievement for “The Shape of Water” this year. He went on to nab the Academy Award for best director and best picture. The DGA Award is one of the top indicators of Oscar sentiment, with all but seven of the DGA winners since 1948 going on to take the best director Oscar. The last divergence came in 2013 when Ben Affleck won the DGA Award for “Argo,” even though he did not receive an Oscar nomination. The “Handmaid’s Tale,” “Veep,” and “Big Little Lies” won the major TV awards at the ceremony on Feb. 3 at the Beverly Hilton. The SAG Awards has set the date for next year’s ceremony: Jan. 27 at its usual location at the Shrine Auditorium in Downtown Los Angeles. The 91st Academy Awards will be held on Feb. 24, 2019. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which hosts the Golden Globes, is expected to hold the 76th edition of its show in January. The Producers Guild of America and the Writers Guild of America have not yet announced their awards dates.

Dear MyXZ users I am Andyn (TheKing), the founder of MyXZ.org. I founded this site in 2007 from the passion of having a tracker . I never thought it would be so popular, and that's why I really need to thank everyone who registered and used the tracker, you made my dream come true. But now, at the age of 30+, I do not have time to take care of the tracker , but I also did not have the will I had in my youth. I started a hosting company called XtremeHost and all my time goes to that company. My phone rang from minute to minute, I had to deal with clients, sites, servers and so on. I decided to leave the tracker in Anonymous's mind, as he did a good job and was an intensive tracker . I have come to a mutual agreement that I pay the myxz.org and myxz.us domains and Anonymous still has to pay SeedBoxs and take care of tracker management. Recently, a very good friend who helped me a lot with my other projects, has opened a FiveM server, and I decided to help him with a little promotion on the XtremeZone Facebook page. Anonymous did not agree with the little advertisement I did, and he started telling everyone that I was using the MyXZ image for personal purposes. By talking to Anonymous, he threatened to get my tracker access, and seeing how unstable my friendship / partner relationship with Anonymous was, I was prepared to suspend the myxz.org domain that everyone knew. Seeing that he did not fall, he began moving to another domain that Anonymous bought. It started by entering the torrent link, then moving web files to another webhost, and then changing the DNS from myxz.org to another domain without anyone knowing it. She also managed to completely change the data from the old webhost , completely cutting my access to tracker files. Probably some of you see me Online on the tracker, I have never forgotten MyXZ, my pride and my work, we always come in and greet the users, I was interested in the status of the staff and the tracker, and I went out. I was not interested in the money, the tracker never made a stable income, everything was made of pleasure. And now, more than 10 years after the opening of the MyXZ.org tracker, everything has been snatched from my hands. All the hours of toil and stress we tried to evolve tracker, a theme of the site simple, found the net with a server kept in a garage some little S you , what arrived today, one of the biggest trackers in Romania! Now the MyXZ status remains unrecognizable, I'm still trying to come to an understanding with Anonymous, claim access to tracker files and start up just as it has been so far. You want to thank the staff for the help and time of the tracker, even to Anonymous, leaving aside my injustice to the MyXZ community. All I want at this moment is to bring everything back to normal, it is a sin, and it would hurt my soul to see such a community and my work and MyXZ staff closed due to misunderstandings. - Sincerely and respect Andyn (TheKing) - Founder of MyXZ Google Translate: Dear MyXZ users I am Andyn (TheKing), the founder of MyXZ.org. I founded this site in 2007 from the passion of having atracker . I never thought it would be so popular, and that's why I really need to thank everyone who registered and used the tracker , you made my dream come true. But now, at the age of 30+, I did not have time to take care of the tracker , but I also did not have the will I had in my youth. I started a hosting company called XtremeHost and all my time goes to that company. My phone rang from minute to minute, I had to deal with clients, sites, servers and so on. I decided to leave the tracker in Anonymous's mind, as he did a good job and was an intensive tracker . We have come to a mutual agreement that I pay myxz.org and myxz.us domains and Anonymous still has to pay SeedBoxs and take care oftracker management. Recently, a very good friend who helped me a lot with my other projects, has opened a FiveM server, and I decided to help him with a small promotion on the XtremeZone Facebook page. Anonymous did not agree with the little advertisement I made, and I started telling everyone that I was using MyXZ image for personal purposes. Through a discussion with Anonymous, he threatened to get my trackeraccess, and seeing how unstable my friendship / partner relationship with Anonymous was, I was prepared to suspend the myxz.org domain that everyone knew. Seeing that he did not fall, he started moving to another domain that Anonymous bought. It started by entering the torrent link, then moving web files to another webhost, and then changing the DNS from myxz.org to another domain without anyone knowing it. She also managed to completely change the data from the old webhost, completely cutting my access to tracker files. Probably some of you see me Online on the tracker , I never forgot MyXZ, my pride and my work, we always come in and greet the users, I was interested in the status of the staff and tracker, and I went out. I was not interested in the money, the tracker never made a stable income, everything was made of pleasure. And now, more than 10 years after the opening of the MyXZ.org tracker , everything has been snatched from my hands. All the hours of work and stress in which I tried to evolve the tracker , from a simple site theme, found on the net, with a server kept in a garage by some kids, to what has arrived today, one of the biggest trackers in Romania! Now the MyXZ status remains unrecognizable, I'm still trying to come to an understanding with Anonymous, claim access to the trackerfiles and start it just as it has been so far. You want to thank the staff for the help and time of the tracker , even to Anonymous, leaving aside my injustice to the MyXZ community. All I want at this moment is to bring everything back to normal, it is a pity, and it would hurt my soul to see such a community and my work and MyXZ staff closed due to misunderstandings. - With respect and respect Andyn (TheKing) - Founder of MyXZ

Hey all, I'm a big fat faggot and I managed to lose my GPG key. So, I had to generate a new one. It's now on my profile and at oppaiti.me/pubkey.txt I promise the FBI/CIA/NASA/FEMA didn't get me. - Azathoth

Hello, We are not accepting all crypto currencies! For the time being to donate in any other currency apart from Bitcoin feel free to drop me a PM so i can provide you with details for the same. We are in process of adding the same info on the Donate page. HKR

* Zynt's Wrestlemania 34 * * Sunday April 8, 2018 * * Free4All *

We're back! Hello, seeders. After a lot of fighting we got back. Once again we had mishaps on our journey, the last few months have not been easy. We thank all of you who have not abandoned us. We had problems with blocked accounts (receiving donations), servers suspended for violating the datacenter's terms of use, among other obstacles. This was the reason we asked for the help of all of you, with the blocked accounts there was nowhere to withdraw resources to acquire new servers. We hope this does not happen again, we take due care, but sites like BJ-Share are subject to this kind of thing. We did not forget the application that we promised, but with so many headaches we ended up not being able to finish in the anticipated time, we continue working in this. We will check and count everyone who made donations during this period that we spend offline, we ask for patience because we will have to check manually, this may take a few days, this process is usually automatic. We again left our very THANK YOU to all of you. Long live the BJ!

Site is freeleech for the whole month.