Month: September 2020

The organization that honors movies with the Academy Awards said Tuesday it will require films to meet new standards in order to promote diversity both on the screen and behind the scenes. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said the rules apply only to those films eligible for the best picture Oscar and will go into effect in 2024. Among the rules are requirements for the percentage or numbers of actors, production and marketing staff, and internships on a movie that must be filled by non-whites, women, people with disabilities or people from the LGBTQ community. “The standards are designed to encourage equitable representation on and off screen in order to better reflect the diversity of the movie-going audience,” the Academy said in a statement. The Academy has faced criticism in recent years for a lack of diversity among its Oscars honorees, including in 2016 when all of the nominees in the four acting categories were white.  
…

Prince Harry has repaid 2.4 million pounds ($3.2 million) in British taxpayers’ money that was used to renovate the home in Windsor intended for him and his wife Meghan before they gave up royal duties and moved to California.A spokesman for the couple said Monday that Harry had made a contribution to the Sovereign Grant, the public money that goes to the royal family. He said the contribution “fully covered the necessary renovation costs of Frogmore Cottage,” near Queen Elizabeth II’s Windsor Castle home, west of London.He said Frogmore Cottage will remain the home of Harry and Meghan, also known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, when they visit the U.K.Royal accounts for 2019 show that 2.4 million pounds was spent renovating the house, including structural work, rewiring and new flooring. Harry and Meghan agreed to pay back the money and start paying rent as part of the plans drawn up when they quit as senior working royals in March.They recently bought a house in Santa Barbara, California, and last week announced a deal with Netflix to produce a range of films and series for the streaming service.
 
…

Jiri Menzel, a Czech director whose 1966 movie Closely Watched Trains won the Academy Award for the best foreign language film has died. He was 82.Menzel’s wife, Olga, announced his death late Sunday, saying he died the previous day. No details were given. Three years ago, Menzel underwent a brain operation and was kept in an artificially induced coma for several weeks after it.”Dearest Jirka, I thank you for each and every day I could spend with you. Each was extraordinary,” his wife said on Facebook.Menzel made some 20 movies and was one of the leading filmmakers of the new wave of Czechoslovak cinema that appeared in the 1960s. His movies represented a radical departure from socialist realism, a typical communist-era genre focusing on realistically depicting the struggles of the working class.Unlike colleagues such as Milos Forman, Jan Nemec and Ivan Passer, Menzel didn’t emigrate after the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia.Closely Watched Trains was his first feature movie. Based on a novel by Czech author Bohumil Hrabal, it tells the story of a dispatcher’s apprentice coming of age at a small train station during the Nazi occupation in World War II.His next collaboration with Hrabal, Larks on a String in 1969 was another tragicomic description of life under a totalitarian regime, this time under communism.The movie was immediately banned by the communist authorities. After the 1989 anti-Communist revolution led by Vaclav Havel, it won the Golden Bear award at the Berlin international film festival.Menzel’s other adaptations of Hrabal’s work include Cutting It Short (1980), The Snowdrop Festival (1984) and I served the King of England (2006).His 1985 comedy My Sweet Little Village was nominated for the Academy Award for best foreign film.A graduate of Prague’s Academy of Performing Arts in 1962, he was also known for directing plays and also as an actor.Among other awards, Menzel received the French Order of Arts and Literature. 
…

In a litmus test for American moviegoing in the pandemic, Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” brought in an estimated $20.2 million through the holiday weekend in U.S. and Canadian theaters.
The result could be greeted as either the rejuvenation of U.S. cinemas — more Americans went to the movies this weekend than they have in nearly six months — or a reflection of drastically lowered standards for Hollywood’s top blockbusters given the circumstances.
About 70% of U.S. movie theaters are currently open; those in the country’s top markets, Los Angeles and New York, remain closed. Theaters that are operating are limiting audiences to a maximum of 50% capacity to distance moviegoers from one another. “Tenet” played in 2,810 North American locations, about three-fourths of what most major releases typically launch in.
Warner Bros. declined to split up U.S. and Canadian box office receipts. Theaters in Canada, where COVID-19 cases are much lower than in the U.S., began showing “Tenet” a week earlier. The film debuted stateside with nightly preview screenings Monday through Wednesday before the official opening on Thursday. Warner Bros. included all of the above in its estimated gross Sunday, along with expected returns for Monday’s Labor Day.
“Tenet” opened stronger in China. It debuted there with $30 million in ticket sales from Friday to Monday. Internationally, “Tenet” has exceeded expectations. In two weeks of release, its overseas total is $126 million, with a global tally thus far of $146.2 million.
Warner Bros. has emphasized that the usual opening-weekend calculus is out the window. Few onlookers felt it was possible to gauge how “Tenet” would open. The film, which cost $200 million to make and at least $100 million to market, will need to get close to $500 million to break even.
In the film’s favor: It currently has the big screen almost entirely to itself. Some multiplexes played “Tenet” as many as 100 times over the weekend. With little else on the horizon, Warner Bros. is counting on a long run for “Tenet.”
Not in the film’s favor: Audiences didn’t love Nolan’s latest time-bender. Moviegoers gave the thriller, starring John David Washington, Robert Pattinson and Elizabeth Debicki, a “B” CinemaScore, the lowest grade for a Nolan release since 2006’s “The Prestige.” Reviews (75% positive on Rotten Tomatoes) have been good but far from overwhelming.
Warner Bros. declined to make executives available to discuss the opening but said in a statement that “Tenet” had to be judged differently. “We are in unprecedented territory, so any comparisons to the pre-COVID world would be inequitable and baseless,” said the studio.
Analyzing the film’s performance was virtually impossible, said senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian for data firm Comscore. He acknowledged North America remains a more challenged marketplace than Europe or Asia, but called it a solid start in what will be lengthy run for “Tenet.”
“It’s going to take a longer time to assess this,” said Dergarabedian. “The win is just to have movies open. To me, that says a lot.”
Hollywood is watching closely. With the majority of the studios’ top productions delayed until next year, the industry is experimenting with how to release its most expensive movies in the COVID-era. The Walt Disney Co. this weekend also debuted its $200 million live-action “Mulan” remake, but did so as a $30 purchase for Disney+ subscribers.
Disney on Sunday didn’t share digital returns for “Mulan” — a practice that’s been common among streaming companies and previous anticipated VOD releases like Universal’s “Trolls World Tour” and Disney’s own “Hamilton.” But “Mulan” is also playing in theaters in some overseas territories.
It began with $5.9 million in Thailand, Taiwan, the Middle East, Singapore and Malaysia. Next week, it debuts theatrically in its most important market: China.
The release of “Tenet” was also hotly debated, given the health risks associated with indoor gatherings. Several prominent film critics said they wouldn’t review “Tenet” over ethical concerns.
Theater chains, meanwhile, are struggling to remain solvent. Exhibitors have argued that they need new films to survive. Last weekend offered the first significant opportunity for U.S. cinemas to convince moviegoers to come back. Disney’s “The New Mutants,” a long delayed “X-Men” spinoff, collected about $7 million in 2,412 locations last weekend. Dipping significantly in its second weekend, its total is now up to $11.6 million.
Fittingly in an upside-down year, the palindromic “Tenet” — a thriller in which time is reversed — essentially began the summer movie season on the weekend it typically ends. Labor Day weekend, this year a historical one at the movies, is usually among the sleepiest weekends of the year at cinemas.
…

Hall of Famer Lou Brock, who became baseball’s premier base stealer as he helped make the St. Louis Cardinals one of the sport’s dominant teams of the 1960s, died on Sunday at the age of 81. “Our hearts are broken,” the Cardinals said in a tweet. “Lou Brock was an amazing player and outstanding person.” Brock, who was born in Arkansas in 1939 and grew up in Louisiana, was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1985 in his first year of eligibility. Hitting, defense and speed on the bases made Brock one of the most notable and popular players of the Cardinals, a team with a rich baseball history. He stole 118 bases in 1974, a single-season major league record until Rickey Henderson of the Oakland Athletics stole 130 in 1982. In 1977, Brock broke the legendary Ty Cobb’s mark for most steals in a career, a record that had stood for 49 years. That record was also eventually broken by Henderson in 1991. Brock led the National League in steals eight times and is still its career stolen-bases leader. He retired at age 40 in 1979 after 19 seasons, 16-1/2 of them with the Cardinals. With Brock as leadoff hitter and left fielder, the Cardinals won the World Series in 1964 and 1967. They also reached the Series in 1968 but lost. Brock’s career got off to a mediocre start with the Chicago Cubs in 1961 but turned around in the middle of the 1964 season when the Cardinals acquired him in a trade for pitcher Ernie Broglio in the hopes of adding speed to their lineup. Brock joined a team that was in sixth place, despite having stars such as pitcher Bob Gibson, a future Hall of Famer, along with Tim McCarver, Curt Flood and Ken Boyer, who would be named the National League’s most valuable player that season. Helped by Brock’s hitting and base stealing, they ended up winning the league championship on the last day of the season and defeated the New York Yankees in the World Series. The trade for Brock, which had initially stirred doubts among some Cardinals players, is widely considered one of the most one-sided in baseball history. With Brock as the catalyst, the Cardinals beat the Boston Red Sox to win another World Series championship in 1967 but lost to the Detroit Tigers the next season. Brock batted over .300 in eight seasons and finished his career with 3,023 hits and 938 steals. In 1978, the National League announced that the award it gives to the stolen-base leader each season would be named after Brock, and the Cardinals in 1979 retired his No. 20 jersey. “Lou was among the game’s most exciting players,” Major League Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement, adding that “he will be deeply missed.” During his career, Brock popularized what became known as the “brockabrella” – a small umbrella worn as a hat to help baseball fans get through rainy games. In later life, Brock battled serious health ailments, including diabetes and cancer. His lower left leg was amputated in 2015, but that did not stop him from throwing out the first pitch at the Cardinals’ first home game the next season, wearing a prosthetic leg. The Cardinals announced in April 2017 that Brock was being treated for multiple myeloma, a blood cancer. After months of treatment, Brock said several months later that his doctor told him he was cancer free.  
…

Marriage.  In these socially distanced times, even the ceremony itself can’t always bring couples – and their families – together.  In Africa, some digitally savvy couples are finding virtual workarounds to get them to the altar, including weddings where the bride and groom are thousands of kilometers apart.  VOA’s Anita Powell spoke to one African couple who solidified their bond while in two different countries, and brings us this story of love, longing and celebration from Johannesburg.VIDEOGRAPHER: Zaheer Cassim
…