Media

What’s up with all of the remakes, which shows get remade the most, and why is the BBC so good at writing about itself? No, but really: “Shows like Criminal Justice, The Office and Luther have stories that are universal. … Characters, situations, predicaments – they travel very well. When cast with powerful local actors, set in domestic milieus and written in the spoken dialect of the region, these shows become our own.” – BBC

This is what happens, the director says, “when you choose to take Elton John’s story and turn it into a phantasmagorical dancing play rather than a standard biographical picture.” Bring on the glitter. – Vulture

So here’s how Fox (successfully!) argued for putting the show in the variety special (live) category, after the broadcast turned out to be somewhat previously taped due to injury: “Although an unforeseen injury dictated that only a portion of Rent was broadcast live, the entire program was performed in front of live audience without edit or interruption. The TV audience was able to experience the production as intended by our extraordinary cast and crew.” – Variety

The paper that plays a major role in the series and new movie, The Black Hills Pioneer, is real, and it’s still around … and you can read the archives. “The editorial voice of the paper stayed constant. It reads more like a blog than a modern newspaper: There’s no faux-disinterested ‘view from above’; the Pioneer is clearly the product of specific people with a specific point of view.” – Slate

Advocates for net neutrality say it just needs a big push from the public – support is high, and no one believes the FCC. But on the Senate floor, Mitch McConnell says legislation restoring net neutrality is “dead on arrival.” – Wired

Taron Egerton wrote on Instagram, “‘I, in no way, condone this decision and feel disappointed I wasn’t made aware and given the chance to fight this move. Love is love. No compromises.’ He also added a rainbow emoji.” Elton John and others have also condemned Russian film censors for removing what one Russian film critic called, “a principled five minutes, very important for artistic purpose.” – The Guardian (UK)

That wasn’t 100 percent the plan when comedian Ali Wong and actor Randall Park wrote and starred in Always Be My Maybe, but … well. “As writers and producers they give an unprecedented array of Asian American experiences space to exist in … a film that portrays the rich diversity and texture of Bay Area life within the bounds of a modern-day rom-com.” – Los Angeles Times

Let’s look a little more deeply into Avengers: Endgame. (Yes, it’s been covered, but this is different.) “It’s a reality-bending cultural phenomenon that proudly wallows in its own mind-numbing hugeness. It’s the biggest possible participatory advertisement for two of the most powerful brands in the entertainment industry. It’s an irresistible pop-culture overload, produced and marketed by people with an almost preternatural understanding of what we find enjoyable.” – Los Angeles Review of Books

“There have only been a few filmmakers who have gone into an old genre and created a new universe out of it. … But those Italian guys — Sergio Leone, Sergio Corbucci, Duccio Tessari and Franco Giraldi — did it best. They mostly started off as critics and worked their way up to screenwriters. And then they became the second unit guys, the guys that deliver the action. You have to go to the French New Wave to find a group of men who loved cinema as much as they did — except Leone and the others had a thriving film industry they could work their way into.” – The Spectator (UK)

On Tuesday, Netflix issued a cautious statement of concern; on Wednesday, Disney warned a bit more strongly. By late Thursday, WarnerMedia, NBCUniversal, and AMC Networks had made their disapproval clear, while Sony Pictures and Viacom made statements that were more circumspect, though hardly supportive of the Georgia lawmakers who passed the anti-abortion law. – Variety

Director Martin Scorsese thinks so. When you remove wrinkles and smooth out eyes, aren’t you losing crucial expressive elements of an actor’s performance? – The Guardian

Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos spoke out on Tuesday. Then Disney CEO Bob Iger was asked about the situation on Wednesday. Disney will find it “very difficult” to film in Georgia if the new law takes effect, Iger told Reuters. – CNN

Said Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger, “I don’t see how it’s practical for us to continue to shoot there [if the law takes effect] … I think many people who work for us will not want to work there, and we will have to heed their wishes in that regard.” The statement came a day after Netflix announced it would “rethink our entire investment in Georgia” if the law was not overturned. – Reuters

Video game culture in general in India is relatively new. So when PUBG (official name PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds) skyrocketed in popularity in the months after its release, a nervous backlash developed among those given to moral panics, with warnings about the game’s violence and addictiveness. But the major cities in the state of Gujarat went farther, actually banning the game — and that ban wasn’t just for show. – BuzzFeed

Brian Yorkey: “As the Los Angeles Times recently reported, a new study using Centers for Disease Control data claims to show a correlation between 13 Reasons Why and an increase in teen suicide. However, the research failed to substantiate the author’s own hypothesis. … [In fact,] the show’s positive impact has been observed in numerous independent pieces of research.” – The Hollywood Reporter

The company’s chief content officer said in a statement, “Given the legislation has not yet been implemented, we’ll continue to film there, while also supporting partners and artists who choose not to. Should it ever come into effect, we’d rethink our entire investment in Georgia.” – Variety

When Barbara Walters launched the show in 1997, it was seen as mildly scandalous that someone with her journalistic prestige would go to daytime TV; when President Barack Obama appeared on it in 2010, there were sniffs about the “dignity [of] the presidency.” Now ambitious politicians see The View as a must-do. Why? Because “it offers the tantalizing promise of reaching the unconverted.” – The New York Times Magazine

A year after Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Shoplifters” won the 2018 award, Alejandro G. Inarritu’s jury gave this year’s top prize to Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite,” one of the most critically acclaimed films of this year’s festival. – The Wrap

Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line, The Fog of War, Standard Operating Procedure, American Dharma) actually directed a few commercials for Theranos several years ago, before the company’s fraud was discovered. Morris now refuses to acknowledge any responsibility for having promoted fraudulent goods and services (as is the case with the AIG ads he directed in the years before the 2008 financial crisis). – Hyperallergic

“The analysis of content aired and published by Radio and Television Martí, a sister agency to the better-known Voice of America, was launched by the broadcasters’ parent organization.” It found that Martís content routinely fails to meet standards of fairness, sometimes descends into outlandish propaganda — and that none of this is due to the direction of any Trump administration official. – The Washington Post

“Georgia’s recent passage of a highly restrictive abortion law has turned its once cozy relationship with Tinsel Town into a fraught one, and put Hollywood’s liberal politics on a collision course with its own economic interests in the state. … But the industry’s response to the law has been far from unified. There have been pledges to boycott Georgia and promises to stay. Most strikingly, there has been near total silence from top studio brass.” – The New York Times

The gift from the Knight Foundation will be used to expand NewsHour‘s Canvas program online and over the air. – ARTnews

“It’s weird to play a character who lived, more weird if he’s still alive — because he’s producing more information every day — and extraordinarily rare that he is behind the camera saying, ‘Action!’ to you. To deal with all of these things was not easy.” – The New York Times

“TV and film star David Niven griped in 1955 that ‘the laugh track is the greatest single affront to public intelligence I know of.’ … But consider for a moment the unheralded achievements of the laugh track. It allowed directors to leave their live studio audiences behind and shoot scenes on location. It gave at-home viewers someone to laugh along with. And, if you believe the sparse scientific research and the anecdotal evidence from Hollywood, it made jokes funnier.” – Quartz

“Just a few years ago, Le Vele – a sprawling housing estate in Scampia, on the outskirts of Naples – was both the fictional location for the hit crime film and Italian TV series Gomorrah and the real-life location for the biggest international drugs and arms supermarket in western Europe.” But no more. “Unusually, the effort to demolish the buildings has been led by the residents themselves.” – The Guardian