All posts tagged: shook

Jerry Seinfeld asked Chris Rock to parody Will Smith Oscars slap in ‘Unfrosted,’ but Rock was still ‘shook’

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[ad_1] Jerry Seinfeld revealed during a recent interview on the “Fly on the Wall” podcast that he wanted Chris Rock to parody the infamous Oscars slap in his feature directorial debut “Unfrosted,” which recently premiered on Netflix. The issue was that Seinfeld filmed the comedy movie not long after the March 2022 Oscars, and Rock was allegedly feeling too “shook” to be able to perform in the movie. “The other thing I wanted to do that I almost did was Chris Rock was going to be the emcee of the Bowl & Spoon Awards — and we shot that right after the Will Smith slap,” Seinfeld explained. “I was going to have somebody come up on the stage and have Chris punch ’em out as they got there.” “Unfrosted” is loosely based on the true story of the creation of Pop-Tarts. Set in 1963, it tracks the rivalry between cereal companies Kellogg’s and Post as they compete to have the breakfast pastry hit the market first. Seinfeld stars in the movie opposite Melissa McCarthy, Jim Gaffigan, Max Greenfield, Hugh …

The Blair Witch Project: the story of how a low-budget film shook the world and changed horror forever

The Blair Witch Project: the story of how a low-budget film shook the world and changed horror forever

Published by Sam

[ad_1] Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey Get our The Life Cinematic email for free The history of horror can be split into two distinct eras: before The Blair Witch Project and after. The 1999 film, about three amateur filmmakers who disappear while shooting a documentary in the woods, is a seminal entry into the lineage of on-screen scares. Everyone remembers where they were when they first watched Blair Witch, and everyone remembers how they felt watching it: a pricking fear that lasted months, awakened by every rustle in the dark or random formation of sticks on the ground. The film certainly did not invent the found-footage genre (around 20 years earlier, Cannibal Holocaust, Ruggero Deodoato’s controversial horror also about a crew of missing documentarians, scandalised audiences to the point of being banned in several countries). But it did harness the genre’s signature qualities in a fresh, frightening way. The two sequels that followed, released in 2000 and 2016, were lousy and forgotten – …

‘I am prepared to die’: Mandela’s speech which shook apartheid | Nelson Mandela

‘I am prepared to die’: Mandela’s speech which shook apartheid | Nelson Mandela

Published by Sam

[ad_1] “Accused number one” had been speaking from the dock for almost three hours by the time he uttered the words that would ultimately change South Africa. The racially segregated Pretoria courtroom listened in silence as Nelson Mandela’s account of his lifelong struggle against white minority rule reached its conclusion. Judge Quintus de Wet managed not to look at Mandela for the majority of his address. But before accused number one delivered his final lines, defence lawyer Joel Joffe remembered, “Mandela paused for a long time and looked squarely at the judge” before saying: “During my lifetime, I have dedicated my life to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against Black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal for which I hope to live for and to see realised. But, my Lord, if it needs be, it is an ideal for which I …

‘She’s the mother of African dance’: the Senegal sensation who shook the world | Dance

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[ad_1] ‘When I was born,” says Germaine Acogny, speaking from her home in Toubab Dialaw, Senegal, “people said I was the reincarnation of my grandmother.” A Yoruba priestess, her grandmother Aloopho was said to possess powers that would be passed down the matrilineal line. But she only had one child – Acogny’s father, Togoun – so Aloopho made an exception. “She told my dad, ‘I’ll transmit my powers to you, but you must transmit them to your oldest daughter in turn.’” Acogny gives a megawatt smile and begins to chuckle heartily. “I don’t necessarily feel that my father passed on all the power he could have done,” she says, eyes glinting. Nonetheless, the 79-year-old firmly believes that “the dead are not dead”, and thanks her grandmother for bestowing upon her an ease of movement and reverence for the natural world. People won’t understand you right now, her grandfather said, but be patient – they will I’m sure Aloopho would be happy to take credit: the woman speaking to me over Zoom is widely regarded as …

Plagues that shook the Roman Empire linked to cold, dry periods

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[ad_1] A 7th-century outbreak of plague in Italy, painted by Josse Lieferinxe The Walters Art Museum/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY Three pandemics in the Roman Empire coincided with abnormally cold and dry periods, suggesting that natural changes in climate may have contributed to Rome’s decline. Kyle Harper at the University of Oklahoma and his colleagues reconstructed the climate of southern Italy between 200 BC and AD 600 by analysing the remains of plankton in a sediment core from the Adriatic Sea. The Roman state flourished and reached its greatest extent during the three centuries of relatively warm and wet weather beginning in 200 BC in what is now Italy. But the study found that this “Roman climate optimum” gave way around AD 130 to an era that was up to 3°C (5.4°F) colder and with more frequent droughts. Especially frigid years corresponded with the Antonine Plague in 165-180 AD, which shook the empire and possibly killed Emperor Lucius Verus. Another plunge in temperatures came during the Plague of Cyprian in 251-266, when the empire was splintering into …

From the Post Office scandal to nuclear attack: 13 TV shows that shook Britain | Television

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[ad_1] Governments have always been terrified of television. Since the medium began in the UK in 1936, numerous laws have dictated how many hours of programming can be broadcast when and what they should contain. Officially, this strict regulation protected viewers from brain-rot, moral corruption or distraction from professional and family duties. But there has always been much concern, too, that TV might illuminate the more shadowy and embarrassing actions of the state. In the way that had always been feared, the small screen swept a blinding light through Westminster this week, ITV’s drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office leaving ministers scrambling to introduce rapid legislation to exonerate and pay compensation to more than 700 UK sub-postmasters. They were wrongly accused of fraud and theft between 1999 and 2015, due to faulty accounting software imposed by the Post Office that led to multiple bankruptcies, divorces, breakdowns and contributed to deaths. Such a vast reversal would usually result only from a court verdict and, even then, with delays for appeals and ministerial quibbling. In this …

Israel’s darkest day: the 24 hours of terror that shook the country | Israel-Hamas war

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[ad_1] As dawn broke last Saturday over the 40-mile Gaza-Israel barrier, once confidently described as an “iron wall”, Hamas struck at the eyes and ears of Israel’s defence. It was shortly before 6.30am at the end of a Sukkot week of holiday when explosive devices, dropped from above by drones, made a mockery of past claims of impregnability by disabling the wall’s communication towers and its remote-controlled machine gun posts, while snipers picked off sensors and cameras, blinding Israeli defenders left staring at blank screens to what was in deadly motion. Unseen in the weak light of early morning and unheard under the roar of the first of about 2,200 rockets fired towards southern and central Israel, Hamas fighters used wire cutters to make discreet punctures in the 20ft-tall double fence barrier or detonated small explosive loads to create larger openings. Rockets fired by Palestinian militants from Gaza City are intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system in the early hours of Sunday 8 October. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images It allowed their best trained men …

The writers strike is over: here’s how AI negotiations shook out

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[ad_1] After almost five months, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) has reached an agreement with Hollywood studios to end the writers strike. Starting Wednesday, writers will be able to resume work under the conditions established by their new contract. During the historic strike, AI emerged as a key point of contention between the writers and studios. Though text-based generative AI tools like ChatGPT are very creatively limited as they stand, writers worried that studios would still try to take advantage of these fast-developing tools to avoid paying union members. “I’m not worried about the technology,” comedy writer Adam Conover told TechCrunch at the start of the strike. “I’m worried about the companies using technology, that is not in fact very good, to undermine our working conditions.” Along with better residual payments, minimum writers room staffing, and other terms that help screenwriters make a living, the WGA’s new contract outlines limitations on how AI can be used in writers’ rooms. Per the agreement, AI cannot be used to write or rewrite scripts, and AI-generated writing …

The Sun’s splash, Huw Edwards and the drama that gripped Britain and shook the BBC | BBC

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[ad_1] It was a grim sort of guessing game played across Britain last week: who was the mystery BBC broadcaster who had reportedly paid £35,000 to a young person in exchange for sexual images? By Tuesday the field of suspects had narrowed, as horrified presenters, misidentified in social media posts, attempted to distance themselves. Then on Wednesday came the revelation: the hidden man at the centre of this tabloid newspaper accusation was Huw Edwards, the BBC’s lead news anchor, whose calm and authoritative voice had announced the death of the Queen. The astonishing allegations carried in the Sun newspaper last weekend have split the nation and put many leading commentators at loggerheads, to say nothing of pitting an endangered BBC against Rupert Murdoch’s news empire. “The idea a big public figure has a double life is going to excite huge interest, but we don’t know the facts yet,” said one former senior BBC news chief. “The BBC must work out if it has been brought into disrepute. The claims could certainly be construed as very …

The Wagner uprising: 24 hours that shook Russia | Russia

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[ad_1] Last Thursday Yevgeny Prigozhin let rip on his favourite subject: the incompetence and vanity of Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu. Seated in front of a Wagner flag and sipping from a mug of tea, he called his bitter enemy a scumbag. Shoigu was a craven PR man and oligarch who had never held a weapon in his life, he raged. The defence ministry had duped Vladimir Putin into last year’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Prigozhin added. The decision had nothing to do with “denazification” or “demilitarisation”, or an imminent Nato attack on Russia – the official reasons for the war. It was all about Shoigu’s wish for a second “hero of Russia” medal, he claimed. Wagner’s Prigozhin dismisses Putin’s justifications for invading Ukraine – video So far, so normal. Prigozhin’s online rants against Russia’s military leaders had been going on for months. He had previously accused Shoigu and commander-in-chief Valery Gerasimov of depriving his Wagner troops of ammunition, of sacrificing Russian soldiers in disastrous missions and of seizing eastern Ukraine in order to plunder …