When Patrizia Reggiani, an outsider from humble beginnings, marries into the Gucci family, her unbridled ambition begins to unravel their legacy and triggers a reckless spiral of betrayal, decadence, revenge, and ultimately…murder.
Director:
Ridley Scott |
Stars:
Lady Gaga,
Adam Driver,
Al Pacino,
Jeremy Irons
BookTrib is proud to present to our readers the Writers, Ink podcast, a show about the business of writing.
J.K. Rowling was nearly homeless when she wrote the first Harry Potter book. Stephen King penned Carrie on a small desk wedged between a washer and dryer. James Patterson worked in advertising and famously wrote the Toys “R” Us theme song long before becoming an author.
Whether you’re traditionally published or indie, writing a good book is only the first step in becoming a successful author. The days of just turning a manuscript into your editor and walking away are gone. If you want to succeed in today’s publishing world, you need to understand every aspect of the business — editing, formatting, marketing, contracts. It all starts with a good book, then the real work begins.
Join international bestselling author J.D. Barker and indie powerhouses J. Thorn and Zach Bohannon as they gain unique insight and valuable advice from the most prolific and accomplished authors in the business.
It was fun to work with them. There were so many faces, and you get to interact with different people. Many of those were familiar and so it didn’t seem that I was in an unknown environment, it was really comfortable. Ranveer and Deepika were so nice and humble. Even London’s environment was so relaxing, it led to a smooth shoot of the film.
Generally, when you are working with so many cast and crew members, you get a bit concerned about your part in the film and you want to fulfil it properly. But, in this case everyone made each other feel very comfortable and we all were motivating each other to give our best.
Snapchat and Harry Potter come together to celebrate 20 years of the latter’s movie franchise. In collaboration with the Warner Bros, Snapchat has added a new Harry Potter Lens to let users celebrate the 20th anniversary of the first movie release. The Lens comes just days before the four-part quiz show competition series – Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tournament of Houses releases on November 28.
Harry Potter fans on Snapchat can now find the lens in the lens section and use it to make celebratory Snaps. Snapchat says the fans can speak to the camera using Snapchat’s VoiceML technology. They can dress up like Harry Potter characters, decorate their snaps with Hogwarts house colours, and even have an AR face paint. The Lens will let the fans support all four Hogwarts houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin.
“Being the first-ever television event from the Harry Potter franchise, Snap Warner Bros. wanted to create a Lens experience for true Harry Potter-lovers to celebrate the cultural moment in style, and bring some of the fun to Snapchatters watching from home,” said Snap Lens Creator, Hart Woolery.
“I was inspired by imaginative nature of the Harry Potter series, the visual effects created for the films, and the feeling of camaraderie created by the houses within Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry,” he adds.
– First, you need to open the Snapchat app and head to the Snapchat Camera.
– You can find the Harry Potter Lens within the Snap Lens Carousel, or take a picture of the Harry Potter Snapcode.
– Next, you need to tap the microphone button to enable voice commands.
– Now you need to tap the floating prompt above your head. For example, you can click on “Tap to Change House,” which will ask you to say voice commands such as “Go Go Gryffindor”, or “Go GoHufflepuff”.
– Once you say the name of your house, you can see the Ar stuff dressing you up in that house’s festive colours, attire, and face paint.
Initially, it was a phenomenon called Rajinikanth, the phenomenon became national, international. He has fans in Japan, like major fans there, he also has fans in Canada, the US and everywhere. And after that, Baahubali’ happened. They all set the trend. It made us believe that it is us who are restricting ourselves. It is a much bigger circle, we need to push ourselves, Dhanush told PTI.
After the success of Amazon’s “The Family Man” season two, Samantha Ruth Prabhu told PTI the quality of Hindi content being offered to her has improved “very much”.
Parambrata Chatterjee credited streaming platforms for introducing fans who know him only through Sujoy Ghosh-directed “Kahaani” or his other Hindi projects to his work in Bengali cinema.
“Because of the OTT revolution, people are now aware of the Bengali work that I’ve done,” the actor, who was last seen in Netflix series “Aranyak”, told PTI.
In the old days, it was all about remakes barring some notable cross-overs of talent, be it Dilip Kumar’s 1967 hit “Ram Aur Shyam” or Jeetendra’s “Himmatwala”.
Also, it was the South that nurtured the late Sridevi before she went on to rule Bollywood for over five decades.
Kamal Haasan is another pan India star who has worked in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam, Kannada, and Bengali films.
In the 1980s, veteran actor Jeetendra was frequently paired with Jaya Prada or Sridevi for remakes of Telugu films by T Rama Rao, K Bapayya, K Raghavendra Rao and Dasari Narayana Rao.
Stage is set for 2022 as well with pan India collaborations: Nagraj Manjule’s “Bheed” with Amitabh Bachchan; sci-fi film tentatively titled Project K starring Prabhas and Deepika Padukone; K.G.F: Chapter 2 starring Yash, Sanjay Dutt and Raveena Tandon; Mani Ratnam’s epic historical drama Ponniyin Selvan: I with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Vikram, Saif Ali Khan and Prabhas-led Adipurush , Karan Johar’s Liger with Telugu star Vijay Deverakonda and Brahmastra featuring Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Bachchan and Nagarjuna Akkineni.
It was not to be, but the TV version of Rooney’s debut novel, Conversations With Friends, about two college students and their connection with a married couple, looks on schedule to finally arrive in 2022.
“We would love to develop more original Harry Potter series, and we regularly talk to JK Rowling and her team,” she told The Hollywood Reporter.
“It’s got to be right though. Whatever we do has to be true to the canon, and true to the ethos of the Wizarding World, and who Harry is.”
Earlier this year, it was reported that a live-action Harry Potter TV series was in early development at HBO Max, although no specific details were revealed about what form such a show might take – nor have there been any updates since.
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Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint will all take part in the HBO Max special, with a wealth of other franchise stars including Helena Bonham Carter, Gary Oldman, Imelda Staunton, Tom Felton, James Phelps, Oliver Phelps, Mark Williams, Bonnie Wright, Robbie Coltrane, Ralph Fiennes, Jason Isaacs, Ian Hart, Alfred Enoch, Matthew Lewis and Evanna Lynch all in line for an appearance.
The event will be released on Sky and NOW in the UK and on HBO Max in the US on New Year’s Day.
Meanwhile, the third Fantastic Beasts film, which has been subtitled The Secrets of Dumbledore, is currently slated for release on 15th April 2022 – with Mads Mikkelsen set to replace Johnny Depp in the role of Gellert Grindelwald.
A synopsis for the film reads: “Professor Albus Dumbledore knows the powerful Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald is moving to seize control of the wizarding world.
“Unable to stop him alone, he entrusts Magizoologist Newt Scamander to lead an intrepid team of wizards, witches and one brave Muggle baker on a dangerous mission, where they encounter old and new beasts and clash with Grindelwald’s growing legion of followers.
“But with the stakes so high, how long can Dumbledore remain on the sidelines?”
Fantastic Beasts hits cinemas in April 2022. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what’s on tonight.
This year’s Radio Times Christmas double issue is on sale now, featuring two weeks of TV, film and radio listings, reviews, features and interviews with the stars.
There’s something strange in the neighborhood… and it’s the plot of Ghostbusters: Afterlife! In celebration of Ivan and Jason Reitman’s critically divisive, audience-adored sequel to the original Ghostbusters movie coming to digital on demand last week, we’ve decided to give it the (admittedly belated) Spoiler FAQ treatment! If there’s anything you were confused about, this FAQ may offer meager help! Maybe! Admittedly, it’s unlikely! God, this movie’s a mess.
Hey, why are you doing this? A lot of people loved Afterlife! They called it “nostalgia done right.”
They sure did, didn’t they? I can’t speak to their opinion, because I can’t think of a film that did nostalgia worse other than The Rise of Skywalker.
But the movie is all about a new set of kids learning about the Ghostbusters legacy and taking on the mantle for themselves!
Level up your earbud game Apple has added premium features previously exclusive to its more luxurious AirPods Pro, such as spatial audio and water resistance.
No, it’s not. Not really. It’s about a new set of kids learning about the Ghostbusters legacy and then the old Ghostbusters—the very, very old Ghostbusters—showing up to redo the end of the original film, but worse.
Sigh. So what’s the premise of Afterlife?
Egon Spengler, originally played by the late Harold Ramis, has abandoned his unnamed wife and daughter Callie at some point in the ‘90s. That child, played as an adult by the wonderful Carrie Coon, is now the single, debt-ridden mother of two children. After she and her family get evicted from their apartment, they’re forced to relocate to the incredibly dilapidated mansion her estranged and recently deceased father left her in his will (along with even more debt).
Whoa. What happened to the Ghostbusters?
Well, after the business sort of died off—and that pun was not intended, believe it or not—Egon tried to convince them that another apocalypse was coming. I want you to read this sentence very carefully, because it is bananas: Ray Stantz, Winston Zeddemore, and Peter Venkman did not believe him.
What? Are you kidding me?
No. After the events of Ghostbusters one and two, and after Egon repeatedly revealed himself to be the only one who had any clue what was going on with all things supernatural, even though they’d basically stopped the apocalypse twice already, suddenly these guys don’t believe Egon. Egon, naturally, steals the Ecto-1 and all their ghost-busting equipment and inexplicably everyone’s jumpsuits and heads to the middle of nowhere, Oklahoma. And abandons his family in the process, don’t forget.
…
Take a minute to process. It’s a lot.
OK. So why does Egon need to leave his family to deal with whatever’s happening in Oklahoma?
No reason whatsoever, other than the plot requires his granddaughter Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) to be completely ignorant of all things Egon and Ghostbusters so she can slowly learn about them through the movie with help from Egon’s ghost.
We’ll get back to that in a minute. Why don’t the Ghostbusters believe Egon?
No reason whatsoever, other than the plot requires the remaining three members to be sidelined until the very end of the film as a fan service-y deus ex machina.
Wait, why would Egon take every else’s jumpsuits?
No reason whatsoever, other than the movie wants to have Phoebe, her older brother Trevor (Stranger Things’ Finn Wolfhard), his love interest Lucky (Celeste O’Connor), and Phoebe’s friend Podcast (Lo—
Podcast?
I do not want to talk about Podcast. Ahem: and Phoebe’s friend Podcast (Logan Kim) dressed as Ghostbusters for the film’s final act.
Also, is Afterlife a comedy? This premise sounds kind of bleak.
It’s not a comedy. Oh, there are quips, and Phoebe tells some bad jokes to diffuse awkward situations because of her social anxiety, but this is mostly a deadly serious love letter to the first Ghostbusters movie.
But the first Ghostbusters movie was a comedy. It had some action and a few scares and some stakes, sure, but it was definitely a comedy.
I’m well aware! Because comedians starred in it!
Why does Afterlife take Ghostbusters so seriously?
Because the 40-year-old fans who got disgruntled about the 2016 Ghostbusters movie take it so seriously. But I talk about studios kowtowing to the most entitled-feeling sections of fandoms all the time, so I’d rather talk about how it ends up wrecking Afterlife as a movie.
Okay, do tell.
The first 80 percent of this movie is mainly about the kids, especially Phoebe, and it’s pretty good! The actors are good, the dialogue is fun, and they’re doing exciting things like discovering the Ghostbusters equipment and then trying to catch a ghost while driving down Main Street in the Ecto-1 in broad daylight and inadvertently tearing up the town. The last 20 percent is all about the original Ghostbusters, and they’re the problem.
How can they be the problem? People love those guys.
In multiple ways, actually. First, it turns out they’ve secretly hijacked the movie from the very beginning. What Ghostbusters: Afterlife really, really wants to be is the first Ghostbusters again—not a sequel, the exact same movie—and pit Venkman, Stanz, and Zeddemore against Gozer the Gozerian again. And in order to get them there for the rematch, but only for the final act, the plot becomes nonsense.
How so?
Well, there’s the aforementioned “Egon becomes a terrible person and the other Ghostbusters suddenly stop trusting their friend” nonsense. But then there’s the rest of the premise, which also makes no sense. You see, for some reason, there’s a secret temple to Gozer hiding in a mountain in Oklahoma, which is what Egon abandoned everybody to deal with. His plan was to capture a Terror Dog—yes, they’re back too, as are the Gatekeeper and Keymaster—and lure what seems to be the spirit of the second Terror Dog back to his dirt farm, where he’d capture it in a giant trap he’d made—a trap far, far more powerful than he’d need for just the Dog. He manages the first part, but there’s an electrical short, the trap doesn’t work, and the spirit of the second Dog kills Egon.
Yeesh.
To be clear, a Terror Dog spirit powerful enough to murder people is loose, but then inexplicably does absolutely nothing else until Phoebe makes the horrendous decision to open Egon’s ghost trap containing the first Terror Dog, which very clearly has a ghost in it. Now, you could say that even though Phoebe has been depicted as brilliant, she knows so little about the Ghostbusters she couldn’t have known the possible ramifications of freeing the ghost. But Egon’s spirit guides her to the secret hiding place where he stuck the trap. Why?! What good could that possibly do anyone? What possible outcome is there better than the trap remaining safely hidden and unopened?
Perhaps it could—
Please let me continue. Somehow, releasing the Terror Dog spirit allows both Dogs to fully manifest in the real world. They possess the only two adults in the film, Callie and Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd), who free Gozer from a different trap made of proton streams that Egon had built. At some point, Phoebe realizes Egon’s plan was to lure Gozer back to his farm with the captured Dog as bait, and then trap the god in his giant trap. Do you see the problem here?
It is kind of confusi—
That was not Egon’s plan. We saw the plan, which was to lure the second Terror Dog spirit into this giant trap that was so huge it was clearly made for Gozer. But the film shows us that Gozer is safely trapped until the Keymaster and Gatekeeper arrive to let it out. Egon knew that, because he built all of these traps. If he’d wanted to trap Gozer, he would have had to let Gozer out of the first trap beforehand. But Gozer couldn’t enter the real world without both Terror Dogs being free first! None of it makes any goddamned sense and it’s all so the original Ghostbusters can steal the movie.
What do you mean, “steal” the movie?
Phoebe and Podcast manage to capture a Terror Dog after Gozer is freed, and everyone hightails it to Egon’s farm to enact his plan he did not plan. Of course it doesn’t work, but the original trio miraculously shows up in time to save everyone else from Gozer. Phoebe helps out with her proton pack, but it’s revealed that she’s being assisted by the blue VFX Force ghost of Egon, so it’s really just the original four. Trevor decides to zap the failed power cells by shooting them with a proton stream, a thing that inexplicably works, and Carrie Coon pulls a lever, but it’s really just the original four doing the same thing you saw them do in the first movie, but worse.
I still don’t see the problem with this.
Okay. Imagine you’re watching Ghostbusters for the very first time, back in 1984. Gozer is summoned and the Ghostbusters try to stop it… but this time they fail. And then three other Ghostbusters—played by 70-year-old movie stars of yesteryear like Kirk Douglas, Gregory Peck, and Burt Lancaster—suddenly show up out of nowhere and save the day instead, at which point the rest of the movie becomes entirely about them.
Okay, that doesn’t sound good.
If you didn’t grow up with the first movie, then you’re watching three very old men—at least one of whom clearly doesn’t want to be there—hijack the film. Seriously, once the old Ghostbusters show up, the other characters basically disappear. There’s a big, tearful farewell to Egon’s ghost, then you see the Ecto-1 drive into New York City while the original theme song plays. Next, Peter and Dana (Sigourney Weaver, in her only appearance in the film) are playing with the cards and shocking machine Peter used to hit on college girls in the first movie in a staggeringly pandering post-credits scene. In the second, Winston buys the old firehouse, which somehow still houses the old ghost containment unit. All of it is meaningless to anyone who isn’t already a major fan.
But I’m a fan and I liked it. Is that OK?
It is in the sense that Ivan Reitman and his son Jason made it for you, so why not? Just recognize that what was made for you to enjoy comes at the cost of everyone else’s enjoyment, because it makes the movie tremendously unsatisfying. Afterlife is about the kids, but we have no idea what happens to them after the battle. Do they stay in Oklahoma? Are they still dirt poor? Does their experience affect them in any way? It’s basic storytelling! Plus, they’re the ones who should have fended off Gozer. I’d honestly have forgiven a lot of these plotholes if I could have watched these kids succeed where Egon failed.
But…
OK. Imagine watching Star Wars: A New Hope for the first time, but instead of Luke needing to blow up the Death Star, Obi-Wan kills Darth Vader and then everybody goes home. Actually, it’s worse than that. Imagine Luke and Han go to the Death Star to rescue Leia, and Obi-Wan shows up out of nowhere, kills Vader, and leaves. There’s no character development, no character arcs.
None whatsoever?
The closest anyone in the movie comes to having a character arc is Carrie Coon’s Callie, who starts the movie (justifiably!) hating her father only to discover he secretly loved her. It’s also so she can have a loving hug with Egon’s ghost at the end, but the stupid movie even gets this wrong.
You are really ruining all the movie’s sweet moments for me.
Look, blame Egon. Because the reason Callie decides her deadbeat dad is now wonderful and loving is because Egon’s ghost eventually leads her to his underground lab, where he has a collage of photos he’s secretly taken of Callie throughout her entire life. Isn’t that wonderful?
I feel like you’re going to say this isn’t wonderful.
Egon abandons his wife and daughter to go to Oklahoma instead of taking them with her. Callie grows up without a father, but it turns out her father was taking creep shots of her constantly when he could at any point have introduced himself. Why? Why wouldn’t he do that? Was he afraid he was being tailed by ghosts that were going to kidnap his daughter and use her against him? Ghosts don’t work like that.
Say, how do ghosts work in the Ghostbusters universe? Since Egon looks just like himself, does that mean all the freaky ghosts are demons or something? Or are they evil humans who—
I’m sorry to cut you off again, but there are an infinite number of questions to be asked about how the actual afterlife works in Ghostbusters and this is already running long and I’m emotionally spent. I’m just pretending there are rules and we just don’t know them yet.
Aren’t you taking this movie too seriously?
No more or less seriously than Afterlife is treating Ghostbusters.
Touché.
For Further Discussion:
Why is the Ecto-1 covered in dust below the tattered sheet that was placed on top of the car to protect it from dust?
Why did Egon take the Ecto-1 if he wasn’t going to use it?
Why, when arrested, would a supposedly smart girl like Phoebe call the old Ghostbusters helpline instead of her mom? Only one of the two could pick her up from jail, while the other could be called at literally any other time.
Was Phoebe really going to murder the sheriff? Sure seemed like it!
When Callie and Gary Grooberson (Rudd) are possessed, why didn’t Gary get a sexy outfit like Callie did?
Why are the Mini-Pufts so eager for the sweet release of death?
Why did Egon install a very obvious firepole in his “secret” underground lab? Firefighters use one because they need to get out of the firehouse quickly to respond to emergencies—so why would Egon need one to get into his lab so quickly? Also, the floor is one small story down. How much time could a firepole save versus a set of stairs that have to be there, because otherwise, people would need to climb up the pole to get out? Did Egon install it purely for sentimental value? Ugh.
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You don’t have to be a Potterhead to know about the Hogwarts Express. Now, the imaginary magical train from the Harry Potter world has come to life. A 3D artist from Kazakhstan recreated the Hogwarts Express and fulfilled his childhood dreams.
Iskander Utebayev, a 3D artist from Kazakhstan’s Nur-Sultan, has brought the imaginary train to life. He posted a video of his recreation of the magical train, which went viral on social media. Utebayev has 1.2 million Instagram followers who unleashed their inner Harry Potter fan after watching the upgraded version of the Hogwarts Express.
Iskander Utebayev Instagram post reads, “Two decades of magic. Harry Potter 20th anniversary. My special design of The Hogwarts Express interior/electric locomotive with panoramic view. Magicverse.”
Watch the video here:
Since being shared, the video has gathered over 3.5 million views. The video of the Hogwarts Express is a visual treat for the fans around the globe.
People appreciated Utebayev’s effort and even requested him to design a Hogwarts letter.
This is not the only news that has sent the fans of the much-loved book and movie series into a tizzy.
Yesterday, the first-look teaser of the much-awaitedHarry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts was revealed by HBO Max. This year marks two decades since the first Harry Potter film hit theatres in 2001.
In the teaser, different characters of Harry Potter series can be seen receiving invitation letters wrapped in an envelope which is exactly like the letters sent to Hogwarts students.
Fans can see their favorite characters once again in the reunion. Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes, Gary Oldman, Tom Felton and Chris Columbus among others are in the list of attendees.
The Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts will follow the model of Friends reunion and there will not be any script.
The Harry Potter book and movie series were commercial success and loved by children across the globe. The magical series also helped Rowling become one of the most renowned and successful authors ever.
