The somewhat confusing case — earlier reports that the director had been convicted were later denied — concerns Farhadi's A Hero, an Oscar-nominee this year. A former student claims Farhadi stole the idea for his film from a documentary she made in a workshop he ran in 2014. - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)
The Golden Raspberry Awards, while rescinding Bruce Willis's nominations after his aphasia was made public, also took back Shelley Duvall's award for The Shining because director Stanley Kubrick "tried to keep his lead actress in a constant state of panic, and made horror a reality." - The Washington Post
"'I have come to the conclusion that government ownership is holding Channel 4 back from competing against streaming giants like Netflix and Amazon,' tweeted Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries." Channel 4 was created in 1982 as a public-service network for underrepresented audiences. - Variety
They're "movies you want to watch at home," according to Nicole Kidman - and they're hard to make without falling into sexist tropes, so studios just won't back them as theatrical releases. But streaming? Well. Even Fatal Attraction is up for a streaming series remake. - Vulture
The Chinese box office absolutely crumbled last week. "The current epicenter is Shanghai, where a megacity of 25 million people has been locked down in two phases for much of the past week." - Variety
Just ask Meryl Streep. But it's probably even harder when you're British. "Before the release of the Meryl Streep–starring film Julie & Julia in 2009, Sarah Lancashire had never heard of Julia Child. 'She had no public persona in the U.K.,'" Lancashire said. Now she is Julia. - Vulture
Sometimes they get the accents right (Kate Winslet, on her second try), or sort of right (Kate Winslet, on her first try). Sometimes, not so much (Jude Law). - The Guardian (UK)
Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, delivered a pre-recorded message: "Our musicians wear body armour instead of tuxedos. ... They sing to the wounded in hospitals, even to those who can't hear them. But the music will break through." - BBC
How? Safety, actually: "Producers sought out more controlled environments for outdoor shooting. Even with a 87-day shutdown, the number of shoot days on backlots dropped only 15 % from 2019 to 2020." And now studios want more land. - Los Angeles Times
The composer changed musicals, yes, and he was generous with his work, allowing others to adapt it to the screen. Sometimes that worked well - Original Cast Album: Company - and sometimes (er, Into the Woods, 2014, anyone), not so much. - The New York Times
But he's not actor Will Smith. After the slap, "Will Smith — a podcaster, gamer and PR guy for indie game studio Stray Bombay who lives in San Francisco — girded for a new tweetstorm of commentary misdirected" at him.- Variety
In just the past half year, TikTok mobs have dived headlong into engagement-baiting investigations of recent murders, online “pedophile rings,” and the legitimacy of popular creators’ neurological or psychiatric conditions. - The Atlantic
“Doomscrolling is essentially an avoidance technique used to cope with anxiety, so wherever you are vulnerable to anxiety, doomscrolling can become an unhealthy coping mechanism.” - Wired
In 2021, just 20 revenue-sharing U.S. titles were released in Chinese cinemas, compared with 31 U.S. tentpole releases before the pandemic, in 2019. - The Hollywood Reporter
