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https://www.themarysue.com/idris-elba-deadshot-suicide-squad/
Will Smith will apparently not be returning for The Suicide Squad, due to scheduling conflicts. Instead, Idris Elba is in talks to take on the mantle of Deadshot for the film, which will function as a soft reboot of the first film. David Ayer’s first attempt to bring the Squad to the big screen drew in box office numbers and acclaim for Margot Robbie’s turn as Harley Quinn but for the most part was not well received. James Gunn has been brought on to course correct.
There have been a few frantic tweets and Reddit posts that claim the recasting is a sign that everyone from the Snyder era of the DCEU except Robbie, Gal Gadot, and Jason Momoa, are not safe and might be recast. Let’s probably lay these worries to rest: an actor’s schedule not working out for a film he wasn’t necessarily planning on returning to does not mean that we have to bid farewell to everyone else in the franchise.
Deadline reported that Smith’s parting from the franchise was amicable and purely based on schedule. While people can lie, it’s also not likely that everyone has concocted a giant scheme to hide Smith parting badly with Warner Bros. If they wanted to completely erase the entire first film, Deadshot wouldn’t be involved at all, period. Smith’s lack of involvement also doesn’t mean that no one else from the original film will return.
Don’t fret, DC fans. Elba’s casting is good news, and does not mean the end of the Snyder Verse as we know it. Let’s enjoy the news for what it is.
(via Deadline, image: Warner Bros)
- The first footage of Episode IX has been screened, and here’s a breakdown of what it is. (via Slash Film)
- Adrienne Barbeau returns to the swamp for Swamp Thing. (via Twitter)
- Was Mr. Rogers bisexual? (via Dlisted)
- Patty Jenkins got hyped for Captain Marvel. (via Twitter)
Congratulations team Captain Marvel! Can’t wait to see it and our whole WW crew wish you a great weekend. Love this gorgeous piece by @SamoanJYandall! pic.twitter.com/A3yUxwHhLZ
— Patty Jenkins (@PattyJenks) March 7, 2019
- The first info about Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series has been revealed. (via IndieWire)
- Read this stellar essay about what the movies taught Manohla Dargis about being a woman. (via New York Times)
- Artist Jen Bartel’s awesome Captain Marvel sneakers go on sale tomorrow. (via Nerdist)
- The Queen used Instagram! (via Instagram)
Want more stories like this? Become a subscriber and support the site!
—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—
Will Smith will apparently not be returning for The Suicide Squad, due to scheduling conflicts. Instead, Idris Elba is in talks to take on the mantle of Deadshot for the film, which will function as a soft reboot of the first film. David Ayer’s first attempt to bring the Squad to the big screen drew in box office numbers and acclaim for Margot Robbie’s turn as Harley Quinn but for the most part was not well received. James Gunn has been brought on to course correct.
There have been a few frantic tweets and Reddit posts that claim the recasting is a sign that everyone from the Snyder era of the DCEU except Robbie, Gal Gadot, and Jason Momoa, are not safe and might be recast. Let’s probably lay these worries to rest: an actor’s schedule not working out for a film he wasn’t necessarily planning on returning to does not mean that we have to bid farewell to everyone else in the franchise.
Deadline reported that Smith’s parting from the franchise was amicable and purely based on schedule. While people can lie, it’s also not likely that everyone has concocted a giant scheme to hide Smith parting badly with Warner Bros. If they wanted to completely erase the entire first film, Deadshot wouldn’t be involved at all, period. Smith’s lack of involvement also doesn’t mean that no one else from the original film will return.
Don’t fret, DC fans. Elba’s casting is good news, and does not mean the end of the Snyder Verse as we know it. Let’s enjoy the news for what it is.
(via Deadline, image: Warner Bros)
- The first footage of Episode IX has been screened, and here’s a breakdown of what it is. (via Slash Film)
- Adrienne Barbeau returns to the swamp for Swamp Thing. (via Twitter)
- Was Mr. Rogers bisexual? (via Dlisted)
- Patty Jenkins got hyped for Captain Marvel. (via Twitter)
Congratulations team Captain Marvel! Can’t wait to see it and our whole WW crew wish you a great weekend. Love this gorgeous piece by @SamoanJYandall! pic.twitter.com/A3yUxwHhLZ
— Patty Jenkins (@PattyJenks) March 7, 2019
- The first info about Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series has been revealed. (via IndieWire)
- Read this stellar essay about what the movies taught Manohla Dargis about being a woman. (via New York Times)
- Artist Jen Bartel’s awesome Captain Marvel sneakers go on sale tomorrow. (via Nerdist)
- The Queen used Instagram! (via Instagram)
Want more stories like this? Become a subscriber and support the site!
—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse required hundreds of hours of work from thousands of artists and technicians—not just to tell the story of Miles Morales and his fellow Spider-People, but to translate the imagery and energy of comic book panels into fluid, dynamic animation.
Story artist Denise Koyama, a longtime fan of the character since the days of Steve Ditko, created tens of thousands of storyboards borrowing from classic comic framing, action and storytelling in order to create sequences that thrilled audiences and brilliantly brought the characters to life.
At a recent press day for the Feb. 26 digital and March 19 home video release of the Oscars’ Best Animated Feature winner, Nerdist sat down with Koyama for an honest, energetic conversation about the tremendous volume of work that she did in order to help Spider-Man look truly spectacular.
In addition to deconstructing the pipeline for creating (and recreating) shots for some of the film’s most exciting sequences, she talked about her own past and present influences as an artist, and reflected on the opportunity to turn her lifelong passion for comic books into one piece of this film’s revolutionary moviemaking process.
You mentioned that there were 1,750 versions of one sequence you worked on for the film. Is that the most versions of any scene?
Denise Koyama: I don’t know—probably not! There were so many different versions because this was different from our normal process. They could literally change the idea [on a whim]. And so you might be launched on something and you’re like, okay, I’m doing this. And then they’d send a note to change that, or start over and do this thing. So there was a lot of that kind of stuff going on, and lots of different versions.
I’m sure that there’s a certain acclimation process, but is there a point where you’re like, I’ve done this 1,744 times, I don’t want to do it one more!
DK: Well, they rotate us out just so that we don’t get tired and put us on different things. But as your job, I like to come up with different options. So for me, it was like, okay, we’ll try a different option, and it was a lot of fun. I mean, sometimes it’s really hard because you love something and it’s hard to see some of your babies die, but it’s all for the greater good.
Talk about your relationship with the other departments and how you work together.
DK: This is hilarious. I work from home, on a farm, so it’s completely opposite—I feel like somehow I live in two different universes. One is the goat lady of Riverside, and the other one is a story artist in Culver City working with the most amazing artists in the world. And there was a lot of collaboration between Justin [Thompson], who is a production designer, and the division where they’re modeling the buildings and stuff. So most of the time I could figure stuff out in 3D, but for Spider-Man, you have to be very, very accurate in some things.
So they’ll do a whole thing and I’ll say, “I want the camera to do this,” and they could actually go into my program and set up the camera, lens, etcetera, and then they’ll shoot the thing without characters—just the environment. And then I’ll take a couple of still frames from there and then put that into my storyboard to give it a little bit more flavor of 3D. Because sometimes with all this stuff going on, it’s very hard to see how the camera will move when people are fighting upside down and sideways and stuff is moving around.
Which department produced the most revisions for you? In the production pipeline, is it the story that’s constantly changing, or the animation style or technique, or the directing, for example?
DK: It’s always the story idea. The experimentation on this was insane, and so it was constantly changing. So you could be working on something and then we’re starting on something else. Usually you have this timeframe, present [your work], and go to editorial. Here, you have two days to do hundreds of drawings, and I don’t know if you saw the outline, but a lot of it is just, “He goes in and saves the Spideys.” That’s it. There’s only a general location, but sometimes we don’t even have visuals for the places that we’re supposed to do. And so you have to make that up and have like an hour to figure this out before I actually have to actually draw this. So it was a little bit of a challenge. But it was fun.
How much did referencing the visual language of comic books affect what angles and framing to use, in the storyboard stage?
DK: What we would do is several different passes: a straight pass where we do traditional storyboarding and then go, where can we make this more like a cartoon? We’d [put] the paneling in or the action words and stuff and then I would try different things and say, does this work? Does the timing of this work? Is the impact of this better or worse? So we’d go through an experiment and do stuff and then the directors might go, well, that works for the scene, but maybe change it up here or do this here, or maybe it doesn’t work. So there’s a lot of collaboration going on.
As a big fan of Spider-Man comics, was there a certain action or silhouette or framing that you hoped to sneak into the film?
DK: I just wanted Spider-Man to be fluid throughout the whole thing. The way that Steve Ditko drew him is very fluid. He did a very classical style of Spider-Man, but there’s some beautiful movement throughout the whole form, and Cheyenne contemporized that and made it very fluid and simplified. And so trying to keep that feeling of it, the spirit of it and keep true to that, that was my goal.
Was Ditko the artist that was most inspiring to you during this process?
DK: Because I grew up looking at his work, for me that’s Spider-Man. That’s my childhood, my heart. This is my love for Spider-Man. It’s such a crazy thing to be in your room reading a comic book, and then fast forward to be working on a Spider-Man movie. Like, brain broken—it’s a dream come true!
What was one choice, be it an angle or movement, that made it into the movie that you’re especially proud of, even if nobody else will notice it?
DK: Just being a part of it for me was everything. As a storyboard artist, after you finish it, it’s kind of like you don’t care how the outcome is and how they decide to change it around. But just being part of that whole collider thing with Doc Ock and Spider-Man fighting, that for me was like, yes, I can die happy now!
Images: Sony
The post INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE Story Artist on Creating Thousands of Versions of a Single Scene appeared first on Nerdist.
Source: Johnny Nunez/WireImage / Getty
You’ve probably seen this photo floating around on social media today. It’s not new. It’s actually from 2017, but it’s a fitting reminder that Wendy Williams rides for her man, Kevin Hunter, and has been doing so for more than 20 years.
During her return to her eponymous talk show on Monday, Williams addressed rumors that her husband, who is also her manager, is toxic (i.e., he’s alleged to have a long-term mistress and his mother accused him of assaulting Williams). She made it clear that while their marriage isn’t perfect, she and Hunter are down for life.
“I want to give a shout out to my husband, I’m still wearing my ring!” she said. “Believe me you, when you’ve been with somebody for 28 years, married for 25 years, and when we got married we waited four years before doing the baby project and stuff, so we know each other! He’s my best friend. He’s my lover, he’s all this and he’s all that. I know what you’ve been saying. And I know what the streets have been talking about.”
“I’m still very much in love with my husband, and anybody whose been married for five minutes or 500 years, you know marriages have ebbs and flows,” she added. “Marriages are not easy. Don’t ask me about mine until you see this gone *points to ring* and it ain’t going anywhere. Not in this lifetime!”
That very interesting photo, and Williams’ defense of her hubby, inspired us to take a look at some throwback images of the pair. The photos we found are just as colorful as that middle finger they gave to their haters. Hit the flip to see some very interesting images of the pair from over the years.
Source: Johnny Nunez/WireImage / Getty
Source: Dean Mitchell / Getty
Conditions exist in every facet of life. When we leave our overpriced city apartments, we dress for the appropriate weather conditions. There’s conditions when it comes to keeping your job. You gotta show up on time, do the work, all that good stuff.
There are conditions in relationships, too. But it’s not something we talk about enough in our relationships with our family, friends, or significant others.
I’ve had several instances where I’ve felt loved under conditions and when I, too, have loved people conditionally. Whenever I realized this, I knew it was because I wanted to control the outcome. I wanted things to be done my way, I wanted to be right, I wanted to ‘win.’ Over the years, I learned that this thought process was problematic, and I wanted to understand where this mindset stemmed from. I realized that forgiveness, transparency and self-awareness were needed to understand. Were these conditions reasonable and realistic? Or were the conditions set as a means of control?
My introduction to conditions began with my interactions with my parents, as an adult child. If you have strict African parents like mine, you know there will always be reminders that you aren’t doing enough. They keep account of all the times you messed up since the day you were conceived. Around my mid twenties, I had a serious conversation with my Pops about unconditional love.
We had gotten into an argument because he had wanted to put this tracker on my phone. Needless to say, I was adamantly against this and made this known. My dad’s go-to response was to give me the silent treatment for three weeks. It was then that I finally decided to have an honest conversation about his response.
My heart was racing, but I had him on the phone, and decided it was time to really be transparent with him about his communication. I said to him:“If there’s something I can do to make you stop loving me, especially something small, then your love comes with conditions. We can agree to disagree without you shutting me out; that’s not love, and that’s not how we express love. As a parent, you love me unconditionally, regardless of whether you agree with everything I decide to do.”
Needless to say, it was a game changing conversation, and allowed us to really dialogue about where the ‘conditions’ were coming from.
I started to examine my friendships. In my opinion, best friends have an unspoken commitment to working through difficult situations, no matter what because the love is genuine. I’ve been blessed to be able to really fight through some real stuff in order to mend things with those closest to me. It has not been easy; both parties had to forgive and let go in order to move forward. It’s in those moments, that I knew they were in this thing for life.
On that same note, there are friendships and romantic relationships that faded or were downright ruined because of the tally system. It does us no good to keep score of who forgives who the most, or to focus on winning an argument versus coming to a resolution. There are times when I had to take the loss and come to terms with the part I played in the downfall.
When it comes to romantic relationships, I don’t think you can truly love a partner with conditions. The idea is that unless you’re protecting yourself from being harmed physically/emotionally, what are these conditions in place for? I think when we think about long term commitments like marriage, we don’t assume our partners will make mistakes. But we will, because we’re human. In order for us to grow and become more self aware, thoughtful people, we have to trust and hope that our significant other gives us the benefit of the doubt and forgives. Because ultimately, with pre-existing conditions, it doesn’t leave much room for redemption.
The problem with conditional relationships is it sets stipulations on what unconditional love and regard for another person should look like. It posits that forgiveness and the potential to move forward does not exist and never was a possibility between friends, lovers and family members.
There are exceptions to this, of course. It’s important to have boundaries and to advocate for them the moment they are broken. But overall, giving the benefit of the doubt and allowing a potential change to occur shows a sign of emotional maturity.
If you’re keeping receipts, your intentions are never to forgive. It’s to use the gathering of info at the right opportunity. That’s not okay.
You can’t control people, you can only control yourself. You always owe it to yourself to set the tone for how you want to be treated at the beginning. That way there is no confusion. In any relationships, you should know when to call it quits, and when to keep fighting. If this person means everything to you, there are few stipulations that will stop you from mending something that is broken. It’s all about intentions, and something to keep in mind when navigating emotional bonds and communicating with the people that we care for.
Mora Adeyi works full-time as a social worker, assistant professor, as well as a freelance writer. In her spare time, she loves napping, hanging with her girls, and binge watching romantic comedies. Mora has been writing on love for the past 9 years.