#tiff 2013 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mwebber · 9 months

Note

what are your favourite martian moments? 😺

thank u for asking eve i'm so glad i get to talk about two of my favourite people on god's green earth <3 in no particular order just off the top of my head...

#1: ABU DHABI 2022 i cannot state just how much brain damage this moment did to me. like i vividly remember freaking the fuck out about the martian interview on sky and talking to the besties and barbi @brawn-gp was like omg another moment do u want me to clip. and i was like YEAH YES. PLEASE. I LOVE YOU (i love you <3) and then i saw it and blacked out and when i awoke it was to this. unparalleled brainrot Truly there will never ever be another

#2. MARRIAGE QUOTE do i need to say anything else. when i saw this for the first time i think i nearly had an aneurysm

#3. SINGAPORE 2008 their first real red bull date.......... i think about them sitting on that couples rickshaw every monday giggling with each other generally being blushy messes sharing secretive smiles like they're the only ones in on a joke. also mark pretending to push seb off a building only to catch him STOP my heart is melting

(tumblr is being dumb and won't credit the gifs properly but they're from thnx-mate-blog)

#4. VLAD RYS GEORGIA K MOMENT this is unironically my favourite pic of seb to ever seb. and of course he's looking at mark. no further comments

#4.5 THE OTHER VLAD RYS GEORGIA K MOMENT. this photo is still so mind-boggling like why the fuck are you looking at each other like that. hi. hello?

#5. MONACO 2010 HUG.

#6. MAKE LOVE TO EACH OTHER / ALWAYS REMEMBER YOUR FIRST TIME. it's literally so fucking funny to me that red bull saw everybody's martian brainrot and was like. wouldn't it be so fucked up if we dropped that mark buttered seb's muffin after china 2009. twirls hair. haha wouldn't it be soooo random. if we did that

#7. WHATEVER THE FUCK THIS IMAGE IS. i can't even look at it for too long i start feeling funny in my tummy

#8. SEB'S LONGING STARE. i ccant believe i forgot this one it should be higher up perhaps

#9. AUSTRALIA 2016/2017. their podiums are SSOOOOOOO.

#10. MATCHING PORSCHES. is it hot in here? do you feel feverish? i feel feverish

#11. RIGHT ONE'S HEAVIER. monaco 2021 when mark casually revealed how much he knows seb still after all this time that seb was like ".. yeah!" like he himself was pleasantly surprised that mark still cares and oh god. somebody hold me

#12. NEARLY SKINNY DIPPING AU CANADA. caliss de tabarnak attache ta tuque mark nhabille pas des sous vetements criss de tabarnak de caliss d'esti de sacrament de

(from thnx-mate-blog)

13. VERY GOOD. i just know they had a Conversation after mark retired that was soo insightful and healing that they still reference to this day. they're very good with each other. btw. if u didn't know.

14. LOVER'S TIFFS. i can't. i can't think about them anymore i think i need to be put in a straightjacket and locked up

#15. 2013 PRIZE GIVING. the way they look at each other...... i'd write 5 million words of rpf too

there's literally so many more moments i want to include on here like mark's "i hope when i'm 70 they're not still asking if i love sebastian" or top gear when mark was like "my dad always said you shouldn't hit boys mate" or when seb and mark were at hangar 7 post 2010 and he went for the wettest limpest high five hand hold known to man or when mark massaged seb's shoulder in australia 2009 or their 1-2 podiums in 2009 or in 2020 when mark was like i've moved on from ferrari for u or "seb didnt expect sex in monaco" or china 2010 when they were bitching with each other or when seb was like i don't understand what he's saying half the time or when seb was on mark's shoulders for a red bull stunt or when they played cricket in australia 2012 or when mark was like we're very well-suited to each other both very handsome in that one magazine or when mark addressed their relationship in like 2014 and said we wished each other well in austria as you do or after multi 21 when seb was like i was racing i was faster i passed him i won and mark was like a cheetah never changes its spots we'll be fine or early on when mark was like we'll get hot chocolate together and i'll be going on about smth that happened before seb was born and he'll roll his eyes or when seb was like i learned a lot from mark or when seb said he'd give mark free hotel toiletries for his bday or when they copied each other trying to put stickers on their car or when someone changed seb's wikipedia page to say he's dating mark or when they did their pepe jeans butt ad or turkey 2011 when they all but caressed each other in 4k or the brazil 2011 cheek cradle or their websites i haven't even talked about their websites yet [I AM FORCIBLY DRAGGED AWAY]

#im not putting this under a read more. martian favs be upon ye #inbox #martian

243 notes · View notes

flanaganfilm · 11 months

Note

Hi Mike!

I am loving the LONG posts you’ve been making about your career and films. I wonder if there is any such one for ‘Ouija: Origin of Evil’?

‘Doctor Sleep’ was the first film of yours I had seen where I went “What else has this guy made?” And I was so surprised to learn Ouija was yours as well, it took me back to that college date! When I bought it on blu-ray and showed it to my friend, she saw Alice and Doris and went “It’s Shirley!”

Id love to know what your thoughts and feelings are on the film, 7 years later. Cheers!

Sure thing! This will be a fun one... I had such a great time making that movie.

Back in the spring of 2015, we were shooting Hush. Blumhouse was coproducing the movie with Intrepid Pictures. This was my second outing with Blumhouse after they came aboard Oculus at tiff in 2013, and they'd even hired me do a little uncredited consulting on another movie they'd made - a teen horror flick called Ouija. The first Ouija movie was... well... not great, but it made a lot of money. And I mean a LOT of money. A sequel was inevitable.

Jason Blum started calling me about the project while we were working on Hush. Initially I passed on it, I wasn't interested - I wasn't sure how to make a movie about a Ouija board interesting, and I didn't see myself as a sequel filmmaker. It just wasn't a movie for me.

If you know Jason at all, you know he is one of the most persistent and persuasive people in the business.

He wouldn't take "no" for an answer, and the phone kept ringing. The bar was low, he argued. The first movie performed very well, and because the franchise was just hung on a board game, there was kind of a blank canvas. "What movie do you want to make, buddy? Because I promise you'll wait your whole career for someone to make you this kind of offer again. You are a fool if you don't say yes."

He finally made me an offer that I couldn't refuse: I could approach the film from any viable creative direction I wanted, just as long as it connected somehow to the first movie and involved a Ouija board, and if I did that (and brought in the scares the kids wanted), I'd have a guaranteed worldwide theatrical release through Universal Pictures.

It's hard to understate how appealing that prospect was at the time. Oculus had been released theatrically but only performed moderately well. Before I Wake had been caught up in Relativity's bankruptcy, so the promised theatrical release never occurred (at this time, the movie was tied up in bankruptcy court without any release on the horizon), and Hush had been scooped up by Netflix, which meant it would never see the inside of a movie theater.

This offered me substantial creative freedom and a guaranteed wide theatrical release with the full weight of Universal Pictures behind it... I finally agreed.

How could I not?

The first film was a contemporary elimination horror film about a group of teenagers who awaken a scary little girl ghost with a stitched-up mouth. She kills them one by one. I wasn't really drawn to that, and I pitched Jason instead on a prequel that focused on a single mother in the late 1960s. To my astonishment, he agreed.

They had their conditions - it had to be PG-13, it had to directly connect to the first film, and I had to deliver the movie on their budget. And I had my conditions - I wanted my crew (including my producer Trevor Macy and my DP Michael Fimognari), I wanted my period setting, and I wanted the movie to look like it was made in the late sixties, down to the zooms, the film grain, and all the other aesthetic bells and whistles. This wouldn't look like a contemporary movie.

Again, to my astonishment, they agreed.

They had one more stipulation, this one from Universal Pictures - no one could smoke cigarettes. And not just that, there couldn't be evidence of smoking in the movie; not even ash trays.

"But this takes place in the sixties," I argued. The NO that came in was emphatic and resounding. There was to be no evidence of cigarettes in our 1960's, and this was non-negotiable. This was a priority for Universal Pictures, and they were far more interested in eliminating cigarettes from the eyes of their young viewers than they were interested in historical accuracy.

Frankly, they were right.

We all agreed on the terms, and to my own admitted surprise, I went off to write and direct Ouija 2.

There was an immediate skepticism in the press when the project was announced, and a fair amount of mocking online. I was determined to ignore it. I really thought this could be fun. I felt like I had been given a gift; I had a huge canvas and precious few rules, and a guaranteed theatrical audience.

I wasn't just going to make Ouija 2; I was going to make Ouija 2 as well as it could possibly be made.

Sitting to write the script was a unique process. The only thing I knew for certain was the very, very end. Our connection to the first movie was that we were telling the origin story of Doris Zander, the ghost from the first film.

She came with some backstory that we were married to: the first movie told us her mother Alice was a professional medium. When Doris had been possessed after using an Ouija board, her mother had sewn her mouth shut and killed her. And we knew her older sister, Lina, had spent the rest of her life in a mental institution (where she grew up to be Lin Shaye), and was absolutely not to be trusted.

So no matter what I did, we had to land there. Everything else was fair game.

I was very interested in the idea of a family who worked as mediums, but most interested in them if they were not authentic psychics. I'd researched a lot about fake mediumship, and the tricks that were used in those performative seances to separate willing marks from their money. What if that was the family's business? What if her mother was something of a con artist, and her kids were part of the act? And what if they ran afoul of a real haunting?

And further, what if it wasn't that they were con artists - what if they were good people, behind it all? What if they had experienced loss themselves, and had rationalized their behavior by saying they were offering people comfort? This was interesting to me. It was cool, it was fun, and I hadn't seen that movie before.

The story was a lot of fun to write. I really enjoyed the characters, I really enjoyed the world, and I kept thinking about the kinds of movies that I loved growing up. Yeah, this was a movie for a younger audience, but maybe they'd sit in that theater and have an experience that would stay with them, the way the movies of my youth had stayed with me.

I thought about those movies: Poltergeist, The Omen, The Changeling, Watcher in the Woods... and I thought about the theatrical experience of them. Their music (I particularly honed in on Jerry Goldsmith's score from Poltergeist), their aesthetics, even the little markers in the upper corner that signal the reel changes - "cigarette burns", as they're called in the business.

All of those things were ornaments of my earliest theatrical experiences, and I wanted to recreate that for the young viewers who might seek out Ouija 2.

One thing that set Ouija 2 apart right away was that we were going to shoot in Los Angeles. I'd lived in LA since 2003, but I had never actually filmed a movie here (and haven't ever again, sadly). This was a really exciting factor - I could spend the day in prep at Blumhouse, and then go home and sleep in my bed.

This was also great for my home life. Kate and I were engaged by then, and Blum was very happy with Hush, so she ended up playing a small role at the top of the movie. Having just spent the Spring living in a hotel in Fairhope Alabama and only working nights, it felt very novel that I'd get up in the morning and go to the office, and be home for dinner. We absolutely loved it.

Casting was also fun. Terry Taylor at Blumhouse did the casting, and for the first time in a long time I could be in the room when actors came in to audition. This was all in-person, because we were in LA. For Before I Wake, we'd had to run the whole thing through the lens of foreign sales value and over choppy, pixelated FaceTime meetings that did not give us much understanding of who we were casting. Compared to that, this process was a real delight.

For Lina, I really wanted to bring back Annalise Basso, the young actress from Oculus. She'd done a terrific job on that movie, and this was a great chance to work together again.

Henry Thomas signed on as Father Tom, and we hit it off immediately. I had been a fan of his since... well, forever I suppose, but I was really excited that he'd be in our movie.

The big revelation, though, was Lulu Wilson. We auditioned a lot of girls for Doris, and we used a particularly upsetting monologue as the audition piece - a 60 second speech about what happens when someone is strangled to death. Lulu's audition knocked me over, and we cast her immediately.

(Fun note: in the film itself, Lulu performs the monologue almost exactly as she did in her audition. And she did it so well, we never cut away. Don't know many 10 year-olds who can hold an entire monologue like that... in fact, I know a lot of 40 year-olds who can't. Lulu Wilson kicks ass.)

Production began in September 2015.

From the jump, this movie was FUN to make.

We were using an antique zoom lens package to achieve the look, and after spending much of prep obsessively watching The Changeling and The Exorcist for inspiration, we were really excited to do something fun. Every day was like a trip to an amusement park.

Michael Fimognari and I enjoy one of the vintage cars

One set, it was a family reunion. I had a lot of my crew from Oculus, Before I Wake and Hush, and a few familiar faces in the cast as well. It even reunited me with Dougie Jones, who had worked for one day in my debut feature Absentia, and agreed to let us bury him in gross demon makeup.

I really can't overstate how fun this was. The movie had more genre set pieces than most of my other work combined, which meant every day we were dealign with ghosts, ghouls, and some wild stunt work. Annalise and Lulu were just delightful, and spent their days pulling escalating pranks on the crew. I would find myself tagged with dozens of C47's (clothespins) whenever Basso was on set, and Lulu was doing all of her own stunts and making us laugh like hyenas.

I was also really enjoying Henry. Toward the end of the shoot, I told him I wanted to put him in everything I did. He laughed and said "whatever, sure man, sign me up." He's been in everything I've made since.

We didn't have a lot of money, but had a lot more money than I'd ever had before, and because Universal was committed to a theatrical release, they wanted the movie to work. I felt supported at every turn. Trevor handled the production the way we'd always done, and this was now our fourth collaboration - I knew I had a producer for life.

Blum was also a delightful collaborator, popping up frequently to check in but always just to see if there was something we needed. I felt an enormous amount of trust from Blumhouse, Hasbro, Platinum Dunes and Universal. That's a lot of cooks for one kitchen, and believe when I tell you it can easily go south... but it didn't. In this case, it just clicked.

We got to do a lot of fun things that had nothing to do with horror, too. There's a lovely little scene in the movie where Lina has her first kiss. We modeled the entire shot sequence after the best kiss in the history of movies: Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly's smooch in Rear Window.

We were even able to perfectly mimic a slower frame rate just as their lips meet, exactly as Hitchcock had done in that movie. If you look in the background, the Rear Window poster is hanging on her wall. We were always careful to cite our sources (and there were a lot of them).

My favorite scene of the whole movie was a dinner date between Elizabeth Reaser and Henry that we filmed at the Cicada Club in downtown LA. This was a restaurant that I loved, as once a month it transformed into a full-blown time machine, putting a brass band on the stage and functioning like a 20's-era speakeasy.

The scene where Alice and Father Tom spend an evening out together was among my favorites in the script. It was two adults who were clearly attracted to each other, and who acknowledge it, but recognize the reality of their situation. As we were filming, I remarked to Fimognari that - for a movie about a haunted Ouija board - we were really getting away with murder. This was lovely, sweet, subtle character development, and no one was stopping me. After what we'd gone through on Before I Wake, I had to pinch myself.

My favorite scene of the film

It was set in a restaurant in the late 1960s - almost everyone in that room would realistically be smoking. Universal had been clear that there was to be absolutely no suggestion that cigarettes even existed in this world. But for the restaurant, I had to haze up the air. It was the only time I was questioned creatively, as there was immediate pushback.

"It's a restaurant," I said. "What if there's a fire in the kitchen, an entree got burned and that's why it's smokey?"

No one bought that for even a second. But they let me go ahead anyway. Man, I love that scene. And later, when it was all said and done, Jason Blum shocked me by telling me it was his favorite as well.

We wrapped the movie just before Halloween, and off we went into post. The holidays came and went, and Kate and I got married in February 2016. There was gentle pressure in the cutting room to make the film as tight as possible, and keep things short, but as with everything else, the pressure was decidedly gentle.

The movie's test screenings were very positive. People were very engaged by the story of the family, and the only issue people took seemed to be with the ending. It was a real downer to get so attached to everyone, only to have to kill Doris so brutally. The ending was, to put it mildly, very depressing - Father Tom was dead, Alice was dead, Doris was dead (and her mouth stitched up to stop the demonic voices), and Lina was condemned to the asylum. It was exactly what was required of us, and what was dictated by the first movie. But it hurt people's feelings.

My original ending had Lina in the asylum, crafting a handmade Ouija board out of her own blood, and trying to contact her dead sister. She tries and tries, but there is no answer. It is just silence. And we leave her saying "are you there? Are you there?" over and over again, as tears fall down her face. Doris wouldn't answer - in fact, Doris wouldn't answer for decades, when the first movie finally caught up to us. It was a haunting and sad ending, and I kind of loved it.

But test audiences are a fickle thing, and so we came back to tweak the ending, as the studio wanted one last scare to send us out on - not an unreasonable position, though it was a cliched one. We shot the film's current ending, with Doris' ghost on the ceiling of the asylum. It's as rote and impersonal a horror movie ending as I can imagine, but... well, it was Ouija 2, for crying out loud.

The movie we'd made up until that point had no business being as much fun as it was.

I remember the phone call I got from Blum after the movie was done. Universal had decided that they wouldn't call the movie Ouija 2 after all, they were worried about the number 2 making it feel less interesting.

Instead, they'd taken a big swing: the movie would be called Ouija: Origin of Evil.

I laughed out loud. I thought he was kidding. When it became obvious that he wasn't, I filed a protest. "It's not very good," I said. "It's cheesy. And not to put too fine a point on it, but the movie depicts neither the origin of the Ouija board, or of - um - Evil."

"Buddy, the title tested well. That's the way the cookie crumbles. Trust us, if the studio says it's Origin of Evil, it's Origin of Evil."

With a big theatrical release comes a lot of pomp and circumstance. There was a huge premiere for Ouija: Origin of Evil that October, and whatever nerves I had about the critical reception to the movie proved to be short-lived. People really enjoyed it. The overwhelming sentiment was that a sequel to a movie like Ouija frankly had no business being this interesting.

For all the pomp and circumstance, I missed it all. I didn't get to go to a premiere or walk the red carpet, as I was already in Alabama shooting Gerald's Game. On opening weekend, I took the cast and crew to a local theater in Daphne Alabama to see Ouija: Origin of Evil on the big screen.

The projection in this little backwoods theater was NOT good. The lamp was too dim (a common cost-saving strategy in some theater chains), and it was out of focus. I ran up to complain to the manager.

"The movie's soft focus on purpose," he said. "That's what the filmmakers wanted."

"No, it really isn't," I said.

The movie ultimately was not the runaway hit that the first Ouija was. Not even close, in fact.

To everyone's surprise, the teenagers just... didn't really show up. The first movie had grossed 103 MILLION dollars worldwide, but our little prequel only managed to do about 80. It was considered a modest success, not a hit by any means, but no failure. In the end, Universal decided maybe there wasn't a franchise to be had here after all.

So in the end, I had single-handedly revitalized and destroyed the Ouija franchise.

But man, believe when I tell you I've got no regrets whatsoever. I had the time of my life making that movie. Sure, some people groan about the ending, but that was kind of our only job - those were the cards we knew we had to turn over. Did you see everything that led up to that, though??? Did you see what we got away with?!

Since this movie, I've worked with a lot of people again. True to my word, I've put Henry Thomas in every single thing I've made since. Elizabeth Reaser came back to play Shirley in The Haunting of Hill House, and little Lulu Wilson - who was so wonderful as Reaser's daughter Doris - played the younger version of Shirley on that show. Lulu is also in The Fall of the House of Usher (and if you look closely, her original Ouija board and planchette are in frame with her.)

Kate sported a fun blonde hairdo for her small role in Ouija: Origin of Evil, and it was a really fun stepping stone between Hush and Hill House for her as an actor. There's a fun deleted scene where she goes home and murders her father, played by the great Sam Anderson. I really dug that scene, and I wish it was in there. You can see it on the blu-ray and DVD though, because even in a world where Netflix is trying to erase such things, Universal Pictures actually takes care of their movies with proper physical media releases.

I haven't yet found the next project to do with my friends at Blumhouse, but it's not for lack of trying, and my dance card has been booked solid since we wrapped this movie. It was an important step for my career, and their support was amazing. I know that we'll work together again, as soon as the timing is right.

Also, get this...

Ouija: Origin of Evil is my most successful movie.

Ever. Of all of them.

It did 82 million worldwide. That's better than Doctor Sleep, which did 72 million. It's better than Oculus, which did 44 million. The rest were all dumped to Netflix.

So yeah, Ouija: Origin of Evil is my most successful movie. Ain't that a trip?

We weren't trying to change the world, or reinvent the genre. I was making the second entry in a PG-13 franchise about an evil board game, and dammit if I didn't get to do everything I set out to do. There's an exuberance to the camera movement, the staging, the set design, and the lighting. There's an unbridled joy in this movie, and I smile whenever I think about it.

Up until this point in my career, every movie I had was hard-fought. Oculus was a trial by fire whose distribution deal was detonated days before it premiered. Before I Wake was a brutal experience both creatively and logistically. Hush was a labor of love and determination against all odds. But this one... man, this one reminded me why I wanted to make movies in the first place.

Because it can be really, really fucking fun.

#ouija board #ouija #ouija origin of evil #blumhouse #behind the scenes

334 notes · View notes

seasurfacefullofclouds1 · 2 months

Note

maybe i’m mistaken but.. the way the media treats louis has changed a bit. (not necessarily in a Good way just. different?) hear me out.. i was reading this shitty daily mail article that talked about harry’s 30th - and ofc it was filled with all kinds of daily mail typical nonsense. but when it predictably started listing off the “shortcomings” of the other 1d members and how they weren’t nearly as worthy of having their ass kissed as harry, louis’ bit wasn’t as bad as the others..? especially compared to the way they focused on liam’s alcoholism and had several paragraphs dedicated to insulting zayn.

they described him as “pint sized” and said his venues were “noticeably smaller than harry’s” (which, no fucking shit? holo was in the works starting back in 2013). the worst part was alluding to jay and fizzy’s deaths being some kind of “one direction curse”. other than that though - no mention of freddie, the airport arrest, the chile leak (which.. didn’t DM leak that..?), beef with H, tiffs with journalists, etc.

i just think it’s super weird that the worst insults they could come up with were calling him tiny and comparing his tour to H’s? it’s almost like the strategy they’ve collectively taken in the last year-ish is to downplay his success and aid in the gp not taking his solo career seriously (by minimizing any of his solo accomplishments/focusing on 1d/sexualizing or objectifying him) rather than being outright insulting and aggressive and throwing vitriol at him hoping he breaks.

could also just be that they were too busy lavishing so much nauseating praise on H that they surpassed their word count or they wanted to insinuate that louis was forgettable or not worth their time, but idk!

hate to give them clicks but here’s the link if you want to read it in full:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/usshowbiz/article-13032513/Why-Harry-Styless-friends-urging-settle-married-babies-30th-birthday-today-lives-incognito-life-London-Canadian-model-Taylor-Russell.html?ito=native_share_article-top

First, it’s actually very on-brand for an article about Harry Styles’ birthday to consist mostly of insults about the other 1D guys. The fact that this is 2024 but media still feel the need to do this belies the hollowness of the Harry Styles hype.

After three years of build-up in 1D (2013-15) and eight years of industry propping him up, giving Harry Styles the access to the biggest songwriters and producers in the industry, the best venues money and power can buy, Azoff clients and adjacent saying his farts don’t smell, movie roles handed to him on a silver platter, with Christopher Nolan no less?, iconic Phoebe Waller-Bridges making a music video with him, Chloe Zhao saying he’s the second coming of Christ, Bono loving him more than his own child, even Billie Eilish and Miley Cyrus wanting to work with him, bought Grammys over Beyoncé etc., and this is the best they can do for his birthday? That Harry is “better than the rest of 1D”?

DM sounds a little like Harries on Twitter boasting about Harry Styles’ streams, or his wealth, or his Grammys and stadium tours, all of which amounts to the same boast: look what industry can create.

Look what they did with someone so white, bland, and pretty. Look at the money machine they built from a guy so vaguely defined as to have no identity at all. Harry Styles says nothing, supports nothing, sings about nothing, stands for nothing. Harry’s convictions are those of Jeff Azoff & friends. He truly lives up to his name: all style, absolutely no substance.

But Harry has… numbers. Harries (and media) cling onto numbers like peasants worshipping the god of hard currency. They love that money. The way they boast about Harry’s numbers is a little scary, to be honest. It suggests that there’s nothing else they like about him.

We can also tell, nine years later, that Harry isn’t the deep-thinking romantic poet he was painted to be, the one who cared about social issues and community, the one who thought deeply about human relationships and love, the one who cared for his fans enough to speak to us like family, to treat us with care, to do one-on-one fan service, to look genuinely happy in our presence, to look and act grateful even as those words pass his lips onstage AND off, to measure the people he works with with genuine, heartfelt friendship and not only because of their power and influence.

Because it’s very clear, nine years later, who that person in One Direction was. It’s the guy who never put 1D down, who, despite everything that has happened since, values the journey and can articulate it with all of the bittersweet authenticity to his experience. It’s the guy whose album was delayed for years because his first solo single competed a little too hard with Harry’s.

To your other point about press being nicer to Louis this year, other people have noticed the same thing, that Louis has been winning touring awards and other peripheral awards not central to the music industry. He isn’t going to walk the Brits or Grammys red carpet, and he won’t be nominated for VMAs or Aria awards.

But Louis isn’t even supposed to have a solo performing career in 2024. After 2017, the industry shut him out of radio and streaming. Faith In The Future was shut out of critical reviews. He started touring with a 1500 capacity venue. He isn’t supposed to be able to sell arenas, let alone stadiums. He wasn’t supposed to set a livestream world record— not when Niall did one the same year. Louis isn’t supposed to be friends with indie musicians, or have a reputation as “rock ‘n roll royalty”— having been shut out of the BBC. He isn’t supposed to tour the biggest venues in Australia. He isn’t supposed to sell arenas in Poland or Romania or Finland or Turkey. He isn’t supposed to create his own festival, give fans the first festival completely free, and showcase young, upcoming bands. Louis wasn’t supposed to be in the position to nurture any band, was he? He was supposed to be ancient history by now. They all were supposed to kneel before the legendary Harry Styles and disappear.

But Louis is selling upwards of 700k tickets for his second tour, and here we are, Harries following his every move, Larries relying on him to launder Harry’s image, and DM having to acknowledge that Louis is successfully, happily touring and making music on his own terms, with his own employees, singing his own lyrics to his enthralled audiences. He doesn’t take the bait to compare himself to his bandmates, nor relive old fights, nor stir up band controversy. He doesn’t talk badly about the other men’s relationships or families. He’s the only one who has watched Niall’s and Liam’s concerts and publicly supports all the guys’ careers. If the worst they can say is that Louis isn’t Harry Styles, thank God he isn’t. Thank god he stayed himself, went through the fires and came out better. One Direction mythology has eroded over the years, but at least Louis remained good, inside and out. Not perfect, but human, trying, and genuinely, actually good.

Who really knows why media can show some positivity to Louis now. I am cautious about any real change. I guess the rest of 2024 will be revealing. I’ve been waiting for so long that I don’t really expect anything different. We’ll see.

37 notes · View notes

bebopangle · 10 months

Text

Adam Driver and Daniel Radcliffe at The F Word post-screening Q&A at TIFF in 2013. Credit to Shannonn Kelly, Facebook.

#adam driver #daniel radcliffe #the f word #what if #toronto

69 notes · View notes

hel-the-growl · 1 year

Text

Nezha Reborn annotations - Part 2

Part 1｜Part 3

Monkey asks Yunxiang whether his dad ever told him the story of Nezha conquering the dragon king when he was a kid. Most Chinese people will probably remember this story from the 1979 animation of the same title that was adapted from chapter 14 of Investiture of the Gods.

More product displacement: Smirnoff, what looks to be Suntory Royal and if you zoom in on the Jack Daniels, it reads “Made in Light Chaser” lol

Primordial Spirit or “god-body” is something you’ll see a lot in the New Gods universe. Known in Chinese as yuanshen (元神), it is a concept in Daoism defined to be a level of existence surpassing that of physical existence, capable of existing independently in the form of a soul. It is viewed to be the center and essence of a human's existence.

Monkey breaks the fourth wall

This quote comes from Liu An’s poem Nüwa mending the heavens (女娲补天), delivered Peking Opera style, down to the mannerisms. The caged bird could be a thrush or a lark. Bird keeping is a traditional hobby in Beijing that started in the Qing Dynasty and songbirds were usually kept in these cylindrical cages.

I shouldn’t have laughed so hard when he accidentally killed the glasses monkey and continued his business like nothing happened.

“Fire imp” (葫芦老四) is the fourth of the seven Calabash Brothers, a classic Chinese cartoon from the 80s. Each bro has a unique power, and bro #4’s power is the ability to control fire. The snake demoness is an integral part of that story, so Light Chaser’s White Snake movies might actually be set in the same universe?????

Chan and Jie are religions featured in IOTG. Chan Daoism was founded by Yuanshi Tianzun (Primeval Lord of Heaven) and Laozi, and Yang Jian is one of its disciples. Jie is a fictional religion headed by Tongtian.

The most unfortunate character in this movie has got to be this monkey.

“Are your training methods even legit?”

Where did he get so much water? I thought water was being sanctioned.

RIP this monkey again.

He built his own version of Nezha’s spear.

The Six-Eared Macaque is arguably the most dangerous antagonist in Journey to the West. This deceptive creature impersonated Sun Wukong after the Monkey King abandoned his pilgrimage following a tiff with Tripitaka, with the impersonation so perfect, only Gautama Buddha and Diting could see through the pretense.

Nezha’s primordial spirit manifests as his three-headed, six-armed form.

Nezha is traditionally depicted with his four Astras - the Wind Fire Wheels (风火轮) under his feet, the Cosmic Ring (乾坤圈) around his body, the Sky Ribbon (浑天绫) around his shoulders and a Fire-tipped Spear (火尖枪) in his right hand.

This man has gills.

The Yaksa Li Gen is described as a lizard like creature with long mercury red hair, protruding fangs, and a face the color of indigo. (IOTG chapter 12).

Netflix's thirst trap of a thumbnail is from a scene that lasted ONE WHOLE SECOND.

It’s hilarious how this guy was just credited as “the traitor”.

The art deco style of the crystal palace 👌

In 2013, archaeologists unearthed a 1000 year old statue in Sichuan in that depicted a beast resembling a rhinoceros. This was believed to be the water-suppressing mythological beast Zhenshui Shenshou (镇水神兽) that was documented in the Biography of Shu Kings Written by Yang Xiong in Han Dynasty.

“I taught him? I don’t even have disciples! Stop joking.”

Dragons kind of have a low status in heaven (no matter how majestic they are, they are still beasts and all beasts are looked down upon by the gods), unlike in the mortal realm where they are revered.

Even in his dragon form, Ao Bing’s spinal column is supported by metal bracing.

Part 1｜Part 3

#new gods: nezha reborn #new gods #nezha reborn #nezha #新神榜 #新神榜：哪吒重生 #哪吒重生 #哪吒 #jttw

155 notes · View notes

foxes-that-run · 2 days

Text

On this day in Haylor History 23 April

Sorry I am late with this post!

In 2012 Taylor posted Screaming Infidelities to Instagram, a song about infidelities, after Harry was seen kissing a girl in New Zealand. Taylor also wrote with Max Martin for Red and worked on WANGBT or IKYWT, Babe was also the same week.

In 2013, one year later Harry had a 9 day break between shows in Manchester and Paris. The rest of the band stayed in Europe but Harry flew to LA. Taylor also had a 5 day break between US shows and was also seen in LA. Neither was seen on the 23 April and when Harry reappeared the next day he was wearing the Peace ring he continued to wear until 2020, and has made appearances since. ... Including a series of shows in NY for his MSG residency in 2022 and the TIFF festival, Taylor was in NY and Toronto at the same time.

In 2014 - Harry and Taylor were not seen, however 2 days later his fern tattoos covering 'Might as well' were first seen.

2016 - Harry tweets Car's lyrics "it's not the ribbons in your hair" from Just what I needed - which about not minding anything because a person is who they needed.

2018 - Taylor invites Robbie Williams to perform Angels with her at the Reputation Stadium Tour. Robbie Williams was a mentor for Harry on X-factor and someone he continued to mention in interviews as someone he relates to due to Robbie's career with Take That

youtube

2019 - Taylor plays the Time 100 starting with Style

2022 - Harry plays Coachella, has Lizzo as a gues, and goes to say something at the end of Boyfriends but does not.

2023 - Taylor plays Begin Again as a Surprise Song.

#April 23 #Peace Ring #Haylor #Harry Styles #Taylor Swift #Youtube #Find me this many anniversaries for Matty Healy... go on I will wait #Haylor anniversaries

10 notes · View notes

onthisdayts · 8 months

Text

ON THIS DAY — September 9, 2013 — 10 years ago

"AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY" TIFF Party in Toronto, Canada

#onthisday #taylor swift #taylurking #tswiftedit #2013 #september 2013 #events #toronto #canada #julia roberts #brenton thwaites

21 notes · View notes

nancydrewwouldnever · 1 year

Text

Simplified Career Timeline

2001:

Filmed: Not Another Teen Movie

Released: Not Another Teen Movie

2002:

Filmed: Perfect Score

2003:

Filmed: Orphan King, Cellular

2004:

Filmed: Fierce People, Fantastic Four

Released: Perfect Score, Cellular

2005:

Filmed: London, Sunshine

Released: Fantastic Four, Fierce People

2006:

Filmed: Nanny Diaries, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

Released: London (in Canada only)

2007:

Filmed: Street Kings, Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, Push

Released: Fantastic Four: RotSS, Nanny Diaries, Sunshine

2008:

Filmed: (none)

Released: Street Kings, Loss of a Teardrop Diamond

2009:

Filmed: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, The Losers

Released: Push

2010:

Filmed: Puncture, What's Your Number, Captain America: TFA

Released: The Losers, Scott Pilgrim

2011:

Filmed: Captain America: TFS reshoots, The Avengers

Released: What's Your Number, Captain America:TFA, Puncture

2012:

Filmed: The Iceman, Snowpiercer, Playing It Cool

Released: The Avengers, The Iceman

2013:

Filmed: Captain America: Winter Soldier, Before We Go

Released: Snowpiercer

2014:

Filmed: Avengers: Age of Ultron

Released: Captain America: Winter Soldier, Before We Go at TIFF

2015:

Filmed: Captain America: Civil War, Gifted

Released: Avengers: AoU, Before We Go (wide), Playing It Cool (dvd)

2016:

Filmed: (none)

Released: Captain America: Civil War

2017:

Filmed: Red Sea Diving Resort, Avengers: Endgame & Infinity War

Released: Gifted

Non-movie: ASP begins origination meetings

2018:

Filmed: Avengers reshoots, Knives Out

Released: Avengers: Infinity War

Non-movie: Lobby Hero on Broadway, ASP

2019:

Filmed: Defending Jacon, Free Guy cameo, Lightyear voice (?)

Released: Avengers: Endgame, Knives Out, Red Sea (to Netflix)

Non-movie: ASP

2020:

Filmed: Don't Look Up cameo, Lightyear voice acting (?)

Released: Defending Jacob

Non-movie: ASP

2021:

Filmed: The Gray Man, Lightyear voice acting (?)

Released: (none, except two cameos)

Non-movie: ASP

2022:

Filmed: Ghosted, Pain Hustlers, Red One

Released: Lightyear, The Gray Man

Non-Movie: ASP

2023:

Filmed Red One

The simplified breakdown of his movie filming career, and some non movie projects. For discussion purposes.

#career timeline #Chris Evans

103 notes · View notes

directedbywomen · 1 year

Text

Celebrating Carol Nguyen!

"Carol Nguyen wins the Stella Artois Jay Scott Prize for an emerging artist, which carries a $10,000 purse, courtesy of Labatt. By age 20, the Vietnamese Canadian was already turning heads worldwide with acclaimed short films drawn from her life." Read more in today's post on Toronto Film Critics Association.

Nanitic (2022)

"I think Nanitic is a wonderful, gritty exploration of culture and its fragility within families. Can’t wait to see what other films Nguyen creates in the future." Read more in TIFF 2022: Carol Nguyen’s ‘Nanitic’ is a deeply personal exploration of culture.

No Crying at the Dinner Table (2019)

"After the shoot, my family started saying "I love you" to each other - a really big step in our relationship. It took my dad a while though."

Read more in the FAQ on Nguyen's website.

youtube

Uprooted (2013)

I was present at Heartland Film Festival when Carol Nguyen won the High School Competition for her film Uprooted. She was in 10th grade at the time. I was so moved by her stop motion animated short which conveys the story of her father's challenging journey fleeing Vietnam and finding his way to Canada. I've been a big fan ever since. I revisit it often and share it with friends. It's a joy to see her work continue to evolve. Take a few moments to watch her acceptance speech. It's charming.

youtube

"I would like my biggest thanks to go to my good friend Duct Tape, because without duct tape I wouldn't have been able to make my film."

Visit Nguyen's website to learn more about her work:

#Carol Nguyen #directed by women #Youtube

41 notes · View notes

tedllasso · 1 year

Photo

JASON SUDEIKIS at TIFF, 2013.

#baby was 37 #ughhhh #2013 was a good year #jason sudeikis #jsudeikisedit #*#my edit*

256 notes · View notes

cannibalspicnic · 7 months

Text

DAVID CRONENBERG: EVOLUTION exhibit at TIFF (2013)

#david cronenberg #babygirl

8 notes · View notes

flanaganfilm · 1 year

Note

Mike, can you tell us your experience premiering Oculus at tiff 2013? I recently saw Perri Nemiroff’s interview with you (looking like a baby btw- so young) and it made me think about what your mindset must have been as in getting yo experience the launch of your career, post Absentia, at one of the most prestigious festivals.

Oh, I remember that very well... a lot changed in a very short amount of time. And I think I know the interview you're talking about, I keep trying to link to it here but it doesn't take...

So there are few things to point out about Oculus and about what was happening in my life at the time. When Oculus got greenlit, I was working full time as a reality television editor. I used to sneak out of my job at lunch to go to "doctor's appointments" whenever I had to come for production meetings or casting sessions (they started to think there was something really, really wrong with my health).

Making the movie was an amazing learning experience - it was my first "real" movie, and full of lessons. It was the first collaboration with people who would become pillars of my career moving forward, like producer Trevor Macy (who is now my partner at Intrepid Pictures and who has produced everything I've ever made since) and my DP Michael Fimognari, who is one of the most important collaborators of my life. It was also the first time I worked with a young actress named Kate Siegel, who played the spooky ghost in the mirror.

We went into TIFF with distribution already in place. FilmDistrict had committed to the project during the Cannes market before we shot the movie, so we thought we were set. It was going to be my big theatrical debut.

Just before we premiered at TIFF, FilmDistrict abruptly and bafflingly dropped the film. I still don't really know why. They had committed to a worldwide theatrical release for the movie, but for reasons that were never made entirely clear to me, they dropped us just before the festival. Suddenly the whole enterprise was in jeopardy, and I didn't know if anyone would pick the movie back up.

I was absolutely terrified.

Being my first "real" movie, I didn't really know how this world worked and couldn't understand why our distributor didn't want to release it. We'd made the movie they had been excited about, they seemed to really like it, and we'd done everything they asked - it was a shock to the system. So when we rolled into tiff, we were homeless and trying not to let FilmDistrict's abrupt change of heart poison our chances of another sale.

I had never been to TIFF before but heard about Midnight Madness, which had seen huge sales from Cabin Fever and Insidious. Bidding wars had broken out while the films were still screening. But being part of the program was absolutely no guarantee of distribution - in fact, this might be the highest this movie would ever rise.

Trevor Macy and I went to the world premiere of The Green Inferno, which was playing the night before we played, and the audience was ROWDY. Like, shouting and hollering throughout the movie. We looked at each other with wide, nervous eyes - if this was the Midnight Madness audience, they were going to hate our movie the next day. We were considerably slower, ponderous, and atmospheric in a room that seemed to demand visceral, overt entertainment. I left the screening feeling dejected and a little doomed. Trevor was more upbeat, citing conversations he'd had with the programmer, Colin Geddes, who assured us he'd put our movie in the best possible spot for its success.

Our screening was September 9th, 2013 at midnight. I was petrified, and we were sold out. I remember walking into the theater feeling like this was the most important screening of my life. I wasn't alone, thank goodness. Trevor Macy, Michael Fimognari, Brenton Thwaites, Katee Sackhoff, Rory Cochrane, and James Lafferty were on hand. The film seemed to play well. It was the opposite of the screening the night before, which Colin had told us would happen - "watch," he had said. "The Saturday night slot is the big crazy one. You guys are Sunday, and it's going to be completely different. They'll plug right in."

He was right. You could hear a pin drop for most of the first half, and then there were moments of scattered applause that picked up as the film progressed. By the end, people were jumping in their seats and cheering for young Tim and Kaylee. There was an audible gasp when the anchor swung. And the applause at the credits seemed heartfelt and loud.

Most of that is a blur for me. I found this grainy pic from the Q&A after the film. I still had no idea how it had gone, or what was going to come out of it. I remember having hard time putting words together, and I vividly recall feeling like I sounded like an absolute moron whenever I talked, and trying to pass the microphone over to the actors as often as I could.

It's tough to see everyone in the pic, but from left to right it is Colin Geddes, Michael Fimognari, myself, Trevor Macy, Katee Sackhoff, Brenton Thwaites, Rory Cochrane, and James Lafferty.

When I stepped out of the theater, though, I became aware that everything had changed. I was immediately surrounded by people who had seen the film, suddenly shaking a ton of hands and realizing that it had been a hit. I walked into the theater by myself, utterly anonymous, and feeling every bit like an imposter. But everything was different when I walked out. I remember someone from the press talking about it years later, and saying "I was there that night - you walked into the theater with nothing, and walked out with a career."

People were asking me to sign stuff. That had never happened in my life. People wanted to get pictures. It was SO. FUCKING. WEIRD. Someone snapped a picture during that little whirlwind, and you can see it on my (young, skinny, hopelessly naive) face - an overall bewilderment, a gentle disbelief that this was happening:

I loved my experience at TIFF. And it absolutely started everything. Relativity, Blumhouse, and WWE Films joined forces to make an offer on the movie at the festival, and we left with a theatrical distribution deal. My career had officially begun. Now, I wouldn't feel like it had for several more years - I remained in fight/flight/survival mode well through Gerald's Game - but in retrospect, yes, that's when it happened.

Thank you for asking this question, it's been a while since I've looked back at this period of my life. It kinda makes me want to watch that movie again. It has been a LONG time, and I owe it a lot.

Maybe everything.

#oculus #tiff #toronto film festival #midnight madness #I cannot and will not accept that this was only ten years ago

198 notes · View notes