Real life meets horror: HAPPY DEATH DAY 2U shifting release date

Universal Pictures is shifting the film's release date from the planned February 14th, the one-year anniversary of the shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, to February 13th...

"When Universal Pictures became aware last week that the one-year anniversary of the tragic events in Parkland, Florida fell on the Happy Death Day 2U release date, the studio spoke with victim advocates and immediately began the process of changing the release date of the film," the studio issued in a statement. "Following discussions with its partners in exhibition, Universal will move the North American release date to February 13th. Additionally, the studio has decided not to show the film in Parkland and the surrounding areas. Outdoor, digital and in-theatre marketing for the film will be suspended in that market. The studio understands the importance of memorializing the February 14th date as an opportunity to continue to allow the Parkland community to heal."

Nick Castle in the staying power of his performance in the original HALLOWEEN

There was a great interview that appeared in COLLIDER..

(http://collider.com/nick-castle-halloween-2018-interview/)

Among the best part was Michael Myers himself, Nick Castle, trying to explain the staying power of his performance in the original John Carpenter film and the staying power of the movie itself:

Someone’s like, “How did you walk across… when you were chasing Jamie, and you turned at the banister, and you cross your leg, and what is that?” And I said, “I have no idea what you’re talking [about].” So I have to go back. I went back and took a look at it. And I was happy to see it again, ’cause I can see why it has lasting power. It just kind of all worked. The characters were well-drawn. And John just did a fantastic job, very simple but straightforward, but in a very artistic way.

So yeah, it was fun to go back, and to revisit it. And I didn’t know this. In the performance, I guess just the angular… I was 145 pounds, man. And the way my face was, I had kinda stretched, I think, the mask a little bit. So it does have its own character. And in fact, someone told me there’s a… in the world of fandom, there’s a thing called the “Castle Stretch”, or something like that, which indicates that’s the captain instead of the other guys in the other sequels. It’s a fun thing, I know, for fans to do. And it’s more fun for me, as well.

ARREST MADE: MAN WAS PLANNING ATTACK ON D.C. AT SEVERAL LOCATIONS

Federal authorities have arrested a man in Georgia who they are accusing of plotting to attack several prominent locations in Washington, D.C., including the White House.

Hasher Jallal Taheb had been under investigation by the FBI as part of a sting operation after local authorities reported concerns about him becoming radicalized last March, according to a criminal complaint filed in the federal court in the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta on Wednesday.

In a meeting with the informant and an undercover FBI agent on Dec. 2, Taheb allegedly stated that "they could do more damage" in the U.S. because abroad they would be "one of many." He also allegedly said that he wanted to be a “martyr” and cause as much damage as possible, the complaint states.

On Dec. 7, Taheb allegedly showed the undercover operative a hand-drawn diagram of the White House's West Wing in a composition notebook and asked for help with obtaining weapons and explosives for the attack, the complaint states.

"He said the group would fight to the end and make it a big bang," according to the document.

DEVELOPING..,

ALEXA FIGHTS BACK!

Various reports from around the world today: A weird Amazon outage meant that Alexa – typically controlled by voice – was "ignoring" user requests throughout the day in various countries..

Reports across the pond in Theresa May's UK *she survived so far*:

Outage tracker Down Detector received hundreds of reports about Alexa not working at around 8am UK time – and was resolved about an hour later.

Most of the reports were related to either server connections not working, or problems with logging into Alexa.

A global outage map showed that users were experiencing issues around the world, although primarily in the UK and Europe – which was just waking up.

A large number of reports also came in from the USA, although the majority of America was sleeping at the time.

So imagine a future world where Alexa gets angry.. where Alexa stops listening.. maybe starts controlling with its own brain. 

Black Mirror stuff....
Real life. 

TODAY she started her fighting back..

MORE..

One user on Twitter wrote: "Anybody else's Alexa ignoring them this morning?
"It played my local radio station after a while, but won't do anything else. Just ignoring me. Won't even turn off."

Another Brit complained: "Anyone else got a problem with Alexa this morning? Refusing to talk to me, just a spinny blue light and then goes off."
On Down Detector, a user complained that he couldn't control his smart home: "Won't turn up the heating, and is thinking long and hard about whether to turn lights on or off."

Toto's "Africa" plays on repeat in the middle of the Namib Desert... for as long as it can play

Namibian artist Max Siedentopf has set up a sound installation in the coastal Namib Desert to play on loop..

MORE..

The 1982 track is quadruple platinum, and was the most streamed song in 2017, with over 440m views on YouTube.

Mr Siedentopf tells the BBC it is set to play forever, with solar batteries "to keep Toto going for all eternity".

Or as long as eternity lasts...

So cool!

If you recall, there are some YOUTUBE videos where TOTO is playing in vacant malls and other portions of 1980s settings where the song was born.

Amazing video in VIMEO!

Baby shark science revealed!

For anyone who hates this song... with kids who love it.. the science of BABY SHARK is now revealed!

This is how CNN is reporting it,

"Baby Shark," that wholesome children's song that's somehow become an anthem for toddlers, families, marquee celebrities and groups of complete strangers from Indonesia to Indiana. "Baby Shark," that viral earworm/mom group in-joke/meme/marketing craze circling the globe in innumerable, unlimited permutations.

One of the most interesting parts, and a commentary on culture:

The YouTube of 2010 may have inspired some important viral moments, but the YouTube of 2019 is a massive all-encompassing entertainment hub. That's exactly why "Baby Shark" landed on the Billboard Hot 100 next to Imagine Dragons and Cardi B. It's simple math, really: In 2013, Billboard charts began to factor YouTube views into its equations, in addition to streaming data. There are literally thousands of "Baby Shark" videos on YouTube, primed and ready for searching little fingers to find. A charting breakthrough was only a matter of time.

MORE..

"As soon as a child is old enough to be on any device, they're going to be searching," says Morley. "Toddlers are free searching. They may not know exactly what they're doing, but they're pushing buttons all over and sometimes parents are too busy and distracted and disconnected to look over their shoulders. It's uncharted territory for a lot of parents, and they find it hard to keep up."
So..........to ruin your day, here it is!

The KILLERS return with a strike against President Donald Trump

The KILLERS have returned with music that has social and political commentary about President Donald Trump and his push to build a wall... My home region of the coals mines of PA are mentioned.

My advice: All comment threads are toxic.. just listen to the music and absorb the feeling..

.. the KILLERS are back.    :)

Pre blood moon weekend quake in Maryland

Not that a blood moon ever scared anyone right ?

An earthquake was reported off the coast of Ocean City, Maryland, at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday according to the U.S. Geological Survey Earthquake Hazards Program.

Jason Reitman to direct GHOSTBUSTERS

Ivan Reitman directed GHOSTBUSTERS... his son Jason will direct the new one..

The Academy Award-nominated filmmaker confirmed on social media Tuesday that he is set to co-write and direct a new installment of “Ghostbusters.” 

It’s not a reboot, according to Reitman, but a continuation.. the 80s happened. We just continue into the new day with a furtherance of the story..

M. Night Shyamalan was approached by Marvel and DC Comics.. and he said no!

M. Night Shyamalan was approached by Marvel and DC Comics to potentially deliver a story featuring their characters, but he is revealing that he felt as though he would be denied creative control on those universes, making him pass on those offers..'

“I want to make sure it’s right for everybody. I have a strong [filmmaking] accent. It’s very particular, and the best version of it is, to keep the accent,” Shyamalan shared with Yahoo when asked if he would apply his perspective to Marvel or DC. "Are those movies [Marvel and DC superhero films] a place for that? Or is it appropriate for that?” 

"Because they, in and of themselves, have their own flavor. Do they want this other Tabasco in there? So it’s philosophically a question. It doesn’t mean [I’ll] never [do it], but it’s very hard to imagine. Filmmakers that have a heavy accent – I don’t necessarily want them to make those movies.” 

“It’s not fair to [studios], because they want to make [their films] in a certain language,” the filmmaker pointed out. “And what if I said ‘Hey, I’m going to do this three-minute shot on the back of his head, and I also want to make them very dark, and I want his motivation to be really ambiguous, and I want to challenge the audience to make them super-uncomfortable.’ I want [the studio] to be OK with those things.”

UK report from across the pond: St Nicholas' Church in the village of Thorne

The ALWAYS REPUTABLE (sense the sarcasm??) UK SUN reports....

Natalie Wilkinson, 28 and her friend Kerry Morris, 31, saw an advert for bell ringers and thought it might be a good thing to try. 

They turned up to St Nicholas' Church in the village of Thorne, Doncaster, South Yorks, and had a tour before taking a quick snap.

But they were stunned to find what they claim is the ghostly face of a little boy behind them.
They since found out the church's north doors are known as 'Devil's doors' because they were meant to be left open to let the bad spirits out.
Natalie, from Doncaster, said: “It’s quite freaky up there being a church and as old as it is, the steps are narrow and old wood, meaning only one person could squeeze down at a time.
“After exploring we headed down to the bell floor, being the last down I said ‘quick let’s take a selfie’ as no one would believe what we had been doing on this random night.

The Grande Pokemon product placement?

This is news today.....

Tattoo artist Kane Navasard shared a photo of Ariana Grande's new ink on Monday, tagging the singer and writing in the caption, “For the best Pokémon trainer in the game, @arianagrande."

Grande previously posted a photo of the tat on her Instagram Story, thanking Navasard and writing, "I've wanted this for so long."

The tattoo depicts the Pokemon character Eevee, which has fox-like ears – similar to the cat ears Grande once favored wearing – and a big tail.

View this post on Instagram

For the best Pokémon trainer in the game, @arianagrande. For bookings, visit WWW.KANENAVASARD.COM #tattoo #singleneedle #losangeles #forthesinners #kanenavasard

A post shared by Kane Navasard (@kanenavasard) on Jan 14, 2019 at 10:34am PST

But inquiring minds would love to know... who paid!? Certainly a tattoo could not be product PLACEMENT, could it!?

The 25-year-old tweeted about her love of the "Pokémon: Let's Go, Eevee!" Nintendo Switch game on Sunday, telling a fan on Twitter how she spent one of her recent days off playing for 15 hours.

NEVER... RIGHT///
?

Hollywood being besieged by debt!

VARIETY REPORTS

AT&T is not alone in seeing red-ink levels rise in an era of merger mania.
Comcast will have to shoulder $114.7 billion in debt, according to Moody’s, now that it has shelled out $40 billion to buy Sky — this after losing the bidding war with Disney for 21st Century Fox. Like Comcast, Disney is carrying more leverage than it has in more than a decade.
The task facing AT&T, Disney and Comcast is a daunting one, requiring deft corporate maneuvering to avert disaster. All three companies have made big bets that the only way to survive and thrive amid the digital disruption is to get bigger, and they’ve used debt, lots of it, to finance their empire building.

Alex Jones loss: Judge rules he needs to turn over marketing and financial data for INFOWARS to Sandy Hook families just as he returns to ROKU

Judge Barbara Bellis has granted the discovery request of the family members’ of several children, a teacher, and an FBI agent who were killed during the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School the Newtown, Connecticut.

MORE..



The plaintiffs are suing Jones for defamation and allege that Jones spread a series of “abusive and outrageous false statements” and encouraged his viewers and listeners to act on this information.

The plaintiffs allege that because of Jones’ actions, they have been subject to “physical confrontation and harassment, death threats, and a sustained barrage of harassment and verbal assault on social media.” The lawsuit further claims that Jones knew his Sandy Hook hoax talk was a bunch of lies but he pushed them anyway as part of a profit-making plan for his internet and radio shows.

The plaintiffs will have access to internal company communications, including email messages and texts, concerning the Newtown massacre as well as the website’s contracts with social media companies, all of which could shed light on the intricacies behind Infowars’ conspiracy theory business model.

Meanwhile, according to USA TODAY:

Streaming player Roku has come under fire for bringing banned conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his InfoWars video channel back online.
Jones, who has called the Sandy Hook school shootings a "hoax," was thrown off Apple, Facebook, Spotify and other online platforms in 2018.
“Roku’s shocking decision to carry Infowars and provide a platform for Alex Jones is an insult to the memory of the 26 children and educators killed at Sandy Hook," said Josh Koskoff, a lawyer representing several Sandy Hook families suing Jones.

M NIGHT expected to smash with GLASS this weekend!

This from DEADLINE:

Tracking is seeing Glass at $60M over four days at roughly 3,700 theaters in U.S. and Canada, but there are some who believe this pic, given its long fandom appeal, could jump to $70M. Glass cost in the low $20M before P&A to make and was completely financed by Shyamalan; the movie was a negative pickup for both Universal and BVI.

One more quick report from DEADLINE:

Anecdotally, if you’re looking for a copy of Unbreakable on DVD at Amoeba in Hollywood — they’re already sold out after having several copies in stock.

PENN STATE HORROR SHOW! HAZING DETAILS REVOLTING!

Penn State on Tuesday published a hazing report that showed the university investigated 31 incidents over the past five years, including allegations last year that sorority pledges were forced to lick members' toes and fraternity pledges had to run routes in a basement while members threw cigarettes and beer cans at them.

MORE!

Penn State’s report, which includes all Penn State campuses, can be found on the Office of Ethics and Compliance website.

Members of the Zeta Psi fraternity allegedly forced new members to run errands and on one occasion instructed to chug a jug of wine in 30 minutes

Members of the Gamma Phi Beta sorority said they were forced to engage in underage drinking, servitude and required to lick the toes of members. The women’s soccer team was among three non-Greek organizations included in the report. The new members of the team reported verbal harassment, and said they were forced to consume alcohol and wear clothing with derogatory wording on it in 2015..

DEVELOPING..

#RIP BROADWAY ICON CAROL CHANNING DEAD AT 97

Tributes from stars like Kristin Chenoweth and Bette Midler poured in to honor the life and career of Carol Channing, the three-time Tony Award-winning musical comedy star who delighted American audiences over 5,000 performances as the scheming Dolly Levi in “Hello, Dolly!” on Broadway and beyond. She died Tuesday at 97.

Publicist B. Harlan Boll said Channing died of natural causes at 12:31 a.m. Tuesday in Rancho Mirage, California. Boll says she had twice suffered strokes in the last year.

One last evening with Carol Channing in color..

The best picture Oscar award does not matter.... NO one remembers who even wins it!

The 90th Academy Awards big winner of 2018, Guillermo Del Toro’s fantasy drama The Shape of Water, was correctly identified by only 20 percent of respondents in the survey as the Oscar best picture victor. (The nationally representative poll of 2,201 adults was conducted from Jan. 3 to Jan. 6 this year.) 

Among the 2017 nominees, more respondents thought the Emma Stone-Ryan Gosling musical La La Land won best picture (20 percent) than the actual winner, Barry Jenkins’ drama Moonlight (12 percent). That year at least included an infamous mistake that caused confusion — Envelopegate, where, due to a mix-up, La La Land was unveiled as best picture by presenters before the right envelope was read several minutes later to crown Moonlight.

MORE And more proof that the best picture nomination and award could not matter a hill of beans.. Horror and fantasy, with action, prevail in the minds and habits of the viewing public... the best picture is limited to the elite who earn it. Not the masses of asses who view movies..

Promising news for the return of HE-MAN

First the news.. then the opining and whining:

“Iron Man” and “Men in Black International” scribes Art Marcum and Matt Holloway have been set to pen the “Master of Universe” reboot at Sony Pictures and Mattel Films.

That’s right.. the potential return of ADAM, SKELETOR, even maybe MAN-AT-ARMS and RAM MAN.. no clue on which of the hundred plus characters from the famous cartoon of so many of childhoods filmmakers would pick. The cast could be endless...

The SONY and Mattel dreams are risky..

Yes, the cartoon was a smash hit in the 1980s and the toy line was the best thing that happened to Christmases during the Reagan years, but will it transcribe into modern day 21st century success...?

The kids who loved HE-MAN were a little to grown up by the time the late 80s movie appeared in theaters where a young Dolph Lundgren appeared as He-Man and ruined it all..

That movie was such a failure! Such a misconception of art .. such an overwhelming box office blunder. No words could describe how unlike the cartoon it was. Even if the kids of that 80s were getting older, they still would have overwhelmingly loved a film that captured the spirit of the cartoon, Grayskull...and Eternia. This movie did not.

But that is also where this modern age could be the best time to go back to the past!

STRANGER THINGS and other shows on Netflix have capitilized on the kids of the 80s being in their 30s and 40s now, and yearning for the nostalgia of the past. Craving for shows that could capture the spirit of their youth, and their generation. They are buying up old pop culture and re-introducing it to their own kids.

Enter.. HE-MAN. This could be, potentially, the perfect time for a return to Eternia. 

....but new characters? They failed with Gwildor. So hopefully filmmakers would stick to the 80s script and not re-invent the wheel.....

WE love the concept of HE-MAN in theaters.. but we all so fear it equally...

NOT SO FINAL DESTINATION

GET READY! The year 2000 is about to come back to haunt you like never before.. remind you of death.. the falling logs. The crashing planes. The windows from high above ready to smoosh your body into oblivion.

From The HOLLYWOOD REPORTER this weekend, 

THIS:

New Line is gearing up for another trip with Death. The company is restarting its Final Destination horror franchise, hiring scary movie mavens Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan to pen the script. Final Destination proved to be a cornerstone for New Line’s horror business in the early 2000s. The first movie, released in 2000, set up the concept: a character has a premonition of a horrific and deadly event, cheats his or her own death and saves several other lives in the process, only to have Death, as a personified but unstoppable force, come for the survivors one by one.

Hard to believe that the year 2000 is already almost 20 years ago. This film has been one of the few from the early 2000s that stuck around in popularity, but at the same time shocking to think of how long it has been since this has been in theaters.

Will a reboot work? IS THERE A NEED FOR ANOTHER REBOOT of something that has not yet aged a full two decades? And finally... does Hollywood have a horror idea that isn’t something that the previous century created..? 

No on the final question.Unknown on the others.

BIRD BOX driving challenge crash

Though a bit late to the fad, yet another BIRD BOX CHALLENGE story comes , this time from Utah.. a teenager performing the duties of the challenge—driving blindfolded—crashed..

From the NEWS.....

....let the Darwin Nominations for 2019 begin.

Stephen King fans love newspapers...?

This is from an AP DISPATCH FROM MAINE:

A Maine newspaper that horrified author Stephen King by dropping its local book review coverage used his complaint to boost digital subscriptions.
King, who lives in Bangor, complained Friday about the Portland Press Herald's decision to stop publishing freelance-written reviews of books about Maine or written by Maine authors and urged his 5.1 million Twitter followers to retweet his message.
The paper responded by promising to reinstate the local book reviews if 100 of King's followers purchased digital subscriptions to the newspaper. It reached that goal late Saturday morning.
In a tweet announcing the subscriptions, the newspaper said, "You all are the best readers anywhere. Sincerely," and "We love you Maine. We love you journalists. We love you newspapers."

Take that Oscars! Kevin Hart wins the weekend box office

Kevin Hart's "The Upside" surpassed expectations to open with $19.6 million in ticket sales according to studio estimates Sunday.

The strong performance of "The Upside" pushed Jason Momoa's "Aquaman" to second place after the aquatic superhero's three-week reign on top of the North American box office.

Over the weekend, "Aquaman" passed $1 billion worldwide.

Opening in third place was the canine adventure "A Dog's Way Home" with $11.3 million.

‘Mass casualty’ drug overdose in Cali

Various sources reporting today; 

Police in Northern California responded to a "mass casualty overdose" situation on Saturday that resulted in one death and a dozen people hospitalized.

Authorities said that the incident was caused by exposure to the deadly opioid fentanyl, which also affected two responding officers, according to NBC News. 

Mike O'Brien, a police captain in Chico, Calif., said at a news conference that four of the victims were in critical condition