Joan Rivers, Legendary Comedienne, Dies at 81

The breakthrough standup comic, writer, actress, fashion critic, red-carpet doyenne, gossip and businesswoman died Thursday at 1:17 p.m. local time at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, her daughter Melissa announced.

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Cinematic Cuts Exploit How Your Brain Edits What You See

It’s amazing that film editing works, because it’s so disruptive to the visual information coming into the brain, says Jeffrey Zacks, a neuroscientist at Washington University in St. Louis. On the other hand, Zacks says, our brains do quite a bit of editing of their own—and we’re every bit as oblivious to that as we are to the film editor’s cuts.

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The Man Behind the Most Iconic Movie Posters of the ’80s and ’90s

 Any art-collecting movie nerd worth his or her Reese’s Pieces owns at least one John Alvin creation. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Blade Runner, The Gremlins,Jurassic Park—Alvin designed poster art for all of them. By hand. They are among the most enduring images of recent film history, even if his name isn’t is as recognizable as, say, Saul Bass.

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75 years worth of Batman’s cowls

Artist Salvador Anguiano has created a tribute to comicdom’s most famous bit of headgear with this poster, created as part of Poster Posse’s 75th anniversary celebration of the character, showing more than seventy different varieties of Batman’s cowl.

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R.I.P. Elaine Stritch, brassiest of the old broads

Most recently, Stritch deployed her withering tongue on "30 Rock," playing Jack Donaghy’s perpetually unimpressed mother, Colleen. Stritch was also the subject of a documentary, Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me, that was released earlier this year.

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Marvel Announces New Captain America on 'The Colbert Report'

The announcement, long-rumored in comic book fandom, was made by Marvel CCO Joe Quesada on Comedy Central’s "The Colbert Report" on Wednesday night.

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Emmy Nominations: The Complete List

"Game of Thrones" and FX miniseries "Fargo" scored the most mentions with a respective 19 and 18 nominations a piece.

Click here to view the list.

R.I.P. Paul Mazursky

The prolific Oscar-nominated screenwriter and director whose films include Harry And Tonto, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice and Down And Out In Beverly Hills, died yesterday in Los Angeles of pulmonary cardiac arrest. Paul Mazursky was 84.

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R.I.P. "Hey Arnold!" writer and voice actor Steve Viksten

In addition to working on "Hey Arnold!" (the movie adaptation of which he also wrote), Viksten scripted episodes of "Rugrats," "Recess," and "Duckman."

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How Sega Nearly Won the Console Wars

Console Wars has arrived with much fanfare; it’s already being adapted into a feature film by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, who provide the book’s foreword. The book itself is a fast-paced page-turner that anyone with an interest in classic gaming history will want to read for its unique behind the scenes insight into Sega, Nintendo and Sony through the eyes of its former employees.

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How Will Vinton Lost His Studio to a Rapper Named Chilly Tee

With no knowledge of animation, Travis Knight was assigned “mop duty” -- he started out in the doldrums of the CGI department, rendering whiskers on "The PJs"’ Thurgood Stubbs. Nobody at Vinton Studios knew he was the heir to a man worth $9 billion ($16.3 billion today) -- a man who’d just purchased 15% of the company.

Read the full article.

How Netflix Is Transforming the Economics of the Web

In the past, a transit networks like Level 3 would trade traffic with home ISPs like Comcast without either party paying a fee. This is called “settlement free peering.” These arrangements worked because both parties were sending and receiving similar amounts of traffic. But that changed when networks like Level 3 started carrying Netflix’s streaming video, and they were delivering more traffic than they were receiving. This led to what’s called “paid peering,” where the transit network must pay for the delivery of its extra traffic.

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'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' Actor Bob Hoskins Dead at 71

Billed as a versatile character actor capable of menace, quiet poignancy and Cockney charm, Hoskins' acting resume also boasts appearances in a slew of acclaimed British films of the past few decades, including gangster classic The Long Good Friday, in which he starred opposite Helen Mirren.

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Obsessed Fans Finally Exhumed Atari’s "E.T." Graveyard

The excavator was approaching the limits of its reach when it hit paydirt. When Lewandowski saw a scoop come out of the trench with a copy of Space Invaders, he finally knew for sure he’d picked the right spot. He made a beeline to his wife. They embraced tightly for a long while, then he kissed her, and kissed her, and kissed her again. He was the happiest man in the whole dump.

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It's Adventure Time

An in-depth look at Adventure Time and the people who make it.
Adventure Time’s dozens of characters are complex in a way that is rarely seen on television for adults, let alone children; each seems to inhabit his own world. In E.M. Forster’s memorable phrase, they are round characters, “capable of surprising in a convincing way.” Lumpy Space Princess is a lovable but ghastly teenager, tediously obsessed with her old boyfriend, the unprepossessing Brad; she treats her well-meaning parents very shabbily. Marceline the Vampire Queen’s father is present just enough to make it impossible for her to ignore or forget his cruelty and selfishness—qualities she has inherited, to some degree. Princess Bubblegum is afflicted with intellectual arrogance and an inability to anticipate the dangerous consequences of her scientific experiments. (One of the story’s most provocative threads concerns the tension between science and magic).

Read the article.

Famed Cinecittà Movie Studio Now a Graveyard of Film Memories

For more than 75 years, Cinecittà Studios has stood on the outskirts of Rome, the backdrop for thousands of films. Today its hundred acres stand nearly abandoned, littered with movie props and empty sound stages.

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The Epic Disney Blow-Up of 1994: Eisner, Katzenberg and Ovitz 20 Years Later

For some time -- encouraged by his friend and mentor, Geffen -- Katzenberg had been pushing hard for a promotion. He was after a bigger title and wanted Disney to buy a television network. At the time, Eisner didn't like the prices. (He would make a deal to buy Capital Cities/ABC in 1995, the year after he'd dismissed Katzenberg.) A momentous conversation took place in October 1993, when the two were strolling the streets of Aspen, Colo. Katzenberg pressed Eisner to make him president of the company, with Wells becoming vice chairman. Eisner replied that Wells would feel "hurt" in that scenario and then, according to Katzenberg, assured him, "If for any reason Frank is not here … you are the number-two person and I want you to have the job." (Eisner later called that conversation a "misunderstanding.")

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Ms. Marvel and Captain Marvel are changing who can be a superhero

Rather than deep-six one of its most enduring female characters after Carol Danvers’s promotion to Captain Marvel, Marvel went in a bold new direction in a comics industry that rarely promotes nonwhite superheroes. Enter Kamala Khan, a Jersey City teenager who is already negotiating a set of complex identities—first-generation American, Muslim, Jersey girl, nerd—even before she becomes a superhero.

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Mickey Rooney Gets Emotional in One of His Final Interviews

In the extensive interview, Rooney at times became emotional while reflecting on his life and career.

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R.I.P. Lorenzo Semple Jr., creator of Batman TV series

Semple studied playwriting at Columbia and had two plays produced on Broadway—Tomorrow In Samarkand (1955) and The Golden Fleecing (1959)—while in his thirties. But he hit his full stride after he moved to television and created the Batman series, which led to movie assignments that gave him the chance to put a witty, camp spin on other pop-culture reboots.

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Google Now for Your Body

Google clearly knows what time it is. Today it announced Android Wear, a project to bring Android to wearable computers. The company is starting with smartwatches and rolled out a slick demo video showing how notifications and speaking commands will work. If Google Glass is Google Now for your face, this is pretty much Google Now for the rest of your body.

The preview shows watch-users getting Google Now-style notifications automatically delivered (there’s a jellyfish warning at this beach, here’s another one closeby!) based on cues like location and prior activity. You’ll be able to ask questions in natural language, prefaced by “OK Google,” and get a reply. For that to work well, we’d expect that the watches need to always be listening for the OK Google prompt, Moto X style. It’s also going to be able to control other devices, you can sling a movie to your TV, or fire a playlist on your phone. It’s going to work with health apps to do things like notify you to move when you’ve been too inactive, or track how far and fast you’ve run. And clearly, it’s going to enable all kinds of new actions just as smartphones themselves did.


What Google is actively rolling out today is a developer preview that’s going to let application makers plug into this capability. Your apps will be able to do some of the same kinds of things Google Now can to send you a notification without being asked, or complete a request that you’ve spoken.

Google Now is already the killer feature of Glass. It’s incredibly well-suited to wearables. It makes far more sense to fire notifications to a wearable than a phone, because you can’t always glance at a hand-held screen. You may be driving, for example, or have it tucked away in a bag. As we’ve noted before, wearables are barreling towards us and it won’t be long before you’re going to be wearing the future all over yourself. And that future looks a lot like Google Now.

Via Wired Magazine.

Movie Trailer Voiceover Artist Hal Douglas Has Died

Douglas was one of the top two or three go-to voiceover talents for trailers, The Times reported, along with Don LaFontaine, who died in 2008, and Don Morrow, the voice of the Titanic trailer.

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Warner Bros. attaches new director piece to Lego Movie sequel

As reported by Deadline, The Lego Movie’s animation co-director, Chris McKay, will be replacing Lord and Miller in the tiny plastic director’s chair.

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Bronies Are Redefining Fandom — And American Manhood

The reasons why people enjoy brony fandom are complex, in part because of the gender assumptions surrounding the show and its “intended” audience. The cartoon, as well as its values (caring, generosity, and kindness), is widely seen as being “for girls,” so men who like it often are mocked as feminine or childish. Bronies fully realize this, which explains why fewer than half of bronies surveyed would be comfortable admitting their brininess.

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Comcast Burns Netflix Again by Snagging House of Cards

In a deal with Sony, Comcast will now sell its subscribers access to the first season of the political drama through its own Xfinity Store, Variety reports. Cutting Netflix out of the picture for its signature show sends a clear signal that the entertainment and cable industries aren’t about to let some Northern California tech company change television without exacting a price.

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How Archie Became the Most Enlightened Publisher in Comics

The publisher’s willingness to play with its successful formula has touched “regular” Archie comics too—and in such a way that high-profile comic publishers have been left playing catch-up.

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Oscars: 7 Burning Questions Answered

Which films and stars got snubbed?

Several big names went home from the Oscars empty-handed. American Hustle, which went into the show tied with Gravity for a leading 10 nominations, didn't pick up a single trophy, despite being nominated for best picture and in all four of the acting categories. Other films with multiple nominations that were shut out included Captain Phillips (6 nods), Nebraska (6 nods) The Wolf of Wall Street (5 nods), Philomena (4 nods), The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (3 nods), Despicable Me 2 (2 nods) and August: Osage County (2 nods).

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Oscars 2014: And the winners are ...

Slave, the historical drama based on the true story of Solomon Northup, took home Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress (for Lupita Nyong’o), and Best Adapted Screenplay (for John Ridley).

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'Movie 43' Wins Three Razzie Awards Including Worst Picture

The Smith family's sci-fi box-office bomb After Earth also nabbed three of the event's gold spray-painted statues. Jaden Smith took worst lead actor, while Will Smith was named worst supporting actor, and together the duo, described in the ceremony as being "stranded on Planet Nepotism" in the movie, took the trophy for worst screen combo.

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Independent Spirit Awards winners

The ceremony was hosted by comedian Patton Oswalt and held in Santa Monica, California, a day before the 2014 Oscars.

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Inside the First Televised Oscars

Bob Hope hosted the 110-minute telecast (taped simultaneously at New York's NBC International Theatre so actors working on Broadway could take part), becoming flustered only once when Charles Brackett surprised him with an honorary Oscar. The show, sponsored by RCA for $100,000, was not without glitches: Cameras caught Shirley Booth, who was in New York, tripping on her way to the stage to accept the best actress statuette for Come Back, Little Sheba.

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Oscars: The Process Behind How the Statuettes Are Made

The Oscar starts at Chicago's R.S. Owens & Co., which has manufactured the statuettes since 1983. (It also makes the Emmy statuettes.) Ingots of proprietary Britannia pewter alloy are melted and poured into molds based on the original 1928 design by MGM art director Cedric Gibbons that depicts a stylized knight holding a crusader's sword. Aside from minor alterations to the base, the statuette today is identical to the original. About 50 are made for each ceremony.

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‘Ghostbusters’ Star Harold Ramis Dies at 69

Harold Ramis, best known as an actor in Ghostbusters and Stripes and a writer/director for Caddyshack and Groundhog Day died Monday died today from complications related to auto-immune inflammatory vasculitis, a disease he battled for four years. He was 69.

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'Gravity' Tops Sound Mixers Awards

Gravity -- which last weekend won the BAFTA in the sound competition -- topped a field that included the sound mixers from Captain Phillips, Inside Llewyn Davis, Iron Man 3 and Lone Survivor.

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Oldest Surviving Superman Art Sells at Auction

Dated August 1939, the cover to Action Comics No. 15 features Superman underwater rescuing a disabled submarine. It was drawn by Fred Guardineer, who illustrated many of DC's earliest covers. The book is considered by many to be among the 100 most significant Golden Age comics.

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'Blue Jasmine,' '12 Years a Slave' Win At Costume Designers Guild Awards

Costume designer Suzy Benzinger received an award for her work on Blue Jasmine, while Patricia Norris was awarded for 12 Years a Slave. Trish Summerville nabbed a win for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire in the fantasy film section.

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5 Most Awesome Things About Writing "Everything Is AWESOME!!!" for The Lego Movie

After months of the song getting cut into various early versions of the rough film, I finally went down to Animal Logic to meet with writer-directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, Chris McKay and producer Seanne Winslow. That…was AWESOME. They were all so incredibly happy with my song and appreciative of it. Also, I was such a huge fan of Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s work, so this was just getting to be ridiculous levels of fun. Even if the song never ended up in the final film, the ride getting there was the best experience.      Read More.

Best Picture Winners That Should Have Lost

''Forrest Gump'' over ''Pulp Fiction''? ''Crash'' over ''Brokeback Mountain''? ''Gandhi'' over ''E.T.''? Questionable choices, and the more-deserving films they beat out

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R.I.P. Jimmy Murakami, animator of The Snowman

Animation director Teruaki “Jimmy” Murakami has died at the age of 80. Born in San Jose, California, Murakami was 8 years old when Pearl Harbor was attacked, and spent four years during the war housed with his family in a Japanese-American internment camp. He would eventually become best known for his pitch-perfect adaptations of works by the English cartoonist and illustrator Raymond Briggs, such as The Snowman, made after he’d selected Ireland as his base of operations. Children’s TV creator Jason Tammemagi publicly mourned him as “a friend to us all in the Irish animation scene, supporting new talent and offering advice.”

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'Captain Phillips,' 'Gravity,' 'The Great Gatsby' Win Sound Editors Awards

In the feature films categories, the sound editing teams behind Gravity -- which earlier on Sunday won the BAFTA for sound -- collected one trophy, in the category for sound effects and foley; Captain Phillips claimed the trophy for dialogue and ADR; and The Great Gatsby topped the category for music editing.

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'Dallas Buyers Club,' 'Bad Grandpa' Win at Make-Up and Hair Stylists Awards

American Hustle, Dallas Buyers Club, Lee Daniel’s The Butler, Prisoners and Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa all won awards in the feature categories at the Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists Guild Awards, Saturday at the Paramount Studios Theatre.

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Jim Henson's Son, John, Dies at 48

He suffered a "massive heart attack" at his home, the Henson Company stated in a post on its Facebook page.

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'Gravity' Tops the Visual Effects Society Awards

Gravity also won awards for compositing, virtual cinematography, created environment, models, and FX and simulation animation. The VFX were created at London-based Framestore, led by Framestore VFX supervisor, Tim Webber.

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Sid Caesar Dead: Comedy Titan Was 91

Whether played out in a sketch, pantomime or a full-blown revue, Caesar's observational humor exposed the truths of everyday life. His two whirlwind variety shows produced writers and performers who set the comic agenda for decades to come -- people like Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Carl Reiner, Larry Gelbart, Imogene Coca, Nanette Fabray, Howard Morris, Lucille Kallen, Mel Tolkin and "Fiddler on the Roof" playwright Joseph Stein.

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R.I.P. Shirley Temple Black

Temple made her movie debut when she was 3 years old. The sheer scale of her popularity, and the degree to which a major studio turned all its resources toward milking that popularity, was unprecedented for a performer her age, and it remains unmatched.

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Art Directors Guild Awards ceremonies

At the 18th Art Directors Guild Awards, Warner Bros.' trio of contenders -- each of which is also nominated for the best production design Oscar -- swept the three different ADG categories that honor the production design of films, something that has never happened before. The prizes went to Gravity (Andy Nicholson) for best fantasy film, Her (K.K. Barrett) for best contemporary film and The Great Gatsby (Catherine Martin) for best period film. Gatsby topped the category's other two Oscar nominees, American Hustle and 12 Years a Slave.

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'Captain Phillips,' 'American Hustle' Win American Cinema Editors Awards

Christopher Rouse, editor of Captain Phillips, and Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers and Alan Baumgarten, editors of American Hustle, won best edited dramatic feature and best edited comedy or musical feature respectively at the 64th annual American Cinema Editors Eddie Awards, Friday at the Beverly Hilton.

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Annie Awards: 'Frozen' Wins Best Animated Feature

The International Animated Film Society (ASIFA-Hollywood) awarded Disney Animation's Frozen five trophies, including best animated feature, direction for helmers Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee, music, production design and voice acting.

DreamWorks Animation’s The Croods won three trophies for animated effects, character animation and character design. Pixar Animation Studio’s Monsters University was honored for storyboarding and editing. And Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki won the award for best writing for his final film, The Wind Rises
.

Read the full list of winners.

WGA Awards: The Winners

Her topped for original screenplay honors, while Captain Phillips took the adapted screenplay award.

In television, "Breaking Bad" bested.

Read the full list of nominees and winners.

ASC Awards: 'Gravity' Tops Cinematographer Honors

Emmanuel "Chivo" Lubezki's rendering of Gravity won the feature competition at the 28th annual American Society of Cinematographers Outstanding Achievement Awards on Saturday at the Hollywood & Highland Ray Dolby Ballroom.

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Animation Producer Arthur Rankin, Jr. Dies

Producer Arthur Rankin, Jr. - of the producing team Rankin-Bass - has passed away. Among his films and TV specials, the iconic "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer," "Frosty The Snowman" and "Mad Monster Party."

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