“Kill Your Darlings” is a phrase often used in the world of writing and movies. Made famous by William Faulkner, it refers to deleting material that’s near and dear to the creator's heart for the sake of making their story better.

It’s something writer-director James Ponsoldt ("The End of the Tour") knows all too well after adapting to the screen Dave Eggers’ popular 2013 novel “The Circle” (in theaters Friday).

"I think any novel that is as ambitious as this one, there was a big unyielding collection of ideas and characters and plots at the start of writing the script," Ponsoldt told Business Insider a day after the movie had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. "I think a very literal adaptation of this book would make for a good miniseries, but for a movie, it was figuring out which characters were absolutely essential."

A cautionary tale of the all-consuming technology and social media around us, the movie stars Emma Watson as Mae Holland, a idealistic twenty something who finally gets her dream job, working at the powerful tech company The Circle. Dazzled by the "anything is possible" vibe of the campus (think Google), she catches the eye of the company's co-founders, Eamon Bailey (Tom Hanks) and Tom Stenton (Patton Oswalt), and agrees to take part in the company's latest big idea — wearing a camera and being 100% transparent to the world all day long. Now having millions of viewers following her every move, Mae becomes a sensation at The Circle and has bigger ideas, ones that bring up questions about privacy and surveillance throughout the world.

Like in the book, Mae is driven to know everything about The Circle and aspires to change the world through its innovations. But fans of the book will find some major tweaks in the movie version. A big one taken out is the love triangle Mae has in the book with fellow Circle employees Francis and the mysterious Kalden.

Instead, the roles were combined into the character of Ty in the movie, played by John Boyega ("Star Wars: The Force Awakens"). Though Ty and Mae seems to have a romantic chemistry, he has more of the Kalden character in him, as Ty is the off-the-grid former wunderkind at the company that reveals to Mae the dark secrets of The Circle.

Ponsoldt said the Francis character was in early drafts of the script, but was lifted as he didn't feel central to Mae's evolution at The Circle.

"It felt like to properly do justice to that love triangle you would have been another 45 minutes of screen time," Ponsoldt said. "There would have been a totally valid movie that focuses on that, but I think the idea of privacy and surveillance are central to the novel and I wanted to explore that."

To do that, Ponsoldt also changed the tone of the ending. In the book, Mae comes off as unsympathetic about how the ideas she's come up with about The Circle imposing on people's privacy, even those close to her, have led to disastrous results. The movie gives a more hopeful ending.

“I love the ending in the book and in adapting there were a lot of conversations with Dave and with Emma, and it was a feeling that if the audience feels that Mae is purely evil then it becomes too binary or some propaganda film," Ponsoldt said. "I'm not technophobic, I don't think technology is inherently bad, I think technology is great. My issue is more with the companies that are bringing us all that great stuff. Why do they have to collect, store, and perhaps monetize our private information? That was the spirit that we wanted to have with the movie and of Emma's character at the end. She means well, I think, to the very end."

Ponsoldt wrote the script on spec soon after completing his acclaimed 2015 movie "The End of the Tour." Following numerous conversations with Eggers, in which Ponsoldt said the author encouraged him to tweak his story for it to work on screen, Tom Hanks and his production company Playtone came on board and helped get the project off the ground.

Ponsoldt is not the first or last writer-director who made sacrifices from a book he loves to get it on screen. But he believes the core of what Eggers tried to get across in book form is in the movie.

“For me, Mae is in many ways the future of where technology is going and we like disrupters coming along and changing the status quo, but it's also not always for the better," Ponsoldt said. "I think we can certainly see that with the elections in the UK and the US in the past year, where outside forces disrupt things to disastrous effects. I think the ending of the movie has an ambiguity and one hopes for the best and believes that youthfulness and idealism will make things better, but it doesn't always work that way."

SEE ALSO: Jenny Slate and Zachary Quinto explain why making movies isn't always about the money

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"Destiny 2" is one of the most anticipated games of 2017, but aside from a brief trailer that debuted last month, and a gameplay unveiling scheduled for next month, we don't know much about what Bungie has in store for its popular space shooter sequel.

Last night, though, I got some clues about "Destiny 2" in the form of a physical package — sent straight from Activision, Bungie's parent company.

Check it out:

SEE ALSO: We have some big clues about what's coming in 'Destiny 2'

Here's what I saw upon opening the package: A notice about when we could share information about the "Destiny 2" event on May 18, a physical invitation to that event in Los Angeles, and a lovely figurine featuring Cayde-6, one of the most popular characters from the first "Destiny" game.

Here's what I saw when I opened the physical invitation: A small black card with ominous red lettering that says, "Welcome to a world without light."

Considering how Bungie said "Destiny 2" will introduce players to incredible new abilities, I'm guessing this warning relates to how players will lose their current powers attained from the events in "Destiny 1," before inevitably gaining those sweet new powers in the sequel.

The back of that card has all the information relating to the "Destiny 2" event on May 18. Business Insider will be at the event to cover it as it happens.

Neil Gaiman's epic novel "American Gods" — about new and old gods facing off in modern America — is now a series on Starz starring Ricky Whittle. We spoke with Whittle to find out what it's like to be the next big TV hero and which of the gods in the show he would choose to worship.

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"Silicon Valley" star Thomas Middleditch is a huge "Bachelor" fan and he's not afraid to express his feelings about the ABC dating show.

"It's like a masterclass in human manipulation," he told TMZ recently of why he watches "The Bachelor." "You get to see all the various sides of our human element all in one show."

And as a "Bachelor" fan, he's well acquainted with last season's big villain, Corrinne Olympios. With a penchant for drama and her clothing optional attitude, Olympios created a lot of enemies among her fellow bachelorettes and the show's fandom. And Middleditch is no different.

In speaking of her tactics, Middleditch showed a similar dislike for President Donald Trump.

"Corrine reminded me of Trump. It was kind of sad," he said.

When asked why he felt that way, the actor responded, "Re-watch it. It's like a mirror for the Trump and [Hillary Clinton] election. I think she's probably a really sweet person, but her tactics were very Trumpian."

Watch the "Silicon Valley" star weigh in on Olympios below:

SEE ALSO: The new 'Silicon Valley' season exposes a common dilemma in the tech industry

DON'T MISS: Comedian Judd Apatow compares Donald Trump to 'the psycho girl' on 'The Bachelor'

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NOW WATCH: Everything you need to know about Corinne Olympios — the newest villain on 'The Bachelor'

Instead of dancing on the white sand beaches of Great Exuma in the Bahamas, Fyre Festival attendees have found themselves stranded in airports, some without any food or water, unable to get home.

This three-day party, organized by Ja Rule and tech entrepreneur Billy McFarland's company, Fyre Media, was supposed to take place on a private beach in the Bahamas for two weekends, April 28-30 and May 5-7.

But guests, who had spent between $450 and $12,000 on tickets, are describing the festival as a "complete disaster," with half-built tents, delayed flights, and no one around to help.

Take a look:

SEE ALSO: The founder of a private club for elite millennials is behind a supermodel-backed music festival that has descended into chaos

The three-day party was supposed to be on a private beach on the island of Great Exuma in the Bahamas.

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A host of supermodels had promoted it on social media, including Hailey Baldwin, Emily Ratajkowski, and Bella Hadid.

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Major artists were planning to headline the party.

Fyre Festival was intended to be a luxurious weekend of music and partying on the white-sand beaches of Great Exuma in the Bahamas. Blink-182, Major Lazer, Migos, Tyga, and Disclosure were among the artists who were slated to perform, according to the festival's promotions.

A host of supermodels had promoted it on social media, including Kendall Jenner, Hailey Baldwin, Emily Ratajkowski, and Bella Hadid.

What happened instead was a disaster of epic proportions, with attendees c0mplaining of half-built tents, inadequate food and drink, and canceled performances.

Thousands of guests have been stranded as they wait for organizers to arrange flights back to Miami. 

The event organizers issued a statement on their social media channels.

But according to the Wall Street Journal, there had been concerns about whether the event would be taking place for weeks. Its organizers had reportedly missed several payments owed to performers, though they seemed to have caught up recently. Some attendees were becoming nervous that they had few logistical details had been communicated to them. Sources told the WSJ that contractors worried about the organizers' lack of festival experience. 

According to a statement Business Insider received from the Stephen Starr-led Starr Catering Group, which had been contracted to provide food services to the Fyre Festival, agreements with the event's organizers had been terminated earlier in April.

"After careful consideration, Starr Catering Group realized that there were significant business issues that could not be resolved and would not allow them to deliver a premium food and beverage experience that met Starr's exceedingly high standards," the statement reads. 

Starr terminated its contact with Fyre Media, the company behind the event, on April 2. It is unclear whether Fyre Media struck up another agreement with a different catering company prior to the start of Fyre Festival.  

"To resolve any confusion, Starr Catering is not providing any catering services at the Fyre Festival," Starr Catering Group's CEO, Simon Powles, said in a statement. 

Many guests complained on Twitter about the quality of the food and accommodations.

The festival was put on by the rapper Ja Rule and Billy McFarland, a tech entrepreneur. They launched the entertainment startup Fyre Media in 2015. McFarland previously founded Magnises, a social-networking startup that charges members a $250 annual fee for discounted access to exclusive events. After speaking to several current and former Magnises members earlier this year, Business Insider revealed that the startup had not been delivering on the perks it was advertising.

Tickets ranged in cost from $450 to $12,000, but the WSJ reported that they could cost as much as $250,000 depending on the amenities. 

SEE ALSO: A supermodel-backed music festival where tickets cost up to $12,000 turned into a nightmare — here's what happened

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NOW WATCH: US Customs could require you to open your phone at the border — here's how to protect your privacy

Fyre Festival is an unmitigated disaster, and the rapper Ja Rule does not want to be blamed.

What was supposed to be a three-day all-inclusive luxury music festival in the Bahamas, with tickets up to $12,000, has collapsed under its own weight, with acts and caterers pulling out, a lack of adequate infrastructure on the private beach, and problems with transportation both on and off the island.

Now people who were promised a luxury experience are turning to the festival's owners — Ja Rule and entrepreneur Billy McFarland, the cofounders of Fyre Media — for answers. Fyre is an on-demand booking app.

In a statement on Twitter, Ja Rule said that the incident in the Bahamas was "not my fault."

Twitter users asked early Friday morning where Ja Rule had been, via the hashtag #whereisjarule. One user said Ja Rule performed in Chicago on Thursday night, before Fyre Festival was scheduled to begin, fueling speculation he had not even made it to the island festival.

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Fyre Festival, a luxury music festival on Great Exuma in the Bahamas this weekend, has reportedly descended into chaos. Attendees have complained on Twitter of disorganization, headliners backing out, and inadequate housing in a "tent city." Thousands of guests who paid between $450 and $12,000 for weekend passes say they're stranded in the Bahamas as organizers arrange flights back to Miami.

A host of supermodels, including Hailey Baldwin and Bella Hadid, had promoted the event on Instagram.

The festival was put on by the singer Ja Rule and Billy McFarland, a tech entrepreneur. They launched the entertainment startup Fyre Media in 2015.

McFarland previously founded Magnises, a social-networking startup that charges members a $250 annual fee for discounted access to exclusive events. After speaking to several current and former Magnises members earlier this year, Business Insider revealed that the startup had not been delivering on the perks it was advertising.

Members recounted similar stories of not receiving tickets on the promised timeline, having to rearrange plans multiple times because of the startup's scheduling snafus, and trips being canceled outright, sometimes the day before they were scheduled to happen.

Several members said they had received unwanted charges on their credit cards from Magnises, which in some cases took more than a month to refund their money, they said.

Since its inception in 2014, the New York-based startup has expanded to Washington, DC, and San Francisco. It now has nearly 40,000 members. The startup has raised $3.1 million in venture capital since its founding, and it has been cash-flow positive for the past year. It has 25 employees.

McFarland did not immediately return Business Insider's request for comment about this year's Fyre Festival.

SEE ALSO: Members of a private club for 'elite' millennials want their money back

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Conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos says he raised $12 million to start his own media company and got a $1 million signing bonus out of the deal, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Yiannopoulos resigned from right-wing website Breitbart News in February amid a controversy about past comments in which he appeared to condone sexual relationships between "younger boys and older men."

"Obviously, I've done a lot of soul searching over the past few months and I've come to a conclusion: I've realized that I'm really, really important," Yiannopoulos told The Hollywood Reporter. "There's a war being waged out there for free speech and I'm the only one who can win it for the forces of light."

During the fallout in February, Simon & Schuster canceled a book deal he'd signed, and the Conservative Political Action Committee rescinded his invitation to give the keynote speech at their annual convention. He was banned from Twitter last year after an unrelated incident involving him mocking actress Leslie Jones.

Yiannopoulos' new venture will reportedly be called Milo, Inc. He told The Hollywood Reporter that he hired a "seasoned media executive," whom he did not name, to lead a 30-person team in Miami. Yiannopoulos also declined to name the investors from whom he raised the $12 million.

"This isn't some vanity nameplate on a personal blog," Yiannopoulos said of his new venture. "This is a fully tooled-up talent factory and management company dedicated to the destruction of political correctness and the progressive left."

Yiannopoulos also said he's working on a new book, a reality show for YouTube, and a new live tour.

Editor's note: Milo Yiannopoulos has previously written columns published by Business Insider.

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Fyre Festival attendees were expecting the VIP experience when they set off to Great Exuma in the Bahamas. But the reality was very different: delayed flights, half-built huts to sleep in, and cold cheese sandwiches to eat. And that doesn't even include the disastrous trip home.

This luxury festival, tickets for which cost between $450 and $12,000, was advertised as two weekends in paradise. It turned into a nightmare. Take a look at festivalgoers' expectations compared with the reality they encountered.

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In the last major "Star Wars" game, "Battlefront," you're given a sandbox of "Star Wars" characters and worlds to play in.

It's very pretty — one of the best-looking games on any system — but doesn't hold a candle to what one intrepid gamer turned it into. 

Behold:

No, that isn't a still from "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" — that's what happens when you apply a "mod" (modification) to "Star Wars Battlefront" on PC. And no, you can't do this to the Xbox One or PlayStation 4 versions, sadly; modding games requires a level of access to the guts of a game that you simply can't access on consoles.

All that aside: Whoa, right?

SEE ALSO: A brand new 'Star Wars' game was just announced — here's everything we know

All of these images was captured by the mod's creator, Martin Bergman.

Bergman says that running the mod can be pretty intensive on your computer's processor.

It apparently drops the framerate pretty dramatically (in the 30-40 frames per second range).

Documentaries are powerful learning tools, and our society remains very ignorant about sex, so it stands to reason that there’s a lot that we can learn from some good docs dealving into sexuality.

While putting together my new book “The Sex Effect”— which examines hidden relationships between sex and culture — I came across a slew of compelling documentaries about sex and society.

Here are five great documentaries you need to watch to be smarter about sex:

SEE ALSO: Every HBO show ranked from worst to best, according to critics

1. "How to Survive a Plague"

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As AIDS was killing thousands of gay men throughout the 1980s, the US government largely ignored the issue. This documentary shows how activists groups such as ACT UP took matters into their own hands by staging protests that ultimately pressured the government to develop better treatment drugs and roll them out to patients quicker.

While the grim matter of people dying from a debilitating disease can be an upsetting subject, “How to Survive a Plague” is actually a pretty inspiring documentary because through its incredibly rich archival footage, it illustrates the power of protest and what can be accomplished when everyday people band together and organize to fight unjust power structures.

Streaming on: Netflix Hulu, YouTube, Amazon Video, Google Play, YouTube

2. "Coming Out Under Fire"

It wasn’t until 2011 that the US military officially stopped dismissing soldiers because of their sexual orientation. A hidden consequence of these homophobic policies is that they inadvertently strengthened gay identity in the US by boosting the populations of "gayborhoods" in port cities and making many gay people aware of their orientation.

This documentary tells that story through the voices of LGBT service members who had to work around policies aimed at excluding them. The most salient point of the documentary is how the military continually altered its reasons for banning gay troops whenever its theories became untenable.

Initially, sodomy was criminalized. Then, with the rise of psychiatry, homosexuality was branded as a mental illness, and we couldn’t have mentally ill people fighting our wars. After psychiatrists removed homosexuality as an illness, the new claim was that gay service members posed security risks. After that was disproved, gay troops were accused of undermining unit cohesion, which is another theory that has been debunked.

What “Coming Out Under Fire” teaches us is to be skeptical of the underlying imperatives behind morally branded injunctions.

Streaming on: Vimeo

3. "Paris Is Burning"

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One reason documentaries can be so intriguing is that, when done well, they can give viewers a glimpse into subcultures that many people are totally oblivious to. “Paris Is Burning” provides a fascinating look into drag culture in New York City in the late 1980s, where people were voguing before Madonna commodified the act in her hit single and music video.

The documentary shows how marginalized groups can develop their own cultures within a broader society that they perceive to be oppressive.

Streaming on: Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Video

Ron Howard's new television series "Genius" continues the filmmaker's decades-long love affair with science.

The first season — a biopic of Albert Einstein — is currently airing on the National Geographic Channel. It dramatizes the life and times of Einstein, who developed the theory of general relativity (among other discoveries), in 10 hour-long episodes.

But Howard, who directed the series, seems to be chasing more than just a good story. In the eyes of Howard and Gigi Pritzker, a billionaire who produced the show, it's also about promoting science and, by extension, the future of America.

Speaking alongside Pritzker, Howard expressed concern about the current direction of the United States, and — in particular — the recognition of social and economic roles that science plays, given that the Trump administration has thus far exhibited an overall lack ofsupport for (if not antagonism towards) the research community.

"Look at what Silicon Valley has meant to our economy and our ongoing influence around the world. ... What we don't want to do is cede that position to other countries, other nations, other cultures," Howard told Business Insider.

Howard was born in 1954, was around for the first moon landings, the rise of personal computing, and the advent of the internet — but he's also seen the missed opportunities.

"We could have had the [Large] Hadron Collider. But 15 years ago we decided not to fund that. So I've always lamented the fact that we didn't stay in that pole position on that front of exploration," he said. "I'm an advocate of both because I believe in the growth of the knowledge base, but I also believe in what it means to the national economy."

"Genius" joins a growing list of science-focused productions for Howard, including his films "Apollo 13" (about NASA's moon mission gone awry) and "A Beautiful Mind" (a drama focused on the life of Nobel Laureate mathematician John Nash). Howard was also behind the recent TV production "Mars", a science-meets-fiction mash-up of humanity's efforts to colonize the red planet, which features Elon Musk and other entrepreneurs.

"When it was over, and the scripts had been written, we realized ... how much momentum there was in all 10 hours," Howard said of the process of making the first season of "Genius". "We could have done 15 hours on Einstein's life."

Pritzker, agreeing with Howard, said shows like "Genius" give filmmakers a chance to cut through the politics that often distort science, and remind people about the value of exploration.

"Having people like Einstein in the forefront of popular culture, and really raising scientists to the level of celebrity, is a really important thing — so people who sit passively and don't think of themselves as scientists or understanding science can really get a grasp of why it's so important to support science and breakthroughs and research and development," Pritzker said. "Because it does get politicized and has been for years."

Howard says that if the Trump administration doesn't support research, others must make up the difference to keep the US competitive.

"I believe they know that science is at the root of growth, social and economic." Howard said. "If government funding starts to dry up, that's where entrepreneurs need to rush in, and universities need to step up and use their endowments."

In any case, the actor, director, producer, and father isn't keeping his hopes up.

"It's hard to know ... what the Trump administration really believes versus what they say," Howard told Business Insider. "Trump is a brand-builder and a salesman and will say whatever will help push the sale."

"Genius" has already been renewed for a second season, which will profile a different luminary. Howard wouldn't tell Business Insider who the show plans to dramatize next, but said the shortlist isn't limited just to scientists and includes people who "are very high-profile today." (When we asked Howard if someone like Musk or Jeff Bezos would be candidates, he dodged the question, saying only that "those are remarkable individuals.")

The show's first episode aired on April 25, and the second debuts Tuesday on NatGeo at 9 p.m. EDT.

SEE ALSO: Scientists cracked one of Einstein's greatest mysteries — now a bizarre new form of astronomy is emerging

DON'T MISS: 5 things Albert Einstein got totally wrong

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NOW WATCH: Einstein did not believe in God — here's what he actually meant by 'God does not play dice with the universe'

On Wednesday, ESPN announced a brutal round of layoffs, which is expected to hit about 100 employees, including dozens of on-air personalities.

These layoffs are high-profile and painful for ESPN, and on a surface level, seem to validate ESPN naysayers that think the sports giant is in the midst of a slow death march.

But while these layoffs do show that ESPN is dealing with the sting of digital disruption, they don’t mean the business is doomed, according to a recent report by analysts at Morgan Stanley, led by Benjamin Swinburne.

To understand how the layoffs fit into ESPN’s broader strategy, it’s helpful to delve into the two main issues that provoked them. The first is that ESPN has lost millions of subscribers in the last few years, which is putting pressure on the bottom line. The second is that SportsCenter needs to continue to modernize, quickly.

Let’s look at SportsCenter first.

“Driving force behind today's [layoffs] decision is different approach to @SportsCenter with increased emphasis on digital presence,” journalist James Miller tweeted Wednesday.

ESPN President John Skipper backed that up view in a memo Wednesday. “Our content strategy — primarily illustrated in recent months by melding distinct, personality-driven SportsCenter TV editions and digital-only efforts with our biggest sub-brand — still needs to go further, faster … and as always, must be efficient and nimble,” Skipper wrote.

Before the rise of the internet, SportsCenter was the undisputed king of sports programming. It set the narratives, and was a must-watch for all the highlight clips you didn’t want to miss.

“It was almost like MTV in the 80s and 90s. It was just one of those special cultural type of media outlets that was almost impossible to replicate,” Bleacher Report CEO Dave Finocchio told Business Insider last year.

But with the internet, highlight clips were online and blogs were churning out takes, sometimes before the game was even finished. SportsCenter had to change or lose relevancy.

And it has changed, especially recently. As Skipper referenced in his memo, ESPN has made an aggressive moves to turn the various SportsCenter offerings into shows with more personality. In sum: There's less focus on “highlights,” more on “talk show” elements, and a focus on the digital side.

The transition Skipper described in his memo is something SportsCenter can, and will, continue to make, but there will be some hurt along the way, and it may never be the juggernaut it once was.

Millions and millions of losses

SportsCenter hasn’t been the only pain point for ESPN. The other big one has been the major subscriber losses that have persisted for years. According to the latest estimates, ESPN has lost 12 million subscribers in the last six years, a drop of about 12%.

If this trend continues, it will be horrible for ESPN. ESPN makes money from advertising, but also directly gets paid $7.21 each month, per subscriber, for ESPN alone, and $9.06 for the ESPN family of networks. Losing 12 million subscribers hurts — a lot.

But there are reasons to be optimistic looking forward, according to analysts at Morgan Stanley. Why? The primary reason is that Morgan Stanley expects a lot of growth in new online TV bundles, targeted especially at younger viewers (known in the industry as "vMVPDs"). The pitch of many of these services is a lower-cost TV bundle — usually $40 or less for an entry-level package — for a smaller selection of channels you can watch on whatever device you want. A few of these services are already out, like DirecTV Now, Sling TV, Sony's Vue, and YouTube TV, and there's a Hulu offering on the horizon.

Morgan Stanley thinks these new services will draw people into the pay-TV ecosystem who either left (cord-cutters) or never had a package (cord-nevers).

“New entrants offering live streaming TV products (vMVPDs) could expand the overall market and stabilize total linear TV subscribers,” Morgan Stanley wrote in a recent report. Put another way: They could stop the slide of subscribers from traditional TV.

This isn't automatically great news for ESPN. In fact, it could be horrible if ESPN got dropped from some of the low-price bundles because of its high cost. But that hasn’t been the case so far, partially because of the power Disney has at the negotiating table.

“With ESPN included in multiple aggressively-priced video services already in the market or expected to launch soon, the pace and incremental nature of new vMVPD adoption could help improve volume headwinds over the next few years,” Morgan Stanley wrote. These new packages could give ESPN some breathing room on subscribers.

Here's a good illustration of how Morgan Stanley believes “Gold” (including Disney, Fox, CBS, NBC, and Time Warner) and “Silver (including Discovery, Viacom) network groups will fare over the next few years, in terms of subscribers:

That graph shows subscriber trends turning back toward positive.

That doesn’t mean ESPN will get back all those subscribers it lost, but it does mean Morgan Stanley expects “subscriber erosion trends to improve.” And it’s not just good news for ESPN, but for any cable network struggling with subscriber losses.

In all, Morgan Stanley thinks that online bundles will get 3 million subscribers by the end of 2017. Here’s how the analysts think it will break down:

If consumers are drawn in by these new bundles, and ESPN continues to have a prominent seat at the table, it could mean a slowing of the massive subscriber losses that have plagued ESPN in recent years. That doesn't mean there won't be more layoffs, especially as the business models for making money in places like Snapchat, or on ESPN's own app, mature, but it will give Disney investors a bit more confidence that ESPN is not in an inevitable decline.

Additional reporting by Cork Gaines.

SEE ALSO: Bleacher Report's CEO explained why ESPN is in trouble

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NOW WATCH: We Got An Inside Look At ESPN's New SportsCenter Studio — And It's Awesome

In 2010, a new video game classic was born.

"Red Dead Redemption" is widely regarded as one of the finest games made in the past 10 years. It takes the open-world environment of "Grand Theft Auto" and twists it into something unique: a third-person, open-world action game set in the Old West — it's even made by the same folks behind "GTA"! We're talking America as it transitioned from a lawless frontier to modern civilization. This is not stuff that video games tackle.

And that's part of why people are so incredibly excited for "Red Dead Redemption 2," which is expected to launch later this year. Just look at this:

Right? Let's dive in.

SEE ALSO: The best racing game ever made is getting a truly insane addition

If these graphics look too good to be true, think again: These incredible visuals were reportedly captured on a PlayStation 4.

Like the first "Red Dead Redemption," the sequel takes place in the American Old West.

More specifically, the game is set in "America's unforgiving heartland."

Nintendo's blockbuster Switch is a new kind of video-game console that can be plugged into a TV for big-screen gaming, or pocketed for portable action.

But the Switch isn't Nintendo's only portable console.

The Nintendo 3DS has been on the market since 2011, meaning it has a deeper bench of top-tier games. Plus, as a portable-only gadget, it gets way better battery life than the Switch. 

And late Thursday night, Nintendo made the surprise announcement of the New Nintendo 2DS XL, a new $149 console in the 3DS console lineup, on sale in July. It's like the regular Nintendo 3DS consoles, minus the 3D aspect.

Picking between the Nintendo 3DS and 2DS can seem a little tricky. Luckily, we're here to help.

SEE ALSO: Nintendo's Wii U was a flop, but here's why you should consider buying one on Black Friday

The original Nintendo 3DS first launched in 2011. The bottom screen is for touch, complete with a little stylus.

The 3DS is Nintendo's follow-up to the massively successful Nintendo DS, pictured here. The Nintendo DS was the best-selling game console of all time with 154 million units sold.

The 3DS doesn't try to reinvent the wheel. It adds a joystick for better control in games, sports overall better graphics, and can display games in 3D, without the need for any kind of glasses. Hence the name.

Professional mime Bill Bowers gave a lesson on the fundamentals of pantomime, explaining the challenges of bringing imaginary objects into reality for an audience.

Following is a transcript of the video. 

 My name’s Bill Bowers and I am a mime. I live in New York City and perform and teach mime and physical theater.

And just imagine that right in front of us both a wall appears. An imaginary wall. And you’re going to see it with your eyes so that I’m going to see what you see. Yeah. And when you touch the wall, it has energy, too. So when you touch it, it stops your hand. Just like that! Yeah, it’s just like this. It’s like a real wall.

So this is another part of fundamental in pantomime which is called fixed point, something that’s fixed in space. So one part of your body, like your hand, is stuck in space, but the rest of your body is completely free. Look at that! You’re Mr. Mime, there it is.

You have energy and this imaginary world has energy and where the two things come together is an illusion. That’s where the imagination of the audience joins you. Your imagination meets theirs and together you create an object. Everything you create in pantomime, all illusions are basically just dots. They’re just pieces of energy and you put those dots together to form objects from the real world.

You have two points of energy but the space between them is very important as well. And you can move them anywhere you want. And now I’m going to move this dot to there, and move this dot to there. Good! And now I’m going to do it again.

So as we practice this one thing we might look at is now incorporating your wrist. This thing that our wrists have called flexion, you can use that in pantomime to be expressive, you know, and add this idea of two energies, my energy and the energy of the object. Rather than just using my whole arm, I’m trying to just isolate it down to my hands. Yeah, very good! Look at that, very nice, yeah!

So we could, after we’ve practiced this for a while, we could think about like a tug of war, where it’s you versus me, and the object, it’s a shared object. Go ahead, pull me, I’m going to pull you, yeah? So we’re calling it a tug of war, but actually, it’s completely a collaboration, we’re completely watching each other. But then, you have an object and two actors and you can write a story based on that.

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"Silicon Valley" star T.J Miller can understand if people wonder if they're the inspiration for the show's coding genius Richard Hendricks (Thomas Middleditch) or even the ruthless tech mogul Gavin Belson (Matt Ross), but he finds it strange that people would claim to be the inspiration for his character, home-brewed incubator founder Erlich Bachman.

"It’s so funny for people to wonder if Erlich Bachman is based on them, because that’s clearly an insult," Miller recently told Business Insider. "He’s kind of the buffoon. He’s really the worst of all of them on the show."

It may be funny now to Miller, but it's true. Last year, the feuding co-founders of the online marketplace for concierge services, Way, Binu Girija and Pat Murray, both claimed that they were the inspiration for Bachman. 

To be fair, they got the idea from Miller himself. According to TechCrunch, the actor said during a 2014 panel discussion that he at least partially based the character on the founder of Way. Miller said that the person harassed him to be a spokesperson for the site. But which founder was Miller talking about? We may never know.

Last year, HBO told Business Insider that "the Erlich Bachman character, played by T.J. Miller, was created by the writers of 'Silicon Valley.'"

And Miller, speaking generally, told us during this interview that Bachman and the other show's characters "are sort of melded archetypes that are so true to life that a lot of people wonder if it’s based on themselves."

The show, currently airing its fourth season on Sundays, has certainly earned the reputation for portraying the tech industry authentically, a source of pride for its producers. And Miller similarly finds people's claims to have inspired the show's characters as a compliment.

"It means that the show is working," he told us. "It means that the satire is spot-on. It means that we’re doing our job, which is mining the most powerful pocket of America right now and to get them them to examine themselves and not take themselves so seriously."

SEE ALSO: 'Silicon Valley' star Thomas Middleditch says 'Bachelor' villain Corinne Olympios 'reminds me of Trump'

DON'T MISS: The new 'Silicon Valley' season exposes a common dilemma in the tech industry

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Even though blockbuster game "Grand Theft Auto V" is nearly four years old, some players are making it look better than ever.

Just look at this madness:

How's this possible? Simple! Take the PC version of the game and apply a single, ridiculously impressive modification. Check it:

SEE ALSO: Here's your first look at the newest 'Call of Duty' game, set during World War II

Once the modification is applied, the entire game looks dramatically prettier. Everything from the jet below...

To this sun-drenched vista:

To this overhead shot of Los Santos at night. The city is alive with activity!

Former television personality Montel Williams has used cannabis nearly every day for 17 years. But he hasn't smoked it in over a decade.

"I have dexterity problems. I can't roll a joint to save my life," Williams tells Business Insider. He prefers vaporizing more concentrated forms of the drug.

Williams, who is also a retired Navy officer, suffers from multiple sclerosis, a disease that causes his immune system to attack the insulation around his nerves. It produces intense, burning sensations from his head to his toes.

Every morning, Williams takes a fistful of pills to ease the pain. He supplements this cocktail with cannabis, which he started using after his diagnosis in 1999. The drug has been shown to improve symptoms in patients suffering from MS, according to a summary from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

In April, Williams became a "ganjapreneur," launching his own line of cannabis products. Lenitiv Labs makes high-quality, user-friendly marijuana products designed specifically for medical users. They're available in over 30 dispensaries in California.

The company uses a type of cannabis extract made from compressing carbon dioxide at high pressures, a process that does not require chemical solvents or artificial additives. The oil and drinks come in three formulas that vary the ratio of THC (the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis) and CBD (a chemical compound thought to be responsible for many of the drug's therapeutic effects) so patients can control their doses with precision.

"The Montel Williams Show," which made Williams the first African-American to host a syndicated daytime talk show, ran for 17 seasons. He hid his disease for most of that time, until a tabloid threatened to print the story and forced him to reveal his diagnosis on air.

Williams has since described how he'd take long commercial breaks backstage, where he could cry from the pain in private. "[I would] let it go, refocus, come back out and sit down, and do another interview with a person," he told Oprah Winfrey in 2009. "I was doing that every day."

After his diagnosis, Williams jumped in front of a taxi cab in New York City in a suicide attempt. Around the same, time he started using cannabis — specifically kief, a fine powder made from the plant's dried resin glands — to help manage his pain and mood. Depression is one of the most common symptoms of MS, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Today, cannabis "helps me to function," Williams says.

He lives in New York, which is home to one of the country's more restrictive medical marijuana programs. But because he operates a business in California, Williams says he is qualified to buy and consume medical marijuana there. He sources his kief from a "compassionate caregiver" — an individual authorized by the state to grow the plant for medical users.

Williams says that since 2012, when the first US states legalized marijuana for recreational use, sugary, weed-laced junk food has dominated dispensaries.

"They're putting all kinds of junk in there. And I say, really, that's medicine?" he says.

An increased demand for recreational products has Williams and others worried that the needs of medical users will be ignored. "This industry has gotten so caught up in making money, they forgot they're leaving patients on the battlefield," Williams says.

He hopes to expand Lenitive Labs to every state where medical marijuana is legal, and is traveling the country this spring to give educational talks on cannabis.

SEE ALSO: The best marijuana vaporizer for every type of person

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