You probably had never heard of Josh and Benny Safdie before this weekend. Though the brothers have been making shorts and feature films for the last ten years, none of them had a movie star, so without that vital component they might as well have been released on Mars.

However, that doesn’t mean their movies aren’t good. In fact, the Safdies’ past features “Daddy Longlegs” (2009), “Lenny Cooke” (2013), and “Heaven Knows What” (2014) are critically acclaimed works that showcase the incredible talents the brothers have as storytellers.

And that’s what caught Robert Pattinson’s eye when he saw a production still of “Heaven Knows What,” then watched the movie, and sought out the brothers about working together.

That has led to “Good Time” (currently in select theaters, nationwide August 25), a heist-gone-wrong movie that uses the pulpy feel of the genre to explore major themes, ranging from racial profiling to the prison industrial complex.

But its biggest triumph is the explosive performance by Pattinson as the movie’s lead, Connie. His transformation into a Queens criminal has given the movie a thrust into the mainstream, and with that, a higher profile for its directors.

The rewards have been life changing for the brothers. They walked amongst the legends in the South of France when “Good Time” had its world premiere in competition at the esteemed Cannes Film Festival earlier this year; they have done the top-flight interviews to promote it, like Charlie Rose; and now the Safdies are taking calls from major stars and Hollywood executives who want the same magic they sprinkled on Pattinson.

“Rob [Pattinson] had a desire to get deep with a project and he looked to us and felt some type of connection to us,” Josh Safdie told Business Insider. “Immediately it changed our budget, it changed everything.”

It was only a matter of time before the Safdies started working with Hollywood talent. At the time Pattinson came calling, the brothers were in the middle of getting their long-developed project “Uncut Gems” off the ground, and were chatting with Jonah Hill to play the lead. Set in Manhattan’s Diamond District, the project has Scott Rudin attached as a producer, Martin Scorsese as an executive producer, and A24 (the company that released “Moonlight”) as its distributor. The latter happened after the Safdies made “Good Time.”

But Pattinson’s enthusiasm to work with the brothers made them halt work on “Uncut Gems” (which because of Hill’s busy schedule was easy to do) and decide to build a project from scratch.

Taking ideas from a project the brothers' cowriter Ronald Bronstein was unsuccessful in trying to get off the ground, and Josh Safdie’s interest in making a movie with a bank robbery, they pitched Pattinson a story about a guy who tries to reconnect with his brother (played by Benny) after a stint in prison — which leads to disastrous results.

And thanks to Pattinson’s involvement, the movie features things the brothers never had access to before. They got aerial shots from helicopters, and permission to shoot in a bank and a shopping mall (in their previous movies they often “stole” shots around New York City, not having the budget to pay for permits).

“Someone asked us after ‘Daddy Longlegs,’ ‘What would you do with more money?’ and we were like, ‘We would make a bigger paper tornado,’” Benny Safdie told Business Insider. “We just want more and more.”

The Safdies admit, though, that the reason many of their previous movies didn’t have traditional roles, like an assistant director or a script supervisor, wasn’t because they shunned the mainstream. They just didn’t have the financial resources. With “Good Time,” the brothers feel it showcases what they can offer general audiences, when combining a respectable budget with their own unique talents. (The Safdies didn’t give an exact number for the budget, only that it was “way more” than their previous movies.)

“Hollywood, in large, has really embraced this movie, and really important, powerful people love this movie because I think for $200 million they can't buy what we did,” Josh said. “You have to know how to do it and that's a specialized skill and that's greater than CG. I think 10 years of filmmaking is starting to show in our work.”

Now the brothers are enjoying the rewards. When “Good Time” premiered at Cannes they spent their stay on the movie’s financier's yacht. They said the phone has been ringing constantly with top actors and executives. They want the experience the brothers gave Pattinson.

But the brothers are staying level headed about their new fame. They said they have already turned down a big budget movie offered to them because “it just wasn’t right.” What they really want to do, other than get hired to do the next big movie, is come in with ideas that launch the next Hollywood trend.

“I want to be the termite in there,” Josh said. “We are trying to reinvent this idea of what can be populous cinema. What can be pop culture. Movies. TV shows. There's a lot of ideas that we have that once we figure out a way in, we can start exploring.”   

Next for the brothers is “Uncut Gems,” which they plan to start shooting early next year. They said they would never have been able to pull off their plans for the movie if they didn’t make “Good Time” first. But Pattinson’s performance also showed Hollywood actors the type of dedication the Safdies expect when you sign on.

“Working with Rob sent a message to the industry saying we are willing to play the game,” Josh said. “We are willing to work with the people that you guys have anointed as stars, and we'll work with them. And not only will we work with them, we'll do it in a way that will be so satisfying to them, that other actors will want to do it. We're seeing that, but Rob set the bar high.”

SEE ALSO: Robert Pattinson opens up about his insecurities and his career-defining new movie

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Marvel dropped another trailer for 'Thor: Ragnarok' — and it looks incredible

The scenes in Charlottesville, Virginia on Saturday were painful to watch. Americans fighting Americans with flags, clubs, tear gas, and fists.

The violent face-off between white nationalists and neo-Nazis and counter-protesters resulted in the death of one young woman who was mowed down with a car and two police officers who were monitoring the rallies when their helicopter crashed.

It seemed to be the culmination of the divisiveness that's shaken this country since November 9, 2016, the ugliest election in recent memory.

But on Sunday, a chorus of voices rose to denounce the violence, and the hatred, and the bigotry, calling for us to come together.

After President Donald Trump took office, Business Insider wanted to find what unites us. We spent six months tracking down issues Americans actually agree on in a series we called Undividing America. Here's what we learned:

SEE ALSO: Just don't call it 'climate change': What Republicans in Dallas can teach us about saving the planet

DON'T MISS: See all of the stories in the Undividing America series here

First, we took a hard look at the divisions we are living in. We found some high schools are "resegregating", splitting black and white, high- and low-income students back into separate schools based on where they live.

Youtube Embed:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/MbPXFT0YLQI
Width: 800px
Height: 450px

See the full story from Graham Flanagan here »

The loss of manufacturing jobs was one of the driving issues of the 2016 election, with Trump promising to bring them back from overseas. This downward spiral has hurt American men, and is even linked with them marrying less and dying sooner. But what's scarier is that other jobs have been — and will continue to be — lost because of robots.

See the full story from Elena Holodny here »

For people leaving prison, finding a job is even harder. The incarceration rate in the US is one of the highest in the world. Many "go immediately back to what they know" once they're out of prison because it's so difficult to find employment.

See the full story from Elena Holodny here »

Jimmy Kimmel is not a fan of Trump, and compared him to a certain "Game of Thrones" villain in his opening monologue on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" Tuesday night.

 "I'm not joking when I say that I would feel more comfortable if Cersei Lannister was running this country at this point," Kimmel said in response to comments Trump made during a press conference Tuesday about the violence at the Charlottesville protest Saturday.

Kimmel proposed a plan "solve all of our problems" in his monologue, and jokingly suggested that instead of impeaching Trump, we should make him king.

In his monologue, Kimmel said that he doesn't really believe Trump wants to be president, but he'll never step down because his ego is too big, so we should compromise with him and make him king. 

Kimmel explained that monarchs don't do too much, referencing how little power England's Queen Elizabeth II has:

"We need to set him up in a castle. Maybe in Florida? Send him up to the top and then lock the door to that castle forever. Everyone can call him your Highness, maybe we give him a scepter that he can hold, he can sit there watching 'Fox and Friends,' maybe chip golf balls out of the window. There's no way he turns that deal down."

You can watch Kimmel's full opening monologue here:

SEE ALSO: Stephen Colbert took Trump to task for his response to Charlottesville

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's the first trailer for the second season of 'Westworld'

With the announcement that it would be slashing its prices to $10-a-month, MoviePass suddenly turned its subscription into a hot commodity. The service, which allows members to go to one movie a day in theaters, has seen its popularity skyrocket thanks to its new rock-bottom price. 

But for some, particularly those who don't live in cities, it might still be tough to tell whether the service is worth signing up for. After all, there's no point in paying for MoviePass if none of the theaters near you accept it.

Thankfully, the industrious folks at Reddit have come up with a quick and easy solution. Reddit user Mdude2312 created a website that allows you to enter your ZIP code to see which theaters near you take MoviePass (just a heads up, the website is getting a lot of attention so it might take a few seconds to process). He explained in his post that the data comes directly from the MoviePass website, so it is as reliable as getting it directly from the app.

You can still look up which theaters near you accept MoviePass over on the official website, but with the increase in interest, the official website has suffered frequent outages. Simply put, this is the quickest and easiest way.

So before you sign up for the service, take a look to make sure MoviePass is accepted at your favorite theater. 

Check it out here. 

SEE ALSO: Here's how to use MoviePass, the $10-a-month service that lets you see one movie per day in theaters

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 5 things the iPhone still can't do

"Lip Sync Battle" is sometimes seen as a mere celebrity-driven half-hour spectacle.

But after earning two Emmy nominations, accumulating a billion cross-platform views, and reaching 120 different countries, "Lip Sync Battle" has proven it's worth paying attention to.

For those unfamiliar with the premise, imagine this: one of your favorite celebrities is dressed in an elaborate costume (possibly in drag) — surrounded by backup dancers, elaborate set pieces, and intricate lighting effects — and lip syncing to a canonical song of their choosing. They are also competing against another celebrity doing the exact same thing. A lip sync battle, if you will.

It's energetic and fun, with an unabashed amount of goofiness thrown in for good measure.

One of "Lip Sync Battle's" executive producers, Casey Patterson, spoke with Business Insider about how she and her fellow producers got the show off the ground, and what she thinks contributed to "Lip Sync Battle's" success.

Patterson explained that prior to the show's launch in 2015, the television industry had been in the midst of a big debate for a couple of years: How do we spend our marketing dollars?

Should advertisers continue to invest in linear television, or move towards investing more in digital? How can all viewing platforms be accounted for? As Patterson puts it, everyone was questioning what the "new world order" of television was going to look like.

Can it be both?

In the midst of this debate, Jimmy Fallon had pitched "Lip Sync Battle" to NBC, which sought to be a hit in both the live and digital realms. 

"Lip Sync Battle" had been a short segment on "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon," which featured Fallon lip syncing with celebrities. The segments did well, and circulated extremely well on their own. But that wasn't enough to sway NBC to invest in the idea.

Shortly after Fallon's pitch was rejected, the idea was sold to Spike TV by Patterson, Jon Krasinski, Stephan Merchant, and Jay Peterson.

Patterson explained that she thought that the way Fallon had formatted "The Tonight Show" was perfect:

"We really followed Jimmy Fallon's instinct for the way he produced 'The Tonight Show,' which is he produces that show one viral moment at a time. He's producing that show in three to five minute segments, and they can each travel and have a life of their own. It was a really brilliant, and intuitive, modern way of thinking about a big institution. So we really applied the same thinking to 'Lip Sync Battle,' I looked and thought it's the perfect new world order."

Using "The Tonight Show" as inspiration for "Lip Sync Battle," Patterson explained that they made each of the show's segments into three to five minutes of action-packed content. "We made it so that it's not filler — as we call it, it's killer, no filler," said Patterson. 

The show's short segments are produced to travel and bring in viewers on digital platforms, and then drive viewers to the live show. "Lip Sync Battle" is now widely known for its clips' virality. They rapidly gather millions of views when released. And "Lip Sync Battle" currently has higher live ratings than any other show on Spike. It's safe to say the strategy worked.  

People like watching celebs be goofy

Another facet of "Lip Sync Battle's" success is its use of celebrity. 

"Lip Sync Battle" is, at its core, a celebration of celebrity. The show attracts a wide range of celebrity guests, from Anne Hathaway to Dwyane "The Rock" Johnson. All are eager to win their bragging rights as the best lip syncer, and a WrestleMania-style gilded belt announcing them as such.

And with the celebrities, come the fans. 

Using popular celebrities to get fans to tune into shows is an old and somewhat tired concept, but the creators of "Lip Sync Battle" strategized, and found a new approach to creating celebrity-centered content that didn't feel as worn out.

Patterson said that celebrity culture has changed in large part because of social media. The days of tuning into late-night programming and award shows to get access to your favorite celebrities is over, because social media provides access to celebrities 24/7. 

"The viewers have total round the clock access to celebrities, and what they're really like," Patterson said. So the show had to conform to that.

Everything from the music, to the costumes, to the stunts is dictated by the celebrities. Patterson explained that if something were to feel inauthentic the fans would know, because they know the celebrities, and more so the celebrities know their fans.

Here's how Patterson described it:

"If anything we did felt pre-packaged, or like it wasn't their choices, it would reek of being contrived and fake, and we didn't want to be that. I think audiences are tired of being sold. There are plenty of vehicles where they can go out and promote. And this is one where the celebrities that come on this show know their fans really well, because it works both ways, they know their fans very well because they hear from them directly, it's not through a publicist. They're not one step removed, they hear from their fans. The world of being an out of touch celebrity is over."

The strategy and format employed by "Lip Sync Battle" has since been replicated. "Carpool Karaoke" follows a near identical format to the one created by Patterson and her fellow producers for "Lip Sync Battle" — celebrities having fun for a short period of time. 

A simple, yet effective premise, and one that marks the birth of a new kind of television formatting that can live on both linear television, and digital platforms with equal success. 

Season four of "Lip Sync Battle" is expected to air January 2018.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 6 details you might have missed on season 7 episode 5 of 'Game of Thrones'

Winter has come to Westeros, and also to HBO.

"Game of Thrones" leaks, "Curb Your Enthusiasm" leaks, and more have given the cable network a hard time over the past few weeks, some thanks to a hacker known as "Little.finger66." 

The hacker (or hackers) allegedly have access to internal documents, scripts, and emails, and have demanded millions in bitcoin from HBO to prevent more releases.

But now the prolific hackers OurMine are also giving HBO a hard time. 

On Wednesday night, a series of suspicious tweets from OurMine hackers were tweeted from HBO's official Twitter account, the "Game of Thrones" official Twitter account, and the "Girls" official Twitter account. Other hacked accounts include "Ballers," "Silicon Valley," and "The Leftovers." HBO managed to delete the tweets in a timely fashion, and presumably regain control of Twitter, but below are screencaps of some of the tweets: 

In the past, OurMine has taken over official Twitter accounts of Mark Zuckerberg and Channing Tatum, and has hacked into the websites of TechCrunch and BuzzFeed. These hacks appear to be unrelated to the Little.finger66 hack.

HBO told NBC News it was investigating the incident.

SEE ALSO: 'Game of Thrones' cinematographer describes shooting that battle of roasting Lannisters, including trouble with an HBO safety officer

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Ryan Seacrest reveals the one thing you should never say to a celebrity the first time you meet them

WARNING: Potential "Game of Thrones" spoilers ahead. 

In a series known for killing off main characters, fans may be relieved to know some "Game of Thrones" heroes and heroines are safe. Or at least, they were in author George R.R. Martin's original plan for the series. 

Martin submitted a general outline for the then-planned trilogy, "A Song of Ice and Fire." The series eventually grew to a now-planned set of seven books, and has changed a lot from his starting plot points. 

But we're hoping one section of the general plan has remained a part of Martin's overall story. After telling the editorial reviewer that the cast of characters would be ever-changing — with lots of unexpected deaths — Martin makes it clear that five key protagonists will survive. 

"Five central characters will make it through all three volumes, however, growing from children to adults and changing the world and themselves in the process," Martin wrote. "In a sense, my trilogy is almost a generational saga, telling the life stories of these five characters, three men and two women."

Just who are these five key players? Fans can breathe easy that they are bona fide fan favorites: "The five key players are Tyrion Lannister, Daenerys Targaryen, and three of the children of Winterfell, Arya, Bran, and the bastard Jon Snow," Martin wrote.

So — if fans are to be optimistic and take Martin's original word at face value — Tyrion, Daenerys, Arya, Bran, and Jon could survive the entire series.

Jon technically died, but was brought back to life in the television adaptation, something fans can expect to see in the coming books if the fan theories are correct. Killing him off for a second time would be unlikely, even with Martin's fondness of subverting expectations.

Martin's sixth installment of "A Song of Ice and Fire" is still in the works, with no publish date announced. In the meantime, HBO's television adaptation has overtaken his written material. Showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss were told some key plot points by Martin, and they know his planned ending as well. But for a majority of the onscreen action seen in "Game of Thrones," fans have no way of telling whether or not that storyline will happen in the books. The characters who survive in the show likely won't be the same set of people who make it through the written series.

Readers will have to wait until the final two books of "A Song of Ice and Fire" are published to know the fates of their favorite characters, but for now, we're banking on these main five surviving it all.

This article has been updated from its original version.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: These are the 5 'Game of Thrones' storylines that will probably unfold next season

Elisabeth Moss is known for being pretty quiet when it comes to her involvement in the controversial religion Scientology. 

But Moss' religious beliefs have recently become a topic of conversation, as former Scientologist Leah Remini has been publicly questioning Moss on the subject.

"I don't hold anything against Elisabeth Moss other than she's continuing to support a group that is abusive and destroying families," said Remini in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. 

Despite all of the recent public discussion, mainly brought about by Remini, Moss has continued to remain silent about her beliefs. But when fan left a comment about Scientology on one of Moss' Instagram photos Wednesday, the actress responded. 

The Instagram user moelybanks commented on the above photo, questioning whether or not "The Handmaid's Tale" made Moss "think twice about Scientolgy." Moelybanks wrote: 

“Love this adaptation so much. Question though, does it make you think twice about Scientology? Both Gilead and Scientology both believe that all outside sources (aka news) are wrong or evil… it’s just very interesting.”

Moss then responded to the Instagrammer. Moss wrote:

“That’s actually not true at all about Scientology. Religious freedom and tolerance and understanding the truth and equal rights for every race, religion and creed are extremely important to me. The most important things to me probably. And so Gilead and THT hit me on a very personal level. Thanks for the interesting question!”

So it seems that Moss' newest role has not shaken her faith in Scientology at all. 

SEE ALSO: 'The Handmaid's Tale' makes Hulu a major force at the Emmys for the first time with 13 nominations

SEE ALSO: Everything you need to know about Hulu's haunting new series 'The Handmaid's Tale'

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here’s what celebrities would look like with symmetrical faces

When Erik Finman was 12 years old, he turned a $1,000 gift from his grandmother — intended for his scholarship fund — into an investment in Bitcoin. This was in 2011, when the digital currency was still only worth $12. 

In 2014, when he was 15, Finman made a proposal to his parents: He would drop out of his suburban Idaho high school, where he was miserable, and sell $100,000 worth of his bitcoin to start an educational technology company called Botangle. If he was a millionaire by age 18, his parents wouldn't force him to go to college.

His parents, surprisingly, agreed, and Finman moved to Silicon Valley. Botangle led him to some adventures, including a meeting with Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and a contentious exchange with an Uber board member; in 2015, he sold the company for another 300 bitcoin, bringing his holdings up to 403 coins. 

This past June, bitcoin crossed $2,700 per coin, putting the value of Finman's holdings at just over $1 million. At the time of writing, bitcoin's value went up to around $4,300, putting his net worth at about $1.7 million. Now, at age 18, he's fulfilled the bargain with his parents, and he's not going back to school. 

Next up for Finman, then, is a space experiment overseen by NASA: a satellite called Project Da Vinci, inspired by astronomer Carl Sagan's famed Golden Record, that will serve as a time capsule orbiting the earth. Finman teamed up with students from a charter school in his home state of Idaho to bring the project to fruition.

Pop star Taylor Swift has even contributed a signed copy of her album "1989," specifically for this project. Finman says that YouTube star Logan Paul, too, has already contributed a video to be stored in the capsule's on-board memory, with more to come.

Now, before the satellite launches in the first quarter of 2018, Finman needs your help to catalogue human existence circa 2017. If you want to send a video into space, fill out the form here. And yes, Finman and his team will be vetting the videos for appropriate content.

Here's a video, showing what Project Da Vinci is all about:

Going to space

The original Golden Record went up on the Voyager 1 and 2 space probes, serving as what Sagan called a "boottle" into the cosmic "ocean." Those records contained sounds and images designed to accurately reflect life on Earth in 1977, when it was made, and intended to serve as either a message to aliens or a time capsule for humanity. 

Finman, a life-long space enthusiast, says he jumped at the chance to participate in NASA's ELaNa program, which allows universities to send up small satellites. And as a particular fan of Sagan's work, he knew his project proposal could be a tribute to the 40th anniversary of the Voyager missions.

"I love space so much," says Finman. "I really think I'm gonna do big things in space." 

A new record

Where Sagan hand-curated media to send with Voyager, though, Finman wanted to open it up a little bit. He reached out to Swift, "an artist that represents today," and YouTube stars like Paul. But he's opening up submssions, letting anybody place a video into the capsule, in the interest of a more complete picture of modern life.

Still, where the original Golden Record was shot into deep space, the Da Vinci will stay in Earth's orbit. So while the original Golden Record had an incredibly small chance of being viewed by aliens, "they'd have to come pretty close" to the planet to see Finman's update.

Going forward, Finman says he has a strong interest in pursuing space entrepreneurship. One day, he says, maybe he'll even get to compete with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, another of his personal heroes.

"I want to get to Mars," says Finman. "Maybe one day, I'll beat Elon." 

In the meantime, what's it like to be a millionaire high school dropout with a budding career as a space entrepreneur? 

Well, "that's a great pickup line," says Finman.

SEE ALSO: JOHN McAFEE: Here's why you can't call bitcoin a 'bubble'

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Watch SpaceX land a rocket after launching the last mission of its kind to space

Many in Hollywood are still scratching their heads about how MoviePass' new subscription model of $9.95-a-month, to see one film per day in theaters, can be successful — but the company's CEO Mitch Lowe isn't concerned.

In an interview with Variety, Lowe and Helios and Matheson Analytics CEO Ted Farnsworth (who this week took a majority stake in MoviePass for $27 million), boasted about a rise in subscriptions after news of the lowered fee.

The pair also shrugged off the threat by AMC Theaters, the world's largest movie chain, which is considering taking legal action to make it impossible for MoviePass to be used in its theaters.

AMC's biggest complaint is the $9.95 price, and that sentiment is echoed throughout the exhibition industry from those Business Insider has spoken to. AMC and others simply think it's too low, and that at some point MoviePass will have to raise the subscription price to stay in business. 

Lowe, who is a cofounder of Netflix and former CEO of Redbox, says this isn't true.

"They don't understand our business model," Lowe told the trade. "Even active moviegoers had to think is $14.95 really worth it? At $9.95, even people who rarely go say I’d be crazy not to do that. We need to offset costs in Manhattan and L.A. by getting a lot of people in Kansas City and Omaha, and places where the average ticket price is five or six bucks to sign up."

Lowe said before making the announcement he and his team talked to independent theaters, and the other major chains like Cinemark and Regal, which are all taking a wait-and-see approach, he said. Lowe believes AMC's stance against MoviePass is "all bluster."

"The fascinating thing is we use a MasterCard debit card. We pay full price for the tickets we buy," Lowe said. "They would essentially have to not take MasterCard in order to block us. I don’t think you can cancel that agreement without severe penalties."

Lowe and Farnsworth believe it's time for the movie theater industry to realize that subscription packages are in its best interest. Farnsworth said that 75% of MoviePass subscribers are millennials, who are accustomed to having subscriptions for all their entertainment, whether it be Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon.

The company plans to go public by the end of January 2018, and promises a huge growth in subscription numbers. As of December last year, MoviePass had 20,000 subscribers. It hopes to hit 100,000 by next year. Farnsworth is confident that goal can be met.

"I can tell you that we’re way ahead of our business model. In the first day, we exceeded our business model," he said.

SEE ALSO: Here's how to use MoviePass, the $10-a-month service that lets you see one movie per day in theaters

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Pokémon Go's first real-world event was a complete disaster — here's what happened

Joining the growing list of tech companies denouncing white supremacists and neo-Nazis in the aftermath of the Charlottesville tragedy, Spotify and Apple have now publicly condemned the hate groups.

Spotify removed a number of white supremacist bands from its catalog this week, after a report exposed the presence of such groups on the streaming service.

The removed bands were all flagged by the Southern Poverty Law Center as "hate bands" three years ago, but the issue only came to the company's attention after Digital Music News published a story titled, "I Just Found 37 White Supremacist Hate Bands On Spotify," in the aftermath of Charlottesville, according to Billboard.

A Spotify spokesperson told Billboard: "Illegal content or material that favors hatred or incites violence against race, religion, sexuality or the like is not tolerated by us. Spotify takes immediate action to remove any such material as soon as it has been brought to our attention.

"We are glad to have been alerted to this content — and have already removed many of the bands identified today, whilst urgently reviewing the remainder."

Over at Apple, CEO Tim Cook issued a memo to his staff condemning both white supremacy and President Donald Trump's contentious response to the events that unfolded in Charlottesville.

"We must not witness or permit such hate and bigotry in our country, and we must be unequivocal about it," Cook wrote. "This is not about the left or the right, conservative or liberal. It is about human decency and morality."

Cook went on to say that he disagreed with Trump's establishing a "moral equivalency" between the violence of white supremacists and the counter-protestors.

"I disagree with the president and others who believe that there is a moral equivalence between white supremacists and Nazis, and those who oppose them by standing up for human rights. Equating the two runs counter to our ideals as Americans," he wrote.

Read Cook's full memo here.

SEE ALSO: The 19 worst albums of all time, according to critics

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Pokémon Go's first real-world event was a complete disaster — here's what happened

Emma Stone is currently the highest-paid actress in the world, according to Forbes. 

Jennifer Lawrence was the world's highest-paid actress for the past two years, but Stone has taken her place in 2017. (Forbes' period ran from June 2016 to June 2017.)

Stone reportedly made a whopping $26 million this past year. According to Forbes' list of the world's highest-paid actresses in 2017, Stone's big financial gain this year comes from her Academy Award winning hit "La La Land." 

Lawrence got bumped down to third place this year, earning $24 million from a Dior campaign contract, and her unreleased films "mother!" and "Red Sparrow." 

These are the 10 highest-paid actresses of 2017:

SEE ALSO: Emma Stone says male costars have taken pay cuts so she could get equal pay

10. Amy Adams ($11.5 million)

9. Julia Roberts ($12 million)

8. Cate Blanchett ($12 million)

Microsoft's making a precarious bet with its Xbox One video game console this holiday. Do you like racing simulation games?

Or perhaps you're more into gorgeous, outrageously difficult, retro-style indie games? 

If you're an Xbox One owner, or thinking about becoming one, there aren't many other big games to hook you in this holiday. "Crackdown 3," one of the Xbox One's only big exclusives this holiday, just got delayed to spring 2018.

There's plenty of third-party stuff — "Assassin's Creed Origins" and "Call of Duty: WWII" and whatever else — but there are next-to-no big first-party exclusives heading to the Xbox One this holiday season. Nintendo's Switch, for example, has "Super Mario Odyssey," and you can't play it anywhere other than Nintendo's Switch. That's a major "first-party" exclusive game. In the case of the Xbox One, the vast majority of major holiday releases this year are games you can play on a variety of consoles. 

And that's a problem for Microsoft, as the holiday season is the biggest sales quarter of the year for the video game industry. Moreover, Microsoft's releasing a new, more expensive version of the Xbox One this holiday: It's called the Xbox One X, and it costs $500.

The main sell point of the Xbox One X is its ability to run games in "true" 4K resolution — a step up over what Sony's PlayStation 4 Pro console is capable of doing, but also a $100 price jump over Sony's competitor. Some third-party games will look slightly better on the Xbox One X than the PlayStation 4 Pro, and for some people that will justify that $100 price difference.

For most people buying either an Xbox One or a PlayStation 4, the standard edition console will more than suffice. And in this context, what differentiates the two consoles is game selection — both consoles cost about the same amount of money, and the vast majority of third-party games comes to both platforms. What that leaves is so-called "exclusives"; these are games made by the console makers themselves ("first-party"), or games that only release on one platform or the other for a variety of reasons.

Sony had a major first-party hit this year already in "Horizon Zero Dawn" — a massive, $20 expansion is planned for launch this November.

The list of PlayStation 4 exclusive games from 2017 dwarfs the equivalent for Xbox One. Games like "Nier Automata" and "Nioh" and "Persona 5" round out a library of games that could only be played on PlayStation 4 in 2017. Microsoft's Xbox One, by comparison, had "Halo Wars 2" and "Tacoma" — good games, but not enough to compete.

With "Crackdown 3" exiting this holiday's list of Xbox One exclusives, there's yet another reason to lean toward Sony's PlayStation 4 and Nintendo's Switch.

SEE ALSO: The next major Xbox One game looks like nothing else on modern game consoles

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Watch Microsoft announce the next Xbox — Xbox One X

If you ever think, "I wonder how this movie would have looked without the watered-down movie-studio treatment," then get ready for Steven Soderbergh's return to making feature films.

After a four-year retirement — his last feature film was 2013's "Side Effects" — the Oscar winner gives us "Logan Lucky," basically an indie version of one of his biggest box-office successes ever, the Las Vegas heist movie "Ocean's Eleven."

This is not a knock on Soderbergh. I'm not trying to imply he's just going back to familiar territory. He's the last person in Hollywood you could ever make that claim about.

What I see in "Logan Lucky" is Soderbergh showing us that despite how much we loved George Clooney and Brad Pitt running around outwitting the major Vegas casinos, it's better when Channing Tatum and Adam Driver try to rip off one of Nascar's biggest races — with zero studio interference.

Always looking for a way to be in control of every aspect of his creations, Soderbergh started the domestic distribution company Fingerprint Releasing, and through a first-look deal with Amazon Prime, he's looking to push out wide-release titles. "Logan Lucky" is the first, and he's teaming up with the distribution company Bleecker Street to release it on August 18.

And it certainly looks like he has a hit coming.

Tatum and Driver play the Logan brothers, Jimmy and Clyde. Born and bred in West Virginia, the two have suffered a lifetime of things going wrong. Jimmy was a high school football star who was bound for the NFL until his knee blew out. Clyde has always had his brother's back, and it has led to him going to prison and losing his hand during a tour in Iraq.

Convinced the family is cursed, Jimmy tries to change their luck. After being laid off from his latest job, he hatches a plan to rob all the cash that flows through the Charlotte Motor Speedway on race day. He and Clyde assemble their team, which includes their sister, Mellie (Riley Keough), and the best explosives man they know, Joe Bang (Daniel Craig).

Like every great heist movie, nothing goes according to plan, leading to some great thrills. But the movie, written by Rebecca Blunt, is also extremely funny. Tatum and Driver have some laugh-out-loud exchanges, and Craig, sporting a fantastic Southern drawl, steals every scene he's in.

You might be asking, "So how is this better than 'Ocean's Eleven' … or 'Twelve' … or 'Thirteen'?"

There's a pace to the movie for which most studio heads (and test audiences) just would not have the patience. One of the movie's subplots is Jimmy's relationship with his ex-wife (Katie Holmes) and his daughter — an important component of the story that would have most likely been cut up into a forgettable glance if this had been made at the studio level.

And the third act brings in the robbery's investigator (Hilary Swank), which also would have most likely been slimmed down for fear of losing the audience.

But all these things give the story and characters a richness that betters the movie. Soderbergh — who hasn't been sitting around doing nothing for the past four years, as he directed two seasons of the acclaimed series "The Knick" — shows here that the melding of mainstream storytelling and artful execution is possible.

I'm thankful he's back directing features, and I can't wait for the next ride he takes us on.

"Logan Lucky" opens in theaters August 18.

SEE ALSO: Daniel Craig didn't break character or his weird voice while shooting 'Logan Lucky'

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 8 details you might have missed on season 7 episode 4 of 'Game of Thrones'

On Wednesday, Paramount confirmed that Tom Cruise broke his ankle while attempting a stunt on the set of "Mission: Impossible 6" in London over the weekend.

Now the movie's director, Christopher McQuarrie, has explained what led to the injury.

In an interview with Empire, McQuarrie, who previously directed two other Cruise movies — "Jack Reacher" and "Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation" — said that Cruise had attempted the stunt three times before breaking his ankle on the fourth jump. The reason: He hit the building on a "slightly different angle" than the previous times.

McQuarrie also cleared up an assumption that was made about the failed stunt. Cruise was never attempting to land on top of the roof he was jumping to, he said.

"The speculation was that Tom had somehow missed or fell short," McQuarrie said. "The truth is that the stunt was never designed for Tom to jump from rooftop to rooftop which a) would have been pretty boring and b) when you see the actual shot you'll understand how it was designed. Also, when you look at what was posted on the internet, you can see Tom do the same stunt multiple times. He was always supposed to slam into the side of the building. That’s what gives the stunt its energy."

Here's Cruise attempting the stunt:

Production on "M:I 6" is on hiatus and it's unknown how long it will take for Cruise to recover, however, McQuarrie said that he's doesn't feel the July 27, 2018 release date needs to be changed. What will be more challenging is getting the shot of Cruise breaking his ankle in the movie.

"I now have to move heaven and earth to make sure that the shot is in the movie," McQuarrie said. "We went to all that effort to get it. It’s a pretty fantastic shot."

SEE ALSO: Elisabeth Moss finally addressed whether "The Handmaid's Tale" made her question Scientology

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's the first trailer for the second season of 'Westworld'

• BuzzFeed says some of its original shows, like "Worth It," pull in audiences as big as top TV shows.
• The company is ready to tell that story to advertisers in an attempt to get a slice of TV ad budgets. 
• BuzzFeed's focus on original shows comes as Facebook rolls out its own Watch video hub.

Like many digital media companies, BuzzFeed would like to steal a piece of the $72 billion US TV ad market. Increasingly, BuzzFeed believes its original web series are pulling in audiences on par with cable TV shows – and it's ready to tell that story to the ad community.

That's not an easy story to tell, something BuzzFeed executives acknowledged. TV shows have historically been mostly watched live. Web shows are watched on demand. And many people haven't traditionally watched web shows habitually, but rather stumble upon them in their social news feeds.

That difference in viewing habits is reflected in the way TV show audiences are tracked vs. web video – and the kind of ad money they can bring in. For example:

• TV advertisers care about metrics like commercial ratings (how many people watch the ads in a show) and average minute audience (how many people are watching a show at a given moment in time) which all factor into how TV ads are priced.
• Web video is usually measured using some sort of raw "view" numbers, which don't typically factor in length or ad viewership. One view can be recorded for a 30-second video or a 30 minute video

It's imperfect at best. A few years ago, Yahoo took some major heat for crowing about getting 15 million people to stream part of an NFL game. It turned out the average audience relative to a typical TV broadcast was more like 2 million people on average.

Regardless, BuzzFeed believes its growing slate of originals are approaching TV territory in terms of audience size and viewer loyalty. 

Take the show "Worth It," which feature two buddies comparing meals at high end restaurants with cheap alternatives (like $13 ribs versus $225 ribs, or $2 New York pizza slices versus $2,000 pizzas). It's not uncommon for episodes, which run 12 to 16 minutes in length, to generate 10 million views on YouTube.

To date, the 19 episodes of "Worth It" have accumulated over 280 million views on YouTube and nearly two billion minutes of watch time. A 10-episode third season three is set to debut August 27. Here's the season three trailer.

BuzzFeed TV

Matthew Henick, BuzzFeed’s head of development, said that when BuzzFeed pushed into making original video in 2012, the general focus was short videos – 90 seconds or less – designed to incite sharing in social media. Most videos were self contained and people found them when they found them.

"Early on, we were building a business around 'non intentional' videos, or videos that people were not necessarily seeking out," he told Business Insider. Think off all those eye-catching videos of someone making a crazy desert in 30 seconds on Facebook.

"They were trusting an algorithm feed that tries to give you what you want, and they were not necessarily watching them on a BuzzFeed’s channel." 

"We didn’t necessarily set out to figure out 'shows,'" Henick added. "But all of a sudden, over the past six to nine months, both audiences and the audience and platforms have been changing. People are setting aside time for shows and coming back."

"The platforms have gotten to where they can go with social video, and I think they are realizing now that they are in a fight for incremental money, that $72 billion market."

It's early, but BuzzFeed is working on an analysis that finds that during the most recent first quarter, "Worth It" would have ranked as a top five cable show among adults between the ages of 18 to 34 and in the top 10 among adults between 18 and 49.

BuzzFeed surveyed the shows' fans via a Google Consumer Survey in June and found that 60% said they were more likely to watch if they were aware that new episodes were released on a set day and time.

"This show has a broadcast size audience and broadcast viewing patterns," said Henick.

Some ad buyers, particularly TV veterans, will surely poke holes in that data. But one ad buyer said he believed that advertisers are looking for alternative to TV to reach younger viewers, particularly brand safe digital content.

 A new kind of intentional web show

Steven Lim knows something about how traditional marketers think. His first job out of school was at Procter & Gamble as an engineer working on the Tide Laundry Pods business in 2012 and 2013.

He eventually quit that job and took a swing at becoming a YouTube influencer, an endeavor he says did not go well. However, he posted a video featuring people telling Asian parents that they love them, and it went wild, generating half a million views during its first week.

BuzzFeed came calling. Initially he wasn't sure. "I really wanted to make sure I could make videos featuring Asian American themes," he said. BuzzFeed assured him he could, while promising to help him experiment with lots of other formats

In 2016 he had an idea for a video asking the question about whether taking someone on a date at a super expensive sushi restaurant was worth it compared to basic California roll takeout. It got 10 million views in a week. 

So he made another video the next week featuring a similar concept. Then another the following week. By episode four, it was clear the audience loved the concept, and "Worth It" was born.

"Food is the ultimate cultural touchpoint. Anybody can relate to it," Lim said between bites of an off-the-menu, cured-bacon-topped burger at New York's Gramercy Tavern in New York, one of the spots featured on "Worth It." "I'm not a burger guy, but this one is my favorite."

Plus, "Worth It" is quintessential BuzzFeed, according to Lim. It features travel (the show has made stops in Japan), a taste test format, along with price comparisons and elements of friendship (he and his colleague Andrew Ilnyckyj host the show). "It's more fun to watch it with your friends."

Over time, Lim has seen 'Worth it' emulate appointment TV. The first hour after an episode posts, lots of viewers show up.  "Every week that first hour was becoming more significant," he said.

The new model

BuzzFeed now wants more "Worth It" type formulaic series, especially as Facebook pushes its new Watch video tab and ramps up more video ad opportunities for publishers.

"These feel like shows," Henick said. "They are not completely scaled down versions of TV. They are delivering and setting audience expectations. It's important if we are going to people who are used to buying TV ads."

Besides trying to land more TV advertisers, one obvious question for Lin is, would "Worth It" work as a TV show? Does he even want that? After all, BuzzFeed is making a shows for Oxygen as part of the company's partnership with NBCUniversal.

Lin doesn't think so. For one thing, " I wouldn't be able to watch it," he said, since he doesn't have cable. Neither do most of his friends.

Plus, his thinking is that "Worth It" won't be "Worth It" if you take away the social elements like sharing and commenting.  "I don't really want to go to TV, I think you lose too much."

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: How the US's futuristic new aircraft carrier will change naval warfare forever

HBO has suffered several major leaks and hacks over the course of the summer, which include two "Game of Thrones" episodes posted before they aired.

And with leaks come spoilers. 

Reddit, Twitter, and YouTube have been a hotbeds of spoilers the past couple of weeks, passing off spoiler threads and videos as mere "theories," and giving away major plot points before episodes air.

The spoilers have been a nightmare for any big "Game of Thrones" fans looking forward to watching episodes as they air on Sunday night.

But "Game of Thrones" fans haven't let the leaks get them down. Instead they've taken to Twitter to make fun of them. Fans are now tweeting hilarious fake spoilers for the show, under the trending hashtag FakeGameofThronesSpoilers. 

Here are some of the best fake "Game of Thrones" spoiler tweets:

SEE ALSO: Every 'Game of Thrones' romantic relationship, ranked from worst to best

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's everyone left on Arya Stark's kill list on 'Game of Thrones'

The Super Soaker was a game changer when came to squirt guns and summer fun. And you have Lonnie Johnson to thank for it.

The man behind one of the most popular toys of all time is an engineer who has worked for Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the Air Force, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Now he's working on a few other inventions that he hopes will change the world. Following is a transcript of the video.

The whole idea was to be able to shoot a very, very high pressure stream of water a very long distance.

"Oh Buffy..."

I'm Lonnie Johnson. I'm an inventor. The invention that most people know me for is the Super Soaker water gun.

My career started actually when I was in high school. I built a robot that won a regional science fair at the University of Alabama. I went on to work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory as a research engineer on high temperature nuclear reactors. Air Force Weapons Laboratory on advanced spacecraft that used nuclear power sources. Then to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory working on the Galileo spacecraft as a power systems engineer.

When I was at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory back in the early '80s is when I first got the idea. The Super Soaker was based on some engineering principles that I applied. I was actually working on another invention which was a heat pump that would use water as a working fluid instead of Freon.

And I shot the stream of water across the bathroom using some nozzles that I made, and I thought to myself, "Geez, if I were to develop a new type of water gun, that was a performance water gun,it could really do well.

"That's not pressure. This is pressure!"

Initially I wanted to manufacture the gun myself, but when I went to a plastics injection molding manufacturing company and talked to them about the parts that I needed, what I needed to have made it, it turned out it was going to cost about $200,000 to get the first thousand guns produced. And I thought to myself, I was an officer in the military the time, I didn't have $200,000 in cash laying around.

I decide to come to New York, present my ideas at Toy Fair, try to find a manufacturer that I could work with. And it was there that I met the people at Larami. 

They invited me to come to their headquarters in Philadelphia. It took 2 weeks to build the gun. And as soon as it was finished, I call the guy up at Laramie, because I didn't want him to forget my conversation. I got my suitcase and went in, and of course I had my prototypes in the suitcase.

I opened it up, and they ask to see what I had, and showed them the gun. They said, "Well, does it work? How well does it work?" So I pumped it up and shot it across the conference room, and the president of the company said, "Wow!" And that was it.

I knew I captured their imagination, and the rest is history.

"Soaking wet!"

I knew the gun worked well, and I knew it would be successful. I did not realize how successful it would be. It became the number one selling toy in the world.

Actually, the first year, it was called "Drencher." It was not called a Super Soaker. Someone claimed the name "Drencher" and wanted us to pay royalties on that, and so we changed the name. That's when we came up with the name of Super Soaker.

The guns were literally blowing off the shelves by word of mouth. We couldn't keep up with the demand.

People would say, "You know, Johnson, you're really lucky." And I thought, it's just a lot of hard work. It took 10 years from the idea to major success.

I started my own business, and built my company, my research company, with the proceeds from that invention. I don't really talk about how much money that I made from the invention. But I think it is fair to say that just about all of it is going into the research that I'm conducting. So it's going back into the company to develop some of the energy technology that I'm focused on.

I am a nuclear engineer. I'm working on advanced energy technology. I have a new type of the engine that converts heat into electricity, and I've also developed a new type of battery that's all ceramic, without liquid electrolyte. 

The other toy gun that was on the market and enjoying major success was these Nerf dart guns.

"It's Nerf, or nothing."

And I wanted to have that part of the market too. So I started developing Nerf dart guns, and I developed guns that outperformed the guns that Hasbro had on the market at the time. And eventually ended up doing a deal with Hasbro to license my dart guns.

And at that point, I literally was the king of all toy guns.

So now to have another success in the consumer space would really be cool . So that would mean, if I could pull that off, that would mean that lightning will it struck three times.

Follow Tech Insider: On Facebook

Join the conversation about this story »

Want to stay up to date with this year's IGNITION conference and all things media? Subscribe here to receive our free weekly IGNITION newsletter.

Business Insider is excited to announce that Lachlan Murdoch will speak at IGNITION 2017: The Future of Media.

Lachlan, the son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, serves as the executive chairman of 21st Century Fox, the executive cochairman of News Corp., and the executive chairman of Nova Entertainment Group.

Since taking over for their father two years ago, Lachlan and his brother, James, who serves as the CEO of 21st Century Fox, have made maintaining a positive company culture a priority. There may not be a better example of this than the firing of Fox News' superstar host Bill O'Reilly earlier this year after a multitude of sexual-harassment allegations became public.

We are thrilled to hear Lachlan's thoughts on the future of media given his extensive experience leading one of the most successful media empires on the planet. We can't wait to hear his thoughts on the effects of the struggling cable industry and the plateauing movie-theater industry on 21st Century Fox's business as well as on News Corp.'s continued push into the digital world.

Lachlan joins HBO CEO Richard Plepler and Verizon executive Marni Walden as speakers at this year's IGNITION conference. We will continue to announce new speakers throughout the summer, so continue to check in to see who else will be attending.

Attend IGNITION 2017: The Future of Media

Business Insider IGNITION 2017 will take place November 29-30 at the Time Warner Center in New York City. Don't miss out on an opportunity lock in your discounted Early-Bird or group rates to hear from the most influential people in media!

Register Today!

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Amazon has an oddly efficient way of storing stuff in its warehouses

A standalone "Star Wars" movie focused on Obi-Wan Kenobi is in the very early stages, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Oscar-nominated director Stephen Daldry ("Billy Elliot," "The Hours") is in talks to direct. The project currently has no script, according to the report. And it isn't known if Ewan McGregor will reprise his role as the Jedi master, which he played in the "Star Wars" prequels. Alec Guinness originated the role in the original "Star Wars" trilogy.

Needless to say, it's hard to imagine a Kenobi project being of any interest to audiences if McGregor wasn't involved, and the actor has been saying for years he's up for it.

Last year he told Business Insider that "it would be fun" to play the role again.

“Listen, I have been asked about it a lot, to the point where it looks a bit like I'm sort of touting for work,” McGregor said at the time. “I’ve been very open to say I'd be happy to do it, if they want to do it.”

He added about the "Star Wars" movies under Disney: "I think they are set going into the 2030s with their movies, but it would be fun to do, of course I'd be happy to do it,” he said.

A fun starting point for a screenwriter could be Marvel's one-off comic book, "Star Wars #7." The story delves into the journals that Luke Skywalker finds after returning to Tatooine following the events in “A New Hope.” Kenobi’s writings give us a glimpse of what he did for years on the planet while he was in hiding from the Empire.

Business Insider contacted McGregor's representatives for comment but did not receive an immediate response.

SEE ALSO: Everything we know about Jon Snow's mysterious true father on "Game of Thrones"

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Ryan Seacrest reveals the one thing you should never say to a celebrity the first time you meet them