Quantcast
Channel: Business Insider
Viewing all 101983 articles
Browse latest View live

The 10 Movies From SXSW That Are Most Likely To Be Hits

0
0

SXSW-Films-To-Watch

South by Southwest, the music, film and interactive festival in Austin, recently wrapped up its competitive film portion. 

The big winners of the night were the feature film "Gimme the Loot" and documentary "Beware Mr. Baker."

But other movies made quite an impression on audiences. For one, the Austin fest is home to the more quirky ventures in the comedy, drama and horror (especially this year) genres, which makes sense considering the city's unofficial slogan is "Keep Austin Weird."

The remake of "21 Jump Street" met with great fanfare and acclaim. Stars Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum even showed up to promote it... in their full cop outfits.

Will Ferrell's new Spanish-speaking comedy "Casa de Mi Padre" also had a warm welcome.

But the best films were the ones audiences and critics didn't see coming. From oddball horror flicks ("Cabin in the Woods") to sweet, quiet comedies ("Somebody Up There Likes Me"), these are the top films to watch out for this 2012-2013 movie season.

1. "Cabin in the Woods"

Directed by "Cloverfield" helmer Drew Goddard and produced by the cult-genius behind "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" Joss Whedon, this film is about a group of good-looking friends who explore a cabin, you guessed it, in the woods. 

But because Goddard and Whedon are well-versed in the horror/sci-fi/supernatural genres, there's much more at play than meets the eye. Check out the spooky trailer.

2. "Marley"

This rousing documentary about the life of icon Bob Marley was another big hit at SXSW.

Produced by the singer's son Ziggy and directed by "The Last King of Scotland" maker Kevin McDonald, the movie is sure to bring in the crowds come release time. This trailer makes Marley look more interesting than ever. 

3 "The Babymakers"

This new comedy is brought to you by Broken Lizard writer Jay Chandrasekhar, the man behind hilariously odd flicks like "Super Troopers" and strange-to-terrible ventures like "Club Dread." 

Luckily, "The Babymakers" is more on the "Super Troopers" side as it follows a young, frustrated couple (Olivia Munn and "Parks and Recreation one-time star Paul Schneider) as they try to have a baby. 

When Schneider's character finds out he is the problem, he plans to rob a sperm bank he once gave sperm to in order to get his wife pregnant. 

4. "Gimme the Loot"

This sincere film about two young graffiti artists who try and get revenge on the people who destroyed their most recent work of art was worthy of its SXSW's Feature Film Jury Award. 

The movie looks to be a lovingly made look into the lives of a platonic couple with great lead performances. Here's the nuanced trailer.

5. "Eden" 

"Sucker Punch" co-star Jamie Chung looks to have much better quality material to work with here as a Korean-American who is forced into a life of prostitution. 

While this story has been told before, the film seems to take a twist: in order to survive, Chung's character must join forces with the human traffickers who abducted her. 

The actress received a Special Jury Recognition for her performance the film won the Audience Award.

6. "Somebody Up There Likes Me"

For anyone willing to see "Parks and Recreation" star Nick Offerman as much as possible, this will be a great treat. 

This sweet indie comedy follows 35 years of two friends as they encounter a strange, magical suitcase that seems to slow the aging process through major life moments. Watch this sweet, if slightly dysfunctional, bromance. 

7. "Beware Mr. Baker"

The Grand Jury Prize winner for documentary follows the life of Cream drummer Ginger Baker and the impact he made on famous drummers throughout history like Rush's Neal Peart and The Police's Stewart Copeland

Judging from the trailer alone, Baker must have had one hell of a life. 

8. "Killer Joe"

From "The Exorcist" director William Friedkin, this new drama/thriller is centered around a young drug dealer ("Into the Wild" star Emile Hirsch) as he plots to kill his mother to collect her insurance money and pay off some local kingpins who are waiting for their cut. 

The young drug deal finds Matthew McConaughey's "Joe," a police officer who moonlights as a hit man. But there's more to him and the situation than meets the eye. 

"Killer Joe" was given an NC-17 rating, and the rating was upheld even after an appeal. But that goes to show this trailer park-set thriller won't be cutting corners on authentic violence. 

9. "Fat Kid Rules the World" 

Based on a young-adult novel from 2003, this movie follows a suicidal, severely overweight teen named Troy that is rescued from his suicide attempt by a young punk rocker who coerces Troy to form a band with him. 

He's then sucked into the world of punk rock music but learns self-confidence and more. 

It's a relatively standard coming-of-age drama, but critics are singing praises of the standout performance from Jacob Wysocki as Troy and solid direction from "The Descendants" actor Matthew Lillard. Plus the trailer makes the film look endearing and unique. 

10. "Safety Not Guaranteed" 

Starring "Parks and Recreation" star Aubrey Plaza, "New Girl" actor Jake M. Johnson and director/actor Mark Duplass, this entry made waves at Sundance and now at SXSW.

The movie is about a three magazine journalists who decide to find out about the man who wrote this classified ad, while one of them (Plaza) starts to have feelings for him: 

"WANTED: Someone to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. P.O. Box 91 Ocean View, WA 99393. You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. I have only done this once before. Safety not guaranteed." 

Please follow The Wire on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:




The $45-million 'Hunger Games' Ads Coyly Don't Show The Hunger Games

0
0

Hunger Games Jennifer Lawrence

As anticipation for the opening of "The Hunger Games" reaches a fever pitch, a central element is absent from every trailer, television ad and online video: the games themselves.

It's impossible to imagine a commercial for a "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie that doesn't show a single buccaneer or a "Transformers" trailer without any robots.

In an unusual and risky strategy, Lionsgate studio has crafted a $45-million marketing campaign that shows none of the titular combat, in which teenagers fight to the death while their futuristic society watches on TV.

The stakes for the Santa Monica company could hardly be higher with next Friday's opening.

"The Hunger Games" kicks off a planned quartet of films that analysts estimate could generate between $800 million and $2 billion of profit for Lionsgate. Failure could cause the company's stock price -- which has nearly doubled over the last six months partly because of expectations for the movies -- to plummet.

The odds of a flop are slim, however. Fans of the books by Suzanne Collins, which have been translated into 26 languages and have sold nearly 24 million copies in the U.S. alone, have already snapped up enough tickets to sell out more than 1,000 shows. Pre-release surveys indicate "The Hunger Games" will open to more than $100 million domestically, making it the biggest debut of the year and the first to ever reach such box-office heights while hiding so much of its content.

"If you can get people excited while insinuating that you haven't even shown them the good stuff yet, it's an incredibly powerful notion," said Jim Gallagher, a consultant who formerly ran marketing for Walt Disney Studios. "Most films can't afford to play so coy."

The filmmakers themselves faced a careful balancing act in loyally adapting the books while still earning the PG-13 rating needed to draw a broad audience and turn a profit on a movie that cost nearly $100 million to make (tax credits brought the total closer to $80 million).

"It was important to us to make a faithful adaptation that doesn't soft-pedal the subject matter but is respectful of our audiences," producer Nina Jacobson said. "We wanted to make sure that our movie is not guilty of the crimes of the Capitol," she added, referring to the elites in the books who organize the Hunger Games to entertain an oppressed populace.

Lionsgate's marketing president, Tim Palen, decided soon after the studio bought rights to the "Hunger Games" books four years ago that the marketing materials would downplay the story's most dramatic and potentially disturbing moments, according to people present in meetings who were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

With the exception of horror films that only hint at their characters' gruesome fates, few movies show as little of their main narratives in marketing materials as "The Hunger Games" campaign has done.

But at a time when audiences complain that trailers and ads too often give away the entire plots of movies, Palen wanted to take a "less is more" approach that would make "The Hunger Games" stand out. Some at Lionsgate were also concerned that out-of-context shots of teenagers hunting and stabbing one another and snapping one another's necks could alienate potential viewers.

Although millions of people have read the books or heard what they are about, tracking polls indicate that the picture's appeal is so broad that some may not be familiar with the details. A staggering 84% of moviegoers said this week that they had heard of "The Hunger Games," and 61% said they were definitely interested in seeing it. Both figures have grown in the last two weeks, indicating that the title is only now coming onto some people's radars.

Some of them could be surprised by the movie's violent content, particularly if they bring children. At Monday night's world premiere, sobs could be heard throughout the theater at one character's particularly tragic death.

Two of the people present in marketing meetings said Lionsgate did have a backup plan: If the movie was not generating sufficient interest, new ads would have been cut to show more of the gladiatorial action. (A spokesman for the studio declined to make Palen available for an interview.)

The wild popularity of the books themselves, which have sold about 12 million copies in the last seven months alone, may make recutting the trailers unnecessary. Lionsgate has already whipped up fan hysteria with numerous online initiatives.

In 2011, the studio announced the casting for each of the 24 "tributes" -- the young combatants, ages 12 to 18, who fight to the death in the Hunger Games -- on the movie's Facebook page, which now has 2.8 million fans. A viral website assigned participants to each of the books' 12 districts and allowed them to elect their own mayors. And the studio reached out to the operators of fan websites, sending them "Hunger Games" goodies and inviting them to the premiere. Dozens came to Los Angeles for the event and even met for a party in Los Feliz on Sunday.

"They did so much stuff for the fans, it was crazy," said Savanna New, a Florida teacher who runs a weekly podcast devoted exclusively to "The Hunger Games." "We were all really glad they didn't show the games, because it kept up the mystery and made us want to see it more."

Most advertisements aimed at a broader audience focus on the "reaping," an event early in the film in which Katniss, played by "Winter's Bone" Oscar nominee Jennifer Lawrence, volunteers to join the games in place of her younger sister. The beginning of the games occurs less than an hour into the film but provides a dramatic finale to many of the advertisements, which end just as the tributes are poised to begin their combat.

"It's a little bit like what they used to do with Godzilla movies back in the day," consultant Gallagher said. "You never get a clear look at him until you bought a ticket."

Please follow Advertising on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:



MTV Banned This Kate Upton Ad For Zoo York—Here's Today's Ad Brief

0
0

Kate Upton stars in an ad for Zoo York in which foul-mouthed cockroaches ogle her cleavage. MTV and Adult Swim are reported to have rejected the commercial. NSFW.

American Express' SXSW promotion in which AmEx users connected their accounts to Twitter and tweet for savings—every tweet would be worth coupons for discounted burgers, iPads, etc.—garnered $1.3 million in savings.

DraftFCB is suing two of its former employees and competitor Digitas for poaching its workforce. DraftFCB alleges that Brooke Skinner and Kevin Drew Davis broke a signed contract that stated that they could not recruit former colleagues if they changed agencies.

Digitas has won eBay's digital account.

After only 16 months on the job, Bert Moore is no longer Deutsch New York's partner/chief strategy officer. According to a statement from Deutsch NY CEO Val DiFebo to Agency Spy, "We have mutually agreed that the role we need in NY is in conflict with the one Bert aspires to play and have agreed to part ways, effective today ... Bert will be exploring other opportunities within IPG as well as externally.”

Droga5 has picked up a second account for Heineken USA. The agency will now be in charge of the creative for Newcastle Beer.

BBDO has been given creative duties at Pinnacle Food's Bird's Eye brand, formerly handled by TBWA/Chiat/Day, Adweek reports.

Mullen has hired Dylan Bernd, a McCann Erickson/Mother/BBH alum, as group creative director. 

Please follow Advertising on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:



10 Ways People Are Profiting From Whitney Houston's Death

0
0

whitney-houston-movie-theater

The film that helped make Whitney Houston's rendition of "I Will Always Love You," a household hit, will be returning to the big screen.

For one night only, "The Bodyguard" will be re-released in theaters at the end of this month. NCM Fathom and Warner Bros. will bring the film to more than 500 movie theaters nationwide March 27.

Fathom claims the theatrical re-release has nothing to do with the singer's passing, it's simply to commemorate the film's 20th anniversary.

By amazing coincidence, Warner Bros. is releasing "The Bodyguard 20th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray" on March 27.

From iTunes to fan paraphernalia to auctions lots of people—including Dolly Parton!—are making big bucks off the singer's death.

Film screenings

For one night only, you can view Houston's Oscar-nominated "The Bodyguard" featuring Kevin Costner in theaters. The film will be shown at more than 500 theaters nationwide including 13 in N.J. 24 in N.Y. and over 80 in C.A. The '90s film follows a singer (Whitney Houston) plagued by a crazed fan-turned-stalker and her relationship with her bodyguard (Kevin Costner).

Check out a list of movie theaters showing the film, here.

One theater in New Jersey, the Digiplex Rialto Theater of Westfield, is a three-minute drive from the Fairview Cemetery in which Houston was buried. 



Bobby Brown

After being left out of the Will, Houston's ex-husband may pen a tell-all book, according to the Huffington Post

Brown formerly planned to release a book in 2008 about Houston; however, it was never published. 

Even if Brown did want to put out a book to earn some cash, he may be legally restricted since he signed a confidentiality agreement after his divorce. 



Royalties

One of Houston's biggest hits, "I Will Always Love You," was written by Dolly Parton. She'll continue to receive royalties on the song that she wrote.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Please follow The Wire on Twitter and Facebook.

See Also:



Rihanna Explains Her Chris Brown Collaboration: 'He's Hot'—Here's Today's Buzz

0
0

lady-gaga-silenced

  • Looks like Lady Gaga is stepping out of the spotlight. The singer tells Oprah she plans to "take a vow of silence" after their interview. We're calling her "Poker Face." 
  • Rihanna told Ryan Seacrest yesterday on KIIS FM she reached out to Chris Brown because he's the hottest R&B artist out there right now.
  • Russell Brand was arrested yesterday over his iPhone toss, but was released after posting $5,000 bail. 
  • After baring her bottom on the back of a motorcycle, Scout Willis shows off another talent, her voice, at an N.Y.C. bar. 
  • Katie Couric's new ABC talk show, simply titled "Katie," has a premiere date—Monday, September 10. You can have your first peek at the show's logo.
  • Comedian Gallagher is in an induced coma after suffering a heart attack. 
  • Keifer Sutherland tells Jay Leno on "The Tonight Show" he's still trying to make the "24" movie work.
  • Tim Burton's "Dark Shadows" trailer premiered yesterday on "Ellen" featuring Johnny Depp as a comical hippy vampire. Really. Watch it below:

Please follow The Wire on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:



Rush Limbaugh Joined Twitter And All His Tweets So Far Are About One Thing

0
0

Rush Limbaugh joined Twitter yesterday and he already has 112,000 followers. (It's a perfect medium for Ditto-Heads, after all.) The radio talker—currently suffering from an advertiser boycott after he called a Georgetown University student a "slut" because she supported healthcare coverage for contraception—has posted only two tweets so far.

Both tweets deal with the ad boycott and Media Matters, the liberal media watchdog that is his mortal enemy. Here's the first one:

rush limbaugh

The tweet points to a blog post describing how the advertiser boycott is "astroturfed." It reveals, unsurprisingly, that Media Matters has encouraged advertisers to withdraw their ad budgets from his show. The term "astroturfing" usually refers to campaigns consisting entirely of professional lobbyists. In the Limbaugh boycott, however, real companies have actually cancelled their schedules with Limbaugh.

rush limbaugh

This tweet points to an item claiming that the five minutes of dead air heard on the web feed of his show wasn't caused by a lack of advertising but rather because some advertisers won't pay extra for web radio time. It also notes that The New York Times is still advertising on his show.

Both tweets namecheck @mmfa, which is Media Matters' Twitter handle. Top of mind, apparently.

Please follow Advertising on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:



George Clooney Has Been Arrested At A DC Protest

0
0

george-clooney-father-arrestedGeorge Clooney has been arrested outside the Sudan Embassy along with other protestors, AP reports. 

The actor returned to Washington yesterday from the region to discuss the crisis on the Sudan border. 

After being given three warnings, Clooney and fellow activist protestors were handcuffed and placed into a U.S. Secret Service van. 

His father was also arrested. 

Clooney and protestors were accusing Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir of withholding food and aid from the Nuba Mountains in the county's border region with South Sudan.

Prior to his arrest, he said if action is not taken "we're going to have a real humanitarian disaster."

In an interview with NBC Today's Ann Curry two days ago, Clooney described a near-death experience where he was almost hit by a rocket. After witnessing the violence there first hand, the actor made it his mission to reveal war criminals. 

After Clooney's arrest, Curry tweeted his thoughts on being apprehended:

"It's actually a humiliating thing to be arrested no matter what you do, but i'm glad to be standing here with my father." 

Please follow The Wire on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:



'This American Life' Throws Mike Daisey Under Bus For Fabricated Apple Story...*

0
0

Mike Daisey

In a huge and startling scandal, the public-radio program "This American Life" (TAL) is retracting a whole episode that it aired about Mike Daisey's investigation of Apple's manufacturing processes.

TAL says that it has discovered that much of the episode was "fabricated."

And it is quick to lay the blame on Mike Daisey, saying that he "misled" them during the fact-checking process.

And Daisey apparently did "mislead" (lie to) TAL. On his web site, Daisey is now saying that he allows himself to take "dramatic license" with his material.

(Translation: I made it up.)

And Daisey also now says that he "truly regrets" pretending that his theatre show was journalism.

But when the original TAL episode aired, one of the reasons it created such a stir was that the show said that it had carefully fact-checked Daisey's story.

Here's TAL host Ira Glass in the original episode:

When I saw Mike Daisey perform this story on stage, when I left the theater I had a lot of questions. I mean, he's not a reporter, and I wondered, did he get it right? And so we've actually spent a few weeks checking everything that he says in his show.

TAL spend "a few weeks checking everything" Mike Daisey said ... and it has now retracted the entire episode?

*UPDATE: "This American Life" has released a full explanation of what happened and what was fabricated. In other words, they've done the "serious explaining" that they needed to do. And with the exception of the sentence above, this does sound like it was mostly Mike Daisey's fault.

Daisey was busted for his lies by Rob Schmitz of NPR's Marketplace, who has been reporting on Apple's supply chain for the last year and a half. Schmitz describes finding Daisey's translator and then confronting him here.

Here's the full fact-checking section of the original TAL transcript:

When I saw Mike Daisey perform this story on stage, when I left the theater I had a lot of questions. I mean, he's not a reporter, and I wondered, did he get it right? And so we've actually spent a few weeks checking everything that he says in his show. We invited Apple to come onto the program and respond, and they turned us down. We invited Foxconn to come onto the program and respond, and they also said no. Mike, however, was willing to come in and explain his methods at Foxconn's gates and in the factories that he visited.

Mike Daisey

I had talked to about 100 workers, a little over 100, over a number of different days.

Ira Glass

Staying outside the gates?

Mike Daisey

Outside the gates. And I went to about 10 different factories when I was posing.

Ira Glass

When you met with the union workers, how many of those did you meet with?

Mike Daisey

There were three of them.

Ira Glass

And then the workers who came through to meet you?

Mike Daisey

God, there were like 25, 30 throughout the course of the day.

Ira Glass

As for Mike's findings, we have gone through his script and fact checked everything that was checkable. In one instance, we think that his translator may have misunderstood or mistranslated a fact for Mike. He says in his show that workers told him that the cafeterias at Foxconn seat 10,000 people, but based on press accounts, we think that it's possible that they serve 10,000 people, but seat only 4,000 at a time. Foxconn wouldn't answer the question for us directly.

When it comes to the suicide rate at Foxconn, there were about 12 suicides at the Shenzhen plant in 2010. It was actually hard to get the exact number. Some people have pointed out that 12 suicides for 400,000 workers is actually much lower than China's suicide rate as a whole, as China has an unusually high suicide rate of 22 suicides per year per 100,000 people. That would work out to 88 suicides for 400,000 workers. Mike Daisey points out that we don't actually know if these were the only suicides at Foxconn.

Mike Daisey

And the biggest problem is that it isn't the quantity, it's the cluster. If there was any company in America where a sizable chunk of your workforce went up over a period of time, especially close to one another, and killed themselves in the same way very publicly, it would be an enormous news story because it's far outside the norm.

Ira Glass

Overall, we checked with over a dozen people. Those would be journalists who cover these factories, people who work with the electronics industry in China, activists, labor groups, about the working conditions that Mike Daisey describes in his show, and nobody seemed very surprised by them.

Ian Spaulding

Well unfortunately I think some of these conditions sound actually quite common.

Ira Glass

This is Ian Spaulding, who estimates that he has been in or worked with about 1,000 factories throughout China. The company that he founded and runs, INFACT Global Partners, goes into Chinese factories and helps them meet social responsibility standards that are set by Western companies so those companies are ready when outside auditors come and check on working conditions. He has a staff of 45. They do hundreds of factories a year, including electronics.

Ian Spaulding

There are hours in factories that are often too long, and are excessive, and required over time. Things like cramped quarters can also happen, and repetitive motion injuries can be quite common.

Ira Glass

Another thing that Mike Daisey says that's disturbing to hear is he says that the companies will deceive the auditors when the auditors come in. Have you seen that?

Ian Spaulding

Yeah, that actually is quite common, and I think many other people have also exposed this problem.

Ira Glass

Now don't get the wrong impression. Ian Spaulding did have a few quibbles with Mike Daisey. He said that if a worker gets injured and then is fired by his company, he or she can sue the company, and he said that lots of people were doing that these days. He said electronics companies have been improving their handling of toxic chemicals.

And his only real objection to anything that Mike Daisey found had to do with child labor. Ian Spaulding said yes, there definitely is child labor in China, but not at the top tier electronics manufacturers. Other people who we talked to agreed with this. Even people who are critical of Foxconn for all kinds of things agreed with this. He said maybe a stray worker here and there might get in on a borrowed ID, but it is not a widespread problem.

Mike Daisey

Well I don't know if it's a big problem. I just know that I saw it.

Ira Glass

Again, Mike Daisey. He says sure, maybe it's not prevalent.

Mike Daisey

I know that I met people that were there, and I know that I talked to them. I mean, there weren't very many as a proportion of the total group. I talked to more than 100 people. I met five or six who were underage.

Ira Glass

And they were over the course of days?

Mike Daisey

No, they were together in a group.

Ira Glass

So it's basically the girl who you describe who deals with the iPhones--

Mike Daisey

Yes.

Ira Glass

--who wipes off your thing, and then her friends?

Mike Daisey

And then some people that were with her. They seemed like savvy kids, honestly.

Ira Glass

The one source that I could find that backs up Mike on this one at least a little bit is Apple. Apple has released a report stating in the year that Mike was in China, 2010, Apple's own auditors went into 127 facilities around the world that make its products and say they found 91 underage workers. It doesn't say which facilities the workers were at. The report states that Apple helped install systems to verify ages, educated suppliers on recruiting practices, made them return underage workers to school, and made them pay for the kids' education. And then it stopped doing business with one supplier that has 42 underage workers and showed no commitment to addressing the problem.

All this research that we did did fill in some interesting details about working conditions at Foxconn that are not in Mike Daisey's show. There's an advocacy group called SACOM, which is Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior. They're based in Hong Kong. And since the suicides at Foxconn in 2010, they have put out three reports investigating conditions at the company. Each report surveyed over 100 Foxconn workers.

And they even had a researcher go undercover and take a job at the Shenzhen plant. Debby Chan Sze Wan is a project manager at SACOM. The surveys that she did of workers depict a company where many employees have to stand all day long.

Debby Chan Sze Wan

Because there's some research in the industry that workers who stand during work is more efficient than those who sit. And workers, they are regularly yelled by the supervisors. And if they make some mistake then they have to write confession letters, et cetera.

Ira Glass

In your documents, you call this military-style management. Why is that what you call it?

Debby Chan Sze Wan

I think it is the word given by some of the workers.

Ira Glass

According to SACOM's surveys and reports, the wages at Foxconn are not much more than the Chinese minimum wage. SACOM claims that it's only with tons of overtime that the money approaches what SACOM calculates is a decent living wage for a family.

But probably the most surprising thing I learned about Foxconn and other Chinese electronics manufacturers from Debby and from Ian Spaulding had to do with the turnover rate. Ian Spaulding says that it could be 10% to 20% turnover per month. He says it's a huge business problem these days in China.

Ian Spaulding

So you imagine the number of employees that you're hiring and that leave after one week, two weeks, one month on the job, and you're constantly trying to re-hire people into those positions.

Ira Glass

With so many workers quitting, why doesn't that lead to companies changing conditions and raising salaries so they don't have to go through the hassle of hiring new people?

Ian Spaulding

Well that's the good news, is it is. Nowadays a lot of people talk about what should companies' brands, US and European brands, do to make conditions better? And the reality is is that actually what's proving to be more effective is this bottom-up labor market that's emerging where employees are speaking with their feet. By leaving a factory, they're forcing factories to improve wages, improve working conditions, and improving dormitories to make things more attractive for employees.

Ira Glass

When Apple turned down our invitation to come onto today's radio show, in a rather Orwellian gesture they told us that they are 100% transparent-- as they refused to come on the air. They referred us to these reports that they've been issuing every year since 2007 on working conditions in the factories that make their products overseas.

And these reports, I have to say, are remarkable documents. You can find these online at Apple's website. Apple, like many companies, has a code of conduct that suppliers have to commit to before they can do business with them, and each year Apple audits many of the suppliers to make sure that they are complying with the code. If they don't, then there are corrective action plans, and there's training, and there's follow-up audits. It's very elaborate. And if it all fails, Apple stops buying from the supplier. Or that's what they claim, anyway.

Apple monitors pretty much all the working conditions that Mike Daisey talks about in his show. The report covering the period that Mike was in China. Talks about what Apple did in the wake of the suicides at Foxconn. They say they did an independent review. They asked for mental health counselors and other changes, which Apple says Foxconn has implemented.

The report also has a whole section on n-hexane, which workers, not from Foxconn but from another plant, told Mike that they were exposed to, and he talked about it on his show. Apple says that it found 137 workers had adverse health effects after exposure to n-hexane. It says that the supplier using the stuff was told to stop using the chemical, and it's been audited since then to make sure it has happened. Mike Daisey has read these reports.

Mike Daisey

I'm glad Apple does this. It's unfortunate more companies don't do it, and I do respect them for doing it. But it doesn't change the fact that the situation on the ground, even in their own reports, is not good. And then every year the numbers are roughly the same in terms of people who are non-compliant with overtime.

Ira Glass

Yeah, I would say that in the 2010 report, Apple found that only 32% of suppliers that it audited followed its standard about working hours, though Apple doesn't name the companies that they audited in the report.

Mike Daisey

And I really question the wisdom of that. I think that if they have a serious commitment to changing how things are done in the special economic zone in Shenzhen, then they would name those companies, and then those companies would begin to be held responsible.

Ira Glass

As it is, Daisey says, Apple is basically saying, trust us, we're taking care of the problems. But without supplier names, nobody can independently verify any of it. Should we feel weird about the computers and phones we use, all the clothes that we wear that are made in faraway factories in Asia under harsh working conditions?

SEE ALSO: "This American Life" Retracts Whole Apple-Foxconn Episode

Please follow Business Insider on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:




Weird: Surprising St. Patrick's Day Movie Launch Secret

0
0

St.-Patrick's-Day-Horrors-Thrillers

For more than a decade, March has quietly been a staple for the release of horror movies, many of them opening wide on St. Patrick's weekend.

This year the biggest releases happen to be comedies—the "21 Jump Street" remake and Will Ferrel's Spanish flick "Casa de mi Padre," but there is one thriller on the list: the Nicholas Cage revenge/suspense flick "Seeking Justice."

But history shows that the movies that do well by launching around St. Patrick's day tend to be scary movies, like 2010's remake of "The Last House on the Left." 

Here are some of the best or biggest slasher-flicks, supernatural scary movies, crime features and erotic thrillers released on the weekend nearest to St. Patrick's Day. It doesn't happen every year, but there are too many to ignore:

2009 — "Knowing" (over $183 million worldwide): Nicholas Cage tries to decode all of the world's disasters from a page written by a child 50 years prior. 

2008 —"Shutter" (over $47 million worldwide): Joshua Jackson stars as in this low-budget Thai horror remake about a couple who is haunted by supernatural being they see in photographs. 

2007 —"Dead Silence" ($23 million) and "Premonition" (over $85 million worldwide): The first is a movie about a witch and her living dummies while the second follows Sandra Bullock in an "Awake" style thriller where her husband is alive in one timeline and dead in the other.

2005 —"The Ring Two" (over $161 million): Samara is back to terrorize Naomi Watts some more. 

2004 —"Dawn of the Dead" (over $102 million): A decent remake of the George Romero zombie fright flick

2003 — "Dreamcatcher" (over $75 million): This terrible adaptation of Stephen King's novel stars "Justified" star Timothy Olyphant and more as a group of friends who encounter aliens in the woods. Morgan Freeman co-stars.

2002 —"Resident Evil" (over $102 million): Milla Jovovich kicks off her a giant franchise about zombies apocalypse created by an evil pharmaceutical corporation. 

2001 —"Memento" (over $39 million): Christopher Nolan makes a real splash in Hollywood with this brilliant psychological thriller about a man with short-term memory loss who seeks revenge on the murderer of his wife. 

2000 —"Final Destination" (over $113 million): Death comes to collect for the first time

1999 —"True Crime" ($17 million domestically): In the height of Clint Eastwood's foray into the crime thriller world, the legendary actor plays a journalist who rushes to prove an death row inmate's innocence. 

1998 — "Wild Things" ($30 million domestically): The movie that made Denise Richards a bona fide sex symbol is actually about two women who plot to take a bunch of money form their school with their teacher. 

1992 — "Basic Instinct" (over $353 million worldwide): Sharon Stone's leg-cross heard 'round the world is featured in this erotic thriller about a police officer in a V-neck sweater investigating a murder in San Francisco.

Please follow The Wire on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:



MIKE DAISEY: I'm Not Going To Say That I Didn't Take A Few Shortcuts In My Passion To Be Heard

0
0

Mike Daisey

CHICAGO (AP) — An artist admitted Friday to taking shortcuts in crafting an often harrowing tale about Apple Inc.'s operations in China after the veracity of his one-man theatrical show was challenged by a public radio program that had based a broadcast on his work.

But writer Mike Daisey said he stands by his monologue and called what he does theater, and not journalism.

"It uses a combination of fact, memoir, and dramatic license to tell its story, and I believe it does so with integrity," Daisey said in a statement posted on his website.

Citing what he called "numerous fabrications," Ira Glass, the host of the popular public radio show "This American Life," said he could not vouch for the truth of a Jan. 6 broadcast excerpted from Daisey's critically acclaimed one-man show "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs."

Later Friday, The New York Times said it had removed a questionable paragraph from the online archive of an op-ed piece Daisey wrote for the newspaper in October.

Daisey also twisted the truth about his time in China during an interview with The Associated Press late last year. Paul Colford, a spokesman for the news cooperative, said the AP was reviewing its coverage of Daisey to determine what corrections will be necessary.

In his monologue performance, which currently running at the Public Theater in New York, Daisey describes meeting very young workers who put in very long hours and were forced to do crippling, repetitive motions at factories that make Apple products in China. Some he claimed had been poisoned by a chemical called hexane.

But "This American Life" says a China correspondent for the public radio show "Marketplace" named Rob Schmitz located and interviewed Daisey's Chinese interpreter, who disputed much of the artist's claims.

Daisey, in an interview with Glass broadcast as part of Friday's episode of "The American Life," admitted that he didn't meet any poisoned workers and guessed at the ages of some of the workers he met.

"This American Life" said in its statement that staffers asked Daisey for his interpreter's contact information while fact-checking the story. Daisey replied the cellphone number he had for her didn't work anymore and he had no way to reach her.

"At that point, we should've killed the story," Glass said. "But other things Daisey told us about Apple's operations in China checked out, and we saw no reason to doubt him."

Apple has been rebutting Daisey's allegations for months, to little effect. The Times also wrote an investigative series in January on dangerous working and living conditions for people who make Apple products in China, including explosions inside factories making iPads where four people were killed and 77 were injured.

An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment Friday. Daisey spokesman Philip Rinaldi said Friday his client was "not speaking to anyone about this right now."

The original "This American Life" episode, "Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory," has become the most popular podcast in the history of "This American Life" with nearly 890,000 downloads.

Daisey also claimed in an interview with AP late last year that he met Chinese workers whose joints in their hands had disintegrated because they were doing the same motion hundreds of thousands of times.

"I know that people in charge know about these things and chose not to address them. And that's hard to swallow when you see the damage it does and you know how little it would take to ameliorate a high degree of human suffering," he said then.

The Times, which published Daisey's op-ed piece following Steve Jobs' death in early October, removed a paragraph from the online version that discussed conditions at Apple's factory in China. The newspaper posted an editor's note warning readers that the section had been removed because "questions have been raised about the truth."

"The rest of the piece is his opinion as a performer and a thinker," said Eileen Murphy, a Times' spokeswoman. "If this were a news story it would be a different situation. It's not. It's an op-ed."

In his original monologue, Daisey splices Jobs career milestones and the transformation of Apple from a David into a Goliath with more personal stories about his own connection to the computer maker.

He has said that when he saw four photos posted online taken by workers at a Chinese factory to test the iPhone but mistakenly not erased, he suddenly realized people, not robots, were putting the sleek devices together.

In interviews and on stage, Daisey has said he traveled to the Chinese industrial zone of Shenzhen and interviewed hundreds of workers from Foxconn Technology Group, the world's largest electronics contract manufacturer, who suffered from their work.

"It's like carpal tunnel on a scale we can scarcely imagine," he said while performing the show in New York in October.

In this weekend's "This American Life," Daisey tells Glass he felt conflicted about presenting things that he knew weren't true. But he said he felt "trapped" and was afraid people would no longer care about the abuses at the factories if he didn't present things in a dramatic way.

"I'm not going to say that I didn't take a few shortcuts in my passion to be heard," he tells Glass.

Daisey has performed the monologue for some 50,000 people from Seattle to Washington, D.C., and it is now at The Public Theater until Sunday. Daisey was expected to take the show on tour, but its future is now in doubt.

In a statement, The Public Theater said the show would be performed in New York as scheduled and stood by what it called "a powerful work of art."

"Mike is an artist, not a journalist," the statement said. "Nevertheless, we wish he had been more precise with us and our audiences about what was and wasn't his personal experience in the piece."

____

AP Drama Writer Mark Kennedy and Associated Press Business Writer Ryan Nakashima contributed to this report from New York.

___

Online:

—http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/460/retraction

—http://mikedaisey.blogspot.com

Please follow Business Insider on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:



One Of China's Most Popular TV Shows Was Interviews With Prisoners Who Were About To Be Executed

0
0

Firing Squad

SIX years ago, before most Chinese courts began allowing condemned prisoners to receive a farewell family visit, a provincial television station was gaining privileged access to death row.

Its interviews with inmates in their final hours of life became a hit, with millions tuning into the late-evening programmes on Saturdays. Now the station has pulled the plug. 

Henan TV has given no explanation for its decision (confirmed by a station employee who refused to go into details). It ends the run of one of the central provinces most widely watched television programmes, unimaginatively but accurately called Interviews Before Execution.

Embarrassment could be a factor. Until last year, the fortnightly series aroused little debate in China, where thousands of people are executed every year. As late as the 1980s condemned prisoners were commonly paraded in public before being taken to an open execution ground to be shot. Recently, however, pre-broadcast publicity surrounding a BBC television documentary about the show, which was aired on March 12th, rattled officials. They apparently worried that the programme might harm Chinas image.

The shows celebrity host, Ding Yu, has defended its approach. Some viewers may consider it cruel to ask a criminal to do an interview when they are about to be executed. On the contrary, they want to be heard, the BBC quoted her as saying. All of the interviewees had been convicted of violent offences, mostly murder. This allowed the award-winning half-hour programme to sidestep the sensitive issue in China of whether the death penalty should be applied to non-violent crimes. During the annual session of Chinas parliament, the National Peoples Congress, which ended on March 14th, several delegates called for the overturn of a death sentence imposed on a wealthy businesswoman, Wu Ying, for running an illegal bank.

Ms Ding, before retreating into cautious silence in recent days, has said all her interviewees took part willingly. Of more than 200 she approached, only five refused. It is not known how many of the prisoners were also allowed to meet their families. Not until 2007 did the Supreme Court rule that lower courts ought to to permit such visits. They still very often do not. Unlike Henan TV, family members often learn the date of an execution only after it has been carried out.

SEE ALSO: An Incredible Aerial Tour Of Dubai

Please follow The Wire on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:



Rosie O'Donnell's Show On Oprah's Network Cancelled After Just Five Months

0
0

rosie o'donnell

March 17--Despite Oprah Winfrey's wing around "The Rosie Show," it all fell down.

Rosie O'Donnell's talk show -- produced at Oprah's old TV home, Chicago's Harpo Studios, for Winfrey's new TV home, the California-based OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network -- has been canceled, the cable channel announced Friday.

The final new episode, to be taped Tuesday on the eve of O'Donnell's 50th birthday, is set to run March 30.

Winfrey, in a statement, called O'Donnell "an incredible partner" and thanked her for "joining me on this journey."

Since OWN was launched last year by Winfrey and 50-50 partner Discovery Communications, it has struggled to match expectations buoyed largely by Winfrey's phenomenal success as host of a long-running Chicago-based syndicated TV show.

"As I have learned in the last 15 months, a new network launch is always a challenge and ratings grow over time as you continue to gather an audience," Winfrey said. "I'm grateful to Rosie and the dedicated 'Rosie Show' team for giving it their all."

The hiring of O'Donnell, a comedian, actress and Emmy-winning host with her own successful daytime TV track record, to host a daily program produced in Winfrey's old studio was seen as something of a coup for the network and for a local TV production community concerned about the void Winfrey was leaving behind.

But "The Rosie Show," which made its debut in October, saw its average viewership slip from 500,000 at the start to about 150,000 in recent weeks. This did not help lure to Chicago top-line guests who once would have jumped at the chance to appear on Winfrey's program. The Rosie Show never proved popular enough to be the daily anchor for OWN it needed to be.

Speculation about the troubled show intensified in recent months after O'Donnell changed the show's format. Then she moved to sell the multimillion-dollar Chicago home she bought just months earlier.

"I loved working with Oprah in the amazing city of Chicago," said O'Donnell, a native New Yorker. "I was welcomed with open arms and will never forget the kindness of all I encountered. It was a great year for me -- I wish the show was able to attract more viewers -- but it did not. So I am headed back to my home in New York -- with gratitude. On we go!"

It was not immediately clear what the cancellation would mean for O'Donnell's Chicago production team members, many of whom hoped to be assigned to other Harpo OWN projects.

rchannick@tribune.com

nmetz@tribune.com

Please follow The Wire on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:



Happy St. Patrick's Day! 10 Actors You Didn't Know Were Irish

0
0

j

Top of the mornin' to ya, folks!

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, we're taking a look at ten actors from Irish descent. And some may surprise you.

Whether hailing from Ireland or Hollywood, each of the actors on our list are magically delicious—but no surprise considering they were born with the luck of the Irish.

Okay, we'll stop now and let you get to the good stuff.

 

 

Colin Farrell

Birth place: Dublin, Ireland

Age: 35

Most well known films: "Horrible Bosses" (2011), "Crazy Heart" (2009), "In Bruges" (2009) for which he won a Golden Globe for Best performance by an Actor in A Comedy or Musical.

Irish ancestry: A Dublin native, Farrell studied acting at the Gaiety School of Drama in Dublin. Farrell began his career in Ireland on the BBC TV show "Ballykisangel" in 1996 and a miniseries titled "Falling for a Dancer" in 1998.



Saoirse Ronan

Birth place: New York City

Age: 17

Most well known films: "The Lovely Bones" (2009). "Atonement," for which she was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 2007.

Irish ancestry: Her father is Paul Ronan, an established Irish actor who has appeared in "The Devil's Own" and "Veronica Guerin." When Saoirse was three-ears-old, the family moved to Ireland, where the actress grew up in County Carlow, Ireland.



Pierce Brosnan

Birth place: Navan, County Meath, Ireland

Age: 58

Most well known films: "GoldenEye" (1995) and playing James Bond in the "007" franchise.

Irish ancestry: Brosnan moved from Ireland to London at 12-years-old. Today, the actor is a patron of the Irish dramatic art academy The Lir and in 1996, he even formed "Irish Dream Team," an LA-based production company.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Please follow The Wire on Twitter and Facebook.

See Also:



DISNEY'S DARKEST HOURS: The 10 Most Horrific Movies The Mouse House Ever Made

0
0

disney-mashup

If you think Disney is just a bunch of enchanted roses, glass slippers and princesses rescued from towers, think again. 

Behind the fairytale facade, Disney has put out some truly dark films riddled with miscarriages, bloody ends and animal cruelty. 

Even your childhood favorites contain scenes that include deaths belittled in upbeat songs, animal shootings off-screen and, occasionally, a mass slaughter.

In one movie, the entire cast is killed.

Here are the 10 films that pushed the boundaries of kids' entertainment the furthest. You may never see them the same way again.

10. "Up" (2009)

A childless widower, 78-year-old grump Carl Fredricksen (Ed Asner) literally ups and leaves—he attaches balloons to his home—to get away from the big city expansion that has plagued his neighborhood and to fulfill the wishes of his late wife. 

The film's opening sequence is one of the most moving, albeit depressing, pieces of cinematic footage in an animated film. Through four minutes, Disney and Pixar tell an entire love story—complete with marriage, dreams of children and traveling, and broken spirits from a miscarriage—before the wife falls ill and passes.  

Compare the juxtaposing trailer and opening scene below. Don't say we didn't warn you.



9. "The Fox and the Hound" (1981)

At the beginning of the film, the protagonist, Tod, a fox cub, is abandoned at a farm by his mother. She runs off and shortly after shots are heard. Tod is comforted by an owl named Big Mama and a clueless woodpecker before an elderly widow comes to his rescue.

Tod quickly befriends the neighbor's dog Copper. While they frolic in the woods, we later discover Copper's owner Amos is the man who killed Tod's mom.

Tod never has a clue. The film then pits the two friends against each other as Copper becomes a hunting dog and Tod, the game.

The trailer merely points out the funny friendship of the unlikely pair.



8. "Bambi" (1941)

Happy woodland creatures rolling in flowers and playing on ice? Sure. But what about the raging forest fire?

Before that, you have to make it through the scene where the title character's mother is killed by hunters in the dead of winter.

We're then forced to watch Bambi scramble around through the snow, calling for his mom until he runs into his father, the Great Prince of the Forest, who says, "Your mother can't be with you anymore."

One of the film's first trailers even ends with the movie title hovering over the rampant forest flames.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Please follow The Wire on Twitter and Facebook.

See Also:



I'm Sorry, Apple!

0
0

tim cook apple

Two months ago, after reading the transcript of a public-radio show ("This American Life") about Apple's manufacturing processes, I wrote a post in which I relayed some details reported by Mike Daisey, the primary source for the show.

I relayed the details because they seemed noteworthy and because I thought they were true.

Now, however, thanks to the suspicions of Rob Schmitz, an NPR reporter who has spent the past 18 months covering Apple's supply chain, "This American Life" has discovered that Mike Daisey lied to its producers and the American public (and me) about what he saw in China. Daisey's fabrications were so extensive, apparently, that the show felt compelled to retract the entire episode.

My reaction to "This American Life's" original episode about Apple's manufacturing processes was not unusual. The show compelled lots of people to say, basically, "Hey, wait a minute, maybe we should think more about how these electronic gadgets we love so much are made."

The show was followed by an excellent series of articles by the New York Times and others that confirmed the general gist of what "This American Life" had reported. And this scrutiny compelled Apple to undertake an investigation of its own and take the unusual (for Apple) step of giving ABC News unrestricted access to the Foxconn factory in Shenzhen where so many Apple products are made. And it led Foxconn to giving some of its workers another raise. And so on.

So I think some good has come of this scrutiny and reflection.

I'd like to see Apple invest more of its cash mountain and share more of its humongous profits with its supply chain, just as I'd like to see Walmart, McDonald's, Starbucks, and other huge, fantastically profitable American companies pay their employees more. But, unlike some Americans, I don't blame Apple and other electronics manufacturers for building products in China.

Apple is a global company that sells gadgets in more than a hundred countries. For a combination of reasons, building such products in the United States these days is pretty much a non-starter. For example, Chinese workers are willing to work harder and for less than American workers, and the entire electronics supply chain is now located in China. And as Apple itself said in Charles Duhigg's excellent New York Times article, fixing America's employment and inequality problems is not Apple's responsibility.

But, right now, all that is beside the point.

In relaying some details reported by Mike Daisey that have turned out to be lies, I was unfair to Apple and our readers.

I'm sorry about that.

SEE ALSO: This Article Explains Why Apple Builds iPhones In China And Why The U.S. Is Screwed

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:




6 Celebrities Who Sold Their Homes For Under $1 Million

0
0

zillow

This post originally appeared at Zillow.

Besides large pools, high security and untouched gourmet kitchens, most celebrity homes have something else in common: a big price tag.

From Anderson Cooper’s $3.79 million penthouse to Jennifer Aniston’s $42 million former pad,celebrity real estate is nearly always priced in the high seven figures.

However, with some digging, we’ve found some recognizable stars whose homes are a little more modestly priced. Priced where mere mortals would have a shot at owning it. Maybe. These are all homes owned by stars that sold for under a million.

John Krasinski

Purchased for: $1,050,010

Sold for: $880,000

When John Krasinski picked up this modest bungalow in 2006 for $1,050,000, he had a year under his belt playing sarcastic coworker Jim Halpert on TV’s hit mockumentary, “The Office”  Built in 1926, Krasinski’s home is the perfect bachelor pad with just two bedrooms, two baths and a little over 1,200 square feet of living space. As Krasinski’s role in “The Office” and his relationship with British actress Emily Blunt heated up, he listed the home on the West Hollywood real estate market for $945,000. Three years later the “Country English-style” home, pictured below, sold for a loss at $880,000.

Source: Zillow



Kaley Cuoco

Purchased for: $1,355,000

Sold for: $822,500

Here’s another TV star who sold her digs for under $1 million. Kaley Cuoco’s home in Sherman Oaks was first listed at $995,000 and eventually sold well under the listing price, even after a price cut. Cuoco, who stars on the Emmy-nominated comedy “The Big Bang Theory,”  bought the 3-bedroom, 2-bath Spanish home for $1,355,000 in 2005, after ending her role on ABC’s “8 Simple Rules.” The private home, below, features “park-like” grounds, hardwood floors and period details from its 1937 construction date.

Source: Zillow



Simon Helberg

Purchased for: $950,000

Sold for: $795,000

Like his “Big Bang Theory” co-star Kaley Cuoco, Simon Helberg sold his home for less than a million and at a 6.4 percent loss from his original listing priceHelberg’s home is a traditional Craftsman. Built in 1910, the 2,569-square-foot home, pictured below, still has the original leaded-glass windows, peaked roof, hardwood floors, built-ins and designer light fixtures.

Source: Zillow



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Please follow The Life on Twitter and Facebook.

See Also:



Beyoncé Launches A Tumblr Page, Shares Hundreds Of Private Photos

0
0

Rejoice, Beyoncé has spoken!

The music superstar and new mom sent out her very first tweet to her 3,582,217 followers this morning.

Beyonce Tweet

Upon entering Beyonce.com, one finds six tabs that allow visitors to get updated on "The Latest," "Music," "Vault" (which she calls "the heart of my site"), "Beyhive" (for the official fan collective), "Performance" and "I Am."

"I Am" is the name of Beyoncé's Tumblr page on which she presents never-before-seen, private photos from the singer's personal life.

Before even entering the page, visitors are greeted with this personal message:

"I Am. This is my life, today, over the years - through my eyes. My family, my travels, my love. This is where I share with you, this will continue to grow as I do. Love, Beyoncé"

Here are some photos that can be seen on the site:

Beyonce Blog

There is even a vacation video of Jay-Z filming a pregnant Beyoncé revealing baby Blue Ivy's name before she was born. Watch below.

You can thank designer Matthew Siskin for Beyoncé's awesome new blog. Siskin previously announced on Twitter that he was working on the page, declaring, "I'm not sleeping till we're done."

We think he can sleep easy now.

Check out all of "I Am" here.

Please follow The Wire on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:



#Kony2012 Wants You To Watch Another 20 Minute Video, Addresses Criticisms

0
0

Kony 2012Invisible Children, the group behind #Kony2012 (the most viral video of all time) have just released "Kony 2012: Part II - Beyond Famous."

The 20-minute-long, similar-looking video was made by Invisible Children CEO Ben Keesey but Jason Russell, the subject and narrator of the first film, is noticeably absent.

While criticisms of the first video are addressed right off the bat, the new video makes no mention of Russell's public breakdown last month.

Instead, Kony Part II urges viewers to "Dig deeper and turn awareness into informed action. That starts with sharing this film and continues with participating in Cover the Night, the advocacy and awareness event taking place worldwide on April 20th."

Watch the latest video below:

In response to Kony and other similar movements gone viral, the people over at sortable.com put together the below infographic which takes a look at the rise of "slacktivism" and the power of social media.

The Rise of the Slacktivist
Sortable The Rise of the Slacktivist

Please follow The Wire on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:



Peter Jackson Just Released These 7 Gorgeous Photos From The Upcoming 'Hobbit'

0
0

the-hobbit

"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" may not be coming out until December, but that doesn't mean we can't get some great images from the set.

Peter Jackson just released seven images from the prequel to his Oscar-winning "Lord of the Rings" series on Google+. We've seen most of these images before in some format—EW had a few back in August—but mostly with watermarks. 

Check out Bilbo, Gandalf and the dwarves in all their awesome glory.

"The Hobbit" returns back to the burrow ... er theaters December 14, 2012. 







See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Please follow The Wire on Twitter and Facebook.

See Also:



'The Hunger Games' Town Is Up For Sale—For Less Than You Think

0
0

Hunger Games

Do you want to own Peeta Mellark's family bakery or Katniss Everdeen's family home from "The Hunger Games"?

You're in luck, the entire town of Henry Mill Village where scenes for District 12 were filmed is on the auction block.  

The catch? Just make sure you have a cool $1.4 million lying around. 

Wade Shepherd, the owner of the 72-acre property near Hildebran, North Carolina is putting the town up for sale after the village's recent popularity among fans visiting the now vacant area. 

The small town was once home to the Henry River Manufacturing Co., a producer of cotton yarn, but has been deserted since 1977 after the mill burned down …until now.

Shepherd told the Associated Press the once quiet town won't stop buzzing with fans. 

"Day and night, they're driving through, taking pictures, getting out and walking. I'm just bombarded with people," said Shepherd.

The film passed the $250 million mark this weekend at the box office. And, North Carolina has been fast to cash in on the franchise's popularity, offering Hunger Games-esque day trips and zip line excursions.

We suggest buying the land up and reaping the benefits (pun intended) by turning it into a "Hunger Games" theme park. That would give people another reason to VisitNC, while simultaneously taking away some of the traffic from The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

Want a peek at what you'd be buying? Take a tour of "The Hunger Games" set here.

Now some bad news: See why the sequel to "The Hunger Games" may be delayed for more than 18 months>

Please follow The Wire on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:



Viewing all 101983 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images