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The Kim Kardashian Mobile Game Broke Last Night And Fans Of The Game Were Frantic

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Friday night was harsh for people trying to make it in Hollywood.

"Kim Kardashian: Hollywood," the popular new mobile game that could rake in around $85 million this year for its namesake, went offline for a little while on Friday. And people were not happy about it. 

"Kim Kardashian: Hollywood" is a choose-your-own-adventure-style game where you go on photo shoots, go on dates, and rub elbows with Hollywood elite in order to climb the ranks and become an A-list celebrity. 

But early in the evening, dreams of becoming a starlet were dashed. The game's servers crashed, and people were unable to sign in and play. 

Some fans tweeted out threats in response to the game being broken.

Some people found solace elsewhere. 

Others worried about their future.

And some laughed at the misfortune of others.

Soon the hashtag #fixthekardashiangame was trending on Twitter.

Finally the maker of the game stepped in to put the fans at ease.

And the game was working again ... eventually.

And one lucky fan seems to have missed all the commotion. 

It was a bad night for fans of "Kim Kardashian: Hollywood," but as of this morning, all seemed right in the world and the game was working again. Well, for almost everyone.

SEE ALSO: I played the Kim Kardashian iPhone game, and now I finally get it

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VOTE NOW: What Are The World's Best Business Schools?

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harvard business school graduationIs an MBA costing two years of your life and $150,000 or more really worth it?

The question is more controversial than ever, with cheaper online degree programs growing rapidly as well as free online business courses providing important skills. Given powerful new technology and fundraising techniques, it may also be easier to start a business than ever. But with increasing global competition and a tough job market, business school may hold the key to getting ahead, providing specialized knowledge, valuable contacts, and an impressive resume booster.

Of course, choosing the right business school makes all the difference.

For Business Insider's annual ranking, we are surveying the people who matter most: professionals in diverse fields who have MBAs or who have experience hiring or managing MBAs. If you have these qualifications, then please take our survey below. We will filter the survey based on qualifications of respondents to obtain the optimum sample.

Our survey asks several general questions about business school as well as the big question: which schools will really help your career.

SEE ALSO: Check out last year's full list of the World's Best Business Schools

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The First 'Homeland' Season 4 Trailer Is A Giant Reset Button For Series

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homeland season 4.JPG

After teasing season four earlier this week, the first new trailer for "Homeland" is here. 

If you dropped out of the Showtime series because the show was starting to become more of a soap opera between Brody (Damian Lewis) and Carrie (Claire Danes) than a CIA operative, it looks like producers have finally hit the reset button.

At the TCAs (Television Critics Association), producers announced the show will primarily focus on Carrie Mathison in Pakistan with Brody's daughter and family not returning. 

Specifically, producer Alex Gansa says the theme of season four will be the "public and private costs of keeping America safe."

"Homeland" returns to Showtime Sunday, Oct. 5.

In case you're wondering, it's teased that Carrie does have her baby.carrie baby homeland

Here's the first poster for the new season released by Showtime:homeland poster season 4

Here are a few more images Showtime released for season four:

Mandy Patinkin will return as Saul Berenson working for an independent contractor.saul homeland season 4

Suraj Sharma ("Life of Pi") will join the cast as Aayan.suraj sharma homeland season 4

And here's one more image of Carrie.carrie homeland season 4

SEE ALSO: Why no one is watching NBC's best-rated show, "Hannibal"

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22 Lessons From Stephen King On How To Be A Great Writer

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stephen king

Renowned author Stephen King writes stories that captivate millions of people around the world and earn him an estimated $17 million a year.

In his memoir, "On Writing," King shares valuable insights into how to be a better writer. And he doesn't sugarcoat it. He writes, "I can't lie and say there are no bad writers. Sorry, but there are lots of bad writers."

Don't want to be one of them? Here are 22 great pieces of advice from King's book on how to be an amazing writer:

1. Stop watching television. Instead, read as much as possible.

If you're just starting out as a writer, your television should be the first thing to go. It's "poisonous to creativity," he says. Writers need to look into themselves and turn toward the life of the imagination.

To do so, they should read as much as they can. King takes a book with him everywhere he goes, and even reads during meals. "If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot," he says. Read widely, and constantly work to refine and redefine your own work as you do so.

2. Prepare for more failure and criticism than you think you can deal with.

King compares writing fiction to crossing the Atlantic Ocean in a bathtub, because in both, "there's plenty of opportunity for self-doubt." Not only will you doubt yourself, but other people will doubt you, too. "If you write (or paint or dance or sculpt or sing, I suppose), someone will try to make you feel lousy about it, that's all," writes King.

Oftentimes, you have to continue writing even when you don't feel like it. "Stopping a piece of work just because it's hard, either emotionally or imaginatively, is a bad idea," he writes. And when you fail, King suggests that you remain positive. "Optimism is a perfectly legitimate response to failure." 

3. Don't waste time trying to please people.

According to King, rudeness should be the least of your concerns. "If you intend to write as truthfully as you can, your days as a member of polite society are numbered anyway," he writes. King used to be ashamed of what he wrote, especially after receiving angry letters accusing him of being bigoted, homophobic, murderous, and even psychopathic.

By the age of 40, he realized that every decent writer has been accused of being a waste of talent. King has definitely come to terms with it. He writes, "If you disapprove, I can only shrug my shoulders. It's what I have." You can't please all of your readers all the time, so King advises that you stop worrying. 

4. Write primarily for yourself.

You should write because it brings you happiness and fulfillment. As King says, "I did it for the pure joy of the thing. And if you can do it for joy, you can do it forever."

Writer Kurt Vonnegut provides a similar insight: "Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about," he says. "It is this genuine caring, not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style."

5. Tackle the things that are hardest to write.

"The most important things are the hardest things to say," writes King. "They are the things you get ashamed of because words diminish your feelings." Most great pieces of writing are preceded with hours of thought. In King's mind, "Writing is refined thinking."

When tackling difficult issues, make sure you dig deeply. King says, "Stories are found things, like fossils in the ground ... Stories are relics, part of an undiscovered pre-existing world." Writers should be like archaeologists, excavating for as much of the story as they can find.

6. When writing, disconnect from the rest of the world.

Writing should be a fully intimate activity. Put your desk in the corner of the room, and eliminate all possible distractions, from phones to open windows. King advises, "Write with the door closed; rewrite with the door open."

You should maintain total privacy between you and your work. Writing a first draft is "completely raw, the sort of thing I feel free to do with the door shut — it's the story undressed, standing up in nothing but its socks and undershorts."

7. Don't be pretentious.

"One of the really bad things you can do to your writing is to dress up the vocabulary, looking for long words because you're maybe a little bit ashamed of your short ones," says King. He compares this mistake to dressing up a household pet in evening clothes — both the pet and the owner are embarrassed, because it's completely excessive.

As iconic businessman David Ogilvy writes in a memo to his employees, "Never use jargon words like reconceptualize, demassification, attitudinally, judgmentally. They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass." Furthermore, don't use symbols unless necessary. "Symbolism exists to adorn and enrich, not to create an artificial sense of profundity," writes King.

8. Avoid adverbs and long paragraphs.

As King emphasizes several times in his memoir, "the adverb is not your friend." In fact, he believes that "the road to hell is paved with adverbs" and compares them to dandelions that ruin your lawn. Adverbs are worst after "he said" and "she said" — those phrases are best left unadorned.

You should also pay attention to your paragraphs, so that they flow with the turns and rhythms of your story. "Paragraphs are almost always as important for how they look as for what they say," says King. 

9. Don't get overly caught up in grammar.

According to King, writing is primarily about seduction, not precision. "Language does not always have to wear a tie and lace-up shoes," writes King. "The object of fiction isn't grammatical correctness but to make the reader welcome and then tell a story." You should strive to make the reader forget that he or she is reading a story at all.

10. Master the art of description.

"Description begins in the writer's imagination, but should finish in the reader's," writes King. The important part isn't writing enough, but limiting how much you say. Visualize what you want your reader to experience, and then translate what you see in your mind into words on the page. You need to describe things "in a way that will cause your reader to prickle with recognition," he says.

The key to good description is clarity, both in observation and in writing. Use fresh images and simple vocabulary to avoid exhausting your reader. "In many cases when a reader puts a story aside because it 'got boring,' the boredom arose because the writer grew enchanted with his powers of description and lost sight of his priority, which is to keep the ball rolling," notes King.

11. Don't give too much background information.

"What you need to remember is that there's a difference between lecturing about what you know and using it to enrich the story," writes King. "The latter is good. The former is not." Make sure you only include details that move your story forward and that persuade your reader to continue reading.

If you need to do research, make sure it doesn't overshadow the story. Research belongs "as far in the background and the back story as you can get it," says King. You may be entranced by what you're learning, but your readers are going to care a lot more about your characters and your story.

12. Tell stories about what people actually do.

"Bad writing is more than a matter of shit syntax and faulty observation; bad writing usually arises from a stubborn refusal to tell stories about what people actually do — to face the fact, let us say, that murderers sometimes help old ladies cross the street," writes King. The people in your stories are what readers care about the most, so make sure you acknowledge all the dimensions your characters may have.

13. Take risks; don't play it safe.

First and foremost, stop using the passive voice. It's the biggest indicator of fear. "I'm convinced that fear is at the root of most bad writing," King says. Writers should throw back their shoulders, stick out their chins, and put their writing in charge. 

"Try any goddamn thing you like, no matter how boringly normal or outrageous. If it works, fine. If it doesn't, toss it," King says.

14. Realize that you don't need drugs to be a good writer.

"The idea that the creative endeavor and mind-altering substances are entwined is one of the great pop-intellectual myths of our time," says King. In his eyes, substance-abusing writers are just substance-abusers. "Any claims that the drugs and alcohol are necessary to dull a finer sensibility are just the usual self-serving bullshit."

15. Don't try to steal someone else's voice.

As King says, "You can't aim a book like a cruise missile." When you try to mimic another writer's style for any reason other than practice, you'll produce nothing but "pale imitations." This is because you can never try to replicate the way someone feels and experiences truth, especially not through a surface-level glance at vocabulary and plot.

16. Understand that writing is a form of telepathy.

"All the arts depend upon telepathy to some degree, but I believe that writing is the purest distillation," says King. An important element of writing is transference. Your job isn't to write words on the page, but rather to transfer the ideas inside your head into the heads of your readers.

"Words are just the medium through which the transfer happens," says King. In his advice on writing, Vonnegut also recommends that writers "use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted."

17. Take your writing seriously.

"You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or despair," says King. "Come to it any way but lightly." If you don't want to take your writing seriously, he suggests that you close the book and do something else. 

As writer Susan Sontag says, "The story must strike a nerve — in me. My heart should start pounding when I hear the first line in my head. I start trembling at the risk."

18. Write every single day.

"Once I start work on a project, I don't stop, and I don't slow down unless I absolutely have to," says King. "If I don't write every day, the characters begin to stale off in my mind ... I begin to lose my hold on the story's plot and pace."

If you fail to write consistently, the excitement for your idea may begin to fade. When the work starts to feel like work, King describes the moment as "the smooch of death." His best advice is to just take it "one word at a time."

19. Finish your first draft in three months. 

King likes to write 10 pages a day. Over a three-month span, that amounts to around 180,000 words. "The first draft of a book — even a long one — should take no more than three months, the length of a season," he says. If you spend too long on your piece, King believes the story begins to take on an odd foreign feel.

20. When you're finished writing, take a long step back.

King suggests six weeks of "recuperation time" after you're done writing, so you can have a clear mind to spot any glaring holes in the plot or character development. He asserts that a writer's original perception of a character could be just as faulty as the reader's.

King compares the writing and revision process to nature. "When you write a book, you spend day after day scanning and identifying the trees," he writes. "When you're done, you have to step back and look at the forest." When you do find your mistakes, he says that "you are forbidden to feel depressed about them or to beat up on yourself. Screw-ups happen to the best of us."

21. Have the guts to cut.

When revising, writers often have a difficult time letting go of words they spent so much time writing. But, as King advises, "Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler's heart, kill your darlings."

Although revision is one of the most difficult parts of writing, you need to leave out the boring parts in order to move the story along. In his advice on writing, Vonnegut suggests, "If a sentence, no matter how excellent, does not illuminate your subject in some new and useful way, scratch it out."

22. Stay married, be healthy, and live a good life.

King attributes his success to two things: his physical health and his marriage. "The combination of a healthy body and a stable relationship with a self-reliant woman who takes zero shit from me or anyone else has made the continuity of my working life possible," he writes.

It's important to have a strong balance in your life, so writing doesn't consume all of it. In writer and painter Henry Miller's 11 commandments of writing, he advises, "Keep human! See people, go places, drink if you feel like it."

SEE ALSO: This Stephen King Novel Will Never Be Printed Again After It Was Tied To School Shootings

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Shakira Broke A Facebook World Record

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Colombian singer-songwriter Shakira broke a record this week: She became the first person in the world to garner 100 million fans on Facebook. 

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, she set the record after posting a picture of herself at Maracanã Stadium in Brazil last week. She performed during the closing ceremony of the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

The photo collected more than 3.5 million likes in just four days. 

The singer posted a video on Facebook, thanking her fans. 

 

And to celebrate the momentous event, Facebook put together a series of infographics to give people a better idea of what 100 million people looks like (if they all shook their hips like she does, they'd generate enough energy to power 10 homes for one year!) and how Shakira got to be the most-liked person on the social network.

 

No word on whether she used Facebook's new celebrity-only app, called Mentions, to help her get to 100 million likes. 

SEE ALSO: The Kim Kardashian mobile game broke, and fans of the game were frantic

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'Dog Park' Is One Of The Most Bizarre Games Ever Made And I Can't Wait To Play It

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Dog Park video game

In the world of video games, you can be a ninja, a bird, a basketball player, and even a goat.

Now, you can add "dog" to the list.

That's thanks to a new virtual game called "Dog Park," created by New York-based game designer Kevin Cancienne.

The goal of the game is to be a dog. You play, wrestle, dig holes, bounce around, and otherwise act cute. That's the entire point of the game.

"'Dog Park' is a pretty big departure for me," Cancienne told Kill Screen Daily in a recent interview. "Not only is it in a genre and format I haven't worked in much — it's a 3-D arcade game with lots of animation and physics — but I’ve let the free-flowing, organic, bottom-up qualities I appreciate about dog play come through."

Unlike "Goat Simulator," which is more like an old-school skating game, gameplay here is rather simple. In "Goat Simulator" you can make your goat backflip and jump and crash into things, all in the name of grabbing more points and beating your high score.

But in "Dog Park," there are no points to rack up or things to kill. You basically just play. Like a dog. 

"When it comes to play, the dog’s only goal is to keep on having more fun," Cancienne said. 

The game will be presented at No Quarter, a yearly exhibition hosted by the NYU Game Center, in September.  

SEE ALSO: The Kim Kardashian mobile game broke, and fans of the game were frantic

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Why FX Gives Louis CK Way More Freedom Than HBO Ever Would

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Louie season 4 stand up comedian comic Louis CKIn 2006, comedian Louis C.K. had an ill-fated HBO sitcom titled "Lucky Louie."

It was the network's first (and last) show to be filmed before a live studio audience with a multiple-camera setup. 

So it wasn't exactly surprising when, a few years later, Louis C.K. shot a half-hour sketch comedy pilot for HBO, but the network decided not to pick up.

louie director directing Louis CKShortly after, FX — the Fox-owned network that is home to "Sons of Anarchy" and "American Horror Story" — green-lighted "Louie," a dark half-hour comedy about a divorced comedian with two kids living in New York. The show is written, directed, edited, and produced by the show's creator, Louis C.K.

After premiering in 2010, "Louie" slowly picked up steam, won over fans and critics, and will soon be headed into a fifth season.

"Louie" casting director Gayle Keller, who has collaborated with Louis C.K. on the majority of his projects since 2001, tells Business Insider that working on an FX show (which is basic cable) has been so different from their short-lived life at premium cable network, HBO.

"HBO is a little bit more involved, just like any other network I’ve worked for ABC, CBS, NBC  and everyone’s just more involved in the scripts and the casting. But in 'Louie,' it’s really just Louis C.K..

At FX, Louis has such a special relationship with John Langraf [FX president]. They just worked out this really nice deal for him that Louis can kind of have anonymity, write the scripts, direct them, and edit them without really any involvement from the network."

Having no involvement from a network is "unusual," adds Keller. "Because Louis produces the show with his production company, Pig Newton, we’re our own entity. We kind of just do our thing, and then just hand it over to FX."

Keller thinks the network's hands-off approach is a good one.

"Creatively, it’s very productive and it’s proven successful for this show. It allows for a creative connection with the director and the writers and executive producer because we’re such a small group of people working together. Now that we’ve been doing it for four years together, we just know the flow and we know what Louis wants, what he likes, and it’s so much more productive. 

Louis is just so clear of his vision. He knows exactly what he wants 95% of the time, so we all manage to find people who work well together and can make that happen."

SEE ALSO: Here's How 'Louie' Lands Such Amazing Guest Stars

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Beyoncé Teases The 'Fifty Shades Of Grey' Movie Trailer

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Well, this was unexpected. 

The first teaser trailer for "Fifty Shades of Grey," the adaptation of the steamy romance novel that became a phenomenon in 2012, came online via Beyoncé's Instagram account.

It appears as if the singer's music will appear in the film. The teaser plays along to a slowed down version of "Crazy in Love."

Based on the trilogy by E.L. James, the film will star Jamie Dornan ("Once Upon a Time") and Dakota Johnson.

The first full trailer will be out Thursday. 

 

SEE ALSO: The first photo of Dornan and Johnson in "Fifty Shades of Grey"

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Here's How Hasbro Decides Which Toys It Will Turn Into Movies

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bumblebee transformers age of extinction

"Transformers: Age of Extinction" is currently dominating at theaters. 

The Michael Bay-directed sequel is now the top-grossing movie of the year with more than $750 worldwide, and that's only after two weeks of release.

It's one of a few Hasbro brands that has been adapted to the big screen alongside G.I. Joe and Battleship. 

With several more brands set to get the movie treatment in the next few years, we spoke with Hasbro Chief Marketing Officer John Frascotti to find out exactly how the company selects which of its toy lines get adapted to the big screen and how you can possibly turn a board game into a movie.

"We look for those brands that have story and character at their foundation because inevitably for any type of storytelling format, whether it's a movie, a television show, a digital comic ... it has to have great story and great characters at it's foundation," says Frascotti.

Hasbro ToysThat's why Hasbro has chosen brands like Transformers, G.I. Joe, and My Little Pony which have all resonated with audiences for generations. 

All together, the "Transformers" franchise has brought in more than $2.5 billion worldwide. The two "G.I. Joe" movies combined have generated more than $600 million at the box office.

"When you look at brands like Transformers and G.I. Joe they actually have a lot of lore and storytelling behind them already. So, in the case of Transformers, it's a 30-year-old brand and it had a long history of storytelling," said Frascotti. "Very similar, G.I. Joe who was founded in the '60s. Since then there's been a lot of storytelling and development in terms of comic books and television shows and movies and all types of rich storytelling. In those cases, where there's already a lot of storytelling in place, I think the roadmap is a little more evident."

After the success of "Transformers" in 2007, Frascotti says Hasbro continued to pitch other brands while studios began approaching them as well.

According to Reuters, it's low risk strategy for Hasbro. The toy company pays around $1 million to develop script ideas and if a studio wants to go through with a film, Hasbro gets paid back the developing fee. After the film is in theaters, Hasbro reportedly receives 5% of the money a studio makes from theaters.

"We talk to our many relationships in Hollywood about ideas that we have for our brand and we also get approached by many creative stewards for ideas that they have for our brands," says Frascotti. "What's most important; however, is that we work collaboratively once that initial contact is made so the creative process is very much a collaborative process between our brand people and creatives here along with the creatives in Hollywood."

jem hasbro 1980s cartoonSince joining the company in 2008, Frascotti says he can't recall a Hasbro movie idea a studio has turned down. 

Next in line is a live-action adaptation of '80s children television series "Jem" which will be directed by Jon Chu. Hasbro is also working on bringing its popular card game Magic the Gathering to the big screen.

Of course, that doesn't mean the company is just pitching whatever brands come to mind. 

"We're very selective. It's not a shotgun approach," he says. "We don't throw a bunch of things at a wall and see what sticks. We do a lot of creative development ourselves before we even have discussions with third parties." 

Not all of Hasbro's blockbuster ideas have churned out box-office gold. Just look at 2012 board game adaptation "Battleship." Despite a huge cast of characters in Liam Neeson, Alexander Skarsgard, and singer Rihanna along with a well-known game, the $220 million movie (without ad costs) made $300 million at the box office, receiving mostly poor reviews.

While "Battleship" sunk the reality of other board game adaptations for a while, it hasn't halted them all together. Hasbro has plans to bring at least two more of its board games to life: Ouija, with Universal which has continued to get its release date pushed back, and Candy Land at Sony with Adam Sandler. 
candy land

The idea of bringing a board game to life may not seem like a hit movie, but Frascotti points out how inspiration for films can come from just about anywhere. 

"In cases like Ouija for example, what's essential is that there's a brand beneath it that has a lot of potential for storytelling," says Frascotti. "So you have brands like Harry Potter that come from books. You have other brands that are founded in movies like James Bond. You have 'Pirates of the Caribbean' which started out as a theme park ride and you have other properties that come from either comics or brands." 

"It really is a wonderful opportunity to give our fans yet another opportunity to experience the brand in another format," he adds. "Today's generation of consumers expect multi-platform multi-screen opportunities to go deeper in the brands they love." 

SEE ALSO: Why Ouija and Candy Land are getting made into movies

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5 Major Things We Know About 'Breaking Bad' Spinoff 'Better Call Saul'

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better call saul

More news about "Breaking Bad" spinoff "Better Call Saul" came out over the weekend after creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould spoke at the Television Critics' Association (TCA) Press Tour.

We now know exactly when the show will take place and who will star in the series alongside Bob Odenkirk.

AMC also revealed two new images for the show.

Here's everything we know about "Better Call Saul."

1. What will it be about:better call saul goodman

According to AMC, the show will be a prequel that watches Saul's transformation from Jimmy McGill to the lawyer we know. Here's the official synopsis:

"The series is set six years before Saul Goodman (Odenkirk) meets Walter White. When we meet him, the man who will become Saul Goodman is known as Jimmy McGill, a small-time lawyer searching for his destiny, and, more immediately, hustling to make ends meet. Working alongside, and often against, Jimmy is “fixer” Mike Erhmantraut (Banks), a beloved character introduced in Breaking Bad. The series will track Jimmy’s transformation into Saul Goodman, the man who puts “criminal” in “criminal lawyer.” The series’ tone is dramatic, woven through with dark humor."

2. When will it take place:saul goodman better call saul

The series will take place around 2002. Since AMC's strict definition of the series as a prequel goes against what Gould recently said about "Better Call Saul." 

Gould told the New York Post the timeline will be flexible allowing it to go back and forth between different time periods to possibly bring back old "Breaking Bad" characters.

Odenkirk also told us he'd love for the show to be a prequel and sequel.

3. Who will be in the cast:

Joining Odenkirk will be "Breaking Bad" star Jonathan Banks reprising his role of Mike Erhmantraut.

jonathan banks breaking bad

Michael McKean ("This is Spinal Tap") will play Saul's brother Chuck.michael mckean

Rhea Seehorn ("Whitney") will play Kim.rhea seehorn

Patrick Fabian ("The Last Exorcism") will be Hamlin.patrick fabian

Michael Mando ("Orphan Black") has been cast as Nacho.michael mando

4. How many episodes will it be?

Season one will have 10 episodes while season 2 (yes, it was already renewed!) will consist of 13.

5. When will it premiere?

Although no set date has been confirmed yet, AMC has said "Better Call Saul" will be released early 2015.

SEE ALSO: HBO completely blew its chance to air "Breaking Bad"

AND: A ridiculous rule is allowing "True Detective" to go up against "Breaking Bad" at the Emmys

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'Sex Tape' Is One Of Cameron Diaz's Worst-Opening Movies Ever

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sex tape movieIt was not a good weekend for Cameron Diaz at the box office. 

Her new movie "Sex Tape" with Jason Segel made $15 million over the course of three days. 

The Sony Pictures comedy about a married couple's sex tape getting shared over Apple's iCloud with friends and family cost an estimated $40 million to make. 

It's one of Diaz's worst-performing opening weekends to date. Her last movie, "The Other Woman," with Leslie Mann and Kate Upton debuted to $24.7 million in April. 

Overall, the film came in fourth this weekend at the box office behind new sequels "The Purge: Anarchy" ($28.4 million) and Disney's "Planes: Fire and Rescue" ($18 million).

"Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" dominated for the second weekend in a row scoring $36 million. The film has now made $240.5 million worldwide and has helped Fox become the first studio this year to hit $1 billion at theaters.

SEE ALSO: Here's what "The Avengers" sequel is all about

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J.J. Abrams Shows Off First Footage Of X-Wing In 'Star Wars: Episode VII'

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jj abrams x-wing

Monday morning director J.J. Abrams showed off the first footage of the X-Wing from "Star Wars: Episode VII." 

Usually Abrams prefers to keep his future projects top secret; however, the big slow reveal of a beat-up X-Wing Fighter plane comes during the final week of a raffle giving fans a chance to appear in Episode VII.

jj abrams x wing

Eight weeks ago, Disney and Lucasfilm launched a campaign with fundraising site Omaze to support Star Wars: Force for Change,” an initiative launched by the Mouse House to find “creative solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems.”

This campaign will help raise money for United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund’s (UNICEF) Innovation Labs

For a chance to appear in the film, fans are asked to donate anywhere from $10-$50,000 through Omaze for a chance to win an all-expense trip to London with a friend to shoot a scene for the sequel. 

Abrams announced that in addition, fans will also have the opportunity to win an advanced screening of "Star Wars: Episode VII" if they donate this week.

"By supporting 'Force for Change' you can win a private screening of the movie in your hometown and invite 20 of your closest friends and family," says Abrams.

Check it out below:

Note: It's been pointed out to us that the ship above looks more like a Z-95 Headhunter. Disney's official release refers to the ship above as an X-Wing. 

SEE ALSO: Read more on the contest for a chance to be in "Star Wars: Episode VII"

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'I'm A Blowfish' And 10 Other Crazy Quotes From Kanye West's New GQ Interview

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Kanye West GQ

Kanye West is on the cover of the August issue of GQ and in true form, has some amazing comments about everything from being a blowfish — not a shark  to life with his "dinosaur" Kim Kardashian. 

The interview doesn't disappoint. Check out some of the highlights.

1. On his outfit for the GQ interview:

"I hope we don't see no paparazzi today. Because I'm still getting acquainted with these jogging pants I threw on. Like, 'That's not my statement!'"

2. Kanye West is a blowfish, so don't call him a shark:

"I'm a blowfish. I'm not a shark, I'm a blowfish. So that perfect example about me hitting my head [he walked into a street sign and it was caught by paparazzi], it's like a blowfish. I wasn't coming out of my house going to a paparazzi's house to attack them. I'm defending my family in front of my own house. I'm defending my name as someone's screaming something negative at me. That's a blowfish. People have me pinned as a shark or a predator in some way, and in no way am I that. I wouldn't want to hurt anyone. I want to defend people. I want to help people."

3. The toilets at his wedding to Kim Kardashian weren't gold as reported, but "neutral" to match the venue:

"The bathrooms — that usually would be a porta-potty — were wrapped in a fabric that was neutral to match the fort ... the same materials that were used to cover the bathroom, we said, 'Let's just use that [to cover a bar at the reception], because this is all we have to make the bar look better.' Which it did, in the end."

4. Kanye West compared how celebrities are treated to "blacks in the '60s" during his wedding toast.

"What I talked about in it was the idea of celebrity, and celebrities being treated like blacks were in the '60s, having no rights, and the fact that people can slander your name. I said that in the toast. And I had to say this in a position where I, from the art world, am marrying Kim. And how we're going to fight to raise the respect level for celebrities so that my daughter can live a more normal life. She didn't choose to be a celebrity. But she is. So I'm going to fight to make sure she has a better life.

I'm here to fight for the re-education of what celebrity is. To say, 'Yes, we are celebrities, but yes, we're also innovators, we're also inventors, we're also thoughtful.'"

5. On the A-list wedding seating chart:

"Wow, Carine Roitfeld is seven seats down from Kim. Farnaz [Farjam], the producer of the Kardashians and the producer of The Real World, is four seats down from [director] Steve McQueen. And four seats, because in between them is Hosain [Rahman] from Jawbone." This is what I talked about. Do you realize what that means for those people to be in that close of a proximity to each other?"

6. Speaking of Carine Roitfeld [former editor-in-chief of Vogue Paris] ...

"Carine Roitfeld is the Walt Disney of what Tumblr is today. She is the Kanye West of what Tumblr is today. She's the single most important person to what street style is today. And she was at the wedding seven seats down from Kim, who is one of the number one fashion plates of today."

7. Kim Kardashian is his "dinosaur":

"Love is infectious. You know, God is infectious—God flowing through us and us being little-baby creators and s---. But His energy and His love and what He wants us to have as people and the way He wants us to love each other, that is infectious. Like they said in Step Brothers: Never lose your dinosaur. This is the ultimate example of a person never losing his dinosaur. Meaning that even as I grew in cultural awareness and respect and was put higher in the class system in some way for being this musician, I never lost my dinosaur.

8. What attracted him to Kim Kardashian:

Kim is this girl who f------ turns me on. I love her. This is who I want to be next to and be around. And then people would try to say, 'Well, you know, if you're a musician, you should be with a musician, and if you want to design, you need to be with a girl from the design world.' I don't give a f--- about people's opinions. Because when a kid falls in love with an airplane or a bike or a dinosaur — especially if you're an only child and it's not because of the book that the sibling was reading — it's like, f---, you mean to tell me that the dinosaurs walked the earth and stuff like that?! That's amazing! You mean to tell me that these giant multi-ton crafts can fly that fast and that loud, and they can flip, and there's danger, the possibility of them exploding? That's f------ cool! You mean to tell me that this girl with this f------ body and this face is also into style, and she's a nice person, and she has her own money and is family-oriented? That's just as cool as a f------ fighter jet or dinosaur! And just as rarely seen...

Kim is the type of girl that, her entire life, if you were in school with her, most people would be studying and up late nights, but for some reason she would have the skill set to go and grab the one book, turn to the exact page, and just magically say, 'That's the exact answer.' Or she could wink at the person who had done all the work and get it done anyway. And the point of life is getting s--- done and being happy."

9. He's smart, duh:

"People know I'm smart. And people know that, whether it's SNL or Jimmy Kimmel, it's a trend to take the piss out of celebrity — just as much of a trend as wearing a gray hoodie or driving a Prius."

10. His single "New Slaves" contains "the best rap verse of all time":

"That song that I do feel is the best rap verse of all time — 'New Slaves.' The second verse. I argue that it's the best rap verse of all time. It's the Coming to America or Anchorman of a verse. You know, it's got the funny shit. It's got the antagonization. It's got patterns. It's got social and political consciousness. It's got struggle. It's got bravado. It's everything that a rap verse is supposed to be."

11. On what's cool:

"I don't like walking around with people thinking I'm doing uncool s---, because there's nothing I'm doing that's uncool. It's all innovative. You just might not understand it yet. But it's cool. Family is super cool. Going home to one girl every night is super cool. Just going home and getting on the floor and playing with your child is super cool. Not wearing a red leather jacket, and just looking like a dad and s---, is like super cool. Having someone that I can call Mom again. That s--- is super cool."

SEE ALSO: Kim Kardashian's New Video Game Is Set To Rake In An Insane Amount

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Kanye West Says Kim Kardashian Is Responsible For Their Wedding Photo Going Viral

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Kim Kardashian and Kanye West's official wedding photo, released via Kim's Instagram account, has received a whopping 2.36 million "likes" since she posted it two months ago  making it the most-liked photo on the app ever.

West says his bride — not him — is behind the photo going viral.

"It's because of Kim," West says in an amusing new interview with GQ magazine. "Meaning there's no photo that I would have put up by myself, or next to one of my smarty friends, that would have got that amount of likes."

West says he thinks the snapshot got "that amount of likes" because it features "a flower wall from the same guy who does the Lanvin shows, it has a couture Givenchy dress, and Givenchy tuxedo in it ... communicating the highest level of creativity."

But the now-famous shot didn't come easy.

West has said it took four days to perfect the picture before Kim posted it to the public  after Annie Leibovitz dropped out as the couple's wedding photog just days before the extravagant ceremony.

“Let me tell you something about that kiss photo that my girl put up … this was pissing my girl off during the honeymoon, she was exhausted because we worked on the photo so much because Annie Leibovitz pulled out right before the wedding. I think that she [Leibovitz] was, like, scared of the idea of celebrity.

Because Annie pulled out, I was like, ‘Okay, I still want my wedding photos to look like Annie Leibovitz,’ and we sat there and worked on that photo for, like, four days because the flowers were off-color."

But it was all worth it, West says, because he got to marry his "dinosaur."

"Like they said in Step Brothers: Never lose your dinosaur," West explained to GQ. "This is the ultimate example of a person never losing his dinosaur. Meaning that even as I grew in cultural awareness and respect and was put higher in the class system in some way for being this musician, I never lost my dinosaur."

He continued, "You mean to tell me that this girl with this f------ body and this face is also into style, and she's a nice person, and she has her own money and is family-oriented? That's just as cool as a f------ fighter jet or dinosaur! And just as rarely seen."

SEE ALSO: 'I'm A Blowfish' And 10 Other Crazy Quotes From Kanye West's New GQ Interview

MORE: Kim Kardashian's Most Instagrammed Picture Ever Took 4 Days To Stage

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John Oliver Brilliantly Tears Apart America's Broken Prison System

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John Oliver prison

In a 17-minute segment on his new show "Last Week Tonight," comedian John Oliver ripped apart America's broken prison system and railed against Americans for not caring more about prisoners.

His rant covered a lot of ground. If you don't have time to watch the whole video, here's what he focused on:

The growing population of prisoners in the U.S.: America's prison population has been exploding since the war on drugs led to tough-on-crime laws being implemented in the 1980s and 1990s. The new mandatory minimums for even low-level drug offenses helped America's prison population grow to be the biggest in the world. As Oliver points out, the U.S. now has more prisoners than even China, whose population is four times that of the U.S.

Racism: Not only have America's harsh drug laws not solved the country's drug problem, but they also affect black people disproportionately. Oliver notes that despite the fact that black people use drugs at roughly the same rate as white people, black people are 10 times more likely to be imprisoned for drug offenses.

Solitary confinement: The practice of isolating a prisoner from human contact is a controversial one. Solitary confinement has been known to have serious mental and physical repercussions. Some prisoners report changes in vision, difficulty navigating surroundings, and prolonged depression. Inmates are often kept in 10 by 7 foot cells.

Sexual assault: Oliver points out that sexual assault is a big problem in America's prison system. In its most recent report on the issue, the Bureau of Justice Statistics said there were nearly 9,000 allegations of sexual victimization in prisons and jails in 2011 alone. As Oliver highlights in video clips from "Friends," Office Space," and even the kids show "SpongeBob SquarePants," this has become a running joke in America.

Food: Private contractors aiming to turn prison into a business have started providing food to some prisons. The goal is cutting costs, and it's led to prisons running out of food and finding maggots in meals, Oliver says.

Healthcare: These contractors have also taken over healthcare operations in some prisons across the country. Although prison healthcare costs have plummeted in some states as a result of this, Oliver says deaths have significantly increased and conditions have deteriorated to a remarkable extent. One inmate who had a C-section in jail told Al Jazeera America's "America Tonight" that doctors used sugar to treat her wounds.

Privatization: Allowing contractors to run entire prisons presents an even broader set of problems, according to Oliver. The companies might have a financial incentive to keep people incarcerated and run the prisons as leanly as possible, so pay and staffing levels plunge and conditions sometimes become inhumane. One private prison company lost its contract with a facility in Mississippi after investigators found that physical and sexual abuse was rampant in the facility.

Oliver also called out Americans for looking the other way and ignoring the pervasive problems.

"The rest of us are much happier completely ignoring it, perhaps because it's so easy not to care about prisoners," he said.

Check out the full video below:

(h/t The Marshall Project)

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Kim Kardashian App Takes Over Government Agency's Twitter Account

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Kim Kardashian

The Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Water is apparently a "C-List celebrity" in the digital world of reality television star Kim Kardashian. 

On Monday evening, the official EPA Water Twitter account posted a message that appeared to be generated from "Kim Kardashian: Hollywood." In the game, users attempt to replicate Kardashian's meteoric rise to stardom

EPA Water's tweet proclaimed the agency's newly-acquired "C-List" status and included a link to download the game in the iTunes app store. An EPA spokesperson did not immediately respond to an email from Business Insider asking about the post. As of this writing, the tweet has been posted for approximately an hour-and-a-half. 

View a screengrab of the tweet below. 

epa kardashian tweet

SEE ALSO: The Kim Kardashian game broke, and fans of the game were frantic

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The 10 Most Important Things In The World Right Now - CLONE

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Prince George

Good morning! Here's what you need to know for Tuesday.

1. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Tuesday that had an agreement had been reached with Ukrainian separatists to recover the bodies of victims from the downed Malaysia Airlines passenger jet. The bodies are on a train headed for the Netherlands, where most of the passengers cam from, Reuters says. The plane's two black boxes will also be handed over to Malaysian authorities. 

2. A piece of wreckage from the Malaysia Airlines passenger jet that was shot down in eastern Ukraine last week  "bears telltale marks of small pieces of high-velocity shrapnel," The New York Times reports. The damage "is consistent with the effects of a fragmenting warhead carried by an SA-11 missile," the Times noted, which is "the type of missile that American officials have said was the probable culprit in the downing of the plane."

3. Netflix said its second-quarter profits more than doubled, rising to $71 million from $29 million a year earlier. The streaming service added 1.7 million users between March and June with popular original series like "Orange is the New Black" and "House of Cards" helping to drive subscriptions.

4. Prince George, son of Duke and Duchess of Cambridge William and Kate, celebrates his first birthday on Tuesday. Pictures of the young royal on an outing with his parents at the Natural Museum of History in London were released in honor of the big day. 

5. Indonesia is expected to name its new president on Tuesday, following an election where both candidates claimed to have won. Unofficial results show that Jakarta governor Joko Widodo beat former army general Prabowo Subianto. 

6. Yahoo bought mobile ad company Flurry for an undisclosed sum on Monday. Yahoo said in a press release: "By joining Yahoo, Flurry will have resources to speed up the delivery of platforms that help developers build better apps, reach the right users, and explore new revenue opportunities," Yahoo said in a press release."

7. The chief executive of Tesco — Britain's biggest supermarket chain and the world's third biggest retailer — quit after the company was forced to issue its second profit warning in two years. Philip Clarke, 54, will be replaced Dave Lewis, 49, the executive of the personal care division at Unilever. 

8. Starbucks says some of its stores sourced chicken from Shanghai Husi, the factory that previously supplied food to McDonald's and KFC in China before it was shut down on Sunday amid allegations it used expired meat. McDonald's said that Husi also sold meat to its branches in Japan. 

9. Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), an often deadly respiratory illness that's related to the SARS, was detected in air samples from a Saudi Arabian barn with an infected camel. The discovery is worrying because it suggests the virus can be transmitted through the air, making it more likely to spread. 

10. South Korean officials confirmed Tuesday that a heavily decomposed body found in a plum field south of the capital last month belonged to billionaire Yoo Byung-un, head of the family that owned the operator of a ferry that sank in April and killed more than 300 people, the Guardian reports. The businessman went missing after the disaster and "had been the subject of the country's largest manhunt," the news site said.  

And finally...

Robert Downey Jr. has been named by the highest-earning actor for the second year in a row on Forbes' annual list of the world's most powerful celebrities, rolling in an estimated $75 million between June 2013 and 2014. 

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Why People Love Working With 'Avengers' Director Joss Whedon

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joss whedon avengers Chris Evans Samuel L. Jackson Tom Hiddleston

Fans like Joss Whedon for the sharp dialogue and fresh characters and stories found in creations ranging from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" to "Marvel's The Avengers."

Actors appreciate a smart script, too, but they also say the 50-year-old film geek is a good director. We've pulled some insight on his directing from "Joss Whedon: The Biography" by Amy Pascale, which comes out on August 1.

It starts with Whedon's confidence and ability to inspire confidence in others.

On the start of "Buffy," the director assured actor Anthony Stewart Head that, though network suits wouldn't appreciate the show, it would by word of mouth develop a worldwide fanbase. “He’s certain of his beliefs. He sticks to them. He doesn’t waver,” Head told Pascale.

This means he only works on projects he believes in, which is why he utterly trashed the original "Avengers" script.

Beyond writing good scripts, Whedon is willing to adapt scripts on the fly based on feedback and new ideas. This fosters a “collaborative spirit across the whole cast and the whole crew that kept everything running very smoothly," producer Kevin Feige told Pascale. Not surprisingly, Whedon's ideas tend to win out.

 “When Joss directs, he has a way of saying no that you don’t care that your idea was rejected,” actor Nathan Fillion told Pascale. “ ‘I have an idea. What if I do it like this, and I jump around and I take my time, and do a little—,’ and he says, ‘Oh, that’s a great idea. Or . . .’ His idea is so much better, realistic, and clever. And then, I go, ‘Oh my God, that’s brilliant, yes! Yes, of course that’s how I should do it.’" 

Whedon takes time to develop characters with actors, which was key to getting so many to fit together on "The Avengers."

He is apparently a good actor and knows how to give good guidance to actors.

 "Stanley [Kubrick] was not as good a communicator with actors as Joss is," actor Adam Baldwin, who worked with both directors, told Pascale. "Stanley would just have you do it again and yell at you that you were lame and bad and need to be a better actor, whereas Joss would say, ‘Well, try this’ or ‘Try that,’ and he would care."

“Joss came to my rescue on many occasions to get me in the right spot," actor Mark Ruffalo told Pascale. “A lot of directors don’t; they can give you ideas, and they explain it to you, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that what they’re telling you is actable, and a lot of times you’ve got to translate what the director’s saying into making that actable."

Recognizing early in his career that "leadership is something that is earned," Whedon also has a reputation for working hard.

Whedon's "Avengers" is the third-highest-grossing movie ever and a well-reviewed one, too. His next directing project is summer 2015's "Avengers: Age of Ultron."

READ MORE: Check out the new Joss Whedon biography

SEE ALSO: 8 actors who are incredibly easy to work with

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Blake Lively Introduces E-Commerce Site In A Letter Where Every Sentence Is Weirder Than The One Before It

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Preserve.us

Celebrity Blake Lively has joined the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow and Jessica Alba and launched her own twee and kitsch e-commerce site called Preserve.Us.

No one really knows what Preserve.Us is; we know it's part-blog and part-store (you can buy $10 salt) but Lively took to the site this morning to write a letter to her visitors in hopes of sharing what she wants to accomplish with the launch of her site.

After reading the letter, we're even more confused.

Here it is (and you can visit Preserve.Us here):

Sitting down to write this editor’s letter has been the hardest thing I've done yet on my Preserve journey. I’m more intimidated than I should probably admit. I’m no editor, no artisan, no expert. And certainly no arbiter of what you should buy, wear, or eat.

I am hungry, though... not just for enchiladas.

I'm hungry for experience.

I'm comfortable with the knowledge that I'm not a teacher, but rather, a student. I don't do any one thing perfectly. I do a lot of things though. Some well, some not-so-well.

I've been fortunate enough to travel. I've been all over the world and all over this country.  There's so much life teeming out of every pocket of this nation. There are people creating magic with their bare hands. Creating things which land at that amazing intersection between art and function.

I've found that when approached with a curious spirit, people are kind, they’re generous, they answer, if asked. They'll often open their doors and hearts and let you in. Because people with wisdom have stories to tell, and want them heard.

Everyone has a story to tell.

This idea is the cornerstone of Preserve.

So here at Preserve there are people, stories, essays, videos and goods which hopefully inspire your home, your style and your tongue. There's expensive stuff. Inexpensive stuff. And everything in between. But their value, is up to you. We may romanticize it, calling it treasure. What we're really saying is, we see worth on every level.

The function of Preserve is part magazine, part e-commerce hub, part philanthropic endeavor and above all, a place to showcase the power of imagination, ingenuity, quality, and above all, people.

Preserve is a creative space.  A space which honors both tradition and innovation -- a space which honors the future, while having a love affair with the past...

As for how we operate, we haven't looked at Preserve as a new website, but rather as a new street. A sort of greatest hits of "Main Street, USA". While the whole world races to keep up with technology, we tighten our laces, join the race, but our end goal is to preserve what's already there.

A pretty lofty goal, a pretty lofty statement, but a group of determined hearts behind it.

As I wrap up, I have to recognize who Preserve really is now, before we've met you. "Preserve" isn't me. It's a handful of the most dedicated, soulful, wise, patient people I've ever had the honor of working alongside. People who've filled the pages of this site with a force of passion, talent and integrity. I'm grateful for our countless late nights building a home out of pixels, light and imagination.

We have a true team at Preserve, one that I acknowledge and thank my lucky stars for more often than I tell them. Although we may be tight knit, there will be no one more influential to the direction of Preserve, than you.

We've created this space to multiply our experiences. So Preserve.us isn't just the U.S. It's all of us.

With excitement and sincerity,

Blake

 

NOW WATCH: 15 Things You Should Do Before You Turn 30

 

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'The Walking Dead' Creator Uses This Productivity Hack To Get More Done

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Robert Kirkman, the creator of "The Walking Dead" series, is the executive producer of the blockbuster television show and the writer of the bestselling monthly comic it's based on.

Kirkman also writes two other monthly comics, is developing two new TV shows, and is in post-production for "Air," the first film he's written.

"It's all chaos," Kirkman tells Business Insider. But, he adds, "I kind of thrive in chaos."

To maintain his creative energy, he creates a false sense of urgency for himself. He explains what a typical day of writing looks like for him:

I'll be like, "I want to write 12 pages today," but I really only need to write like four or five. But if I try to write 12, I might write six or seven. What that does though, is it gives me a crushing sense of failure at the end of every day.

So I'm like, "Oh my God, I didn't get those 12 pages done. I suck! What is wrong with me?" and the next day I work harder because I have to make up for that unrealistic deadline I didn't make.

It's not the most graceful productivity hack, but this self-imposed mind-game helps him focus intensely on his writing when things like press interviews and visits to the set of his show take up hours of his day.

If he's writing a comic and doesn't scare himself into finishing as quickly as he can, then writing about zombies goes from being fun to being a chore. "If I don't finish it in seven days, it's going to take 20, because I'm like, 'Ugh! I'm sick of this! I need to move on,'" he says.

To avoid this, he relies on a cycle of setting a goal he can't make, chastising himself for being inadequate, and then working harder the next day to feel better again.

"And so it's probably not too good for my psyche, but as far as productivity goes, it seems to help," he says, laughing.

SEE ALSO: Here's How 'The Walking Dead' Creator Plans Out The TV Show And Comics For Years To Come

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