The thread was 10 tweets long—verbose by X standards—and 219 words, but there was just one word that stuck out. Threat. The message, posted on the @SAG-AFTRA account, summed up everything the actors union had fought to get in the tentative agreement with Hollywood studios. In the context of the …
Read More »Imagine If Joe Biden’s AI Executive Order Were Inspired by 'The Terminator'
Science fiction, for decades, has been about predicting the future—and warning against it. Even as Star Trek envisioned the wonders of flip phones and iPads, Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash warned of the dystopian nature of the metaverse. Throughout 2023, as artificial intelligence has creeped its way into every corner of …
Read More »Taylor Swift and Beyoncé Are Resurrecting the American Movie Theater
Christopher Nolan is a Taylor Swift fan. This is an actual sentence typed in the year 2023. Why does this matter? you ask? Simple, Nolan is a longtime champion of the cinematic experience, and during a recent event at the City University of New York he noted that Hollywood studios …
Read More »TikTok-Hyped Halloween Decor Is Out of Control
What I’m about to tell you sounds like the kind of thing made by an AI story generator designed to spit out the final segments of the local 11 o’clock news, but here goes: A few weeks ago, firefighters in Glens Falls, New York, got called to the scene of …
Read More »Here’s What Marvel’s 'Daredevil' Overhaul Means for Streaming
Trouble, it seems, is afoot in the Mouse House. Daredevil: Born Again, the reboot of Netflix’s canned Daredevil series, is reportedly getting an overhaul. Marvel didn’t just recast a side character or have someone punch up a script, no. Instead, it dismissed head writers Chris Ord and Matt Corman and …
Read More »The Truth About the Taylor Swift, Jets Game, Google Search Conspiracy Theory
Taylor Swift, as WIRED has reported in the past, rules the internet. She’s one of the most Googled celebrities in the world. Her search engine optimization, or SEO, in industry parlance, is on fire. She’s a Tumblr kid turned titan of industry (her Eras Tour, after it broke Ticketmaster, made …
Read More »Netflix Just Shipped Its Last DVD. The Algorithms Won
Collectively, separately, Netflix’s film nerds mourn. On X/Twitter, and in think pieces, and in private moments, they let out a collective sigh knowing that they’ll never see a red-wrapped DVD in their mailboxes again. For some 25 years, the period after Netflix all but obliterated Blockbuster and most mom-and-pop video …
Read More »Streaming TV Is Entering Its Jock Phase
Gather ‘round, ye readers, I have a question for you: Are you ready for some football? Worldwide, where football is what Americans call “soccer,” there’s always someone, somewhere ready to answer “yes” to this question. In the US, where the start of fall means the National Football League is in …
Read More »Why Is Everyone Asking Men About the Roman Empire?
If the question hasn’t hit your For You page or Twitter feed (or group chat) yet, it will: How often do you think about the Roman Empire? The provenance of the query is a little blurry, but it maybe started with this tweet (which also references an Instagram Reel) or …
Read More »The Creator of 'Andor' Is Fired Up About the Streaming Data Wars
Frank D. Gilroy, the father of Andor creator Tony Gilroy, went on strike in 1960. The elder Gilroy, a Bronx-born screenwriter who would later win a Pulitzer Prize for his play The Subject Was Roses, was part of the union effort that secured residual payments for screenwriters for television reruns. …
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