Sunday, August 1, 2021

Bleeding Fool

Bleeding Fool

“Woke” Olympics are Bombing and the Advertisers Are Getting Mad

Posted: 31 Jul 2021 03:30 PM PDT

 

NBC’s primetime coverage of the Tokyo Olympic Games “have continued to plummet downward,” dropping over 50% from the network’s coverage of the 2016 Rio Games. Overall, Olympic viewership is down roughly 40% across the whole NBC family of networks sharing broadcast duties. Now analysts believe that the "get woke, go broke" is now officially in effect, and the decline is so large that the network is now dealing with "advertiser anxiety," assuaging corporate anxieties that the millions spent on advertisements and sponsorships during Olympic coverage were not worthwhile.

 

 

Monday’s primetime NBC broadcast “lost 53% of viewers from coverage of the first weeknight primetime during the 2012 London Olympics, with drops even greater among the advertiser-coveted group of adults aged 18-49.” NBC had anticipated for a rebound in ratings following the Olympic Opening Ceremony, which experienced a 33% dip in viewership from 2016. Regrettably, a turnaround has not occurred. Instead, the network is "averaging 14.7 million viewers" in primetime, a "49% decrease compared to the corresponding night from the 2016 Rio de Janeiro games."

 

According to Variety, NBC counted on major stars like gymnast Simone Biles to help spur nightly ratings, but she pulled out of the women's team event on Tuesday, citing mental issues, leaving very little in NBC's primetime lineup to draw viewers. Now advertising partners are getting mad.

 

 

"Traditional TV viewing for the Summer Games has declined noticeably, and, a decision by popular gymnast Simone Biles to take herself out of the team competition early Tuesday has spurred advertiser anxiety, according to executives familiar with negotiations between NBC and sponsors," Variety reported Wednesday. One media buying executive told the outlet that the lackluster ratings are "clearly are not what NBC, our agency or our clients were looking for," and advertisers are demanding "make goods," or free advertising elsewhere to make up for the lost audience.

 

 

After the women’s soccer team embarrassingly took a knee during the national anthem in protest of racial inequality in their Olympic opener against Sweden, which they lost, the women’s basketball team strategically announced that they had no plans to promote social justice during their competition appearances. That didn’t stop them from doing here at home all year.

 

 

How many times have Americans told these activist athletes and sports teams that they do not want social justice and politics intertwined with their games? They’ve been yelling about it for years, and ratings have plummeted — just ask the NFL or the NBA. These self-centered, arrogant athletes and club owners still ignore what the actual fans want and continue to force their PC nonsense down our throats. And when it backfires, as it usually does, they blame COVID or offer up some other weak explanation.

 

 

Athletes that are spoiled, arrogant, haughty, and anti-American activists? I’m not sure why more people aren’t watching.

The post "Woke" Olympics are Bombing and the Advertisers Are Getting Mad appeared first on Bleeding Fool.

DC Comics & Walmart Team Up For ‘My First Comic’ Program

Posted: 31 Jul 2021 12:55 PM PDT

 

DC, the home of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and the World's Greatest Super Heroes, is inviting young readers into the world of super-hero storytelling with My First Comic, a program debuting in 500 participating Walmart stores across North America and on Walmart.com.

 

With graphic novels among the fastest-growing categories in book sales, My First Comic is an ideal way to exercise the imaginations as well as the reading and learning skills of readers ages six through nine. Each 48-page two-in-one "flipbook" features stories spotlighting DC characters, plus activity pages containing mazes, puzzles, matching games, and more.

 

 

"My First Comic is a great way to extend popular DC characters to a new audience that's just learning to read, providing a gateway into other age-appropriate DC content, like our middle grade graphic novels," said Nancy Spears, VP – Revenue, DC. "DC's partnership with Walmart has been instrumental in presenting our characters and stories to a mass-market audience, and now parents who are reading our Walmart four-pack bundled comics and 100-page Giants can share the DC Super Hero experience with their children."

 

My First Comic – Batman is the debut title in the line, featuring classic stories from DC's Batman Adventures series. "No Asylum" is written by Ty Templeton with art by Rick Burchett, Terry Beatty, and Lee Loughridge. "Who Am I" is written by Dan Slott, with art by Templeton, Beatty, and Loughridge. The issue also includes "Fowl Play," by Beatty and Templeton, with colors by Zylonol, and "Free Man," written by Templeton, with art by Burchett, Beatty, and Loughridge.

 

 

Basketball champion and global icon LeBron James and the characters of Warner Bros. Looney Tunes take center stage in My First Comic – Space Jam: A New Legacy. This 48-page flipbook features three original stories, beginning with Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck donning the costumes of Batman and Superman for their own super-hero showdown in "Bat-Bunny vs. Superduck," by writer Sholly Fisch, with art by Phillip Murphy and Carrie Strachan. The book also spotlights the high-speed hijinks of Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner in "Welcome Home," written by Derek Fridolfs, with art by Robert Pope, Scott McRae, and Mohan Sivakami.

 

On the flip side, Derek Fridolfs, Robert Pope, Scott McRae, and Silvana Brys pit Bugs Bunny against Marvin the Martian (with a little help from Space Jam: A New Legacy's Al G. Rhythm) in "Spaced Out," followed by a preview of the Space Jam: A New Legacy original graphic novel, available now at Walmart, as well as at participating comic book retailers, book stores, and digital platforms.

The post DC Comics & Walmart Team Up For ‘My First Comic’ Program appeared first on Bleeding Fool.

Animated Dark Knight Gets Even Darker in Batman: The Long Halloween Pt 2

Posted: 31 Jul 2021 10:00 AM PDT

 

Batman: The Long Halloween is a pivotal story for the Dark Knight. The 13-issue series from Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, a must-have on every Bat-fan's bookshelf, is typically summed up as Two-Face's origin story. But it's so much more. It's a glimpse into Batman's early years as he learns the ropes. It's the suspenseful mystery of a merciless murderer nicknamed the Holiday Killer. It's the saga of Gotham City's descent into a strange, even darker place. And it's the terrible tragedy of Harvey and Gilda Dent.

 

The classic book has now been adapted in two stunning feature-length animated films. Part One hit stores earlier this summer, prompting much discussion of its nuanced take on a young Bruce Wayne and plenty of fans to declare it as one of DC's best animated movies. With Part Two releasing digitally today, the creators and cast sat down with DCComics.com to talk about getting into character, embracing the darkness and the heart of The Long Halloween.

 

 

 

"This is a crime film, rather than just being a superhero movie," says Butch Lukic, supervising producer. "Batman is in a situation that's causing him to up his ante as a detective. I've wanted to do it for a long time, taking Batman back to his original character and the way he started out, and the dark, noir feel of the style."

 

Writer Tim Sheridan agrees. "It's an important story," he says. "It led the way for a lot of future Batman stories. A lot of the Batman mythology that we know and love today is at the least inspired by The Long Halloween."

 

Rogues' Gallery

That mythology includes Batman's rogues' gallery of villains, almost all of whom make an appearance in the two-part film. The Joker, Poison Ivy, Scarecrow, Solomon Grundy and Calendar Man each get their time in the spotlight.

 

"In the book, there's a beautiful splash of all the villains coming together in a fight," Sheridan says. "We were able to bring that to life even more and give everyone their moment and let them shine. That moment is key to what The Long Halloween represents, which is a transition from the Gotham City of old, corrupt and run by the gangsters, to the new Gotham City plagued by costumed villains."

 

 

While Catwoman is typically counted among their ranks, in Batman: The Long Halloween she acts more as an anti-hero and ally to the Dark Knight.

 

"(The story) is about the two sides of the coin, the good side and the bad side," Sheridan says. "Selina in the movie, like a cat, walks that line in a way that lets you feel like she could break either way. This is early days for Batman, and early days for Selina as well. Who knows what lies in store for her?"

 

Lukic recalls the casting process for Selina Kyle and the other major characters. "Naya Rivera was really a stand-out—we knew she'd be Catwoman," he says. "Billy Burke playing Gordon was another no-brainer, he just had that Gordon voice. Troy Baker can really do the Joker justice.

 

"Josh Duhamel was another big choice. He's definitely Harvey Dent. You know the guy right off the bat."

 

Harvey and Gilda

 

 

While The Long Halloween is an iconic Batman book, it's also the essential story of Harvey and Gilda Dent. "The relationships between people who love each other and the relationships between family are at the core at what The Long Halloween is," Sheridan says.

 

Julie Nathanson, who plays Gilda Dent, knew only that the book was beloved when she accepted the role. She waited to read the graphic novel until after the film was completed.

 

"I really wanted to make her as real as possible to me without getting mired in any other iterations, or even the source material itself," she explains. "I wanted to rely on Tim Sheridan's writing, which is so wonderful. Really what attracted me to Gilda is, she's complex. She's so deeply inner. Her inner world, her emotional world, is complicated, and she's in so much pain."

 

 

Nathanson notes that a lot of what the audience learns about Gilda is through her troubled relationship with Harvey.

 

"You start to get a sense of her emotional disconnectedness and her desire for greater connection," she says. "You can tell she very much wants to connect with her husband and loves him, but she's guarding herself against her own pain. I just found her to be such a rich and emotional character, such a beautifully drawn character."

 

Actor Josh Duhamel agrees that their life at home reveals a lot about Harvey Dent as well. "You get more of an insight of who he was and how he came to be," Duhamel says. "You can see this guy who has some psychological issues at first, and then it becomes more apparent that this guy's not well. When he becomes Two-Face it's because of the straw that broke the camel's back."

 

The Birth of a Super-Villain

 

 

For Duhamel, Two-Face was part of Harvey from the beginning.

 

"The beauty of it is that you can see he was Two-Face even before he was Harvey Dent," he says. "He was a man just keeping it under the surface, and it was bubbling up at certain points. There are moments when he snaps a little bit, but is able to pull it back.

 

"He is the same person, a bit of a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in some ways. He has a persona at work and at home. But there's something dark and sort of dangerous about him that he's able to keep at bay until it's unleashed and he becomes Two-Face."

 

The different personas are distinct not just in their actions, but in their voices. Duhamel considered the evolution from Harvey to Two-Face as physical as it was psychological.

 

 

"I approached him as if the acid had actually damaged his vocal cords," he explains. "I wanted it to feel like he was physically affected by that. It was funny because once we found it, we knew that was the voice. I tried to do it where I didn't damage my own vocal cords."

 

Duhamel believes the darkness of the character and the story itself make Batman: The Long Halloween stand out among Batman films.

 

"There's something really cool about the tone of these movies," he says. "There's something film noir-ish, something adult about it that I like. They got to make it a little darker. It's scary at times, it's real, it's graphic, it's violent.

 

"It's a subversive Batman you don't often get to see. I love LEGO Batman. This is not LEGO Batman."

 

Part One and Part Two of Batman: The Long Halloween are now available on digital platforms. Look for Part Two on Blu-ray on August 10, 2021.

The post Animated Dark Knight Gets Even Darker in Batman: The Long Halloween Pt 2 appeared first on Bleeding Fool.

Sony’s ‘Kraven the Hunter’ Film May Have Found Its ‘Calypso’

Posted: 31 Jul 2021 05:25 AM PDT

 

Sony Pictures is reportedly eyeing Jodie Turner-Smith for the role of Calypso in Kraven the Hunter.

Set to open in theaters in January 2023, Kraven the Hunter is Sony’s next installment in their own cinematic universe, SPUMC (Sony Picture’s Universe of Marvel Characters), and will feature Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the title role.

Kraven the Hunter is one of Spider-Man’s most recognizable villains, and he tends to have his own group of supporting players, one of them being Calypso.

 

Introduced in The Amazing Spider-Man #209 in 1980 by Denny O’Neil and Alan Weiss, Calypso is a voodoo priestess who is often an ally and love interest of Kraven. Calypso was the main villain in Todd McFarlane’s five-issue opening arc “Torment,” whose first issue sold 2.65 million copies and was at the time the best-selling comic book of all time. Calypso has been featured in both Spider-Man: The Animated Series and The Spectacular Spider-Man as well as video game adaptations of Spider-Man 3 and Spider-Man: Shattered Dimension.

No other details are known about the character or who else the studio is considering, but the role of Calypso is expected to be a major one in the film.

 

 

via Screen Rant

The post Sony’s ‘Kraven the Hunter’ Film May Have Found Its ‘Calypso’ appeared first on Bleeding Fool.
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