It’s been another busy week for pop culture news. You’ll find all the film and television stories (and more) that stood out for us from this period, below.
In terms of notable industry deaths, this past week saw the passing of filmmaker Norman Jewison at 97. Jewison was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director three times in three separate decades, for In the Heat of the Night (1967), Fiddler on the Roof (1971), and Moonstruck (1987). During a diverse career covering everything from socially conscious dramas to musicals, sleek action movies and romantic comedies, he was also responsible for the likes of Jesus Christ Superstar, The Hurricane, The Thomas Crown Affair and Rollerball.
Film
The biggest movie news of the week was undoubtedly the revelation of this year’s Oscar nominees. The lead contender at the 96th Annual Academy Awards is, rather unsurprisingly, Christopher Nolan’s taut biopic Opppenheimer, with 13 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Cillian Murphy), Best Supporting Actor (Robert Downey Jr), Best Supporting Actress (Emily Blunt) and Best Director.
Oppenheimer was followed by Yorgos Lanthimos’s feminist Frankenstein tale Poor Things with 11 nominations (including Emma Stone for Best Actress), Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon with 10 nods, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie with 8, and Bradley Cooper’s Maestro with 7. The winners will be announced on the evening of Sunday, 12 March in Los Angeles.
Some other notable things about this year’s Academy Awards:
- Despite Ryan Gosling being nominated for Best Supporting Actor, and America Ferrera for Best Supporting Actress, Barbie director Gerwig and producer-star Margot Robbie failed to score nominations.
- While Killers of the Flower Moon star Leonardo DiCaprio was also shut out, his co-star Lily Gladstone became the first Native American performer to be nominated (for Best Actress).
- While Gerwig failed to score a directing nomination (she did at least receive a writing acknowledgement), Justine Triet became the eighth woman nominated for best director for French drama Anatomy of a Fall.
- Annette Benning and Jodie Foster were arguably the biggest surprise nominations, for Netflix’s endurance swin-centred Nyad (for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress respectively).
- The much talked-about Saltburn received zero nominations.
Mr and Mrs Smith, Edge of Tomorrow and The Bourne Identity director Doug Liman, with leading man Jake Gyllenhaal, have joined forces for a remake of Patrick Swayze’s punchy 80s classic Road House. This week we got a poster and first trailer for the film, which centres on an ex-UFC fighter who takes a job as a bouncer at a Florida Keys bar targeted by some very bad people.
Road House comes to Prime Video on 21 March, and that straight-to-streaming situation has led Liman to boycott promoting the film. He is disappointed at the film being denied a cinema release, as originally planned.
Finally, just a news tidbit, but talking of director and actor collaborations, Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan (who have already worked on Creed, Black Panther and Fruitvale Station together) are making a top-secret vampire movie. Watch this space.
Series
We’re still not entirely sure how we feel about Netflix’s upcoming live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Sure it looks cool and all, but is it really necessary, given how rigidly faithful it seems to the beloved Nickelodeon cartoon? Anyway, this week saw the release of a new set of Element-centred character posters, featuring the show leads, and a trailer that includes a sooner-than-expected release date: 22 February.
From good surprises to a more disappointing one. Despite making such a fuss of her franchise addition, Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday will only be Doctor Who’s companion for a single season i.e. Gibson will only appear as the Doctor’s companion this year, following her Christmas Special debut in late 2023. The 14th season of Doctor Who kicks off properly in May on the BBC (in the UK) and Disney+ in other territories. It’s unclear whether Gibson’s departure was initiated by the actress, or part of a greater creative plan.
Post Gibson, Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor will be joined by Star Wars: Andor and Jurassic World Dominion’s Varada Sethu.
At the media launch event last week for the new Showmax, which officially launches on 12 February, the streamer spoke of an upcoming Showmax data deal with a major telecoms partner. Now those details have been revealed.
Showmax and MTN are collaborating to bring three new bundled offerings to mobile data-conscious South African customers, available from 12 February 2024.
First is the Showmax Premier League LivePass, priced at R79 a month, which gives MTN customers live-streaming access to all 380 matches via Showmax’s brand-new Showmax Premier League plan for mobile. For R79 per month the offer lets football fans watch all games at the default resolution in the Showmax mobile app (subject to a Fair Usage Policy on MTN’s side). Subscribers will also have access to additional Premier League content like talk shows, documentaries and match highlights although those are at standard data rates.
Then there’s the first ever Weekly Entertainment Mobile bundle, offering 1GB of streaming data at R19 a week. Subscribers will have access to the Showmax Entertainment Mobile plan. When using Showmax’s data-saving setting (capping data at 40MB an hour), that equates to up to 25 hours of content each week.
Finally, a Showmax Monthly Entertainment Mobile bundle will retail for R59 per month including 5GB of streaming data, enough to watch 50 hours of streaming at the default mobile resolution, and 125 hours on Showmax’s lowest data setting.
Here’s a handy visual summary:
Series news bite time:
- Check out the trailer for Netflix’s Ripley, a black and white limited series that centres on Patricia Highsmith’s sociopathic protagonist. Played by Adam Scott here (previously we’ve seen the character portrayed notably by the likes of Matt Damon and John Malkovich), Ripley premieres on 4 April.
- John Boyega is set to play a younger version of Denzel Washington’s character in a prequel series set before the events of post-apocalyptic Western The Book of Eli.
- Last week we covered the rumour that Deborah Ann Woll, as Karen Page, and Elden Henson, as Foggy Nelson, would be appearing in Disney+ series Daredevil: Born Again, making the move from the original Netflix superhero hit. Now it turns out that villain Bullseye (played by Wilson Bethel), from Season 3, is returning as well.
- Finally, Netflix has confirmed that Squid Game Season 2 will arrive at some point this year.
Lifestyle
The South African qualifiers for the World Cosplay Summit have been looking for a home for a while, particularly since the pandemic wiped original host event ICON Comic & Games Convention off the South African events calendar.
Well, the good news is that WCS local qualifiers are returning this year at Comic Con Cape Town. In teams of two, entrants must perform a skit on stage as characters from Japanese pop culture. The winning pair will go on to represent South Africa at the World Cosplay Summit in Japan in August.
The 2024 World Cosplay Summit South African Preliminary Competition is taking place at the CTICC on Sunday, 28 April 2024. You can find the full rule set and FAQ here.
Out of interest, South Africa first took part in the WCS in 2018 – as the first country in Africa to be invited. Since then, the Rainbow Nation has sent two more teams to compete in the WCS Championship event in 2019, and 2023. To date, 2019 competitors Kinpatsu Cosplay and KomboKatjie have been the South Africans to progress furthest in the global showcase, reaching the Top 8 and event finals.
