‘Netflix, Amazon killing creativity’
Film and TV drama is booming, with the streaming services Netflix, Hulu and Amazon offering audiences hit after hit on demand. But, according to the acclaimed director Mike Leigh, this comes with an unfortunate side effect: That young British filmmakers are being held back by a powerful “new breed of executive”. “It is just not on,” said Leigh, 75. “The next lot of young directors face such a long wait to get any project off the ground. That’s my biggest worry. I’ve talked to two of them in the last few weeks and one said she expected it to take six years to get her first feature together. That’s terrible, and it is because you have got this whole new breed or culture of executives and producers who will not simply press the button, and say ‘go for it and see what happens’.”
Leigh, speaking to the Observer before the launch of the DVD of his latest film, Peterloo, laments the arrival of a complex commissioning hierarchy, although it does not affect his own work. A veteran of 21 films, Leigh is renowned for brooking no creative interference and is keen to champion creative freedom for those who follow him. “I’m not talking about my own experience with Amazon, who backed Peterloo and who behaved impeccably; the problem really exists for younger filmmakers,” he said. It is, he claims, inexperienced, untested directors who are expected to cater to commissioning editors’ whims. “By suggesting a director works with a particular team, or asking why you are not using a female cinematographer, they are behaving in a traditional Hollywood, Louis B Mayer-way.”
Parody of Yalitza draws criticism
A television personality for the Mexican-based Televisa network is facing criticism for dressing up in brownface and wearing a prosthetic nose to make fun of indigenous Mexican actress Yalitza Aparicio. Televisa’s Yeka Rosales posted photos and videos of herself on social media wearing brown skin paint in an apparent parody of Aparicio, who attended the Oscars after being nominated for best actress for her role in Roma.
The stunt, designed to promote Televisa’s season premiere of the comedy show La Parodia, highlights the racism some scholars say indigenous people in Latin America still face in the media. In the photo, Rosales wore a dress similar to the one Aparicio wore at the Oscars, donned a straight, black wig and made exaggerated facial expressions typically used to stereotype indigenous people.
In an email to the Associated Press, Televisa spokesman Alejandro Olmos said the network strongly condemns any form of racism or discrimination. “We do not believe that the production of La Parodia engages in this type of practice,” Olmos said, adding that some of the comments were made in “bad taste” and will be edited from the show. Televisa later deleted a tweet with a video of Rosales in brownface mimicking Aparicio.
Rosales drew immediate condemnation on social media in Mexico and the US. “It’s disgusting. I’m kind of shaken up about it,” said Jennie Luna, a professor in Camarillo.
New 007 film title not Shatterhand?
Barbara Broccoli, who along with her half-brother Michael G Wilson is the lead producer on the Bond movie series, has indicated that Shatterhand is not the title of the upcoming 007 film, currently known as Bond 25. According to Bond news site MI6 HQ, Broccoli signed a piece of fan art for India Grace that included the word Shatterhand, adding the words “It’s not” and an arrow. This would appear to set to rest rumours that the working title under which Bond 25 had been listed in industry publication Production Weekly would become its official one. Shooting is due to start at Pinewood studios on April 6, and there had been longstanding rumours that Shatterhand would be Bond 25’s official title. The name comes from an alias used by series supervillain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in Ian Fleming’s 1964 Bond novel, You Only Live Twice. The much delayed release has been pushed back to April 2020 amid reports of extensive script rewrites. Bourne Ultimatum writer Scott Z Burns has been hired to rework the screenplay for Daniel Craig’s fifth and final outing as 007.
