- Apparently
director George Miller isn't a fan of massive
paychecks and even more massive budgets. Miller, who directed “Mad Max: Fury Road” last year and saw his
reboot of the dystopian future franchise gross more than $375 million at
cinemas worldwide, has publicly ruled himself out of making another Mad Max movie. Working with Tom Hardy
and Charlize Theron must not have been as fun as it would seem because Miller
is adamant that he’s done. "I won't make more Mad Max movies," he said. "Fury Road... was forever getting completed. If you finish one in
a year, it's considered a leap of faith. Start, stop, start again. I've shot in
Australia in a field of wild flowers and flat red earth when it rained heavily
forever. We had to wait 18 months and every return to the U.S. was 27 hours.
Those Mad Maxes take forever. I
won't do those anymore." Miller has lamented the taxing nature of
the project before, saying that such movies are difficult to make because of
the extreme nature of the stunts. "If you're
doing stunts for 138 days, there's always that dread in the pit of your stomach
that you could really hurt someone badly,” Miller said last year. “We had a
fantastic crew and incredible stunt riggers and there was a big, big emphasis
on safety. But even so, fatigue sets in and you're in a remote location with
all the heat and the dust, so there's always a risk.” He grew tired of psyching
himself up for the process, so now someone else will take the massive paycheck
and the oversized demands and expectations that come with it………
- In
the United Kingdom, it rains. A lot. A popular saying in Scotland is that if
you can’t see the hills, it’s because it’s raining and if you can see the
hills, that means it’s about to rain. But even for the U.K., this is a bit
extreme. The good people of Eglwyswrw, Wales need a break and they need it now,
on the heels of nearly 80 consecutive days of rain. Yes, for nearly three
months, these poor Welshmen and women have had to deal with precipitation
falling from the sky and while you can be optimistic and point out that at
least it’s not snow, one local official insists that the relentless rainfall is
beating down the psyche of even these tough people. “It is grinding people down
both physically and psychologically,” John Davies said. Davies good-naturedly
noted that the local sheep are tough and surviving just fine, but even they’ve
had no chance to dry out. Eighty straight days of rain is believed to be
Britain’s longest in 92 years and those looking for a silver lining in the
clouds that literally will not go away in Eglwyswrw have to take solace in the fact
that there hasn’t been much flooding because the village sits 423 feet above
sea level. Still, the damp days have made life über-difficult and hurt business
for farmers and construction workers. Even local umbrella salesman Brian
Llewellyn said that sales of wellington boots and umbrellas have plateaued because
it rains so much in the village that everyone is all stocked up on the products
he offers……….
- Not
all of Major League Baseball hablas Ingles, so the league has issued a decree
that all 30 of its teams hire full-time Spanish translators for the 2016 season
in conjunction with a new program negotiated between the commissioner's office
and the players' union. A joint directive has been sent out mandating that
teams which do not already have full-time translators on staff get one rather
than relying on coaches or other uniformed personnel to serve as interpreters
for Spanish-speaking players who are not fluent in English during media
obligations. Known as the "Spanish-language translator program,'' it is
intended to make the same opportunities available to players on all 30 clubs
and the new, full-time translators are expected to be in place by Opening Day
and will be employees of the individual clubs -- not Major League Baseball. The
need for such translators in clubhouses is underscored by MLB figures showing that
nearly 25 percent of players on 2015 Opening Day rosters came from primarily
Spanish-speaking countries. The biggest producer of MLB talent among those
nations is the Dominican Republic with 83 players, followed by Venezuela (65),
Cuba (18), Puerto Rico (13), Mexico (9) and Colombia (4). Given the amount of
money that most teams make from local TV deals and national broadcasting
revenues, chipping off a few dollars for someone who is able to help players
who either haven’t or are having trouble learning to speak English well really
shouldn’t be an issue for big- or small-market teams alike……..
- They’ll
never suspect you, bro, you’re a guy who regularly transports hundreds of
people safely halfway around the world, flying a giant tin can through all manner
of turbulence and landing it on a narrow strip of asphalt in New Jersey. That
has to be what Dallas resident Anthony Warner was thinking when he decided to
become a commercial airline pilot who tried to smuggle in nearly $200,000 in
undeclared currency at New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport. Of
course, had he been successful we wouldn’t be having this conversation right
now, so you know that this fool was arrested shortly after arriving as a
passenger on a flight from Mumbai, India. Perhaps thinking he had inside
knowledge of the system based on his job, Warner allegedly toted $196,000
wrapped in newspaper along with 10 rings, four sets of earrings and other
assorted jewelry. He was charged with bulk cash smuggling and making false
statements and released on a $100,000 bond, but his troubles may just be
getting started. He could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted on both
counts and if all of that wasn’t bad enough, this fool is being represented by
the federal public defender's office. That a bit peculiar, as anyone engaged in
business shady enough that they are entrusted with carrying nearly one-fifth of
$1 million would presumably have the financial backing or wherewithal to at
least afford one of those creepy, ambulance-chasing legal eagles pitching their
services to those in need via commercials that run nonstop during daytime
television shows every day of the year. Or maybe Warner can explain all of this
away by insisting that despite being someone who routinely flies folks into and
out of the country, he thought the limit on how much cash a person is allowed
to legally transport into the United States is $1,000,000, not that paltry
$10,000 we all thought was the ceiling……….
No comments:
Post a Comment