- Maybe this time around, Zack Braff won't have to beg fans
for money to get his new project done. Braff, who wrote and directed 2014's “Wish
I Was Here,” which he partially funded through Kickstarter, is reportedly
working on a new film, set to direct the black comedy “Bump.” “Wish” became a
point of controversy on account of crowdfunding because it emerged that the project
would also receive funding from a New York film company and Braff himself. The
script for “Bump” was penned by Ori Guendelman and Rob McClelland and centers
around a young lawyer whose life is derailed when he’s involved in an
accidental hit-and-run. Panicked, the lawyer then spends the night attempting
to dispose of the corpse. The script was one of last year’s best unproduced
screenplays on the Black List and would be a departure from many of Braff’s
films. He’s best known for comedic roles such as the one he had on the medical
comedy “Scrubs” and for quirky, offbeat fare such as 2004's “Garden State,” a wacky
comedy co-starring Natalie Portman that has become a cult favorite. His most
recent project was “Going In Style,” the Warner Bros remake that stars Morgan
Freeman, Michael Caine and Alan Arkin, which just wrapped filming. “Going” will
be released in April, by which time he could already be well into the process
of bringing “Bump” to the silver screen. There’s no word so far on casting for “Wish,”
but it doesn’t seem to be the sort of project destined for an A-list, blockbuster-worthy
cast of stars………
- Iran: Where you can't get out if you’re a well-known
public figure who doesn’t walk in lock step with the government. Famed Iranian
artist Parviz Tanavoli is the latest to try and fail to exit the country,
saying in a posting on Facebook that he
has been barred from leaving the country while trying to travel to London. The
sculptor said he was prevented from leaving late last week when trying to board
a flight out of Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport. He wasn’t exactly
going on some secret anti-government mission, instead being scheduled to give
lectures at the British Museum and Asia House in London. Instead of being
allowed to board his flight, he was sent to Iran's main passport office, where
he says he attempted to resolve the issue, "but it was of no use."
The government hasn’t commented on his situation, but it’s similar to the tales
of several artists, poets, journalists and activists who have been detained in
Iran since moderate President Hassan Rouhani's government reached a nuclear
deal with world powers last year. The connection between those two realities is
unclear, but what is clear is that public figures who are in any sort of
creative profession may not be taking their artistic abilities outside Iran’s
borders any time in the near future………
- Now, at long last, Johnny Manziel has reached rock bottom.
At the end of a long, booze-soaked, cocaine-dusted road leading from NFL
quarterback to disheveled drug addict, he has hit the mark which alerts any
professional football player to the fact that he cannot possibly sink any
lower. Yes, he’s officially being used as a publicity-raising tool by the Arena
Football League. After the NFL suspended Manziel last week for the first four
games of the 2016 season because of a violation of the league's substance abuse
policy, the AFL seized on all of the attention afforded Manziel to publicly
proclaim that it would be a great next destination for the trouble former Texas
A&M star. "We could provide a strong platform for him to demonstrate
that he is back," AFL commissioner Scott Butera said. "We would also
work with him and provide him whatever help he needed to live a healthy
life." Yes, because his own family, two agents and the Cleveland Browns
have all tried and failed to help him put down the eight ball of coke and
bottle of Grey Goose and clean his life up, but the AFL is going to have the
answers for what ails Johnny Football. Oh, and he has that pesky domestic
assault case in Dallas still pending, so it’s fair to say that life can - and
most certainly will - still get worse for Manziel. He won't be balling in the
AFL or anywhere else any time soon, but props to arena football for trying to
garner itself attention from all of this……….
- Where’s the (cloned) beef? At West Texas A&M
University, where students have achieved a lofty standard for meat in an
unconventional way. Back in 2012, a research team from the school successfully
cloned a bull which they named Alpha. Alpha was crafted using the carcass of a
steer that rated high for having prime meat quality and scored high for having
less fat than other beef. Under U.S.
Department of Agriculture standards, this type of beef represents the best
combination of quality grade meat and yield of fat. A mere .03 percent of all
cattle meet the standard, so it’s a rare thing. West Texas A&M students
went on to close three other cows, named
Gammas One, Two, and Three, from another carcass that had the same unique
factors as Alpha. They clones were bred and 13 calves were born and as word got
out about what the WTAM team was doing, hundreds came out to hear more about it
and try the high-grade beef for themselves. The quality is so good that
agricultural experts believe the meat would fetch top-end prices in fancy
restaurants. In the competitive quest to be one of the best agricultural
schools in the nation, these advances give WTAM a leg - or four legs and two
stomachs - up on the competition. According to school officials, their primary
goals for the project are to develop genetic opportunities to improve beef and
provide unique learning opportunities for the students. Of course, selling the
artificially created meat could be a third goal and a very profitable one at
that, as long as those on the eating end of the equation don’t mind that their
juicy steak came through unnatural means………..
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