- Call it the Mulan non-musical. Apparently there was enough
singing in the original film, which dropped in 1998 and won a lot of praise for
its animated retelling of the Chinese legend of Hua Mulan, because Disney’s
upcoming remake of “Mulan” will not feature any songs. The first film included
several musical numbers written by Matthew Wilder and David Zippel, but in
transitioning the project to a live-action movie (i.e. making a movie without
having to actually come up with a new story), the studio has decided to get rid
of those musical numbers under the guidance of director Niki Caro, who said
here are “no songs right now, much to horror of my children.” Since the tale
itself is lady-centered, that seems to be where Caro and her crew are directing
their focus. “Mulan is clearly an empowered-female story but we can also do
something new in this reimagining, make it a little more muscular, stronger,
with touch of Ridley Scott,” Sean Bailey, Disney’s President of Motion Picture
Production, said of the movie. This is a growing trend for Disney, which also
elected to drop the musical numbers from last year’s Jungle Book remake,
utilizing only the song ‘The Bare Necessities’ within the movie itself and
relegating the rest of the film’s iconic songs to the end credits. Some films
have escaped that fate, including the top-earning movie from this past weekend,
“Beauty and the Beast,” which features many of its original songs. The recycled
Mulan project is due out some time next year, devoid of songs as it may be………
- Switzerland is known for its permissive banking laws, but
those laws don’t exactly apply if Swiss banks are doing things that are illegal
beyond its borders. That could totally kill the country’s rep as the cool
nation where all the rich people stash their money if they want to diversify
from their holdings in the Cayman Islands, but France doesn’t seem to give a
damn and a French court has ordered Swiss bank UBS AG to stand trial in France
for allegedly helping wealthy French clients evade the country's tax
authorities after it rejected as too pricey an out-of-court settlement offer
from prosecutors. According to a French judicial official, investigating judges
found the charges against the Zurich-based bank serious and strong enough to
send the case to trial at a later date and it didn’t take long for the bank to
fire back from its ivory, gilded tower. UBS AG said in a statement it disagrees
with "the allegations, assumptions and legal interpretations being
made" and that it will continue to "strongly defend ourselves,” the
latter part of which is clearly true because their billions of dollars in
resources should allow them to put on a good battle in a French criminal court
against charges of illegal bank soliciting and aggravated money laundering. But
the reassuring part is that nowhere in the world, at any time, do the wealthy
use their immense resources to circumvent or outright buy justice in any way………
- Much to the surprise of no one, European soccer hooligans
remain insane, inappropriate and dangerously stupid. It’s a reality reaffirmed
on a near-daily basis and today’s reminder comes from Leicester City star Jamie
Vardy, says he received death threats "walking down the street" and
also alleged that his wife was the victim of a road-rage incident after he was
rumored to be involved in a dressing-room revolt against coach Claudio Ranieri.
Vardy, currently playing for the English national team in this week's
internationals against Germany and Lithuania, was speculated to be one of a
group of Leicester City players involved in a meeting with the club's owners
hours before Ranieri was fired in the immediate aftermath of the Champions
League round of 16 first-leg defeat against Sevilla. Vardy denied those rumors
and put on a good show when it came to protesting his innocence. "The stories were quite hurtful to be
honest with you," Vardy said. "A lot of false accusations were being
thrown out there and there's nothing us, as players, could do about it.
"As soon as they were in the papers they were out there. We just had to
put it to the back of our minds and concentrate on the football." The
ugliest part of the story involved Vardy’s wife, Rebekah, who he claimed was
driving in her car with the couple’s children in the back when some overly
zealous soccer hooligans attacked the car, scaring everyone inside and proving
once more than being a soccer fan and having a reasonable perspective on life
are mutually exclusive endeavors…….
- How crazy has the past year-plus been as Mutated Orange in
Chief Donald Trump ran for, was elected as and has served as America’s leader?
Crazy enough that you can't totally discount the claims of an apparent
wack-a-doo who drove to a security checkpoint near the White House in a stolen
car and was arrested after stating "there's a bomb in the trunk,” that’s
how insane. Later, a man identified in court documents as Sean Patrick Keoughan
of Roanoke, Virginia, revised his tale and told authorities that the object in
the trunk was an asteroid and that he communicates telepathically with the
president. Keoughan approached the checkpoint at 10 p.m. Saturday and said he
had a meeting with Trump and given the current lineup of crackpots around
Trump, it’s entirely reasonable that he could not only provide great insights,
but that he’d be the most sane and reasonable person in the room. Maybe when he
approached again at 11 p.m. and made the statement about the bomb, security
should have made sure there was no bomb and after that, tried to pry out
whatever wisdom Keoughan wanted to impart to Trump. For now, Keoughan faces
charges of threatening and conveying false information concerning the use of an
explosive, which are punishable by a maximum of 10 years in prison. Prosecutors
ordered a mental health screening and Keoughan is being represented by federal
public defender Dani Jahn, but one has to wonder if America isn’t perhaps
wasting the time, talents and wisdom of America’s next Steve Bannon or
Kellyanne Conway………
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