As the new year gets under way, the traditionally protective Walt Disney Co. will have to deal with an expected onslaught of Mickey Mouse parodies, A.I. knockoffs, mockeries and likely rather explicit variations as the iconic character slips into the public domain.
Steamboat Willie, the 1928 short that effectively launched the empire that Walt built, can be used by anyone and everyone as of January 1. The character's legal status has long been contested and is probably not something that Disney looks forward to further debating. Yet, in a new year that also sees Virginia Woolf’s Orlando: A Biography, Peter Pan, Charlie Chaplin’s The Circus, Buster Keaton's The Cameraman and Tigger from AA Milne’s The House at Pooh Corner now in the public domain, the issue cannot be avoided. >>>Different Variations Of Mickey |
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Box Office Due For Rebalancing - As Deadline's Anthony D’Alessandro has noted, the domestic box office, starved of product by overlapping strikes, will likely be trimmed by a billion dollars in 2024. So would the film industry be healthier if most of that pruning occurred at the very top? >>>Michael Cieply's Column
Oscar Hopeful Gets Date - Cohen Media Group has set Italian filmmaker Matteo Garrone’s latest film, Io Capitano, for U.S. release on February 23. It has been shortlisted as Italy’s submission for the Best International Feature Oscar. >>>Italy-Belgium-France Co-Production
J.K. Rowling's Broadway Bucks - J.K. Rowling has pocketed an £8.25M ($10.5M) paycheck after the stage adaptation of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child proved to be a post-pandemic crowd pleaser. HPTP Holdings, the parent company for Rowling’s theatrical interests, paid out the dividend as productions reopened doors to audiences. >>>Revenues Up 300%
'Bunk'd' Gets Bumped - Bunk’d, Disney Channel's longest-running live-action series, will end its run with the conclusion of its current seventh season. The final installment of 10 new episodes will air in 2024. >>>Production Under Way |
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QUOTABLE
“Untrue” - 'So You Think You Can Dance' co-creator Nigel Lythgoe on Paula Abdul's sexual harassment allegations |
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Snoop Dogg is joining NBCUniversal’s coverage of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 this summer. The rapper will be on the ground providing regular reports for the primetime show beginning July 26 on NBC and Peacock.
Soap vet Brian Gaskill will take on the role of “Seth” for The Young and the Restless. Previously, he was on All My Children from 1995-97, then went on to Port Charles (2001-03), The Bold & The Beautiful (2003-04), As the World Turns (2005) and Guiding Light (2007-08). |
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More News
🐎 Gary Oldman spy thriller series Slow Horses has been renewed for a fifth season on Apple TV+.
🛰️ Investors had a mixed initial reaction to the merger of EchoStar and Dish Network. The reunion of the companies, first announced last August, closed on Sunday. Founder and executive chairman Charlie Ergen sees the combination as a milestone in his effort to pivot from pay-TV to wireless. 🥖 France's National Cinema Center reported a nearly 19% year-over-year leap in theater admissions in 2023, to 181 million. Still, the national film body notes that the figure is around 13% below the average level in the pre-Covid years from 2017 to 2019. Last year was the first since the onset of the pandemic that cinemas did not face any government health restrictions.
🏈 The 2023 Monday Night Football season is now officially the most-watched MNF season of the ESPN era, which began in 2006. The 20 games in 2023 averaged 17.1 million viewers, up 33% year-over-year.
🎶 John Williams walked back retirement talk, commenting on previous reports that he’d put down his baton permanently. Williams, 91, told The Times newspaper: “If a film came along that I was greatly interested in, with a schedule that I could cope with, then I wouldn’t want to rule anything out. Everything is possible." |
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Trending
 Emilia Clarke, best known for playing Daenerys Targaryen in all eight seasons of Game of Thrones, has been awarded an MBE.
🔻 The Masked Singer viewers were left stunned on Saturday evening when one of the masked singers in the UK version of the hit show was revealed to be music legend Dionne Warwick – and she was sent home after just one episode. |
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Obituaries
🕯️ British actor Tom Wilkinson, who won a Bafta for his work in The Full Monty and was Oscar-nominated for Michael Clayton and In The Bedroom, died at 75 on Saturday. No cause was given. 🕯️ Shecky Greene, a legendary stand-up comedian who became one of Las Vegas’ top headliners in the 1950s and ’60s has died. Greene passed away Sunday morning of natural causes at his home in Las Vegas. 🕯️ Richard Romanus, who built his character acting career with a tough guy persona in film and television, has died at 80 at a hospital in Volos, Greece. Romanus’ credits include The Sopranos and Mean Streets. 🕯️ Les McCann , an acclaimed jazz pianist and vocalist whose greatest commercial success came with the 1969 song “Compared to What,” has died. His longtime manager confirmed that McCann died Friday at a hospital in Los Angeles where he had been admitted with pneumonia. He was 88. 🕯️ Maurice Hines, who tap danced his way to a Tony nomination during a long stage career and was a frequent TV guest, has died at the age of 80, according to reports from friends and family. 🕯️ Ana Ofelia Murguía, the Mexican actress who voiced the role of Mama Coco in Disney’s two-time Oscar-winning animated feature Coco, died Dec. 31. She was 90. 🕯️ British actor David Kernan died at the age of 85 on December 26. Kernan was best known in the UK for his role in the comedy classic film Carry On Abroad, but in 1977 he was also nominated for a Tony for his role in the original Broadway cast of Side by Side by Sondheim. |
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On the Radar
Tue - Rob Lowe's The Floor premieres on Fox
Wed - New York Film Critics Circle Awards Gala
Fri - AFI Awards
Mon - College Football National Championship game; Paramount+ with Showtime launches |
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Mick The Knife - The just-released trailer for the new film Mickey's Mouse Trap offers a version of the character very different from that seen in Walt Disney's Steamboat Willie. |
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