News The Ocean at the End of the Lane Henry Selick Wants to Adapt The Ocean at the End of the Lane; Calls It “Spiritual Sequel” of Coraline This is a lot of things that we love in one place. By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on June 13, 2024 Credit: Henry Selick (L) by thomascrenshaw (Thomas Crenshaw) – https://www.flickr.com/photos/tommyc/3374952990/, CC BY-SA 2.0 Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Henry Selick (L) by thomascrenshaw (Thomas Crenshaw) – https://www.flickr.com/photos/tommyc/3374952990/, CC BY-SA 2.0 Henry Selick is a legend in stop-motion animation. He’s the director behind Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach, and the adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline (which you can soon see in theaters in remastered 3D). Selick is looking to add another Gaiman stop-motion adaptation to his belt. During the Annecy Festival (via Variety), he shared that he hopes to make The Ocean at the End of the Lane his next project and called it a “spiritual sequel” to Coraline. “Instead of a child going to this other world with a monstrous mother, it’s a monstrous mother who comes into our world to wreak havoc on a kid’s life,” he told Variety. Selick currently has a 35-page proposal along with artwork and concept designs for the adaption in hand, and is taking it to various studios. Those he’s pitching to include ShadowMachine, which made Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, and of course LAIKA, which made Coraline. Things are far from confirmed, of course, but it sounds like the stop-motion project has strong prospects to ultimately make it through development and production. And if it does, there’s also a good chance that it will hold a place in the stop-motion pantheon. “Our films have always had a smaller market,” Selick said at Annecy (via Variety) about stop-motion. “But they last longer, and will have a much longer life… The best stop motion films aren’t just of this moment. They’re for all time.” [end-mark] The post Henry Selick Wants to Adapt <i>The Ocean at the End of the Lane</i>; Calls It “Spiritual Sequel” of <i>Coraline</i> appeared first on Reactor.

News Blade The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Blade Loses Second Director IT’S A DUDE KILLING VAMPIRES WITH A SWORD WHAT IS SO DIFFICULT HERE??? By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on June 13, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share It’s been almost five years since Kevin Feige announced at 2o19’s San Diego Comic-Con that a Blade movie was going to become part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Mahershala Ali attached to star. During that time, the project has had several ups and downs (as has the MCU). Back in 2021, Bassam Tariq (Mogul Mowgli) was attached to direct the film, based on a script by Stacy Osei-Kuffour (Watchmen).  Tariq left Blade in September 2022 and a new writer was also on board: Beau DeMayo (Moon Knight, The Witcher). About a month later, however, Lovecraft Country‘s Yann Demange was tapped to direct, with yet another writer, Michael Starrbury, attached. Other writers—Nic Pizzolatto and Michael Green—have also written drafts. But wait, there’s more! TheWrap broke the news that Demange is no longer attached to Blade and hasn’t been for quite a while. There’s also another writer on board—MCU veteran Eric Pearson, whose previous credits include penning The Fantastic Four, Black Widow, and Thor: Ragnarok. Along with all these changes, Ali is also in talks to star in latest Jurassic World feature, which is supposed to start filming, well, now.   Blade is still currently slated to come out on November 7, 2025, though it’s looking less and less likely that it will make that release date. [end-mark] The post The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s <i>Blade</i> Loses Second Director appeared first on Reactor.

News The Institute MGM+ Orders Series Adaptation of Stephen King’s The Institute Sorry, child genius. You’re in a Stephen King story, and you’re gonna SUFFER. By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on June 13, 2024 Photo Credit for Mary-Louise Parker: Jason Bell Comment 0 Share New Share Photo Credit for Mary-Louise Parker: Jason Bell Another day, another Stephen King adaptation is in the works! This one comes from MGM+ and will be a series adaptation of The Institute starring Ben Barnes (Shadow and Bone, The Punisher, Westworld) and Mary-Louise Parker(Weeds, Angels in America). Haven’t read The Institute yet? Here’s the official synopsis of the series: When 12-year-old genius Luke Ellis is kidnapped, he awakens at The Institute, a facility full of children who all got there the same way he did, and who are all possessed of unusual abilities. In a nearby town, haunted former police officer Tim Jamieson has come looking to start a new life, but the peace and quiet won’t last, as his story and Luke’s are destined to collide. Barnes will play Tim Jamieson, who MGM+ describes as “a disillusioned ex-cop who takes a job as the night knocker in a small town, withdrawing from the world until Luke’s plight reignites him and  gives him something to believe in.” Parker will play Mrs. Sigsby, a “charming but iron-willed director of the Institute and a true believer in its awful mission. She’s certain history will come to see her as a hero.” The eight-episode series comes from Jack Bender (Lost, Mr. Mercedes, From) and executive producer and writer Benjamin Cavell (Justified, The Stand). “I’m delighted and excited at the prospect of The Institute, with its high-intensity suspense, being filmed as a series,” King said in a statement. “The combination of Jack Bender and Ben Cavell guarantees that the results will be terrific.” Bender added, “I’m thrilled that Stephen King has entrusted me with another of his brilliant novels and continuing the extraordinary creative relationship with Michael Wright and MGM+. Working alongside Ben Cavell and a team of exceptional writers, to tell the story of these uniquely gifted children, will ensure a suspenseful and engrossing series.” No news on when the series will make its way to a small screen near you, but production will take place in Nova Scotia later this year. [end-mark] The post MGM+ Orders Series Adaptation of Stephen King’s <i>The Institute</i> appeared first on Reactor.

The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the Biden administration over a recent executive order that aims to limit the number of illegal aliens that cross the southern border daily.  President Joe Biden’s executive order, which he signed June 4,  gives him the authority to close the border when the seven-day average of daily border crossings between ports of entry exceeds 2,500. The border will only reopen if crossings between ports fall to a seven-day daily average of 1,500 or less.  Pro-immigration groups were quick to criticize the order, saying Biden’s actions would restrict asylum claims.  “We were left with no alternative but to sue,” Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said in a statement Wednesday. “The administration lacks unilateral authority to override Congress and bar asylum based on how one enters the country, a point the courts made crystal clear when the Trump administration unsuccessfully tried a near-identical ban,” Gelernt said.  In 2018, former President Donald Trump sought to restrict the asylum claims of migrants who crossed the border illegally, but the move was blocked in federal court.  The National Immigrant Justice Center, Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, Jenner and Block LLP, ACLU of the District of Columbia, and Texas Civil Rights Project also signed onto the federal lawsuit. The ACLU, a left of center legal defense organization, filed the suit in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. on behalf of Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center and the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, according to an ACLU press release.  The Biden administration was aware of the likelihood of legal challenges to the executive order before is was signed. In his proclamation discussing the order, Biden said he was taking the action on the border because of “Congress’s failure to deliver meaningful policy reforms and adequate funding, despite repeated requests that they do so.”  A Senate border bill, which was touted as “bipartisan” and backed by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., failed in February and again in May as Republicans said the bill would do more harm than good at the southern border by still allowing 4,000 illegal aliens to enter the country daily.  In May 2023, the GOP-led House passed HR 2, a border security bill that would restart border wall construction, end catch and release, and reinstate the “Remain in Mexico” policy. The Senate has yet to take up the bill.  Republicans and border security advocates have been critical of Biden’s action on the border, which Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called a “political play,” and House Speaker Mike Johnson labeled as “window dressing.” During a press conference Tuesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., called Biden’s executive order on the border “window dressing,” adding that if Biden “was concerned about the border, he would have done this a long time ago.” It has been less than two weeks since Biden signed the border executive order and Fox News border correspondent Bill Melugin reports it is too soon to draw conclusions about the order’s influence on the number of daily crossings. But on Tuesday, Melugin reported that “the numbers are mildly and slowly moving down.”  In the San Diego Sector of the southern border specifically, Melugin said he learned from Customs and Border Protection sources that there “were roughly 3,070 illegal crossings [Monday], a drop from the May daily average of about 3,800.”  CBP has encountered more than 1.5 million illegal aliens at the southern border since the start of fiscal year 2024 on Oct. 1, placing the daily average number of encounters at and between ports of entry along the southern border at 7,138.  The post ‘No Alternative But to Sue.’ ACLU Takes Action Against Biden’s Southern Border Order appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The House committee with oversight of elections is subpoenaing 15 members of the Biden administration’s Cabinet regarding the implementation of the president’s executive order to use federal agencies to partner with left-leaning groups for get-out-the-vote purposes in 2024. The House Administration Committee is investigating President Joe Biden’s Executive Order 14919, signed in March 2021, that requires federal agencies to partner with private interests to boost voter participation. The committee previously advanced legislation to block funding of the order. “Elections are partisan, but our election administration should never be partisan,” House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wis., said in a public statement. “Allowing federal employees from the Biden administration to flood election administration sites threatens election integrity and reduces Americans’ confidence.” The Biden administration has been secretive about the implementation of the plan. Critics of the order have called it “Bidenbucks.” Records obtained by The Daily Signal and watchdog groups show the private actors partnering with agencies, or communicating with Biden White House officials, on the order have been left-leaning groups such as Demos and the American Civil Liberties Union, the Brennan Center, the Southern Poverty Law Center, leftist billionaire George Soros’ Open Society Foundations and the Stacey Abrams-founded Fair Fight Action. Republicans objected, noting this could prompt federal employees to violate the Hatch Act, a law that prevents partisan political activity using federal time or resources, as well as violate the Antideficiency Act, wherein federal agencies cannot spend public money on matters not authorized by Congress.  “This Executive Order is another attempt by the Biden Administration to tilt the scales ahead of 2024,” Steil continued. “I will continue working to provide transparency and accountability on this administration’s latest scheme as Congress did not appropriate taxpayer funds for partisan activities.” Biden administration officials have argued the executive order is about promoting voter accessibility and ensuring that voting is easier. The House Committee on Small Business has been investigating the Small Business Administration’s efforts to register voters, and held a hearing on June 5.  “During a time when small businesses are struggling, the SBA has decided to focus efforts not on inflation or access to capital, but instead to register voters in a swing state,” House Small Business Committee Chairman Rep. Roger Williams, R-Texas, said in a public statement. “This is completely unacceptable.”  In March, the SBA announced a Memorandum of Understanding with the Michigan Department of State, the chief election agency for the battleground state, to facilitate voter registration efforts ahead of the 2024 election cycle.  The Biden administration has shown a lack of transparency on the order, Stewart Whitson, senior director of federal affairs for the conservative watchdog group Foundation for Government Accountability, told the House panel last week.  “If this was aboveboard, if it was everything the other side claims it is, wouldn’t you be shouting from the hills the details of this plan?” Whitson told the House Small Business Committee. “Wouldn’t you be proud to go on and say exactly what SBA is doing and where it’s doing [it] and how it’s doing it, if it were aboveboard? And so, the lack of transparency is a huge problem. It was a problem from Day One. The order came out in 2021.” The post House Panel Subpoenas Biden Cabinet on Electioneering Executive Order appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Democratic lawmakers are escalating their attacks on Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito in the wake of secret recordings that were obtained last week of the justice agreeing that America should return “to a place of godliness.” Experts say that the legacy media and the Left’s ongoing campaign to target conservative justices is a concerted effort to delegitimize the country’s highest court ahead of future rulings that could potentially work against the Democratic Party’s political agenda. On Monday, reports surfaced of a secret recording produced by left-wing filmmaker Lauren Windsor in which she posed as a conservative while attending a Supreme Court Historical Society dinner on June 3. In an exchange with Alito, Windsor stated, “People in this country who believe in God have got to keep fighting for that—to return our country to a place of godliness.” Alito responded, “I agree with you. I agree with you.” Democrats on the Hill immediately seized on the exchange to paint Alito as an “extremist.” “Alito is an extremist who is out of touch with mainstream America,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., remarked. “His rising power on the Supreme Court is a threat to our democracy.” She went on to claim that the recording “undermines whatever last shreds of credibility the Supreme Court might have had.” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote on X, “Alito is becoming a loose cannon turned on the Court itself. He mocks ethics.” Conservative commentators were quick to respond that the story was unremarkable. “Media war on Alito continues,” observed Fox News host Mark Levin on X. “This time his offense, belief in God.” The episode comes on the heels of another flap that arose in legacy media outlets that seized on flags previously flown on property belonging to Alito, which purported to link the Supreme Court justice to far-right extremists. It was later revealed that The Washington Post had passed on publishing the episode in 2021 because it had to do with Alito’s wife Martha-Ann and “a dispute with her neighbors.” But that didn’t stop The New York Times from publishing a supposed scoop of the story last month. The developing pattern of Democratic lawmakers making accusations of corruption against sitting Supreme Court justices, combined with a series of news stories targeting conservatives on the high court, has caused experts to point to a deeper agenda that is occurring. “I think for believers, it’s important [that when] you see news stories, we need to pause and not just breeze through every series of titles we see, especially when they are all almost virtually the same thing,” Family Research Council Vice President Travis Weber contended during Tuesday’s “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins.” “It’s almost like you’re being told something happened and it’s made out to be the whole story. That’s also a sign that we need to look deeper.” Weber, who serves as Family Research Council’s vice president for policy and government affairs, continued, “[W]hy is Justice Alito, Justice Thomas, why are they the subject of so much of this? Well, what’s the state of the federal government with regard to radical progressives being able to accomplish their agenda? What’s standing in their way? [I]t’s not the Senate. … It’s not the presidency. It’s the Supreme Court. That’s a fact.” Family Research Council President Tony Perkins concurred. “We’ve seen that they’ve been on these campaigns of dark money, and they’ve been campaigning around the courts,” he pointed out. “Remember Chuck Schumer [D-N.Y.], out there in front of the court when [Neil] Gorsuch was nominated, saying that the court was ‘sowing to the wind and they were going to reap the whirlwind.’” Perkins also highlighted that Alito “is not going to recuse himself” of future cases because of negative media stories. “But by all this noise, all these allegations, it would be very difficult for the Chief Justice [John Roberts] to turn to him to write an opinion.” Weber went on to note the seemingly planned nature of the media stories appearing in current news cycles. “These smears are trickling out at certain times. We have to remember [that] the Dobbs decision draft was leaked as well. We don’t know what is making its way out of the court that shouldn’t be right now. We have to remember the context in which this is being placed. There are forces that do not want to see conservative and God honoring policies and principles upheld.” Perkins agreed, further pointing out that “part of what’s driving this latest round [of stories] is the fact that [former President] Donald Trump may have a case before the Supreme Court.” “Absolutely,” Weber responded. “The timing of trying to delegitimize Justice Alito or anyone else who would have a hand in that—how can we avoid that conclusion? When you look at what happened to President Trump up in New York, you have to understand these things are … not just happening in a vacuum. It’s happening in the context of forces at work.” Weber concluded by urging believers to continue working to bring about God’s kingdom on earth despite media stories that disparage that work. We need to remember that we are God’s representatives to minister the Lord Jesus Christ here on earth. … [L]iving as Christ to those around us means standing for the things God stands for, praying for them, asking the Lord to intercede and work. … [T]hey may write us off, but we’re commanded by the Lord to minister his presence to those around us. Originally published by The Washington Stand The post Secret Alito Recording Reveals Deeper Agenda to Delegitimize SCOTUS, Experts Say appeared first on The Daily Signal.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Firefox users in Russia are no longer able to install several anti-censorship and pro-privacy extensions, some of their developers and users are reporting, suspecting at the same time it is the developer of Firefox, Mozilla, that is behind this. The extensions in question are Censor Tracker, Runet Censorship Bypass, Planet VPN, and FastProxy, and it is at this time unclear if Mozilla made the decision to block the extensions in the Russian market on its own, or was acting on an order from the authorities. In either case, users in Russia trying to install the add-ons are met with the message, “unavailable in your region.” These extensions remain online elsewhere, including in the US. At least one developer – from a team behind Censor Tracker, confirmed that the add-on has recently become unavailable in Russia, but also that they are in the dark as to why. Some of the comments left in response to the developer’s post suggest that it might be Mozilla’s decision, considering that censorship bypassing tools, per se, are not illegal in Russia. As seen in Russia As seen in the United States. And while the ever-shrinking community of Firefox users awaits some clarification from Mozilla about what is happening regarding this particular incident, some observers are directly accusing the Mozilla Foundation (a non-profit that owns the Mozilla Corporation) of being behind the blocking of the said handful of extensions. “After recent regulatory changes in Russia, we began to receive persistent requests from Roskomnadzor demanding that we remove five extensions from the Mozilla extension store. After careful consideration, we have temporarily limited their availability in Russia. Realizing the consequences of these actions, we are carefully considering further steps, taking our local community into account,” Mozilla said in a statement to Kommersant, a Russian news outlet. Regardless of the fact Firefox has lost “the browser war” badly to Google’s Chrome, what originally propelled it to for a while be the world’s top browser, ending the era of the dominance of Microsoft’s IE, were the principles of free and open source movement, and commitment to an open internet. And that is how Firefox is still perceived by those using the browser – in fact, that is most often the very reason they continue using it at all. However, given the developing controversy over the blocking of pro-privacy and anti-censorship tools, the nature of what Mozilla has become, and the fact this is not the first instance of censorship, are leaving some in the community wondering if the stated guiding principles are still to be trusted. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Mozilla’s Mixed Signals: Blocking Privacy Tools in Russia Sparks Criticism appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The Gates Foundation continues to bankroll various initiatives around the world aimed at introducing digital ID and payments by the end of this decade. The scheme is known as the digital public infrastructure (DPI), and those pushing it include private or informal groups like the said foundation and the World Economic Forum (WEF), but also the US, the EU, and the UN. And now, the UK-based AI and data science research group Alan Turing Institute has become the recipient of a renewed grant, this time amounting to $4 million, given by the Gates Foundation. This has been announced as initial funding for the Institute’s initiative to ensure “responsible” implementation of ID services. The Turing Institute is presenting its work that will be financed by the grant over the next three years as a multi-disciplinary project focused on positive issues, such as ensuring that launching DPI elements (like digital ID) is done with privacy and security concerns properly addressed. But – given the past and multi-year activities of the Gates Foundation, nobody should be blamed for interpreting this as an attempt to actually whitewash these key issues – namely privacy and security – that opponents of centralizing people’s identities through digital ID schemes consistently warn about. In announcing the renewed grant, the Turing Institute made it clear that it considers implementing “ID services” a positive direction, which according to the organization improves anything from inclusion, access to services and to human rights. But apparently, some “tweaking” around privacy and security (or at least “enhancing” the perception of how they are handled in digital ID programs) – is needed. Hence, perhaps, the new initiative. “The project aims to enhance the privacy and security of national digital identity systems, with the ultimate goal to maximize the value to beneficiaries, whilst limiting known and unknown risks to these constituents and maintaining the integrity of the overall system,” the Institute said. Related: The 2024 Digital ID and Online Age Verification Agenda A lot of big words, and positive sentiment – but, in simpler words, what the statement amounts to is a promise to somehow “auto-magically” cover all the bases. That is – at once secure the benefits while obliterating the negatives. (Maybe the Institute has a spare bridge to sell, too /s) The worry here is that this could be yet another Gates Foundation PR blitz aimed at improving the image of the mistrusted, by rights-minded people, “DPI” push – a distrust that in no insignificant part stems from not trusting its biggest proponents as having any genuinely noble intentions to begin with. An interesting piece of information that we do learn from the announcement is that every year, “billions of dollars are being invested to develop more secure, scalable, and user-friendly identity (digital ID) systems.” If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Gates Foundation Awards $4M Grant To Fund Digital ID Initiative appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

The NLRB Loses at the Supreme Court

Houston We Have a Problem: ICE Arrests Multiple Criminal Illegal Aliens over the Last Two Weeks