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There’s been a lot of excitement and anticipation with the new and upcoming Joker solo film that will star Joaquin Phoenix. This Joker is set in a timeline before the caped crusader, Batman, was even born. Many theaters across the country will be showing the film once it comes out on October 4^th.  However, there is one theater that will not be showing the film at all and with good reason. Seven years ago the Cinemark theater in Aurora, Colorado experienced a deadly mass shooting during a midnight premiere of the Dark Knight Rises when a deranged man with orange hair who seemed to be a real-life Joker open fired on the innocent viewers inside.

Now the survivors of the tragic ordeal are coming forth to voice their concerns about the release of this new film. Family members who lost their loved ones that night wrote a letter to the Warner Bros. company about their fears and asked them to kindly donate money to gun victim charities. They hope that Warner Bros. will become a responsible corporation to speak out about gun violence and to help those who have suffered like their loved suffered that night. One of the victim’s mothers, Sandy Phillips, admitted that seeing any kind of poster or promo of the film reminds her of the real-life shooter that took her daughter’s life that night. This new Joker appears that it will be darker than the Heath Ledger Joker with its R rated violence.

Because of this Phillips is concerned that another deranged person will connect with this Joker’s mindset and violent behavior and will carry out a mass shooting much like that night. Phillips also explains that it doesn’t help that the number of mass shootings has risen since then. A person could see this film and think of the Colorado shooter and try their hand at gun violence. Phillips admits how this possibility scares her. The theater itself has made no statements but as of right now there or no listings for the film or even pre-show ticket orders. Also, according to a representative at Warner Bros., the letter sent by Phillips and her group hasn’t reached them yet. So until then, they have no comments on the matter.

It should be mentioned that the letter isn’t asking Warner Bros. to not release the film, it only asks them to not donate money to politicians who take money from the NRA. In an interview, Phoenix had to excuse himself after being asked if the film could inspire a mad man to commit gun violence. In a different interview with IGN Phoenix explains that a majority of people know right from wrong and that it’s not the job of a filmmaker to explain morality to the audience. Director Todd Phillips (no relation to the previously mentioned Phillips) talked about the film with IGN too. In that interview, Phillips explains that the film contains the messages of childhood trauma, lack of love, and lack of human compassion in the world and discusses that a great number of audience members can handle that.

Despite what Phoenix said, there are a lot of films out there that can teach right from wrong even if it wasn’t the filmmaker’s intention to do so. Hopefully, audience members will understand the messages of the film that a lack of love and compassion can drive a person to insanity and violence. Maybe after this film, more people could learn to be more understanding of those who feel isolated from society and will choose to help them in any way they can instead of pushing them further away.

The Frozen fever continues to rise with the all-new Frozen 2 trailer release. The trailer is very vague as to what the sequel will be about, as is the plot summary. All that’s known about the sequel so far is that Elsa, Anna, Kristoff, and Olaf will be traveling deep into the forest to discover an ancient mystery of their kingdom. In the trailer itself, Elsa appears to be training and expanding her magic abilities while both Anna and Kristoff seem on edge to fight someone or something. There’s one part in the trailer that looks Elsa may or may not be surrounded by fire.
Could there be another person out there that has elemental powers like Elsa, but they can control fire? Who knows, people will just have to wait for more trailers to come out. I’m not entirely positive about this but, I’m guessing they’ll be adding more Scandinavian folklore and Germanic mythology into the story. In the first film, they include the mythical rock troll creatures, however, unlike in the film, these creatures in mythology aren’t as friendly. In fact, they tend to kidnap children and keep them hostage so, no they don’t adopt “orphan” kids.
Also, as far as the elemental powers, Frozen is based off an old fairy tale that is known as the Snow Queen and the whole elemental thing can be found in different mythologies around the world. But considering that the world of Frozen is technically taking place in Norway it’s safe to assume that the driving mythology here is Germanic or Norse myth. And in Norse myth, there is a race or group of people that have elemental powers that are known as the Ettins (depending on the source) and for some unknown reason, these are seen as dangerous to the gods. One of the more well-known Ettins is the god Loki; he’s the god of tricks, magic, and fire. So, perhaps in this new film, they’ll have more mythology within the story to explain more about Elsa’s gifts.

Chris Pine has a new TV mini-series coming to TNT called I Am the Night. This show was inspired by true events surrounding the infamous case of the Black Dahlia murder. Pine’s character is a reporter, Jay Singletary, who looked into the mysterious murder and it ended up ruining his career, however, Pine’s character is only a subplot in this series. The main character is a girl named Fauna Hodel who grew up outside Reno, Nevada. Reno always wondered about her family and where she came from until one day she found an adoption paper proving her suspicions to be true.
This proof only causes Reno to become more curious as to who her original family is as she runs away to solve her own mysterious origins. Reno runs into reporter Jay who was tipped off about the girl and her possible relations to the Black Dahlia case. When both of them keep looking for answers they soon discover that Hollywood has some dark secrets being held by gynecologist Dr. George Hodel who shares Reno’s last name. One of the dark secrets surrounds the cold case of the Black Dahlia and possibly why Reno was given up at birth. This series comes out sometime this January and will have eight episodes in total.

Youtuber Lilly Singh will be the first woman to be getting her own late night talk show on NBC. Her show will be called “A Little Late with Lilly Singh.” Singh will be taking over the Carson Daly spot and her show will premier this upcoming September. She is the first female to be the host of a talk show on a major network and she’s also one of the few women of color and queer women to be a host. Singh is also excited and looking forward to having her own show and has expressed her enjoyment that being an Indian Canadian woman with her own show is a huge achievement.
This news was announced this past Thursday on “The Tonight Show” with host Jimmy Fallon. Late nigh host Seth Meyers was also there, and he and Fallon held a champagne toast for Singh to welcome her to the network. The three of them took a photo of the moment together and Fallon even joked it was like a family photo. According to NBC Singh’s new show will hold interviews with celebrities and have comedy skits as well. Singh herself is very experienced in comedy and has already done tons of YouTube collaborations with celebrities, like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, as well. Congratulations Lilly! Your show is bond to be a hit.

Tom Holland who plays Spider-Man in the MCU is known for his sweet and kind heart and his love for dogs. In fact, his Pitbull Tessa has been seen with him at press interviews, red carpet events, and pictures all over his social media accounts. Just recently Holland posted a picture of himself and a stray he found on the set of his latest film, The Devil All The Time, on his Instagram asking the owners to contact him to get their dog back. He also notes that if no owners show up that he’ll gladly adopt the cute pup. The dog is a beagle mix and Holland has pictures of himself sitting with the dog and giving the dog some cuddles.
Hopefully, the dog’s family is found but if not the dog will be in great hands. Despite being busy with promoting End Game that comes out next month, he’s also working on this new film, and then will have to promote Spider-Man Far From Home as well. But Holland does a great job taking care of Tessa that I’m sure he’ll do great with this one. I also believe that Tessa would love to have a new dog friend to keep her company when her master Holland does have to spend time away from her. Two dogs are more fun to have and can really enjoy each other if their owner has a crazy work schedule.