Hivemind Acquires Hit Comic Series GIDEON FALLS for TV Adaptation

Gideon Falls, the hit comic series from New York Times best-selling writer Jeff Lemire and illustrator Andrea Sorrentino, will soon be coming to television in partnership with Hivemind

Hivemind today announced that it has won an intense multi-studio bidding war and acquired the rights to bring the hit Image Comics comic book series, GIDEON FALLS, to television in partnership with co-creators Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino. 

Hivemind's Jason Brown, Sean Daniel, Kathy Lingg and Dinesh Shamdasani will executive produce the series alongside co-creators Lemire and Sorrentino with high-level creative talent already circling the project.

An atmospheric thriller colliding rural mystery and urban horror, the series follows an ensemble cast of seemingly random strangers – a washed-up Catholic priest, an uncompromising female sheriff, and a young recluse obsessed with unraveling a conspiracy buried in his city's trash – as they become drawn into a mystery connected to a long-forgotten local legend.

Established in 2018, Hivemind is the new production entity from long-time producing partners Sean Daniel and Jason Brown, Bad Robot veteran Kathy Linggand former Valiant Entertainment CEO & Chief Creative Officer Dinesh Shamdasani. 

Dedicated to partnering with high-level creative talent and globally recognized intellectual properties from the worlds of science fiction, fantasy, horror, comic books, video games, anime, and more, 

Hivemind recently inked a first-look deal with Amazon Studios. GIDEON FALLS marks a major new rights acquisition for the label, which will develop the series as an hour-long horror drama based on Lemire and Sorrentino's repeatedly sold-out, critically acclaimed comic title of the same name that instantly became one of 2018's biggest breakout hits upon its debut in March.

"GIDEON FALLS is psychological horror told with a deeply humanistic touch, a story about imperfect people who confront their own demons – imagined and supernatural alike," said Hivemind Co-President Jason Brown. "It is this kind of expertly fashioned, character-focused genre storytelling that inspired us to form Hivemind, and it is our mission to collaborate with world-class authors, artists, and rights holders like Jeff and Andrea to bring their stories to the screen in an authentic way."

GIDEON FALLS is the latest property to join Hivemind's quickly expanding roster of film and television projects. 

⏩ The company currently produces the acclaimed science fiction series The Expanse – which recently made a historic move to Amazon – as well as Netflix's upcoming adaptation of The Witcher, based on the series of novels that inspired the best-selling game franchise. Its next feature film will be Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark with producer/co-writer Guillermo del Toro and director André Øvredal, which begins production this summer.

"GIDEON FALLS is a story that is very near to our hearts, and Andrea and I could not be more excited to be partnering with Hivemind to bring the terror, and the story of Fred, Norton and The Black Barn, to an even wider audience," said series co-creator and writer Jeff Lemire.

"It's great to imagine GIDEON FALLS, and all these characters whom we've been working so hard to realize in the graphic novel, now coming to life on TV screens," added series co-creator and artist Andrea Sorrentino.

GIDEON FALLS will also notably re-team Lemire with producer Dinesh Shamdasani, who joins Hivemind as Co-President. Lemire and Shamdasani previously collaborated on multiple best-selling comics projects, including The Valiant and Bloodshot Reborn, during his time at the helm of Valiant Entertainment, which Shamdasani departed following a major acquisition in early 2018. 

In addition to his duties at Hivemind, Shamdasani is also currently producing a big-screen adaptation of the Bloodshot comic book series for Sony Pictures with star Vin Diesel, director Dave Wilson, and Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Eric Heisserer that is set to begin filming this summer.

"GIDEON FALLS is one of the most inventive stories anywhere in comics today, colliding a psychologically complex and intellectually nuanced cast against a stark and terrifying terrain of science fiction and horror," said Shamdasani. "It's no surprise that it comes from the brilliant minds of two of the most talented creators in the comics medium – Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino – or that it sparked a massive multi-studio bidding war."

"GIDEON FALLS" - The Comic Book: Sneak Preview (Via Image Comics)

About Jeff Lemire & Andrea Sorrentino:

New York Times best-selling and award-winning author Jeff Lemire is the creator of such iconic graphic novels as Essex County, Sweet Tooth, Underwater Welder, and Roughneck, as well as the co-creator of Descender with Dustin Nguyen, Black Hammer with Dean Ormston and Plutona with Emi Lenox. Having won the American Library Association's prestigious Alex Award – recognizing books for adults with specific teen appeal – Lemire has been nominated for eight Eisner awards, seven Harvey awards, and eight Shuster awards.

Best-selling and acclaimed Italian artist Andrea Sorrentino was named IGN's Best Comic Artist of 2012 and, in the years since, has contributed to some of Marvel and DC Comics' greatest properties, including X-Men, Wolverine: Old Man Logan, Secret Empire, and Green Arrow. He is currently working full time on GIDEON FALLS, while still also providing covers for Marvel and DC Comics.

"GIDEON FALLS" - The Comic Book: Sneak Preview (Via Image Comics)

About Image Comics:

Image Comics is a comic book and graphic novel publisher founded in 1992 by a collective of bestselling artists. Image has since gone on to become one of the largest comics publishers in the United States. 

Image currently has six individuals on the Board of Directors: Robert Kirkman, Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri, Jim Valentino, and Eric Stephenson. It consists of five major houses: Todd McFarlane Productions, Top Cow Productions, Shadowline Comics, Skybound Entertainment, and Image Central. 

Image publishes comics and graphic novels in nearly every genre, sub-genre, and style imaginable. It offers science fiction, fantasy, romance, horror, crime fiction, historical fiction, humor and more by the finest artists and writers working in the medium today. 

⏩ For more information, visit imagecomics.com.

"GIDEON FALLS" - The Comic Book: Sneak Preview (Via Image Comics)

SOURCE: Hivemind

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Singing Superstar Celine Dion at Tokyo Dome for First Japanese Performance in Twelve Years

Celine Dion performs to a sold-out crowd inside the Tokyo Dome on June 26, 2018

Legendary icon and Las Vegas resident performer Celine Dion launched her 22-city tour across the Asian-Pacific region with a spectacular two-hour, sold out performance inside the Tokyo Dome last night. 

The tour is the latest milestone in a 15-year history of collaboration and partnership between Caesars Entertainment and Celine Dion, who began her first residency "A New Day…" at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace (Las Vegas) in 2003. 

Since that time, Celine has performed over 1,000 shows to over four million fans at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, and will continue to add to this number with her current residency, "Celine." 

⏩ While her Las Vegas residency performances usually run for 90 minutes, last night's show lasted for approximately two hours.

"Caesars Entertainment is the global leader in creating world-class live entertainment experiences and we are delighted that we helped bring Celine Dionback to Japan for the first time in 12 years," said Mark Frissora, President and Chief Executive Officer of Caesars Entertainment. "Live Entertainment has been key to our success as the preeminent Integrated Resort (IR) operator. With the IR legislation reaching its final stages, we hope this concert demonstrates our commitment to developing meaningful partnerships in Japan."

The Honorable Richard L. Armitage, former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State and President of Armitage International, Caesars Entertainment executives and Kara Bue, Armitage International founding partner and member of Caesars' Japan Advisory Committee, together with Celine Dion prior to her performance at Tokyo Dome.

Caesars Entertainment executives Steven Tight, President of International Development, Jan Jones Blackhurst, Executive Vice President of Government Relations & Corporate Responsibility,  William Shen, Senior Vice President & Managing Director of Korea & Japan, and members of Caesars' Japan Advisory Council were in Tokyo for the event.

"I am so pleased that Caesars Entertainment was able to be part of this special performance," said Steve Tight, President of International Development. "Entertainment for the whole family is at the core of Caesars Entertainment, and it was a delight to see such a wide range of people enjoying Celine's concert. Shows like this take place at Caesars Entertainment Integrated Resorts every day, so I hope this concert gave the audience a real taste of the type of entertainment you can expect at a Japanese Entertainment Resort."

Caesars Entertainment's vision is to build a world-class Integrated Resort which would bring world-class entertainment to Japanese audiences while also showcasing Japanese culture and entertainment to visitors from all over the world.

Celine Dion during her spectacular two-hour performance inside the Tokyo Dome

Key facts about Celine Dion residency at Caesars Palace:

• The Colosseum at Caesars Palace was built exclusively for Celine Dion's residency, "A New Day…," which began in March 2003.
• Celine performed a total of 717 times during her first residency, which ran from March 2003 until December 2007.
• Ongoing performances are taking place during Celine's second residency, "Celine", which began in March 2011. 
• Celine performed her 1,000th show at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace on October 8, 2016.

To celebrate the event, Caesars Entertainment gave away three pairs of concert tickets to lucky winners through a tie up with women's lifestyle magazine CREA. 

Caesars Entertainment also created a Colosseum-inspired pop-up photo booth at the venue to commemorate its 15-year relationship with Celine Dion, where concertgoers had the opportunity to take a photo alongside an image of Celine performing at the iconic venue against the Las Vegas skyline.

SOURCE: Caesars Entertainment

Holy Sh*t Balls!; The Deadpool 2 Score Soundtrack Is Now Available For Vinyl Pre-Order

Deadpool 2 Original Motion Picture Score's official vinyl release is on August 17, 2018 (PRNewsfoto/Sony Music Masterworks)

Fans of the Deadpool 2 Original Motion Picture Score (released via Sony Music Masterworks) can get excited for its official vinyl release on August 17, 2018. Now available for pre-order on Amazon, the first ever "parental guidance" labeled score album in history can be purchased as a 180-gram single-disc picture vinyl record. 

The score features music from award-winning composer, Tyler Bates (John Wick, Guardians of the Galaxy, Watchmen) and contains popular explicit numbers such as "Holy S*** Balls" and "Make the Whole World our B****".  

Billboard says "the score…matches the smart-ass spirit of the franchise."

⏩ BTW, You can listen to "Holy Sh*t Balls" in this previous  (and almost similar...) post of ours 😏

If a 2-month wait period seems daunting, stream or download the album ahead of the August 17 release, and follow @SonyMasterworks to be the first to find out about news and upcoming releases.

Directed by David Leitch, and written by Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick & Ryan Reynolds, the movie stars Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Morena Baccarin, Julian Dennison, Zazie Beetz, T.J. Miller, Brianna Hildebrand and Jack Kesy.

Deadpool 2 Original Motion Picture Score (Via LoupDargent.info)

About Tyler Bates:

With an innate understanding of an environment's power, perhaps it's no coincidence that Tyler Bates has become not only an artisan at architecting music for film, television, and video games, but an in-demand multi-instrumentalist, writer, and producer. 

Through the nineties, he logged 1,200-plus live shows in his bands, including Pet, released on Igloo/Atlantic Records, under the guidance of Tori Amos, before segueing into the world of film score. He started to make waves by creating the audio backdrop for the popular Zack Snyder Dawn of the Dead reboot in 2004 followed by his soundtrack for the filmmaker's 300.

By 2017, he worked on the most successful franchises in recent memory: Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy and John Wick. In addition to composing for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 & Vol. 2 and winning a BMI Film Music Award for the first, he co-wrote and produced a fan favorite "disco version" of "Guardians Inferno" [feat. David Hasselhoff], performed the second installment's score at the 2017 MOSMA Festival in Spain, and crafted the music for the Disney California Adventure attraction Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission Breakout!

Meanwhile, John Wick: Chapter 2 represents the nexus of his work as a composer, performer, and songwriter. He penned the closing credits tune "A Job To Do" alongside legendary Alice In Chains guitarist and vocalist Jerry Cantrell and performed on-screen during the climactic "Rock Opera" sequence, rocking a guitar-viol on stage with Le Castle Vania and Nostalghia. 

Samurai Jack offered a similar experience. After overseeing score production for Samurai Jack with composers, Joanne Higginbottom and Dieter Hartmann, he took the stage to perform a suite of the score at a sold-out Ace Theatre concert.

Samurai Jack is just one of his many TV credits. His sonic presence can also be felt throughout Netflix's The Punisher, Showtime's Californication, Audience Network's Kingdom, WGN America's Salem, and more as well as video games such as Killzone: Shadow Fall, God of War: Ascension, Army of Two: The 40th Day, and most recently Crossfire.

2014 saw the birth of a powerful partnership with Marilyn Manson, touring the world. After meeting on a Californication performance, Bates went on to co-write and produce the 2015 epic, The Pale Emperor and the follow up in 2017, Heaven Upside Down. A runaway worldwide success, it achieved the Top 10 of the BillboardTop 200 at #6 and earned widespread critical acclaim with Rolling Stone hailing it as the "#1 Metal Album of 2015."

Bates handled music for the blockbuster Atomic Blonde starring Academy Award winner Charlize Theron. For the project, he also produced Health's cover of "Blue Monday" and re-invigorated and revitalized Ministry's "Stigmata" with Manson for key sequences in the film. 

On the big screen, he can be heard in the critically acclaimed The Belko Experiment as well as Public and 24 Hours to Live, while his voice permeates NETFLIX's The Punisher and Season 2 of The Exorcist.

DEADPOOL 2 (OMPS) Vinyl tracklist:
SIDE A	7. Holy S*** Balls	13. Docking	20. Cable Flashback
1. X-Men Arrive	8. Mutant Convoy	14. Make the Whole World our B****	21. Genuine High Grade Lead
2. Fighting Dirty	9. The Name is Cable	15. Pity D***	22. Courage Mother F*****
3. Hello Super Powers	10. Sorry for Your Loss	16. Knock Knock
4. Escape	11. You Can't Stop this Mother F*****	17. Let Me In
5. Vanessa	SIDE B	18. Maximum Effort
6. Weasel Interrogation	12. Ice Box	19. The Orphanage

SOURCE: Sony Music Masterworks

"Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" Takes Gigantic Bite Out Of Global Box Office In 3D With 53% Of Estimated $711M+ Worldwide Gross Coming From 3D Ticket Sales

"Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" (Still from trailer)

Approximately 53% of all global ticket sales for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom has come from the 3D format, with a significant portion of the business driven by the world largest 3D company RealD. 

A staggering $380 million has been generated by total 3D ticket sales and 28% of all 3D transactions have been purchased for RealD equipped theaters resulting in $105 million in RealD ticket sales.

Director J.A. Bayona and star Chris Pratt have both enthusiastically endorsed and supported the way the film was executed and enhanced in 3D.

"This is the kind of epic summer adventure film that is meant to be seen and experienced in RealD 3D and it is clear that moviegoers worldwide want to see these juggernauts with their 3D glasses on," said Travis Reid, President of Worldwide Cinema and Chief Operating Officer for RealD. "Universal, Amblin and especially the stars and filmmakers did a fantastic job promoting this film and communicating that the 3D was an exceptional experience and that always makes a difference, especially with a film like this."

"With the worldwide success of recent films like Avengers: Infinity War, which crossed $800 million in 3D grosses worldwide and earlier this year Ready Player One, audiences have shown that 3D is still an important entertainment upgrade and preference on the right tentpole titles when they go to the theater," said Reid. "Universal has been a great supporter of 3D on the Jurassic Park franchise and we could not be more thrilled for the huge rewards they are reaping all around the world."

"Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" - Poster (Via RealD)

About Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom: 

It's been three years since theme park and luxury resort Jurassic World was destroyed by dinosaurs out of containment.  

Isla Nublar now sits abandoned by humans while the surviving dinosaurs fend for themselves in the jungles.

When the island's dormant volcano begins roaring to life, Owen (Chris Pratt) and Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) mount a campaign to rescue the remaining dinosaurs from this extinction-level event.  

Owen is driven to find Blue, his lead raptor who's still missing in the wild, and Claire has grown a respect for these creatures she now makes her mission.  

Arriving on the unstable island as lava begins raining down, their expedition uncovers a conspiracy that could return our entire planet to a perilous order not seen since prehistoric times.

With all of the wonder, adventure and thrills synonymous with one of the most popular and successful series in cinema history, this all-new motion-picture event sees the return of favorite characters and dinosaurs—along with new breeds more awe-inspiring and terrifying than ever before.  

"Welcome to Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom."

Stars Pratt and Howard return alongside executive producers Steven Spielberg and Colin Trevorrow for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.  

They are joined by co-stars James Cromwell, Ted Levine, Justice Smith, Geraldine Chaplin, Daniella Pineda, Toby Jones, Rafe Spall and Isabella Sermon, while BD Wong and Jeff Goldblum reprise their roles.

Directed by J.A. Bayona (The Impossible), the epic action-adventure is written by Jurassic World's director, Colin Trevorrow, and its co-writer, Derek Connolly.  

Producers Frank Marshall and Pat Crowley once again partner with Spielberg and Trevorrow in leading the filmmakers for this stunning installment.  

Belén Atienza joins the team as a producer. 

"Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" (Via RealD)

SOURCE: RealD

Jurassic World 2 - Trailer:

⏩ To watch more trailers, clips, etc... visit the JurassicWorldMovie website

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The Dreadful History Of Children In Concentration Camps

Child survivors of Auschwitz are seen in this 1945 photograph. (Creative Commons)

Children and family have been central to the institution of the concentration camp from its beginnings 120 years ago. Wikipedia has now added the notorious American border detention centres to its list of concentration camps, and the #FamiliesBelongTogether Twitter hashtag has brought up frequent comparisons.

The merits of the comparison between detention centres and concentration camps have been debated elsewhere, but can we learn anything from this dreadful history of children behind barbed wire, even as the Trump administration finally moved to end the practice?

The British constructed camps during the 1899-1902 South African War in order to divide families. They hoped that Boer men who were fighting British forces would give up once they discovered that their wives and children were held in camps.

A deceased young girl is seen at a concentration camp where the British housed Boer women and children during the Second Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902. (Creative Commons)

Similar to the Trump administration’s apparent hope that the breakup of families would deter unwanted migration, the British sought to deter Boer fighters. British parliamentarians critical of the policy labelled these “concentration camps,” alluding to the Spanish policy of the “reconcentration” of civilians during the Spanish-American War (1898).

Conditions in the British-run camps were horrific, particularly for children, with mortality rates upwards of 25 per cent. An epidemic of measles accounted for roughly 40 per cent of childhood deaths in these camps, and other diseases such as typhus and dysentery were also devastating.

Families broken up in former Soviet Union
The Soviet Union’s system of camps that reached their peak during Joseph Stalin’s rule from the 1930s to the 1950s also reveals the destruction of families. While mass arrests broke up the family, and children of “enemies of the people” were separated from their parents, there were also many children in the Gulag itself.

Prison camps developed an infrastructure that, on the surface, supported pregnancy and childbirth. There were maternity wards in some camp clinics, as well as nurseries, and pregnant women and nursing mothers officially received increased rations.

In practice, the system was regularly a nightmare. Children born in the camps were separated from their mothers, who only managed to see them at set times for nursing.

Hava Volovich, whose own daughter died in the camps, remembers that hundreds of camp children died each year, meaning that there were “plenty of empty beds in the infants’ shelter even though the birth rate in the camps was relatively high.”

At the age of two, many of the surviving children were sent either to orphanages or to relatives — a forced redistribution of children away from their parents, who, as Gulag prisoners, were at best stigmatized, and at worst seen as a major threat to Soviet society.

The Gulag also held camps for young offenders, where teenagers worked as forced labourers and faced horrific living conditions.

Nazis crushed families
Nazi policy included both large-scale deportations and large-scale importations of population groups, with major implications for families.

The Nazis removed citizenship from German Jews then, during the Second World War, sent most Jews, from Germany and elsewhere, to camps outside the borders of pre-war Germany. Yet, as the war progressed, Germany brought in huge numbers of forced labourers from all over Europe (U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ claim that German-run camps were designed to keep Jews in, rather than out, is unfounded).

Nazi family policy was a pivotal part of the concentration camp. Once the death camps were operational, the Nazis crushed the family unit among undesirable populations, focusing on Jews.

The selection process at Auschwitz could result in the temporary survival of one or both parents, if they were physically fit (or just lucky), but children were usually sent directly to their deaths.

The late Elie Wiesel is seen in this 2012 photograph. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

Jewish writer Elie Wiesel lost his mother and sister right away, and only survived selection because he lied about his age, claiming he was 18 and not 15, his actual age.

The unimaginable cruelty of many practices —the smashing of babies’ heads against walls, the medical experimentation, particularly on twins —reveals an extreme dehumanization.

Even at the show camp of Terezin, which included a family camp, only 150 of the roughly 15,000 children sent there survived.

High mortality rates
What do these historical cases have in common? All involved the separation, either immediate or eventual, of children from one or both parents, and all involved horrific conditions and extremely high mortality rates for the children.

In all cases, the dehumanization of the unwanted population was a key starting point. As historian Aidan Forth writes of the South African case, Gen. Herbert Kitchener referred to the Boers as “savages with only a thin white veneer,” and British officials often described the Afrikaners as “dirty, careless, [and lazy.]”

Former Gulag prisoners frequently reported that guards and officials referred to them as animals or as “scum.” As one former prisoner wrote, quoting a camp boss: “A person? … There aren’t any here! Here are enemies of the people, traitors of the motherland, bandits, crooks. The dregs of humanity, scum, riff raff, that’s who is here!”

The dehumanization of the Nazi camps is well known, as Nazi propaganda frequently likened the Jews to vermin or to an infectious disease, making Trump’s tweet about asylum seekers particularly chilling:

Democrats are the problem. They don’t care about crime and want illegal immigrants, no matter how bad they may be, to pour into and infest our Country, like MS-13. They can’t win on their terrible policies, so they view them as potential voters!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 19, 2018

Another commonality can be found in the experiences of the victims.

In all cases, children separated from parents could not have known if they would ever see their parents again, or under what circumstances. The children of the camps had to rely, for the most part, on other children, for any support or security. Often, the separation was permanent.

These comparisons only take us so far, however. Some commentators have looked not at European powers, but to a long North American history — including slavery and residential schools — of separating non-white children from their parents.

Children at a residential school in Fort Resolution, Northwest Territories, are seen in this undated photo. (National Archives of Canada)

If there is any optimism to be found in the historical examples of children in concentration camps, perhaps the history of public reactions can provide some hope.

In South Africa, reports by Emily Hobhouse and then the Fawcett Commission, particularly on starving children, galvanized public pressure to force the British government to improve conditions at the camps.

Outcry helped end practice
In contrast, in Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia, there could be neither public nor parliamentary discussion of inhumane internment conditions.

Bu today, some U.S. reporters and lawmakers have visited the American detention centres, and non-governmental organizations such as Amnesty International and even the Methodist Church, as well as many elected officials, maligned the policy.

The public discussion, and the public outcry against the separation of children from their parents that eventually caused U.S. President Donald Trump to cave and end the policy, perhaps makes the American case more similar to that of South Africa than either the Nazi or Soviet camps.

This similarity, however, depends on the actions now of the Trump administration, which for several weeks before its reversal included denial, deflecting blame and even justification.

But with reports of children being torn away from their mothers’ arms while breastfeeding, the more notorious concentration camps of the 20th century must serve as a stark reminder that the act of dehumanization is a slippery slope towards violence and further atrocities.

About Today's Contributor:
Wilson T. Bell, Assistant Professor of History and Politics, Thompson Rivers University

This article was originally published on The Conversation.

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