Weinsteins step down as Miramax CEOs

This is notable.

Statement from reporters Maximillian Potter and Alex French on investigation of Bryan Singer published in @TheAtlantic: pic.twitter.com/iouvNZGQtz

— The Atlantic Communications (@TheAtlanticPR) January 23, 2019

Whoops, sorry, already posted above!

i want this story to get real, longlasting traction so badly. not just Singer, but the whole ring. drag them into the light like cockroaches. they’ve skated by for SO long undermining the believability of their victims.

not to get all red stringed out here but it makes me crazy that Singer’s still getting awards & kids like Brad Renfro who were in his circle die by their own hand & this sex ring just keeps right on being the worst-kept secret for the last, what, 30 years?

i get how easily this could/can devolve into gay panic & homophobia...but i also think this kind of extreme coordinated predatory behavior has to be called out and ~believed~

honestly my hope is that ppl with more clout can back up the named victims & come forward to support them & get some kind of justice

on another note

https://entertainment.theonion.com/bryan-singer-celebrates-bohemian-rhapsody-oscar-nomin-1831988697

There were active rumors about Singer going around when I first moved to L.A. twenty (fucking Christ) years ago. not like Apt Pupil stuff but a lot of stuff like this. Parties and drugs and rape.

But to me when I read the Apt Pupil stories at the time even from the far outside they sounded very credible and creepy in a way that other stories didn’t but they never gained traction bc by he was a hot new director and also the ones coming out with the stories being even more powerless than the ones coming out with stories now.

It should also be noted that Singer is not especially talented, his films are mostly extremely boring to look at and staged unimaginatively and whatever good qualities they have I’m not willing to give him much credit for. I think Usual Suspects was mediocre but the good bits were McQuarrie-related, X2 was good despite him, X1 could have been better if not for him. And yet this very boring filmmaker kept getting work despite the rumors.

the whole ~concept~ of DEN, let alone the backgrounds of the players involved is bananas when you see it all laid out ...ffs they should have just called it the Red Flag Network
and it just goes along under everyone’s noses

The entertainment industry is such a cesspit that everyone who deals with this guy in the business absolutely knows all this. That's before getting into all the other industry figures attending these parties.

got nothing to add except I was young in LA 20 years ago and what omar said. and every time something singer-related comes out it's like yup. but then he just keeps on getting gigs. this is the thing about open secrets.

this is beyond OTM and has always been baffling. he's not especially gifted and comes with baggage... and yet:

It should also be noted that Singer is not especially talented, his films are mostly extremely boring to look at and staged unimaginatively and whatever good qualities they have I’m not willing to give him much credit for. I think Usual Suspects was mediocre but the good bits were McQuarrie-related, X2 was good despite him, X1 could have been better if not for him. And yet this very boring filmmaker kept getting work despite the rumors.

money is your answer there.

It's heart breaking and infuriating reading the article. Shed a tear for Renfro. :-( And all the other victims.

Snider’s concerns weren’t about sexual-abuse allegations. As far as she knew, there had been only one case against Singer—Michael Egan’s—and it had been dismissed.

Money money money money

money is your answer there.

― Ludo, Wednesday, January 23, 2019

not following this at all tbh. like, he works cheap? or is known to deliver projects under budget?

apparently in Hollywood there's a shortage of non-creeps who can direct movies, and that's why we keep getting the same douche bags

i know it will likely never, ever happen, but just one time I want someone who has multiple serious allegations against him, just fucking apologize directly for their actions and take the fucking punishment. This repeated revictimizing of victims by 100% denying everything is so messed up.

the worst is when i hear them claim that the sex was consensual
it really is traumatizing

Xpost if they would, they wldnt mean it. Bec these assholes think they arent doing anything "wrong."

i really believe they know they are doing something wrong and they cover up for each other and themselves since the dawn of time
they know they're doing something wrong and they don't care

i know this is corny but another reason to hope this gets traction for me personally would also be to see some vindication for Corey Feldman, who’s been trying to get attention on the broader sex ring issue since Corey Haim died (maybe even before then too iirc)

i mean i ~know~ he’s nutty as a fruitcake now but his commitment to this cause obv comes from a very sincere & clearly painful place

Hoping Ronan Farrow will follow up with a reveal on who has been delivering the threats described at the article's end (as he did with Weinstein).

https://news.avclub.com/as-if-there-was-any-doubt-bryan-singer-will-still-dire-1832033241

avi lerner, the piece of shit who himself has been accused of sexual harassment and tried to threaten terry crews when he spoke out

Pretty depressed that some of the most monstrous people called to account for being sexual predators are fellow Jews. Not sure what to do with that feeling.

not following this at all tbh. like, he works cheap? or is known to deliver projects under budget?

not so much that he works cheap, but rather that his films make lots and lots and lots of money for the studios. agree that he's a mediocre filmmaker, but he does know how to draw in moviegoers.

That Avi Lerner quote says it all: “The over $800 million Bohemian Rhapsody has grossed, making it the highest grossing drama in film history, is testament to his remarkable vision and acumen,” he continued. “I know the difference between agenda driven fake news and reality, and I am very comfortable with this decision. In America people are innocent until proven otherwise.”

Barf.

who the fuck is paying money to see bohemian rhapsody? does anyone under 40 listen to Queen? is there a hot youtube star playing brian may that i don't know about? does bowie make a beyond the grave cameo? is there a scene where they're writing "we are the champions" everything about it seems so so bad. i know baby boomers still get to decide what gets nominated for awards but those box office numbers are more than just old white dudes turning out right? why does anyone care? freddy mecury was certainly a charismatic figure but the story of "Queen" isn't what i would have considered interesting enough to be a box office smash.

the youth enjoy this movie

Didn't Titanic have bigger box office than that?

Millennials loved Queen even before the movie.

right? Queen is ridiculously popular and young people see Freddie Mercury as a musical genius. also the general public's music taste is hella basic and people would have gone to see it regardless of who the director was. (this is also why the Mamma Mia! movies were huge hits, even though half the cast couldn't carry a tune).

i'm a millennial (i think?) and ii literally have no recollection of Queen being an american pop culture touchstone other than the bit in wayne's world. i work at a small liberal arts college and have never seen anything to clue me in to Queen being popular amongst the youth. i've seen Joy Division, Black Sabbath, Big Star, Led Zeppelin etc. on tees but never Queen. i just don't understand what makes them more appealing subject matter for an imaginary movie than any other band from the last 40 years.

having said that, i fully acknowledge that I'm no authority on this subject matter. it just seems odd that no one I know likes Queen at all.

not so much that he works cheap, but rather that his films make lots and lots and lots of money for the studios. agree that he's a mediocre filmmaker, but he does know how to draw in moviegoers.

i was probably being overly generous, i think Singer is genuinely a very bad filmmaker. No imagination, no real style, brings nothing to the table except apparently a manila envelope with compromising photos idk. when I saw Usual Suspects it felt like a real con job of a movie, like a decent calling card for a screenwriter but certainly no classic. and fuck i mean for example Superman Returns was about five hours long, each hour longer than the previous, and no one has ever wanted to see it again and everyone has forgotten its existence.

Ha, when I saw Superman Returns mentioned in the article I was thinking, "Did that actually get released?"

how the fuck has BoHo made 800 mil

I know Queen are still super popular & basic (hence huge numbers) but still. STILL

That 800 Mil is worldwide gross, no?

Yup, $200 Mil domestic: https://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?view2=worldwide&yr=2018&p=.htm

Ohh

.....still?

Looked up Titanic, $2.1 billion worldwide.

Avatar $2.7B but maybe that's not a "drama."

Queen is great, you herbs

NB he was the band’s first choice to direct the Queen pic, not the studio’s.

not their first, since he didn’t come on until about seven years into active development, and was replaced mid-production by the director who’d been signed four years earlier but walked bcz he thought the “band”’s approach to the script was dumb and bad, a year or two after the star had walked bcz he thought the band’s approach to the script was dumb and bad

^ not a major nitpick in this thread’s specific context, but it took a while to find a team who was really keen to tell a bland story that glossed over the sexual attitudes of the protagonist, and...

he was very hot coming off Usual Suspects but x-men/x2 and bohemian rhapsody were can’t-miss and the rest is box office disappointment if not out and out flops. Superman Returns? Jack the Giant-Killer?

Superman Returns is his second-highest grossing film in adjusted dollars!

Rank	Title (click to view)	Studio	Adjusted Gross	Unadjusted Gross	Release
1	X2: X-Men United	Fox	$321,889,800	$214,949,694	5/2/03
2	Superman Returns	WB	$275,837,100	$200,081,192	6/28/06
3	X-Men	Fox	$263,528,100	$157,299,717	7/14/00
4	X-Men: Days of Future Past	Fox	$254,041,000	$233,921,534	5/23/14
5	Bohemian Rhapsody	Fox	$203,079,400	$203,079,367	11/2/18
6	X-Men: Apocalypse	Fox	$160,860,200	$155,442,489	5/27/16
7	Valkyrie	UA	$100,963,000	$83,077,833	12/25/08
8	Jack the Giant Slayer	WB (NL)	$73,849,500	$65,187,603	3/1/13
9	The Usual Suspects	Gram.	$48,453,900	$23,341,568	8/18/95
10	Apt Pupil	Sony	$17,065,000	$8,863,193	10/23/98

gross has to be compared against budget and expectations. point of all of this being, how does a guy with Singer’s track record and known baggage keep getting major gigs?

i think Singer is genuinely a very bad filmmaker. No imagination, no real style, brings nothing to the table except apparently a manila envelope with compromising photos idk.

Disagree, with X2 as evidence. I didn't mind him in the early '00s when he treated the genre seriously and added queer subtexts.

who the fuck is paying money to see bohemian rhapsody? does anyone under 40 listen to Queen? is there a hot youtube star playing brian may that i don't know about? does bowie make a beyond the grave cameo? is there a scene where they're writing "we are the champions" everything about it seems so so bad. i know baby boomers still get to decide what gets nominated for awards but those box office numbers are more than just old white dudes turning out right? why does anyone care? freddy mecury was certainly a charismatic figure but the story of "Queen" isn't what i would have considered interesting enough to be a box office smash.

― dynamicinterface, Thursday, January 24, 2019 9

I don't blame you for not hanging around teenagers, but the movie was a big deal to them, at least the ones I talked to over the holiday break: Mom and Dad listening to Queen with the kids, with Mom and Dad themselves converted in 1992.

^^ check out. 'Queen Greatest Hits II' (that blue one) was released in 1991 and I remember that cd begin *everywhere* at the time.

*checks

Good Omens injoke about every car containing a cassette of Queen’s Greatest Hits is troooooooo

added queer subtexts.

I mean, I can’t read more than three panels of Claremont before my eyes dry up, but I’m given to understand he baked the subtext into the source pretty richly

i agree Singer took the genre seriously and X2 is fine, but he's very uninspired. the subtext alone isn't much to write home about imo bc it's not done very interestingly. I won't draw a line in the sand there because i have no real issue w/anyone thinking he's solid, since that's all separate from the larger issues at play at present. I guess the main question is, why is Bryan Singer of all filmmakers too valuable as a talent to exile? He is a replacement level talent, at best. This is not a new thing, these allegations have gone back for twenty years and unlike other rumors the stories ring true.