As I write this on Wednesday, December 14, a few of the main news stories of the day on The Washington Post are: An article about how Tijuana has evolved into a trafficking hub for fentanyl The arrest of Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, and the various politicians he allegedly donated to The tenth anniversary of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary The Texas attorney general’s office sought information on transgender residents The discovery that soccer journalist Grant Wahl died of an aortic aneurysm A science article about why some parts of Earth warm faster... Read More

Sometimes it feels like franchises never end. There’s a bunch of films in the Fast and Furious series, the James Bond movies have been trucking along since 1962, and the MCU will end at roughly the same time that our sun goes supernova and wipes out all human life on our fragile planet. But franchises end. Consider the little-remembered Francis the Talking Mule series. Based on a 1946 novel, seven films were made during the 1950s about a mule in the Army that could talk. Presumably, they were profitable—for a while, anyway. As time went on, audiences either a) searched for new diversions in... Read More

As much as we love to bellyache about Hollywood failing to come up with new ideas, there are two irrefutable facts we have to contend with. The first is that, frequently, when something blazingly original is released theatrically, audiences shun it. Speed Racer was a failure. Cloud Atlas was a failure. Mortal Engines was a failure. The second fact? As long as there have been movies, there have been adaptations. It’s hardly a new phenomenon. George De Maurier’s 1895 novel Trilby, which I’m sure you all have read, was adapted into a silent film way back in 1915. This kind of thing has been... Read More