Review: ‘No One Asked You,’ starring Lizz Winstead

November 5, 2024

by Carla Hay

Lizz Winstead in “No One Asked You” (Photo courtesy of Ruthless Films)

“No One Asked You”

Directed by Ruth Leitman

Culture Representation: Taking place in various parts of the United States, from 2017 to 2024, the documentary film “No One Asked You” features a predominantly white group of people (and some African Americans and a few Latin people and Asian people) who are on both sides of the debate over abortion rights and policies in the United States.

Culture Clash: Abortion Access Front, a non-profit group founded by comedian/writer Lizz Winstead, encounters obstacles in the group’s activism for abortion rights.

Culture Audience: “No One Asked You” will appeal primarily to people who are inclined to have pro-choice viewpoints and are interested in documenatries about grass-roots activism for reproductive rights.

Kat Green, Derenda Hancock and Ian Harvie in “No One Asked You” (Photo courtesy of Ruthless Films)

“No One Asked You” gives an insightful chronicle of the pro-choice activism of Abortion Access Front (formerly known as Lady Parts Justice League) from 2017 to 2024. The documentary infuses comedy as a way to deal with the animosity that the activists get. Because the documentary is told from the activists’ point of view, people who are opposed to what these activists are doing are not really the intended audience for the film. However, “No One Asked You” does show the viewpoints of people who want abortion to be illegal everywhere by having footage of these anti-abortion activists and politicians expressing their opinions in TV interviews and at public gatherings.

Directed by Ruth Leitman, “No One Asked You” had its world premiere at the 2023 edition of DOC NYC, where it was a runner-up for the Audience Award. “No One Asked You” was originally planned as a documentary series titled “Lady Parts Justice in the New World Order,” whch premiered two episodes at DOC NYC in 2018. The series didn’t get a distribution deal, so the documentary was revamped as a feature film with the title “No One Asked You,” with updated footage.

Lizz Winstead, co-creator of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” founded the non-profit group Lady Parts Justice League in 2015, and is the driving force in all of the group’s initiatives. As she explains in “No One Asked You,” the group changed its name in 2019 to Abortion Access Front so that it would have a title that is inclusive to all genders and to take away the stigma associated with the word “abortion.” Abortion Access Front has fundraising initiatives (often through comedy shows) for pro-choice causes, provides assistance to those who give and receive abortion services, and participates in public protests and campaigns for pro-choice and reproductive rights.

In 2017, the group embarked on a Vagical Mystery Tour across the United States to visit various facilities that provide abortion care to help workers escort patients into clinics and provide other assistance to facility employees. As shown in the documentary, anti-abortion protesters often station themselves in front of or near these clinics and do some form of shaming that ranges from religious preaching to aggressively insulting or harassing patients and pro-choice activists. Abortion Access Front volunteers counteract some of the hate with comedic remarks, even if the people who gets these remarks have little or no chance of changing their angry tactics.

Winstead, who has on-camera and voiceover commentary throughout the documentary, says in the beginning of the movie: “Our movement watched abortion erode since 1973.” During the course of making the documentary, predictions and warnings turned out to be true that the U.S. Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that gave federal protections to make abortion legal in the United States. In 2022, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe. v. Wade, several states began passing strict abortion laws that have the biggest effect on pregnant women and pregnant girls who can’t afford to travel to states where they can get safe and legal abortions.

Abortion is a personal issue for Winstead, who says in the documentary (as she has said in many other interviews) the first time she had sex at age 16, she got pregnant. It was an unplanned and unwanted pregnancy by her and the fellow student who impregnated her and blamed her for getting pregnant. Winstead says wryly that she got a safe and legal abortion but had to get the money by stealing it from the father of the teen who impregnated her. There’s a brief scene in the documentary about going back to her alma mater Southwest High School in Minnesota because she was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame.

The Vagical Mystery Tour footage includes the group’s visits to various clinics, comedy shows to raise funds and awareness and the group attending public protests. The group also gets involved in educating communities and protesting aganst crisis pregnancy centers, which are not medical facilities but are centers (usually funded by religions groups) whose main purpose is to tell women and girls not to have abortions. Abortion Access Front objects to any deceptive or misleading information that these crisis pregnancy centers give to unsuspecting people.

A scene in the movie shows intern Solange Azor and comedian Alex English pretending to be an unmarried couple with an unplanned pregancy and going to a crisis pregnancy center. The undercover video footage that they took is limited, but it shows an unidentified center worker carefully choosing words when describing what the center is about, by avoiding calling it a medical facilty and trying to downplay the center’s religious agenda. Azor and English then reported that they were interviewed separately at the center and were treated very differently, with Azor gettng more lectures shaming her into practicing abstinence from non-marital sex.

Other past or present Lady Parts Justice League/Abortion Access Front people who are in the documentary include marketing manager Moji Alowode-El, former managing director/head of production Kat Green, and former communications director Nicole Moore. The issue of race comes up a few times women of color are disproportionately affected by stricter abortion laws. Many crisis pregnancy centers are operated by white people and are set up in predominantly black communities.

Moore (who is black) comments in the documentary during the 2018 mid-term elections: “Black women are changing the face and the tone of these elections. People don’t even see their privilege They don’t even understand how they are oppressing other people. Step back and let black women talk about reproductive justice because it’s all connected when you’re talking about social change.”

Elsewhere in the documentary, it’s pointed out that many right-wing anti-abortion activists were among those in the mob who went to the U.S. Capitol on June 6, 2021, with the intent of overturning the election results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. An epilogue mentions that Abortion Access Front has been involved in reporting anti-abortion extremists who break laws, including Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances [FACE] laws, resulting in numerous arrests and convictions. Winstead says in the documentary that pro-choice activists and supporters should not be passive by overlooking the lawbreaking done in the name of anti-abortion.

Several employees of clinics who provide abortion services are featured in the documentary—most notably Derenda Hancock, a clinic escort at the Jackson Women’s Health Organization (also known as the Pink House because the building was a painted pink) in Jackson, Mississippi. Hancock engages with anti-abortion activists not by getting into shouting matches but by reasoning with them on a personable level. Even though she is cordial, her patience is also tested by those who accost the clinic’s patients and workers, and she nearly breaks down in tears during one particular emotionally draining incident.

“No One Asked You” also features people who own or work at facilities that provide abortion services and who talk about how their own lives are at risk because of constant death threats from anti-abortion extremists. The abortion providers in the documentary include Whole Woman’s Health founder Amy Hagstrom Miller, Northland Family Planning owner/CEO Renee Chelian, Trust Women CEO Julie Burkhart, Northland Family Planning vice president Laura Chelian (Renee’s daughter), Jackson Women’s Health Organization director Shannon Brewer and Dr. LeRoy Carhart, who died in 2023, at age 81.

The comedians shown performing at the Lady Parts Justice League/Abortion Access Front fundraising shows include Sarah Silverman, English, Joyelle Johnson, Gina Yashere, Greg Proops, Mehran Khaghani, Helen Hong, Jaye McBride, Ian Harvie and Aida Rodriguez. At an event titled Life Is a Living Nightmare: A Telethon to Fix It, actor Mark Hamill is a participating entertainer. Singer/songwriter Jill Solube is shown performing at another event.

The anti-abortion activists who get screen time in “No One Asked You” include Mississippi politicians Dan Eubanks and Steve Hopkins, who co-authored a bill that would ban abortions in Mississippi for any pregnancy past six weeks. The fate of that bill is mentioned in the documentary. Operation Save America officials Jason Storms (current national director) and Rusty Thomas (former national director) are seen giving anti-abortion speeches.

Winstead doesn’t mince words when she describes the Operation Save America people who advocate for violence as “domestic terrorists.” As a sobering reminder of how abortion providers are targets for murder, there’s a scene in the movie that briefly features David Gunn Jr., the son of Dr. David Gunn Sr., who was murdered in 1993, in Pensacola, Florida, because Dr. Gunn was an abortion provider. David Gunn Jr. confronts anti-abortion protestors at a clinic and points out the hypocrisy of so-called pro-lifers who think it’s justified to murder abortion providers.

“No One Asked You” is not trying to solve the ongoing controversies over abortion. However, the documentary does a capable job of raising questions and awareness of how much control people in the United States might or might not want the government to have over their personal family planning. Because of the involvement of so many religious groups (mostly Christian) in trying to get abortion banned everywhere in the United States, these matters also involve concerns about separations between church and state. Ultimately, as long as these issues continue to be extremely divisive, there will never a resolution that will please everyone who has an opinion about abortion.

Ruthless Films released “No One Asked You” in select U.S. cinemas on October 18, 2024. Jolt premiered the movie on October 25, 2024.

Review: ‘The Wild Robot,’ starring the voices of Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor, Bill Nighy, Ving Rhames, Mark Hamill and Catherine O’Hara

September 8, 2024

by Carla Hay

Brightbill (voiced by Kit Connor) and Roz (voiced by Lupita Nyong’o) “The Wild Robot” (Image courtesy of DreamWorks Animation)

“The Wild Robot”

Directed by Chris Sanders

Culture Representation: Taking place mostly on a remote island, the animated film “The Wild Robot” has a group of characters that are talking animals and talking robots.

Culture Clash: After crash-landing on Earth, an alien robot becomes a mother figure to a young goose, who learns lessons about loyalty and life along the way.

Culture Audience: “The Wild Robot” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the book on which the movie is based, the movie’s headliners and family-friendly animated films that skillfully blend comedy and drama.

Fink (voiced by Pedro Pascal), Roz (voiced by Lupita Nyong’o) and Pinktail (voiced by Catherine O’Hara) in “The Wild Robot” (Image courtesy of DreamWorks Animation)

“The Wild Robot” is a heartwarming and visually dazzling animated adaptation of Peter Brown’s 2016 novel of the same. Lupita Nyong’o does an excellent job of making a robot character have believable humanity. The rest of the movie’s voice cast is also stellar.

Written and directed by Chris Sanders, “The Wild Robot” had its world premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. The movie keeps the plot uncomplicated and treads on a well-worn animated path of being a coming-of-age story where two very different characters are thrown together under unexpected circumstances and learn about life from each other. Most movies about robots usually have humans as main characters, but “The Wild Robot” stands out because there are no humans in the movie—only talking animals and talking robots.

“The Wild Robot” begins by showing a robot named Rozzum Unit 7134, later nicknamed Roz (voiced by Nyong’o), who crash-lands from outer space and becomes stranded on an island that has no humans. In the beginning of the movie, Roz is very rigid and focused only on following the orders that she was programmed to fulfill. She has been taught that once her duties have been completed for her owner, she has to shut down and be programmed for the next owner. It’s later revealed that Roz comes from a company called Universal Dynamics.

Roz’s appearance on the island causes the animals to fear Roz and think she’s a monster. When she is chased by a bear, she falls down and accidentally causes the death of family of geese, except for the only survivor: an unhatched egg. Roz believes she was programmed to protect this egg. A sly fox named Fink (voiced by Pedro Pascal) steals the egg, so Roz chases Fink through a heavily wooded area. Roz captures the fox, plucks a whisker from his face, retrieves the egg, and lets Fink go. The egg soon hatches and reveals itself to be a runt male gosling.

Roz asks this newborn goose, “Was this task completed to your satisfaction?” She asks the goose to rate her skills on a scale of 1 to 10. The frightened gosling can only chirp out an answer. Roz says, “I’ll register that as a 10.”

Roz and the orphaned gosling soon meet a family of young opossums led by a snarky matriarch named Pinktail (voiced by Catherine O’Hara), a mother of seven who doesn’t want to adopt this orphaned bird. Pinktail insists that Roz can take care of the gosling. Roz soon learns that she should have three tasks to complete to raise this newborn to become an independent goose who will be ready to migrate in autumn with the other geese in the community: “Eat. Swim. Fly by fall.”

At first, Roz wants to give numbers as a name for this gosling. (One bland and boring suggestion is 001.) However, Fink comes slinking back out of curiosity and says that this young goose should be given words as names. Roz takes this advice and names the gosling Brightbill when she sees his bill light up in the glow of the atmosphere.

Brightbill (voiced by Kit Connor) grows up to be a young adult who is bullied and taunted by other geese, who think of Brightbill as a tiny wimp and Roz as a monster. The chances look slim that outcast Brightbill will be invited to migrate with the other geese. Fink still hangs around as a family acquaintance who eventually earns more trust.

An elderly goose named Longneck (voiced by Bill Nighy) becomes the first goose to treat Brightbill and Roz with kindness. Other talking animals that appear in the movie are a fearsome grizzly bear named Thorn (voiced by Mark Hamill), a confident falcon named Thunderbolt (voiced by Ving Rhames) and an eccentric beaver named Paddler (voiced by Matt Berry), who is also trying to find acceptance with this clique-ish animal community on the island.

“The Wild Robot” has a lot to say about parental responsibilities and how families can exist with beings who are not biologically related. The movie treats themes of co-dependence and independence in thoughtful and clever ways, as observations and commentaries on interpersonal relationships and authoritarian control. A robot villain character named Vontra (voiced by Stephanie Hsu) represents the dark side of authoritarianism.

It’s fitting that the main character getting the child raising in “The Wild Robot” is a bird because the movie has several moments when Roz has to grapple with the experience of being an “empty nester.” One of the more impactful lines of dialogue in the movie is when Roz says she thinks of kindness as a survival skill. People might get misty-eyed in some scenes that are clearly intended to be tearjerking moments about family and friendship.

“The Wild Robot” brims with dynamic energy, gorgeous visuals and memorable characters, even if the movie offers no surprises. The movie’s writing and directing (complemented by Kris Bowers’ adventurous musical score) do not pander mainly to kids under the age of 10 because there’s much that can be enjoyed by people of many different age groups. The ending of the film obviously hints at a sequel, which should please viewers who want to see this appealing story continue.

Universal Pictures will release “The Wild Robot” in U.S. cinemas on September 27, 2024. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on October 15, 2024. “The Wild Robot” will be releaed on 4K UHD and Blu-ray on December 3, 2024.

Review: ‘The Machine’ (2023), starring Bert Kreischer, Mark Hamill, Jimmy Tatro, Iva Babić, Stephanie Kurtzuba and Jess Gabor

May 26, 2023

by Carla Hay

Mark Hamill and Bert Kreischer in “The Machine” (Photo by Aleksandar Letic/Screen Gems)

“The Machine” (2023)

Directed by Peter Atencio

Some language in Russian with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Russia and in the United States, the action comedy film “The Machine” features a nearly all-white cast of characters (with a few African Americans) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Rude and crude American comedian Bert “The Machine” Kreischer and his father are kidnapped and brought to Russia by Russian criminals, who want Bert to find a valuable watch that they claim he stole 23 years earlier, when Bert was a partying college student visiting Russia. 

Culture Audience: “The Machine” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of Kreischer, but even they might find this relentlessly idiotic and dull movie very hard to take.

Iva Babić and Bert Kreischer in “The Machine” (Photo by Aleksandar Letic/Screen Gems)

Crude, boring and obnoxiously stupid, “The Machine” repeatedly misfires and malfunctions as a showcase for stand-up comedian Bert “The Machine” Kreischer, who portrays a version of himself in his first starring movie role. Kreischer is also a producer of this grossly incompetent action comedy, released by Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Screen Gems. “The Machine” might have this corporate-owned movie studio as a distributor, but this junkpile film is worse than the most amateur, low-budget independent films that you could ever see.

Directed by Peter Atencio, “The Machine” has no creativity, no style and no charm. It stumbles around in repetitive scenarios and spews out deeply unfunny “jokes” that sound like ideas that would be rejected at low-rent comedy clubs. Kevin Biegel and Scotty Landes wrote the putrid screenplay for “The Machine,” which is proof that if you throw enough money around, untalented garbage can be made into a terrible movie. “The Machine” also has very unimaginative stereotypes of Russian mobsters. These lazy clichés quickly become tiresome.

“The Machine” doesn’t have much of a plot. The movie’s opening scene shows a Russian mobster boss named Igor (played by Nikola Djuricko) watching controversial stand-up comedian Bert Kreischer (whose persona is being a politically incorrect, drinking-and-drugging blowhard) doing a stand-up routine on TV. Igor becomes incensed and yells at the screen: “I want what you stole, Machine!” The enraged gangster than destroys the TV by shooting a gun at it.

A sloppily filmed montage near the beginning of the movie shows that Bert is having a meltdown in his career and in his personal life. Bert almost got his teenage daughter Sasha (played by Jess Gabor) arrested for something that was actually his fault. He’s such a terrible father, he livestreamed Sasha getting detained by police. As a result of the backlash, Bert took a hiatus from social media and cancelled his comedy tour.

Bert is smug and defiant during a family therapy session in the office of their therapist (played by Brian Caspe), who looks like he would rather be anywhere else but forced to be in a room with this lunkhead. Also in the therapy session are Bert’s long-suffering wife LeeAnn (played by Stephanie Kurtzuba), their obedient tween daughter Tatiana (played by Amelie Child Villiers) and a sulking Sasha. Bert congratulates himself for not calling anyone in the room the “c” word (as in “cunt”), even if he thinks they deserve to be called that word.

Back at home, Bert continues to heap praise on himself, by bragging to his family that he hasn’t done anything publicly embarrassing in three months. What does he want? A medal? Kreischer is married with two daughters in real life. This stinker of a movie is surely going to be an embarrassment for the entire family. Kreischer’s real-life wife (who really does have the name LeeAnn Kreischer) is also one of the producers of “The Machine,” which means she got suckered into sinking some of her own money into this irredeemable flop.

Bert wants to look like he’s sorry for what he’s done to Sasha, so he throws a big 16th birthday party for her at the family home. The problem is that party isn’t really about Sasha. It’s about Bert showing off. Sasha doesn’t even know most of the people whom Bert invited to the party. It just leads to Sasha having more resentment for her selfish father. To put on a façade that he’s “cleaned up his act,” Bert decided not have any alcohol served at the party, which is attended mostly by adults.

Here’s an example of the rotten “comedy” in “The Machine”: One of the party guests is a family friend named Madison (played by Tea Wagner), who is in the process of getting a divorce. Madison asks Bert in an annoyed voice about the lack of alcohol at the party: “No booze?” Bert replies, “Hey, Madison: No husband?” And then, he mutters underneath his breath: “Fucking bitch.”

Soon, it will be Bert’s turn to get annoyed, when his estranged father Albert Kreischer (played by Mark Hamill) shows up unannounced at the party. Bert is bitter because he thinks Albert has been an inattentive father for most of Bert’s life. Albert, who lives in Florida, owns a carpet company called Kreischer Karpets. Albert thinks that Bert’s career as a comedian is probably over, so he offers Bert a job at the carpet company. It’s an offer that Bert abruptly refuses.

There’s another uninvited guest who shows up at the party. She’s a Russian mob enforcer named Irina (played by Iva Babić, in a very campy performance), who works for Igor. Irina tells Bert that she’s there to get a pocket watch that Bert stole on a train 23 years ago, when he was a 25-year-old college student visiting Russia on a school trip. Bert denies knowing anything about this pocket watch.

However, Bert and Albert get kidnapped by Irina and her goons anyway and are taken by private plane to Russia. (“The Machine” was actually filmed in Serbia.) Irina says that while Bert is in Russia, his daughters will be under surveillance by some of her cronies. Irina warns Bert that if he doesn’t do what he’s told, then his daughters will be harmed. Irina’s cronies are mostly forgettable and generic, except for Irina’s bodyguard: a hulking dolt named Sponge (played by Martyn Ford), who immediately clashes with Bert.

The rest of “The Machine” is nothing but a slog of dimwitted dialogue and fake-looking fight scenes. There are some tedious flashbacks showing college-age Bert (played by Jimmy Tatro) and his shenanigans in Russia. In the flashbacks, there’s a useless subplot involving Bert treating his classmate Ashley (played by Rita Bernard-Shaw), who’s a potential love interest for Bert, like a subservient maid. It’s not a good look, considering Ashley is the only non-white character who has a speaking role in the movie. (Rachel Momcilov portrays the present-day Ashley.)

Kreischer is utterly cringeworthy as an actor and has no charisma on screen. All of the movie’s other performances range from mediocre to unwatchable. Hamill often looks like he regrets signing up for this cesspool of a movie, and he puts no credible effort in his performance. How did he end up in this tacky mess? Did the “Star Wars” franchise not pay Hamill enough money?

There’s no other way to put it: “The Machine” is a complete failure in every single way. It’s yet another example of how being a famous stand-up comedian doesn’t automatically mean that the comedian has what it takes to be a movie star. “The Machine” should have been put out of commission before it was even made.

Screen Gems released “The Machine” in U.S. cinemas on May 26, 2023.

Stan Lee ‘Excelsior’ tribute in Los Angeles will feature Kevin Smith, Mark Hamill, RZA and other celebrities

January 24, 2019

Stan Lee
Stan Lee (Photo courtesy of Tinseltown Shutterstock)

The following is a press release from Legion M:

Excelsior! A Celebration of the Amazing, Fantastic, Incredible & Uncanny Life of Stan Lee,” will be attended by Mark Hamill, RZA, Clark Gregg, Felicia Day, Bill Duke, cast members from Marvel’s “The Runaways,” cast members from FX’s “Legion,” and Fox’s “The Gifted,” among many other luminaries from the entertainment world.

Fans wishing to attend “Excelsior! A Stan Lee Celebration” can get a limited number of tickets at legionm.com/stantribute. All net proceeds from the event’s ticket sales will go to the non-profit organization The Hero Initiative, a charity supporting comic book creators, artists and writers in need.

The tribute event on Wednesday, January 30, will begin at 4 p.m. PT with a section of the TCL Chinese Theatre forecourt transformed into a fan experience of Stan Lee’s life and career. There will be a memorial centered around his cement imprint which will be displayed next to the speaker’s podium. Ticketed fans will be allowed to leave flowers, candles and sign a book of condolences.

Photos, artwork, Stan’s classic comic books and memorabilia will be on exhibit in the forecourt along with a special preview of pop-culture artist Rob Prior’s upcoming gallery show “The Legacy Collection of Stan Lee.” Prior will do a live painting in the forecourt during the opening portion of the tribute. Artist Jennifer Contini will also have her series “This Love Lives On” featuring images of Stan Lee on display. The White Castle Crave Mobile will be serving sliders, one of Stan’s favorite snacks, for all the fans.

Producers of the event, Legion M’s David Baxter and Terri Lubaroff, Stan Lee’s POW! Entertainment’s Bob Sabouni and Agents of Mayhem Darren Passarello will greet fans and introduce several public speakers before Kevin Smith arrives and assembles an honor guard of world class cosplayers representing many of Stan’s co-creations, including Avengers, Spider-Man, Dr. Strange, and more to pay their respects and lead the crowd in a final salute to this legendary pop culture icon accompanied by a police band of pipes and drums.

On the red carpet, a group of veterans from Veterans in Media & Entertainment and The American Legion of Hollywood Post 43 will honor Stan for his service during World War II, and Chief Paul Cell, President of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, will recognize Stan’s contributions for his work supporting law enforcement and creating safer communities.

Family from the other co-creators of the Marvel Universe will attend to pay their respects and join in the celebration, including Tracy and Jeremy Kirby, grandchildren of Jack Kirby, Mark and Stephen Ditko, nephews of Steve Ditko, and Jenna Parker, daughter of Sol Brodsky, all of whom were part of the original Marvel Bullpen.

After red-carpet arrivals, the tribute will commence in the TCL Chinese IMAX Theatre where Kevin Smith will moderate conversations with celebrity speakers from the entertainment industry including Mark Hamill, Rob Liefeld (Co-Creator of Deadpool), Michael Uslan (Executive Producer, “The Dark Knight”), RZA, and Tom DeSanto (Executive Producer, “X-Men”).

The evening will also include discussions with stars from the comics world and Stan’s personal friends, including Marv Wolfman (Blade creator), Marvel’s Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada and Executive VP, Head of Television Jeph Loeb, artist Bill Sienkiewicz (Elektra: Assassin), and Stan’s business partner at Stan Lee’s POW! Entertainment, Gill Champion.

Members of the creative team behind the Academy Award®-nominated “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” including writer/producer Phil Lord and producers Chris Miller, Avi Arad and Amy Pascal will also be on stage to honor Stan. Producers Lauren Shuler Donner and Derek Hoffman round off the evening’s panels as they speak to and celebrate the modern impact of Stan’s characters through two decades of X-Men in film and television.

The evening will be complete with video tributes from stars who are unable to attend as well as live celebrity performances of Stan’s favorite music and poetry.

The tribute event is being produced by fan-owned entertainment company Legion M, which is revolutionizing the way entertainment is made in Hollywood by uniting a growing fan community of 50,000+ members, including more than 10,000 fan-owners. In addition to producing film and television projects, Legion M organized Stan Lee’s hand and foot imprint ceremony at the TCL Chinese Theatre in 2017. Legion M is producing the tribute with the production and consulting company Agents of Mayhem whose founder Darren Passarello worked for Stan for several years.

Both companies are working with Stan Lee’s POW! Entertainment, the multimedia company founded in 2001 by Stan with his friend and business partner Gill Champion, its president. Stan Lee’s POW! Entertainment is the sole owner of the Stan Lee name and all new original content he created since 2001.

Under the leadership of CEO Scott D. Williams and Gill Champion, the company has been and will continue to be the guardian of Stan Lee’s legacy and is excited to roll out new projects and new adventures Stan had been working on. On behalf of Stan Lee’s POW! Entertainment, Chief Marketing Officer Bob Sabouni will be overseeing and guiding the tribute day alongside the other event partners.Producers of the tribute event will continue to announce additional details for the event via social media feeds. Details of specific speakers, performers and other activities will be shared on the social channels for Kevin Smith, Legion M, Agents of Mayhem, and Stan Lee’s POW! Entertainment. (@TheRealStanLee, @ThatKevinSmith, @LegionMOfficial, @AgentsofMayhem).

___________________

About Kevin Smith

Starting with CLERKS, Kevin Smith has been making movies, TV, live shows and podcasts for 25 years now. He almost died recently but it was only a passing thing.

About Stan Lee’s POW! Entertainment

POW! Entertainment Inc. is a multimedia company founded in 2001 by the iconic comic book creator Stan Lee  with his friend and business partner Gill Champion, who is the President today, to create and license intellectual properties for entertainment media, including: feature length films, television, merchandising, branded content and other related ancillary markets as well as exclusively maintain and protect the ownership of his name, likeness, voice, trademarks and publicity rights throughout the world. POW! Entertainment was acquired by Hong Kong-based Camsing International Holding Limited, one of China’s leading brand licensing, entertainment, marketing and promotion companies, in 2017. Under new leadership, another original founder and industry veterans from Marvel and MGM, POW! is working with top writers, artists, animators, filmmakers and actors to extend the legacy of the greatest storyteller of our time.

About Legion M

Legion M is the world’s first fan-owned entertainment company that is revolutionizing the way entertainment is made in Hollywood by uniting a growing fan community of 50,000+ members, including more than 10,000 fan-owners.  Through its Fan-Owned business model, Legion M invests in a diverse slate of original projects in various stages of development, including the feature film and comic book “Girl With No Name”; multiple original television series including “Evermor,” “Airship Cowboys,” and “Malice;” as well as interactive and VR-based projects, including “ICONS: Face to Face” starring Stan Lee and Kevin Smith.  Legion M also invests in partner productions, including the critically acclaimed Colossal, starring Anne Hathaway and Jason Sudeikis, and directed by Nacho Vigalondo, the cult hit “Mandy” starring Nicolas Cage and directed by Panos Cosmatos, and “Bad Samaritan” starring David Tennant and directed and produced by Dean Devlin.  Legion M and its fan community has produced high-profile events honoring some of the industry’s biggest names, including the Stan Lee hand and footprint ceremony at Hollywood’s TCL Chinese Theatre in 2017.  To learn more about Legion M and become a member of the Legion for free, visit www.legionm.com.

About Agents of Mayhem™

A production and consulting company founded by a dynamic force within the entertainment industry with over 16+ years’ experience working with the world’s biggest brands. A.O.M’s mission is to create exceptional and original content, through its creative studio arm New Yorkie Studios™ which serves as an incubator for content, by showcasing talent, skills, and passion of celebrity and non-celebrity creators. A.O.M focuses on development, content strategy, creative consulting, and distribution. (www.AgentsofMayhem.com)

About The Hero Initiative

The Hero Initiative is the first-ever federally chartered not-for-profit corporation dedicated strictly to helping comic book creators in need. Hero creates a financial safety net for yesterday’s creators who may

emergency medical aid, financial support for essentials of life, and an avenue back into paying work. It’s a chance for all of us to give back something to the people who have given us so much enjoyment.

Since its inception, The Hero Initiative has had the good fortune to grant over $1 million to the comic book veterans who have paved the way for those in the industry today. For more information, visit www.heroinitiative.org or call 626-676-6354.

Hollywood Walk of Fame announces 2018 star recipients

June 22. 2017

The following is a press release from the Hollywood Walk of Fame:

A new group of entertainment professionals in the categories of Motion Pictures, Television, Live Theatre/Live Performance, Radio and Recording have been selected to receive stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, it was announced today, Thursday, June 22, 2017 by the Walk of Fame Selection Committee of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. These honorees were chosen from among hundreds of nominations to the committee at a meeting held in June and ratified by the Hollywood Chamber’s Board of Directors. Television Producer and Walk of Famer Vin Di Bona, Chair of the Walk of Fame Selection Committee for 2017, announced the new honorees with Leron Gubler, President & CEO for the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce who is also the emcee of the Walk of Fame ceremonies.

The new selections were revealed to the world via live stream exclusively on the official website www.walkoffame.com. The live stream began at 2:15 p.m. PDT and was held at the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce offices.

“The Walk of Fame Selection Committee is pleased to announce our newest honorees to the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The Committee looked carefully at each nominee and we feel that we have selected an eclectic group of talent that will appeal to the tastes of many fans around the world,” said Di Bona. “As a Walk of Famer myself, I know these honorees will remember the dedication of their stars with great memories and will be proud that they are part of Hollywood’s history now and forever. We look forward to their big day as the Walk of Fame Class of 2018 becomes cemented one by one on the most famous sidewalk in the world!”

The Hollywood Walk of Fame Class of 2018 are:

In the category of MOTION PICTURES:   Jack Black, Kirsten Dunst, Jeff Goldblum, F. Gary Gray, Mark Hamill, Jennifer Lawrence, Gina Lollobrigida, Minnie Mouse, Nick Nolte and Zoe Saldana

In the category of TELEVISION:   Anthony Anderson, Gillian Anderson, Lynda Carter, Simon Cowell, RuPaul Charles, Taraji P. Henson, Eric McCormack, Ryan Murphy, Niecy Nash, Mandy Patinkin, Shonda Rhimes, and posthumous Steve Irwin

In the category of RECORDING:  Mary J. Blige, Sir Richard Branson, Petula Clark, Harry Connick, Jr., Ice T, Snoop Dogg, Carrie Underwood and “Weird Al” Yankovic

In the category of RADIO:   Steve Jones

In the category of LIVE THEATRE/LIVE PERFORMANCE:   Charles Aznavour, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and posthumous Bernie Mac

The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and its Walk of Fame Selection Committee congratulate all the honorees. Dates have not been scheduled for these star ceremonies. Recipients have two years to schedule star ceremonies from the date of selection before they expire. Upcoming star ceremonies are usually announced ten days prior to dedication on the official website www.walkoffame.com.

2017 Star Wars Celebration: ‘Last Jedi’ trailer premieres, Harrison Ford appears; watch videos from the event

April 16, 2017

Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and George Lucas at the 12th edition of Star Wars Celebration at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida, on April 14, 2017.
Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and George Lucas at the 12th edition of Star Wars Celebration at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida, on April 14, 2017. (Photo courtesy of Lucasfilm)

The 12th edition of Star Wars Celebration took place April 12 to 16, 2017, at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.

Harrison Ford, who played Han Solo in several “Star Wars” movies, made his first appearance at the event. He was on a panel with “Star Wars” creator/director George Lucas and “Star Wars” actor Mark Hamill (best known for playing Luke Skywalker) celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1977 “Star Wars” movie. Others who appeared at the event included past and present “Star Wars” co-stars such as Liam Neeson, Ian McDiarmid, Hayden Christensen, Samuel L. Jackson, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, Billie Lourd, Billy Dee Williams, Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford. Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, “Star Wars Rebels” executive producer/supervising director Dave Filoni and “Star Wars” composer John Williams.

The teaser trailer for Star Wars The Last Jedi was revealed. The movie is set to be released on December 15, 2017.

It was also revealed that the late Carrie Fisher (who died in December 2016) will not be in “Star Wars: Episode IX,” which will be released sometime in 2019.

The fourth season of the animated series “Star Wars Rebels” will be its last season.

An update was given on the “Star Wars” themed attraction, which is set to open in 2019 at Disney Parks in California and Florida. Among the features: Guests will be able to ride a replica of the Millennium Falcon, as well experience the cantina that was in the 1977 “Star Wars” movie.

The event concluded with a surprise performance from Oscar-winning “Star Wars” composer John Williams and an orchestra.

Here are video highlights from Star Wars Celebration 2017:

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