The about-turn on Coronavirus at Fox News has been fascinating. The threat of the virus has not been a surprise to anyone paying attention. By immediately taking a defensive stance and talking it up as a left-wing hoax, Fox News has done its loyal viewership a disservice. Ironic considering the leading demo for Fox are those in an age bracket most vulnerable to COVID-19.
Fingers are being pointed. Many of them directly at Lachlan Murdoch.
There are a lot of theories about what went wrong at Fox: that the network’s dug-in hostility toward climate science spilled over to medicine, or that its executives cared about ratings above all else. But interviews with 20 current and former Fox staff members and Murdoch family associates in recent days paint a different picture: The network is in thrall to the president and largely beyond the control of the family that owns it.
When Lachlan Murdoch started to hear complaints about the coronavirus coverage on Fox, a person who has spoken to him said, he mistook it for the usual partisan noise.
Read more: NYT
Is this a case of cabin fever setting in? Or just natural genius at work? Players of the new Nintendo game Animal Crossing have been using it to recreate the movie The Lighthouse.
Source: Polygon
Cinemas have re-opened in China, however audiences are still staying away.
The data showed that nationwide revenue on Friday totalled less than $2,000. In Fujian and Guangdong, not a single ticket was sold.
Source: Variety
I’m not watching Westworld anymore, but this aside involving Game of Thrones cameos sounds like a fun inclusion in the most recent episode:
On Sunday night’s episode of “Westworld,” Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) and Stubbs (Luke Hemsworth) sneak back into the park’s tech corridors to investigate why Maeve (Thandie Newton) has gone missing. Instead, they discover that none other than Drogon, the fire-breathing star of HBO’s recently concluded juggernaut “Game of Thrones,” is apparently a robotic attraction the park’s Medieval World. Not only that, but “Game of Thrones” executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are working as technicians in the park, trying to figure out how they can abscond with Drogon to Costa Rica.
Variety has a deeper dive into how this all came about. Read it HERE.
(The most interesting tidbit is how authentic Drogon is on Westworld - the character was built by the GoT special effects company Pixamundo. So, in a sense… it’s the real dragon.
Trailer Park
A Netflix animated film called The Willoughbys debuts April 22. With no cinemas open anymore, this is what a movie release looks like now.
The story follows the four Willoughby children who setup their oblivious parents to abandon them and go on a trip that could well kill them. Left to their own devices, they must learn how to adapt their old-fashioned values to the contemporary world and discover the true meaning of family.
The trailer for new Netflix series Love 101 is very, well, loud. It launches April 24… loudly.
New Quibi series Survive has Sophie Turner and Corey Hawkins in a plane crash in the wilderness and forced to, well, y’know.
What’s next?
