Category Archives: Jojo Rabbit

Taika Waititi to make two Charlie and the Chocolate Factory series for Netflix

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New Zealand Oscar winner to develop animated show based on the beloved Roald Dahl book

The Academy Award-winning director Taika Waititi has signed a deal with Netflix to write, direct and produce two animated series based on the works of the children’s author, Roald Dahl.

The entertainment giant said Waititi’s collaboration with Netflix would be “based on the world and characters of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, while the second series would be a “wholly original take” on the Oompa-Loompas, the diminutive and mysterious workers who dispense chocolate, and sometimes cautionary advice, at Willy Wonka’s factory.

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Oscars 2020: Joker leads pack – but Academy just trumps Baftas for diversity

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  • Joker nominated for 11 awards
  • 1917, The Irishman, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood up for 10
  • Little Women and Parasite take six nominations
  • Cynthia Erivo sole non-white acting nominee
  • Oscar nominations: full list for 2020

Less than a week since Bafta’s strikingly white and male awards shortlist met with widespread criticism – including from the organisation’s own chief executive – the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has released a set of nominations whose small concessions to diversity seem striking by contrast.

Cynthia Erivo is nominated for best actress for her role in a biopic of abolitionist Harriet Tubman, and Parasite – Bong Joon-ho’s acclaimed South Korean black comedy – is up for six awards, including best director and best picture.

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Battle of the sexes: why this year’s Oscars will be a gender war

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From Little Women and Bombshell on one side and The Irishman and The Two Popes on the other, the Academy will have to tread a careful line picking this year’s nominations

British politicians are not the only people preparing for the campaign trail; Hollywood’s awards-season schmooze offensive has also begun. Gala ball dates are being added to diaries, academy voters are being targeted and a clutch of frontrunners is emerging. Trends – most of them worrying – are also appearing.

In summary, this year it is “boy films” v “girl films”. A gaping gender divide seems to have split the field. On the girls’ side, we have two well-received titles: Bombshell, dramatising the sexual harassment scandal at Fox News, and Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of Little Women. Both are stories of female defiance at the male-dominated status quo, and are cast with an embarrassment of awards-bait: Little Women features Meryl Streep, Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, Emma Watson and Laura Dern; Bombshell has Nicole Kidman, Charlize Theron, Margot Robbie and Allison Janney.

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