Search

Placeholder Content Image

I watched some 40 films at this year’s Sydney Film Festival. Here are my top five picks – and one hilarious flop

<div class="theconversation-article-body"><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ari-mattes-97857">Ari Mattes</a>, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-notre-dame-australia-852">University of Notre Dame Australia</a></em></p> <p>This year’s <a href="https://www.sff.org.au/">Sydney Film Festival’s</a> rich offerings of films more than compensated for the minor technical issues that led to some screenings being interrupted.</p> <p>Out of the 40-odd films I saw, here are my top five, along with some notable mentions and three disappointments (including a genuine <em>dud</em>).</p> <h2>1. The Girl with the Needle</h2> <p>Cowritten and directed by Swedish filmmaker Magnus von Horn, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_with_the_Needle">The Girl with the Needle</a> is loosely based on the story of notorious early-20th century serial killer Dagmar Overbye.</p> <p>But this is no procedural true crime film, painstakingly attempting to recreate crimes with historical accuracy. It’s a stylish Danish nightmare dazzling with cinematic acrobatics right from the opening sequence, in which black and white faces hideously morph, looking at the viewer like deranged figures from a hellish circus. It is, indeed, one of the most terrifying films I’ve seen.</p> <p>The narrative follows the struggles of new mother Karoline (Vic Carmen Sonne) as she gives her baby to Dagmar’s informal adoption agency and begins working with her as a wet nurse, unaware of what’s really going on.</p> <p>Sonne is as self-assured as ever – and none of the actors put a foot wrong here. Seasoned Danish film star Trine Dyrholm is exceptional in bringing nuance to what could have become a caricaturishly evil role as Dagmar. And Besir Zeciri endows Peter, a war-wounded veteran who can only find employment in a circus freakshow, with an unexpected warmth and tenderness.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VlyW-z1xbO4?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <p>The Girl with the Needle features some of the most distressing sequences one could find in a commercial film. Its meticulously rendered shades of German expressionism never distract from its smorgasbord of horrors, offering an almost unbearably bleak vision of the world in the aftermath of the Great War. If only all films were this good!</p> <h2>2. Dying</h2> <p>I’d normally suppress a yawn if you told me I had to sit through a three-hour social realist drama about the everyday difficulties of a bourgeois German conductor and his family. Yet writer-director Matthias Glasner’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dying_(2024_film)">Dying</a> is a near perfect film (no surprise it won <a href="https://www.screendaily.com/news/matthias-glasners-dying-wins-german-lola-for-best-film/5193046.article">four prizes</a> at the German Film Awards).</p> <p>The film is complex and engrossing – deeply sad in places and hysterical in others – formally controlled, but underpinned by an anarchic sensibility. It is life-affirming without any skerrick of sentimentality.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kagVqEfPxFw?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <p>Lars Eidinger is astonishingly good as maestro Tom, who is trying to keep his career on track as his family life crumbles around him. He is matched by Lilith Stangenberg, mesmerising as his unhinged sister Ellen. Robert Gwisdek is equally exceptional as the highly strung composer and friend Bernard, while Corinna Harfouch anchors the film’s first section as Tom’s far from maternal mother, Lissy.</p> <p>At one point, Ingmar Bergman’s 1982 period film <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_and_Alexander">Fanny and Alexander</a> is playing on the TV (Tom watches it every Christmas). Even though Dying feels like a contemporary film committed to interrogating the difficulties of being in the modern world, there’s something of late Bergman here as it unfolds across its epic length.</p> <p>It is a three-hour film about middle-class life, but like a great 19th-century novel, it never feels long. The fact that nothing particularly extraordinary happens is testament to how well-made the film is.</p> <h2>3. Kill</h2> <p>Director Nikhil Nagesh Bhat’s Indian action film <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kill_2023_2">Kill</a> is cheesy, sentimental and at first seems remarkably silly.</p> <p>Commando Amrit, played by beefy TV star Lakshya, is travelling to New Delhi by train with his buddy, fellow commando Viresh (Abhishek Chauhan). His true love Tulika (Tanya Maniktala) is also on board and has recently become engaged to another man through an arrangement by her wealthy father, Baldev Singh Thakur (Harsh Chhaya), who happens to own the train company. When a group of 30-plus bandits led by the charming but ice-cold Fani (Raghav Juyal) move to rob the train, Amrit must defend Tulika, her family and the rest of the passengers.</p> <p>When the title card appears 40 minutes into the film, suddenly emblazoned on the screen, it seems like a distracting quirk at first. But it begins to make sense as the train rolls on. All of the violence and bone-crushing action of the first section is mere preamble, leading to a point of transition from an extremely violent but fun action film, to a much darker – and bloodier – revenge film.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/da7lKeeS67c?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <p>Kill is an exceptionally well-wrought genre film. The kinetic and balletic action recalls the golden era of Hong Kong action cinema, but with hammers, daggers and sickles instead of guns and the frenetic staging of hand-to-hand combat instead of poetic slow-motion footage. It is also a great example of a film being more than the sum of its parts. No element is perfect, yet they come together to transcend these limitations, its flow reaching sublime levels by the end.</p> <p>There’s also an undercurrent of sadness throughout. We see an India of haves and have-nots, of families of bandits struggling to survive and of the supreme violence sustaining the social and political order. As Fani says to Amrit near the end: “Who kills like this? I killed four of your people. You finished off 40 of my family. You’re not a protector. You’re a monster. A fucking monster.” The title says it all.</p> <h2>4. Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story</h2> <p>Biographical films about celebrities inevitably feel gossipy. Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super/Man:_The_Christopher_Reeve_Story">Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story</a> is no exception. But it is so well made (and well-resourced, one would imagine, as it’s produced by DC) that it moves beyond its tabloid-like qualities.</p> <p>Interviews with Reeve’s friends and colleagues, including Susan Sarandon, Glenn Close and Jeff Daniels, are interspersed with home footage shot by Reeve and his family throughout his career and during his recovery from the near-fatal riding accident that left him paralysed and breathing through a respirator for the rest of his life.</p> <p>Reeve’s close friendship with “brother” Robin Williams assumes central importance, with the film implying the two men were so emotionally dependent on each other that Williams would probably still be alive if Reeve hadn’t died in 2004.</p> <p>But the most interesting parts of the film involve carefully assembled archival footage looking at how Reeve’s decision to play Superman negatively impacted his career and personal life. He never starred in another profitable film, and his father and colleagues such as William Hurt loathed his decision to play a comic book character.</p> <p>This is counterpointed with his post-accident career as a director and disability advocate. Interviews with Reeve’s children add a genuinely tragic sense of pathos to this slick, well-made and emotionally exhausting “true Hollywood” story. It’s everything one could want from such a documentary.</p> <h2>5. Kneecap</h2> <p>Cowriter-director Rich Peppiatt’s Kneecap is a riotous, irreverent biopic following the career of Belfast drug-dealers Móglaí Bap and Mo Chara as they team up with high school music teacher DJ Próvai to become the first Irish-language rap group, Kneecap.</p> <p>The real <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-66408560">Kneecappers</a> cowrote the film and play themselves and, given none of them are actors, do so remarkably well. They’re joined by Irish heavyweights Josie Walker, playing the detective who has it in for them, and Michael Fassbender, playing Móglaí’s father, an old-school Irish radical who has been on the run for the past few decades.</p> <p>The film depicts their hedonistic drug use and anarchic disregard for the law in the context of their radical political motivation to speak Irish against the colonial English. And while it may be a bit cartoonish in its presentation of Belfast’s history and the struggle to keep Gaelic alive, it is a music biopic after all.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FFYfp-hKxZQ?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <p>Kneecap is violent, coarse and laced with infectiously good humour – a genuinely fun film, buoyed by its charismatic stars and lively style. Only the most stringent moralist wouldn’t enjoy this one!</p> <h2>Notable mentions</h2> <p>It’s extremely difficult to pick a top five when 15 or so of the films I saw were standouts. And this is testament to the quality of the festival’s selection.</p> <p>It was a pleasure watching heavyweight Sean Penn go head-to-head with Dakota Johnson in writer-director Christy Hall’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daddio_(film)">Daddio</a>, even if the story takes an uninteresting turn in the final third. Despite the banality of the premise – a New York cabbie chats with a passenger – and the inanity of some of the dialogue, this romantic ode to urban life in all its alienated, fluoro-lit techno glory is so well crafted that we happily go along for the ride.</p> <p>Equally affective is the melancholic and beautifully performed <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puan_(film)">Puan</a>, a restrained comedy set in a University faculty in Buenos Aires. Puan could easily make my top five, as could André Téchiné’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_New_Friends_(film)">My New Friends</a>), an offbeat French melodrama starring Isabelle Huppert as a disillusioned police officer who becomes friends with an anti-cop activist in the suburbs.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cnz-6h60tkk?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <h2>Poor performers</h2> <p>Of the lot, I only found three films disappointing.</p> <p>The first, Among the Wolves, is a Belgian-French documentary in which a photographer and illustrator lie waiting in a tiny, makeshift building to encounter wild wolves. While some of the footage is striking, the film is let down by its scientific inaccuracy, such as references to the “alpha male” wolf – a term and concept that has <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/science/elements/the-myth-of-the-alpha-wolf">long been discredited</a>. Such innacuracy is a cardinal sin for a documentary, which is supposed to inform the viewer.</p> <p>Though critically acclaimed, Hollywood horror film The Substance – a story of an ageing entertainer who turns to a mysterious substance to stay young (with unsurprisingly horrific ramifications) – feels neither new nor particularly interesting. And while it’s great to see Demi Moore and Dennis Quaid back on the big screen, their caricaturish characters make the whole thing seem like a boring joke: an inflated short film that is both irritatingly silly and painfully didactic.</p> <p>But rarely does a film so resolutely reaffirm a sense of the absurd hubris of humans as Francis Ford Coppola’s self-financed mega-flop, Megalopolis. This cartoonish, incoherent mess set in a dystopian version of the United States, “New Rome”, is howlingly bad in places.</p> <p>Imagine the worst parts of The Hunger Games and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064940/">Fellini Satyricon</a> (1969) crossed with Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead and you begin to get a sense of the kind of self-indulgent, heavy-handed nonsense that is Megalopolis.</p> <p>Side-splittingly funny moments come courtesy of bad dialogue (“Utopias become dystopias,” actor Giancarlo Esposito says at one point with a straight face). And stilted acting by Adam Driver and Aubrey Plaza had the (remaining) audience in stitches. Megalopolis is like one of the great fiascos from days gone by – the 21st century’s Heaven’s Gate – and there is definitely something delightful about the existence of this <a href="https://variety.com/2022/film/news/francis-ford-coppola-funding-120-million-dollars-megalopolis-1235184765/">US$120 million</a> (roughly A$180 million) flop.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1FQzWD5xVKQ?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <p>But as a dud, Megalopolis is the outlier. And in a year following Barbie, Oppenheimer, Napoleon and Poor Things (talk about heavy-handed cinema), much of the menu of this year’s Sydney Film Festival once again proves there are still good filmmakers out there making good films.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/232706/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ari-mattes-97857"><em>Ari Mattes</em></a><em>, Lecturer in Communications and Media, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-notre-dame-australia-852">University of Notre Dame Australia</a></em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/i-watched-some-40-films-at-this-years-sydney-film-festival-here-are-my-top-five-picks-and-one-hilarious-flop-232706">original article</a>.</em></p> <p><em>Image: IMDB</em></p> </div>

Movies

Placeholder Content Image

Bishop Christopher Saunders arrested at his home

<p>The former Bishop of Broome, Christopher Alan Saunders, has found himself at the centre of a dramatic arrest at his residence in Western Australia's north.</p> <p>Police from the WA Child Abuse squad descended upon his Piggott Way property late on Wednesday afternoon, taking the 72-year-old into custody.</p> <p>Authorities have confirmed that an individual is currently assisting them with what they describe as a "longstanding investigation", and have charged Saunders with 14 counts of unlawful and indecent assault, two counts of sexual penetration without consent, and three counts of being a person in authority indecently dealing with a child.</p> <p>The alleged charges date back to 2008 across Broome, Kununurra, and Kalumburu.</p> <p>This arrest marks the culmination of five years of exhaustive police and internal church inquiries into disturbing allegations of sexual abuse levelled against Saunders by multiple men. These allegations initially surfaced in early 2020, sending shockwaves through the community. However, despite the gravity of the accusations, a prior investigation by WA Police concluded without any charges being brought against the former Bishop.</p> <p>Throughout the ordeal, Emeritus Bishop Saunders vehemently denied any wrongdoing, maintaining his innocence despite the mounting pressure and scrutiny.</p> <p>Recent developments, however, have thrust the case back into the spotlight. In the past few weeks, law enforcement authorities conducted raids on Saunders' property not once, but twice. The renewed vigour in the investigation appears to stem from a significant development: the emergence of a 200-page Vatican report, leaked late last year.</p> <p>This damning report, allegedly detailing instances of misconduct and abuse within the clergy, was promptly handed over to the WA Police. Its contents have reignited interest in Saunders' case, prompting a fresh wave of investigative efforts aimed at uncovering the truth behind the allegations.</p> <p>The swift and decisive action taken by law enforcement underscores the gravity with which authorities are treating allegations of abuse, particularly within the context of religious institutions. The arrest of a prominent figure such as Christopher Saunders sends a powerful message that no one, regardless of their position or influence, is above the law.</p> <p>For the victims who have bravely come forward with their stories, this arrest represents a step towards justice and closure, <span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;">even in the face of adversity and institutional resistance</span><span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;">. It serves as validation for their courage in speaking out against abuses that may have long been buried in secrecy and silence.</span></p> <p><em>Images: 7News</em></p>

Legal

Placeholder Content Image

"This hurts the heart": Days of our Lives star's shock death at just 50

<p><em>General Hospital</em> and <em>Days of Our Lives</em> star Tyler Christopher has passed away at the age of 50 after a "cardiac event". The shocking news was confirmed by his <em>General Hospital </em>co-star, Maurice Benard, who expressed his deep sorrow and heartfelt tribute to his friend on social media.</p> <p>In an emotional Instagram post, Benard shared, "It is with great sadness that we share the news of the passing of Tyler Christopher. Tyler passed away this morning following a cardiac event in his San Diego apartment."</p> <p>He went on to describe Tyler as a "truly talented individual" who illuminated the screen with every performance, bringing joy to his devoted fans. He was not only a gifted actor but also a kind and compassionate soul who touched the lives of those who knew him.</p> <p>Benard also highlighted Christopher's advocacy for mental health and substance use treatment. Tyler was open about his personal struggles with bipolar depression and alcohol, using his platform to raise awareness and provide support to others facing similar challenges. His candour in addressing these issues endeared him to many and further solidified his legacy as an actor and an advocate.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CzFJiUXPyRK/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CzFJiUXPyRK/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Maurice Benard (@mauricebenard)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p>The news of Christopher's passing resonated deeply with his fans and colleagues. Messages of love and support flooded social media, with one fan expressing, "This hurts the heart. I loved him on <em>General Hospital</em>. Sending love and prayers to his family and friends."</p> <p>The outpouring of grief from the public underscores the significant impact he had on the entertainment industry and his audience.</p> <p>Christopher is of course best known for his iconic roles as Nikolas Cassadine on <em>General Hospital</em> and Stefan DiMera on <em>Days of Our Lives</em>. His captivating performances and versatility as an actor made him a beloved figure in the world of daytime television.</p> <p>Tyler leaves behind two children from his previous marriage to reporter Brienne Pedigo. He was previously married to actress Eva Longoria from 2002 to 2004. In recent years, he appeared in the TV movie <em>Ice Storm</em> and featured in <em>Thor: God of Thunder</em> in 2022, demonstrating his enduring talent and commitment to his craft.</p> <p>The actor received recognition for his exceptional work, earning five Daytime Emmy nominations during his tenure on <em>General Hospital</em>. His dedication to his roles and his ability to connect with his characters and the audience was evident in his numerous accolades.</p> <p>Despite his professional success, Christopher faced personal challenges. In 2019, he was placed under the guardianship of his sister due to an accident and internal bleeding during an episode of "alcohol withdrawal". This period of his life was marked by legal and personal struggles. In May, he was arrested for "public intoxication". He also alleged that his sister had "used his finances" while serving as his guardian, a claim she vehemently denied. The guardianship ended in 2021, marking a challenging chapter in his life.</p> <p>Christopher will be remembered not only for his remarkable contributions to the entertainment industry but also for his courage in addressing his personal battles and advocating for those who needed a voice.</p> <p><em>Image: Instagram</em></p>

Caring

Placeholder Content Image

‘Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds’: who was atom bomb pioneer Robert Oppenheimer?

<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/darius-von-guttner-sporzynski-112147">Darius von Guttner Sporzynski</a>, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/australian-catholic-university-747">Australian Catholic University</a></em></p> <p>Robert Oppenheimer is often placed next to Albert Einstein as the 20th century’s most famous physicist.</p> <p>He will forever be the “father of the atomic bomb” after the first nuclear weapon was successfully tested on July 16, 1945 in the New Mexican desert. The event brought to his mind words from a <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/manhattan-project-robert-oppenheimer">Hindu scripture</a>: “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds”.</p> <h2>Who was Robert Oppenheimer?</h2> <p>Born in 1904 in an affluent New York family, Oppenheimer graduated from Harvard majoring in chemistry in 1925.</p> <p>Two years later, he completed his PhD in physics at one of the world’s leading institutions for theoretical physics, the University of Göttingen, Germany. He was 23 and enthusiastic to the point of alienating others.</p> <p>Throughout his life, Oppenheimer would be judged either as an <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Inside_the_Centre/L9wRLVcUI-sC?hl=en&amp;gbpv=1">aloof prodigy or an anxious narcissist</a>. Whatever his contradictions as an individual, his eccentricities did not limit his scientific achievements.</p> <p>Before the outbreak of the second world war, Oppenheimer worked at the University of California, Berkeley, and the <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/J_Robert_Oppenheimer_and_the_American_Ce/U12mDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&amp;gbpv=1&amp;dq=Robert+Oppenheimer:+A+Life+from+Beginning+to+End&amp;printsec=frontcover">California Institute of Technology</a>. His research concentrated on theoretical astronomy, nuclear physics and quantum field theory.</p> <p>Although he confessed to being uninterested in politics, Oppenheimer openly supported socially progressive ideas. He was concerned with the emergence of antisemitism and fascism. His partner, Kitty Puening, was a left-leaning radical and their social circle included Communist Party members and activists. Later, these associations will mark him as a communist sympathiser.</p> <p>As a researcher, Oppenheimer published and supervised a new generation of doctoral students. One of these was Willis Lamb, who in 1955 was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics. The Nobel Prize eluded Oppenheimer three times.</p> <h2>The second world war</h2> <p>Two years after Germany and Soviet Russia attacked Poland, the United States entered WWII. Oppenheimer was recruited to work on the infamous <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/the-manhattan-project">Manhattan Project</a>. His ideas about chain reaction in an atomic bomb gained recognition among the US defence community. He started his work by assembling a team of experts. Some of them were his students.</p> <p>In 1943, despite his left-wing political views, lack of high-profile career and no experience in managing complex projects, Oppenheimer was appointed director of the <a href="https://about.lanl.gov/oppenheimer/">Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico</a>. He was enthusiastic. He seemed to have “<a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Inside_the_Centre/L9wRLVcUI-sC?hl=en&amp;gbpv=1&amp;dq=Rabi+%22reserves+of+uncommitted+strength%22&amp;pg=PA670&amp;printsec=frontcover">reserves of uncommitted strength</a>” recalled physicist <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1944/rabi/biographical/">Isidor Isaac Rabi</a>. His task was to develop atomic weapons.</p> <p><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Los-Alamos-National-Laboratory">Los Alamos Laboratory</a> expanded rapidly as the project grew in complexity, with the personnel exceeding 6,000. His ability to master the large-scale workforce and channel their energy towards the needs of the project earned him respect.</p> <p>He proved to be more than just an administrator by being involved in the interdisciplinary team across theoretical and experimental stages of the weapons development.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-JWxIVVeV98?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <h2>The nuclear test</h2> <p>On July 16, 1945 the nuclear test, <a href="https://armscontrolcenter.org/quotes-from-trinity-test-observers/">code named Trinity</a>, took place.</p> <p>The first atomic bomb was successfully detonated at 5:29 am in the Jornada del Muerto desert. As his chief assistant, Thomas Farrell, recounted: "There came this tremendous burst of light followed shortly thereafter by the deep growling roar of the explosion."</p> <p>Oppenheimer later <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/J_Robert_Oppenheimer/EoA8DwAAQBAJ?hl=en&amp;gbpv=1&amp;dq=%22A+few+people+laughed,+a+few+people+cried,+most+people+were+silent%22&amp;pg=PA44&amp;printsec=frontcover">recalled</a> that “a few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent”. What he knew for sure was that the world would not be the same.</p> <p>It was too late for the atomic bombs to be used against Germany in the war – the Nazis had capitulated on May 8. Instead, US President Harry Truman decided to use the bomb against Germany’s ally, Japan.</p> <p>Shortly after the atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, Oppenheimer confronted the US secretary of war, Henry Stimson, demanding that nuclear weapons were banned.</p> <p>Similarly, when speaking with Truman, Oppenheimer talked about his feeling of <a href="https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/07/11/when-truman-titled-a-hollywood-epic-and-then-sabotaged-it/">having blood on his hands</a>. Truman rejected Oppenheimer’s emotional outburst. The responsibility for the use of the atomic bombs, after all, rested with the commander in chief (himself).</p> <p>Truman’s rebuttal did not prevent Oppenheimer from advocating for the establishment of controls on the nuclear arms race.</p> <h2>Arms control</h2> <p>In the postwar years, Oppenheimer settled in Princeton, New Jersey, at the Institute for Advanced Study. He read widely. He collected art and furniture. He learned languages. His well-paid position enabled his pursuit of a deeper understanding of humanity though the examination of ancient scriptures. <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/American_Prometheus/F79LEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&amp;gbpv=1&amp;dq=Robert+Oppenheimer:+A+Life+from+Beginning+to+End&amp;printsec=frontcover">He argued</a> for the unity of purpose between the sciences and humanities.</p> <p>Oppenheimer’s patronage supported and encouraged other scientists in their research. But his chief concern was the unavoidable arms race. He advocated for the establishment of an <a href="https://www.iaea.org/about/overview/history">international body that would control the development of nuclear energy</a> and its usage.</p> <p>In 1947, a civilian agency called the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Atomic_Energy_Commission">Atomic Energy Commission</a> began its work. Oppenheimer urged strongly for <a href="https://www.iaea.org/about/overview/history">international arms control</a>.</p> <p>The Soviet Union’s first atomic bomb test in August 1949 took the US by surprise and pushed American researchers to develop a hydrogen bomb. The US government hardened its position. In 1952, Truman refused to reappoint Oppenheimer as the adviser to the Atomic Energy Commission.</p> <p>After 1952, Oppenheimer’s advocacy against the first test of the hydrogen bomb resulted in the suspension of his security clearance. The investigation that followed in 1954 exposed Oppenheimer’s past communist ties and culminated in <a href="https://www.history.com/news/father-of-the-atomic-bomb-was-blacklisted-for-opposing-h-bomb">his security clearance being revoked</a>.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uYPbbksJxIg?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <h2>McCarthyism and academic freedom</h2> <p>In the era of Joseph McCarthy’s witch-hunts, his fellow scientists considered Oppenheimer as a martyr of the cause of academic freedom. “In England”, commented Wernher von Braun, a former Nazi turned American pioneer of rocket technology, “<a href="https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ahf/history/oppenheimer-security-hearing/">Oppenheimer would have been knighted</a>”.</p> <p>After 1954, Oppenheimer did not cease to advocate for freedom in the pursuit of knowledge. He toured internationally with talks about the role of academic freedom unrestrained by political considerations. He argued that the sciences and the humanities are <a href="https://archive.org/details/scienceandthecom007308mbp/page/n7/mode/2up">not separate human endeavours but interlocked and inseparable</a>.</p> <p>Oppenheimer died at the age of 62 on February 18, 1967.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209398/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/darius-von-guttner-sporzynski-112147">Darius von Guttner Sporzynski</a>, Historian, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/australian-catholic-university-747">Australian Catholic University</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/now-i-am-become-death-the-destroyer-of-worlds-who-was-atom-bomb-pioneer-robert-oppenheimer-209398">original article</a>.</em></p>

Movies

Placeholder Content Image

Keanu Reeves reveals dangers on John Wick set

<p dir="ltr">Keanu Reeves has revealed just how dangerous the filming of the iconic John Wick series can be. </p> <p dir="ltr">"Well I mean everyone is pretty tired – but it's the best kind of tired. It's like you climbed a mountain now you're resting; like you finished the game and you won," the star told ComicBook.com.</p> <p dir="ltr">He also admitted that he made a mistake once, “I cut a gentleman's head open. So that really f***ing sucked – excuse my language.”</p> <p dir="ltr">"But other than that – oh, one guy got hit by a car. He was in the car, so he had to go to the hospital, but he was okay," he added.</p> <p dir="ltr">Despite the on-set injuries, Reeves noted the cast and crew look out for one another.</p> <p dir="ltr">"All of this to say: that you do have to take care," he said.</p> <p dir="ltr">"But it's great that everyone [on set] is watching out for each other. So there's some bruising and aches and pains," he added.</p> <p dir="ltr">Reeves has been playing the character of John Wick since the first film debuted in 2014.</p> <p dir="ltr">John Wick 4 was released in cinemas on March 23, 2023. </p> <p><span id="docs-internal-guid-49b5ac35-7fff-d476-e7bc-a2d8882ada3d"></span></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image credit: Getty</em></p>

Movies

Placeholder Content Image

Keanu Reeves mourns the sudden death of John Wick co-star

<p>Keanu Reeves is mourning the loss of good friend and John Wick co-star Lance Reddick, who passed away suddenly aged 60.</p> <p>“We are deeply saddened and heartbroken at the loss of our beloved friend and colleague Lance Reddick,” Reeves, 58, and director Chad Stahelski said in a joint statement to<em> Variety</em>.</p> <p>“He was the consummate professional and a joy to work with. Our love and prayers are with his wife Stephanie, his children, family and friends.”</p> <p>Reeves and Stahelski have shared they will dedicate <em>John Wick: Chapter 4</em>, which will be released in cinemas on March 23, to Reddick’s “loving memory”.</p> <p>“We will miss him dearly,” they said, <em>Page Six</em> reported.</p> <p>Reddick’s wife, Stephanie, whom he married in 2011, shared a message on his Instagram for his 139,000 followers.</p> <p>“Lance was taken from us far too soon,” she said. “Thank you for all your overwhelming love, support and beautiful stories shared on these platforms over the last day. I see your messages and can’t begin to express how grateful I am to have them.”</p> <p>“And to the thousands of Destiny players who played in special tribute to Lance, thank you,” she added. “Lance loved you as much as he loved the game.”</p> <p>Reddick, perhaps best known for his role in the crime series <em>The Wire</em>, also played Commander Zavala in the <em>Destiny</em> franchise.</p> <p>Representatives for the actor confirmed his death in a statement to People, saying that he “passed away suddenly this morning from natural causes”.</p> <p>“Lance was best known for his roles in <em>The Wire</em>, <em>Bosch</em>, Netflix’s <em>Resident Evil</em> and the <em>John Wick</em> films,” his reps added. “He is survived by his wife, Stephanie Reddick, and children, Yvonne Nicole Reddick and Christopher Reddick.</p> <p>“Lance will be greatly missed. Please respect his family’s privacy at this time.”</p> <p>Reddick’s body was discovered by police at his home in Studio City, California, according to TMZ.</p> <p>Wendell Pierce, who co-starred with Reddick on the hit HBO show <em>The Wire</em>, mourned the loss of a “man of great strength and grace” on Twitter.</p> <p>“As talented a musician as he was an actor,” he tweeted. “The epitome of class. An [sic] sudden unexpected sharp painful grief for our artistic family. An unimaginable suffering for his personal family and loved ones. Godspeed my friend. You made your mark here. RIP.”</p> <p>Ben Stiller, who worked alongside Reddick’s late mother, Anne Meara, in the play <em>Afterplay</em>, also took to Twitter to honour the actor.</p> <p>“Lance Reddick was an [sic] beautiful and compelling actor,” he tweeted. “And a beautiful person … He was exquisite in that and all he did. Nothing is lost.”</p> <p>In December 2021, the late actor praised his working relationship with Reeves, describing him as “someone who’s very generous as an actor and then all about the work”.</p> <p>“On one hand I feel like I don’t know him very well, but on the other, I just adore that guy,” he had told Vulture. “He’s such a wonderful human being.”</p> <p><em>Image credit: Getty</em></p>

Caring

Placeholder Content Image

Back to the Future stars reunite

<p>It’s been 37 years since the cinematic masterpiece, Back to the Future part 1, graced our screens. You might be wondering where they are now, although the appropriate question would be, “when the hell are they?”</p> <p>The Back to the Future stars joined up at a fan convention in Portland, USA, and the excitement from fans sighting Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson and Thomas Wilson used up a lot more energy than 1.21 gigawatts.</p> <p>Last year, Fox and Lloyd came together on stage at Comic-Con in New York in an emotional display, which brought fans in the audience to tears.</p> <p>On stage, Fox said, referring to his co-star Lloyd, “The best part of the movie was working with Chris,” going on to say he was a genius, also revealing there was “immediate chemistry” between the pair.</p> <p>Fox played the iconic Marty McFly in the 1985 movie. Director Robert Zemeckis had originally cast Eric Stolz as Marty, however, due to conflict with his schedule on Family Ties, Stolz couldn’t continue with the project.</p> <p>Stolz started filming in November 1984 but was replaced by early January. Aside from the schedule conflict with Stolz, it was reported that early footage was also underwhelming. Now that’s heavy!</p> <p>Fox officially joined the production in mid-January of 1985.</p> <p>Fox played Marty McFly in all three Back to the Future movies, Great Scott!</p> <p>The fans are on a sweet nostalgia trip seeing the cast back together after over three decades.</p> <p><em>Image credit: Instagram</em></p>

Movies

Placeholder Content Image

Keanu Reeves attacked for still being alive

<p dir="ltr">Matthew Perry has backtracked on his insensitive comments questioning why beloved Hollywood actor Keanu Reeves is still alive. </p> <p dir="ltr">In his memoir <em>Friends, Lovers And The Big Terrible Thing</em>, the <em>Friends</em> star questioned why his friend River Phoenix died but Reeves didn’t.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Why is it that the original thinkers like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger die, but Keanu Reeves still walks among us?” he wrote. </p> <p dir="ltr">Perry was discussing his friendship with River Phoenix - who is also friends with Reeves - and about the heartache he had when he overdosed on drugs in 1993 at the age of 23.</p> <p dir="ltr">He called Phoenix his “closest friend of that era” before attacking Reeves for still being alive. </p> <p dir="ltr">Social media was in uproar at his comments with many questioning why Perry would wish death upon anyone. </p> <p dir="ltr">“In a world full of Matthew Perry’s… be a Keanu Reeves,” someone wrote. </p> <p dir="ltr">“Of all the people in Hollywood, there’s absolutely no reason to come for Keanu Reeves who even after personal tragedy has remained, by accounts, generous and kind. He just makes movies and comics, treats his cast and crew right, and minds his own business,” another wrote.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Imagine coming for Keanu Reeves like that. Might as well let the internet know you think all kittens should be drowned at birth. Good luck out there, man,” someone else commented.</p> <p dir="ltr">Perry eventually came out and apologised and explained he was “actually a big fan” of Keanu Reeves. </p> <p dir="ltr">“I'm actually a big fan of Keanu,” he said. </p> <p dir="ltr">“I just chose a random name, my mistake. I apologize. I should have used my own name instead.”</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Images: Getty</em></p>

Caring

Placeholder Content Image

Seven times people discovered the Americas – and how they got there

<p>When Columbus landed in 1492, the Americas had been settled for tens of thousands of years. He wasn’t the first person to discover the continent. Instead, his discovery was the last of many discoveries. </p> <p>In all, people found the Americas at least seven different times. For at least six of those, it wasn’t so new after all. The discoverers came by sea and by land, bringing new genes, new languages, new technologies. Some stayed, explored, and built empires. Others went home, and left few hints they’d ever been there.</p> <p>From last to first, here’s the story of how we discovered the Americas.</p> <p><strong>7. Christopher Columbus: AD 1492</strong></p> <p>In 1492, Europeans could reach Asia by the <a href="https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/silk-road">Silk Road</a>, or by sailing the Cape Route around the southern tip of Africa. Sailing west from Europe was thought to be impossible. </p> <p>The ancient Greeks had accurately calculated that the circumference of the Earth was <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/152473a0">40,000 km</a>, which put Asia far to the west. But Columbus botched his calculations. An error in unit conversion gave him a circumference of just 30,000 km.</p> <p>This mistake, with other assumptions born of wishful thinking, gave a distance of just <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0025570X.1992.11996024">4,500 km</a> from Europe to Japan. The actual distance is almost 20,000 kilometres.</p> <p>So Columbus’s ships set sail without enough supplies to reach Asia. Fortunately for him, he hit the Americas. Columbus, thinking he’d found the East Indies, called its people “Indios”, or Indians. He ultimately died without realising his mistake. It was the navigator Amerigo Vespucci who realised Columbus had <a href="https://www.livescience.com/42510-amerigo-vespucci.html">found an unknown land</a> and in 1507 the name America was applied in Vespucci’s honour.</p> <p><strong>6. Polynesians: AD 1,200</strong></p> <p>Around 2,500 BC, a seafaring people <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03902-8">sailed from Taiwan</a> to find new lands. They sailed south through the Philippines, east through Melanesia, then out into the vast South Pacific. These people, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Polynesia">Polynesians</a>, were master navigators, reading wind, waves and stars to cross thousands of kilometres of open ocean. </p> <p>Using huge double canoes, the Polynesians <a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1586/polynesian-navigation--settlement-of-the-pacific/">settled</a> Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, and the Cook Islands. Some went <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1408491111">south to New Zealand</a>, becoming <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10963-017-9110-y">the Maori</a>. Others went east to Tahiti, Hawaii, Easter Island, and the Marquesas. From here, they at last hit South America. Then, having explored most of the Pacific, they gave up exploration and forgot South America entirely.</p> <p>But evidence of this remarkable voyage remained. The South Americans acquired <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.0703993104">chickens from Polynesians</a>, while the Polynesians may have picked up <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440307000805">South American sweet potatoes</a>. And they shared more than food. Eastern Polynesians have <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2487-2?from=article_link">Native American DNA</a>. Polynesians didn’t just meet Native Americans, they married them.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>5. Norse: AD 1,021</strong></p> <p>According to Viking sagas, around AD 980, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Erik-the-Red">Eric the Red</a>, fierce Viking and cunning salesman, named a vast, icy wasteland “Greenland” to <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/iceland-greenland-name-swap">entice people to move there</a>. Then, in AD 986, a boat from Greenland <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/icelanders">spotted the coast of Canada</a>.</p> <p>Around <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03972-8">AD 1,021</a>, Erik’s son Leif established a settlement in Newfoundland. The Vikings struggled with the harsh climate, before war with Native Americans ultimately forced them back to Greenland. These stories were long dismissed as myths, until 1960, when archaeologists dug up the remains of <a href="https://www.newfoundlandlabrador.com/top-destinations/lanse-aux-meadows">Viking settlements in Newfoundland</a>.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>4. Inuit: AD 900</strong></p> <p>Just before the Vikings, the Inuit people travelled <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1251-y">from Siberia to Alaska</a> in skin boats. Hunting whales and seals, living in sod huts and igloos, they were well adapted to the cold Arctic Ocean, and skirted its shores all the way to Greenland. </p> <p>Curiously, their DNA is <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1251-y">closest to native Alaskans</a>, implying their ancestors colonised Asia from Alaska, then went back to discover the Americas again. </p> <p> </p> <p><strong>3. Eskimo-Aleut: 2,000-2,500 BC</strong></p> <p>The Inuit descend from an earlier migration: that of speakers of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Eskimo-Aleut-languages">Eskimo-Aleut languages</a>. These are distinct from other Native American languages, and might even be distantly related to Uralic languages such as <a href="https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/j.1749-818X.2010.00239.x">Finnish and Hungarian</a>. </p> <p>This, with DNA evidence, suggests the Eskimo-Aleut was a distinct migration. They came across the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Bering-Sea">Bering Sea</a> from present-day Russia to Alaska, perhaps <a href="https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1525/aa.1987.89.1.02a00020">4,000-4,500</a> years ago, partly displacing and mixing with earlier migrants: the Na-Dene people. </p> <p> </p> <p><strong>2. Na-Dene: 3,000-8,000 BC</strong></p> <p>Another group, the Na-Dene, crossed the Bering Sea to Alaska around <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1251-y">5,000 years ago</a>, although other studies suggest they settled the Americas as long as <a href="https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1525/aa.1987.89.1.02a00020">10,000 years ago</a>. </p> <p><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1251-y">DNA from their bones</a> links them not to modern people in the Eskimo-Aleut group, but to Native Americans speaking the Na-Dene language family, such as the <a href="https://www.navajo-nsn.gov/">Navajo</a>, <a href="https://denenation.com/">Dene</a>, <a href="https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent/northwest-coast/tlingit">Tlingit</a>, and Apache people. Na-Dene languages are closest to languages <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC25007/">spoken in Siberia</a>, suggesting again that they represent a distinct migration.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>1. First Americans: 16,000-35,000 years ago</strong></p> <p>Almost all Native American tribes – Sioux, Comanche, Iroquois, Cherokee, Aztec, Maya, Quechua, Yanomani, and dozens of others – speak <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/American-Indian-languages">similar languages</a>. That suggests their languages evolved from a common ancestor tongue, spoken by a single tribe entering the Americas long ago. Their descendants’ low genetic diversity suggests this founding tribe was small, maybe <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.0030193">less than 80 people</a>. </p> <p>How did they get there? Before the last ice age ended 11,700 years ago, so much water was <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3083538">locked up in glaciers</a> that sea levels fell. The bottom of the Bering Sea dried out, creating the <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1705966114">Bering Land Bridge</a>. America’s first people just walked from Russia to Alaska. But the timing of their migration is controversial.</p> <p>Archaeologists once thought the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Clovis-complex">Clovis people</a>, living <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.1073/pnas.0704215104">13,000 years ago</a>, were the <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-clovis-point-and-the-discovery-of-americas-first-culture-3825828/">first settlers of America</a>. But evidence <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02137-3">now suggests</a> humans arrived in the Americas much earlier. </p> <p>Finds in <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.1207663?casa_token=i79Z6iFCPuwAAAAA:onB6l4Ih9BSvJY9a6rTuKDjv9pD1_EEaPJlwmjsk1qVgjDcqotjX2jlmzXMg-Kh1fqxMMXLhUeMvIw">Washington</a>, <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aba6404">Oregon</a>, <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1201855">Texas</a>, the <a href="https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1026&amp;context=sciaa_staffpub">east coast of the US</a>, and <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/sciadv.1600375">Florida</a> suggest people reached the Americas long before the Clovis people.</p> <p><a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abg7586">Footprints in New Mexico</a> date to 23,000 years ago. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2509-0">Stone tools</a> in a Mexican cave may date to 32,000 years ago. A <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2022.903795/full">butchered mammoth</a> from Colorado dates to 31,000-38,000 years ago. And traces of fire put <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379118307716">humans in Alaska</a> 32,000 years ago. </p> <p>Some of these dates could be incorrect, but with each new discovery it seems increasingly unlikely that they’re all wrong.</p> <p>An early migration would neatly solve a major mystery. 13,000 years ago, a vast glacier, the <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1601077113">Laurentide Ice Sheet</a>, buried Canada in ice up to three kilometres thick. If people arrived in North America then, how did they cross the ice? Southeast Alaska’s rugged coast, full of glaciers and fjords, was likely impassible, and early Americans probably lacked boats. But 30,000 years ago, the ice sheet hadn’t fully formed. </p> <p>Before the ice spread, people could have hunted mammoths and horses east from Alaska into the Northwest Territories, then south through Alberta and Saskatchewan into Montana. Remarkably, humans may have settled the Americas <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-94408-w">before western Europe</a>. Yet that might make sense. Alaska’s Arctic is harsh, but Europe had <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1365-2699.2011.02536.x">potentially hostile Neanderthals</a>.</p> <h2>The end of discovery</h2> <p>1492 was the last discovery of the Americas. Following the voyages of Columbus, Magellan, and Cook, the scattered descendants of humanity’s diaspora were finally reunited. Aside from a few <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20140804-sad-truth-of-uncontacted-tribes">uncontacted tribes</a>, everywhere was known to everyone. Discovery was impossible.</p> <p>But the story of the Americas’ settlement is still being written, and our understanding is evolving. The Eskimo-Aleut may have been <a href="https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1525/aa.1987.89.1.02a00020">two different migrations</a>, not one. Genes <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature14895">hint at the possibility</a> of other, early founding populations. And given how little evidence the Polynesians and Norse left of their visits, it’s conceivable there were other migrations, ones of which we have little evidence. </p> <p>There’s so much we don’t know. No one can discover the Americas anymore, but there’s a lot left to discover about their discovery.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/seven-times-people-discovered-the-americas-and-how-they-got-there-188908" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.</em></p>

Travel Tips

Placeholder Content Image

Keanu Reeves “gatecrashes” wedding

<p dir="ltr">The last thing anyone would want is for their wedding to be gatecrashed by an unexpected guest. </p> <p dir="ltr">This happened to James and Nikki Roadnight when they were exchanging their vows…but the guest was in fact someone they wanted there.</p> <p dir="ltr">The couple from the UK were celebrating their marriage when James ran into John Wick star Keanu Reeves at the Fawsley Hall where the reception was being held. </p> <p dir="ltr">James invited the Hollywood heartthrob to the wedding and join the guests for a drink if he wanted to. </p> <p dir="ltr">"My husband saw him in the bar area and told him he'd just got married and invited Keanu to come over to say hello and have a drink with us if he wanted to,” Nikki told <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/keanu-reeves-unexpected-appearance-uk-wedding-reception-1736831" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Newsweek</a>. </p> <p dir="ltr">"He was very friendly and said he would later on. We didn't know if he would or not but it was cool that my husband had spoken to him!"</p> <p dir="ltr">About an hour later, hotel staff approached Nikki and told her there was a “special guest” who wanted to speak to her and she was then introduced to Keanu Reeves.</p> <p dir="ltr">"It was all very exciting and I went to say hi and introduce myself, and I offered him a drink but he declined that and said he'd just had a long flight so wouldn't stay long but he was so kind and friendly and congratulated us on our wedding," she said.</p> <p dir="ltr">"He was kind enough to do some pictures and our wedding photographer was able to capture some too! Then he took the time to speak to some of our guests and have more photos done!"</p> <p dir="ltr">The huge Keanu Reeves fans were ecstatic that their day was blessed with the actor’s presence. </p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Images: Facebook</em></p>

Relationships

Placeholder Content Image

The Block star violently attacked while walking dog

<p dir="ltr">A man who violently attacked <em>The Block</em> star Shaynna Blaze while she was out walking her dog has been jailed. </p> <p dir="ltr">Mark Christopher Surmon, 40, appeared at the County Court of Victoria on April 5 where he was jailed for 100 days for assaulting Shaynna.</p> <p dir="ltr">The reality TV star was walking her dog when Surmon approached her from behind on April 18, 2020 and aggressively punched her in the head. </p> <p dir="ltr">Blaze was then struck on her cheek causing her to trip and fall to the ground before she was stifled by Surmon’s hand as she attempted to scream. </p> <p dir="ltr">“He placed pressure on her shoulders to keep her down while this occurred,” Detective Senior Constable John Connor told the court, news.com.au reported. </p> <p dir="ltr">The court heard that Blaze had no opportunity to run from Surmon and the attack was unprovoked. </p> <p dir="ltr">Surmon was jailed for 100 days and immediately appealed the sentence which was rejected. </p> <p dir="ltr">His lawyer argued that he had schizophrenia and Surmon was further issued with a community corrections order to help with drug and mental health issues.</p> <p dir="ltr">Blaze said she hoped her attacker was getting the help he needed to ensure incidents like hers don’t occur again. </p> <p dir="ltr">“Crimes like this need to stop and punishment and rehabilitation are both important levers for our society,” she said.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I hope he gets the help he needs so this doesn’t happen to anyone else”.</p> <p dir="ltr">Blaze also runs family violence charity Voice of Change to ensure women have a safe space to speak.</p> <p dir="ltr">She explained that she has struggled from past relationships and was a victim of domestic violence and wanted to help other women. </p> <p dir="ltr">“This is my past and my personal life … I want other women out there to know that you can have a voice and there are people out there who want to give you a voice,” Blaze previously said. </p> <p dir="ltr">“You can still live a great life, be successful and still keep your integrity no matter what happens to you.”</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Images: Instagram</em></p>

Legal

Placeholder Content Image

First look of Keanu Reeves in fourth John Wick installment

<p dir="ltr">The first trailer of <em>John Wick: Chapter 4</em> has finally been released.</p> <p dir="ltr">Hollywood heartthrob Keanu Reeves returns as John Wick in the fourth chapter of the series which is due for release on March 24, 2023.</p> <p dir="ltr">“You wanted him back. He’s back. Watch the first sneak peek for #JW4 – in theaters March 2023,” the movie’s official Twitter account wrote along with the trailer. </p> <p dir="ltr">The fourth installment will see the bounty for Wick’s head soar as he takes his fight against the High Table global.</p> <p dir="ltr">Wick also seeks out some of the most powerful players in the underworld, from New York to Paris to Osaka to Berlin.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">You wanted him back. He’s back. Watch the first sneak peek for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/JW4?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#JW4</a> – in theaters March 2023. <a href="https://t.co/3T0rMxLj5P">pic.twitter.com/3T0rMxLj5P</a></p> <p>— John Wick (@JohnWickMovie) <a href="https://twitter.com/JohnWickMovie/status/1550888472134705152?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 23, 2022</a></p></blockquote> <p dir="ltr">Prior to the teaser trailer release, an official still from the film was shared on social media. </p> <p dir="ltr">It shows Reeves' Wick surrounded by candles and praying - possibly reflecting on the crazy life he’s led since his wife died and dog brutally killed. </p> <p dir="ltr">Watch this space! </p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Images: Twitter</em></p>

Movies

Placeholder Content Image

Keanu Reeves wants to be Batman

<p dir="ltr">Keanu Reeves said it's his dream to play Batman. </p> <p dir="ltr">The loveable actor was the voice for Batman in DC League of Super-Pets but said it would be his dream to play the live-action character instead. </p> <p dir="ltr">“I love Batman, as a character. I love him in the comic books, in the films, so to get the opportunity to voice, to play Batman was awesome,” the 57-year-old said. </p> <p dir="ltr">He said it would make sense to play the role, especially if they needed an older actor to be Batman. </p> <p dir="ltr">But he said he’d wait for now while Robert Pattinson has the role of the infamous character. </p> <p dir="ltr">“Pattinson’s got Batman right now, and he’s doing awesome. Maybe down the road. Maybe when they need an older Batman,” he continued.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I have a small part in this film, a bit of a cameo, but even that just to be a part of a project that [Dwayne] Johnson and Kevin Hart are a part of is awesome, and I got to play Batman.”</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: Getty</em></p>

Movies

Placeholder Content Image

Keanu Reeves' sweet airport encounter goes viral

<p>Keanu Reeves has made a young man's day with a heart-warming interaction at New York's JFK airport, in a moment which has since gone viral online. </p> <p>Often known as the nicest guy in Hollywood, the 57-year-old actor was spotted having a passionate exchange with a young fan while waiting to collect his luggage after a long flight from London on the weekend of July 4th. </p> <p>The interaction was captured by <span style="font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; background-color: #ffffff;">TV producer Andrew Kimmel, as he documented how the boy asked Reeves a </span><span style="background-color: #ffffff;"><span style="font-family: Source Sans Pro, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 17px;">torrent of questions which were received in an astonishingly positive manner. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; background-color: #ffffff;">"Keanu Reeves was on my flight from London to NYC today. A young boy asked for an autograph at bag</span>gage &amp; then began to fire off a series of rapid-fire questions. Keanu happily responded to every single one," tweeted Kimmel.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">Kid: Why were you in London?</p> <p>KR: Filming a documentary.</p> <p>Kid: I saw online you were at the Grand Prix (pronouncing the x)</p> <p>KR: Yes, the Grand Prix (in a French accent, without correcting him). F1! Race cars!</p> <p>Kid: Do you drive?</p> <p>KR: Not F1, but I like riding motorcycles.</p> <p>— Andrew Kimmel (@andrewkimmel) <a href="https://twitter.com/andrewkimmel/status/1544101130921250816?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 4, 2022</a></p></blockquote> <p>The precocious child hit him with a serious of rapid fire questions: "Why were you in London?"..."Do you live in New York?"..."How long are you staying?"..."Which Broadway show are you going to?"</p> <p>Keanu responded to every one, with the patience of a saint. </p> <p>When the child began running out of questions, Keanu took an interest in the boy and started grilling him about his own holiday. </p> <p>He asked the boy, "Why were you in Europe? What galleries did you go to in Paris? What was your favourite?"</p> <p>Kimmel, who had been a fly on the wall for the exchange, was so impressed by the good-naturedness of the movie star he felt he had to share the moment.</p> <p>"The man could not have been nicer, especially after an international flight," Kimmel tweeted. "I thought I'd share this because the dude is a class act and little moments like this can make such a big difference in people's lives."</p> <p>Adding to the evidence of the actor's superhuman tolerance, Reeves agreed to a selfie with Kimmel, which he added to the twitter thread.</p> <p>"I mean… had to. Have a happy 4th everyone!" said Kimmel. "We need more Keanus!"</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images / Twitter</em></p>

Travel Trouble

Placeholder Content Image

Search for missing 11-year-old escalates

<p><em>Latest:</em></p> <p>An 11-year-old boy who was reported missing after failing to return home from school has been found.</p> <p>NSW Police shared the fantastic news on Thursday morning.</p> <p>"An 11-year-old boy reported missing from Annangrove has been located safe and well in the nearby area by a member of the public!" they wrote.</p> <p>"He’s cold, but with no visible injuries. He is being assessed by NSW Ambulance paramedics.</p> <p>"A BIG thank you to all the media and members of the public for sharing our appeal."</p> <p><em>Earlier:</em></p> <p>The search for a missing 11-year-old boy who failed to return home from school has escalated after temperatures dropped to a freezing 4 degrees overnight.</p> <p>Christopher Wilson did not return home from school on Wednesday afternoon in what police have described as “extremely out of character”.</p> <p>The student was last seen getting off the school bus on Annangrove Road, Annangrove in Sydney’s north-west about 3.20pm on Wednesday. </p> <p>When he did not return home, police were immediately notified and a search for Christopher began. </p> <p>“Obviously, they’re extremely distressed, particularly overnight with the temperatures the way they have been up here in the Hills,” Superintendent Darrin Batchelor said.</p> <p>“They’ve been out looking overnight as well, so we’ll keep updating them as we go along.”</p> <p>Police believe Christopher would still be wearing his Annangrove Public School uniform – a blue T-shirt with maroon and white trim, grey pants and red and black sneakers. </p> <p>He was also believed to be wearing a black and white jacket and carrying a black backpack.</p> <p>He is described as being of Aboriginal/Torres Strait Island appearance, about 120 centimetres tall with a slim build, short brown hair and brown eyes.</p> <p>CCTV managed to capture Christopher walking along Annangrove Road towards Rouse Hill about 4.45pm. </p> <p>“We can only hope Christopher’s found his way into a shed or put his head down overnight and managed to stay warm,” Mr Batchelor continues. </p> <p>Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers to ensure Christopher is found. </p> <p>Police have sent a geo-targeted text to The Hills area from +61 444 444 444 and asked residents not to block the number as it is not a scam. </p> <p><em>Images: NSW Police</em></p>

News

Placeholder Content Image

Fun facts about The Sound of Music

<p dir="ltr"><em>The Sound of Music</em> is that film you can watch over and over again without getting bored.</p> <p dir="ltr">The 1965 American musical drama stands out thanks to its loving cast, the phenomenal soundtrack and storyline.</p> <p dir="ltr">Starring the beloved Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, here are five fun facts you did not know about the movie. </p> <ol> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation">Julie Andrews almost wasn’t cast as Maria</p> </li> </ol> <p dir="ltr">Richard Rodgers said that Julie Andrews would be perfect for the role of Maria but no one else agreed.</p> <p dir="ltr">It was only after the crew saw Mary Poppins that they noticed how everybody loved her. </p> <ol start="2"> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation">Julie Andrews kept falling over on the mountain</p> </li> </ol> <p dir="ltr">The opening scene where Maria is dancing on the mountain saw Julie Andrews fall multiple times thanks to the helicopter hovering above. </p> <p dir="ltr">“This was a jet helicopter,” Andrews said. </p> <p dir="ltr">“And the downdraft from those jets was so strong that every time … the helicopter circled around me and the downdraft just flattened me into the grass. And I mean flattened. It was fine for a couple of takes, but after that you begin to get just a little bit angry… And I really tried. I mean, I braced myself, I thought, ‘It’s not going to get me this time.’ And every single time, I bit the dust.”</p> <ol start="3"> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation">Christopher Plummer hated the movie</p> </li> </ol> <p dir="ltr">Our beloved Captain von Trapp hated the film to the point where he actually called it “The Sound of Mucus”.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Because it was so awful and sentimental and gooey,” he said. </p> <p dir="ltr">“You had to work terribly hard to try and infuse some minuscule bit of humor into it.” </p> <p dir="ltr">Because he hated the film so much, Plummer would sit eating and drinking in excess which caused him to gain so much weight. </p> <p dir="ltr">In the DVD commentary, Plummer also confessed that he was in fact drunk during the filming of the music festival. </p> <ol start="4"> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation">Young Gretl was traumatised during the boat scene</p> </li> </ol> <p dir="ltr">In the scene where Maria had taken the von Trapp kids out to town and were spotted by the Captain in the boat outside their home traumatised young Gretl.</p> <p dir="ltr">Gretl did not know how to swim and therefore it was agreed that Maria would fall forward when the boat flipped. </p> <p dir="ltr">When the boat flipped, Maria instead fell backwards which saw Gretl struggle and inhale a lot of water. She eventually vomited on the actress that played Louisa. </p> <ol start="5"> <li dir="ltr" aria-level="1"> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation">Friedrich grew 15cm during filming </p> </li> </ol> <p dir="ltr">Nicholas Hammond played Friedrich and grew an incredible 15cm during filming.</p> <p dir="ltr">Because he was supposed to appear shorter than Liesl but taller than Louisa - at the start of the film Hammond had lifts on his shoes and by the end of it they were gone. </p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: Pinterest</em></p>

Movies

Placeholder Content Image

Keanu Reeves donates his Matrix salary to cancer research

<p>Hollywood's nicest guy Keanu Reeves has reportedly donated 70% of his salary from <em>The Matrix</em> to cancer research. </p> <p>The 57-year-old Canadian actor made $14 million for the 1999 sci-fi hit film, before earning another $49 million after its impressive release at the box office. </p> <p>According to <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.ladbible.com/entertainment/latest-keanu-reeves-donated-70-of-his-matrix-salary-to-leukaemia-research-20211228" target="_blank">Lad Bible</a>, Keanu gave approximately $44 million of those earnings to leukaemia research, after his sister Kim was diagnosed with blood cancer in 1991. </p> <p>Kim, who is now 55-years-old battled the condition for 10 years before entering remission, as Keanu put his career on hold - which included the back-to-back <em>Matrix</em> sequels - to take care of her. </p> <p>He later started his own cancer fund, but didn't make it known to the public for several years. </p> <p>“I have a private foundation that’s been running for five or six years, and it helps aid a couple of children’s hospitals and cancer research,” Reeves told Ladies Home Journal in 2009.</p> <p>“I don’t like to attach my name to it, I just let the foundation do what it does.”</p> <p>The foundation provides critical funding for research into cancer, while also supporting both children's wards and kids' hospitals. </p> <p>This is not the first time Keanu Reeves has parted with his impressive movie salary to help others, as he has previously given up to $125 million to save at-risk jobs so people could stay employed. </p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p>

Movies

Placeholder Content Image

Christopher Walken destroys $20million Banksy artwork

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">An original Banksy artwork has been painted over by Hollywood royalty Christopher Walken while filming his new TV show. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The 78-year-old actor erased the artwork, which is estimated to be worth $20million, as part of a scene of the new comedy drama show </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Outlaws</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The elusive street artist Banksy had painted the images of a rat holding two spray cans specifically for the  upcoming BBC series, which is set in his home city. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">However, it’s claimed that the mysterious artist had collaborated with the show bosses for the stunt. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The six-part series follows a group of misfits who are tasked with renovating a derelict community centre in Bristol as part of a community service sentence. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A spokesperson for </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Outlaws</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;"> confirmed, “We can confirm that the artwork at the end of <em>The Outlaws</em> was an original Banksy, and that Christopher Walken painted over that artwork during the filming of this scene, ultimately destroying it.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The wrecking of the artwork was seemingly agreed upon by Bristol-native Banksy, who is reportedly a big fan of Christopher Walken, and admired the fact that Stephen Merchant, a fellow Bristonlian, was showcasing the city. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A source told </span><a href="https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/tv/4041091/banksy-artwork-destroyed-outlaws/">The Sun</a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, “The creative team came up with the dream scenario and got in touch with the artist’s representatives in the faint hope that he might help them.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Then they discovered shortly afterwards that he’d been to the location where they were filming and left something behind. They couldn’t believe their luck as he’d painted a giant rat using his hallmark stencilling technique as well as his distinctive signature.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">They added, “His only stipulation was that they really did paint over it — and it would be his hero Christopher holding the roller.”  </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Check out the trailer for </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Outlaws</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;"> below:</span></p> <p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/k_-6-hYP7Dk" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Image credits: Getty Images</span></em></p>

Art

Placeholder Content Image

Law & Order star finally spills on the real reason he left the show

<p>Christopher Meloni has made many <em>Law &amp; Order </em>fans happy by returning to the popular crime drama after leaving 10 years ago. Now he tells us the real reason he left.</p> <p>Known for his portrayal of the no-nonsense Detective Elliot Stabler on <em>Law &amp; Order: SVU</em> for a long run of 12 seasons between 1999 and 2011, Meloni left the show at the end of the 12th season.</p> <p>His sudden departure was a major shock to his detective partner on the show, Mariska Hargitay. As her character, Olivia Benson, she portrayed this shock in the Season 13 premiere.</p> <p>At the time, it was reported that Meloni left the show because of a contract dispute and finally, when <em>Men’s Health</em> interviewed Meloni recently, he confirmed this was the case.</p> <p>Meloni told <em>Men’s Health</em> he was negotiating with the show's executive producer, Dick Wolf, for less screen time in the 13th season but he was having trouble getting his message across.</p> <p>"My thought was: instead of 22 episodes, bring me back for nine episodes, or bring me back for 18 episodes," Meloni told <em>Men's Health</em>.</p> <p>In the end, Meloni sad they came to me on a Thursday night and said: “This is the deal. We want the answer by tomorrow. It’s our way or no way.”</p> <p>Because the producer wasn’t offering anything Meloni had asked for, Meloni said he just agreed that if he couldn't have it his way, he wouldn't have it any way at all. So, he decided to bring an end to his character's time on the show.</p> <p>"I don't want to f--k around with you guys. This is what I want. If you can't do it, that's fine. Let's figure out my exit," he said of his last discussion with Wolf.</p> <p>However, now that Meloni is back on the set of <em>Law &amp; Order</em> in <em>Organized Crime</em>, which you can watch in Australia for free on 9Now, there is far less stress involved, and the actor is finding himself having a good time taking the character of Elliot Stabler back on.</p> <p>"I'm not stressed by, ‘Will it go well? Will it not go well?' Not that I know how it's going to go. Just that, eh, just ride. Just do, just be," Meloni said to <em>Men's Health</em>.</p> <p><strong><em>You can stream the complete seasons of </em></strong><strong><a rel="noopener" href="https://stream.9now.com.au/9OoBaVXFsib" target="_blank" title="Law &amp; Order"><em>Law &amp; Order</em></a><em>, </em><a rel="noopener" href="https://9now.app.link/E94KXzqypfb" target="_blank" title="Law &amp; Order: Organized Crime"><em>Law &amp; Order: Organized Crime</em></a><em>, and </em><a rel="noopener" href="https://stream.9now.com.au/q2h127aGsib" target="_blank" title="Law &amp; Order: Criminal Intent"><em>Law &amp; Order: Criminal Intent</em></a><em> for free on 9Now.</em></strong></p> <p><em>Image: Getty Images</em></p>

TV

Placeholder Content Image

Surprise! The original Back To The Future cast reunited

<p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__intro sics-component__story__paragraph">It's the power of Lloyd, not the Power of Love that's sent shockwaves through fans of<em><span> </span>Back To The Future</em>.</p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">Doc Brown, aka Christopher Lloyd, has managed to reunite the stars of the '80s time-travel classic for a photo at the fan convention they were attending.</p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">Stars Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson and Thomas Wilson had all been taking part in the Fan Expo in Boston in the US when the reunion happened.</p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">"This was special," Lloyd captioned his post after getting Marty McFly, Biff Tannen, Lorraine Baines and Doc Brown together.</p> <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/BmWLLMKHQYN/?utm_source=ig_embed" data-instgrm-version="9"> <div style="padding: 8px;"> <div style="background: #F8F8F8; line-height: 0; margin-top: 40px; padding: 50.09259259259259% 0; text-align: center; width: 100%;"> <div style="background: url(data:image/png; base64,ivborw0kggoaaaansuheugaaacwaaaascamaaaapwqozaaaabgdbtueaalgpc/xhbqaaaafzukdcak7ohokaaaamuexurczmzpf399fx1+bm5mzy9amaaadisurbvdjlvzxbesmgces5/p8/t9furvcrmu73jwlzosgsiizurcjo/ad+eqjjb4hv8bft+idpqocx1wjosbfhh2xssxeiyn3uli/6mnree07uiwjev8ueowds88ly97kqytlijkktuybbruayvh5wohixmpi5we58ek028czwyuqdlkpg1bkb4nnm+veanfhqn1k4+gpt6ugqcvu2h2ovuif/gwufyy8owepdyzsa3avcqpvovvzzz2vtnn2wu8qzvjddeto90gsy9mvlqtgysy231mxry6i2ggqjrty0l8fxcxfcbbhwrsyyaaaaaelftksuqmcc); display: block; height: 44px; margin: 0 auto -44px; position: relative; top: -22px; width: 44px;"></div> </div> <p style="margin: 8px 0 0 0; padding: 0 4px;"><a style="color: #000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BmWLLMKHQYN/?utm_source=ig_embed" target="_blank">This was special.</a></p> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A post shared by <a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/mrchristopherlloyd/?utm_source=ig_embed" target="_blank"> Christopher Lloyd</a> (@mrchristopherlloyd) on Aug 11, 2018 at 10:10am PDT</p> </div> </blockquote> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">One fan commented, "This is awesome! My 11 year old son asked me today, 'Dad, do you think they will make a Back to the Future pt 4?' These movies mean so much to me and now him. Thanks!"</p> <div class="sics-component__ad-space sics-component__ad-space--storybody "> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">Lea Thompson also posted the picture with the title "Four old friends get back from the future".</p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">There's been much speculation over whether there would ever be a fourth installment of the <em>Back To The Future</em> series, but there's still been no announcement on whether the foursome will reunite one more time.</p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph"><span>Meanwhile </span><a href="https://metro.co.uk/2018/08/12/back-future-reunion-everything-7828665/"><em>Metro</em><span> </span>reported it probably won't happen</a>.</p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">"Basically, I think America is saying, 'Come on, they've wrecked every other franchise with bad sequels, why not this one?'" Wilson said, who played Biff. "C'mon, we would watch it until it sucks."</p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph">Fox also poured doubts it would happen, saying that the actors have no say in whether another movie gets made, saying that co-creator Bob Gale is the "gatekeeper of the franchise".</p> <p class="sics-component__html-injector sics-component__story__paragraph"><em>Republished with permission of <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/film/106221083/fans-delighted-as-the-original-back-to-the-future-cast-reunited">Stuff.co.nz</a>. </em></p> </div>

Movies

Our Partners

Over 60

© Copyright 2024 OverSixty.All Rights Reserved.