Donald Trump insisted Friday that investigative journalist Bob Woodward’s recordings of his multiple interviews with the former president, featured in Woodward’s upcoming audiobook, “belong” to Trump.
“We’ve already hired the lawyers to sue him,” Trump told Fox News host Brian Kilmeade Friday on his radio program. “Bob Woodward’s a very sleazy guy,” he added of the famed Watergate journalist.
Woodward’s audiobook, “The Trump Tapes: Bob Woodward’s Twenty Interviews with President Trump” is scheduled for release on Tuesday. It includes more than eight hours of the journalist’s 20 interviews with Trump over the years, interspersed with commentary from Woodward.
Trump appeared to concede that Woodward was the one who set up the tapes and recorded the interviews, but insisted the rights to use the tapes belong to him.
“In many ways, I like the tapes, I insist on tapes, but I also say the tapes belong to me,” Trump told Kilmeade. “So that means Woodward has to get whatever deal he made, you know, we’ll probably end up in litigation over it. Because we gave tapes for the written word, not tapes to sell, and that’s always made clear,” he said.
Trump insisted he told Woodward “these tapes are for the written word, these tapes are for your [previous] book, these are not to be sold, these are tapes for your book, to help you. I like that because it’s more accurate,” he added.
“So now he’s making an audiobook out of it, so we’ll sue him,” Trump said.
Woodward could not immediately be reached for comment.
Some revelations from Woodward’s book have already been recounted in media outlets that obtained advance copies.
In one of the interviews in 2019, Trump admitted that letters from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that were seized in August from his Mar-a-Lago compound were “so top secret,” The Washington Post reported. Yet he nevertheless showed them off to Woodward. “Don’t say I gave them to you, OK?” Trump can be heard saying on tape.
In another audio recording from a 2020 interview with Woodward, Trump said he preferred “tougher and meaner” world leaders.
“I like Putin,” Trump told Woodward, CNN reported after obtaining an advance copy of the audiobook.
“Getting along with Russia is a good thing, not a bad thing, all right? Especially because they have 1,332 nuclear fucking warheads,” he told the journalist.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
Director David Gordon Green and crew on the set of Halloween Ends.Photo: Universal Pictures
Jamie Lee Curtis may be the backbone of the Halloween franchise, but David Gordon Green has been its brain—at least since 2018, when he and Danny McBride rebooted it as an epic battle between Curtis’ Laurie Strode and iconic killing machine Michael Myers. Whether Myers is hellbent on bodying Laurie in particular or he’s the Mariah Carey of slashers (“I don’t know her”) remains a mystery that neither the star nor director are eager to solve, but Green has devoted great effort and a tremendous amount of thought to shepherding Curtis’ tireless survivor through a brutal gauntlet to, well, a resting place in her journey (if it’s “final” is for viewers to find out October 14).
As the filmmaking duo prepares to wrap not only this cycle of films but some 44 years of lore with Halloween Ends, The A.V. Club spoke with Green about the path that they wanted Laurie Strode to take. In addition to discussing his “plan” for the franchise, Green talks about the differences—both deliberate and incidental—in slasher movies since the release of the groundbreaking 1978 original, and finally, reflects on his relationship with the films as he prepares to release the final (or at least final-for-now) installment, with the blessing of no less than Halloween creator and now co-composer of its music, John Carpenter.
The A.V. Club: How much of a plan was there for these films, and where did you want this trilogy to end up?
David Gordon Green: Well, that’s an interesting question because there was a plan of an essence. But I don’t know necessarily a plan until I’m on set and we’re really engaged in things, no matter how much rehearsal or writing I’ve done. It’s still a vague tapestry until we start really getting in there and weaving it together. So after the success of our 2018 film, we knew where we wanted to go vaguely. And I knew that I wanted to center the second film around a lot more action and aggression. And then I wanted the third film to be a love story that felt more grounded and intimate. And so those were always essential ingredients in this, and then trying to figure out how to tell the story of the manifestation of evil.
(From left) Jamie Lee Curtis and director David Gordon Green on the set of Halloween EndsPhoto: Universal Pictures
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The second one is a big Michael Meyers exploitation movie—that’s what Halloween Kills is for me, the opera of Michael Myers. And then two is you’re not going to go into a Michael Myers backstory because as far as I’m concerned, that’s forbidden territory. I don’t want to know his motivation, what inspires him. But I do ask a lot of questions about evil and community that have been left in the aftermath of the Haddonfield massacres. So trying to find a way to ask these questions, but not [doing that] through Michael Myers insisted I bring in a new character to give a perspective of Michael and his behaviors, Laurie and her insights, and then Haddonfield as a whole.
AVC: Laurie is in a much healthier place in this film. Where did you want her to end up after all she’s been through?
DGG: Meditative. I don’t think the Laurie Strode I want to follow is ever going to be 100% resolved in any outcome that the story might unfold for her. I felt passionate that we want a story that deals with her struggles and her reflections. And so I feel like wherever this movie would take her, on whatever journey, there’s a thoughtfulness to it. And there’s never going to be an absolute definitive, tragic ending, and there’s never going to be an absolute definitive, happy ending. I think it’s a series of tragic events that accumulate in her psyche. And at the end of the day, as we all should when we live through hardships and face difficulties, the thoughtfulness, the reflection, the evolution beyond that is, I think, what’s the most interesting.
AVC: There is a lingering question if Michael actually has any specific interest in Laurie in the events of the 2018 film. Is Michael making a path directly to her, or is it purely circumstantial?
DGG: I like to not really define that, but I also make sure that I’ve created a story where you could point to none of that. And so there’s always a justification that he will be there, outside of stalking Laurie. I think in the reality of his psyche, maybe there’s a familiarity that he sees. But I think he’s a kind of animal that isn’t bringing a grudge, a vengeance. He’s a monster that’s on a path, and if you get in the way, you’re going to get fucked up.
Halloween Ends – The Final Trailer
AVC: You’ve spoken about how it wouldn’t be appropriate to just remake the original film in 2018 or 2022. What are the ways this genre has changed that challenged you to tell a story that’s authentic to this period, but also is faithful to the legacy of this franchise?
DGG: Yeah, that’s a really fun question, and conversation—it’s a big conversation. Because the original Halloween has inspired so many people, and so many people have ripped off ideas or emulated it to the point of cliche or camp. I personally like to select what tropes I invite into it when it’s too little, or too much. Turning your back on a bad guy who’s about to pick up a knife? I’m not sure you can get away with a lot of that as much as you used to be able to do without audience groans. I think some of the pacing you need up a little bit for a contemporary audience that may or may not have as much patience as they had 44 years ago. And so there are certain stylistic choices we make, but all of it within certainly the appreciation of John [Carpenter] and having him there as a consultant and a collaborator helps me when I get off path a little bit. Sometimes I’ll have a wild idea and say, “This is a little wild, John, but what if?” And he’ll either say, “That’s a terrible idea,” or “That’s interesting. See where it takes you.”
He’s been very generous in letting us unravel some weird ideas, and then having his commentary. I loved being very vulnerable and watching him watch the movie for the first time as we were doing a spotting session for the score. And so I get his commentary throughout, and as big fans of John Carpenter, we know he’s not going to pull any punches. He’s ready to say what he thinks, and he’s not holding back. So I love that about him. And by surrounding yourself with people that are challenging in a healthy way—they’re there to support, but they’re also to say, “what if?” And “how about?” And I like having the specific group of people that we’ve curated to be our collaborators on this franchise. It’s been really enjoyable and I’ve learned a lot and had a beautiful journey on three films.
With weeks to go before the election, Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor and Democratic Senate nominee, John Fetterman, is still struggling with the effects of a May stroke.
In his first in-person interview, which aired Tuesday night, Fetterman required the use of closed captioning.
The Democrat is “still suffering from auditory processing issues, which means he has a hard time understanding what he’s hearing,” NBC News reporter Dasha Burns said.
NBC News agreed to the use of closed captioning technology during the interview, where a screen transcribed Burns’ questions.
“I sometimes will hear things in a way that’s not perfectly clear. So I use captioning so I’m able to see what you’re saying on the captioning,” Fetterman said.
Fetterman “occasionally stuttered and had trouble finding words,” according to the report, responding to Burns’ oral questions after subsequently reading the captions on a computer screen. In the interview, Fetterman can clearly be seen behind the screen reading the questions as they come.
“Every now and then I’ll miss a word. Every now and then. Or sometimes I’ll maybe mush two words together. But as long as I have captioning, I’m able to understand exactly what’s being asked,” he said.
In the interview, Fetterman can be seen having difficulty attempting to pronounce the word “empathetic,” moving between “emphetic” and “empathetic” before finally landing on the latter. He then used that as an example of the side affects of the stroke.
Fetterman said he is still in the recovery process but that “I don’t think it’s going to have an impact. I feel like I’m gonna get better and better—every day. And by January, I’m going [to] be, you know, much better. And Dr. Oz is still going to be a fraud.”
Burns said that before the interview and without captioning, “it wasn’t clear he was understanding our conversation.”
When questioned why he would not supply NBC with medical records or make any of his doctors available for an interview, Fetterman replied: “I feel like we have been very transparent in a lot of different ways. When our doctor has already given a letter saying that I’m able to serve and to be running. And then I think there’s—you can’t be any more transparent than standing up on a stage with 3,000 people and having a speech without a teleprompter and just being—and putting everything and yourself out there like that. I think that’s as transparent as everyone in Pennsylvania can see.”
Concerns surrounding Fetterman’s health have run rampant in the lead-up to the November election, with some questioning whether his health and heart are up to the job.
Republicans are already using the footage to their advantage; Steve Guest, special adviser for communications for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), called it a “disaster,” claiming “John Fetterman is not well.”
“No wonder Fetterman has refused to do interviews,” he tweeted. “And this is who Democrats want to be a Senator.”
Former Trump aide Stephen Miller tweeted that “if one was going to elect a new Senator with grave cognitive impediments to performing his duties one would likely want an individual who was in every other way exemplary. Not the crazy, radical, dresses like he’s 11, pro-murderer anti-cop marxist zealot deadbeat John Fetterman.”
Clay Travis of the conservative podcast The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show called the interview “insane,” adding, “imagine what media would be saying if a Republican was trying to pull this campaign off.”
Former Fox News contributor and Trump Treasury Department spokeswoman Monica Crowley labeled Fetterman “unfit to serve in the Senate,” criticizing him because he “couldn’t even make it through a basic, friendly interview with MSNBC: couldn’t hear, couldn’t understand.”
Dr. Oz’s team is yet to comment, however senior communications adviser Rachel Tripp told Insider in August: “If John Fetterman had ever eaten a vegetable in his life, then maybe he wouldn’t have had a major stroke and wouldn’t be in the position of having to lie about it constantly.”
When The Daily Beast reached out to Tripp at the time, she replied via email: “Nice try. Dr. Oz has been urging people to eat more veggies for years. That’s not ridicule. It’s good health advice. We’re only trying to help.”
Speaking on The Last Word on Tuesday night, Fetterman criticized Dr. Oz for the comments, saying, “I can’t believe that having a doctor that is cheering on for me not to get better.”
Fetterman still leads in the polls.
The Democrat has used closed captioning technology in interviews before; it was cited in a piece earlier this month in The New Yorker, where he used Google Meet to conduct the interview.
“Because the stroke had made it difficult for him to process what he hears, the video chat has closed captioning technology that allowed him to read my questions in real time,” reporter Rebecca Traister wrote.
Fetterman has agreed to an Oct. 25 debate with his opponent, Republican Mehmet Oz, but under the condition that Fetterman have access to a closed captioning monitor so he can read the questions as they come in.
Political commentator Adam Jentleson said the interview was a “good moment for a gut check here.” He wrote in a tweet: “I’m biased but when I watch the clip I see a guy recovering and recovering overcoming a challenge. I wonder what voters will see.”
Political, public affairs, and communications strategist Jeff Timmer tweeted that it was a “bold but wise” strategy to have Fetterman doing interviews and “showing the accessibility tools he uses to process the spoken word. I commend him and his team for having the guts and balls to do this.”
Newly revealed footage shows that Kanye West made antisemitic comments and a series of other bizarre claims that were left out of his interview last week with Tucker Carlson.
The interview ran over two nights on Carlson’s top-rated Fox News show, and the host held West, now known as Ye, as a victim of left wing cancel culture and woke politics, first and foremost being the reaction to the rapper’s wearing of a White Lives Matter shirt at Paris fashion week.
In one of the clips, obtained and published by Vice News’s Motherboard, Ye complains about sending his kids to a school that celebrates Kwanzaa. “I prefer my kids knew Hanukkah than Kwanzaa. At least it will come with some financial engineering,” he said.
At another point, when Ye talked of Black people judging one another, he said, “Think about us judging each other on how white we could talk would be like, you know, a Jewish person judging another Jewish person on how good they danced or something. … I mean, that’s probably like a bad example and people are going to get mad at that shit.” He then said, “I probably want to edit that out.” “Done,” Carlson responded.
Over the weekend, Twitter removed a post and suspended him for a tweet in which he said that he would go “def con 3” on Jewish people. Instagram also removed Ye’s post from earlier in the week, in which he shared portions of a text conversation with Diddy. In the post, Ye uses an antisemitic trope about Jewish influence.
Carlson’s show did air a portion of the interview in which Ye suggested that Jared Kushner, who is Jewish, of seeking Israeli peace deals with Arab countries for financial gain. The Anti-Defamation League issued a statement on Friday saying that “the behavior exhibited this week by @kanyewest is deeply troubling, dangerous, and antisemitic, period. There is no excuse for his propagating of white supremacist slogans and classic #antisemitism about Jewish power, especially with the platform he has.”
In another clip left out of the interview, according to Motherboard, Ye claimed that “fake children” or “actors, professional actors,” were “placed into my house to sexualize my kids.”
Fox News did not respond to a request for comment. There has been considerable debate about how much exposure to give to Ye, given that he has struggled with bipolar disorder.
When he opened his interview with West on his Thursday show, Carlson acknowledged that “listening to West could be “jarring” and “it is often used as ammunition against him in the battle for influence over the minds of America’s young people and that battle is intense. But crazy? That was not our conclusion. In fact, we’ve rarely heard a man speak so honestly and so movingly about what he believes, but again, you can judge for yourself.”
In 2020, a West was embarking on a presidential campaign, his then-wife Kim Kardashian called for “compassion and empathy” given his mental health issues.
In the interview portions that aired, Ye at one point talked of a conspiracy involving the Uvalde school shooting and told Carlson, “Have I reached Alex Jones territory yet?” Carlson responded, “No, I think you’re telling the truth.”
Ye then said that “they keep using the, oh, he’s crazy, he’s crazy thing. And it hurts my feelings when people say that. It hurts my feelings that people can ask me, ‘Hey, are you OK?’”
Selena Gomez took a moment to preach about kindness and the importance of words on the heels of Hailey Bieber’s viral podcast interview.
“It’s incredibly ironic that I would release something that’s all about kind words ’cause that’s exactly what I want,” Gomez said in a TikTok Live on Thursday, part of which was captured and reposted on Twitter.
According to E! News, the Rare Beauty founder added, “It’s not fair because no one should ever be spoken to in the manner that I’ve seen.”
“If you support Rare, I cannot thank you enough,” the singer went on, “but know that you are also representing what it means, and that is: Words matter, truly matter.”
Gomez, 30, concluded her message by wishing her fans a “wonderful rest of your day.”
Mrs. Bieber got unusually candid on Wednesday’s episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, during which she revealed that she had indeed spoken to Gomez since marrying the actress’ ex-boyfriend Justin Bieber in September 2018.
“It’s all respect. It’s all love,” the model, 25, said of her conversations with Gomez, adding that there is “no drama personally” between them.
“She doesn’t owe me anything,” Hailey noted. “Neither of us owe anybody anything except respect. I respect her a lot, and I think there are no expectations [between us]. I respect her.”
Hailey addressed the “Jelena” fans who have given her a hard time since she married Justin.Getty Images for SEPHORA
With regard to getting engaged to Justin, 28, mere months after his final breakup from Gomez, the Rhode Skin founder explained, “Everybody on our side knows what happened, and we’re good, and we can walk away from it with clarity and respect.”
“[That] has brought me a lot of peace,” she added. “We know what happened. It is what it is.”
Hailey also indirectly addressed the swarms of relentless “Jelena” fans, clarifying that she never “stole” Justin from Gomez, as that is not in her “character.”
“I would never want to get into a relationship and get engaged and be married to them and think in the back of my mind, ‘I wonder if that was really, like, closed for you,’” she shared, revealing that her husband “completely closed” his “chapter” with the former Disney Channel star before taking their relationship to the next level.
At Tokyo Game 2022, we got a chance to sit down with former ATLUS [1,880 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/atlus”>ATLUS composer Shoji Meguro [3 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/people/shoji-meguro”>Shoji Meguro to discuss his first independent game Guns Undarkness [3 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/games/guns-undarkness”>Guns Undarkness, which was recently successfully funded on Kickstarter.
Guns Undarkness is a Stealth [24 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/genres/stealth”>stealth-based science-fiction RPG [14,497 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/genres/rpg”>RPG where you try to get the drop on the enemy before engaging in turn-based combat. As Meguro’s first attempt at making his own game, he applied to Kodansha [6 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/kodansha”>Kodansha‘s Game Creators Lab, an independent game developer support organization. Although not selected, he was awarded 500,000 yen and raised the rest of the game’s development funds through Kickstarter.
Despite leaving ATLUS, he still plans to work with the company as a freelance composer. We ask for details below.
Now that you’re not working at ATLUS anymore, does that mean you could work with other companies?
Shoji Meguro: “I have a good relationship with ATLUS, so I don’t think I’ll work with other companies for a while. That’s not to say I cant do a collaboration on a song or two with other people, but in terms of doing a full soundtrack, I would only do that with ATLUS right now. But that’s also no promise that I’ll be the composer for future Persona [8 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/series/persona”>Persona games.”
How has your original concept for Guns Undarkness that you came up with in 2005 changed until now?
Meguro: “It changed almost entirely. All that stayed the same was that I knew I wanted to make a JRPG [553 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/genres/rpg/jrpg”>JRPG with guns in a science-fiction setting.”
The story outline mentions there was divide between the rich and poor. Does this game have a political message?
Meguro: “No, I don’t like to think about politics, so it’s not focused on any political topics. In this world the divide of rich and poor lead to a war where the world is destroyed and we have to see what humanity does after such a big reset.”
Silly question, but in choosing the year 2045 for the setting, was that year chosen at random or is there a particular reason?
Meguro: “I try to look at the real world timeline of events and technology development and come up with a conclusion that, in such and such year technology might be at a certain point. So when I laid all that out I came up with 2045.”
In screenshots and videos, the main character’s name is simply “Protagonist.” Does this imply you can name the character?
Meguro: “Ah yes, the player will decide his name. This is a bit of a spoiler, but there’s a scene where Will says something like ‘Hey, register your name.’”
Characters are also often shown with a particular weapon. Is everyone limited to one type of weapon, such as Naomi with pistols, or can you change them?
Meguro: “That’s a good question. For the protagonist, you can choose any weapon you want, while side characters specialize in one weapon type, like pistols with Naomi, but they also have a secondary weapon you can choose for them.”
Can you talk a bit about the stealth system?
Meguro: “You don’t avoid encounters outright like in some games. Instead you try to sneak up on an enemy and hide your characters around cover to try to get the best positioning for a sneak attack.”
“When aiming at enemies, a percentage of accuracy can be seen. The longer you set your sights on an enemy the more your accuracy will go up, which leads to more damage when starting the battle in addition to not missing. It’s a risk, however. The longer you hold the higher the accuracy goes up, but the chance the enemy may turn around and spot you also goes up. So you’ll be in a situation where you’re aiming and thinking ‘come on, just a little more to 100 percent… please don’t turn around.’”
That sounds a bit like XCOM.
Meguro: “Oh, I love XCOM. He (points to Yuki Katayama, Kodansha) showed me it saying ‘Hey, try this game!’ and I got so hooked on it that I fell behind on my work (laughs).”
I see there is a relationship system. Is it similar to Persona? What are the benefits of developing your relationships?
Meguro: “Yes, it’s very similar to Persona. You can talk with your teammates to raise your relationship with them which leads to unlocking team combination attacks in battle.”
Now that you’re developing a whole game rather than just music, you have to consider many things like modeling, animation, level design, and so on. What’s been the most fun and most challenging?
Meguro: “It’s all very difficult. (Laughs.) It’s hard to choose one thing because I get tired of things quickly. I’ll do one thing for a month or two, and then get tired of it and do a different thing for a month or two until I get tired of it and so on.”
When making music for games, are they made knowing its for a specific level or scene, or do you just make a bunch of tracks and apply them later?
Meguro: “80 percent of time I make a track for a specific scene or level, and about 20 percent are songs that I made and get placed after the fact.”
For video game music, do you have to consider anything game-related like matching the beat to the speed of the character or timing a chorus when some event occurs?
Meguro: “Of course we consider the speed of the track, making sure the song from one scene to the next isn’t too jarring or different—there’s many components involved. Timing isn’t really something I consider, I just make a different track for a different scene.”
Before we let you go, is there anything you’d like to say to the fans?
Meguro: “We’re really excited to meet our goals and make the game for everyone. Seeing everyone’s enthusiasm has given us 120 percent energy to work even harder. I hope fans look forward to the music, and also support us in making our first game. As a designer I’m just like a first-grader with no experience. I will keep working hard to improve the game. To those who funded us on Kickstarter as well as those who didn’t, we thank you for your support. Please look forward to it.”
Jamie Clayton as a new version of a horror icon.Image: Spyglass Media Group
The new Hellraiser arrives on Hulu next month, and fans of Clive Barker’s horror franchise are eagerly waiting to see what director David Bruckner does to differentiate his film from the many series entries that’ve come before. One big change that makes this 11th Hellraiser film stand out: casting Jamie Clayton as demon antagonist Pinhead.
Ahead of the film’s release, io9 got a chance to talk with Bruckner (The Night House) and Clayton (Sense8) over video chat about what the Hellraiser faithful—and franchise newcomers—can expect.
Cheryl Eddy, io9: The Hellraiser franchise has been around for 35 years. How do you approach balancing the appeal for long-standing fans and people who may be watching a Hellraiser movie for the first time?
David Bruckner: Being a Hellraiser fan myself, it’s pretty easy to instantly want to resurrect everything that you love about the original movies, and you can’t get it all into one film. So it’s easy to sort of follow those inspirations—but you also have an obligation to this story. This was always a new story and that sometimes carries you in different places, and you have to follow your inspirations where that’s concerned. The spirit of Hellraiser is one that I think embraces invention and advance of design and is always willing to go [to] some crazy places. So we wanted to find something that hit the notes that fans would like—but also allowed itself to do new things for new audiences and look at this as a gateway for people to the older movies. That’d be great. That’d make me very happy.
io9: Jamie, Doug Bradley’s portrayal of Pinhead is obviously so beloved and iconic. Did you study his performance when shaping your approach to “the Priest”?
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Jamie Clayton: David and I had many conversations before I would shoot any of the bigger scenes about what the intention would be, what the Priest was sort of feeling and thinking, and all of those things. He did send me one particular scene to watch—that’s our little secret—but he did send me one scene that was his favorite from the original film, and I remembered it. It was so helpful because it really was just sort of tonally an idea. It was this abstract idea, you know, it was one of the many colors with which we painted this beautiful portrait. And so there was that. But I really did just want to just make it my own. That was the goal. I mean, the goal was, even in casting a woman, it was seeking to take the burden off the audience’s shoulders of even trying to compare the two performances, because just right off the bat, they’re just going to be different.
Another Cenobite would like to make your acquaintance.Image: Spyglass Media Group
io9: How much of the make-up was practical and how much was CG, and how did you develop your character’s particular speaking voice?
Speaker 3: The makeup took four and a half to six hours depending on the day, how many other Cenobites would be working, and how many people I had working on me. But it’s all—everything that you see, if anybody knows the lingo of Hollywood, “last looks” are when the makeup artists jump in before you’re about to start actually shooting a scene. For any actor, it’s a little bit of powder on the forehead, some lip gloss. But for me and the rest of the Cenobites, it was all kinds of blood and, like, straightening a pin. All of those things [were] practical. There are some bits that are painted to get rid of seams, but that’s all me in all of that.
The voice was interesting because I had done a voice when I taped my audition, and I was just having fun with something. In the callback, we did some funny things that were playing with volume and projection and all of that. And then once it finally got down to [filming] in Serbia, there was a moment too, when we talked and I was like, “Maybe I’m not even going to do as much as I’ve been doing.” But then the neck piece is so tight and so restricting, I kind of can’t do anything more than what I’m doing. Once [the costume was] all on, [I was not] able to expand [or take a full breath], so it all kind of lived back here [in the back of the throat]. We just found it, and we found levels in it, and expression and tone, the disappointment or the sensuality. We found those things in there..
io9: David, after all the Hellraiser movies that are out in the world, some of which are pretty corny, and related work including a recent Rick and Morty episode, how do you continue to make Hellraiser scary?
Bruckner: It’s always a challenge to make things scary. And I feel like if you’re doing anything in a horror film, you’re out on a crazy limb—you’ve got prosthetic monsters, you’re usually battling the elements, and when you’re there on the ground, there’s always the peril that none of it may work. But look, Hellraiser is about a lot of different things. It’s fantasy. It’s horror. There’s surreal qualities to it. It’s a reflection of the inner dilemma of the characters. I liked to say we sort of chased the sick giggle, the side of us that feels like we’re getting away with something, and then also allow ourselves to experience a bit of awe in horror, and to be smaller than the material in some ways. So I think you just trust in that and believe in it. There’s a sincerity to Hellraiser that I admire. And of course, when something’s become iconic on the pop culture front, there’s going to be another satirical side to it necessarily. But I don’t think that that challenges the experience in any way that that we can’t get behind.
io9: Are you involved at all in the HBO series that was announced in 2020?
Bruckner:I don’t know anything about it, but I wish them the best. I know Clive [Barker’s] working on it. And I think if they can get it going, I’d be a fan. I’d love to see what comes of it.
io9: Speaking of Clive Barker, he’s listed as a producer on your film. How involved was he?
Bruckner: He was great. He was very involved. We had a lot of conversations when I was in prep, and a lot after the fact on the edit, and he’s a creative producer, so he was there to look into the material, to challenge me, to encourage me to look into various ideas. He sent me lots of art. We had lots of conversations about theme. He fully embraced the idea that this was after the essence of Hellraiser, but was also a departure in some ways. Even before he’d seen the designs, [he] said to me, we’ve got to find a new way to do some of this; times have changed and the spirit of it has to be rejuvenated. And so I hope that that’s something that we accomplished. But I’m grateful to him for his time, and he’s a marvel to work with and speak to. And he was very generous with us.
Hellraiser premieres October 7 on Hulu.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel and Star Wars releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about House of the Dragon and Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks onstage during day 2 of Vox Media’s 2022 Code Conference in Beverly Hills, California.
Jerod Harris | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images
Apple CEO Tim Cook said on Wednesday that Apple doesn’t spend a lot of effort improving the texting experience between iPhones and Android devices because its users haven’t been asking for it.
“I don’t hear our users asking that we put a lot of energy on that, on this point,” Cook said in response to an audience question at Vox Media’s Code Conference in Beverly Hills, California. “I would love to convert you to iPhone.”
The response comes less than a month after Google kicked off an advertising campaign meant to put pressure on Apple.
Currently, texts between iPhones use iMessage, which has a much smoother experience than when an Android device texts an iPhone, in which SMS messages show up as green bubbles. Google wants Apple to adopt RCS, a kind of messaging that is meant as a next-generation SMS replacement with encryption and other modern features.
The questioner pressed Cook, saying that he can’t send videos to his mom because of the limitations of SMS messaging.
“Buy your mom an iPhone,” Cook said.
Privacy push goes back to Steve Jobs
Cook was joined by former Apple head designer Jony Ive and Laurene Powell Jobs to discuss the legacy of Apple’s founder and announce a new Steve Jobs archive and potential documentary.
Apple’s recent privacy push is not a new goal for the company — the thinking actually goes back to founder Steve Jobs, Cook said.
“Steve really ingrained in the company in the early days in the importance of privacy and it has only grown since,” Cook said.
Cook cited a 2010 talk by Jobs where he said that privacy means that users consent to share their data. “Privacy means people know what they’re signing up for, in plain English, and repeatedly. That’s what it means,” Jobs said in the talk cited by Cook.
Cook’s remarks come as the company’s privacy push has drawn increasing criticism as self-serving as the company has introduced new privacy features that make online advertising more difficult to measure as Apple reportedly plans to increase the size of its advertising business and introduces new ad units.
That’s the same philosophy behind App Tracking Transparency, a feature introduced in 2021 that has roiled the online advertising industry. iPhone owners are asked before sharing a unique device identification number with apps when they boot up — and most iPhone owners choose not to, preventing online advertisers from accurately tracking the performance of their ads.
Companies including Facebook parent Meta have blasted the change as anticompetitive. In February, Meta said it would cost it $10 billion this year.
“What we felt is that people should own their data, and they should make their own decision,” Cook said on Wednesday. “People should be empowered to be able to make that decision in a really straightforward and simple manner. Not buried 95 pages deep in a privacy policy somewhere.”
Cook elaborated that Apple follows stricter rules than advertisers and defended the company’s search ads.
“We’ve never said digital advertising is a bad thing,” Cook said. “What is not good is vacuuming up people’s data when they’re not doing so on an informed basis.”
Cook was asked if he saw Apple as a powerful company that has stepped in because regulators haven’t passed privacy laws.
“We’re not trying to be a regulator,” Cook said. “All we’re trying to do is give people the ability to make the decision for themselves.”
Jennifer Lawrence is one of the highest paid actresses in the world — and yet she’s still paid millions of dollars less than her male co-stars.
The Oscar-winning actress slammed Hollywood’s persistent gender pay gap in a new interview with Vogue, telling the magazine that while actors are often “overpaid,” the discrepancy still stings.
“It doesn’t matter how much I do,” she said. “I’m still not going to get paid as much as that guy, because of my vagina?”
Lawrence, 32, earned $5 million less than Leonardo DiCaprio for Netflix’s star-studded dystopian film “Don’t Look Up,” which was released in December 2021, Vanity Fair reported.
“I’m extremely fortunate and happy with my deal,” Lawrence told Vanity Fair shortly before the movie’s release. “But in other situations, what I have seen — and I’m sure other women in the workforce have seen as well — is that it’s extremely uncomfortable to inquire about equal pay. And if you do question something that appears unequal, you’re told it’s not gender disparity, but they can’t tell you what exactly it is.”
On average, women earn about $1.1 million less than their male co-stars, according to 2017 research from three professors: Sofia Izquierdo Sanchez of the University of Huddersfield, Maria Navarro Paniagua of Lancaster University, and John S Heywood of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
For actors over 50, that gap is even wider: Older actresses earned almost $4 million less than male actors. Other studies have noted that women of color are significantly underpaid compared to white women.
This isn’t the first time Lawrence is speaking out about Hollywood’s pay gap. The hacking of Sony Pictures’ computer systems in 2014 revealed that Lawrence’s compensation for the 2013 film “American Hustle” had been much less than her male co-stars — Bradley Cooper, Christian Bale and Jeremy Renner received a 9% cut of the film’s profits, while Lawrence and Amy Adams saw 7%, according to Business Insider.
In an essay for Lena Dunham’s now-defunct Lenny Letter newsletter, Lawrence explained that after the Sony hack, her anger wasn’t directed at the studio or her co-stars.
“I got mad at myself,” she wrote. “I failed as a negotiator because I gave up early … I didn’t want to keep fighting over millions of dollars that, frankly, due to two franchises, I don’t need.”
Lawrence went on to explain that she hesitated to negotiate her deal as she didn’t want to come across as “difficult” or “spoiled.” “At the time, that seemed like a fine idea,” she added, “until I saw the payroll on the Internet and realized every man I was working with definitely didn’t worry about being ‘difficult’ or spoiled.'”
Check out:
‘It’s about fairness and respect’: California may get a new salary transparency law soon
Absolut CEO Ann Mukherjee shares the one piece of career advice everyone needs to hear
Adele shared the ‘worst moment’ of her career so far—and what it taught her: ‘It was devastating’
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