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EXCLUSIVE: As screenwriter Tony McNamara landed in London this past weekend to make good on his BAFTA nomination for writing The Favourite with Deborah Davis, he was already having a pretty ‘Great’ weekend. On Friday he found out his new TV show The Great, about the life of Catherine the Great of Russia would be picked... |
Now, speaking for the first time since the pickup, McNamara reveals that it was actually his pilot script for The Great that inspired director Yorgos Lanthimos to reach out to him for The Favourite. Deborah Davis had written a more strictly dramatic draft of the long-in-gestation project she had nursed, and when Lanthi... |
You’re famously no fan of period projects. How did you wind up writing two? |
I’m not a fan, really [laughs]. I used to think, If I have to watch people tie their shoes with ribbons, I want to put a gun to my head. I think that was the thing. The Favourite, I mean, it was a great historical story, but Yorgos felt as I did, and I’m not interested in a straight telling. Something straight dramatic... |
I think straight away we knew that we didn’t want it to be a drama. We didn’t want it to be a really detailed historical thing. It was all about the three women’s characters, and it was all about the tone. Changing the tone, creating, or as he used to say, re-engineering the whole thing into a different tone and a new ... |
So it then becomes a character piece that could take place today? |
You do end up looking at them like that. I very much took that view, and it was the same with The Great as well. When I wrote The Great—which predates The Favourite—I wanted to think about them as contemporary characters. When they woke up in the morning, the dilemmas they faced were as vital as our dilemmas today. I n... |
Emotion doesn’t change. Relationships don’t change. |
Exactly. I always think they were exactly the same as us, except they have carriages and giant houses, palaces and stuff. You get up and you’re unhappy with your friend, or you’re unhappy in your marriage, and how are you going to deal with it? It’s all those basic things that everyone goes through, and I’m sure they w... |
Not only did you win the BAFTA, but, among others, Olivia Colman won Best Actress and Rachel Weisz Best Supporting Actress. You get the sense Emma Stone might have won a third if there was one. The interplay with these three women was so key. How quickly did you find it? |
Well, finding the characters was pretty easy; I found that quite quickly. But the interplay between them, and the weight of the story and the balance between the three of them, and how every decision or action to one also affected the other, so they’re all affected all the time. That was a bit of a balance of having mu... |
And the ending was hard because you’re ending a multi-protagonist story, and you’re trying to do it in a really efficient way. I wanted to end it without too much dialogue, even though the film’s got a lot. My thing is strong dialogue and comic dialogue, so we wanted to reduce that as the movie ended to try to find ima... |
All three of them had incredibly strong intentions throughout the movie. Incredibly visceral needs that they’re not polite about going after. They’re always trying to get what they want, sometimes motivated by love, and sometimes motivated by power, and sometimes motivated for safety. That was part of the idea of makin... |
You’ll be working together again, right? |
Yes, I’m just finishing an adaptation for him at the moment. |
So given your distaste for period projects, what led you to Catherine the Great in the first place, bearing in mind you generated that idea? |
I began writing theater, and I always wrote contemporary stories. Contemporary comedies, really. I loved things like Barry Lyndon and Dangerous Liaisons, but I had no interest in period stories. I never, ever thought I would do one. Also, because I’m Australian, we don’t really have that in our culture, because we’re s... |
But then I just read about Catherine the Great. I knew the jokes about her, but that was all I knew. I watched 15 minutes of something on TV about her, and then I was interested so I dug a little deeper. She immediately struck me as amazing, because she started women’s education and she kept the enlightenment alive at ... |
And then my period feelings weighed in. I had to think, If I wanted to watch this, how would it have to be written? It would have to be really funny, contemporary and dark, and to feel fast and furious. That was the approach I took. But really, I just wanted to tell this young woman’s story. I had a young daughter, and... |
Where do we pick up the story in the first episode? |
We pick it up with Catherine more or less arriving in Russia to discover Peter, the emperor that she’s married. And of course, as was traditional, they’d never met, so she arrives not really knowing who she’s going to meet and what he’s going to be like. Or even what Russia’s like at the time. It’s a great entrance to ... |
The pilot shot late last year; how did it turn out? |
It’s turned out really great. I met Nicholas Hoult when I was in rehearsals on The Favourite, and as soon as I met Nick, things started to click. t wasn’t really a TV show at that point. It had been a play and a film, and I was always struggling the fact it was such a massive story for a film. I wanted to tell it as a ... |
I also knew about Elle [Fanning]’s work, because our managers had a connection, and so I had this idea then about turning it into TV. I’d worked in TV a lot. As soon as I thought of that, I thought, Oh, that way I can tell the story properly, finally, because it’s a great, really long story. I wrote a pilot, sent it to... |
There have been a lot of Catherine the Great projects around, and there still are I guess, but I think we’ve got an amazing cast and a different point of view. It’s not a straight historical drama. It’s very much my version of what historical dramas should be. |
Between the pickup and the BAFTA, a pretty good weekend. |
Yes [laughs]. We delivered the pilot about a week ago and they told me on Friday. As weekends go, it was pretty good. |
The Brazos Valley African American Museum has been chosen to host the Smithsonian’s traveling exhibit, Hometown Teams: How Sports Shape America. |
The museum’s director, Crystal Carter, said the exhibition covers many themes, including: The Home Team, Our American Spirit and At Every Age; Sports and Commerce; Sports and Culture; Equality in Sports; and The Future of Sports. |
Carter said there will also be local sports memorabilia from the local high schools and Texas A&M University. |
The museum is kicking things off Saturday afternoon from 3-5 p.m. with a Grand Opening Tailgate. |
“We will have tailgate food, tailgate music, as well as speakers and we will be providing tours to the Smithsonian exhibit,” said Carter. |
Carter said they are still looking for volunteers to help with the grand opening event and throughout the duration of the exhibit, which is on display through June 9th. |
“We will train volunteers to give tours and become docents, you will learn about the Smithsonian exhibit and the local exhibit,” said Carter. |
Click here if you’re interested in becoming a volunteer or want more information on the Hometown Teams exhibit. |
Click below to hear Crystal Carter visiting with WTAW’s Chelsea Reber. |
Posted by Chelsea Reber on May 3 2018. Filed under Featured Stories, News. |
Entrepreneur and avid cyclist Eric Janszen doesn’t need an excuse to stay in shape. But for the millions of us who do, Janszen believes he’s found it — virtual reality. His new company VirZOOM builds exercise bikes that interact with popular VR headsets like Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR. VirZOOM also provides immers... |
1. The technology behind VirZOOM only recently became practical. But Janszen came up with the basic concept decades ago, when he worked as a sales executive at now-defunct Stratus Computer. |
2. Meanwhile, Janszen became a venture capitalist and economic analyst. In 1998, he launchediTulip, an online investment forum that became famous for accurately predicting the stock market collapses of 2000 and 2008. |
3. In 2014,when Facebook spent $2 billion to buy VR innovator Oculus, Janszen decided his virtual cycling concept had at last become practical. So he reached out to Eric Malafeew, an engineer at videogame maker Harmonix Music Systems, creators of the massively successful games Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Malafeew cobble... |
4. Janszen enjoys an occasional movie with his wife, but the current “golden age of television” is passing him by. |
5. So far, VirZOOM has shipped about 2,400of its cycles, which sell for $400 each. The company recently introduced a device that adds VR to any stationary bicycle, and it plans to offer a variety of pedal-based gaming experiences to create an endless revenue cycle, and create incentives for gamers to keep on pushing. |
A genuinely quick bowler, Lasith Malinga is known more for his unusual action, rather than accuracy, which so far he's looked to have lacked. |
Lasith Malinga was the surprise selection for Sri Lanka's tour to Australia in 2004, though he had a fearsome reputation on the domestic circuit. Malinga bowls with a distinctive and explosive round-arm action which generates genuine pace and can disconcert batsmen who struggle to pick up the ball's trajectory. Already... |
On Thursday, Iran's Revolutionary Guards presented a new ballistic missile with a range of 621 miles, according to a report from Iran's Fars News Agency. |
Fars reports that the new "Dezful" missile is an upgraded version of the Zolfaghar missile, which has a range of 435 miles. Dezful's range puts Israel and US military bases in the region within reach. |
The unveiling ceremony Thursday was carried out by Iran's military at an underground missile production factory similar to an "underground city," the report said. |
The missile was unveiled during a time when Iran celebrates the Islamic Revolution that fundamentally changed the country 40 years ago. |
However, the underground factory's location was not specified by Fars News Agency. |
Meanwhile, Israel's Channel 12 reported Thursday that Iran is creating another missile factory in Syria near the town of Safita. |
The Israeli report claimed that Iran will use the factory to turn develop Hezbollah's missiles into high-precision weapons. |
The report said a front organization was created to purchase materials from Italy, China and other Asian nations. |
Iran and Israel have clashed in recent weeks. |
Last week, Iran's Supreme National Security Council Secretary said Iran will continue to supply deadly weapons to its proxies in Lebanon and Gaza so they can respond to Israel's "acts of stupidity with hellfire." |
Those "acts of stupidity" refer to Israel's retaliatory strikes against the Iranian regime. Last month, Israel's Air Force pounded Iranian targets in Syria after Iran launched a rocket at Israeli citizens in the Golan Heights. |
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged the international community during a speech at the United Nations last year to monitor Iran's movements in the region. |
He also sent a direct warning to the Islamic regime. |
"Israel knows what you're doing, and Israel knows where you're doing it," he said. "What Iran hides, Israel will find." |
CHRIS ROGERS IS VICE MAYOR OF SANTA ROSA, AND GARY WYSOCKY IS A FORMER SANTA ROSA CITY COUNCILMAN. |
Transparency, oversight of staff, cooperation with other government agencies and focus on service to the community are basic principles of good government. Unfortunately, these have not been followed by SMART regarding Santa Rosa’s Jennings Avenue neighborhood. |
The Jennings Avenue SMART crossing is an essential component of the city’s North Station area plan, as well as its general plan and bicycle-pedestrian master plan. It would also provide a key connection to the pedestrian and bicycle path along the rail corridor. |
Pedestrians and bicyclists began walking across the railroad tracks that bisect Jennings Avenue more than 100 years ago. As the population grew, the crossing enabled the development of a community where people could easily walk to and from the post office, stores, a business park, a transit center, an elementary school... |
According to the 2014 draft environmental impact report, there were 115 crossings at Jennings on a typical day in October. This calculates to tens of thousands of crossings per year. |
Soon after the voters approved funding for the SMART project, the city started examining options to maintain the Jennings Avenue connection. It found that a grade-separated crossing would require 900 feet of ramps (450 feet on each side) to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. This incline would be difficul... |
Additionally, ramp users would have to contend with confined hairpin turns that could conceal loiterers and facilitate illegal activity. Santa Rosa’s police and fire chiefs report that grade-separated crossings have higher instances of crime and illicit activity than at-grade crossings. Grade-separated crossings also p... |
The at-grade crossing, by contrast, would meet the safety and legal requirements of the California Public Utilities Commission, the Americans with Disabilities Act, Caltrans and the Federal Highway Administration. The at-grade crossing is also endorsed by the general public, local authorities, the city’s fire and polic... |
The Public Utilities Commission held multiple public hearings that showed overwhelming community support for the at-grade crossing. In September 2016, it issued a decision approving the at-grade crossing for Jennings Avenue. The approval, which is in effect until September 2019, included a detailed examination of the p... |
Following the decision, city and SMART staff members agreed that it would be most expeditious and cost-effective to have the actual construction work done by SMART’s contractors. The city secured funding and prepared and submitted the required documents to SMART for action in the summer of 2017. |
Despite numerous requests from the public and the city, SMART has neither taken action nor disclosed its reasoning to the public. The August board meeting was canceled, apparently due to lack of items to be considered in public session, as was the July meeting. Why is SMART avoiding the community and the commonsense at... |
Clearly Trump wants the FBI to become his version of Putin’s lapdog FSB (the Russian intelligence services successor to the KGB, that hacked both the American and French elections) — and just do what they are told. So Trump is lying– again. He is lying about the reason he fired James Comey. Trump had a motive to fire C... |
May 11, 2017 If Trump Was Your Cousin Would You Ever Ask Him to Care for Your Child or Grandchild Alone and Unsupervised For a Weekend? |
How close is the Federal Reserve to easing monetary policy in November? Pretty close if we look at the views of different FOMC members. However the skepticism of some officials could compromise the overall size of the asset purchase program. |
Eric Rosengren – Said on Sept 29 that the Fed needs to respond “vigorously” and “creatively” to the serious economic problem” posed by high unemployment, sluggish growth and undesirably low inflation. |
Thomas Hoenig – Has been voting for tighter monetary policy since the beginning of the year. |
Sandra Pianalto (Possibly Dovish) – Leans towards more stimulus, very worried about sluggish growth and high unemployment and said Oct 1 that she is assessing the effectiveness of the Fed’s tools to stimulate the economy. |
Daniel Tarullo (Traditionally Dovish) – Hasn’t talked about monetary policy recently but is traditionally a dove and supported a high degree of policy accommodation back in April. |
Janet Yellen (Unclear) – Is traditionally a dove but in her first speech as Vice Chair yesterday, she expressed concern that accommodative policy may prompt risk taking while further easing could fuel leverage build up. |
Elizabeth Duke (Skeptical About More Stimulus) – Leans towards opposing additional stimulus – is skeptical about the effectiveness of large scale asset purchases and the Fed’s decision August decision to reinvest proceeds from mortgage backed securities. |
Doctors in several states are reporting an increase in Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease, which normally affects children under age 5, but adults can get it, too. There's a simple way to protect yourself. |
An apparent increase in cases of the often painful Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease is causing doctors to warn parents about the importance of proper hygiene. Although it's most common among young children, even one Major League Baseball player has been sidelined with it. |
Doctors in several states are reporting increased cases of Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease (HFMD) including Indiana, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. |
"This year we're getting a lot of hand, foot and mouth disease (cases)," said Keith Tolar, Medical Director of Deaconess Pediatric Urgent Care in Evansville, Indiana. "We've been seeing it all summer and a little bit of an uptick in the last week or two." |
New York Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard was placed on the 10-day disabled list last week after contracting HFMD. |
The CDC's website said HFMD "is a contagious illness caused by different viruses. It is common in infants and children younger than 5 years old, because they do not yet have immunity to the viruses that cause HFMD. However, older children and adults can also get HFMD." |
The CDC said symptoms can start with a fever, reduced appetite, sore throat, and a general feeling of being sick. After a couple of days, painful sores can develop in the mouth -- usually starting as small red spots that can turn into painful blisters. A skin rash on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet can als... |
If the infected person gets dehydrated or is not able to swallow enough liquids because of the mouth sores, the CDC said they should see a doctor. |
Viruses that can cause HFMD can be found in an infected person's nose and throat secretions, the fluid in their blisters, or their feces. |
The CDC said good hygiene and washing hands are crucial to prevent the spread of the disease. |
While it is not considered serious, and nearly all people recover in 7 to 10 days, the CDC said there are rare cases in an infected person can develop viral meningitis. Even rarer -- patients cold develop polio-like paralysis, or encephalitis, which can be fatal. |
University of Utah's "smart glasses" might not be much to look at, but they could hold great potential for bifocal users. |
Engineers often quote a version of the same mantra: If a ridiculous solution solves a problem, then it's not ridiculous. |
University of Utah researchers have developed a prototype for a pair of "smart glasses" that might fit that criteria. Clunky as they may be, the new glasses use embedded sensors to automatically focus on whatever a wearer wants to see — near or far. |
Developers say the glasses eliminate the need for bifocals or reading glasses, which can't adjust to a person's entire field of view. |
"Most people who get reading glasses have to put them on and take them off all the time," team leader Carlos Mastrangelo, a professor in the Utah Science Technology and Research initiative, said in a statement. "You don't have to do that anymore. You put these on, and it's always clear." |
The smart glasses don't actually contain any glass, but rather a highly viscous liquid called glycerin that's sandwiched between two rubber membranes. A small device in the rear membrane can bend the lens to change the focal length between the glasses and the user's eyes. |
The glycerin lens automatically adjusts to the preferred prescription of the user. |
The actuators that move the membrane know how much to bend the lenses based on a sensor embedded in the bridge of the glasses. If the sensor picks up that the wearer is moving toward an object, it can warp the lens to shorten the focal length — and vice versa if the person is farther away. |
The total time needed to make that change is about 14 milliseconds, many times faster than the average blink. |
The glasses pair with a smartphone app that keeps track of the wearer's prescription, Mastrangelo says — meaning they can change the lenses automatically via Bluetooth. |
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