Latest news with #Hawaii-Set
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Dwayne Johnson, Author: Crown Publishing Nabs True-Life, Hawaii-Set Crime Book Co-Written with Nick Bilton (Exclusive)
As far as careers goes, Dwayne Johnson has built out several. Actor, athlete, entrepreneur, wrestler. Now get ready for Dwayne Johnson, true crime author. Crown, the imprint under a division of Penguin Random House, has preemptively acquired a new true-life crime book to be co-authored by Johnson and award-winning investigative journalist Nick Bilton. More from The Hollywood Reporter Leonardo DiCaprio, Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt Eyeing Hawaii-Set Crime Film for Martin Scorsese 'Bakugan' Live Action Movie in the Works Vin Diesel Ends Speculation About Dwayne Johnson Feud After Oddball Golden Globes Moment The non-fiction book will chronicle the mostly untold story of a fierce and defiant Hawaiian crime syndicate known as The Company that battled outsider gangs and corporate invaders during the 1960s and 1970s. And it will shine a spotlight on Wilford 'Nappy' Pulawa — the first and only Hawaiian mob boss in history. The book deal occurs in tandem with a movie deal inked last week with 20th Century Studios and involves Hollywood heavyweights Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio and Emily Blunt, in addition to Johnson and Bilton. The project was born from the close, 'ohana-like bond between Blunt and Johnson, who worked closely on Jungle Cruise, with the original idea sparked by Blunt. From there, Johnson and Bilton expanded the concept into a sweeping narrative and investigative book, uncovering the hidden history behind what was one of the most powerful criminal syndicates in America. Johnson's Polynesian roots, his formative years in Hawaii, and family ties make the telling of this story a deeply personal endeavor. Johnson and Bilton jumped deep into the volcano to explore tens of thousands of documents, from FBI files to court transcripts, and tracked down those who lived through this hidden chapter of American crime history for personal interviews. For the duo, it was a way to recount Hawaii's systematic theft by outsiders through the lens of this unique era. 'This isn't just a gangster story, it's about power, identity, and what was taken from the Hawaiian people,' Johnson said in a statement. 'What drew me to this project wasn't just the action and the intensity; for me, this story hits close to home. It's not just history, it's personal. My own family lived through parts of this era, and I've seen firsthand the complicated legacy it left behind. Telling this story is a way to honor our Polynesian culture, and honor where we come from and share the untold history of what really happened in paradise.' While still a ruthless criminal who rose to control a vast underworld on the islands, Pulawa stood apart from the traditional criminal elements. The book will show his singular focus of protecting his people, who were under both physical and cultural attack from Asia and America. He watched as his people's land, culture, and heritage was systematically taken and exploited by outsiders, from American corporations to powerful Asian crime syndicates. Driven by a profound determination to reclaim control and preserve his Hawaiian identity, Pulawa built an unprecedented criminal empire in the late 1960s through the 1970s. Known for his signature aloha shirts and fresh orchid leis, he resorted to unmatched levels of violence because the stakes were personal: his people's very survival. The book will show how Pulawa ascended to power rivaling mainland crime legends like Luciano, Capone and Gotti, until it all dramatically unraveled. 'This is an astonishing story filled with jaw-dropping twists, devastating cultural stakes, and the kind of unforgettable characters that writers dream about but rarely find outside the pages of fiction,' stated Bilton, the best-selling author of Hatching Twitter and American Kingpin and producer of the Emmy Award-winning HBO documentary The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley. 'It's exactly the type of true story that draws me in most, one where you can't easily separate heroes from villains, and every character forces you to reconsider what you thought you knew about right and wrong.' Bilton continued, 'Working with Dwayne, Emily Blunt and the incredible Gillian Blake at Crown on this book has been extraordinary, like excavating a lost history that was never meant to be found. What we have uncovered isn't just a story about crime, it's about power, identity, and the brutal cost of survival in the war for paradise.' The deal was negotiated by Jay Mandel and Erin Malone of WME and Blake, who is the executive vp, publisher and editor in chief of Crown. Blake will also serve as the book's editor. 'How often these days do we come across an epic and untold American story?' Blake posited proudly. 'This is one of those rare moments, and what makes this book even more special is the talent involved: Dwayne Johnson, with his unique and exciting storytelling ability and intimate roots to Hawaiian culture, and Nick Bilton, one of the best investigative journalists writing today.' Added Blake: 'Crown is setting its sights, like its namesake, to the top. This book will take its place alongside classic organized crime bestsellers like Mario Puzo's The Godfather and Nicholas Pileggi's Wiseguy, while also illuminating a historical period when the fight to preserve the Hawaiian way of life for its people turned deadly.' One of the big names in narrative non-fiction, Bilton has written for publications such as Vanity Fair and The New York Times and earned a 'Best Book of the Year' honor from The Wall Street Journal and Audible for American Kingpin. He created the Netflix documentary Biggest Heist Ever, based on his 'Bitcoin Bonnie and Clyde' magazine feature for Vanity Fair. Johnson actually made his book writing debut back in 2000 with the publishing of his memoir The Rock Says…, which became a New York Times best-seller. The Hawaiian crime book will be a far cry from the tone of that account, written before Johnson's rise as a Hollywood A-lister. He will next be seen in the upcoming A24 drama The Smashing Machine co-starring Blunt, and written and directed by Benny Safdie. Best of The Hollywood Reporter How the Warner Brothers Got Their Film Business Started Meet the World Builders: Hollywood's Top Physical Production Executives of 2023 Men in Blazers, Hollywood's Favorite Soccer Podcast, Aims for a Global Empire
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Inside YouTube's Weird World Of Fake Movie Trailers — And How Studios Are Secretly Cashing In On The AI-Fuelled Videos
EXCLUSIVE: David Corenswet's Superman lies on the ground, an open wound on his chest wells with blood. Cut to Nicholas Hoult's Lex Luthor watching on and Milly Alcock's Supergirl levitating into view. 'They are not from here,' Luthor intones in an ominous voiceover. 'And they will never be.' Cue thunderous music, the DC logo, and an aerial shot of the Daily Planet. Your new Superman trailer just dropped. Except this montage is all fake. It is the creation of a machine that can reassemble the Man of Steel in dazzling detail, but will never understand the human world that makes him so enduring. The trailer, which Frankensteins together fleeting AI shots with legitimate footage from the Superman trailer released in December, is one of countless bogus movie teasers to have flooded YouTube in recent years. More from Deadline Disney Near Deal For Hawaii-Set Crime Pic With Scorsese, Dwayne Johnson, DiCaprio & Emily Blunt: The Dish BAFTA TV Awards Snubs & Surprises: 'Day Of The Jackal' Frozen Out; Record Year For Disney+; 'Supacell' Makes Drama Series Cut Breaking Baz: Gemma Arterton Arms Herself To Thwart A Russian Mole In Timely ITV Adaptation Of Tom Bradby Thriller 'Secret Service' Most industry observers will recognize the pungent whiff of AI that YouTube's algorithm lifts under the nose, but for some, the movie commercials can be indiscernible from the real deal. Even French national television was duped by a fake AI Superman trailer last year, showing clips of a besuited Corenswet months before any official footage had been released. Director James Gunn made his feelings pretty clear, posting three puking emojis alongside the France Télévisions clip. He may be surprised to learn, then, that Warner Bros. Discovery is quietly cashing in on some knock-off videos. Instead of enforcing copyright on counterfeit commercials, Deadline can reveal that a handful of Hollywood studios are asking YouTube to ensure that the ad revenue made from views flows in their direction. Quite why they are doing this is a mystery (all the majors approached by Deadline declined to comment), but it raises questions about their willingness to take cash for content that exploits their IP and talent, at a time when there is an existential crisis about how copyright collides with AI. Actors' union SAG-AFTRA describes our revelation as a 'race to the bottom.' Step back, and a more obvious question emerges: why are studios allowing fake trailers to flourish in the first place? Those who create these videos believe they help feed the movie promotion machine, but a sceptic might argue that the trailers could serve to degrade and cheapen official marketing material, potentially imperilling perceptions of the final movie. And what of the fake trailer creators themselves? Some do it for fun, while others are building meaningful businesses. Either way, they are generating billions of views and making money. Welcome to YouTube's weird world of fake film trailers. In The Beginning… People have been posting fake trailers since the dawn of YouTube in 2005. One of the earliest examples to go viral was an imagined Titanic sequel, in which Leonardo DiCaprio's Jack Dawson is discovered in a block of ice under the ocean and is brought back to life in contemporary New York — all set to a thumping dance remix of Céline Dion's My Heart Will Go On. The trailer was updated in 2018 by VJ4rawr2, an Australian YouTuber who is considered to be one of the Godfathers of so-called concept trailers. Titanic 2: Jack's Back got 53M views before VJ4rawr2's original video was blocked by 20th Century Fox. VJ4rawr2, who prefers not to disclose his real name, creates the trailers for fun, but was able to quit his job in 2015 to focus on YouTube, where he has amassed 393M views. His videos start with a central joke and use editing techniques and AI to tease a unique story. VJ4rawr2 has imagined a Mission: Impossible sequel in which Tom Cruise runs from New York to LA, while his most recent effort pictured Macaulay Culkin returning to his Home Alone house to confront his family about childhood abandonment. If VJ4rawr2 was creating these trailers for laughs, artificial intelligence has changed the game in recent years. Fake trailer channels are using the technology to industrialize their output and piggyback on YouTube's algorithm. Most videos posit a simple, enticing question: What would a live-action Frozen movie look like with Anya Taylor-Joy as Elsa? How would Leonardo DiCaprio fare if he entered Squid Game? Could Henry Cavill actually make a good James Bond? Sometimes, these trailers go viral enough to warrant press coverage, with the bogus Bond trailer prompting headlines in both Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. There are big audiences for these videos, with many actively seeking out the simulacra. Other YouTube users hate-watch fake trailers and rage in the comments below. Some are completely fooled by what they are watching — particularly if they are not familiar with the telltale signs of generative AI. 'My parents watched this and thought it was real,' one person noted on the DiCaprio Squid Game video. VJ4rawr2 says: 'The majority of fan trailers today are only popular because they've effectively fooled people into thinking they're real.' Screen Culture is perhaps the best example of a channel that has professionalized its output with the help of AI. Based in Pune, a city southeast of Mumbai in India, is Nikhil P. Chaudhari, a 27-year-old entrepreneur who has turned his Hollywood geekery into a burgeoning business. After being gifted a laptop as a child, Chaudhari (who likes to be known as Nick), has been obsessed with movie culture and amateur video editing. His skills combined in 2018 when he launched the Screen Culture channel, initially posting cut-together conversations between comedy characters, such as his debut video: Chandler Bing Vs Sheldon Cooper. Speaking to Deadline over Zoom, Chaudhari says he noticed other accounts creating concept trailers and thought he could do a better job. He began with clunky mash-ups, including imagining an Avengers-style cut of Game of Thrones, before graduating to more sophisticated videos. Although Chaudhari was initially unhappy about AI lowering the barrier to entry to the concept trailer community, he had little choice but to embrace the technology if he was going to compete for YouTube real estate. Unlike VJ4rawr2, or the outlandish videos of DiCaprio Squid Game creator KH Studio (viewcount: 556M), Screen Culture leans into films that are actually happening. Narrowing in on franchises and sequels, Chaudhari researches and iterates around upcoming movies, creating trailers that are difficult to differentiate from the real deal. They borrow heavily from official footage, but splice in AI imagery to tease irresistible details about a movie that appeal to their giant fandoms. 'Our goal was to create videos that were as close to an official trailer as a concept trailer could be,' he says. Chaudhari now oversees a team of a dozen editors, who churn out as many as 12 videos a week based on his instructions. The Industrialization Of Fake Trailers Screen Culture has created 23 versions of a trailer for The Fantastic Four: First Steps over the past year. When Deadline searched YouTube using a private browsing tool in February, two of Screen Culture's fake Fantastic Four videos ranked higher than the official trailer, which had been posted by Marvel just days earlier. The first search result was Screen Culture's The Fantastic Four: First Steps | New Trailer video, which contains obvious AI images of Galactus, even though the cosmic bad guy has not been fully pictured in official material. The second search result, another similar Screen Culture offering, used AI to tease the yet-to-be-seen female Silver Surfer. Being early to a topic can help push a video up YouTube's search ranking, while new videos are often boosted, which is why Screen Culture hits certain franchises fast and hard. Deadline searches found Screen Culture had high-ranking results for many major upcoming movies, including Thunderbolts* and Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, with all the videos embellished using AI. YouTube's algorithm also rewarded some videos by pushing them into its recommendation sidebar and 'People Also Search For' menu. YouTube was approached for comment. Chaudhari uses at least six AI tools to create his videos, including Leonardo, Midjourney, and ElevenLabs, the latter of which specializes in generative voiceover work. Since adopting the technology, Screen Culture's views and subscribers have more than doubled in the past two years to 1.4B and 1.4M respectively. The channel is verified by YouTube, giving it a veneer of authenticity, while Chaudhari proudly displays his YouTube gold award for hitting 1M subscribers. The success has translated into millions of dollars of ad revenue, though Chaudhari is coy about exactly how much he is earning. On his Instagram account, he looks every inch the affluent online influencer, flaunting his supercars and luxury travel escapades. Chaudhari does have his admirers. 'He's probably the first person I know who treated the fan trailer genre seriously and built up a team around it,' says VJ4rawr2. Others are uncertain about the influence of AI. The Yeti, a movie culture channel (viewcount: 30M) that dabbles in fake trailers, says the technology has 'ruined' the art form of concept commercials. Screen Culture's videos are not titled with 'official' or 'concept' trailer. Instead, it operates in a gray area, headlining videos 'new' or 'first,' before making clear in the small print description that it is not the real deal. Chaudhari says most YouTube users understand that Screen Culture is not stocked with official videos and that people can find the legitimate trailer by searching for the official channel. For those who are fooled by his trailers, Chaudhari exclaims: 'What's the harm?' What's The Harm? He believes that Screen Culture helps promote the movies, which is why studios do not enforce copyright on the vast majority of his videos. Indeed, studios are actively taking a cut of his earnings on AI-fuelled trailers, even if the money is paltry in the grand scheme of their earnings. Emails reviewed by Deadline show how Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has claimed monetization on Screen Culture trailers for Superman and House of the Dragon. This means that instead of copyright striking the videos (if a channel accrues three strikes within 90 days, it can be banned from YouTube), WBD is asking YouTube to ensure it receives the ad revenue from views. Similarly, Sony Pictures has claimed revenue on fake trailers for Spider-Man and Kraven The Hunter, while Paramount did the same on a counterfeit Gladiator II video. WBD, Sony, and Paramount declined to comment. If Chaudhari's position is that his videos are not harmful, SAG-AFTRA disagrees. In a statement shared with Deadline, it admonishes studios for making money on videos that exploit its members without permission. 'Just as SAG-AFTRA is aggressively bargaining contract terms and creating laws to protect and enforce our members' voice and likeness rights, we expect our bargaining partners to aggressively enforce their IP from any, and all AI misappropriation,' the union says. 'Monetizing unauthorized, unwanted, and subpar uses of human-centered IP is a race to the bottom. It incentivizes technology companies and short-term gains at the expense of lasting human creative endeavor.' Things get murkier when you consider that some channels actively sex-up images of female characters in fake trailers. Screen Culture is not averse to this engagement bait, creating an AI thumbnail of Riley Andersen with cleavage for an imagined Inside Out 3 sequel. Chaudhari defends the image, saying it is a plausible storyline as Andersen gets older. 'Every single studio is misogynistic, hence we don't really pay attention to critics,' he adds. Chaudhari's impression is that copyright is being enforced inconsistently, with monetization claims only being made on an estimated 10% of Screen Culture's 2,700 videos. WBD did copyright strike the channel once in 2023 for a fake Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga trailer, but let subsequent Mad Max videos slide. Chaudhari received a polite email from an Amazon attorney to remove a The Boys trailer because it used 'Amazon trademarks and other intellectual property assets without Amazon's permission,' but this warning was not repeated for other bogus Boys trailers on Screen Culture. Disney very rarely copyright challenges Screen Culture's videos, despite its IP being a major resource for the channel. Disney declined to comment. Fake trailers on YouTube are not a new phenomenon, but they are increasing in number and sophistication. At the same time, trailers have become an ever-more important part of the movie marketing machine, with studios crowing about record views in the hope this translates into cinema ticket sales or subscriptions. In public at least, the studios appear to be responding with a collective shrug to what some regard as AI slop on YouTube, despite CEOs like Bob Iger opining about the need to protect IP and respect talent. Even the studios' trade body, the Motion Picture Association, declined to comment for this article. Meanwhile, wily creators like Chaudhari will continue to stand on the shoulders of filmmakers like James Gunn and get billions of views by playing with AI immitations of their characters. Even Superman is not immune from the machine. Best of Deadline '1923' Season 2 Release Schedule: When Do New Episodes Come Out? Which Colleen Hoover Books Are Becoming Movies? 'Verity,' 'Reminders Of Him' & 'Regretting You' Will Join 'It Ends With Us' Everything We Know About Amazon's 'Verity' Movie So Far
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Leonardo DiCaprio & Appian Way Join ‘Nine Little Indians' About Abuse At American Indian Boarding School
EXCLUSIVE: Leonardo DiCaprio and his production outfit Appian Way have joined Shannon Kring's investigative documentary Nine Little Indians about abuses at a U.S. boarding school for Native American children. Almost a decade in the making, and currently in post-production, the film will recount the harrowing story of the nine Charbonneau sisters and their childhood schoolmates who endured horrific abuse at St. Paul's Indian Mission School in Marty, South Dakota. More from Deadline Town Says Aloha To A Hawaii-Set 'Goodfellas' Meets 'The Departed:' Scorsese, DiCaprio, Dwayne Johnson & Emily Blunt Top Crime Drama Package 'Devil In The White City' Movie Revived At 20th Century With Leonardo DiCaprio And Martin Scorsese Eyeing Reunion Leonardo DiCaprio Pledges $1 Million For L.A. Wildfire Relief & Recovery Produced by The Revenant and Killers Of The Flower Moon outfit Appian Way, Red Queen Media, and Terra Mater Studios, the documentary will chronicle the Charbonneau sisters' nearly two-decade-long legal battle to hold the Catholic Church accountable for the heinous crimes inflicted upon the plaintiffs listed on their lawsuit, the survivors unwilling to be named, and the children who had perished at St. Paul's—among them, Geraldine 'Gerri' Charbonneau's baby conceived in rape. It also follows a Northern Cheyenne Indian school cemetery surveyor's search for additional unmarked graves at the school. Among the film's interviewees are two former nuns at the school and the abbot who supervised several of the priests accused of rape and murder. Filmmaker Kring, best known for documentary End Of The Line: The Women Of Standing Rock, first turned her cameras on the story in 2016, when tribal members invited her to document the discovery of skeletal remains of missing children that had been unearthed during construction at the still-operational school. Above and below are first stills from the feature. American Indian boarding schools, also known more recently as American Indian residential schools, were established in the U.S. from the mid-17th to the early 20th centuries with a primary objective of 'civilizing' Native American children into Anglo-American culture. The institutions were recently featured in Paramount's 1923 series and previously in Wes Studi's 2009 Sundance feature The Only Good Indian. Author and public speaker Tony Robbins is also joining the project as an executive producer alongside DiCaprio, Jennifer Davisson, Phillip Watson, George DiCaprio, Marc Gerke, Sophia Ehrnrooth, Walter Köhler, and Wolfgang Knöpfler. 'We are delighted to partner with Tony Robbins and Shannon Kring on this profound film, which sheds light onto the egregious crimes that took place at St. Paul's Indian Mission School,' Appian Way's President Of Production Jennifer Davisson said. 'We hope this documentary honors the surviving victims and those who tragically perished at the hands of the people who were supposed to protect them the most.' Kring commented: 'Over the past two decades, I've been entrusted with hundreds of hours of searing testimony on the effects of colonization. Always, the most tragic stories can be traced to the Indian boarding school system—an extension of the Great American Land Grab and thus a tool of genocide. It is time that we as a nation atone for this horror of the not-so-distant past.' Tony Robbins added: 'It is an honor to produce this film alongside Shannon Kring and Leonardo DiCaprio, and to have spent time with the Charbonneau sisters and their classmates in South Dakota. Their stories outraged me and are a testament to the unbowed courage and resilience of our country's original inhabitants. I hope that Nine Little Indians inspires you as much as the St. Paul's Indian Mission School survivors have inspired me.'Best of Deadline 2025 TV Series Renewals: Photo Gallery How To Watch 'Wicked: Part One': Is The Film Streaming Yet? All The Songs In 'Severance' Season 2: From The Who To Ella Fitzgerald
