Latest news with #Mangold
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Ryan Reynolds reveals details on R-rated ‘Star Wars' movie pitch
After spearheading Marvel's first R-rated superhero movie with last year's Deadpool & Wolverine, Ryan Reynolds says he has made a similar pitch to take the Star Wars universe in a different direction. 'I pitched to Disney, I said, 'Why don't we do an R-rated Star Wars property? It doesn't have to be overt, A+ characters. There's a wide range of characters you could use,'' he said in an interview with Scott Mendelson's The Box Office podcast. 'And I don't mean R-rated to be vulgar. R-rated as a Trojan horse for emotion. I always wonder why studios don't want to just gamble on something like that.' Star Wars has experimented with darker storylines, most recently in its two-season Rogue One spinoff Andor, but the franchise has firmly remained in the PG realm. Reynolds said he liked the idea of expanding the story as a way to 'surprise' Star Wars fans. But his story wasn't one that he was angling to star in. 'I'm not saying I want to be in it. That would be a bad fit,' he said. 'I'd want to produce and write or be a part of behind the scenes. Those kinds of IP subsist really well on scarcity and surprise. We don't get scarcity really with Star Wars because of Disney+, but you can certainly still surprise people.' Putting something darker onto streaming, which Disney has also tried with last year's Acolyte series is more likely, but Reynolds insisted to Mendelson that an R-rated big screen adventure would leave a more lasting impression. 'You're never going to get the same emotional investment from a streamer that you are from a theatrical movie, because they're getting in cars and paying for parking, and babysitters, and sitting down, and watching the movie, and then driving home. That's the emotional investment you can try to sell,' he said. 'On a streamer, my only note, always, is that, for God's sake, with everything you can, to grab them in that first shot, like that first thing that happens in the movie… Start with something, 'Holy s—!' and then, 'How did we get here?'' People sitting at home can quickly become disengaged in a way they can't when they're at the cinema. 'We have all these distracto-fat things clogging our arteries of attention, and it is so easy to tune out unless you have them right at the top,' he said. Before it was reimagined into The Book of Boba Fett TV series, James Mangold, who is slated to write and direct an upcoming Star Wars film, eyed his own take on the intergalactic bounty hunter that was 'borderline rated-R.' 'At the point I was doing it, I was probably scaring the s— out of everyone, but I was probably making much more of a borderline rated-R, single-planet, spaghetti western,' Mangold told the Happy Sad Confused podcast in a 2023 interview. 'The world would never be able to embrace Baby Yoda if I had made that, because he didn't really belong in the world I was kind of envisioning.' Mangold's new entry will focus on the dawn of the Jedi, but he said that writing his earlier Boba Fett movie was a 'beautiful period' in his life. 'I was just listening to Ennio Moricone all day, all night and typing away,' he said. 'But I'm not sure it ever would've happened. I'm not sure it was in anyone's plans what I was thinking about.' After Andor wrapped its second season earlier this month, the Star Wars universe will expand with a Mandalorian spinoff movie hitting theatres next May. Reynolds' Deadpool & Wolverine director Shawn Levy is also set to go into production on Star Wars: Starfighter with Ryan Gosling later this year. The plot is still under wraps, but Levy announced at Star Wars Celebration last month that the film will take place roughly five years after the events of 2019's Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker. 'This is a standalone adventure that takes place a few years after the events of Episode IX,' the filmmaker teased. 'What could that mean? It could mean so many things … This is not a prequel. This is not a sequel. It's a new adventure.' Also on the horizon: a new trilogy from X-Men scribe Simon Kinberg, a Star Wars film directed by Taika Waititi, and the return of Daisy Ridley as Rey in a film helmed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. mdaniell@ Ryan Gosling and Shawn Levy's 'Star Wars: Starfighter' sets May 2027 release 'The Mandalorian and Grogu' teases new action-packed footage at Star Wars Celebration Writer reveals real reason Quentin Tarantino's 'Star Trek' film died
Yahoo
30-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How This Banking Mistake Could Cost You $1,000
A savings account is a great place to keep your money in case you need access to quick cash for an emergency. It's also a safe space to store your funds while you save up for a financial goal or if you're ready to invest. But not all savings accounts are worthy of your hard-earned money. Read More: Find Out: Most traditional account banks have a very low annual percentage yield (APY), meaning you're not earning much interest. According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the average APY for savings accounts as of March 17, was 0.41%, which isn't a high-yield savings account offers a much higher APY which allows you to accrue more interest and grow your money faster. 'High-yield savings accounts can help you earn a bit on your money given where interest rates are today,' said Eric Mangold, founder and wealth manager of Argosy Wealth Management. 'If you have cash parked in a savings account, you should review what APY you are earning. If it's low, and given where rates are today, you may be able to earn 3-4% or even more on your money in a high-yield savings account.' Not having your money in a high-yield savings account could be a costly mistake, here's how. It's already been established that a traditional savings account doesn't offer customers a high APY, but a high-yield savings account can average anywhere from 3-5%. According to U.S. News & World Report, the highest account for March 2025 is Cloudbank 24/7, with a 4.57% interest rate. With that in mind, if you were to open an account with $24,450, in one year, you'd only earn $100.25 in interest from a traditional savings account with a 0.41% APR. However, if you put $24,450 in a high-yield savings account with a 4.5% APY, you'd earn $1,100.25 in a year. Therefore, you'd miss out on $1,000 in interest. See Next: A high-yield savings account will earn you more interest, but there can be a downside: Limits on withdrawals. While it's easy to take out funds, there can be a limited number of times per month or year. Going over could rack up fees. Investing in the S&P 500 has had a bigger yearly return of 12.39% over the last decade, per U.S. News & World Report, which is more than double the 4-5% APY of a high-yield savings account. APY rates can fluctuate quickly depending on the market. There are other factors you should consider when looking for a high-yield savings account besides the APY. Mangold suggests looking into the following: Is there a minimum balance you need to maintain? Are there any withdrawal limits? Does the financial institution have FDIC insurance? Are there account fees? Having a savings account helps reach financial goals and depend on your needs, you could build your wealth quicker with a high-yield savings account. Research which option is best for you, and read the fine print. Make sure to shop around to see which firm has the most competitive rate for your money. Switching to a high-yield savings account is easy and a guaranteed way to rack up thousands in interest over time. More From GOBankingRates 4 Things To Watch for as Elon Musk Takes on Social Security 12 SUVs With the Most Reliable Engines Warren Buffett: 10 Things Poor People Waste Money On 6 Big Shakeups Coming to Social Security in 2025 This article originally appeared on How This Banking Mistake Could Cost You $1,000 Sign in to access your portfolio
Los Angeles Times
11-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
James Mangold: Dylan never meant to set the folk scene on fire. He would have liked a band
So Bob Dylan looks you in the eye and says, 'I never intended to become a folk singer.' What's that, again? James Mangold, director, co-writer and co-producer of 'A Complete Unknown,' had several lengthy meetings with the musical icon as he worked on the script for the film about him. Mangold hoped to confirm some things (yes, 'Masters of War' was written in response to the Cuban Missile Crisis), but mostly to understand the Hall of Fame songwriter in a deeper way than standard research could yield. But sitting down with the Man Himself was a bit daunting, not knowing what Dylan's reaction to his draft would be. However, says the director, 'I had a great time. It wasn't some kind of meeting at Yalta. He was really happy to talk about this time. And the questions I was asking were less agenda-driven than a biographer out to get that ultimate quote; I was just there to understand. So, these became extended conversations about this period in his life, which I think he had enough distance from to be really honest about.' That period in the film homes in on the four years between Dylan's arrival in New York and his epic 1965 Newport Folk Festival performance. The songwriter wasn't precious about his own work; for the scene in which the screen Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) debuts 'Masters of War' in a folk club, 'He opened to that page [of the script] and said, 'You don't need these verses.' And he just put Xs through them.' In adapting Elijah Wald's book 'Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties,' Mangold and co-writer Jay Cocks declined what the director calls the 'cradle-to-grave biopic' approach. Mangold believes Dylan himself wanted to better understand that period in his life, especially the anger caused by him playing with a rock band at the Newport brouhaha. That tight focus left space for lived-in moments. Mangold says movies can 'give you a palpable feeling of a moment between humans. I really wanted to watch their interactions, rivalries, love, fears and the music happening, all in a way that you [feel] they didn't know history was being made. They didn't know the cultural impact that the songs would have. I wanted the audience to feel that, the innocence. 'Some people might react if I talk about innocence with a character as hyper-intelligent as Dylan. Discussions about him revolve around an idea of him as a manipulator or enigma. I believe that's half right. But I think a lot of that is what we've decided retroactively. I think those skills — of image creation, identity creation, art creation — were acquired in the period we're watching, as opposed to he just arrived with them.' That lends dimension to the film's title — beyond being from Dylan's iconic song, 'Like a Rolling Stone' ('How does it feel / To be on your own / With no direction home / Like a complete unknown / Like a rolling stone'), itself a key tick in the timeline of Dylan going electric — beyond signifying a new kid in town, breaking into the business. Mangold situates 19-year-old Minnesotan Robert Zimmerman's reinvention on his arrival in New York in 1961 at one of the film's poles. His anonymity granted him the freedom to remake himself into whomever he wished us to believe he was. If 'A Complete Unknown' 'were a fiction film,' says Mangold, 'it would be a very sensible story about a stranger coming into town, creating a new name, meeting the ailing king and his first lieutenant, entering their world as a nobody and then revealing a level of talent by which he suddenly lifts the entire community to heights they had never known, only to move on again and leave them in his wake. That, to me, is such a beautiful fairy tale about self-invention. 'I think of Dylan's journey in life, which has been a series of reinventions, explosions of success, then wearying of that and reinvention again. So it seemed really joyous to focus on one movement of his life that way.' But what drove Dylan to that other pole, to meld folk with upstart rock to the extreme chagrin of its gatekeepers? Clues might be found in that comment about never intending to become a folk singer, evoking that classic version of the early Bob Dylan, like when he came back out at the festival without his rock band, with just his acoustic guitar, and was applauded at Newport. ' 'If I could have arrived in New York and gotten a band, that would've been awesome,' ' says Mangold, reporting Dylan's words, ' 'But this is what happened. Just like an actor who ends up on a TV show or in the movies, this is the gig I got. I was broke. Back in Minnesota, I played with other people. I got to New York and it was just myself.' 'It's not that he didn't want to be a solo artist; it's that he didn't conceive of himself as only a solo artist. He said, 'It's really lonely being a solo act. You come there alone. You're in the green room alone. You're onstage alone. There's no one to look to.' He would get jealous of the camaraderie he saw in people who had bands.' Mangold shows this through the onscreen Dylan's admiration of Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Three, and the way he lights up when his eventual bandmates transform his sound. 'It means his decision to go electric or have a band wasn't purely, 'I'm going to turn folk music on its head.' It was a personal yearning, as opposed to an intellectual decision about the direction of his art,' Mangold says. So, what was Dylan's overall take on the project? 'He saw my endeavor as both trying to be loyal to the reality of the historical situation and also loyal to my duty to make something good, juicy, enticing and gripping out of it. Because without the second part, without the fact that it holds, you never have the audience. There is a magic that occurs where you gain greater understanding through the power of story and drama of what these people felt like than you would if you were just listing the dates and the facts.'
New York Times
11-02-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Is Bob Dylan Still a ‘Complete Unknown'?
Elijah Wald's 2015 book, 'Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan and the Night That Split the Sixties,' traces the events that led up to Bob Dylan's memorable performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. The book is about Dylan, but also about the folk movement, youth culture, politics and the record business. For the writer and director James Mangold, Wald's work provided an opportunity to tell an unusual story about the musician. 'You could structure a screenplay along the lines of what Peter Shaffer did with 'Amadeus,'' Mangold told the Book Review editor Gilbert Cruz. 'I don't really know what I learned about Mozart watching 'Amadeus.' But I do know that I learned a lot about how we mortals feel about people with immense talent.' Mangold's film 'A Complete Unknown' is a chronicle of Dylan's early years on the New York folk scene, and it avoids easy explanations for the musician's genius and success. 'What if the thing we don't understand, we just don't want to understand,' said Mangold, 'which is that he's actually different? That he's just a different kind of person than you or I?' In the second episode of our special series devoted to Oscar-nominated films adapted from books, Cruz talks with Mangold about making a film centered on one of music's most enigmatic figures. We would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review's podcast in general. You can send them to books@ .
Yahoo
08-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Director of A Complete Unknown denies Bob Dylan requested a fake scene be added
James Mangold, the director of A Complete Unknown, has said claims that singer Bob Dylan wanted a fake scene added to the biopic are pure 'fiction' which stem from a misunderstanding in an interview. Before the film starring Timothee Chalamet was released in UK cinemas, US actor Edward Norton – who plays folk singer Pete Seeger – said in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine that Dylan, who approved the script, had wanted one lie added to the screenplay. After this was taken to mean an inaccurate scene had been included, Mangold told the PA news agency it was 'not a true story'. He said Dylan 'never asked for some fictional scene to be stuck in the movie', adding: 'Edward Norton, in an early interview, said that Bob asked for one untrue thing put in, but it was simply he wanted to change the name of his girlfriend from (real-life artist) Suze (Rotolo) to the character Sylvie Russo, (played by Elle Fanning), that was it. 'But anyone can disbelieve me and search about for whatever fiction they think meets the criteria of the story.' A Complete Unknown has been nominated for eight Oscars and six Baftas, with best actor nods for Chalamet, best supporting actor for Norton, and adapted screenplay for Mangold and Jay Cocks. Mangold also said that portraying Dylan in the film as being untruthful about his background was 'complicated' because the singer-songwriter was only 19 'when he was telling these first stories about his life out on the rails or working for a carnival or a circus'. He said a teenager could not know he was 'about to become a worldwide sensation in 24 months' and those stories would be 'examined under the microscope of a huge media apparatus'. 'It seems almost the number-one requirement we ask of (music stars) is that they somehow seem born onto a stage with a kind of miraculous story of destiny,' Mangold added. He also said he does not 'necessarily agree' that Dylan comes off as a 'brat' in Chalamet's portrayal, despite seeming aloof during his relationships with women – and the folk community – as the film delves into the backlash the Nobel Prize-winner faced when he started using electric instruments. Mangold said: 'Every relationship in your life when you're met with early success like that can suddenly turn and become transactional, as indeed it was for Dylan.' The director claimed that 'Seeger needed him to promote the folk music world', while US folk singer Joan Baez, played by Oscar-nominee Monica Barbaro, 'could not write songs like him', and 'others, like (folk recordist) Alan Lomax, wanted him to support the movement at all costs'. 'If everyone in your life has an agenda, it only makes sense that you start to separate, or get aloof, or disconnect, or compartmentalise in some way that you can still function amid all that pressure,' he added. Mangold said Dylan had told him of the 'loneliness he felt during this period of his life, that he felt alone writing the songs, alone in the green room before he went on, alone in the spotlight, on the stage, alone when he went home alone' and 'alone with the public'. Dylan had also told him his 'prime motivation for wanting to have a band was feeling just without any mates, feeling like everyone in his world wanted something'. He added that it was a 'pretty heavy burden' to carry as a young man who was creating influential songs, including 1962's Blowin' In The Wind and 1964's The Times They Are A-Changin', and at the same time 'win a congeniality trophy'. Mangold, who has been nominated for his first directing Oscar for A Complete Unknown, has previous Academy Award nominations, including best picture for sports biopic Ford Vs Ferrari, and adapted screenplay for superhero movie Logan. But asked if he had been surprised not to earn a nomination for directing Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line in 2005, he said: 'I can't unlock the mysteries of why different awards groups nominate what they nominate. 'The vagaries and strange winds that blow every year are not only impossible to figure out but best not thought about. 'You should enjoy it when it happens and try and let it go when it doesn't.'
