Latest news with #RoadRunner
Herald Sun
4 days ago
- Sport
- Herald Sun
Craig Williams relishing ‘hunter' role in Melbourne jockeys' premiership battle with Blake Shinn
Champion jockey Craig Williams clawed back to within five winners of Melbourne premiership leader Blake Shinn with a Flemington treble. Williams bookended the card on Saturday with the first winner – Duchess Zou – then piloted home the last two – Sayedaty Sadaty and Losesomewinmore. Shinn moved to 71 on Saturday with one winner at Flemington – La Fracas. • PUNT LIKE A PRO: Become a Racenet iQ member and get expert tips – with fully transparent return on investment statistics – from Racenet's team of professional punters at our Pro Tips section. SUBSCRIBE NOW! There are 25 metropolitan races left in the season. 'Blake is an amazing rider, a great friend of mine too,' Williams said. 'Even when we talked today going out for the last race I said 'mate, you're killing me'. 'He's like the Road Runner, I get close to him and beep, beep and he's off again.' Williams is determined to try and win his 10th Melbourne jockeys' premiership. 'I love hunting,' Williams said. 'I need to hunt, Blake is unbelievable.' • 'Exciting future': Hayes smiling after colt makes winning return Sayedaty Sadaty sealed back-to-back wins to reignite spring ambitions. A combination of gelding, more time to acclimatise and placement to advantage has helped the former international, trained by Ciaron Maher, start to repay connections on the racetrack. Assistant trainer Jack Turnbull said Sayedaty Sadaty could race again at 2000m next month before attention turned to bigger prizes. 'I'd say we're one more at (2000m) if the boss wants to go (2400m), we know he can stay,' Turnbull said. 'It's now probably picking the perfect path into spring trying to get him qualified (for Cups), if he's good enough, we can work backwards.' Charterhouse, also trained by Maher, placed third in the 2000m Open Handicap while stablemates Kettle Hill (ninth), Wyclif (13th) and Relentless Voyager (15th) raced 'well from where they were'. • Rose eases Prebble's worries in Rising Stars final Duchess Zou capped a brilliant first racing campaign with her third success in five starts. The Maher-trained filly overhauled Lario in the 1400m 3YO Open Handicap and held a comfortable margin on late-finisher Legacy Bay. Maher said Duchess Zou, who placed third in the Listed Creswick Stakes (1200m) the start before, would benefit from a short break. 'She'll have to get through the grades a little bit (next season), she's obviously on the right path,' Maher said. 'It's a winter race she was expected to win and done it quite well … in a couple months' time, she'll lift again.' • Derby path looms for Busuttin-Young stayer Co-trainer Michael Kent Jr hailed Shinn's initiative as the catalyst for La Fracas completing a hat-trick of wins in the Benchmark 84 sprint (1200m). La Fracas had easily won on heavy tracks at his previous two starts but found himself on firmer going and jumping from the awkward barrier one in the Flemington straight contest. However, Shinn's manoeuvring got La Fracas ($2.40 fav) into the right part of the track from where he finished hard to grab De Bergerac ($5) on the line. 'Midrace, he made a daring move to attach himself to the back of (stablemate) Moby Dick, who he assumed would take him forward into the race,' Kent Jr, who trains La Fracas in partnership with Mick Price, said. 'That was the winning move.' – with Brad Waters Originally published as Craig Williams relishing 'hunter' role in Melbourne jockeys' premiership battle with Blake Shinn
Courier-Mail
4 days ago
- Sport
- Courier-Mail
Craig Williams relishing ‘hunter' role in Melbourne jockeys' premiership battle with Blake Shinn
Don't miss out on the headlines from Horse Racing. Followed categories will be added to My News. Champion jockey Craig Williams clawed back to within five winners of Melbourne premiership leader Blake Shinn with a Flemington treble. Williams bookended the card on Saturday with the first winner – Duchess Zou – then piloted home the last two – Sayedaty Sadaty and Losesomewinmore. Shinn moved to 71 on Saturday with one winner at Flemington – La Fracas. • PUNT LIKE A PRO: Become a Racenet iQ member and get expert tips – with fully transparent return on investment statistics – from Racenet's team of professional punters at our Pro Tips section. SUBSCRIBE NOW! There are 25 metropolitan races left in the season. 'Blake is an amazing rider, a great friend of mine too,' Williams said. 'Even when we talked today going out for the last race I said 'mate, you're killing me'. 'He's like the Road Runner, I get close to him and beep, beep and he's off again.' Williams is determined to try and win his 10th Melbourne jockeys' premiership. 'I love hunting,' Williams said. 'I need to hunt, Blake is unbelievable.' • 'Exciting future': Hayes smiling after colt makes winning return Sayedaty Sadaty sealed back-to-back wins to reignite spring ambitions. A combination of gelding, more time to acclimatise and placement to advantage has helped the former international, trained by Ciaron Maher, start to repay connections on the racetrack. Assistant trainer Jack Turnbull said Sayedaty Sadaty could race again at 2000m next month before attention turned to bigger prizes. 'I'd say we're one more at (2000m) if the boss wants to go (2400m), we know he can stay,' Turnbull said. 'It's now probably picking the perfect path into spring trying to get him qualified (for Cups), if he's good enough, we can work backwards.' Charterhouse, also trained by Maher, placed third in the 2000m Open Handicap while stablemates Kettle Hill (ninth), Wyclif (13th) and Relentless Voyager (15th) raced 'well from where they were'. • Rose eases Prebble's worries in Rising Stars final Duchess Zou capped a brilliant first racing campaign with her third success in five starts. The Maher-trained filly overhauled Lario in the 1400m 3YO Open Handicap and held a comfortable margin on late-finisher Legacy Bay. Maher said Duchess Zou, who placed third in the Listed Creswick Stakes (1200m) the start before, would benefit from a short break. 'She'll have to get through the grades a little bit (next season), she's obviously on the right path,' Maher said. 'It's a winter race she was expected to win and done it quite well … in a couple months' time, she'll lift again.' • Derby path looms for Busuttin-Young stayer Co-trainer Michael Kent Jr hailed Shinn's initiative as the catalyst for La Fracas completing a hat-trick of wins in the Benchmark 84 sprint (1200m). La Fracas had easily won on heavy tracks at his previous two starts but found himself on firmer going and jumping from the awkward barrier one in the Flemington straight contest. However, Shinn's manoeuvring got La Fracas ($2.40 fav) into the right part of the track from where he finished hard to grab De Bergerac ($5) on the line. 'Midrace, he made a daring move to attach himself to the back of (stablemate) Moby Dick, who he assumed would take him forward into the race,' Kent Jr, who trains La Fracas in partnership with Mick Price, said. 'That was the winning move.' – with Brad Waters Originally published as Craig Williams relishing 'hunter' role in Melbourne jockeys' premiership battle with Blake Shinn
IOL News
16-07-2025
- Automotive
- IOL News
Road Runner prank goes viral: driver mistakes graffiti for real road
A car has been damaged after a driver drove into a "hyper-realistic" picture of a tunnel with the Looney Tunes character, Road Runner, standing on the side. Image: Instagram When it comes to driving, vigilant eyes are usually trained on road signs and the rules of the open road. But nowadays, drivers are being urged to take an additional precaution: checking if the roads they navigate are genuinely real. Yes, you read that right! Thanks to an audacious prank that has gone viral, reality took a whimsical turn after a graffiti artist decided to paint the iconic "Looney Tunes" character, the Road Runner, right next to a tunnel on the side of a bridge. This stroke of artistic genius - complete with impressive shadow work - was so convincingly realistic that a driver, late at night, crashed into the wall, mistaking it for an actual road! Can you say 'beep-beep?' Images from the scene reveal the aftermath of this unfortunate collision, showing the ill-fated driver's vehicle and igniting a social media firestorm. Now, local authorities are on the hunt for this anonymous artist, whose prank has caused a ruckus online, stirring both mirth and ire in equal parts. The divisive opinions amongst locals have labelled the prank as 'dangerous' and 'genius', drawing comparisons to a scene that could have jumped out of a classic "Looney Tunes" episode. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad loading While the damage to the car appears to be minor - thank goodness - the authorities are treating this act as vandalism, a public safety risk that could lead to potential slapstick shenanigans. But wait! On the internet, the unknown painter has been rising in popularity like a true folk hero among some circles. The search is ongoing, as is the heated debate about whether this is art, comedy or simply criminal mischief. As the discussions heated up online, netizens took to social media to voice their thoughts. Here's a glimpse at what the Instaverse had to say: @scrubl0r.d wrote: 'That's definitely your fault for hitting that.' @themaxlevan added: 'Imagine explaining this to your insurance.' @hometeam870 said: 'Straight outta Looney Tunes 😂😂😂.' While @j_tix said: 'Honestly, that person who ran into the wall doesn't deserve a licence 😂 like seriously.' This whole episode rekindles the age-old debate about the thin line between creative expression and public safety. While some folks argue it's a reckless act that could've ended far worse, others celebrate it as an immaculate satire of the cartoon world's logic. At this rate, it seems like the Road Runner may have some serious competition - on the roads, at least.
San Francisco Chronicle
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
‘Jurassic World' needed a restart. Steven Spielberg knew who to call
An eyeball, big, yellowish, distinctly inhuman, stares raptly between wooden slats, part of a large crate. The eye darts from side to side quickly, alert as hell. So begins David Koepp's script to 1993's 'Jurassic Park.' Like much of Koepp's writing, it's crisply terse and intensely visual. It doesn't tell the director (in this case Steven Spielberg) where to put the camera, but it nearly does. 'I asked Steven before we started: What are the limitations about what I can write?' Koepp recalls. 'CGI hadn't really been invented yet. He said: 'Only your imagination.'' Yet in the 32 years since penning the adaptation of Michael Crichton's novel, Koepp has established himself as one of Hollywood's top screenwriters not through the boundlessness of his imagination but by his expertise in limiting it. Koepp is the master of the 'bottle' movie, films hemmed in by a single location or condensed timed frame. From David Fincher's 'Panic Room' (2002) to Steven Soderbergh's 'Presence' (2025), he excels at corralling stories into uncluttered, headlong movie narratives. Koepp can write anything — as long as there are parameters. 'The great film scholar and historian David Bordwell and I were talking about that concept once and he said, 'Because the world is too big? ' I said, 'That's it, exactly,'' Koepp recalls. 'The world is too big. If I can put the camera anywhere I want, if anybody on the entire planet can appear in this film, if it can last 130 years, how do I even begin? It makes me want to take a nap. 'So I've always looked for bottles in which to put the delicious wine.' By some measure, the world of ' Jurassic World ' got too big. In the last entry, 2022's not particularly well received ' Jurassic World: Dominion,' the dinosaurs had spread across the planet. 'I don't know where else to go with that,' Koepp says. Koepp, a 62-year-old native of Wisconsin, hadn't written a 'Jurassic' movie since the second one, 1997's 'The Lost World.' Back then, Brian De Palma, whom Koepp worked with on 'Carlito's Way' and 'Mission: Impossible,' took to calling him 'dinosaur boy.' Koepp soon after moved onto other challenges. But when Spielberg called him up a few years ago and asked, 'Do you have one more in you?' Koepp had one request: 'Can we start over?' And so, 'Jurassic World Rebirth' is a fresh start for one of Hollywood's biggest multi-billion-dollar franchises. It's a new cast of characters (Oakland's own Mahershala Ali, Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Bailey co-star), a new director (Gareth Edwards) and a new storyline. But just as they were 32 years ago, the dinosaurs are again Koepp's to play with. 'The first page reassured me,' says Edwards. 'It said: 'Written by David Koepp.'' For 'Jurassic World Rebirth,' Koepp wanted to reorder the franchise. Inspired by Chuck Jones' 'commandments' for the Road Runner cartoons (the Road Runner only says 'meep meep'; all products are from the ACME Corporation, etc.), Koepp put down nine governing principles for the 'Jurassic' franchise. They included things like 'humor is oxygen' and that the dinosaurs are animals, not monsters. A key to 'Rebirth' was geographically herding the dinosaurs. In the new movie, they've clustered around the equator, drawn to the tropical environment. Like 'Jurassic Park,' the action takes place primarily on an island. Going into the project, Edwards was warned about his screenwriter's convictions. 'At the end of my meeting with Spielberg, he just smiled and said, 'That's great. If you think we were difficult, wait until you meet David Koepp,''' says Edwards, laughing. But Edwards and Koepp quickly bonded over similar tastes in movies, like the original 'King Kong,' a poster of which hangs in Koepp's office. On set, Edwards would sometimes find the need for 30 seconds of new dialogue. 'Within like a minute, I'd get this perfectly written 30 second interaction that was on theme, funny, had a reversal in it — perfect,' says Edwards. 'It was like having your own ChatGPT but actually really good at writing.' In the summer, especially, it's common to see a long list of names under the screenplay. Blockbuster-making is, increasingly, done by committee. The stakes are too high, the thinking goes, to leave it to one writer. But 'Jurassic World Rebirth' bears just Koepp's credit. 'There's an old saying: 'No one of us is as dumb as all of us,'' Koepp says. 'When you have eight or 10 people who have significant input into the script, the odds are stacked enormously against you. You're trying to please a lot of different people, and it often doesn't go well.' The only time that worked, in Koepp's experience, was Sam Raimi's 2002 'Spider-Man.' 'I was also hired and fired three times on that movie,' he says, 'so maybe they knew what they were doing.' Koepp, though, prefers to — after research and outlining — let a movie topple out of his mind as rapidly as possible. 'I like to gun it out and clean up the mess later,' he says. But the string of 'Jurassic World Rebirth' may have tested even Koepp's prodigious output. The intense period of writing, which fell before, during and after the writers strike, he says, meant five months without a day off. 'I might have broke something,' he says, shaking his head. Still, the film also shows a veteran screenwriter working in high gear, judiciously meting out details and keeping dinosaurs hurtling forward. Anything like a perfect script — for Koepp, that's 'Rosemary's Baby' or 'Jaws' — remains elusive. But even when you come close, there are always critics. 'After the first 'Jurassic' movie, a fifth-grade class all wrote letters to me, which was very nice,' Koepp recalls. 'Then they wrote, 'P.S., when you do the next one, don't have it take so long to get to the island.' Everyone's got a note!'
Perth Now
28-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
John Cena addresses Coyote vs. Acme's fate
John Cena is thrilled 'Coyote vs. Acme' is finally getting a theatrical release. The Looney Tunes movie was shelved by Warner Bros. in February 2024 as a tax write-off despite being completed, but the distribution rights were later purchased by Ketchup Entertainment and 'Coyote vs. Acme' is now slated to hit the silver screen next year. Cena, 48, is thankful 'Coyote vs. Acme' is getting the chance to see the light of day, and admitted it was 'tough' when the film was initially scrapped. When Screen Rant asked the WWE star how he felt about Coyote vs. Acme's upcoming theatrical release, he replied: 'Rewarding, certainly for everybody [who was] a part of the project. Anytime you put your heart and soul into something and it gets shelved, it is tough. 'Again, it ain't my sandbox, so I completely understand those decisions, but the fact that companies could talk together and the movie could get shown.' Cena added he was excited for fans to see 'Coyote vs. Acme' now that 'it's out of the dusty box'. He said: 'We do what we do to try to entertain, and I know the audiences that were able to see 'Coyote vs. Acme' were entertained. So hopefully that audience grows larger. 'I just saw it for the first time very recently. It's a bunch of fun and man, I'm glad it's out of the dusty box.' 'Coyote vs. Acme' - which also stars Will Forte, Lana Condor, Eric Bauza and Jeff Bergman - sees Coyote sue the Acme Corporation for their unreliable products that have thwarted his attempts to catch the Road Runner. Before 'Coyote vs. Acme' was saved by Ketchup Entertainment, Cena - who plays the main antagonist, Acme's lawyer in the film - admitted he wished the project was 'given a chance' by Warner Bros. He told TheWrap: 'There's a lot there. And everyone's perspective is different. We don't own the film. That's the tough part about this business, you do have a sense of ownership because you invest heart and soul. 'And [director] Dave Green and everybody involved, we made what we thought was a good movie.'
