Latest news with #TheOdyssey
Buzz Feed
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
John Krasinski Didn't Visit Emily Blunt On Oppenheimer Set
If you can believe it, it's almost been two years since the release of Oppenheimer — and it's possible that no one had more fun promoting that movie than John Krasinski. I know what you're thinking. John Krasinski wasn't in that movie. And you'd be correct. However, his wife, Emily Blunt, was, which meant John got the joy of tagging along with the cast on part of the press tour, hanging out with the likes of Cillian Murphy, Matt Damon, and Robert Downey Jr. for a summer. And though he evidently had a great time as an honorary member of the Oppenheimer crew, John recently said he had no desire to visit Emily on set while they were actually making the movie — but for good reason. John and Natalie Portman are currently promoting their new movie, Fountain of Youth, and during a recent interview with Kevin McCarthy, John revealed that he never visited Emily on the Oppenheimer set because he's just too much of a Christopher Nolan fan. 'He's as big as it gets for me. There's several directors who I'd probably would never go to their sets,' he added, joking that his Catholic guilt would be telling him: 'I'm not supposed to be here.' 'Also, I don't wanna see how the sausage is made,' John explained. 'I will watch their movies and I love not seeing all the magic being made.' Well, there was certainly no shortage of magic on the Oppenheimer set, that's for sure. Emily earned a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her performance, and the film went on to win seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Cillian, and Best Supporting Actor for RDJ. Off the back of his Oscar sweep, Nolan has another big project in the works: an adaptation of The Odyssey starring Tom Holland, Matt Damon, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, and Anne Hathaway, just to name a few. Filming has been underway for some time now, and despite John's apprehensions about watching Nolan at work, he said he recently tried to 'blackmail' his good friend Matt to get him onto the set. 'He didn't [get me in],' he joked, 'and I'll never forgive him for it.' With a cast that good, I'd risk it all to be on The Odyssey set, too. You can find John and Natalie's interview here.
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Inside the UK's ‘strangest' theme park – that's home to the biggest suspended looping roller coaster in the world
A lesser-known UK theme park is home to the world's tallest suspended looping coaster. Fantasy Island, located in Ingoldmells on Lincolnshire's coast, is one of the country's more unique theme parks. The quirky theme park has more than 30 rides but there's one that theme park junkies definitely won't want to miss. Fantasy Island's The Odyssey coaster is the world's tallest suspended looping coaster, standing at 167 feet/51 m high. The spine-tingling ride travels at 62mph and opened in 2002, the year of Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee. Prince Edward was one of the first people to ride The Odyssey. It has five inversions (where riders are turned upside down) including a corkscrew roll and a 124 feet/ 37 m high vertical loop. The Odyssey has a 4.6 rating out of five on Google Reviews with one rider describing it as 'unexpectedly good'. Another rider says: 'I loved it. When I first tried it, it was an amazing ride, probably better than The Smiler in Alton Towers.' The ride sits within Fantasy Island's 'Discovery' category which means it can only be ridden by those 1.1 m tall or above. Fantasy Island adds: 'Hold on tight as you soar through the sky at amazing heights, through a whirlwind of inversions at great speeds. 'The Jubilee Odyssey is a truly terrifying experience and is not a Skegness rollercoaster for the faint hearted.' But The Odyssey isn't Fantasy Island's only standout attraction. The theme park is home to Europe's largest seven day market with more than 320 stalls. Visitors can stop at Fantasy Foods for candy floss, then browse for wooden garden furniture or get a body piercing. The market also has a huge toy shop, face painting, handbag stalls and a baby boutique. On TikTok, @coastertog called it 'the strangest theme park in the UK', noting it's the only place you can go to 'ride the biggest SLC coaster in the world, and walk home with a wooden eagle, dog speaker and a three-piece outdoor furniture set'. A tourist said in a review on Google Reviews: 'The market and all the shops around Fantasy Island are brilliant. You'll find some bargains.' Another said: 'Great rides and a wonderful market makes this a good day out. We enjoyed the various food stalls and even had a cheeky tattoo to round off our visit.' A one day Discovery wristband which allows visitors to access all the park's rides costs £28.80 if purchased online. Visitors can also pay per ride if they get one of the park's iCards which can be topped up by Fantasy Island's cashiers. MailOnline Travel recently revealed where Europe's best theme parks are located - and exactly how much it will cost to visit them.
Hindustan Times
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Generation Z Meets ‘The Breakfast Club'
Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson and Emilio Estevez on the set of 'The Breakfast Club.' 'I can't believe they went without social media in the 1980s,' my student said. 'They get distance from the outside world.' She was referring to 'The Breakfast Club,' which I had just watched with my high-school freshmen. We had recently read 'The Odyssey' and I thought it might be fun to see a movie that also deals with identity and belonging. I hoped my students would see connections between 'The Breakfast Club' and 'The Odyssey' about the distance one gets and doesn't get from home. I was their age in 1985, the year the film came out. 'The Breakfast Club' is about five high-school students who bond during Saturday detention. Each represents an archetype—nerd, princess, jock, basket case and burnout—which makes their connection more poignant. The movie had a big effect on me. I envied the intimacy among the detention-shackled teens. My students were envious for different reasons. They were shocked that the characters went a whole day without social media or parents, and that they spoke candidly about sex and self-loathing—conversations unlikely to happen in school today. 'We're never unplugged,' one student said. 'Group texts, Snapchat, YouTube, TikTok 24/7.' When I was in high school, my friends and I had space from our families during the school day, and from each other at home. Social media has blurred these lines, and it is costing our students. They're struggling more than ever with anxiety, depression and short attention spans. My students know their lives aren't like the movies, but they're living every moment on-screen. In 1985 I loved 'The Breakfast Club' so much that I skipped gym class to get a Saturday detention. I thought it would be like in the movie—deep conversations with characters played by Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald and other stars. It wasn't. No one opened up about teenage angst. Someone shot a spitball. I hoped my father would drop me off and pick me up like the teens in the film, but he said no. I walked to and from school that day wondering if my life would ever be like the movies. After school the day we watched the film, my students rushed out with the other 4,000 teenagers. Some walked, took the bus, got a ride, rode their bikes or skateboards. I headed to the faculty parking lot overlooking our sports field. For a moment, it resembled the field that John Bender (Judd Nelson) crosses in the film. The grass was plush, the bleachers empty. I pictured him walking and raising his fist in that final scene to the Simple Minds song, 'Don't You (Forget About Me).' Yet as I sat in school traffic, I stared again. It didn't look like the field in the movie at all. The parking lot was too close, the bleachers a different scale; the grass needed watering. Some of my students whizzed past me. Real life might not be like the movies, but for a moment—wind in their hair, backpacks slung over shoulders, alongside friends—they looked like teens from any era. Perhaps the commute itself could provide space from the adult world, for while they were riding, they existed in a neutral space of aliveness—offline, untethered, neither in school nor home, neither bored nor plugged in. As I drove out of the parking lot, I was envious of their youth, and grateful for the distance. Ms. Shulman is a high-school teacher in Evanston, Ill. Get 360° coverage—from daily headlines to 100 year archives.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
English Teacher & Backyard Flowers: A Washington shot putter's record-breaking journey
WASHINGTON, Illinois (WMBD) – Joe Atkins may be one of the quietest athletes at a track meet, but his results are certainly loud enough. The Panther senior broke the Mid-Illini conference meet record with a throw of 62 feet, 3 inches. Even though he's ranked second in all of Illinois, he won't be satisfied until he's at the top of the podium. It's a little shaky. I'm not feeling too great about it, but I'm doing my best. I mean, I'm sort of going for gold. [The #1-ranked guy] right now is about a good close to a meter ahead of me. Joe Atkins In middle school, Joe started as a sprinter. His move to shot put came from maybe the last source you would expect. 'My eighth grade English teacher transferred me from sprinting with all my friends, to shot…She said I was a little bigger,' Atkins said. He may not be completing The Odyssey, but Joe's journey did begin right at home. There's nothing too fancy… I got a little extra practice. I do like not the full technique, but I do like some standing throws in my backyard… Try not to hit my mom's flowers. Joe Atkins When asked if he ever hit the flowers, Atkins laughed and said 'I mean if she ever asks, no.' As he focuses for the state meet and a future career at Illinois State, Joe likes the solitude of the ring. 'I'm more of a individual guy, and I just like the fact that, you know, if something happens, it's all it's all on me. And I can make whatever adjustments I need to do by myself,' Atkins said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘The Odyssey,' ‘Maria' Filming Location Greece Hits Troubled Waters Over Ongoing Delays With 40% Cash Rebate
After wrapping a three-week shoot in Greece earlier this year, Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Zendaya and the rest of the star-studded cast of Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey' shipped out for Sicily, the next stop for Universal's globe-trotting, blockbuster adaptation of Homer's ancient epic. Anxious Greek film industry professionals hope other international productions aren't also readying to set sail. More from Variety Screen Nigeria Sets Ambitious Blueprint as Nollywood Makes History in Cannes: 'This Is a Coming of Age' for Prolific Industry Anupam Kher's 'Tanvi the Great' Reimagines Autism as a Superpower: 'Opposite of Normal Is Extraordinary' (EXCLUSIVE) 'My Father's Shadow' Breakout Akinola Davies Jr. Makes History in Cannes With First Nigerian Selection One year after the Greek government announced an overhaul of its screen sector with the launch of a new industry organization, Creative Greece, sources say the system is still in disarray, with a backlog of payments owed to dozens of productions totaling north of €100 million ($112 million). 'There are clients that have loans. Banks are waiting for their money,' says Kostas Kefalas, head of production at heavyweight Faliro House, which serviced the 'Odyssey' shoot in Greece. '[Foreign producers] are becoming skeptical. There are more questions being raised.' Creative Greece (known by the Greek acronym EKKOMED) was designed to streamline the operations of the country's screen industries. Instead, sources say they're contending with ever more bureaucratic hurdles and searching for clarity over when they — and their international partners — will be paid. 'We knew it was going to be a very complicated thing, but things are going from bad to worse,' says Giorgos Karnavas of production outfit Heretic, which co-produced the upcoming drama 'The Birthday Party,' starring Willem Dafoe. Karnavas echoes the concerns of others who worry that the industry is frittering away the 'trust capital' it's spent years establishing with foreign producers. 'What it takes a lot of time to build can easily go away, and we are now facing the consequences of a poorly managed transition by the administration and the ministries,' he says. Last year at the Venice Film Festival, Greek officials took to the Lido with great fanfare to celebrate the world premiere of Pablo Larrain's 'Maria,' starring Angelina Jolie as Greek opera diva Maria Callas, one of the most celebrated cultural figures in modern Greece. Yet this week, Variety has learned, the producers of 'Maria' penned a blistering letter to the Greek ministry of finance and EKKOMED, demanding answers about roughly €350,000 ($392,000) in unpaid rebate claims dating back to the film's autumn 2023 shoot in Greece. Of the four countries to host and provide incentives to the production, the Mediterranean nation is the only one yet to make good on its rebate payment. Speaking to Variety during the Cannes Film Festival, Leonidas Christopoulos, CEO of Creative Greece, concedes that there have been bureaucratic challenges since the organization's launch. He also admits that the money paid out by EKKOMED in the past year was 'less than we expected.' However, Christopoulos says the organization is on track to restart payments by early June, adding that 'most of the backlog will be serviced by the end of the year.' On the surface, Greece's 40% cash rebate has been a great success. Since launching in 2018, the incentive scheme has put the country on the production map, helping it lure dozens of high-profile international productions, including Nolan's 'Odyssey,' Amazon Prime Video's big-budget Biblical drama series 'House of David' and Uberto Pasolini's Homer-inspired drama 'The Return,' starring Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes. Characterizing the struggles of the past year as a 'transition phase,' Christopoulos insists the revamped system will eventually help to create a 'very stable landscape for financing for the next five years.' To its credit, the Greek government has shown flexibility as it tries to clear the bureaucratic logjam; last May, it pressed pause on the incentive scheme until Oct. 1 as it tried to clear up a backlog of unpaid claims and applications awaiting approval. Earlier this year, after failing to meet its own October deadline for the rebate's relaunch, the government passed a measure allowing producers to claim expenses accrued in the final months of 2024 and the start of 2025. That allowed 'The Odyssey' and Romain Gavras' English-language debut, 'Sacrifice' — starring Chris Evans, Anya Taylor-Joy and Salma Hayek — to retroactively recoup millions in production and pre-production costs. Says Christopoulos: 'When something is the fault of the administration, we need to be as supportive [as possible] to the people who trusted us.' Despite their frustration, Greek producers remain hopeful that the system will soon be back on track, with Faliro House's Kefalas insisting he's 'optimistic exactly because the [political] will is there.' 'We need to take care of the hiccups,' he says, 'because people do want to shoot in Greece.' Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Emmy Predictions: Talk/Scripted Variety Series - The Variety Categories Are Still a Mess; Netflix, Dropout, and 'Hot Ones' Stir Up Buzz Oscars Predictions 2026: 'Sinners' Becomes Early Contender Ahead of Cannes Film Festival
