When discussing the intention of the 2015-2016 sitcom The Muppets, executive producer Bob Kushell explained that he wanted to bring the Muppets back to their adult roots, as opposed to keeping them as a group of characters for children. He also said he wished to individualize the Muppets, separate them from eachother, and delve into their personal lives.
Sources:
"A day on set with Piggy, Kermit, and the brand-new Muppets" Marc Snetiker. Entertainment Weekly. September 11, 2015.
"On 'The Muppets', Miss Piggy Has a Talk Show and a Chatty Staff" Brooks Barnes. The New York Times. September 7, 2015.
Kevin Mayer will lead the Chinese-owned app for making and sharing short videos, which has exploded in popularity during the pandemic.
Both Republicans and Democrats have questioned the Chinese government’s influence over the app. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic minority leader, and Senator Tom Cotton, Republican from Arkansas, co-wrote a letter to the director of national intelligence in October, requesting a review of the national-security implications of TikTok’s expanding influence.
TikTok has meanwhile hired a number of American executives and employees to run its business and review content on its app. Vanessa Pappas, a former YouTube executive who joined TikTok as one of its American chiefs last year, said in a November blog post that the company’s United States-based team would call the shots on TikTok’s U.S. business, including by setting specific rules for American users.
Now Mr. Mayer will provide a clear link between TikTok and ByteDance’s leadership in Beijing, with his dual roles at the two companies.
Mr. Mayer is best known as Disney’s longtime deals maven. Before running the direct-to-consumer and international division for the past two years, he served as Disney’s chief strategy officer, helping to orchestrate the purchases of Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, most of 21st Century Fox and BamTech, a technology company that specializes in streaming video.
Mr. Mayer joined Disney in 1993 before leaving in 2000 to run Playboy.com. He soon returned to Disney to work on Go.com, a web portal that eventually failed, and other Disney websites, including ESPN.com, before moving to strategic planning.
A TikTok spokesman on Monday stressed that TikTok was not owned by a Beijing-based company. Instead, its parent company, ByteDance Ltd., is incorporated in the Cayman Islands, though he could not say how many people are based there. That entity owns TikTok and all of the businesses in China, he said.
The kind of critically praised dramas that often dominate the awards season are falling flat at the box office, failing to justify the money it takes to make them.
Climate Change Doc ‘Chasing Coral’ Washes Up With Netflix
Climate Change Doc ‘Chasing Coral’ Washes Up With Netflix
Netflix has acquired worldwide rights to Jeff Orlowski’s climate-change documentary “Chasing Coral,” which premiered this month at the Sundance Film Festival, the company announced Saturday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The film, an Exposure Labs production produced by Orlowski and Larissa Rhodes, is a follow-up to his 2012 documentary “Chasing Ice.” Also Read: Sundance Cyber Attack:…
