![Monster’s Ball]()
Vice Media is the one to beat at the 19th annual Webby Awards. The youth-oriented media company came out on top with 17 nominations when the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences revealed its nominees for the Internet culture award show this morning. Other companies with strong showings include CollegeHumor with nine nominations, Funny or Die and HBO tied with eight, The Guardian with seven and Comedy Central and Mashable tied with six. Winners will be announced May 18th. Click the link for the full list of nominees.
(THR)
Ryan Kavanaugh’s film and television studio is getting an injection of $250 million in funding from San Francisco investment management firm VII Peaks Capital ahead of its long-planned IPO, which isn’t a usual source of finance for Hollywood. The deal follows months in which Relativity made the rounds with hedge funds and investors amid what sources described as a cash crunch at the company.
(VAR)
After six years of playing Elena Gilbert (and her many doppelgängers), the actress has announced that she’s leaving the show at the end of its current sixth season. Rumors Dobrev was leaving the show began to surface this weekend when several members of the cast and crew posted pictures from a lakeside retreat on Instagram with the hashtag #NinaWeWillMissYou.
(BF)
Not only will Friday see the release of
Daredevil on Netflix, but also this surprising news from Disney, Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox: Everything from
The Phantom Menace to
Return of the Jedi will be on Digital HD for the first time ever. It will be available to buy as a collection or individually at all leading digital retailers, including iTunes, Google Play, VUDU, Amazon, Xbox Video, PlayStation Store, and Verizon Fios. Each film will include bonus features, as well.
(COL)
Actor-director is attached to direct and executive produce a feature film on the life of Mahalia Jackson, which will be based on the biography "Just Mahalia, Baby," written by Laurraine Goreau, which chronicles the life of the woman who rose from poverty and obscurity to become the world’s greatest gospel singer, and a legend. Project will include much of the singer’s original music.
(SAA)
During a Wondercon panel for
Last Man on Earth, directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller revealed their plans for the ever-crazier teased sequels, with Lord saying, “We’ve found a way that we love that makes those imagined sequels canonical.” The pair will produce the next chapter in the saga, but haven’t been confirmed to direct. Rodney Rothman is writing the script, and Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum are expected to return.
(SF)
Author of the series that spawned
Game Of Thrones revealed that he hopes to have the sixth book in the series completed before the next season of the show premieres, one year from now. It's the first even semi-official news about a
Winds release date, which fans have been anxiously trying to guess ever since they closed the last page of
A Dance With Dragons, which was book five in the series. This summer will make four years since that book’s release.
(VUL)
The first look at Paul Feig’s new comedy series debuting on Yahoo. Set in 2105, show chronicles the adventures of a group of noobie space explorers hurtling through a galaxy full of aliens. The difference between alien gills and brain holes are explored along with plenty of other shenanigans. Series premieres the first of its eight half-hour episodes on April 14th.
(IW)
The first look at Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Shailene Woodley playing whistleblower Edward Snowden and his girlfriend, Lindsay Mills, in Oliver Stone’s upcoming biopic. The film is currently shooting in Washington D.C., and will hit theaters Christmas Day.
(EW)
Color correction is a deeply important process that doesn’t often get its due. Like focus pulling, it’s the kind of cinematic skill that can remain invisible even for those aware of it. In simple terms, it’s also about making the images look more expensive than they actually are.
(FSR)
