Sean O'Connell, managing editor at CinemaBlend, discusses the release of Marvel's new "Black Panther" film and what it means for people of color in Hollywood.
O'Connell says what's great about the film is that the story was carefully crafted and developed. It does not feel as if it's pandering to a black audience. He says the storyline is a natural fit for the Marvel Universe.
The movie is estimated to rake in up to $170 million in its opening weekend. O'Connell notes how huge this would be for a movie that's not a sequel. Typically, it's not until the second or third film that movies generate such high numbers.
We also talk Ava Duvernay's "A Wrinkle in Time" and the significance or her being the first black woman to direct a film with a $100 million dollar budget. O'Connell is confident that star directors like Ava Duvernay and Ryan Coogler are here to stay, and that we're seeing a turning of the tide in Hollywood.
The chief suspect in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway has admitted he beat the young Alabama woman to death on a beach in Aruba after she refused his advances. New details in the killing emerged Wednesday as Joran Van der Sloot pleaded guilty to extorting Holloway's mother, resolving a case that has captivated the public’s attention for nearly 20 years.
The trial of a Fugees rapper, who was convicted this year in multimillion-dollar political conspiracies, stretched across the worlds of politics and entertainment — and now the case is touching on the tech world with arguments that his defense attorney bungled the case, in part, by using an artificial intelligence program to write his closing arguments.
Israel said Wednesday that it will allow Egypt to deliver limited quantities of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, the first crack in a 10-day siege on the territory. Palestinians reeled from a massive blast at a Gaza City hospital that killed hundreds the day before and grew increasingly desperate as food and water supplies ran out.
A 4000-year-old slab of rock is being dubbed a treasure map for archaeologists. The rock was found in 1900 at the site of an ancient tomb in northwestern France and it was declared Europe's oldest known map in 2021.
Hundreds of people gathered for a vigil honoring a six-year-old Palestinian-American boy who was stabbed to death over the weekend by his family's landlord in an apparent hate crime.
