<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5da38e204af909618925af52-1301/jojo%20rabbit%20fox%20searchlight.jpg" border="0" alt="Jojo Rabbit Fox Searchlight" data-mce-source="Fox Searchlight">Fox Searchlight"Jojo Rabbit."</img></div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>Taika Waititi spoke with Business Insider about his acclaimed Nazi satire, "Jojo Rabbit."</li><li>Waititi wrote and directed the movie, and also stars as an imaginary Adolf Hitler who the main character talks to.</li><li>Waititi said the first draft of the script was more dramatic and didn't include the Hitler character.</li><li>Almost five years after Waititi wrote the script, Fox Searchlight said it wanted to make the movie, as long as Waititi played the Hitler character, "which was lunacy to me," Waititi said.</li><li>The director eventually agreed and the result is a movie that is building Oscar buzz.</li><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/">Visit Business Insider's</a><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/">&#xa0;h</a><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/">omepage</a><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/">&#xa0;for more stories.</a></li></ul>&#xa0;Taika Waititi's eyes widen when he spots a couch in the room where his interview with Business Insider is set to take place. He goes straight for it and lies down, stretching across the entire piece of furniture. Moments later, he takes off his shoes to get even more comfortable.Waititi will take relaxing moments when he can find them. His last few weeks have seen him pin-balling from Disney's huge fan event D23 in Los Angeles, to the Toronto International Film Festival, to the Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, and now back to LA.But the actor-writer-director isn't complaining.He's currently a hot commodity in every facet of his career. On the acting side, there's roles in anticipated projects like the Disney Plus series "The Mandalorian," the Ryan Reynolds comedy "Free Guy," and James Gunn's "The Suicide Squad." Waititi has also begun work writing "Thor: Love and Thunder" (coming out November 2021), the sequel to his successful first directing effort of a Marvel Cinematic Universe title, "Thor: Ragnarok." But what he's focused on most as he lies on the couch is his latest directing effort, "Jojo Rabbit" (in select theaters on Friday). &#xa0;Written, directed, and starring Waititi, the movie is a unique coming-of-age tale: Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis) is a young boy living with his mother (Scarlett Johansson) in Germany at the height of the Nazi regime during World War II. Jojo wants nothing more than to grow up to be a loyal Nazi and even has an imaginary friend who is a Nazi: Adolf Hitler himself (played by Waititi).But the boy's life is thrown for a loop when he learns that his mother has been letting a Jewish girl hide in their house.&#xa0;In typical Waititi fashion, the story is original, full of heart, hilarious at times, and showcases the talents of its actors (particularly Johansson). All that adds up to a movie that you will hear more about as we get deeper into award season (especially after the movie won the audience award at the Toronto International Film Festival, which has led to Oscar gold for numerous past winners).Business Insider spoke to Waititi about switching quickly from drama to dark comedy in the early drafts of writing "Jojo Rabbit," why he knew casting a major star to play Hitler was the wrong move, and what it was like to direct while in his Hitler costume.This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Jason Guerrasio: The source material for "Jojo Rabbit" is Chelsea Winstanley's book, "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Caging-Skies-Novel-Christine-Leunens/dp/1419739085">Caging Skies,</a>" but did your time spent in Berlin painting during your 20s influence the story at all?Taika Waititi: No. I stole some of my friends' names that I grew up with while living in Berlin and put them in. While I was in Berlin, I was living the life of an artist so it was very free. Germany was very vibrant and liberal. The club scene was incredible. I think I drew more on the World War II films that I'd seen and some comedies.Guerrasio: Speaking of watching war movies, was "Empire of the Sun" one of them? Because in some ways I compare the journey of Christian Bale's Jim character with Jojo's.&#xa0;Waititi: I definitely watched it in the last few years. I would have watched it to specifically look for something.&#xa0;Guerrasio: Even John Malkovich's character in that movie has a similar father figure-like relationship that Sam Rockwell's Nazi commander character has with Jojo.&#xa0;Waititi: Yeah. You're right. So there's that. "Alive Doesn't Live Here Anymore," that was more for the mother relationship. Ellen Burstyn is the greatest single mother character that's ever been committed to screen. She's so good in that. Having a mother who raised me by herself I was really struck by watching that film. And having kids myself, I also just fully realized how hard their job was. And not to just keep a kid alive, but to shield them from bullying and prejudice and the darkness of the world. Trying to keep their lives bright and happy even when you're feeling like s--t. Not to take it out on them, trying to raise a good person.&#xa0;Guerrasio: Scarlett Johansson's character is a mother who really knows how to keep her interactions with her son not as toxic as everything around them. Is that a character trait your mother had?Waititi: When I was growing up I felt it was pretty chill but obviously there are certain things, and again, being a father now, there are just things kids do that piss you off. [Laughs.] With Scarlett's character I thought a little of [Roberto] Benigni in "Life Is Beautiful," where he is distracting his son from what's really going on around them. He never loses it at all. There's the one moment with Scarlett in the living room where she just snaps and then remembers herself. But I really wanted people to fall in love with her. I wanted the audience to see her as really the only grounded force in the film. Everyone else is running around like headless chickens and all she's trying to do is keep the kid safe.&#xa0;Guerrasio: Did you get any rehearsal time with her? I would think with her schedule you only had her for a limited time.Waititi: Yeah, we just talked. We talked a lot about it.&#xa0;<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5d7671012e22af158e097e73-1800/jojo-rabbit-foxsearchlight.jpg" border="0" alt="jojo rabbit foxsearchlight" data-mce-source="Fox Searchlight">Fox Searchlight(L-R) Roman Griffin Davis, Taika Waititi, and Scarlett Johansson in "Jojo Rabbit."</img></div></div></div>Guerrasio: Did you feel that was enough?Waititi: Unless you are searching for something, I'm not really sure you need much rehearsal. I felt the script was really in a place where I was really happy with it, and if there was anything we were searching for dialogue-wise, we could just talk about it and go off and try to execute those notes. And then there's also having amazing actors. With Sam and Scarlett, you don't really need to overthink it. I've learned that over the years, if you know someone is really good and they're smart and you have had those homework discussions earlier then most of your work is done.&#xa0;Guerrasio: Let's change it up and talk about Hitler.Waititi: I've brought this on myself.&#xa0;Guerrasio: It sounds like early drafts of the script didn't have him in the story, right?Waititi: The very first draft didn't have him, but then I started all over again.&#xa0;Guerrasio: What was the lightbulb moment?Waititi: The book, I'll be straight up, is not a comedy. It's very much dramatic. And I was just about to do "What We Do in the Shadows," and I felt then that I was only interested in doing this if it's a different story from these World War II films. Knowing myself, I knew eventually I was going to put humor into it somewhere. When I rewrote it, I just started typing and it just kind of wrote itself. It only took me a couple of weeks. And I don't usually start at page one but I started and basically wrote all the way through. And the Adolf character came about and the script hasn't changed that much since. It's really hard to explain because the only time it's really happened to me is with this script.Guerrasio: So in the rewrite that's when things get outlandish.&#xa0;Waititi: Yeah. The first version wasn't a comedy.&#xa0;&#xa0;Guerrasio: That first draft was more true to the book?Waititi: Yeah. I wrote the first draft with a friend of mine. It was brilliant but it just didn't feel like me.&#xa0;Guerrasio: And also you probably asked yourself, "Do you want to do a serious movie on this subject?"Waititi: "Do I have to go to work and feel sad and angry all day." So I started again. I didn't even have this idea in my head of having this imaginary friend. I think I wanted to get rid of the father. I wanted to have this life in the house small and simple. Just the kid and the mother. In the book there's the kid, the mother, the grandmother, the father comes back and forth. There were just too many characters to try and do this. So I got rid of all of that and then just gave him a friend.Guerrasio: How did you end up playing Hitler?Waititi: It was never my intention. The furthest thing from my mind was me playing him. Then we shopped it around to a few agencies, not even specific actors, and asked, "What do you think of the script? Who do you think would work?" Back when we were getting this off the ground it was all about what actors are a box-office draw when it came to making period movies. So a lot of the investors said, "We need an A-lister to play Hitler." I could see why they would say that, but weirdly it's not like that anymore.&#xa0;Guerrasio: And if you cast a star, all I'm going to see in that role is that star.Waititi: You're exactly right. So, let's come up with a name. Big movie star.&#xa0;Guerrasio: Um … Brad Pitt.&#xa0;Waititi: If it's the Brad Pitt Hitler movie that's all it's going to be known as.&#xa0;Guerrasio: It's true.&#xa0;Waititi: And he'll be the only thing on the poster and it will distract from the real heart of that story which are these kids. And I want to see a Brad Pitt anything movie but it would have taken away from what the story is trying to deliver.&#xa0;<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5da3917ccc4a0a69a20b35e2-2400/taika%20waititi%20kimberley%20french%20fox%20searchlight.jpg" border="0" alt="Taika Waititi Kimberley French Fox Searchlight" data-mce-source="Kimberley French/Fox Searchlight">Kimberley French/Fox SearchlightTaika Waititi.</img></div></div></div>Guerrasio: So you have to take the role.&#xa0;Waititi: And it was [the movie's distributor] Fox Searchlight's decision.Guerrasio: Really?Waititi: After I finished shooting "Thor: Ragnarok" they came in and said they really loved the script. This is four or five years after I wrote it. They said they really want to make it but they said, "We're only interested if you play Hitler." Which was lunacy to me.&#xa0;Guerrasio: What was their pitch? Why?Waititi: They made a good point which was that particular role is written a certain way and it needs to be handled by the person who invented that character. Part of it, like we said, is the celebrity distraction thing, but also because the way I wrote it, and because I knew how it needed to be played, it fell on me. And it actually made it easier to play because I didn't have to deal with someone else filtering what I was trying to do. They were right, looking back on it. If I worked with another actor maybe that person would have researched it too much or tried to do a more authentic version of Hitler and pulled away the buffoonery I was after.Guerrasio: So what was it like on set directing in costume?&#xa0;Waititi: Yeah, it was horrible.&#xa0;Guerrasio: Did you address everyone on set the first day of shooting? "Sorry guys, it is what it is."&#xa0;Waititi: I did actually have to do that. I was just embarrassed on set. Having to be dressed like that and having to talk to people. Often I took off the mustache between set ups or put a hat on. Or I would take the jacket off. But still, you catch yourself in a reflection and you're reminded. For most people it's something like seeing themselves and going, "I forgot, I got a haircut yesterday." For me it was, "Ah, I forgot, I look like Hitler."<div><iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/tL4McUzXfFI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/behind-scenes-fox-news-star-shepard-smith-donald-trump-politics-2017-12">Behind the scenes with Shepard Smith - the Fox News star who just announced his resignation from the network</a></h3> <div> <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/5s6WRuie-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script> </div> </div>

Taika Waititi explains the origins of his Oscar contender 'Jojo Rabbit,' why he ended up playing Hitler, and what it was like directing in costume

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5cfa9ea411e20542df5e4495-2400/img9650.jpg" border="0" alt="Ken Auletta" data-mce-source="Casey Sullivan" data-mce-caption="Author Ken Auletta." />Casey SullivanAuthor Ken Auletta.</div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>Biographer Ken Auletta discussed his upcoming book on Harvey Weinstein in a wide-ranging interview with Business Insider.</li><li>Auletta talked about how he failed to crack the Weinstein story in 2002 and said he's done 100 interviews for his upcoming book.</li><li>He also talked about what's wrong with journalism today and his career regrets.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.</a></li></ul>Veteran journalist Ken Auletta gave Business Insider a wide-ranging interview about his upcoming biography on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com.au/category/harvey-weinstein">Harvey Weinstein</a>, what's wrong with journalism today, his interviewing process, and career regrets."One of the things I try to tell people is... 'I'm really trying to understand you,'" Auletta said of his interview subjects. "And I'm not lying. I really am trying to understand them. I'm not going in with a point of view."That's the approach Auletta is applying to his Weinstein reporting, which he estimates has entailed 100 interviews so far. His book, slated for release in 2021, intends to cover the disgraced movie mogul's life, from his early days in Flushing, New York, all the way to Hollywood and the Academy Awards. Auletta said he plans to explore the key events that shaped him, his legacy as a filmmaker, and trail of abuse left in his wake.Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com.au/john-malkovich-defends-harvey-weinstein-play-bitter-wheat-2019-1">John Malkovich defends starring in a new play inspired by Harvey Weinstein: 'It might upset people'</a> Ronan Farrow of The New Yorker and Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey of The New York Times, who broke news of the Weinstein allegations in 2017, also have books about Weinstein coming up.Business Insider spoke to Auletta, 77, at his Upper East Side apartment. Our conversation was edited for clarity and brevity.Casey Sullivan: How did you report the Weinstein book?Ken Auletta: The last two weeks I probably spent most of my time interviewing people who he went to school with and trying to get inside his home and looking at pictures. There are lots of pictures on the internet. Harvey was not fat Harvey. He had a full head of hair. He had acne. And then you just interview people. People who worked for him. People who claimed they were raped by him. People who look at the impact he had on the movie business. I have about 15 hours of tapes from my interviews with him in 2002. I probably have about 100 interviews so far. Some people are afraid to talk. They don't want to be associated with Harvey Weinstein.[Auletta<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/12/16/beauty-and-the-beast-2"> profiled Weinstein</a> in 2002 for The New Yorker but did not report on an allegation of rape because sources did not go on the record, he said.]Sullivan: I remember after the [2017 Weinstein] story came out, the question became: Who protected him and who knew. What is your sense, from talking to as many people as you have?<h2>Auletta says Weinstein had people who enabled him</h2>Auletta: There is no question that Jodi Kantor and Meg Twohey will have a lot about enablers. And if I spent too much time on that, I'd be dated, because they're going to do a really good job on that. Ronan will have some of that. The people who worked for Harvey, they didn't know he was raping women or sexually molesting them. There were clearly some people who knew, who had a reasonable idea.Sullivan: Have you interviewed Harvey?Auletta: No. I have 15 hours of taped interviews with him from 2002. Right now Harvey is not one of my biggest fans, so right now he won't talk to me. Sullivan: Why isn't he your fan?Auletta: He didn't like the piece I wrote about him in 2002. He knows I went back, trying to report whether he was guilty in 2015 and 2017. And he knows that I introduced Ronan Farrow to The New Yorker.Sullivan: Do you have any regrets for not pressing harder back in 2002?<h2>Auletta on why he didn't report on Weinstein abuse back in 2002</h2>Auletta: No. A) I think I wrote a pretty tough profile of the guy and explained someone who was pretty much out of control a lot of the time and abusive to people. In some cases, physically abusing people. Getting a reporter in a headlock and throwing punches at people and doing some of the things he is alleged to have done sexually. But I couldn't get women to talk. I give enormous amount of credit to the Times reporters and to Ronan for making them feel comfortable. Some people would say times change. You had Bill Cosby. You had Roger Ailes. And there's some truth to that. But the larger truth is their ability, their empathy, to get people comfortable enough to talk. Which is astonishing. And I applaud them.Sullivan: You've covered the <keyword id="6354777" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Media">media</keyword> for a long time. What changes get under your skin?Auletta: A lot of things. BuzzFeed wrote about Facebook and what they have done in the Philippines. The president and his minions take over the internet and Instagram and they put up fake news about opponents. And it gets a lot of engagement. So Facebook loves that and the algorithms love that. That's worrisome - the power of the official platforms to distort the truth, relying on algorithms and the wrong way of measuring things and not relying on more expensive curators or editors.We spend too much time with Donald Trump. I think Donald Trump is a liar. And I applaud the press for exposing his lies. On the other hand if you turn on CNN or MSNBC, it's all Donald Trump. CNN, which takes pride in saying they cover the world, they don't cover the world. They cover Donald Trump. You know why? A) he's appalling. B) he's really good for business. People are really interested.I see straight reporters, really good reporters, getting paid to go on CNN or MSNBC and opine or sit with anchors who are opining all the time. I find it really excessive. And it contributes to the polarization of the Trump supporters, who don't believe what they read or watch in the Times or MSNBC. We are contributing to our own unpopularity. We are no longer perceived to be the referee.Sullivan: What advice would you give to a journalist entering the job market today?Auletta: I would make sure I was capable of multimedia tasking. I could use a podcast. I could use my iPhone to take photos. I could do everything. It used to be that we would have said, "Get a job at a town newspaper." Many of those local papers are gone now and so that's not an option. Digital publications become the new farm system.Sullivan: Is there a risk to that, though? Those places you're talking about are New York and Washington-centric. Media becomes a pretty clubby environment.<h2>Business models that work for digital media today</h2>Auletta: It does. But I'm sure most people today will get hired from other publications based on what great work they do. Sullivan: What do you consider high-paid position in journalism, in terms of salary?Auletta: I think you're talking about the New York Times reporters ... 150 range, 130 range. Reporters are. I think that. And I'm sure reporters at many other publications get half that.Sullivan: What business models do you see working in media now?Auletta: The model for digital success is publications that rely less on advertising and more on the ability to raise subscriber prices. The Times has gone from 80% on advertising revenues to 40%. But the New York Times makes most of its profits in the print publication. If the print publication goes away, will digital revenue be able to sustain the New York Times? The average advertiser who spends $10,000 for an ad in the print newspaper pays $1,000 to $1,500 for the same ad in a digital newspaper. So what everyone tries to do is throw stuff against the wall and see what works. Cruise ships. Wine selling. Selling your puzzles, your recipes. The Guardian asks you for a contribution at the end of each article. And they've done pretty well with that. But we're a beleaguered industry.Sullivan: Who is your biggest mentor and what did that person teach you that was valuable?Auletta: Richard Reeves. He gave me a lot of good tips about storytelling and reporting. Write like you talk. And don't clear your throat. Write like you're telling the story. Clay Felker, who always believed, have a strong lede that draws the reader in. I'm always looking for what that quintessential anecdote is that kind of sums up what the story is going to be about.<h2>Weinstein had a big impact on the movies</h2>Sullivan: What mistakes do you see young journalists making?Auletta: They don't think about storytelling. Sometimes I read stories that have narrative but too little reporting. And I don't trust the facts. We live in a time where people are giving too much opinion and it intrudes on the storytelling. You want the reader to trust you. And if you burden them right away with your opinion, they're going to be skeptical.And that's the thing with Harvey, I'm not a prosecutor. I'm going to tell this story and I'm going to tell his talent. And I won't do my job if I don't do that.Sullivan: What effect did he have on the movie business?Auletta: He did a lot of great movies. He made independent films. He changed the way the Academy Award campaigns are run. He treated them like political campaigns. That's raised a lot of criticism in the industry. He passionately cared about movies. He read books. He read scripts. He weighed in, often times in the right way in making the movie better. Sometimes they called him Harvey Scissor Hands. He was a micromanager. He drove Martin Scorsese crazy making "Gangs of New York."But more often than not, Harvey was a constructive player. Part of his power was that they thought they would make a really good movie with Harvey. It might win an Academy Award and it could really further their career. They knew he was a great marketer.When Ben Affleck and Matt Damon did "Good Will Hunting," other studios passed. And they sent the script to Harvey and he met with them and he said, "Guys, I love this, but you have this crazy sex scene in here that makes no sense and I'd urge you to take it out." And they said, "We want to work with you." They put the sex scene in to see if the studio guys would react. It wasn't really going to be part of the script. Nobody noticed it at the studios except Harvey.<h2>Auletta on regrets about his journalism career</h2>Sullivan: What was your biggest mistake as a journalist?Auletta: With Elizabeth Holmes, I had some degree of skepticism, but John Carreyrou at The Wall Street Journal showed that she was doing fraudulent work. I didn't get that story. I have some regret about that.I feel some regret about Bill Gates in that I wrote a book about him and the Microsoft trial and I portrayed him as childlike and that he could have settled with the government. I stand by that. But Gates doesn't talk to me. I feel bad. I would want to tell him that I respect what he's done since with philanthropy.You sometimes write about people and they feel it's cruel. But part of doing access journalism is you spend real time with people. You've laughed at their jokes and you have wine at their dinners And these interviews, it's almost like you're their shrink. You're talking about their parents and their childhood. And then a piece appears and they feel betrayed. I understand that. I don't apologize for it, though.As a journalist you have to be a good listener. One of the things I try to tell people is, "I'm really trying to understand you." And I'm not lying. I really am trying to understand them. I'm not going in with a point of view about that. Don't rush. If you're talking to someone let them talk and if there is a long pause don't interrupt them. And be empathetic. Sullivan: So you spend your time trying to understand other people. If you were to turn that inward, what would you say makes you you?Auletta: Standards, ethics is one. You don't take shortcuts. You don't lie to people. You don't trick them into talking to you. You say right at the beginning, this is on the record. An unwillingness to talk about myself. The story is not about me, it's about the other person.Sullivan is joining Business Insider as a private equity correspondent. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-pokemon-detective-pikachu-was-animated-ryan-reynolds-vfx-2019-5">How 'Pokémon Detective Pikachu' was animated</a></h3> <div> <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/OskugRPC-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script> </div> </div>

Biographer Ken Auletta, who failed to crack the Harvey Weinstein story in 2002, says he's done 100 interviews for his book on the disgraced mogul

Expect ghosts, more ghosts, and a Bruce Willis sequel this weekend at theaters.
As of yesterday, Warner Bros.' horror flick "<keyword id="1746777" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="The-Conjuring">The Conjuring</keyword>" is the top film viewers want to see for the weekend, according to Fandango, with "<keyword id="1634787" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Red-2">Red 2</keyword>" not far behind. 
Things aren't looking as good for Ryan Reynold's likely-to-bomb, "R.I.P.D."
Also hitting theaters this weekend: DreamWork Animation's "<a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/turbo_2013/" target="_blank">Turbo</a>," — again featuring Reynolds — and "<a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/only_god_forgives_2013/" target="_blank">Only God Forgives</a>," starring the other Ryan ... Gosling.
In a new Friday series, here's what's worth seeing this weekend, and those you should skip. 
<h2>1. "The Conjuring"</h2>
<div class="image-container" style="width:800px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/51e856aa69bedda76300000e-1200-600/the-conjuring.png?maxX=800" border="0" alt="the conjuring" width="800" /><a href="http://theconjuring.warnerbros.com/gallery.html">Warner Bros.</a></div></div>
Estimated Budget: <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/dorothypomerantz/2013/07/18/the-conjuring-is-set-to-scare-the-pants-off-of-bigger-competitors/" target="_blank">$20 million</a> Opening Weekend Outlook: <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/dorothypomerantz/2013/07/18/the-conjuring-is-set-to-scare-the-pants-off-of-bigger-competitors/" target="_blank">$30 million</a> Critics: <a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_conjuring/" target="_blank">84%</a> say go
Two paranormal investigators (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) pay a visit to a New England farmhouse where a dark presence terrorizes the family living there. It's based on a true story.
Directed by James Wan ("Saw"), "The Conjuring" sticks to old-school scare tactics, in the best way possible.
The A-list cast delivers unsettling performances that outweigh the few horror tropes.
Consensus: See it
<iframe width="590" height="360" frameborder="0" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/k10ETZ41q5o"></iframe>
 
<h2>2. "Red 2"</h2>
<h2><div class="image-container" style="width:800px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/51e852ee69bedda060000004-1200-600/red-2-1.jpg" border="0" alt="red 2" width="800" /><a href="http://www.lionsgate.com/movies/red2/">Lionsgate/Summit</a></div></div></h2>
Estimated Budget: N/A (The first installment cost a moderate <a href="http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=red2010.htm" target="_blank">$58 million</a>.) Opening Weekend Outlook: <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/box-office-preview-will-ripd-586217" target="_blank">$17-20 million</a> ("Red" grossed <a href="http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=red2010.htm" target="_blank">$21 million</a> domestically.) Critics: <a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/red_2/" target="_blank">36%</a> say go
The baby boomers are back, and pinned against "R.I.P.D." — also starring an old timer, Jeff Bridges — in its opening weekend.
CIA field agent Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) is yanked from retirement when his wacky ex-partner (John Malkovich) discovers a plot to take them out. Frank reunites his motley crew of operatives — new girlfriend (Mary-Louise Parker), old flame (Catharine Zeta-Jones), and an elite British assassin (Helen Mirren) — to track down a missing portable nuclear device.
Supporting cast and Academy Award winners Zeta-Jones, Mirren, and Anthony Hopkins breathe some class into the action flick, but can only do so much to elevate a film that feels like a remake of the first with more explosives and car chases.
Consensus: Walk, don't run
<iframe width="590" height="360" frameborder="0" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/hTcWTf-pfyU"></iframe> 
<h2>3. "Girl Most Likely"</h2>
<div class="image-container" style="width:800px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/51e850356bb3f7e774000043-1200-600/kristen-wiig-girl-most-likely.jpg" border="0" alt="kristen wiig girl most likely" width="800" /><a href="http://girlmostlikelymovie.com/">Roadside Attractions</a></div></div>
Estimated Budget: N/A Opening Weekend Outlook: N/A Critics: <a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/girl_most_likely_2013/" target="_blank">16%</a> say go
In "Bridesmaids," Kristen Wiig played a downer character in career and love-life squalor, but we hardly hated her for it.
Funny lady Wiig loses audience sympathy as a vapid New Yorker who's shipped off to live with her quirky family in New Jersey after staging a fake suicide to win her boyfriend back.
An all-star cast of Annette Bening, Matt Dillon, and Darren Criss play characters too uninteresting to make up for Wiig's lack of likeability.
Consensus: It pains me to say it — pass
<iframe width="590" height="360" frameborder="0" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/894jUp-4f0Q"></iframe> 
<h2>4. "R.I.P.D."</h2>
<div class="image-container" style="width:800px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/51e948446bb3f7384b00000e-1200-600/ripd-ripd-jeff-bridges-ryan-reynolds.png" border="0" alt="r.i.p.d. ripd jeff bridges ryan reynolds" width="800" /><a href="http://www.ripd.com/">Universal Pictures</a></div></div>
Estimated Budget: <a href="http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=ripd.htm" target="_blank">$130 million</a> Opening Weekend Outlook: <a href="http://www.boxoffice.com/statistics/movies/ripd-2013" target="_blank">$13 million</a> Critics: <a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ripd/" target="_blank">11%</a> say go
A recently slain cop (Ryan Reynolds) joins a team of undead police officers working for the Rest in Peace Department whose mission is to serve and protect the living from creatures who refuse to move peacefully to the other side. 
Jeff Bridges gives a tired macho man performance that you've seen before, and the second-rate special effects are more distracting than mind-blowing.
Consensus: This film is D.O.A.
<iframe width="590" height="360" frameborder="0" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/zpfaDy6HKww"></iframe>

Dead Cops And Evil Spirits Hope To Scare Up Audiences - Here's What's In Theaters This Weekend

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54f0ce226bb3f77374cb7819-1200-924/snapchat-snaps-from-vanity-fairs-oscar-party.jpg" border="0" alt="Snapchat Snaps from Vanity Fair's Oscar Party">SnapchatSnapchat Snaps from Vanity Fair's Oscar Party</img></div></div></div>The most popular TV show of fall 2014 was NBC's broadcast of "Sunday Night Football." It averaged 21 million viewers per week.The strongest cable show was AMC's "The Walking Dead." Its midseason finale, in November, reached 14.8 million people.Big numbers, right?Try this one: 24.79 million.That is the number of people who, on the evening of January 26, 2015, and over the next 24 hours, watched a video broadcast on their phones depicting the sights and sounds of New York's "Snowpocalypse."Unlike "Sunday Night Football" and "The Walking Dead," the camera operators for the "Snowpocalpyse" broadcast were not professionals.They were mostly teens or adults in their 20s, shooting videos and photos with their phones, often photos and videos of their faces.They were Snapchat users.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54ee06d4ecad04a05a03c98a-1200-924/snapchat-9.jpg" border="0" alt="snapchat">REUTERS/Eric Thayer</img></div></div></div><h3>Not just for sexting</h3>Snapchat started out in 2012 as an app people could use to send one another disappearing photos.Initially pretty much everyone assumed it was an app for sexting. They assumed this because Snapchat was created by three rambunctious Stanford fraternity brothers. They assumed this because, in early marketing materials, one of those founders pitched Snapchat as a way young men and women ("betches") could share "incriminating photos" with one another. They assumed this because the app was most popular with teenagers and college students.Sharing naughty photos probably was and is a big part of why some people use Snapchat. But as early as mid-2014, disappearing photo-sharing was <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/20/5827666/snapchat-stories-bigger-than-snaps-electric-daisy-carnival">no longer Snapchat's most popular function.</a>It was something called "Snapchat Stories."<h3>How Snapchat Stories work</h3>Launched in late 2013, Snapchat Stories are in the same social-media genus as Facebook posts, Twitter tweets, and Instagram photos.A user snaps a photo or a video and taps a button, and the video or photo is stitched into a single video - the story - which is then shared with all of the user's friends.There are two major differences between Snapchat and Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The first is that Snapchat Stories disappear after 24 hours. They are, in this way, almost live events. Like broadcast TV in an era before DVR or VCR, if you miss a story during its 24-hour run, you will never see it again.The second major difference is that Snapchat Stories are not automatically displayed in a vertical stream of content the way Facebook posts are in its News Feed, tweets are in the Twitter app, or photos are in Instagram.A user can get to a friend's story only by opening the app and swiping right, to a screen called the "My Friends list." It is a list of friends who have posted stories in the past 24 hours.Then the user has to touch one of those names and hold that finger on the screen as the story plays - remove the finger, and the video stops playing. If you're not paying attention to your friend's story anymore, Snapchat knows.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54f0ce8469bedd7524cb781c/snapchat stories.gif" border="0" alt="Snapchat Stories">Nicholas Carlson/Business Insider</img></div></div></div><h3>25 million people watching one story</h3>The night of January 26, 2015, after predictions of a historic snowstorm, thousands of New Yorkers were taking photos and videos of the city's snowy streets and adding them to their stories.Meanwhile, over in California, a team of Snapchat employees was skimming through the videos and photos being posted in New York that night and selecting the best ones to stitch into a single mega-story.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54f0cf7eecad045d16cb7822-577-1024/snapchat snowpocalypse.jpg" border="0" alt="A snap from the Snowpocalypse">Snapchat</img></div></div></div>Snapchat then published this onto every single Snapchat user's "My Friends list."Over the next 24 hours, 25 million people watched this mega-story. Then, as with every Snapchat story, it disappeared.Snapchat calls these mega-stories "Our Stories." It first produced one back in June, during the Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas. Since then Snapchat has made mega-stories about New Year's Eve, the Golden Globes, the National Dog Show, something called the Wally Festival, the Daytona 500, Duke's home basketball game against North Carolina, fashion weeks in the US and Europe, Vanity Fair's Oscars after-party, and dozens more events.The company will not come out and say exactly how many people watch these mega-stories, but we have been able to suss out some figures.This past fall, Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel said Snapchat's mega-stories about college football games attracted larger audiences than the audiences that watched the same games on TV.One of the Snapchat users who took a video that was stitched into Snapchat's mega-story about the Snowpocalpyse <a href="http://alexstechthoughts.com/post/111969183966/snapchat-is-turning-into-a-gorilla">told a friend that the app on his phone showed the video was watched 24.79 million times. </a>We have been able to confirm that the number meant the video was watched by 24.79 million individuals.24.79 million!It's a staggering number.Remember: "The Walking Dead" midseason finale reached 15 million, and "Sunday Night Football" reached 21 million. Those are the biggest hits on TV, and their audiences are smaller than Snapchat's.<h3>The perfect advertising platform</h3>Though <a href="http://adage.com/article/digital/snapchat-discussing-ad-type-similar-live-tv/295700/">Snapchat is in talks with marketers about the idea</a>, it does not yet run advertising in its mega-stories. It is impossible to imagine that it will not in the near future.The reason: Never has there been a content format more perfectly suited to make money than Snapchat "Our Stories."Consider the following traits of "Our Story" videos:<ul><li>The audience is 100% engaged. Because users have to press and hold to watch Snapchat Stories, advertisers will know whether their ads are being watched. The same cannot be said for TV commercials, which you can avoid by walking to the kitchen, or Facebook and YouTube videos, which you can leave open in another tab or even just put in your pocket.</li><li>They are opt-in. A Snapchat user has to go through a couple of screens to find a story to watch. It is a very intentional act. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter ads are much easier to accidentally bump into. </li><li>They provide the right context. A story about a fashion week is a perfect place to run an ad from L'Oreal. A story about the Duke-UNC game is a perfect place to run an ad for Gillette.</li><li>The have the right demographic. According to Business Insider Intelligence, more than 60% of Snapchat users are in the 18-to-24 age group. That is a coveted demographic for advertisers.</li><li>They are nearly "live." One reason ESPN and Turner are willing to pay $24 billion to broadcast NBA games is that, in the era of DVR, on-demand, and Netflix, TV sports are just about the only thing anybody watches live anymore - and advertisers love to advertise against live content.</li><li>They are broadcast scale. Advertisers love commercials - video advertising - because it is easy to tell a story with it. Advertisers also understand that consumers are spending more time with digital products and less with TV. But advertisers hate how small online TV audiences are. They want to spend lots of money on spots they know are going to be seen in the right context by a lot of people. They want broadcast scale.</li><li>They are actually great videos to watch. No one wants to advertise against boring, bad content. Snapchat's mega-stories are not boring or bad. In fact, they are an exciting new entertainment format. They give viewers live, intimate access to events they would never be able to attend on their own, like the Vanity Fair post-Oscars party. While the biggest of live events covered by TV are captured by maybe a dozen cameras at most, Snapchat's mega-stories can be stitched together using video from thousands of cameras. Finally, Snapchat's best "Our Stories" videos can sometimes do something magical; they can give you that "Being John Malkovich" feel of actually being inside someone else's head in another place for a moment. The trick is that they are made up of the kind of photos and videos you would take with the very same device you are using to watch the video. It is almost as if you are at the event being recorded, looking at a video or a photo you just shot.</li></ul><h3>A threat to Google, Facebook, and TV</h3>The size of Snapchat's "Our Stories" audiences is terrible for Google, Facebook, and broadcast TV.<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-future-of-digital-2014-slide-deck-2014-12?op=1">According to Nielsen data from 2013</a>, only 58% of people aged 18 to 24 watch any of the four big TV networks. Average prime-time TV ratings on the four major networks declined from 6.1 million viewers per show in 2007 to fewer than 5.6 million in 2012.If those numbers keep shrinking, advertisers are going to start looking for other places to put the $174 billion they spend on TV advertising every year.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5486e1716bb3f7e27ac76b04-533-265/interactions.png" border="0" alt="facebook youtube interactions">Socialbakers</img></div></div></div>When Google bought YouTube for $1.6 billion back in 2006 it was with an eye toward making it one of those places.But YouTube was built in a pre-mobile era, and it is struggling in mobile.People watch a lot of YouTube videos, but not through the YouTube app or by going to YouTube.com. They bump into them via Facebook or other social media. <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/viewers-dont-add-up-to-profit-for-youtube-1424897967">Wall Street Journal reporter Rolfe Winkler says YouTube still is not profitable, and it is generating just $4 billion per year in revenue.</a>Facebook executives see YouTube's weakness in mobile and are working very hard to capitalize. One of the company's biggest pushes in 2015 is to bring more video to its platform and stick ads in front of it.Facebook no doubt is going to make a lot of money selling video ads. Its audience is huge, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-vs-youtube-video-audience-share-comscore-2014-11">and it has been eating away at YouTube's share of videos viewed for a long time.</a>Facebook's advantages over YouTube are many, starting with the fact that 20% of the time people spend looking at their phones they are looking at the Facebook News Feed. But Facebook is weak in a few areas in which Snapchat is strong. One technical advantage: While Snapchat videos stop playing if the viewer stops holding a finger to the screen, Facebook videos in the News Feed are played automatically. One more meaningful advantage: Facebook has no video product that compares with Snapchat's "Our Stories." It has nothing so topical, so live, so huge.And, more frighteningly for Facebook executives, "Our Stories" are just the beginning for Snapchat.<h3>Your phone's rabbit ears</h3>If you want to use jargon, the way to think about Snapchat is to think of it as a communications and consumption platform.If you hate jargon, think of it as a cable box for your phone.On that cable box, Snapchat's "Our Stories" are the shows by the Snapchat channel. There are also other channels. Some of these channels are run by big media companies, including Vice, the Daily Mail, and CNN - each of which put out daily stories on a screen Snapchat calls "Discover."<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54d3d61c6bb3f71a1a8b4570-1200-1091/snapchaaat.jpg" border="0" alt="Snapchat Madonna Discover music video">Screenshot</img></div></div></div>Other channels are made up of shows produced by independent creators. There is a small but growing group of Snapchat celebrities who produce daily stories for huge audiences of "friends" on the service. <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/day-jerome-jarre-snapchat-gets-made">The New Yorker recently profiled one of those stars</a>, Jérôme Jarre. The New York Times' Nick Bilton wrote a column about another, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/15/style/be-the-star-of-your-own-snapchat-story-.html" target="_blank">Casey Neistat</a>.Neistat, who has 480,000 followers on YouTube, says the engagement he gets on Snapchat is unlike anything he has ever seen and that the service is the future of social media. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-headphones-tricks-2015-2">14 things you didn't know your iPhone headphones could do</a></h3> <div> <div> <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="o2OGM3czpWcydnvhjbkDBd6feXPuExiD" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> <script> if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; } RunFunctions.push(function() { var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'o2OGM3czpWcydnvhjbkDBd6feXPuExiD',{ autoplay: 'false' }); }); </script> <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div> </div> <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script> </div>

You Searched For "John Malkovich" and got 4 results

Taika Waititi explains the origins of his Oscar contender 'Jojo Rabbit,' why he ended up playing Hitler, and what it was like directing in costume

Jason Guerrasio

Biographer Ken Auletta, who failed to crack the Harvey Weinstein story in 2002, says he's done 100 interviews for his book on the disgraced mogul

Casey Sullivan

Dead Cops And Evil Spirits Hope To Scare Up Audiences - Here's What's In Theaters This Weekend

Melia Robinson

You think Snapchat is for sexting, but it's actually a giant threat to Google, Facebook, and TV

Nicholas Carlson