<keyword id="22167721" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Tapan-Kumar-Deka" source="keywords">Tapan Kumar Deka</keyword>, known as the '<keyword id="22170179" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Superspy" source="Orion">superspy</keyword>' with commendable expertise in handling terrorism and radicalisation related cases, was on Monday given a one-year extension till June 2025 as the chief of the <keyword id="19927120" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Intelligence-Bureau" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Intelligence Bureau" meta.hostid="153" meta.entityid="Intelligence Bureau">Intelligence Bureau</keyword> (IB). <keyword id="21835486" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="deka" source="keywords">Deka</keyword> is a 1988-batch Indian Police Service (<keyword id="48959" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="IPS" source="Orion">IPS</keyword>) officer of the Himachal Pradesh cadre. <br /><br /> The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved Deka's extension as the Director, Intelligence Bureau, for a period of one year beyond June 30, 2024, an order issued by the Personnel Ministry said. <br /><br /> His extension is "in relaxation of the provisions of FR 56 (d) and Rule 16 (1A) of All India Services (Death cum Retirement Benefits) Rules, 1958", it said. <br /><br /> The rules allow the central government to extend in "public interest" the services of the chiefs of IB and Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), Cabinet Secretary, Home Secretary and others, beyond 60 years age of superannuation. <br /><br /> Deka, known as the crisis manager in the power corridors and intelligence fraternity, was in June 2022 appointed as the IB chief for two years. His term was to end this month. <br /><br /> He is considered an expert in 'operations' especially in Jammu and Kashmir as well as in the Northeast region of the country. <br /><br /> Deka served as the head of the operations wing of the IB for over two decades before finally taking the reins of the agency. He was also in charge of the counter-assaults during the 26/11 Mumbai attack in 2008. <br /><br /> Adept in handling terrorism and Islamic radicalisation related cases, Deka had also led the operations against the terror group Indian Mujahideen, which was behind a series of subversive activities across the country in the 2000s. <br /><br /> He was also deputed in his home state Assam to handle the volatile situation that arose following the large-scale violence after the enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Act in 2019. <br /><br /> Deka has been the go-to man for the government on the affairs of Jammu and Kashmir as he has vast experience in handling Pakistan-sponsored terrorism in the Union Territory.

'Superspy' Tapan Kumar Deka gets a one-year extension as Intelligence Bureau chief

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Argentine director Lucrecia Martel originally met with Marvel to direct "Black Widow."</li><li>She said she hasn't watched it since its release and called Marvel's visual effects "very ugly."</li></ul><p><a href="https://www.insider.com/scarlett-johansson-controversy-timeline-most-divisive-moments">Scarlett Johansson</a> made her Marvel debut in 2010's "Iron Man" as <a href="https://www.insider.com/cringeworthy-sexist-black-widow-moments-in-marvel-movies">superspy Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow,</a> but it wouldn't be until 2021 that fans would get to see her leading her own adventure in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.</p><p>When it finally came to exploring more of <a href="https://www.insider.com/marvel-movies-black-widow-details-you-missed-2020-6">Natasha's story in "Black Widow,"</a> Marvel was keen to give the project to a female director to ensure the character was handled properly, and approached a number of women for the job. </p><p>Although Cate Shortland ultimately landed the gig, Argentine director Lucrecia Martel also met with the studio.</p><p>However, <a href="https://thefilmstage.com/lucrecia-martel-on-her-brush-with-the-mcu-awarding-joker-and-her-upcoming-javier-chocobar-documentary/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">speaking to The Film Stage</a>, Martel said she hasn't seen the final movie, and criticized the studio for "poor" visual and sound effects.</p><p>"No, no, no. I didn't see 'Black Widow.' I tried to," said Martel.</p><p>She continued: "It turns out some of the Marvel films are available on planes so I've seen a few. I find the sound in them is absolutely in very poor taste, the visual effects, and the sound of the effects."</p><p>"It's the selection of the sounds that they're connecting to the effects, which is actually very ugly. And the way the music is used is actually horrible," Martel further explained.</p><p>The "Headless Woman" and "Zama" director recalled how Marvel met with numerous directors for "Black Widow," and she "would never have imagined" that she would be on the shortlist. </p><p>"I never thought that would be possible," she said.</p><p>Martel added that if she was to make a Marvel movie, it would have to involve her own vision for the universe.</p><p>"I would have loved to make a film with them but I would have had to provide something that I would like to see in that world," she explained.</p>

Director who turned down 'Black Widow' says the visual effects in Marvel movies are 'very ugly' and the music is 'horrible'

<ul class="summary-list"><li>"Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning" almost de-aged Tom Cruise for a scene in the sequel.</li><li>Director Christopher McQuarrie said a young Cruise nearly appeared in the film's original opening.</li></ul><p><a href="https://www.insider.com/tom-cruise-mission-impossible-stunts-ranked-worst-to-best-2023-6">Tom Cruise</a> has been playing superspy Ethan Hunt in the <a href="https://www.insider.com/tom-cruise-mission-impossible-movies-ranked-worst-to-best-2023-6">"Mission: Impossible" movies</a> for over 25 years, and the most recent sequel – "Dead Reckoning Part One" – almost rolled back the clock in a flashback to before audiences first met the hero in 1996. </p><p>The 2023 movie follows Hunt as he battles a mysterious figure from his past, known only as Gabriel (Esai Morales), who has aligned himself with a powerful artificial intelligence that has become sentient and threatens to topple the entire world. </p><p><a href="https://www.insider.com/mission-impossible-7-tom-cruise-motorcycle-stunt-paramount-director-2023-6">Director Christopher McQuarrie</a> recently told <a href="https://www.gamesradar.com/dead-reckoning-alternate-opening-tom-cruise-de-aging/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GamesRadar</a> that the film almost started with a flashback, and he'd wanted to de-age Cruise for the scene. </p><p>"Originally, there had been a whole sequence at the beginning of the movie that was going to take place in 1989," McQuarrie said. "We talked about it as a cold open. We talked about it as flashbacks in the movie. We looked at de-aging."</p><p>Audiences recently saw something similar in <a href="https://www.insider.com/indiana-jones-dial-of-destiny-harrison-ford-emotional-evolution-2023-7">"Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,"</a> which opened with a 1940s-era set piece with a de-aged Harrison Ford fighting Nazis as a much-younger Indy. However, McQuarrie explained that while looking at other examples of de-aging, he stopped watching whatever film it was used in.</p><p>McQuarrie said: "One of the big things about [the de-aging] I was looking at while researching, I kept saying, 'Boy, this de-aging is really good' or 'This de-aging is not so good.' Never did I find myself actually following the story."</p><p>"I was so distracted by an actor that I had known for however long was now suddenly this young person," he added.</p><p>The director also didn't rule out the prospect of using de-aging technology on Cruise in a future movie, saying: "I cracked the code – I think – on how best to approach it. By then, we had kind of moved away from it. We may still play with it. We never say never."</p><p>Perhaps "Dead Reckoning Part Two" will show audiences how a young Hunt met Gabriel <a href="https://www.insider.com/mission-impossible-dead-reckoning-part-two-release-date-2023-7">when the sequel eventually arrives in theaters in 2024</a>.</p>

'Mission: Impossible' director nearly de-aged Tom Cruise in the original 'Dead Reckoning' opening, but thought it'd be too distracting

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Simon Clay/RM Sotheby's" title_caption="This Bond car Aston Martin DB5 is fitted with 13 different gadgets from its promotional work for the movie." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5d5568a6cd9784609f6fee42-960/1965 aston martin db5 bond car 4.jpg"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5d5568a6cd9784609f6fee42-2400/1965 aston martin db5 bond car 4.jpg" border="0" alt="1965 Aston Martin DB5 " data-mce-source="Simon Clay/RM Sotheby's" data-link="https://rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/mo19/monterey/lots/r0050-1965-aston-martin-db5-bond-car/778818" /></a><p class="source"><span><a href="https://rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/mo19/monterey/lots/r0050-1965-aston-martin-db5-bond-car/778818">Simon Clay/RM Sotheby's</a></span></p><p class="caption">This Bond car Aston Martin DB5 is fitted with 13 different gadgets from its promotional work for the movie.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>James Bond's 1965 <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/aston-martin">Aston Martin DB5</a> is going up for auction at RM Sotheby's "An Evening with Aston Martin" on August 15 as part of the Monterey auction week.</li><li>The car is fitted with fully-functioning gadgets such as two hidden front-facing machine guns in the fenders and bulletproof windows from its time as a promotion prop for the Bond movie, "Thunderball."</li><li>Sotheby's projects the car will fetch upwards of $6 million dollars at the auction.</li><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</strong></li></ul><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Super-spy James Bond's 1965 Aston Martin DB5 is up for auction this week, and it could be yours - bulletproof windows and all.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The auctioneer estimates the car to sell between $4 to $6 million when the hammer finally falls during its <a href="https://rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/mo19/monterey/lots/r0050-1965-aston-martin-db5-bond-car/778818">"An Evening with Aston Martin" event</a> on August 15 as part of the <span>2019 </span><span data-inline=""><a href="https://rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/mo19">Monterey auctions</a></span> in Monterey, California.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">After all, it's the "most famous car in the world" according to auctioneer RM Sotheby's, quoting author Dave Worrall, who wrote a book on the car. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The DB5 had its 10 minutes and 21 seconds of fame in the Oscar-winning 1964 film "Goldfinger" starring Sean Connery as James Bond, according to <a href="https://www.leasingoptions.co.uk/drive-to-a-kill/index.html">Leasing Options</a>. It was then used again in "Thunderball" with the additional fitting of a jet pack in the trunk and rear-firing water cannons. Bond movie production company Eon Productions also purchased two more DB5s for "Thunderball" promotional uses, which is how this example came into existence.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Two almost identical DB5s were built and loaned to Eon Productions with fictional MI6 Q-Branch specifications for the "Goldfinger." One was used for stunt driving, and the other for interior and close-up shots. The second was fitted with gadgets such as a Browning .30 caliber machine gun on each fender, wheel-hub mounted tire-slashers, a bulletproof screen, in-dash radar tracking scopes, smoke screen dispensers, passenger-seat ejection system, a hidden compartment under the driver's seat, and more. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">These gadgets in this car still fully-functioning as they were built by Aston Martin itself to be more durable. The vehicle being auctioned is one of the three surviving DB5s used by Eon.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The success of "Goldfinger" translated to success for Aston Martin. DB5 sales surged after the release of the film, according to Sotheby's. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"These DB5s are amazing - I remember the Furka Pass tire shredding as well as the promotional events with these cars - they have become increasingly iconic since Goldfinger and Thunderball, in fact, I bought a very fine DB5 myself relatively recently," Connery said in a prepared statement for Sotheby's.</span></p><p><em><strong>Read more: </strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hummer-h1-with-custom-luxury-interior-seats-upgrades-milspec-photos-2019-8">This $300,000 luxury Hummer features quilted leather seats and only 12 are being made - take a look inside</a></em></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The DB5s purchased for Thunderball were sold by Eon in 1969. This example changed hands three times, and was featured in a car museum in Tennessee for 35 years, Sotheby's says. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">The historical vehicle has since been restored, refinished, and refurbished to Aston Martin Heritage's standards for this year's auction.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"No other car in history has played a more important leading role on film and in pop culture than the Aston Martin DB5," said RM Sotheby's Car Specialist Barney Ruprecht in a prepared statement.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"The DB5 is the iconic cornerstone of a marketing relationship that still exists to this day-with the model's collectible status rooted largely in its 007 fame-and we look forward to exciting car and film enthusiasts alike in the lead up to the auction."</span></p> 

A pristine 'Bond Car' 1965 Aston Martin DB5 fitted with working gadgets could sell for up to $6 million at Monterey

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/533b3d91ecad04a633b20427-1338-1399/ap5380180558.jpg" alt="Jonathan Pollard" data-mce-source="AP" /><p class="source"><span>AP</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard will be released in November after have been granted parole, according to <a href="https://twitter.com/CharlieKayeCBS/status/626082748558540800">his lawyers </a>and an Israeli <a href="https://twitter.com/ChemiShalev/status/626082444031184898">official</a>.</p><p>The Wall Street Journal <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/israeli-spy-pollard-will-be-released-in-november-lawyers-say-1438104728">reports</a> that the decision by the federal parole board was unanimous and the US government didn't oppose his release.</p><p>Pollard, 60, was serving a life term in <span>a </span><span>North Carolina prison </span><span>after pleading guilty to spying for Israel from </span><span>June 1984 until his arrest in </span><span>November 1985.</span></p><p><span>The former Navy intelligence officer - </span><span>using his <span>Top Secret and Sensitive Compartmented Information </span>access to </span><span>national <keyword id="6354810" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Defense">defense</keyword> information</span><span> - </span><a href="http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB407/docs/Pollard%20damage%20assess%20CIA.pdf">provided</a><span> </span><span>Israel with thousands of pages of US intelligence on </span><span>military and technical </span><span>intelligence on the Soviet Union, Arab states, and Pakistan.</span></p><p><span>The lobby for Pollard's release has become a </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/18/world/middleeast/push-to-free-jonathan-pollard-as-obamas-israel-visit-nears.html?partner=rss&amp;emc=rss">mainstream cause</a><span> in Israel with the general argument being that<span> he has already served 28 years for actions that benefited a key U.S. ally but </span><a href="http://www.meforum.org/355/why-jonathan-pollard-got-life">did not harm</a><span> the national security of the U.S. </span></span><span></span></p><p><span>Prosecutors in the case <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/19/us/damage-in-pollard-spy-case-termed-serious-blow-to-us.html">stated</a> that "Pollard compromised a breadth and volume of classified information as great as in any reported espionage case" in U.S. history.</span></p><p><span><span><span>In 2006 Pollard's handler, </span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-explosive-story-of-how-israel-received-weapons-grade-nuclear-material-from-a-us-company-in-the-sixties-2012-8">superspy Rafi Eitan</a><span>, told the newspaper Yediot Aharonot that Pollard </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/03/international/middleeast/03pollard.html?ref=jonathanjpollard&amp;_r=1">provided</a><span> "information of such high quality and accuracy, so good and so important to the country's security" that "my desire, my appetite to get more and more material overcame me."</span></span></span></p><p><span>Pollard <a href="http://www.jta.org/news/article/1997/12/18/2269/Pollardissuespubli">issued</a> a public apology in 1997. His lawyer <a href="http://www.pulse.me/ap/1e436cd11ade4d158166de38d53d6881?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=pulsenews">says</a> his health is failing <span>as he suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure, and kidney stones.</span></span> </p><p><span><span>The statement by Pollard's lawyers noted that the decision "<span>wasn't in any way related to US negotiations with Iran." Reports over the weekend <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/israeli-spy-pollard-will-be-released-in-november-lawyers-say-1438104728">implied</a> that US officials were pushing to release Pollard to help smooth things over with Israel after Iran and world powers reached a historic nuclear deal.</span></span></span> </p><p><span><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55b7bd8c371d22472c8b8503-1769-1327/pollard-6.jpg" alt="pollard 6" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Baz Ratner" /><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Baz Ratner</span></p><p class="caption">An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man walks past posters calling for U.S. President Barack Obama to free Jonathan Pollard from a U.S. prison, in Jerusalem March 20, 2013.</p></div><p></p></div></div></span></span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/us-military-spending-billions-2015-7">How the US military spends its billions</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="9kdmNndjo8M7QNeyl5Jgy5yfYCzEf-HI" 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', '9kdmNndjo8M7QNeyl5Jgy5yfYCzEf-HI',{ 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>

Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard granted parole, will be released in November

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/56f1774add0895181c8b4650-3600-1800/titus-kimmy-schmidt.jpg" alt="titus kimmy schmidt" data-mce-source="Eric Liebowitz/Netflix" /><p class="source"><span>Eric Liebowitz/Netflix</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>It's that time again! Netflix recently released its list of TV shows and movies coming to the streaming site.</p><p>Ellie Kemper and Jane Krakowski will return in season two of "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" along with a few other original series and movies from Patton Oswalt and  </p><p>There are also a few Stanley Kubrick classics in the mix.</p><p>Here's the full list of April releases. We've highlighted some favorites below.</p><p><strong>Available 4/1/2016</strong></p><p>"16 Blocks" (2006)<br /><strong>"2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968)</strong><br /><strong>"A Clockwork Orange" (1971)</strong><br />"Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown" Season 5<br />"The Ascent of Woman: A 10,000 Year Story"<br />Netflix describes as a "four-part documentary series originally created for BBC2 in the UK that charts the role of women in society over the course of 10,000 years."<br />"Beat Bobby Flay" Season 1<br />Best in Show (2000)</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/56f1774add0895181c8b4651-1780-958/clockwork orange.jpg" alt="A Clockwork Orange" data-mce-source="Warner Bros via YouTube" data-link="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0HO0tb0i2E" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0HO0tb0i2E">Warner Bros via YouTube</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div><br />"Bob's Burgers" Season 5<br /><strong>"Boogie Nights" (1997)</strong><br />"Breathe" (2014)<br />"Chaplin" (1992)<br />"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (2005)<br />"Codegirl" (2015)<br />"Colegas" (2012)<br />"Cujo" (1983)<br />"Cutthroat Kitchen" Seasons 3-4<br />"Deep Impact" (1998)<br />"Dennis Rodman's Big Bang in Pyongyang" (2015)<br />"Dolphin Tale" (2011)<br /><strong>"Erin Brockovich" (2000)</strong><br />"Explorers" (1985)<br />"Fixer Upper" Season 2<br />"Frank and Cindy" (2015)<br />"Giada at Home" Season 7<br />"The Great Food Truck Race" Seasons 1-2<br />"House Hunters" Collection 3<br />"House Hunters International" Collection 3<br />"House Hunters International Renovation" Season 1<br />"Jeremy Scott: The People's Designer" (2015)<br />"Kids Baking Championship" Season 1<br />"Looking for Richard" (1996)<br />"Lost &amp; Found Music Studios" Netflix Original Season 1<br />"A group of talented young performers in a unique elite music program hope to turn their passion into their profession."<br />"Love It or List It, Too" Season 4<br />"The Mask You Live In (2015)<br />"Morituri" (1965)<br /><strong>"My Girl" (1991)</strong><br /><strong>"Mystic River" (2003)<br /></strong>"The Next Best Thing" (2000)<br /><strong>"The Perfect Storm" (2000)</strong><br />"The Phantom" (1996)<br /><strong>"The Princess Bride" (1987)</strong><br />"Property Brothers at Home" Season 1<br />"The Ranch - Part I" Netflix Original<br />"Being a pro athlete didn't pan out for Colt. Now he's helping his dad and brother keep the ranch a float, and figuring out how he fits into the family."<br />"Rev Run's Sunday Suppers" (2014)<br />"The Right Stuff" (1983)<br />"Rising Sun" (1993)<br /><strong>"The Running Man" (1987)</strong><br />"Say It Isn't So" (2001)<br /><strong>"The Shawshank Redemption" (1994)</strong></p><p><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/56f1774add0895181c8b4652-1920-1080/shawshank1.jpg" alt="Shawshank Redemption, rain" data-mce-source="Columbia Pictures" /><p class="source"><span>Columbia Pictures</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></strong><strong><br /></strong>"Scrooged" (1988)<br />"Something's Gotta Give" (2003)<br />"Sunset Boulevard" (1950)<br />"Transporter 3" (2008)<br />"Uncommon Valor" (1983)<br />"Under the Same Moon" (2007)<br /><strong>"V for Vendetta" (2005)</strong></p><p><strong>Available 4/5/2016</strong></p><p>"Walt Before Mickey" (2015)</p><p><strong>Available 4/8/2016</strong></p><p>"God's Pocket" (2014)<br />"Hush" (2016)</p><p><strong>Avaialble 4/9/2016</strong></p><p>"Look Who's Back" (2015) - <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/netflix-hitler-comedy-look-whos-back-2016-2">The Adolf Hitler comedy</a></p><p><strong>Available 4/11/2016</strong></p><p>"TURN: Washington's Spies" Season 2</p><p><strong>Available 4/12/2016</strong></p><p>"AJIN" Netflix Original Season 1<br />"A teenager discovers that he is an Ajin and flees before the authorities experiment on him. Other Ajin plan to fight back and he must choose a side."</p><p><strong>Available 4/14/2016</strong></p><p>"Moonwalkers" (2015)<br /><strong>"Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine" (2015)</strong></p><p><strong>Available 4/15/2016</strong></p><p>"Belgica" (2016)<br />"Cuckoo" Netflix Original Season 3<br />"Kong King of the Apes" Netflix Original film and series<br /><strong>"Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" Netflix Original Season 2 </strong></p><p><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/56f1774add0895181c8b4653-2000-1333/01_nup_163503_0560_r.jpg" alt="unbreakable kimmy schmidt" data-mce-source="Eric Liebowitz/Netflix" /><p class="source"><span>Eric Liebowitz/Netflix</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></strong></p><p><strong>Available 4/16/2016</strong></p><p><strong>"How to Get Away with Murder" Season 2</strong></p><p><strong>Available 4/17/2016</strong></p><p>"Lost Girl" Season 5<br />"The Messengers" Season 1</p><p><strong>Available 4/22/2016</strong></p><p>"Catching the Sun" (2015)<br /><strong>"Patton Oswalt: Tallking for Clapping" Netflix Original </strong><br />A one-hour stand-up comedy special.</p><p><strong>Avaialble 4/24/2016</strong></p><p><strong>"Minions" (2015)</strong></p><p><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/56f1774add0895181c8b4654-3600-2025/minions 2 universal pictures.jpg" alt="Minions 2 Universal Pictures" data-mce-source="Universal Pictures/&amp;quotMinions&quot;" /><p class="source"><span>Universal Pictures/"Minions"</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></strong></p><p><strong>Available 4/27/2016</strong></p><p><strong>"Begin Again" (2014)<br /></strong>"The Fosters" Season 3</p><p><strong>Available 4/29/2016</strong></p><p>"Danger Mouse" Netflix Original Season 1<strong><br /></strong>"The world's greatest super­spy returns to save the world with the help of hapless hamster Penfold and a collection of state­of­the­art gadgetry."<br />"Hellion" (2014)<br />"Special Correspondents" (2016) Netflix Original<br />"Ricky Gervais's hilarious comedy follows a struggling radio journalist and his hapless technician faking frontline war reports from a NYC hideout."<br /><strong>"Team Foxcatcher" (2016) Netflix Original</strong><br />"With never­before seen home video, this film recounts the paranoid downward spiral of John E. du Pont and the murder of Olympic wrestler David Schultz."</p><p><strong>Available 4/30/2016</strong></p><p>"Sensitive Skin" Season 2</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/smartphone-exposure-affecting-brain-2016-3">What happens to your brain when you check your phone all the time</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="xzZW5meDpYCpFU1t_RwFhx4rGx-ruOP8" 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', 'xzZW5meDpYCpFU1t_RwFhx4rGx-ruOP8',{ 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>

Here's everything coming to Netflix this month

<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="image-container float_right" style="width:350px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/5149b8c16bb3f73e57000000-400-600/polard_-_rami_barukh_-_spira_(142).jpg?maxX=350" border="0" alt="pollard" width="350" /></div><p class="source"><a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Polard_-_Rami_Barukh_-_Spira_(142).JPG">Wikimedia Commons</a></p><p class="caption">Jonathan Pollard in a photo dated April 10, 2011</p></div>As President Barack Obama traveled to <keyword id="6355882" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="israel">Israel</keyword>, </span><a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/live-blog-obama-en-route-to-israel-in-air-force-one-1.510493">more than 2,000</a><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> gathered outside Israeli President Shimon Peres' house to call for the release of dual American-Israeli citizen Jonathan Pollard</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">.</span></p>
<p>Pollard, 58, is serving a life term in <span>a </span><span>North Carolina prison </span><span>after pleading guilty to spying for Israel from </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">June 1984 until his arrest in </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">November 1985.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">The former Navy intelligence officer — </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">using his <span>Top Secret and Sensitive Compartmented Information </span>access to </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">national <keyword id="6354810" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Defense">defense</keyword> information</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> — </span><a href="http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB407/docs/Pollard%20damage%20assess%20CIA.pdf">provided</a><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Israel with thousands of pages of <keyword id="103894" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="U-S-">U.S.</keyword> intelligence on </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><keyword id="6359526" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Military">military</keyword> and technical </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">intelligence on the Soviet Union, Arab states, and Pakistan.</span></p>
<p><span>The lobby for Pollard's release has become a </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/18/world/middleeast/push-to-free-jonathan-pollard-as-obamas-israel-visit-nears.html?partner=rss&amp;emc=rss">mainstream cause</a><span> in Israel. (Even supermodel Bar Refaeli <a href="http://instagram.com/p/W_ptdOMUT_/">chimed in</a>.)</span></p>
<p><span><strong>The argument </strong><span>is based on the position that he has already served 28 years for actions that benefited a key U.S. ally but </span><a href="http://www.meforum.org/355/why-jonathan-pollard-got-life">did not harm</a><span> the national security of the U.S.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>More than </span><a href="http://www.atzuma.co.il/presidentobama">200,000</a><span> people have signed an online petition for his release and top Israeli officials have </span><a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-tells-pollards-wife-hell-ask-for-jailed-spys-release/">indicated</a><span> that they will ask Obama for his release. (In 2010 officials </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/world/middleeast/21israel.html?ref=jonathanjpollard">offered</a><span> to </span><span>extend the temporary moratorium on settlement construction in exchange for the Pollard's release.)</span></span></p>
<p>But last week Obama <a href="http://www.jewishpress.com/news/obama-on-eve-of-visit-i-will-not-free-pollard/2013/03/14/#">told</a> Israel's Channel 2 that he is not about to free Jonathan Pollard from prison because he “committed a very serious crime."</p>
<p><span>Prosecutors in the case <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/19/us/damage-in-pollard-spy-case-termed-serious-blow-to-us.html">stated</a> that "Pollard compromised a breadth and volume of classified information as great as in any reported espionage case" in U.S. history.</span></p>
<p><span><span><span>In 2006 Pollard's handler, </span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-explosive-story-of-how-israel-received-weapons-grade-nuclear-material-from-a-us-company-in-the-sixties-2012-8">superspy Rafi Eitan</a><span>, told the newspaper Yediot Aharonot that Pollard </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/03/international/middleeast/03pollard.html?ref=jonathanjpollard&amp;_r=1">provided</a><span> "<strong>information of such high quality and accuracy</strong>, so good and so important to the country's security" that "my desire, my appetite to get more and more material overcame me."</span></span></span></p>
<p><div class="image-container" style="width:630px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/5149be8069bedd9539000006-1769-1327/pollard-6.jpg" border="0" alt="pollard" width="630" /></div><p class="source">REUTERS/Baz Ratner</p></div></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Israel Bureau Chief of Defense News Barbara Opall-Rome recently described Pollard as "a man who committed a serious crime for financial gain and glory."</span></p>
<p>From her <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/jonathan-pollard-is-no-prisoner-of-zion.premium-1.510034">op-ed in Haaretz</a>:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">"Pollard was not sentenced for unauthorized transfer of classified information to Israel, but for espionage, pure and simple. U.S. law does not distinguish idealistic from nefarious motivations, nor does it matter whether classified documents were stolen on behalf of friend or foe."</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Pollard <a href="http://www.jta.org/news/article/1997/12/18/2269/Pollardissuespubli">issued</a> a public apology in 1997. His lawyer <a href="http://www.pulse.me/ap/1e436cd11ade4d158166de38d53d6881?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=pulsenews">says</a> his health is failing <span>as he suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure, and kidney stones. </span></span></p>

Why President Obama Refuses To Pardon Israeli Spy Jonathan Pollard

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="James Jean/Vertigo" title_caption="From the cover of " Fables="" which="" features="" Snow="" White.="" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55aee9462acae74c2f8b63f5-960/fables-33.jpg"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55aee9462acae74c2f8b63f5-1922-1442/fables-33.jpg" alt="fables 33" data-mce-source="James Jean/Vertigo" /></a><p class="source"><span>James Jean/Vertigo</span></p><p class="caption">From the cover of "Fables" #33 which features Snow White.</p></div><p></p></div></div>"Fables" is a comic book that crept up on me, one that I didn't know I loved until it was too late and I was 60 issues in and the story broke my heart. </p><p>Years ago, someone handed me a copy of the first volume, subtitled "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Fables-Legends-Exile-Vol-1/dp/140123755X">Legends in Exile</a>," and insisted that I read it. It's hard not to read "Fables" once it's in front of you -  the series is about characters from fairy tales of yore secretly living among us, and the volume that introduces them is a murder mystery where the Big Bad Wolf has reformed, taken human shape, and is a detective investigating the violent death of Snow White's sister Rose Red. </p><p>That's a pretty good hook. </p><p>Then you meet the rest of the fairy tale characters, and see how they live once happily ever after is over and done with, and it's fascinating. Prince Charming is an unrepentant womanizer, Cinderella pretends to be an airheaded narcissist but is secretly a deadly superspy, and Goldilocks is straight-up homicidal - the list goes on.</p><p class="p1">There's also Boy Blue, Flycatcher the Prince who was once a frog, and a little girl named Therese but you need to read their stories yourself. Those are the ones that broke my heart, and would probably do the same to yours, too.</p><p><span>The series was not so much a reinvention of these characters as it was a close read of them, positing the petty rivalries and implied dysfunctions that would be brought to the surface if they all knew each other and were exiled from their magical homelands to our mundane world. </span> </p><p>That's what they call us, by the way. "Mundies." It's short for "mundane," which I suppose is accurate. </p><p>Created by writer Bill Willingham and artist Lan Medina (who left the series after its first story arc - Mark Buckingham would do the art on the next arc and then go on to become synonymous with the series and Willingham's storytelling partner), "Fables" kicked off in the summer of 2002, and told the story of Fabletown, the invisible neighborhood in the center of Manhattan where fairy tale characters lived among us after a villain known as "The Adversary" exiled them from their homelands. </p><p>Part of what made "Fables" interesting was that it pulled its characters from far and wide - the old stalwarts from "Grimm's Fairy Tales" got plenty of play, but the Willingham and co. also looked to nursery rhymes and folk tales  from all over the world - everything from "The Thousand and One Nights" to L. Frank Baum's "Oz" books was fair game. </p><p>"Fables" would go on to win 14 Eisner awards (that's the comic book equivalent of the Oscars) over the next 13 years, garnering praise and acclaim for just about every aspect of the craft. A lot of those awards were for cover artist James Jean, whose stunning portraits were the first thing many readers saw for the first 81 issues of the series. They're simply beautiful pieces of fine art. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="James Jean/Vertigo" title_caption="Cover art to " Fables="" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55aeb6042acae7f4028b8a26-960/fables 21 cover.jpg"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55aeb6042acae7f4028b8a26-1920-2951/fables 21 cover.jpg" alt="Fables 21 cover" data-mce-source="James Jean/Vertigo" /></a><p class="source"><span>James Jean/Vertigo</span></p><p class="caption">Cover art to "Fables" #21.</p></div><p></p></div></div><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="James Jean/Vertigo" title_caption="The cover of " Fables="" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55aee574371d2212008b86d3-960/fables-69.jpg"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55aee574371d2212008b86d3-853-1280/fables-69.jpg" alt="fables 69" data-mce-source="James Jean/Vertigo" /></a><p class="source"><span>James Jean/Vertigo</span></p><p class="caption">The cover of "Fables" 69.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>This week, it's all coming to an end. </p><p>On Wednesday, July 22, "Fables" will take a bow with its 150th issue, which is a full-sized, 178-page graphic novel (that doubles as the series 22nd volume). Titled "Farewell", the graphic novel will wrap up the story Willingham and Buckingham have been telling alongside a deep roster of other talented creators like Steve Leialoha and Andrew Pepoy for over a decade.  </p><p>Few comic book series last very long. In superhero comics, this is a supply-and-demand thing: The two most prominent superhero publishers, Marvel and DC, have roughly 50-something monthly titles each, and at about four dollars an issue, not everything can be a huge success. Books are canceled all the time, usually within a year, in order to make room for something else. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55aeb6502acae7c7018b8939-800-1208/fables_63.jpg" alt="Fables_63" data-mce-source="James Jean/Vertigo" data-mce-caption="Cover art to " /><p class="source"><span>James Jean/Vertigo</span></p><p class="caption">Cover art to "Fables" #63.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>For a series  like "Fables" - one controlled wholly by its creators - the book will last as long as the people making it want to keep telling stories.  This can mean anything from three issues to 60 (a few months or five years). Rare is the series that makes it to 100 issues, and rarer still are the ones that surpass it by a large margin. </p><p>I'll miss "Fables", not because I had any particularly strong attachment to the characters it culled from songs older than anyone I'll ever meet and stories first told by people we no longer remember, but because it understood why those characters mattered.</p><p>Because we've always been telling stories, and we always will. Because stories are the one real form of magic we have - where we all dream of a Happily Ever After although the only thing we're really promised is a Once Upon a Time.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/dragonball-z-resurrection-f-trailer-2015-6">I've never watched anime before - but this new 'Dragonball Z' movie looks like a blast</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="Z4OHF3dToI9Ky2gxaK57stT3sG0kTPAq" 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', 'Z4OHF3dToI9Ky2gxaK57stT3sG0kTPAq',{ 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>

After more than a decade, one of the best comic series which showed why adults should care about fairy tales is coming to an end

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/533ab8a96bb3f7f32d56bb86-1200-924/kerry-5.jpg" border="0" alt="kerry" /><p class="source"><span>AP/Jacquelyn Martin</span></p><p class="caption">In this March 30, 2014, photo U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry listens to a question at a news conference in Paris.</p></div><p></p></div></div>The Obama administration is considering the release of an Israeli spy who did historic damage to the U.S. in an attempt to salvage U.S.-brokered peace talks between Israel and Palestine.</p>
<p>Jonathan Pollard, 59, is serving a life term in a North Carolina prison after pleading guilty to spying for Israel from <span>June 1984 until his arrest in </span><span>November 1985.</span></p>
<p><span>The former Navy intelligence officer - </span><span>using his Top Secret and Sensitive Compartmented Information access to </span><span>national <keyword id="6354810" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Defense">defense</keyword> information</span><span> - </span><a href="http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB407/docs/Pollard%20damage%20assess%20CIA.pdf">provided</a><span> </span><span>Israel with thousands of pages of U.S. intelligence on </span><span>military and technical </span><span>intelligence on the Soviet Union, Arab states, and Pakistan.</span></p>
<p>Pollard's handler, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-explosive-story-of-how-israel-received-weapons-grade-nuclear-material-from-a-us-company-in-the-sixties-2012-8">Israeli superspy Rafi Eitan</a>, told the newspaper Yediot Aharonot i<span>n 2006 </span>that Pollard <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/03/international/middleeast/03pollard.html?ref=jonathanjpollard&amp;_r=1">provided</a> "information of such high quality and accuracy, so good and so important to the country's security" that "my desire, my appetite to get more and more material overcame me."</p>
<p>U.S. officials, however, contend that much the information Pollard took - a stack he said would have measured <span>six-by-six feet and stood 10-feet high </span>- was unrelated to Israel, <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/03/31/early_release">Shane Harris of Foreign Policy reports</a><span>.</span></p>
<p><span><span>"Much of what he took, contrary to what he'd have you believe, had nothing to do with Arab countries or the security of Israel, but had everything to do with U.S. collection methods, to include most specifically against the Soviet Union," </span>Adm. Thomas Brooks (Ret.), a former director of naval intelligence who Pollard worked for in 1980, </span>told Foreign Policy<span>.</span></p>
<p>"I think what [Pollard] did is exceeded only by Edward Snowden," Brooks added, referring to the former NSA contractor who accessed an estimated 1.7 million documents dealing with U.S. surveillance and military capabilities as well as those of American adversaries. (It's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/snowden-and-military-information-2014-3">unclear</a> how many files Snowden ended up taking.)</p>
<p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/533ab9c4ecad045863cebd5e-1200-600/pollard-12.jpg" border="0" alt="pollard" /><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Baz Ratner</span></p></div><p></p></div></div><br /></span></p>
<p><span><span>The possible Pollard deal, </span><span></span><a href="http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Details-of-plan-to-free-Pollard-save-floundering-peace-talks-emerge-347145">outlined in the Jerusalem Post</a><span>, would reportedly extend negotiations past a April 29 deadline and into 2015 while also securing the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, some of whom were convicted of terror acts before the 1993 Oslo Accords.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span>"The Israelis would say to Kerry: 'You're asking us to allow the release of prisoners who have 50 deaths on their hands. Surely you can release one man who means a lot to the Israeli people,'" Daniel C. Kurtzer, a former American ambassador to Israel, told The Times.</span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span>Nevertheless, experts and former officials are criticizing the potential move. </span></span></p>
<p><span><span>"If you can't get the [Israel-Palestine] deal without releasing Pollard, that's truly a catastrophe," former Middle East negotiator Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East negotiator who is now a vice president at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/03/31/obama-admin-confirms-we-may-free-israeli-spy-to-save-peace-talks.html">told</a> The Daily Beast.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>"I think it shows real desperation," Miller told </span><span></span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/01/world/middleeast/pollard.html?_r=0">The New York Times</a><span>. </span><span>"In an era of leaks and surveillance and Snowden, the idea that the administration is going to trade Jonathan Pollard makes absolutely no sense."</span></span></p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="180" data-total-count="2345"><span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/30/israel-palestinian-peace-talks-key-issues">Unresolved issues</a> in peace negotiations include Israeli settlement building, the division of lands, the fate of Jerusalem (considered the capital by both states), Israeli military concerns in the Jordan Valley, and Israel's demand that Palestine recognize it as a Jewish state.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><a href="http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-03-31/a-spy-s-release-won-t-bring-peace-to-the-middle-east">Jeffrey Goldberg of Bloomberg notes</a> that it's unclear if the release of Israel's most notorious spy would resolve any of those issues.</span></p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="180" data-total-count="2345"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">"</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">The right-wing of the [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's] coalition, and the right-most members of the prime minister's own Likud Party, would like very much to welcome Pollard at Ben-Gurion International Airport, but they will not trade land for him, not one inch," Goldberg writes.</span></p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="180" data-total-count="2345"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Goldberg considers the potential Pollard deal as a signal that peace talks are close to collapsing, and others see it as an attempt to extend a process that the Obama administration is highly-invested in.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><span>"You may get some kind of muddle through that will get us past the April 29 deadline," <span>Miller, the<span> former Middle East negotiator</span>, told The Beast.</span> "The question is what the price will be and what will be the costs to American credibility."</span></span></p>

Why A Spy 'Exceeded Only By Edward Snowden' May Soon Be Freed By The US

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/553efeceecad04fb5a49ec88-900-675/samuel-l-jackson-nick-fury.jpg" border="0" alt="samuel l jackson nick fury"><p class="source"><span>From Marvel's "Ultimates" by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch.</span></p><p class="caption">Look familiar?</p></img></div><p></p></div></div>Nick Fury was white, but, in a 2001 re-envisioning of the character, writer Mark Millar and artist Bryan Hitch decided to make him black. What's more, they made him look like Samuel L. Jackson.</p><p>The comic "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Ultimates-Collection-Mark-Millar/dp/0785143874">Ultimates</a>," which offered a modern version of Marvel's Avengers, has been cited as a major influence for the movies by everyone from <a href="http://mybelovedjane.tumblr.com/post/22255004450/introduction-to-the-ultimates-by-joss-whedon">"Avengers" director Joss Whedon</a> to <a href="http://newempressmagazine.com/2012/04/in-interview-5-minutes-with-mark-millar/">Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige</a>. <span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Nowhere is that more clear than in the casting of Jackson as super spy Fury.</span></p><p>Millar explained in an email to BI why he made Fury look like Jackson and how the actor responded when he finally met the writer (emphasis ours):</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">I wanted an African-American Nick Fury to be director of SHIELD because the closest thing in the real world to this job title was held by Colin Powell at the time. I also thought Nick Fury sounded like one of those great, 1970s Blaxploitation names and so the whole thing coalesced for me into a very specific character, an update of the cool American super-spy Jim Steranko had done in the 70s and based on the Rat Pack, which seemed very nineteen sixties and due for some kind of upgrade. Sam is famously the coolest man alive and both myself an artist Bryan Hitch just liberally used him without asking any kind of permission. you have to remember this was 2001 when we were putting this together. The idea that this might become a movie seemed preposterous as Marvel was just climbing out of bankruptcy at the time.</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">What we didn't know was that Sam was an avid comic fan and knew all about it. One of my books was adapted recently as Kingsman: The Secret Service, where Sam played the bad guy, and we finally got to hang out on the set. <strong>The first thing I said was I hope you don't mind me completely exploiting your appearance in my book thirteen years back and he said 'fuck, no, man. Thanks for the 9 picture deal'.</strong> He's fantastic.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5182e877eab8ea0111000003-1011-541/nick-fury-iron-man.png" border="0" alt="nick fury iron man 2" style="color: #000000;"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/paramount/ironman/">Iron Man 2 trailer</a></span></p><p class="caption">Samuel L. Jackson was thrilled to be in a comic.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div>Millar's book was pretty explicit about using Jackson as a model. Fury even jokes in one issue that he should be played by Jackson in a hypothetical movie about the Ultimates.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/553ef386ecad04f72c49ec8c-1165-551/screen shot 2015-04-27 at 10.40.19 pm.png" border="0" alt="ultimates nick fury samuel l jackson"><p class="source"><span>From "The Ultimates" written by Mark Millar, drawn by Bryan Hitch.</span></p><p class="caption">Foreshadowing from 2002 -&#xa0;way before the movies.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>In the same comic, characters suggest casting Brad Pitt as Captain America, Johnny Depp as Tony Stark, Matthew McConnaughey as Ant Man, Lucy Liu as the Wasp, and Steve Buscemi as Bruce Banner (or as he would prefer, Freddie Prinze Jr.).</p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">While Marvel's Avengers movies didn't take Millar's other casting suggestions, they took a lot of plot elements from "Ultimates," including the Chitauri and Loki as villains.</span></p><p><a href="http://newempressmagazine.com/2012/04/in-interview-5-minutes-with-mark-millar/">As Millar told New Empress Magazine in 2012</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">: "</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Kevin Fiege (who runs Marvel Studios) was a big fan of the books and told us it made him realise an Avengers movie could actually be a lot simpler than they'd thought and so they used book one and the ending to book two as the template for the movie, which is enormously flattering."</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/553ef7e1ecad04bb3c49ec88-1200-924/ultimates_by_inhuman00.jpg" border="0" alt="marvel ultimates" style="color: #000000;"><p class="source"><span>From Marvel's "Ultimates" by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch.</span></p></img></div><p></p></div></div>Sean Howe, writing in "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Marvel-Comics-The-Untold-Story/dp/0061992119">Marvel Comics: The Untold Story</a>," goes so far as to claim that "Ultimates" was <span>"intended as a demonstration of how 'The Avengers' franchise" could be transmogrified into a megaplex attraction."</span></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>Millar tells BI, however, that no one was thinking about a movie when he signed on to the comic:</span></span></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span><span>My first book at Marvel was a reboot of the X-Men and it launched at number 1 so they asked me what I wanted to do next. I said I wanted to reboot The Avengers and they winced because the X-Men and Spider-Man titles were their biggest sellers at the time. The Avengers family of characters, they told me, were a waste of my time and they asked me to do a Wolverine book instead. But I was really passionate about this. It was a real labour of love and I had the perfect artist in Bryan Hitch to give this book a very realistic feel that tied together all the characters in a much more natural way I felt mainstream audiences would get. Marvel at this point had these characters scattered across different studios like New Line, Universal and one or two others so a movie was never in consideration. Their single purpose at the time was getting the comic-division back into the black as things had been quite rough for a couple of years. Anything that happened after is just because the material worked well for the mainstream and was described by readers as cinematic. Of course, we didn't realise six or seven years later we were going to see all this start to come together as a movie. Marvel weren't self-financing until 2008.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Millar has had a hand in an insane number of other comic movies, too, creating "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kick-Ass-Mark-Millar/dp/0785134352">Kick-Ass</a>," "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wanted-Mark-Millar/dp/1582404976">Wanted</a>," and "<a href="The%20Secret%20Service:%20Kingsman">The Secret Service: Kingsman</a>" as part of his Millarworld publishing company, while advising various Disney Marvel movies and <a href="http://screenrant.com/x-men-fantastic-four-movies-fox-mark-millar/2/">overseeing Fox's Marvel Cinematic Universe</a>.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span><span>When I mentioned that Whedon and Feige have cited his work as an influence on "The Avengers," he offered this comment on his legacy:</span></span></span></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span>It's nice of them to point it out and we're proud of the work we did. We didn't own those characters and we're very philosophical about what they use in the movies. I left Marvel a few years back to create Millarworld, really just trying to BECOME Marvel I guess and the revamp of The Avengers I did was a wonderful step towards that as it gave me an audience I could bring my own characters like Kick-Ass, Wanted, Kingsman and all the new stuff too. I still have a really good relationship with those guys, but am full time creating my own thing now. We're on franchise twelve in publishing and just sold franchises eight and nine as movies (Chrononauts to Chris Morgan at Universal and Jupiter's Legacy to Lorenzo DiBonaventura). Revamping The Avengers was an amazing six years of my life, though. As a fanboy it was kind of a dream. I feel I've left my mark on Marvel, which is exciting, but as Stan Lee himself said to me at the time I really had to go out there and create my own stuff.</span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/marvel-legend-stan-lee-mistake-2014-6">This Was Marvel Legend Stan Lee's One Big Mistake</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="lzYXg1bjr9epa5ZDxnn_UFMFj2QioKSb" 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', 'lzYXg1bjr9epa5ZDxnn_UFMFj2QioKSb',{ 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>

Back in 2001, Marvel made Nick Fury look like Samuel L. Jackson without asking: His response was perfect

<p><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/586c108ddd0895bc7f8b4c79-1150" alt="sherlock season 4" data-mce-source="PBS" /><p class="source"><span>PBS</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></strong></p><p><strong>This post contains spoilers for <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/programs/series/sherlock-s4/">the season 4 premiere of "Sherlock," "The Six Thatchers."</a></strong></p><p>It's time to end "Sherlock."</p><p>Even though there have been only 11 episodes, "Sherlock" has changed dramatically between its premiere six-and-a-half years ago. It's only gotten messier and worse.</p><p>"Sherlock" has always been an odd, and special, show.</p><p>It adapts the classic Arthur Conan Doyle stories in the present day with remarkable fidelity to the original stories. Sherlock Holmes, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, is a quick-witted asexual genius living in 221B Baker Street in London. Martin Freeman plays John Watson, a doctor and veteran of the War in Afghanistan (rather than the Second Anglo-Afghan War from Doyle's books) who blogs about their adventures. Each episode is 90 minutes long, with the duo solving a seemingly unsolvable mystery.</p><p>It's all within the framework of building up a big showdown against a more clever villain moving behind the scenes across the season's three episodes. It's droll, sharp, and a lot of fun.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/586c108ddd0895bc7f8b4c7a-1150" alt="sherlock mycroft season 4 episode 1" data-mce-source="PBS" data-mce-caption="Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes." /><p class="source"><span>PBS</span></p><p class="caption">Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The latest episode, "The Six Thatchers,"<a href="http://ew.com/recap/sherlock-season-4-premiere/">shows just how far downhill the show has gone</a>.</p><p>Within the first 20 minutes, Sherlock is presented with and solves a mystery. A minister's son turns up dead in his car in the driveway. But he appeared to be in Thailand at the time. Aha, Sherlock says: The boy disguised himself as a car seat and sent a prerecorded video to his dad to make it look like he was in Thailand so he could surprise him. Then he had a seizure while in his disguise, leaving him dead and hidden for a week.</p><p>The solution is ludicrous. The show doesn't care, though, because that's when "Sherlock" stumbles on the <em>real</em> mystery. It's this mystery that demonstrates that the show is less interested in solving puzzles and developing its characters and more into exploring international criminal conspiracies.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/586c108ddd0895bc7f8b4c7b-1389/undefined" alt="Sherlock car costume" data-mce-source="PBS" data-mce-caption="The guy disguises himself in a false car seat and then has a seizure." /><p class="source"><span>PBS</span></p><p class="caption">The guy disguises himself in a false car seat and then has a seizure.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>While visiting the minister's home, Sherlock notices that a bust of Margaret Thatcher has been stolen and destroyed. It turns out, there's some guy running around trying to find a flash drive he left in a particular Thatcher bust six years ago.</p><p>The flash drive contains secret information on the past life of Mary, Watson's wife and Holmes-like savant. It's exciting, at first, because the drive was mentioned back in season three. Now we're primed to learn Mary's <em>real</em> secret.</p><p>Unfortunately, it's more annoying than exciting. Mary, it turns out, was a member of an international assassination syndicate. It operates a bit like The Winter Soldier from the Marvel universe, conducting political operations to take down governments and line pockets.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/586c108ddd0895bc7f8b4c7c-1920" alt="Mary Morstan sherlock" data-mce-source="PBS" data-mce-caption="Mary Morstan, who marries John Watson." /><p class="source"><span>PBS</span></p><p class="caption">Mary Morstan, who marries John Watson.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>At this point, "Sherlock" becomes a dull spy movie. Mary decides to leave John Watson and their newborn daughter to trek across the world and lead away the guy who's trying to kill her. Sherlock tracks her down anyway, hoping to bring her home. In the process, the show reveals to us scraps of information that shape a larger criminal universe.</p><p>That information raises the stakes on Mary's life, but it all feels meaningless. It doesn't add intrigue for the audience, it feels like the screenwriters are just filling in information about Mary. The anticipation is undercut when Sherlock finds Mary after just a couple of scenes, anyway.</p><p>Mary's past life and big escape also muddles, rather than clarifies, the world that "Sherlock" operates in. The larger universe of the show becomes so mysterious, with its spies, assassinations, double-crosses, and shadowy organizations, that I expect the villain to whisper "Hail HYDRA" and for Samuel L. Jackson to show up wearing an eye patch at the end of the episode and invite Sherlock Holmes to the Avengers.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5762d30edd0895ed1d8b4b8b-1440/mast-sherlock2-pbs-pulver-hires_1.jpg" alt="Lara Pulver in Sherlock as Irene Adler." data-mce-source="BBC One" data-mce-caption="Lara Pulver in &amp;quotSherlock&quot; as Irene Adler." /><p class="source"><span>BBC One</span></p><p class="caption">Lara Pulver in "Sherlock" as Irene Adler in the show's first season, back when it was good.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Structurally, the plot is barely a mystery. We're given a few hints about the person who led a chain of events that lead to Mary being hunted down. At one point early in the episode Mary comments, "You'd be amazed what a receptionist picks up. They know everything." Apparently a secretary to a government employee was secretly controlling her boss to use Mary's assassination syndicate as her own political tool. Why? We might never know, and the show doesn't seem to care. The writers don't seem to be interested anymore in solving the mysteries in a satisfying, cohesive way.</p><p>Instead, the show's biggest development is Mary and John's weird relationship. Mary thinks it's better to travel across the world instead of staying with John once she finds out she has a target on his back. Even when the two are together, we learn that John has been sexting a stranger he met on the bus - all while he has a newborn child! And somehow, he thought he could get away with this even though his best friend and wife are both polymath savants. While the characters were once the most compelling part of "Sherlock," now we learn that John is a total scumbag.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/586c108ddd0895bc7f8b4c7d-1920" alt="John watson martin freeman sherlock" data-mce-source="PBS" data-mce-caption="Martin Freeman plays John Watson in &amp;quotSherlock.&quot; In the newest episode, he cheats on his wife by sexting a woman he randomly met on the bus, shortly after having a newborn baby." /><p class="source"><span>PBS</span></p><p class="caption">Martin Freeman plays John Watson in "Sherlock." In the newest episode, he cheats on his wife by sexting a woman he randomly met on the bus, shortly after having a newborn baby.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>By the end of the episode, Mary is killed, literally jumping in front of a bullet to save Sherlock's life. <a href="http://ew.com/tv/2017/01/01/sherlock-season-4-premiere/">Showrunner Steven Moffat told Enetertainment Weekly that "Sherlock" needed to get back to two characters</a>.</p><p>"The reality of this, of course, is that Sherlock Holmes is about Sherlock and Dr. Watson and it's always going to come back to that - always always always," Moffat said. "They had fun making it a trio but it doesn't work long term. Mary was always going to go and we were always going to get back to the two blokes. That's the format."</p><p>Moffat says this is all in the name of integrity to Arthur Conan Doyle's vision. It's a strange argument. He had no qualms about ignoring Doyle's vision when he made Mary an ass-kicking savant superspy, as revealed in the third season. But suddenly he thinks it's relevant again when it's time to kill her, as in the first episode of the fourth season.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/586c108ddd0895bc7f8b4c7e-1861/screenshot 2015-07-09 193529.png" alt="Sherlock" data-mce-source="BBC" /><p class="source"><span>BBC</span></p><p class="caption">This used to be fun.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>This is all, according to Moffat, grist for the mill of Sherlock and Watson's relationship.</p><p>"We take that rift head-on in the remainder of the [season]. We don't ignore it," Moffat told Entertainment Weekly. "We don't have John come back and say, 'Well I've thought about it and it's all fine.' If anything, the rift gets worse. We decided if we were doing this we're doing grief properly. We were doing the consequences properly."</p><p>The show has drowned in other missteps. "The Abonimable Bride," a one-off special which aired a year ago, was a disposable episode set in an alternate timeline. It ends in an insufferable "it was all just a dream" reveal.</p><p>And then there is Sherlock's obsession over Moriarty, who shot himself in the head several episodes ago. He was a thrilling villain when he was alive, but that was two seasons ago. He is much less interesting in death. Yet Sherlock is preoccupied with various plans Moriarty set into motion before he died, all of them boring. It's time to let the ghost go.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/586c108ddd0895bc7f8b4c7f-2400" alt="Smaug biblo baggins" data-mce-source="Warner Bros." data-mce-caption="Here's a Benedict Cumberbatch-Martin Freeman movie we can get behind." /><p class="source"><span>Warner Bros.</span></p><p class="caption">Here's a Benedict Cumberbatch-Martin Freeman relationship we can get behind in the "Desolation of Smaug."</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>On top of all of this, Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman have moved on to bigger and better things. It took two years between seasons two and three, and three years between seasons three and four. Cumberbatch is officially a Marvel superhero, playing Doctor Strange, and is a near-perennial Oscar contender. Freeman starred as Bilbo Baggins in the "Hobbit" trilogy and has been picking up good roles since it ended. (Cumberbatch also played Smaug in the "Hobbit" movies, and Freeman plays Everett Ross in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.) It's long enough for fans to lose interest.</p><p>Cumberbatch waved away the fact that it takes so long to film new episodes, <a href="https://tvline.com/2012/06/14/sherlock-season-3-benedict-cumberbatch/">telling TVLine that he likes stretching the show out over time</a>.</p><p>"There's no reason for us to stop if it's still being adored and we still enjoy doing it," Cumberbatch said. "We only do three [episodes] at a time, so I think the normal fear of over-stretching the mark and just doing too many [doesn't apply]. It's good to leave people wanting more. I'd like to see [Sherlock] getting older."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/586c108ddd0895bc7f8b4c80-893/benedict-cumberbatch-sherlock-8.png" alt="benedict cumberbatch sherlock" data-mce-source="BBC / Sherlock screencap" /><p class="source"><span>BBC / Sherlock screencap</span></p><p class="caption">Benedict Cumberbatch.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>As the series progresses, though, they do seem to be stretching the premise. Watching Sherlock and Watson grow old together, like a sort of Masterpiece Theater version of Before Sunrise, does sound appealing but only if it remains a mystery show instead of becoming about international conspiracy theories.</p><p>The idea also becomes less appealing knowing that John is a guy who sexts random women on the bus after having a newborn child. It also becomes less interesting when you realize "Sherlock" is the kind of show that introduces badass, interesting women only to make them less interesting and kill them off later so that they'll serve as a subplot for a couple of men. The show has hit its peak and fulfilled its purpose long ago. It's time for Cumberbatch to hang up his deerstalker and put down his pipe.</p>      <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/dip-powder-is-the-no-1-beauty-product-to-try-in-2017-2016-12">Dip powder is the No. 1 beauty product to try in 2017</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="gyNnltODE6k0xBCQjHqePUJ3j_oqtQwA" 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', 'gyNnltODE6k0xBCQjHqePUJ3j_oqtQwA',{ 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 "Superspy" and got 11 results

'Superspy' Tapan Kumar Deka gets a one-year extension as Intelligence Bureau chief

PTI

Director who turned down 'Black Widow' says the visual effects in Marvel movies are 'very ugly' and the music is 'horrible'

Eammon Jacobs

'Mission: Impossible' director nearly de-aged Tom Cruise in the original 'Dead Reckoning' opening, but thought it'd be too distracting

Eammon Jacobs

A pristine 'Bond Car' 1965 Aston Martin DB5 fitted with working gadgets could sell for up to $6 million at Monterey

Brittany Chang

Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard granted parole, will be released in November

Michael B Kelley

Here's everything coming to Netflix this month

Kirsten Acuna

Why President Obama Refuses To Pardon Israeli Spy Jonathan Pollard

Michael Kelley

After more than a decade, one of the best comic series which showed why adults should care about fairy tales is coming to an end

Joshua Rivera

Why A Spy 'Exceeded Only By Edward Snowden' May Soon Be Freed By The US

Michael Kelley

Back in 2001, Marvel made Nick Fury look like Samuel L. Jackson without asking: His response was perfect

Gus Lubin

'Sherlock' is getting stale - now it's time to end the show

Jacob Shamsian