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Carol the Dabbler

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For the ensuing discussion of various adaptations of Dickens' A Christmas Carol, see the "Favorite Christmas movies" thread.

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Here's a BBC Radio program called Loose Ends from this past March 31st (which, wonder of wonders, actually let me listen), in the first segment of which MF talks about jazz and reveals that he is "not a bad percussionist."

So whenever they get around to doing Sherlock: The Musical, John can have his pick of clarinet or drums.

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I started listening to that, and suddenly realized I'd heard it before. But I don't know when or why. But I remember the conversation about Black Panther.

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I find the radio programs can be heard internationally while the TV programs have hurdle jumping involved in some way or another.

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4 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

Maybe those are his standard remarks about the movie?

:D I thought of that. Or, since it's radio, he just records himself saying it the first time, then plays it back as needed. :D 

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Here's an article with a little more info on the animated Christmas Carol.  It's not a straight adaptation -- the story within a story is a "dark fantasy" that "faithfully expresses what Dickens was trying to say."

Sounds intriguing.

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I didn't even know there was a season 2. In fact, I could have sworn I read they decided not to make it. Although even if I had known, I would probably have only watched the first episode just to find out how Martin's character survived the end of S1.

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Here's more info on MF's upcoming sitcom Breeders.

What do executive producers do anyhow?  This show has eight of 'em!  I assume it's mainly a way to have some control over the show, so I can certainly understand why MF would want to have that position.

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It's always been my understanding that Executive Producers are, first and foremost, the money men (or, rarely, women 😉 ). I would imagine some level of control over the final product comes with that, but I don't know how much. I suspect it depends on the individual.

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That makes sense. I suppose there could be several reasons for an Executive Producer title (and often a certain amount of control) -- basically anything where the people in charge want something from the potential EP -- money, filming rights, starring in the production, etc.

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  • 3 weeks later...

In 2010, the BBC aired a radio drama based on a forty-year-old avant-garde novel, The Unfortunates by B. S. Johnson.  The drama, starring Martin Freeman, is now being restructured as an Alexa "skill," its distinguishing feature being that (as with the book) the various incidents in the drama are played in random sequence.

p01gx4d6.jpg

I believe that Alexa is a smartphone app.  Please correct me if I'm wrong -- or if it's possible to play the drama without installing Alexa on one's phone.

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Alexa is the Orwellian nightmare virtual assistant Amazon created for Echo and similar smart home devices. I have zero experience with it, but afaik, the smartphone app is only working together witn an Echo, Dot and whatever else those spy devices you have to pay for are called. So a phone won't be enough, I presume.

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Just as well, then.  I don't even like loading my phone down with apps, so my interest in that sort of thing is somewhere in the vicinity of zero.

Wonder what MF makes of this?  Doubt they needed (or got) his permission to re-use the radio drama -- there may not even be royalties, depending on how his contract was written.

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12 hours ago, Caya said:

Alexa is the Orwellian nightmare

Thank you for this! :D 

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38 minutes ago, J.P. said:

It actually should be called Mycroft.

I would love a virtual digital assistant named Mycroft.  My Orwellian nightmare would at least be well-modulated, intelligent & twirling a virtual umbrella.

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For those of you who can pick up BBC4, there's a show tonight at 10 pm GMT covering Stevie Wonder's career so far, with comments by some of his more famous fans, including Martin Freeman.

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  • 2 months later...

Amazon US now has CARGO on DVD (available from several of their marketplace sellers).  Caveat: They list it as Region 4 (Australia and Latin American, so this is presumably the same Australian DVD that we noticed earlier) -- however they also say (under Editorial Review) that it should play on most machines, and none of the (only 6) reviews say anything about incompatibility, for what that's worth.  There's also a Blu-ray, which is listed as Region B (Europe, Africa, and Australia).  Neither format says anything about subtitles (or extra features), so I'd have preferred a Blu-ray (better sound quality), but we have a region-free DVD player, so I've ordered a DVD.

Added:  The DVD played just fine for us, not only on our region-free DVD player, but also on our Region A Blu-ray player.  So I would venture to guess that it's basically a region-free DVD, and should play anywhere.

Amazon UK also lists the DVD.  I don't see anything about what Region it is, so by rights it *should* be Region 2.  Then again, it may be the same product that Amazon US is offering (they give the same reviews).

I still have no idea whether Netflix has any plans to release a DVD and/or Blu-ray.  If they ever do, it should be available on Amazon as well.

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Sure, I'll let you know what I think of it.  But several other members have done so already:

 

On 8/18/2018 at 10:38 PM, Artemis said:

I started Cargo but never finished it.  Not because of the gore, but because it was too depressing and I really wasn't up for that.

 

On 8/17/2018 at 9:07 AM, SherlockedCAMPer said:

Cargo wasn’t super scary. I watched it once and was good to not ever see it again.

 

On 5/18/2018 at 7:04 PM, J.P. said:

You just HAVE to watch Cargo. Finally something that was up to Martin's talent.

But brace yourself, it's a killer. I'm on the floor, weeping.

 

On 5/18/2018 at 8:53 PM, SherlockedCAMPer said:

Watching it now. Not sure if I’ll be able to watch all of it. But definitely not an ‘attack of the zombies’ they’re coming out of everywhere from the beginning type flick which is nice.

 

On 5/20/2018 at 4:33 PM, J.P. said:

I'm not a big fan of Martin. What I have seen of him apart from Hobbit seems to be the same bloke put in different situations.

BUT

When he's on his best, there is something in his playing emotions that's literally something in my beeping genes resonating with it. It's physical. This was the case in the "He's my friend" and "not dead" scenes in Sherlock. For me Cargo felt like those two scenes expanded to over an hour.

The story itself - I think - is suitable for a discussion about… how was it? Impressionistic writing? Because after the first viewing I think I've seen a lot of logical glitches. And it's still a good movie nonetheless.

 

Definitely looking forward to it, in a possibly-masochistic sort of way.

 

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On 2/4/2019 at 12:28 AM, Carol the Dabbler said:

I still have no idea whether Netflix has any plans to release a DVD and/or Blu-ray.

Does Netflix release DVD's of their films?  I had no idea.  :blink:

Sure, I'll let you know what I think of it.  But several other members have done so already:

But we like to know what you think.  ^^

 

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6 minutes ago, Artemis said:

Does Netflix release DVD's of their films?  I had no idea.  :blink:

All I can say for sure is that I've seen DVDs of Orange is the New Black for sale on Amazon.  So I assume they do release at least some of their exclusives, eventually.

But we like to know what

you think.  ^^

Aw, shucks!  :blush: 

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