The upcoming Hellraiser reboot has cast actress Jamie Clayton as lead villain Pinhead. This new film will be the 11th in the long-running Hellraiser film franchise, which began with the original film in 1987. The new film is being directed by The Night House's David Bruckner, and will be released on Hulu in 2022. Producer David S. Goyer promises that this new Hellraiser will be "terrifying and amazing."The series' central villain is Pinhead, the leader of the Cenobites, which are extradimensional beings of pain and pleasure. Pinhead was originally played by English actor Doug Bradley, who reprised the role in the first seven sequels. He was replaced by Stephan Smith Collins in 2011's Hellraiser: Revelations and Paul T. Taylor in 2018's Hellraiser: Judgment.Per THR, Hellraiser, which was filming in Serbia, has officially wrapped production and announced its cast. Leading the film as Pinhead is Jamie Clayton, an actress who is best known for starring in the Netflix series Sense8. This will mark the first time that Pinhead has been played by a woman, as well as the first time a trans actress has led a major horror franchise. Also appearing are Odessa A’zion (Grand Army), Brandon Flynn (13 Reasons Why), Goran Visnjic (The Boys), Drew Starkey (Scream: The TV Series), Adam Faison (Everything’s Gonna Be Okay), Aoife Hinds (Normal People), and Hiam Abbass (Succession) in as-yet-unspecified roles. Check out Jamie Clayton's tweet announcing the casting below:This will be Jamie Clayton's third film after appearing on TV series for several years (she has previously appeared in The Snowman and Chain of Death). On Sense8, which was co-created by the Wachowski sisters, she made a name for herself as the intrepid hacker and political activist Nomi Marks. After Sense8, Clayton also appeared on Designated Survivor, Roswell, New Mexico, and The L Word: Generation Q.In addition to Jamie Clayton's casting making history in and of itself, it also shows that the producers are engaging with the long LGBTQ+ history of Hellraiser. The original film was directed by Clive Barker adapting his own novella "The Hellbound Heart." Barker is a gay man whose work is constantly in conversation with LGBTQ+ themes and the idea of The Other, and Jamie Clayton's casting rings true to the nature of his inimitable universe. Although he was not involved with the film when she was originally cast, Clive Barker has since been brought on as a producer, giving his ultimate seal of approval to the project.Source: THR

Warning: SPOILER for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 2, Episode 9 - "weJ Duj (Three Ships)".Captain Kirk's infamous opening scene in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is parodied by Star Trek: Lower Decks with Ensign D'Vana Tendi and Dr. T'Ana potentially finishing the one mission Kirk never did. In Star Trek: Lower Decks season 2, episode 9, "weJ Duj (Three Ships)," the Lower Deckers aboard the USS Cerritos pair up with a "bridge buddy" for some rest and recreation during a long-haul warp flight. Tendi and T'Ana decide to recreate Kirk's Yosemite vacation gone wrong in Star Trek 5.The William Shatner-directed Star Trek V ranks as least-loved of the movies starring the cast of Star Trek: The Orignal Series and scenes like Kirk at Yosemite National Park are partly why. After a prologue introduces Sybok (Laurence Luckinbill), the half-brother of Spock (Leonard Nimoy), the action turns to Kirk climbing El Capitan at Yosemite. The Captain's ascent is interrupted by Spock, who is wearing a pair of hover boots that allow him to fly. Kirk is so distracted by Spock that he loses his footing and ends up plummeting off the mountain. Of course, Spock saves his best friend. Kirk and Spock later join Dr. Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley) around the campfire later that night to sing "Row Row Row Your Boat" before they are summoned back aboard the Starship Enterprise.In Star Trek: Lower Decks, Ensign Tendi (Noël Wells) and Dr. T'Ana (Gillian Vigman) climb El Capitan together in a holodeck simulation of Yosemite National Park and they are interrupted by Ensign Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid), who wears hover boots like Spock and the same "Go climb a rock" sweatshirt that Kirk is wearing aboard the bridge of the Enterprise in Star Trek V. In Lower Decks, Boimler's flying footwear malfunctions and he plummets hundreds of feet, although Bradward's life is saved by tree branches. Meanwhile, it's implied that the Orion Ensign and the Caitian Starfleet doctor finished their climb because they weren't far from El Capitan's summit and they weren't particularly concerned about Boimer since they assumed the holodeck's safety protocols were on. If Tendi and T'Ana did make it to the top of El Capitan, then they finished the climb Kirk never did.Star Trek V never made it clear whether Kirk ever actually made it to the top of El Capitan. At the end of Star Trek V, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy returned to Yosemite to resume their shore leave, but the film ends with the Enterprise trio once again singing "Row Row Row Your Boat" around the campfire. It's possible that Kirk didn't go back to climb that giant rock, especially since Bones was furious that Kirk nearly died the first time he tried it. Not that Kirk always heeds his doctor's advice, but the captain of the Enterprise could have just settled for enjoying camping on terra firma with his best friends instead of risking his life ascending El Capitan once again.Despite Star Trek V's less than stellar reputation among Trekkers, William Shatner's The Final Frontier continues to have an indelible influence on Star Trek and there's a reason why Lower Decks loves to reference it. Star Trek V has its flaws but at the core of the film is the reaffirmation of the friendship between Kirk, Spock, and Bones. Sybok tests the bond of the Enterprise trio but they emerged from their encounter with "God" as steadfast as ever.Similarly, Star Trek: Lower Decks is a testament to the friendship of the Cerritos' junior officers, Ensigns Beckett Mariner (Tawney Newsome), Boimler, Tendi, and Sam Rutherford (Eugene Cordero). The weird aspects of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier are natural fodder for Star Trek: Lower Decks' comedy, which celebrates everything strange but wonderful about being in Starfleet. Star Trek: Lower Decks also reveres Kirk and Spock, and the Captain of the Enterprise might be amused that his climbing El Capitan is now mimicked by others in Starfleet, even if they get to finish the ascent Kirk didn't.Star Trek: Lower Decks streams Thursdays on Paramount+.

Let’s be really generous to Facebook and assume that 50% of what Frances Haugen just testified to before Congress was misconstrued in some way.Regardless, Facebook will argue their case (as they always do), deny everything (as they always do) and claim that no one really understands them (as they always do). Everyone will view whatever they say with extreme skepticism, and nothing will change.Maybe Facebook doesn’t care. Maybe the possibility of a repeal of their liability protection from Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the threat of antitrust prosecutions, the implementation of a U.S. privacy framework akin to what exists in Europe and the inability to get Washington to authorize Libra (Facebook’s digital payment system) all don’t matter.Facebook is rich and powerful. They may think they can handle anything that comes their way. But the United States government and the media combined are a lot more powerful. And that’s why Facebook needs to change their strategy on just about everything related to politics, regulation and media.While Facebook’s lawyers and lobbyists dig in for the next phase of an epic, costly confrontation, they should instead be charting an alternative course of humility, introspection and transparency as their best and only strategy for sustaining growth.What does this look like? Well, it starts with an apology.It’s incredible that someone as smart as Mark Zuckerberg can have so much difficulty expressing genuine contrition when it’s called for. Not every mistake will obligate the CEO to drag himself over the coals. But right now? He’s got to change his posture and start accepting responsibility and then actually implement real change.For example, take Haugen’s testimony about an internal study finding that Instagram has a negative impact on teenage girls’ mental health.That’s a problem Facebook has to own. They should want to own it. Because even if the federal government is unlikely to step in and censor Instagram, parents probably will. As much as my wife and I try to let our teenage daughter make her own decisions, the more we know about Instagram, the more convinced we are that its negative effects vastly outweigh any useful purpose it serves in her life. And we’re not alone. At some point soon, we could be the majority.Second, it’s time for Facebook to be a lot more straightforward about its underlying business model. Consumers aren’t stupid; we know we don’t get something for nothing. So rather than pretend they don’t monetize people’s data in every way possible, Facebook should just be honest about it.“If you want to keep using Facebook/Instagram/WhatsApp for free, we’re going to sell ads based on your data.” And then give the public an alternative: “If you want your data protected, then you have to pay the platform a monthly fee to make up for the lost revenue.” People may not like that at first, but they’ll understand it and they’ll appreciate being treated like adults.Third, Facebook needs to admit the truth about content moderation: “We thought we knew better than everyone else about everything; we dug in when we should have been honestly examining and changing our practices and policies. We’re genuinely, truly sorry for it. We’re willing to change.”Some of that may mean sharing oversight responsibilities with third parties like regulators and academics. It probably means eliminating some content that generates clicks and ad revenue. It may even mean removing some of the top executives responsible for doggedly implementing the deny-reality strategy over the past 10 years. Of course, that will hurt. They still need to do it.Finally, if Facebook is going to engage in federal legislation around issues like privacy restrictions, new antitrust standards or the repeal of Section 230, they should stop trying to outsmart and outspend everyone.Instead, Facebook should engage with their critics — in both parties and in both chambers of Congress — to work toward a solution that embraces the ideals of existing privacy frameworks like Europe’s GDPR and California’s CCPA and recognizes that having full immunity from anything said on your platform has to change. Be part of the change, not the roadblock to it.This isn’t China. Our government won’t just one day outlaw Facebook or Instagram. But that doesn’t mean Facebook won’t be subjected to new laws, regulations, standards and social norms.Facebook has alienated the media. They’ve lost the progressives. They’ve lost the conservatives. They’ve infuriated the center. And even if revenue keeps growing, they’ve lost the faith and trust of the public, too.Executives may worry that once the legislative flywheel starts turning, it will never stop. But we’re way beyond that point. If Facebook doesn’t start expressing remorse, accountability and openness to change, they’re at risk of losing everything else they’ve built, too.

 Reuters – Pfizer Inc said on Monday its experimental COVID-19 vaccine was more than 90% effective, a major victory in the fight against a pandemic that has killed more than a million people, battered the world’s economy and upended daily life.Pfizer and German partner BioNTech SE are the first drugmakers to release successful data from a large-scale clinical trial of a coronavirus vaccine. The companies said they have so far found no serious safety concerns and expect to seek U.S. authorization this month for emergency use of the vaccine.Health experts said Pfizer‘s results were positive for all COVID-19 vaccines currently in development since they show the shots are going after the right target and are a proof of concept that the disease can be halted with vaccination.“Today is a great day for science and humanity,” Albert Bourla, Pfizer‘s chairman and chief executive, said.“We are reaching this critical milestone in our vaccine development program at a time when the world needs it most with infection rates setting new records, hospitals nearing over-capacity and economies struggling to reopen.”If Pfizer‘s vaccine is authorized, the number of doses will initially be limited and many questions remain, including how long the vaccine will provide protection.BioNTech Chief Executive Ugur Sahin told Reuters he was optimistic the immunisation effect of the vaccine would last for a year although that was not certain yet.“This news made me smile from ear to ear. It is a relief to see such positive results on this vaccine and bodes well for COVID-19 vaccines in general,” said Peter Horby, professor of emerging infectious diseases at the University of Oxford. MARKETS SURGEThe prospect of a vaccine electrified world markets with S&P 500 futures hitting a record high and tourism and travel shares surging. Pfizer shares were indicated 14.2% higher in pre-market trading in New York, while BioNTech’s stock was up nearly 23% in Frankfurt.“Light at the end of the tunnel. Let’s just hope the vaccine deniers won’t get in the way, but 2021 just got a lot brighter,” said Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.comShares of other vaccine developers in the final stage of testing also rose with Johnson & Johnson up 4% in pre-market trading and Moderna 7.4% stronger. Britain’s AstraZeneca was down 0.5%.“The efficacy data are really impressive. This is better than most of us anticipated,” said William Schaffner, infectious diseases expert at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee. “The study isn’t completed yet, but nonetheless the data look very solid.”U.S. President Donald Trump welcomed the test results, and the market boost: “STOCK MARKET UP BIG, VACCINE COMING SOON. REPORT 90% EFFECTIVE. SUCH GREAT NEWS!” he said on Twitter.President-elect Joe Biden said the news was excellent but did not change the fact that face masks, social distancing and other health measures would be needed well into next year. 1.3 BILLION DOSESPfizer expects to seek broad U.S. authorization for emergency use of the vaccine for people aged 16 to 85. To do so, it will need two months of safety data from about half the study’s 44,000 participants, which is expected late this month.“I’m near ecstatic,” Bill Gruber, one of Pfizer‘s top vaccine scientists, said in an interview. “This is a great day for public health and for the potential to get us all out of the circumstances we’re now in.”Pfizer and BioNTech have a $1.95 billion contract with the U.S. government to deliver 100 million vaccine doses beginning this year. They have also reached supply agreements with the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan.To save time, the companies began manufacturing the vaccine before they knew whether it would be effective. They now expect to produce up to 50 million doses, or enough to protect 25 million people this year.Pfizer said it expects to produce up to 1.3 billion doses of the vaccine in 2021.The U.S. pharmaceutical giant said the interim analysis was conducted after 94 participants in the trial developed COVID-19, examining how many of them had received the vaccine versus a placebo.The company did not break down exactly how many of those who fell ill received the vaccine. Still, over 90% effectiveness implies that no more than 8 of the 94 people who caught COVID-19 had been given the vaccine, which was administered in two shots about three weeks apart.The efficacy rate is well above the 50% effectiveness required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a coronavirus vaccine. MORE DATA NEEDEDTo confirm the efficacy rate, Pfizer said it would continue the trial until there are 164 COVID-19 cases among participants. Bourla told CNBC on Monday that based on rising infection rates, the trial could be completed before the end of November.The data have yet to be peer-reviewed or published in a medical journal. Pfizer said it would do so once it has results from the entire trial.“These are interesting first signals, but again they are only communicated in press releases,” said Marylyn Addo, head of tropical medicine at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany.“Primary data are not yet available and a peer-reviewed publication is still pending. We still have to wait for the exact data before we can make a final assessment.”The global race for a vaccine has seen wealthier countries forge multibillion-dollar supply deals with drugmakers like Pfizer, AstraZeneca Plc and Johnson & Johnson, raising questions over when middle income and poorer nations will get access to inoculations.The U.S. quest for a vaccine has been the Trump administration’s central response to the pandemic. The United States has the world’s highest known number of COVID-19 cases and deaths with more than 10 million infections and over 237,000 fatalities.Trump repeatedly assured the public that his administration would likely identify a successful vaccine in time for the presidential election, held last Tuesday. On Saturday, Democratic rival Biden was declared the winner. ESSENTIAL TOOLSVaccines are seen as essential tools to help end the health crisis that has shuttered businesses and left millions out of work. Millions of children whose schools were closed in March remain in remote learning programs.Dozens of drugmakers and research groups around the globe have been racing to develop vaccines against COVID-19, which on Sunday exceeded 50 million infections since the new coronavirus first emerged late last year in China.The Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine uses messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, which relies on synthetic genes that can be generated and manufactured in weeks, and produced at scale more rapidly than conventional vaccines.Moderna Inc, whose vaccine candidate employs similar technology, is expected to report results from its large-scale trial later this month.The mRNA technology is designed to trigger an immune response without using pathogens, such as actual virus particles.Pfizer alone will not have the capacity to immediately provide enough vaccines for the United States. The Trump administration has said it will have enough supply for all of the 330 million U.S. residents who wish to be vaccinated by the middle of 2021.The U.S. government has said the vaccines will be provided free to Americans, including the insured, uninsured and those in government health programs such as Medicare.Source:Reuters

 image credit:NetflixNetflix is today officially launching a new feature for its Android users that will make it easier to find something to watch when you can’t make a decision. The feature, called “Play Something,” is a shuffle mode option that will play another movie or show Netflix believes you may like, based on your interests and your prior viewing behavior.These selections may include a movie or show you’re already watching but haven’t completed, a movie or show on your watch list or a brand-new series or film that Netflix’s personalization algorithms suggest, among other things.The feature had been in development for some time before its public release. Last year, for example, Netflix was testing it as “Shuffle Play.” And in its Q4 2020 earnings, Netflix said it would roll out its shuffle mode to users worldwide during the first half of 2021, describing it as a way to “instantly watch a title” that was chosen just for the user.That rollout schedule was partially realized.“Play Something,” as the feature was rebranded to, officially launched to worldwide users on Netflix’s TV app back in April. Here, the option can be found in several places, including on the profile selection screen underneath your profile name, on the navigation menu to the left of your screen and on the tenth row on your Netflix homepage — a location that’s meant to appear right at the point where you’re beginning to get frustrated with browsing and may have otherwise exited the app. In addition, Netflix users with screen-readers could also use Text-to-Speech (TTS) to use “Play Something.”The company said at the time it would soon start testing the feature on mobile devices, starting with Android. It then began those tests in late May.In other words, you may very well have had the feature on your own Android device long before this “official” debut — but not all Netflix users globally have been able to try it yet.That’s now changing, as Netflix is officially bringing “Play Something” to all Android mobile devices worldwide, with the rollout that starts today. The company says it will test the feature on iOS in the “coming months.”On mobile, the “Play Something” button hovers over the content at the bottom of the phone’s screen as you scroll and also has its own dedicated tab in the app.User response to the addition, so far, has been positive, Netflix noted — even pointing to a few tweets where people praised the feature.But for Netflix, the shuffle mode feature isn’t only about giving users another, easier way to watch — it’s a means of retaining users in the app before they jump to another entertainment option, whether that’s a rival streamer or even a social media app for video, like TikTok.In fact, the threat from short-form video is serious enough that Netflix recently built its own TikTok-like feature for its mobile app called “Fast Laughs,” which shows a feed of comedy videos meant to drive users to its content. Putting harder numbers to this potential threat, TikTok, at an event last week, noted that 35% of its users were watching less TV due to TikTok, citing data from its own research.“Play Something” joins other newer additions as well, including a smart downloads feature called “Downloads for You” and support for partial play downloads, as well as last year’s addition of the Top 10 list.

Freelance marketplace Fiverr announced this morning that it’s acquiring Seattle-based online learning company CreativeLive for an undisclosed amount. CreativeLive is an entrepreneurial learning platform where users can attend courses on video, photography, design, business, marketing and more.Fiverr, which is an online marketplace that connects businesses with on-demand freelancers, says that the ability to gain new skills in a changing work environment is part of its role in leading transformation for buyers and sellers on its platform.​​“Fiverr is more than just a work platform, we fundamentally believe in supporting the entire freelance lifestyle, and that includes professional education and training,” said Fiverr founder and CEO Micha Kaufman in a statement. “The acquisition of CreativeLive is part of this broader strategy. The depth and caliber of the courses that CreativeLive offers are exceptional and we look forward to offering them to our entire community.”The company notes that CreativeLive’s instructors include a diverse group of Pulitzer Prize, Grammy and Oscar winners, along with New York Times best-selling authors and notable entrepreneurs. Fiverr states that CreativeLive’s expertise in creating compelling learning experiences is a natural fit for its platform.CreativeLive will remain a standalone service and grow its team from its current headquarters in Seattle. Fiverr’s current online learning platform, Fiverr Learn, will be folded into CreativeLive as it works to expand its offerings following the acquisition.“The future favors people and companies that can create, innovate and adapt to a fast-paced, work environment,” said CreativeLive founder and CEO Chase Jarvis in a statement. “We are excited to be part of the Fiverr family and to grow our inventory of compelling courses that increase economic opportunity for our community, the Fiverr community and today’s modern workforce.”CreativeLive was founded in 2010 with the aim to “sit at the intersection of the future of creativity, learning, and of work” and to fill the gap that exists in online courses for creative professionals. Since then, the company has offered over 2,000 classes that have reached over 10 million users.Fiverr, which was also founded in 2010, says four million customers bought services from freelancers on its platform across more than 160 countries in its latest fiscal year. Additionally, the company filed to go public on the NYSE in 2019.Earlier this year, Fiverr expanded beyond project-based payments with the launch of three- or six-month subscriptions. Through this feature, sellers on Fiverr can offer to provide a defined set of work each month. The buyer or seller can cancel at any time without having to pay fees on the remaining months of the subscription

 Apple's newsroom and leadership pages are both currently experiencing some errors, leading to the appearance of some changes to Apple's leadership.From our knowledge, Apple's leadership and newsroom pages have been throwing up errors for the past two hours or so, and it seems to be that Apple is making server-side changes. In an oddity of those changes, Apple mistakenly listed Phil Schiller as Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, a role he stepped down from in August of last year to become an Apple Fellow. Apple moments later took down Schiller's biography and the entirety of the leadership page.Apple's newsroom is where the company issues press releases, updates, and more, while the leadership page lists all of Apple's executives. No other pages on Apple's website currently seem to be impacted, and it remains unclear whether this is simply an error or telling of something more coming soon. We'll update this post when there are any changes.Update: Moments after we published this article, Apple's newsroom and leadership pages were reverted back to their normal states, correctly listing Greg Joswiak as the SVP of marketing and ‌Phil Schiller‌ as an Apple Fellow.

 Robert Pattinson's Batman is a badass, says The Batman star Jeffery Wright. The upcoming DC Extended Universe film from director Matt Reeves (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) is the first to feature Pattinson's version of the iconic superhero. After suffering from pandemic-related delays that caused principal photography to take a year, The Batman will release on March 4, 2022.The coveted role of Bruce Wayne had been solely occupied in the DCEU by Ben Affleck, who was originally set to not only star in The Batman, but write and direct as well. When Reeves took over, he expressed a desire to explore a younger version of the character, and Affleck left the project in early 2019. Pattinson's casting was somewhat of a surprise, since he had largely avoided blockbuster roles after his experience on the Twilight films, becoming known in the meantime as a highly acclaimed, versatile performer in the indie scene.In an interview with ET, Wright, who plays Gotham PD's James Gordon in The Batman, gives the English actor's version of the Dark Knight his seal of approval. He describes Pattinson's personal performance style as meshing well with Reeves' directorial vision, which should make for a quality final product. Wright also says he thoroughly enjoyed their time on screen together:"Robert is gonna do his thing, and we were working within a Matt Reeves vision, so you know, Robert is doing what Robert does and it's gonna be pretty badass I think. [...] I loved working with him, I love his take and his energy and the way that he kind of brought different levels to different parts of the story. And we work off of one another".Pattinson is reportedly playing Batman in just his second year of vigilantism, and from the promotional material released so far, Reeves' film looks to be taking the character to particularly dark places. Paul Dano's serial-killer take on Riddler seems to be the movie's main villain, though several of Gotham's big-bads are on the cast list, including Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz), Penguin (Colin Farrell), and Carmine Falcone (John Turturro). Wright becomes the first actor of color to portray Batman's ally in the police department, while Reeves' former Planet of the Apes collaborator Andy Serkis plays Bruce's loyal butler, Alfred Pennyworth.As is customary whenever a new Batman is cast, fans are divided, and not just because many still associate Pattinson with sparkly vampires. The release of Zack Snyder's Justice League reignited appreciation for Affleck's interpretation of the character, and that the effects of Warner Bros. decision to abandon Snyder's vision for the DCEU are so obvious in this film might create an inherent bias against it. However, Reeves' track record and the immense talent he's assembled in front of the camera, Pattinson especially, suggest The Batman has a real chance of overcoming these reservations.Source: ET