Tweet of the Day

'Avengers: Endgame' has passed 'Avatar' as biggest film ever

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The global box office has a new king in "Avengers: Endgame."

The superhero extravaganza this weekend usurped "Avatar" to become the highest-grossing film of all time, with an estimated $2.79 billion in worldwide grosses in just 13 weeks.

"Avatar" held onto the record for a decade at $2.789 billion.

The title comes with a few caveats, however, including the fact that "Avatar's" grosses are not adjusted for inflation. Also, domestically, "Avengers: Endgame" is No. 2 to "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" by around $80 million.

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige gave a shout-out to "Avatar" director James Cameron Saturday night at San Diego Comic-Con for holding the record for so long. Feige also noted the inflation technicality and said Cameron will probably hold the title again someday.



https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/avengers-endgame-passed-avatar-biggest-180803666.html

Democrats' Path To National Power In The 2020s Runs Through Small Races In Texas

Hirsch, a Minnesota transplant who raised her four kids in Plano, Texas, fell short, losing to Republican incumbent Matt Shaheen by just 391 votes. But she knew that in 2020, the stakes would be even higher. She’s right: Strange as it may seem, Democrats’ path to national power over the next decade might include Hirsch’s race in Collin County, Texas.

It’s all about redistricting, the process by which governors and state legislators draw each state’s legislative and congressional districts, and which occurs every ten years, after each census. In recent decades, the Democratic party has overlooked the importance of state legislature races, giving Republicans tremendous power to draw district boundaries that give them a substantial partisan advantage.

If Democrats can win races like Hirsch’s and take back the Texas House in 2020, they’ll have a voice in Texas’ redistricting process. That could ensure that, in future elections, Dems have a much more level playing field in the huge, blue-trending state.

“We flipped 12 [seats] in 2018, we have to defend all 12 of those. … But we have to flip nine more and my race has to be one of them,” Hirsch told HuffPost. “There’s limited opportunity for Democrats to have a voice.”

Texas Republicans know exactly what’s at stake, too.

“There is nothing more important — not only to Texas, but literally the nation — than to make sure that we maintain the Texas House” going into redistricting, Republican state Sen. Kelly Hancock said at a Tea Party event in June. If “we lose Texas, we lose the nation. And there’s no other place to go.”



https://www.huffpost.com/entry/democrats-2020-texas-races-sharon-hirsch_n_5d2774d7e4b0bd7d1e1937a6?ncid=engmodushpmg00000004

Kevin Feige Confirms Valkyrie is the MCU's First LGBTQ Hero

According to Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige, Tessa Thompson's Valkyrie will be involved in a LGBTQ storyline as part of Thor: Love and Thunder. The MCU is finally about to get its first openly LGBTQ hero. Avengers: Endgame famously featured the MCU's first openly gay character, in the form of a cameo from director Joe Russo. He played a man in a support group run by Steve Rogers dealing with the fallout of Thanos' snap.

Though hardly a leading role, perhaps the gay inclusion in Endgame was intended to set the stage for the appearance of an LGBTQ lead character in a future MCU movie. Back when Thor: Ragnarok was a fresh release, Thompson lamented the removal of a scene which showed a woman emerging from Valkyrie's bedroom, obviously implying a sexual encounter the night before. Nonetheless, the actor confirmed she always played the character as bisexual, and now Thor: Love and Thunder aims to follow-up on that characterization in a meaningful way.

Thompson said during Marvel Studios' Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con, "First of all, as a new king, she needs to find her queen," a statement which was met with uproarious applause from the fans in attendance, who've been waiting a long time to see queer representation within lead characters in the MCU. Speaking to io9 during SDCC, Feige confirmed Thor: Love and Thunder will feature Valkyrie searching for love as the new ruler of Asgard, or at least the survivng refugees of Earth's New Asgard. Of Valkyrie's sexuality, Feige told the outlet: "How that impacts the story remains to be seen with that level of representation you’ll see across our films, not in just Thor 4."



https://screenrant.com/valkyrie-mcu-first-lgbtq-hero-kevin-feige/?utm_content=buffer03309&utm_medium=Social-Distribution&utm_source=SR-TW&utm_campaign=SR-TW

CO-SEN: Democrat Jena Griswold exploring US Senate bid against Cory Gardner

Less than a week after the release of a voter survey showing her out-polling all but one of the Democrats running in Colorado's 2020 U.S. Senate primary, Secretary of State Jena Griswold has formed an exploratory committee to consider joining the field of candidates hoping to unseat Republican Cory Gardner.

According to the Senate primary poll, which was commissioned by Griswold supporters and conducted by Democratic firms Keating Research and Onsight Public Affairs, Griswold finished second, behind former House Speaker Andrew Romanoff and ahead of former state Sen. Mike Johnston, two of the 10 declared candidates for Gardner's seat.

"The fact that an undeclared entrant could garner second reaffirms the fact that this race is wide open," said pollster Chris Keating.

A full 42% of the likely Democratic primary voters surveyed said they were undecided, followed by 23% who said they would vote for Romanoff, 15% who picked Griswold and 12% who went with Johnston

The other three candidates included in the survey — former House Democratic leader Alice Madden, former U.S. attorney for Colorado John Walsh and former ambassador Dan Baer — all polled at 2%, under the survey's 4.4% margin of error. Another 2% said they preferred another candidate.



https://www.coloradopolitics.com/news/democrat-jena-griswold-exploring-us-senate-bid-against-cory-gardner/article_fce5aa1e-a776-11e9-9704-1386a278907c.html

Doom Patrol renewed for season 2 on DC Universe

DC Comics' own group of misfit superheroes in Doom Patrol might not get the adoration they deserve from the public, but they have their own live-action show on the DC Universe streaming service and it's just been renewed for a second season.

The show's renewal was announced Saturday night during the DC Universe panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2019.

Doom Patrol is a reimagining of superhero outcasts Robotman (played by Brendan Fraser), Negative Man (Matt Bomer), Elasti-Woman (April Bowlby) and Crazy Jane (Diane Guerrero), who are led by scientist Dr. Niles Caulder, also known as the Chief (Timothy Dalton).

In the series, the Doom Patrol members suffered horrible accidents that gave them superhuman abilities but left them physically and emotionally scarred.



https://www.cnet.com/news/doom-patrol-renewed-for-season-2-on-dc-universe/

Natalie Portman Returns for 'Thor: Love and Thunder' as Female Thor

Natalie Portman is coming back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but she’s no one’s love interest this time around.

The Oscar winner will play a female god of thunder in the fourth film from the Chris Hemsworth series, titled “Thor: Love and Thunder.”

Portman hit the stage at San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday to great fanfare, standing beside returning director Taika Waititi and co-stars Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson, where she was handed a Hasbro version the hero’s famous hammer.

“I’ve always had hammer envy,” Portman admitted.

Portman appeared in the first two Thor movies in 2011 and 2013 as Jane Foster, but was absent for the most recent installment, “Thor: Ragnarok.”

The development shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise for those who read the comic books. Foster’s introduced to the series as an astrophysicist who becomes the object of Thor’s affections, but in a 2014 comic-book storyline, she’s deemed worthy to wield Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir, and adopts the title of Thor, the Goddess of Thunder.

https://variety.com/2019/film/news/natalie-portman-thor-4-love-and-thunder-1203274705/

Bonus Tweet of the Day

Marvel is rebooting Blade, with Mahershala Ali set to star

One of the bombshell announcements during Marvel’s Hall H presentation at San Diego Comic-Con tonight was that the studio would be rebooting Blade, with True Detective and Luke Cage actor Mahershala Ali set to star.

The character was one of the first of Marvel’s superheroes to become a notable hit as a film: Blade was released in 1998, starring Wesley Snipes as the titular vampire hunter, a role he’d go on to reprise in 2002 for Blade II, and in 2004 for Blade: Trinity. Marvel reacquired the rights to the character, as well as Ghost Rider and the Punisher back in 2013. Marvel brought in Ghost Rider (which had been a pair of films starring Nicholas Cage), and the Punisher (another two films), for Agents of SHIELD, and its Netflix superhero franchise, starting with Daredevil, respectively.

Marvel didn’t release any additional details about when we’ll see Blade back in action, nor what form — at this point it could be either a series for Disney+ or a feature film. There are certainly plenty of opportunities for both in the coming years.

The character was born Eric Brooks, and is half-human, half vampire. He first appeared in comics in 1973 in The Tomb of Dracula #10, and after saving a man from vampires, turned to hunting them.


https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/20/20702411/marvel-cinematic-universe-blade-reboot-mahershala-ali

Simu Liu Will Play Marvel's First Asian lead hero, Shang-Chi

It’s been a long time coming, but Marvel has finally revealed the face of its long-in-the-works Shang-Chi movie: Canadian-Chinese actor Simu Liu has been tapped to bring the martial arts superhero to life.

Liu, known for the sitcom Kim’s Convenience (which is excellent), was apparently just cast for the role this past week, with his screen test last Sunday. That’s a quick turnaround.

The upcoming movie, all about the master of martial arts Shang-Chi, will also feature Tony Leung playing the Mandarin. Like, the real one. No, not the Iron Man 3 one. That actually bad guy. Also, Awkwafina is in the film in an as-yet-unannounced role.

Shang-Chi will be directed by Destin Daniel Cretton (Short Term 12, The Glass Castle), based on a script by Dave Callaham.


https://io9.gizmodo.com/tk-will-play-marvels-martial-arts-superhero-shang-chi-1836417243


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