Modern Echoes of the ‘Penny Dreadful’

penny dreadfulBy Katherine Sharma

The term “Penny Dreadful” has been revived by the recent Showtime horror-thriller series. “Penny dreadful” refers to cheap and lurid British publications catering to the newly literate youth of the late 19th century. Thanks to increased public education, a growing number of English working class adolescents had learned to read at a basic level, and had income for inexpensive escapist entertainment. An American parallel would be the “dime novel.” Aimed mainly at young adult males, the “penny dreadful” began as serialized stories on cheap pulp paper (costing a penny per installment). They offered sensational tales of paranormal chills, violent crime and youthful adventurers. For example, Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, who has been recently reincarnated as a Broadway and film star, was a penny dreadful invention. Other series featured “Varney the Vampire” and “Wagner the Wehr-Wolf.” Actually, the penny dreadful tales don’t sound that different from current best sellers in the Young Adult genre. Clearly, the teen taste for horror-thriller adventure is unabated. But I wonder if the penny dreadful content has modern-day parallels because the elementary literacy of Victorian youth–who demanded short-attention-span excitement devoid of literary and historical allusions and difficult vocabulary–is also still with us. A 2012 study of reading trends among high school students found that the average student reads at the 5th grade level–the reading level of the Hunger Games and Twilight series. For more on penny dreadful history, see http://vichist.blogspot.com/2008/11/penny-dreadfuls.html

NOTE: Showtime’s Penny Dreadful series has been picked up for a second season. Watch a trailer of the series:

ABOUT  KATHERINE SHARMA

Katherine Sharma’s family roots are in Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas. But after her early childhood in Texas, she has moved around the country and lived in seven other states, from Virginia to Hawaii. She currently resides in California with her husband and three children. She has also traveled extensively in Europe, Africa and Asia, and makes regular visits to family in India. After receiving her bachelor’s degree. in economics and her master’s degree in journalism from the University of Michigan, Katherine worked as a newspaper and magazine writer and editor for more than 15 years. She then shifted into management and marketing roles for firms in industries ranging from outdoor recreation to insurance to direct marketing. Although Katherine still works as a marketing consultant, she is now focused on creative writing.

Entertainment News: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Wes Anderson heads to Europe for the first time with this Indian Paintbrush production starring Saoirse Ronan, Ralph Fiennes, Bill Murray, and Jude Law. Gustav H., the famous concierge at a legendary hotel situated in the Alps during the 1930′s becomes the center of a farcical whirlwind of suspicion when one of his institution’s oldest and richest patrons turns up dead, and she suspiciously leaves him her most priceless work of art — a Renaissance painting of a boy with an apple. Infuriated that she left anything of value to anyone else, the woman’s greedy and nefarious heir uses all manner of underhanded and illegal tactics to pin her death on Gustav and to silence anyone who questions his objective of inheriting every penny of her estate, leaving Gustav’s trusted lobby boy Zero to clear Gustav’s name.

300’s Spartan Warrior Is Handsome Rising Star

It takes a special kind of guy to lead a battalion of Greek Warriors into battle with a Persian demi-God. It’s one of those “fate of humanity” defining moments. Lucky for us, we have Sullivan Stapleton shouldering that burden. The star of the new 300: Rise of An Empire might just be the perfect actor to fill the sandals of the mighty King Leonidas, who was expertly portrayed by Gerard Butler. Even though the mighty 300 Spartan warriors won’t be around to partake in the sequel, the trimmed down Greeks are ready to pick up their swords and carry on the fight.

Zack Snyder and Frank Miller are back behind the scenes to direct this wonderful visual treat. They cast a relatively unknown Aussie in Stapleton in the lead role and entrusted his charisma and talent to carry the franchise. Early results are positive. Fans have found themselves drawn to the sequel with an opening weekend of $136 million, as well as an affection towards Stapleton himself. “I can see it has opened doors,” says Stapleton, “As for the sequel, it’s a huge story, and those battles between the Greeks and Persians went on for years and years. I hope to God we do another sequel.”

The good news is that Warner Bros seems to like Stapleton. After using him for a key role in Gangster Squad and now 300, the studio has a couple of options with the actor, one of which most certainly will be another 300 installment, as his Themistokles comes to an inevitable showdown with Persian god king Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro). Right now, Stapleton is focused on keeping his head from swelling, figuratively and literally, and slowly planning to test out the opportunity that a global hit will provide him.

View the Trailer Below:

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Movies: 50 Shades of ‘Mummy Porn’

By now we all know the meteoric levels of popularity that Fifty Shades of Grey has reached, but did you know that Fifty Shades of Grey originated as Twilight fan fiction? It was originally called Master of the Universe and was published on the Twilight fansite. After it was deemed too “sexual” in nature, it was removed from the site by the author, E L James and was expanded and reworked into the first of the trilogy it would eventually become. The attraction to the book series has always been the intense level of eroticism — dubbed “Mummy Porn” – supposedly improving the sex lives of thousands of married women across the country, and bringing BDSM (Bondage and Discipline, Sadism and Masochism) into the mainstream of erotic fiction. With the adaptation of the book to the silver screen, producer Michael De Luca insisted that the film version is going to weigh more heavily towards “eroticism” as opposed to “explicit.”  De Luca was quoted as saying, “We’re going to give them what they expect, which is an intense and erotic love story, obviously the film can’t be as explicit as the book. A picture is worth a 1000 words. So to be erotic onscreen means I think an image is going to have way more power than reading the words on a page.”

The Focus Features pic is set to be released on February 13, 2015.

Everyone’s Fallin’ for Alicia Keys *Update

The Woman

Singer-songwriter Alicia Keys has had us falling for her from the start. In 2001, she became the best-selling new artist and best-selling R&B artist with the release of her debut album Songs in A Minor. The album sold 12 million copies and Keys collected five Grammy awards, including Best New Artist and Song of the Year for “Fallin’.” After more musical success, Keys made many guest appearances on television series, such as Charmed and The Nanny Diaries. She also appeared on the big screen in the feature film The Secret Life of Bees, which earned her a nomination for the NAACP Image Awards. Continue reading

Rob Lowe To Star in New Comedy

Actor Rob Lowe will star in and executive produce a pilot  for single-camera comedy The Pro, which will air on NBC. Lowe made a development deal with NBC last summer when he was finalizing his upcoming exit from Parks And Recreation. In The Pro Lowe plays a former tennis doubles champion — “Big Ben” Bertrahm — whose career flame-out and misguided investments have left him working as the pro at a tennis and golf club. He tries to hustle and charm his way back into America’s 1% at the club.

Matthew McConaughey Takes on True Detective Role

HBO’s eight-episode series, True Detective, stars Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson as Louisiana state police detectives Rust Cohle and Martin Hart. The two are partnered up in the mid-1990s on what appears to be an occult-themed serial killer case. True Detective toggles between 1995 and modern day as two contemporary detectives reopen the case of almost 20 years beforehand. An eight-episode anthology franchise similar to American Horror Story, in which each season spins a different yarn with a different cast.

The show is the creation of crime writer Nic Pizzolatto, and the first work in television for Cary Joji Fukunaga, the director of Sin Nombre and Jane Eyre. Together, they have built a fluid, many-layered narrative that’s as intimate as a confession and as sinister as a nightmare. True Detective isn’t just one more roll in the anti-hero mir, it’s a show about meaningful themes — lots of chatter about history, memory, identity, religion, time, death, futility–while also being about two men (and a culture) afflicted with meaninglessness.

“I can’t imagine anyone playing that part better,” said Harrelson of McConaughey. “It was different than any other part I’ve seen him play before, and he knocked it out of the park.”

 

Lucy Liu: Artist/Angel

THE WOMAN

Lucy Liu was 19 when she was spotted by an agent while riding the subway. Apprehensive to work with him, she finally agreed after cross-referencing his credentials with the Better Business Bureau.  This relationship lead Liu to book her first commercial and begin her career in acting.  She spent the early 90s in small TV and film roles before landing the part of Ling Woo—specifically created for her by the writers—on Ally McBeal. In 1997 she was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award and an Emmy for her role in the series.  Liu’s next big move was playing Alex Munday in the movie Charlie’s Angels in 2000Also in 2000 she hosted Saturday Night Live and appeared in TV shows like Ugly Betty and Sex in the City.   This success lead to more movie roles—in 2003 Liu played O-Ren Ishii in Quentin Tarantino’s popular Kill Bill series, followed by a part in Chicago, and then opposite Kira Knightly in Domino. She has since starred in a variety of roles from providing her voice for Kung Fu Panda, making her Broadway debut in God of Carnage, a Tony-winning play and acting in a slew of other movies. Liu’s current project is working on the CBS television series Elementary, a Sherlock Holmes drama in which Liu plays the typically male part of Watson.  In 2013 she became a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.  When not acting, Liu pursuits her passion for art.  A painter and photographer, Liu attended the New York Studio School from 2004-2006 and often shows her work under a pseudonym, Yu Ling.

UPDATE* Season 3 of Elementary ends on May 14th! Make sure you tune in!

THE CAUSE

Incorporating her love for art with her love for charity, Liu has partnered with UNICEF—a United Nations program dedicated to providing much needed assistance to children and mothers in developing nations— on a variety of projects.  Liu first joined with UNICEF in 2004 when she was named an ambassador and traveled with them to Pakistan and Lesotho. Since then the actress has continued to give to UNICEF by holding art shows in which she donates all of her profits to the program.  She published a book featuring her artwork, Seventy Two, and vowed to donate proceeds from this as well. Liu was also named a spokeswoman for The Human Rights campaign in 2011 and has worked with Heinz to push back against anemia and other potentially life-threatening vitamin deficiencies that are occurring in children in developing countries.  In 2012, Liu was honored for her widespread humanitarian work by the charity Women for Women International and presented with the Champion of Peace award.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP

Visit UNICEF at http://www.unicefusa.org/ to find out how to donate, volunteer, or learn more about the challenges that UNICEF aspires to overcome.

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