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    Industry Mourns Former Motion Picture Academy President Tom Sherak

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments2323 Views
    In this Feb. 9, 2012 file photo, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president Tom Sherak, right, and his wife Madeleine pose with a Oscar statue after landing at Los Angeles International Airport as they arrive from Chicago. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson, File)

    By Jessica Herndon, Film Writer

    LOS ANGELES (AP) --

    Former Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president Tom Sherak has died after a 12-year battle with prostate cancer. He was 68.

    A film marketing and distribution executive, Sherak died Tuesday surrounded by family at his home in Calabasas, Calif. "Tom is a true hero in our lives who has a star on the sidewalk and wings to fly," the Sherak family said in a statement released by the academy.

    Sherak received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame just hours before his death but he was too ill to attend.

    Sherak, who served as the head of the academy from 2009-2012, spent 17 years at 20th Century Fox, where he became the domestic film group chairman. He also was an executive at Revolution Studios and Paramount Pictures.

    Sherak worked on such blockbusters as "Titanic," ''Die Hard," ''Wall Street," ''Independence Day" and "Star Wars: Episode 1 — The Phantom Menace."

    Last fall, Sherak was appointed Los Angeles film czar to help bring runaway production back to the city. He was also responsible for completing a deal for the academy's new film museum with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The museum is tentatively set to open in 2017.

    A champion of change, Sherak expanded the number of best picture Oscar nominees from five to 10 and was instrumental in bringing in younger academy members and making the group more diverse.

    "In the more than 30 years I've known Tom, his passionate support of and excitement about the motion picture business, the Academy, his family and friends never wavered," said Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs in a statement. "He was truly larger than life, and he will be missed."

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    Is “Glicked” The New “Barbenheimer”? “Wicked” and “Gladiator II” Hit Theater Screens

    Thursday, November 21, 2024

    "Barbenheimer" was a phenomenon impossible to manufacture. But, more than a year later, that hasn't stopped people from trying to make "Glicked" — or even "Babyratu" — happen.

    The counterprogramming of "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" in July 2023 hit a nerve culturally and had the receipts to back it up. Unlike so many things that begin as memes, it transcended its online beginnings. Instead of an either-or, the two movies ultimately complemented and boosted one another at the box office.

    And ever since, moviegoers, marketers and meme makers have been trying to recreate that moment, searching the movie release schedule for odd mashups and sending candidates off into the social media void. Most attempts have fizzled (sorry, "Saw Patrol" ).

    This weekend is perhaps the closest approximation yet as the Broadway musical adaptation "Wicked" opens Friday against the chest-thumping sword-and-sandals epic "Gladiator II." Two big studio releases (Universal and Paramount), with one-name titles, opposite tones and aesthetics and big blockbuster energy — it was already halfway there before the name game began: "Wickiator," "Wadiator," "Gladwick" and even the eyebrow raising "Gladicked" have all been suggested.

    "'Glicked' rolls off the tongue a little bit more," actor Fred Hechinger said at the New York screening of "Gladiator II" this week. "I think we should all band around 'Glicked.' It gets too confusing if you have four or five different names for it."

    As with "Barbenheimer," as reductive as it might seem, "Glicked" also has the male/female divide that make the fan art extra silly. One is pink and bright and awash in sparkles, tulle, Broadway bangers and brand tie-ins; The other is all sweat and sand, blood and bulging... Read More

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