I still find it quite easy to find my way into a child's imagination. We're all Peter Pan ourselves in some respects. Everybody should keep some grip on childhood, even as a grownup. | | | | The biggest opening of any film ever. This isn't the end. "Avengers: Endgame."
(Marvel/Disney) | | | | | |  | "I still find it quite easy to find my way into a child's imagination. We're all Peter Pan ourselves in some respects. Everybody should keep some grip on childhood, even as a grownup."
| | | | | | rantnrave:// There's a part of me that never wants to grow up. Just like PETER PAN. Sense of wonder. Massive curiosity. Just like when I was a kid. Just like when I was 3 years old and my friend JARRETT and I went to DISNEY WORLD with our parents for the first time. That sense of youth, wonder, and curiosity never left me and drove all of the success I've had in building things. Those traits fuel REDEF. I went back to ORLANDO after I graduated from college. On my own, for a week, just to go to Disney World. I equate the place with those traits. That was 25 years ago. Today, I find myself in Orlando again. This time to sit down with STEVE CASE to discuss his RISE OF THE REST fund and it's ROAD TRIP 8.0. So I figured, why not fly in a day early and have some fun? I'd never been to UNIVERSAL ORLANDO. I'm late to this. Slightly embarrassed, I mentioned this to my friend JEFF SHELL, Chairman, NBCUNIVERSAL Film and Entertainment. A little shocked, he had mercy on me and set me up for the day. Social media is rough these days. You don't look anyone in the eye and too rarely do we connect with those people in real life. So, I'm long on real-life experiences with actual people. My pal JASON WEISBERG drove from MIAMI to meet me. Two 48-year-old dudes in a theme park. Normally, that description would be an amber alert. This time, just two man-children. Two "Peter Pans." We loved it. Rides? Yeah a lot of franchises. But still awesome. TRANSFORMERS, THE MUMMY, FAST & FURIOUS, JIMMY FALLON, HARRY POTTER (the entire non-ride experience is breathtaking, let alone the rides), HULK, SPIDER-MAN, KING KONG and more. Fascinating to see the evolution. Back in the day, these rides were basically animatronic. Like my childhood Disney fav, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN. And they took up huge space. The rides today are a mix of rollercoasters, sensory experience (smell, motion, etc), 3-D, quasi-VR and animatronics. It's a lethally awesome combination. As I went from ride to ride I could see the similarities in technique, hardware, and animation. It reminded me of video games. Of game engines that get reused and remixed to create new experiences. In the future, with ride hardware (rollercoaster-like vehicles) working on X, Y and Z axis, a full 360 in-motion experience is possible. With software controlling 3-D and VR experiences, you can create amazing experiences in shorter time periods. Less real estate. You can do upgrades and changes easier. It's happening now. And these rides were evidence. But it's still early. Companies like DREAMSCAPE are thinking about it and innovating. It made me think how behind movie theaters are. Numbers of screens are dwindling. Theaters refresh themselves on average every 10-15 years. They don't invest enough. They innovate as fast as I run the marathon. Obviously, every movie in the future won't need this technology in an experience. But every movie theater shouldn't just be a movie theater. It can be an experience. And if you want to see what the future of those experiences can be. Go on one of the Universal rides because 3-D and loud sound won't cut it anymore... Don't even try to digest the number AVENGERS: ENDGAME did this weekend. Around the world. You'll choke. It isn't just bigger than anything before. It's not a step-change. It fundamentally redefines what monoculture means, what fandom can be, and the very economic gravity of filmmaking (something Disney has done before). As our man MATTHEW BALL notes, this performance isn't because of "IP" or blockbuster budgets, it's because of more than a decade of building brand equity and storytelling expertise. We have never seen this before, let alone this degree of success. And it worked. Not just for Disney, but for audiences. Everywhere. MARVEL STUDIOS tried something no one else had done before and they killed it. There's little more to say other than how the f*** did every other studio allow BOB IGER to get PIXAR, LUCASFILM, and Marvel? He ran the table... Do you know what I really really love? When I get home late from EPCOT and decide to watch GAME OF THRONES the next day, while I'm really active on social media right now... Happy Birthday to JENNIFER EISENBERG BERNSTEIN, ATTILA GAZDAG, LARRY WEITZMAN, BRENDON KENNY, and CHRIS BOARDMAN. Belated to BRIAN KOPPELMAN, JORDAN TURKEWITZ, DARIAN JENNINGS, RICHARD PARNELL HABERSHAM, TODD STEINMAN, SCOTT LAPATINE, ALEX KRAMER, DAVID FISCHER, SHAUL OLMERT, DAVID GOLDBERG, TERI FLYNN, BOB ZANGRILLO, OHAD JEHASSI, NEIL VOGEL, and SEAN SALO. | | | - Jason Hirschhorn, curator | | | |  | Foreign Policy | | Changes in technology, politics, and business are all transforming espionage. Intelligence agencies must adapt-or risk irrelevance. | | | |  | Wired | | This week, I interviewed Yuval Noah Harari, the author of three best-selling books about the history and future of our species, and Fei-Fei Li, one of the pioneers in the field of artificial intelligence. The event was hosted by the Stanford Center for Ethics and Society, the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, and the Stanford Humanities Center. | | | |  | CNBC | | I was rooting for Tiger Woods to win the Masters this month. And I wanted to watch him attack Augusta National's last nine holes without mixed allegiances. There was just one problem. I'd placed a bet on Francisco Molinari to win, with 22-to-1 odds. | | | |  | Quartz | | To make sure workers aren't routinely exploited, the whole business model needs to change. | | | |  | HBO Real Sports | | Real Sports looks at the extreme sports cameramen that experience none of the glory, but all of the danger. | | | |  | CAFE | | Bob Caro, the two-time Pulitzer-Prize winning author whose biographies of Robert Moses and LBJ double as studies of political power, joins Preet to kick off a special Stay Tuned series of conversations with writers about their craft, their lives, and life lessons. Caro's new book is called Working. | | | |  | Jalopnik | | The future of driving is supposed to feel like flying. The names some car companies give their newest technology-Autopilot, Pilot Assist, Super Cruise, Pro Pilot-are all aviation-inspired terms being used by automotive companies for their semi-autonomous systems. Just like with an airplane's autopilot, the thinking goes, the driver pushes a button and the thing flies itself. Except even that interpretation is wildly wrong. | | | |  | The New York Times | | One man wanted to change the raisin industry for the better. He got more than he bargained for. | | | |  | Gizmodo | | This week, I read through a history of everything I've said to Alexa, and it felt a little bit like reading an old diary. Until I remembered that the things I've told Alexa in private are stored on an Amazon server and have possibly been read by an Amazon employee. | | | |  | The Globe and Mail | | Shanghai, one of the planet's most populous urban centres, is growing at breakneck speed. But thanks to decades of planning, they're doing it right. The city is destined for global supremacy | | | |  | The Verge | | "They're apples and oranges." | | | |  | Medium | | By giving us everything of everything, we overload and take nothing of anything, overwhelmed in the face of it all. | | | |  | CNN Reliable Sources | | Brian Stelter connects the dots between two alleged hate crimes, one targeting Muslims in northern California and another targeting Jews in Southern California. He discusses the synagogue suspect's online footprint with a panel and discusses what more social networks can do to stem hate speech from spreading. | | | |  | AVC | | It can take a leader some time to develop followership, particularly if they are hired from the outside. The team will need some time to figure out this new person, how they operate, and how they feel about them. | | | |  | CBS News | | David Martin reports from north of the Arctic Circle, where, for the first time in decades, the United States has sent a carrier strike group to participate in war games. | | | |  | Atlas Obscura | | His proudest achievement? Putting your face on an M&M. | | | |  | Hollywood Reporter | | The Oscar winner and fierce gender-equality activist is proud to be starring as Carol Danvers in the Disney-owned studio's first female-fronted franchise -- just don't conflate its success with the fate of women in Hollywood: "We have been opening movies since the silent era." | | | |  | Salon | | Therapist and mediator Bill Eddy on the dangers of a leader who "repeatedly blames others" and becomes isolated | | | |  | Monday Note | | Business theory must not be confused with the laws of physics. One arranges facts to tell stories, the other dictates how gravity always works. | | | |  | The Conversation | | From Ford to Facebook, companies have long used benefits to mold employee behavior -- even incentivizing the 'right' kind of lifestyle. | | | |  | Lawfare | | The current battles over subpoenas arise out of the fundamentally different views held by the executive branch and Congress about their respective constitutional authorities in the context of congressional oversight. | | | |  | BuzzFeed News | | As someone who loves traveling and going outdoors, I struggle with balancing my hopefulness and my despair -- and my culpability -- regarding an imperiled earth. | | | | |  | | YouTube | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | © Copyright 2019, The REDEF Group | | |
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