Netflix is now available in Cuba

At least, it's now available for the few Cuban citizens with the resources needed to watch it. Access to the Internet costs far more than the average Cuban can afford, and even those who have the money are often restricted to seeing only what information is available on the government's tightly controlled intranet. All the same, Netflix's streaming video service has been available on the island nation since yesterday, which makes it one of the first American companies to take advantage of the U.S. government's decision to relax the trade embargo first imposed on Cuba in the '60s.

Outside of whatever the government allows to air on Cuban state television, many Cubans have never been exposed to much in the way of foreign programming, which means they have decades of Doctor Who to catch up on. In a press release, Netflix spotlighted the availability of original series like House Of Cards and Orange Is The New Black, and also took care to note that The Adventures Of Puss In Boots is now available, since it knows its audience. Generally, the company's Cuban programming is similar to what it offers in other Latin American countries.

"We are delighted to finally be able to offer Netflix to the people of Cuba, connecting them with stories they will from all over the world," said Netflix CEO Reed Hastings. "Cuba has great filmmakers and a robust arts culture and one day we hope to be able to bring their work to our global audience of over 57 million members."

Because so few people in Cuba can reliably access to the Internet, Netflix's decision to expand there seems largely ceremonial at this point. Now that the embargo is lifted, however, the company is betting that it will get more subscribers "as Internet access improves and credit and debit cards become more widely available." The plan to increase trade with Cuba included provisions aimed at allowing telecommunications companies to improve the country's Internet services. If all goes according to plan, it could mean the biggest nationwide binge watch in history.

NBC's attempt to find new voices in comedy immediately faces legal trouble

Earlier this month, NBC announced that it would be accepting submissions for new comedy series through a website called The NBC Comedy Playground, giving thousands of aspiring filmmakers with a camera in one hand and a fistful of dreams in the other the chance to see their visions come to life on the small screen. Now they are being sued for it. Comedy Playground, a comedy workshop in Los Angeles, has filed a complaint with the U.S. Central District Court of California accusing NBCUniversal of unfair competition as well as federal and state trademark infringement. The group's complaint—which is available to read on The Wrap—alleges that the similarity between the names will leave their potential customers hopelessly confused. They claim that they've already received multiple communications from people under the mistaken impression that their comedy workshop is involved with NBC, clogging their inbox to the point where only lots of money in damages can set things right.

NBCUniversal has yet to comment on the lawsuit, presumably because they're hard at work coming up with a new name for their website that doesn't fly in the face of trademark law—something like Laughs Across America, The NBC Comedy Playground (In No Way Affiliated With Comedy Playground), or The Second City.

AMC passes on sci-fi pilot Line Of Sight

Unable to squeeze anything else between the show about zombies stalking the ravaged earth and the show about the show about zombies stalking the ravaged earth, AMC has passed on the sci-fi pilot Line Of Sight. The series, a co-production between Fox TV Studios and AMC Studios, was to star The Walking Dead's David Morrissey as “Lewis Bernt, a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigator who survives a mysterious plane crash, bringing him on a quest to discover the accident's cause." Fox TV Studios plans to shop the show around elsewhere, so Morrissey may yet play a man "whose entire sense of self, his own life and the world as he knows it, completely unravels in a whirlwind of obsession and paranoia” on another network.

Now Scrubs is getting turned into a Broadway musical

Getting turned into a musical isn't just for movies anymore. Scrubs, which ran for a combined nine seasons across NBC and ABC, is set to follow in the footsteps of Back to the Future and American Psycho and be turned into a Broadway show. Creator Bill Lawrence announced plans to turn the the medical comedy into a musical via Twitter back in 2012, but he revealed more details last week in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.

The as-yet-unnamed musical is still very early in development. It will follow the plot of the television show's pilot episode combined with that of the first season episode My Old Lady, which finds the young doctors at the center of the story unable to keep their patients from dying. An outline of the Broadway show has been sent to composers, who are writing songs that may or may not be used in the finished product.

Zach Braff, the star of the original show, will shortly make his Broadway debut in a musical version of Woody Allen's 1994 comedy Bullets Over Broadway. As far as the Scrubs musical goes, Lawrence said that he expects Braff to be "involved creatively" but intends to cast the show with seasoned Broadway performers. It remains to be seen whether the Scrubs musical will successfully make the transition from screen to stage, like the stage versions of The Producers or Hairspray, or become an embarrassingly flop all agree is best forgotten, like pretty much every other time producers try something like this.

PBS documentarian Ken Burns is now available in app form

Since debuting his film The Civil War for PBS in 1990, the Ken Burns style of documentary filmmaking has become familiar to many viewers, even if they don't know that's what it's called. Burns has been panning over archival photographs, enlisting celebrities to recite famous quotes of the day, and playing tinkly piano music under historical narration for over 25 films and counting. His work is dense and absorbing, but traditional to almost a fault. Not many people would describe his many mini-series as cutting edge.

Burns is working to change that. Yesterday he launched his very own iPad app. Simply called "Ken Burns," the app breaks down his 136 hours worth of documentary footage into short clips, groups them chronologically, and lets viewers sift through the entirety of American history year by year in a way that allows them to see how different parts of Burns' films "speak to" each other. Click on the year 1933, for example, and you can select a clip about FDR's fireside chats from Burns' film Empire of the Air, check out a bit about the effect of the Depression on professional baseball from his film Baseball, and so on.

Burns is currently working on new documentaries about the Vietnam War, the Gettysburg Address, and the Roosevelt family. Clips from his new films will be added to the app as they get made. If Burns keeps producing films at the rate he's going, the app should achieve total dominion over American history in short order. The app can be downloaded for free here, although it costs $9.00 to unlock all of the content. Watch a trailer for the app below.

Glee may be kicked off the air in the UK because of a trademark lawsuit

The United Kingdom may soon have fewer earnest teenage vocalists crowding its airwaves. A United Kingdom high court has ruled that Fox's Glee, now in its fifth season, is in violation of a trademark held by British company Comic Enterprises in The Glee Club, a stand-up comedy club with four locations in the UK. Comic Enterprises is owned by Mark Tughan, who brought the lawsuit in 2011 after one too many people walked into his club, realized that Lea Michele was not going to perform, and left without even buying a drink. Judge Roger Wyand wrote the opinion:

"I have found that there is a likelihood of confusion and Twentieth Century Fox's use causes dilution and tarnishing [of Comic Enterprises' trademark] ...the damage suffered by Comic Enterprises is caused by its venues being confused with the TV show and its potential customers being put off."

Glee's future on UK television is now uncertain. The court could issue an injunction ordering Fox to pull the show from the airwaves. Comic Enterprises could demand reparations for all the income Fox may have made from customers who tuned in to Glee thinking the show had something to do with The Glee Club. Or Fox could re-brand the show in a way that doesn't interfere with any trademarks, perhaps by renaming it The Good Time Singing Hour or Glee (in no way associated with The Glee Club).

Showtime pits William H. Macy against the Super Bowl

On this coming Sunday, the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks will face off in the Super Bowl, a reliably popular athletic contest that in its last iteration was watched by an estimated 108.4 million viewers. In the face of what is expected to be, barring a series of impossible events, another widely viewed Bowl, most networks have decided to get the Hell out of the way. HBO, for example, has opted to move new episodes of its comedies Girls and Looking to Saturday rather than get crushed underfoot of the biggest television event of the year. Showtime, on the other hand, has announced that it will air original episodes of its shows Shameless, House of Lies, and Episodes opposite the Super Bowl, proving there is still a place for brazen foolhardiness in the television business.

Showtime executive Kim Lemon explained the decision: “We’ve looked at the competitive landscape, and we have an opportunity to be one of the few scripted alternatives on Super Bowl Sunday." The network will join PBS, which will air original episodes of Sherlock and Downton Abbey this Sunday, in taking a stand for the fans who will probably just DVR the shows to watch later anyway.

New Maleficent trailer really hopes you remember and love Sleeping Beauty

Earlier this week, Disney released a new trailer for Maleficent, the latest in the company's ongoing attempt to remake their animated catalogue with more expensive people in the lead roles. Their strategy for this trailer is to remind you that Sleeping Beauty was a movie, that you liked it, and that it will be the same this time. They achieve this by splicing in bits from the animated original alongside the corresponding scenes from this live-action version, which works okay until you remember that Imelda Staunton, who plays good fairy Knotgrass, is not that small and cannot fly. Disney has promised that the movie will explore the betrayals that turned the title villain's "pure heart to stone." There's still isn't much to suggest what those betrayals involve, but Angelina Jolie continues to look suitably imposing in the lead role, smirking, scowling, and tittering maniacally in great big billowy gowns it's assumed she'll have the grace not to trip over when the movie opens on May 30th. Watch the trailer below.

Team behind FX's Archer to release country music album, complete with cover of "Danger Zone"

This past Monday, the reliably bonkers FX comedy Archer kicked off its fifth season with an excellent episode that set up the criminally incompetent spies at ISIS with a new gig as actual criminals. Buried within the gargantuan pile of jokes was a bit about how ISIS secretary/arson enthusiast Cheryl Tunt planned to become a country singer- she even sang a country tune over the episode's closing minutes. People watching at home could be forgiven for thinking it was a throwaway gag, but not only will Cheryl's country career be an ongoing story arc, FX will be releasing a 12-track digital album of original Cherlene songs on February 17.

The album, tastefully titled "Cherlene," will feature songs with Cheryl-ish titles like "It's All About Me," "I'll Burn it Down," and "Gypsy Woman." In a nod to one of the series' many, many recurring jokes, it will also feature a cover of Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone," with Loggins himself joining Cherlene for a duet on one of Sterling Archer's favorite tunes. All of the tracks were produced by Kevn Kinney, frontman for the Southern rock back Drivin' N' Cryin', with country singer Jessy Lynn Martens providing the singing voice for Cherlene. The whole project is nicely ambitious and bodes well for the show's fifth season. If the Archer team cares enough to put this much thought into a side project, imagine how hard they must have worked on the actual episodes of television.

China and Japan compare each other to Voldemort, crossing line that cannot be uncrossed

Japan and China have always had an antagonistic relationship. After several failed invasions and a pair of Sino-Japanese wars, this can only be expected. But recently, relations between the two countries reached a new low after they compared each other to Lord Voldemort, megalomaniacal dark wizard and the primary antagonist of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter book series.

The war of words began after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited the Yasukuni Shrine, a Shinto shine built to honor those who have died in service to Japan. As of 1978, the honored dead include several Japanese soldiers convicted of war crimes committed against Chinese citizens during World War II, a fact that has caused tension between the two nations before. Liu Xiaoming, China's ambassador to the UK, criticized the visit in literary terms, giving readers a big hint as to how he spends his time while flying between London and Beijing:

In the Harry Potter story, the dark wizard Voldemort dies hard because the seven horcruxes, which contain parts of his soul, have been destroyed. If militarism is like the haunting Voldemort of Japan, the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo is a kind of horcrux, representing the darkest parts of that nation’s soul.

Japan's British ambassador, Keiichi Hayashi, responded in kind, although with a slightly less nuanced knowledge of Potter particulars:

East Asia is now at a crossroads. There are two paths open to China. One is to seek dialogue, and abide by the rule of law. The other is to play the role of Voldemort in the region by letting loose the evil of an arms race and escalation of tensions, although Japan will not escalate the situation from its side.

The ambassadors' inboxes were promptly flooded with letters from Harry Potter fans advising them on the finer points of Potter mythology, and a few from concerned citizens about the ongoing conflicts between their countries. This past Sunday, Chinese President Ma Ying-jeou made his own statement and gave the debate a new, non-Harry-Potter-based focus.

Italian promotional poster reimagines 12 Years A Slave as a Brad Pitt vehicle

Remember watching 12 Years A Slave, the harrowing account of a free black man's experiences as a slave in pre-Civil War Louisiana? And remember how, about four-fifths through the movie, Brad Pitt shows up for one scene as a kindly drifter and it was like: 'This is sort of weird. What's Brad Pitt doing in this movie?' Well, Mr. Pitt made such an impression that BIM Distribuzione, the company responsible for marketing the movie in Italy, created posters giving Pitt top billing and featuring his head framed front and center, back-lit by a dappled mid-afternoon sky. Chiwetel Ejiofor, the film's star, is relegated to the right-hand corner. For good measure, the distributor also created a poster giving top billing and prime poster real estate space to Michael Fassbender, who plays Ejiofor's abusive owner.

After making their debut at Italy's Capri Hollywood Film Festival last month, the posters went on to quickly offend people. BIM Distribuzione has since recalled the posters and issued an apology. "We apologize for creating and releasing unauthorized posters for 12 Years A Slave in Italy featuring Brad Pitt and Michael Fassbender in a manner inconsistent with approved advertising materials... We are very proud of the film and regret any distraction this incident may have caused."

12 Years A Slave will be officially released in Italy on February 20, 2014.

 

Relive bitter arguments about whether to boycott the Ender's Game movie with this timeline of Orson Scott Card's misdeeds

After 25-plus years in development hell, the film version of author Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game finally opened last weekend to decent (but not fantastic) reviews and solid (but not spectacular) numbers.  Whether the opening was affected by the furor over Card's well-publicized remarks disparaging homosexuals is not known, but the controversy often threatened to overshadow talk of the movie itself.  Now, Vulture has assembled a handy guide to the sci-fi author's various foot-in-mouth statements and attendant backpedalings, allowing you to relive the debate over whether Card's personal beliefs should affect whether people see the movie over and over to your heart's content.

Long-Ended Musical Fued Ended Again

Yoko One broke up The Beatles.  A lot of people say that, but of course it isn't true.  By the time Ono started dating John Lennon in 1966, the famous foursome were already losing interest in their partnership, wanted to explore different musical directions, and were quarreling over their management.  Still, Ono often gets the blame, because she was there.  Whatever lingering resentment that may have existed between Ono and former member Paul McCartney at the time of the breakup has long since dissipated- McCartney has said previously that she did not break up the band and the two of them shared the stage when Lennon was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.  Still, it was confirmed earlier this week that the long-dead feud between the two musicians has finally, ultimately, and forever been put to rest.  It's unclear why this already-settled matter is being reported as being settled again, but it's nice to know.

Incidentally, McCartney has a new album out, 'New'.

New Ender's Game Trailer Flashy, Probably Homophobic In Some Way

I mean, who is Harrison Ford implying that Ender will save mankind from?  Actually, the trailer looks pretty nifty, if prosaic.  The special effects are crisp, the opera rock rousing, and Harrison Ford's world-weary glower as affecting as ever it was.  Still, it's hard to remember a time when Ender's Game author Orson Scott Card was known for being a pioneering science fiction author rather than a prodigious homophobe.  Time will tell if the Ender's Game movie adaptation, out in November, will fail at the box office because of the backlash against Card's opinions or because big-budget action flicks aren't doing so well lately.

Stephen Soderbergh Like Spike Lee. Tell Your Friends.

Spike Lee: Artist. Pioneer. Crowd-sourcer.

     In the latest example of what is becoming an increasingly common trend of successful filmmakers asking the world for money to finance their projects via Kickstarter, auteur Spike Lee has taken to the crowd-sourcing site to finance his latest, as-yet-unnamed Joint.  His pal Stephen Soderbergh, the man behind Oceans Eleven through Thirteen, has pitched in $10,000.00 as well as an impassioned couple of paragraphs bemoaning the shrinking possibilities of the film industry and why we should support idiosyncratic filmmakers like Lee.

    It's an insightful post, and sweet, but even as more and more big names include Kickstarter as part of their fund-raising strategies, it's still hard to think of someone like Spike Lee needing to solicit donations to get his projects completed.  At least he's only asking for help with a pet project about the 'addiction for blood' unlikely to be seen by more than a few cinephiles.  When Marvel Studios starts asking for money to finance Thor 3, we'll know a line has been crossed.

Terrance Howard Joins Cast of M. Night Shyamalan's TV Show

Welcome to Wayward Pines.

Say what you will about writer/director/mystery M. Night Shyamalan, but the man has directed profitable movie after profitable movie, even as many of those movies have been panned as some of limpest, most overly self-important cinemata of our time.  Now he's making a television series called Wayward Pines, about a Secret Service agent who arrives in the sleepy, seemingly bucolic town on a quest to find out what happened to two other agents, and soon learns that he may not be able to leave.

The serial drama is set to debut in 2014.  Terrance Howard recently signed on to play the town's local sheriff, joining other heavy hitters like Matt Dillon, Carla Gugino, and Mellissa Leo in what promises to be the most lavish tribute to Twin Peaks ever attempted.

Microsoft to Control Your Entertainment Options, Happiness

Former CBS President and current Microsoft media head Nancy Tellem.

Little-engine-that-could Microsoft has been gearing up for months to debut the work of their newly minted XBox Entertainment Studios, which aims to turn the as-yet-unreleased Xbox One console into a one-stop shop for all things related to gaming, movies, television, web-browsing, and basically everything not involving work or sleep, although there's still several months until release.  With television and film veterans like Nancy Tellum and Albert Page hired to run the unit, Microsoft seems pretty serious about bringing its vision of a vertical entertainment monopoly to you- happy days may indeed be near again.

HBO Exucutive Named As America's Ambassador to Spain

Yesterday, the Obama administration appointed James Costos, HBO's vice president of global licensing and retail, as the United States ambassador to Spain, making good use of his intimate knowledge concerning vampire-human relations and the migration patterns of Dothraki hordes.

The appointment probably has more to do with Costos' fundraising efforts on behalf of the Democratic Party, but those skills can't hurt.  Former movie studio executive Rufus Gifford and soap opera producer Colleen Bell are also up for nominations, so if anyone would like to make wild speculations about the power of the government-entertainment complex, now would be the time.

Television Actresses Fail to Raise $32,000 for Their Percussive Folk Band

Zosia Mamet is one of the stars of HBO's Girls.  Clara Mamet is a regular on the ABC sitcom The Neighbors.  Their father is David Mamet, a man with a Pulitzer Prize and writing credits like Glengarry Glen Ross  and The Untouchables to his name.  His daughters tried to use Kickstarter to raise $32,000 to make a music video for their experimental folk song 'Bleak Love'.  Today they failed.

The instinct in cases like this is to rant and rail against the wealthy elites who are so detached they believe it's okay to ask people to support their personal hobby in an amount about equal to what many of those people pull down in a year, but we have to remember that such individuals grew up in a unique cultural context and have feelings and dreams and tastefully apportioned New York City brownstones and enough money to wallpaper their rooms with and that they can probably take it so rant and rail away.