English Entertainment
‘Dark Angel’ worth sampling despite occasional speed bumps
Star World is counting on the science fiction genre to widen its audience base and maintain viewer loyalty. Dark Angel from the mind of Oscar winner James Cameron premieres tomorrow at 6:30 pm with a repeat at 10 pm.
The series takes the casual telly buff down an unusual turn. The plot kicks off in Wyoming where a secret government lab is building an army by creating children with superior DNA trained to fight and kill. The opening scene reminds one of Cameron‘s True Lies with its ice blue photography. The setting is 2009 and when the show starts, 12 of them escape.
Not long after a computer targeted electromagnetic pulse is triggered off, turning America the land of the free, honey, milk, blah blah into a third world country (TWC). Food riots and unemployment rule the roast. All electrical equipment, including bank and financial records are destroyed. The scene then shifts a decade later to 2019 in Washington. One of the escapees, Max, played by Jessica Alba is trying to search for the other 11.
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The first episode shows promise. It has more dramatic elements than Alias which is more action oriented. That is not to say that Dark Angel doesn‘t have eye-popping visuals. Check out the scene where Alba flies from one building to another using a rope in order to burgle the home of a cyber journalist who runs Freedom Streaming Video. He has dreams of making a rotten society more liveable as it were. He tries to make a start by exposing the shenanigans of a business baron who is substituting a drug used for cancer treatment with sugar pills.
The drug is being sold in the Canadian black market while war veterans go untreated. The journalist soon susses out who Max really is. Alba is effective in conveying a woman going through her normal routine in a chirpy manner while trying to deal with a tormented past by taking pills to stop nerve seizures. The flashbacks showing the tortuous routine the kids were put through are one of the highlights of the pilot. Before she is trying to maintain a low profile, Alba is understandably reluctant to help the journalist in his crusade as she finds him to be too idealistic and not practical enough.
The show manages to let a wry sense of humour slip into the proceedings courtesy Alba‘s friend who happens to be a lesbian and one hopes to see more of her as the series progresses. On the flip side, a couple of trite situations like a police officer‘s visit to Alba‘s home do bog down proceedings to a certain extent. Also, one found it odd that a pulse could destroy everything electrical to such an extent that we are clueless as to how to fix the problem, though of course, we created the darn electrical gadgets in the first place.
English Entertainment
Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders approve Paramount deal
Investors wave through a $111 billion megamerger but deliver a stinging, if toothless, rebuke over half-a-billion-dollar goodbye packages
NEW YORK: The shareholders said yes to the deal. They said no to the cheque. At a virtual special meeting on Thursday that lasted barely ten minutes, Warner Bros. Discovery investors voted overwhelmingly to approve Paramount Skydance’s $111 billion acquisition of the company — and then turned around and voted against the lavish exit pay packages lined up for chief executive David Zaslav and his fellow outgoing executives.
Not that it will make much difference. The compensation vote is purely advisory and non-binding. The Warner Bros. Discovery board can, and almost certainly will, pay out as planned.
But the symbolism stings. It is the second consecutive year that WBD shareholders have voted against the executive compensation packages, and this time they had good reason. Zaslav’s exit deal is, by any measure, extraordinary. Under the terms filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, he is set to receive $34.2 million in cash severance, $517.2 million in equity in the combined company, and $44,195 in continued health coverage — a total of at least $550 million. On top of that, Warner Bros. Discovery has agreed to reimburse Zaslav up to $335 million for taxes assessed by the Internal Revenue Service on his accelerated stock vesting, though the company says that figure will decline depending on when the deal closes. As of March 11, Zaslav also held $115.85 million in vested WBD stock awards — and last month sold a further $114 million worth of WBD shares.
Shareholder advisory firm ISS recommended voting against the compensation measure, citing “problematic” tax reimbursements to Zaslav and the full vesting of his stock awards.
Zaslav will be bound by a two-year non-competition covenant and a two-year non-solicitation of customers and employees after the deal closes.
His lieutenants are not walking away empty-handed either. J.B. Perrette, chief executive and president of global streaming and games, is in line for $142 million, comprising $18.2 million in cash severance and $123.9 million in equity. Bruce Campbell, chief revenue and strategy officer, will receive an estimated $121.5 million, including $18.8 million in severance and $102.7 million in equity. Chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels is set for $120 million, made up of $6.6 million in cash severance and $113.1 million in equity. Gerhard Zeiler, president of international, will get $82.6 million, including $11.9 million in severance and $70.7 million in equity.
The deal itself, clinched in February after Netflix declined to raise its bid for Warner Bros., still needs regulatory clearance from the Justice Department and European authorities. Several state attorneys general are also weighing legal action to block it.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, was unsparing. “The Paramount-Warner Bros. merger isn’t a done deal,” she said after the shareholder vote. “State attorneys general across the country are stepping up to stop this antitrust disaster. We need to keep up this fight.”
If it does go through, the combined entity would be a formidable beast, bringing together Paramount Skydance’s stable — CBS, CBS News, Paramount Pictures, Paramount+, BET, MTV and Nickelodeon — with WBD’s portfolio of HBO, Max, Warner Bros. film and TV studios, DC, CNN, TBS, TNT, HGTV and Discovery+. Paramount has said it expects $6 billion in cost savings from the merger, which is Wall Street shorthand for mass layoffs on a significant scale.
The ten-minute meeting was presided over by chairman Samuel Di Piazza Jr., with Zaslav, Campbell, Wiedenfels and chief communications officer Robert Gibbs in virtual attendance. Di Piazza was bullish. “We appreciate the support and confidence our stockholders have placed in us to unlock the full value of our world-class entertainment portfolio,” he said. “With Paramount, we look forward to creating an exceptional combined company that will expand consumer choice and benefit the global creative talent community.”
Zaslav echoed the sentiment. “Over the past four years, our teams have transformed Warner Bros. Discovery and returned the company to industry leadership,” he said. “Today’s stockholder approval is another key milestone toward completing this historic transaction that will deliver exceptional value to our stockholders.”
Paramount Skydance struck a similar note. “Shareholder approval marks another important milestone towards completing our acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery,” it said in a statement, adding that it looked forward to “closing the transaction in the coming months.”
The shareholders have spoken on the merger. On the pay, they were ignored before the vote was even counted.
