English Entertainment
VH1 US, Sundance Channel team up for documentary series on illicit drug use in America
MUMBAI: Prior to the 1960’s, very few Americans had ever tried drugs. Today, more than 110 million (nearly half of the U.S. adult population) admit to having used an illicit substance at least once in their lifetime.
Now VH1, in association with Sundance Channel, have produced the original documentary series The Drug Years. This is a four-part look at the rise of illicit drug use and its cultural impact in the second half of the twentieth century.Based on the book Can’t Find My Way Home: America in the Great Stoned Age, by Martin Torgoff, the series premieres on VH1 in the US tonight 12 June 2006.
Spanning the 1950’s to the present, The Drug Years explores the development of a commercial drug culture in America, using archival footage and interviews to illustrate how popular culture — including music, movies, comedy, and television – have shaped and reflected public perceptions of illicit drugs. The Drug Years also looks at how drugs became part of the nation’s political landscape, from the youth rebellions of the 1960’s to the War on Drugs and beyond.
This epic recounting of American drug culture is told through dozens of interviews with actors, musicians, journalists, policy advocates, former drug smugglers, and a retired DEA agent.
Celebrities who will be interviewed include actor Peter Coyote, singer Jackson Browne, rap star Ice-T and rock star John Mellencamp
English Entertainment
Ellison takes his Paramount-Warner Bros case straight to theater owners
The Skydance chief goes to CinemaCon with promises and a skeptical crowd waiting
CALIFORNIA: David Ellison strode into a room packed with thousands of cinema owners and executives at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday and did something rather bold: he looked them in the eye and asked them to trust him.
The chief executive of Paramount Skydance vowed that his company would release a minimum of 30 films a year if regulators greenlight its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, a deal that has made theater owners deeply, and loudly, nervous.
“I wanted to look every single one of you in the eye and give you my word,” Ellison told the crowd. “Once we combine with Warner Bros, we are going to make a minimum of 30 films annually across both studios.”
It was a confident pitch. Whether it landed is another matter. Cinema operators have already called on regulators to block the deal, and scepticism in the room was hardly concealed.
Ellison pushed back by pointing to recent form. Paramount, born from the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media last August, plans to release 15 films this year, nearly double the eight it put out in 2025. Progress, he argued, was already underway.
He also threw theater owners a bone they have long been chasing: all films, he pledged, would run exclusively in cinemas for a minimum of 45 days, drawing applause from a crowd that has spent years fighting for exactly that commitment across the industry.
“People can speculate all they want,” Ellison said, “but I am standing here today telling you personally that you can count on our complete commitment. And we’ll show you we mean it.”
Fine words. The regulators, however, will have the last one.
