Wonder Woman to be first female-led superhero film since 2005. Chanel reveals entire No. 5 advertising film with Gisele Bündchen. How The Maze Runner points to a new direction in film adaptations. “Twenty years ago,” says Eddie Gamarra, “if a book hit the New York Times bestseller list it got optioned for a lot of money.”
Times have changed. Yet one genre is increasingly catnip for Hollywood studios eager for a slice of the franchise pie: Young Adult. Gamarra and his partner Lee Stollman operate out of the Gotham Group in Los Angeles. They’re leaders of a new pack of literary agents cum big budget movie producers. And at the moment they’re coasting on their biggest success yet: The Maze Runner, which has currently taken $225m at the global box office, with sequels already greenlit. It was Gamarra who first signed author James Dashner back in 2008, already with one eye on the big screen. The pair now have more than 40 projects in development; their secret, they say, is simple faith in original source material (albeit that with brand potential).
“It goes back to old school Hollywood,” says Stollman, “which is the idea is the star and that the source material is the jumping off point. McDonald's Hopes New Social Media Q&A Will Modify Food Image. McDonald’s is desperately looking to change the image of their food – from unhealthy (and, apparently, unnatural) to something closer to how people see fast-casual restaurants, that have apparently been eating McDonald’s proverbial lunch!
To that end, they’ve hired Grant Imahara, former host of Mythbusters, as part of their new social media campaign. Mr. Imahara is, ostensibly, far less frightening than their previous Facebook and Twitter TWTR -3.04% Happy Meal mascot that ended up drawing massive mockery and scorn from audiences. And, four straight months of declining U.S. same-store sales. How social media transformed pro-Russian nostalgia into violence in Ukraine.
When Ukraine’s pro-Russian president, Victor Yanukovych, was ousted in late February, thousands of outraged and fearful people in southern and eastern cities took to the streets to demonstrate against the new pro-European government that had swept to power.
When Crimea was annexed by Russia shortly afterwards, there were sympathetic popular uprisings in a number of cities in other parts of Ukraine by people variously demanding federalisation or reunion with Russia. Soon the protests turned violent as pro-Russian separatists occupied administrative buildings in the major eastern Ukrainian cities of Luhansk, Donetsk and Kharkiv. After the new Ukrainian government’s efforts to calm the situation failed, the military struggle between Russian-backed separatists and the Ukrainian military started. That was in April. It continues today. Click to enlarge The Western media has covered both sides' protests thoroughly. India Smart Money Adopts Social Media as Tweets Move Markets. Before Narendra Modi was elected India’s prime minister five months ago, Shishir Bajpai barely used his Twitter account.
Now, he can’t do without it, as Modi attempts to reboot Asia’s third-largest economy. “Every decision gets posted on Twitter,” the Mumbai-based director at IIFL Wealth Management Ltd., which has $10 billion under management and advisory, said in an interview. The Advantages of Social Media APIs. There’s been much talk recently of the API economy.
API stands for Application Programming Interface, and basically it represents the set of programming instructions and standards that allows one piece of software to communicate with and access the resources and services of another. The history of collaborative APIs dates back to the turn of the millennium. In 2000 eBay announced the launch of its API initiative that would allow third-party companies to display eBay listings on their own websites. It would take several years to follow through however and Amazon was the real catalyst, building on its affiliates program and being the first major player to open up its API in 2002. Developers could pull information such as product reviews and wish lists into third-party applications and include live updated Amazon products on external sites. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, social APIs are everywhere. How marketing firms are scanning your social media photos for clues.
1.8bn photos are posted every day to social media sites such as InstagramU.S company Ditto Labs has created a program which 'reads' digital photosSoftware scans photos for brands and analyses the facial expression with it Information then used to build profile of person to help targeted advertisingSoftware already used by brands such as Coca-Cola, Budweiser and Adidas Privacy campaigners warn it goes 'far beyond' what most users expect By Steph Cockroft for MailOnline Published: 10:26 GMT, 14 October 2014 | Updated: 11:47 GMT, 14 October 2014 In the era of social networking sites, it has become common practice to tailor our photos so we come across in a certain way.
Does social media impact on body image? Image copyright Thinkstock Magazines and television are often blamed for portraying an ideal body image that causes people to question their looks and lose confidence in themselves.
But what about the role social media plays in moulding attitudes to the way we look? Kelsey Hibberd, from Southend, remembers her years at secondary school as being miserable. She intentionally kept her Facebook friends to a minimum because she knew they were the ones who wouldn't pick on her. GCC must 'regulate' social media to 'reduce political pressure': minister. Twitter users have been prosecuted by authorities for their critical posts across the Gulf (AFP) A Bahraini minister has called for Gulf States to “regulate” social media that has been used to “politicise rights issues” and put them under pressure to institute political changes.
Bahrain’s Minister of State for Media Affairs Sameera Bin Rajab called for the formulation of a strategy to reduce political pressure on member states at the meeting of information ministers at a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) meeting in Kuwait on Wednesday. Npower: complain on social media for instant results. #FactsNotFear: Social media campaign directed at busting Ebola myths.