Interesting & funny news from around the world, Интересные и забавные новости со всего мира

[Poison Ivy]

'Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story' coming to HBO, Max

Nov. 26 (UPI) — Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story is coming to HBO and Max.

HBO announced in a press release Tuesday that the documentary film about late Superman actor Christopher Reeve will premiere Dec. 7 at 8 p.m. EST and also stream on Max.

Super/Man is directed by Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui. The film is presented by DC Studios in association with HBO Documentary Films, CNN Films, Words+Pictures, And a Passion Pictures, and Misfits Entertainment Production.

Reeve, who died at age 52 in 2004, was best-known for playing Clark Kent, aka Superman, in the Superman films released between 1978 and 1987. After the actor was paralyzed from the neck down in a near-fatal horseback riding accident in 1995, he became an advocate for spinal injury research.

"Following a life-altering accident, Christopher Reeve persevered, by using his fame to speak of hope and to change our perception of paralysis, all while remaining a dedicated activist, actor and filmmaker, devoted dad, and loving husband to Dana Reeve, the beating heart of the family," an official synopsis reads.

The film "uses Reeve's own words, as well as intimate input from his closest family members and friends, to paint a rich, nuanced portrait of a man who refused to be defined by his physicality and who proved that you don't need tights and a cape to be a hero."

Reeve's children Matthew Reeve, Alexandra Reeve Givens and Will Reeve, brother Kevin Johnson, his first wife, Gae Exton, and Hollywood friends Susan Sarandon, Glenn Close, Jeff Daniels and Whoopi Goldberg give interviews.

Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and screened in theaters in September.

[Poison Ivy]

[Быкоросёнок]

9-year-old boy finds 60,000-year-old axe at Shoreham Beach in England

A young boy from England found a shiny item on a beach that turned out to be a "rare" ancient item dating back to the late Middle Paleolithic era.

The boy — identified by Worthing Museum as Ben Witten, now 9 years old — discovered a shiny rock at Shoreham Beach in Sussex.

"I was looking around and I saw this shiny flint rock. I just thought it looked different [from] all the other different pebbles and stones," he told the BBC.

Over the next few years, Witten said he kept the shiny rock in his room.

He told the BBC he was constantly "losing it and finding it."

A trip to Worthing Museum changed everything for the boy.

While exploring exhibits at the museum, he stopped by the Stone Age exhibition and noticed similarities to the item that he had found, according to the BBC.

This led him to report his finding to the museum — where many more details were uncovered about the item that he had unearthed.

The item turned out to be a hand axe from the late Middle Paleolithic period, an era dating back between 40,000 and 60,000 years ago, according to a Nov. 21 Facebook post by Worthing Museum.

The museum said that the item was "almost certainly made by a Neanderthal."

"We regularly have visitors bring in their finds from the local area. Mostly these are other flint tools or Roman artifacts, but this is by far the oldest item shown to myself in 10-plus years," James Sainsbury, curator of archaeology at Worthing Museum, told Fox News Digital.

[Быкоросёнок]

[Poison Ivy]

'Moana 2' tops North American weekend box office with $135.5M

Dec. 1 (UPI) — Animated adventure Moana 2 is the No. 1 movie in North America, earning $135.5 million in receipts this weekend, BoxOfficeMojo.com announced Sunday.

The Hollywood Reporter said the long-awaited sequel, which earned $221 million since Thanksgiving Eve on Wednesday, had the biggest five-day debut in history and the best-ever Thanksgiving holiday weekend haul.

The previous five-day record-holder was 2023's The Super Mario Bros. Movie with $204.6 million.

Coming in at No. 2 is Wicked with $80 million, followed by Gladiator II at No. 3 with $30.7 million, Red One at No. 4 with $12.9 million and The Best Christmas Pageant Ever at No. 5 with $3.3 million.

Rounding out the top tier are Bonhoeffer at No. 6 with $2.4 million, Venom: The Last Dance at No. 7 with $2.4 million, Heretic at No. 8 with $960,000, The Wild Robot at No. 9 with $700,000 and A Real Pain at No. 10 with $670,000.

[Poison Ivy]

[Быкоросёнок]

Man compensated $2.53 after unwrapping smooth Mars bar

A British man was awarded $2.53 in compensation from Mars Wrigley U.K. after he unwrapped a Mars bar — known as a Milky Way in the United States — and found it was missing its signature ripple.

Harry Seager, 34, of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, posted a photo of his unusually smooth candy bar to the Dull Men's Club group on Facebook, and the post quickly went viral, garnering hundreds of shares and thousands of comments.

"It tasted the same," Seager told The Guardian. "It just was a lot thinner on top that's all — not quite as thick."

Seager, who bought the Mars bar from an Oxfordshire gas station while en route to a classic car show in Birmingham, reached out to the company the next day.

Seager said he wasn't seeking any compensation, but he was curious about what had caused the Mars bar's smoothness and wanted to inform the company in case there was a production problem that hadn't been caught.

Mars Wrigley U.K. did not offer Seager an explanation, but did award him a £2 voucher — worth $2.53 in U.S. currency.

"The only reason I emailed [Mars] was because I was interested in what might have caused it to happen. That is all I wanted to know and they kept side-lining that question," Seager told the BBC. "I think £2 is great, it will be two free Mars bars. Maybe they could have sent me more but I'm not being ungrateful. I think it's amazing after everything that's happened that I got the £2 voucher."

Commenters on the post who are familiar with the candy-making process said the bar most likely simply missed being blown by air in a machine called an enrober. The blowing process is what causes the chocolate on top to swirl.

[Быкоросёнок]

[Poison Ivy]

Aaron Taylor-Johnson kills gang leader, escapes prison in 'Kraven the Hunter'

Dec. 2 (UPI) — Sony Pictures is previewing the beginning of Kraven the Hunter, starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson.

Within the film's first eight minutes, Kraven (Taylor-Johnson) enters prison, gets into a fight, kills gang leader Seymon Chorney, escapes jail, and fakes his own death.

"The hunter is a myth," Chorney says after Kraven introduces himself as such. "Now you're trapped, hunter. What's your name? Who sent you?"

Kraven shares his name and then proceeds to attack everyone in the room.

"There's an ounce of truth in every myth," he tells Chorney before stabbing him several times.

Taylor-Johnson introduced the clip, which he said was first shared at New York Comic Con.

"It's the holiday season, and have I got a surprise gift for you," he said. "Right here, right now, you get to see the opening scenes of my new film, Kraven the Hunter."

Kraven the Hunter is based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. The film is part of Sony's Spider-Man Universe.

Russell Crowe, Ariana DeBose, Fred Hechinger, Alessandro Nivola and Christopher Abbott also star. The movie opens in theaters Dec. 13.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson: awards, action roles and red carpets

[Poison Ivy]

[Быкоросёнок]

German man attempts to break record for living underwater

A 59-year-old German man is more than 60 days into his attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the longest time spent living in an underwater fixed habitat.

Rüdiger Koch, an aerospace engineer, has been living and working for two months in an underwater capsule off the coast of Puerto Lindo, Panama, in the Caribbean Sea.

Koch's living space measures about 322 square feet and features a portable toilet, a TV, a computer, a bed, a stationary bike, solar power, satellite Internet and multiple fans.

He said the on-land luxury he misses the most is a shower.

"It's not particularly hard. I don't feel like I'm suffering down here at all, although the hardest part is that sometimes I want to go diving," he told CBS News.

He began his record attempt on Sept. 26 and plans to emerge Jan. 24, after spending 120 days underwater.

The current record for the longest time spent living in an underwater fixed habitat stands at 100 days and was set by Joseph Dituri off the Florida coast in 2023.

[Быкоросёнок]

[Poison Ivy]

'Snow White' trailer: Rachel Zegler stars in Disney's live-action remake

Dec. 3 (UPI) — Disney is giving a glimpse of its live-action remake of Snow White.

The studio shared a trailer for the musical fantasy film Tuesday featuring Rachel Zegler (West Side Story, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes).

Snow White reimagines the 1937 animated Disney film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which is based on the Brothers Grimm fairytale.

Zegler plays Snow White, a princess who flees deep into the woods after her beauty rouses the jealousy of her stepmother, the Evil Queen (Gal Gadot).


Snow White is written by Greta Gerwig (Barbie) and Erin Cressida Wilson, and directed by Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer, The Amazing Spider-Man).

The film features songs from the original film and new music by Pasek and Paul, including the ballad "Waiting on a Wish."

The classic story comes to life Experience Disney's #SnowWhite, only in theaters March 21, 2025. pic.twitter.com/Ry6vMk7OfW— Disney (@Disney) December 3, 2024

Snow White opens in theaters March 21.

[Poison Ivy]

[Быкоросёнок]

German man drinks liters of lemon juice, lime juice to reclaim world records

A serial world record-breaker from Germany reclaimed two of his former titles in a single day by drinking liters of lemon juice and lime juice.

Andre Ortolf, 30, previously held the records for the fastest time to drink a liter of lemon juice through a straw and the same record for drinking lime juice, but lost both this year to fellow serial record-breaker David Rush.

Ortolf's lemon juice time was 16 seconds, which Rush beat with a time of 13.53 seconds. Rush also beat Ortlof's lime juice time of 16.82 seconds, performing the feat in 13.99 seconds.

Ortolf has now reclaimed both titles, with a time of 13.3 seconds for the lemon juice and 13.51 seconds for the lime juice.

He said breaking both records in a single day had only minor consequences.

"In general, I usually don't have any problems with eating and drinking records," Ortolf told Guinness World Records. "And this time, too, my stomach felt relatively good, but I had a toothache. It only went away after a day."

[Быкоросёнок]

[Poison Ivy]

Richard Curtis: 'That Christmas' for people sick of 'Love Actually'

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 4 (UPI) — The British romantic-comedy, Love Actually, has become a Christmas perennial since its release in 2003. Its writer-director, Richard Curtis, said viewers who are sick of it after two decades might enjoy his latest, That Christmas, as an alternative.

Curtis, 68, co-wrote the animated Christmas film with Peter Souter, and it premieres Wednesday on Netflix. The film was adapted from Curtis' illustrated children's books.

"Instead of watching Love Actually, they can watch That Christmas," Curtis told UPI in a recent Zoom interview. "I've written this film for them."

Love Actually tells the love stories of eight couples plus several other tangential subplots, and it appears in That Christmas.

A group of kids snowed-in on Christmas watch a live-action movie on TV, and the TV screen displays a famous scene with Keira Knightly — an idea of director Simon Otto and the animators.

"I'd written 'boring Christmas movie is on the screen,'" Curtis said. "I came in one day and they put Love Actually on it, and I think it's fair."

The snowed-in children star in one of several stories in That Christmas. Santa Claus (voice of Brian Cox) has trouble with a snowstorm and mixes up the gifts for a naughty and nice pair of grade school twin sisters.

Another grade schooler, Danny's (Jack Wisniewski) mother has to work on Christmas, so he spends the holiday with his teacher, Ms. Trapper (Fiona Shaw). Danny is also in love with one of the twins, and hopes his father will come to visit for Christmas.

The other parents in town become trapped in a snowstorm after a Christmas party, leaving the kids home alone. Curtis said That Christmas only had five stories to balance, which was a relief compared to Love Actually's 10.

"I did learn some lessons from Love Actually," Curtis said. "You can't just go from one to the other to the other. Sometimes you've got to bed down and focus on one of the stories."

Since the stories of That Christmas come from three different books, Curtis and Souter added connective tissue between the characters.

"If all these kids lived in the same place, how would they know each other?" Curtis asked. "Would one kid have a crush on another kid, and would they all go to the same school and therefore would they be in the same play?"

That childhood crush, like Thomas Brodie-Sangster's storyline in Love Actually, is autobiographical to Curtis.

"I can remember and tell you their names," he said. "There was one girl when I was 6, one girl when I was 8 and one girl when I was 10."

Curtis said he became friends with the first girl as an adult and is godfather to her daughter, but the other two lived in different countries. His romanticism led to a career writing romantic movies like Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill.

The 90-minute adaptation of That Christmas still required embellishment of the 40 or so pages of each book. Curtis said he struggled more when adapting longer books like Bridget Jones's Diary and The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency.

"The books are quite small," Curtis said. "It was a joy to add to it. The pain of adapting novels is all the stuff you've got to cut."

He said the Christmas setting allowed him to include more dramatic themes in the romance and comedy. For example, Danny's divorced parents and the teacher's loneliness are emphasized during the holidays.

"I felt like Christmas freed me up to say this is what it feels like to be sad, to be worried about your kids, to be a bit lonely," Curtis said. "I think it's a good time, almost, to be extreme rather than to be moderate."

Curtis joked about people having such an extreme aversion to Love Actually that they shudder when it comes on television. With good humor about his omnipresent film, Curtis said there is room for many Christmas movies in December.

"There's a lot of free time over Christmas," he said. "Maybe you can find time to watch both and squeeze in White Christmas, as well."

[Poison Ivy]

[Быкоросёнок]

Philadelphia couple become world's oldest newlyweds

A 100-year-old man and a 102-year-old woman who met at their senior living home in Philadelphia ended up falling in love and getting married, earning them a Guinness World Record as the world's oldest newlyweds.

Guinness World Records confirmed Bernie Littman and Marjorie Fiterman broke the record for the oldest couple to marry (aggregate age) when they tied the knot at the senior living facility where they both reside on May 19.

Littman and Fiterman met at a costume party at the facility and later discovered they had both attended the University of Philadelphia at the same time, but never crossed paths as students.

Sarah Sicherman told the Jewish Chronicle the pair were "so lucky to have found each other and be a support to each other, especially during the pandemic."

She wrote on social media that Littman and Fiterman "both had 60-plus years of marriage to their first spouses and found love again at 100 years old!"

Rabbi Adam Wohlberg, who officiated the ceremony, told Fox News the couple had "eventually reached the point where being not just close friends — but husband and wife — felt like the right step to take."

Littman credited his long life to reading and staying up-to-date on world events, while Fiterman attributed her longevity to buttermilk.

"They both love each other's humor and intellect," Sicherman told Guinness World Records, "they keep each other young."

[Быкоросёнок]