Legendary German cinematographer Michael Ballhaus passed away today at the age of 81. During his illustrious career, Ballhaus formed close working relationships Michael Scorsese and Rainer Werner Fassbinder. He also did incomparable work for such directors as Robert Redford, Francis Ford Coppola, and Mike Nichols. According to THR, Ballhaus passed away in Berlin on Tuesday after a brief illness. Thomas Rathnow, who works for Random House Germany, the publisher that released Ballhaus’s autobiography in 2014, said the following:...

Facebook has expanded on comments CEO Mark Zuckerberg made about the company’s child protection plans when it switches to end-to-end encryption for its messaging apps as part of a belated focus on privacy… Background In March, Zuckerberg announced that private messages in both Facebook Messenger and Instagram would in future use end-to-end encryption, so that not even Facebook would have access. That led to the US attorney general and acting head of Homeland Security writing to Zuckerberg urging him to abandon this plan, in an open letter co-signed by the UK’s secretary of state for the Home Office and Australia’s minister for Home Affairs....

Local government authorities are investigating last weekend’s explosion that injured 61 people at the Shanghai factory of an Apple iPad 2 back-panel supplier after much outcry from China Labor Watch. CLW was founded in 2000, according to their website, and it is an independent not-for-profit organization that has collaborated with unions and labor organizations to assess factories in China. The Dec. 17 blast at Ri Teng Computer Accessory Co., owned by Taipei-based Pegatron Corp....

Thor actor Chris Hemsworth would love to be in a Star Wars film at some point in his career. For some actors out there, it doesn’t matter just how many multi-million dollar franchises they star in, because no dream is too big nor is a single uber successful film franchise enough. For Hemsworth, we all know and love him as Thor from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but let’s all remember that Hemsworth also starred in the Star Trek films, and just this past spring starred alongside Tessa Thompson in Men In Black: International, which might get a sequel....

It might be hard to believe this, but the Nintendo 64 is over twenty years old. The console, which sold over 30 million units, is now considered a retro console. Whether you are old enough that it feels like it was only yesterday that you were running around like the Caves on License To Kill with knives only in GoldenEye or swapping boots in the Water Temple in Ocarina of Time, or the system was actually released before you were born, chances are that you are still feeling the reverberations of the system in pop culture and gaming to this day....

A huge Chinese survey with more than 1.2 million responses shows that 95% of Chinese iPhone owners would switch from Apple to another smartphone brand, rather than give up WeChat. The survey follows an executive order by Donald Trump banning US companies from transactions with WeChat owner Tencent. iPhones without WeChat in China would be turned into “expensive electronic trash”… Bloomberg reports: WeChat has more than a billion users, and is the single most important app in China....

Chris Pratt has gone to space in three of his movies, wrangled dinosaurs in two, and been an all around hero in many of them. He’s never, however, played a character that has gone to Hogwarts. If all of his characters had the chance to exist in the Harry Potter universe, and if it turned out that they had some magical lineage, then they’d get their chance. Since they didn’t, the imaginary sorting hat has been placed on their heads to find out just where ten of his characters would end up....

Marvel star Chris Pratt takes the stage with country legend Garth Brooks for a unique crossover performance taking place at the iHeartRadio Music Awards at Los Angeles’ Microsoft Theatre, with the event hosted by The Masked Singer season 1 winner T-Pain. Established in 2014, the iHeartRadio Music Awards celebrate popular musicians and the year’s biggest hits. From 2014 to 2015, the event was broadcast on NBC, and later aired on TBS, TNT, and TruTV from 2016 to 2018....

To obtain a Culture victory in Civilization VI, you will have to convince tourists to come over to your empire from foreign lands. Obviously, this requires you to make your cities attractive with special and unique features. Wonders are a good method of doing this, but it’s uncertain whether you will ever finish one. This is because whenever you build one, you will ironically be locked out of it yourself from that point onward....

Steve Jobs promised that the iPhone 4’s Glass would be much stronger than the iPhones before it, but is it strong enough to take a fall onto a hard surface? On just the third drop, the fine folks at iFixYouri landed up with a completely shattered display. The iPhone 4’s back uses glass as well, so when you drop this thing your chances of breaking aren’t just lined up with the front screen....

As the number of cases of COVID has been increasing in China, the local government is once again enforcing lockdowns in the country. This time, a new lockdown in the city of Zhengzhou puts the operations of the main iPhone plant at risk. As reported by Bloomberg, Chinese authorities announced on Friday that areas in the Zhengzhou Airport Economy Zone have been immediately quarantined. As a result, people cannot leave their homes until further notice....

Christopher Nolan’s upcoming war drama Dunkirk makes extensive use of IMAX camerawork, including a plethora of handheld shots. Whether he’s depicting a crime-ridden comic book city, a bizarrely shifting dreamscape or the farthest reaches of outer space, Nolan is a director who always goes for maximum impact. In his case, going for big, impressive cinematic effects means embracing the use of IMAX, despite the technical challenges that come with employing the heavy and expensive cameras....

Fans of martial arts movies can rejoice: Cinemax has picked up Warrior, a straight-to-series drama inspired by an idea from Bruce Lee himself. With a first season consisting of 10 episodes, the show is created and will be produced by Banshee co-creator Jonathan Tropper. The pilot will be executive produced by Justin Lin, the director of four Fast and the Furious films and Star Trek Beyond. Warrior is a 19th century crime drama set in San Francisco’s Chinatown during the Tong Wars....

Aardman Animations is finally developing a sequel to its stop-motion animated film Chicken Run. The original Chicken Run movie hit theaters in 2000 and it remains the highest grossing stop-motion animated feature of all time, with a worldwide take of $225 million. Widely celebrated by critics and general audiences alike, Chicken Run was directed by Aardman cofounder Peter Lord and Nick Park (creator of Wallace and Gromit) and features the voice talents of Mel Gibson, Miranda Richardson, Timothy Spall, and Imelda Staunton....

Warning: Spoilers Ahead For Child’s Play 2019. Chucky’s not toying around anymore so where could Child’s Play 2 take the killer doll next? The original Child’s Play from 1988 found a serial killer named Charles Lee Ray, played by Brad Dourif (Deadwood), transferring his son into a toy doll before he dies. Chucky then takes revenge on the people responsible for his death while attempting to transfer his soul into a young boy named Andy before he’s trapped in the toy forever....

The $300M China Clean Energy Fund – an environmental partnership between Apple and ten of its Chinese suppliers – has invested in three wind farms. The initiative is designed to help suppliers power their Apple production from 100% renewable energy. Apple says that the fund is aiming to generate one gigawatt of renewable energy by 2022 and that these three farms will hit 10% of that goal… To put that number into perspective, one gigawatt is enough to power almost a million homes....

Chris Hemsworth revealed he’s not a fan of Marvel Studios’ sequel to Thor, Thor: The Dark World. The film was Hemsworth’s third turn at playing the God of Thunder and the character’s second solo outing. While the movies performed well at the box office, it’s regarded by critics as mediocre in comparison to other films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Released in 2013, Thor: The Dark World pitted the God of Thunder against the dark elf known as Malekith, who sought to use a weapon called the Aether to attack the Nine Realms....

The Cowboy Ninja Viking comic book movie adaptation has added two new writers ahead of a planned summer 2018 shooting start. The upcoming film is a passion project from Chris Pratt, who already has two major franchises to his name - with Jurassic World and Guardians of the Galaxy (three, if you count The Avengers) - but they aren’t enough for the actor. Now, Pratt wants to launch a new property based on the oddball Image Comics title Cowboy Ninja Viking....

Nearly a year after Touch ID support for third-party developers was announced for iOS 8, major bank Chase has added fingerprint login support to its iPhone application. When you launch the new app update for the first time, the application will ask you if you’d like to turn on Touch ID support. The bank warns that some functions will still require you to enter your password, but this upgrade should still make the app quicker to navigate for many use cases....

Season 8 of Chicago Fire is set to bring in more fireworks with the guest appearance of Gabby Dawson later on. But still, that doesn’t mean our main cast of characters hasn’t been through the wringer themselves. With the loss of Otis, the members of House 51 have found themselves in a bit of a personal and emotional rut. With 8.5 seasons under their belt, the time has come for some characters to possibly move on and others to grow....