In space, no one can hear you grumble about your s****y job. The title sequence for "Red Dwarf" opens with a guy in a grubby spacesuit, miserably daubing paint on the exterior of the eponymous mining vessel. When the camera pulls back we can see why he's unhappy; he is working on the "F" of the ship's name which must be about 80 feet high.
It could be a scene from "Dark Star" or "Alien," two movies that showed us that space travel will be pretty boring and arduous for the regular Joes who keep the lights on during long hauls between the stars. Those films provided inspiration for "Red Dwarf" writers Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, who set their cult British show on a spaceship three million years in the future. Only one of its characters is a living human, but that doesn't stop them from following the classic sitcom formula of people getting on each other's nerves in a restricted space.
"Red Dwarf" quickly became the freshest thing on the telly when it first aired in 1988. Funnier and less droll than "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," it was more "Steptoe and Son" than Kirk and Spock, tackling sci-fi concepts while puncturing any nerdiness with its down-to-earth characters. It was also ahead of its time in that half of its main cast was black while shunning the usual stereotypes of the time (via Mirror).
That cast was key to the show's success. Producers didn't want the usual Oxbridge alumni that populated BBC comedy hits like "Monty Python's Flying Circus" or "Blackadder," so the writers turned to a quartet of virtual unknowns with hardly any acting experience between them.
So What Happens In Red Dwarf Again?
The first episode of "Red Dwarf" opens on an ordinary working day for Dave Lister (Craig Charles), a slovenly technician who is the lowest-ranking crew member on board, and his jobsworth roommate and supervisor Arnold Rimmer (Chris Barrie), the second-lowest person in the ship's hierarchy. Lister dreams of getting back to Earth and starting a farm on Fiji while Rimmer aspires to become an officer, despite already flunking the entrance exam several times already.
Lister gets in trouble for smuggling a pregnant cat onboard and, rather than turn her over, takes 18 months in suspended animation as punishment. When his sentence is complete, he finds the ship deserted. A deadly radiation leak caused by Rimmer's incompetence has killed the entire crew and three million years have passed until it was safe enough for Holly (Norman Lovett), the ship's dim computer, to release him.
Lister is not all alone, though. The ship can support one holographic crew member and Holly has deduced that the best person to keep Lister sane is his old roomie Rimmer. They also encounter Cat (Danny John-Jules), a preening, style-conscious, self-obsessed humanoid evolved from Lister's pet, who was stashed safely in the cargo hold at the time of the leak.
In the second series, the new-look crew of the Red Dwarf picks up a distress signal and rescues Kryten (David Ross), a service android with an overdeveloped sense of guilt. The character became a regular in the third series when Robert Llewelyn took the role. Rather than upset the dynamic between the characters already established by Charles, Barrie, and John-Jules, Kryten added another dimension to the crew, his desire to both serve and become more human providing another battleground for the constantly bickering duo of Lister and Rimmer.
The Cast Had Very Little Acting Experience Before Red Dwarf
If the cast of "Red Dwarf" were pretty green, it could have been very different. Alan Rickman and Alfred Molina both auditioned for the show; Rickman wanted to play Lister because he thought Rimmer would be too easy while Molina was cast as the latter before dropping out. That sounds like it would have become a far more mannered affair, so luckily the roles eventually went to Craig Charles and Chris Barrie.
Charles started out as an urban performance poet before finding his way to television, popping up on various shows to deliver his verse. He got the part on "Red Dwarf" when Paul Jackson, the show's producer who worked previously with Charles on "Saturday Live," asked him to check out the script to see if he thought Cat was a racist stereotype (via The Guardian). He loved the character and also asked to play Lister. Jackson's reply "began with an F and finished with two Fs," but Charles wore him down for an audition.
Charles made Lister an instantly memorable character once he got the part. Despite his laziness, questionable hygiene, and dodgy eating habits, Lister became an alternative pin-up with his cheeky grin and gift of the gab. Having grown up on a tough estate in Liverpool, the poet's Scouse accent became one of Lister's most distinguishing features; so much of British comedy is class-bound, and his Liverpudlian dialect was a great class signifier versus Barrie's more Middle England accent. As Charles recalled:
"We just play caricatures of ourselves – it's very method. There's an awful lot of Lister in me, a lot of Rimmer in Barrie, although he'd hate me for saying it. There's plenty of the Cat in Danny, unfortunately. And Rob is just full of middle-class angst and guilt, so perfect for Kryten."
Chris Barrie Was The Perfect Foil For Craig Charles In Red Dwarf
The core relationship between Lister and Rimmer is a typical British odd couple, and it's telling that Rob Grant and Doug Naylor took inspiration from the legendary writing duo Galton and Simpson (via The Guardian). Of all the classic British sitcoms "Red Dwarf" most resembles "Steptoe and Son," the classic comedy about two rag-and-bone collectors, "dirty old man" Albert Steptoe and his aspirational son Harold.
Craig Charles was paired with Chris Barrie, an impressionist who originally played the ship's computer Grant and Naylor's dry run for the show, a regular skit called "Dave Hollins: Space Cadet" on their Radio 4 show "Son of Cliche." After working as a grave filler, he got his break on TV as a celebrity impersonator and went on to appear in sketch shows and provide voice work for "Spitting Image."
Barrie totally nailed the character of Rimmer, who fits right into that fine British tradition of frustrated little men with ideas above their station, from Captain Mainwaring ("Dad's Army") and Basil Fawlty ("Fawlty Towers") to David Brent ("The Office") and Alan Partridge ("I'm Alan Partridge"). He's a monster, but he increasingly became a tragicomic character as we learned of the factors that contributed to his self-loathing, patronizing, bureaucratic personality.
Danny John-Jules brought a completely different energy as Cat. He started out as a dancer, appearing in variety shows as backing for old-school comedians like Jimmy Tarbuck and Norman Wisdom before moving on to West End productions and music videos. He got the part in "Red Dwarf" after showing up in character half an hour late for his audition, wearing one of his dad's old '50s style zoot suits. He wasn't aware of his lateness and so seemed totally nonchalant about it, which convinced the producers he was cool enough to play Cat.
Kryten Added The Finishing Touch
Robert Llewelyn started out with what Charles describes as an "awful comedy troupe" called The Joeys before moving on to his own one-man shows, which led to his discovery for the part of Kryten. At the Edinburgh Fringe, he was performing a set called "Mammon, Robot Born of Woman" about a robot who starts acting up as he becomes more human. Producer Paul Jackson saw the show and invited him to audition for Kryten. All in all, the diversity of the cast's backgrounds helped the show become what it is. As Doug Naylor said (via What Culture):
"There's such an energy between the guys. They're all quite different and they all bring different things to the party. They're all fantastically positive as well and they genuinely do love making Red Dwarf. The teamwork between them is amazing - nobody is bothered about who gets the biggest laugh, they're only concerned about making the best show possible. That's a huge part of what has helped the show remain popular."
"Red Dwarf" arguably hit its peak in seasons 3 and 4, winning an international Emmy Award in 1994. Over three decades later, the show is still a regular fixture on UK television schedules, with cable channel Dave taking over to produce a new series of adventures for the crew. On a few occasions, it has come dangerously close to jumping the shark, but the characters have always saved the day and become almost as beloved as the Trotter family in "Only Fools and Horses" or grumpy old Victor Meldrew and his long-suffering wife in "One Foot in the Grave." It just goes to show that acting experience isn't the most important thing if someone is right for the part.
Could 2023 be one of the biggest years for horror games ever? The year kicks off with two huge remakes in Dead Space and Resident Evil 4, before serving up a steady diet of new entries in well-liked series, including Alan Wake 2, The Outlast Trials, Amnesia: The Bunker, another Dark Pictures episode, and more. Indies are also bringing it in a big way, with original, polished games like Ad Infinitum and Unholy looking to compete with the big boys. Finally, there are a lot of “maybes” that could really push the year over the top, including the Silent Hill 2 remake and new Alone in the Dark. Here are the nightmares, both big and small, that will be keeping you awake in 2023…
Note: Only games with confirmed 2023 release dates are eligible for these lists. Stuff that’s only rumored or speculated to be coming out is relegated to the honorable mentions.
Dead Space (PC, Xbox Series X/S & PS5, January 27)
2023 is a big year for horror remakes, with Dead Space representing one approach to revisiting a classic. Developer Motive Studio is largely sticking to the same story beats and structure as the original rather than completely reinventing anything, but they’re modernizing the game in other ways. Expect a redesigned seamless map, new dynamic horror events, more gruesome scripted moments, and more. The Ishimura has received a significant tune-up, but it should be just as scary.
Resident Evil 4 (PC, Xbox Series X/S, PS4 & PS5, March 24)
The horror remake train rolls on the much-anticipated Resident Evil 4, which promises to be a rather different project than Dead Space. Capcom tends to strip their RE remakes down to the bolts, rebuilding them from the ground up to create games that are true to the spirit of the originals if not the minute-to-minute action. To be fair, the new Resident Evil 4 looks to be fairly faithful to the original, bringing back the action-movie tone and even some of the game’s more divisive chapters. That said, early footage shows a lot of new material has been added as well. Expect to be surprised, even if you’ve been spin-kicking with Leon for decades now.
Ad Infinitum (PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4 & PS5, April 20)
It isn’t all remakes in 2023! Ad Infinitum from German developer Hekate offers a premise I guarantee you haven’t experienced before. The game casts players as a shell-shocked German World War I veteran and is split between atmospheric P.T.-flavored horror and intense monster-packed Outlast-style flashbacks set amongst the horrors of trench warfare. Of course, expect the two sides of Ad Infinitum to blur in ways that will keep you on your toes.
Unholy (PC, Xbox Series X/S & PS5, 2023)
The line between AAA and indie horror games is quickly disappearing as smaller studios have begun to offer titles nearly as visually impressive and polished as the big boys. Unholy from Warsaw-based developer Duality Games is one of the most eye-catching indie horror games yet, presenting two impressively-detailed parallel worlds -- one, a carefully-crafted recreation of a bleak post-Soviet Eastern European town, the other a dark nether realm full of twisted ceremonies and creatures. The best horror games transport you to entirely new terrifying worlds, and Unholy looks to serve up one of the most unique and intricately crafted ones I’ve seen in some time.
Alan Wake 2 (PC, Xbox Series X/S & PS5, 2023)
Remedy Entertainment has long dabbled in the creepy and atmospheric, but Alan Wake 2 promises to be the studio’s first full-on horror game. Not a lot is known about Alan Wake 2 yet, but its debut teaser trailer offers plenty of dark rain-soaked locales, hints at sinister plots, and a decidedly more threatening version of Mr. Wake. Remedy arguably hit a new high-point with 2019’s Control, so hopefully, Alan Wake’s homecoming is a memorable one.
Those are the games you’re going to be creeping through in 2023! Any promising horror games I missed? Round up your own list and share it in the comments!
Despite recent cancelations and mixed fan reception, "The Walking Dead" is still very much a valuable franchise for AMC Networks. So much so, in fact, that we'll be getting several new spin-offs in the coming months, one of which is "The Walking Dead: Dead City." Set against the backdrop of post-apocalyptic New York City, the show will center around franchise mainstays Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) as they find themselves engrossed in a new post-apocalyptic civilization.
Of course, when you set an apocalyptic genre show in New York City, you are bound to draw some famous comparisons. At AMC's 2023 Winter TCA presentation, attended by /Film's Vanessa Armstrong, "Dead City" showrunner Eli Jomé teased how these homages help to create a world we have never seen in the "Walking Dead" universe before.
"'The Walking Dead' started with a fusion of classic stuff like John Ford, and then, you know, Romero, and fuse those together," he said. "These are more, I would say, contemporary horror references, but a little further down the line, like John Carpenter's 'Escape from New York' and 'The Warriors.'"
A Brand New Jungle
Hearing these two films get name-dropped by Jomé is quite interesting and could shed some light on what exactly this new environment is like. Both "Escape from New York" and "The Warriors" envisioned New York City as a crime-ridden, debaucherous modern wasteland. Curiously, both see the city essentially cut off from the rest of the United States for one reason or another.
If "The Walking Dead: Dead City" follows in these footsteps, then there might actually be a compelling story waiting for us. After all, it's hard not to wonder what a city as massive as New York would be like in the aftermath of a zombie, er, walker apocalypse. Could it really be as isolated and desolate as other zombie movies make it out to be?
Personally, I don't think that's likely, but why take my word for it? Take it from Cohan herself, who describes this new environment as an unpleasant wake-up call. "What I like about the show being in New York and in this new terrain is that it's just unwelcoming," she said. "A few years on, we get to explore these notions of forgiveness and getting on with your life and really facing your own demons."
"The Walking Dead: Dead City" will premiere sometime in June 2023 on AMC.
Took a while huh? It's not quite as well-known or as loved as some other free and open source games, but worth pointing out: FreeCol 1.0 is out now. 20 years in the making for this Sid Meier's Colonization remake!
DOSBox Staging is a favourite of mine to follow that expands on the original DOSBox but with a focus on implementing new features and fixes. A new major update went out in December 2022 with some big additions.
Richard Yoo, who founded and helped build the website hosting company that became San Antonio's premier technology firm, believes he's watching its collapse. From a report: The reputation of the company now known as Rackspace Technology, he said, "is eroding rapidly" after years of shifting business plans, executive shuffles, financial losses, staff cuts and, finally, the Dec. 2 ransomware attack that left tens of thousands of customers without access to their email, contact and calendar data.
"This is the beginning of the end," Yoo said last week. "It's already just a midsize business in San Antonio. This is not a company that's on a trajectory of growth. They're on a trajectory of death. It will not be around." He puts the blame for Rackspace's deepening financial struggles -- it's posted a steady string of quarterly losses, and the value of its stock has fallen 80 percent in the past year -- on its replacement of tech-oriented leadership with board members and managers "who don't have any connection with the product." He said there's "no culture" at the company after it laid off hundreds of local staffers while it expanded globally. And he scoffed at the idea of being a "Racker," saying he never adopted the term the company uses for its employees and identity.
Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is back three years after lacerating a rich bunch of assholes in Knives Out, and Glass Onion throws an even bigger anti-wealthy mystery at him, proving Netflix was, er, on the money in shelling out hundreds of millions of dollars to turn the character into the next Sherlock Holmes.
Microsoft-owned code hosting platform GitHub is now providing developers with the option to have their code repositories automatically scanned for vulnerabilities.
Available as a ‘default setup’ option, the new feature is meant to help code builders find and resolve vulnerabilities faster.
Comedian Dana Carvey appeared as a regular cast member on "Saturday Night Live" from 1986 to 1993, and it could be argued those were some of the best years of the long-running sketch comedy show. And many of the accolades from that era go to Carvey. The list of his memorable characters is long and led to two successful "SNL"-inspired films, "Wayne's World" and "Wayne's World 2." Party on, Garth!
But Garth Algar is just the tip of the iceberg for Carvey's "SNL" career. President George Bush Sr., presidential candidate Ross Perot, Johnny Carson, and Tom Brokaw (Brokaw's pre-tapes remain one of my favorite "SNL" skits) were some of his memorable impersonations. Original characters included Hans from the weightlifting Hans and Franz duo, The Grumpy Old Man, and singer/songwriter Derek Stevens (you know you sang along about "Choppin' Broccoli").
But Church Lady ... oh, Church Lady. The indelible host of the fictional show "Church Chat" might just be Carvey's most beloved character. And her debut on Carvey's first-ever episode of the show had the comedian terrified.
Carvey Was So Nervous His Palms Were Sweating
SNL creator Lorne Michaels didn't give Dana Carvey much time to get comfortable before asking him to break out a potentially controversial character. Season 12 of the show premiered on October 11, 1986, and Carvey was featured in the cold open of the program. In an interview with the "New York Post" Carvey discussed his "SNL" debut:
"I was in the cold opening with Jan [Hooks] and Phil [Hartman] and I was a game-show psychic. I would answer before Phil could ask the question and kept saying 'meteor' using the Garth character I got from my brother Brad — and then a meteor comes down and knocks Jan out."
It was a funny debut, but certainly not memorable. That moment would come minutes later when Carvey adorned the now-familiar purple dress suit, black loafers, cat-rimmed eyeglasses, and gray wig, to transform into the pious Enid Strict. The character, of course, would become better known as Church Lady, the host of "Church Chat." Heading into the skit on his debut episode, Carvey was terrified. The comedian said:
"It was terrifying ... I can show you 'Church Chat' episodes early on where my hand is held up and it's drenched in sweat. I vetted the rhythms of the character in comedy clubs but wasn't sure it would work. I was on with Victoria Jackson and I went, 'Well, isn't that special?' and it got a huge laugh and that relaxed me. It was like, 'OK, they get it.'"
That line and others would soon enter the pop culture zeitgeist with great aplomb.
The Legacy Of The Church Lady
It's fascinating to watch the iconic debuts of iconic characters such as Carvey's Church Lady. Audiences aren't yet programmed to the familiar hooks, and you can hear them figure out the charm of the act in real-time. In Carvey's debut of the Church Lady in October of 1986, there's a smattering of laughter at her first quip of, "Well isn't that special." By the second time she uses the line, the audience's laughter doubles as they catch on to one of her signature lines.
Carvey had impeccable timing with the debut of the character. "SNL" has always been able to reflect the pulse of the nation. When "Church Chat" debuted, the popularity of televangelists had made Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart household names. Most of us saw right through their acts. You just knew Church Lady was glued to the TV soaking it all in, all the while doing her "superior dance."
Church Lady became a recurring character during Carvey's SNL run and would appear in later episodes when he returned to host. She would also appear on the short-lived "Dana Carvey Show." The sketch made phrases like, "Could it be .... Satan!?" and "Well isn't that special?" everyday pop culture vernacular throughout Carvey's SNL run (and still today for some of us).
And whatever became of Enid Strict? According to her creator, she's found herself in a precarious situation. While guest hosting "Jimmy Kimmel Live" last year, Carvey offered an update. "The Church Lady is in jail," he joked. "The Church Lady is in jail for defrauding members of her mega-church, and we still have no idea where she was on January 6th."
Jacob Ridley writes via PC Gamer: MSI Afterburner is an app used the world over for graphics card monitoring, overclocking, and undervolting. It's become pretty synonymous with general GPU tinkering, yet the app's developer has suggested it might not have long left to live in a forum post earlier this month. MSI disagrees, telling us "we fully intend to continue with MSI Afterburner." MSI Afterburner is developed by Alexey 'Unwinder' Nicolaychuk, a Russian national who has kept the overclocking app functioning over many years. Nicolaychuk is also responsible for the development of RivaTuner Statistics Server, which is part of the foundational software layer powering Afterburner. In a post on the Guru3D forums (via TechPowerUp), Nicolaychuk suggests that Afterburner's development has been "semi-abandoned." "...MSI afterburner project is probably dead," Nicolaychuk says.
"War and politics are the reasons. I didn't mention it in MSI Afterburner development news thread, but the project is semi abandoned by company during quite a long time already. Actually we're approaching the one year mark since the day when MSI stopped performing their obligations under Afterburner license agreement due to 'politic [sic] situation'." Nicolaychuk says development of the app has continued over the past 11 months, but that may also be ending soon. "I tried to continue performing my obligations and worked on the project on my own during the last 11 months, but it resulted in nothing but disappointment; I have a feeling that I'm just beating a dead horse and waste energy on something that is no longer needed by company. "Anyway I'll try to continue supporting it myself while I have some free time, but will probably need to drop it and switch to something else, allowing me to pay my bills."
Development of the RivaTuner Statistics Server -- software is pivotal to many of the functions of Afterburner -- is materially separate from Afterburner and will continue, Nicolaychuk notes. Nicolaychuk suggests the issue comes down to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and we've since confirmed with MSI that this is the case. MSI has stated to PC Gamer that the payments were halted due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, saying: "payments had been put on hold due to the RU/UA war and the economic regulations that entailed." [...] On this being the end for Afterburner, MSI disagrees. "We fully intend to continue with MSI Afterburner," MSI tells PC Gamer. "MSI have been working on a solution and expect it to be resolved soon."
In "Renfield," Nicolas Cage becomes the latest in a long line of actors to play Dracula. The actor previously played a creature of the night in "Vampire's Kiss," but this time, he's playing the lord of all ghouls. However, Cage's Dracula will merely be a supporting player; the star of the movie is his eponymous servant (Nicholas Hoult). After so many years at the Count's side, Renfield is reconsidering if he still wants the job. When your boss is a blood-sucking demon, the severance package probably isn't one you want.
"Reinfeld" looks like it will lean more on the latter side of "horror comedy," so if nothing else, Cage's expressive acting is a good fit. He's already said that he looked toward the utterly bonkers horror film "Malignant" for inspiration, so there's no telling how far he's going to take the character. With so many previous Draculas to draw on, from Bela Lugosi to Gary Oldman, which Dracula actors is Cage looking for in his performance? The actor has had a few words to say about this, some more surprising than others.
Piecing Together Dracula's Look
We'd previously seen set photos of Nicolas Cage dressed up as Dracula, but the trailer gave us our first in-context look and glimpse of his performance. In the trailer scene, Dracula wears rings across his fingers, a black overcoat with fur shoulders, and walks with a cane (presumably just for show). Rather than two thick fangs, his entire maw is filled with thin pointed teeth. His skin seems to be pale white, but the lighting makes it look sickly green.
Cage spoke to Collider about how Dracula's look was developed. According to Cage, not a lot of the look came from him:
"There were a ton of super-talented people on that movie that helped design the look. We wanted it to be more homage, more Christopher Lee. I favored Christopher Lee as Dracula and I liked his kind of '60s hairdo, but the wardrobe, the costume, and no, I didn't come up with the idea for the rings. That all came out of a wardrobe. They came in with all that. Maybe they sent something in me that I would like that, but that was really their contribution."
Sir Christopher Lee played Dracula in seven movies for Hammer Films, from "Dracula" in 1958 to "The Satanic Rites of Dracula" in 1973; he probably would have been the Dracula who Cage (born in 1964) grew up with. As for how the influence is manifesting — Cage does indeed have the same slicked-back hair as Lee's Dracula. While Dracula is famously Transylvanian, Lee kept his aristocratic British baritone for the part. Cage, based on the trailer, seems to be doing a British/Transatlantic accent as well.
Finding The Count's Voice
While speaking to Variety about his upcoming film "Butcher's Crossing," Nicolas Cage teased his Dracula voice and discussed its origins: "[It's] kind of an amalgamation of a sort mid-Atlantic August Coppola accent combined with some Christopher Lee, with some Anne Bancroft thrown in for good measure." Again Cage mentions Christopher Lee, but the other two inspirations are surprising. August Coppola, an academic focused on literature and the arts, was Cage's father. In another interview with Post Cred Pod, Cage talked about how and why he channeled his father to play Dracula:
"[My father] had a Mid-Atlantic accent [...] You want to know why I talk like this Nicolas? Because I made a decision to speak with distinction. I'm a literature professor, that's how I talk [...] So I just thought, Dad looks like Christopher Lee, Dad kind of sounds like he's in a Hammer Horror film, and I did Dad in 'Vampire's Kiss,' so I'm gonna bring him back from the afterlife as Dracula."
As for Anne Bancroft, you might remember her as Mrs. Robinson in "The Graduate." Like Dracula, Robinson is a character who seduces others and maintains an imbalanced power dynamic. That makes the influence strangely fitting.
One actor who Cage surprisingly hasn't mentioned as an influence is Klaus Kinski, who played Dracula in Werner Herzog's "Nosferatu the Vampyre." Cage once said he aspired to be the "California Klaus Kinski." In the Post Cred Pod interview, Cage does cite "Nosferatu" as an influence, but the 1922 original, where "Count Orlok" was played by Max Schreck.
Cage's Dracula certainly sounds like a melting pot of disparate influences. When a character's been around for so long and has been played by so many actors, such an approach makes sense.
For so many of us, it's hard to remember a time when "Star Wars" wasn't a ubiquitous piece of western culture. It doesn't matter whether the prequels took you out of it all, if the originals are your favorite, if you loved or hated the sequels, or if you care at all about the Disney+ offerings. It's part of the world we live in, and it will always be a huge entry into the world of sci-fi and movies overall.
There was a time, however, before the first film came out in 1977 when very few people believed it would succeed. Creator George Lucas had seen some breakout success as the writer and director of "American Graffiti" in 1973, which opened the door to him getting to make "Star Wars," but sci-fi wasn't necessarily regarded as high art in the years before that. There were, of course, well-received sci-fi films prior to that (think "2001: A Space Odyssey"). Still, the genre didn't have the cache it does today. I remember asking my own father about it a few years ago, and he said, "No one thought this would be anything other than the usual sci-fi stuff. And then we saw it, and everything changed."
Among those who thought "Star Wars" might actually work were Harrison Ford -- or so the actor told Empire in a 2002 interview (rerun in 2019), in which he looked back at his legendary role as rogue pilot Han Solo in the franchise.
'It Was A Long Time Ago And Far, Far Away'
When "Star Wars" came around, Harrison Ford had already worked with George Lucas on "American Graffiti." It's a good thing he knew the director because he was only getting $2,000 a week "in wages and expenses" for the role of Han Solo, according to the Empire interview. Ford wasn't a fresh young actor like co-stars Mark Hamill or Carrie Fisher. He was 35 at the time, and "had some degree of maturity and some degree of experience, yet physically I still looked young. That had been an impediment early on in my career, but then it turned out to be an advantage," he explained. Considering how good he still looks in 2023 playing Jacob Dutton in the TV series "1923," it's still working for him.
Though he joked about that first film being "a long time ago and far, far away," it still looms large. Ford believed in the film, particularly its mythological elements. He told Empire:
"I was one of the few people who thought it was going to work, and I hadn't even seen any special effects. I just thought George [Lucas] had tapped into something primordial, some myth that I recognized the power of. The wise old warrior played by Alec Guinness, the callow prince played by Mark Hamill, the princess played by Carrie Fisher -- and I knew that I was the rapscallion of the universe.
"And I thought it was funny. I always thought 'Star Wars' and 'Indiana Jones' were basically comedies. The humor came out of their relationships; it came out of the fact that we were basically types."
The Myth That Inspired Star Wars
The "myth" that Harrison Ford mentioned to Empire came from the world of mythologist Joseph Campbell, who wrote (among other titles) "The Hero With a Thousand Faces," something that heavily influenced George Lucas' work on "Star Wars." Campbell explored archetypes and universal themes that go along with so many stories of young heroes worldwide, across cultures and lands, and how the idea of a hero's journey speaks to something deep within us. Lucas had clearly tapped into that with his script.
The humor Ford brought up was also a huge part of "Star Wars" for me as a little girl, and remains so. Though Ford has voiced his criticism of Lucas' dialogue writing before (and to Lucas directly), I still find myself giggling at lines like, "We're all fine here now, thank you. How are you?" despite the fact that I've heard it hundreds of times. (Okay, it's mostly for Ford's delivery, but still.)
Ford was obviously correct, as we can see all these years later, and friends, I recommend doing a rewatch of the original "Star Wars" film. I spent a bit watching clips for this story, and I feel compelled to give it yet another viewing, even though I can recite every line in my sleep. If you want to do the same, all the "Star Wars" films are currently streaming on Disney+.
I'm of two minds about "Renfield" after watching the trailer. On the one hand, the idea of dropping Dracula and his long-suffering familiar in a modern world where the toxic, unequal nature of their relationship is clear as day to anyone sounds like a great premise for a horror comedy. Nicholas Hoult has found his niche in playing characters like Renfield, e.g. people who are both kind of terrible, if not outright deplorable, yet oddly engaging, as seen in his work on films like "The Favourite" and "The Menu" (not to mention his ongoing turn as the lovable a-hole Peter III on "The Great").
On the other hand, the "Renfield" trailer is disconcertingly heavy on fight scenes for a movie with a setup that seems to lend itself more to a character-driven vampire comedy in the vein (darn it, that joke's too easy) of "What We Do in the Shadows," and having Renfield gain superpowers from eating bugs is certainly a choice. Still, director Chris McKay showed he can balance action with humor while getting to the heart of what makes a pop cultural icon tick with "The LEGO Batman Movie," so there's fair reason to believe he can do it again with "Renfield." That and it's possible, perhaps even likely, the trailer was edited to make McKay's film appear far more action-heavy than it really is.
Equally uncertain is Nicolas Cage's actual screen time as Count Vlad. The movie's trailer is mostly one long buildup to the reveal of the Oscar winner and meme generator as old Drac-y, yet the actor himself is already cautioning people: "Renfield" is very much Hoult's film and not his.
'It's Really Nick Hoult's Movie'
When you hire Nicolas Cage to play one of the most famous monsters in movie history, you know most people are going to assume he's the film's true star, no matter what it's called. So it has gone with "Renfield," a movie that was overshadowed by Cage's casting as Bram Stoker's legendary blood-sucker from the moment it was announced. Thankfully, the actor is taking the time to clarify his role in the film and adjust expectations, as he did in an interview with Collider:
"The movie's really not about me, Dracula rather, I don't have a lot of screen time. It's really Nick Hoult's movie, and it's about Renfield. I didn't have the time, like the two-hour narrative to really dig deep into Dracula's pathos per se. It's not that. But I did have enough screen time to be able to try to develop a pop-art style to the character that hopefully will be a nice contribution to the other performers that have done it, that have had their take on this legendary character in both literature and cinema."
Circling back to "The LEGO Batman Movie," one of the many things Chris McKay did so well in that film is create a version of Bat's arch-nemesis, the Joker, who is multi-faceted and unlike any other onscreen iteration of the super-villain, yet never pulls attention away from the Caped Crusader and his own personal journey. Ideally, in between scenes of Dracula feasting on his victims and Renfield deploying his insect-powered fisticuffs (even Wednesday Addams knows kung fu now, it's just the world we live in), the director will succeed in doing something similar with Cage's creature of the night. Gotta start 2023 off hopeful, right?
"Creed III," the ninth film in the overall series of "Rocky" films that first started in 1976, is a vast departure from every other movie in the franchise thus far for one key reason: the absence of Sylvester Stallone. What began as a passion project Stallone had to fight to be a part of soon transformed into a series of films about the indomitable human spirit (featuring some truly inspiring and incredibly training montages). The legacy sequel "Creed," released in 2015 and directed by Ryan Coogler, brought Rocky back into the spotlight in a new and dramatic way, as the film focused on Apollo Creed's illegitimate son Adonis (Michael B. Jordan) as he trains under the tutelage of Balboa. The film even earned Stallone an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
The success "Creed" had in revitalizing the "Rocky" franchise led to the 2018 sequel "Creed II," which brought back old rival Ivan Drago from the legendary "Rocky IV," a film that's been jokingly said to have singlehandedly ended the Cold War. Adonis Creed's journey from being an unknown boxer to being thrust into the spotlight and facing the demons from his father's past put Rocky in a substantial supporting role. However, "Creed II" ended on a melancholic note for Stallone's character; after the climactic fight ended, Rocky told Adonis, "It's your time." As it turns out, this foreshadows the character's absence in "Creed III," although from the sound of it, Stallone bowed out of the upcoming sequel because he had different ideas for where it should go.
Creed III Is 'A Different Philosophy'
In a piece from The Hollywood Reporter focusing on Stallone and his career, the actor talked about his absence from "Creed III." Stallone is usually very involved in the behind-the-scenes creative process with the "Rocky" films, having directed most of them save for the original, "Rocky V," and the "Creed" films. Stallone has also received writing credits for every film in the franchise except for "Creed" as well as "Creed III." Unfortunately, his departure from "Creed III" was mainly because first-time director Michael B. Jordan and others involved with the project wanted to take the series somewhere different, both tonally and philosophically:
"That's a regretful situation because I know what it could have been. It was taken in a direction that is quite different than I would've taken it. It's a different philosophy — Irwin Winkler's [Producer] and Michael B. Jordan's."
There's no ill will towards the team making "Creed III," as Stallone only sees the film as something darker than he expects for the franchise he created. The focus on Adonis and his childhood friend Damian (Jonathan Majors) will have more intense undertones that the Rocky actor would have stayed away from:
"I wish them well, but I'm much more of a sentimentalist. I like my heroes getting beat up, but I just don't want them going into that dark space. I just feel people have enough darkness."
A Departure From The 'Rocky Tempo'
We can speculate about what exactly Stallone would have changed about the script, whether it be making the opponent in the film another legacy character or making the film more lighthearted. However, the real question should be why Stallone decided not to participate in the movie. The actor is very vocal on social media about his involvement in the films he makes, and he wasn't shy when talking about the changes he made to the scripts to fit the "Rocky tempo," as he described in an Instagram post. In that same message, Stallone said about the "Creed" films that "every scene I was in those films, I wrote too, so it would be very comfortable for me to perform in."
The first trailer for "Creed III" hints that this could be the most personal for Adonis, as Jonathan Majors' character is a close friend of Creed's from childhood. The film looks to capture the similar tone and feel of the first "Creed," especially the opening scene, which showed a young Adonis in a youth detention center. The focus on this past relationship may have left little room for the character of Rocky Balboa, and when pairing that with what Stallone suggests to be a darker film, it makes more sense why the actor decided to bow out entirely. Nevertheless, the track record of these films indicates Rocky's absence is all in service of telling an engaging story. It will be interesting to see how audiences receive "Creed III" when the film releases on March 3, 2023.
(Welcome toAnimation Celebration, a recurring feature where we explore the limitless possibilities of animation as a medium. In this edition: "I Married a Strange Person!")
In the 1990s, MTV ran an animated showcase called "Liquid Television," which was a groundbreaking collection of early computer-animated shorts, highly-influential hand-drawn shorts, and was the launchpad for several high-profile originals, like Mike Judge's "Beavis and Butt-Head" and "Æon Flux." MTV snagged some of the most adventurous and experimental shorts from seasoned animators and designers of the era, including Charles Burns, Richard Sala, David Daniels, and Bill Plympton.
The latter was behind the 1987 Academy Awards-nominated short, "Your Face," which featured a man singing about the face of his love, as his own face begins to distort into increasingly unusual positions. He would go on to direct the animated musical feature, "The Tune," which was self-funded and incorporated footage from his shorts "The Wiseman," "Dig My Do," and "Tango Schmango." His success with "The Tune" proved that Plympton could pull off a feature film, but his follow-up, "I Married a Strange Person!" is arguably his magnum opus.
"I Married a Strange Person!" is about a man named Grant Boyer who is struck by a beam of mysterious energy from a satellite dish, that completely changes the way he experiences reality. Suddenly, Grant has the ability to change the state of things, people, and objects to whatever he desires or imagines. Sometimes it's an act of revenge, like making his judgemental in-laws eat bugs, or sometimes it's absolutely absurd, like turning his new wife's breasts into balloon animals. His newly developed ability puts a strain on his new marriage, quickly making him the target of those hoping to manipulate his power for their own whims.
Bill Plympton Is An Animation God
Bill Plympton's animation style is so specifically unique, it can only be described in reference to the man who made it. It's scratchy, intentionally imperfect, exaggerated, chaotic, and impossible to ignore. His character designs look like the result of the early sketches of a Tex Avery Cartoon crashing headfirst with the surreal body horror of a David Cronenberg film. At the same time, the sex and violence play out like a 1970s exploitation illustrated with children's colored pencils and boasts a sense of humor that feels at home with the filmography of John Waters. "I Married a Strange Person!" encapsulates all of these elements with ease, and knowing that he single-handedly drew the entire film on his own is nothing short of miraculous.
"I Married a Strange Person!" showcases how animation is the perfect medium to tell not-so-child-friendly stories, as the imaginative world of Grant Boyer would look truly ridiculous if set in the realm of possibility. The specific tone Plympton achieves would be lost if the story was told in any other way, as the over-exaggerated physical features would end up looking like something out of Willy Wonka's factory. The proportions are out of control, bodies are manipulated beyond recognition, and no matter how grotesque the imagery is, every frame is mesmerizing beauty. During the film's climax, when Grant literally explodes a man in front of a live studio audience, it feels like the natural conclusion for his unchecked powers. This is the moment the entire film has been building toward, and you can't help but cheer when the film finally goes for it. It's gruesome, it's beautiful, and it's purely Plympton.
The Heart Of American-Made Animation
Bill Plympton's style is, at its core, alternative and underground. Every scene in "I Married a Strange Person!" is reminiscent of the kinds of illustrated sketches found in dirty magazines, or the childish, absurd monstrosities that fascinated college kids in the '90s in the pages of zines. Everything about Plympton's work is reminiscent of the adventurous styles of American animation that don't always get the credit they deserve. Ralph Bakshi was instrumental in laying the groundwork so folks like Plympton could thrive, but considering he made "The Lord of the Rings" and the Brad Pitt-starring "Cool World," in addition to his more provocative works like "Fritz the Cat," he's easily cited for future generations to check out.
Plympton is still working today but is seldom brought up in the same conversations, despite absolutely deserving to be there. His work is just as bombastic, extravagant, and loaded with sex, politics, and violence, and yet he's still self-financing his features, like "Cheatin'" and "Revengeance." More than 180 of Plympton's items are held at the Academy Film Archive (as they should be) and he's still crafting shorts, music videos, and commercials, and raised over $84,000 on Kickstarter for his animated comedy western, "Slide." If there's any evidence needed to prove that Hollywood doesn't appreciate the animated medium the way it should, it's the fact a two-time Oscar winner with an unbelievable catalog is forced to crowdfund his projects.
Bill Plympton is a seminal figure in the world of animation, and thanks to the accessibility of films like "I Married a Strange Person!" on streaming services like Tubi TV and Plex, there's no better time to fall in love with his work and keep the world of Plymptoons alive.
Can you imagine a world without the magic of the "M3GAN" dance? For TikTok users, horror fans, and queer people everywhere, the killer android doll's hallway dance has already become an indelible and endlessly entertaining part of the pop cultural zeitgeist. Even before audiences caught the movie on the big screen and witnessed M3GAN twirling and flailing to Skatt Bros' "Walk the Night" like a glitched-out ballerina, we knew and loved the dance after catching the movie's first trailer.
M3GAN's reputation preceded her, as the surprise box office hit earned strong buzz from folks who watched the dance again and again — even attempting to recreate it — back in October. Apparently, though, the man behind the movie initially didn't want audiences to see M3GAN bust a move before theatrical release.
M3GAN's Killer Dance Took The Internet By Storm
In an interview with Variety, filmmaker Gerard Johnstone reveals that he originally voiced concerns that the trailer was revealing too much, including the dance scene that comes late in the film during a particularly satisfying and hilarious death scene. "I was so happy to be proved wrong by Universal," Johnstone says, "who didn't really listen to me when I said that we were giving away too much." The trailer frankly does give a lot away, from the scene in which M3GAN chases a schoolboy through the woods on all fours to the moment when she brandishes a power tool at her owner's neighbor.
But including the dance sequence in nearly its entirety, cross-cut with other shots in a way that make it even funnier, turned out to be a stroke of genius. The #M3GAN tag on TikTok currently has 964 million views on TikTok, thanks in large part to the dance performed by actor Amie Donald and the countless imitations it inspired. The moves caught on in part because they're so weird, incorporating a front flip and a random wall grab before M3GAN starts menacingly brandishing a large metal paper cutter blade. According to Johnstone, Donald and her dance coach came up with a handful of choreography options for the dance itself, and while they were a lot different than the "shimmy" the filmmaker imagined, they turned out to be perfect.
It's 'The Gift That Keeps On Giving'
"They were all very strange and not what I had in mind at all, but they were all kind of great and weird and disturbing," Johnstone tells Variety. Still, the filmmaker apparently wanted to keep some of the best moments of "M3GAN" out of the trailers (mission accomplished, I'd say, because we still got "Titanium" in theaters only). In the end, Johnstone calls the dance "the gift that keeps on giving." He describes the cast and crew of the movie as in a bubble ahead of its release, unsure how the rest of the world would react to the kooky dance number. "The bubble burst in a big way when that trailer dropped," he says.
Producer James Wan was apparently just as surprised by the ubiquity of the dance after the trailer's debut. "That came organically," he told SyFy Wire, adding, "You can't really force something to go viral. When something latches on to the zeitgeist, it just does." And boy, did M3GAN's dance latch on like a tiny animatronic hand clutching a blade the size of a robot girl's body. "M3GAN" trailer editor, we bow down to you.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Amendments to Building Regulations 2010 were announced by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) on January 6th that mandate new homes constructed in England to be fitted with infrastructure and connections required to achieve gigabit internet connectivity. Connection costs will be capped at £2,000 per home, and developers must still install gigabit-ready infrastructure (including ducts, chambers, and termination points) and the fastest-available connection if they're unable to secure a gigabit connection within the cost cap. The UK government estimates that 98 percent of installations will fall comfortably under that cap, so it's likely been put in place to avoid spiraling chargings in remote, rural areas that need widescale line upgrades. Properties constructed in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland may be exempt from this new legislation as each country sets its own building regulations independently from England.
The new legislation was introduced on December 26th, 2022, following a 12-month technical consultation that indicated around 12 percent of 171,190 new homes constructed in England didn't have gigabit broadband access upon completion. DCMS claims that gigabit broadband is currently available in over 72 percent of UK households and is targeting full nationwide gigabit-capable broadband coverage across the UK by 2030. In order to meet that goal, another law has also been introduced to make it easier to install faster internet connections into existing flats and apartments. Previously, millions of tenants living in the UK's estimated 480,000 multi-dwelling units (MDUs) needed to obtain permission from the landowner to allow a broadband operator to install connection upgrades. Broadband companies estimate that around 40 percent of these requests are ignored by landlords, leaving tenants unable to upgrade their services even if they're unfit for use. Now, the Telecommunications Infrastructure (Leasehold Property) Act 2021 (TILPA) allows broadband providers in England and Wales to seek access rights via court if landlords and land owners don't respond to installation requests within 35 days. "An additional 2,100 residential buildings a year are estimated to be connected to faster broadband speeds as a result of these new rules, and similar legislation is due to come into force in Scotland later this year," adds the report. "The existing appeals process that allows landlords to refuse access requests will not be affected."
Foundation cracks can be the stuff of nightmares for homeowners. They conjure visions of excessive repair bills or worse–turning a once-functional structure into a teardown. But not all foundations are equal, and not all foundation cracks are either. There are some cracks that aren’t such a big deal, and some that can…
Security researchers at Microsoft are flagging ransomware attacks on Apple’s flagship macOS operating system, warning that financially motivated cybercriminals are abusing legitimate macOS functionalities to exploit vulnerabilities, evade defenses, or coerce users to infect their devices.
We're back for the new year with lots to talk about, including a rundown of gaming-related stuff at CES, our holiday break comfort games, Potioncraft, Potionomics (those are two different games!), Against the Storm, and more! This week's music: Cellar Door - Death
A new attack vector targeting the Visual Studio Code extensions marketplace could be leveraged to upload rogue extensions masquerading as their legitimate counterparts with the goal of mounting supply chain attacks.
The technique "could act as an entry point for an attack on many organizations," Aqua security researcher Ilay Goldman said in a report published last week.
VS Code extensions,
The country’s surge in cases is a human tragedy but isn’t showing signs of changing the Covid picture in the West—where the virus is already running free.
Earlier this year, threat actors infiltrated Mailchimp, the popular SaaS email marketing platform. They viewed over 300 Mailchimp customer accounts and exported audience data from 102 of them. The breach was preceded by a successful phishing attempt and led to malicious attacks against Mailchimp’s customers’ end users.
Three months later, Mailchimp was hit with another attack. Once again, an
I grew up in upstate New York without a garage, so I consider myself fairly skilled in the art of car de-icing—or so I thought. Ice storms have become more common in Portland since I moved here over a decade ago, and with each storm I get less confident in my ability to liberate my windshield. As it turns out, I…
YouTube user ALG46 shared a video showcase of Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, which the RTX Remix ray traced renderer literally transforms into a near-modern-looking game. Morrowind was one of the games picked by NVIDIA for its RTX Remix showcase, though it won't get the full remake treatment like Portal RTX. ALG46 also noted that currently, the game crashes when trying to load exteriors. Hopefully, a fix can be found sooner than later.
Another popular game among RTX Remix modders is Valve's Half-Life 2. The current version (unlike the proper one that will be released by NVIDIA) of RTX Remix is very limited, so the user GalaxyHighMarshal from the main Discord server has begun reworking Half-Life 2 textures with Physically Based Rendering (PBR) properties via NVIDIA's Omniverse. As you'll remember from our earlier articles, Omniverse is tightly connected with RTX Remix, so modders will be able to port their work onto the software once it is released.
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Another interesting showcase comes from YouTube user @bagger288, who is working on an RTX Remix test of Blizzard's World of Warcraft (Wrath of the Lich King 3.3.5 patch).
In the video above, you can witness Ironforge, the capital of the dwarves, rendered with physically based materials. The modder often toggles the enhanced PBR assets on and off, showcasing a big graphical improvement. However, he also clarified in the YouTube comments that all terrain and grass texture are currently missing when loading the game.
At CES 2023, NVIDIA did not provide a concrete release date for RTX Remix. However, they did say public early access would be coming soon. We also know they have already sent the tool to the original creators of the Portal: Prelude fan-made prequel.
Identity thieves have been exploiting a glaring security weakness in the website of Experian, one of the big three consumer credit reporting bureaus. Normally, Experian requires that those seeking a copy of their credit report successfully answer several multiple choice questions about their financial history. But until the end of 2022, Experian’s website allowed anyone to bypass these questions and go straight to the consumer’s report. All that was needed was the person’s name, address, birthday and Social Security number.
The vulnerability in Experian’s website was exploitable after one applied to see their credit file via annualcreditreport.com.
In December, KrebsOnSecurity heard from Jenya Kushnir, a security researcher living in Ukraine who said he discovered the method being used by identity thieves after spending time on Telegram chat channels dedicated to the cashing out of compromised identities.
“I want to try and help to put a stop to it and make it more difficult for [ID thieves] to access, since [Experian is] not doing shit and regular people struggle,” Kushnir wrote in an email to KrebsOnSecurity explaining his motivations for reaching out. “If somehow I can make small change and help to improve this, inside myself I can feel that I did something that actually matters and helped others.”
Kushnir said the crooks learned they could trick Experian into giving them access to anyone’s credit report, just by editing the address displayed in the browser URL bar at a specific point in Experian’s identity verification process.
Following Kushnir’s instructions, I sought a copy of my credit report from Experian via annualcreditreport.com — a website that is required to provide all Americans with a free copy of their credit report from each of the three major reporting bureaus, once per year.
Annualcreditreport.com begins by asking for your name, address, SSN and birthday. After I supplied that and told Annualcreditreport.com I wanted my report from Experian, I was taken to Experian.com to complete the identity verification process.
Normally at this point, Experian’s website would present four or five multiple-guess questions, such as “Which of the following addresses have you lived at?”
Kushnir told me that when the questions page loads, you simply change the last part of the URL from “/acr/oow/” to “/acr/report,” and the site would display the consumer’s full credit report.
But when I tried to get my report from Experian via annualcreditreport.com, Experian’s website said it didn’t have enough information to validate my identity. It wouldn’t even show me the four multiple-guess questions. Experian said I had three options for a free credit report at this point: Mail a request along with identity documents, call a phone number for Experian, or upload proof of identity via the website.
But that didn’t stop Experian from showing me my full credit report after I changed the Experian URL as Kushnir had instructed — modifying the error page’s trailing URL from “/acr/OcwError” to simply “/acr/report”.
Experian’s website then immediately displayed my entire credit file.
Even though Experian said it couldn’t tell that I was actually me, it still coughed up my report. And thank goodness it did. The report contains so many errors that it’s probably going to take a good deal of effort on my part to straighten out.
Now I know why Experian has NEVER let me view my own file via their website. For example, there were four phone numbers on my Experian credit file: Only one of them was mine, and that one hasn’t been mine for ages.
I was so dumbfounded by Experian’s incompetence that I asked a close friend and trusted security source to try the method on her identity file at Experian. Sure enough, when she got to the part where Experian asked questions, changing the last part of the URL in her address bar to “/report” bypassed the questions and immediately displayed her full credit report. Her report also was replete with errors.
KrebsOnSecurity shared Kushnir’s findings with Experian on Dec. 23, 2022. On Dec. 27, 2022, Experian’s PR team acknowledged receipt of my Dec. 23 notification, but the company has so far ignored multiple requests for comment or clarification.
By the time Experian confirmed receipt of my report, the “exploit” Kushnir said he learned from the identity thieves on Telegram had been patched and no longer worked. But it remains unclear how long Experian’s website was making it so easy to access anyone’s credit report.
In response to information shared by KrebsOnSecurity, Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said he was disappointed — but not at all surprised — to hear about yet another cybersecurity lapse at Experian.
“The credit bureaus are poorly regulated, act as if they are above the law and have thumbed their noses at Congressional oversight,” Wyden said in a written statement. “Just last year, Experian ignored repeated briefing requests from my office after you revealed another cybersecurity lapse the company.”
From interviews with multiple victims who contacted KrebsOnSecurity after that story, it emerged that Experian’s own customer support representatives were actually telling consumers who got locked out of their Experian accounts to recreate their accounts using their personal information and a new email address. This was Experian’s advice even for people who’d just explained that this method was what identity thieves had used to lock them in out in the first place.
Clearly, Experian found it simpler to respond this way, rather than acknowledging the problem and addressing the root causes (lazy authentication and abhorrent account recovery practices). It’s also worth mentioning that reports of hijacked Experian.com accounts persisted into late 2022. That screw-up has since prompted a class action lawsuit against Experian.
Sen. Wyden said the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) need to do much more to protect Americans from screw-ups by the credit bureaus.
“If they don’t believe they have the authority to do so, they should endorse legislation like my Mind Your Own Business Act, which gives the FTC power to set tough mandatory cybersecurity standards for companies like Experian,” Wyden said.
Sadly, none of this is terribly shocking behavior for Experian, which has shown itself a completely negligent custodian of obscene amounts of highly sensitive consumer information.
It’s bad enough that we can’t really opt out of companies like Experian making $2.6 billion each quarter collecting and selling gobs of our personal and financial information. But there has to be some meaningful accountability when these monopolistic companies engage in negligent and reckless behavior with the very same consumer data that feeds their quarterly profits. Or when security and privacy shortcuts are found to be intentional, like for cost-saving reasons.
It is easy to adopt a defeatist attitude with the credit bureaus, who often foul things up royally even for consumers who are quite diligent about watching their consumer credit files and disputing any inaccuracies.
But there are some concrete steps that everyone can take which will dramatically lower the risk that identity thieves will ruin your financial future. And happily, most of these steps have the side benefit of costing the credit bureaus money, or at least causing the data they collect about you to become less valuable over time.
The first step is awareness. Find out what these companies are saying about you behind your back. Keep in mind that — fair or not — your credit score as collectively determined by these bureaus can affect whether you get that loan, apartment, or job. In that context, even small, unintentional errors that are unrelated to identity theft can have outsized consequences for consumers down the road.
Each bureau is required to provide a free copy of your credit report every year. The easiest way to get yours is through annualcreditreport.com.
Some consumers report that this site never works for them, and that each bureau will insist they don’t have enough information to provide a report. I am definitely in this camp. Thankfully, a financial institution that I already have a relationship with offers the ability to view your credit file through them. Your mileage on this front may vary, and you may end up having to send copies of your identity documents through the mail or website.
When you get your report, look for anything that isn’t yours, and then document and file a dispute with the corresponding credit bureau. And after you’ve reviewed your report, set a calendar reminder to recur every four months, reminding you it’s time to get another free copy of your credit file.
Freezing your credit means no one who doesn’t already have a financial relationship with you can view your credit file, making it unlikely that potential creditors will grant new lines of credit in your name to identity thieves. Freezing your credit file also means Experian and its brethren can no longer sell peeks at your credit history to others.
Anytime you wish to apply for new credit or a new job, or open an account at a utility or communications provider, you can quickly thaw a freeze on your credit file, and set it to freeze automatically again after a specified length of time.
Please don’t confuse a credit freeze (a.k.a. “security freeze”) with the alternative that the bureaus will likely steer you towards when you ask for a freeze: “Credit lock” services.
The bureaus pitch these credit lock services as a way for consumers to easily toggle their credit file availability with push of a button on a mobile app, but they do little to prevent the bureaus from continuing to sell your information to others.
My advice: Ignore the lock services, and just freeze your credit files already.
One final note. Frequent readers here will have noticed that I’ve criticized these so-called “knowledge-based authentication” or KBA questions that Experian’s website failed to ask as part of its consumer verification process.
KrebsOnSecurity has long assailed KBA as weak authentication because the questions and answers are drawn largely from consumer records that are public and easily accessible to organized identity theft groups.
That said, given that these KBA questions appear to be the ONLY thing standing between me and my Experian credit report, it seems like maybe they should at least take care to ensure that those questions actually get asked.
