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Author: Peter Hortensius

Dreamcast History Media Pitch Meeting

Hamilton 2.0: Balancing Diversity, Accuracy, and Style

You’re reading part 2 of our 4-part series on adapting Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton” for television. Read part 1 here! Continuing our discussion on how to film our version of Hamilton, this article will focus on our approach to casting. As a history buff, I would normally want a film adaptation to visually represent a time period and setting as much as possible. This no doubt leads to a big question that concerns me, do I want our characters to actually look like their historical counterparts or should they reflect the theme of the play? Part of Hamilton‘s genius on stage

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Dreamcast Live-Action Adaptation Media Politics TV and Film

The Cult Comes Home – Far Cry 5: Our Dreamcast

Far Cry 5 is the most recent entry in the Far Cry series – an open-world shooter where you play a nameless protagonist fighting against a militant religious cult. Previous games have it focused on more exotic locations such as the Pacific Islands (Far Cry 3) and the Himalayas (Far Cry 4), with the upcoming 6th game being set the Caribbean. Far Cry 5 took a more domestic approach, setting its fictional “Hope County” in the very not-fictional state of Montana – complete with its own local populace of American cultist caricatures. It is here in America’s wilderness that the

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History Politics Review

The Czars Must Be Wasted – A Historical Analysis

This article is a summary analysis of the book Vodka Politics by Mark Lawrence Schrad by Mark Lawrence Shrad, professor of political science at Villanova University. Schrad wrote this book with the goal of addressing how Russian diplomacy often includes the deployment of a large amount of alcohol, particularly as his title implies, vodka. He explores vodka’s evolution under the czars and how it was employed by the soviets to control their internal enemies and allies alike. It is a problematic tradition that continues to this day, according Schrad’s thesis: “Putin and every Russian autocrat who follows will continue the

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Media Pitch Meeting TV and Film

Remaking BBC’s Walking with Dinosaurs

Part 1: The Elevator Pitch It’s been over 20 years now since the BBC debuted the legendary miniseries: Walking with Dinosaurs. Since then our knowledge of these magnificent creatures has grown exponentially to the point where the science in the series can be considered dated. Nevertheless, Walking with Dinosaurs [WWD] and its spinoffs have helped to spawn a new generation of dinosaur lovers such as myself. We are now living in a golden age of dinosaur discovery with more species having been identified and studied in the past decade alone than the entire past century. With the BBC launching sequels

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Best/Worst Game of Thrones Media TV and Film

Best Game of Thrones Episodes

After presenting our “Worst Game of Thrones” episode list, it is now time To unload the Best. SPOILERS… obviously? #13: Winter is Coming [s1 e1] It is vitally important for a series premiere to establish its characters, who they are, and what are their places in the world. The first scene in Winterfell particularly does this well; Ned Stark clearly portrays the stern noble lord of a father, and Robb is his oldest protégée. Jon’s the bastard black sheep who has (understandably) never gotten along well with his stepmother, Catelyn. Arya is the adventurous tomboy daughter who shoots better than

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Editorial Media Politics Rant TV and Film

Diversity vs Tokenism in Historical Dramas – A Rant about Representation and Accuracy

This may be a touchy subject for some – undoubtedly one of the more controversial topics on this discussion forum – but as a film critic, nerd, history buff, and “woke white boy” all wrapped up into a nice opinionated bow: history needs to be told faithfully.

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