A Spirited 15 Rounds ...

[the.dreamfinder]

The ThanksShanghai blog provides some of the best insight into the operation of Shanghai Disney Resort.

The second part of a piece on scalper culture at the park.
https://thanks-shanghai.com/2018/07...-shanghais-scalper-and-hawker-problem-part-2/

An excerpt on an idea the author, a manager at SHDL, proposed to familiarize guests with what a Disney theme park is, including a free FP to counter the FP scalpers.

During my time there, I developed three guided tours for the park. One of which was based off of WDW’s and Tokyo Disneyland’s Welcome to the Magic Kingdom Tour. Given that every guest to Shanghai Disney was a first time visitor, the tour would help introduce guests to the park and the services offered. The anchor of the tour (that is the component to encourage guests to attend the tour) would be a backdoor, escort on two attractions and upon completing the tour, the guest would be offered a FastPass for an attraction or show of their choice. This tour would be priced to be less expensive per-person than purchasing a single FastPass from a hawker. It would not only be a better value, but also provide a better overall experience for the guest.

On a personal note, I sadly discovered all of my tour proposals in the trash a week after I sent them to leadership for perusal. I never received a reply, even after asking for feedback. I was very disappointed and could tell my suggestions and weeks of working on my own free time was a waste and my talents would be better appreciated at a different organization. Just one of the reasons I made the painfully hard decision to leave Shanghai Disney, a dream job I had always wanted.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/07/james-gunn-dan-harmon-mike-cernovich-the-far-rights-pedophilia-smear-campaign-is-working.html

Alt-right and men’s rights activists are nothing if not anxious—anxious about falling white birth rates, the increasing prominence of communities of color, the entrance of feminist rhetoric into mainstream discourse, growing visibility and rights for LGBTQ people, the election of a black president and the near-election of a female one, and mounting pushback against people who say racist and sexist things in public. By accusing progressives of pedophilia, men scared of losing power can convince themselves and their like-minded peers that they have legitimate reasons to orchestrate their opponents’ downfall.

 

[Pixieish]

https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/07/james-gunn-dan-harmon-mike-cernovich-the-far-rights-pedophilia-smear-campaign-is-working.html

I really hope there have at least been conversations between Iger, etc. about all this stuff.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

I really hope there have at least been conversations between Iger, etc. about all this stuff.

Maybe now that all this Fox stuff is done for the time being they can focus on it. For all her dark sorcery, Zenia Mucha, Disney’s head of communications, totally bungled this after masterfully diffusing the much more problematic Lasseter misconduct episode.

We don’t know what’s going on with the talent, there was talk of a forthcoming statement, but I can see a way Gunn could go back to direct Volume 3 and architecting the Cosmic side of the MCU.

 

[Pixieish]

Maybe now that all this Fox stuff is done for the time being they can focus on it. For all her dark sorcery, Zenia Mucha, Disney’s head of communications, totally bungled this after masterfully diffusing the much more problematic Lasseter misconduct episode.

We don’t know what’s going on with the talent, there was talk of a forthcoming statement, but I can see a way Gunn could go back to direct Volume 3 and architecting the Cosmic side of the MCU.

You're using much kinder words than I would. I also really hope the FOX thing is all they've been waiting for (and that would make sense). Their silence has been deafening.

 

[Bairstow]

You're using much kinder words than I would. I also really hope the FOX thing is all they've been waiting for (and that would make sense). Their silence has been deafening.

You seem to be keeping up with these events closer than most.
Have you heard whether Disney's blowup at Gunn's tweets was pretextual? I can't remember where I read it but I recall seeing somewhere that Disney had been itching to fire Gunn for a while over ongoing creative differences and that the controversy presented the perfect opportunity to rid themselves of him.

 

[Pixieish]

You seem to be keeping up with these events closer than most.
Have you heard whether Disney's blowup at Gunn's tweets was pretextual? I can't remember where I read it but I recall seeing somewhere that Disney had been itching to fire Gunn for a while over ongoing creative differences and that the controversy presented the perfect opportunity to rid themselves of him.

I read that too, but if I recall correctly, only one source, so I'm taking it with a grain of salt. I also read that Cernovich (or his people) specifically sent the Disney PR department screenshots of the tweets with the context (among other things, like actual links) blacked out and the accusation that Gunn is a pedophile. I did see a screenshot of a Cernovich tweet directly to Gunn.

EDIT: I also tend to look at URLs, and there are a few that have popped up on Twitter under the guise of supporting the rehire Gunn movement, but in reality link to the far-right-leaning websites. They're also trying to bait supporters into arguments.

The petition is up to over 325,000...they're hoping to reach 500,000. And the author - Chandler Edwards - has also been attacked and accused of being a pedophile.

 

[Princess Leia]

I’m expecting a pretty great spy flick. Winter Soldier already went in that direction a bit.

And that was probably the best depiction of Widow that we’ve had yet. If they go along the lines of a spy thriller with her and Seb Stan, I think we’re in for a great film

 

[Princess Leia]

There’s a depth written into the character by Joss Whedon that should be well capitalized on in a series of solo movies.

Except for the unfortunate Hulk romance movie we got stuck with in Ultron. That was out of left field and apparently Joss’s idea. He did a great job with Widow in the first Avengers though

 

[Pixieish]

You seem to be keeping up with these events closer than most.
Have you heard whether Disney's blowup at Gunn's tweets was pretextual? I can't remember where I read it but I recall seeing somewhere that Disney had been itching to fire Gunn for a while over ongoing creative differences and that the controversy presented the perfect opportunity to rid themselves of him.

I'm trying to track down an actual timeline of events, but it may take a while because it's getting late. The earliest thing I'm seeing at the moment is the tweet from Cernovich to Gunn asking "What's up with this pedophile stuff you tweeted?", with an acccompanying screenshot, which was at 5:49 on the 19th. I'm seeing zero news reports about Gunn's firing before the morning of the 20th.

 

[AEfx]

I'm trying to track down an actual timeline of events, but it may take a while because it's getting late. The earliest thing I'm seeing at the moment is the tweet from Cernovich to Gunn asking "What's up with this pedophile stuff you tweeted?", with an acccompanying screenshot, which was at 5:49 on the 19th. I'm seeing zero news reports about Gunn's firing before the morning of the 20th.

Yeah, clearly, like Roseanne, they already had the gun loaded, they just waited to have to bring it out. Disney's strategy seems to be "nip this in the bud" versus "we need to thoughtfully consider".

Now, if that's because they wanted rid of him anyway creatively, or because they knew this was a bomb out there that was waiting to blow, or even if there is more we don't know about - that is what we don't know. My bet is, they knew this bomb was going to blow at some point, and the response would have been the same if it was some wacko far-right winger who brought it up, or if it had been The Mary Sue.

 

[FigmentJedi]

Except for the unfortunate Hulk romance movie we got stuck with in Ultron. That was out of left field and apparently Joss’s idea. He did a great job with Widow in the first Avengers though

Also the whole "I'm a monster because I'm sterile" thing.

 

[Pixieish]

Yeah, clearly, like Roseanne, they already had the gun loaded, they just waited to have to bring it out. Disney's strategy seems to be "nip this in the bud" versus "we need to thoughtfully consider".

Now, if that's because they wanted rid of him anyway creatively, or because they knew this was a bomb out there that was waiting to blow, or even if there is more we don't know about - that is what we don't know. My bet is, they knew this bomb was going to blow at some point, and the response would have been the same if it was some wacko far-right winger who brought it up, or if it had been The Mary Sue.

Yeah, I've looked through a few of Cernovich's tweets from the 19th, and he started tagging Disney within ~1 1/2 hours-ish of his first tweet to Gunn. He also tagged the LAPD (so yeah, they tried to get him arrested, too) in one that I saw, but that is the ONLY instance I've seen the police mentioned in everything I've read so far.

They go further to accuse all media outlets in general of covering for pedophiles both in Hollywood and DC, and Twitter of shadow banning their accounts (which is funny, because I wouldn't be able to see their tweets if that were the case). Everything mentioned in this and the above paragraph were found on Twitter under Cernovich's account.

I need to find the source that mentioned creative differences - there are a lot of articles out there - some written by sites I wouldn't consider credible. One thing is crystal clear though - this whole thing went down REALLY FAST.

And holy hell, I think I *may* have found the source of the first website article about Gunn... I run a Disney FB group (it's not very big), and when I get up in the morning, one of the first things I do while I have my coffee is seach Google for anything Disney related (I keep the tab open throughout the day and check every so often for new stuff). On Friday morning (the 20th) shortly after 8am (when I got up) I scheduled a post of an article about Gunn saying his tweets revealed "racism, homophobia, and assault against children". I even joked about it saying basically "if we fire everyone because of social media, there'd be no Hollywood left" because there hadn't been anything about him being fired yet when I scheduled it, the site that had posted it was obviously a conservative site bursting with opinions and I didn't take it seriously in the least, and Roseanne was still relatively fresh in my mind that morning. The article itself was published at 1:56am on the 20th (but the url shows that the article was created on the 19th - and it screams WordPress or some other non-professional CMS to me). My group post went live at 12:28pm the same day, and shortly after it went live, we were commenting in utter shock that Gunn had been fired.

I'd like to see if I can find out which media outlet broke the news about the firing first, as well as some of the stuff I read from Cernovich and his followers (like about the email to Disney, the screenshots of the tweets, etc.)

 

[Pixieish]

Also the whole "I'm a monster because I'm sterile" thing.

I got the impression there was a whole lot more to that story.

 

[Rodan75]

You seem to be keeping up with these events closer than most.
Have you heard whether Disney's blowup at Gunn's tweets was pretextual? I can't remember where I read it but I recall seeing somewhere that Disney had been itching to fire Gunn for a while over ongoing creative differences and that the controversy presented the perfect opportunity to rid themselves of him.

That is an interesting angle, but Feige had given him reign over Marvel Cosmic. Do you know anything more about what type of creative differences?

 

[Pixieish]

That is an interesting angle, but Feige had given him reign over Marvel Cosmic. Do you know anything more about what type of creative differences?

I'm researching. Lindsay Ellis mentioned seeing speculation about creative differences, too, so whether it's just speculation or not is a good question.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

I'm researching. Lindsay Ellis mentioned seeing speculation about creative differences, too, so whether it's just speculation or not is a good question.

Anything’s possible, but it doesn’t seem like Gunn’s creative relationship with the company was strained. There are internal political reasons why Feige can’t comment, but the GotG cast defending him indicates general approval with his leadership.

 

[Pixieish]

Anything’s possible, but it doesn’t seem like Gunn’s creative relationship with the company was strained. There are internal political reasons why Feige can’t comment, but the GotG cast defending him indicates general approval with his leadership.

I agree 100%. And that Fiege would want so much of his input on the next 10 years of Marvel speaks volumes, too.

 

[Mike S]

Except for the unfortunate Hulk romance movie we got stuck with in Ultron. That was out of left field and apparently Joss’s idea. He did a great job with Widow in the first Avengers though

After Infinity War it seems they’re thankfully moving past that.

 

[Princess Leia]

After Infinity War it seems they’re thankfully moving past that.

I really hope so. They had Ultron to introduce it, Ragnarok to reference it, and then Infinity War to end it (fingers crossed).

They have a lot they can do with Widow, because she’s incredibly secretive with practically every character (except maybe Fury and Clint), so most of her back story is up for grabs, as is whatever story they want to tell in the present day (if they do a flashback heavy story set in the present day).