Some of you had warmth and sunshine. Same areas continue to see the rain tonight, parts of the south east and the midlands into towards north east england and scotland and into Northern Ireland keeping the odd rumble of thunder along those weather fronts. To the rumble of thunder along those weatherfronts. To the north east some warmth to the sunshine, a humid night, fresher, temperatures down to single figures. Sunday, we will do it allagain, single figures. Sunday, we will do it all again, wetter in the north east of Northern Ireland, more persistent rain in the north east midlands, but brighter towards the south east corner and while we stick with some humid and sunny conditions in the easterly wind through northern scotland, a greater chance of one or two heavy showers. Temperatures into the 20s in scotla nd temperatures into the 20s in scotland and still in the 20s in the south west with sunny spells continuing into the afternoon. Beyond that, some warmth and sunshine on monday increasing risk of thundery showers developing as well. Hello. This is bbc news, the headlines. Prime minister Boris Johnson pledges to fund and high speed rail route between manchester and leeds. President trump prises Boris Johnson manchester and leeds. President trump prises borisjohnson and says talks on what he calls a very substantial uk us trade deal are under way. The uks biggest funder of Charitable Research says no deal brea ks of Charitable Research says no deal breaks it threatens the uk s science industry. The mp for Sheffield Hallam and jarrod omara says he will resign as a member of parliament to deal with personal issues. Riot Police Fire Tear gas at protesters in hong kong after tens of thousands marched through the town where gangs attacked pro democracy last weekend. Now talking movies reviews the blockbuster season. Hello and welcome to talking movies. Im tom brook. And todays programme we look back on blockbuster season, the hits and the misses, plus a special report on ageism in the movies. On my way, woody the seasons top three blockbuster heavy hitters have been a toy story sequel called toy story 4, and live action adaptation of aladdin, and a new spider man film, spider man far from home. Those films have been doing fantastic business around the world. Of course, that doesnt mean each represents brilliant cinema. To explore blockbuster season in more detail, im joined by a panel of experts. Tell me, if you look at the top films at the box office right now theyre either remakes or sequels, has hollywood lost originality . I think theyre desperate to make money so theyre trying to fill seats. And we know that nostalgia is what drives people in, which is why i think they really havent gambled on anything too new right now. Prince ali. Mighty is he ali ababwa it is significant to me that a lot of this summers sequels and remakes are all rooted in. Nostalgia. Nostalgia from about 25 years ago, which is when most millennials were kids. So now millennials have their own kids and so theres an aspect ofjust bringing your kids to a movie you loved just feeling like a kid again. Thats something we like to do in the summertime. I think all those things are how disney, in particular, and disneys properties are trying to capitalise on what they already are. But i do think itll be a problem eventually. Hello hi when you look at one of the films thats done really well, toy story, why has that held up as a sequel, do you think . You know, what i liked about the new story is that it was horrifying. It was a very disturbing vision of mortality, getting older, ceding your space and there was a generation, and there was a younger generation, which i found incredibly dark and disturbing, which i found quite refreshing in a childrens film. Hi there, my name is gabby gabby we cant stay. Yes you can there are a large number of films that havent done well in blockbuster season, men in black, dark phoenix, godzilla king of the monsters. What has gone wrong . Are the films being poorly made . Some of the ones you mentioned were poorly made. That certainly doesnt help. I do wonder how much of this year is the result of Avengers Endgame coming out technically before blockbuster season or at the very beginning of it and when you start a season thats devoted to big movies with the biggest movie ever made its really hard for anything else to compete with that. Are you a queen . Indeed she is. I pledge loyalty eternal to you no, no, no, im not interested. Too late. Its done. I already pledged the loyalty. I wish youd said no, no, no before. By all accounts, men in black isnt that bad. Do you think that audience tastes have changed that maybe two years ago that film would have done better . I think it would have. And i think pairing tessa and chris together was a really great idea and their charisma really sparkles on the screen. But for some reason this script did not hold together. And i think men in black is a quintessential will smith vehicle and without him there, without even a cameo, it was kind of like they could have really turned over the franchise in a way and it fell a little bit flat. It does sometimes feel like sequels come out because people think that the brand loyalty is there rather than the film loyalty. So some of the aspects of the film making a half baked. And there are people not really that loyal to the brand. They liked the movie but they can go home and watch the original. And they know this. So spending the money on a movie ticket is not valuable to them if the movies not that good. Can you tell me what your favourite film blockbuster season has been . I loved the lion king. I know i will get a lot of hate for that. Because people absolutely hated it. But i love nostalgia and i think because disney didnt really do anything different they switched out a couple of songs, gave us a few different voice actors to carry it. Itjust made me feel really comfortable and like i was a child again so i loved it. An underrated or underappreciated movie i enjoyed the season was this little movie, this little horror movie called brightburn. Which was kind of a fun play on superhero movies which are so prevalent now. And a horror movie as well. Sort of imagining what if superman turned out to be basically a slasher villain. And i thought it was very creative and used the mythos of those characters and those creations in a very unique way. And i had a lot of fun, dark fun with that movie. Some of my favourite films of the year have come out in the last few months. The souvenir was one. The farewell. But i would say the one a keep thinking about is midsommar. Which is a sort of terrifying, existential, two and a half hour dread fest about, like, why you should never go to sweden with hippies or Something Like that. It is quite terrifying but also one that ive thought about a lot and have really enjoyed writing about it. I would second what youre saying about the farewell. That, to my mind, was a brilliant film. I mean, its a film about a grandmother dying in china. Its one of the most inspirational films i have ever seen. It deals with chinese american relationships, its got beautiful acting, awkwafina is in it. You really get a good feel for it. Anyway, i want to thank all of you for your very great contributions and its been a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you. Blockbuster season used to offer movie goers a fairly varied mix of movie fare. But no longer. Many genres get pushed to the sidelines and finding a home and streaming Services Like netflix. Noah has been looking at the migration. Netflix has drawn attention away from the multiplexes this blockbuster season with a slate of films that represent genres Hollywood Studios used to love but have recently discarded. Just leave my books alone. Ok, just let me read. Timber. This year, netflixs biggest movies are murder mystery, a comedy starring adam sandler and Jennifer Aniston and set in the french riviera. And the buzz worthy always be my maybe, a rom com starring and written by comic actors ali wong and randall park. Both are in genres nowhere to be found at the multiplex. Remind me why you never got together . Theres way too much history there. So why do studios no longer make these type of movies . The top reason probably is because people dont watch them the way they used to. You know, theyll pay to go see Something LikeAvengers Endgame because they want to see it on the big screen. But nowadays people just arent willing to pay for a comedy or something in that genre that they dont need to go to the theatre for. I need you to know that i. Come on, marcus, no, no, no. The romantic comedy is definitely high on the list of genres viewers dont feel like they need to see in theatres. Murder mystery and always be my maybe may have high entertainment value and big laughs, but the way theyre shot makes them feel more like a tv sitcom than a movie. This is the sweet spot in which netflix operates. Netflix is also discovering opportunities in other areas traditional hollywood has abandoned. While the movement for stronger representation for marginalised groups continues to grow, the major studios are only inching towards equality. Netflix is leading the charge. I think you should branch out. Make some new friends. Nope. You never know what could happen. In the last year, netflix has produced two prominent rom coms, both released during blockbuster season that feature Asian American talent. Last years to all the boys ive loved before and now always be my maybe. The latter is set in a city, san francisco, whose vibrant asian population has traditionally been left out of hollywoods offerings. The fact that theyre all asian isnt necessarily the selling point or something that they have to keep hammering home. Like thats not why specifically they made this movie, just happens to the fact, which is how it should be. It should be normalised. For many viewers, netflixs disruption of the studios stranglehold on the blockbuster viewing season is long overdue. Several tent pole movies flopped badly this season. But only time will tell whether netflixs new offerings are the future of blockbuster season orjust a welcome alternative to the blockbuster scene. I love the way you move onstage. One of the biggest film hits was the Freddie Mercury film Bohemian Rhapsody with rami malek playing the frontman. Blockbuster season 2019 has seen a handful of music films. How do they compare with rami maleks efforts . Well, tristan daly has been finding out. And i think its gonna be a long, long time. till touch down brings me round again to find. A few films this blockbuster season are leaning on the greatest hits of some iconic musicians, including rocket man, which centred on the peaks and valleys of eltonjohns career, using his music is the soundtrack to his life. Somehow im the only one that remembers the beatles. Yesterday teased a fanciful premise, following the journey of a hapless musician who, after a bike accident, wakes up to find he is the only one in the wild remembers the beatles. In the world remembers the beatles. Since the world famous english band never existed in this reality, he is able to pass their songs off as his own and finally become a star. Have music films been a safe bet for the Film Industry this blockbuster season . I think music films have been an overly safe bet this season. Yesterday, especially, given the excitement that greeted that trailer back in the first part of the year. Its not a movie that set audiences on fire. And i think there was something too complacent about it. I mean, if youre going to make a movie about the beatles now you really have to find an audacious angle. And i think yesterday is too much of a phoned in, feel good movie. Neither yesterday nor rocketman were able to come close to Bohemian Rhapsodys 900 million earnings. Rocketman eschewed straightforward chronological storytelling and accuracy for a musical fantasy element and was generally well received by critics. So why wasnt it able to replicate bohemian rha psodys success . Eltonjohn has a different appeal. And rocketman was a different type of film. I think it required a certain cinematic palette to digest and to like. Bohemian rhapsody was way more digestible in terms of the formatting and what were used to seeing. While Public Opinion and even moreso numbers are important to studios during the season, not everything is measured in commercial terms. Are these movies attempts at rebranding these Iconic Artists for todays audiences . Yeah, i think these movies are very conscious of rebranding these artists, maybe almost in a market share way, but certainly for audiences who did not grow up with them. I think thats a big mistake. The movies need them more than they need the movies. Hey dude . Are you sure . Hey dude, dudey dudey dudey though some might see this rebranding as unnecessary, others find it to be an insult to intelligence. Critics have called out yesterday, asserting that the films conceit that the beatles songs would be instant hits in 2019 is absurd. It could be perceived as a stretch, because weve been seeing a lot of criticism of the beatles from a newer generation. There is a hot take that the beatles were trash. The most beloved band, people think they are just overhyped, received too much praise for what other artists, particularly black artists, have done in the past. I dont know if the beatles entire catalogue would do as well in 2019, and i would pose the question. Why would that question even be asked . Na, na na nananana. The beatles and eltonjohn wont be the last icons to have their work rehashed on the Silver Screen this blockbuster season. Next month, blinded by the light will come to theatres, featuring the story of a teen in the 19805 in the uk featuring a deep connection with the work of bruce springsteen. As long as there is a collective memory and celebration of these musicians, film studios will continue to pull from their life and work to make an impact and loads of money at the box office. Its like bruce knows everything i have everfelt, everything ive ever wanted. When you review the box office takings of the studios during blockbuster season, you will see that disney has triumphed big time. All the Major Box Office hits from aladdin to toy story 4 are disney pictures. We thought it prudent to ask, is disney becoming too big in the land of the blockbuster . Disney is now a true colossus. It recently acquired 21st century fox, this blockbuster season the company has about 35 of the market share of the domestic box office. What disney owns is just mind boggling. They own marvel studios, they own lucasfilm, they own pixar, they now own fox, they own all the marvel movies, the star wars movies, indiana jones, toy story, anything under pixar, with fox they have the x men and deadpool, it is a conglomerate that hollywood has never seen before. Having such a large slice of the movie making business in one pair of hands can stifle competition. Other voices without the financial heft of disney can get shut out. Disney carved out significant control over the release schedule. Other studios cant and dont want to compete with a disney blockbuster, so as soon as disney stakes out a claim to a specific weekend, all the other studios flee, and that has really compressed the schedule and made it a lot more difficult for other franchises to get off the ground. In every decade, there has always been concern about a few select companies consolidating power, to the fear of everybody. But every so often an innovation comes along, and upends the status quo. So for now i think disney is doing its best to capitalise on the market as currently constructed. And i dont think that makes disney a bogeyman, whether it be real or perceived threats that we might be attaching to their success. Bogeyman or not, many critics feel uneasy over disneys growing penetration of the movie industry. Disney does tell many different stories, but its films often paint the world in the same way. The commonality of disney storytelling has a lot to do with how we see society in a positive light, how resilience, fighting for a common cause can lead to change, how individuality can really make a difference, it is almost like the more they tell the same story, the more they are reinforcing stories and values that have been taken for granted for generations. Thats not a bad thing, is it . I wouldnt say disney is necessarily a bad thing in terms of the stories that it pushes on us, but i do think that disney doesnt encourage us to see the risks in life, and to understand the world in a more nuanced way, and that is where the value of art that isnt disneyfied really comes into play. But such subtleties are not the concerns of the average movie goer. This blockbuster season, disney films will generate a worldwide gross of some 5 billion at the box office. The audience of blockbusters is relatively young, since they fill up auditoriums, what happens to older people seeking alternative entertainment . Well, they get pushed to the margins. But perhaps for not much longer, because older people are asserting their cinema rights. Emma jones reports. Its no country for old men or women. Hollywood belongs to the beautiful and the glamorous, and traditionally age has been ruled as neither. Even george clooney, halfway through his 505, said he would do less on camera as he got older because of audience expectations. I think nobody really wants to see anybody really age. It is a very unforgiving thing, the camera, so ageing becomes something that you, you know, you try to do less and less on screen, you try to pick the films that work best for you, and as you age, they become less and less. The idea that getting older is unattractive filters down into what audiences get to see. In the biggest blockbusters of the year, actors in their 40s and 50s do get to take part in action heroism, but the constant refrain, especially in the case of one tom cruise, age 57, is that they look 20 years younger. An analysis from 2016 of 2,000 hollywood blockbuster scripts discovered that only 3 of dialogue was spoken by women over the age of 65, 5 by men. Studio movies can make the elderly seem like a special interest category, even when they are financially successful. Ah, there you are good as new. Really . No, of course not. The best Exotic Marigold Hotel from 2011, and 2013s last vegas, where the cast had a combined age of 281, made more than 100 million each at the box office. Picture house in the uk runs on something called Silver Screen where older people get together and watch films together, at a reduced price. But why has cinema for his age group been considered niche . Because we know that studios are run, and have been run by men of a certain age, who think that the only audiences that want to see films are 15 year old boys, or older men. I mean, we as a Distribution Company released the wife with glenn close, which was a perfect example of an older woman at front and centre of a story, and when we bought that film we know that certain studios had passed on buying that film, because they thought it was a niche audience. Women traditionally have it even tougher than men when it comes to getting representation on screen at any age. French actressjuliette binoche, herself in her 505, recently starred in who you think i am, as a woman who creates a false identity on facebook of a twentysomething because of a fear of ageing. Binoche thinks the media focuses far too much on numbers. In an article, usually the presentation of the journalists would be to give the age of the person. So the mindset of people, the way they read the magazines, it is a way of putting age in the first kind of thing in their head. I think it is a mindset that the society is giving us. You are fired, youre fired obviously. You must be mccreary . Oh wow. Youre fired. However emma thompson, who in late night plays an abrasive talk show host threatened with job loss due to her age, says her experience has been different. No, 40s actually was a bit bald as an era, 50s and 60s has been great. So it depends who you are and whether you can support yourself in other ways during a bald patch, and so i will say to women, there is always going to be bald patches because this is how it is, so get writing, or do something else, if you are an actor you can probably do other things too. Or of course actors could go to tv, which is, according to diana rigg, doing much better. The actress who played the only womanjames bond ever married in on her majestys secret service, recently had the role of a lifetime as Olenna Tyrell in hbos game of thrones when she was in her mid 705. In terms of ageism, would you say television has given you opportunities maybe more recently in your career . Oh, undoubtedly. Film is terribly ageist. Television doesnt care, whatever age you are, as long as you are right for the part. And there are a lot of old ladies, thank goodness, on television. Yeah. The reality is as ideas about ageing transform across society, the Film Industry will have to change too. After all no one is going to tell brad pitt, age 55, that hes now done. And if Christopher Plummer can get an oscar nomination in his late 805, for all the money in the world, then surely it signals for the industry that everyones best work can come in the final act. Well, that brings this special blockbuster edition of talking movies to a close. We hope youve enjoyed the show. Please remember you can always reach us online at bbc. Com talkingmovies, and you can find us on facebook too. So from me, tom brook, and the rest of the talking movies production crew here in new york city, it is goodbye, as we leave you with some music from that blockbuster the lion king. Its the circle of life. And it moves us all. To despair and hope. Through faith and love till we find our place on the path unwinding its the circle. Good evening. Sunshine and warmth continue today. Daw said around 2a degrees and in shetland we saw temperatures approached 2a celsius. In between that, 2a millimetres of rain in sussex and grey cloud remains. That is why the weather fronts stranded in the same area stretching from scotland through the north of england, the midlands towards east anglia and the south east and we will see rain, the odd heavier burst and on the eastern edge the odd rumble of thunder and light pushing north. Humid easterly went in towards the north east where went in towards the north east where we will see clear skies and temperatures sticking in the mid teens, fresher towards the south west, Clear Conditions and temperatures back into single figures. Into sunday that similar split but it will be a wetter day in the north and east of Northern Ireland staying wet in south west scotla nd ireland staying wet in south west scotland down into worse parts of north east england, the midlands towards east anglia and the south east corner might brighten up compared to what we saw today, still some sunny compared to what we saw today, still some sunny spells and parts of england and wales entered the south west with a westerly wind, easterly wind still brings. Some thunderstorms over the midland, the shetland with 23 degrees for a few, under the rain band temperatures under the rain band temperatures under 17 20d. Heavy rain in scotland, on sunday evening using that weather front as it works north into the start of the week but pressure pushing towards the south west moving in late in the day, strengthening winds, much of england and wales have a brighter day, warmer with sunny spells, cloud building up later, a few heavy and thunderously showers, still into the low 20s for some. More substantial wet and windy weather towards the south west of the country going into tuesday, also into wales, some thunderstorms, some rain in the far north of scotland as that low pressure dominates into the week ahead. Warm in the sunshine, be prepared for some thundery showers. Long this is bbc world news today. Im simon pusey. More than 1,000 people are arrested in moscow. Protesters are angry at the exclusion of some opposition candidates in upcoming elections. Its one of the biggest crackdowns in years. The police are trying to push back the protesters, who came here because the candidates they support were not allowed to participate in elections. Riot Police Fire Tear gas and rubber bullets in hong kong in another day of protests in the territory. A huge rescue operation in india, as a train is stranded in monsoon floodwaters, leaving passengers trapped for hours. And egan bernal is set to become the first colombian to win to win the tour de france, retaining the yellowjersey