Axel

Eddie Murphy did not keep his dislike for Beverly Hills Cop sequels a secret, and openly used carefully selected adjectives like “mediocre” and “atrocious” to describe the second and third films. But there is no denying that it was playing Axel Foley that gave the young comic and SNL alum’s movie-acting career the kickstart it desperately needed. As Beverly Hills Cop II (which managed to almost replicate the success of the first part, while repeating its plot) came out in 1987, and the underperforming third part was…

Gatsby, Jeremy Holt (Made in Korea, After Houdini)’s newest graphic novel from AWA Studios, debuts this May and reimagines the “Great American Novel,” F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. When Holt read The Great Gatsby for the first time during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, they fell in love with Fitzgerald’s iconic novel and beautifully flawed characters. While the main plot points and themes are familiar to the original novel, unlike other Gatsby comic adaptations Holt’s rendition views the story in a new…

BERLIN—The German owner of Politico and other U.S. outlets announced a restructuring of its domestic operation, floated potential disposals and unveiled plans for a new headquarters in New York City as it shifts its focus to the U.S.Axel Springer SE, one of Europe’s largest news organizations and the only one with a major U.S. presence, said it would slim down its corporate structure in Germany and phase out the print editions of its publications as it seeks to become a leading digital-only publisher. The company aims to…

The British media company Fremantle behind Idol, Got Talent and The X-Factor has bought a minority stake in AWA.Bill Jemas may have been ejected but Axel Alonso is still steering the Artists, Writers & Artisans, Inc. ship known as AWA, the existence of which was broken by Bleeding Cool in 2018, (though I still think it should be abbreviated as AWAAI), and now has some more fuel in the engine. Fremantle has tweeted that they have levelled up its relationship with AWA  by making a minority investment in the company,…

Axel Scheffler was an unknown illustrator, working largely for Good Housekeeping magazine, when he received a letter in response to a small exhibition of his work. It was from Emma Thompson, a young actor who had begun to attract attention with TV series such as Fortunes of War and Tutti Frutti. Neatly written in fountain pen, it inquired whether he would accept a commission. “Ken Branagh, my chap, runs his own theatre company,” it explained. He was playing Hamlet to her sister Sophie’s Ophelia and she wanted something to…

Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler – the John Lennon and Paul McCartney of children’s publishing – are sitting in Donaldson’s garden in West Sussex on one of the hottest days of the year, gazing into her fish pond. “There’s Swampy,” smiles Donaldson, pointing to a fat fish flapping past. “And that one’s John.” Scheffler, as solemn as Donaldson is sunny, makes the brief nod of one who has heard about the fish many times before, but is still quietly amused by them.Ever since their first book together, A Squash and a…