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Disney’s Snow White film tops box office despite bad reviews

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Disney’s live-action version of the classic fairy-tale Snow White has topped the North American box office chart despite a slew of underwhelming reviews.

The movie has taken an estimated $87.3m (£67.5m) globally during its opening weekend, according to Box Office Mojo. Almost half of that figure came from North America.

But that is below expectations for a film which reportedly cost more than $270m.

The reworking of the 1937 feature length animation had seemed like a surefire hit before running into a series of controversies ahead of its release.

The revamp of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs became a flashpoint for social and political divisions, even before it reached cinemas around the world.

That included some criticism of the casting of Rachel Zegler, who is of Colombian descent, as the heroine.

There was also a backlash about Zegler’s pro-Palestinian comments and about pro-Israel comments by Israeli actress Gal Gadot, who plays Snow White’s stepmother, the Evil Queen.

And there is an ongoing debate about whether there should have been dwarfs in the film at all, live or CGI.

On the reviews aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Snow White has a critics’ score of just 44%, although the audience reaction ‘Popcornometer’ stands at 73%.

Chief film critic for The Times, Kevin Maher, said: “Believe the anti-hype, it’s that bad”, but the Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney called the film “mostly captivating”.

With its creepy CGI dwarfs and muddled tone, Disney’s latest live-action remake is “not calamitous” but is “a mind-boggling mash-up”, the BBC’s Nicholas Barber said.

(BBC News)

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Veteran singer Saman De Silva passes away

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Veteran singer Saman De Silva, a renowned and popular Baila artist, has passed away, family sources confirmed.

Saman De Silva was widely celebrated for his contribution to Baila music.

Among his popular songs are ‘Niyare Piya Nagala’, ‘Punchi Kurulu Kuduwe’, ‘Suroopi Viroopi’ (Epa Epa Rewatenu), ‘Santhosa Wenna Preethi Wenna’, ‘Thana Nilla Dige’, and ‘Pura Handa Neguna’, all of which remain favorites among audiences.

Throughout his musical career, Saman De Silva travelled extensively, performing in many countries around the world.

He was an alumnus of Nalanda College, Colombo.

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Boyce Avenue arrives in Sri Lanka

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Popular music group Boyce Avenue arrived in Sri Lanka last night (April 24)  to perform at an upcoming concert.

The band landed at Katunayake Bandaranaike International Airport at 10:00 p.m. aboard AirAsia flight AK-047 from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 

They were warmly welcomed by members of the Sri Lankan concert organizing team upon arrival.

The much-anticipated concert will take place at Waters Edge in Colombo, featuring performances by three Sri Lankan Western music groups alongside Boyce Avenue.

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Ryan Gosling to star in new Star Wars film

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Ryan Gosling is to star in a new Star Wars film, which is set to be released in two years’ time.

The new Disney project is titled Star Wars: Starfighter, and will be directed by Deadpool & Wolverine director Shawn Levy.

“The reality is that this script is just so good. It has such a great story with great and original characters,” said Barbie actor Gosling at a Star Wars Celebration in Tokyo.

“It’s filled with so much heart and adventure, and there just really is not a more perfect filmmaker for this particular story than Shawn.”

Gosling’s lifelong passion for the franchise was on display at the event, which showed his childhood Star Wars bedsheets on screen.

“You can see from the picture, I guess I was probably dreaming about Star Wars before I even saw the film,” he said.

“And it’s probably framed my idea of what a movie even was,” he said.

Set to be released on 7 May 2027, the film is a standalone story and won’t follow the main plotline of the Skywalker family and recent sequels starring Daisy Ridley.

Not many details about the storyline have been revealed yet.

According to the Star Wars website, it is “set approximately five years after the events of Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker” with Gosling playing a new character.

The new space adventure is “not a prequel, not sequel, it’s a new adventure. It’s set in a period of time that we haven’t seen explored yet”, added Levy.

The next Star Wars film release is set to be The Mandalorian And Grogu, a sequel to The Mandalorian starring Pedro Pascal and directed by Jon Favreau.

Gosling was nominated at the Oscars for his portrayal of Ken in 2023’s Barbie blockbuster, which also starred Margot Robbie.

The Canadian actor, known for roles in La La Land and The Notebook, also starred as a stuntman in last year’s The Fall Guy.

(BBC News)

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