NEWS NOVEMBER

From Squid Game to You to true-crime podcasts, horror is making a comeback

Six days until Halloween and as I get ready for work, brushing my hair and clipping my earrings into place,
it’s not an upbeat playlist or BBC Radio 1 I’m blaring from the speakers. It’s My Favourite Murder, a
podcast featuring grisly true-crime details about death, torture and kidnaps.
You may think I’m getting into a spooky mood ahead of the weekend, but this is just a typical morning. From
podcasts to film and TV, the horror genre is making a serious comeback and it seems everyone is getting in
on it.
Just look at all of the remakes coming back. Scream and Halloween are set to haunt our movie theatres once
again, and in recent years films such as Midsommar and Hereditary have become cult favourites. We’re
rooting for the bad guy this time around too.
Netflix phenomenon Squid Game may not be horror exactly but its gore makes for gruesome viewing. It’s
now said to be the platform’s most streamed series of all time.
The latest series of You had us waiting on bated breath to see if killer couple Joe and Love manage to get
away with their frenzied murder sprees. We don’t want to admit it, but the whole time, we kind of hope they
do Penn Badgley, who plays Joe, has to get on social media at least twice a week to beg fans to stop thirsting
after his stalking murderer of a character.

Why are real guns still used on film sets? In wake of 'Rust' shooting, their future is in
question
Hollywood’s technical maestros use computers to create eye-popping visual effects: the giant sandworms of
“Dune,” the alien invaders of “A Quiet Place,” the majestic dragons of Marvel’s “Shang-Chi.”So why are
guns still used on movie sets when computer-generated images, or CGI, might substitute for the look, sound
and visceral shock of the real thing?
That’s one of the questions many in the film industry are asking after the death of the cinematographer
Halyna Hutchins, 42, on the set of the Western drama “Rust.” The tragedy is prompting calls for a wholesale
re-evaluation of the way Hollywood uses guns. In the wake of Hutchins’ death, some film and television
professionals are pleading with their peers to ban real guns on sets — an online petition to do just that had
amassed nearly 25,000 signatures by Monday morning. 
A California state senator said he plans to introduce legislation that would outlaw firearms capable of firing
live ammunition on productions in the state to “prevent this type of senseless violence and loss of life.”
“With firearms, you only get one mistake and somebody’s dead. There’s just no reason to take that risk,”
Dave Cortese, a Democrat, said in an interview. “We understand [the industry] has protocols in place ... but
that’s not been codified in state law.” Cortese said he plans to organize fact-finding hearings as his office
pushes forward on the text of the legislation.

Brexit fishing row: UK and France hold last-ditch talks to avert ‘chaos at ports’
Last-ditch talks have been launched to find an agreement between the UK and France in the dispute over
fishing licences, as the head of the ports of Calais and Boulogne spoke of a disaster if Paris goes through on
its threats to clog up trade. Jean-Marc Puissesseau said he had already received instructions to stop British
fishers from unloading in Boulogne from Tuesday while the border authorities at Calais would enforce
tougher controls on goods laden trucks.
Boris Johnson has said the UK will retaliate if cross-channel freight is disrupted because of the dispute.
Speaking at the G20 summit in Rome on Saturday, Johnson confirmed the UK could consider formal action
under the trade and cooperation agreement over perceived French breaches of its terms, reiterating his
willingness to take whatever action was necessary.

The focus of the row is the shortfall in the number of licences given to French vessels within the coastal
waters of the UK and Jersey, a British crown dependency. The UK has only approved 16 out of 47
applications for French boats to operate in the UK’s coastal waters.Officials from the European Commission,
the UK, France and Jersey were seeking to find a way out of the crisis in talks on Saturday. Paris has said it
will gradually increase customs and sanitary controls on freight, make more rigorous checks of trucks
coming in and leaving France and prohibit trawlers from landing their catch in French ports if the dispute
was not resolved.