How Disney’s onscreen LGBTQ representation could improve with an overlooked Fox asset

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Goldie Vance is a mixed-race teenage detective unafraid of breaking a few rules when pursuing leads on a case. She also happens to be queer.

This may not be the kind of protagonist who immediately comes to mind when people talk about comic book movies, but an adaptation of “Goldie Vance,” an all-ages comics series created by Hope Larson and Brittney Williams, was among the projects in Fox’s pipeline when it was announced that Walt Disney Co. would be taking over 20th Century Fox.

Though it’s still in development — with Rashida Jones as the directorand Kerry Washington as one of the producers — the “Goldie Vance” adaptation is a particularly notable one to watch following the Disney-Fox merger. Numerous diversity studies point out year after year that women, people of color and members of the LGBTQ community remain underrepresented in Hollywood movies and TV. Indeed, GLAAD’s 2018 Studio Responsibility Index found that LGBTQ representation in Hollywood films reached a six-year low in 2017, and Walt Disney Studios had the weakest history of representation out of all the studios tracked for the report.

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DailyPay Taps Fiserv To Provide On-Demand Access To Pay

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To help provide employees with improved financial well-being, DailyPay tapped into Fiserv’s Digital Disbursements offering to allow workers access to their earned, but unpaid, wages. The solution sends these funds quickly and securely through multiple methods instantly, the same day or the next day, according to a case study from Fiserv.

“We live in a world where instant is an expectation,” DailyPay CEO Jason Lee said in the study. “The evolution of the on-demand economy has created a new generation in the workforce who expects to be paid immediately for services rendered. Employees want the financial security of knowing their hard-earned money can be used in case of an emergency or to pay their bills.”

Employees can access the offering through their existing HR platforms and/or via the app from DailyPay. Users tend to make requests when they need money instantly to pay rent before the next payday or when an unexpected expense arises. As a result, Fiserv noted, “the ability to provide employees immediate payments into their account is critical for DailyPay’s business model.”

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Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is a more complex Pokémon Go for superfans

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The magic of the game lies in bringing J.K. Rowling’s world to life in AR

For Niantic Labs’ next trick, the augmented reality game studio is diving head-first into another knotty fandom, the world of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter, with scores of dedicated fans, a rich history of lore to explore, and untold storylines to tell. 

But this time, boiling down a massive fictional world into an easy-to-understand AR video game seems to have been a much more difficult task. That’s because Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is not very simple. In fact, it’s got numerous systems at work, all simultaneously competing for your attention and potentially obfuscating what it is that you might want to open the app to actually do. 

In the first demo of the game at Niantic’s San Francisco office last week, I was among a group of reporters who were able to try Wizards Unite before its official launch sometime later this year. On the surface, the game feels and looks similar to Pokémon Go, the mega-hit AR game that made Niantic one of the most well-known mobile game developers in the world. There’s a map that corresponds to the real world, and you largely traverse around in physical space while looking for digital items to pick up.

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Andy Serkis and Thomas Brodie-Sangster to Star in Fox's 'Mouse Guard'

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Why you dirty rat! Wes Ball is directing the adaptation based on the Archaia/Boom! Studios graphic novels.

Mouse Guard, Fox’s adaptation of one of the most popular indie comics of the decade, has found its leads.

Andy Serkis and Thomas Brodie-Sangster have signed to star in the feature that is being directed by Wes Ball, the filmmaker behind the Maze Runner movies.

Based on the comics and graphic novel by David Petersen, Mouse Guard is a set in a medieval world and tells of an order of mice who are the sworn protectors of their realm. Enemies range from predators such as foxes and eagles to other rodents. A sort of Game of Thrones with mice, the series from Archaia/Boom! Studios has won two Eisner awards

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