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Jennifer Lawrence to Play Elizabeth Holmes in Movie about Theranos

theguardian.com

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Re: Jennifer Lawrence to Play Elizabeth Holmes in Movie about Theranos

#31

Post by entee »

colmvp wrote: post #29

I've always found it odd how the media puts so much emphasis on the founder prior to success or public release of the actual product. I can't help but think if Holmes were a different demographic (i.e. an Asian or Black man), they wouldn't be making a movie about this.

Maybe, though she's already not the stereotypical rich white young male founder. She does check 2/3...

I still think the story of the rather epic rise and fall of a company that promised so much, achieved an insanely high valuation, then turned out to be essentially a fraud makes for a pretty good plot. I'm guessing if someone were to make the movie at all, the ethnicity or gender of the founder wouldn't really overshadow the sheer weirdness of the story.

Re: Jennifer Lawrence to Play Elizabeth Holmes in Movie about Theranos

#32

Post by danso »

colmvp wrote: post #29

I've always found it odd how the media puts so much emphasis on the founder prior to success or public release of the actual product. I can't help but think if Holmes were a different demographic (i.e. an Asian or Black man), they wouldn't be making a movie about this.

You find it odd that the media would focus so much on the person who has had the most singular and direct influence over a controversial company's decisionmaking?

As an Asian, yeah, sure, I'll definitely agree that Asians don't get much media/movie treatment. Not sure I see your point. Who do you want the media to focus on in the Theranos case?

Re: Jennifer Lawrence to Play Elizabeth Holmes in Movie about Theranos

#33

Post by Idontreddit »

arjn wrote: post #19

Seems crass to do this so soon. I don't know what the reasoning is behind this and I hope they change their minds.

Money. Hollywood is running out of ideas and they've rebooted/re-imagined/re-released/sequelized/etc everything.

So while we are debating whether to watch ghostbusters or independence day ( and whether our choices make us sexist or not), they'll be busy with this silly movie/non-story.

It's amazing how the media took a non-story and made it into a story and now they are going to make a movie out of a non-story they turned into a story.

This is akin to a firefighter arsonist setting fires all over town so that he can have more work or a greedy doctor intentionally giving his patients poison so that he'll be able to drum up more business.

It's circular and incestuous and wrong on so many levels. Like a snake swallowing its own tail.

Re: Jennifer Lawrence to Play Elizabeth Holmes in Movie about Theranos

#35

Post by ctvo »

danso wrote: post #32
colmvp wrote: post #29

I've always found it odd how the media puts so much emphasis on the founder prior to success or public release of the actual product. I can't help but think if Holmes were a different demographic (i.e. an Asian or Black man), they wouldn't be making a movie about this.

You find it odd that the media would focus so much on the person who has had the most singular and direct influence over a controversial company's decisionmaking? As an Asian, yeah, sure, I'll definitely agree that Asians don't get much media/movie treatment. Not sure I see your point. Who do you want the media to focus on in the Theranos case?

I think the op is saying they wouldn't be interested in the story at all if it wasn't a white woman protagonist.

Re: Jennifer Lawrence to Play Elizabeth Holmes in Movie about Theranos

#36

Post by Fricken »

Idontreddit wrote: post #33
arjn wrote: post #19

Seems crass to do this so soon. I don't know what the reasoning is behind this and I hope they change their minds.

Money. Hollywood is running out of ideas and they've rebooted/re-imagined/re-released/sequelized/etc everything. So while we are debating whether to watch ghostbusters or independence day ( and whether our choices make us sexist or not), they'll be busy with this silly movie/non-story. It's amazing how the media took a non-story and made it into a story and now they are going to make a movie out of a non-story they t…

When Hollywood trots out an endless procession of superhero sequels dumbed down for a global audience you can complain about greed and lament that they've run out of ideas.

When Hollywood mythologizes a real story that has captured the public imagination and is emblematic of our era, it's Hollywood at it's finest. It's Hollywood doing exactly what it ought to be doing but rarely does.

Re: Jennifer Lawrence to Play Elizabeth Holmes in Movie about Theranos

#37

Post by danso »

ctvo wrote: post #35
danso wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You find it odd that the media would focus so much on the person who has had the most singular and direct influence over a controversial company's decisionmaking? As an Asian, yeah, sure, I'll definitely agree that Asians don't get much media/movie treatment. Not sure I see your point. Who do you want the media to focus on in the Theranos case?

I think the op is saying they wouldn't be interested in the story at all if it wasn't a white woman protagonist.

Perhaps if Holmes weren't a photogeneic young white woman, she wouldn't have received the same attention from VC and immensely influential U.S. political players, which would also reduce the amount of media attention she ultimately got. Hard to separate the variables from this equation.

Re: Jennifer Lawrence to Play Elizabeth Holmes in Movie about Theranos

#38

Post by dctoedt »

Fricken wrote: post #36
Idontreddit wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Money. Hollywood is running out of ideas and they've rebooted/re-imagined/re-released/sequelized/etc everything. So while we are debating whether to watch ghostbusters or independence day ( and whether our choices make us sexist or not), they'll be busy with this silly movie/non-story. It's amazing how the media took a non-story and made it into a story and now they are going to make a movie out of a non-story they t…

When Hollywood trots out an endless procession of superhero sequels dumbed down for a global audience you can complain about greed and lament that they've run out of ideas. When Hollywood mythologizes a real story that has captured the public imagination and is emblematic of our era, it's Hollywood at it's finest. It's Hollywood doing exactly what it ought to be doing but rarely does.

> When Hollywood mythologizes a real story that has captured the public imagination and is emblematic of our era, it's Hollywood at it's finest. It's Hollywood doing exactly what it ought to be doing but rarely does.

The problem is that Hollywood sometimes "mythologizes" a real story in the vernacular, non-academic sense of the quoted term: It adopts a false narrative, often in the form of a conspiracy theory, which then gets embedded in our collective cultural memory for a long time. (Examples: Amadeus; Zero Dark Thirty; Oliver Stone's JFK [0].)

Another version is when Hollywood creates a false narrative, or sub-narratives, in the name of "making a catchier story line" and with the excuse of "artistic license," which unjustly damage the reputations of real people. (Examples: Spotlight and All the President's Men. [1] [2].)

[0] http://www.livescience.com/27364-oscars-innacurate-historica...

[1] http://news.wgbh.org/post/how-hollywood-distorts-reality-spo...

[2] http://www.mhsmantra.com/2014/04/06/history-vs-hollywood-mir...

Re: Jennifer Lawrence to Play Elizabeth Holmes in Movie about Theranos

#40

Post by adventured »

arjn wrote: post #19

Seems crass to do this so soon. I don't know what the reasoning is behind this and I hope they change their minds.

The reasoning, is that it's fresh in the media and minds of media consumers. In a year or two most of the public that happened to hear about Theranos - almost exclusively due to the scandal - will entirely have forgotten that it ever existed in the first place. Consumer memory for this sort of thing is extremely short, unless you're talking Enron scale events (which Theranos is not, financially it's a disaster the scale of Webvan).
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