The run time for The Batman, director Matt Reeves‘ forthcoming take on the Caped Crusader, has been revealed.
The movie will run two hours and 47 minutes without credits, according to The Hollywood Reporter, making it one of the longest superhero movies ever released. The film, starring Robert Pattinson, Paul Dano, Zoe Kravitz, Colin Farrell and Jeffrey Wright, will be five minutes short of three hours with credits — and presumably will include a customary comic book movie end-credits scene.
That will make The Batman the third-longest superhero movie ever, behind only Zack Snyder‘s Justice League opus, which ran 242 minutes, and the 181-minutes-long Avengers: Endgame.
In fact, the new film, which debuts March 4 in theaters and on HBO Max, is longer than what many Bat-fans see as a franchise high-water mark, Christopher Nolan‘s 165-minute The Dark Knight, starring Christian Bale and for which Heath Ledger won a posthumous Best Actor Oscar for playing The Joker.
(WASHINGTON) — With voting rights reform now firmly in the rear view mirror, negotiations to reform the Electoral Count Act have ramped up, but it remains far from certain that the talks will bear fruit despite the growing bipartisan interest.
The obscure 19th century law that governs the counting of each state’s electoral votes for president, a process then-President Donald Trump and his allies sought to exploit to secure a victory not won at the ballot box, has long been the subject of bipartisan ire.
The law allows one congressman paired with one senator to object to the results submitted by each state, something both parties have done previously, although Trump allies in 2020 attempted to block the decision of far more states than ever before.
The vice president’s role in what usually is a perfunctory proceeding — counting and announcing the votes — is also extremely unclear, and Trump and his team attempted, in an effort to overturn the election, to exert pressure on then-Vice President Mike Pence to declare some states’ slates of electoral votes in question, pressure that led to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“I’ve always thought we should just repeal it,” Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., a former secretary of state, said Thursday. “If you can’t replace it, I’d be just for repealing it. I think it creates more problems than it creates solutions. And so I think there’s a lot of interest in doing something about that. And my guess is that the majority of Republican senators would agree with that.”
But therein lies the problem for Democrats, unsure if GOP interest in electoral law changes is real after the party’s unified, high-profile opposition to federal voting law changes. Republicans are, likewise, suspicious of Democrats whose leader, Chuck Schumer of New York, recently lambasted attempts to reform the ECA as “offensive.”
“If you’re going to rig the game and say, ‘Oh, we’ll count the rigged game accurately,’ what good is that?” Schumer recently scoffed when asked about budding ECA reform efforts. Branding those efforts “the McConnell plan,” since the GOP leader – Mitch McConnell of Kentucky — has expressed an openness to reforming the law, Schumer added, “It’s unacceptably insufficient and even offensive.”
Despite the lack of trust among the parties, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has led bipartisan talks behind closed doors for the past three weeks to try to reform the law, with interest in those negotiations growing “big time” in the wake of the Democrats’ failed effort at broader electoral reforms, according to a Senate aide with knowledge of the matter.
“We’re going to be working hard over the recess,” Collins told reporters. “I’m very encouraged at the amount of interest that there is from both sides of the aisle.”
For his part, McConnell reiterated his support for possible ECA reform and the Collins talks Thursday, but went a bit further, telling ABC News, “I think it needs fixing, and I wish them well, and I’d be happy to talk a look at whatever they can come up with.” Asked for any red lines in those negotiations, the leader said, “I just encourage the discussion, because I think (the ECA) is clearly is flawed. This is directly related to what happened on January 6th, and I think we ought to be able to figure out a bipartisan way to fix it.”
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, an early member of the group, told ABC News, “There are about 10 Republicans and maybe four or five Democrats that are working on it. We exchanged a list of things that we thought ought to be included in an election reform package — some items related to making sure that election officials were not harassed, others related to how elections are certified, others related to what the role of the Vice President is in the electoral accounting process, how you would deal with an objection to a slate of electors.”
The details around how to implement each of these items would be complex, and the negotiation is “just now beginning to talk about which of these we’ll find sufficient support for in a bill,” said Romney.
Both conservative Democrats, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona — who refused to support changing the Senate rules to pass their party’s sweeping voting rights legislation — are working with Collins on ECA changes, along with GOP Senators Thom Tillis, Lisa Murkowski, and Roger Wicker, among others. Some senators, like Blunt, Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Ben Sasse, R-Neb., have shown interest, according to aides involved in the talks, but have yet to commit to being a part of the group.
Manchin, speaking with reporters about the talks, said he was particularly focused on violence and threats against poll workers which have ramped up in recent years in particular in the wake of Trump’s so-called “big lie” that he won the 2020 election but it was stolen from him by fraud.
“They’re scared now, because of the highly charged political atmosphere. We do want to make sure that we can raise this to the level of a federal crime if you accost, if you threaten anyone who works at the polls, you’ll be dealt with with the harshest penalties,” said Manchin, who is leading the talks for Democrats. “You’re not going to fool with the count and our voting people.”
The Collins-Manchin group plans to meet by Zoom in the next few days, with an eye toward potentially producing a legislative proposal at the end of next week’s recess, according to Romney, though Collins offered a more sober estimate. “I think we don’t know how long it’s going to take. We’ve done a lot of research. We’ve talked to election experts, professors, the election assistance commissioners, all sorts of people to make sure we get this right.”
Collins said the scope of her group’s work will go beyond just the 150-year old Electoral Count Act, like additional grant funding for states to improve the quality of their voting systems, and that she was encouraged by President Joe Biden’s comments expressing a willingness to work with Republicans to get this done.
A parallel effort is happening among a group of senior Democrats, including Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Angus King – – led by Schumer’s number two, Dick Durbin of Illinois. Durbin said he planned to talk to Sen. Collins about her efforts to see what might be done together.
“We wouldn’t necessarily merge our efforts, no. We just want to see what they are doing and talk it through,” Durbin told reporters this week.
In the House, a staff report from the Administration Committee, outlined in a 31-page report potential changes to the law which the group says is “badly in need of reform.” Their proposal could provide a foundation for the special committee investigating the Jan. 6 attacks from which to recommend legislative changes, the panel’s chair, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., told NPR.
Listen up, jazz fans, the lineup for New Orleans’ annual Jazz & Heritage Festival has been unveiled and this year is offering a pretty impressive roster.
The talent who will be taking the stage during the week-long event, which runs April 29 to May 8 at the city’s Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, include big names such as Lionel Richie, Stevie Nicks, Melissa Etheridge, Jimmy Buffett and Kool & The Gang.
Also heading to New Orleans this spring will be Boz Scaggs, Norah Jones, Rickie Lee Jones, Lauren Daigle, Randy Newman and Chris Isaak.
The full lineup was unveiled on the festival’s official website, where you can also scoop up your tickets for the spring concert series. Three day passes that are good for April 29, April 30 and May 1 will run you between $210 to $225 bucks while the four-day weekend pass, for the dates between May 5 and 8, is priced between $260 and $275.
At this time, single-day ticket sales are not being offered but will be announced in the future.
(APPIATSE, Ghana) — A town in Ghana was rocked by a huge explosion Thursday that sent several people to the hospital, the authorities said.
The Ghana Police Service announced that the explosion took place around 3 p.m. local time in the town of Appiatse, between Bogoso and Bawdie. Buildings and structures were gutted, and debris was scattered in the streets.
A preliminary investigation has determined that the explosion appears to have been caused by a mining vehicle carrying explosives, traveling from Tarkwa to the Chirano mines, colliding with a motorcycle, police said.
“The public has been advised to move out of the area to nearby towns for their safety while recovery efforts are underway,” police said in a statement.
First responders and residents scrambled to find victims, with some using construction vehicles to clear debris. Smoke from the explosion could be seen miles away.
Police said victims had been taken to area hospitals but didn’t provide any details on the number of victims or the extent of their injuries. The number of fatalities isn’t immediately known.
“An appeal is also being made to nearby towns to open up their classrooms, churches, etc. to accommodate surviving victims,” police said.
(MIAMI) — A first-class passenger who allegedly refused to wear a mask disrupted a London-bound American Airlines flight Wednesday night and prompted the pilot to turn back to Miami so the customer could be booted off the aircraft, police and airline officials said.
American Airlines Flight 38, with 129 passengers and 14 crew members aboard, was over the Atlantic Ocean when the passenger allegedly refused to obey instructions to wear a mask and became disruptive, a spokesperson for the airline said.
The flight departed Miami International Airport at about 7:40 p.m. local time. About an hour into the flight, the pilot decided to turn the Boeing 777 aircraft around and head back to Miami, according to the airline.
The flight was ultimately canceled and the passengers needed to rebook on future flights, the airline’s spokesperson said.
“The flight landed safely at MIA where local law enforcement met the aircraft. We thank our crew for their professionalism and apologize to our customers for the inconvenience,” American Airlines said in a statement.
Steve Freeman, a passenger on the flight, told ABC Miami affiliate WPLG the woman was verbally abusive to the flight crew.
“She sat behind us in first class — she was a first-class passenger and was extremely abusive to the stewards,” said Freeman, who was flying home to London. “I could see the writing on the wall — they gave her a lot of warnings, so we were kind of ready for it.”
He said flight attendants tried to offer the passenger several different masks.
“She complained about each mask,” Freeman said.
Det. Argemis Colome of the Miami-Dade Police Department told ABC News on Thursday that police were contacted by American Airlines about a disruptive female passenger refusing to wear a mask.
Colome said police officers met the plane when it returned to the Miami International Airport. He said officers escorted the passenger off the plane, but she was not arrested or charged.
Colome said the woman, whose name was not released, was turned over to American Airlines officials to handle administratively.
A spokesperson for American Airlines told ABC News on Thursday that the woman has been placed on the airline’s internal no-fly list pending an investigation. Such incidents are referred to the Federal Aviation Administration as part of a standard reporting process, the spokesperson said.
Luke Combs, Willie Nelson and Jimmy Buffett are among the long list of acts headed down to Louisiana for the multi-genre New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival this spring.
All three acts will perform during the second weekend of the event, which takes place May 5-8. The first half of the festival will take place April 29-May 1.
Also part of the lineup are acts like Lukas Nelson — Willie’s son — as well as Grammy-winning bluegrass upstart Billy Strings, and Americana act The War and Treaty, who performed with Dierks Bentley at last year’s ACM Awards show.
Non-country leaning acts on the bill include The Who, The Black Crowes, Lionel Richie and Foo Fighters.
The New Orleans Jazz Fest was canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For a full lineup and ticketing information, visit the event’s website.
Angela Bassett and husband Courtney B. Vance are serving as executive producers of the docuseries One Thousand Years of Slavery, which will premiere on the Smithsonian Channel during Black History Month on Monday, February 7 at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Debbie Allen, Lorraine Toussaint, Soledad O’Brien, CCH Pounder, and Dulé Hill are among the personalities featured in the four-part series, which explores slavery’s legacy.
“One Thousand Years of Slavery stretches the canvas beyond the 400 years we’ve traditionally learned about, and I’m thrilled to bring this storytelling to life with Smithsonian Channel,” Bassett said in a statement. Vance added, “We are incredibly proud to be part of this journey.”
In other news, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier star Anthony Mackie will make his directorial debut with Spark, a true story about Claudette Colvin, an unsung pioneer of the Civil Rights era, Deadline reports. Saniyya Sidney who portrayed Venus Williams in King Richard, will star as Colvin.
“It’s great to be a superhero in movies, but she’s a real live one living amongst us, and I’m honored to tell her story,” Mackie said in a statement.
Finally, grown-ish has dropped the trailer for the second half of its fourth season, which premieres January 27 on Freeform. In the clip, Zoey, portrayed by Yara Shahidi, is faced with choosing between love or her career as graduation approaches.
Specifically, Zoey must decide whether to pursue a fashion career in New York City with her ex-boyfriend, Luca, played by Luka Sabbat, or to accept the invitation from her current boyfriend Aaron, portrayed Trevor Jackson, to accompany him to South Africa, where he’s received a grant from the University of Johannesburg.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden announced the nomination of Nusrat Jahan Choudhury to the federal judiciary Wednesday, who, if confirmed by the Senate, would become the first Muslim American woman to serve as a federal judge. She is also the first Muslim American woman to be nominated to the federal judiciary.
Choudhury was nominated to sit on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York and is also the first Bangladeshi American to be nominated to the federal bench. She would be the second Muslim American appointed to a federal judgeship, according to the White House announcement.
“These choices also continue to fulfill the President’s promise to ensure that the nation’s courts reflect the diversity that is one of our greatest assets as a country,” the statement read.
Choudhury is currently the legal director at the Illinois division of the American Civil Liberties Union and previously served as the deputy director of the national ACLU Racial Justice Program. She is a graduate of Yale Law School, Columbia University and Princeton University.
The other nominees include Arianna Freeman, who would be the first African American woman to serve on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals; Ana Isabel de Alba, who would be the first Latina to serve on the Eastern District of California; and Nina Nin-Yuen Wang, who would be the second Asian American to serve the United States District Court. Tiffany Cartwright, Robert Steven Huie, Natasha Merle and Jennifer Rearden round out the president’s first set of nominees for 2022 and the 13th of his presidency.
The selections align with Biden’s goal of nominating more women and people of color to serve on the bench, jobs that come with a lifetime appointment. The trend is in stark contrast to his predecessor.
Former President Donald Trump’s nominees were 85% white and 76% of them were men, according to the Alliance for Justice advocacy group. To date, 78% of Biden’s confirmations have been women and 53% have been people of color, according to the White House.
Democrats have pushed Biden to make federal court nominations a priority after Trump and former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made a concerted effort to shape the nation’s courts.
Over the course of one term, Trump had 245 judges confirmed compared with Former President Barack Obama’s 334 confirmed judges across two terms according to the United States Courts.
As of Jan, 1, however, Biden had gotten the most federal judges confirmed in a president’s first year in office since former President Ronald Reagan.
(ATLANTA) — A Georgia prosecutor investigating possible criminal behavior by former President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election has officially requested to seat a special grand jury, according to a letter obtained by ABC News.
The development is a major step forward in the only publicly known criminal investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
In a letter Thursday to Fulton County Chief Judge Christopher Brasher, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis wrote that the move is needed because “a significant number of witnesses and prospective witnesses have refused to cooperate with the investigation absent a subpoena requiring their testimony.”
Willis officially launched the probe last February, after Trump was heard in a recorded phone call pushing Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to help him “find 11,780 votes,” the exact number Trump needed to win Georgia in the 2020 presidential election.
Willis says that Raffensperger is one of those who will not comply with the investigation without a subpoena, based on comments he made in an interview with NBC.
In response to Willis’ request, Trump, in a statement, said, “My phone call to the Secretary of State of Georgia was perfect, perhaps even more so than my call with the Ukrainian President, if that’s possible.” The reference was to the phone call Trump made to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ahead of the 2020 election asking him to dig up dirt on his political rival Joe Biden; Trump was ultimately impeached for that call, but the Senate did not convict him.
“I didn’t say anything wrong in the call,” Trump said of his call to Raffensperger. “No more political witch hunts!”
If empaneled, the special grand jury will not have the authority to return an indictment, according to the Willis’ letter. Instead it may “make recommendations concerning criminal prosecution as it shall see fit,” the letter said.
A majority of the judges on the Fulton County Superior Court will have to vote to approve the request in order for the special grand jury to be seated, according to Georgia state law.
Describing his Jan. 2 call with Trump in an exclusive interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos last year, Raffensperger said that Trump “did most of the talking.”
“We did most of the listening,” Raffensperger said. “But I did want to make my points that the data that he has is just plain wrong.”
ABC News’ Steve Osunsami and Brandon Baur contributed to this report.
Christopher Polk/Getty Images for Critics’ Choice Television Awards
Bill Paxton‘s untimely death in 2017 was at the center of a Los Angeles’ judge’s decision on Wednesday.
Deadline reports Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Steven J. Kleifield is allowing the actor’s widow, Louise Paxton, and the couple’s children, James and Lydia Paxton, to sue Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for punitive damages in connection with actor’s death.
The Twister and True Lies star’s cause of death was officially listed as a stroke, which he suffered 11 days after surgery to replace a heart valve and repair aorta damage. He was 61.
However, according to the family’s lawsuit, reports Deadline, surgeon Dr. Ali Khoynezhad — who no longer works for Cedars — “was known prior to the Paxton death to practice what has been testified to by the hospital staff as ‘cowboy medicine’…In Khoynezhad’s quest to generate more surgeries and higher numbers, he continued to push the envelope and pushed to do surgeries on cases that were marginal at best.”
After the actor’s death, the family’s suit alleges, “The heart surgery recommended to Bill Paxton was not indicated” in his cause of death, and continues, “Mr. Paxton did not meet even Khoynezhad’s own criteria for such a surgery.”
What’s more, the family claims Cedars-Sinai and Dr. Khoynezhad, “intentionally interfered with and thwarted their request for an autopsy to cover up the cause of Paxton’s death,” Deadline reports.
Further, Paxton’s relatives say that had they known that their requests for an autopsy would be denied, they would have made “alternative arrangements” to have one done before he was cremated.
A trial date for the punitive damages was also rescheduled from March to September 19.
