Inside the Koch Brothers' Toxic Empire. Together, Charles and David Koch control one of the world's largest fortunes, which they are using to buy up our political system.

Empire premiere recap: Season 4, Episode 1. Getting reacquainted with the Lyon family this week, I felt like I had amnesia right along with Lucious.

Trying to find the perfect scary movie to watch can be a real fright. If you’re struggling to find just the right movie to scare yourself silly this Halloween, why. MORE INFO. The London Chuck Berry Sessions is an album of studio recordings and live recordings by Chuck Berry, released by Cess Records in October 1972. With powerful themes and a compelling story, Princess Mononoke has captured the hearts of fans for years. Let’s take a closer look at the Ghibli tale.

Who’s Jamal’s new boyfriend? Ohhh right. Why is Phylicia Rashad talking to Hakeem?

An empire is defined as "an aggregate of nations or people ruled over by an emperor or other powerful sovereign or government, usually a territory of greater extent.

Ah, gotcha. But overall, this new story line is a lot more interesting than I expected, which might solely be a testament to Terrence Howard’s phenomenal acting. Amnesia- stricken Lucious feels like a completely different person: He’s soft and innocent, in a way.

Is this what Dwight would have been like if he hadn’t suffered so much abuse at the hands of his mother, or taken to the streets to survive? We open at Empire’s 2.

Leviticus, which they’re modeling after Motown’s famous 2. TV special. Cookie and her sons are filming their interviews backstage.

They’re talking about how Lucious is Empire’s legacy, but everyone’s skirting the question of whether or not he’ll actually be at the event. He shows up, walking with a cane (in a slick Alexander Mc. Queen blazer), and then we get our brief Star crossover as Miss Carlotta (Queen Latifah) implores Lucious to get Star’s girl group on a couple Empire tracks. She reminds him how her own girl group sang the hook on some of Lucious’ songs back in the day, and he is confused but agrees to help out. As she walks away, he tells Cookie, “I don’t know who that was.” (Neither did any of the viewers, Lucious.)The relatively calm bubble doesn’t last long — between the flashbulbs and the people shouting his name, Lucious gets overwhelmed and starts yelling, “Get away from me! Get me out of here!”Cut to 2.

Andre is in Lucious’s his office at Empire, and Thirsty tells him the Las Vegas PD is coming back to question him one more time. Lest you forgot, Andre, with Shine’s help, planned the explosion that stole Lucious’ memories because they were trying to kill him. Andre tried to cancel it at the last minute, but Shine didn’t call it off.) Apparently Giuliana had been on the run, but the police are “getting ready to bring her in.”Later, Andre confronts Shine about why the police are still investigating. Someone must be talking, right?

Shine is angry because Andre promised they’d be running Empire after he carried out his side of the deal, but as of right now, with Lucious out of commission, Cookie is still in charge. Over at Hakeem’s, his playboy paradise apartment has been transformed — just slightly — into a child- friendly place. By this I just mean there are diapers and burping cloths all over his pool table. He has Bella right now while Anika sits in jail, and Mrs. Du. Bois comes over to remind him that he has to continue bringing Bella to their house every Tuesday. She has photo evidence of all these visits, which she tells Hakeem will feel to Cookie like “taking a knife and stabbing her in the heart.” I mean, will it?

It’s not great, but they’re literally just visits. It’s not that deep…And Jamal, free of his D- Major/Philip love triangle, has moved on to yet another tall glass of water in Warren — Angelo’s hot lawyer cousin. Although I don’t think Jamal knows he’s Angelo’s cousin, right? Jamal seems smitten and has apparently been leaving things at Warren’s apartment as excuses to see him again.

It would be cute…if we didn’t know Mrs. Du. Bois was controlling Warren’s puppet strings.

Later, Warren goes to see Mrs. Du. Bois as she’s getting a massage, and he tries to explain that things are moving slowly because of complications with Lucious. But Mrs. D makes it clear she doesn’t care about that. She wants to destroy Cookie’s children and family one by one, just like Cookie destroyed Mrs. D’s life’s work (a. Angelo). “I will pick the meat from their bones as she watches helplessly,” she purrs. Clair Huxtable, is that really you?!

Finally, it’s time for Lucious’ grand entrance. The Old Curiosity Shop Full Movie Part 1. He pulls up in a Rolls Royce with creepy nurse Claudia (Demi Moore) by his side, and we see that he’s lost something else besides his memory: part of his left leg.

And he’s a completely different person. Claudia insists the family call him “Dwight.” When Cookie pushes back and reminds him that millions of people are waiting to watch Lucious step onto the stage, he seems to look straight through her.

That’s not me,” he says. I don’t even know who that is.

Sorry.”To try to jog Lucious’s memory, the family sits with him, looking through old photo albums and playing his old records. Hearing it seemingly for the first time now, Lucious hates his violent rap music. Are all my songs this violent and hateful? Why would I write something like this?” Fortunately, he does like some things, like Baby Bella and Tiana (who he thinks is Bella’s mother). He wonders why Cookie isn’t in so many of the photos, and she quietly explains that they were apart for 1. It’s painful for everyone, but what’s more painful is that they’re not supposed to discuss any difficult memories — just the nice ones. Outside, Cookie sees Lucious trying to put the moves on Claudia (who doesn’t reciprocate but doesn’t seem to be rejecting them).

She storms over. “Okay, you’ve got 3. Claudia says it’s just transference, but Cookie isn’t buying it. She’s seen Lucious go after plenty of women before… (Next: The Lyon family dinner goes awry.).

Things You Never Knew About Princess Mononoke. In Japan, Princess Mononoke was first released on July 1. In Japan, the movie quickly rose to become the highest- grossing film of the year, until it was surpassed by Titanic. With powerful themes surrounding the consequences of mankind’s development and environmental degradation, Princess Mononoke is widely considered a timeless Studio Ghibli classic.

For years, Studio Ghibli has swept audiences away with imaginative films like My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, and Spirited Away. The creative mastermind, Hayao Miyazaki, has captured the imagination of fans for generations. Over the years, he has repeatedly announced (and broken) his plans of retirement. In February, Miyazaki made another official announcement, this time he’s back to work on another film, with plans to coincide with the Tokyo Olympics in 2. Although there’s no word yet about the film’s title or plot, some believe that Miyazaki intends on expanding on a short film created for the Studio Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Japan. Miyazaki has hinted about possibly moving forward with a longer film inspired by Boro the Caterpillar, a film created for the Ghibli museum. In honor of its two decades of longevity, here are 1. Things You Never Knew About Princess Mononoke.

Hayao Miyazaki was inspired to create the film because of the Yugoslav wars. Several prominent themes found within Studio Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke involve development and environmental destruction. Others have felt a strong, equally poignant theme of a loss of innocence. In an interview with Empire, Hayao Miyazaki expanded upon this idea, stating that he was profoundly impacted by the wars in the former Yugoslavia. Before Princess Mononoke, Miyazaki had expressed some of his emotions surrounding the war in the film Porco Rosso. Although he had originally intended on creating a movie with a light tone, Miyazaki shared some of his mixed feelings on the war with his art: “I learned that mankind doesn’t learn. After that, we couldn’t go back and make some film like Kiki’s Delivery Service.

It felt like children were being born to this world without being blessed. How could we pretend to them that we’re happy?”1. The forest near Irontown is inspired by an actual nature preserve. The enchanting forest shown in Princess Mononoke might seem like something only out of a dream, but believe it or not, it is actually based on a real- life location.

In the Southern region of Japan, a forest located on Yakushima island served as the main source of inspiration for the film. Kazuo Oga, one of the leading art directors at Studio Ghibli, spent time observing the lush interior of Shiratani Unsuikyo forest. His artwork and sketches of the land were a primary source of inspiration when working on Princess Mononoke.

The forest is located about 8. Princess Mononoke Forest” by fans. Sadly, we haven’t heard any reports of any Kodama sightings, but we’ll keep our eyes and ears open. An earlier draft included San being sent to marry a monster.

In the original draft of Princess Mononoke, Miyazaki had envisioned something completely different for San. In an early concept, San was thought to be the third princess of a kingdom. Later, she was sent off to marry a monster. In Japanese, the word “san” translates as “three” and so her name refers to San being the third daughter. However, the overall story was scrapped for the final version of the film.

Miyazaki later changed the concept to the movie’s current plot, San being the third “child” of the formidable wolf goddess, Moro. In the final version of the film, it is explained that San was found by Moro in the forest. Moro crossed first paths with San’s parents, who were destroying a part of the forest. The fearsome wolf goddess attacked them, and her parents abandoned San and ran away. In turn, Moro took San under her wing and raised her as her own cub.

Miyazaki was inspired by a manga about a tribe from Papua New Guinea. Over the years, Hayao Miyazaki and the team of Studio Ghibli have garnered a wide variety of inspiration for their films. While many Ghibli films have portrayed environments which are actually real life locations, other times, characters have also been inspired by other cultures around the world. For Princess Mononoke, the team was inspired by a manga entitled Mudmen. Created by manga artist Daijiro Morohoshi, the manga’s title refers to the Asaro Mudmen from Papua New Guinea. If the whole connection might seem like a stretch, stay with us for a bit, and we’ll explain further.

In an interview with Kentaro Takekuma, Hayao Miyazaki expressed how Mudmen had a profound influence on his work. On Twitter, Takekuma shared some side by side images suggesting a connection between characters from Mudmen and San and the Forest Spirit from Princess Mononoke. Author Neil Gaiman helped to adapt the English script.

Princess Mononoke has been remembered for being one of the most successful animated films of all time in Japan. Although adapting the film into English might seem like a daunting task, author Neil Gaiman was up for the challenge.

At the time, Miramax was working closely with Studio Ghibli to bring the film’s magic to an American audience. However, Gaiman had to find a subtle balance between appeasing the team of Studio Ghibli and also the execs over at Miramax, who preferred a more Western approach. In the end, Gaiman created two separate scripts, in order to satisfy both sides of the coin. Not only was Gaiman given the responsibility of working on the script, but he had to ensure that the words would match the character’s facial expressions. According to Gaiman’s website, the dubbed movie only includes about eighty- five percent of the original film, and sadly, some of Miyazaki’s specifications were left out of the final cut.

The original story focused on a samurai’s daughter and a magical cat from the mountains. The story of Princess Mononoke is highly thematic in nature, exploring the dichotomy between humankind and the negative consequences of deforestation.

However, the original concept of the tale was not always so complex. In 1. 98. 0, Hayao Miyazaki had been working on an early draft of Princess Mononoke, but the first story is an entirely different approach. Miyazaki’s ideas were later published in the hardcover book, Princess Mononoke: The First Story. Although the story might seem totally different from the actual Princess Mononoke that we’ve come to love, other Ghibli fans have noticed similarities between a Totoro- esque character who is found with the main female protagonist in the story. In the book, there’s also a reference to an “Iron Town”, which is the same name of the city found in the final Princess Mononoke film.

John Lasseter, head of Pixar, was heavily inspired by Miyazaki. Disney addicts and Pixar buffs will undoubtedly know John Lasseter for his role of the chief creative officer of Pixar Animation Studios and Walt Disney Animation Studios. In multiple interviews, Lasseter has expressed his profound love and admiration for Hayao Miyazaki and his work with Studio Ghibli.

Over the years, Lasseter has visited Miyazaki in Japan, and also maintains that Studio Ghibli is a strong influence on his work. Lasseter has even included a Studio Ghibli easter egg of his own, specifically by including a Totoro character in Toy Story 3.