The sexual tension between Sean Bean and Nigel Terry in
Derek Jarman's Caravaggio is pretty off the charts isn't it?
I used to maintain that I found Bean much sexier now as a weathered tough-guy wielding swords and armor in stuff like Lord of the Rings and A Game of Thrones than I did when he was a pretty young thing, but Caravaggio kinda spoils that thesis. A happy 53rd birthday to Mr. Bean. See a few more pics after the jump.
That's quick - even though it only had moderately successful ratings, HBO's already renewed A Game of Thrones for a second season. Will they call the second season A Clash of Kings to follow the books? It might confuse people to change the name like that. Or rather it seems that that's a worry a TV executive would have.
Anyway I wanted to make a list of five thoughts I had while watching the first episode last night, but coming at it a day late I've already seen most of it covered. I'll direct you over to Sean again, because he's doing a bang-up job. I'll just say that I was mostly very very happy with the episode. It introduced a ton of important characters and the situations they'll be maneuvering through and manipulating pretty solidly, I thought. Everybody was at the very least good enough that I can't wait to see what they do with their bigger moments to come along. Alright, five quick fairly superficial thoughts. Don't expect this every week! I get lazy.
1. I have to say that while I was the least impressed with the look of Daenerys in pictures beforehand, I thought Emilia Clarke was fantastic. Really moving in her scenes. Although I can't exactly say I wouldn't be more welcoming to Jason Momoa's advances there at the end. Don't cry! He's gonna blow your mind.
2. Similarly, even though I've fawned over him plenty already I didn't really expect Nicholas Coster-Waldau to charm me as much as he did through the episode. I didn't think he'd live up to my expectations for Jamie Lannister since... well those are some pretty high expectations. The Kingslayer's tied with Arya as my favorite character from the books. (Speaking of, needs more Arya dammit!) He's got a fascinating path ahead of him and now I'm really very excited to watch NCW maneuver it.
3. I share all of Sean's reservations on the changes they've made with Catelyn, and I'm still not sold on Sean Bean as Eddard either. He just does not look or act at all like the Eddard I had in my head. He's too warm-natured, and too red-haired. Everybody else seems fine with him so maybe the picture I'd developed was wrong. I dunno. I have nothing against Sean Bean at all. There's just some dissonance with the Stark parents happening for me - their edges have been sanded down a bit. They're a little less interesting than they should be.
4. Speaking of dissonance and changes they made that Sean and I agree are causing such sensations, the aging up of the characters does make for some weird moments. The boyfriend and I had to have an entire conversation about how old girls are when they have their periods and how old that actress playing Sansa looks, and the fewer conversations I can have in my life about periods the better, ya know? Not to mention how much older Jon looks then he ought to when talking of being deprived of ever having a family life of his own when he talks to Benjen about going to the Wall.
5. But finally, thank you for this!
Kit Harrington has already won my favor.
ETA I was going to start a separate post on this but suppose it's not necessary - I saw something mention that we've got a gay storyline coming up in the series to look forward to but it's been so long I couldn't for the life of me remember what they were talking about. Then, with a little searching, I found this. There be spoilers there if you haven't read the books, but if you have read the books read the article and then read through the comments too; I thought it was a really fascinating conversation about that aspect of the books, which'd obviously slipped my mind.
Amongst many other roles, Sean Bean played Boromir in The Lord of the Rings films and Odysseus in Troy (and The Hitcher in The Hitcher remake!) yet none of that is stopping me from posting the above practically unrecognizable picture because it's been on my computer for ages apparently just waiting for this very opportunity to make me chuckle. Dude looks super young there - not that I think he necessarily looks bad, but I do think he's much more appealing nowadays with some years and wear and tear on him:
Those two pictures illustrate the difference between a boy and a man pretty clearly, I'd say. You know... in the non-pornographic sense. Ahem. Happy birthday, Mr. Bean! .
--- Post Cappy - Supposedly there an an Avengers preview of sorts at the very end, post-credits, of Captain America. That link has a couple spoilers for the movie so click with caution. I usually don't bothering sticking through the credits of these movies for Samuel L. Jackson's annual appearance but I might have to for Joss.
--- Carnage Quartet - The Playlist has a couple of new pictures from Roman Polanski's Carnage with Jodie Foster and Kate Winslet and Hans Landa and that pudgy guy who could never marry any of them not even Hans Landa. .
--- Sam Noir - Sam Rockwell is replacing Jeremy Renner in Better Living Through Chemistry. It's about a pill-popping pharmacist who has an affair with Jennifer Garner and plots to kill her husband. Sounds very Body Heat On Vicodin.
--- Getting Gangsta - Slash has got word on what director David Yates is looking at doing now that he's finished with Harry Potter (he directed the last four films) - perhaps an Al Capone bio-pic with Tom Hardy, for one! I like it. The thought of Tom is loose suit pants over boxers and wife-beaters and suspenders fill my head and I like it. Also a possibility is a trilogy based off of Stephen King's The Stand.
--- Slave People - The director of Smart People - that movie that should've just starred Thomas Haden Church and Ellen Page and forsaken all the rest which was bullshit - is who they've picked to direct the 300 sequel? Okay. Slightly random. I guess he almost directed The Ring Two but bailed, which shows wisdom.
--- The Trance Dance - Seems like Danny Boyle is turning to Michael Fassbender's co-star in A Dangerous Method now that Fassy can't be in his new film - no, not Viggo, but Vincent. Cassel that is. Fassy was going to star in Trance opposite James McAvoy and reignite their hot sexual chemistry again, but it wasn't meant to be. Not that I don't want to see McAvoy and Cassel make out. Not that they will. Not that that's stop me from imagining it.
--- Balls Deep Herself, Ari Graynor, has got another role lined up - she's co-starring in For A Good Time, Call... opposite Lauren Miller, actress and more importantly Seth Rogen fiance. It's a "raunchy comedy" co-written by Miller about two broads, said broads being Miller and Graynor, who start a phone sex telephone line. Do those things even exist anymore?
--- Two Weeks - Meant to link this up last week but there's the first official shot of Colin Farrell in the Total Recall remake. (via)
--- White King - The King dies in Snow White, doesn't he? That's how the Evil Queen takes power over the kingdom? Or is he just too weak to upstage her? I can't remember. Anyway Sean Bean has just landed the part of the King in Tarsem's movie version (with Julia Roberts as his Evil Queen) so we can assume he'll die, him being Sean Bean and all.
--- Winter Is Coming - Over at AICN you can see a pair of previews for HBO's miniseries adaptation of George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones, the first book in his Song of Ice & Fire series. I'm smack-dab in the middle of reading the series right now - although I can't much say I'm in "the middle" since who knows when Martin will ever finish it? Grumble - and I'm liking it quite a bit so I can't imagine I won't hype this up more as it gets closer. So stay tuned for that!
As of right now I haven't even checked out who's been cast except for the people briefly shown in these videos - I don't know that I think Sean Bean's right for Eddard - he's awfully warm in his coloring, while Eddard's repeatedly described as gray and cold. I suppose Bean's the biggest name they got though so he gets the biggest part. And I do like Bean. But what I'm most excited to see is Peter Dinklage as Tyrion! Yes! That's fantastic.
--- A Loud Whisper - How fortuitous - Billy Loves Stu reviewed a movie on Saturday that I just saw last night that I will have more to say about at some point in the future I think. It's called The Silent Scream and it kinda stunk but it has points of interest to be sure...
--- Va Va Vanishing - Brad Anderson's Vanishing on Seventh Street screened at Toronto last night, AICN's got a review and this bit excited me:
"The director of photography must be some wonderful kind of batshit nuts for exposing his film (or digital motion picture chip) this way. This isn't the inky blackness of a Gordon Willis; rather, the film is painted in extraordinarily dark hues of charcoal, navy, slate, etc., with occasional day-glow bursts of honey-coloured light. VANISHING is an amazingly dark picture, with a distinct visual signature. After a lot of "more of the same" in scary movies, this is a real treat, and Anderson milks it for all it's worth."
Anderson's films are always beautiful - the way he milks the digital darkness in Session 9 is something special, those motes of dust in the air! - so I'm excited to see what he did here, for sure.
--- Space Sandy - I've already convinced myself that Sandra Bullock is a great choice for Cuaron's Gravity, so I'm down with this being the new rumor du jour. I really do like her, quite a bit, she just never makes good movies that I want to see at all, in the slightest. So this would be a chance for me to see her in something that I actually want to see! Use that Oscar for good, Sandy!
--- The Slasher Triumvirate - If you read just one awesome thing today, let it be this awesome thing: Glenn went and ranked all the Nightmare on Elm Streets, Halloweens, and Friday the 13ths, according to his preference now that he's seen all 30 of them. He's got me beat - I haven't seen a couple of the Halloweens still. And he took the time in the middle of his spectacular list-making to post this picture again, so you know he's got good things to say!
An ass for the ages, that.
--- And finally, go wish StinkylLulu some love. We've lost a great blog, but at least we'll always have a great archive to go back and appreciate, and appreciate, and appreciate. Ya done good work, Brian. .
--- Cappy Foes - I don't think they've announced who it is he's playing yet but on Friday it was announced that Daniel Bruhl of all people will be playing a bad guy in the third Captain America movie. This one's subtitled Civil War,
which I guess is a big storyline in the comics; the brothers who
directed the second movie are returning. They didn't show much interest
in ogling Chris Evans so I was kinda hoping they'd be replaced, you
know, by like David DeCoteau or something. Speaking of actors who need
to be ogled, Frank Grillo, the one-time muscle-model seen to the left who
was in the second film and who now co-stars with Nick Jonas on Kingdom, is supposedly returning and spoiler spoiler spoiler so on.
--- Bean Rises - The Frankenstein boom continues unabated - Sean Bean has signed on to star inThe Frankenstein Chronicles
for ITV, which is about a detective in early 19th Century London
investigating some bodysnatching and ritualistic killing, no doubt
whilst wearing a very stiff collar. Will somebody smoke some opium? I
think somebody might smoke some opium!
--- Big Dick's Back - Time magazine shared a brief portion of their magazine's recent chat with Channing Tatum online the other day - specifically the part where he talks about making Magic Mike XXL; he says this one "services" gay men as well as women, and then he baits us thusly:
"We got Joe Manganiello naked as much as possible. Everyone in the world: you’re welcome."
--- Foreign Terror - I've really liked all three of the [REC] movies
so far - they're all pretty different, with each one being about 10%
less awesome than the one before it, but having started out so high that
leaves a pretty high standard. Anyway the fourth film, directed by Jaume Balaguero (he co-directed the first two films not to mention the very creepy Sleep Tight), just got a release date: it'll be out in theaters and on demand on January 2nd!
--- I Camelot - I'm starting to think that Guy Ritchie reads MNPP for all his casting ideas now - his King Arthur movie already stars Charlie Hunnam as the titular hero, there was that rumor (since discredited) that Idris Elba was about to play Hunnam's right-hand fella, and now comes word that Jude Law is going to play the movie's bad guy. Hopefully the whole film centers on an epic lover's quarrel between Charlie and Jude, which ends with them reenacting my favorite scene in Excalibur.
--- Swede Stuff - In today's edition of "I haven't read this yet so let's all do that together" here's our pal Glenn's final report at The Film Experience from the Stockholm International Film Festival, which apparently involves two of my favorite A's - I mean Adam Driver and ABBA, of course. And now I want to see Adam (in the white jumpsuit, natch) performing this scene from Muriel's Wedding. (What you thought I was going to make a Mamma Mia reference?)
--- Beefcake the Barbarian - Some new low-quality pictures of Jason Momoa as Conan have slithered their greased-up way onto the internets and I gotta say, Mamoa looks pretty damn fine. I won't mind watching him run and jump and swing and swoop no matter the film's worth as long as he's looking like that, I won't. Hey I sat through all of that terrible Viking movie for brief glimpses afforded of Sean Bean Karl Urban in a wet loincloth. (via Sean)
--- Triple Threat - Electronic Cerebrectomy gives a shout-out to three amazing fellows who were all born today, and I share his esteem for the two fantastic actors while admitting I've never read any of Ellison's stuff, shamefully.
--- Sans Foxx - Adoradle SNL'r Jason Sudeikis, adorable Always Sunny in Philadelpia'r Charlie Day, adorable Teen Wolf Too'r Jason Bateman and just plain hot Colin Farrell are in some movie together, blah blah blah, sounds great. So why does Jamie Foxx gotta be ruining that?
--- Hot Stuff - I love the roll that Cheyenne Jackson's been on lately with the whole being open about his famous crushes thing. First he did that list for AfterElton of the famous fellows he finds himself fellating (sorry got caught up in alliteration) eyeing, and now he discusses it some more with Jarett at PopWrap, including this choice bit:
"I saw Alexander in a locker room a couple of months ago and that man took my breath away... I actually saw him in nothing but a towel and while I’m not an old southern lady, I definitely got the vapors."
Stars! They're just as horny as us! But seriously Cheyenne, you are doing the lord's work, giving us these visuals of you and Alexander Skarsgård hanging out in the same locker-room.
Also, Cheyenne admits that he and Matthew Bomer are friends. No comment.
--- Meet Sly Halfway - Until a couple of years ago I always made sure to have an mp3 of Kenny Loggin's 80s power ballad "Meet Me Halfway" from the Stallone arm-wrestling epic Over the Top on my iPod; I guess time caught up with me and I forgot to grab it the last time I updated my music because it's been awhile since I've heard the song. Which is a darn shame! Cuz I grew up infatuated with it, as well as that terrible terrible movie it's from. It spoke to my "only child of a distant trashy father" genes. Well today Rich at FourFour has revisited the film and reminds us all why it's such an incredible cinematic glory(hole). As expected, since it's Rich, it's a gif-riffic experience of wonder to behold.
--- And finally, here's a video from Jimmy Fallon last night that I haven't watched yet but co-stars Jake Gyllenhaal. Which is enough! I will watch it soon! (thanks Melissa!)
--- Up From ER - One time gratuitous post recipient and oft tight-end receiver (I don't know what that second part means, but I like saying it) Goran Visnjic has joined the cast of David Fincher's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo film. Apparently his character plays a part in all three books. I've seen the first two Swedish films and made it about half an hour into the third before giving up and I can't for the life of me remember who this character was. God those movies are so fucking boring. I remember vaguely liking the first one but everything after that's wiped those memories away. I have no doubts at all that Fincher can make something a thousand percent better; even if he just shows up he will.
--- Death Is Here - STYD is covering the hell out of Christopher Smith's new movie Black Death today. Smith directed Severance and Triangle, if the name's unfamiliar. Death, which stars Sean Bean as a knight in the days of plaguery, out on VOD I guess, which I did not know, and they've got an interview with him, a review of the film- they call it "Witchfinder General meets The Wild Bunch" - as well as a pair of fun cartoony posters for the flick. I will probably watch this this weekend this since I like all of his films so far.
--- Suped Up - If there's one thing I wasn't worried about with Zach Snyder making a Superman movie, it was there being a lack of action. A better question is will there be anything but action? (Remember that I am a fan of every single movie Snyder's made when I say that.) But I never worried going into a Bryan Singer Superman movie that we'd spend two hours watching the Man of Steel talk about his feelings and carry a big rock either and we all know how that went.
--- One Rich Drunk - Here's the trailer for the Arthur remake starring Russell Brand, which is apparently out on the 8th of April, which seems really soon. Apparently going against most of the world's opinion, I tend to find Brand funny, but the real sell here is Greta Gerwig of course.
--- Back On Ninety-Five - The second entry in the joint Low Resolution / Critical Condition Oscar Hindsight Project has landed, this time regarding the folks who were nominated and won in 1995. Here's the half on the lead actors, and here's on the supporting actors.
I remember feeling at the time that the wrong leads won for their films - that Penn should've won Best Actor for Dead Man Walking instead of Sarandon winning Best Actress, and that Elisbeth Shue should've won Actress instead of Nic Cage winning Actor for Leaving Las Vegas. I haven't seen either of those movies for years but I find it hard to remember a time where I rooted for Sean Penn. But just the memory of Shue on the other hand still gets me to tear up. Oh Sera, you had me at a complimentary blow-job.
--- El Nerdo - Michael Cera's next movie will be for the Chilean director of the well-loved The Maid, and it will be in Spanish, which he's learning for the role right now.
--- Watch Me - A couple of videos I haven't watched yet but need to with haste. Nat posted the first clip from Cary Fukunaga's Jane Eyre with Michael Fassbender emanating heat waves from his tight breeches as Mr. Rochester, while over at Post-Mortem Depression TrG has pointed us to a trailer mashing up Black Swan with Suspiria! Dreams do come true, y'all.
--- Wheat Fire - Luke Evans is making it really difficult for me to ignore him
like I'd prefer to - he's signed on to star in yet another Ben Wheatley
movie, and I love Ben Wheatley movies dammit. Evans just finished High Rise, that Ballard adaptation with Tom Hiddleston, and now he and Wheatley (and Armie Hammer!) are going to make Free Fire, which is about an illegal arms deal in 1978 gone wrong. It'll be Wheatley's first US film.
--- And Fine yes here's more Luke Evans news - he's still apparently going to star in The Crow remake, reboot, whatever, and they are planning on filming that
in the Spring. I love that The Hollywood Reporter got his name wrong -
they called him Lee Evans! Ha! Obviously mixing him up with his
closet-case Hobbit friend Lee Pace.
--- Listen Up More - You should read Max O'Connell's review at The Playlist of Listen Up Phillip if you've seen the movie by now (here's my not-nearly-as-good review); it's a really great piece placing the movie in the context of Wes Anderson, Woody Allen, and Noah Baumbach's asshole characters. Loved this especially:
"In a way, "Listen Up Philip" is as perverse a mentor-student film as "Whiplash," where the teacher only gives his pupil advice that will make him a worse person."
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--- Hell Boy - I made it through the majority of the first season of Eli Roth's Netflix show Hemlock Grove in one sitting almost as a dare to myself, seeing how much crap I could actually take - my brain hurt for awhile afterwards, and once the crap-spell wore off I never was able to work up enough energy to care about how it ended, much less make it back for Season 2. My point is before HG I would've been more enthusiastic about an Eli Roth TV show, but the news that he started shootingSouth of Hell, a Lifetime exorcism drama set in Charleston, this week hits me with a wet thud. (All this said I still wanna see his cannibal movie if it ever gets released.)
--- Classic Scares - Reading this makes me wish I'd been laying on Joe Reid's floor watching all these movies with him - over at the Atlantic our pal Joe hit up a bunch of horror classics for the first time and shares some thoughts on Nosferatu, Dracula, House on Haunted Hill, The Mummy, Black Sunday and Peeping Tom. So much wonderful stuff!
--- Little Green Men - For a movie about a dude stranded on a planet all by himself Ridley Scott's The Martian sure does keep adding an awful lot of people to its cast - Chiwetel Ejiofor, Halt and Catch Fire's
(terrific) Mackenzie Davis, and Sebastian Stan are the three latest
folks piled on alongside the previously announced (deep breath) Matt
Damon, Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Kate Mara, Sean Bean, Donald
Glover, Michael Pena and Jeff Daniels. .
--- Grr Argh - Remember how just a couple of weeks ago I wrote a big post about how hot Frankenstein is these days? Well the big dead lug just got hotter - he's getting a TV show. X-Files and Buffy producer Howard Gordon and Homeland producer Rand Ravich are behind the announcement, but there aren't any other names of you know, talent, involved, so we'll see what happens from here. They say it'll be about an FBI agent who's brought back from the dead.
--- Just Dandy - It's unfairly brief but here's a chat with American Horror Story's Finn Wittrock, who is so fucking good in a character created for just me to adore on this Freakshow season that I am immediately and completely smitten with him. (thanks Mac) I love Dandy so much I might even never make fun of Finn's Flintstones name again.
--- Rings Hallow - I haven't watched this myself but here's the teaser trailer for the third Insidious movie, this one from the writer of the previous films Leigh Whannell. I just linked to the first pictures from the movie the other day. I have no idea when this is supposed to be out, I figured it was awhile away but maybe I was wrong.
Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings and Derek Jarman regular and a million billion other things actor Sean Bean is turning 60 today, and we've celebrated him several times here on the blog but weirdly never asked the following question so let's...
The last thing I saw the beyond wonderful actress Carice Van Houten in - best known for being beyond wonderful in Paul Verhoeven's beyond wonderful film Black Book - was Christopher Smith's Black Death, where she played a sinister witch drunk on her own religion opposite Sean Bean. Why I couldn't see this giving-me-goosebumps news coming from that obviousness I have no idea. It was basically an audition for this. Via EW comes word she'll be playing Melisandre on HBO's A Game of Thrones!
"Melisandre is powerful woman who counsels the late King Robert’s older brother, Stannis Baratheon, in his quest to claim the Iron Throne. She’s described as a seductive force possessing prophetic powers who’s willing to impose her religion on the world by any means necessary. While Stannis believes himself to be the Iron Throne’s rightful heir. He’s described as humorless and authoritative, with a strict moral code, but is gradually succumbing to the power of his newfound religion."
The wonderful actor Stephen Dillane is playing Stannis, but I can't even think about that right now, so fucking beyond excited am I about Carice. Carice! My beloved Carice! She is going to be SO BEYOND AWESOME in this part you guys! I love everything about Melisandre, she's an incredible character, and this shit will be insane. I can't even type anymore I am so thrilled right this second. AWESOME!!! (Melisandre art via)
Yesterday was Sean Bean's 53rd birthday and we posted on it but we also have some pictures of him in some 1988 movie by Mike Figgis called Stormy Mondaylooking youthful and dangerous and attractive and naked so we figured we'd post them too. See 'em after the jump.
The Red Riding trilogy, which aired in the UK last Fall and is playing in NYC and LA right now before spreading out across the country, this weekend I guess (it'll also be On Demand soon, they say) is every bit as good as everybody's been saying it is. In fact, it might be defeating me in writing a proper review, at least just yet. I finished it yesterday and it's consumed my thoughts since. It's one to mull over, that's for sure. It's one story - of the horrors that plague a community where the criminals and the police have become indistinguishable - told in three films, directed by three different directors. Not that there's a whole lot of stylistic difference between the three films - they play fine beside each other.
And the actors... the actors! Andrew Garfield, Sean Bean, Rebecca Hall, David Morrissey, Peter Mullan, Mark Addy, Cara Seymour... I could just keep going and going. Good grief they're awesome.
You can watch the trailer (and some clips) here. And
I took some screengrabs from it to show off the pretty a bit...
Y'all seek this one out when ya can. So very excellent. .
The Film Society at Lincoln Center here in New York is showing a bunch of scary movies at the end of this month, from October 27th through Halloween night, and STYD has got the run-down. They're showing some very very cool stuff.
Stake Land, which won the Midnight Madness award in Toronto last month, is getting its New York premiere. It's a Road Warrior-esque story of humans battling plague-riddled feral vampire monsters in an apocalyptic wasteland, and yeah that sounds like something we've all seen a million times, but this one's supposed to be terrific, they say.
Two flicks by Christopher Smith, the director of Severance, are premiering as well - Triangle, which has been on video for awhile and is a whole heckuva lot of fun even though it stars the blecch Melissa George, and Black Death, Smith's brand new movie set during the Plague that stars Sean Bean and the lovely amazing Carice Van Houten.
There's a pregnant-lady-in-danger flick called The Clinic, and there's a French flick called Village of Shadows that sounds really interesting and involves Nazi ghosts or something. And they're showing a bunch of old flicks like Carrie (I still have never seen Carrie on a big screen) and Dead of Night and Messiah of Evil(I just got a copy of both of these a couple of weeks ago and have been meaning to watch them, but now maybe I'll wait to see it on a big screen) and a movie I've never heard of called The Mutations starring Donald Pleasance that's apparently an homage to Tod Browning's Freaks and involves "real carnival attractions." Consider me sold!
And while all of that sounds spectacular, what's coolest is their closing night film. It's called The Loved Ones, it's a new Australian horror film, and I've been chomping at the bit to see it for months now. It also won the Midnight Madness award, at last year's TIFF. Coincidentally Glenn just posted the new teaser trailer for it at Stale Popcorn, which I am swiping now.
.
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I wanna see this movie! Unfortunately for me this is the closing night film and I'm out of town when it's showing. Argh! It escapes my grip! God knows when it'll get a proper American release, if ever. Dammit. But if you're in New York you should check some of these out. .
"I too quit smoking (2013) AND find this type of pictures cool. Also, PSA: if you're feeling like you want to start smoking again, just remind yourself "I do not want my body and house to stink like stale horseshit", then go drink one more glass of water to entertain your hands and lips. Congrats, btw."
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