Buzz Worthy News: April 28, 2016

Welcome to Buzz Worthy News where the stories are awesome. Need your YA industry news? Never fear, Kate Copeseeley is here to give it to you straight.

In this week’s Buzz Worthy News: Cursed Child Cast Additions, Iron Fist Casting News, Hamilton Wins A Pulitzer, and China Shuts Down iBookstore. All this and more!

Buzz Worthy News is Cuddlebuggery’s weekly news post bringing you all the best information about the book and blogging world, particularly for the venn diagram of people who overlap between the two.

Cool X-Men Apocalypse Promo

It’s actually a promo within a promo with George Takei narrating his upcoming documentary on “the first mutant”:

Hamilton Wins a Pulitzer

(Joan Marcus/The Public Theater)

Hamilton won a Pulitzer! Like, I didn’t know a play/musical could win one of those suckers. So very cool! Based on the biography (Alexander Hamilton, currently selling like crazy on Amazon, according to reports) by Ron Chernow, the musical is both hip-hop and alternative casting, modernizing the story for today’s viewers.

The play is described on the Pulitzer’s website as “a landmark American musical about the gifted and self-destructive founding father whose story becomes both contemporary and irresistible.” Beyond garnering critical praise and heaps of awards, the plays has grossed $63.5 million and earned the highest advance ticket sales in Broadway history.

Each year, the Pulitzer Prize board chooses a “distinguished play by an American author, preferably original in its source and dealing with American life.” The prize comes with a $10,000 award and the opportunity to forever see the words “Pulitzer Prize-winning” before someone’s name.

*Gets in time machine, grabs 12 year old me by the face*
IT GETS SO GOOD KID, JUST HANG IN THERE https://t.co/PhTYBC6aV8

— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) April 18, 2016

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Additions to Harry Potter And The Cursed Child

Exciting morning at rehearsals for #CursedChild. What do you think of our wand designs? #HarryPotterPlay pic.twitter.com/Vg1wAmi11Y

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 18, 2016

Rowling teased her fans with wand designs for Cursed Child, subtley clueing them in about the full cast of the upcoming play. Not only will Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger be starring, but Draco and Ginny will also be featured. Yay!

The three star protagonists will be played by Jamie Parker, Paul Thornley, and Noma Dumezweni. At this point in time, the producers have not announced, who will take on the roles of Slytherin House’s infamous bully and Harry’s cherished wife (who is also Ron’s little sister).

Bustle reports that the opening date has been set for July 30.

And speaking of Cursed Child, JK Rowling has a new video featuring a behind the scenes peek at rehearsals before the play opens. Enjoy!

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Two Actors Cast in Marvel’s Iron Fist

The Netflix series Iron Fist, which follows Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage, has added two more cast members.

“90210” alum Jessica Stroup and “The Guiding Light” star Tom Pelphrey will join Finn Jones, Jessica Henwick and David Wenham in the Netflix series as Joy and Ward Meachum.

The children of Harold Meachum (Wenham), Joy (Stroup) and Ward (Pelphrey), have spent their lives building Rand Enterprises to its current standing in the world, only to have all their work placed in jeopardy when Danny Rand (Jones) returns to claim his birthright.

The upcoming series follows Danny Rand as he fights against the criminal element corrupting New York City with his incredible kung-fu mastery and ability to summon the awesome power of the mystical Iron Fist.

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Game of Thrones Has Another New Character

We’ve also got some more character news for GOT. Liam Cunningham (otherwise known as Ser Davos or The Onion Knight) let slip another detail on a new character to come:

As it turns out, Lyanna Mormont will appear in the upcoming season of the HBO drama. Here’s what the actor had to say about a certain scene from the trailer, which mentions Davos talking about a war with the dead:

“Who I’m saying that to is a fabulous young actress who you haven’t met yet, who’s about to come in, who’s Lyanna Mormont. He’s explaining the situation to her because certain other individuals are making a mess of their parlay. He’s very good at lateral thinking and explaining the situation, as we know.”

The name Mormont should ring a bell for anyone who watches the show or has read the books. Ser Jorah Mormont has the same last name and he and Lyanna are cousins. While Jorah is off getting distracted by his need to win Daenerys Targaryen’s approval, Lyanna and her clan are loyal to the North. In the upcoming Season 6, we already know that Ser Davos is all-in on the problems the North and, in extension, the rest of Westeros are facing. At one point in the trailer he evens rasps:

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#DVPit Is A Thing, And It’s A Good Thing!

This past week marked the first annual #Dvpit and if you don’t know what that is, let Lee and Low Books explain it to you:

#DVpit is a Twitter event created to showcase pitches about and especially by marginalized voices. This includes (but is not limited to): Native peoples and people of color; people living and/or born/raised in underrepresented cultures and countries; disabled persons; people with illness; people on marginalized ends of the socioeconomic, cultural and/or religious spectrum; people identifying as LGBTQIA+; and more.

Over 50 agents and editors participated, but as you might expect (since this is the internet) there were a few complaints.  These were easily handled, as highlighted below:

Q: I’m an able cis straight white male writing about people who look just like me! Can I participate in #DVpit?
A: No.

— Anne Ursu (@anneursu) April 19, 2016

iBookstore Shut Down In China

In book buying and selling news, last week China shut down iBookstore a mere 6 months after it was open to the public. Oh boy.

Initially, Apple apparently had the government’s approval to introduce the services. But then a regulator, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, asserted its authority and demanded the closings, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

“We hope to make books and movies available again to our customers in China as soon as possible,” an Apple spokeswoman said in a statement.

This is not the first time (nor will it be the last, I’m sure) that we have reported about China blocking or changing content that is available to its citizens. If you’ll remember we did a huge story a couple years back about authors having their book’s content changed or censored in order to be sold in that market.

China’s pushback against Apple shows that the company may finally be vulnerable to the heightened scrutiny that other American tech companies have faced in recent years. That scrutiny was spurred by revelations from the former United States National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden in 2013 of the use of American companies to conduct cyberespionage for Washington.

China has sweeping goals in its move against Apple, said Daniel H. Rosen, founding partner of Rhodium Group, a New-York based advisory firm specializing in the Chinese economy.

“They are interested in protecting the content that the Chinese people see, policing its national security and favoring indigenous giants such as Huawei,Alibaba and Tencent,” Mr. Rosen said. In this new era, he added, China “is strongly disinclined to accept the dominance of foreign players on the Internet, not least those from the United States.”

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Interesting Links

Earliest English Women Writers

What’s Next For The Author of The Martian