Le Journal

It’s been decades since there was a straight-forward, live-action, English-language adaptation of The Count Of Monte Cristo. That may sound like a lot of qualifiers, but there have been no shortage of Monte Cristo adaptations in general, be they animated, produced in Turkey, South Korea, or Mexico, or incorporated into Disney’s Once Upon A Time. But as far as we can tell, Masterpiece PBS’ new Monte Cristo is the first since the BBC’s 1964 12-part series to check this particular box. Masterpiece shared a new teaser for the series, which has previously aired in Italy, Switzerland, and Sweden, today. The clip doesn’t reveal too much plot—it’s nearly 200 years old, to be fair—though it does look like no expense was spared. Lavish costumes and settings populate as we hear character gossip about the mysterious Count before he finally reveals himself. This time, it’s Sam Claflin stepping into the costume, with Jeremy Irons, Mikkel Boe Følsgaard, Ana Girardot, Blake Ritson, and Karla-Simone Spence among the supporting cast. The Count Of Monte Cristo will begin streaming on the Masterpiece app and on Prime Video starting on March 1. The eight-episode series will then receive an old-fashioned television run on PBS starting on Sunday, March 22 at 10/9 c.

As AI invades more creative spaces, whether we ask it to or not, a coalition of actors, musicians, writers, and other artists have shared a new statement with a blunt message: stealing isn’t innovation. “America’s creative community is the envy of the world and creates jobs, economic growth, and exports. But rather than respect and protect this valuable asset, some of the biggest tech companies, many backed by private equity and other funders, are using American creators’ work to build AI platforms without authorization or regard for copyright law,” reads the statement. “Artists, writers, and creators of all kinds are banding together with a simple message: Stealing our work is not innovation. It’s not progress. It’s theft – plain and simple. A better way exists – through licensing deals and partnerships, some AI companies have taken the responsible, ethical route to obtaining the content and materials they wish to use. It is possible to have it all. We can have advanced, rapidly developing AI and ensure creators’ rights are respected.” The letter has already received about 700 signatures, according to Deadline. Some of the names we recognized, in no particular order, include Vince Gilligan, Winnie Holzman, OK Go, Olivia Munn, Cyndi Lauper, Jennifer Hudson, They Might Be Giants, Sean Astin, George Saunders, Scarlett Johansson, Kristen Bell, R.E.M., Alex Winter, Cate Blanchett, Chaka Khan, Bonnie Raitt, Aimee Mann, and Fran Drescher. The question of AI theft has been circulating for years now and likely isn’t going away any time soon. While massive companies like Disney have the option to enter into lucrative deals with OpenAI (after dubbing a rival AI company a “bottomless pit of plagiarism”) the majority of actors, novelists, and whoever else does not have this option. Last year, a group of writers brought a lawsuit against Anthropic AI, alleging that the tech used their copyrighted writing without permission or payment to train its Claude model. The company settled that lawsuit in August.