Page 5 of 5 FirstFirst ... 345
Results 61 to 75 of 75

Thread: Once Upon A Time In Shaolin

  1. #61
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,946

    RZA wanted it back

    RZA tried to buy back Once Upon a Time in Shaolin from Martin Shkreli
    "When [Shkreli] put it on eBay, the first thing I did was call my lawyer, and I was like, 'Yo, let's go,'" said the rapper
    BY LAKE SCHATZON MARCH 30, 2018, 1:03PM



    Earlier this month, Martin Shkreli was sentenced to seven years in prison after being found guilty of security fraud. Under the terms of his conviction, the disgraced pharmaceutical CEO was forced to forfeit his assets, which included Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, the one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan album which Shkreli purchased in 2015 for $2 million. The fate of the rare record now rests in the hands of the Justice Department and indirectly under the purview of Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

    Now, in a new interview with Rolling Stone, Wu-Tang leader RZA spoke about Once Upon a Time and Shkreli’s sentencing. In particular, he revealed that he’s attempted to buy back the album from the criminal pharmadouche. However, stipulations of the original contract, drawn up when Wu-Tang sold the record to Shkreli, forbade him from owning it.

    “I’ve actually tried to get it back,” he explained, “but the paperwork and the contract stops me from getting it back. When [Shkreli] put it on eBay, the first thing I did was call my lawyer, and I was like, ‘Yo, let’s go.’ And they said, ‘All right, check with your contract.’ And it’s no, you can’t do it. Ain’t that a *****?”

    Other terms of their deal stated that Shkreli could not sell the album for 88 years and was only allowed to play it aloud for personal use. Shkreli once streamed the album online following a bet made involving Donald Trump’s election.

    “It was hard for me to sell that album because I wanted it to be on my living room table,” RZA said of the LP, which he compared to the Mona Lisa. “The record has become an entity, very different from a lot of albums … It’s got its own folklore, and that’s what me and [co-producer] Cilvaringz wanted.”

    Although he wasn’t able to get his hands on Once Upon a Time, RZA doesn’t sound too bitter about it. Actually, at the end of the day, he just wants the album to be able to retain its value, per the contract. “I would hope that the clauses that was given to Mr. Shkreli is upheld,” he said, “because it was a legal, binding thing and I would just hope that whatever happens, that legally, all the things that we thought to protect what it was and what it is remains intact.”

    In related news, RZA announced new live-score screenings of the classic kung fu film The 36th Chamber of Shaolin.
    'pharmadouche'
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  2. #62
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,946

    at least $1,000,000 in damages

    Wu-Tang Clan Members Sued Over ‘Once Upon a Time in Shaolin’ Album Cover
    Published April 10, 2018 at 2:15 pm PDT
    By Daniel Goldblatt, Ryan Naumann
    EXCLUSIVE


    Warren W Patterson

    A photographer claims Wu-Tang Clan stole the photo that became the album cover for their infamous “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” and now he wants to get paid.

    The album in question gained notoriety several years ago because only one copy was made and it was sold to “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli.

    According to a lawsuit obtained by The Blast, Warren Patterson is a photographer who claims he spent 80 hours between 2013 and 2014 shooting photos of the silver case with the Wu-Tang logo on it.

    Patterson says he was not paid for his work and was not under any form of contract when he took it.

    He claims he had no idea the photo would be used for an album cover and says Wu-Tang’s use of it came without his permission. Patterson claims “the infringing copies of the Plaintiff’s works [were] delivered to a law office in New York County, New York by mail or courier service to be picked up by a purchaser named Martin Shkreli.”

    The lawsuit names Method Man, Rza, Raekwon, Cappadonna, Ghostface Killah, GZA, Inspectah Deck, Masta Killa and U-God all as defendants … as well as a Dutch record producer who goes by the name Cilvaringz and the auction house that sold the album.

    Patterson is suing for copyright infringement and is seeking at least $1,000,000 in damages.

    A rep for Method Man tells The Blast, “Method Man did not select nor authorize the photography used on the Wu-Tang album.”
    Dang. That's like half the cost of the album.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  3. #63
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,946

    Comey ain't nuthin to f with

    The Wu-Tang Clan Jokingly Enlists James Comey to Help Find 'Once Upon a Time in Shaolin'
    By Ashley Serianni
    Published at 9:10 PM EDT on Apr 18, 2018

    [IMG]https://media.nbcnewyork.com/images/652*367/Wu-Tang+Clan+418.jpg[/IMG]
    Getty Images for Mountain Dew
    Wu-Tang Clan

    The Wu-Tang Clan jokingly recruited James Comey to help find their one-of-a-kind album after running into him backstage on "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" on Tuesday.

    Ghostface Killah posted a picture on Instagram with the former FBI director and fellow rapper Method Man on Tuesday evening. Comey was on the show to promote his new book "A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership."

    "Me and my brother @methodmanofficial Workin on getting that album back from the feds... wu Tang forever @comey," said Ghostface in the post.

    The post references "Once Upon a Time in Shaolin," an album distributed to precisely one person: so-called "Pharma Bro" Martin Shkreli, who bought the record at auction for $2 million. But Shkreli was ordered to hand over the rare recording, allong with an alleged unreleased copy of New Orleans rapper Lil Wayne's "Tha Carter V."

    realghostfacekillah
    Verified

    Follow
    Like
    Comment
    36,444 likes
    realghostfacekillahMe and my brother @methodmanofficial Workin on getting that album back from the feds... wu Tang forever @comey
    A Department of Justice spokeswoman said Wednesday it doesn't have the mystery record and Shkreli's lawyer has yet to comment on its whereabouts, according to NBC News, which first reported Ghostface's post.
    Follow the hyperlink for realghostfacekillah's instagram to see the photo - he's got his images protected from copying.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  4. #64
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,946

    A film?

    I'm inclined to agree although I think a documentary would be better.


    RZA THINKS THE WU-TANG CLAN VERSUS MARTIN SHKRELI PLIGHT IS CINEMA WORTHY

    IME EKPO MAY 9, 2018



    After being convicted in August 2017 in a federal fraud case, Martin Shkreli was ordered to forfeit 7.36 million in assets which include the Wu-Tang Clan’s $2 million dollar single-copied double CD album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, a Pablo Picasso painting, and reportedly Lil’ Wayne‘s Tha Carter V album. Shkreli purchased the sacred Wu album back in 2015 for $2 million, throwing hip-hop heads into a space trip of puzzlement and the Wu into a fury of discernment. Ghostface Killah popped off at Shkreli early in 2016, demanding he makes the album available to the public for free while deeming the Pharma villain as a “sh**head” with the “the Michael Jackson nose…”

    Unfortunately, Shkreli obtained some balls and fired back at the legendary lyricist, calling him out by his government name, threatening, not demanding, but threatening him for an apology with a fragile consequence of “ending his career.” “Most people don’t ever try to beef with me, know why?” said Shkreli. “Because nobody’s that dumb…For whatever reason you think it’s okay to beef with me but that’s a big mistake. At the end of the day, I feel very sorry for you. You’re an old man who has lost relevance and you’re trying to reclaim the spotlight from my spotlight, and that’s not going to work, Dennis.

    Well, Ghostface created another monumental moment of his in career when he shut Shkreli down in an epic 11-minute video, which is in ties with his Wu-Goo initiative, an alternative to Shkreli’s 5000% increase of Daraprim, a pill used to treat AIDS patients.



    “This is about AIDS right now,” Starks said. “This is what you did to the people. To the American people and the people all over the world. I stand for them, man. I’m not gonna allow you to keep killing these people.”

    “What you need to do is get down with me and start helping these people out,” Ghost continues. “Gangstas, man, don’t move the way that you move, man.”

    When Shkreki was sentenced late last year, he was reportedly deep in tears. According to Daily News, RZA told videographer, Adam Glyn, that the story between the Pharma villain and rap superheroes is worthy of a cinematic extraction.

    He had a pretty wild life, totally Lex Luthor … a bad superhero life,” RZA recalls with Adam Glyn. “I think that whole incident, that whole little saga, there’s a book about it right now and that book is worthy of a film.” The book RZA is referring to is Once Upon a Time in Shaolin: The Untold Story of the Wu-Tang Clan’s Million-Dollar Secret Album, the Devaluation of Music, and America’s New Public Enemy by Cyrus Bozorgmehr, an opus that details the scandalous ordeal.

    RZA also told Glyn that he recently connected with Ghostface who he says is in the process of recording new music in Los Angeles and also claims that the legendary hip-hop collective will also return to the studio to craft new melodies.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  5. #65
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,946

    ttt 4 2019!

    The forum will censor the 'affectionate nickname' - it's @$$h0le

    Martin Shkreli's Prison Nickname Makes A Lot Of Sense
    Alex Zidel
    By Alex Zidel
    March 07, 2019 15:35 8.5K Views


    Martin Shkreli walks with attorney Benjamin Brafman as they arrive at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, August 3, 2017 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City
    Spencer Platt/Getty Images

    Martin Shkreli is affectionately referred to as "*******" by his fellow inmates.

    Martin Shkreli gained infamy after he claimed to own Wu-Tang Clan's Once Upon A Time In Shaolin. The album has never been released to the public and Shkreli loved to gloat about listening to unreleased Wu-Tang music so everybody could be jealous of him. Before the official release of Lil Wayne's Tha Carter V, the former pharmaceuticals executive said that he was also in possession of that project, finding it in a car one day. He was sentenced to spend seven years in prison for fraud and conspiracy charges last year and during his first twelve months behind bars, he has earned himself a pretty accurate nickname.

    According to the Wall Street Journal, Shkreli had been running his company from prison, using a contraband cell phone to organize the business. He was also tweeting from a secret account. Shkreli will likely be caught today since, you know, the story is out there that he has an illegal phone on him. The publication also notes that he has made a few close allies behind bars.


    Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images

    "He has made prison friends, including 'Krispy' and 'D-Block,'" writes the Wall Street Journal. "Some of whom affectionately call him '*******,' according to people familiar with his new life. They walk alongside him in the hall to ward off shenanigans from other inmates."

    Apparently, Shkreli wanted to join a prison band but his friends stopped him because the other members of the group were locked up for child molestation. Sounds about right.
    Running his pharma co from the joint.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  6. #66
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,946

    take it back


    'I'd love it back' — Wu-Tang Clan's RZA wants the album he auctioned off to 'pharma bro' fraudster Martin Shkreli

    Dan Mangan 5 days ago

    Wu-Tang Clan member RZA says he "would love" to get back the hip-hop group's single-copy album, which was ordered forfeited to the federal government from convicted "pharma bro" fraudster Martin Shkreli.

    Shkreli has been locked up since 2017, when a judge revoked his release bond for offering Facebook followers a $5,000 bounty for a lock of hair pulled off Hillary Clinton's head.


    © Provided by CNBC LLC RZA at the New York Stock Exchange, April 26, 2019.

    Wu-Tang Clan member RZA said Friday that he "would love" to get back the hip-hop group's single-copy album, "Once Upon a Time in Shaolin," which was ordered forfeited to the federal government from convicted "pharma bro" fraudster Martin Shkreli as part of his criminal sentence.

    But that could take some time, given Shkreli's current pending appeal of his conviction for a trio of criminal charges.

    "You know, I would love it back," the RZA said during an interview with CNBC's "Closing Bell." Shkreli bought the album at auction for a reported whopping $2 million in 2015.

    "That album felt like a child of mine," RZA said.

    RZA also said the album — of which only one copy exists — is sitting in a government office somewhere.

    However, that's not the case, at least not at the moment.


    © Provided by CNBC LLC Martin Shkreli’s confidence in his abilities inspired both admiration and apprehension among his colleagues and investors.

    When Shkreli was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2018 in Brooklyn federal court, a judge ordered him to forfeit $7.36 million in assets, which included "Once Upon a Time in Shaolin," his stake in the drug company Phoenixus AG, the Lil' Wayne album "The Carter V," and a painting by Pablo Picasso.

    But Judge Kiyo Matsumoto stayed the execution of that forfeiture order and the seizure of the assets to satisfy the monetary amount pending Shkreli's appeal of his conviction.

    And even if the Justice Department eventually does seize the album if Shkreli loses on appeal, it is not clear that the record will be worth anywhere close to the $2 million he paid for it.

    RZA told Rolling Stone in 2018 that he "actually tried to get" the album back when Shkreli earlier put it up for sale on eBay.

    "But the paperwork and the contract stops me from getting it back. When [Shkreli] put it on eBay, the first thing I did was call my lawyer, and I was like, 'Yo, let's go.' And they said, 'All right, check with your contract.' And it's no, you can't do it," RZA said in the Rolling Stone interview.

    The sale contract for the album reportedly barred Shkreli from releasing it commercially for 88 years. Shkreli, while free on release bond before his trial, had played snippets of the album while streaming video of himself online.

    Asked by CNBC on Friday whether the public ever will hear the full album, RZA said, "You know, I guess time will tell on that."

    CNBC revealed earlier this week that Shkreli was transferred from the federal prison in Fort Dix, New Jersey, to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, after a Wall Street Journal article reported that he was running his drug firm while locked up with the help of a contraband cell phone.

    Shkreli's lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, said he is being kept in that federal jail while awaiting transfer to another federal prison, in Allenwood, Pennsylvania. Brafman did not immediately respond to a query Friday about the RZA's comments.

    Shkreli, 36, gained notoriety in 2015 when his company hiked the price of the drug Daraprim — used to treat a parasitic infection sometimes found in pregnant women, infant and people with HIV — by more than 5,000%.

    He was convicted in 2016 of defrauding investors in two hedge funds he ran, and of conspiring to fraudulently manipulate stock shares of Retrophin, the pharmaceuticals company he founded after his hedge funds collapsed.

    Shkreli has been locked up since September 2017, a month after his criminal conviction, when Matsumoto revoked his $5 million release bond because of his offer to pay Facebook followers a $5,000 bounty for each lock of hair pulled from Hillary Clinton's head.
    Wonder what RZA would do with it if he ever got it back...

    Wonder where it is now exactly...
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  7. #67
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,946

    An overview

    The controversies truly established it as 'art'.

    MAY 31, 2019, 3:29 PM ET
    Celebrity Scandals
    ‘Once Upon A Time In Shaolin:’ How The Wu-Tang Clan’s Secret Album Stormed The Art World And Left A Mess In Its Wake

    Infamous "Pharma bro" Martin Shkreli bought "Once Upon a Time in Shaolin" for $2 million back in 2015 — and that's not the only unlikely part of the album's story.

    BY ETHAN HARFENIST


    From left to right, Wu-Tang Clan's RZA, music producer Cilvaringz and Martin Shkreli. Photo: Getty Images
    “This is not for the fans. I hope it maintains its course as an art piece and literally disappears into darkness.”

    This is how producer Cilvaringz described the Wu-Tang Clan's one-of-a-kind “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” to a reporter. It’s hardly the sort of language one would expect to hear about an album — if it could even be called that — created by members of a rap group that have collectively sold tens of millions of records around the world.

    But Cilvaringz, real name Tarik Azzougarh, had to know there was a fat chance this project would just quietly fade from the public’s collective memory considering how much attention — and controversy — it generated since it was announced in 2014.

    in a segment featured in the final episode of Showtime’s latest docu-series, “Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men.”

    Rather, “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” spawned a unique saga featuring the fine art world, a business mogul well-versed in internet trolling and all the surviving members of the Wu-Tang Clan — a yarn featured in the final episode of Showtime’s latest docu-series, “Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men.”

    A True Pyramid Scheme
    In the docu-series, Cilvaringz claims that the idea for “Once Upon a Time” was born out of a 2004 trip to Egypt with Wu-Tang mastermind RZA, real name Robert F. Diggs, during which the two toured the pyramids. Basically, the duo yearned to create a musical artifact able to withstand the sands of time in the same ways the pyramids have.

    “Halfway climbing the pyramid of Keops we sat down to overlook the desert, and I said to RZA that one day we should do something special together that would last through the ages,” he says in the episode.

    The recording process for the album unfolded organically, a la 1993’s “Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers),” with Cilvaringz phoning individual Clan members to hop on tracks. He noted that he borrowed RZA’s approach of helming a project from start to finish as if it were a film, and then unveiling the completed product once he was satisfied with it.

    “[The album], sonically, is kind of like a nostalgic journey through 1993 [to]1998, the golden era of the Clan,” Cilvaringz says in the docu-series. “It wasn’t until I kind of put it all together that we were like, ‘Yo! This sounds like a Clan album.’”

    ‘An Egyptian King’s Scepter’
    In March 2014, RZA spoke publicly for the first time about “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin.”

    In an exclusive interview with Forbes, RZA discussed the singular nature of the album and likened it to a piece of capital-A art by the likes of masters such as Degas or Monet.

    “We’re about to sell an album like nobody else sold it before. We’re about to put out a piece of art like nobody else has done in the history of [modern] music,” he told the magazine. “We’re making a single-sale collector’s item. This is like somebody having the scepter of an Egyptian king.”

    RZA further explained that Cilvaringz was the main producer on the project, and that there were plans to take the music on tour through art galleries around the world (so, like a regular concert tour, only minus the thrill of hearing live music and seeing your favorite artists perform in front of you). He also hinted at the possibility of a private buyer being able to snag the one-of-a-kind record for a price “in the millions” following its world tour.

    “The idea that music is art has been something we advocated for years,” RZA told Forbes. “And yet it doesn’t receive the same treatment as art in the sense of the value of what it is, especially nowadays when it’s been devalued and diminished to almost the point that it has to be given away for free.”

    In the docu-series, RZA put it much more concisely: “Things have value when they are rare.”

    Shkreli In Da Front
    On Nov. 25, 2015, Paddle8, the online auction startup that Wu-Tang hired to sell the album, announced that “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” had been sold for a “figure in the millions.”

    The buyer? Notorious pharma-bro Martin Shkreli.

    Shkreli’s combination of obnoxious public trolling combined with his seemingly heartless business practices — he came to notoriety after jacking up the price of a lifesaving drug called Daraprim by 5,000 percent — at the time made him one of the most hated figures in America. That fact only became more true once he got his hands on “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” for a reported $2 million.

    As one of the conditions of the sale, the album wasn't to be made publicly available for 88 years, or until the year 2103.

    He publicly toyed with the idea of destroying the record outright, or installing it in some remote location so dedicated listeners would have to go on some sort of quest in order to hear the music.

    RZA felt the need to explain that the record was sold to Shkreli before he or anybody else involved in the record’s creation knew who they were dealing with.

    “The sale of ‘Once Upon a Time in Shaolin’ was agreed upon in May, well before Martin Skhreli’s [sic] business practices came to light. We decided to give a significant portion of the proceeds to charity,” RZA wrote in a statement to Bloomberg in December 2015.

    Wu-Tang Dissension
    In the docu-series, Clan members voice their dissatisfaction for Shkreli’s purchase: Ghostface Killah said Shkreli had “no respect for life.”

    But even before, the group members weren’t thrilled with the way the process was handled from the get-go.

    “I don’t give a f--k about that album,” Method Man says in the docu-series. “That was never supposed to be a Wu-Tang album”

    The grievances appear to lay in the notion that “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin’s” creation wasn't undertaken in the most open way. It seems the members weren’t fully aware that the recording sessions they were doing with Cilvaringz were part of some larger Clan project, and that they only learned after the fact that he had been piecing together the work from those sessions into a coherent whole.

    Cilvaringz, for his part, doesn’t see it that way.

    “To think that I tricked everyone into recording a Wu-Tang Clan album — that’s just simply not true,” he says in the docu-series.

    What Happened To The Album?
    In March 2018, federal authorities seized “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” following Shkreli’s conviction for fraud, according to the Guardian newspaper. Prior to that, Shkreli attempted to sell it on eBay, with RZA himself even trying to buy it back from the “pharma bro,” but being unable to do so.

    As for the album’s present fate, RZA jokes in the docu-series about Shkreli possibly running into one of Ghostface Killah’s cousins in jail.

    “One of those motherf---ers would want to make a sandwich out of him!”
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  8. #68
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,946

    RZA Shares the Advice He Gave Martin Shkreli

    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  9. #69
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,946

    Netflix film

    Exclusive: Wu-Tang Clan’s ‘Shaolin’ Album Netflix Movie Lands ‘Brittany Runs a Marathon’ Director
    BY JEFF SNEIDER AUGUST 24, 2020



    Brittany Runs a Marathon helmer Paul Downs Colaizzo is set to direct the Netflix movie Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, which purports to tell the true story behind controversial pharma bro Martin Shkreli‘s acquisition of the sole copy of Wu-Tang Clan’s album of the same name.

    Ian Edelman (How to Make It in America) wrote the script, and Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA is expected to produce alongside Plan B, the production company owned by Brad Pitt. The project itself was first revealed last week in an STX press release about Edelman writing the Pete Davidson–O’Shea Jackson Jr. movie American Sole.

    Colaizzo has already done his own pass on the script, which follows the auction for Wu-Tang Clan’s seventh studio album and its aftermath. Once Upon a Time in Shaolin was recorded in secret over a period of six years, and a single two-CD copy was pressed in 2014. It was stored in a secure vault in Morocco before selling to Shkreli for a reported $2 million the following year. In March 2018, a federal court seized control of the album following Shkreli’s conviction for securities fraud, which required him to forfeit millions of dollars in various assets.


    Image via Amazon Studios

    According to RZA, the sale was agreed to before Shkreli greedily hiked up the price of Daraprim, and that once Wu-Tang Clan learned of the buyer’s identity, the group donated a “significant portion” of the proceeds to charity. Shkreli later tried to sell the album on eBay for north of $1 million, but his legal troubles prevented him from completing the sale, and though RZA attempted to buy back the album himself, terms of the original deal prohibited him from doing so. As of now, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin cannot be commercially exploited until 2103, which means you shouldn’t expect to hear any snippets on the soundtrack of this Netflix film.

    Along with RZA and the late Ol’ Dirty *******, Wu-Tang Clan’s members include GZA, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God, Masta Killa and Cappadonna.

    Colaizzo made his feature directorial debut with Amazon’s acclaimed dramedy Brittany Runs a Marathon, which stars Jillian Bell in a truly fantastic performance. Colaizzo is working with Legendary to develop an adaptation of Leila Slimani’s international bestseller The Perfect Nanny, which follows a lawyer who decides to return to work after having children. He’s represented by CAA. Netflix did not respond to a request for comment.
    An obvious project. Netflix is on top of things...
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  10. #70
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,946

    Sold by the government

    ‘Pharma bro’ Martin Shkreli’s $2m Wu-Tang Clan album sold by US government
    The album, purchased by Shkreli for $2m, was bought for an undisclosed sum


    An unreleased Wu-Tang Clan album that Martin Shkreli forfeited after his securities fraud conviction was sold Tuesday for an undisclosed sum. Photograph: Carlo Allegri/Reuters
    Guardian staff and agencies
    Tue 27 Jul 2021 21.23 EDT

    An unreleased Wu-Tang Clan album that “Pharma Bro” entrepreneur Martin Shkreli forfeited after his securities fraud conviction was sold Tuesday for an undisclosed sum, though prosecutors say it was enough to fully satisfy the rest of what he owed on a $7.4m forfeiture order he faced after his 2018 sentencing.

    The entrepreneur once boasted that he paid $2m in 2015 at auction for Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, the 31-track double album the Wu-Tang Clan spent six years creating.

    He later put the album on eBay, but was incarcerated for fraud before the sale (the winning bid was just over a million dollars) before the sale could be completed, Forbes reported at the time.

    “With today’s sale of this one-of-a-kind album, his payment of the forfeiture is now complete,” Acting US Attorney Jacquelyn M Kasulis in Brooklyn said in a release.

    Authorities said the sales contract for the album contained a confidentiality provision that protects information relating to the buyer and price.

    In a civil case in Manhattan federal court, lawyers wrote in an April document that Shkreli had already reduced his forfeiture debt by about $5m.

    Attorney Benjamin Brafman, who represented Shkreli, said he couldn’t comment because of the confidentiality order. He said in an email that he can only confirm that the entire forfeiture amount has now been paid.

    Shkreli, 38, is scheduled for release in October 2022 after serving a seven-year prison sentence.

    He was prosecuted after he gained fame in 2015 when, unrelated to the prosecution, he boosted by 5,000% the price of Daraprim, a previously cheap drug used to treat toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection that can be fatal to people with Aids or other immune-system disorders.

    Martin Shkreli, former chief executive officer of Turing Pharmaceuticals and KaloBios Pharmaceuticals Inc, departs after a hearing at U.S. Federal Court in Brooklyn, New York, U.S., June 26, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

    Shkreli’s purchase of the Wu-Tang Clan album came as group member RZA said he wanted the album – packaged in a hand-crafted silver and nickel case which includes a 174-page book wrapped in leather – to be viewed as a piece of contemporary art.

    In 2016, Shkreli said if Donald Trump won the election, he would release the album and if Hillary Clinton won he would destroy it. When Trump did win, he streamed the album intro and one of the tracks, according to Gizmodo.

    At sentencing, Shkreli also claimed to own an unreleased Lil Wayne album, “Tha Carter V.” In its debut week in 2008, the rapper’s “Tha Carter III” sold more than 1m copies and helped launch Lil Wayne to superstar status.

    In 2017, Shkreli was convicted of lying to investors and cheating them out of millions of dollars in two failed hedge funds he operated. Brafman described Shkreli at sentencing as a misunderstood eccentric who used unconventional means to make his defrauded investors even wealthier.

    – With Associated Press

    This article was amended on 28 July 2021 to remove an erroneous reference to “the Aids virus”.
    Wait...who bought it?
    Stay tuned...
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  11. #71
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,946

    Reveal

    We Will Soon Know Who Now Owns the One-of-a-Kind Wu-Tang Clan Album
    MUSIC - 6 DAYS AGO

    DIMAS SANFIORENZO

    Photo Credit: Rashaad Patterson/Paddle8
    We should know the identity of the person who bought Wu Tang’s mythical Once Upon A Time In Shaolin album within the next 60 days.

    Last week, the Brooklyn US Attorney’s Office announced that they sold the one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan album, Once Upon A Time In Shaolin, which was once owned by infamous “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli. The buyer and how much that person (or company) paid for the album was not revealed, but Shkreli’s lawyer Benjamin Brafman said the sale price covered the balance of a $7.4 million forfeiture judgment Shkreli owed.

    Now, we will soon find out who purchased the album.

    On Tuesday, August 3rd, Peter Scoolidge, a The New York-based lawyer, reveled that he was the person who handled the purchase for the unnamed buyer. In an interview with CNBC, Scoolidge said the lawyer “is going to identify themselves in the future… I’d say in the next 30 to 60 days.”

    In the article, CNBC points out some interesting points: the fact that, in 2016, Scoolidge represented artist Jason Koza in a lawsuit against Shkreli, RZA, and Once Upon A Time In Shaolin‘s co-producer Cilvaringz because of the illustrations of his artwork that came along with the album. Then, in 2018, Scoolidge represented Cilvaringz in another matter around the album. So the question remains — did someone involved with the Wu-Tang buy this album from the government?

    The story of the Once Upon A Time In Shaolin album is bonkers. The one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan LP was recorded over a six year stretch and hidden away in a secret Moroccan vault.It was then sold to Martin Shkreli in 2015. A wealthy pharmaceutical businessman, Shkreli became infamous after the company he owned purchased the anti-parasitic drug Daraprim (which is often used to treat malaria and prolong the lives of HIV-positive patients) and raised its price from $13.50 per pill to $750.

    Shkreli had the option to release the album for the world to hear whenever he chooses, but if he wanted to do it commercially, he would have to wait 88 years. (Shout out to the Wu-Tang Clan’s strict copyright arrangement.) The album allegedly features appearances from the entire Wu-Tang Clan, Redman, and Cher with production from Cilvaringz.. The album, which is on a CD, is held in a silver jewel-encrusted box with a wax Wu-Tang Clan seal and leather-bound liner notes.
    We'll check back in when it is revealed.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  12. #72
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,946

    PleasrDAO

    Wu-Tang Clan’s Once Upon A Time In Shaolin Sold To Cryptocurrency Collective

    NEWS OCTOBER 20, 2021 12:33 PM BY JAMES RETTIG



    Over the summer, we found out that Wu-Tang Clan’s one-of-a-kind album Once Upon A Time In Shaolin had been sold by the United States government to pay off a portion of Martin Shkreli’s $7.4 million monetary judgement in relation to his conviction for securities fraud. At the time, the US Attorney’s Office did not disclose who bought the album or how much it sold for. But as The New York Times reports today, it was purchased by a cryptocurrency collective known as PleasrDAO.

    Per the Times, PleaserDAO took possession of the album on September 10 and its sole physical copy is apparently held in a vault in New York City. “This album at its inception was a kind of protest against rent-seeking middlemen, people who are taking a cut away from the artist,” PleasrDAO’s Jamis Johnson told the paper. “Crypto very much shares that same ethos.” He went on to call Once Upon A Time “kind of the OG NFT.” And indeed, a nonfungible token was created to serve as the ownership deed for the physical album, and all 74 members of PleaserDAO have collective ownership of that deed.

    When Wu-Tang Clan put Once Upon A Time In Shaolin up for sale in 2014, they put some stipulations in place: The album could be played for individual people at public events, but could not be widely distributed until 2103, or 88 years after it was first sold. Shkreli reportedly paid somewhere in the range of $2 million for the album initially.

    PleaserDAO say that they want to make Once Upon A Time In Shaolin more widely available. “We believe that we can do something with this piece,” Johnson said. “To enable it to be shared and ideally owned in part by fans and anyone in the world.” But it’s unclear how exactly they would do that while still honoring Wu-Tang Clan’s original wishes. On their part, the group’s RZA declined to comment to the Times and Cilvaringz, a producer who worked on the album and its concept, said that “we wanted to honor the NFT concept without breaking our own rules.”

    Once Upon A Time In Shaolin was sold for the equivalent of $4 million in cryptocurrency as tied to the US dollar. Because the government requires standard currency, an intermediary was paid roughly $2.2 million to then pay the government.
    This story keeps getting better and better...
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  13. #73
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,946

    Peek inside

    Click this and scroll to the images: LEOPOLD DOJ USMS FOIA WU TANG
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  14. #74
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,946

    Shkreli released

    'Pharma Bro' Martin Shkreli has been released from prison

    May 19, 202210:45 AM ET
    RINA TORCHINSKY


    Martin Shkreli, a former pharmaceutical executive known for raising the price of a life-saving drug by 5,000%, was released from prison and transferred Wednesday to community confinement, the Federal Bureau of Prisons told NPR.

    Community confinement refers to home confinement or a halfway house, according to the bureau's statement. Shkreli's projected release date from the Bureau of Prisons is Sept. 14.

    In a Wednesday Facebook post, Shkreli shared a selfie with the caption "Getting out of real prison is easier than getting out of Twitter prison."

    In 2017 a federal jury found Shkreli, dubbed "Pharma Bro" in the media, guilty on two counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud. He was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2018.

    A judge also ruled that Shkreli must forfeit the money he made from fraud. As part of the $7.4 million forfeiture judgement, the United States sold the only copy of the Wu-Tang Clan album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, which was once owned by Shkreli.

    While he was head of Turing Pharmaceuticals, Shkreli notoriously raised the price of the life-saving drug Daraprim, an antiparasitic medication commonly used by AIDS patients and others with suppressed immune systems, from $13.50 per pill to $750. The move drew fierce backlash, but even with the approval of a generic version in 2020, the price per pill is still above $700 today, according to Drugs.com.

    In January a U.S. District Judge ordered Shkreli to return $64.6 million in profits from the Daraprim price hike. Shkreli also was barred from the pharmaceutical industry for the rest of this life.

    In a statement, attorneys for Shkreli told NPR that he had completed "all programs that allowed for his prison sentence to be shortened."

    "While in the halfway house I have encouraged Mr. Shkreli to make no further statement, nor will he or I have any additional comments at this time," the statement read.
    Did he learn his lesson, do you think?
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  15. #75
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,946

    Comic book

    Martin Shkreli Gets a DC Comics Batman Allegory as Marvin Falcone
    Posted on August 9, 2022 by Rich Johnston|Comments
    Martin Shkreli was a hedge fund manager and former chief executive officer of the pharmaceutical firms Retrophin and Turing Pharmaceuticals. He was best known for being a "pharma bro", and for raising the Turing Pharmaceuticals price of the antiparasitic drug Daraprim by over 5000%, from $13.50 to $750 a pill. Five years ago, Shkreli was convicted for securities fraud charged and sentenced to seven years, fined $7.4 million with further fines of $64.6 million in a civil case. He was released from jail early in May this year and is currently launching a drug discovery business.


    By House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform – Public Domain,

    Previous to the case, Martin Shkreli was also the buyer of the Wu-Tang Clan album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin at auction for $2 million. The band's seventh studio album, recorded in secret for over seven years, had only one copy printed and put up for auction, with the stipulation that it could not be commercially exploited until the 22nd century, but could be played at listening parties. After the conviction, the federal court seized assets belonging to Shkreli, including Once Upon a Time in Shaolin which was then sold on to NFT collectors PleasrDAO for $4 million.

    And today's Batman: Urban Legends #18 from DC Comics seems to recreate Martin Shkreli as Marvin Falcone, of the Gotham crime family and nephew of Carmine Falcone, as a "pharma bro and grade A D-bag" who has bought the only copy of the Shaolin's Qquad new album, The Seven Deadly Venoms, to be played only for the rich…


    BATMAN URBAN LEGENDS #18
    Will Martin Shkreli decide to buy up every single copy?

    BATMAN URBAN LEGENDS #18 CVR A LIAM SHARP
    (W) Various (A) Various (CA) Liam Sharp
    A STRING OF NEW SAGAS BEGINS! Written by Tini Howard, Blake Howard, Brandon Thomas, Chris Burnham, Henry Barajas and Greg Hahn Art by Rosi Kampe, Alberto Jimenez Albuquerque, Chris Burnham and Sergio Acuna Tini Howard and Blake Howard pen an epic Batman story! Batman and the Outsiders have to save the Signal from burning out! A new mystery begins, starring Alfred Pennyworth before his passing, from all-star creator Chris Burnham! And in a story from Batman's past, the Dark Knight must team up with Etrigan the Demon to stop the Reincarnators!
    Retail: $7.99 In-Store Date: 08/09/2022



    About Rich Johnston
    Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
    Once again, OUATIS transcends the ordinary into high art.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •