John Horn speaks with us about the Oscar nominations, financial advice for lotto winners, El Chapo Guzman's famous bright blue paisley shirt designer chats with us.
Feds to crackdown on dark money in luxury real estate
An announcement Wednesday by the Treasury Department could shake-up high-end property markets across the country.
The department says it will track anonymous buyers who hide behind shell corporations to purchase properties in the US. It's the federal government's latest move to crack down on foreign money laundering.
Officials say the initiative was inspired by a New York Times investigation into the dark sector of the luxury real estate market -- a market often fueled by buyers from overseas.
While the crackdown will start with properties in Manhattan and Miami, it's a decision that could eventually have an impact on high-end home buyers in LA.
Louise Story spearheaded the investigation for the New York Times. She says that nearly three-quarters of high-end homes purchased in Los Angeles over the past decade were bought through limited liability companies (LLCs).
Story joined Take Two to discuss the possible impact of the Treasury Department's decision.
Press the blue play button above to hear the interview.
How to make a desert car chase look good: 'Mad Max' cinematographer
"Mad Max: Fury Road," was one of 2015's biggest movies because of its compelling story and thrilling action sequences.
But the visuals were just as big of a star in the film: the camera panned across jaw-dropping desert expanses while capturing a frantic, stunt-filled chase.
Director George Miller earned an Oscar nomination for his work, but so did cinematographer John Seale.
It's Seale's fifth career nomination, having worked on, "Witness," "Rain Man," "Cold Mountain," and taking home the award for, "The English Patient."
Seale tells Take Two that when he entered the project, there was no script for him to work with – just 3,500 story board drawings plastered around a conference room like a comic book.
"It just became an endless series of close-ups, really, and I couldn't understand the story," he says. Eventually, pressure from Warner Brothers to develop a script helped Seale fill in the blanks.
"I was able to read between the lines – or between the frames – the actual plot lines."
Developing the movie in 3D was also a technical challenge, says Seale, because Miller originally wanted to use 3D cameras in the field rather than creating the effect in post-production.
But those cameras are highly sensitive to being outside amid dust and moisture, not to mention the movement of vehicles during the car chase.
"By the time I girded my loins and thought, 'Okay, that's what's going to happen and let's make it work,'" he recalls, "George got up in a meeting one morning said, 'We're not going 3D, we're going 2D.'"
Seale also believes that filmmakers will try to quietly shift away from 3D features because of the negative effects it sometimes has on viewers.
"I think too many people push the 3D too hard until your brain hurts," he says. "I think more and more filmmakers will pull back on that in-your-face 3D look because it hurts."
Meet the guy who made El Chapo's 'perfect' dress shirt
This past week when Sean Penn interviewed drug lord Joaquin Guzman, or El Chapo, a picture of the two of them together started to make the rounds on the internet.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BAWIK9JwfMa/?taken-by=barabas_men
The article was divisive and inspired conversation, but so did El Chapo's fashion choice. The shirt was loud and boisterous, and as it turns out it comes from a clothing wholesaler in downtown Los Angeles called Barabas.
Shawn Esteghbal, one of the shop's owners claims he designed the shirt in the summer of 2015 and that it's only one of more than 300 shirts that they've manufactured.
When Take Two arrived at the shop for an interview, multiple people were there to purchase the shirt, of which Esteghbal said, he had only a few left. They retail for $128 and are backordered until February.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BAWKORiwfP4/?taken-by=barabas_men
Clothing wholesalers are common in downtown Los Angeles. Like Barabas, they design and distribute their clothes to shops around the world. For Barabas those shops are mostly in the United States and Mexico, where Esteghbal says his shirts have become popular with musicians.
As to how El Chapo got a hold of his shirt, he's not sure, but as a designer, he says he's fine with it.
"I'm a designer... and somebody's appreciating it and wearing it... Regardless of who he is and what he does... it's a great feeling. I see my shirt is on news and it's everywhere."
If you own the El Chapo shirt and are curious as to where you should wear it, Esteghbal has an answer for that too.
"It's a dress shirt! You wanna go to a church? You can wear one of these shirts and go to a church. You wanna go out on a date? It's perfect. You want to go clubbing with it? It's a perfect shirt."
The Wheel Thing: A minivan and a coupe try to be sexy, the VLF Force 1 just is
Cars and sex kinda go together, don't they?
And if you make cars, making them sexy can be a great way to grab buyers' attention. This trope is in evidence at this week's North American Auto Show in Detroit. Chrysler took on what might be the greatest challenge ever – adding some allure to a minivan. The result, their new Pacifica model. And Buick, a brand that doesn't exactly evoke passion, showed a surprisingly stylish concept coupe designed to shake up their image.
But perhaps the sexiest car in a sea of automobiles in Detroit is one from a newly formed auto firm, VLF. The Force 1 V10 is the wickedly seductive work of superstar designer Henrik Fisker, who teamed up with a group of other automotive heavy hitters, including former GM honcho Bob Lutz, to form that they are billing as a great American luxury car company.
Among the many other vehicles rolling out in Detroit this week, the VLF car got the most drools, by far. But if your taste runs more toward big, burly and lots of room for belly, you might be interested in the latest iteration of Ford's supersize pick-up, the Raptor. The already ginormous truck has 6 new inches of girth and a full foot of new breadth, enough to comfortably accommodate the largest members of the human species and several of the similarly-sized pals.
What you need to know about the 2016 Academy Awards
The 2016 Oscar nominations were announced this morning, with "The Revenant" leading the pack with 12 nominations, while George Miller's post-apocalyptic sequel MadMax Fury Road was not far behind with 10. What wasn't in the nominations? A whole lot of diversity. #OscarsSoWhite is trending on Twitter and John Horn of The Frame joins hosts Alex Cohen and A Martinez to talk about the whole show.
Nick Hornby reflects on his 2016 Oscar nomination
Among the lucky nominees is British novelist Nick Hornby who was nominated for his adapted screenplay for the film, "Brooklyn," which is about a young Irish girl who moves to New York. Alex Cohen reached Hornby on the phone from his home from in London to talk about the nomination and if he wins what he'll say during his acceptance speech.
Fall into some money? Here's how not to trip up
There's a big payout heading for Chino Hills, California – one of at least three winning tickets for the $1.6 billion Powerball jackpot was sold there.
But think hitting a big payoff is nice? Well, like in the Biggie song, sometimes mo' money, mo' problems.
Landing any kind of windfall is a big responsibility – whether it's the lottery, an inheritance, a really big tax return or more.
Mess it up and you could be back to zero.
Delia Fernandez has some financial advice for whenever you find yourself rolling in dough. She's a certified financial planner and president of Fernandez Financial Advisory in Los Alamitos.
State of Affairs: Anthony Rendon, CA budget, and the 'State of the State'
On this week's State of Affairs, some new leadership in the State Assembly, a ballot initiative gets a re-write, and a look ahead to Governor Brown's "State of the State" address.
, POLITICO's California Playbook reporter, and
, Los Angeles Times California government reporter, join Take Two for our weekly look at government and politics in the Golden State.
News channel Al Jazeera America shuts down
Only two and a half years after its launch, the cable news channel Al Jazeera America is shutting down.
The network announced yesterday that it will be going off the air by the end of April.
We'll talk about the impact it could have on employees and on the industry with David Folkenflik, Media Correspondent for NPR.
'Straight Outta Compton' screenwriters react to Oscar nomination
"Straight Outta Compton" screenwriters Andrea Berloff and Jonathan Herman joined the show to talk about their Oscar nomination.
The film follows the journey of rap group N.W.A.'s rise to fame in the mid 1980s to early 1990s.
To hear the full interview, press the play button above.