Last night, Variety broke the news that Sony is launching a new, CGI 3D Popeye franchise. The 1920s-era comics will be adapted by Mike Jones, who was a journalist on the indie industry/film festival beat until he was sacked by Variety in a major editorial lay off a little over a year ago. In their writeup on what would seem to be a major coup for a laid-off writer, Dave McNary and Tatiana Siegel referred to Jones as “a Variety alum” — as if the cost-cutting, job-slashing trade is a finishing school. That's one way to look at it!

Anne Thompson, who was let go by Variety at the same time as Jones, weighs in on her blog at indieWIRE.

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