In Mission: Impossible – Fallout, being the good guy has serious consequences

In Mission: Impossible – Fallout, being the good guy has serious consequences

Over the past two decades, the Mission: Impossible film franchise has become the reliable, comforting home that’s always ready to shelter Tom Cruise. No matter what turns his career takes, there’s always Ethan Hunt: the dogged Impossible Missions Force operative who always gives 110 percent, perpetually putting himself at risk to secure other people’s safety.

In a different era, Hunt would serve as a sort of Platonic action-hero ideal, and there wouldn’t be any need to dig past the archetype itself. But there’s been an interesting wrinkle in the franchise, starting with Brad Bird’s 2011 take, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. Hunt has had to face the notion of consequences — and not just the usual ones, where if he fails, some madman might blow up the world. Now, Hunt is facing personal consequences for his actions, as he has to leave behind his wife Julia (Michelle Monaghan) because he can’t sustain a relationship while perpetually globetrotting to save the world.

Christopher McQuarrie’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout builds that core idea into an entire film. Or at least it builds that core idea into a frame for jaw-dropping setpieces and brain-numbing plot twists. The result doesn’t just feel like the sixth installment in a long-running series, it feels like an authentic sequel to 2015’s Rogue Nation, bringing back many of the key characters and storylines to explore whether the ideals of a character like Ethan Hunt even make sense in the modern world. And it explores those ideas while telling an audacious, exhilarating story.

Fallout begins with a new IMF mission: after Hunt captured Solomon Lane (Sean Harris) in Rogue Nation, Lane’s criminal cohorts have reorganized under the name The Apostles, and are trying to obtain some missing plutonium. They hope to create order from the chaos of the world by inflicting massive harm through a series of attacks, and forcing countries to work together as the old world order falls. Hunt puts together a mission to buy the plutonium before The Apostles can get their hands on it, enlisting his usual cohorts: Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames, still the master of deadpan reactions) and Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg).

When things go awry, Hunt suddenly faces a choice: save Stickell, or protect the plutonium. The conflict clearly lays out the central conundrum in Hunt’s character, but IMF director Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin) spells it out for the audience anyway: Hunt’s inability to prioritize the greater good over a single life may make people see him as a hero, but can also lead to the world becoming much more dangerous.

THE SAME CHARACTER TRAITS THAT MAKE HUNT A HERO MAY ALSO LEAD TO THE WORLD BECOMING MUCH MORE DANGEROUS.
With the CIA no longer confident in Hunt’s abilities, agent August Walker (Henry Cavill) is assigned to team up with Hunt to get the plutonium back. That sounds like a lot of setup, but it isn’t even Fallout’s first act. The movie is packed with plot reversals, and new characters arrive at every turn. The Crown’s Vanessa Kirby shows up as the White Widow, an arms broker who can help Hunt procure the missing plutonium. Angela Bassett plays no-nonsense CIA head Erica Sloan. Harris’ Solomon Lane returns as a key figure, and so does Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), the MI6 agent who infiltrated Lane’s network in Rogue Nation. All of this is a lot for audiences to keep track of, and at a certain point, there are so many plot micro-turns that it becomes easier to stop trying to make sense of it all, and let the story wash by on the way to the next action sequence.

Photo: Paramount Pictures
That’s where the film really makes a statement, because Mission: Impossible – Fallout merges the franchise’s big-budget spectacle with an utterly ferocious style of action filmmaking that far surpasses what McQuarrie executed in either Rogue Nation or Jack Reacher. It’s filled with gasp-inducing motorcycle chases, kinetic car sequences, and bruising, brutal combat. When called into action, Cavill’s Walker is so savage a fighter that he’s hard to watch at times, whether he’s landing pummeling body blows or bashing his opponents into a bathroom sink. Many of the action beats just feel meaner than the industry standard, whether it’s Hunt taking a bruising tumble across pavement after being thrown from his motorcycle, or the relentless, violent gunplay that peppers so many scenes.

MERGES THE FRANCHISE’S BIG-BUDGET SPECTACLE WITH AN UTTERLY FEROCIOUS STYLE OF ACTION FILMMAKING
It sometimes feels like Fallout is more action reel than movie. The fight sequences are arresting, but they stretch out at such length that they can’t always maintain energy. What makes them constantly watchable, however, is the sheer variety — McQuarrie stages so many different kinds of action sequences in so many different locales that Fallout begins to feel like a James Bond film. The gorgeous IMAX visuals help as well. McQuarrie and cinematographer Rob Hardy pop into the immersive, 1.90:1 IMAX aspect ratio throughout the film, and the footage they capture with the IMAX cameras is stunning, particularly during a climactic helicopter chase above the snowy mountains of Kashmir.

Those IMAX cameras are particularly effective in capturing the sheer audacity of Cruise’s stunts. He’s made a personal trademark out of performing his own film stunts as often as possible, especially in the Mission: Impossible series. The actor famously broke his ankle during the filming of Fallout, and yes, the shot where he sustained the injury is in the finished film. (The Graham Norton Show featured a more gruesome breakdown earlier in 2018.) Cruise’s dedication is surprising, but his commitment to the role makes him almost too grounded of a character, which causes a sense of discordance in the later scenes, where the movie pushes into nearly comical levels of spectacle.

Photo: Paramount Pictures
But no matter how ridiculous the action sequences become, the dedication to that core idea ultimately elevates the film. At one point, Lane warns Hunt that eventually evil will triumph, and the bloodshed that follows will be a result of Hunt’s inability to modulate his worldview — “the fallout of all your good intentions.” Other action films have similarly explored the idea that holding onto an ethos isn’t expedient for a hero — perhaps most notably in Daniel Craig’s take on James Bond. But reframing an American action hero, particularly one played by Cruise, as too heroic to be effective gives the idea a different sense of weight. As a performer, Cruise is known for his steadfast dedication to his work projects. With the more controversial aspects of his public persona, he’s known for his intense devotion to his personal religious beliefs. And as an actor, he’s built a career largely on the idea of being the all-American action star. Fallout channels all of that, using both his performance and everything audiences think they know about Tom Cruise to its benefit. It builds a portrait of a man who’s so resolute in his own beliefs that he pushes people away — even the ones he loves most.

But Fallout is still a Tom Cruise movie, so while the movie shockingly follows through with the implications of its main theme, it nevertheless tees up events so that by the end, all feels right with the world. The door is left wide open for another entry in the series, should everyone involved (plus Cruise’s ankle) think they’re up for another go-round. But should this end up as the series’ final entry, it’s hard to imagine a better, more fitting end than Mission: Impossible – Fallout. It’s hilarious and thrilling. It acknowledges that single-minded devotion is what lets characters like Hunt do what they do, while also admitting it would make them incapable of adapting to any kind of normal life. And it’s the ultimate on-screen expression of Cruise’s own personal dedication to stunstmanship at all costs. In many ways, Fallout feels like a movie about Tom Cruise himself, with a clear message to bring across: he’s a complicated celebrity figure, but he’s still a pretty damn good movie star.

Read more here: https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/12/17566014/mission-impossible-fallout-review-tom-cruise

William Gibson’s abandoned Alien 3 script will be published as a comic book

William Gibson’s abandoned Alien 3 script will be published as a comic book

The history of Hollywood is littered with film projects that waste away in “development hell” for years, or worse, are abandoned altogether, leaving movie-goers to wonder “what if?” Titles like Alejandro Jodorowsky’s ambitious Dune project or Nicholas Cage’s Superman Lives tease an alternate past in which a very different set of films hit theaters. One notable project that dangled in front of fans was the sequel to James Cameron’s Aliens, Alien 3. Initially, the film’s producers approached Neuromancer author William Gibson to write the script; he produced one, but ultimately it never saw the light of day.

Comic Book Resources revealed that Dark Horse Comics will release a comic series starting in November based on Gibson’s screenplay, adapted by Johnnie Christmas, who’ll handle both adapting the script and the art. Dark Horse already has the license for the franchise, and it’s done similar projects in the past, like its adaptation of George Lucas’ first draft of Star Wars, so it’s a natural fit for the publisher.

Image: Dark Horse Comics
Gibson’s script picks up following the events of Aliens, when the USS Sulaco — carrying Ripley, Hicks, Newt, and the remains of Bishop — strays into a Soviet Union-like territory called the Union of Progressive Peoples. Its soldiers board the ship and are attacked by a facehugger, before departing for a space station called Anchorpoint, which is later overrun by the aliens.

But producers weren’t satisfied with the script, and when Gibson wasn’t able to find the time for the requested re-writes, the project went to a variety of other writers; when filming started in 1991, it did so without a completed script. Had Gibson’s original script been filmed, the franchise would likely have taken quite a different turn. Instead, fans got David Fincher’s ALIEN³, the director’s 145-minute major-feature debut that polarized critics and audiences alike. (The director later famously disowned the film.) A fourth installment, Alien Resurrection, also disappointed audiences. A fifth sequel was planned, but never filmed, and 20th Century Fox eventually produced two Alien vs. Predator films (adaptations of Dark Horse’s crossover series), before the franchise went on ice for years, until Ridley Scott returned to the franchise with Prometheus and Alien: Covenant.

Gibson’s original script has floated around the internet for years, so the contents of the story won’t be a surprise to dedicated Alien fans, but its publication will nevertheless bring the story to life for a new audience. If it sells well, maybe we’ll get to see the unfilmed Aliens sequel that Neill Blomkamp wanted to make.

Read more here: https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/12/17565326/william-gibson-alien-3-unfilmed-script-dark-horse-comics-adaptation

Marvel’s Black Widow movie finally has a director

Marvel’s Black Widow movie finally has a director

A film starring Scarlett Johansson’s Marvel Cinematic Universe character has been rumored for the past few years, but that rumor now seems much closer to reality. Cate Shortland (Lore, Berlin Syndrome) has signed on to direct the long-overdue film, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Earlier this year, Marvel hired screenwriter Jac Schaeffer to write the script, which is reportedly set before the events of the first Avengers film. THR says Marvel has met with “70 or 75 directors in order to find its ideal candidate,” and that hiring a woman to direct was a priority, with Johansson personally advocating for Shortland.

Johansson’s Black Widow was first introduced to the MCU in 2010’s Iron Man 2, and she has since appeared in The Avengers, Captain America: Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, and Avengers: Infinity War. She’s expected to feature in the as-yet-untitled Avengers 4 as well. But in spite of her central role in the franchise, the absence of a standalone film is glaring. Her male counterparts — Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Hulk (Edward Norton), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Captain America (Chris Evans), and Spider-Man (Tom Holland) — have each gotten standalone film treatments over the franchise’s 10-year history, with most of them headlining at least three films.

Marvel’s first female-led film will hit theaters next year: Captain Marvel, starring Brie Larson and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. The film got a prominent tease in a post-credits scene for Avengers: Infinity War, and it just finished shooting a few days ago, so it’ll certainly beat Black Widow to screens.

Besides, there’s no release date attached to the Black Widow film yet. But with Marvel’s Phase 3 ending with Captain Marvel and Avengers 4, it’s safe to say that it’ll be part of Marvel’s Phase 4, along with Spider-Man: Far From Home, Guardians of the Galaxy 3, Black Panther 2, and other projects that are currently in the works. The Phase 4 films are expected to begin hitting theaters in 2019.

Read more here: https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/12/17566338/marvel-cinematic-universe-black-widow-cate-shortland-director-scarlett-johansson

Marvel San Diego Comic-Con Exclusives Revealed

Marvel San Diego Comic-Con Exclusives Revealed

As usual, those atending San Diego Comic-Con next week will want to make sure to pay a visit to the Marvel booth, which will be packed with plenty to see and do. That includes the chance to get ahold of a ton of exclusive Marvel merchandise, such as comic book variants, t-shirts, pins, and more!

There will be two special SDCC exclusive variant cover comics available, including the COSMIC GHOST RIDER #1 J. SCOTT CAMPBELL GLOW-IN-THE-DARK VARIANT ($25) and THE LIFE OF CAPTAIN MARVEL #1 PUTRI VARIANT.

Cosmic Ghost Rider #1 SDCC Exclusive
The Life of Captain Marvel SDCC Exclusive
Pin collectors will be very excited by what is available at the Marvel booth with the amazing 2018 line of Marvel Skottie Young pins, including a Fantastic Four Pin Set available for $25. Below are all of the pins, including sets focused on the Avengers, X-Men and villains!

Marvel San Diego Comic-Con 2018 Exclusives
There's also a couple of different hats, including a Wakanda Forever Dad Hat for $30, plus an Infinity Stone 6-Piece Tumblr Set, a Hallmark Doctor Strange 8-Bit Ornament, the “Marvel's Runaways” Soundtrack On Vinyl, and a Marvel Character Heads Lanyard.

Marvel San Diego Comic-Con 2018 Exclusives
And of course, there are plenty of the ever-popular Marvel shirts – more than two dozen, in fact! You can get a look at all of them at the bottom of the page! You can also click over to our Marvel SDCC Merch page to get more looks at the items you'll find in San Diego soon.

All of the Marvel exclusive items will be available at the Marvel booth, Booth #2329, from Wednesday 7/18 (Preview Night) – Sunday 7/22. Quantities are limited.

For more exciting Marvel highlights and news during SDCC 2018, tune in to the Marvel livestream at marvel.com starting Thursday, July 19. Join the conversation using #MarvelSDCC.

Read more here: https://www.marvel.com/articles/culture-lifestyle/marvel-san-diego-comic-con-exclusives-sdcc

How to use Minecraft cross-play on Xbox One and Nintendo Switch

How to use Minecraft cross-play on Xbox One and Nintendo Switch

Last year Microsoft rolled out the Minecraft Better Together update – one of its most substantial yet with a reworked engine, cross-platform multiplayer, and the Minecraft Marketplace. Minecraft's Nintendo Switch version just saw the update one year late, bringing long-awaited unification between several platforms. This allows Xbox One and Nintendo Switch players can play together too, joining a growing library pushing cross-play between the duo.

Continue for a breakdown on using cross-play between Xbox One and Nintendo Switch versions of Minecraft.

See Minecraft for Xbox One at Amazon See Minecraft for Switch at Amazon

Setting up Minecraft cross-play for Xbox One

Preparing cross-play on Xbox One is straightforward, thanks to relaxed content restrictions over other platforms. And with direct Xbox Live integration on the console, you'll be ready to go after installing the game. Xbox One users should ensure “Minecraft” is used, rather than the incompatible “Minecraft: Xbox One Edition.”

Open the Microsoft Store on Xbox One.
Select the Search title.
Type Minecraft.
Select Minecraft from the available titles.
Download Minecraft. This will be a free download for existing Minecraft: Xbox One Edition owners. For new buyers, the game is priced at $19.99.
Open Minecraft.
After completing the above steps, your Xbox One is primed for Minecraft cross-play with other systems.

Setting up Minecraft cross-play for Nintendo Switch

Cross-play on Nintendo Switch brings a few additional hurdles to overcome, due to limitations of the console. Without native Xbox Live integration, you'll need to sign into a Microsoft account. Furthermore, the lack of an integrated browser means you'll need help from a mobile or PC. Like the Xbox version, Nintendo Switch users should ensure “Minecraft” is installed, rather than the incompatible “Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition.”

Open the Nintendo eShop.
Navigate to the Search tab.
Search for Minecraft.
Select Minecraft from the available titles.
Download Minecraft. This will be a free download for existing Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition owners. For new buyers, the game is priced at $29.99.

Open Minecraft.
Select Sign In For Free when prompted to sign into your Microsoft account.
Navigate to https://aka.ms/remoteconnect on your PC or mobile.

Enter the unique code displayed on-screen.
Sign into your Microsoft account. A confirmation screen will be displayed. Your Xbox Live profile will appear on your Nintendo Switch shortly after.
Select Let's Play to complete the process.
Minecraft is now linked to Xbox Live and ready for cross-play with other systems.

How to create Minecraft cross-play games

The process to create cross-play sessions is the same as any other Minecraft multiplayer game – set up your world and you're ready to go. For those with an existing Minecraft Realm from other platforms, these steps can be ignored.

Select Play from the main menu.
Choose Create New under the Worlds tab.
Select Create New World to start a fresh game.
Navigate to the Multiplayer subsection.
Check multiplayer is enabled.
Select Create once you're ready to play
Your Minecraft world will now start and be open to other players.

How to join Minecraft cross-play games

Using Minecraft's Friends tab is a quick way to see active games and join sessions. Navigating to this section will breakdown which online games are joinable across compatible platforms.

Select Play from the main menu.
Press RB to access to Friends tab on Xbox One. Press R to access to Friends tab on Nintendo Switch.
Select an active game to join.
On Xbox One, games will be split between joinable friends and joinable Realms. On Nintendo Switch, games are sorted by Nintendo Switch friends, Xbox Live cross-platform friends, and joinable Realms.

Over to you
If you're yet to jump into the world of Minecraft, make sure to check out our ultimate guide for a full breakdown of mechanics. The game is available on both Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, priced at $19.99 and $29.99 respectively.

Read more here: https://www.windowscentral.com/minecraft-cross-play-guide

From beauty vloggers to Minecraft: Ireland’s top YouTube earners

From beauty vloggers to Minecraft: Ireland’s top YouTube earners

A generation of influencers and entertainers have emerged in the digital age. Joyce Fegan profiles Jack Septic Eye, Little Kelly and some of the other young stars who’ve tapped into the lucrative new world.

1) Jack Septic Eye

Worth more than €2m at only 28 years of age, Sean William McLoughlin is Ireland’s number one YouTuber.

Operating under his alter ego, Jack Septic Eye, Google which owns YouTube, lists the Athlone man as Ireland’s most popular YouTuber.

He posts about video games, as well as uploading videos of comic sketches, including a recent one where he makes pizza out of playdough. This video amassed 810,000 views after just one day online.

Overall, he has 19.1m subscribers to his JackSepticEye channel. His total views stands at a staggering 9,503,190,109. Views for his videos in general usually average out at around 1m or 2m, with one recently reaching 7.3m views, as it starred actor Ryan Reynolds.

He is popular on social media too, with 5.6m followers on Instagram and 4.68m fans on Twitter.

While he had been busy building his platform from 2012, and getting more serious in 2013, it was not until last year that he came to national prominence when he was interviewed for RTÉ documentary, Ireland’s Rich List, where his net worth was listed at €2.5m. He also found himself on Ireland’s 30 under 30 rich list. The Athlone gamer’s Twitter bio states: “Dreams absolutely come true but they take time, dedication and patience.”

2) Daithí De Nogla

This 26-year-old Limerick man recently filed accounts showing his company had an income of more than €1m. YouTube officially lists him as having the second most popular channel in Ireland. David Nagle, his real name, posts mostly video game tutorials.

On YouTube, he has just reached 6m subscribers, having started out in the online world in 2012. In total, all of his videos have amassed 929,963,502 views. One day after posting, a video of his can have as many as 327,000 views, while views for all of his uploads averages out at about 200,000 to 400,000. He is also massively popular on Instagram, with 1.8m followers.

While his company cracked the €1m, he has said he is not that interested in money. Accounts show that he pays himself a wage of €33,800 a year, as that is what he needs to live on. He also bought himself a bungalow “in the middle of nowhere” but admitted that it has “good fibre optic connections.”

The Limerick man had been studying Early Childhood Care and Education in the Institute of Technology Tralee, before dropping out to pursue his YouTube channel full-time.

3) Scott and Ryan Fitzsimons

Twin brothers Scott and Ryan Fitzsimons run the YouTube channel Tiny Turtle & Little Lizard, where they chart their Minecraft adventures. Minecraft is a creative video game where players can build virtual worlds using blocks.

The millionaire brothers have 3,688,311 subscribers to their channel. Accounts for the 27-year-old identical twins shows they paid themselves €4.1m between 2015 and 2017. Originally from Co Meath, in 2016, the pair shared a pay-pot of €2.215m million — or €1.1m each.

The joined the video-sharing platform in 2012 and so far their videos have been viewed 2,207,617,369 times. Their videos have an average of around 100,000 views each with some amassing as many as 500,000 views.

The brothers also run an Instagram page alongside their channel which has almost 300,000 followers. On it, they share photographs of trips to the British Virgin Islands and the Caribbean. There is also a recent photo of one of the brothers test-driving a Ferrari.

Back in 2014, just two years after the brothers uploaded their first video, Scott described their endeavour as “just a hobby” in the beginning and outlined their hopes for the channel.

“We played it, we enjoyed uploading it and some of the stuff clicked more and people started enjoying it. You could easily notice what people wanted to watch rather than just what you wanted to play so if you got a good combination of both.”

The twins’ younger sister Kelly is also a YouTube star with her own Minecraft channel.

4) Brian Hanby

In fourth spot is Terroriser, real name Brian Hanby, with 2,582,021 subscribers to his gaming channel. The 29-year-old Dubliner also has his own line of merchandise to accompany his online brand.

His gaming videos average out at having around 200,000 to 300,000 views each and overall his channel has had 234,796,504 views since he started it in college. The gamer is also popular on social media, where he has almost 1m followers on Instagram and 994,000 on Twitter.

His previous employment included working for Subway covering the festival circuit for them and also baking bread in Sandyford Industrial Estate.

“I used to work in Subway,” he says. “I used to hate my job. It was a lot of stress. I did all the Subways for Electric Picnic and Oxegen one year. I worked in the Sandyford Industrial Estate baking bread for a whole summer. I’ve worked shitty jobs for so long, it’s nice to be doing what I love now. I’m grateful.”

While Brian dropped out of his original course in Dublin Institute of Technology, he did return to education.

5) Kelly Fitzsimons

At age 22, Kelly Fitzsimons already has €60,000 in her pension fund and, over the last two years, she has earned more than €850,000 from your YouTube channel, Little Kelly Minecraft.

Her creative video channel has more than 2.5m subscribers at present after she join the platform just under three years ago. From Ashbourne, Co Meath, Kelly is one of the highest earning people in their 20s in Ireland and paid herself almost €350,000 last year.

Her older brothers, Scott and Ryan Fitzsimons, are behind the popular YouTube channel, Little Lizard & Tiny Turtle, which also creates Minecraft videos.

Since she went live at the end of June 2015, her videos have amassed a total of 1,350,303,587 views. Some of her most popular videos have as many as 1m and 2.3m views each. She also runs several other channels, including a vlog about her life with her fiancé David.

The YouTube star has also been outspoken about abuse online, creating videos about bullying and posting reassuring content about how to deal with such behaviour on her Instagram page. Her Instagram account boasts more than 300,000 followers alone and it charts her personal life, which includes life in Ireland and travelling for work.

6) Chris O’Neill

At age 28, Chris O’Neill’s channel OneyNG is the sixth spot from the top. He is the first non-gamer to make it on to the list. Instead of video games, the Wexford man has been busy creating animated cartoons for the last number of years.

Some of his animation cartoons have had 27m views, 30m views and even 42m views. In total, all of the videos on his animation channel have had 444,285,568 views.

The 28-year-old YouTuber, while not very active on his OneyNG channel at the moment, currently has 2.1m subscribers.

More recently, he has been uploading gaming videos to another channel called OneyPlays.

This channel while not at the top of the list has 537,620 subscribers of its own. Many of the videos on there receive up to 300,000 views each.

The Wexford YouTuber started out online in his late teens and has said that he makes “a good living out of it”. He described the life of a YouTuber as “pretty good” and that “it all pays for itself”. While his net worth is not known, nor how much he takes home as a salary, he has been busy travelling the world for conventions and talks within the industry.

7) Carina Elliott

From nurse to YouTube Minecraft star, Carina Elliott runs her own YouTube channel, Little Carly Minecraft. Having only joined the platform in August 2015, her channel now has 1,377,248 subscribers.

In total her videos have been viewed a total of 581,744,084 times.

Originally from Swords in Co Dublin, she plays the long-lost sister of Little Kelly Minecraft (Kelly Fitzsimons) online, even though the two are not related in real life.

Some of her Minecraft videos have 2.3m views on YouTube. She has recently created a new YouTube channel, Little Carly Plays, which currently has more than 30,000 subscribers, with all of the videos on the new venture having a total of 1,528,768 views.

Meanwhile on Instagram, the YouTube star has 254,000 followers. Similarly to Kelly Fitzsimons, Carina has spoken out about mental health and bullying.

In a recent post called ‘Talking Makes us Stronger’, the online entertainer said: “Talking to a friend, family member, teacher or grandparent can be extremely helpful in these [bullying] situations.”

Carina married Kodaline drummer Vinny May in 2017, after the pair had been dating for several years. The pair got engaged in New York in 2014.

8) Vlad Mare

Limerick teenager Vlade Mare runs the successful YouTube channel VladTeeVee. He currently has 1,263,633 subscribers to his channel.

The 19-year-old was born in Romania and moved to Ireland at a very young age. Since joining the video sharing platform in July 2015, his videos have been viewed a total of 151,594,926 times.

He says he uploads “videos everyday based around the newest trending topics such as top 10s, top 5s and 5-minute crafts”.

More specifically, the teenager has posted videos about the latest online trend, such as the Laurel and Yanny audio trick that went viral last month.

A video posted seven months ago, called ‘Don’t Judge Challenge Compilation Reaction’, has had 1,196,129 views.

9) Stephanie Lange

Stephanie Lange is the first non-gaming woman to enter the list. The vlogger is a professional make-up artist, so as well as posting video tutorials about make-up, she uploads content about her day-to-day life, including her struggles with anxiety.

Stephanie currently has 1.2m subscribers to her channel. Overall, her videos have been viewed 124,631,037 times on YouTube.

The Irish-based, Australian-born vlogger has had several of her videos go viral. One called ‘Foundation Dos and Don’ts’ has amassed 3.2m views, while one titled ‘Why I hide my ugly face behind make-up’ has had 888,128 views. Other popular videos include one about eyebrow hacks and about make-up for your face when you have just woken up.

The 30-year-old vlogger also posts advice videos following on from questions her fans have sent in. She has covered topics such as infidelity.

Stephanie started out posting videos in January 2013 and she is now repped by former model Andrea Roche which runs a model and influencer agency. The vlogger is also a hit on Instagram with 182,000 followers. Her exact earnings from the channel are not known but it is understood that it is her main source of income.

10) Brian McManus

Brian McManus runs Real Engineering, which has 1,105,637 subscribers and counting.

Having joined YouTube in September 2013, his videos have been viewed a total of 55,312,233 times. The 28-year-old engineer from Galway quit his job in the oil industry in 2016 to focus on online content creation. It is estimated that he earns approximately €80,000 from his online channel.

Recent videos include ‘How to solve the housing crisis’. This video alone has been viewed 349,000 times since it was uploaded one week ago. A video he put up three months ago about the ‘Truth of wireless charging’ has been viewed 1.2m times.

Surpassing 1m views per video is a common occurrence for the engineer. Brian narrates each of his videos and attracts sponsors such as such as Skill Share. Having worked as a porter in a Galway hotel just eight years ago, he now runs Junto Media Ltd, which is described as a “production studio that specialises in the creation of entertaining and informative content for a growing online audience”.

11) Sinead Cady

Cork-based vlogger Sinead Cady takes 11th spot on the YouTube list. The make-up artist is solely a beauty vlogger and her channel, the Make-up Chair, boasts 1m subscribers on YouTube.

In total, her make-up tutorial videos have amassed 127,479,233 views since her channel began in 2010. She is also popular on social media, with 50,000 followers on Instagram and 60,000 on Facebook.

One video in particular has gone viral, where she demonstrates a beginners eye make-up tutorial. So far it has had 12m views. While her earnings from the channel is not known, she previously told the Irish Examiner that she did not start out with a business venture in mind.

“I didn’t set out to create a business. I actually only started to get into studying makeup but it’s my full-time job now,” she says.

While the channel is now her full-time work, it has not been without its challenges as she had met ‘trolls’ online.

“You can’t control what is said online,” she says. “People make up stories about you and post things that can hurt deeply. When people make assumptions about you without even knowing you, that’s hard to deal with. I’ve learnt to be pretty private now, but I have met amazing people through YouTube; they make it worth it.”

12) David May

Engaged to Little Kelly Minecraft, aka Kelly Fitzsimons, David May co-runs YouTube channel Sharky & Scuba Steve. His channel currently has 954,628 subscribers.

It is part of the Little Club family, the Minecraft empire created by Kelly’s older brothers Scott and Ryan, who feature in third place on this list. The Little Club family has a host of characters in the Minecraft world it has created.

David’s own channel has been active since July 2015. His videos have amassed a total of 424,768,562 views in that time. One of his videos from 2017, has been viewed 2,849,438 times.

Sharky & Scuba Steve is just one of his online endeavours. Last February, he and Kelly set up their own channel, Kelly and David Vlogs. So far it has nearly 30,000 subscribers, having only posted three videos.

One of which is of their new adventure, where the young couple chart their move from Ireland to a different country, which they have not revealed. David said they moved in January in a “last-minute” decision and because they wanted a change of “routine.”

In a recent media interview the YouTube star described the running of the online channel as “demanding job” because of the length of time spent indoors.

“It’s a very demanding job. An average office day can be 12 or 14 hours and that can be a half day sometimes depending on the days you do,” says David.

13) Adam Beales

At only 18 years of age, this head boy from St Columb’s College in Derry has literally just finished school, but his YouTube channel, TheNewAdamb99 is already closing in on 1m subscribers.

Officially, he has 949,072 subscribers to his channel, which hosts videos of pranks and regularly stars his little brother Calum.

Based in Co Derry, Adam has also brought out his own range of merchandise, which includes hoodies and T-shirts, as well pop-sockets to attach to the back of smartphones. All of the merchandise is branded with his channel’s logo.

So far, his videos have been viewed a total of 85,796,811 times.

They include single videos of him driving through a carwash for the first time and spray painting his white runners pink and blue. A video of him pranking his little brother, pretending to be the police, has been viewed more than 600,000 times.

In another business move, he has just opened his channel up to “sponsors” where people can pay £4.99 a month for access to exclusive live streamed videos. He films all of his videos and edits them from his bedroom in his parents house. He taught himself how to shoot and edit video.

While his earnings are unknown, he has made a video about his net worth where he Googles himself to see wha the media has been writing about him. One source suggested the 18-year-old was earning around €80,000 a year, a suggestion Adam laughed off.

In a recent interview with the Irish Times, he was described as originally having dreams to study at Oxford or Harvard. However, he has opted to study at a university in Ulster so that he can continue with his fledging vlogging empire.

14) Barry Maguire

With 933,418 subscribers, Barry Maguire’s channel Donut the Dog, is also part of the Little Club Minecraft family, which stars Scott, Ryan, and Kelly Fitzsimons.

The former firefighter is also in a relationship with Lithuanian-born model Irma Mali, who had previously dated Danny O’Donoghue from The Script.

Barry’s YouTube channel was created in August 2015, and so far his videos have been viewed a total of 412,953,843 times. One of his videos has received 4,728,849 views alone.

He charts his life on two Instagram accounts, with the one dedicated to YouTube avatar Donut the Dog, having 171,000 followers. In January, he posted a photograph of himself in his old work uniform captioned with: “One of my last few days serving as a firefighter.”

The rest of his Instagram profiles his life as YouTube star with images from various trips around the world and him taking part in adventure sports. He also posts shots of himself with Scott and Ryan Fitzsimons, describing them as the “masterminds”.

15) Conor Power

Conor Power is yet another member of the Little Club Minecraft family. His character is Little Donny and his channel of the same name has 870,313 subscribers.

His channel was set up in October 2015 and so far all of his 1,701 videos have been viewed a total of 357,821,708 times.

Very little is known about this member of the Little Club family, other than that he is married to ‘Little Leah’, another of the show’s characters.

Little Leah is Vicky Power in real life. Her YouTube channel has 526,423 subscribers.

Read more here: https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/lifestyle/features/from-beauty-vloggers-to-minecraft-irelands-top-youtube-earners-853790.html