Misc: Silly Villains, Prequel Genies, Naughty Droids, Creepy Dolls
Saturday, July 18, 2015 at 1:11PM AV Club Parker Posey cast in Woody Allen's next film. Here's hoping she can graduate to lead muse
Variety Miramax and its 700 film library (all of which were Oscar nominated in the 1990s*) are for sale. Potential buyers balking at the $1 billion price tag.
Guardian Emma Stone on being "the butt of jokes" and learning about whitewashing in Hollywood through that Aloha fiasco of hers
Empire Aladdin added to Disney's growing 'let's make live-action movies based on our animated library' list
Joanna Robinson ...offered my favorite response to this
Variety Julianne Moore leaves Nicole Holofcener's Can You Ever Forgive Me? - replacement seeking commence (10 bucks on Catherine Keener cuz that's how Holofcener do)
Coming Soon David Gordon Green will direct a Boston Marathon bombing related film with the extremely generic title of Stronger
Harpy annoys me with this article asking us to excuse bad character design in X-Men movies if the movie turns out OK. Let's not lower our standards shall we?
The Wrap Star Wars unhappy with Amy Schumer's risqué GQ photoshoot
Screencrush realizes that every Marvel villain is essentially the same guy
Salon has Hollywood reached a tipping point with sexism? More and more A listers speaking out
Long Read
This piece from The Telegraph won a lot of online attention. It looks back at the then unique Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004) and how the filmmakers (Kerry Conran and Kevin Conran) were immediately forgotten by Hollywood despite their process becoming enormously influential.
...and ICYMI Tim's Toons also revisited this Visual FX landmark last year for its 10th anniversary
Off Screen
The Cut "what open marriage taught one man about feminism" - I would argue that this is not about feminism at all BUT it is about one couple's complicated relationship and it's interesting to hear intimate things about people's private lives that you're not usually privvy to. What's even more fascinating (if depressing / expected) is how defensive and hateful the comments are. People just can't handle anything that challenges the norm without excessive judgement - it terrifies them, they lash out. We've seen this over and over with every social battle... and also with every argument about what "marriage" means. Marriage has such a fraught complicated evolving history in legal, political, sexual, religious terms that it's hilarious that conservatives are always claiming that it's this great unchanging sacred monolith since the days of Adam & Eve.
Smithsonian has a history of creepy dolls
The Verge 'the trolls are winning the internet' - you don't know how often I'm grateful to most of you in our comparatively pleasant comments here at TFE
Pajiba asks that you stop writing, reading, publishing thinkpieces if the people writing them have not seen the thing they are writing about (it's an epidemic, really in this clickbait era)
*I'm kidding but it feels true.
Reader Comments (14)
Amen to the think pieces about things people haven't seen-one of my biggest pet peeves. With the Miramax sale I just hope and pray that those films don't end up being locked up in a vault somewhere-whoever buys them should make sure the public has access.
I was so disappointed to read Julianne Moore left Holofcener's film! I love Keener but I hope someone else is cast. There are so many other actresses I'd love to see work with her, she does great things with great actresses. I thought Julia Louis Dreyfuss was sublime in Enough Said.
While I cannot - and will not - defend that Apocalypse design, the article is kind of right. People were saving DOFP was doomed because Quicksilver had an iffy design and the film turned out just fine. Hell, the Internet threw a hissy fit when Robert Downey Jr and Heath Ledger were cast as Iron Man and The Joker, respectively, and look how those turned out. The design of Apocalypse should absolutely be criticized but I don't think the internet should hold it against the entire film.
As for the Miramax thing; I have no idea what to make of that. It wasn't like Miramax was making billion dollar hits, so I can understand some people not wanting to shell out a billion for it. However, they have a (mostly) prestigious catalogue and it is a movie studio, so it has to have some strong value.
"Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" looked like big budget RKO picture from 1935. Yes it was cool technical movie magi but story wise both Lucas and Spielberg had done it.
"Marriage has such a fraught complicated evolving history in legal, political, sexual, religious terms that it's hilarious that conservatives are always claiming that it's this great unchanging sacred monolith since the days of Adam & Eve.
Smithsonian has a history of creepy dolls"
LOL. Your link description was so serious, then the next one went completely random that I can't help but laugh (this was unintentional very funny, but very funny anyway).
Can I just say that I loved Amy Schumer's raunchy, culture-indicting photo spread? Talk about a metaphor for the film blogosphere's obsession with Star Wars...
The fact that Star Wars folks were unhappy with it just makes Schumer's joke that much sweeter.
Daniel Armour: Let's talk about that Quicksilver design's actual biggest failing: No freaking way would a guy dressed like that in 1973 have a Jim Croce CD. Ditch the walkman and put a radio in the scene if you want to frame his super speed to that exact song. If you really DON'T want to ditch the walkman, find an appropriate song from someone along the lines of Zappa, Captain Beefheart or King Crimson.
Personally I'm sick of them shoving mediocre white women in our face. Amy Shumer is not funny more like bland and annoying. She gets no points from me from using black women's bodies as props.
Volvagia: Mmmm. Never really thought about that. Interesting point.
Nikki: I never watched her show, so I'm assuming she used black women's bodies as props on there because I don't remember that in the movie. Anyway, I do find it frustrating that in this rise of female comics to the big screen that they only seem to be white women. Unfortunately, however, I'm not surprised.
As for Shumer herself; I haven't seen her show but I thought Trainwreck was kind of a dud (way too long, most of the humor feels forced and, in terms of structure, the story is a paint-by-numbers rom-com through and through), so if that's any indication of her talent then... meh.
Bryan -- agreed.
Nikki -- wow, to each their own. I think Schumer is freaking hilarious. Everything but "bland".
@Daniel, it wasn't in the movie it was in one of her skits. I'm sorry, but she's just not funny .
Leslie Jones is funnier , Margaret Cho is funnier and so is Rose Byrne.
Yes, the only female comedians that are rising are White. As someone else mentioned WOC have to be amazing in order to get recognition. White women only have to be decent.
@nathaniel
I've seen many of her skits and didn't find them funny, but everyone is entitled to their opinion. At least she did apologize for her racist jokes.
Let me put a light saber down my throat. That's soooo funny. Trainwreck was hyped up to be like the best comedy in years, but that title goes to Spy.
@Nikki: No, she did not at all. She did the entire opposite.
She's in the same line as Tina Fey: she can get this quirky awkward comedic persona right while being insightful and hilarious at the same time talking about injustices and inequalities of women, but only when it's about white ones.
Fey's points of view can be very well summed up in an episode of "30 Rock" where there's a dispute between Jenna (Jane Krakowski) and Tracy (Tracy Morgan) of what's harder today: being a woman or a black man. Among the many things where the episode becomes cringy or fails tremendously (it has some good bits here and there) Fey as a writer shows how white she is and how incomplete her definition of feminism is at completely ignoring women of color (they're not mentioned explicitly and they're not even implied ironically). Shumer is doing the exact same thing right now, plus the fact that sometimes she ends up giving straight up racist comments in her stand-up (again, which she did not apologize for).
I can't expect a good reasoning about what's being a minority from wealthy white people, but if they're going to do it, they bettter do it right. Both Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are in the pinnacle of privilege and they touch the subject tremendously well, without losing hilarity or getting into white guilt.
@Melissa: "Spy" is hilarious and never thought I'd say this (not even sarcastically), but Jason Statham is really good in it.