• THR A yummy Chris Evans cover story on Trump resistance, Captain America as the key figure that allowed the MCU to flourish, and his superhero-free future. He really wants to do a musical!
• Oh So Geeky fetishisizes the good captain with millions of gifs in this piece about his arc within the MCU and Avengers Infinity War in particular. So much Chris Evans this week!
• The Guardian For its Chinese release Bohemian Rhapsody has lost three full minutes (including all queer references, any mention of AIDS, and what sounds like the loss of one entire character - Mercury's boyfriend). The movie has made almost a billion worldwide. Maybe have some respect for Mercury's legacy, Warner Bros, and just not release it in China?
More after the jump including animation lawsuits, what's next for Alex Wolff, the end of Game of Thrones, and a must-read Fan Bingbing article...
• HuffPost a look at what the choreographer Madeline Hollander brought to Us and to Lupita Nyong'o's performance
• Coming Soon we were waiting to see what would happen with Alex Wolff after his amazing Hereditary performance. Not as much news as we've expected thus far but he's just joined the cast of a university set thrilled called The Line. Since most of the cast is older we hope he's got a large role being age appropriate for the setting
• Cartoon Brew animators on Sausage Party (2016) have won a pay dispute over unpaid overtime
• Short of the Week Fox Searchlight, often a formidable Oscar player, began acquiring shorts last year, raising some industry eyebrows. They've now launched 'Searchlight Shorts' starting with their freshly Oscared Skin (2018)
• Rolling Stone talkes to Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner before the final season of the show that made them famous, Game of Thrones
• Coming Soon HBO developing a new epic fantasy series called Asunda (with a lead for a young black woman). They're surely sweating the end of Game of Thrones so expect them and other content providers to be searching for a big sword & sorcery property
• Short of the Week Fox Searchlight, often a formidable Oscar player, began acquiring shorts last year, raising some industry eyebrows. They've now launched 'Searchlight Shorts' starting with their freshly Oscared Skin (2018)
• i09 seven non-scary songs made creepy by horror films, "I Got Five On It" the latest victim of this trend in Us
Today's Must Read
• Vanity Fair recaps the entire Fan Bingbing disappearance/tax evasion scandal in China and the shockwaves that have followed for the Chinese movie industry. There's lots of fascinating stuff therein about their booming market (they'll soon overtake Hollywood as the largest film market) including this bit:
Will Fan Bingbing still co-star in Jessica Chastain's international female spy film? We don't know
Because show business is still so new in China—it’s been only 20 years since private companies have been allowed to make movies—there aren’t many bankable stars who can guarantee box-office success. As a result, A-list actors like Fan Bingbing were able to command top dollar: it was not uncommon for as much as 90 percent of a film’s production budget to go toward on-screen talent. “We are in the golden age of Hollywood, where the star is key,” said a Chinese film executive who asked not to be identified.
The star-dependent culture was on full display at a DVD store in Beijing where I bought pirated copies of Fan’s movies. Discs were organized not by title or category but by actor. Nicolas Cage, Tom Hanks, Tom Hardy, and Jason Statham all received the full-row treatment. Nicole Kidman, whom many Chinese consider a vision of unimpeachable beauty, also got her own row. Others—Natalie Portman, Michelle Williams, even Meryl Streep—were relegated to a row seemingly reserved for miscellaneous white actresses.