Borderlinks
Friday, June 4, 2021 at 6:48PM • Deadline Master and Commander (2003) is finally getting a sequel... or rather a prequel based on an earlier book so new actors will be in the Crowe/Bettany roles
• Vanity Fair an interview with screenwriter Michael Waldron who is helping to shape Marvel's Phase 4
• The Guardian profiles After Love director Aleem Khan. We really want to see this film. The mother role sounds like a great part for undervalued and excellent Joanna Scanlon
More after the jump including Billy Magnussen, Borderlands, Cruella, Dick Van Dyke, The Conjuring franchise, and rumors about The Color Purple movie musical...
• Coming Soon a new silhouette photo from Borderlands revealed by Jamie Lee Curtis
• Washington Post A profile of Dick Van Dyke as the Kennedy Center Honor looms
• That Hashtag Show Black Cat, an origin movie for a character who is essentially to Spider-Man what Catwoman is to Batman, might be in developent again at Sony
• The Atlantic takes Cruella to task for its cowardice at removing all of the iconic villain's delicious evil
• MNPP will Jonathan Majors co-starring be enough to get you interested in Creed III?
• /Film posits that the central romance is why The Conjuring series has been so successful. We'll take it because we love Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson
• Playbill Bedknobs and Broomsticks has become a stage musical. Casting is complete for its UK run
• Bonhams is hosting an auction of a ton of movie-stills. Lots of monster movies and 30s and 40s films
• Deadline an interview with the production designer of the great comedy series Pen15 which is set in the early Aughts
• Boy Culture Barbra Streisand has a new album coming out, her first in 3 years
• MNPP Billy Magnussen 15 times - now with more beard
• Kenneth in the (212) on the internet rediscovering those Lily Tomlin & David O. Russell videos from the set of I ♥ Huckabees yet again (seriously it happens like clockwork but more often than Pennywise's resurgence)
• AV Club Issa Rae to voice Spider-Woman in Into the Spider-Verse 2
• NBC News Gavin MacLeod, the captain on The Love Boat and a co-star on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, has died at age 90
• AV Club Action star Donnie Yen is joining Keanu in John Wick 4
Finally, at Queerty Michael Musto revealed the gossip that producers want an unknown for The Color Purple movie musical and not Cynthia Erivo. Ugh! Normally we're against automatically giving a stage performer a movie role (stage and screen are different beasts and actors are often better at one than the other) but after Erivo's Tony-winning breakout she more than proved that she has considerable screen charisma, too. It feels like a wasted opportunity to go elsewhere when the original star is right there and has those amazing pipes.
Reader Comments (16)
The internet's latest discourse around David O. Russell, at least on twitter, seems less driven by the Lily Tomlin/Huckabees video and more by the fact that he has a new movie coming out this year and has somehow escaped consequences despite multiple high-profile physical and verbal encounters with people in Hollywood, and despite admitting to having groped his transgender niece.
Not to mention, Erivo HAS been Oscar nominated after her star making turn in Color Purple.
Also due to be nominated for an Emmy THIS year.
Passing her over in the movie that should be made as her vehicle is just FOOLISH.
I'm starting to get the feeling that despite some amazing films he's made, David O. Russell has become overrated and also troubled. I remember there was a story that he had Christopher Nolan in a headlock just so that he can get Jude Law to be in I Heart Huckabee's.
I am not really looking forward to his next film as I refuse to watch Taylor Swift in a movie as I just think she should just stick to making music that I don't care to listen to.
Honestly? What's the point in doing The Color Purple movie musical WITHOUT Erivo.
How do people keep tabs on all of this shit? If people paid as much attention to their own lives and actions as intently as they do celebrities, the world would be a better place.
^ Re: Duncan's comment.
Agree that Cynthia Erivo should play Celie onscreen. That night (as in every night she's onstage, I was told) she was electric: her transformation to an empowered woman was very believable and when she belted that song "I"m Here", people gave her a standing ovation. The last time that happened was in the "Sunset Blvd" revival, when the audience (the one I was with that evening) gave Glenn Close thunderous applause and standing ovation. So make this film The Color Purple with Erivo as Celie (maybe also Heather Headley as Shug).
Yet in a weird way, I also find the casting of an unknown appealing. I am sure there is not a dearth of outstanding talents for this role out there.
I had to chuckle each time I watch that video of a rageful and raging Lily Tomlin: admonishing Naomi Watts for giggling, and even cursing at his seatmate Dustin Hoffmann. The one that makes me chuckle is Isabelle Huppert's (non)reactions. At one point she even retouched her hair. The few times she's restless she seems to suggest either: get me out of this set, of this movie, or maybe she thought: shall we get on with the scene, please; I got 3 more films to complete after this. Her character, loosely based on her persona, in Dix pour cent (Call my agent!) sees her juggling multiple film assignments even when she's unable to speak.
I find the Cruella article quite spot-on, even as it acknowledges that current culture wars on intersectionality and pluriversal identity politics help abet the treatment of Cruella de Vil as complicated and not evil. I am for the demystification of evil to unravel new truths but I thought Cruella is at its funniest and most amusing when she is downright and irredeemably evil. It's just a story, not real life (or is it?).
I believe the jury is still out on whether Erivo has screen charisma, and the very mixed to lukewarm reviews for her roles as Harriett Tubman and Aretha Franklin are the proof. No question, she was a force of nature on Broadway but just because someone is electric on stage doesn't mean they will be on screen. So I'm glad the producers are looking elsewhere for Celie. I can see Ledisi as Shug Avery and Jonathan Majors as Mr.
And, yes, if Mr. Majors is in Creed III, I am there for the opening day matinee!
Sadly, I must say, After Love is really bad. For a Critics Week film, it was quite disappointing and shallow.
Magnussen with a beard makes him look even more like a serial killer.
Creed 3? Do I have to watch the other 2?
Erivo, who I've only seen in 'Widows', where she was a charismatic and dynamic presence, should recreate her Broadway role. Who else is better?
I found After Love to be brilliant, its stayed with me since I seen it. Joanna Scanlan is amazing, as ever.
It's touch with stage to screen adaptations. Audrey Hepburn's acting (and seamless lipsyncung) in My Fair Lady curbstomped any imaginable Julie Andrews take on film, but Julie's singing was great.
Also I saw an online clip of whoever the stage August Osage County lady was and she was outrageously hammy. Good in person but even tempered the performance would stink onscreen. Just because Meryl was better than her doesn't mean we shouldn't have had, say a Spacek, in the role.
On the notion of recasting the role of Celine in the musical version of The Color Purple, I looked to Oscar history and found no bias against actresses who were cast in another actress’s stage success.
Actresses who recreated stage performances and then won Best Actress include
Judy Holiday in Born Yesterday
Vivien Leigh in A Streetcar Named Desire
Shirley Booth in Come Back Little Sheba
Anne Bancroft in The Miracle Worker
Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl
Actresses who were cast in a stage adaptation over the original actress and then won include
Grace Kelly in The Country Girl
Anna Magnani in The Rose Tattoo
Ingrid Bergman in Anastasia
Elizabeth Taylor in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Katharine Hepburn in The Lion in Winter
Maggie Smith in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Liza Minnelli in Cabaret
Louise Fletcher in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Katharine Hepburn in On Golden Pond
Geraldine Page in The Trip to Bountiful
Marlee Matlin in Children of a Lesser God
Jessica Tandy in Driving Miss Daisy
Renée Zellweger In Judy
NewMoonSon & Rodriguez -- the problem with judging stage performances is that on film they always look a little hammy and broad because the best performances work from everywhere from first row to the balcony. The scale has to be bigger than on film!
Having seen August onstage and on film I dont think there was a single cast member who was as good as anyone in the stage version; they didn't seem to get that it was a brutal comedy as well as a family drama. As for TCP Erivo was spectacular on the stage and i think she was great in Widows and The Outsider (HBO) so i want to see more of her onscreen. I dont think she was very good in Harriet but no one is great every time.
Reminder that David O. Russell molested his trans niece.
@Nathaniel: Erivo had 360 plus minutes to wow us as Aretha and came up short. If I were a producer of TCP I'd pass on her, too.