Links: Death Scenes, Star Salaries, and Filmmaker Arrests
Thursday, July 21, 2022 at 5:28PM Today's Must Read
• Slate examines the "50 Greatest Fictional Deaths of All Time". For a piece on death it's surprisingly fun and life-affirming. But the best reason to read it is that, unlike 95% of "all time" lists unline, it's genuinely far reaching stretching across all storytelling mediums and time periods. At this point it's a miracle to see an "all time" list that acknowledges that the world existed before the 1990s! Obviously spoilers abound though...
Movie and tv salaries at the moment, Jafar Panahi's prison sentence, Amanda Seyfried's Wicked audition, Bollywood anxiety and more after the jump ...
• Variety on current movie star salaries and new contracts now that back-ends are less common
• Variety a companion piece about television paydays and how the gap is widening between stars and supporting players
• Coming Soon Focus Features has aquired Wes Anderson's latest Asteroid City though no release date (or even year) is announced. It's about a fictional stargazing convention in 1955
• BBC Iranian auteur Jafar Panahi has been ordered to serve six years in jail after voicing concerns about the arrests of two other filmmakers
• ...IndieWire has reactions to the arrests "maybe they will come for all of us"
• Coming Soon Bridgerton season 3 has begun production. This season will focus on Penelope (Nicola Coughlan) and Colin (Luke Newton) and introduces three new male cast members
• Deadline Bollywood has had a rough 2022 but has high hopes for the second half of the year
• Backstage Amanda Seyfried interview. We would like someone to cast her in a new movie musical immediately given this quote (love a star that works on their craft to improve!)...
Last summer while I was playing Elizabeth [on “The Dropout”], on the weekends I was auditioning in person to play Glinda in the movie version of “Wicked”—because I wanted it that much that I was like, “You know what? Yeah, I have to play the last scene of ‘The Dropout’ on Tuesday. I’ll give my Sunday to you.” I literally bent over backwards while playing the hardest role of my life. But I think it also taught me how far I’ve come as a singer, which I really wanted to prove. Because ever since “Les Miz,” I was like, I need to be better. I need to do better. So whatever comes next in terms of musicals, I’m finally prepared.
Off Screen
• Huffington Post Stranger Things cast invades Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway
• Vogue Trixie Mattel interview on her career, new album, and wanting to make more Trixie Motels
• The Atlantic three biggest happiness rules
• TheaterMania Oscar nominated Mary Badham ("Scout" in To Kill a Mockingbird) has joined the national tour of the stage production of To Kill a Mockingbird...albeit in a different role now that she's 70 years old
Reader Comments (5)
Is the smackdown reader voting going to open today?
I remain devastated by the fictional death in the John Irving novel, The World According to Garp.
After the car accident in the driveway during the rain storm, the narrative continues for a lengthy spell without a report on the youngest son Walt. As one character says, you know when and only when you need to know it.
After an agonizing period of time, Irving breaks our hearts as Garp tells Helen, “I miss Walt.” Z
Dammit Iranian government! You guys suck!
part of me thinks Bridgerton will focus on the gay story but they're fooling us with media stories about the 3rd brother in line.
We talked about it recently: Kevin Spacey's death in LA Confidential is a masterpiece of acting and directing. I know nobody wants to talk about him, but his death in Seven is also beyond words.