With The Trial of the Chicago 7 streaming on Netflix, one of the season's strongest awards contenders is now widely available. Even in times of pandemic and one of the weirdest Oscar races ever, it feels like a safe bet to rely on AMPAS to shower the movie with gold. The Academy is known to love an inspirational true story and Sorkin's sophomore directorial effort fits the bill. Some would argue it does this too emphatically, choosing formulaic drama over probing political critique and structuring the narrative around Tom Hayden's redemption to the detriment of the other historical figures.
Whatever faults the movie has, such matters are unlikely to undermine what already feels like a sterling awards narrative. This is a picture of political repression and revolutionary ideals that reflects and comments on our present time. Its themes are as urgent as ever. Furthermore, the Academy has long shown they are keen on Sorkin's brand of self-righteous garrulousness, and almost all of his movies have received Oscar nominations. With that in mind, let's reminisce about the filmography of Aaron Sorkin and its presence at the Academy Awards…
Filmed stage productions are becoming more and more common with The National Theatre in London finding great success streaming their high production shows across cinemas all over the world. Cinephiles and theatre goers are big overlap on the venn diagram. A live TV production seems like the next logical step. As recently reported, Aaron Sorkin’s play-turned-film A Few Good Men is getting the live TV treatment in 2017 on NBC. This follows in the successful footsteps of live musicals The Sound Of Music, Peter Pan, The Wiz and Grease but is certainly an ambitious task without the razzle dazzle of musicals or the tomfoolery of live comedy to smooth over the awkward edges live TV can contain.
Whilst these filmed non-musical stage productions have found success, particularly when big names are headlining, there is always something missing that makes in an incomparable experience to being in the theatre with them. By tailor making the work for at home audiences, this could be overcome. An Aaron Sorkin script seems the perfect vehicle. The pace of his scripts in the hands of a strong cast is edge of your seat viewing, and anyone familiar with his work on stage on screen will be excited by the prospect of seeing those character sparks fly live. There’s no word on cast yet, but so far NBC have (mostly) done a good job of casting their live productions, and have a particular knack for picking up and coming stars.
Should this prove fruitful, there’s an array of plays and films that could be all the more tantalising with the electricity of live performance. Let’s speculate after the jump on some other plays and even films that could make the transition after the jump...
Let's try to cover everything we haven't mentioned lately (whew). The biggest and most obvious is that Sofia Coppola, whose plans to follow up Bling Ring with a live action Little Mermaid are no more, is now supposedly working on a remake of the Clint Eastwood romantic drama The Beguiled (1971). The film will star two darlings of TFE Nicole Kidman and Kirsten Dunst. Plus Elle Fanning so Coppola already sold all the tickets to our crowd. The Clint role is as yet uncast. They're said to be looking for a 'Chris Pratt' type but what this surely calls for is a watch of the original film to familiarize ourselves.
Let's do it together shall we? It's available on Amazon and iTunes so let's all watch it by April 8th or so and we'll discuss. Deal?
Other News • Playbill Julie Andrews will direct a 60th anniversary production of My Fair Lady this fall at the Sydney Opera House. Tell us how it is Aussie readers! • Tracking Board Julia Roberts lines up another thriller Fool Me Once. Can she step off the thriller train please. She's always screaming. How about a romantic comedy revival? • Coming Soon Naomi Watts joining Brie Larson in Destin Cretton's (Short Term 12) Glass Castle.
• Coming Soon Kristen Wiig replaces Reese Witherspoon in Alexander Payne's next satire Downsizing • Guardian Woody Allen's Cafe Society will open Cannes this year but what other premieres might we see there? • Comics Alliance First i'm hearing this but apparently April 26th is "Aliens day" and a bunch companies are going to be selling Aliens stuff, including Reebook who will be releasing replicas of Sigourney's hideous red white and black velcroed shoes from that 1986 classic • Broadway Blog Aaron Sorkin's A Few Good Men getting the live TV treatment in early 2017 -- it's not just for musicals anymore • /Film Channing Tatum's Gambit delayed yet again. Hopefully he'll realize soon he doesn't need to do it at all. I mean it'd be nice if ANYONE other than Leonardo DiCaprio stayed away from the superhero genre. Just for you know some variety in our top male stars • BBC Hans Zimmer officially retiring from scoring superhero pictures after Batman v Superman • Cinematic Corner Speaking of. If you're not done hating on that movie read Sati's righteous fury about it. She points out something I didn't notice: Zach Snyder can't even do cameos right. He uses THREE of his Watchmen actors (Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Patrick Wilson, Carla Gugino) and I didn't realize that any of them were involved!
i couldn't find a good video of this gay date scene but its adorbs
Recommended Reads • Towleroad an interview with Noah Galvin, the talented funny star of The Real O'Neals. Try this show if you haven't. It's a delight. • MNPP Which is Hotter: Ed Skrein or Ed Skrein • Mike's Movie Projector shares an excerpt from an old Joan Fontaine autobiography • Film School Rejects on Superheroes needing a dash of silliness even in their "dark" outings • Interview talks to Sophie Okonedo about Broadway's revival of The Crucible. She plays Goody Proctor • MNPP loved seeing Benjamin Walker in tighty whities for over an hour as Patrick Bateman in the Broadway musical version of American Psycho and since Jason hates musicals that is more than enough recommendation for me who loves them. I hadn't yet realized that
Can This Election Be Over Instead of 8 Months Away? • Boy Culture agree with Matthew in this piece on Susan Sarandon's recent irresponsible political comments. I'm so ready for this election to be over and it's still 8 months away! • Towleroad and icymi the genius Tony Kushner was a guest on MSNBC and discussed how baffling Sarandon has been about this (They're both heroes of my youth. I don't like it when mommy & daddy fight!) • The New Yorker suggests that maybe Superman is Republicans and Batman is Democrats and now I just want to die rather than think about Batman v Superman for a second longer. DEATH TO INTERNET THINK PIECES ABOUT SUPERHERO MOVIES! (I'm suddenly dreading Captain America: Civil War and dreading a Captain America movie is not something I feel comfortable doing... at all. In other words: stop it internet!)
Friday, October 16, 2020 at 11:00PM 
