Good News for 'Annette' (not Bening)!

by Spencer Coile

I didn't mean to spook you all with that title-- I know many of us are still mourning La Bening's Oscar snub for 20th Century Women. But I come to you with good film tidings. 

For those of you musical lovers out there looking to get a new fix, look no further. Holy Motors director Leos Carax is coming back in 2018 with his new film, a musical no less, titled Annette. And it gets even better...

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In a previous life, Steven Soderbergh must have been a thief

Behold the first image from Lucky Logan which is Soderbergh's first post-retirement theatrical feature. It's yet another heist picture from a director who is very fond of stories about professional thieves and or elaborately planned ambitious crimes. See also Haywire, Oceans franchise, Out of Sight.

Pictured are Adam Driver and Channing Tatum in the background (why are they barely featuring a star as big as Chan in the first still?) and platinum blonde Daniel Craig in the foreground. They're doing an elaborate heist during a NASCAR race. 

Are you excited to welcome Soderbergh back to the movies? 

The Oscar Week: Denzel, Adam, and Issey

 In this weekly feature from Murtada we follow Oscar contender appearances and interviews.

This week was quiet for Oscar buzz. Most of the stars are in hibernation, since the big push comes next week when Oscar balloting opens. Still best actor hopefuls Adam Driver and Denzel Washington and one possible Supporting Actor dark horse were out promoting their late releases.

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Yes No Maybe So: "Silence"

Each and every year I pray that we will have ample time to CONSIDER each Oscar nominee. But one film always wants to emerge so late in the game that the world (i.e. Oscar fanatics, critics, list-makers, and awards voters) will be rushed to judgment.

I pray but I'm lost. Am I just praying to silence?"

It worked out well for the late arrivals last year (The Force Awakens and The Revenant which between them nabbed 17 Oscar nominations and 3 wins) so will it be as successful for Rogue One and Silence this year which we believe will be the last two movies to screen and which will dutifully fill the exact same slots of Star Wars Movie and Brutal All Male Historical Epic.

The Silence trailer is here so we may now finally judge for ourselves based on 2 minutes and 13 seconds instead of all of the rumors. The Trailer and our Yes No Maybe So™ breakdown after the jump...

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Steven Soderbergh's Comeback

Steven Soderbergh is retired no more. The director, who had previously announced Side Effects (2013) as his last feature film, is making two movies in the next year or so. It was just announced that he will be directing a feature film about The Panama Papers, the leaked documents which revealed how many of the super-rich employ legal, but dodgy accounting systems to avoid taxation. Even some luminaries in the film world (Emma Watson, Pedro Almodovar and the estate of Stanley Kubrick) were named in that scandal. The film will be based on Secrecy World, a to-be-published book by the Pulitzer prize-winning reporter Jake Bernstein. The adaptation will be written by frequent Soderbergh collaborator Scott Z Burns (Contagion, Side Effects, The Informant!).

Sounds like another Contagion, no? Taking a global incident and examining it from different points of view. Before that he will make Ocean’s Fourteen -- well not exactly, but Logan Lucky is a crime thriller with an all star cast set in one location. Sound familiar? This time there’s no Clooney or Pitt but we will get Channing Tatum, Daniel Craig, Adam Driver, Katherine Heigl, Hilary Swank, Riley Keough, Seth MacFarlane and Katherine Waterston and the NASCAR race in North Carolina as the heist location.

Soderbergh never really retired of course. He became prolific on TV, directing The Knick and gifting us with Behind the Candelabra. He recently produced The Girlfriend Experience which raised Riley Keough’s profile so it fits that she’ll be part of his new movie. And let's not forget that he was the cinematographer on Magic Mike XXL. But with these two projects announced he’s now a full time feature films director again. Are you excited for his return?