Link It On

Lenny Amy Poehler interviews her teen fan, the Tony nominated Sydney Lucas who was so brilliant in Fun Home: The Musical (she just left the show *cries*)
AV Club in terrifying news: Disney is fast-tracking a Cruella de Vil picture from the 50 Shades screenwriter called simpley Cruella
The Guardian interviews Benicio del Toro on Sicario and music as part of his acting process

Playbill Broadway and music giants are uniting on December 3rd in NYC for a Centennial tribute to Frank Sinatra: slated to appear are Bernadette Peters, Sutton Foster, Sting, and Christina Aguilera. More names TBA
Comics Alliance & Superhero Hype celebrate the best Cosplay at New York Comic Con this weekend - that Marvel Girl is something else. Straight outta the X-Men pages I tell ya.
Boy Culture cuteness - Carol Channing with teddy bear
Pajiba yes, Natalie Dormer is aware that people think Kermit the Frog's new pig girlfriend Denise looks like her
Detroit News my hometown paper interview Tippi Hedren (The Birds, Marnie) for some reason so check that out
Awards Daily Sasha on Aaron Sorkin and the art of the symbol in Steve Jobs 
Variety MTV's adaptation of Terry Brooks "The Shannara Chronicles" is coming in January. I read a couple of those books a million years ago and none of this even sounds/looks vaguely familiar. But maybe I just don't remember it?
Variety ...and BBC is doing "The Last Kingdom" because YA fused with fantasy is hot right now after the cultural dominance of Hunger Games / Game of Thrones the past handful of years.  

ICYMI
The first 10 days of October were so crazy busy: final reports from NYFF, the opening of The Martian and a sneak of Carol, wild acclaim for Steve Jobs and the opposite for Pan on their shared opening weekend, that we're sure you've missed some choice goodies. Be sure to check out the Hail Caesar! teaser, our interview with Victoria star Laia Costa, Photograph 51 with Nicole Kidman hitting the stage, and a list of Ridley Scott's favorite actors.

The biggest news for us here at The Film Experience was the announcement of the 81 movies in competition for Best Foreign Film. We've already interviewed directors from or reviewed 11 of them: Argentina's The Clan, Austria's Goodnight Mommy (now in theaters), Colombia's Embrace of the Serpent, Dominican Republic's Sand Dollars, France's Mustang, Germany's Labyrinth of Lies (now in theaters!), Hungary's Son of Saul, Norway's The Wave, Portugal's Arabian Nights Volume 2, Sweden's A Pigeon Sat on a Branch, and Taiwan's The Assassin with more to come. 

Reboot the World. Bring it On
Remember when Bring It On (2000) made our top ten list of Best High School Movies Ever Made? Don't you wish that they hadn't made all those terrible straight-to-dvd sequels for Bring It On so that the world could demand an actual Bring It On sequel? EW reunited the principle cast for their latest issue.

Eliza Dushku, Gabrielle Union, and Kiki are still sexy. And cute. and popular to boot. Okay maybe less popular (sigh) but still awesome. And to quote our friend Joe Reid:

Congratulations to Jesse Bradford, Nobel Prize winner in the field of Could Get It 

Video Du Jour
I'm sorry but Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman on the same couch being embarrassed about their childhood names? The Graham Norton Show is always a delight for actressexuals. Please someone gif the part w/ Meryl's glasses askew or any of Nicole's dorky grimaces.

And, because, a bonus video: Julianne Moore cracking us up doing Taylor Swift lyrics on "the Late Late Show"

Always the years.
Always the love.
Always The Hours Ladies.

Posterized: Joe Wright's "Pan" and Peter Pan Movies

Jackman and Wright talk on setYou have to admit that Joe Wright was asking for it. He went and titled his Peter Pan epic, Pan, which is functioning like a command for the nation's critics who have done so mercilessly. It probably didn't help that he uglified one of our most handsome movie stars (no one needs to see Hugh Jackman going the Johnny Depp route). Worse, he truly stepped in it early on by casting the very white Rooney Mara in one of the few iconic roles meant for a Native American actress. (This issue has been discussed at very high volumes in the past few years since moviegoers and the media are sick to death of Hollywood's white-washing. But Hollywood is still wearing ear plugs.)

Will you see his latest despite the reviews?

And how many Peter Pan related movies have you seen? (More on Peter and Joe after the jump)

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NYFF: Spielberg's frosty Bridge of Spies

Manuel reporting from the New York Film Festival on Steven Spielberg's latest Cold War film.

Bridge of Spies opens with a man working on a self-portrait. There’s a weariness to his features that he’s ably translating from his mirrored reflection onto his canvas. There’s a purpose to every brush stroke he takes. He works methodically. Silently.

Spielberg, long admired for large-scale adventures and expertly crafted action sequences, seems to have entered a quieter phase of his career. While War Horse seemed to play to his strengths, while trying John Ford on for size, the talky Lincoln showed that the director could create a kinetic urgency even in what was, for the most part, a chamber piece about laws and votes. Bridge of Spies pushes further still in this direction. Yes, we’re dealing with spies, and fallen aircrafts, government agents and tense phone calls, but at its heart, this is yet another installment of the Cold War-as-bureaucracy genre. [More...]

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Washington's August Wilson Deal

Manuel here with some big Denzel Washington news. While talking at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, Washington revealed he has signed a deal with HBO to bring all ten of August Wilson’s plays to the screen. Yes, all ten!

More...

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Michael Snowbender

David here with some festive casting news.

It won't look anything like this.

Variety reports that the ever-present Michael Fassbender is in talks to star in The Snowman. I know what you’re thinking, but no, this isn’t Fassy’s Jack Frost. He’ll star as Harry Hole, in the adaptation of the seventh entry in Norwegian crime novelist Jo Nesbø’s book series. It’s a chilly series from Scandinavia, which has been owning the crime drama – mainly on TV – for the past half a decade at least, with massive successes like the original The Killing.

You may have heard talk about the series for a few years now – Working Title optioned the rights a while back, with the original intention to create a series akin to the Alex Cross films (Along Came a Spider, etc.), and it even had none other than Martin Scorsese mooted as a director at one point. He’s since moved into an exec producer role, leaving the director’s chair open for a more suitable candidate: Tomas Alfredson, whose next move we’ve been awaiting since Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and whose global breakout Let the Right On In shows exemplary form for bringing the Scandinavian cool to the screen.

Hole (that’s pronounced “Hoola”, according to Nesbø) is standard detective stuff, the “stereotype of the hardboiled, troubled maverick”: abrasive, heavy smoker, alcoholic, and – naturally - an unusually perceptive detective. With Fassbender’s strong, ruminative presence bringing Hole to life, and Alfredson’s detached, observant style, this hopefully makes for a crime drama with all the bracing chill of the books.

What do you reckon? Christmas cheer or a snow-go?