Curio: Paul Harding's Collectible Heroes

by Nathaniel R

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As someone who studied illustration but couldn't wrap my hands around three-dimensional work, I've always been fascinated and envious of sculptors. In fact, whenever I'm in a museum I'm much more likely to drift towards sculptures than stare at paintings. In fan culture sculptors have a special if uncelebrated place. Someone has to sculpt those action figures and collectibles you can buy and CG animation involves lots of 3 dimensional rendering. Paul Harding recently caught our eye for a jaw-dropping rendering of the principal characters of our current favourite comedy series What We Do in the Shadows (pictured above). It's brilliant caricature and the details in the expressions are joy-making -- look at Nadja's eye roll! 

More examples of his work after the jump...

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Stranger Links

• Backstage casting notice for Asian actors. As @AnnieW pointed out on twitter this can't be anything other than the live-action remake of Akira
• Cinematic Corner ten best scenes in the Stranger Things series before the new season premieres
• Coming Soon how many times does Anna Karenina need to be remade? Apparently that's still tbd since there's another one coming

More after the jump including Carice van Houten, Darth Maul, Quentin Tarantion, and news of a new Clint Eastwood film...

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Links

• WSJ a day in the life of Regina Hall, finally hitting her peak at 48
• The Ringer investigates the new comedic empire that writer Katie Silberman is building (Booksmart, Set It Up, Isnt It Romantic)
• The Guardian the streaming series based on Love Simon, currently in the casting stage, will not feature ANY of the characters in the film. Hmmm. "based on" being a strange phrase then.

More after the jump including Disneyland's Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, a Boy George biopic, an honor for Jane Fonda, and a new kind of action heroine...

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u know where i'm at, u know where I be, u in the blog just to linky 🎵

If you missed part one of our massive link roundup to catch up on news and such, that's here. Going a lot shorter for part two

/Film on the 20th anniversary of Boogie Nights
This is Not Porn Sigourney Weaver with a pumpkin
/i09 Jeff Goldblum riffing on the meaning of "Ragnarok" - I was personally alarmed to see this whole story this morning because I feel like I knew all this classic mythology stuff when I was in diapers and I KNOW we learned some of it in school. Is mythology not taught anymore? Weird cause kids tend to love it (since there are superpowers, monsters, etcetera)
Jezebel a fine interview with famous primatologist Jane Goodall about her work, the new documentary about her, and climate change

Film School Rejects 35 things we learned from Edgar Wright's Baby Driver commentary
AV Club Carla Gugino and Bruce Greenwood on filming Gerald's Game, another Stephen King adaptation that people are actually liking (what is happening?)
Coming Soon Director Taiki Waititi (What We Do in the Shadows, Thor Ragnarok) is very coy about whether or not he'll direct the long gestating live action remake of anime classic Akira but if he does, he won't be casting non-Asians. So if they must make this movie, let's hope he gets the job.
Playbill Idina Menzel didn't want to write a memoir so her sister wrote a book about their lives "Voice Lessons: A Sisters Story"
/Film Corey Haim & Corey Feldman, teen idols of the late 80s, are getting the Lifetime movie treatment
W Magazine Cara Delevingne is now an author ("Mirror Mirror") and a brunette
The New Yorker "Everything that I'm afraid might happen now that I've lost my headphones"

Congrats to the MacArthur Genius Grant Winners.
The 24 recipients for 2017 have been named who will each receive the grant of $625,000 which is a lot of change for most writers and artists and performers. Celebrities of course make truckloads of money but that's much different than toiling away for your craft in most arts careers. Twenty four recipients from many different kinds of field were chosen so let's just list those in the arts: Annie Baker (playwright), Rhiannon Giddens (musician), Taylor Mac (performance artist ♥︎), Yuval Sharon (opera producer), Tyshawn Sorey (composer), and Jesmyn Ward (writer)

Power Linkers

Mashable the 8 main excuses Hollywood uses for whitewashing, and why they're all bunk in this day and age
Film Doctor 5 amusing notes on "Evil Disney Hegemony" and Emma Watson as Belle
The Muse Rich Juzwiak on the recent LGBT scraps thrown in mainstream Hollywood movies. Frankly I've been insulted, rather than thankful, by both of them. I just saw Power Rangers and I cannot believe people are crediting this movie with being LGBT inclusive. The Yellow Ranger never even admits she's queer. She just stays literally silent (and you know what silence equals) when someone asks if she has a girlfriend.

 

David Poland distributors are considering shrinking the theatrical release window again. Is this just suicide? (I hate to be an alarmist but I totally agree with David Poland's thinking here
Women in Hollywood interviews The Zookeeper's Wife author Diane Ackerman
Time lists the 50 best podcasts right now. I almost never listen to podcasts. Probably because I have no commute. I should get on that.
Pajiba on the costs of running independent film sites - ugh this hurts to read. It's so hard and we dont even do half as well as they do!
IndieWire Paul Thomas Anderson's fashion drama gets a Christmas day release 
World of Reel the early reactions to the new Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales are actually positive 
Awards Daily talks to composer Trevor Morris (as much as I hated Iron Fist, I liked his work on it!) 
Broadway Blog Bette Midler's super gracious moment with an understudy on Hello Dolly! 

Finally, Two Directing Offers of Note
Joss Whedon might write & direct a Batgirl movie. The deal is supposedly close to happening but he had such a terrible experience with Warner Bros on his Wonder Woman screenplay (and such a difficult time with Marvel on Avengers: Age of Ultron) that this is quite a surprise. The money must be really good but we keep hoping he'll create an original television series again soon rather than reshaping other people's brands. 

Jordan Peele is being considered to direct both Akira and The Flash at Warner Bros thanks to the huge success of his directorial debut Get Out. But both those projects seem so troubled. The first because every iteration Hollywood has dreamt up for Akira includes removing its very Asianness (goddamnit Hollywood, just stop. Asia is an enormous enormous market for movies. You make no sense!) and the second from DC's habitual superhero and filmmaker interference problems. Wouldn't it be better if Peele follows his own muse? That worked pretty damn well for him the first time.