Blade Runner 2049's Three Prequel Shorts. Excited Yet?

What’s good? My name is Salim Garami. You may have read my stuff at Movie Motorbreath under my initials, STinG, where I sometimes participated in Nathaniel's "Best Shot" series. I’m happy to be here writing my very first post for The Film Experience.

What better way to introduce myself than to explore one of my favorite movies of all time Blade Runner and its imminent follow-up Blade Runner 2049. This week has been filled with whoppers of new revelations on the sequel - from director Denis Villeneuve saying the theatrical 163-minute version is his final cut to the late great David Bowie being the original choice for apparent antagonist Niander Wallace or the initial responses from advance screenings, some even suggesting it surpasses the original. 

All of these stories - as well as my recent positive turnaround on Villeneuve in consideration of his last three films - are more than enough to keep me anticipating rather than dreading the science fiction extravaganza...

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Link Runner 2017

Gurus of Gold pundits make some quick assessments as the new awards season begins
Paste Magazine why isn't Billy Eichner a sex symbol yet?
THR the new version of It is already causing real clowns to lose work
Advocate offers up 17 LGBT tropes that need to be retired from entertainment. This list is so wide-ranging they'll be no queer characters left on TV if they follow it!
/Film cool stuff: scratch off poster to track your viewing of 100 classic movies

The Daily collects obituaries and tributes to the acclaimed horror director Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw Massacre)
IndieWire Dunkirk arranges a special screening at Toronto to celebrate IMAX. Consider that Oscar campaign already ignited
Awards Daily new stills for Call Me By Your Name. These are more likely it. The first few were so underwhelming
Towleroad Heathers is getting a TV adaptation. Leslye Headland directs the pilot which has updates for the Heathers for themselves (one of them is genderqueer) 

Off Cinema
• The Cut good deep dive into Kathy Griffin's life post that T***p photo that got her into so much trouble
• Vox winners and losers of MTV Video Music Awards
• ET literal winners of the MTV Video Music Awards (though, like the Gramys, it's not an awards show that's actually about awards)
• AV Club Jason Segel is having a tall person small door problem. Cute
• Playbill the 29 biggest grossing Broadway shows of all time from the Cabaret revival with Natasha Richardson and Alan Cumming ($119 million) to Disney's The Lion King $1.3 billion). Hamilton is already at #18 ($242 million) and it's only been open two years! (It should be noted that these are just their Broadway grosses, not touring companies and the like. 

Exit Video
Seems like there's going to be a few short films about the Blade Runner world before Blade Runner 2049 opens. Here's the first one...

Q&A: Best 'Best Actress' Decade? Gay for Play as Actorly Rite of Passage?

Four more reader questions to kick off the weekend. Wheeee. As ever, I'd love to hear your answers to these questions thrown my way.

MATT ST CLAIR: Is there an unseen awards contender this year that you are hoping doesn't fail?

NATHANIEL: My "please let this be successful" hopes reside with Blade Runner 2049 (because the original's reputation being tarnished would be such a pity), The Greatest Showman (because musicals MUST continue to thrive) and Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool (because it's infinitely annoying that Annette Bening doesn't have an Oscar yet and didn't even get nominated for such gorgeous work in 20th Century Women). While we're well- wishing please let Wonderstruck, How to Talk to Girls at Parties, and The Florida Project could be bigger hits than usual for Todd Haynes, John Cameron Mitchell, and Sean Baker, since they're three of our most distinctive American auteurs. I could go on but I'll stop as no genie grants unlimited wishes.

CATBASKETS: I've been thinking a lot about straight actors getting their starts or big breaks playing gay roles--Hugh Grant in Maurice, Guy Pierce in Priscilla, DDL in Beautiful Launderette, Charlie Hunnam in Queer as Folk, Eddie Redmayne in Savage Grace, etc. etc. Do you think this was/is a major rite of passage for actors? Do you think this will slow down now that there's more awareness/active demand for gay actors to play these roles?

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Best Supporting Actor - April Foolish Oscar Predix

By Nathaniel R

It's only 321 days until the next Oscar ceremony. That may seem like a good long time but we rarely go days without thinking about it so it'll  be here before we know it. The latest chart to go up is BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR. The Supporting categories are always tricky to suss out before the films are seen because supporting players generally need some fire from their films to make a dent, no matter how good the actual performance is. What's more we rarely know the full extent of what a supporting role entails this early as only the leads generally factor into early synopses. Nevertheless we forge a chart of possibility...

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Barkhad Abdi is having a "Good Time"

by Murtada

You know who might be having a big 2017 in film? Barkhad Abdi. He has three interesting projects coming out, starting with Dabka which will play this month at the Tribeca Film Festival. Written and directed by Bryan Buckley (The Bronze) it’s the true story of a reporter’s risk-taking adventure that gave him an unprecedented first-person account of the pirates of Somalia. Evan Peters plays the reporter Jay Bahadur on whose best selling book, The Pirates of Somalia: Inside Their Hidden World, the film is based. Abdi plays a local fixer who helped Bahadur embed himself with the Somali pirates. So he hasn’t gone very far from the world of his Oscar nominated performance in Captain Phillips (2013).

with Evan Peters in Dabka

However Blade Runner 2049 could not be further away from his most famous role...

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