Saturday, November 21, 2015 at 9:30PM In the crazed travelling of Oscar rev-up season it occurs to me that I never wrote about my London theater-going in that blessed October weekend. While I was in that great great city, I saw two favorite actresses in plays centered around their gifts: one was a revelation, the other a canny reminder.
Imelda & Nicole triumph after the jump...
Friday, April 17, 2015 at 8:00AM Variety Baz Luhrmann has found his lead for his Netflix music series The Get Down. It's an unknown singer songwriter named Herizen Guardiola
THR 13 shows on the bubble. They'll be renewed or cancelled by early May. I'm rooting so hard for Agent Carter but you never know
The Guardian Matthew Vaughn (The Kingsman) to reboot Flash Gordon. Oh dear
/Film that was quick - Daredevil (Charlie Cox) will officially be in Avengers: Infinity Wars movie in some capacity. But that's like a billion superhero movies away so we'll see if it comes to pass
Awards Daily Meryl Streep does everything: she's now written a foreword to a new cookbook
THR industry folks rank New York's film critics
Variety rave reviews for Imelda Staunton's Mama Rose in London's current revival of Gypsy
Comic Alliance the Wonder Woman film lost its director (Michelle McLaren) and now has a new one Patty Jenkins -- the same Jenkins who was supposed to do Thor and didn't. Ah musical chairs
Time the list of 100 Most Influential People is out. Movie peeps that made the list: Richard Linklater, Julianne Moore, Bradley Cooper, Chris Nolan, and Chris Pratt
LGBT Interest
Out also has an annual power list out. While most of the showbiz entries lean heavily towards TV there are a few movie players: Megan Ellison, Scott Rudin, Lee Daniels (though he surely made the list due to Empire), Dustin Lance Black and Ellen Page.
New Now Next the 13 greatest sissies of all time from Quentin Crisp (you must read his writing about movies) to Liberace
SJP a few days ago in NYC
MNPP Rock Hudson's ex lover speaks
The New Civil Rights Movement (long read) "Maybe Yesterday, But Not Tonight" on gay marriage and the inner and outer turbulence of our changing world
Finally
It's not news per se since we've known about it for a long time but it's now official that Sarah Jessica Parker is returning to HBO Comedy series stardom with Divorce. SJP is fearless. Think of the way people treat Madonna. Once women are past a certain age people want them to disappear. Only the brave soldier on so I hope this series is brilliant and all best wishes her way. But can we talk about how rude it was for Gothamist to illustrate the news of this series order by HBO with a photo of Sarah caressing her husband Matthew Broderick's face?
Friday, October 3, 2014 at 8:00AM All the news stories we didn't get to and/or articles we like with a wee slant toward the stage this morning... itching to see a show again.
Guardian on the homophobic charges against the MPAA. That über obnoxious organization has struck again. Pride is the second gay movie this year without sex scenes or nudity to be slapped with an R rating.
/Film The Twilight Saga may well be back after some short films. When I first heard this news I groaned and rolled my eyes but then I read the plan and it's sort of a support young female filmmakers thing so it sounds kind of cool, actually. Pit that Twilight is so obnoxious
The Playlist ranks all 35 of David Fincher's music videos. I used to be so obsessed with him because of Madonna. It's possible that I already linked this? I don't know. But their rankings are fairly good.
Vulture says it's been an amazing year for animation. We just haven't realized it yet. It's all those hard to find foreign toons, it is
Rope of Silicon is doing a Best Movies series and looks back at David Fincher's Se7en. That would probably be on my 100 movies list, too
Cinephilia and Beyond looks at Bob Fosse's masterpiece (one of 'em) All That Jazz
My New Plaid Pants bookmarked! Jason tells us about a Montgomery Clift documentary that I didn't even know about
Variety Jane Fonda and Viola Davis are charitable people. They look great together at an annual Rape Foundation brunch
Netflix, the Disrupter
New York Times on the Crouching Tiger sequel Netflix / IMAX deal
CHUD Netflix going into the business of Adam Sandler movies
Variety wonders what Netflix's motives our with their recent feature film announcements
Imelda Staunton rehearsing. Photo by Johan PerrsonOn Stage and Film Interest
Broadway World Imelda Staunton is in theaters now in Pride (and she's delightful in it) but she's also returning to the stage. She's in rehearsals for that mammoth role of Mama Rose in a London production of Gypsy. See photo left.
The Hairpin wonderful personal essay on seeing Lindsay Lohan's stage debut in Speed the Plow
NYC Theater Interesting. The Laura Pels Theater on 46th street will be doing a stripped down production of Into the Woods while the movie plays in theaters. December 18th through March 2015
Theater Mania Audra McDonald might do a film musical!!! She's rumored to be involved in the stage to screen transfer of Michael John Lachiusa's Hello Again. If only someone would push his Wild Party musical to the screen
Playbill Ewan MacGregor and Maggie Gyllenhaal just made their Broadway debuts in The Real Thing
Variety Normally movies that become stage musicals are semi-recent hits. But next Spring Broadway will get Doctor Zhivago, once a super-sized smash movie hit from 1965. The song score combines talent from two fine musicals (The Secret Garden and Grey Gardens) so I'm excited.
Theater Mania David Burtka (NPH's other half) will be doing a cabaret show at my favorite cabaret spot directed by Neil Patrick Harris. I imagine this is the type of thing that people will judge harshly just hearing about it like "connections!" but I've seen Burtka in two stage productions and he's very talented
Three hot & short exit videos to wrap
1. We'll start with the best one. Making a Marie Antoinette style dress out of Sofia Coppolla's Marie Antoinette script. Love this.
2. Here's the first teaser for Inside Out, Pixar's 2015 release. And Pixar would like to remind you that they made it and that they made all those other movies you love to. BTW they were made by Pixar and did I mention that Pixar made this?
3. Inherent Vice's trailer which you've probably seen. We would have done a Yes No Maybe So on this one except that the New York Film Festival is in full swing which will render it immediately disposable since there'll be a review this weekend. The voiceover in this trailer reminds me of Annaleigh Ashford (from Masters of Sex) but she's not in the movie. I wonder who the voice belongs to?
Thursday, September 25, 2014 at 4:30PM This article originally appeared in Nathaniel's column at Towleroad. It is reprinted here with their permission...
Truth is stranger-than-fiction and also often gayer. The new feature PRIDE dramatizes a largely unknown historical anecdote from the bitter year-long miner’s strike in Thatcher-era Britain when a group of gay activists fundraised for the miners. This alliance is at first an awkward tense match but it eventually finds heartwarming pockets of oxygen when these two unlikely groups are breathing the same air.
It begins with a handful of gay activists (“and lesbian!” their only female member interjects with a small wave in a recurring joke), notice a sudden decline in police bullying in their neighborhood. They make the connection: the conservative government has a new minority to scapegoat. They form a group called LGSM “Lesbians and Gays for the Striking Miners” to help the people suffering without paychecks for months on end — a byproduct of Margaret Thatcher’s war against the unions.
At first, though, these gay heroes can’t even find a miner’s group that will take their money in this cross culture dramedy. [more...]
Tuesday, May 8, 2012 at 6:00PM Had a private double take giggle last night when I read the news of Maleficent's latest cast members. Maleficent herself Angelina Jolie and Sleeping Beauty Elle Fanning will be joined by Brit prestige actors like Oscar nominee Miranda Richardson (who will be play the fairy queen aunt of Maleficent), Sam Riley (Control), Kenneth Cranham (Made in Dagenham), and.... wait for it... Mike Leigh thespian goddesses Imelda Staunton & Lesley Manville as Beauty's protectors (two pixies instead of three fairies).
Imelda and Lesley will protect Sleeping Beauty in "Maleficent"
Suddenly I was picturing Mike Leigh in the director's chair!
Imagine the gritty British realness. Picture Angelina Jolie rehearsing for six month to suit Leigh's process. Hee. The insights into Maleficent's psyche- the grotty castle home she's lived in for decades, centuries worth of raven droppings, her unspoken trauma from past society shunnings, the weight of the horns on her head and how it's left her with a permanently sore neck. Imagine Angelina and Miranda diagramming their entire history as relatives in a quiet rehearsal space and writing their own lines. The pixies vibe would include stunted maternal instincts and adoptive parent sorrow "We have to give the wee lass back?!?".
Mike Leigh's Maleficent wouldn't break $200 million but I'd buy several tickets.
In the eternal "Pink... no Blue" fairy godmother debate, we figure Imelda gets the pink if she wants it.
She owns the pink.
P.S. If they were to add a third fairy godmother, excuse me "pixie" who should join Imelda & Lesley to raise narcoleptic Elle Fanning? Cast it in the comments!
Imelda Staunton, Lesley Manville, Maleficent, Mike Leigh, casting, fairy tales 