Links: Nutcracker and the Two Directors, Schrader on Selfishness

Gr8ter Days Terence Stamp makes rare US appearance to talk about this career and push his new memoir. The great actor is about to turn 80...
TFE ...so he's still too young for this 100 Oldest Living Oscar Nominees list.
THR Movie attendance has been steadily rising in Russia but the UK and France remain the top European movie markets
/Film Hmmm, The upcoming Disney spectacle Nutcracker and the Four Realms will now have two directors credited after reshoots. Joe Johnston (Captain America: The First Avenger) will be credited after the original director Lasse Hallström
Vulture Director Susan Seidelman on her 80s NYC classics Smithereens and Desperately Seeking Susan 

MNPP Luca Guadagnino has shown Suspiria to Quentin Tarantino who loved it
Moviemaker Paul Schrader on our selfish legacy and environmental disaster (DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T YET SEEN FIRST REFORMED)
Playbill if you're in NYC in the second half of July there's a lot of 15th anniversary happenings for Avenue Q including an original cast concert
Pajiba Sofia Vergara's ex is making an anti-abortion movie about Roe v Wade and the news about it gets worse and worse
i09 The legal system in The Incredibles 2 is confounding
Pandemonium this video is 90 minutes long but if you're studying to be a screenwriter it's worth a look since Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine, Toy Story 3) maps out what makes for a great third act of a story
Coming Soon Keri Russell joins Star Wars: Episode IX. Her role is unknown but will involve fight scenes so I'll guess she'll have more to do than Laura Dern did.
Awards Daily the Limited Series race at the Emmys is wide open this year (with 44 programs eligible)  since no single series has been especially dominant with critics or the public this time around 
Film School Rejects the best movies of 2018 thus far
Nick Davis Nick does his beloved "fifties" to detail the best of the movie year thus far 

Links: Johnny Depp, Carmen Jones, Kathy Griffin, Julia Roberts, and More...

• Coming Soon Jim Carrey, James Marsden, and Tika Sumpter to star in Sonic the Hedgehog movie. It's set to be a live action / animated hybrid. Not sure if that means the stars are just mo-capped or what.
• i09 "even the Defenders action figures hate Iron Fist" LOLOL
• Variety first look at Julia Roberts in the Amazon series Homecoming. Apparently she still wants that Emmy. (Bonus points: Sissy Spacek is playing her mother and her dream man from My Best Friends Wedding Dermot Mulroney also co-stars)
• Awards Daily predictions for what will show at Telluride 

• Vulture lists the 55 essential Queer horror films. I've only seen 20 of them. How about you?
• Playbill lists 14 stage favorites you can catch at the movies this summer
• E!News Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black have a new son
• Towleroad Broadway actors redo "We are the World"... I wish I liked this more but it's too light on starpower (only a few legends in comparison to comparative within-their-field legends in the 80s single)  and weirdly makes that American Idol guy Constantine the focus)
• /Film a look back at Lagaan (2001), India's last Oscar nominee
• The Playlist Toni Collette, Kaitlyn Dever, and Merrit Wever (that's quite a trio!) will star in Unbelievable a film adapted from the Pulitzer winning article "An Unbelievable Story of Rape"
• Boy Culture reviews Kathy Griffin's comeback performance at Radio City Music Hall
• THR Jared Leto is going to play Morbius, the Living Vampire in one of those Sony attempts at making a Spider-verse of villain movies
• /Film Netflix ordered a martial arts series Wu Assassins to star Iko Uwais
• Playbill Carmen Jones with Anika Noni Rose taking over Dorothy Dandridge's famous role has been extended through August.
• ...we had our friend Erica review it right here. (I wish it were on Broadway so Anika could win a second Tony!) 

Johnny Depp painting by Matt Mahurin

This Past Week's Must Read (If You Missed It)
Meant to share this a whole week ago but if you haven't yet read Stephen Rodrick's totally absorbing, fascinating, and non-spiteful but damning profile of Johnny Depp, "The Trouble With Johnny Depp" you must. I've been thinking about it all week and mourning the Johnny that once was, from the Edward Scissorhands, Cry Baby, Donnie Brasco, pre-Jack Sparrow days.

Link like the world isn't on fire

Variety - helpfully lists 10 standout moments from the MTV Movie Awards so we dont have to worry abotu missing it. Black Panther took the bulk of the prizes with Tiffany Haddish hosting
Towleroad - Interview with the director of McKellen: Playing the Part
IndieWire - 64 established and emerging film critics reflect on their favorite piece they've written -- our very own Chris Feil is in the mix! 
MNPP -Tyler Hoechlin seven times

Variety - Jennifer Lee (Frozen) and Pete Docter (Inside Out) are replacing John Lassetter at Disney and Pixar respectively
Guardian - Fun interview with Christopher Plummer on acting, replacing persona non gratas, and making peace with The Sound of Music.  
Coming Soon - this week in news absolutely no one needs: Robert Zemeckis to remake Roald Dahl's The Witches. There is literally no way to top Anjelica Huston's Grand High Witch so why?
/Film -AMC's A-List is going to compete directly with Movie Pass for those frequent moviegoer subscription dollars 
Variety - LGBTQ actors haven't had much luck securing Emmy nominations outside of the comedy fields. Will this change soon? 
New Yorker - funny piece on confessing that you met your partner in real life and not online! 

You guys. It's getting harder and harder to concentrate on movies and you know that's a nightmare for us when movies are our great love. But every day that goes by as America slides towards concentration camps, complete inhumanity, and fascism, Amy Poehler's questionnaire from last week at THR becomes ever more needed and brilliant. Here's the Q&A since the article is long and not about this:

Hello Linky

Just two handfuls of links this morning. I'm still on my birthday tear for Tony weekend -- finally saw Hello, Dolly! on Broadway last night with Bernadette Peters and as usual she was an adorable diva. Laughed my ass off. A friend of mine revealed that he had already seen the show four times to see all three leading ladies (Bette, Donna Murphy x 2, Bernadette). Bette returns to the show (with the magical Donna Murphy on Bette's off days since Bette can't handle 8 shows a week) on July 17th. I don't have the funds for three trips but would definitely see again if the chance occurs.

• Vulture what would Sex and the City plotlines be like if the show were still on. Vulture asks members of the original writing team
• THR With other companies pursuin g him Warner Bros reups with prolific TV producer Greg Berlanti (who also directs the occasional movie - hi, Love Simon) for $400 million. In cash no less!
• The Daily Beast talks to Sutton Foster about Younger's evolution
• Rewire great reflective piece by Kieran Scarlett on black fathers in TV (Black-ish and Cosby)
• i09 John Lasseter is leaving Disney after his suspension for misconduct with female co-workers
• Awards Daily a glitzy Emmy FYC event to celebrate the costumes of RuPaul's Drag Race
• Words Seem Out of Place writes a letter to Angela (Michelle Pfeiffer) from Married to the Mob 

It's Tony Weekend so a bit of theatah for you
• Vulture hilarious article ranking all 41 Broadway theaters
• Time Out New York first headshots of all the Tony nominees. These are priceless! Especially the ones of Mark Rylance, Lauren Ambrose, Grey Henson, Amy Schumer, and Ari'el Stachel
• MNPP Corey Stoll is wearing leather pants as Iago in the Shakespeare in the Park production of Othello 

The Link Visits

• Lit Hub interesting essay on the popularity of world-building in genre fiction
• Coming Soon Wreck It Ralph 2 has a scene with all the Disney princesses
• Cartoon Brew trailer for something called Another Day of Life which combines documentary footage with CG animation for a different kind of movie
• The Guaridan a five star review of the great silent film Pandora's Box, which y'all know I love. It's maybe my favorite silent

• The New Yorker the emptiness of the new Star Wars universe. I liked Solo more than most and disagree with a few key points here (Emilia Clarke had plenty of screen time to develop that character for example. She's just not an inspired actor is all) but it's still an interesting good read about the problem of prequels and self-consciously mythic work.
• Tom Cruise... speaking of self-conciously mythic. Top Gun 2 began filming
• Boy Culture Madonna gives her blessing to a book/movie deal that uses her music as backdrop for a boy's coming out story. It was a project mainstream publishers rejected. Bet they're sorry now that it has a six figure movie deal.
• Variety Angelina Jolie in David Oyelowo may be starring in a new fantasy drama called Come Away about the parents of Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. Say what? It's from Brave director Brenda Chapman
• Variety a report on the trouble of ultra cheap or ultra expensive movies in Japan. It's not just Hollywood that has a no mid-budget films problem
• Awards Daily the summer of Donald Glover
• Towleroad deleted scene from Love Simon featuring Colton Haynes

Theater People
• Stage is a new streaming service for theater fans launching this August. Taye Diggs is going to host the first three episodes of their debut talk show called "Crossovers" with Leslie Uggams, Billy Magnussen, and Tamara Tunie as initial guests
• Playbill Tony-bound musical adaptation The Band's Visit will launch a national tour in one year's time.
• TFE ← I just wanted to point you back to this interview we did with two cast members from the musical comedy Desperate Measures last year. The show was so successful it's reopening today at New World Stages for an open run with most of the original cast (including these two) rejoining. It is SO worth seeing so I hope some of you in NYC or visiting will make it!