Julia, Stone’s Snowden & Pixar’s Sanjay: News Roundup

Mondays, am I right, Julia?

Manuel here trying to catch up with plenty of news from this past week but somehow not feeling many of them, maybe I'm having a case of the Mondays? I wanted to kick the week off with some more Julia news (is everyone replaying that Secret in Their Eyes trailer for that one perfect gif-able moment?) but somehow typing “Roberts signs on to Garry Marshall’s Mothers Day” was enough of a letdown that I stopped typing. I mean, sure, we could joke that we can’t wait to see Julia in Marshall’s next film, MLK Day, but 30 Rock beat us all to it.

So why don’t we instead focus on the moody teaser for Oliver Stone’s Snowden?

Intense, right? That cast list alone (Gordon-Levitt, Woodley, Leo, Quinto, Wilkinson, Ifans) looks wonderful, but then flashes of W. keep haunting me and well, let’s just say it leaves me wanting. Can’t start Monday on that note, now can we?

Trust Pixar (currently making bank but somehow unable to dethrone those genetically modified dinos) to finally give me something to be excited about this morning. After what’s easily their worst (worst, I say!) short film (seriously, guys, I do not lava Lava!) they might be priming themselves for a gorgeous surprise this Thanksgiving. From a description of the short Sanjay’s Super Team set to premiere before The Good Dinosaur this fall:

“The seven-minute short begins with young Sanjay watching cartoons and eating cereal in a bland, beige room as his father jingles a bell, beckoning him to join in meditation. Reluctant and bored by the ceremony, Sanjay begins daydreaming a kind of ancient, Hindu version of The Avengers, with the gods appearing like superheroes. As the daydream progresses, the color, light and animation of the film grows increasingly dazzling and cosmic, and Sanjay grows closer to understanding his father's inner world.”

"Sanjay's Super Team" is directed by Sanjay Patel, a long time animator at Pixar. [image src]

We’d seen some concept art but now we have two gorgeous images and I have to say, I am eagerly awaiting this short probably even more so than the photorealistic dino adventure that will follow it. I mean, look at those big eyes! Those bright colors! Those kickass character designs! 

Are you excited that Pixar seems to be actively trying to redress its diversity problem with characters like Riley, Sadness, Joy, and Sanjay? Are you still trying to forget you ever watched Lava? (If I watch Inside Out in the theaters again, I will definitely be skipping that gender normative sitcom of a short).

Link Machine

New York Observer Nicole Kidman reborn. On The Paperboy and her upcoming NYFF tribute
The Genteel the great costume designer Jacqueline Durran (Vera Drake, Atonement) on her Anna Karenina work
New York Times "Rian Johnson Builds a better Time Machine" on Looper.

Los Angeles Times Singer Andy Williams ("Moon River") has passed away
Stale Popcorn Glenn is angry with the "100 best gay films" list that was crowd sourced. The gays really do have bad taste! (I'm allowed to say that as a gay.
Broadway Blog congratulates director Jason Moore on his feature film debut (Pitch Perfect) and looks back at other Broadway directors that made the leap.

John August on his contribution to the Frankenweenie soundtrack "Praise Be New Holland"
Vanity Fair a standard post Emmy party or any given day in Betty White's life? Hee
In Contention when to strike with your Oscar campaign when the deck is stacked against you

Finally, for those of you interested in Platoon and the 80s Oscar lore, Oliver Stone optioned his story early on but it didn't get made until he made it and he recently published photos on his own website from his time there.

Oliver Stone in Vietnam.

In 1976 I optioned “Platoon” to a producer, but it was not made. The production manager asked me to entrust him with many of my prints and negatives from Vietnam. He thoughtlessly sent it all in a package from New York to Los Angeles, but it never arrived. I’m sure they’re somewhere in this world—anyone know (reward offered)?

So recently when we were setting up our website, I went hunting thru storage for various materials that are now on the site—or will be. In the back of a home closet was an old shoebox marked ‘classic snaps, 1950s.’ There were many family pictures, but at the very bottom were 7 envelopes of worn-looking negatives in 35mm and the vanished 126 format. They looked vaguely like Vietnam. It is an amazing moment when something lost reappears after more than 40 years...

If only I could find everything I lost in the 80s!

Linkz, the Eight and Powerful

IndieWire a conversation about Steven Soderbergh, Oliver Stone and the auteur theory
Vulture "Now that you've seen Magic Mike..." on anticipation mania in movie culture. 
The Daily Beast on Anderson Cooper's coming out. I forgot to congratulate him. Well done. 
The Film Experience remember when we did A Face in the Crowd as part of the Best Shot series? That was such a good one. I was horrified that the movie was barely mentioned in Andy Griffith's obits (RIP) 

Tom's World
BlackBook did you know that Christian Bale used Tom Cruise as inspiration for his Patrick Bateman American Psycho performance. 
Gallery of the Absurd thanks TomKat for years of illustrative inspiration - big gallery o funny
Guardian on the TomKat divorce and Cruise's box office appeal
Forbes names Tom Cruise king of the box office again. He's #1 in money-making actors for the past year with DiCaprio, Adam Sandler, The Rock, Stiller, Sacha Baron Cohen, Depp, Will Smith, Wahlberg and the Twilight boys rounding out the top dozen.

Finally... heres' the first teaser photo from 2013's Oz, The Great and Powerful. What'cha think?

No star names appear but it'll be James Franco as the Wizard, Mila Kunis as The Wicked With and Michelle Williams as Glinda. Will you be following that yellow brick road or have you had it with the reimaginings?