Round 7 for Penelope & Pedro with "Parallel Mothers"

by Nathaniel R

Given the elegaic tone of Pedro Almodóvar's brilliant autobiographical Pain & Glory (2019) we worried that it might be his last film. We're so pleased to be feeling paranoid about that now. The 70 year-old master is already writing again or perhaps has finished writing something new. And not just one new project, but three! His next feature (which will shoot in early 2021) is a melodrama called Parallel Mothers, which will star his muse Penélope Cruz. The film will follow the lives of two mothers who give birth on the same day but whose lives take different courses (no word yet on who will play the other mother or if this is a dual role for Cruz). This will be the director and actress's seventh collaboration...

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Cannes: Pedro's "Pain and Glory" is a hit at Cannes

by Nathaniel R

Antonio, Penelope, and Pedro together once again.

Hang this photo in the Louvre, s'il vous plaît. Loyal readers know that Pedro Almodóvar is my favourite living director so I bring you glorious news from Cannes -- Pedro's latest, Pain and Glory, starring his only real male muse Antonio Banderas and featuring his current female muse Penélope Cruz, is winning reviews that are much closer to glorious than painful. It could well be in contention for prizes with the jury...

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"ACS: The Assassination of Gianni Versace", Episode 1

by Jorge Molina.

The first installment of American Crime Story made such a deep dent in culture by taking the O.J. Simpson murder trial, a case that was heavily imprinted in popular consciousness, and used it to analyze issues of race, sexism, and tabloid culture that still resonate today.

The second season focuses on, as the title establishes, the assassination of famed designer Gianni Versace in 1997 (shortly after the O.J. case) by serial killer Andrew Cunanan. And if the first episode is any indication of what the season as a whole will attempt, it will both broaden and narrow the cultural conversations that the first season tackled.

On the premiere episode, we get a first look into the mind of a murderer, the house of an icon, and the jet of a queen...

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Venice Lineup 2017: mother!, Bardem & Cruz, and more...

Fall Film Festival season is rapidly approaching. TIFF let us know their "special presentations" with many more announcements to come and now Venice (which actually starts sooner at the tail end of August) has announced its whole lineup. The films, including out of competition reunions of two iconic screen couples (Javier Bardem & Penélope Cruz / Jane Fonda & Robert Redford), are after the jump...

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Links: New Musicals, Life Tips, Netflix vs Hollywood

Variety Cher has dropped out of her expected return to acting with Flint, a TV movie about the water crisis in Michigan citing "serious family issues" (sending her good vibes)
Coming Soon Joseph Gordon-Levitt & Channing Tatum will team-up for an R rated jukebox musical called Wingmen about two pilots who crash land in Vegas
Variety Lola Albright film actress of the 1940s and 1950s and know for TV's Peter Gunn has died at 92

NPR there's a way to search IMDb now for movies that are female created or female focused... but it's tricky
Vanity Fair life tips from Shirley Maclaine
/Film Soderbergh's Cinemax series The Knick has been cancelled. :( 
AV Club Wonder Woman pees fire
Interview shares an old interview / photo session of Penélope Cruz from '99
Playbill recaps 'everything we know (so far) about Mary Poppins Returns' but they leave out the most important news that we covered here that the world's best costume designer is behind the new magical nanny looks 
Playbill Kelli O'Hara singing "Toyland" - staged concert version coming up in April
Guardian can Hollywood fight back against Netflix who wants us to get over our "romantic" notions of moviegoing. NEVER, NETFLIX, NEVER.
CHUD 'movies no one mentions' on Copycat (1995). Uff, I miss Sigweavie & Holly leading movies
Screencrush new Spider-Man: Homecoming poster, Spidey just chilling (note Avengers tower in the background)
Tracking Board Robert Rodriguez to direct a remake of John Carpenter's Escape from New York (1981)