The Phantom Link

• The Atlantic "Fear of a Black Hobbit" insightful piece about politics and 'nostalgia' franchises
• Boy Culture the latest updated edition of "Encyclopedia Madonnica" (one of our all time fav showbiz books) is out. Buy one if you haven't yet and love Madonna. It's a treasure trove.
• Vulture looks at Baz's tortured artists from Moulin Rouge! to Elvis

Very significant Broadway news regarding The Phantom of the Opera, A trans riff on Gotham City characters, Superman II cosplay, and more after the jump...

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It's '300' days until Oscar

by Nathaniel R

Fassy on the set of 300

A bit of very random silliness since we now know when the next Oscars will be held. With 300 days to go, the film 300 popped into my mind. It was a big hit fifteen years ago grossing almost half a billion globally and becoming the 10th highest grossing film of 2007 in the US. Thrillist once argued it was the most influential movie of the Aughts. It received plentiful MTV Movie and Saturn Awards nominations but zero love from Oscar which is... appropriate. But every once in a while we think about the fact that it was Michael Fassbender's debut film (!) and that director Zach Snyder has continued to have a surprisingly fanatic cult following... so much so that his work factored into Oscar's embarrassing "fan favourites" contest this past season. So it prompted a question: Have any 300 alums outside of Michael Fassbender gone on to Oscar love?

The very Aughts very Digital action flick boosted several careers (as box office hits do) but the answer to that specific question is  'yes but but not my much'... 

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Oscar's International Race - Pt 2: Random Stats and Key Trivia

Now that we have the whole list of 93 films vying for the Oscar for Best International Feature Film, it's time for a collection of trivia regarding this particular vintage...

LONGEST FILM
The Painted Bird (Czech Republic) is just 11 minutes shy of three hours. Lots of films are that long but given that this movie has been referred to as 'the child rape Holocaust movie' three hours sounds utterly punishing. Naturally then, it's split audiences between 'masterpiece' and 'unwatchable' camps. Runners up: Domain (Portugal) and Truth or Justice (Estonia) are just a little bit shorter, both about two hours and 45 minutes long.

SHORTEST FILM
Poisonous Roses (Egypt) is just 70 minutes long. It's reportedly a mood piece about life in lower-class Cairo that primarily focuses on the relationship of a sister and brother. Runners up: The light documentary When Tomatoes Met Wagner (Greece) is just two minutes longer than that one. Belgium's Our Mothers, Belarus's Debut, Lithuania's Bridges of Time, Albania's The Delegation, and Montenegro's Neverending Past are the other really short titles, all clocking in at 80 minutes or less.

Movie stars, languages, and gayness are after the jump...

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