In the Links

• The New Yorker Kathleen Turner is singing... yes, singing, at Cafe Carlyle for a week or so. OMG I'd love to cover that for y'all but that place is pricey.
• Film School Rejects the troubled history of the film adaptation of Lin-manuel Miranda's In the Heights may finally be ending with Warner Bros snatching up the rights
• MNPP on the trailer for the art slasher flick Knife + Heart premiering at Cannes

 

• The Guardian thoughtful piece by Xan Brooks about provocative cinema, Cannes, and Lars von Trier in our new age of moralizing
• Playbill California readers take note. At the upcoming Hollywood Bowl production of Annie, Megan Hilty, Ana Gasteyer, and Lea Salonga star. Fun casting! And those voices!!
• Boy Culture Trinity Taylor makes over Nico Tortorella who now identifies as gender fluid, or as he says 'sort of cisgendered but not so... CISSY
• AV Club Jordan Peele producing a series set in the '70s about Nazi-hunting in NYC. What now?
• DListed obsesses over a strange Cannes moment with John Travolta and 50 Cent
• MovieMaker profiles Geena Davis's Bentonville Film Festival 
• W Magazine interviews Brie Vinaite on her busy post-Florida Project life
• Film School Rejects "How Marvel Broke Storytelling" a good piece on exactly what the problem is with how they've trained audiences and deferred endings
• Playbill This is so heartbreaking. Just a few months ago Tony-winning actress Ruthie Ann Miles (The King and I) lost her daughter (to a driver who hit five pedestrians including Miles) and now due to complications from that tragic event she's lost her unborn child
• ExtraTV silly bro clip of Josh Brolin talking about his naked ad for Fish Love

Exit Video
Here's the trailer for the series finale movie of Sense8. Sad that this singular series from the Wachowski sisters and J Michael Straczynski is ending but glad we'll have closure.

"Sense8" Returns Only to End

The finale of Sense8, the cancelled Netflix series from the Wachowski sisters, will start streaming on June 8th. As you'll recall the one-of-a-kind series was cancelled after two seasons but after much fan pleading, a final movie was ordered to wrap things up. Not unlike what HBO did for Looking... only with possibly even less sex this time. The synopsis threatens that they no longer have personal lives... i.e. no cluster orgies for Wrap-up movie.

Personal lives are pushed aside as the cluster, their sidekicks, and some unexpected allies band together for a rescue mission and BPO take-down in order to protect the future of all Sensates

What is even the point then? I'm kidding (well, mostly). The synopsis makes this sound like it's an all action finale. And not that kind of "action". Sigh.

Are you looking forward?

Netflix to Give "Sense8" One Final Hurrah

Chris here, with news for Sense8 fans. The series was unceremoniously canceled by Netflix shortly after the airing of the kinky sci-fi series's second season, and the outcry online was vocal. But here is another success story where fanbase outrage saves a beloved niche series: Netflix has announced a two-hour special finale to arrive next year. While this may not be another season like fans had hoped, it gives the Wachowski sisters some space to tie up a few loose ends and maybe another showstopping bit of naughtiness.

This makes for an interesting development for Netflix as well as they begin to start giving the axe to their less popular (or expensive, like Sense8 proved to be) programming. The streaming service is moving faster on dumping newbies like Girlboss and The Get Down, but this does show a certain care for their departing shows that have fan support. There are plenty of examples of shows that end strong from a set end date, so Netflix is also providing the Wachowski's an opportunity to end strong rather than fizzle out. Like HBO's Looking this past season, Sense8 is about to become one lean and unique entry for the television history books.

I'll link you again in 25 years...

Cartoon Brew utterly savage (but 100% correct) on the Emoji Movie trailer
LA Review of Books on Netflix's Sense8 as metaphor for Netflix is. (I have no idea
why a book site is  reviewing this but the piece is absolutely terrific)
LA Times talks to Robin Swicord, only now with a second feature (Wakefield) long after the success of The Jane Austen Book Club. Her debut was profitable (always Hollywood's end goal) but Hollywood wouldn't hire her to direct? We've heard this story all too often!

Screen Daily in terrible terrible news they're still not going to let the once genius but totally played out Terminator franchise die and Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Cameron plan to be involved in the next one. Doesn't anyone in Hollywood want to do something original even more? It's not like Cameron couldn't get funding for literally ANYTHING he wanted to do. (sigh)
Film School Rejects on Disney's self cannabilization and the particular folly of trying it with Fantasia
Variety TV is invading Cannes with many auteurs now doing both
Vulture Tilda Swinton and Steven Yeun on making art in the new impossible-to-avoid-politics era
AV Club Janelle Monáe and Leslie Mann are joining Steve Carell in Robert Zemeckis's next film
MNPP Tom Hardy to play Spider-Man villain Venom in a standalone film
Jezebel the only reporting on the Roseanne revival which includes Luis Buñuel asides
Cinematic Corner visual parallels between Logan and Mad Max: Fury Road
Hugh Jackman 'see you soon Japan' - he's still on his Logan promo tour!
Out people are still shook about that shocking Drag Race elimination. (I rewatched it and it's astonishing how furious you can tell RuPaul is at Valentina for making her job so difficult)

Just For Fun
My Giant Nerd Boyfriend "Horror Movies" (I'm absolutely in love with this webcomic about this Asian girl with a super tall boyfriend)
Cards Against Humanity - cool story from the Emerald City comic con floor

Sage Advice
Daily Actor "18 Ways to Self-Tape Like a Pro" - smart ideas here about self-taped auditions (which are increasingly popular

Twin Peaks is here!
Twin Peaks Season 3 begins today so it's probably a good idea to reacquaint yourself with the previous two seasons and Fire Walk With Me. If you don't have time to rewatch them (*raises own hand in solidarity*) there are articles around to jog your memory. Unicorn Booty recaps where several storylines left off at the end of Season 2, and K Austin Allen of The Ringer takes a deep dive into the movie prequel that was honestly kind of reviled back in 1992 but has since grown rather beloved amongst Lynch fans and cinephiles. Perfect anecdotal evidence from my own life: my best friend who was an absolute Twin Peaks nut in the 90s and then hated Fire Walk With Me which we saw together in 1992. I saw him yesterday -- he had just rewatched it was like 'Have you ever watched Fire Walk With Me again? I remember hating it, somehow, but it's incredible!'

Surprise "Bound" reunion (and a little Sense8, too)

Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly on the beach together this week (courtesy of Tilly's twitter feed)

Then Joe Pantoliano piped in...

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