David Fincher Enlists For "World War Z 2"

Chris here. Looks like the sequel to 2013 surprise megahit (and famously troubled production) World War Z is finally a go - and just landed some major directorial heft. After many rumors of star Brad Pitt's wooing the director were shrugged off, David Fincher is signing on to the film. 

Already some Fincher fans and stuffy types are turning up their noses at the news, but it is a potentially inspired choice...

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Familiar Faces: The Jonathan Demme Players

by Nathaniel R

Dearest reader, as you've probably heard by now the director Jonathan Demme has passed away at 73. He died due to esophageal cancer. I had run into him at a screening of La La Land  this past September and I took the opportunity to tell him how much Rachel Getting Married  meant to me (he joked about being first with interracial weddings for Rosemarie deWitt onscreen). Then we talked Swing Shift for a little bit as we had just discussed it on this very site. I was so saddened by this yesterday that I couldn't do much but tweet my farewells. The words wouldn't come out for a lengthy piece but then, surprise, I remembered I'd written the following piece that was never published (oops) to coincide with the release of Ricki and the Flash (2015). I filled in a few of the blank spots and adjusted some verbs to reflect the past tense but this surprisingly doubles as what I probably wanted to say about Jonathan Demme yesterday and couldn't. It's about his favorite actors but looking back, it's a fitting tribute because what American director was more curious about literally any kind of person he might find with his camera?

Jonathan Demme was one of America's most interesting and surprising directors. Though he's now best remembered for the modern classic The Silence of the Lambs (1991) it was actually something of an oddity in his filmography being the only horror film and, in some ways, the most classically controlled. In other ways though it's a traditional Demme picture. It features actors doing unexpected or suddenly signature electric work, weird musician cameos (what the hell is one of the members of 80s synth pop band Book of Love doing in there?), and diverse casting where most films would go with the default heavily male white cast. In fact, Silence might be his most white/male movie but that's part of its plot...

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Tribeca 2017: "Sweet Virginia"

Nathaniel R reporting from the Tribeca Film Festival

Christopher Abbott and Jon Bernthal develop an awkward friendship in "Sweet Virginia"

Sweet Virginia begins with an unnerving burst of violence in the bar of a small Alaskan town. Initially the carnage and resulting grief feels as senseless as all violence does. What a world. But this being a slow burn neo-noir, we know from rich movie history that the killings won't prove to be random. Caught up in the aftermath of the crime are two newly widowed women (Imogen Poots and Rosemarie DeWitt) who aren't as grief stricken as they should be, the non-local murderer (Christopher Abbott) who decides to hole up in town for a bit, and the owner of the local motel "Sweet Virginia," a retired rodeo champ (Jon Bernthal) who, as it turns out, has been carrying on an affair with the widow for years prior to the picture...

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Annette Bening v. Hilary Swank: 2018 Edition

By Spencer Coile 

For those desperately hoping that Ryan Murphy will bring Annette Bening Emmy glory for her role on the second season of American Crime Story, think again. Hilary Swank has been cast in the new FX limited series, Trust, which will be helmed by Simon Beaufoy and Danny Boyle... 

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50th Anniversary: the 20th Annual Cannes Film Festival

by Nathaniel R

Franco Nero and Vanessa Redgrave at Cannes '67Fifty years ago on this very day over in France the 20th annual Cannes Film Festival opened with the French film I Killed Rasputin directed by Robert Hossein. The jury was headed by the influential Italian director Alessandro and featured both Shirley Maclaine and Vincente Minnelli, two of our favorites.

When the festival closed that year the awards were spread out (as they should be) with lots of countries winning something. The Palme d'Or went to Michelangelo Antonioni's brilliant Blowup at the end of the festival (a film we tried to interest y'all in a few years ago to crickets. *sniffle*). Check out Vanessa Redgrave's frankly awesome full-body get-up on the red carpet with her then brand new lover Franco Nero (of Camelot fame). They finally married 11 years ago!

Both of the acting prizes went to young actors...

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