Pete's Dragon - 1977 and Now

Our year of the month is 1977! Here's Chris looking back on Pete's Dragon...

As Disney has been increasingly revisiting their classics in live action, big budget form, the resulting films have revealed the evolution of family storytelling over the decades. Cinderella showed an increased emphasis on character, while this year's The Jungle Book was an example of the shift towards realism even in fantastical, unrealistic settings. While these rehashings are becoming old hat already, one of the most exciting films still to come this summer is the remake of 1977's Pete's Dragon.

The recent Disney revamps have extrapolated upon or directly lifted from their original source films, but the first glimpses of Pete's Dragon have already revealed a sharp turn in tone. Again, they are trading in a more modestly minded lark for larger spectacle. If nothing else, the creation of the dragon Elliott embodies the shift from traditional animation to digital imagery.

Rewatching the original is almost a shock as an adult - it's far more absurd and loose than you might remember...

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Cast This!: A Bosom Buddy for Tilda's Auntie Mame

Chris here. It's been so long since we first heard about Tilda Swinton's plans to remake Auntie Mame that we'd assumed the project had died. But, as it turns out, Annie Mumolo and Tilda Swinton are giving us a banquet because we poor suckers are starving to death.

While being interviewed by Vanity Fair, Oscar-nominated screenwriter Annie Mumolo let slip that she's working on the screenplay for Auntie Mame, with Tilda Swinton taking over Rosalind Russell's fur coat. No, it won't be a musical version, because Tilda Swinton in a musical would be too much for our tender hearts.

This would be a huge star vehicle for the actress, putting her at the forefront of a big cast rather than her usual spot on the periphery of comedic ensembles. One thing Swinton doesn't get enough credit for is her incredible chemistry with a wide range of different kinds of performers, so the possibilities to pair her with a great cast is all too exciting. From her nephew Patrick, goofy Gooch, and dreamy Beau, there are a lot of great parts to bounce of Swinton's eccentric socialite.

Vera (Coral Browne) and Mame (Rosalind Russell) in the 1958 classic

But the role we should all be most intrigued to see cast opposite Swinton's Mame is her bosom buddy Vera. More after the jump...

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Venice Film Festival Lineup Announced

What do Spotlight and Birdman have in common? Apart from being Oscar Best Picture winners starring Michael Keaton that is. They both debuted at the Venice Film Festival, that's what. The 73rd annual Venice Film Festival line-up has been announced, with the potential of another Best Picture winner in its midst.  As was previously announced, La La Land is opening the festival, and if you've  been watching the trailer on loop like us, it’s hard to get excited about anything else. But let’s take a shot...

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Ava & Oprah

Kieran, here.  It was recently announced that Ava DuVernay would direct an adaptation of the classic children’s fantasy novel A Wrinkle in Time for Disney starring Oprah Winfrey. The script is to be penned by Frozen scribe and co-director Jennifer Lee and will also star Amy Adams and Kevin Hart. Winfrey is also collaborating with DuVernay (off screen) in the capacity of executive producer for the upcoming OWN series “Queen Sugar” staring Rutina Wesley (“True Blood”). 

While A Wrinkle in Time may seem like an odd career zag on paper for nearly everyone involved, pairing Ava DuVernay and Oprah Winfrey together again after 2014’s justifiably lauded Selma should have movie-watchers willing to follow this director-actor duo to the ends of the Earth...

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Looking: The Movie Review

Manuel here with an extra episode of HBO LGBT to celebrate the release of Looking: The Movie. I get the title format but would it have hurt Andrew Haigh to give it a less generic title. I mean, “Looking for Closure” would have been a bit on the nose but it’d have fit nicely with the show’s episodic titles (which included “Looking for a Plot” and “Looking for Home” after all).

I have gone on the record before saying how much I treasured Looking—recapping its second season right here was wonderful and a chance to really flesh out why I think Haigh and Michael Lannan’s show was such a striking meditation on gay male intimacy...

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