Beauty vs Beast: Spaceman Blues

Jason from MNPP here - it's time for another "Beauty vs Beast" y'all! Today's we're talking Pixar because of two reasons -- first off their sequel Finding Dory is out this weekend, prepped to splash magic across the summer box office. And next off it's the 63rd birthday of Tim Allen today, whose greatest role (give or take a Galaxy Quest) came divorced from his physical being, his essence siphoned into Pixar's patented pixels and then tossed into the greatest toy box there ever was with 1995's Toy Story. Can you imagine a world with Buzz Lightyear or Woody the well-meaning cotton-stuffed cowpoke? I thought not. But try to remember that once upon a time they were more at each other's throats than anything else, and then take your sides...

PREVIOUSLY Last week we stormed onto the primary-color-coated set of the soap opera satire Soapdish, maneuvered ourselves between the divas and dimbulbs, and asked you to choose between the Queen Bee and the Crazy Bitch - well with 60% of the vote once again Celeste Talbert (Sally Field) has made her way to that podium. Said Sawyer:

"'What am I, 70, David? Why don't you just put me in a walker? Buy a goddamn walker and put me in it!' #celesteforever"

Who should join Angelina Jolie in the Murder Cast?

Murtada here. Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express is being remade by Kenneth Branagh. He will direct and play the lead part of Belgian detective Hercule Poirot who’s investigating a murder that happens on the famous train as it is making its way across Europe. The novel has been adapted several times, most famously into an Oscar winning film in 1974 by Sidney Lumet and an all star cast, led by Albert Finney as Poirot. Angelina Jolie was announced as Mrs Hubbard, an American loquacious socialite, played in 1974 version by Lauren Bacall. It’s good casting as the part calls a star with lots of presence.

Even though I haven’t read the Christie novel, I have seen the movie version and a 2010 British TV version with Jessica Chastain right before she hit it big. The story lends itself to an all star cast as basically every character gets an intro, one big scene and gets to participate in the finale. And everyone has a secret of course so the parts are juicy and fun and not too taxing on the actors. Hopefully lots of entertaining actors will sign up.

Who would you cast? Our suggestions for some of the characters after the jump...

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The Furniture: Merrily We Dance in Hail Caesar!

"The Furniture" is our weekly series on Production Design. Here's Daniel Walber...

Hobie Doyle is out of his element. Tossed from the great outdoors into the drawing room by the head of the studio, Alden Ehrenreich’s cowboy careens into words with hilarious indelicacy. It might be the single funniest scene in the Coen Brothers’ Hail Caesar!, now available on DVD and Blu-Ray, or at least a close second place to the hysterical clerical debate. It also has one of the most interesting sets, if not the flashiest.

The production in question is "Merrily We Dance," a genteel comedy by the director Laurence Laurentz (Ralph Fiennes). A hodge-podge of George Cukor and Noel Coward, he stands in for the not-quite-closeted geniuses of the era. The film, which seems to fall somewhere between Private Lives and Dinner at Eight, sends a jilted lover to an upscale party from which the hostess has absconded to Lake Onondaga...

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Emmy Ballots Out.

Nomination voting begins today on the 68th annual Emmy Awards. We've FYC'ed a few shows already so please do chime in on those pieces for Girls, Shameless, Crazy Ex Girlfriend, and UnREAL. Agree? Disagree? (More FYCs to come in this first week of voting.) Since the television Academy is notoriously stubborn about repeating themselves, regardless of the quality variations in particular seasons and shifting MVPs for given shows, our wildest dream each year is that each person with a ballot will think carefully before writing down names that they've already honored. Some deserve to be back. But never all of 'em.

If you had a vote which perennial nominee would you replace with which never nominated treasure? 

Even if voters prove traditionally lazy and complacent this year, they'll still be forced to make a few changes: Mad Men, The News Room, Nurse Jackie, and Parks and Recreation are no longer with us which forces vacancies in Drama Series, Drama Lead Actor, Drama Supporting Actress, and Comedy Leading Actress. Meanwhile this Emmy season is the last for Downton Abbey and The Good Wife which will help with shuffling next year.

Disney's Moana Arrives

Manuel here. During last night’s joyous Tony Awards, many of us got the first look at a Disney film that is sure to crash what’s looking like an already crowded Best Animated Feature race. Between Kung Fu Panda 3, Zootopia, Finding Dory, and the upcoming Sausage Party, Trolls and The Secret Life of Pets, there’ll be no shortage of films to round out a competitive category. And that’s even before we begin taking seriously the foreign productions which often leapfrog over the American CGI spectacles to worthwhile nominations (fingers crossed for Kubo and the Two Strings and The Red Turtle). Enter Moana:

As is become custom with female-driven Disney properties, the marketing team at the Mouse House is looking to play another bait and switch—remember how all those early Frozen teasers looked like Ice Age ripoffs by focusing on playful scenes of what we all assumed would be that annoying snow man? or those Tangled ones which put Flynn Ryder at the center of the action, barely making mention of the film's fairy tale leanings? This first teaser is all about Maui (voiced by Dwayne Johnson) while giving us very little sense of what the first ever Polynesian Disney princess story will be about.

We’ll wait for a full on Yes No Maybe So when the full trailer drops, but in the meantime, enjoy the teaser where you can see that Ron Clements and John Musker (they of Aladdin and The Little Mermaid fame) have stayed true to the Disney formula and given Moana a delightfully adorable pet.

Immediately, I'm already won over by the beautiful use of color—those sky blues and ocean hues look sumptuous to say the least. Also, I can't be the only one having Hercules flashbacks with that tattoo intro bit but anything that reminds me of those hilarious muses is fine by me.

But perhaps I'm burying the lede here: Moana may be the film that gets Lin-Manuel Miranda his EGOT. After winning two (more) Tonys last night for Hamilton, having won Grammys for both his Broadway shows, and an Emmy for the "Bigger!" Tonys opening number a few years back, Miranda may nab his first Oscar nomination (even a win?) for the music he's written for this Disney flick. It'd be a heck of a way to cap off a great year for the ever entertaining Broadway superstar and perhaps a way to further welcome him to Hollywood ahead of his next big film project, a little movie called Mary Poppins Returns.