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Tuesday
Mar152016

A Series of Unfortunate Casting Decisions

Laurence here with some more casting news from the television world. When news broke in 2014 that Netflix would be adapting Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events books into a series, it was exciting. The 2004 film adaptation never really struck a chord, nor was it successful enough to turn into the Harry Potter-esque franchise Nickelodeon wanted it to be. It was received relatively well, but it has become something of a pop culture footnote.

Television is a pretty natural place for an adaptation of a 13-book series, however, and Netflix's love of hurling absurd amounts of money at every algorithmically pleasing premise bade well for a new adaptation.

After a long time spent in 'talks', yesterday it was finally confirmed that the actor cast to play Count Olaf in the series is...Neil Patrick Harris? Now, NPH has been doing solid work in proving his range post-HIMYM. He was enjoyably creepy in Gone Girl, and his stint in Hedwig on Broadway showed he could be, well, Hedwig. But whatever you think about Jim Carrey's performance as Olaf, he was nothing if not indelible.

But NPH as Count Olaf seems, well, a stretch. There's no denying that he has comic chops. But Olaf is an evil, strange, reptilian character, such that casting NPH makes the whole thing feel sanitised and kid-friendly. Add in the fact that their casting of Violet (Malina Weissman) and Klaus (Louis Hynes) seems to be both skewing younger than the film and strangely insistent on replicating the look of the film's stars, Emily Browning and Liam Aiken.

One bright spot, at least, is the casting of Patrick Warburton as Lemony Snicket, who was played by Jude Law in the film. But despite NPH's Halloween costume bona fides, Netflix could have been more creative. Imagine Kathy Najimy as a genderbent Countess Olaf. Imagine.

Perhaps the most curious aspect is that the series is set to be directed, at least at first, by Barry Sonnenfeld of Addams Family Values fame, who was originally set to direct the film. At the time, he hired Daniel Handler (the writer behind the Snicket pen name) to adapt the books as a musical. Given that they have also cast two-time Tony nominee K. Todd Freeman, it will be interesting to find out if that's what we're going to get. But is that what the books deserve?

Tuesday
Mar152016

Mercedes McCambridge in "The Concorde... Airport '79"

Tim here. Now we come to the sad part of our centennial tribute to Mercedes McCambridge. For like so many movie stars, her career ended with a damp fizzle, not with any last triumphs. Worse yet, her career started rolling to a close in the 1970s, when Hollywood hit upon its most degrading scheme ever for what to do with its old legends and workhorses: stuff them into the enormous ensembles of tacky disaster films. At its most prestigious, this phenomenon resulted in Fred Astaire getting his solitary career Oscar nomination for The Towering Inferno. At its least prestigious, you have living legends Henry Fonda, Olivia de Havilland, and Fred MacMurray in a death race to see who can embarrass themselves the worst in The Swarm.

Or, for that matter, you have McCambridge herself, grossly misused and discarded in The Concorde... Airport '79. It's the fourth and final film in the rather dimwitted Airport franchise, which had once upon a time been kinder to its storied old troupers: 1970's Best Picture nominee Airport, the film that essentially got the disaster movie cycle rolling, netted Helen Hayes her second Oscar. But those days were long gone by the time McCambridge was called up to squander her talents along with the rest of a distressingly high-quality cast, including Alain Delon, Cicely Tyson, and David Warner. [More...]

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Tuesday
Mar152016

Doc Corner: 'Videofreex' a New Angle on Old News

Glenn here and welcome back to Doc Corner. Each Tuesday we're bringing reviews and features on documentaries from theatres, festivals, and on demand.

The news is constantly changing, and never more so than in today’s evolving media landscape. Where once a story would unfold nightly on the broadcast network’s news programs, now it unfolds live and often unedited, captured by anybody, anywhere. Here Come the Videofreex is a new documentary by Jenny Raskin and Jon Nealon that examines the very beginnings of this shift in news reportage by going all the way back to the late 1960s and getting up close to the then breaking trend of grass roots video journalism that was birthed in the shadow of Sony’s first video recorder units. Focusing on the collective known as the “Videofreex”, this entertaining film charts how these documentarians – and that’s exactly what they were – captured daily life, beginning with the simple act of taking a personal video camera to Woodstock and in their first act of directorial voice ignored the music entirely and instead focused on the patrons.

Forged by a meeting of like-minded individuals with a passion in sharing their world experiences, the team quickly graduated to CBS news employees, but that was short-lived after an attempt at a television pilot was mooted and everyone was fired. More...

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Tuesday
Mar152016

Link Party

This is Not Porn an 11 year old David Lynch meeting Vincent Price. LOL
TMZ Shadow Trooper trademark filed for the Star Wars franchise. 
Nicks Flick Picks Sometimes the rating has to be an A+. Truly nothing else would do
Salon has a gossipy unflattering list of difficult directors: Lars von Trier, David Fincher, etc...
MNPP Rock Hudson one time 


Variety Nate Parker (Beyond the Lights) isn't waiting around for Birth of a Nation to make him happen in a bigger way. He's already working on writing his next picture Carry On a paralympic wrestler movie.
Variety Julia Roberts to star in a true story lawyer drama. Said to be a meaty role for her though the story sounds like it's all about her client. 
Coming Soon I have no words about this Red Band trailer for the animated comedy Sausage Party
Kenneth in the (212) Actor Robert Davalos (East of Eden) dies at 85. RIP 

Small Screen
MNPP [NSFW] Corey Stoll () goes gay in an explicit scene on Girls 
Playbill Sydney Lucas, the young girl who was so brilliant in Fun Home on Broadway joins the cast of AMC's new series The Son which will star Sam Neill
Comics Alliance new trailer and poster for AMC series Preacher, a comic book adaptation starring Dominic Cooper
Variety Underground, a slave escape drama, is a huge hit for WGN

Off Cinema
Spin Macklemore owns a painting of Justin Beiber with a pancake on his dick
Theater Mania suggests Broadway musicals based on 5 TV shows
Boy Culture an audio recording from Liza Minnelli to everyone who wished her a happy birthday online

Reminder
Tonight is the Hit Me With Your Best Shot for ATONEMENT (2007). You can see read and bask in early entries already from Awards Madness, Cinematic Corner, I Want to Believe, Film Mix Tape, 54 DisneyChristian Bonamusa, and Out to the Movies... and that's a lot in already so tonight might be crazy. Stream it quick and join us. The full roundup will be up late, probably about 10 PM EST

Monday
Mar142016

Look, it's Jake Gyllenhaal at SXSW

I don't have a point other than: look at him!