Links: Arthur Laurents, Joel Edgerton, Parker Posey, Will Smith
Friday, May 6, 2011 at 8:53PM 
TV Guide A brilliant suggestion: put Parker Posey in the boss's chair in The Office. Did you see her on Parks & Recreation last night? She's dependable with hilarity, that one.
The Art of Manliness how to jump from rooftop to rooftop, like a frenzied movie hero.
Boobs Radley Imagined conversations between Scarlett Johansson and Sean Penn. Teehee.
My New Plaid Pants a big week for Joel Edgerton. A leading role in the new Kathryn Bigelow flick? Yes please.
Variety Quentin Tarantino wants Will Smith for his Django Unchained movie. In our opinion any actor would be crazy to turn Tarantino down. He nearly always finds something new or untapped in their talent. He's pure magic that way.
The Beats Within new blog on Madonna as a musician (still underappreciated). This is a really interesting interview with Guy Sigsworth who cowrote "What It Feels Like For a Girl"
Movie Morlocksk spends an evening with Terence Stamp. We love him.
Hey U Guys shows the delightful first image from a pirate movie from Aardman Animations. Hugh Grant will be voicing it matey.
THR It might be Keanu Reeves for Akira. Hollywood is just determined not to cast Japanese actors even though the property is the selling point.
Movie|Line is every Kate Hudson movie the same? Chart!
Salon looks at the best devil portrayals on film.
Finally...I meant to write about Arthur Laurents passing yesterday but this one made me sick with loss. The theater great had a hand in so many properties that are just magic (Rope, West Side Story, The Way We Were, Gypsy ... the list goes on) and he lived to be 92 years old; a long and accomplished life it was. He won Tony Awards and was twice Oscar nominated (both nominations were for the ballet drama The Turning Point) but somehow they snubbed his brilliant screenplay for The Way We Were which is only among the pinnacle achievements of its entire genre. Seriously name ten romantic weepies that are better; you can't!
His life was inspiring, too. Imagine having the guts to live as an out gay man as early as the 1950s. I didn't know where to begin -- I'd need a whole blog week. MUBI is terrific with the obituaries, always rounding up good articles to read, like this recent lengthy dishy profile from New York Magazine when the revival of West Side Story opened on Broadway.
Akira, Arthur Laurents, Django Unchained, Joel Edgerton, Kate Hudson, Madonna, Parker Posey, Pirates, RIP, ScarJo, Sean Penn, Will Smith
Reader Comments (8)
Oh good Lord, Arthur Laurents died? I didn't even know. I know it's an infamous flop, but I'm going to go listen to the concern version of ANYONE CAN WHISTLE with Madeline Kahn and Bernadette. God, this man was a genius.
(Now I'm worried Sondheim will die before he squeezes out one more classic. This year is really wracking up the legends. Sigh.)
Looooove that suggestion of Parker Posey for The Office. I'm not sure why, but when considering replacements, I never once bothered to consider a women; shame on me. That's an inspired choice. Still, I am interested to see what they do with James Spader. He can be smarmy and overbearing almost effortlessly.
Loooove the idea of Parker Posey for The Office. When thinking of replacements, for some reason I never once considered a woman for the role. Shame on me, because she'd be an inspired choice.
I'm more interested in Studio Laika at this point as opposed to Aardman.
Stage magic heals everything. He was a master
Parks And Recreation is my favorite show...it's the most awesome thing on TV!!
Parker Posey was faboo in it last week, and if she doesn't get the spot on The Office they should have her character give up snooty Eagleton, and come back to Pawnee. She could work with Amy P, and snog Tom!
Yeah. Does Hollywood just NOT UNDERSTAND? From the comments I read, there's a high likelihood that most of the fans are ANGRY. If most of the fans are angry, they're going to tell people to not go to this film with niche appeal.
Volvagia -- i assume you're talking about Akira? The sad truth is that most genre fans -- at least this is my perception -- bark a lot worse than they bite, eventually caving and going to see movies they bitch about. That's absolutely true of superhero movies for example where people will angrily scream about casitng for months and then line up on opening weekend.
I think this is on reason why genre films often have such a B Movie reputation. There's a certain expectation that you can still get an audience with bad quality because fans of specific genres are just fans of the genres and not discerning, you know? I mean, I'm as guilty as anyone. If there's a musical, I'm probably going to see it even if I suspect it will be bad.