Mm Mm Oh Oh... I'm All Linked Up
Thursday, May 22, 2014 at 12:15PM Towleroad Harvey Milk stamp unveiling live at 3PM today!
John August's screenwriting podcast talks to the professionals about writing superheroes, masculinity and rebooting past franchises. Featuring: Conan the Barbarian, Captain America and Batman among others
The AV Club suggests that the only appropriate director for the Elvis biopic is... David Lynch?
It’s an almost biblical rags-to-riches tale infused with elements of horror, farce, and even science fiction, and while many have tried to bring it to the screen, there’s yet to be a definitive biopic.
Verité looks back at naughty precode gem Jewel Robbery (1932) with William Powell and Kay Francis
Gawker more 'celebrities reading mean tweets about themselves' feat. Julia, McConaughey, and Emma Stone
Madonnarama V magazine features Katy Perry and Madonna in conversation for their summer spectacular
In Contention I forgot to mention The Search in my Cannes collection last night, so here's Guy Lodge on that reported misfire from the team behind The Artist
Extra Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt promise that their reunion will be "experimental and raw"... though that means so many different things to different people. I think she basically means low-budget and human-oriented
Empire for a limited time you can listen to the original score of the original Godzilla (1954) by Akira Ifukube
Two Essentials
Are you a struggling actor? Bitter Gertrude's "Why You Didn't Get Cast" is a must read about the casting and the audition process and building a career in a competitive field. I used to work in Human Resources and I would tell my friends these same things many times about non-showbiz job hunts.
Remember that absurd moment when Tom Cruise jumped up and down on that couch on Oprah? Amy Nicholson in a great long read over at LA Weekly called "How YouTube and Internet Journalism Destroyed Tom Cruise, Our Last Real Movie Star," posits that it didn't happen. Not in the way we remember it at all. A provocative read even if you don't believe that Cruise was our 'last real movie star' (which I do not, while conceding that movie stars that large are rare beasts.)
Reader Comments (17)
That podcast also features David S. Goyer showing exactly why he probably has no business being DC's Joss Whedon through blatant sexism (re: She Hulk) and ignorance of the material.
While Lynch could definitely bring out the horror and farcical elements of Elvis' rise, there's one thing he's not good at--romanticism. And you can't tell that story without that element. Elvis had a mystique, whether you were a fan or not, and there's something magical about that individual that needs to be respected. Maybe Lynch and Warren Beatty could co-direct.
PS. Digging the new banner...but no Marsha Mason from The Goodbye Girl? sniffle.
Why no completion of the oscar charts? The so called "April Fools Oscar
Predictions" need to be renamed to simply "Summer Fun Oscar
Predictions" which gives you more time to juggle all the things you have
on your plate.
I'm actually on Celebrities Read Mean Tweets. Now I *almost* feel bad for tweeting shit about June Squibb...
Ben-that's amazing. Completely amazing.
I think that Tom Cruise article leans far too hard in trying to minimize or absolve Cruise of his own responsibility in his career. The Oprah incident may have started it, but Cruise, with the assistance of his inexperienced sister, kept that crazy train going. He didn't have to talk about Brooke Shields or talk to Matt Lauer afterwards, and the insinuation that Cruise was this naif playing along with the demands of the public is absurd.
The iron fist that Kingsley used was a factor as well, I'm sure, as those under the restrictions must have felt freed from what they felt were onerous demands and started leaping on the bandwagon the minute they sensed vulnerability on the Cruise camp.
Cruise has gotten a bad rap that is somewhat undeserved, but his choices, his approvals, those are all on him.
F -- that's a great point. Dumping his powerful loyal publicist for a family member was, frankly, insane. She managed to keep his crazy hidden for so long that he owes half his career to her.
I can't with the Cruise is a victim article, did his team write it?. For one thing, if it had been only the couch incident, the internet forgets very easily. He could've had some sense of humour about it, and everyone would've forgotten. But Cruise's problem ,or one of them is the lack of humour. You can agree with the state of affairs being different for movie stars, but I think it's a bad choice of example. He still has his career and his pretty big paychecks and the power to chose his projects and greenlight things based solely on his name. He's far from being forgotten.
Since the moment movie stars were accesible at home from the couch, things were doomed to change. Actors who shift from TV to movies and viceversa explain it better. When you enter people's homes, you become one of them and the distance is lost. When they go to see you to a movie theater they have to raise their heads to look at you in what it (movie going) still is a ritual for many.
And finally, Wynona Ryder is a better example of someone whose career ended becuase the media wanted to. Cruise has a career, Ryder for doing a stupid thing and being on a security camera while doing it, is jobless.
The rant above made me forget I wanted to say that I love those mean tweets. The fact that Kimmel's people choose those one that define the celebrities (Roberts= mouth) or the ones we could co-sign is already an editorial choice with a lot of intention.
Love that Julia laughs at her tweet and probably only stops because she realizes that laughing will make her mouth look bigger, and still can't stop smiling. That's someone with a sense of humour. I can't imagine Cruise reading mean tweets about him and Scientology.
brookesboy -- you know that i add photos as the week rages on banner-wise. next time. but i'm sad that so few people joined my self-improvement group that went along with the banner. (sigh)
Nathan--thanks, my friend! Hey, how bout a spa day soon? I sure could use one. With an open bar.
Volvagia, once again you and I are in complete agreement. Why does DC keep giving its franchises to people who disrespect the fans and the source material? Goyer's whole bit on how "dumb" the concept of Martian Manhunter was (with the included insinuation that fans of the Manhunter haven't gotten laid because haha nerds are virgins) infuriated me just as much as his stupid, sexist comments about She Hulk. This is why I've lost total faith in DC movies. I weep for Wonder Woman.
Anne Marie: I weep for Wonder Woman, saddled with a bad actress (no, I'm not going to "body shame", but bad acting is still bad acting) and a screenwriter likely to not care if she comes across badly on the script level. I weep for Ben Affleck, an actor who doesn't understand his talents are less Argo, more Extract/Dogma (he'd make an EXCELLENT Plas (though he'd probably have to LOSE at least a bit of that muscle definition to fit the part), speaking frankly, and I would fight ANYONE who says otherwise). I weep for Henry Cavill, who is probably going to have to watch this movie bomb around him while doing what amounts to very little in the overall narrative. I weep for Chris Terrio, who (most likely) doesn't really want to do this but sees it as a favour to his friend. I weep for everyone involved in a DC comics adaptation aside from the iZombie and Scalped TV adaptations. I weep.
I weep with you. Although I applaud that comment and will be saving it for later reference during "BUT IT'S BATMAN VS SUPERMAN" arguments.
I'm with Sofia Vergara.
NATHAN YOU ARE THE BLOGMASTER OF THE UNIVERSE!!!!!
That banner is my new mental screensaver!
Signed,
The Hello Boy