If there is one thing in life that's certain at TFE beyond daily postings, Actress mania, Oscar chart delays, and time-jumping movie coverage, it's this: if Meryl Streep is featured there are a bajillion comments. And yet the last two Streep attacks, a look back at 2009 and a subliminal Hours reunion proved the exception. Is this merely summer doldrums or a sign of the Streepocalypse? Or were people just waiting for Into the Woods news? If so, it has arrived.
UPDATE: And the Teaser too!
Yesterday a bunch of new images surfaced from the movie and you know how this goes. We look at the image and we list off thoughts as they come without self-censorship to keep the brain loose and the words flowing and to not be too mundane about what this actually is - free advertising for Disney and regurgitated photo sharing.
Meet Rapunzel
• I always forget her in Into the Woods because she's immobile and shares her scenes with the Witch (Meryl Streep) who invariably steals them.
• So annoying when movie studios release one image with different proportions than the others. Rapunzel gets a vertical rectangle. Is this to show off the hair?
• I love Tangled.
• When I was a wee boy it was my dream to make a Rapunzel movie because it was the only fairy tale I loved that DIDN'T have a Disney movie and also because my big sister had long hair and Crystal Gayle was still famous and yes that makes me an ancient - shut up! #40somethingisthenew30something
• Mackenzie Mauzy is literally the only Into the Woods cast member I don't know from anything. I guess she was on soaps? Are you familiar?
10 more photos after the jump...
• A still featuring The Witch scaring a man (The Baker in this case) makes me think of the great Witches Rap which might be the thing I'm most looking forward to in Streep's performance.
I let him go, I didn't know
He'd stolen my beans!
I was watching him crawl Back over the wall--
And then bang! Crash! And the lightning flash!
And--well, that's another story, Never mind-- Anyway, at last
The big day came And I made my claim.
"Oh, don't take away the baby," They shrieked and screeched,
But I did, And I hid her Where she'll never be reached.
And your father cried, And your mother died
When for extra measure-- I admit it was a pleasure-- I said, "Sorry, I'm still not mollified."
And I laid a little spell on them.
You too, son.
That your family tree would always be a barren one...
• But that's another story - never mind. That is obviously not this scene. Is this the moment she warns them about the Giant?
• It occurs to me suddenly that this is probably the only thing Streep wears in the whole movie. Unless her dress transforms when she spells herself into beauty? We can safely assume that Colleen Atwood will be Oscar nominated for her work here; there might not be many costume changes but there are plentiful iconic characters to costume.
• Damn Billy Magnussen looks good on a horse.
• Damn Billy Magnussen looks good all the time. Plus he's talented and funny.
• This is one of the two Prince Charmings. I love their duet "Agony"... people who aren't familiar with this show (I'm sure they exist) are going to be so surprised at how totally delightful it is. IF the movie is any good that is.
• This looks like an actual forest and not a sound stage. What's happening to Rob Marshall?!? (Kidding. That's mean.)
• Someone I had missed / forgotten who was playing Cinderella's step-family and such abundance here: Lucy Punch (yay! Loved her in Being Julia) and Tammy Blanchard. Christine Baranski is the step-mother. These are small parts but all three of these women can bring the comedy.
• Who do you think is a bigger fan of The Good Wife: Lucy or Tammy?
• Tammy Blanchard should be a bigger star. She's an Emmy winner (Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows), a Globe nominee, a Tony nominee (Gypsy) and does movies too (Rabbit Hole)!
• Are there any step-moms reading: Do you hate that you're always an evil bitch in the movies?
• If we see Christine lop off part of her daughters feet to fit them in a glass slipper there might be mass weeping in the theater from the realization that she didn't play Mrs Lovett in Sweeney Todd.
• I suspect Oscar might nominate the makeup and hairstyling... because there will be a lot of it (see also that first image of Meryl Streep as the Witch that we got almost a full year ago!).
• I think we're all super relieved that the casting of that one 5 year old YouTube star didn't pan out. But now that they're supposedly axing the sexual suggestiveness of the Little Red Riding Hood storyline maybe it wouldn't have mattered.
• I'm already upset that they're cutting this material off at the knees to make it more kiddie friendly. I don't think kids would notice all the subtext in the Wolf/Red "Hello Little Girl / I Know Things Know" anyway. Don't remind me that they're going to cut some songs. I CAN'T THINK ABOUT THIS. SHUSH.
• Lilla Crawford was good as Annie on Broadway so this casting is fine by me.
• I rarely buy popcorn at movie theater and I'm always hungry so I hope there's not a closeup of her basket of goodies for grandma - I really wanna lose three pounds.
• The Baker (James Corden) is in so many of these photos. This is Corden's big shot at the A list
• The Baker's Wife (Emily Blunt) is such a plum role. Can't wait to hear Emily sing.
• Funny how few characters in this show have actual names.
• Anna Kendrick is such a cheerful social media whore that it's a smidge hard to imagine her locked in cellars and kitchens shining pots and mopping floors. Unless her castle has wi-fi.
• If you like that thought, retweet it to humor me!
Hard to imagine the very social @AnnaKendrick47 locked up scrubbing pots / mopping floors as Cinderella. Unless her Castle has wi-fi.
— Nathaniel Rogers (@nathanielr) July 31, 2014
• Oscar nomination? I know I know. Too early.
• Kendrick is going to own "On the Steps of the Palace" - Even if the movie isn't good she's a super choice for Cinderella. I'm way more worried about "The Last Five Years" which will be trickier to get right.
• Look, it's whatshisname from Les Miserables. And TRACEY ULLMAN who we definitely don't see enough.
• Tracey Ullman is a good singer but I don't think this character sings? I can't remember at this moment as it's early and I'm still on my first cup.
• Chris Pine as the other Prince Charming.
• I wish I liked him but like Michelle Pfeiffer in People Like Us I mostly just want to slap him.
• Only now it looks like we're on a soundstage again with Dion Beebe (Nine/Chicago) lighting for Marshall as per always.
• Surprisingly, Marshall's longtime double Oscar winning production designer John Myhre isn't with him for the first time. Another Oscar winner, Dennis Gassner is doing production design duties instead. Gassner's filmography is beautiful so Into the Woods will surely (at least) look great.
• They're still hiding The Wolf (Johnny Depp), eh?
P.S. The Teaser has also surfaced just an hour after I posted this collection of stills
P.P.S. Here's a possibly less official one from "Red" herself Lilla Crawford via her Instagram account...