Her Royal Majesty, The Queen of Link
Friday, August 8, 2014 at 6:32AM This collection was meant to publish some 24 hours ago. Enjoy these links you might well have seen already!
Decider tracks Channing Tatum's expanding neck
MNPP Jason calls a Happy Hobbit Ending for Lee Pace within six months. I think this is optimistic.
Pajiba thoughtfully creates an anti-superhero-movie-diversity Bingo board. Love it!
AV Club Jeff Goldblum participated in a Jurassic Park themed wedding photo. It's great
The Dissolve Epix is airing a color version of Alexander Payne's Nebraska. What the hell?
Arts Beat Helen Mirren to play the Queen again on Broadway. Will the third time be the charm for a first Tony? If she wins she will have won the Oscar, Emmy and Tony all for playing Queen Elizabeths I & II. Quite a specific niche, eh?
The Wire a very bad day for the creator of True Detective Nic Pizzolatto who doesn't handle criticism very well and is now accused of plagiarism as the Emmys approach
The Film Stage shares Akira Kurosawa's 100 favorite films list (originally published in a book from 1999 apparently). Like me his favorite Scorsese is King of Comedy!
The Wrap DC has adjusted its Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice schedule to avoid Captain America 3. That sentence would have unthinkable years ago but Marvel has really made it work.
MNPP "Gratuitous Teddy Sears" I 100% approve and I would like to point out that I raved about him all the way back during his very tiny role on Dollhouse and so glad he got such a plum gig on Masters of Sex
Ooh look, Jeff Bridges and Beau Bridges (Emmy nominated for Masters of Sex) talking about their acting process at an event in LA. (There's also a clip of them talking about The Fabulous Baker Boys but it's not about Michelle Pfeiffer at all - sacrilege - so I lost interest)
There's no point in even linking to a story about this but how terrible is it that they've opted to call the next Terminator film, a needless reboot when time-travel narratives can reboot themselves while also not stupidly pretending that other films didn't exist, Terminator Genisys. That's the actual title, people, purposeful mispelling and all.
Finally, i09 shares ten lessons we can learn from the surprising success of Guardians of the Galaxy. Even though I think the movie has really pulled off a conjob on critics (it's winning rapturous ignore-the-obvious-flaws praise I think because it gets a couple of important things very right), most of these are bullet points are true. But I have to shake my head and roll my eyes hard at this bit about its cross-gender appeal at the box office:
How can a movie appeal to both of these groups? Because they both want the same thing, more or less — fun adventures in which both the male and female characters are fully realized.
Oy. If Gamora is our new standard for "fully realized female characters" in blockbuster cinema our standards have hit rock bottom and the future is going to be BLEAK. The ongoing gender problems in mainstream cinema have really taken a toll on people's expectations.
Reader Comments (13)
It would be the second prearranged Tony in two years! Sorry Broadway, not interested in that sort of game.
PD The Bridges were robbed too in 89!
I like Helen Mirren as much as the next cinephile (she's awesome as a person and great in plenty vehicles, like Gosford Park ) but always thought her performance as the Queen was waaaaay overrated. Particularly in a year with such fantastic runner-ups in the Best Actress oscar race.
Helen mirren vs Glenn close at next year Tonys. I'm calling it now. One making a comeback the other in a British import.
That anti-superhero movie diversity bingo is both hilarious and sad. Unfortunately, that change to the Terminator title is just sad. If Helen Mirren does win for playing the queen on Broadway, I suggest she cut a Queen Elizabeth rap album to get the Grammy! I didn't know Armitage or Lee were gay but if they are and they're coming out soon, good for them. They both do a fine job in The Hobbit movies (which has nothing to do with their sexuality but is just something I wanted to point out), I'm starting to dig Pace as an actor (GOTG aside) and everyone deserve to be out in the open with who they are.
The Batman V. Superman movie is a smart thing to do but it is crazy how dominant Marvel Studios has become. You finally have the two most icon superheroes of all time in a film together and they're getting out of Captain America's way. Absolutely crazy!
Peggy - absolutely agree on 1989 Bridges robbing. all three shoula been nominated and Pfeiff shoulda won
carlos -- YES.
Mustafa -- i hope there's a real showdown since preordained wins are zzzzz
daniel - excellent idea! i would even buy that rap album just from the WTFness.
The True Detective thing is really interesting. There's so often this unique tension between tv shows, critics, and fans. There's this sense of collective ownership with TV because of the intimacy of the experience, and it's jarring when a creator - as Pizzolatto did here - craps on that collective investment and tells critics and fans to buzz off. This kind of conflict pops up often with widely watched/beloved shows, and it's interesting to see which creators handle it well (Vince GIlligan on Breaking Bad is the only one who seemed to successfully thread the needle from pilot to series finale) vs. all the ones who handle it really poorly at some point or another - Damon Lindelof, Kurt Sutter, and now Nick Pizzolatto. I sympathize with Pizzolatto's desire to stay true to his creative instincts, and I feel that many of the criticisms directed at him are off point bordering on unfair, but he just comes off like an asshole here.
The trailer of Baker Boys in Barcelona was La Pfeiffer singing Makin' Whopee ENTIRELY.
To die for.
PD Love the photoshop. Helen seems so unbiased.
Anti-Superhero Movie Diversity Bingo, level of bull crap rated:
Whaddya want, a quota? (Um, yeah? Crap level: 10/10.)
I don't see sexuality. (Really, really implausible but not impossible. Crap level: 8/10.)
It'll eventually happen, don't push it. (Technically true, but I think we still need to push. Crap level: 6/10.)
The movies are so great as is. (Yeah, but wouldn't more diversity help that in it's own ways? Crap level: 9/10.)
The movie's in development. ((Sigh) Black Panther's cool, but it's probably an albatross for an American studio to view a flat-out African hero as more important than an African-American one. Hopefully the Luke Cage movie is good and he gets a cinematic outing because of it. Crap level: 8/10.)
I don't see race. (Impossible. Crap level: 10/10.)
I don't see gender. (Impossible. Crap level: 10/10.)
Multi-racial families aren't 'real family' enough. (This is about Fantastic Four? Yeah, this is crap, but don't pretend this movie is going to be good, because they're still, except for Mr. Storm, a bit young. Crap level: 9/10.)
Their sexuality isn't relevant to the story. (This is kind of light on the stupid end. Romantic arcs are always kind of forced, regardless of gender or sexual orientation. Crap level: 4/10.)
We're not saying we're not doing a female led movie. (You haven't officially scheduled one yet, guys. Crap level: 8/10.)
The comics are so diverse already. (Not really. Look at IGN's Top 100 heroes for a sample of the most "adaptable" heroes. 12 women. And, cutting out non "Big 2" examples, appreciably non-human characters and Black Panther (for being AFRICAN, not African-AMERICAN), 5 minority characters cited, one already mentioned under that first statistic? That all adds up to...16/79 or about 20.25%. Which is not exactly what I'd think of when I thought "this is fairly diverse and NOT an Ubisoft like sea of white dudes." Crap level: 10/10.)
We're waiting on the right story. (Assuming this is due to DC viewing Wonder Woman as their only option as far as a female hero. (To which I want to scream: If you know you can't justify her, DO BLACK CANARY AT LEAST.) Caution and conflicting purposes is the big thing with Wonder Woman. If you want her to be in the whole Captain America milieu, you're actually building to a JSA story where her Green Lantern is Alan Scott and her Flash is Jay Garrick and she doesn't start off interacting with Superman and Batman, but if you want her to interact with Superman and Batman, you have to change her look to the extent to where you have to ask "what's the point." Crap level: 2/10.)
Free space: Wolverine Movie. (Crap level: 7/10. He is popular, but he's completely unlikable and kind of boring on his own.)
But look at our diverse supporting cast. (Yeah, it shouldn't be an end-all and be-all, but it's a start. Crap level: 4/10.)
No one knows who "Insert Name here" is. (David S. Goyer is a piece of crap and Marvel did the Guardians, so that shouldn't MATTER anymore. Crap level: 10/10.)
It's disrespectful to change the comics. (In most cases, unless code-names are actual racial references (If you race lift Typhoid Mary, for example, her powers need to change to something based around toxicity or disease, because the original character is named that because she's a dangerous woman of Irish decent), that kind of "disrespect" should be at least somewhat applauded. Crap level: 8/10.)
We WANT to make a female-led movie, but... (Yeah, there's a lot of heroes that need to be adapted. Here's one potential suggestion: Why not kill two birds with one stone and gender flip Doctor Strange? Crap level: 8/10.)
Why can't you just enjoy the movies. (I am. But this still disappoints me. Crap level: 9/10.)
Black Widow BASICALLY has her own movie already. (She has a sizeable role in it, but that's not HER movie, really. Crap level: 8/10.)
Everything's so PC nowadays (Crap level: 10/10.)
We don't succumb to fan pressure. (If Marvel's actually said that, they're stupid. Also, All Hail the King is basically one giant bout OF implicitly submitting to fan pressure in regards to The Mandarin. Crap level: 10/10.)
Black sidekick. (Is it problematic. Yes. Is it also, kind of, a start? Yes. Crap level: 6/10.)
We're not saying they're not _ orientation. (Crap level: 7/10. It's still kind of cowardly.)
So you can make white characters black and not the other way around? (The problem is doing it the other way around is just putting them in the sea of whiteness and only in rare cases is a white to other ethnicity lift TRULY QUESTIONABLE and I just cited the crowning example of that earlier. Crap level: 10/10.)
But in the comics. (Mentioned this was total crap earlier. Crap level: 10/10. So long it doesn't detract from the core concept, possibly conflict with the codename (Again, Typhoid Mary) or CREATE racial problems as opposed to solving them, it should be fine.)
peggy sue - what's this abbreviation PD?
roark - yeah, in those cases it's very much better to shut up than to respond if you are a public figure and can't handle non-yes people
I saw The Audience (in London) last year and it was a great play, but Helen Mirren was incredible. She literally changed ages on stage with barely a change of hair/makeup/costume, just in her voice and posture, and it was just amazing to see. Plus they had corgis on stage. ;)
I just find Helen Mirren to be so limited. There are so many English actresses of her generation who don't get the roles or the industry coronation, and aren't dames. Her reputation seemingly puts her on par with Maggie or Judi, but I've never found her to be anything more than fun and capable.
If she weren't a sex symbol, who knows what kind of acclaim she'd have.
Lousy typing. Meant P.S.
Glenn is in a far better material, and Pam MacKinnon has already established herself as the leading theater directors. I'd root for Glenn to win any day.
When I think British actresses, I think Vanessa Redgrave, Emma Thompson, Dames Judi and Maggie, Brenda Blethyn. Mirren pales in comparison to them.
And Glenn will have stiff competition from her co-star Lindsay Duncan, a scene stealing role and the co female lead.