Links: Dolls, Dancers, Disney, and Agent Scully
Saturday, January 23, 2016 at 11:20AM Some links as we hole watching movies and writing future articles during the blizzard...
• John August on torrenting the Oscars
• MNPP remembers 5 great experiences at New York City's historic Ziegfeld Theater (about to close). Oh the memories
• Boy Culture a documentary about the dancers from Madonna's classic Truth or Dare film / Blonde Ambition tour to premiere at Berlinale
• Deadline new projects for JC Chandor (A Most Violent Year) including a remake of that extremely tense Austrian film The Robber - good luck topping the adrenaline of the original
• Awards Daily Lady Gaga will perform "Til It Happens to You" at the Producers Guild gala
• Pajiba Charlie Cox has not yet been invited to Marvel's Infinity Wars. He is waiting impatiently
• Fandor breaks down the Best Actor race
• Salon talks up Tori Amos's "Boys for Pele" (my favorite of her records) on its 20th anniversary
• Interview Magazine talks to the "unusually busy" Gillian Anderson about her recent roles
• Vanity Fair on Gillian Anderson fighting for wage equality on X-Files reunion
• Deadline a list of hot actors everyone wants for pilot season. Whenever I read about pilot season I realize how little I understand about the strange flickering alien world of television. Where people can even have whole careers without anyone seeing their work (with the amount of pilots that don't make it to series) How can the same actors be wanted for every drama? No actor is right for every role.
Disney & Girls
• Bloomberg Business how Hasbro snatched Disney's all powerful Princess line of dolls away from Mattel. They also got facial adjustments. Terrifyingly Hasbro promises to make the Disney Princesses even more ubiquitous than they already are. This article even has the story reenacted by dolls (with Avengers cameos naturally) in a video
• Sweatpants and Coffee Ooh i knew Disney was throwing up smokescreensto distract us. Turns out toymakers were 'specifically directed' to exclude Rey from toylines due to her gender! It wasn't from "secrecy" as they tried to peddle earlier. #WheresRey
• Comics Alliance ...but Black Widow will be part of the toyline from Captain America: Civil War (with a new costume)
• i09 has an interesting piece on the story work behind Zootopia and how the secondary female character, a bunny named Judy Hopps, took over the leading role from the male fox who was originally its protagonist.
Reader Comments (20)
Love Boys for Pele... Been listening non- stop this week... But 20th anniversary makes me feel REALLY old :(
- Isn't it quaint how that blogger calls H8-8 a Miramax film?
- I think pretty much with each of the five Best Actor nominees, the writer is confusing the performance with the film, but he's right about Fassbender; also, "the first Oscar nominated performance inspired by YouTube culture" wasn't Damon, since we already had Franco in 127 Hours.
As far as the 'hot actors for pilots' thing is concerned, I think this is just a bunch of publicists who are saying 'We'd like to remind you that our clients are not dead, and don't have a job right now'.
Thank you for all the links regarding Disney & Toys: Where is Rey?
“Princess toy sales are in freefall. Disney can’t give away princess toys anymore,” according to the insider. And yet, the insider said, the directive is there: Maintain the sharp boy/girl product division. Marginalize girl characters in items not specifically marketed as girl-oriented.
"The toy industry is more gender-divided now than at any time in the past 50 years"
The article at Sweatpants & coffee (Where's Rey) shows that LucasFilm, Disney, and Marvel don't think boys WOULD or SHOULD play with a female action figure. It's up to the public to prove them wrong. Those of us that buy gifts for children need to take note.
Paul Outlaw: I actually agree with him on four of those, probably (haven't seen it yet) only diverging on DiCaprio. I know saying this is letting production gimmick baggage colour my viewpoint, but because of the specific production background/gimmick of The Revenant, I don't know how I would view it as anything other than a hyper-committed non-performance.
Charlie Cox for Infinity War: Hmm...I'd like a short scene on Earth in the first one of a hero (probably Cap) running into either identity randomly. But the first season of Daredevil was...odd. Not in an entirely unexpected way (Daredevil almost always goes "superhero first", even on the lighter runs), but still strange.
Disney is a nefarious company that sells out American workers and marginalizes half of the human race. Why support any of their output? I don't. (Still haven't seen The Force Awakens.)
Mareko: Keep hammering them on these backwards toy decisions. Keep calling them out on the worker issues. Eventually, people will start listening. Things will change.
Paul Outlaw: And, note, that's even if I somehow like it a little more than most of the team here does.
Volvagia, at this moment (having seen all five), I'm here:
Will win—DiCaprio
Should win—Fassbender
Could win—Cranston
Thanks for playing—Damon, Redmayne
Should have been nominated—Abbott, Courtenay, Jordan, McKellen, Röhrig (yes, replace the whole slate--sorry, Fassyx2)
Gillian Anderson/Dana Scully was my first celebrity crush and I still love her. I'm happy she's so busy right now and if The X-Files fail (again), she still has the magificent Series "The Fall" for a hopefully long time.
Paul Outlaw: In comparison, I think I'm probably closer to this view of the field:
Will win: DiCaprio.
Could upset and should: Damon.
Could upset but would disappoint: Cranston.
Thanks for playing: Redmayne, Fassbender. (I like Fassbender more than Cranston, but the only way he could have won is if Sorkin got nominated.)
Should be nominated: Jordan, Creed, Isaac, Ex Machina, Mitchell, Straight Outta Compton, Rohrig, Son of Saul. (Over DiCaprio, Cranston, Fassbender and Redmayne. Chris Abbott, James White, and Tom Courtenay, 45 Years, might wind up in my 6-12. McKellan, and the other four of the field, will probably end up outside of even that.)
Is it just my iPhone? The acting prizes for The Film Bitch awards have started...kind of.
Your choices for Best Actor only partially appear. I can see Paul Dano, Michael Fassbender, and Michael B. Jordan but the other 2 spots lay empty. But your finalists and semi-finalists (Courtney, Abbot, McKellan, DiCaprio, Attah) are listed below. Who are the other two? Tremblay must be one, but the other? Hardy? Gleeson?
I am more excited every year by the announcement of the Film Bitch nominees than the Oscars and the wait seems endless....
Benji: I'd guess Elba and Isaac for Actor with Tremblay and Damon as the other finalists.
Volvagia, I think Elba's out because Nathaniel posts in alphabetical order and it's Dano/Fassbender/GAP/Jordan/GAP
Maybe Gyllenhaal and Tremblay.
Benji --sorry i'm so slow. haha. i'm working on it.
I want to see that Madonna doc! I'm so glad all the dancers are alive and well.
Boys for Pele! What a tremendous album. Amos released four stone-cold masterpieces in a row (Earthquakes through Choirgirl) in the 90's. She was truly firing from all cylinders.
No use asking about Nathaniel's noms. They are never a big priority. It likely all won't be fully completed (noms + medals) until June-ish. Stretching it out=more page views.
It has been the useful August 2017 calendar template
September 2017 calendar template
July 2017 calendar template information and targeted