Hump Day Link Night
Wednesday, June 1, 2016 at 9:00PM Vanity Fair Brie Larson reportedly frontrunner to play Captain Marvel. I'll believe that movie when I see it.
Boy Culture 90 things Marilyn Monroe would have done if she'd lived to be 90 today
The Playlist Susanne Bier, the Oscar winning Danish director of Brothers and After the Wedding fame, is rumored to be in the running to direct the next Bond film
Screencraft Do professional readers only read the first ten pages of each screenplay in their stacks? If you're an aspiring screenwriter you should read this.
Variety Jake Gyllenhaal to star in The Division, an adaptation of a video game
People Archives Mark Harris pointed us to this amazing profile of Sandy Dennis, Oscar-winner and crazy cat lady from 1989
Vox has a detailed analysis and cool sortable list of all major TV characters who died this season, As per usual they're still killing off minorities in disproportionate numbers. Out of the 234 characters that died 29 of them were LGBT and 59 were people of color.
Interview Mag Did you know that Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher are the stars of a new documentary? It'll play on HBO later this year
Towleroad President Obama issues 2016 Pride Month Proclamation. We'll be celebrating here to throughout the month
Twitter so i played one of those "like this and I will" games and had to reveal 25 crushes from my life. It was fun!
That Carney/Keira Situation
An update...
Directors and actors came forward to defend Keira Knightley after John Carney's recent remarks about herskill and their time together on Begin Again which we discussed on the most recent Film Experience Podcast. John Carney has since issued this very self-deprecating public apology.
From a director who feels like a complete idiot. pic.twitter.com/vfO8m4U2Hl
— John Carney (@jayceefactory) June 1, 2016
Reader Comments (37)
Glad he apologized, whether or not he actually feels that way (which is crazy because she WAS the best thing about that movie).
That apology is sand. He spread that shit about her across multiple interviews. He knew what he was doing.
LOL that apology is funny. I believe that he is sorry he got backlash and won't air his greviances in public again!
Good on him for apologizing. Hopefully the comments are genuine. It seemed so at odds with his films which are so lovely, upbeat, and positive. It's also an ugly reminder of how behavior is judged: no doubt lots of major male actors behave the same way (whatever "that way" is, which is unclear) but are forgiven for being "superstars" who need a lot of security/support staff, whereas women are more easily dismissed as divas or "supermodels" with indulgent posses/entourages.
But most importantly: which article does that delicious picture of Jude Law link up to? Sorry if I'm just brain dead and missed it but I re-read twice! (This being an essential matter)
The Melissa Leo headlining vehicle Francine is the unofficial last days of Sandy Dennis story. I love reading about high functioning eccentrics.
cat baskets -- it's from the Twitter link of my "crushes" from life.
oh and also it's from the movie ALFIE if i recall correctly
Thanks! (And clearly I agree with the choice)
OMG, love your Twitter banner/cover photo/whatever it is. You know I love me some Desperately Seeking Susan!
@Drew & @Anonny - I agree with you guys, it's a relief to see an apology from John Carney, but he went out of his way to denigrate KK's professionalism and abilities in several interviews. His remarks were extremely sexist, and he got taken by surprise by the backlash against him.
He didn't immediately see it was wrong, he needed 3 days to figure that out.
Was it Weinstein? Was it his agent? Was it a lawyer explaining that he was pushing into the area of slander?
He shows so much respect for her he manages to spell her first name wrong in the third line.
I'm glad he apologized for Keira's sake, but his behaviour leaves me feeling very wary.
Why are so many male directors such assholes towards women?
Nat: Unlike Inhumans (which I'm guessing got pulled outright mostly due to the Agents of SHIELD ratings near consistently sinking), Marvel isn't going to cancel Captain Marvel. It'd be a major loss of face in the wake of WB finally scheduling a live-action Wonder Woman movie. And since they're casting her now, I'd guess she might even first appear in the post credits scene of Doctor Strange.
I'm a scarecrow man myself.
The Marilyn at 90 thing seems scarily accurate.
Good to know that John Carney is actually a shithead. That apology is fake as hell.
I'm not buying Larson as Captain Marvel. I'd prefer Elizabeth Debicki.
I love that Sandy Dennis article. RIP Honey.
/3rtful -- Yes, please!
The Sandy Dennis profile just blew my mind! I had no idea that she dated Eric Roberts. t's crazy and kind of wonderful. I would love to see a documentary about her.
Marilyn. Nicole. Jude. Thank you, Nathaniel. Have a great year.
I got chills everytime I see one of my illustrations (Marilyn at 90) featured in The Film Experience! Thank you Nat!
Good for Keira . Carney is still a shithead.
I wonder if Johnny Depp will get the Chris Brown treatment , since now she has more evidence. Probably not he is White and unfortunately Amber is not as famous as Rihanna.
Why you do not believe in Captain Marvel? What Marvel film that they announced did not happen? Inhumans is the only one I believe.
Glad that Keira got an apology but I doupt he really meant it. Unless he was mostly looking for some publicity for his ne film all along and did not think there would be so much controversy about his comments.
If Brie is going to star in a superhero movie, I'd rather watch her as the Amazonian Princess-ish character from United States of Tara with Viola Davis and Toni Collette as sidekicks.
I think the internet needs to be a bit wary now about branding anyone it dislikes as 'sexist/racist etc.'...
....That said, there's just no way to look at John Carney's remarks without extracting at least a little bit of sexism - in fact, more than a little bit.
I mean, for the most part I find Keira Knightley a blindingly awful actress - like atrocious, Keanu Reeves-bad. And I'm aware I'm increasingly in the minority with this opinion, so I've tried to look at her work closely and clue on to what I might be missing. But I just can't get there. (I mean, did you see Dangerous Method?!! That scene where she's just received a letter and she's reading it on the bench?!) She's one of the prime cases of actressing where the world and I just clearly don't see the same thing.
But at the very least she does seem like a nice enough person and legitimately committed to acting as an artform and challenging herself. (I guess at the very least what she did in Dangerous Method showed guts and commitment)
So to accuse her of 'supermodel' (!) diva behaviour before going ahead and praising the male lead's and then Adam freaking Levine's thespian approach...
Like, really - consciously or unconsciously - dude's gotta be sexist. There's no way around it.
And anyway, despite what I said above, limited though Knightley may have been in Begin Again, she was about 27 times more modulated and watchable than the screenplay she was given to work with.
Jake Gyllenhaal's second shot at a blockbuster franchise is an adaptation of The Division? Leaving aside the fact that both his attempts at blockbusters have been video game adaptations? Unless he wants to make it an insanely dark comedy (which is probable (he is a Democrat), and I would applaud, because we don't get enough larger budget dark comedies), I have no idea how that concept could possibly be good. Why? Because a "straight" adaptation of The Division would wind being pure Republican fantasy.
Beyond the obvious prickishness of his behavior, how can Carney as an artist be so unaware about his own work? That is Kiera's best performance--it's right there in front of his eyes.
The Marilyn thing is fantastic, accurate, and man I wish it had happened. Thanks for sharing-loved that.
Chinoseire -- Marvel Studios has just not shown any real interest in diversifying. They've already pushed Black Panther back once and all financial statistics show that if all they cared about was money than the Black Widow movie would be a given (since Scarlett is far more bankable than the actors they've had lead solo films multiple times. with the exception of Robert Downey Jr).
So i firmly believe that they are not an organization that is committed to diversity. except when they're pressured into it.
This was the first I'd heard of the Carney/Knightley thing. It's really bizarre to me, because "Begin Again" is one of my favorite movies of this decade, and Keira Knightly is one of the best things in it. And I certainly bought her as a suicidal coffee-house singer/songwriter way before I bought Mark Ruffalo as the music producer who's best pals with Cee-Lo, or Adam Levine as a fresh-faced dorky guy. Did I miss the bad reviews that Carney felt he had to apologize for?
As happy as I would be to see a good Captain Marvel movie, I'd much rather see Brie Larson in more demanding roles along the lines of Short Term 12 and Room, not shackled to an action franchise for the next 10 years.
Nataniel, I understand some skepticism but they are not canceling something they have already announced that is so wanted, first of all it would be horrible publicity. But more than that delaying Black Panther was for a reason, Marvel got Spider-Man back (but Sony still wants to make those films as often as possible) and Guardians of the Galaxy was a big hit so there was sequel demand, they did not delay it for no reason. If Marvel was against women films entirely why give Wasp title billing in the second Ant-Man film? Black Widow has issues of lack of super power and there are some people in Marvel that are skeptical of that film (some of which are now gone so there is now higher changes of that film happening). And while I would have loved more women superhero films, lets face it, Captain Marvel for certain did not deserve a film soon, she is hardly a huge character.
1. I am amazed at the cynicism of a lot of people here. I am usually one who is very wary of forced apologies, but that one reads to me as one of the most sincere public apologies I have ever read. I don't understand how people can still think it is fake (apart from overly biased dedication to KK to the point of defending anything said against her).
2. LadyEdith (or other), can you please provide evidence of the "several interviews" in which JC denigrated KK? I though it was only one. Cheers.
Travis- you may understand the reservations some of us have over Carney's apology if you read these 3 reviews:
The Frame: http://www.scpr.org/programs/the-frame/2016/04/22/48220/john-carney-s-films-are-like-albums-and-sing-stree/ (Apr.22 - doesn't refer to Keira specifically, but calls "Begin Again" that difficult second album that got a lot of criticism)
Den of Geek: http://www.denofgeek.com/uk/movies/john-carney/40773/john-carney-interview-sing-street-x-men-hitchcock-more (May 19 - talks about working with model who couldn't act)
HeyUGuys: http://www.heyuguys.com/john-carney-interview-sing-street/ (May 20 - says Mark Ruffalo and Adam Levine delivered, but Keira Knightley could not)
Carney truly believes Knightley delivered a poor performance that lacked honesty and as a result "Begin Again" is a weaker film than his other 2. (she's a model not an actress).
Finally he did the brutal interview last weekend with The Independent, and because it has a wider circulation his comments got noticed.
It was not just one interview, and considering that he took 3 days of heavy publicity to bring forth this apology. I call that damage control.
I forgot this first interview in January.
Sundance - Indiewire - http://www.indiewire.com/2016/01/sundance-john-carney-explains-how-the-crowd-pleasing-sing-street-is-part-of-a-greater-trilogy-30502/
"In all honesty, if I went to see "Once" and I really liked the low-budget, tattered quality of it, and then the same guy made a film with Keira Knightley in it pretending to sing, I would probably say, "He sucks." I’d probably rap him on the knuckles, which is what some reviewers gave me, some audience members gave me that."
(notice any criticism in Carney's mind was for Keira's singing, nothing else)
All apologies are by definition "damage control". So if it is as well written as this one, that's already really good? At least some PR people deserve a raise.
Also I am glad he didn't use the phrase "If I offended anyone" or "anyone I might have offended". Those are the worst.
O pls, this is soooooo obviously damage control!! Carney is not sorry that he made the shitty remarks, he is just sorry that everyone turned against him now and he wanna covered his ass.
Unbelievable that the director of such nice, quirky indies is such an asshole.
I'm still not convinced that it's not an actual apology, people, sorry. I've seen obviously forced apologies and they are usually so obviously disingenuous with the phrases Kin is talking about "sorry if what i said offended you" (aka it's your fault, what i said was fine) and so on. He's really slamming himself here.
basically he was being a dick but at least he said so.
and besides it hardly matters since Keira was AMAZING in that movie, easily best in show.
I totally agree. It felt refreshingly sincere. That kind of apology we're not used to read these days. After an offense some people won't accept any kind of apology, and that's all.
it must be said..Keira Knightley's vulnerability was the best thing about Begin Again. I've always thought she was a good actress, but this movie was what made me realize that she also is a STAR.
Biggs: As far as the double-edged sword of blockbuster action goes? If you want to do one, go for the best one in the business if you can, before you become truly desperate. Would you want her fit and muscled in the Marvel Studios stable, or starving herself to slot into a Michael Bay production?