Today's Must Read
Vulture has an amazing profile on Jenny Slate which also gives personal insight into her career and life and, more surprisingly, her former relationship with Chris Evans. He comes off sounding so dreamy which is not what you expect in a breakup discussion!
Miscellania
Variety the tennis film Battle of the Sexes gets a Sept 22nd release date. Will Emma Stone be back in the Oscar race or will there be no need for a victory lap?
Coming Soon there's a project being pitched in Hollywood that unites classic fairy tale heroines in one story (like a superhero team but fairy tale princesses)
Collider interviews the undervalued Michael Peña about CHIPs and he reveals that he still doesn't know if he's in the Ant-Man sequel (which seemed foolish of Marvel since he totally stole that movie)
lots more after the jump...
IndieWire did you hear that the elusive subject of the recent documentary Tickled (who was accused of relentlessly harassing his video subjects) died suddenly this month? He was only 55.
Superfi desperate sequels with imaginary movie posters. The M4trix is pretty funny given recent news
Boy Culture Cher almost didn't get Witches of Eastwick for being too old? (That movie turned out so well considering its sordid preproduction!)
AV Club Disney hit with lawsuit about Zootopia's origins
Theater Mania the Mean Girls musical is actually on the way to being a reality. It's got an October start date now for an out of town run before Broadway
Comics Alliance Marvel wouldn't go for it but internet artists are redesigning Iron Fist as Asian. Fun illustrations!
World of Reel six movies that went from mediocre to brilliant with a director's cut (I wouldn't say Blade Runner was ever mediocre but it definitely did improve)
/Film before Gary Oldman does Churchill in The Finest Hour arriving late this year hoping for Oscars, there's another Churchill biopic to get through first. The June release stars Brian Cox
Film School Rejects thinks three action films from SXSW: Atomic Blonde, Baby Driver, and Free Fire will be among the best films of 2017 when the year wraps up
Pajiba is justifiably annoyed with how the internet treats stories about LGBT representation in superhero comics versus superhero films (part of the problem, though Pajiba doesn't go there -- is that many online writers are quite young and don't have a grasp of pop culture that arrived before them so to them Iceman being gay is a very very big groundbreaking deal even though he didn't come out until AFTER his last big screen appearance)
Towleroad on two musical revivals about artists on Broadway, Sunday in the Park with George and Sunset Blvd
A bit more on that recent Get Out casting conversation
Richard Brody has some interesting thoughts over at the New Yorker on the recent mini-kerfuffle about Samuel L Jackson stating that an American actor should have played the lead role in Get Out. Good piece but I must personally note that things have gone too far in this situation online. The impetus for these conversations started from a valid point (representation and whitewashing problems) and have since morphed into this notion that actors should stick to only what they are which is... well, frankly, it's insane. If artists can only write or act their own experiences than goodbye to at least half of all art ever produced. Goodbye all leaps of imagination! I've recently seen people griping about Penélope Cruz being cast as Donatella Versace. Please! There's nothing whatsoever wrong with a white European playing another white European who happened to be born across a couple of borders! Do we need to retroactively remove Meryl Streep from all of her accented roles because she wasn't actually Danish/Polish/Southern/etcetera? Do we need to recast two of the most iconic performances in all of cinema (Gone With the Wind and A Streetcar Named Desire) because Vivien Leigh wasn't actually a Southern belle but a Brit who just happened to be a genius at conveying that particular state of being which was not her own? People need to focus on things that actually matter when they grouse about casting and what actually matters is that diversity is happening both to reflect the actual world and because variety in point of view and stories being told is better for everyone (including the people who aren't used to having to imagine themselves in the shoes of other types) and that the best actors are chosen for the roles. Those two things do not actually ever have to be in conflict because there are talented actors of all varieties in the world.