Linkbug
Wednesday, May 17, 2017 at 10:57AM 
Before we get to the links please click on this photo to your left, the teaser poster for Yorgos Lanthimos's The Killing of a Sacred Deer. (Lanthimos last brought us the incredible The Lobster so we hope he's on a roll.) The poster is so beautiful we don't even mind that Nicole Kidman isn't on it! That's high praise if you haven't been paying attention.
Links
Los Angeles Times Jimmy Kimmel will return to host the Oscars again in March. Same team this year, producers too.
Interview Ethan Hawke talks to his friend Alessandro Nivola (easily one of the best stars among the under-famous and under-celebrated division) about his current hot streak
Fathom Events will broadcast the current London production of Angels in America to select US movie theaters in late July. Click there for ticket sales in your area
Awards Daily keeping Oscar buzz alive all year for Cannes contenders is a tricky feat - I agree with most of this but disagree with the example of Midnight in Paris. I'd argue it wasn't the Cannes launch that made that film an instant Oscar contender but its big box office at home (for Woody) the month after the festival --another reminder that it can be really advantageous to strike while the iron is hot though few films dare and instead let their Cannes hype dwindle into nothingness before theater launches half a year or longer later.
Playbill ABC will air a live Little Mermaid special on October 3rd which combines the 1989 classic with live celebrity performances with "cutting edge technology." What the what now? This sounds potentially awful and disastrous but also, because of that, a 'must see'
Script Notes, a writing podcast, talks to Chris McQuarrie about moving from being a writer to a writer-director and the difficulties of moving from indies to tentpoles
Criterion Corner David Hudson aunched his new column "The Daily" which I will surely be stealing links from at some point for these roundups unless I got to them first. Let's start now with these two...
Reverse Shot has a new series called Executive Order which takes a deep dive into the individual T****'s EOs and fuses them with a film that is in conversation with those ostensible ideas or power plays. This link is about the Muslim ban and segueways into a discussion of the fine gay drama Henry Gamble's Birthday Party
NYT how action roles have changed for women (with Theron, Jovovich, Yeoh & Rodriguez)
I object!
/Film "Why Marvel Can't Fail" I'm linking this piece not because I like it but because I have to take issue with it. There has literally never been a long-running franchise or a single studio that has never failed. James Bond had flops. Tarzan had flops. Disney was once dying! Superman eventually fell out of the sky (though he's flying again). Marvel and Pixar, the current studios who inspire this type of article/argument, will not change that. It is an impossibility to always succeed. It's wiser to understand this because one of the quickest ways to insure failure is to assume infallibility. (Also I take issue with the use of "stickiness" here. Sticky as a concept in business may be morphing but it didn't mean 'traps you into brand loyalty' originally. I know because I bought a whole book on the concept
TV
New York Magazine (classic link since Roseanne is topical again) Roseanne Barr on the addiction of fame, her eponymous show, Hollywood sexism and Charlie Sheen
Esquire Corey Atad ranks every episode of Twin Peaks. This brought back so many memories and it's true that the show's quality varied wildly
Coming Soon Netflix is adapting the fantasy novels The Witchers Saga to series
Off Screen
The Atlantic "My Family's Slave" incredible long read about slavery, shame, family demons, cultural norms, and more
Reader Comments (16)
I don't know if Nathaniel is aware of this, but the Roseanne article is from 2011.
Is it me or is that Roseanne article from 2011?
ooops it's an old one. but it's good.
I've been rewatching Twin Peaks for the first time since it originally aired, and I think that even the "bad" episodes are quite good. But then again, I think all the silliness is pretty funny (I love the Nadine subplot).
Oh, I've already admired that The Killing of a Sacred Deer-poster.
It's great.
That poster is very sinister.
Actually Marvel already had one failure: The Incredible Hulk. 135m domestic on a 150m budget.
Can't frickin' wait for The Killing of a Sacred Deer!
Lanthimos is one of my favorite filmmakers right now - he better not disappoint!
But I don't think he will.
All his movies untill now have been very high concept, which I love.
It' gonna interesting to see his upcoming, The Favourite, which on paper sounds like a big departure for him.
The curtains of 'The Killing of a Sacred Deer' poster reminds me of the Twin Towers (Wolrd Trade Center). Am I the only one to think that?
Marvel Studios: The Titanic of this Generation of Film
^And like Titanic, I wish Marvel would hit an iceberg and sink to the fucking bottom!
I'm so sick of superhero movies - they are like cancer to the movies.
I can't wait for the superhero fad to fade!
That poster is amazing.
Also, I hate to say it because I generally loathe him, but Jimmy Kimmel was a pretty solid Oscar host. So, I'm glad to see him coming back. Seriously, cannot believe I just typed that.
Kimmel was a phenomenal Oscar host!
Suzanne--I love Nadine and her drape runners!
Alessandro Nivola is *so* underrated it's ridiculous. But it sounds like he's had a pretty good life, so no shedding tears for him. :)
I am 100% in support Jimmy Kimmel after his lovely, sincere, on-air speech about healthcare. The fact that many on the rightwing hate him now is a big clue that he's one of the good guys. And he did a fine job as Oscar host, too, naysayers be damned.