Lukewarm off the Presses: Little Waspy Wonder Women
Tuesday, July 3, 2018 at 10:22AM by Nathaniel R
Look at this lucky so and so getting a selfie with La Pfeiff!
Running so late! Three topics worth blogging about that slipped us by this past week. Michelle & pfans, Wonder Woman 1984 images, and Greta Gerwig's next project. That's a lot. Ready. Let's go...
Ant Man and the Wasp Premiere
The global premiere of Ant-Man and the Wasp in LA brought out the stars and by stars we mean Michelle Pfeiffer plus other lesser beings who happen to be famous.
It was also a delight to see photos of Pfeiffer & Rudd together because it's a reminder of that time they played lovers in Amy Heckerling's I Could Never Be Your Woman (2007). Do you think they spoke of it on set? That movie had some problems but their chemistry was good. (When does Pfeiffer not have good romantic chemistry with her co-stars? Never!)
The most beautiful woman in the world wore a shiny black retro jumpsuit that had us whispering 'warm...warmer...disco!' mostly because we'd just rewatched Pulp Fiction. But it's not hard to draw a throughline between this look and Pfeiffer's early 80s fashion slayage in Scarface. This woman barely ages so I imagine her flashbacks in Ant-Man and the Wasp cost much less than other de-aging Marvel has done in scenework. She is... 60. Incredible.
Michelle Pfeiffer meets the fans! #AntManAndTheWasp pic.twitter.com/qiTinXbBTp
— Ant-Man and The Wasp (@AntMan) June 26, 2018
But also what is making her open her mouth with such faux-shock glee in the video above? Do tell if you have a theory!
Here's a sneak preview of my review which I hope to expound on soon ...
Review of ANT MAN AND THE WASP in four bullet points
— Nathaniel Rogers (@nathanielr) June 27, 2018
• Visual effects are nom-worthy
• Feather-light fun. 😄
• @Dastmalchian gets a great bit this time and Peña the reprise he deserves
• Needs *way* more Pfeiffer 😡
Little Women Remake
Y'all jumped the gun by discussing this in the best of June post. I see you protesting the lack of an article! I see you. So the deal is that this is NOT the recent television remake but another brand new one that will be written and directed by Greta Gerwig (*squeal*). The cast are all heavy hitters: Meryl Streep, Emma Stone, Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh (!!! Lady Macbeth in the house) and Timothée Chalamet. It's tough for me to imagine most of those women springing from Streep's gene pool but the movies have never been all that concerned with family resemblances when casting families. They also seem too old for a traditional remake so thankfully this is billing itself as a "retelling" and will presumably be in the present day. Do we need another Little Women after the lovely 1994 version? Well, as "hepwa" pointed out in the comments, if they can reboot Batman every five years why not new Marmees, Megs, Amys and Jos for each generation?
For what it's worth this project originated with the awesome Sarah Polley (Stories We Tell, Away From Her) until Greta took over. So what's next for Polley? Little Women is off her plate so she's adapting the John Green book Looking for Alaska for the screen.
First images from women staring at things in Wonder Woman 1984
We already mentioned the first Steve Trevor image because we were annoyed that nobody ever stays dead in superhero movies. Not even regular mortals who die heroic deaths! Apparently Steve Trevor didn't die a hero. He didn't sacrifice his life for the greater good after all because he's in the sequel set in the 1980s, too! smh, whatever. But happier thoughts: here are our first two images of the principle women.
Wonder Woman, staring at tv screens. And...
Kristen Wiig staring at something in what looks like an animal exhibit. We presume she's looking at a cheetah given that she's playing Cheetah, Wonder Woman's archenemy. It's great that they went with Cheetah because female supervillains represent! Plus Wonder Woman doesn't have all that famous a rogue's gallery like, say, Batman and Spider-Man (who inarguably have the best ones) so why not go straight to Cheetah. If Wonder Woman 84 works, I expect they'll go directly to Circe (WW's other most famous female foe) in the next round.
Reader Comments (31)
Pfeiffer and Rudd both must've made a deal with the devil (or $$$$ dermatologist) because those two look exceptionally good at 60 and 50, respectively. I could never be their wonder woman.
Wiig was utterly wasted in Downsizing so it's heartening to see her sink her teeth into a decidedly more meaty part for a change.
Pfeiffer must have a small part in this. She was not even.
mentioned in the review I read.
Lyle Waggoner played his grandson on the TV series, so I think we should assume they are doing the same thing here
Nat: If the DC movies stick solely to DC Comics for their inspiration/adaptation? Sure. It'll definitely be Circe next time. But I think there might be A LOT of people thirsty for DC to bounce off some of the Cartoon Network stuff and, truly, EXTEND this so-called Extended Universe. Wonder Woman vs. Mandy from Billy and Mandy? Yeah, I'd honestly love to see that. (Quick character summary for anyone who hasn't seen Billy and Mandy: Doctor Doom meets Wednesday Adams, essentially.) Dick Grayson as an ex-Kids Next Door agent instead of a circus orphan? That'd be a pretty cool way to sidestep his dated classic origin. A Teen Titans line-up mixing the classic team with Cartoon Network characters like Dexter from Dexter's Lab or Steven Universe? Things like those might be what people actually want and might even be why DC Extended Universe caught on as "the name" for this as opposed to DC Cinematic Universe.
Those. Smoky. Eyes. Most beautiful woman in the world indeed.
Nat-I'm assuming (though obviously there's no way to tell) that someone created something that incorporated Catwoman into the movie poster.
I am still waiting for Hollywood to figure out how to best utilize Michelle Pfeiffer! She deserves better than small roles in big budget films or indies that go nowhere. Maybe she needs a juicy TV series to put her fully back into consciousness.
I look forward to the Little Women remake led by Gerwig because of the cast, who will all do a great job and will make it interesting no matter what. I have read lots of web comments about Streep and Stone being too old. I could care less about their actual ages and hope it's a great film.
Jono -- you know i am not ageist and regularly rail against it. I only mentioned their age because the story has always been, by its very nature and plot, about teenage girls and their mom so in terms of the original story they're all too old for the roles (not quite as bad as 30somethings playing highschoolers in Grease, though ;).
But I trust Greta to have a take that works even though I assume it won't be "coming of age" since that would be weird if Emma Stone is playing Jo since she's turning 30 in a few months.
For how once-in-a-generation beautiful Pfeiffer is, it's telling that she never became more of a fashion icon. She obviously hates red carpets. When she walks them at all, she looks like she's trying to disappear. And even when she "tries," she goes with whatever safest, simplest black or silver option she can find.
This Gerwig project is another The Beguiled-like disaster waiting to happen.
Why do many gifted directors known for their originality decide to remake movies?
Please, give us another Lost in Translation, another Lady Bird!
I'm with Cal Roth. This is about the least exciting source material despite the great cast and director. I'm even surprised that Polley was attached at any point. Didn't anyone see the latest BBC adaptation? So dull. Despite how often I said "Maya Hawke looks so much like her mother in this scene!", it was dead boring.
Also, Meryl Streep--for gawd's sake, move out of your comfort zone! Take a risk! Mama roles and nutty aunties, and iconic women in history? Ugh. I'm taking my fandom and moving on for awhile until you surprise me again.
@Pam
No actress has ever played more varied roles than Streep. At her age now there are less choices for a large variety. Get over yourself!
Streep is playing the grandma, right?
You get the chance to meet la Pfeiffer and you dress like that. What a douche!
(Sigh). As much as I'd have loved to Why is Gerwig doing this? Isn't the 94 version viewed as, pretty much, as close to a definitive adaptation as you can get from that source material? Here are five novels, without adaptation, that I think could be great movies with the right effort:
The Crying of Lot 49
The Man Who Loved Children
The Bone People
Light in August
Book One of An American Tragedy (Yes, slightly stretching, because Books Two and Three of An American Tragedy HAVE been adapted (twice), but I think a movie entirely focused on Book One wouldn't be an insane prospect. That's still about 160 pages.)
Michelle, dear, I'm glad you're back but I'm not watching this. I'm not twelve.
Also: Anyone on that first comment I dropped? I know, I know, people's eyes here glaze over at the idea of commenting on the creative direction of those superhero things, but I'm at least trying to break down what I think is, at least the beginnings of, an alternate path for DC.
I am all for Spike Jonze, Martin Scorsese, or David Fincher, etc. putting Streep or other older women into great roles, but they would have to start doing that.
My assumption is that Gerwig will do something DIFFERENT, so I don't understand why people are so negative without knowing anything about her approach.
As for Pfeiffer, she looks great but I am not understanding her comeback strategy, and feel like it relates to my first point. Hollywood is very unoriginal with developing interesting roles for women over 40.
I want Russell to abuse Michelle into an Oscar win. Von Trier torturing her means nothing unless they give her Best Actress at Cannes and who cares about those when they deny mainstays like Cotillard and Kidman?
What movie doesn't need more Pfeiffer?? I mean, even masterpieces like Rear Window could use a little Pfeiffer
Volvagia -- i assume the reason people respond is not eyes glazing over but not understanding. I keep some tabs on superhero things but usually when you talk about them i have literally no idea what you're talking about. Like i've hever heard of half the names you mentioned (Billy and Mandy? Kids Next Door agents? ) so i have no way into that convo. I thought i knew what Dexter Lab was but given your description and you combining it with Wonder Woman I'm thinking i'm wrong and i have no idea what that is either.
Tom -- it's true the only large roles for women of a certain age tend to be evil sorceresses (which Pfeiffer's already done) or various things from either stage or biopic genres but Streep gets all of the two latter. Otherwise it's minor grandma or mom roles.
And by "all" I assume you mean the one or two allocated each year. For example, Three Billboards or The Post, so there is other casting allowed. Hopefully these women moving into positions of power can return us to the olden days (like the 80's) where many women were valued at the same time. Live to dream.
Why are we upset that Greta Gerwig is making a new version of Little Women? Was anyone complaining about Andrea Arnold’s millionth version of Wuthering Heights?
Some of these comments seem reactionary? If Harrison Ford was cast as Ryan Gosling’s father, no one would care about their ages or how personally feel outraged. Is this going to be period or updated like Cruel Intentions? Michelle needs that hubby to write a good role for her. At this point it would be being a good husband.
Gerwig probably updating Little Women to moder day. May be loosely adapted. May be set in Sacramento even. Also explains why their ages are older.
If you don’t like it- guess what- don’t see it!
I think the cast is stellar and will be a wonderful story in Gerwig’s hands.
Volvagia, I watched Billy and Mandy when I was a kid, loved them, but it's a very esoteric reference. You push it like 'fetch' in Mean Girls, it ain't gonna happen. If a comment section is an excuse for you to use one line to reference the article, then not read the room and go on giant tangents, it's time to get your own blog, address the article and comments and link to anything extraneous.
I love how the clip ended with a fan saying "I love you since Grease [2]"
If only Gerwig were doing something unique, like an astronaut biopic. Then she'd be showered with praise!
“It was presumed by many that Streep would play Marmie, the March sisters’ beloved mother. But, Swicord tells The LA Times, Streep will portray Josephine March, the girls’ wealthy, hard-to-please aunt.” Our national nightmare is over.
They keep remaking "Little Women." Why not a new version of "Little Men?"
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-little-women-meryl-streep-greta-gerwig-20180703-story.html
Streep playing Aunt March- as the girls begin living lives on their own