Links+ Hot, Lukewarm, Cold
Oooh look at this beautiful actress roundtable cover for The Hollywood Reporter. Can't wait to see the full video.
Okay on to the link roundup since we haven't done this in some time the news is a mix of brand new to 'oops, already shoulda shared that!'
Piping Hot
/Film early numbers on the success of Disney+ though you'll have to take it with a grain of salt as the numbers are provided solely by Disney (just like Netflix who is free to brag on the rare occassions when they do share numbers but there's no way to know if the numbers are accurate)
Coming Soon Juliette Lewis and Mia Goth are co-starring in a female action flick called Mayday
After the jump The Little Mermaid, new projects for Paul Thomas Anderson and Damien Chazelle, Kristen Bell singing, and much much more...
Guardian to celebrate Burning Cane on Netflix directed by a 19 year old, a look back at other very very young directors who made history
AV Club The last piece of the Little Mermaid casting puzzle. Jonah Hauer-King will play Prince Eric
/Film What it's like to watch Watchmen without knowledge of the source material
You might have already heard...
Collider Damien Chazelle's next movie will be called Babylon and stars Emma Stone and Brad Pitt. It's about Hollywood in the late 1920s early 1930s. Release date Christmas 2021 so forget we mentioned it. That's a long ways away!
Variety Disney+ has put warnings on their service for "outdated cultural depictions" given the sensitivity of today's viewers and undoubtedly because the internet loves the word "problematic" so much. But honestly this seems kinda cowardly if they also are going to continue to pretend that Song of the South (1946) doesn't exist. Burying history and pretending it didn't happen is not the same as learning from the past or reckoning with it. Song of the South received two Oscar nominations and won for Best Song AND received an Honorary Oscar but at this point its a "lost" film since Disney won't acknowledge it.
THR Paul Thomas Anderson's next film, shooting in 2020, is a high school ensemble film set in the 1970s. No one is cast yet but we hope he's looking at Noah Jupe!
Guardian Woody Allen and Amazon have settled their lawsuits against each other
The Week there’s a new book on Elaine Stritch’s life - love this review of it.
Pride Source Elizabeth Banks and Kristen Stewart were all in on making the new Charlie’s Angels queer
The New Yorker profiles Todd Haynes before Dark Waters emerges. (We are always rooting for Haynes so we hope the deadly trailer isn’t accurate to the film’s quality)
Screen Daily protests and violence have flared up around Sweden’s gay Oscar submission And Then We Danced at its premiere in Georgia (which is considered one of the most homophobic countries on earth) but the screenings sold out in minutes.
Broadway Direct there’s a new book on Brando too called “The Contender”
Today's Video
Watch Kristen Bell do multiple tunes from the Disney songbook in this talk show appearance/Frozen 2 promo
Older news we forgot to share but better later than never.
The New York Times Jane Fonda still political and fiery at 81, going to jail for climate change
Salon HBO has killed the Game of Thrones prequel series which was supposed to star Naomi Watts and be focused on the women of Westeros
THR The Academy has launched a streaming service for their members to view the Oscar contending films. Pain & Glory and Judy were two of the very first films available so we'll see if that helps them once nominations are announced. This could be the way of the future, eliminating those thousands upon thousands of FYC mailings each year
Playbill Katharine McPhee will be the last Waitress on Broadway as the show will close in January
And did you see this a couple weeks back?
Four different Evan Hansens harmonize on a new arrangement of "For Forever" from Dear Evan Hansen
Reader Comments (30)
Is this the very first actress roundtable with an Asian actress?
I’ve seen The Farewell just lately and I am crossing my fingers for Awkwafina and especially Shuzhen Zhao. They deserve a spot at the Oscars. I can’t get “one bow, two bows...” out of my head. 😊
kristen bell would have been a huge star in the sassy, fast talkin’ broad/musical comedy era
[but how jimmy fallon is a success in any era remains a mystery]
If Awkwafina gets nominated, it will definitely be one of the weakest Best Actress nods of the past decade.
I'm all for more Asian actors getting recognized by the Academy but Awkwafina is merely decent in The Farewell. Zhao or anyone from Parasite would be deserving.
Oh, I have seen A Rainy Day in New York! It's minor work. Elegant -Storaro is the DP- but minor. Elle Fanning shines and Cherry Jones has a good monologue.
Will Emma.Stone and Brad Pitt play a couple? He's fifty-something and she is thirty. A woman paired up with a man over twenty years her senior? How refreshing. How unexpected. How lovely.
I’m predicting at least one surprise acting nomination for the Parasite ensemble. I can see either Park So-dam or Cho Yeo-jeong pulling a Marina de Tavira and getting into Best Supporting Actress. The film itself seems to have support across the board, and it’s the type of film that makes you sit up and take notice of the actors onscreen.
I think the problem with an acting nomination for Parasite is that it will be nearly impossible to put energy and effort into one of the actor/actress as it is such an ensemble piece. The male leads are more memorable but those categories too hard to crack. For supporting actress, there are four very viable candidates, and it is hard to see people deciding on one, even if I personally think they are stronger than the Roma ladies.
Is that the actual Disney+ disclaimer? If so, there's a poor mistake/typo in the wording ("would be that same as claiming" ' it should be "would be THE same...").
Disney acknowledges Song of the South in three of its theme parks via Splash Mountain.
@Amanda I also cringed at that thought - but what about a movie about two work or creative partners who are just starting to work together, both with age appropriate love interests, and he's jaded and bitter and she is enthusiastic and green - or he's a wild renegade who doesn't play by the rules, man, and she's the by-the-books stickler? I mean, both sound terrible, but better than them being love interests.
Amanda: Damien Chazelle, seemingly, isn't that kind of guy in a couple ways. First, he's not a sexist creep. His issues are more with race, and even then he's a 3 or 4 on the "race problems" scale. Second, he seems to be the rare director to not really like repeating himself. Another Hollywood romance, even in another time period, seems a bit too repetitious for him on the face of it. Until we see a trailer to know for certain, I'd guess/hope for "Platonic Director/Star" as opposed to romance. That certainly tracks with this casting.
I’m liking the diversity of that Hollywood Reporter cover. Two white women, one black woman, one Latina, one Asian woman, and one white woman who identifies as Asian.
http://thefilmexperience.net/blog/2019/10/31/101-days-til-oscar-how-will-disneys-fare-fare.html
It takes a true bombshell to make Charlie's Angels queer inclusive.
Brevity, you are a genius.
And Emma Stone has already been paired up with much older guys twice- Joaquin Phoenix and Colin Firth, who was literally twice her age him being fifty while she was then twenty five.
And there was also Bradley Cooper on that crappy Hawai movie.
She is either romancing Gosling, or a much older man.
Maybe that's not what Chazelle will do, but this does not sound like promising casting.
I almost didn't realize it was an HR Actress Roundtable without Amy Adams 😜
Brevity - I gasped then cackled!
Regardless of her great talent, Scarlett deserves these drags and we all know it!
Agree either the BSActress nod for somebody in Parasite (possibly the ma, the rich mother or the housekeeper). All were more memorable than than surprise Roma BSA nod. Loved also that Parasite had a cleaner house and neater dogs...
Edward -- i haven't checked for myself but those are screencaps from the website linked so i assumed they were the actual disclaimers (there's two different ones though)
See, THIS is what the Renéessaince means to people who like her.
It’s nice to see her relevant again. It’s nice to see her getting the attention that ubiquitous actresses get all the time, whether or not their work merits it. I like some of those ubiquitous actresses, by the way.
Awards season just clarifies that the whole thing is a random, arbitrary, subjective game. I like seeing Renée succeed in that sphere again. She's a great actress and a wonderful person and Judy is a very welcome return to form.
People ragging on a possible Awkwafina nomination when Rami Malek just won last year. I mean come on.
Jonah Hauer-King is super cute. Can he sing?
Damn JF. such truth.
So happy to see that Actress Roundtable.
For me, the Globes are going to be so important this year for the actresses. If they go with Jennifer Lopez, that's a real race starting. I can see Charlize, Renee and Jennifer winning there.
I was wondering if one of the actresses from Parasite could get into Supporting Actress as well. It seems that Supporting Actress is similar to Best Actress, with four major contenders who seem strong (Robbie, Dern, Lopez, and Pugh getting a lot of late raves). The last slot could go to McKenzie or Johannson, but they could also cancel each other out. Bening doesn't seem to be campaigning. Neon will have to wage a strong campaign for one actress above all others, although they do appear to be pushing Park So-dam.
If she or another actor begins to receive recognition, it will feel like it is a real contender for a Best Picture win.
Disney should release "Song of the House" at least on Blu Ray- the film has wonderful animation and songs. Yes the treatment of blacks is a product of it's time- but as I recall it's nothing we haven't seen in "Gone With The Wind"
Ryan T - Hauer-King is cute; he practically holds the BBC drama World on Fire together all alone.
When is Chazelle’s Paris-based jazz show happening? I’m more interested in that; seems like a good cast.
There is something sad about the ones on the floor. Agree Brad Pitt with Emma Stone is very creepy.
According to some sources, Babylon won't be exactly a two-handed romance. It will be a harsh drama with pessimist approach of the golden age of Hollywood. It seems Emma Stone will play Clara Bow. And there's a third character (If Welles description is accurate, it may be Anna May Wong). Pitt will probably be a producer. Not romantic link at all. But drugs, sex and full decadence.
Ryan T, thank you and drag them. Also, considering this decade the Best Actress category offered weaker turns (cough Naomi Watts cough Felicity Jones cough) people are dragging perhaps the best opportunity to have an Asian actress nominated in the Lead category for first time in years, while adoring the same white actresses mediocrity. Please.
Jaragon - I love how you are defending a racist film and using "blacks" to refer to black people. We stan a racist.