• IndieWire Avengers Endgame, which is still in wide release (985 theaters) at this writing will be "rereleased" on Friday. LOL. That just means it's adding more theaters again and this time it will have a deleted scene. It's fitting that the special poster for it is Thanos' fist since they're still trying to pummel Avatar's #1 status.
• Variety on Wes Studi's landmark Honorary Oscar
After the jump news on Bond 25, The Irishman, a new take on Flash Gordon, animation awards, and a movie you probably forgot all about (I did!) finally getting released years after people wrote it off...
• MNPP video from the set of Bond 25 which is apparently has setpieces in Jaimaca. We're excited for this one because Cary Fukunaga is directing and he always does strong work.
• IndieWire Don't expect The Irishman at the fall film festivals. The VFX are taking a long time
• Cartoon Brew Taika Waititi 'attached' to Disney's plans of an animated adaptation of Flash Gordon. That sounds delicious but I'm taking all Waititi news with a huge grain of salt these days. Whenever anyone starts being attached to everything, lots of projects fall by the wayside or never materialize.
• MNPP Do Dump or Marry: Edgar Ramirez, Ismael Cruz Cordova, and Pedro Pascal
• Variety we thought we were done hearing A Star is Born news but nope. The Lady Gaga/Bradley Cooper soundtrack album has just surpassed 6 million in global sales and gone double-platinum in the US. That's A LOT these days.
• Coming Soon two years after its TIFF debut the period drama Current War, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Thomas Edison is finally being released.
Offscreen
• Vox takes a look back at "the first modern celebrity" the stage actress Sarah Bernhardt, born 175 years ago
• Advocate troubling new survey showing declines in acceptance for LGBTQ people (after years of progress). The Trump era continues to be a cancer.
• Out Jake Shears says "Let's Have a Kiki" broke up his former great band The Scissor Sisters (but in a good way)
• Deadline The Cher Show and King Kong are closing on Broadway on August 18th. Those are the latest in a series of closings. The Prom and Be More Chill close one week earlier on August 11th.
• Playbill Marsha Mason, surely the least discussed of all the living four time Oscar nominated actresses, is headlining a new play Little Gem opening OffBroadway in July. Crossing our fingers that it's great.
One more thing
Have you heard of the "The Emiles"? We hadn't despite following awards news year round. It's a relatively new awards body, The European Animated Awards (EAA) and they've just announced changes for their third year. The 2019 ceremony will be held December 6th in Lille, France but in 2020 it will move again (like the European Film Awards which changes countries each year). The awards were formerly voted on by industry members but this year animation students are welcome to join for free. The 2017 champ was My Life as a Zucchini (with The Red Turtle obviously running a close second since it picked up a few awards)and in 2018 it was The Breadwinner. Both were nominated but lost at the Oscars... the Oscars are very resistant to naming foreign films the winner of that category. It's happened only once to date with Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away (2001)