4 random things that happened on this day, December 16th, in showbiz history
1966 Andrei Tarkovsky's classic Andrei Rublev premieres in Moscow but an actual release for moviegoers was blocked by the Soviet censors. The years will be kind to it and its reputation grows. It goes to Cannes in 1969, finally opens in the Soviet Union in 1971 (to sold out houses) and reaches US arthouses in 1973...
1973 Prison escape drama Papillon, starring Steven McQueen and Dustin Hoffman, has its world premiere in NYC. McQueen nabs a Golden Globe Best Actor nomination but Oscar ignores the movie outside of its Jerry Goldsmith score. Charlie Hunnam and Rami Malek headlined a remake a couple of years back but audiences mostly ignored it.
1983 A crowded opening night at movie theaters with the Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta romantic fantasy Two of a Kind, the Gene Hackman war drama Uncommon Valor, the comedy remake To Be Or Not To Be starring Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft, the Blake Edwards dramedy The Man Who Loved Women, crime drama Gorky Park, and the Nazis and demons horror film The Keep, all joining Silkwood (which had opened two days prior) for a shared first weekend. Olivia & Travolta's reunion was the biggest initial attraction amongst the glut of new releases but mostly audiences stuck with prior releases Scarface, Terms of Endearment and Clint Eastwood's Sudden Impact, which were the top three hits at the box office.
2022 Obviously something's gotta give here. Hollywood no longer pits multiple blockbusters against each other each weekend but this particular Friday, two years from now, is supposed to see the release of both Aquaman 2 and James Cameron's forever in production Avatar 2. What's more they both take place in the oceans!
Today's Birthday Suit
Happy 32nd birthday to the actor Park Seo-Joon born on this day in Seoul, South Korea.
The past eighteen months or so have been big for him, co-starring in the action film Divine Fury and playing the small but key kick-off role in Parasite (2019) as the college student who leave his job and prospective girlfriend in the trusted hands of his unemployed friend, setting off the film's unforgettable chain of events. Since Parasite he's headlined the engaging drama series Itaewon Class (streaming on Netflix) as a morally stubborn young man in a war with a wealthy corporate CEO. Next up is the sci-fi drama Concrete Utopia opposite Lee Byung-Hun (The Magnificent Seven, Terminator Genysis) as earthquake survivors.
bonus (almost) birthday suit: Stephen James in If Beale Street Could TalkOther showbiz types with birthdays today:
Acting legend Liv Ullmann (WHERE IS HER HONORARY OSCAR, ACADEMY?), Rising star Stephan James (If Beale Street Could Talk), Director James Mangold (Logan, Walk the Line), ABBA legend Benny Andersson, Benjamin Bratt (Miss Congeniality, Traffic), Broadway star LaChanze (The Color Purple, Once on This Island), Jessica Jones herself Krysten Ritter, Divergent's Theo James, fierce Lord of the Rings slayer Miranda Otto, who's that guy character actor Xander Berkeley (Terminator 2, The Walking Dead, 24, Kickass), 2001 writer Arthur C Clarke, Oscar winning producer Greg Shapiro (The Hurt Locker), TV giant Steven Bochco, composer Ludwig van Beethoven, witty Noël Coward, and two novelists that Hollywood really loves to adapt, Philip K Dick and Jane Austen.