Links: Madonna's Biopic, "Fast Times" Read, Pattinson's Return, and "Popeye" Remaster
Saturday, September 19, 2020 at 5:58PM 
• CNN Madonna will direct the biopic she's been teasing about her own life. She's co-writing it with the brilliant Diablo Cody (Juno, Young Adult). It'll be interesting to see if Madonna can pull this off. She used to have such a great sense of humor about herself and that would come in handy here. No word yet about casting though the internet rumor mill has us convinced they're looking at Julia Garner (Ozark)
• Awards Daily Delroy Lindo will be submitted as a Lead to the Oscars for Da Five Bloods
• Theater Mania It took her long enough! Broadway star Laura Benanti is finally releasing her first album (next month)
Tatlany Maslany, Fast Times, Popeye and more after the jump...
• Coming Soon well, that was a quick recovery, bless. Robert Pattinson is cleared to return to the set of The Batman after testing positive for COVID a couple of weeks ago.
• Variety Emmy winner Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black) has landed the lead role in Disney+ She-Hulk series. For those of you who don't know She-Hulk is the cousin of Hulk/Bruce Banner in the comic books but unlike her more famous relative, she retains her own super smarts when she hulks out.
• Playbill Heidi Schreck's breakout Tony-nominated Broadway hit What The Constitution Means to Me will premiere on Amazon next month and Schreck has a deal with them for fresh material, too
• Slate "Hit Parade" investigates what does and doesn't make a 'one hit wonder'
• AV Club has viewing suggestions for 'best genre series' on Amazon Prime
• /Film the newly beloved animated film Your Name is getting a live-action remake. Minari director Lee Isaac Chung got the job
• Film School Rejects ranks all the Bond opening titles
EXIT VIDEO
CORE (Community Organized Relief Effort), Sean Penn's charity, did a live table read of the 1982 classic Fast Times at Ridgemont High screenplay with an all star cast including Julia Roberts (as Stacy, the Jennifer Jason Leigh role), Shia Labeouf (as Spicoli, the Sean Penn role), Brad Pitt (as Brad, the Judge Reinhold role) and Jennifer Aniston (as Linda, the Phoebe Cates role) as well as Henry Golding, John Legend, Ray Liotta and more... You can watch the whole thing above. You can also by a Spiccoli 2020 t-shirt to benefit the cause.
P.S.
Christmas Gift possibility alert: Popeye (1980) is getting a 40th anniversary edition BluRay release in early December. The Blu-Ray includes a digital copy of the film and 30 minutes of all-new bonus content including excerpts from a Robin William interview, an interview with the late Robert Altman, and a new interview with Altman's son Stephen Altman who worked on Popeye in the art department before his Oscar-nominated career as a Production Designer. Popeye was poorly reviewed upon its release but has had a longer-than-expected shelf life due to reevaluations and for being part of a great master's filmography (that always helps with the shelf life).
Reader Comments (13)
Is there a way to cut those horrible songs from "Popeye"?
the soundtrack to that Madonna film will be amazing!!
Julia Roberts trying to capture Jennifer Jason Leigh's essence and trying to emulate her earnest innocence was interesting to watch.
Shia was both distracting and admirable.
Freeman was indeed the MVP for not only The voice, but for his humorous self that ended up gotting the biggest laughs.
In contrast to what Shia was doing, Freeman was not hiding behind choices, but rather revealing a real part of his being as a human and an artist.
That Madonna bio-pic is going to be a disaster. A woman telling her own life story and ugh...
I'm glad to remind myself that David Bowie wasn't stupid enough to for that as he chose the last decade of his life to remain mysterious and have the world not know who he is. Plus, he was right about celebrity. The good thing about being famous is that you can get a good table a restaurant, backstage passes to see friends, or free tickets to a show. Other than that, it's a fucking pain in the ass.
The Madonna news is genius. Recent music biopics have been a little safe and feel studio-driven. Letting Madonna direct her own story at least adds a layer of intrigue, for better or worse. I don't know if it's the best choice, but it's certainly the most interesting one.
how the hell is lourdes not in the running to play her mom?
Called every guest actor Emmy. Drama Actor was a real guess, but super proud that Cherry Jones seemed obvious and evidently so.
I love Madonna. But her directing her own life story is a recipe for disaster. God I hope I am wrong.
I had no interest in why critics where so against it - but Madonnas "W.E." made a lasting impression on me - an absolutely beautiful crafted labour of love with such an outstanding 'upcoming' cast Isaac, Cornish, Isaac & Riseborough (who is still not where I want her to be!). So I have no doubt - no doubt at all !! And yeahy Julia Garner
I’m already dreaming a Rocketman moment for Madonna with her and Pat Leonard receiving an Oscar for a new ballad written specifically for her biopic...
POPEYE really is an Altman film through and through, for better and for worse. It starts off really strong, you're feel like you're in for and unprecedented masterpiece of popular art, but eventually it becomes kind of exhausting. Still, I might buy it.
I'm sure I've mentioned it here before on another post regarding Madonna, but Michael Jackson's daughter is a dead ringer for a young Madonna.
I consider POPEYE to be an interested failure but a failure nonetheless. Beyond the production design, "He's Large" and Duvall, I found it extremely difficult to watch.