Links: Being the Ricardos, Sex and the City Redux, and the Great Content Rush
Thursday, January 14, 2021 at 1:00PM 
• Apple will finance Ridley Scott's Napoleon epic Kitbag starring Joaquin Phoenix. (Bet you hundreds of millions of dollars that they change the title.) Ridley is such a workaholic. He is 83 and still attached to at least 6 upcoming projects as a director (not to mention his producing work) and completing work on his next epic The Last Kingdom and also has that HBO series Raised by Wolves currently running. That's a lot of energy for an octogenarian!
• Vogue Tilda talks about her career with playwright Jeremy O Harris
• Deadline Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem to play Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in Aaron Sorkin's Being the Ricardos. It takes place during the production of one episode of I Love Lucy. We love a tightly focused biopic. Yes, this is the same project that Cate Blanchett was once attached to (back in 2015). Do you think Nic & Javi look anything like these two?
More after the jump including Sex and the City revival and the Kennedy Center Honors...
• Playbill Kennedy Center Honors this year will go to choreographer/director Debbie Allen, stage & screen star Dick Van Dyke, singer-songwriter Joan Baez, singer-songwriter Garth Brooks, and the violinist Midori. Congratulations to all five of them! Imagine how nice it will be to see President Biden at these.
• NYT Siegfried of Siegfried and Roy fame has passed away, eight months after Roy
• Cartoon Brew on The Hollywood Reporter's animation roundtable with the directors of Soul, Wolfwalkers, Bombay Rose, Over the Moon, and more
• Go Fug Yourself a 40th anniversary tribute to Dynasty
• The List Michael Peña has replacced Stanley Tucci in the Roland Emmerich action flick Moonfall
• Netflix unveils their 2021 slate which promises a new movie every week. Content, content, content (let's hope we get some cinema out of it)
• /Film Paramount is selling another of its delayed potential blockbusters, Tomorrow War, to streaming. What will the few remaining major distributors even have to release in theaters in the next two years if they sell everything?
• MNPP Film Movement have picked up Bruce LaBruce's latest, Saint Narcisse
• Out Sex and the City is getting a revival with its lading leadies now in their 50s. We're all for sexually vibrant fierce middle aged women as protagonists but the idea of reviving this without Samantha / Kim Cattral? Yikes.
• Advocate Brendan Fraser, who is not fat and not gay, is set to play a 600 lb gay man in a new Darren Aronofsky (!!!) movie called Whale. Project sounds interesting, though
• Towleroad Luke Evans has broken up with his boyfriend but seems pretty zen about the 'sensationalizing' press coverage
Politics because who can avoid it right now?
• Variety Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez to perform at Biden's inauguration. Tom Hanks will host the primetime network special.
• Slate "Move Fast and Fix Stuff" smart advice for the Biden Administration
• The Atlantic gets it exactly right that the current GOP (still in hundreds of positions of power) is a much greater threat to Democracy than Donald Trump. After the violent insurrection, they still voted EN MASSE to throw out the results of a legal election paving the way for a more successful coup down the line unless they're ALL dealt with.
• Vox fascinating discussion about two-party systems and how they are meant to balance and moderate each others most extremist views... and why that's not working now. And yes Weimar era Germany is discussed.
Reader Comments (42)
Nicole and Javier, playing Desi and Lucy in a biopic? If it is any good, they could really take both Leading Awards.
By the way, why aren't Bardem and Elle Faning in conversation for "The Roads not Taken", by Sally Potter? I know, mixed reviews, but I found it a fantastic film and both performances, Oscar-winning worthy...
I don’t think Nicole or Javier look like Lucy and Desi, but I also don’t think any of the other actresses people are saying would be a better fit for Lucy look like her either. But I’ll admit that Nicole (my favorite actress) would not have topped my list for this project. That being said, I think it’s weird how people are acting like she’s never done comedy. Even stranger is the way people are acting like the project is “I Love Lucy: The Movie”. I’m sure there will be recreations of the show, and I do think the difficulty level of even approximating Lucille as Lucy will be high, but judging by what the movie is supposedly about it seems like we’ll get more backstage drama than anything else.
It’s also very telling to me that people’s knives aren’t out as much for Bardem’s casting, which is much more egregious for reasons beyond whether there’s a resemblance or not.
I love Nicole, but I have a hard time seeing her as Lucy. However, I think if she pulls it off in a film like this, then it will be a major triumph. I think the easier part for her will be the Lucy behind the scenes stuff, rather than the sitcom parts.
What strikes me as most odd about this project, though, is Sorkin writing/directing. He's much better at justice/politics than he is at behind the scenes showbiz stuff (e.g., Studio 60, Newsroom, etc.). At least lately.
It's hard for me to see Javier Bardem playing someone clean shaven with short hair, so thinking about him nailing Ricky is hard. I think Michael Pena would be a much better choice. It nails the age difference between the two of them, and I think it would be fun to see him do the dramatic side of since it's obvious he would get the "in front of camera" stuff right.
also, they're too old.
LOL First part is missing. I sound like a crazy person.
I'm having a hard time with visualizing Bardem doing comedy. Yes, it's a biopic, not a comedy, but he has to play a comedian.
I have no interest in fat-as-a-metaphor movies. I'm a fat person and I'm human, not a metaphor.
One of the root causes of our current political crisis, rarely discussed, is jerrymandering. Parties are meant to balance each other in part because when you run for office, you are speaking to a diverse voter base, so candidates moderate themselves and move toward the middle. Jerrymandering means districts are monochromatic and primaries are where the real politics happen, so they move toward the extreme instead.
Lucy had comedy in her bones Kidman unfortunatley does not,Why did Cate withdraw I wonder.
Kidman can't do comedy.
I dont get Lucy. It's only funny if you're dumb and American.
Fun facts: Lucille Ball was age 40-46 during the Lucy years and Desi Arnaz was 34-40. Oscar-nominated actresses who are the right age to play Ball in that period: Chastain, Pike, Colman, Jolie, Theron, Swank, Winslet, Witherspoon, Morton, Williams, Cotillard, Cruz, Hawkins, McAdams, Sevigny, Hudson, Harris, Gyllenhaal, Bejo, de Tavira. Oscar-nominated actors who are the right age to play Arnaz: Driver, Malek, Gosling, Eisenberg, Gyllenhaal, Abdi, Redmayne.
Oscar Isaac, who is Cuban-Guatemalan, is 41.
I am actually really excited with the Kidman's casting. It's out the box casting and I think it can be a great challenge for her. Even though she's still good in her projects for the last 2 years or so, I think her choices have been a bit too safe. Obviously this can be a disaster but I am looking forward to it.
I hope she can do both this and Winocour's project.
peggs, You're getting the Trump Treatment here
Being the Ricardos???!!! LMAO I'll wait for the porn version with Rafael Alencar
Jinkx Monsoon as Lucille Ball, that would have been a terrific casting choice.
Many of the weekly Netflix movies don't look that exciting through II had never heard of the Carey Mulligan / Ralph Fiennes Netflix movie THE DIG til now. Eligible for Oscars too with a January release.
Nicole is too awkward acting... Lucy was agile. Lucy was a visual funny lady... Nicole is too
tall and not at all comedic.
Kidman and Barden as Lucy and Desi is a bizarro casting news and a terrible idea- Kidman might pull of the look but can she be funny and cranky Barden as Desi ?! is just wrong. And they could not find at least one Cuban American star to play Desi? Oh look it's Oscar Isaacs who is Cuban-Guatemalan you think he could play a sexy singing star?
Kidman and Barden as Lucy and Desi is a bizarro casting news and a terrible idea- Kidman might pull of the look but can she be funny and cranky Barden as Desi ?! is just wrong. And they could not find at least one Cuban American star to play Desi? Oh look it's Oscar Isaacs who is Cuban-Guatemalan you think he could play a sexy singing star?
Ooh, this new Aronofsky sounds really interesting! And a juicy role for Brendan Fraser too; I'm stoked
Debra Messing is supposedly PISSED at Nicole Kidman for getting the Lucy role.
Cate Blanchett was a much much better choice.
I understand this new movie is not precisely a comedy, but it will - it seems - involve recreations of at least some "I Love Lucky" moments. Have loved Kidman in certain projects. She's mind-blowing in "The Killing of a Sacred Deer". But I agree with those who say she can't do what most people consider comedy. I'll never forget that terrible cameo of hers in "Just Go With It". As for Bardem, if you don't think he can be funny, check out the 1995 Spanish comedy "Mouth to Mouth". He plays a phone sex worker up to his eyeballs in frantic complications. And he's hilarious.
Good lord that gay guy Brandon Fraser is playing looks like hell, said to be eating himself silly after his partner passed, very apt movie title. I can envision both Kidman and Bardem as Lucy and Desi, after makeup, voice lessons, mannerisms, etc - should be fun. Sorry to hear about Siegfried, that ghastly accident in front of a Las Vegas with all that blood that partially paralyzed Roy, ended their successful career. But tigers are wild animals, not to be contained and forced to perform in all those lights and people, and it was stated from Roy that the animal was helping him, but animal experts dispute that, as recently as 2019 a handler at the show (and still traumatized today) stated Roy changed the routine causing the animal to attack. That beautiful Siberian Tiger died in 2014 at age 17,
I can't see Javier nor Nicole as Desi and Lucy. I can definitely see Oscar Isaacs as Desi and maybe Emma Stone as Lucy?
Nicole's face has bounced back from all her cosmetic procedures relatively well, but not enough to emote in Lucy's iconic ways. Deborah fucking Messing is right there you morons.
I'm having major traumatic flashbacks to BEWITCHED
The age difference between Ball and Arnaz was unusual at the time and was an intriguing part of their relationship, so I wouldn't have paired Isaac with the younger Stone. He has proven chemistry with Chastain (and a long friendship), so that would have worked, but I would have liked to see his Desi opposite Charlize's Lucy. (Messing, like Blanchett and Kidman, is a little too old at this point, but she could have pulled it off, especially if the film is set in the final year of the series.)
I'm not sure why peeople think Kidman is too old. She's a young 53 and Lucille Ball was in her 40s during the run of that show.
I think neither Cate nor Nicole seem ideally suited for it... but you never know.
Roy, he had it coming. No matter what you see in Vegas show, the animals are whipped, beaten, starved, taunted, etc. backstage to perform all these acts, so heinous and horrible.
Oscar Isaac? - yuk! They may the right choice, proven actors and Oscar-winners!
The reaction in the comments here gives me hope that the Sorkin / Bardem / Kidman project will be interesting. If everyone was happy and agreed, I'd be worried.
Without Samantha/Kim Cattrall we have only The City.
Nathaniel, do you feel that the predicament we're in now in America can be traced back to the inception of Fox News?
@ Nathaniel: Yes, she's a young 53 especially when compared to a woman in her mid-40s in the 1950s, but Kidman's youthfulness is somewhat...controversial. I'd be more excited about Charlize or Chastain (or Reese, if she weren't so short) as Lucille Ball. Even Michelle Williams (also too short), after her turns as Marilyn and Verdon, would make more sense to me. And of course I have a little fantasy of Angelina Jolia stepping down from her iconic pedestal to actually give a performance as Lucy that would fulfill the promise of her turn-of-the-century work.
But no...
"Being the Ricardos": Amy Adams & Bobby Cannavale. That I would pay to see.
Frances Fisher set the bar pretty high in "Lucy and Desi : Before the Laughter", a TV movie from 1991. I've always loved that performance. Also her very under-rated work as Kate Winslet's mother in "Titanic".
Late to this discussion, but as a huge I Love Lucy fan, I'm a bit disappointed in this casting. I have always thought Debra Messing would be perfect, and someone like Jaime Camil from Jane the Virgin as Desi. But now, I am desperate to see Oscar Isaac in the role.
(Oh, by the way, @Rowena, I am American and not dumb, so eff off.)
I like the Adams/Cannavale suggestion,Kidman is a strange looking 53 yr old now,too smooth by far,The Undoing close ups made it more obvious esp those earlobes of hers.
Kidman and Bardem are in talks, so we don't know that they are definitely getting the roles, especially with the negative reaction the casting has received.
I actually would be really interested to see Kidman in this role--she's not an expected choice, and I think she could really deliver. That said, she'd really need to get Lucy's voice right and not employ the whispery delivery she often uses, and she'd need to lay off the Botox in advance. But if Sorkin is on board, I imagine she fits his vision for the story and that he has a sense of what she would do with the role.
I don't get this Oscar Isaacs haters?
I am not sure why people like the Debra Messing suggestion? I like her in Will and Grace but I doubt she has the dramatic chop to pull off the Lucille Ball character. Beside, the I Love Lucy episode of Will and Grace was awful. She definitely can pull of the comedic bits here and there but based on the "The Women" or "Searching", I just can't see her be Lucille Ball. I think this project is less about the Lucy Ricardo show and more about behind the scenes.
I saw suggestion of Kathryn Han on some message board and I think she can actually be an interesting pick since she excels in both drama and comedy.
Amy Poehler as Lucy. (I knew I was forgetting someone.)
Laura Dern could do it.
Hello. I really like the movie "Sex and the City" and I remember interesting moments with pleasure. By the way, I recently came across a site https://kinkazoid.com/blow-job-toys/ where I found a sex toy that was used by one of the main characters. I even wanted to rewatch a few episodes of this series.