Austin Butler will be Elvis for Baz Luhrmann

by Nathaniel R

Vanessa Hudgens with Austin ButlerBaz Luhrmann has ended his casting search for his forthcoming Elvis Presley biopic. Twenty-seven year-old Austin Butler, also known these days as Vanessa Hudgens' boyfriend, has won the role. Butler beat out bigger stars Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort, and Harry Styles for the plum opportunity. It's rare these days to see a lesser known actor snag a big biopic, but we'd argue it's actual healthy; lesser known actors come with less baggage as performers and that's theoretically better for audiences who already have their collective hive mind filled up with one famous persona when they approach any movie about an icon.  

About his choice, Luhrmann says...

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Beauty vs Beast: Devils of the Details

Jason from MNPP here with a "Beauty vs Beast" first -- last week when we had you face down the leading ladies of The Devil Wears Prada for its 13th anniversary several of you took to the comments with a suggestion of another competition from this film that you desired, and I thought it fine enough to bring us back here just one week later. The film really is a four-hander -- venture outside of the Runway offices and it falls apart, but the casting done to fill out those fashion hallways was divine. So let's hit up those other two class acts...

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PREVIOUSLY The winner of last week's DWP competition was of course, with little surprise, Meryl Streep's De La Renta swathed demoness Miranda Priestley, with 84% of your vote. Said Val:

"Hathaway is wonderful here. The movie wouldn't work at all if her transformation wasn't believable, but let's be for real, in a movie with plenty of stars turns, there is very much one sun at the center. Streep makes Miranda's quiet wrath a thing of beauty. Minimal tricks (at least they aren't showing here), just a great actor clearly enjoying a great role."

Review Catch-Up

by Nathaniel R

A confession: After an alarm mishap I accidentally slept right through my Lion King critics screening earlier in the week. Upon waking I was angry with myself because there is no way I wanted to actually pay to see photorealistic animals singing. After perusing the early reviews both pro and con, I became convinced that the sleep was no accident but a divine intervention from the cinematic gods. My new stance is that I can wait for the screener to arrive during awards season... as no movie has ever struck me (from afar) as less necessary than this one. In truth I don't even love the 1994 picture (as Disney renaissance movies go, it's low on my personal list). Anyway, on to movies we have caught up with recently that we either haven't reviewed or talked at length about on the podcast...

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Showbiz History: Ryan Phillipe's debut, Diane Kruger's next project, and the Luu brothers

7 random things that happened on this day (July 15th) in history as it relates to showbiz

1858 Emmeline Pankhurst is born in Manchester. She becomes a major and controversial leader in the suffragrette movement in the UK. She became so culturally famous that Glynis Johns even sang about her in the family musical Mary Poppins

Political equality and equal rights with men!
Take heart for Missus Pankhurst has been clapped in irons again! 🎵

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The Farewell has a stunning opening weekend!

What did you see this weekend?

Weekend Box Office Estimates July 12th-14th   🔺 = New or Expanding / ★ = Highly Recommended
W I D E	PLATFORM / SPECIALTY TITLES
Spider-Man: Far From Home	The Farewell
1 Spider-Man Far From Home  $45.3 (cum. $274.5) on 4634 screens  TOM HOLLAND, REVIEW	1 🔺 Super 30 $923k new on 317 screens
2 Toy Story 4 $20.6 (cum. $346.3) on 4210 screens PODCAST, REVIEW	2  Last Black Man in... $361k (cum. $3.3) on 207 screens REVIEW, PODCAST, BEST OF ★
3 🔺 Crawl $12 new on 3170 screens REVIEW	3 🔺 The Farewell $351k new on 4 screens REVIEW, INTERVIEW ★
4 🔺 Stuber $8 new on 3050 screens REVIEW	4 🔺 Wild Rose $294k (cum. $751k) on 161 screens PODCAST, SOUNDTRACKING
5 Yesterday $6.7 (cum. $48.3) on 2755 screens	5  Pavarotti $255k (cum. $3.5) on 196 screeens
6 Aladdin $5.8 (cum. $331.4) on 2557 screens  REVIEW, 1992 RETRO	6 🔺 Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable $250k new on 205 screens
6 Anabelle Comes Home $5.5 (cum. $60.7) on 3209 screens	7 🔺 Maiden $224k (cum. $484k) on 68 screens  REVIEW ★

numbers on that chart are pulled from boxofficemojo

The weekend was very kind to Far From Home which is outpacing its predecessor and is already the 3rd highest grossing Spidey worldwide behind Spider-Man 3 (2007) and Homecoming (2017)... for now at least. The new wide releases performed around expectations. Crawl did solid business (especially given that it's budget is a low $13 million) but Stuber struggled

The best news is that it was a huge weekend for Lulu Wang's awards-hopeful The Farewell, which earned the highest opening per screen average of the year so far ($87,833 per theater). The film expands from NY and LA to other top markets next week and goes wide on August 2nd. That's quicker than we were expecting but the numbers are strong. That's good news for cinephiles since any success for artful indies is to be celebrated in this tough theatrical market.