Rita Moreno to return to movie musicals?

by Nathaniel R

Rita Moreno in her Emmy worthy performance in "One Day at a Time"

Rita Moreno, the beloved octogenarian, EGOT and Triple Crown of Acting winner, and Latina pioneer, is back in a big way. She's doing some of her best work ever on One Day at a Time (the lack of an Emmy nod is just shameful) but we have very good news about a future movie role. She's been cast in the movie adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda's In the Heights (2020). This will be her first movie musical role in over 50 years! 

For those who don't know Moreno's career before West Side Story (1961), it wasn't her first musical...

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Bohemian was the dom top of the weekend

Weekend Box Office - Actuals November 2nd-4th 🔺 = New or Expanded Theater Count
W I D E 800+ screens	PLATFORM / LIMITED excluding prev. wide
1.🔺Bohemian Rhapsody $51 *NEW* Review, Podcast	1.🔺Beautiful Boy $1.3 540 screens (cum. $3.1)  Podcast
2.🔺Nutcracker & the... $20.3 *NEW* Review	2.Johnny English 2 $1  on 552 screens (cum. $3.2)
3.🔺Nobody's Fool $13.7  *NEW*	3.Free Solo $1  363  screens (cum. $6.8)
4. A Star is Born $11 (cum. $165.5)  Review, Soundtrack, Podcast	4.🔺Can You Ever Forgive Me? $1 180 screens (cum. $1.7) Review, Podcast
5. Halloween $10.8  (cum. $150.2) Review	5.🔺Suspiria $979k 311 screens (cum. $1.2) Podcast

What did you see this weekend? Want-to-see factor on the Queen movie Bohemian Rhapsody was huge (Bryan Singer's alleged crimes and the sometimes-harsh reviews didnt deter people). Meanwhile Boy Erased enjoyed the weekend's top per screen average but at only 5 screens earning $207k -- a solid start for its platform Oscar-campaign intentions.

Beauty vs Beast: All Hail Queen Posey

Jason from MNPP here with this week's "Beauty vs Beast" contest, which this week will be marking the milestone of 50 freaking years of the eternal goddess Parker Posey. Do you recall the first place you saw her? I feel like for most people it was probably Dazed and Confused but I have a really vivid memory of her in Coneheads, for some reason. Whatever is was she's since given us half of her life and heaps of iconic characters in that time, and we're gawping in the presence of greatness today.

It seems a bit blasphemous to ignore her work with Christopher Guest ("Busy Bee!") but I'm gonna - I'm gonna go with two of her characters that ended up shaping my perception of her screen-image the most. And those two are Mary in Party Girl and Jackie O in The House of Yes...

bike tracks

PREVIOUSLY Our Halloween hangovers should (hopefully) be gone by now so let's say goodbye to my favorite holiday with one last big hug to Jack Skellington, who took the Nightmare Before Christmaspoll with 74% of your vote. Said catbaskets:

"Mr. Oogie boogie says there's trouble close at hand. You better pay attention, now, 'cause he's the boogie man. Jack counters that there are few who deny that at what he does he is the best for his talents are renowned far and wide. Jack in a landslide."

A look back at Gods and Monsters (1998)

Please welcome guest contributor Anna to discuss Gods and Monsters for its 20th anniversary. You can follow her on Twitter @MovieNut14

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Based on Christopher Bram’s novel "Father of Frankenstein," Gods and Monsters – which references a line from Bride of Frankenstein – focuses on the final months of retired film director James Whale (Ian McKellen). Recovering from a series of minor strokes, he lives alone with his housemaid Hanna (Lynn Redgrave) and memories of his past. Because of his weakening state, he slips into a depression and contemplates suicide (which he would ultimately follow through in 1957). But the presence of gardener Clay Boone (Brendan Fraser) gives the aging man something to live for...

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Links: Color Purple, Yuba County, and Rebel Wilson

Playbill very cool news. The tony winning The Color Purple musical will be adapted to screen. Smart of Cynthia Erivo to immediately focus on the screen following her Tony win for that show. Perhaps she can transfer the role now that she has a larger profile in the film industry?
Pajiba first photos of Charlize Theron as Megyn Kelly offer an uncanny resemblance
Tod Phillips Joaquin Phoenix taking a smoke break on the set of The Joker
/Film Deadwood just began production on a movie with the TV series cast returning to their acclaimed roles

IndieWire held a little ceremony to honor some of this year's top film people: Charlize Theron, Amandla Stenberg, Ryan Coogler, and Alfonso Cuarón among them.
Tribeca Film Disobedience deserves a place in awards season
Variety Rebel Wilson in hot water after proclaiming (incorrectly) that she's the first plus size woman to lead a rom-com (if she had just admitted she was wrong, this wouldn't have blown up but for some reason she doubled down)
Variety Fun! Allison Janney and Laura Dern will be co-starring in a comedy called Breaking News in Yuba County for director Tate Taylor (The Help)
Awards Daily Best Song Oscar-winner Annie Lennox wrote a new tune for A Private War
Into on the erasure of both polyamory and bisexuality in Bohemian Rhapsody
Humanizing the Vacuum perceptive review of Can You Ever Forgive Me?