Links: New Musicals, Life Tips, Netflix vs Hollywood

Variety Cher has dropped out of her expected return to acting with Flint, a TV movie about the water crisis in Michigan citing "serious family issues" (sending her good vibes)
Coming Soon Joseph Gordon-Levitt & Channing Tatum will team-up for an R rated jukebox musical called Wingmen about two pilots who crash land in Vegas
Variety Lola Albright film actress of the 1940s and 1950s and know for TV's Peter Gunn has died at 92

NPR there's a way to search IMDb now for movies that are female created or female focused... but it's tricky
Vanity Fair life tips from Shirley Maclaine
/Film Soderbergh's Cinemax series The Knick has been cancelled. :( 
AV Club Wonder Woman pees fire
Interview shares an old interview / photo session of Penélope Cruz from '99
Playbill recaps 'everything we know (so far) about Mary Poppins Returns' but they leave out the most important news that we covered here that the world's best costume designer is behind the new magical nanny looks 
Playbill Kelli O'Hara singing "Toyland" - staged concert version coming up in April
Guardian can Hollywood fight back against Netflix who wants us to get over our "romantic" notions of moviegoing. NEVER, NETFLIX, NEVER.
CHUD 'movies no one mentions' on Copycat (1995). Uff, I miss Sigweavie & Holly leading movies
Screencrush new Spider-Man: Homecoming poster, Spidey just chilling (note Avengers tower in the background)
Tracking Board Robert Rodriguez to direct a remake of John Carpenter's Escape from New York (1981) 

If today's your birthday, you're golden!

The 90th Academy Awards celebrating the 2017 film year will be held on March 4th, 2018, just 344 days from now. Only two previous ceremonies have been held on March 4th with those Oscars going to The Great Ziegfeld (1936) and Mrs Miniver (1942). Hmmm. Does this mean we'll get a showbiz biopic set during WW II as Best Picture next season?

Useless Oscar Trivia of the Day!
March 25th, today, shares with March 29th (coming right up) the distinction of being the date on which the most Oscar nights have been held. Both dates have seen five Oscar nights so if you were born on either of those dates please know that your birthday is also a special anniversary for many movies, creatives, and actors and for some of you THE ACTUAL special day. Consider...

March 25th Ceremonies

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Tweetweek: Fantasy Boyfriends, Favorite Seasons, Fabulous Divas

Don't pretend like you wouldn't watch a movie in which Jessica Chastain sets Xavier Dolan up w Sebastian Stan and also Naomi Watts is there pic.twitter.com/0b4rokKPJf

— Ryan McPhee (@rdmcphee) March 21, 2017

You must click through every photo of that tweet. That whole moment in watching celebrities be themselves in real time with each other together as fans is funny heaven. "Yay, social media," which is something we can't always say as sane people. 

ANYWAY. More after the jump... 

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Cate Blanchett gets a new sparring partner, Kristen Wiig

by Murtada

Cate Blanchett always manages to get sizzling chemistry with her female co-stars, whether the story they are in is sapphic or not. She had it with Judi Dench playing the architect of her destruction in Notes on a Scandal (2007). And with Sally Hawkins as her curtseying worse gened adoptive sister in Blue Jasmine (2013). Most famously, she had it with Rooney Mara as the girl flung out of space in Carol (2015). In the same movie she etched a believable and palpable friendship with Sarah Paulson. We assume she’ll do it again with Paulson next year in Ocean’s Eight (and with Sandra Bullock, Rihanna et al).Those set pictures don’t lie. And now we can add Kristen Wiig to the list.

They already make each other laugh

In the adaptation of Maria Semple’s bestselling novel Where’d You Go, Bernadette, to be directed by Richard Linklater, Cate and Kristen will be at odds with each other. Cate is Bernadette, a once world renowned architect turned recluse who is overwhelmed by her fellow private-school mothers in Seattle. Kristen is Audrey, one of those intense mothers who annoy Bernadette. Shades of Renata and Madeleine in Big Little Lies? If you've read the novel, you know that the Bernadette-Audrey relationship goes into some unexpected but very funny places. Can’t wait to see Blanchett and Wiig sparring.

There are two other great roles in the novel. Bee, Bernadette's 15 year old daughter who puts the pieces together of her mother’s elusive previous life. And Elgin, the husband and father, a genius computer scientist who leads a design team at a very famous tech company. Linklater was seen catching Cate’s final Broadway performance in The Present, just a few days ago. He brought along a friend, Ethan Hawke. Hmmmm. This could mean nothing but it could be a sign. No matter, let's play casting director. Who would you cast as Bee and Elgin?

Frances McDormand & McDonagh's "Three Billboards..."

Chris here. Provocateur playwright/filmmaker Martin McDonagh has a new movie coming this year, and like some of his plays the title is a mouthful. Get ready for [deep breath] Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri, about a woman seeking justice for the local authorities' poor handling of her child's death.

What's most exciting about this round of McDonagh acidity is that the typically male-focused writer-director is giving us a female protagonist. And star Frances McDormand is quite a perfect fit to deliver his tricky balance of dry humor, tragedy, and bitter allegory. Her work looks to be a real showcase. Are you already picturing a bleep-heavy Oscar clip? She's surrounded by a solid ensemble which includes Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, and John Hawkes.

It's strange the film has no release date considering we have a full-length trailer, so maybe this one is Cannes bound before awards season? McDonagh won an Oscar for his short Six Shooter before bringing In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths to the screen. This looks like another step up with some gorgeous, brooding visuals and typically ferocious dialogue. Could this be a potential awards player for more than McDormand? Take a look at the first foulmouthed NSFW trailer...