Curio: Lunch with Monty

Alexa here. Montgomery Clift would have turned 95 years old this week.  To celebrate, I dug out this 1949 issue of Movie Stars Parade of mine and re-read the interview. The Monty revealed by the publicity machine is surprisingly close to the Monty of my imaginings: intuitive, self-loathing, tentative, magnetic. [More...]

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DVD/Blu-ray: Pick a Disney Prince, Redistribute Mad Men Emmys

Eight questions for the comments related to this week's DVD and BluRay releases. Please do play along with your answers. The more the merrier. We want to see inside your movie brain!

Who is the hottest raven-haired Disney Prince?

Li Shang (Mulan)

Eric (The Little Mermaid)

Aladdin (Aladdin)

Kocoum (Pocahontas)

Naveen (The Princess and the Frog)

Poll Maker

Aladdin the Disney classic is rereleased
Q1 Rank the raven-haired Disney Princes* 
Aloft Starring Jennifer Connelly who is five years older than Cillian Murphy and plays his mother.
Q2 Can you explain Jennifer Connelly's career post-Oscar?
Dope the Sundance hit about geek teens obsessed with 90s hiphop. Very funny if too long / scattered
Q3: Favorite 90s hiphop artist?
The Gallows in which a high school play is the key catalyst for horror
Q4: Aren't they all? 
San Andreas Disaster strikes California
Q5: The Rock is on his way to rescue you. Describe the scenario!
Tomorrowland In which optimism about the future via Americana of the past struggles to make a grand movie in the present. 
Q6: On a scale of 1 to 10 how much do you hate it when characters narrate their own adventure direct to camera? 

TV Seasons: Wayward Pines (S1), The 100 (S2), Bates Motel (S3), The Following (S3), Mad Men (Final Season) 
In 8 seasons Mad Men won just 16 Emmys. Which sounds like a lot until you realize that of the other three dramas which are tied for first place with four wins, it's almost the least awarded (Hill Street Blues: 26; The West Wing: 26; LA Law: 15). Hell Game of Thrones which has only won Drama once and been on fewer seasons than Mad Men already has 26 Emmys so maybe it'll be the most Emmy-winning ever by the time it completes its run.
Q7: f you had to redistribute Mad Men's 16 Emmys in house where would they go? 

S1: Six Emmys - Drama Series, Writing, Art Direction, Cinematography, Hairstyling, Main Title Design
S2: Three Emmys - Drama Series, Writing, Hairstyling 
S3: Four Emmys - Drama Series, Writing, Casting, Hairstyling
S4: Two Emmys - Drama Series, Hairstyling
S5: Zero Emmys
S6: Zero Emmys
S7.1: Zero Emmys
S7.2: One Emmy - Lead Actor

*Yes Kocoum counts. He was supposed to become the chief which is basically the ruling class which is the Princes.

Wes Anderson Returns to Animation

Tim here, with exciting news for those of us who regard Fantastic Mr. Fox as a high water mark in the career of Wes Anderson. The Playlist reported on Friday that the director will be returning to the realm of stop-motion animals with his next feature, currently in pre-production. There are no plot details nor a title nor really anything, which I don't think should prevent us from going hog-wild with random speculation in comments. 

My guess: an exact replica of the Vietnam War play from Rushmore, only with fussy animal puppets.

We actually do know one thing: the film will be about dogs. Anderson, of course, is noted for his tendency to kill or otherwise abuse dogs in his movies: The Royal Tenenbaums, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Moonrise Kingdom all feature terrible things happening to their various pooches. It remains to be seen whether the new film represents his attempt to apologize to the noble species of Canis lupus familiaris, giving man's best friend a feature film to thrive and triumph. Or maybe it will just be his first movie in which every cast member dies at the end in a hideous Tarantinoesque bloodbath. But, y'know, set to Alexandre Desplat music.

Beauty vs Beast: A Better Pan

Jason from MNPP here with this week's "Beauty vs Beast," pitting another dastardly villain against a doe-eyed do-gooder and asking you to choose. We've been anticipating Guillermo Del Toro's Crimson Peak for so very long that it feels crazy it's finally out this week; we're not alone - lean out your window and you can surely hear the Hiddleston fans squealing in the streets. So let's look back at Guillermo's last non-giant-robot non-comic-book-demon based entertainment, the roundly admired if not downright adored Pan's Labyrinth. Can you believe that film is over nine years old? Take a look at a picture of actress Ivana Baquero these days if you don't believe me. Speaking of...

PREVIOUSLY Last week was All About Winslet (not that every week isn't all about Winslet really) with her 40th birthday and the release of Steve Jobs (did you guys see it this weekend? Wasn't it awesome?), and so we faced her off with her foremost collaborator, Leo the second time around in Revolutionary Road. Y'all went with Kate, because of course you did, she's Kate. Said Bryan:

"I love both of them in this movie, but the close up of Kate smoking at the table after Michael Shannon's blow-up is actorly perfection. Maybe the most severe and intense she's ever been. I also love how she threatens to scream if he says another word... I wish more casting directors would take note of her ability at playing unpredictability / mental illness."

Give Me All Your Linkin'

Me Says a gushing fan moment with Cate Blanchett. Adorable
Gold Derby rumor: David O. Russell's Joy will compete as a drama at the Golden Globes. That makes Best Actress Comedy or Musical a race between (if they campaign this way) hmmmm: Lily, Maggie, Blythe, Meryl, Sandy, Bel, Melissa and... wait, is that it? Elizabeth Banks?
Variety Suffragette's director Sarah Gavron will be honored with something called the "Juice Award" at Hamptons Fest. Sounds messy
AV Club Cinemax, perhaps emboldened by its success with The Knick, is clearly aiming for bigger original series now. They've picked up the rights to George R.R. Martin's werewolf noir Skin Trade. 
Empire yes, somehow there is going to be an Expendables 4. They will never end even though I've yet to meet anyone who thinks they come anywhere close to living up to their potential in concept! 

The Guardian profiles the Welsh foreign language film Oscar contender Under Milk Wood which stars Rhys Ifans. Yes, it's based on the same play that brought us the Liz Taylor movie
Twitter is Michelle Pfeiffer really making a movie with Keifer Sutherland named Kyra? If so, why? She has such weird unfortunate taste in projects/co-stars whenever she deigns to work
Empire so happy to report that Brie Larson is in demand enough at this point (5 plus projects on the way) that she's starting to get Jennifer Lawrence's sloppy seconds. She may take over the part in The Glass Castle which is a Destin Cretton project (Short Term 12 reunion - woot). This is very good news as she's a better actress and people, at least up to now, have not had the urge to cast her in roles for which she isn't well suited
Moviefone asks YA novelists to suggest YA novels they'd like to see on the screen. Have any of you read these?

Finally...
For those of you who are enjoying or soon to enjoy Madonna's Rebel Heart tour you should consider buying Matthew Rettenmund's amazing Encylopedia Madonnica 20th Anniversary Edition. I am trying to read it slowly rather than bingeing it in one sitting (tempting if impossible). When I first met Matthew some years ago one of the first things I said to him is "Why wasn't there a sequel to Encyclopedia Madonnica?" which is one of my fav pop culture books. The 20th anniversary edition puts the original to shame. It is MASSIVE (597 pages in the limited edition) and features loads of rare photos as well as super fan art. One of my favorite things about the book is the nifty one word quotes from nearly 100 celebrities Rettenmund asked to describe Madonna in one word that are superimposed on the edges of pages here and there like colorful graffiti. That's typical of the OCD detail of the book.

Full disclosure: I am in the book as one of the twenty-fiveish (I think?) Mega-Fans who get spotlight profiles. 

A photo posted by Nathaniel R (@nathaniel_tfe) on Oct 11, 2015 at 8:56am PDT