"Ghost" and Other Blockbuster Best Pics

Today is the 25th anniversary of Ghost (1990), that wildly successful supernatural-comedy-romance-adventure-whatsit from 1990 which briefly iconized Demi Moore's single teardrop face, revived the popularity of a 1955 song hit, made pottery-wheel lovemaking into a meme (before memes were called that) proved that Patrick Swayze was more than just Dirty Dancing, made the world hate the grandson of legendary movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn, and won Whoopi Goldberg her Oscar, the first acting win for an African American woman since Hattie McDaniel in 1939 (it's since become far more common... at least in Supporting Actress).

Ghost is among the most atypical Best Picture nominees of all time, and one that would never have been nominated without its phenomenal grosses. It ended 1990 as the top global grosser with over half a billion in the bank, though Home Alone, Pretty Woman and Best Picture winner Dances With Wolves were not far behind). 

So here's a quick Oscar talking point about the last, oh, 40 years of Oscar history. Which of these Best Picture nominees, arguably none of which would have been nominated without their blockbuster phenom cred given their genres and non-prestige foundations, is your favorite?

Star Wars (1977)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Fatal Attraction (1987)
The Fugitive (1993)
The Sixth Sense (1999)
District 9 (2009)
The Blind Side (2009)

How do you think Ghost (1990) stacks up to that list? None of them actually won Hollywood's top prize in their year. 

Ingrid Bergman is Coming. Ingrid Bergman is Coming.

Next month is the centennial of one of the greatest film stars of all time, Ingrid Bergman. 

To do the icon justice, we know we'll have to plan ahead and cover multiple films. Obviously we'll hit Hitchcock's Notorious (my personal favorite) and a few of her Oscar roles. But which lesser-discussed films should we cover? You may choose three. If you feel really strongly plead your case in the comments!

Which Ingrid Bergman films would you most like to read about (select 3)

Intermezzo (1939) with Leslie Howard

Adam Had Four Sons (1941) with Susan Hayward

Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde (1941) with Spencer Tracy

For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) with Gary Cooper

Spellbound (1945) with Gregory Peck

Arch of Triumph (1948) with Charles Boyer

Under Capricorn (1949) with Joseph Cotten

Stromboli (1950) via Roberto Rossellini

Journey to Italy (1954) via Roberto Rossellini

Indiscreet (1958) with Cary Grant

The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958) in China

The Yellow Rolls Royce (1964) all star anthology

Cactus Flower (1969) with Walter Matthau

Poll Maker

Link or Dare

Film School Rejects on Comic Con leaks and what the studios should worry about instead
Arts.Mic Netflix has the best opening titles
Empire Jennifer Lawrence attached to The Rosie Project, a romantic story of a man with aspergers and a free spirited woman who inspires him
/Film X-Men Apocalypse teaser posters 
Queerty interviews Alex Keshishian on the seismic impact of Madonna's Truth or Dare (1991) back in the day. It changed lives! My friends and I still quote it regularly to this day.

Freier Fall 2 -- um, WHAT? They're raising money for a sequel to that very hot LGBT movie that's streaming on Netflix that stars Max Reimelt from Sense8.   
Awards Daily Sasha compares Oscars to the presidential primaries 
Guardian one million dollar reward in the case of Judy Garland's missing ruby slippers 
i09 first look at HBO's series version of the old sci fi classic Westworld
FSR checking in with Hayao Miyazaki who is still working -- albeit on short films -- and experimenting at 74. 
Variety Guillermo del Toro on his female centric Gothic horror, Crimson Peak 

Off Cinema
B&N Reads Esther Bloom on inappropriate books she read as a tween. I didn't do this but I remember the whispered conversations in school about books we weren't supposed to be reading.
Playbill interviews two of the most talented people in the world: Sutton Foster and Jonathan Groff and talks tv learning curves, their summer productions at City Center, and Groff's fanboy obsession with Foster before he himself was famous. It's sweet 

Pic of the Day
"Chewie's Angels" (from Comic Con via HitFix) Mwahhhaaaaahaaa. L-O-V-E.

Leo Bird Johnson & Other Casting News

Aaron Tveit considering Grease: Live...Manuel here helping you catch up with plenty of recent casting news! 

Broadway hunk Aaron Tveit (Enjolras in Les Misérables, 2012) is our new Danny Zuko in that live musical version of "Grease" which will also star Julianne Hough as Sandy (sigh) and Vanessa Hudgens as Rizzo (double sigh). TFE Best Supporting Actor dream Emmy nominee Teddy Sears is joining CW's The Flash as the original Flash Jay Garrick. And Jonathan Rhys-Meyers will front a The Clash biopic called London Town.

But if you made it this far it is because you’re wondering about that amazing retooling of Melissa Leo’s “Consider” Ad we all love so much.

Yes, while we’ve been suffering through close to five years of post-Oscar Leo ubiquity. I’m glad she’s been getting steady work, but I can’t be the only one who wishes she’d say no sometimes to every woman-in-power-suit role that comes her way. I guess they can’t all be Prisoners-style performances, can they? Well, as HBO continues to ready Jay Roach’s adaptation of All the Way (ie. the play that won Bryan Cranston a Tony), they’ve cast Melissa Leo as Lady Bird Johnson and I can’t believe we haven’t discussed that at TFE. I mean, I don’t subscribe to the “actor needs to be a spitting image” of the real-life person they’re portraying but this is just much too perfect, no? To make the casting news even sweeter, they've cast Anthony Mackie as Martin Luther King Jr. which just makes me happy as it means we're not losing all of our Hurt Locker boys to solely Marvel-produced films.

"Consider..." Are you excited about the LEOgend’s chance at a second* Emmy?

She previously won for her guest work on Louie

SDCC Day 4: Will Deadpool finally make Ryan Reynolds a star?

Anne Marie here to wrap things up. With SDCC-regular Marvel Studios absent this year and Star Wars: The Force Awakens dominating like the geek culture behemoth it is, the race was on for who or what would take the #2 most buzzworthy spot in San Diego. Chastain showed up for Crimson Peak, Bruce Campbell was groovy in Ash vs the Evil Dead, but the most uncontested winner of second best was... Ryan Reynolds? 

Yes, everyone's favorite B+ lister, who we at TFE Posterized just recently, was the antihero fans went mad for in the Deadpool panel. The obscenity-laced trailer for 20th Century Fox's R-rated superhero flick is probably the most universally-lauded moment of the con, drawing thunderous applause and virtually no social media backlash.

Of course, 100,000 geeks are at best a niche market, and, as studios have learned in the past, a standing ovation in San Diego does not necessarily translate into worldwide box office. We'll have to wait a little longer to see the first trailer of the Merc with the Mouth, but until then, do you believe the hype?