Thoughts I Had... While staring at THR's Actress Issue Cover

Yesterday morning, while running out to a screening and party for Al Pacino's awards run with The Humbling (more on that soon), what did I find on my doorstep but the new issue of The Hollywood Reporter, just casually dropped there. "Close call," I thought, imagining greedy scruple-free actressexual neighbors I haven't met, stealing it before I even knew it was there.

I threw it back in the apartment and dashed off and now I return to it, staring at its cover.You know how this works, herewith my immediate thoughts uncensored as they come. 

Is it weird that I don't read the article (essentially clips from the roundtable) but just wait for the full video so I can hear it all?

I don't understand the set and art direction of this photo. Why is Reese behind a gold bar? Why isn't God herself reclined on that uncomfortably stiff chaise lounge chair while the other actresses fan and feed her? (Let the coronation begin!)

Is Amy Adams a silent partner in THR? Will she impale me with that crazy stiletto for spreading that rumor.

She's like Terminator Adams here. So severe! "Don't fuck with me fellas" Or rather "I'LL BE BACK" because you know she will next year (sigh)

This is her 4th roundtable in 5 years suggesting that someone at THR is either obsessed with her, has dirt on her, has zero imagination, or is weak-willed when it comes to standing up to Amy's formidable publicists/management.

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Tim's Toons: Surprisingly, the new Peanuts teaser isn't a toxic affront to humanity

Tim here. Before I start, I want to briefly point you all in the direction of Cartoon Brew’s gallery of animated TV commercials featuring the comedy duo of Nicols & May, assembled in honor of Mike Nichols’ unexpected passing yesterday.

With that said, and not to shift moods too abruptly, but how about that teaser for the 2015 Peanuts movie that came out this week?

The film Experience is not in the habit of spending too much time with teasers, so no “Yes, No, Maybe So” treatment for this one yet (though if I were, the verdict would be Maybe So, written out like “maaaaaaaaybe so?”). But I wanted to talk about it a little bit anyway, because strictly in terms of animation it’s one of the most fascinating things to have been released by any of the big studios all year.

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Lupita Nyong'o to Star in Mira Nair's 'Queen of Katwe'

Great news, Lupita fans! The selective Oscar-winning actress has signed on to a new project, the next film from acclaimed director Mira Nair (Mississippi Masala, Monsoon Wedding). 

Word around the project has been surprisingly quiet-- it's not yet listed on IMDb, nor has there seem to have been an official press announcement-- but Nyong'o and Nair announced the news themselves at the Glamour Women of the Year Awards on Nov. 11. The project is an adaptation of the sportswriter Tim Crothers' book The Queen of Katwe, which tells the real-life story of Phiona Mutesi, a chess prodigy from the slums of Kampala, Uganda. 

The project is set up at Disney, according to Nair, and it seems like a collaboration between these two women has been a long time coming-- Nyong'o was a student of Nair's, and their families have been long acquainted. (You can see footage of the announcement and an interview here.)

Lupita Nyong'o has had such a quick rise to acclaim and stardom, it's easy to believe she's got the bends. It's been hard, as a fan, to be patient during the long wait for new casting announcements, but her selectiveness looks like it may yield results. Between the Star Wars sequel she just wrapped and the adaptation of Americanah underway with Plan B Entertainment, to say nothing of her multi-year contract as the face of Lancôme, her future in the cultural landscape is looking more and more secure. Let's hope the projects keep on coming.

Which upcoming Lupita project are you most looking forward to? What do you hope she'll announce next?

Interview: Patti Smith Doesn't Want Her Own Biopic!

What becomes a legend most? Not the biopics we see each year at the movies, Patti Smith suggests to me. We were meeting to talk about her first Original Song for a film, "Mercy Is" from this spring's $100 million hit Noah when the conversation veered into her own status as a showbiz legend, the godmother of punk. She shudders when I wonder aloud if anyone will make ever make a movie of her best-selling memoir "Just Kids" which recounts her storied relationship with fellow artist Robert Mapplethorpe. Though she's undoubtedly been interviewed thousands of times by now in her forty years of stardom, and she questions (indirectly) the whole point of the star profile and the interviewing process  -- 'if you really want to know me, it's all there in the work' -- she is a patient and warm interview. She instantly recalls the old massive paraphenalia that journalists used to bring into the room to record with when she sees my tiny electronic device and she's eager to talk Noah, a project she felt immediately taken with when Darren Aronofsky first told her about his plans for it at the Venice Film Festival years ago. 

Patti Smith at a recent concert in Iceland

NATHANIEL: Movies aren’t something you've spent a lot of time with in your legendary career. Did you know Aronofsky’s work well before writing the song for Noah?

PATTI SMITH: Yes. I love the one with Rachel Weisz, The Fountain. And Pi. I saw Black Swan a couple of times and we talked about Black Swan as a metaphor for the artist process and things like that. But it was not so much Darren as the subject.

Nathaniel: But you’ve been asked about religion before in your career and you’ve called it ‘man-made dogma’ so why do a Biblical film?

PATTI SMITH: Well, I love the Bible. Just because I’ve extricated myself from religion doesn’t mean I’m not interested in the scriptures. I look at the Bible as itself. It’s a holy book, it has incredible literature in it and beautiful poetry - the Songs of Solomon and the Psalms. I studied the Bible seriously until I was young teenager. It was always part of our home education: talking about the Bible, arguing about the Bible, interpreting it. So I don’t connect prayer or scriptures with any particular religion so it’s not a contradiction in my life. [more...]

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94 Days Til Oscar. Reese Strayed.

94! That's how many days it took Cheryl Strayed to hike the P.C.T. as dramatized beautifully in Wild (opening December 5th). So if you'd like to pretend that Reese is going to win her second Best Actress prize you can view the next 94 days as her red carpet hike stroll to the podium.

Dear Reese,

Loved you lots in this movie. My mind flashed back to your Election and Legally Blonde heyday, not from content -- duh! -- but from quality. Please make more movies this good. XOXO,

       ♥  Nathaniel