2 Gays, 1 Remake: Drive My Car

Riding the comedown from the Oscars, Cláudio Alves and Nick Taylor speculate on the remake potential of Best International Film winner, Drive My Car.

CLÁUDIO: April Fools' Day is always a frustrating time to be on Twitter. From nobodies to reputable sources, countless accounts share announcements of fake projects, preposterous stuff that nonetheless feels plausible in our current paradigm. One of those jokey posts reported an American remake of Drive My Car. Though false it rings true; "Foreign" awards season juggernauts are often retrofitted for Hollywood versions. Though they haven't yet seen the light of day, Toni Erdmann, Parasite, and Another Round are all to be remade as English-language features and series.

And yet, outrage couldn't last when someone mentioned a brilliant idea – Oscar Isaac in the Hidetoshi Nishijima role! Maybe because I love great acting, perhaps because I like to imagine Isaac being all sad and hot, my curiosity was piqued. As ever, when the matters of sexy hunks and dream castings arise, I had no choice but to turn to my dear friend Nick Taylor…

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Which Movie and TV people won Grammys?

by Nathaniel R

Ben Platt, Rachel Zegler, Cynthia Erivo, and Leslie Odom Jr sing "Somewhere" from West Side Story at the Grammys

The Grammys have almost 90 categories so it can get very difficult to track them all. "Complete lists of winners" around the web are usually missing several if not 2/3rds of the actual winners. The list which follows in this post is also probably not complete though we tried by pooling from different sources. We only care about the Grammys very selectively since we're focused on the actors mediums (film, tv, stage) so the "Triple Crown" has always been cooler to us than the EGOT. Neverthless, there are some venn diagram overlaps between our concerns and the Grammys since at least a few actors are nominated each year for something or another. What's more, despite the remake of West Side Story being up for several Oscars, it essentially got a better tribute at the Grammys. That came by way of a truly stirring "In Memoriam" presentation which ended, reverently, with the late great Stephen Sondheim.

So who got closer to an EGOT last night, even if they're still very far away? Find out after the jump...

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Doris Day @ 100: 'With Six You Get Eggroll'

Team Experience has been celebrating Doris Day for her Centennial. 

by Nathaniel R

Most careers peter out. Not so with Doris Day's. The most bankable actress of the first half of the 1960s chose to wrap it up at the first real sign that her popularity was waning. Her last top ten of the year hit was the bizarre comedy The Glass Bottom Boat (1966) but her last film, a blended family comedy called With Six You Get Eggroll (1968), was also a hit albeit not as big as her usual successes. The 1960s were tumultuous on all fronts including ideas about sexuality. The media became snide about Day, infamously dubbing her "The World's Oldest Virgin".

In retrospect, with only anecdotal history to go on, it's fascinating that Doris Day was supposedly rejected on these grounds when Julie Andrews, the box office queen of the second half of the 1960s, was not exactly a repudiation of the Day persona; sunny, funny, wholesome, short-haired musical blonde whose chemistry with male co-stars was undeniable but hardly horny...

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Linkers Dozen

• MovieMaker Bruce Willis retires from acting after Aphasia diagnosis. Our heart goes out to him and his loved ones.
• World of Reel polled 150 critics (including me) on the best films of the 1970s. No surprise to see The Godfather top it even though it wasn't on my list (we could only choose 10-15 films each). Four of my selections made the top ten (Nashville, Apocalypse Now, The Conversation, and Network)
• Pajiba great piece on Ryan Reynolds turning himself into a brand while becoming blander as an actor

More after the jump including Essie Davis, Chang Chen, Taron Egerton, Hugh Jackman, and the aftermath of The Slap at the Oscars... 

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Doris Day @ 100: "Pillow Talk"

By Christopher James

Doris Day had the biggest hit of career with "Pillow Talk," which was her first movie with Rock Hudson

Doris Day’s sole Oscar nomination came for Pillow Talk. If this isn’t the best performance of her career, it’s at least the most iconic version of her persona. For those looking to get a sense of her star character, this is the best place to start. Pillow Talk was the highest grossing movie of Day’s career, and the start of her most bankable period. According to the Numbers, Pillow Talk was the fifth highest grossing film of 1959 with $18 million box office (roughly $182 million adjusted for inflation). In addition to acting, Day also sings three songs in the film, most notably the titular song that plays over the delightful opening credits.

It’s impossible to resist the pairing of Rock Hudson and Doris Day in Pillow Talk. While Down with Love most infamously used this film for reference, so many modern romantic comedies and sitcoms mine from Pillow Talk, which effectively wrings laughs from miscommunications, mistaken identities and odd couple dynamics...

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