Cast This: Johnny Depp out of "Fantastic Beasts" franchise

by Patrick Gratton

Understandably lost during the fog created of election week, on Friday afternoon Johnny Depp took to his Instagram page, announcing that he was stepping down from the role of Grindlewald. The Warner Bros’ Harry Potter spin-off franchise, the Fantastic Beast series is no without a villain. Depp claims that the move comes at Warner Bros request following his failed libel suit against News Group Newspapers, the publisher of the tabloid magazine The Sun, over allegations that Depp abused ex-wife Amber Heard.  

The news comes after a tumultuous year for the Potterverse. Not just for Depp, whose years of litigation with ex-wife Amber Heard and whose substance abuse has made him tabloid fodder...

Click to read more ...

International Contenders Update

Since the last round up 6 more countries have announced Oscar submissions bringing the total of competing films to 43.

 

• BELGIUM - Working Girls  A drama about three women from France crossing the border daily to Belgium for sex work
• INDONESIA - Impetigore (previously discussed) Usually there's a random horror movie somewhere in the submission list but this year we have not one but two Asian horror movies (the other is Roh/Soul from Malaysia). The only horror movie we can think of to be successfully nominated in this category was a very long time ago with Japan's Kwaidan (1964). 
• IRAN - Sun Children (previously discussed) 
• KENYA - The Letter This is the first time Kenya has submitted a documentary (the nomination for Honeyland last year seems to have embolded various countries to send docs as it looks like there will be more of them than usual this year)
• LESOTHO -This is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection First submission from this country! It's one of only three independent states on earth that are entirely surrounded by another single country (in this case South Africa) -- they call them "enclaved countries", so it's the first submission from any enclaved country actually (the others are San Marino and Vatican City). The film is about an 80 year old woman who fights the construction of a reservoir in her village
• TURKEY - Miracle in Cel No 7  This is a loose remake of a South Korean film of the same name about a mentally disabled man who is wrongly imprisoned. The original is just 7 years old and it's already been remade by Turkey, The Philippines, and Indonesia.

More details on the Oscar charts and also a visual overview of the whole field at Letterboxd

Coming in November: The 'Smackdown' Season Finale

THANKS FOR ATTENDING THE SEASON FINALE...

SUPPORTING ACTRESS SMACKDOWN OF 1987

• Fatal Attraction (feat. Anne Archer) 
• Gaby A True Story (feat. Norma Aleandro) 
• Moonstruck (feat. Olympia Dukakis)  
• Throw Momma From the Train (feat. Anne Ramsay) 
• The Whales of August (feat. Ann Sothern)

We sincerely hope you've enjoyed this super-sized season! It's so much work but we love doing it. Here are all the episodes this year in case you missed any...

May 8th ~ SMACKDOWN 1981 
May 28th ~ SMACKDOWN 1947
June 17th ~ SMACKDOWN 2002
July 6th ~ SMACKDOWN 1957 
July 26th ~ SMACKDOWN 1991
Aug 20th ~ SMACKDOWN 2005
Sept 16th ~ SMACKDOWN 1938
Oct 11th ~ SMACKDOWN 1965
Nov 19th ~ SMACKDOWN 1987

Link Roundup

• Advocate straight actors still not feeling any hesistancy about taking on gay roles that could be played by underemployed actually gay actors. Viggo Mortensen is the latest, he even wrote it for himself
• Coming Soon I don't know quite why I expectd Jordan Peele, who got famous in comedy, to transition out of horror films but he's sticking with the genre. After Get Out and Us his third horror feature lands in 2022 (no plot, title, or cast details yet)
• My New Plaid Pants ohmy. There's a pretty gay rumor about the long delayed Dev Patel picture The Green Knight which co-stars Joel Edgerton

More after the jump including Andrew Scott, The Queen's Gambit, A Quiet Place sequels, new film projects and new TV series... 

Click to read more ...

Gay Best Friend: George Downs in "My Best Friend's Wedding"

NEW WEEKLY SERIES!

by Christopher James

The trope of the “gay best friend” proves that not all representation is created equally. In the 90s especially, we finally got to see openly gay characters in big Hollywood movies, specifically romantic comedies. Before that, queer characters were often only coded as such. While this representation was a step forward, the types of LGBTQ+ representation were always the same: white, cis gay men without an interior life. Throughout this series, I want to revisit these characters and examine the good, the bad and the ugly of their portrayal and how it has shaped the culture of today.

George Downs (Rupert Everett) embodies a lot of what is bad about the “gay best friend” trope. So why do I love him so much? It’s not just because Everett is incredibly charming and handsome. George starts out as a sidekick and becomes the “love interest.” Sure, we never get to spend time with him a queer man and learn more about his love life and relationships. Still, he's the force that shapes and defines the narrative. That this happens in a $100 million plus Julia Roberts blockbuster is no small feat...

Click to read more ...