Months of Meryl: Death Becomes Her (1992)

John and Matthew are watching every single live-action film starring Meryl Streep. 

 

 #19 —Madeline Ashton, a past-her-prime Hollywood actress who goes to great lengths to preserve her good looks.

MATTHEW: Meryl Streep and her good friend Goldie Hawn once came very close to riding off a cliff together. During the early 1990s, the pair had been in search of a dual-star vehicle to appear in and were initially in contention to play the titular roles in Thelma & Louise, along with one-time possibilities Jodie Foster, Frances McDormand, and Michelle Pfeiffer. Hawn and Streep actively courted Pathé Entertainment’s former C.E.O. Alan Ladd, Jr. for the parts and even tossed around ideas for a happier alternate ending. (Streep, who would have played Louise, wanted Thelma to live.) Eventually, Streep’s schedule got in the way, while Ladd deemed Hawn an iffy fit for the project, clearing the way for Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon to take on the most popular parts of their careers...

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Tall Glass of Marsden

by Jason Adams

Things that are hot right now: Stephen King adaptations. Things that are hot always: James Marsden. And finally the twain are meeting with In the Tall Grass, the just-announced adaptation of King's novella (co-authored with his son Joe Hill). The story's about "a sister and brother who venture into a vast field of grass in Kansas after hearing a boy's cries for help" which turns out to have been a bad plan of action. Then again "doing anything" inside a Stephen King story usually turns out to have been a bad plan of action...

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Toni Collette meets superfan John Early

Chris here, tiptoeing out of the bubble I've placed myself in to avoid Hereditary plot details. The horror film is coming this summer and, per Sundance audiences, is best entered completely in the blind about its scares - including a raved-to-the-heavens performance from Toni Collette. To get the promotional ball rolling on the film, distrib A24 had Collette sit down for their podcast with none other than genius comedian and noted Collette superfan John Early. To those unawares, one of Early's signature bits is recalling his teenage years when he created a fansite for the actress on GeoCities. Stars, they're just like us!

While A24 seems to be stoking the potential for an Oscar campaign for Collette that some reviews have begged, we'll do our best to keep hopes at bay. (She already pulled off the uncommon feat of an acting nomination for a horror film once, so twice is all the more uncommon.) But I suspect the performance will be one we'll be talking a lot about once the film arrives on June 8. Listen to Toni and John talk fandom and Hereditary here.

New episode of The A24 Podcast tomorrow! @bejohnce tells Toni Collette all about the Geocities fansite he ran for her as a not-yet-openly-gay 13 year-old. Tears are shed, gifts are exchanged, @HereditaryMovie is hyped pic.twitter.com/X9ahUYiMIb

— A24 (@A24) April 25, 2018

Blueprints: "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?"

This week on Blueprints, Jorge writes a letter to daddy.

Any screenwriting book, seminar, or four-year degree will tell you that screenwriting is all about showing, not telling. It should feel more like describing a house in a Craiglist ad than writing a novel. The script is being written so it can be shot, not read. However, just like any other “rule” in cinema, it’s made to be broken. In fact, those who break rules can sometimes transcend them.

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, the 1962 grand guignol classic, is best remembered for the bombastic performances of the two leads, and the drama that took place between them behind the scenes. But reading the script, it’s apparent that the story is charged with remarkable meaning, intention, and impulse. Often hidden in the lines that the audience is never going to read...

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Tribeca 2018: The Night Eats the World

by Jason Adams

Post-apocalyptic fiction exists for basically one reason and one reason alone - for us to contemplate what kind of people we are. Meaning deep down, when it really comes down to it - the life and death stuff. Are we the sort of person who would suddenly find wells of inner strength to overcome? Are we a survivor? Or are we gristle caught in a ghoul's teeth? And since there's not a massive audience for movies about watching somebody die slowly and terribly of a real-world disease like cancer, voila, zombie movies. They let us wrestle, through the safe filter of fantasy, not just with our own mortality but with the mortality of everyone we know...

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