What on earth will be nominated for Adapted Screenplay?

Past Oscar years have often had an imbalance in the screenplay categories, with original being the designated place for edgy (for Oscar at least) critical darlings and adapted screenplay being the place where all the prestige Best Pictures gather to receive their admirer. But old rules are going away, "prestige" has lost meaning, and this year nearly all the critical darlings AND consensus Best Picture likelies have been deemed "original" -it's seriously stacked, just look at the updated chart. 

So what gets nominated for Adapted in this vacuum? Here's an alphabetical list of 15 possibilities but beyond Call Me By Your Name none of them seem like safe bets, exactly. So which way does this go? After scratching my head I've made a guess on the chart but I'm eager to hear what you're thinking on that matter.

• Beguiled
• Blade Runner 2049
• Call Me By Your Name 
• The Disaster Artist
• Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool
• Last Flag Flying
• Logan
• The Lost City of Z
• Molly's Game
• Mudbound
• Stronger
• Victoria and Abdul
• Wonder
• Wonder Woman
• Wonderstruck

Screen Supporting Actress Extraordinaire Sarah Paulson

by Murtada

We’ve just seen her in the trailer for Steven Spielberg's The Post, delivering one of the clip's memorable moments. "Well, I think that's brave". She’s going to be one of the Ocean’s Eight. And she'll appear in the M Night Shyamalan Unbreakable/Split sequel Glass. She is also signed to co-star in Bird Box. She’ll be acting with Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Samuel L Jackson, Tom Hanks, Rihanna, Bruce Willis and Meryl Streep.  Yes, Sarah Paulson will be dominating film screens, from the vantage point of the supporting player.

Paulson is booking movies left and right. Obviously casting directors noticed the range she shown in her many Ryan Murphy TV projects. The latest project announced is John Crowley’s adaptation of Donna Tartt’s Pulitzer-winning The Goldfinch...

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Review: Murder on the Orient Express (2017)

by Eric Blume

The good news is the bad news:  director Kenneth Branagh’s new adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express is exactly what you think it will be.  It’s a stylish, corny, enjoyable two hours filled with movie stars and that absurd moustache.  It delivers on romantic glamor and old-school moviemaking, but there’s not a surprise to be had.

Out of the gate, Branagh plunges us into a prologue that’s both boring and obvious.  He means to establish Hercule Poirot’s philosophy and fastidious nature, which sadly serves only as clunky groundwork which you know will circle back by the finale (which it does).  He also tries to bring some levity to the piece with a few lame jokes.  At first Branagh seems to be overplaying his hand...  

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Blueprints: "Evil Under the Sun"

In anticipation of the release of Murder on the Orient Express this weekend, Jorge Molina takes a look at a lesser known Agatha Christie adaptation to see how a mystery can introduce its suspects before it even begins.

There are few things that give me more comfort in life than murder mysteries. Clues woven cleverly through a narrative, the slow reveal of hidden motivations, the buildup to a clean and logical resolution. Watching one person inevitably emerge a criminal from a large group of eccentric and enigmatic characters. 

Agatha Christie is still the undeniable queen of the genre. In her novels she perfected the character archetypes for these stories: the charismatic millionaire, the begrudging femme fatale, the quiet foreign girl, the ambitious older lad... to name but a few.

And when her work started to inevitably get cinematic adaptations, with them came a pool of dramatic flair for actors to dive into...

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YNMS x 3: Wonder Wheel, Crooked House, Replicas

Time to catch up on recent trailers that slipped pass us in a difficult week. Ready set - go for discussions on the latest star vehicles for Kate Winslet and Keanu Reeves and a new Agatha Christie movie Crooked House.

The trailers with quickie YNMS breakdown are after the jump...

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