Horror Actressing: Judith Anderson in "Rebecca"

by Jason Adams

How could I help myself, right? Tomorrow Netflix is unveiling director Ben Wheatley's re-do of Daphne Du Maurier's "celebrated novel" (I love that is how the book is credited on IMDb) starring Armie Hammer, Lily James, and most enticingly of all Kristin Scott Thomas as the housekeeper-with-secrets. And yet somehow, despite it being one of my favorite performances in a horror film, I haven't gotten around to given Judith Anderson, in that same role in Alfred Hitchcock's Oscar-winning 1940 film, her due with this series. No more! The time for dangerously caressing silky underthings is nigh I say, nigh!

Not that we've exactly been clammed up when it comes tot he subject of Judith Anderson's turn in Rebecca around these parts in the past...

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First images from the surely misbegotten remake of "Rebecca"

by Nathaniel R

Armie Hammer and Lily James as Mr and Mrs de Winter

Netflix has released the first four images from their remake of Hitchcock's Rebecca which begins streaming on October 21st ---  Excuse us, Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca. People will be quick to note that it's less sacrilegious to adapt the novel than the 1940 best Picture winner. Now, we understand that remakes are not automatically "bad," but there are numerous reasons why remaking Hitchcock films, of all things, is a spectacularly dumb thing to do. For one, auteurs that get adjectives named ever them are inimitable and so you lose the distinct personality. For another, Hitchcock movies have (mostly) aged terrifically well; there's a reason people still watch a wide swath of them and so many are still easily available to the public, referenced in so many modern movies, and an intrinsic part of culture...

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Say it Aint So! Rebecca (1940) is Getting a Remake

by Nathaniel R

Nooooo. Rebecca (1940) doesn't need to be remade. Essentially no Hitchcock picture needs to be, you know. But word is out that Lily James and Armie Hammer are risking the ghosts of Joan Fontaine and Sir Laurence Olivier to star in a new film version of the Daphne Du Maurier story about "the second Mrs de Winter," her cold bossy husband, a sinister lesbian housekeeper, and an old creepy gothic mansion. The foolish or ballsy director that's going to try to live up to collective memories of Alfred Hitchcock? That'd be Ben Wheatley of High-Rise and Free Fire fame. 

Hey, let's do a "Cast This!" in the comments for the story's best role: Mrs Danvers, that creepy housekeeper with an obsession for her late mistresses undergarments. (You may recall that The Film Experience spent a lot of time with Rebecca a few years ago for a pass-the-baton retrospective.)

Review: "Free Fire"

by Chris Feil

At first look, Ben Wheatley’s Free Fire seems like another Tarantino retread, all snarky hyper-violence with a wink that we’ve seen dozens of times - and to some degree it is. But the film isn’t so much the macho wankfest it will be shrugged off as, nor the cornucopia of gun adoration that the marketing promises. Where Free Fire delights, even charms, is by finding its thrills in the shady repartee and double crosses between criminals rather than the bloodshed. 

Guns do play the central role in the film’s “deal gone wrong”, but they aren't responsible for what makes things go south...

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Linkshift

Leonardo Nam photographed by Ricky Middlesworth for Los Angeles Confidential

Golden Globes interview Westworld's fab Leonardo Nam
MTV Teo Bugbee on the texting in Personal Shopper
Inverse interesting interview with composer Hans Zimmer who is swearing off superhero movies. Sounds like he had a bad time on Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Playbill celebrates Sutton Foster with a gallery of all of her stage work
Variety random selection of drunk scenes in honor of your St Patricks Day hangover
/Film Alicia Vikander to headline Ben Wheatley's Freakshift. Is the director about to break out with Free Fire?
The Guardian Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson has 26 (!!!) films in development
People Surprise! Film star Amanda Seyfried and stage and tv screen star Thomas Sadoski eloped! She'll be giving birth any day now, being 8+ months pregnant
Boy Culture Paris Jackson is looking more like Madonna than Michael Jackson 
The Guardian The great Tony Kushner on T****'s proposed cuts to the Arts
This is Not Porn Jim Carrey on the set of The Mask. Just because
MNPP drools on Justin Theroux (it's only right) and shares the season 3 Leftovers trailer 
Tracking Board on how the design aspects of Beauty & the Beast (2017) lack a cohesive vision
Variety Weinstein Co's Oscar prospects this year include the biblical drama Mary Magdalene (Nov 24th) and the historical Thomas Edison drama The Current War (Dec 22) starring Benedict Cumberbatch

Exit Video
In honor of Sutton Foster's birthday, a great moment from Bunheads, a show we greatly miss (but at least we have Younger in its place for Sutton fixes)