Yes No Maybe So: LBJ

 by Seán McGovern

Debuting at TIFF on September 9th and primed for a theatrical release on November 3rd, Rob Reiner's LBJ brings to life the story of the man who immediately succeeded John F. Kennedy, following his assassination.

Lyndon B. Johnson appeared on our screens twice last year, with Bryan Cranston in All The Way and John Carroll Lynch in a supporting role in Jackie. Reiner's film looks set to follow the Vice President as he navigates his way from tragedy to the Oval Office. For this LBJ we get Woody Harrelson at his brusque best, with what looks to me like a... prosthetic chin? And when actors get out the heavy make-up you know they mean busines...

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Link Wood

THR Felicity Jones replaces Portman in a Ruth Bader Ginsburg biopic
Vox How Tom Holland's dance training makes him a fresh Spider-Man
LA Times talks to 18 funny black actresses about their comic careers
Vulture Revenge of the Twink as slimmer male stars finally start getting action roles -- a nice switch over from the steroid set. For now at least

Pajiba five reasons why HBO's proposed Confederate series, from the guys behind Game of Thrones, is a terrible, disappointing, irresponsible idea
Vulture Bilge Elbiri ranks all of Christopher Nolan's movies. The new one, Dunkirk, is #1
IndieWire David Ehrlich ranks all of Luc Besson's movies so you don't have to. The new one, Valerian, is #6
My New Plaid Pants honors the current social media exhibitionistic streak of Zachary Quinto and his boyfriend
Playlist Jonathan Glazer (Birth, Under the Skin) working on his next film already. Yaaas!
Den of Geek People are still fantasizing about Christoper Nolan doing a James Bond movie including, apparently, Nolan himself. 
Leonard Maltin interesting article on film preservation -- what happens to the cannisters and film -- and the impending distintegration of the Hopalong Cassidy westerns
IndieWire reminds us on Dunkirk weekend, that Atonement already went to that infamous war plagued beach in that film's breathtaking 5 minute tracking shot

Off Screen
Show Score Radical Idea... what if stage shows kept the house lights on?
The New Yorker gives good satire on why Hillary Clinton should disappear from public life
Out Greyson Chance, who first came to fame with a viral video of a Lady Gaga cover when he was just 12 has come out at 19 years of age
GQ "it's time you stopped believing in 'dressing your age'"

Oh and Today is...
INTERNATIONAL NATALIE WOOD DAY
i.e. a holiday that should be real since July 20th is her birthday. She would have been 79 today... the same age as Diana Rigg, Jon Voight, Terence Stamp, and Richard Beymer who all still work. Imagine what kind of movies and TV projects Natalie Wood could have done in in the past 40 years. *sniffle*  I imagine she would have moved to TV early as so many movie queens did in the 1980s but I bet she would have had a movie comeback too, given that she was still so young when she died. 

YNMS: Professor Marston & The Wonder Women

by Nathaniel R

Well, the timing couldn't be better. The producers behind Professor Marston and the Wonder Women must be pinching themselves that Wonder Woman has been such an inarguable smash hit.  It might -- though the public is stubborn about trying new movies out that aren't CGI based or sequels -- generate some box office interest in this biopic about the man who created the fictional Amazon princess. Luke Evans plays the Professor and the women (yes, plural) in his life are Bella Heathcote and Rebecca Hall.

Trailer and Yes No Maybe So™ breakdown after the jump...

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Susan Hayward in "I'll Cry Tomorrow"

SUSAN HAYWARD CENTENNIAL WEEK

"this story was filmed on location... inside a woman's soul!"
-I'll Cry Tomorrow's tagline.

by Eric Blume

I’ll Cry Tomorrow, a biopic of singer Lillian Roth, won Susan Hayward the fourth of her five Oscar nominations, in 1955.  The film starts with a young Lillian and her stage mother, played by Jo Van Fleet. Ten minutes in, though, Hayward gets a true star entrance belting out “Sing You Sinners” in a lengthy number with only four cuts.

It’s a fun introduction, partially because you try to place yourself in 1955, when part of the excitement (one guesses) was hearing Hayward sing for the first time, and it’s quite a boisterous number. Then Hayward was known mostly as a tragedienne (Hollywood star variety), it must have been a blast for audiences to see Hayward let loose (Hollywood star style) in a big production number where she gets to snarl and dance (Hollywood star style, as the musicality doesn’t come easily to her)... 

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All Eyez on Geronimo, Psycho, and the Pink Ladies

Happy weekend... almost. I'm in the Berkshires with a girlfriend and she informs me very emphatically that it's not the weekend until 5 PM. Why rush to the end of her vacation as its back to work with her on Monday. 

5 ways to honor this day (June 16th) in showbiz history

1995 Batman Forever opens in movie theaters to a then record-breaking weekend with new Bruce Wayne Val Kilmer and rising star Nicole Kidman as his love interest. Curiously it's the second most nominated Batman movie at the Oscars (3 nominations to The Dark Knight's 8). Isn't that strange?

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