The definitely incomplete history of Janis Joplin biopics

by Josh Forward

There have been so many rumoured, green lit and delayed productions of a Janis Joplin biopic, it’s nearly impossible to keep track. But we're here to try! Janis was a 60’s superstar, with an iconic voice and an image that was reflective of the counter culture of the times. She also sadly joined the 27 club by a drug overdose. 

Her incredible life and talent has been promised on the big screen for decades and the latest announcement has Michelle Williams as Joplin under the direction of Sean Durkin (Martha Marcy May Marlene). This will be based on Laura Joplin’s book "Love, Janis" made up of real letters from Joplin. This is not to be confused with the delayed version starring Amy Adams directed by Jean-Marc Vallee, halted by legal trouble which was tentatively called Get it While You Can.

But these two productions have actually been competing since the 1990’s. And before them there were other failed attempts. Let’s look back...

Click to read more ...

Break me off a link of that

Vulture Amy Landecker is Julia Roberts' voice double. This is amazing. Especially if you love the movie Duplicity
Geek Tyrant yummy yummy fandom pies
Coming Soon backwards told and trippy actually is commercial Strange Dr new the

Variety Robert De Niro's The Comedian will be getting an Oscar qualifying run. I guess Cinelou really wants to make these Oscar Qualifying runs their thing (see also Cake). Sigh. 
Women & Hollywood Emma Thompson and Stanley Tucci will star in the adaptation of Ian McEwan's bestseller "The Children Act" to be directed by Richard Eyre (Notes on a Scandal) -- ooh, sign us up. 
Awards Daily Oscar hopeful Loving about the famous right to marry case from the 1960s has released interracial and same sex emojis
Tracking Board Wolverine 3 gets a title, Logan, and a spirit of the beehive poster moment 
The Guardian another report on Hollywood whitewashing of Asian stories and characters. I love Billy Magnussen but am sad that he's now involved in this too. Apparently the Bruce Lee biopic Birth of the Dragon has been saddled with a white character as lead, sidelining Bruce Lee in his own story What the actual fuck?
Variety Ian McKellen is getting the documentary treatment in McKellen: Playing the Part  

Today's Video
Kristin Chenoweth sings the Game of Thrones theme song

Finally...
Winter is Coming looks at the top paid actors per TV episode via Variety. These are so weird to look at. The numbers rarely align with what you think of as pop cultural worth. Though if you're on a phenomenal success like Game of Thrones the two sometimes line up. One assumes the numbers have a lot to do with how long a show's been running and whether actors have been able to renegotiate. And also network pays more than streaming which pays more than cable, etcetera. For instance... how weird is it that Taraji P Henson as the key figure on one of TV's biggest smashes (Empire) makes the same figure per episode as Michelle Monaghan a less famous star on a show people don't talk about (The Path).

Foreign Watch: Two Oscar Favorites Join the Fray

We've been faithfully updating the Oscar charts daily to reflect the submissions in one of our favorite categories. We'd call it our favorite but then how would Cinematography, Production Design, both Actress categories, and Costume Design feel? The deadline for submission is just a few days away so in a week or two the Academy will make the list official. Generally speaking, there are one or two surprises from our charts once they do -- a sudden addition or replacement and maybe a single disqualification. But if this list holds we are just short of the all time record number. The are currently 82 submissions, which is one shy of the record from 2014 (the Ida year).

90 year old legend Andrezj Wajda with his film trophies

Among the newly announced films are After Image, a biopic of an avant garde artist, by Andrzej Wajda for Poland and The Idol, the true story of a man who competed on "Arab Idol," from Hany Abu-Assad of Palestine. Oscar loves these two directors so they're surely threats for the finalist list. Poland has submitted films by Honorary Oscar winner Andrzej Wajda a total of nine times in their history and four of those were nominated: The Promised Land in 1975, The Maids of Wilco in 1979, Man of Iron in 1981, and Katyn in 2007. Meanwhile both of Palestine's nominations in the Best Foreign Language Film category come from Hany Abu-Assad: Paradise Now in 2005 and Omar in 2013.  Can these men work their Oscar-hooking magic again?

Updates to the charts (part 1, part 2, part 3) also include new contenders from Argentina, Bangladesh, Jordan, Kazakhstan, South Africa, and Turkey.

Domhnall Gleeson as the Creator of "Winnie the Pooh"

The biopic genre never dies and one of its favorite subthreads is "famous author". Enter Domhnall Gleeson who will portray A.A. Milne in as yet untitled film about the man behind Winnie the Pooh and the Thousand Acre Woods, his wife (Margot Robbie) and their son Christopher Robin (Will Tilston) who would be immortalized in the Winnie the Pooh books. The film just began principal photographer in the UK.

Here's the first photo of the star in character.

More photos, a note from the press release, and comments after the jump...  

Click to read more ...

Shia LaBeouf as John McEnroe

by Murtada

The bad boy of movies is playing the bad boy of tennis. Is this a case of too on the nose casting? What matters of course is if Shia LaBeouf can approximate John McEnroe’s look convincingly. Looks like it. The fro helps.

However it seems that LaBeouf is trying to reform that bad boy image. To promote Andrea Arnold’s American Honey, which comes out later this month, LeBeouf gave a long interview to Variety. In it he might have come up with the best rebuttal for Jared Leto’s recent shenanigans about being committed to the craft. LaBeouf said that he doesn’t think of himself as a method actor anymore:

“The word is getting embarrassing. You don’t hear about female method actors. The whole thing has turned into weird, false masculinity shit.”

Indeed. Could it be that Shia finally said exactly what everyone wants to hear? Good on you, Shia.

The movie, Borg vs.McEnroe, is a sorta Scandinavian affair. Also starring Swedish actors Sverrir Gudnason as Bjorn Borg and Stellan Skarsgard as his coach, the director is Danish Janus Metz Pedersen (HBO’s True Detective). Currently shooting in Prague, it will trace the battle for tennis supremacy in the 70s and 80s between McEnroe and Borg. No release date is set yet but expect it sometime next year.

What do you think of Shia's look and his recent comments?