Linkbusters

HitFix Paul Feig (Bridesmaids) may well remake Ghostbusters with a female cast. I'm normally against do-overs unless you significantly reinvent so best wishes to all
Roger Ebert the Jacques Demy collectio. WANT
MNPP Lee Pace & Matt Bomer went to high school together. Awwww
MNPP which is hotter, Dick (1999) anniversary!
Guardian Christina Hendricks interviewed about Mad Men and more. Her original agency dropped her when she took the Joan Harris part. D'oh!
Gothamist funny Julie Klausner on Jonathan Demme's Stop Making Sense
Shortpacked! a webcomic for everyone like me who feels totally alone in not liking Guardians of the Galaxy very much 
Coming Soon a boring onset shot of Daredevil's altar ego Matt Murdock in his lawyer drag from the new Netflix series
AV Club talks to Brendan Gleeson abouv Calvary, Harry Potter and more
Cinema Blend they're making Richard Linklater's School of Rock into a TV series
Nick's Flick Picks Nick and Joe have completed their choices for the "best of" the year's first half with leading performances and Best Picture. Good smart read with lots of love for Blue Ruin, Only Lovers Left Alive, Edge of Tomorrow
Coming Soon James Gunn teases work on Guardians of the Galaxy sequel. Whew, already?
Comics Alliance Comparing Guardians to The Last Starfighter, an 80s sci-fi flick
Boy Culture reviews Oscar winner Lee Grant's autobiography "I'd Still Say Yes" 
Slant Magazine reviews a biography on Joss Whedon 

Cast This! It appears that there's going to be a movie called Russ & Roger Go Beyond about the making of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970). Who should play that infamous movie's celebrated writer Roger Ebert?

Finally...
Why did no one tell me about Vance Joy's "Riptide" which is now as far as I can tell like a year old. Love the emphatic fantasy of this lyric, duh!

I just gotta, I just gotta know
I can't have it, I can't have it any other way
I swear she's destined for the screen
Closest thing to Michelle Pfeiffer that you've ever seen, oh 

Cast This: Can We Get a Patricia Highsmith Biopic Up in Here?

We're getting three starry Patricia Highsmith adaptations in the next year or so at the cinemas. First up is The Two Faces of January (Viggo, Kiki & Oscar Isaac) and then Carol (Cate, Rooney & Sarah Paulson). 

 The latest to ready itself for the cameras is The Blunderer. The cast will include Patrick Wilson, Jessica Biel, Imogene Poots and Toby Jones. 

Highsmith adaptations are nothing new for the cinema and soon there will be little left to adapt.

Walter Stackhouse (Wilson) is a successful architect married to the beautiful Clara (Biel) and leading a charmed and perfect life. But his fascination with an unsolved murder leads him into a spiral of chaos as he is forced to play cat-and-mouse with a clever killer (Jones) and an over-ambitious detective. Walter's obsession, his lies and his lust for another woman (Poots) will collide in a crush of guilt, innocence and, ultimately, fate.

Highsmith adaptations are nothing new for the cinema and soon there will be little left to adapt.

But why hasn't anyone made a biopic yet?

She was a complicated character in her looks, her art, and her temperament: famously misanthropic (and racist, too), an alcoholic, complicated lifelong relationship with her mother (who once confessed to trying to abort her) who lived to be 95, bisexual with volatile affairs, and a crazy cat lady to boot.

Who should play her in a biopic?  Two names came immediately to my mind but I want to know your thoughts before I reveal them. A few more pictures after the jump [one NSFW] and a few more notes about Hollywood's interest in her work. 

Click to read more ...

Cast This: "Magic Mike XXL"

Channing & Pettyfer in the originalThe Magic Mike sequel is gearing up to start filming in the fall. The Playlist reports that Steven Soderbergh's long time first AD Gregory Jacobs will direct so they're keeping it in house and the film will be called Magic Mike XXL a title of which we approve.

What we do not approve of is the rumors that most of the original cast will return. The last film ended with a clear parting of the ways so it makes sense to move on at least to some extent with new characters. Channing Tatum has promised in the past that the sequel will be more like what people were expecting from the first one so I guess that means more of a fleshy spectacle? Anyway, the first film was terrific (and not just for the fleshy spectacle) but this kind of project begs for fresh blood meat, not sloppy seconds you know? Frankly, they should only keep one or two of the players to keep the energy up while the clothes are off.

So, let's pretend they wise up and bring in new players. Last time they went with a mix of 20-40somethings and actors from both TV and film -- they can't be too famous though or they'd pass. But there are literally hundreds of men who would qualify. Here's a few suggestions to diversify a bit to get you started.

Nicholas Hoult, Max Greenfield, Jesse Williams, Kit Harrington, Michael Ealy, Diego Boneta, Harry Shum Jr, Lee Pace. I could go on and on...

And that's basically just eight hot affordable men with some degree of fame (but not huge movie careers ... apart from arguably Hoult) who don't have to do too much training to get in shape for it. Your turn! Who would you love to see dance their (clothes off) ass off with Chan?

Obligatory Superhero Update: "Fantastic Four" & "Doctor Strange"

I didn't think I was going to have anything to say about the recently announced Fantastic Four reboot cast that I hadn't already said in previous posts. But then they forced my hand with the Jamie Bell casting. If you don't frequent mainstream click-baiting movie blogs (most of which live for superhero movie news) the news goes like so:

• Mr Fantastic, Reed Richards (stretchy scientific genius) - Miles Teller
• Invisible Girl (Mr Fantastic's wife, Sue Storm) - Kate Mara
• The Human Torch (Sue's brother) - Michael B Jordan
• The Thing, Ben Grimm (Reed's best friend) - Jamie Bell  

Click to read more ...

Cast This: J.R.R. Tolkien Biopic

When I read over at Film School Rejects that JRR Tolkien was getting a biopic, I let out a big ol pipe-smoking sigh. Wouldn't this have been a better use of Peter Jackson's time than what he's been spending the last few years doing? If you're going to gild the lily, find a new way! The only time Jackson did a true story (Heavenly Creatures) it was quite impressive and still made use of his imaginative fantasy aesthetics. A bigger sigh followed when I pictured J.R.R. Tolken in my head from this photo to your left embedded in me brain from childhood.

How long before we hear the casting announcement and then a photo of Anthony Hopkins in full makeup with a pipe, I thought. That's EXACTLY who Hollywood would cast because they never think outside the box.

But - yay! - the biopic will cover the formative younger years in World War I and at university which led to The Hobbit through The Lord of the Rings (so one presumes the biopic ends in the 1950s when Tolkien also reached his fifties)/ CGI de-aging is not yet advanced to subject us to the defacto Hopkins casting of old man biopics (yes he gets them all: Kellogg, Nixon, Lewis, Picasso, Hitchcock...) 

SO LET'S PLAY "CAST THIS!"

Here's two photos of J.R.R. Tolkien which I believe are from his younger years in the service and at university but even in his mid to late 20s / early 30s (?) he already looked like a distinguished older man!

It'd be smartest to cast someone in their 30s or early 40s who can look younger and older. My first thought was Ryan Gosling, solely because the Gos is never far from the mind and I think he popped up because of his similar longish face. But then I have trouble picturing him aging up into that jovial ol' pipe smoker from all the book jackets, so that's not quite right. I think I just had a better idea but I want to hear your suggestions to see if anyone reaches a similar conclusion

So who would you cast? Ready, set... comment!