Cast This: Magic Mike 2

One year ago tomorrow Magic Mike opened to leggy box office becoming Channing Tatum's third $100+ million grosser of 2012, and the most definitive piece of his A List breakthrough.

He's still routinely asked about the proposed sequel Magic Mike 2 and he's still happy to answer questions about it. He's now claiming:

It will be a road trip movie, and it will essentially be the movie that everyone thought the first one was going to be—crazy and fun and less slice-of-life and less drama. The first one, we had to make not so cheesy and campy; this one we are going to swing for the fences"

I can't quite figure out how this works since (one year old spoiler alert!) Mike was tearing off his stripping lifestyle rather than his clothes at the end of the first film. Will Mike's journey of self-rediscovery magically involve realizing that 'gotting & flaunting it' weren't such bad life choices after all!?! Or will we get a new set of strippers? I'm hoping for the latter because -- and I mean this both artistically and literally and lustfully for the success of the franchise and my pants -- FRESH MEAT!

CAST THIS!
Let's pretend they don't get lazy and think part two of two but instead think long-term prospects with continually rotating cast and semi-annual strip-a-thons. If you were on scripting and casting couch duty, which characters would you keep and which actors would you be approaching for new roles?

Think realistically. Last time they used rising or underexploited TV and film actors with hot bodies, rather than fully fledged "stars" (apart from McConaughey who was still in Career Rehabilitation Mode and completely deserved the Oscar though he wasn't even nominated. CURSE THEM). So they aren't going to be all "Hey Brad & Clooney & Matt, join our little strip-a-thon! Ewan, learn to love getting naked again!" however badly you might like them to. Think unexpected but just right. Ready, Set, (Cue Music / Lights / Fog Machine)... Go!

Cast This: Young Hillary & Young Elton

There's a lot of talk going around about the casting of a young Hilary Rodham Clinton in a bio with big star names like Reese, Jessica and Scarlett floating around though all seem too sexy if you ask me -- though Reese's steel could be interesting. Pajiba has one off-the-path brilliant suggestion in Eden Sher.

Another hot casting topic: the Elton John biopic Rocket Man which is currently courting though not married to Tom Hardy. He has shown a willingness to uglify for roles so his masculine beauty might not be a problem but his lips, his defining feature, are in every conceivable way not a match. Still, he's a fine actor so they could make it work outside of the closeups of the singing. Elton John originally wanted Justin Timberlake - who took over in a great music video some years back -- to do the film. But I have to ask: was Philip Seymour Hoffman not available or was he deemed too old for the role?

And if the biopic is decades spanning one, who is going to play David Furnish. And will this eventually be retitled Behind the Candelabra Pt 2? And why is no one talking about the casting of the other roles? At least in Elton John's case that's just as (potentially) interesting.

Who would you in cast any these roles?

Young Hilary?
Young Bill Clinton?

Young Elton?
Bernie Taupin -Elton John's other (musical) half
Renate Blauel -Elton's wife in the 80s
Old Elton?
David Furnish?

<--- Oh lookylol, David Furnish has a picture of himself with Hilary on his facebook! Keeping things on topic we are.

Stage Door 'Cast This!' Edition: The Other Place

Ocassionally on Mondays or Tuesday's, we'll talk theater.

Do we have any fans of TV's historic sitcom "Roseanne" in the house? I ended up watching a couple of episodes the other day in syndication which happens to me probably once a year when I chance upon it -- it's hard to click away from. It was a double dose of Laurie Metcalf, Roseanne's sitcom sister Jackie, since I'd just seen her onstage anchoring the psychological drama "The Other Place" in which a brilliant neurologist's life begins to fall apart. Or... is it her life falling apart or (SLIGHT SPOILER) just her mind? That's the crux of the drama and it's a real actor's showcase of a play.

Metcalf won three Emmy Awards (and probably a lifetime supply of bank account) for her work on that famous sitcom but now she's aiming at a Tony. This is a juicy role -- the whole show would be a concave mess if the actress at its epienter couldn't keep it lively -- and I think she's definitely a threat come June for the statue. 

I enjoyed the play -- despite it feeling a bit small for the big stage --  but since I long for more intimate drama films that give actresses this much to work with, I already want to see it as a movie. So let's play...

"CAST THIS!" in the comments

Zoe Perry (Laurie Metcalf's daughter) & Laurie Metcalf in "The Other Place"

The Roles:
• Juliana Smithton, a neurologist who may or may not be lying to herself about all the drama in her life: her husband leaving her, her young daughter running away with her husband's colleague, and her own declining health. 
Who You Need: an actress in her 40s or 50s who can project real intelligence with weird snaps of emotional immaturity and possibly mental illness. 
• The Woman who is several characters including an angry daughter, put upon assistant, and lonely divorcee.
Who You Need: an actress in her 20s or 30s to shapeshift for multiple characters, some actual characters some possibly only projections of actual people. Bonus points if she could believably be your lead's daughter. 

Theater Links To Go
20at20 Off Broadways shows for only $20 for next 20 days only
Playbill Frank Wildhorn's Jekyll & Hyde musical might be getting the big screen treatment. Ugh of all the stage musicals to adapt?! One that's of a story that's already had a bajillion film versions? Oops, that describes Les Miz too but at least Les Miz has the Les Miz music! This sounds more like a potential Phantom of the Opera problem.

"The Hours" Discussion Pt. 2: Score, Performance, Re-Casting

previously... Joe Reid and Nick Davis discussed fidgety hand acting and ravenous kisses in The Hours for it's 10th anniversary. We rejoin them for the second half of their conversation. - Nathaniel R

JOE REID: OH that Phillip Glass score. I'm with you, obviously. I actually did much of my writing with that soundtrack playing in the background in the year or two after The Hours, because I'm just that kind of impressionable. But beyond being beautiful and haunting music in its own right, it also immediately sets the mood of the urgently mundane which pervades the whole movie. Laura trying and failing and trying again to bake a cake. Virginia scrawling out a first sentence. Clarissa getting the flowers. The score is repetitive and plain but increasingly frantic. I could roll around in it, crumbs in the frosting and all. 

So not to get too common about it, but rather than risk ignoring the elephant in the room, let's get to evaluating and ranking those leading ladies, am I right? You mentioned some ambivalence about Julianne Moore's performance, and I think I read somewhere that you value Streep's work here quite highly? Feel like making some friends/enemies among the blog-reading populace?

Nick's answer and more provocative questions after the jump

Click to read more ...

"Cast This!" Box Office Special: Female Expendables?

Sylvester Stallone and his team of aged action heroes ruled the box office with their high-octane throwback The Expendables 2. The title is perfect because it's the kind of disposable flick you can imagine people watching half-assed for years on end on cable while eating, cleaning, making phone calls, taking a sick day, you name it.

Top o' the Box Office *newbies in bold*
01 THE EXPENDABLES 2 $28.7 
02 THE BOURNE LEGACY $17 (cum $69.5)
03 PARANORMAN $14 
04 THE CAMPAIGN $11.8 (cum. $51.6)
05 SPARKLE $12 ...more on this one soon 
06 DARK KNIGHT RISES $12 (Cum. $409.9) Review
07 THE ODD LIFE OF TIMOTHY GREEN $10.9 

The Expendables franchise is weirdly sexist -- how can you have like a dozen action stars per movie (*stars* being a smudgey concept here once you're past the one name icons), many of them past their prime, and never include any of the women who've led or played a major hand in action hits in any decade? Yes, they exist! Word is out that the producers are planning on backing a female heavy edition of the franchise, a spin-off if you will. Why we're not allowed to have a co-ed Expendables I do not know. 

But let's help the producers out by casting it for them in the comments.
I'll start right here with six must-haves from Nathaniel's Crowded Actressexual Brain

• Sigourney Weaver -- seriously, if she's not already at the tippity top of the "throw money at her" list, they're imbeciles.
• Michelle Yeoh -- always riveting when she fights and a damn good actress, too.
• Linda Hamilton - Duh! Even her name is tough.
• Milla Jovovich - knows her away around an action scene and will get naked for your R rating
• Daryl Hannah - because she's an awesomely imposing amazon (think Blade Runner and Kill Bill) and doesn't get nearly enough work 
• Pam Grier - because think of the fun they could have referencing her fame-making work. Razors in an afro please! 

Once I got started I couldn't stop. I literally thought of 22 more actresses who would be perfect while collecting these photos -- like give me a scene of Run Franka Potente Run. Even if it's just a cameo! -- including recent action divas like Léa Seydoux (so very hawt in Mission: Impossible -Ghost Protocol or Kate Beckinsale (fresh in the brain on account of Total Recall).

But I don't want to hog all the fun. Which actresses would you line up to see in a huge dumb explosive ensemble actioner? Give me at least six of your favorite options, preferrably ten, ranked, in the comments. Maybe we'll revisit this once we have all your lists.

Ready... set... GO!