Wednesday, August 10, 2016 at 12:15PM Today is World Lion Day so let's gaze at those utterly majestic felines posing with actors and actresses because it's an excuse to honor them. A beauty break gallery after the jump featuring Kirsten Dunst, Joanna Lumley, Buster Crabbe, Gregory Peck, Cara Delevigne and more...
Tippi Hedren with her pet lion "Neil" in the 1970s
Saturday, June 11, 2016 at 12:30PM 
As we approach the release of The Legend of Tarzan (2016) we're ogling past screen incarnations of the Lord of the Apes...
Tarzan aficianados will cry foul that I've skipped ahead to 1966 in this retrospective but the awesomely named actor Jock Mahoney wouldn't mind. He only made two Tarzan films in the mid sixties... and barely finished those. He got deathly ill on the second, lost 40 lbs during the picture, and couldn't get out of the jungle fast enough. The first of those pictures lost money, too.
You see, in the wake of the phenomenal success of Dr. No (1962), From Russia With Love (1963) and Goldfinger (1964), James Bond was the new #1 adventure hero and Tarzan was old news. The Tarzan franchise took note and tried to combine the two with Tarzan and the Valley of Gold (1966), introducing the closest thing they could find to Sean Connery's swarthy dimpled masculinity: Mike Henry.
Mike Henry was a professional football player with the Los Angeles Rams but he left sports for the actor's life and donned the Tarzan's loincloth.
...Or, should we say his suit.
In addition to introducing Tarzan as a jet-setting perpetually-endangered looker in a suit, this new 007 style adventure also begins with a kitschy mod score over colorful credits, an opening action sequence that's somewhat disconnected from the movie that follows, and an intelligent international criminal with a taste for booby-trapped gifts. So, you know, we're definitely in Bond territory...
Friday, June 3, 2016 at 12:34PM Variety Whoa. Daniel Day Lewis is going back to work. And with Paul Thomas Anderson again no less. They're making a 50s fashion drama
/Film shares concept art from Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 4... which obviously never went before cameras
Salon Actor Jake Choi on the odds against Asian actors especially the "de-sexualized" men
LA Times 100 people who could help fix Oscar's diversity problem. I'd be surprised though if at least a few of these people weren't already in the Academy since they've been nominated or close to it. The ultra strange thing is they don't list Bradford Young, one of the very best working DPs, under cinematography and I didn't think he was a member yet. Is it just a terrible oversight or did his invitation skip my notice?
AV Club a new Melissa McCarthy produced series Nobodies will be very meta. It stars her non famous comic actor friends playing themselves with a famous movie star friend (no word on who will play the Melissa McCarthy surrogate)
Towleroad Colton Haynes is working on a photo book with Tyler Shields. He promises it will be "shocking". So... the unauthorized sequel to Madonna's "Sex" book, maybe?
The Guardian a good piece on reshoots for upcoming movies and the danger of "dark" or "light" templates for franchises
Off Screen
Adequate Man "Please do not lick your kitty"
Emmy Season is Upon Us...
Awards Daily is wondering if Scandal can make an Emmy comeback
Decider comedies the Emmys need to consider
...and for the following year's Emmys we even have a Children's Programming contender worth getting excited about: JULIE ANDREWS IS BACK IN 2017!
Sunday, May 8, 2016 at 11:09AM New Miniseries! As we approach the release of The Legend of Tarzan (2016) we'll be ogling past screen incarnations of the Lord of the Apes each weekend like we're going to an old timey matinee.
We begin with Buster Crabbe as Tarzan the Fearless (1933) who looks much better in this movie than implied on the poster which imagines him from maxi-challenge workroom outtakes from RuPaul's Drag Race. Blend, man, blend!
This next image is more flattering I promise...
Saturday, April 16, 2016 at 11:27PM 
Hello! It's your host Nathaniel checking in from a screening frenzy. I'm at the Nashville International Film Festival briefly to serve on their New Directors jury but coming back to you, dear readers, on Monday night. Meanwhile here in New York, Jason and Manuel have already lept into Tribeca Film Festival reporting.
For this week's Q&A column I asked readers for a few animal questions since Monty, my baby boy and the world's first Oscar predicting cat (unfortunately he was never a very committed pundit), has been ill. While he's on the mend (hopefully) it's hard to pull my thoughts away from our four legged friends. Herewith 9 reader questions, some animal themed some not...
JAMES: Ever named a pet after an on-screen animal (or human)?
My cat is named after Montgomery Clift and unfortunately the name suited him because he has been quite a moody thing from his teensiest days until now. He was found in the streets of the Bronx, as far as I know, as a tiny mewling mama-less thing and I got him way too young from the shelter. But even grumpy as he is, he is always right next to me no matter what room I'm in and every once in a while he looks at me like I'm Elizabeth Taylor and snuggles up and it's all worth it.
(I was actually going to get a second cat years ago and name it Liz but for various reasons it didn't happen.)
HAAJEN: Which animal should be paired with Julianne Moore, Juliette Binoche and Jennifer Law in a movie?
What a weird freaking question that I love. It's like when Kidman's familiar was a monkey in The Golden Compass. So I'm going to say black panther for Julianne, seagulls for Juliette (I always picture her in the salty air near water -- is this a ghost image of Lovers on the Bridge (1990)?) I would also pay to see JLaw in the Clint role in a remake of Any Which Way You Can (1980) if only because I can't imagine the outcome of an absolute war to steal scenes between JLaw and an Orangutan.
Naturally I have no photos to support this so please enjoy this photo of Idris Elba with a fake tiger.
It is extremely easy to enjoy.
PEARL: What are your thoughts on Barbra Streisand and Barry Levinson embarking on yet another production of Gypsy for a start up studio? My spirit animal (fox) says they likely face a difficult and painful journey.
