Linking Neverland

• /Film the Wicked movie has a new release date, December 22nd, 2021. We'll believe that once we see actual casting news or a start date for filming. So should we start talking about the 94th Academy Awards yet. LOLOLO no. No we shan't.
• Library of America Sheila O'Malley's great essay on East of Eden (1955)
• Deadline Anna Camp (Pitch Perfect, True Blood) gets a leading sitcom role. Yay, it's about time since she's always hilarious. The comedy is about a church choir that gets a new director (Bradley Whitford)

• IndieWire interesting quotes from indie filmmakers trying to diversify their crew to have more gender parity and multiculturalism and the obstacles they do and don't face.  
• LA Times women over 70 are killing it right now: Glenn Close, Betty Buckley, RBG, Rita Moreno, Jane Fonda, etc
• AV Club Black Panther's Michael B Jordan is attached to a film adaptation of the popular new fantasy epic Black Leopard, Red Wolf set in an alternate reality Africa. (Hmmm, can he also make movies called Black Tiger, Black Jaguar and Black Lion for a full set of big cats?)
• /Film Aquaman's gross has gotten so big that Warner Bros is going to do a spin-off horror film The Trench set in the kingdom of the film's most memorable sequence
• AV Club Steve Buscemi learns about that viral 'deepfake' video of his face superimposed on Jennifer Lawrence's body
• Pajiba explains the whole Jeff Bezos vs National Enquirer business. My god what a mess (but a fascinating one)
• MNPP's obsession with Armie Hammer really does make us love Armie Hammer more
• Towleroad Ellen Page drags Chris Pratt over his homophobic church
• Variety controversial Michael Jackson Sundance doc Leaving Neverland premieres on HBO on March 3rd 

Oscar Shorts Alert
Don't forget that all 15 Oscar-nominated short films are now in theaters. If they're not in your city, they'll be available On Demand on February 19th.

Blueprints: "Juno"

This week Juno celebrated its tenth anniversary, so Jorge takes a look at how Diablo Cody’s iconic dialogue was inflicted with meaning by the cast.

Juno first hit theaters ten years ago as a low budget indie hopeful. It ended its run as a major box office hit and Oscar favorite. It was the movie that put Ellen Page on the map, boosted Jason Reitman’s career, and gave us arguably the definitive Jennifer Garner performance. 

Screenwriter Diablo Cody won the Oscar for her debut screenplay, and she instantly became a recognizable name, the way many directors but few writers are. And not without merit. One of Juno’s biggest legacy is its quick-witted, snarky dialogue that, many times since then, has tried to be replicated...

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Yes, No, Maybe So: "Flatliners" trailer

by Robert Balkovich

Today in "time is a flat circle" news we've got the trailer for the reboot/remake of the 1990 Julia Roberts, Kiefer Sutherland thriller Flatliners. The plot of this film seems to mirror the plot of the original movie: a group of med students attempt to discover the secrets of death by killing themselves and then bringing themselves back to life which, of course, has unintended supernatural consequences. This version stars Ellen Page, Diego Luna, and Nina Debrov of The Vampire Diaries fame. The trailer and a YES, NO, MAYBE SO are after the jump...

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Belated Thoughts on "Freeheld"

Freeheld, the civil rights drama based on the Oscar-winning documentary short of the same name, hasn't made an impact at the box office or with critics but it really should've been featured on The Film Experience of all places. We apologize for the delay but better late than never... especially when it involves dying wishes!

First a wee bit of background: Autospell keeps trying to change the title to "Freehold". For what it's worth the Freeholders, a local county governing board, are the antagonists of the picture. They're a group of men who deny local hero cop Laurel Hester (Julianne Moore) her dying wish that her pension go to her domestic partner Stacie Andree (Ellen Page) when she dies. The only thing that keeps the Freeholders in the human realm and away from cartoon moustache-twirling is Bryan Kelder (Josh Charles), the most conflicted of them who doesn't see what the big deal is about granting her wish but also isn't conflicted enough to put his career on the line and he's running for a bigger office soon. The boards refusal stirs up a firestorm of activism in her home county in New Jersey

Here are a handful of thoughts on the movie...

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Miscellania: Flatlining at Fury Road Hotel

• Ellen Page to lead the remake of 1990s film Flatliners [/Film]
• Leonardo DiCaprio walks the walk he talks. He joined a coalition of groups with combined holdings of 2.6 trillion dollars to defund climate change. (At this rate he'll win the Jean Hersholt before an actual Oscar) [New Yorker]
• Any mention of Twin Peaks is still making us tear up, given the Log Lady's recent death, but the 3rd season casting is well underway: Amanda Seyfried and Peter Sarsgaard are joining [Empire]
• Do Dump or Marry...American Horror Story: Hotel edition [MNPP]
• Speaking of... Ryan Murphy has already offered Gaga Season 6 as well [Twitter]

• I don't really watch SNL (way too many DOA skits) but loved this bit with Kate McKinnon as Hillary Clinton opposite Hillary Clinton as bartender "Val". She does a pretty fun Trump impression [YouTube]
• Belgian director Chantal Akerman, whose most famous film was 1975's Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles and whose new film No Home Movie we just covered for NYFF, has passed away suddenly at only 65 years of age [The Guardian]
• You can learn a lot about filmmaking from George Miller's speech on Mad Max Fury Road [Mentorless]
• Claire Danes finally broke her silence on that whole infamous early Aughts scandal when she took up with Billy Crudup. [Pajiba]  
• What are the best performances and films from the past 5 years? Sati goes all in for Mad Max Fury Road from this year but it's fun to be reminded of a few others [Cinematic Corner]
• Will Smith confirms that Jared Leto was The Joker at all times on The Suicide Squad set. [Complex]
• Rooney Mara is still being asked about the whitewashing of Tiger Lily for Pan. Still has nothing useful to say about it beyond feeling "bad". Than why take the role, Rooney? It's not like you're hurting for offers! [People]
• 50 Cent, who is no longer popular as far as I'm aware, blames the slightly declined popularity of Empire (still mega popular) on its gay content. Charming. [Towleroad]
• Marvel is trusting its in-house writer's program. Black Panther, due in theaters in 33 months, hasn't been written yet, but will likely go to Joe Robert Cole, who is part of the program that Nicole Perlman (interviewed here) was in before Guardians of the Galaxy [Variety]  
• Ashley Judd now sharing with press that a studio mogul offered her an Oscar nomination for sexual favors. Gross. ("If only Oscar nominations were that easy to come by" - Everyone who has never received one.) [Variety]
• Channing Tatum stepping behind the camera for the first time as director for teen with gun murder drama Forgive Me Leonard Peacock [/Film]
• Not everyone is happy about Warner Bros choice of writer/director on their feature film version of The Flash the novelist Seth Grahame-Smith (Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter). (Also why do an unrelated film when the TV show is so good?) [CHUD]
• 15 best films from Fantastic Fest? FSR has a genre-loving list that includes festival titles we l-o-v-e like The Witch, the soon to open Crimson Peak, and even an Oscar submission, Belgium's Brand New Testament [Film School Rejects]
• George Miller claims that two more Mad Max sequels are coming. Don't hold your breath. Remember that Fury Road was in pre-production as early as the late 90s!  [Tracking Board]