A Gugu Mbatha-Raw Superhero Movie?

Chris here. As if Gugu Mbatha-Raw's superpowers of extreme watchability and versatility aren't enough to satisfy us, she'll be getting the more fantastical kind for her next movie. And no, we're not talking a comic book adaptation, but something original. The underrated actress will star in Fast Color as a superpowered woman on the run that must seek shelter from her estranged family. The project promises three generations of women, so stayed tuned for more casting. Hopefully they'll be names as intriguing as Gugu.

If this all sounds a bit like a female Midnight Special, rest assured it's in smart hands. Julia Hart will be directing from a script she cowrote with Jordan Horowitz. Hart & Horowitz were also behind this year's tiny gem Miss Stevens (not to be confused by Gugu's own Miss Sloane), which features a fantastic performance from Lily Rabe. Miss Stevens is currently on Netflix, so be sure to catch up to it.

Mbatha-Raw will be everywhere at the movies this year - Ava DuVernay's A Wrinkle in Time, the upcoming Cloverfield film, and Beauty and the Beast. But could Fast Color be the one that brings her the accolades she deserves?

Interview: Jessica Chastain on playing "Miss Sloane"

If you haven't yet seen Miss Sloane about a formidable political mastermind and the sure-to-lose case against the gun lobby that she takes on to the surprise of DC, you'll want to catch it soon. It's rather a classic star vehicle in that the glamorous leading lady is front and center and steering all the juicy twisty drama. That leading lady is, of course, the tireless Jessica Chastain. Chastain shot to stardom with seven films in 2011 (including The Tree of Life and her Oscar nominated role in The Help) and she seemingly hasn't left movie theaters. She's starred in everything from moody business thrillers (A Most Violent Year), gothic horror (Crimson Peak), fiery military dramas (Zero Dark Thirty), and more.

I sat down to talk with her in NYC a month or so ago about how far she's come since that explosive debut year, how she recharges between movies, and how she approached her Golden Globe nominated role as the amoral steely Miss Sloane.

NATHANIEL: One of the things that stuck with me from the first time we talked years ago was how many questions you write into each script about your character. With this character in particular, she is really a complicated woman

JESSICA: So complicated.

NATHANIEL: So was your script just buried in notes? 

JESSICA: Oh my gosh, it was insane...

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A Wrinkle In Time's Casting Is A+

Manuel here catching us up with some casting news about an upcoming Disney tentpole film we should all be getting more and more excited about. Earlier this year it was announced that Ava DuVernay would direct the big screen adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time. That the beloved children's book would be a Disney film surprised no one but DuVernay's involvement piqued our interests...

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Miss Sloane If You're Nasty

by Jason Adams

True story: the other day I was in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, down near the water and I looked around myself at the muddy yards of the warehouses and I suddenly had this vision of Jessica Chastain coming at me in that gorgeous white overcoat and Pfeiffer-wig that she wore in A Most Violent Year, waving her big gun, and instead of being scared I was elated -- that is, as I'm sure most of you are aware, how we actresssexuals roll. "Kill me if you must, but just be fabulous about it!"

Anyway I flashed back to that moment while watching the just-dropped trailer for Miss Sloane, Chastain's upcoming film about a gun lobbyists from director John Madden...

I am a simple man with simple pleasures and that cuts to the core of it. So Miss Sloane has a killer cast besides Miss Chastain - there's Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Alison Pill, Michael Stuhlbarg, Mark Strong, Sam Waterston, Dylan Baker, Jake Lacy, and John Lithgow - and it's out on December 9th; will it be this year's Michael Clayton (nominations all over the place) or this year's Thank You For Smoking (notsomuch)?

Misty Copeland Gets the Biopic Treatment

Kieran, here. It was announced today that a biopic of ballerina Misty Copeland is currently in the works at New Line Cinema. Based on Copeland's own memoir "Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina," the film will chart Copeland's rise to fame as the first black principal dancer at the American Ballet Theatre, despite a delayed beginning--she didn't start taking ballet until age 13, which is extremely late compared to other dancers. The project will be penned by Gregory Allen Howard, who scripted Remember the Titans and the upcoming theatrical Harriet Tubman biopic (not the Viola Davis project, though Nathaniel was correct in wishing that those projects would merge). No director is attached to the project as of yet.

News of this project means an opportunity for a black actress to take center stage (no pun intended) in a major motion picture, which shouldn't be a rare occasion but feels like it in the current cinematic landscape. [More...]

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