The Film Experience™ was created by Nathaniel R. All material herein is written by our team. (This site is not for profit but for an expression of love for cinema & adjacent artforms.)
During the 85th Academy Awards, there was a somewhat arbitrary musical tribute to three modern musicals in between Seth MacFarlane's sexist monologue and Jennifer Lawrence's fall: Chicago, Dreamgirls, and Les Misérables. Besides being the soundtrack of my college experience, I noticed that all three had one thing in common: they had all won Oscars for their Supporting Actresses.
This threw me into a rabbit hole of IMDb pages, Wikipedia charts, and showtune playlists to look into the historic relation between movie musicals, supporting actresses, and the Academy Awards. If I’d put this much effort into my thesis, I might have graduated in time...
Did you know that Julie Andrews (The Sound of Music) losing to Julie Christie (Darling) for the 1965 Best Actress Oscar is one of only two times that the Best Actress winner has beaten a fellow nominee with the same first name?! Now you do!
The Only Other Time It Happened 1989 Jessica Tandy (Driving Miss Daisy) beating Jessica Lange (Music Box)
P.S. Though if you aren't terrible strict about it you could say three times given the case of Helen Hunt (As Good As It Gets) and Helena Bonham Carter (Wings of Dove) but that one hurts to bring up so never mind!
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!
Let's try to cover everything we haven't mentioned lately (whew). The biggest and most obvious is that Sofia Coppola, whose plans to follow up Bling Ring with a live action Little Mermaid are no more, is now supposedly working on a remake of the Clint Eastwood romantic drama The Beguiled (1971). The film will star two darlings of TFE Nicole Kidman and Kirsten Dunst. Plus Elle Fanning so Coppola already sold all the tickets to our crowd. The Clint role is as yet uncast. They're said to be looking for a 'Chris Pratt' type but what this surely calls for is a watch of the original film to familiarize ourselves.
Let's do it together shall we? It's available on Amazon and iTunes so let's all watch it by April 8th or so and we'll discuss. Deal?
Other News • Playbill Julie Andrews will direct a 60th anniversary production of My Fair Lady this fall at the Sydney Opera House. Tell us how it is Aussie readers! • Tracking Board Julia Roberts lines up another thriller Fool Me Once. Can she step off the thriller train please. She's always screaming. How about a romantic comedy revival? • Coming Soon Naomi Watts joining Brie Larson in Destin Cretton's (Short Term 12) Glass Castle.
• Coming Soon Kristen Wiig replaces Reese Witherspoon in Alexander Payne's next satire Downsizing • Guardian Woody Allen's Cafe Society will open Cannes this year but what other premieres might we see there? • Comics Alliance First i'm hearing this but apparently April 26th is "Aliens day" and a bunch companies are going to be selling Aliens stuff, including Reebook who will be releasing replicas of Sigourney's hideous red white and black velcroed shoes from that 1986 classic • Broadway Blog Aaron Sorkin's A Few Good Men getting the live TV treatment in early 2017 -- it's not just for musicals anymore • /Film Channing Tatum's Gambit delayed yet again. Hopefully he'll realize soon he doesn't need to do it at all. I mean it'd be nice if ANYONE other than Leonardo DiCaprio stayed away from the superhero genre. Just for you know some variety in our top male stars • BBC Hans Zimmer officially retiring from scoring superhero pictures after Batman v Superman • Cinematic Corner Speaking of. If you're not done hating on that movie read Sati's righteous fury about it. She points out something I didn't notice: Zach Snyder can't even do cameos right. He uses THREE of his Watchmen actors (Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Patrick Wilson, Carla Gugino) and I didn't realize that any of them were involved!
i couldn't find a good video of this gay date scene but its adorbs
Recommended Reads • Towleroad an interview with Noah Galvin, the talented funny star of The Real O'Neals. Try this show if you haven't. It's a delight. • MNPP Which is Hotter: Ed Skrein or Ed Skrein • Mike's Movie Projector shares an excerpt from an old Joan Fontaine autobiography • Film School Rejects on Superheroes needing a dash of silliness even in their "dark" outings • Interview talks to Sophie Okonedo about Broadway's revival of The Crucible. She plays Goody Proctor • MNPP loved seeing Benjamin Walker in tighty whities for over an hour as Patrick Bateman in the Broadway musical version of American Psycho and since Jason hates musicals that is more than enough recommendation for me who loves them. I hadn't yet realized that
Can This Election Be Over Instead of 8 Months Away? • Boy Culture agree with Matthew in this piece on Susan Sarandon's recent irresponsible political comments. I'm so ready for this election to be over and it's still 8 months away! • Towleroad and icymi the genius Tony Kushner was a guest on MSNBC and discussed how baffling Sarandon has been about this (They're both heroes of my youth. I don't like it when mommy & daddy fight!) • The New Yorker suggests that maybe Superman is Republicans and Batman is Democrats and now I just want to die rather than think about Batman v Superman for a second longer. DEATH TO INTERNET THINK PIECES ABOUT SUPERHERO MOVIES! (I'm suddenly dreading Captain America: Civil War and dreading a Captain America movie is not something I feel comfortable doing... at all. In other words: stop it internet!)