Link a Prayer

Hello Cinema our friend Amir started a podcast on Iranian cinema. It's an interesting listen even if you know nothing about the topic, particular the first section on how Amir and Tina came to love cinema
Coming Soon Ellen Page will star in Queen and Country based on a comic book about a British intelligence operative
Comic Alliance on the petititon to cast an Asian American as Iron Fist in the upcoming Netflix series. This is SUCH a good idea, because that character was obviously envisioned as white for very problematic reasons given that he's totally tied to Asian culture.

Shadow and Act there's a Spike Lee box set coming this June which will include the first ever Blu-Ray of Summer of Sam so that's great news.
/Film an infographic on Hollywood disasters. They love destroying New York City but it's not the only city they ruin
Vanity Fair rejected movie poster designs for Gravity
House Next Door a look back at Madonna's most beloved song "Like a Prayer" which just turned 25 years old!
Kevin Maguire the X-Men do the Oscar selfie 
Playbill a history of Les Misérables which is reopening on Broadway. It just keeps coming back. 

Release Date News
Everest, that mountain climbing adventure with Jake Gyllenhaal and Zero Dark Thirty's Jason Clarke (among others in a fairly stellar cast) will hit IMAX and 3D screens on September 18th. In case you didn't hear James Gray's long delayed The Immigrant will open (finally) on May 2nd, nearly a year after its Cannes debut - nothing like striking when the iron is hot! And because they're just never going to stop and neither is Hugh Jackman despite his vague protestations, the X-Men have dates scheduled through 2018

And Today's Watch(es)
Kevin Bacon goes a little Footloose on The Tonight Show (looking pretty good for 55) and it turns out Jennifer Lawrence recorded not one but two lipsynch numbers for American Hustle. The deleted one is to Santana's "Evil Woman" - I'm not embedding it here because it starts playing without asking it to. That is NOT okay in embeddable videos.

Linkpourri

Change.org a petition to get Lupita Nyong'o cast as Storm in the next X-Men movie. Too bad there's still one more round of Halle Berry!
Ellen TV somehow I hadn't see Cate Blanchett's post Oscar win visit to Ellen until just now. So funny and I love what she says about sleeping with her statue at the 4:30 mark 
Cinema Blend Kristen Bell planning to work with the Frozen songwriter team again. More musicals, yay! 

In Contention lessons learned from this Oscar season. I've been preaching the "don't open in December" thing for a long time but finally other pundits are coming round! 
Comics Alliance whoa. superhero figures are getting way more realistic than when I was a kid! Here's Black Widow -- I assume Scarlett Johansson gets a huge cut of this for allowing her likeness. Can you imagine the market if they could make sex dolls this realistic. Did I just type that aloud. My deepest apologies but it's Scarlett. She does things to people. 

small screen
Slate talks to True Detective's costume designer
The Guardian Lee Daniels and Gabby Sidibe of Precious fame are reuniting albeit not as spectacularly. This time she'll play the assistant to a lead character (Terence Howard) in a new TV series about a hiphop record label. 
The Week is there too much nudity on HBO?
TFE If you love Faith the Vampire Slayer than you must please stop goodie Buffy in this reader's poll. Buffy Buffy Buffy
Pajiba on dead TV characters they'd like resurrected
Comics Alliance Oh my Dark Phoenix. They're reviewing every episode of the 90s X-Men animated series
Salon the vague plans for Season 2 of True Detective 

Today's Watch(es)
For the adults... Strangers kissing for the first time, an experiment. (Weird that the gay guys are the most demure about it!)

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For all ages... Sesame Street does Les Miserables with Cookie Monster taking up the lead duties

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Do you hear the cookies crunch?
It's really more than we can bear
That's the sound of Jean Bon-bon
He's the guy who would not share ♫ 

Les Miz *WINNERS*

It's Reader Appreciation Month so I'm playing Santa with gifts.

I'm so sorry I didn't announce this sooner! I do get backed up here. I know those of you who entered the Les Miz contest are dying to just buy the new blu-ray/dvd combo pack if you didn't win. This contest had a great response. I asked interested Red & Black revolutionaries to answer three questions:

• Which kind of bread would you bake Valjean so he doesn't steal another loaf?
• Which movie hooker other than Fantine should've had a death bed song?
• Bring Him Home: Jackman, Redmayne, Tveit or Crowe?

I had much fun reading the often creative answers. But the three winners, chosen randomly, are...

ROB S in Palm Springs who writes:

1. BREAD: Pain de campagne, which I hope Hugh will stick around to enjoy as pain perdu.
2. HOOKER: Mildred, from Of Human Bondage....Bette Davis croaking it out as she croaks.
3. MAN TO TAKE HOME: Eddie Redmayne for sure. IMO the MVP of Les Misérables

'pain perdu'. teehee. Although I just realized that Rob is basically announcing with his answers that he's taking both Jackman and Redmayne home. Greedy!

JEREMY E in New York who writes:

1. BREAD: Gotta be pumpernickel for Hugh.  Hard on the pump, light on the nickel
2. HOOKER: Hands down, "Kit de Luca", Julia Roberts best friend in Pretty Woman---if only to hear her sing "Cinder-fucken-rella" in a tenor voice.
3. MAN TO TAKE HOME: Hugh

ROBERTA L in New Jersey who writes: 

1. BREAD: I would bake Hugh Jackman Sweet Buns, of course. Although Fruitcake is a strong contender. Because hello, he plays on your team, not mine. I don't care who his wife is.
2. HOOKER: So difficult! Barely-a-teen Brooke Shields? Jon Voight? What's-her-head in Risky Business? Nahh, it's obvious. Barbra Streisand in Nuts. 
3. MAN TO TAKE HOME: Fine. Jackman. I mean that's my type, isn't it?  

Roberta was one of only two contestants brave enough to sing her heart out for extra contest entries. So here she is in this audio clip doing her best Eponine for "On My Own". Nice job!

Roberta sings !

Win Les Miz on Blu-Ray/DVD

I have three copies of Les Misérables Blu-ray™ Combo Pack to give out to you, the musically inclined readership. But first a brief message from the generous studio who'll send it to you should you win!

Academy Award® nominee Hugh Jackman and Academy Award® winners Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway star in Les Misérables, the critically acclaimed adaptation of the epic musical phenomenon.  Set against the backdrop of 19th-century France, Les Misérables tells the story of ex-prisoner Jean Valjean (Jackman), hunted for decades by the ruthless policeman Javert (Crowe), after he breaks parole.  When Valjean agrees to care for factory worker Fantine’s (Hathaway) young daughter, Cosette, their lives change forever. 

 

Les Misérables arrives on Blu-ray™ Combo Pack, DVD and On Demand March 22 from Universal Studios Home Entertainment. The Blu-ray™ Combo Pack is loaded with an extra 45 minutes of exclusive content taking viewers behind the scenes of the groundbreaking production for an unmatched entertainment experience and includes a Blu-ray™ disc, DVD, Digital Copy and UltraViolet™ for the ultimate, complete viewing experience.

Do you hear the people sing... about entering reader appreciation contests?

Here's what you have to do before March 21st at Noon to enter:

1. Send me a message with LES MIZ BLU in the subject line with your name & shipping address (kept private unless you win in which case the studio gets it to send you your gift) and...
2. answer the following three questions (which might be reprinted here):
   1) which type of bread would you bake for Hugh Jackman so he doesn't have to steal a loaf?
   2) which movie prostitute do you most wish had sung deathbed songs before a cruel passing a la Anne Hathaway?
   3) Bring Him Home? (Crowe, Redmayne, Jackman or Tveit?)
3. Not Mandatory.
   For 1 extra entry like TFE on Facebook.
   For 5 extra entries, you can sing your show-tune loving lungs out in a video.

THREE WINNERS WILL BE DRAWN AT RANDOM ON MARCH 21ST. Will You Join In Our CRUSADE Contest? Even if you aren't entering, I expect answers to the bread, hooker, and home-bringing question right here in the comments. You know you wanna

I Linked a Link

Yahoo Movies Best Actress Roundtable - I chime in with Thelma, Peter Knegt and others
Buzzfeed Julianne Moore in Elizabeth Taylor's jewels. I'm glad she chose green
Playbill Shia Labeouf departs his intended Broadway debut. Apparently there were issues between him and Alec Baldwin. Drama!
Coming Soon the X-Men set is rebuilt for X-Men: Days of Future Past
LA Times Nominee Herbert Kretzmer on writing the Original Song nominee "Suddenly" 

The Guardian talks to director Joe Wright. "I go nuts if I'm idle." Oh if only some other directors felt this way (*cough Lynch/Luhrmann/Anderson)
Film.com Joe Reid picks the best Oscar acceptance speeches of all time. 
/Film Mark Hamill probably coming back to Star Wars. 
Movies Now that best director race sure is confusing
Pajiba shares their favorite casting notices from new pilots: Kyle Chandler, Tricia Helfer and more... 
Rebecca Rolfe has been studying body language of Oscar winners - huge chart! Everyone is into the art of acceptance speeches this year. I started a trend last year, I did.

Watch It
Gollum sings everyone's favorite precious song this year "I Dreamed a Dream"... but he changes up the words a bit.

Speaking of things I hold precious...

Have y'all heard that the glorious but not exactly movie-ish Kristin Chenoweth will be closing the Oscar ceremony with the host. Wild, right? I wouldn't have expected that but we loveses the Cheno.