Oscar Chart Updates: 5 Questions about the Actresses

It was long past time for a revision of those April Foolish Oscar Predictions charts. ("That's an understatement," the readers scream in unison) so here we go, finally for early August. It's just a few weeks before things really get churning with the fall festivals. So here are ten questions that are on our mind now that we've finished updating the BEST ACTRESS and BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS charts - so check them out. And please to do your own speculation in the comments about these questions.

01. Will Scarlett Johansson finally get an Oscar nomination? Or TWO? She's got a lead actress bid with the buzzy Marriage Story and we know that Noah Baumbach is good with actors. But we still think she's more likely as the brave mother in Taiki Waitit's satire JoJo Rabbit. The hilarious thing about Scarlett is she's so underrated as an actor now -- given her years in franchiseland and her recent missteps in interviews -- that she might even qualify as a "I didn't know she had that in her" surprise type player... even if that's a case of willful amnesia about her talent...

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Beauty vs Beast: She's Got the Brainnnsssssss

Jason from MNPP here for another round of "Beauty vs Beast" and on a very special day at that - not only is today the first day of October, marking my favorite season of the year (the spookey season) but today is also the 50th anniversary of George A Romero's masterpiece Night of the Living Dead! There were "zombies" of a sort before NotLD came out - mostly folks put under "voodoo curses" or the like - but Romero refined the monster to its modern form and created billions upon billions of dollars for entertainment executives in the process. But nothing's gonna top the stark simplicity of that original 1968 nightmare.

Facing down the horde I was torn between choosing our hero Ben (the magnificent Duane Jones) or his leading (comatose) lady Barbra (Judith O'Dea) - I went with the latter because Barbra gets a bad rap if you ask me. Ben is the hero we'd like to be - Barbra is the we we're probably gonna be. People don't like to want to think we'd go into total shock in an apocalyptic situation but you know what? Watch your sibling get eaten by a strange man in a cemetery and get back to me.

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PREVIOUSLY And speaking of siblings (and now I'm picturing a zombie rampage at the March house) last week's Little Women off brought the expected results, because Amy's awful, that little book burning witch, we hate her. Jo with 80-plus percent, huzzah! Said chasm301:

"Evil finds a human form in Amy March. Only Kiki stans are voting for her. But wow I love everything about this movie. I watch it multiple times a year. Winona is perfection and the score is one of my faves."

Tiffany on Top. What did you see?

by Nathaniel R

A quick perusal of this weekend's top movies in wide (left) and limited (right) release. Commentary after the jump...

Weekend Box Office Estimates (September 28th-30th)
W I D E 800+ screens	PLATFORM / LIMITED excluding prev. wide
1. 🔺 NIGHT SCHOOL $28 *NEW*	1. THE WIFE $777K on 437 screens (cum. $6.1) Review, Poster Blurb, Glenn's Oscar

2. 🔺 SMALLFOOT $23 *NEW* Warner Animation Movies	2. 🔺LITTLE WOMEN $747k on 643 screens

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Beauty vs Beast: Sugar & Spice & Everything March

Hello and happy Monday everyone, Jason from MNPP here with another edition of our "Beauty vs Beast" series - Louisa May Alcott's book Little Women just turned 150 this year and it's hotter than it's ever been. There was a BBC version with Maya Hawke and Emily Watson and Angela Lansbury that aired here in the US in the spring. Then this very weekend there's a modernized retelling hitting theaters. And then of course the one sucking all the air out of the room - Greta Gerwig's all-star edition set for next year, whose cast is so stacked we'd be here all day if I try listing off everybody - just look at the IMDb page.

Anyway a lot of us (even if we're excited to see all of those actors in one place and under her direction) aren't entirely sure why Greta's making this new version - not when there's Gillian Armstrong's perfectly lovely 1994 adaptation already, anyway. Winona Ryder as Jo, Christian Bale as Laurie, Susan Sarandon as Marmee, Kirsten Dunst as Amy, Claire Danes as Beth (cough cough)... these are the people I picture when I picture Little Women. And then one second later I immediately remember Amy burning Jo's manuscript and I see red...

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PREVIOUSLY I'm not sure if it was mostly Riz Ahmed Lust or if it was just that Jake's character is so (deliciously) despicable, but y'all surprised me and went and gave Riz/Rick your prize on last week's Nightcrawler contest with nearly 60% of the vote. Lou's a loser!

Anyway maybe it's just simply what Nick T said:

"Rick's just a nice cute guy who doesn't even know he's in over his head and Jake's a mean ol' lizard. Easy call."

All You Can Link Smorgasbord

Instagram Actor Garret Clayton (Hairspray Live!, King Cobra, The Fosters) has officially come out of the closet
/Film a rejected 1998 pitch for a Catwoman solo movie starring Michelle Pfeiffer
AV Club Danny Boyle has dropped out of Bond 25. The longer the film delays production, the more I suspect Daniel Craig will bolt, too.
Variety Asia Argento sure has had it rough lately. In addition to her own rage about Weinstein, and the suicide of her boyfriend, she herself is denying claims that she sexually assaulted a minor.

More after the jump including the dying YA movie boom, Madonna docs and criticisms, Sebastian Stan, Crazy Rich Asians, and more...

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