Monday, March 16, 2020 at 1:45PM 
Vanity Fair has the exclusive first photos from Steven Spielberg’s remake of West Side Story. They are certainly colorful, in more ways than one, if your main concern about this remake was the usual grayish color palette of Spielberg and cinematographer Janusz Kaminski.
Authenticity in casting is what differentiates this version, according to Spielberg.
Wednesday, February 5, 2020 at 3:00PM by Eric Blume
Good news, as Disney is bringing a filmed version of the Broadway sensation Hamilton to movie theaters October 15, 2021, with the original cast. It will not be a fully-imagined film like this summer's other Lin-Manuel Miranda musical In the Heights. Instead, it will be a "live capture" of the stage performance, shot in the Richard Rodgers Theater before the original cast started to disband.
I was lucky enough to see this cast in the original incarnation at the Public Theater, and then again when it moved to Broadway with different actors. No disrespect to the excellent work of the actors from round two, but there is truly nothing like seeing the original cast of a show...
Wednesday, February 5, 2020 at 9:00AM by Chris Feil
With Renée Zellweger likely taking home another Oscar for her performance of Judy Garland this Sunday, it feels like a full circle moment for the actress’s career and Oscar’s relationship with musicals in the modern era. Rob Marshall’s take on the Kander and Ebb masterpiece Chicago was a platonic ideal between Academy voters (and the public) who sneered at the genre and its fans that were reinvigorated by the audacity of Moulin Rouge! just a year prior. Chicago injected new life into a previously dead genre, reigniting Oscar’s love as well, from all-out musicals to especially musical biopics like Zellweger’s Judy.
Sunday, January 26, 2020 at 12:38PM 
by Eric Blume
In other surprising/weird/interesting film projects ahead for us in 2020, filming just wrapped on Annette, a musical featuring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard, and directed by French auteur Leos Carax. Apparently Driver plays a stand-up comedian and Cotillard an opera singer, whose lives take a twist with the birth of their daughter Annette, who is born with a "special gift".
The movie sounds gloriously bananas. Is it in French or English, or both? Leos Carax is, without hyperbole, one of the most idiosyncratic directors alive. It's almost thirty years ago that he had Juliette Binoche waterskiing down the Seine in Les Amants du Pont-Neuf, and eight years ago that he mystified everyone with the accordions and role play of Holy Motors. The man does not have a commercial bone in his body.
We know from Marriage Story that Driver can carry a tune. It's thrilling that at essentially the most pivotal time in his career, he's chosen to take a left turn with a movie like this. And it's been far too long since Cotillard has had a great role. She's utterly magnificent in Nine (not sorry, haters), and her two numbers in that film demonstrate her ability to both keep it simple / honest AND to fly into full-blown performance mode. But...she's playing an opera singer? Sounds iffy. Still, Driver and Cotillard are two of the greatest actors working today, and matching them sounds wonderfully inspired.
This movie on paper truly earns the letters WTF. Even if it doesn't land, it should at least be interesting!
Sunday, January 19, 2020 at 5:23PM ;)
Doctor Dolittle's many literary adventures represent Hugh Lofting's biggest claim to fame. From 1920 to 1952, the English author published around children's books focusing on that eccentric Victorian veterinarian whose studies allowed him to speak to animals. The character is something of an iconic IP, so it's no wonder Hollywood has repeatedly tried to capitalize on its popularity. However, considering all the horrible stories and behind the scenes nightmares associated with these productions, it's a wonder any studio executive even considers putting on another Dolittle extravaganza.
The first of these misbegotten adaptations is a 1967 movie musical that's a good candidate to claim the title of "worst Best Picture Oscar nominee ever"…
