You may recall that we were briefly very excited about Rita Moreno's return to her home genre, the movie musical. News broke but then was quickly retracted that she had landed a wonderful part in the film version of Lin-Manuel Miranda's Tony-winning debut In the Heights which ran on Broadway from 2008 through 2011. Now, the news is for real but with a different film. She'll play "Valentina" in Steven Spielberg's remake of West Side Story. That's the "Doc" role, in a bit of racial and gender-flipped casting...
Sir Ian McKellen was just on Graham Norton discussing his preparation for his role in Cats. As usual just when you think you couldn't love this man any more than you already do, he proves you wrong yet again.
P.S. Tom Hooper is still casting his adaptation of the phenomenally successful 80s stage musical. The household name stars have been announced for some times but they've been adding new-to-the-big-screen talents including two principal dancers from the Royal Ballet.
Rita Moreno in her Emmy worthy performance in "One Day at a Time"
Rita Moreno, the beloved octogenarian, EGOT and Triple Crown of Acting winner, and Latina pioneer, is back in a big way. She's doing some of her best work ever on One Day at a Time (the lack of an Emmy nod is just shameful) but we have very good news about a future movie role. She's been cast in the movie adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda's In the Heights (2020). This will be her first movie musical role in over 50 years!
For those who don't know Moreno's career before West Side Story (1961), it wasn't her first musical...
To some degree, The Nightmare Before Christmas feels like the bastard child of Disney’s animated musicals. Granted the film was originally released under the Touchstone label due to concerns of frightened children and timid brand alignment. But in the years since, it’s grown beyond its cult following into full Mouse House acceptance, certainly one of the most merchandised of its era and most revisited thanks to inherent traditions in its duel holiday premise. So why does its music not get discussed alongside its peers?
• Glamour Amandla Stenberg goes au naturel with the body hair at the Rome premiere of The Hate U Give. Oh and also its their 20th birthday today. Happy birthday to them! • /Film Release date shuffle. Wonder Woman 2 has been pushed back to 2020 so now it's the Terminator reboot (with the original stars) and a reboot of Charlie's Angels facing off in Wonder Woman's old Novemeber 2019 date • Self Styled Siren anecdote of the week involves 1940s and 1950s star Jennifer Jones • MNPP lots of photos of Cory Michael Smith to celebrate his coming out and his new film 1985
• MCN first Gurus of Gold chart of the season with the actressing awards and Best Picture • Orlando Weekly Indiana Jones Land is probably coming to Disney World in the early 2020s with various parks dreaming up pitches • Variety it's going to be a big year for traditional studios at the Oscars • Coming Soon In demand Jean-Marc Vallée attached to a Yoko Ono / John Lennon biopic • Variety Critics Choice nominees for Documentaries. I really can't with the randomness of 6-9 nominees (are there any rules) in 12 different categories. It's like CHOOSE. If you nominate everything there is zero drama and no reason to look at what's been chosen. • THRHow to Build a Girl about a young woman (Beanie Feldstein) becoming a rock critic is building an impressive supporting cast with Emma Thompson, Paddy Considie, and Chris O'Dowd all joining • New Yorker lottery drawings in the age of plutocracy • Next Best Picture a report on 'lone acting nominations' • DeadlineBe More Chill, opening soon on Broadway has already auctioned off its film rights. Meanwhile Hamilton still hasn't ironed out a deal for the film rights but its expected to be a $50 million sale
Exit Video Hey look & listen, it's a brief soundbyte of a Mary Poppins Returns song in this "special look" that's basically pieces of the original trailer recut with a pieces of a song.
Wednesday, November 28, 2018 at 12:30PM 
