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Entries in NPH (26)

Tuesday
Mar152016

A Series of Unfortunate Casting Decisions

Laurence here with some more casting news from the television world. When news broke in 2014 that Netflix would be adapting Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events books into a series, it was exciting. The 2004 film adaptation never really struck a chord, nor was it successful enough to turn into the Harry Potter-esque franchise Nickelodeon wanted it to be. It was received relatively well, but it has become something of a pop culture footnote.

Television is a pretty natural place for an adaptation of a 13-book series, however, and Netflix's love of hurling absurd amounts of money at every algorithmically pleasing premise bade well for a new adaptation.

After a long time spent in 'talks', yesterday it was finally confirmed that the actor cast to play Count Olaf in the series is...Neil Patrick Harris? Now, NPH has been doing solid work in proving his range post-HIMYM. He was enjoyably creepy in Gone Girl, and his stint in Hedwig on Broadway showed he could be, well, Hedwig. But whatever you think about Jim Carrey's performance as Olaf, he was nothing if not indelible.

But NPH as Count Olaf seems, well, a stretch. There's no denying that he has comic chops. But Olaf is an evil, strange, reptilian character, such that casting NPH makes the whole thing feel sanitised and kid-friendly. Add in the fact that their casting of Violet (Malina Weissman) and Klaus (Louis Hynes) seems to be both skewing younger than the film and strangely insistent on replicating the look of the film's stars, Emily Browning and Liam Aiken.

One bright spot, at least, is the casting of Patrick Warburton as Lemony Snicket, who was played by Jude Law in the film. But despite NPH's Halloween costume bona fides, Netflix could have been more creative. Imagine Kathy Najimy as a genderbent Countess Olaf. Imagine.

Perhaps the most curious aspect is that the series is set to be directed, at least at first, by Barry Sonnenfeld of Addams Family Values fame, who was originally set to direct the film. At the time, he hired Daniel Handler (the writer behind the Snicket pen name) to adapt the books as a musical. Given that they have also cast two-time Tony nominee K. Todd Freeman, it will be interesting to find out if that's what we're going to get. But is that what the books deserve?

Wednesday
Dec302015

HBO’s LGBT History: The Out List (2013)

Manuel is working his way through all the LGBT-themed HBO productions.

Last week we looked at Steven Soderbergh’s Behind the Candelabra, a horror movie of sorts which we all agreed is not as good as the sum of its talented parts. This week we look at Timothy Greenfield-Sanders’s The Out List (Watch Online), a documentary that’s easier to admire than to enjoy.

I actually hesitate in calling it a “documentary” since it’s just a collection of on-camera interviews seemingly strung together one next to the other. Thus, we spend a couple of minutes with Neil Patrick Harris as he discusses his struggles as an out actor. We then hear about Janet Mock’s decision to take up trans rights activism in earnest. We move onto Dustin Lance Black’s experience of growing up in a religious family… and so on and so forth. Each interview is its own mini-doc; the result would, presumably, be a quilted canvas of the contemporary LGBT movement. [More...]

 

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Sunday
Mar012015

Podcast Finale: The Team Reflects on the 87th Academy Awards

Nick, Katey, Joe and Nathaniel reunite for the podcast season finale. The topic is the Oscars and these are our last words on this year's. The conversation includes but is not limited to:

• Neil Patrick Harris strong opening but then...
• Our choices for MVP from the audience
• Musical numbers - good but too many?
• Who should host next time?
• Power Trio: Canonero, Lubezki & Desplat
• Obsessing over Julianne Moore's speech
• Eddie Redmayne's glee
• Nick's John Travolta prediction
• Which of the nominees will be nominated again quickest?

And of course we play our favorite game of suggesting pairings of actors and directors. 

Juli is a little embarrassed at our obsessing on her 

Please to enjoy and continue the conversation in the comments. You can listen at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes.  

87th Oscars Reviewed

Wednesday
Feb252015

Oscar Stages Through the Years

Ask and you shall receive. Manuel here to take up Joel V's suggestion in the comments (for this post on the gorgeous graphics we saw on Sunday) and give us a look at past Oscar stages. I will hand it to Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, while NPH was only so-so (though thankfully willing to embrace the male gayze) and that ceremony ran way too long, they sure know how to make the telecast a stylish affair.

NPH amidst a stage that's giving us steampunk Oscar glam realness

This is Derek McLane's third time desigining the Oscar stage (he won an Emmy for last year's) and it's clear why Meron & Zadan love him, though please let us not speak of his designs for Peter Pan Live!

But, how well does this year's stage design hold up? Take a look at the last ten years of Oscar stages, which have in the last decade alone garnered 5 Emmys for Outstanding Art Direction for Variety, Nonfiction, Reality or Reality-Competition Program, nabbing a nomination every single year. Talk about a hot streak!

86th through 77th Academy Awards after the jump... 

Click to read more ...

Monday
Feb232015

Team Experience: Oscar's Best & Worst Moments

Neil Patrick Harris' big musical opening had fun shadow effectsAre most of you over your Oscar party hangovers now?

I polled Team Experience (and myself) on their very favorite moment and their "Agony!" bit alike from last night's show of shows and here's what they had to say about the 87th Academy Awards. Please do share your single Best & Worst moment in the comments, too as we work our way through putting this film year behind us.

BEST MOMENTS

Timothy: Pawel Pawlikowski muscling right on through the play-off music in order to pay due tribute to his late wife.

Julien: That opening song was really some... Oh who am I kidding ? Watching Julianne finally clutch that Oscar was a dream I thought would never come true. 

Nathaniel: Once you get past Julianne I'd go with 1) Emma Stone reaction shots  2) "Glory" 3) Jessica Chastain saying "Chivooooo" 4) the insanity of "Everything is Awesome" - particularly the fake Oscars and the Batman interruption 5) Patricia Arquette's infectious righteousness (sub-shoutout to Meryl & JLo). I understand that people are up in arms the day after but that's called 'missing the point because people love to be outraged' which is an epidemic online that distracts the world from progressive goals like eradicating inequality and sexism. 6) "because you're rich"

More heartfelt applause (and then some jeers) after the jump...

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