Supersized "Nomadland"... what will Searchlight do for a follow up?

by Nathaniel R

Click for the full illustrated new poster

The prolongued 2020 Oscar season is going to make 2021 weird, isn't it. Take Nomadland, for instance, which is just a smidge over HALFWAY through its long trek to Oscar night after its September bow). Hopefully the Biden Administration can figure out a way to speed up vaccine distribution and we can all get back to our favourite pasttime -- MOVIEGOING -- by summer 2021 when the new stuff starts arriving. Alas, that's too late to enjoy Nomadland on IMAX screens, beginning January 29th, which frankly sounds like heaven to us after watching it on a bad streaming link with a watermark across it.

Though Nomadland is not my #1 film of the year -- top ten list coming in a few days! -- there isn't a single film from 2020 that I'd rather see on the most gigantic screen possible. Joshua James Richards' cinematography and the beautifully aged resilient face of Frances McDormand deserve it.

After Nomadland's Oscar run, whether or not it wins the biggest prize in Hollywood, here's what Searchlight (now owned by Disney) will be releasing in 2021...

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First Images: "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom"

by Nathaniel R

Look, it's the first images from Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, based on the August Wilson play of the same name. It's part of his Pittsburgh Cycle of 10 plays documenting the African American experience (with each of the ten plays set in different decades). Denzel Washington is planning to produce all 10 (2 down, 8 to go... how many more will Viola get to star in?). Ma Rainey's... is set in the 1920s and stars Viola Davis as the singer Ma Rainey and Chadwick Boseman as her trumpeter Levee (the two 'star' roles in the show) and involves a very heated recording session and fights therein. The costumes you see here are by the indefatigable four-time Oscar nominee Ann Roth, who is still doing great work regularly at 88 years of age...

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Filming the Marvelous Mrs Maisel's Musical Numbers

Guest Blog Day! Please welcome Tom Mizer, one half of the songwriting team Mizer & Moore (The Marvelous Mrs Maisel), a longtime TFE reader and previous Smackdown panelist. 

me on the set of The Marvelous Mrs Maisel. A dream come true

by Tom Mizer

When Amy Sherman-Palladino, the producer/director/creator and all-around whiz-bang brain of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, asked my writing partner Curtis Moore and I to write original music for the third season, we knew immediately it was going to be a big challenge. (Also, let’s be honest, wicked cool.) The songs needed to sit alongside the needle-drop classics they deploy so expertly on the show (don’t tell anyone but the show is a musical in perfectly pink disguise). They needed to help tell the story and illuminate character while also being believable pop hits of 1959. They also needed to be written, approved, and recorded before filming in a few weeks. So, yeah, just a wee bit challenging.

What we didn’t know was how welcomed we'd be into the “family” of the show. Instead of just turning in demos and hoping for the best --fly free little songs, fly free! -- we were invited to collaborate during the whole process....

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We had so much fun on "Down with Love"

Costume Designer Daniel Orlandi concludes his guest-blogging day with our favourite of his pictures. You should follow him on Instagram for more fun set photos & costume sketches....

by Daniel Orlandi

The Doris Day / Rock Hudson sex comedy romps were among the first movies I saw as a kid. I was so enamored of the look. So when I read the script to Down with Love (2003), I had to do it. I owe a lot to Producer Paddy Cullen for helping me get the job. She slipped me that script early and got me in to meet the director and producers first.

There was one problem, though...

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Carol 2 is finally here…

by Murtada Elfadl

Not exactly. But look at these pictures of Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara on the set of Guillermo Del Toro’s Nightmare Alley. Don’t they remind you of Carol (2015)? The period costumes, the snow and winter setting, Cate’s gorgeous blond wig? 

The internet lost its mind for a couple of hours...

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