Rihanna Wants Elvira

Has anyone yet compiled a list of every 80s film that's been remade? It would be long and exhausting and this decade would already be lousing with them. Scarface (1983), like many of the films already remade, is quintessentially 80s but that won't stop Hollywood from going there. Word is that Rihanna is desperate to play Elvira Hancock (the role which was the first real sign that Michelle Pfeiffer was one for the pantheon) should the remake actually go forward.

Rihanna is a member of Scarface's legion of fans

I shouldn't judge Rihanna's acting ability without seeing Battleship (uh...) but her music video work doesn't give me much faith in her as an actress per se. I've always thought her face was unusually inexpressive actually (Not that I'm a Rihanna expert). The thing that really got me LOLin'g about the gossipy news item which originated in The Sun is this:

”Rihanna loves ‘Scarface...Some of her music videos have been based on Michelle’s character, Elvira. She knows all the words and even has her walk perfected.”

I'm not sure knowing all the words counts as a plus in acting before a screenplay's been written!

But I do agree with Rihanna that Elvira has "ridiculous swagger". Given that superiority complex, I'm reasonally certain that Elvira herself wouldn't take kindly to anyone's desire to recreate her. Quoth Elvira:

Don't toot your own horn, honey. You're not that good."

It's Happening... Again.

Hello Lovely Readers!

Beau here, and holy God, it’s happening. 

Yeah, yeah, I knew Carrie was in production, but it’s one of those films you know is being made but you don’t truly believe it until you see a still in front of you.  And lucky for us, we have two.

Initial Thoughts:

Click to read more ...

Review: "Total Recall"

This review originally appeared in my column at Towleroad

It's hard not to feel sympathy for Colin Farrell. His secret movie star weapon is those long, thick unmistakable eyebrows. When he's in distress his brow lifts and pulls them up into a converging point, creating a perfect triangular frame for big brown orbs of boyish angst. "Help me!" is written all over his eyes. That same furrowed brow expression with just minor flickering shifts can also say "Please love me!" and "Aren't I funny?" and "..." His capacity for impish excitement and moral confusion were a perfect match for his best star turn to date in the hitman seriocomedy In Bruges (2008) and it helps the TOTAL RECALL do-over more than it should.

Farrell plays everyman Doug Quaid who doesn't realize he's actually someone else because his memory has been erased. A trip to the fantasy memory banks of "Total Rekall" (a reversal of Eternal Sunshine's "Lacuna Inc" since the company aims to give you false memories rather than take real ones away) upsets his reprogramming and suddenly he's killing soldiers with the trained might of a futuristic Jason Bourne. Returning home his formerly loving wife (Kate Beckinsale) tries to kill him.

Quaid realizes he's completely lost in a false life with no memory of the real one. Cut to: plentiful moments of Farrell Furrowing!

But you shouldn't have time to think about the magic and mystery of physiognomy while you're watching an action movie. If you do your mind wanders and questions come cascading in like...

"When did Kate Beckinsale's Hair becomes self-aware like SkyNet?" When?!?

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Linker Come Back to Me

My New Plaid Pants pic of the day, first image from the set of Steven Soderbergh's Liberace bio Behind the Candelabra with Michael Douglas and Matt Damon as lovers
Movie City News 29 Weeks To Go until Oscar! Wooo
Cinema Blend apparently they're going to reboot The Brady Bunch. 
i09 pretends that 10 upcoming remakes / reboots aren't going to suck. Hey, someone has to stay positive.

Hollywood Elsewhere Dark Right(Wing) Rises... People can't stop talking about the politics of Chris Nolan's Batman trilogy.
Hollywood.com interviewed me and other pundits on The Dark Knight Rises Oscar hopes
Awards Daily breaks down the Tony nominees who made it to Oscar nominations 
Pajiba would like you to think about all the brunettes in Chris Nolan films. It's always brunettes.
/Film manages to dig up a tiny bit of info about the Coen Bros Inside Llewyn Davis 
Awards Daily breaks down the Tony nominees who made it to Oscar nominations

Obits
is it just me or are people dropping like flies... I'm a bit freaked out :( 
Studio Briefing Mr Cyd Charisse, singer/actor Tony Martin (1913-2012), has died 
The Guardian pays final respects to Chris Marker (1921-2012), the experimental filmmaker of La Jetée fame (which inspired 12 Monkeys)
New York Times the ever fascinating Gore Vidal (1925-2012) 
Fresh Air remembers Lupe Ontiveros (1942-2012) of As Good As it Gets and Selena fame. I loved it when NBR handed her Best Supporting Actress for Chuck and Buck (2000). Remember that? That's my favorite Lupe turn.

Finally, in much happier news...
Have you heard that Nina Arianda (Midnight in Paris, Win Win) is signing projects left and right. Looks like that Tony Award for "Venus in Fur" really did it. Nina, who has previously really had bit roles in movies, has surely arrived.

She recently signed on to play the great Guilieta Masina in Fellini Black and White the story of two missing days in the life of Oscar magnet Federico Fellini right before the Oscars in 58. Are they making this movie just for us? Seriously! She's also set to play Janis Joplin in another upcoming bio with Martha Marcy May Marlene's Sean Durkin helming after approximately a million years of rumors of this actress and that actress and sometimes more than one at once, playing her in a biopic. Hollywood apparently just can't let  The Rose (1979) be the last word. Tina Fey and Jane Krakowski even sent up the development hell of Janis Joplin biopics in an arc of 30 Rock. Nina also joins a huge cast of recognizable actors in the fascinating sounding The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby which is reportedly a two-part film told from the husband (James McAvoy) and wife's (Jessica Chastain) perspectives.

This is all a long way of saying learn Nina's name and expect her on an Oscar shortlist in 5...4...3...2....1

Always Be My Linky

AV Club two new roles for Mariah Carey as an American Idol judge and returning in front of Lee Daniels camera (they worked together on Precious, remember?) in The Butler which already has a very starry cast
My New Plaid Pants a remake of With a Friend Like Harry? Like JA I'm shocked this hasn't already happened. Sergi Lopez was so good in that!
Towleroad Lady Gaga's makes her acting debut in Machete Kills 
SubAtomicCowboy ...reminds us that that's not technically true.

Hollywood Elsewhere a Marilyn Monroe intervention
Movie|Line has theories on the Robert Pattinson & Kristen Stewart breakup. Interesting though the accompanying opinion/absurdity that 'Kristen Stewart could be the next Jodie Foster' negates my ability to take it seriously.
/Film Battle Royale for the CW as a TV series. From the Dept of Truly Hilariously Terrible Ideas 
Hollywood.com Revenge returns on September 30th. Start the countdown 

Na na na na na na NA na na na na BAT LINKS ♫
Dancer a Day "You're so Bane. You probably think this song is about you." 
We Got This Covered "Imagine the Fire" a lengthy interconnected essay on The Dark Knight Rises.
Natasha VC Christopher Nolan has a little Cousin Matthew in him, huh?
Forbes on The Dark Knight's political conservativism.
Digital Spy Anne Hathaway on the possibility of a Catwoman spin off. Given that she doesn't want to do it without Chris Nolan it's never going to happen (see also La Pfeiffer's stance in the 90s about Catwoman IF it was with Tim Burton)