Links!

film/tv
• Towleroad - I am so not an Andy Cohen fan but this game 'uncomfortably close' that gets Andrew Rannells and Matt Bomer nose-to-nose is... well, I'm here for it. It's also nice to learn that they both made excellent choices in their favorite movie ever.
• i09 fun illustrated poster of 80s movies. I'd ask you to see how many you recognize but if you know the 80s you'll know them all because the films represented (save arguably one) are fairly pop culture famous
• IndieWire -the new super in Incredibles 2 is very Kristen Stewart-esque
• AV Club -apparently ABC is really trying to come up with a way to continue Roseanne without Roseanne!
• Deadline report on the filming of Avatar 2 and Avatar 3. Zoe Saldana has already wrapped her part and James Cameron brags that Kate Winslet can hold her breath underwater for seven minutes. Hmmm. Is that even possible for humans? Really?
• Mirror - very odd report on Catherine Zeta-Jones bragging about her fortune and beauty. File under 'if you got it, flaunt it' I guess?

all Supers all the time
• FSR Captain Marvel will use female Turkish composer Pinar Toprak for the score. That's quite a surprise since her filmography to date is quite obscure with mostly low profile documentaries and TV movies but congratulations! I've never seen the series Krypton, her highest profile gig. If you do, how do you like the music?

• Coming Soon - Wonder Woman's sequel is called Wonder Woman 1984 and there are a few new photos. Love the brighter costume. Annoyed that Steve Trevor is back. No one ever stays dead in comic book films!
• ComicBook.com - Kevin Smith got Marvel screenwriters to say how they'd fix the DC Extended Universe of movies. Sound simple advice but I can't imagine DC is happy about the conversation.
• /Film a bit of info on Patrick Wilson's villain in Aquaman and why he was cast

offscreen
• Damian Alexander - insightful cartoon about the way boys are trained to devalue female protagonists. I relate so much because I loved heroines from the start but knew instinctively that that was 'weird'.

The Link Visits

• Lit Hub interesting essay on the popularity of world-building in genre fiction
• Coming Soon Wreck It Ralph 2 has a scene with all the Disney princesses
• Cartoon Brew trailer for something called Another Day of Life which combines documentary footage with CG animation for a different kind of movie
• The Guaridan a five star review of the great silent film Pandora's Box, which y'all know I love. It's maybe my favorite silent

• The New Yorker the emptiness of the new Star Wars universe. I liked Solo more than most and disagree with a few key points here (Emilia Clarke had plenty of screen time to develop that character for example. She's just not an inspired actor is all) but it's still an interesting good read about the problem of prequels and self-consciously mythic work.
• Tom Cruise... speaking of self-conciously mythic. Top Gun 2 began filming
• Boy Culture Madonna gives her blessing to a book/movie deal that uses her music as backdrop for a boy's coming out story. It was a project mainstream publishers rejected. Bet they're sorry now that it has a six figure movie deal.
• Variety Angelina Jolie in David Oyelowo may be starring in a new fantasy drama called Come Away about the parents of Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. Say what? It's from Brave director Brenda Chapman
• Variety a report on the trouble of ultra cheap or ultra expensive movies in Japan. It's not just Hollywood that has a no mid-budget films problem
• Awards Daily the summer of Donald Glover
• Towleroad deleted scene from Love Simon featuring Colton Haynes

Theater People
• Stage is a new streaming service for theater fans launching this August. Taye Diggs is going to host the first three episodes of their debut talk show called "Crossovers" with Leslie Uggams, Billy Magnussen, and Tamara Tunie as initial guests
• Playbill Tony-bound musical adaptation The Band's Visit will launch a national tour in one year's time.
• TFE ← I just wanted to point you back to this interview we did with two cast members from the musical comedy Desperate Measures last year. The show was so successful it's reopening today at New World Stages for an open run with most of the original cast (including these two) rejoining. It is SO worth seeing so I hope some of you in NYC or visiting will make it!

Maleficent 2 Begins Filming. A Few Words on the Cast

by Nathaniel R

As much as I neither enjoyed Maleficent (2014) nor have any reason whatsoever to believe the sequel will be any better, I'll admit that I am as gullible as anyone when it comes to promotional hype about blockbusters. I veritably squealed when I saw this photo on Elle Fanning's instagram today. And then this equally delicious photo...

Click to read more ...

"Boba Fett?! Boba Fett?! Where??"

by Nathaniel R

Since Boba Fett is too boring to look at here's a cute pic of Harrison Ford, his ass, and Chewbacca from Return of the Jedi (1983)

I've always been convinced that the world's inexplicable Boba Fett fandom is entirely thanks to Harrison Ford's panicked funny line reading in Return of the Jedi (1983) "Boba Fett?! Boba Fett?! Where??" wherein the bounty hunter character appears for a hot second before Han Solo accidentally dispatches him. But really, even that doesn't quite explain it. It's like building a huge fandom around that cocky swordsman that Indiana Jones takes down in one of Raiders of the Lost Ark's funniest surprises, you know?

As you've undoubtedly heard, the helmeted hunter is now getting his own "A Star Wars Story" style movie courtesy of Disney and director James Mangold (Logan). This news seems incredibly dumb. Such a blank character. Or, to put it in funnier terms... 

Click to read more ...

Why aren't poster photos taken on set? The eternal mystery.

Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again has a new eye sore poster. Every single cast member has been photographed separately and then composited together like some Ensemble Frankenstein Monster. The poor beast is then tasked with imitating pure joy before it has learned to control its facial muscles.

It's easy to imagine some photoshop artist creating their own mini-narratives to keep them interested while hunched over their computer jamming all the stars together. Do I spot a romantic comedy between Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgård whose eyelines are matching up?

Why does this type of poster keeps happening? Why aren't poster images and promotional photoshoots done on sets on the days when busy actors are already all assembled together? If you want to see the full poster just click on Cher's sassiness to your left. I didn't want to sully up the front page.

Oh and go ahead and tag yourself in the comments. I am Lily James' left foot that's eager to jump into the water.