MTV Movie & TV Award Nominees!

Chris here. You may have missed awhile back but the MTV Movie Awards have added television into its ceremony. While that news may sound like a "Golden Globes for the Instagram set" proposition, the results are much more muddied. 

For starters, outside of the top categories movies and television are nominated alongside each other - which makes for some headspining lineups like "Tearjerker". As if the current murky waters of what defines cinema and television weren't frustrating enough already for those of us that follow awards, this awards show has just thrown caution to the wind. They've always fallen on the populist and occasionally silly side but this is essentially bonkers...

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Link Link Land

The Daily Beast Michael Musto talks to an anonymous Oscar voter about who they're voting for. They're very unhappy with Meryl Streep's 20th and La La Land's 14
/Film Barry Jenkins chooses movies from the Criterion Collection -wonderful. (And people forget how obsessed people were with La Haine when it came out)
Variety ABC picked up a pilot starring Toni Collette. Please let it be good. Miss her so much. Totally the best actress that directors aren't using which I will NEVER understand
Cinematic Corner Sati falls for The Handmaiden

Film School Rejects on Stranger Things SAG acceptance speech and season two
MNPP Jason lets Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) take him on a train of thought and it is a joy as is that movie or at least Gable and Franchot Tone in it
Village Voice Bilge Ebiri's 10 favorites from Sundance include Where is Kyra? and Mudbound
World of Reel Ben Affleck will no longer be directing The Batman movie 
Pajiba has news of an incredibly problematic sounding new Mel Gibson movie about police brutality.
Four Two Nine good piece on LGBT characters still being stuck in the "best friend" / "helper" mode despite many more gay characters in film and television  
Tracking Board HBO developing a movie about the behind-the-scenes on The Godfather (1972). I mean who gets to play Marlon Brando and Diane Keaton. Those seem like tall orders (lots of people can do a decent Al Pacino)

Off Cinema
Playbill Hamilton is doubling the amount of seats in its lottery starting... yesterday. Good luck!
Village Voice fascinating piece on the billionaire subgenre within romance novels
Los Angeles Times on how the travel ban is worrying Hollywood the business aspects of Hollywood and the talent pool
The Guardian Johnny Depp is suing and being countersued... and he's spending money as wildly and foolishly as Nicolas Cage once did (if you're wondering why they both make so many bad movies) 

Dune Again
As was previously rumored but is now true, Denis Villeneuve has signed on to direct Dune. He mentioned this as a possibility in our interview recently and sounded very excited about it, having been a fan of the novel his whole life. But still, TWO reboots of two beloved sci-fi properties back-to-back with Blade Runner 2049 up next? And right after your Oscar nomination after such deserved momentum from doing your own thing (Enemy-Prisoners-Sicario-Arrival)?! I guess this is cashing in while also fulfilling a dream but it worries this fan of Villeneuve doing his own thing.  

Though the David Lynch film from 1984 had its issues it also had some deeply memorable imagery so at the very least it will be interesting to see how his version measures up.

SAG Winners List

Movies
Lead Actress Emma Stone, La La Land
Lead Actor Denzel Washington, Fences
Supporting Actress Viola Davis, Fences
Supporting Actor Mahershala Ali, Moonlight
Ensemble Hidden Figures

Lifetime Achievement
Lily Tomlin 

TV
Leading Actress, Comedy Julia-Louis Dreyfus, Veep
Leading Actor, Comedy William H Macy,  Shameless
Ensemble, Comedy Orange is the New Black 
Actress, Limited Series/Movie Sarah Paulson, People vs OJ Simpson 
Actor, Limited Series/Movie  Bryan Cranston, All the Way 
Leading Actor, Drama John Lithgow, The Crown 
Leading Actress, Drama Claire Foy, The Crown 
Ensemble, Drama Stranger Things 

For commentary on the awards, check out "10 takeaways from SAG night" and "I am an actor" 

Fallon's "La La Land"-Spoofing Globes Opener

Chris here. While we were graced with an overall delightful (if fairly sober) Golden Globes ceremony, I think we can all safely say Jimmy Fallon was a dud. Chief offenses included gross imitations of famous black people, flatline jokes, and returning to the ceremony just when we thought we were done with him. But he did try to set himself up for success by opening the show with a La La Land-lampooning opening number that also featured some of the night's other nominees. Let's do a rundown of the good, bad, and ugly:

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Valley of the Link

Buzzfeed lists 28 Asian American directors, some with great movies under their belt  - presumably to help Disney with Mulan because they'll need it. Consider that...
Newsweek ...Sony went with a white dude for their competing Mulan project
Awards Daily gorgeous photoshoot of Loving stars Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga for Vogue
Marvel reveals the end credits music on Doctor Strange. It sounds kind of lava lamp funky with a touch of warped vinyl. I don't know. I can't describe music.
i09 Taika Waititi promises that Thor: Ragnarok is "out there crazy" and that Marvel was totally accepting of his style. He's also suggested on Reddit that the movie will mostly ignore the larger Marvel Universe (aside from a Doctor Strange reference)

Coming Soon Hugh Grant, Imelda Staunton, and Brendan Gleeson join the cast of Paddington 2. But who fills the Nicole Kidman shaped hole?
/Film Captain Planet movie in the works with Leonardo DiCaprio producing
/Film first look of Caliban (played by Stephen Merchant) in the new Wolverine movie Logan
Slate "Why do people in old movies talk like that?" I haven't yet listened to this episode of "Lexicon Valley" but it sounds like a great topic 
AV Club Did you hear that Benji is being rebooted? It is. It's already filming! No franchise is safe in the grave. 

Stranger Things Has Alarming Staying Power
Yes people are still talking about Netflix's hit series. The latest online discourse is around whether or not the character of Wil is gay. The 11 year old actor who plays him, Noah Schnapp, spoke out about the speculation with a surprisingly mature response. Towleroad thinks it was a smart one but Mic thinks Schnapp is missing the point. Where do you stand on this? 

Last Week's Must Read
Apologies that we missed it but you shouldn't! Vulture published a fascinating piece by Mark Harris that makes a thorough case for why distributors need to release more information about their VOD releases including grosses. There is lots to think about here