Wednesday, March 8, 2017 at 2:57PM 
Though it's 240 days until Thor: Ragnarok is in theaters, the heavy promo starts now. EW's new cover features Chris Hemsworth, sans long light blonde Thor wig and thus looking far less Scandinavian (sigh) and his two female co-stars. Thoughts that came to me as they came to me without stopping to edit are after the jump...
Wednesday, March 8, 2017 at 8:14AM 
Imitation of Life (1934) starred Claudette Colbert and Louise Beavers who went into the pancake business
On this day in 1902 Louise Beavers born in Cincinatti. Though she was never as famous as the similarly cast Hattie McDaniel she also had her own big film moments in the studio system including the original Imitation of Life in which Claudette Colbert got wildly rich off of her recipe while she Beavers struggled with her light-skinned daughter. FREE PITCH IDEA FOR WRITERS OF COLOR: Don't you think a prestige miniseries on Black Hollywood throughout the years would be fascinating?
More on Louise Beavers and other "on this day" items after the jump...
Monday, March 6, 2017 at 8:12PM 
The Saturn Awards were created over 40 years go to honor the then generally dishonored genres of sci-fi fantasy and horror. Whether they're still needed in a pop culture climate that veritably worships these things is up for debate. But even if they are -- and its certainly true that genre shows and films are still considered poor cousins to more respectable "drama" and "biopics" when it comes to mainstream awards -- are the Saturn Awards the ones to do it?
Now in their 43rd year, they seem to have lost the thread a little. They have so many categories it feels like they're eager to displace the Grammys, Satellites, or BFCA for "MOST!" and in addition to the ridiculous amounts of categories, they have 6 to 8 nominees per category which negates the need to have much in the way of discernment as to what constitutes "best". The problem in a nutshell: It's great to have an awards group that can say "Captain America: Civil War is superb" with a straight face, but when they also hold up Batman v Superman for the same honor, it kind of kills the impact.
Rogue One leads the nominees with 11 nominations. All 41 categories and more commentary after the jump...
Sunday, March 5, 2017 at 12:00PM This review was originally published in Nathaniel's column at Towleroad
Logan, the latest and last (for now) solo Wolverine movie, was not kidding around when it opted for Johnny Cash’s “Hurt” as its trailer music. It’s not just the severity of the title, but the elegiac lyrics, and the dying man as guiding spirit / inspiration. Some trailers lie but this one spoke world-weary truth. This is exactly the kind of movie James Mangold, who also directed the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line, delivers.
Wolverine’s mutation were never those iconic claws, which were a science experiment to weaponize him, but his ability to instantly heal which also slows down his aging process. The movie franchise got very silly about this, placing him in the civil war context in X-Men Origins as if the once feral Canadian hero was an immortal vampire rather than a mutant.
But Logan is anything but silly about aging...
Thursday, February 16, 2017 at 4:30PM 
Coming Soon Colossal, that kaiju movie starring Anne Hathaway that we told you about at least year's TIFF is coming out this year and it has such a cute poster (pictured left) and the trailer is also here.
Deadline good interview with Octavia Spencer on why she did Hidden Figures and diversity in film
Coming Soon here's a super duper strange news item. Kenneth Lonergan is writing an miniseries adaptation of Howards End to star Hayley Atwell. Never mind that there's zero chance of improving on Merchant & Ivory's 1992 masterpiece!
Variety what does the Academy look for in an Original Song nominee and winner?
Tracking Board what makes a TV pilot script a success?
In Contention profiles former sound mixing partners nominated against each other for the first time for Hacksaw Ridge and 13 Hours
THR an anonymous source talks about the lack of shame in Hollywood around the gender imbalance in the director's chair
MNPP pays tribute to sexy German actor Clemens Schick
/Film the Jurassic World sequel has started production
Playbill a deleted scene from Moana - she had many brothers in an original draft
Playbill Fathom Events is showing the filmed movie of Disney's Broadway version of Newsies starring Jeremy Jordan today (and a couple of other dates within the next week)
Coming Soon I didn't think I could want to see Suicide Squad 2 any less than I already did. I was wrong. Mel Gibson is in talks to direct
/Film the latest rumor has it that Marvel Studios is secretly working on a Namor film. I don't believe this one personally because since Namor is a mutant I assume his right are locked up with Fox (though the article mentions they were once with Universal). Fox owns most of the mutant characters due to their extensive X-Men contract and even if Namor doesn't fall under that (since he's rarely thought of as an X-Universe character he is much more closely associated with Fantastic Four which Fox also owns.
Film School Rejects a call for more wangs on screen -- and this from a straight dude so everyone is noticing that they refuse to show 'em - even in sex movies like 50 Shades
Variety the hilarious Constance Wu (Fresh Off the Boat) is in talks to headline a new romantic comedy called Crazy Rich Asians
