Links on the Bubble

Variety Baz Luhrmann has found his lead for his Netflix music series The Get Down. It's an unknown singer songwriter named Herizen Guardiola 
THR 13 shows on the bubble. They'll be renewed or cancelled by early May. I'm rooting so hard for Agent Carter but you never know
The Guardian Matthew Vaughn (The Kingsman) to reboot Flash Gordon. Oh dear
/Film that was quick - Daredevil (Charlie Cox) will officially be in Avengers: Infinity Wars movie in some capacity. But that's like a billion superhero movies away so we'll see if it comes to pass

Awards Daily Meryl Streep does everything: she's now written a foreword to a new cookbook
THR industry folks rank New York's film critics 
Variety rave reviews for Imelda Staunton's Mama Rose in London's current revival of Gypsy
Comic Alliance the Wonder Woman film lost its director (Michelle McLaren) and now has a new one Patty Jenkins -- the same Jenkins who was supposed to do Thor and didn't. Ah musical chairs
Time the list of 100 Most Influential People is out. Movie peeps that made the list: Richard Linklater, Julianne Moore, Bradley Cooper, Chris Nolan, and Chris Pratt 

LGBT Interest
Out also has an annual power list out. While most of the showbiz entries lean heavily towards TV there are a few movie players: Megan Ellison, Scott Rudin, Lee Daniels (though he surely made the list due to Empire), Dustin Lance Black and Ellen Page.
New Now Next the 13 greatest sissies of all time from Quentin Crisp (you must read his writing about movies) to Liberace

SJP a few days ago in NYC

MNPP Rock Hudson's ex lover speaks
The New Civil Rights Movement (long read) "Maybe Yesterday, But Not Tonight" on gay marriage and the inner and outer turbulence of our changing world

Finally
It's not news per se since we've known about it for a long time but it's now official that Sarah Jessica Parker is returning to HBO Comedy series stardom with Divorce. SJP is fearless. Think of the way people treat Madonna. Once women are past a certain age people want them to disappear. Only the brave soldier on so I hope this series is brilliant and all best wishes her way. But can we talk about how rude it was for Gothamist to illustrate the news of this series order by HBO with a photo of Sarah caressing her husband Matthew Broderick's face? 

Mucho Miscellania, Ya Dig?

MNPP reminds us that today is the 15th anniversary of American Psycho, Mary Harron's masterpiece. True story: I used to get her confused with Mary Lambert as if the same person made Madonna's "Like a Virgin" Hee!
WOW was Dennis Quaid losing his shit on a film set real or staged?
MTV Which Avenger deserves a solo film most? The answer is obvious and Joss Whedon knows it. Weird that Marvel doesn't 
i09 the real reason we didn't get a third solo Hulk film has been unveiled
Comics Alliance the Avengers playing Family Feud on Jimmy Kimmel.
Awards Daily Director Michelle McLaren has left the Wonder Woman picture 
Variety revisits the Sony Hack (remember that? seems so long ago) and the minefield of legal questions its opened up 

I'm sorry there's so much superhero bizness lately but that's all the news feed is ever offering up of late

Biggest Tease
Josh Gad says he can't wait for you to "Be Our Guest"... yep, it's the cast of Beauty & The Beast (2016). Or some of them at least. 

Can't wait for you to be our guest.

A photo posted by Josh Gad (@joshgad) on Apr 14, 2015 at 11:37am PDT

Is that Luke Evan with the suddenly pointy twink hair? If so he looks so different with shorter hair. No Audra McDonald (Wardrobe) or Emma Thompson (Mrs Potts) in this photo though. Grrrrr

Earth's Mightiest Illustration
Love this. Well done Stephen Byrne 

Earth's Mightiest Hipsters #AgeOfUltron pic.twitter.com/BoMck8j61y

— Stephen Byrne (@StephenByrne86) April 14, 2015

  

On The Political/Theatrical Stage
BuzzFeed points out the delightful Hillary Clinton 404 page
MNPP as if those of us with tickets to this summer's Little Shop of Horrors event weren't excited enough. Jake Gyllenhaal is announced as Seymour!
Dissolve Magic Mike franchise may be heading to the stage next
New Hedwig <-- this is my favorite reaction to the first image of Darren Criss as Hedwig. 

Small Screen
Must Love Movies the story of Daredevil's opening credit sequence.
The Playlist Cary Fukunaga doing The Alienist as TV miniseries. That book freaked my shit out back when it was a best seller but I am sad that we've lost Fukunaga (Sin Nombre, Jane Eyre) to the overworked land of the serial killer procedurals. Did he really need to do another after True Detective? David Fincher isn't likely to be dethroned as king of the genre so let's have some other genres for our talented rising auteurs! 
Pajiba shares the VERY welcome news that Katee Sackhoff is taking her career into her own hands by creating her own series since Hollywood is far too stupid to notice her gargantuan charisma. It's called Rain and its sci-fi.

Madonna Screen (aka Nathaniel's Brain)
The Daily Beast surveys the rampant bald ageism and sexism that's greeting Madonna's every move this past week or two. It's all become very Freudian with the world's collective fear of 'all consuming female sexuality.'
Watch What Happens Live Andy Cohen invites Sandra Bernhard to watch the latest Madonna video "Ghosttown" (previously discussed) and it is a joy... especially when she sees Terrence Howard cooking beans and hunting Madonna with a rifle.

He's going to barbecue the bitch!

...Get me a rib. Get me a meaty rib" 

LOL. Also on my 130th view I was looking around Madonna's beautifully lit apartment (with dirty mattress) and realized that we'll still have electricity after the apocalypse! Whew, that's a relief

Exit Video
This made me laugh so hard that I now feel bad about myself. Apologies world, I am terrible. (P.S. I'm really hoping Trixie Mattel is the queen that RuPaul brings back that shashayed away too early on this season of RuPaul's Drag Race)  

Daredevil 5-7

Previously: Episodes 1 and 2 and 3 and 4...

In the next three episodes the tension really escalates as Fisk starts taking down his own accomplices and Matthew's life gets far more crowded with thorny alliances.

Great moments in set decoration. Check that anonymity pledge behind Daredevil's altar ego Matthew Murdock

1.5 "World on Fire"
An extremely busy and successful episode: Claire & Murdock get closer holed up in his apartment and then suddenly further apart. Fisk & Vanessa get closer on a second date. Daredevil realizes he's been framed for last episode's beheading. Nelson & Murdoch get a client asking them to fight their slum lord and Fisk moves against the Russians with things-go-boom devastation. 

Major Characters Introduced: Elena Cardenes (Judith Delgado) the client in question. Marci Stahl (Ami Rutberg) Foggy's ex and a rival lawyer.
Crimes: Suicide Bombings, Mass Murder, Accidental Murder, Slum Lord Intimidation and Neglect, Police Brutality
Body Count: 5 blind Asians? 100 or so Russians? Guessing.
Cameo: Fun shout-out to superhero tropes: 'are you one of those billionaire playboys I've heard about' 
More... 

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Daredevil 3-4

Daredevil bum never splits Murdock suits... even while leaping wildly up fireescapesThe secret reason that it's healthy to write about Netflix shows: it slows down the binge-watching. The side-effects of binge-watching are unpleasant if too little discussed. Side effects include but are not limited too: Lack of productivity, lethargy, weight gain, glazed eyeballs, reduced moviegoing (VERY BAD), and a dichotomous relationship to impatience -- refusal to wait a week to see what happens each hour paired with the willingness to tolerate a lot of padding in your drama wherein you sit for 12 hours for anything to actually happen.

Not that things don't happen on Daredevil. I speak more of Bloodline which is good but kind of a slog, really. Like True Blood (curiously not a Netflix show) one gets the sense that the season's story is much much shorter than the time it's taking to tell it. Curiously the best episodes of Daredevil (#2 & #6) thus far seem to be the ones that get stuck and confined in one place wherein the things that happen, however few of them there may be, actually do feel as if they matter. 

1.3 "Rabbit in a Snowstorm"
The third episode begins with a innocuously familiar image, a bowling ball, that quickly turns into a murder weapon in the show's grisliest episode thus far. Thankfully most of the actual carnage is offscreen so those with Game of Thrones aversions (I know we are few and far between) can rest assured if not easy that they'll probably be able to stomach this series. Nelson & Murdock are hired by Fisk (unbeknownst to them...sort of) to defend the murderer.  In the B plot Karen is asked to sign a gag order by her former company which makes her even more curious about their wicked ways. More...

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Daredevil 1-2

I fell in love with Daredevil as a young boy when Frank Miller, pre Dark Knight, took over the comic. It wasn't just the sexiness of a blind superhero (what?). Miller's run in the early 80s brought us famous characters like Bullseye and Elektra and Stick and a dangerous physical immediacy that other comics just didn't have. Naturally the Frank Miller run, plot-wise, was what the execrable 2003 movie tried to cover, jamming it all together with spectacularly disastrous and silly results. Marvel's first foray into Netflix territory gets so much right in its first few episodes that people need no longer fear The Man Without Fear but embrace him. Instead we need only fear, together whilst binge-watching, that Daredevil won't be able to keep this quality up for for its whole first season.

Herewith thoughts on the first two episodes...

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