Quote of the Day

"... I’m a Halloween person, which is odd to me because I’m terrified of scary things. I can’t watch scary movies or even a scary movie trailer. But I love the aesthetic of Halloween more than most holidays. We’re not talking about Christmas, of course—let’s put Christmas aside. Anything that gets Halloweenified in orange and black, or has an occasional bat or ghost or monster, really does it for me. But just to be clear, I’m not interested in terror. I’m interested in a delightful monster or witch. I don’t care for jump scares. Don’t scare me or I will definitely punch you in the face."

Blessings unto us all, I needed some smiles this Friday and Interview Magazine has gifted us with one of their "25 Questions" features with Maya Rudolph! They work like this: 25 of Maya's famous pals asked her a question or two, and she answered them! It's not a terribly hard-to-grasp feature. Anyway the above quote comes in response to a question from author Sarah Cooper; other people doing the asking include half of the SNL casts over the years, Amy Sedaris, Paul Reubens, Natasha Lyonne, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Carol fuckin' Burnett -- endless proof that Maya is indeed that cool. And you'll definitely want to look for the Prince story.  

Do You Like To Laugh

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This post's title is dedicated to those poor sods who would harass people on street corners with that question -- "Do you like to laugh?" -- in order to get them inside of Comedy Clubs here in the pre-COVID Days of NYC. This pandemic's got me down enough that I sort of miss them! Anyway true story I seem to have become nightmarishly picky when it comes to Comedy. I have lots of old stand-by favorites from my more innocent, less jaded youth that I go back to time and time again -- Soapdish! Dirty Rotten Scoundrels! -- but it's not a genre I actively seek out very often anymore.

Truth be told I can be snobbish and weird about the genre. I guess I like Smart Dumb Comedy -- I don't mind a poop joke but you've got to give me something new and exciting with your poop joke. (Side-note: you oughta read MNPP pal Michael's terrific recent piece on the art of the poop joke with regards to Bridesmaids over at TFE.) I am simply incapable of sitting down and enjoying an episode of something as braying and needy as say The Big Bang Theory. It physically pains me, that sort of thing. 

Okay I need a laugh, and I need one now.
What’s your funniest movie ever made? pic.twitter.com/KPsHbsYpT6

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) July 31, 2020

Of course this pandemic has really put that snobbishness to the test -- we need a good belly laugh, an emphatic guffaw, now and then amid these darkest of days. And so in a fit of want I tweeted out the above question last week, and in return I got a million and a half fun responses that I appreciated a whole bunch. Then naturally I just ended up re-watching Christopher Guest's Best in Show for the thousandth time...

... but I've got a Go-To Laugh List for when I need it now. And if anyone has any further suggestions please do give them in the comments. That said I forward all of this to say make it clear that I have actively been thinking a lot about my weird relationship with comedy -- how I'll almost always if I want to laugh put on a bad horror flick or something Campy like Showgirls before I'll even think to put on an actual trying-to-make-me-laugh Comedy Film -- when lo, behold, a trailer for a new Comedy Series should appear.



That's the trailer for Mapleworth Murders, which stars former SNL writer Paula Pell as a Murder She Wrote type Older Lady Sleuth, and which will feature cameos from lots of Smart Dumb Comedy Now people like Wanda Sykes, Chris Parnell, Nicole Byer, Maya Rudolph, Fred Armisen, Jack McBrayer, Annie Mumolo... I have a really good friend who's a Comedy Fiend and she loves Pell -- I think a lot of Comedy Fiends do. My only interaction with Pell was in the Netflix comedy Wine Country...

... which is a good example of a recent comedy that left me totally and thoroughly cold. Except for Pell, who was its highlight I thought. But with a cast like Wine Country had -- Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph and Tina Fey and Rachel Dratch and Ana Gasteyer! -- I should've been in Chuckle Heaven! So I guess what I am getting at with all of this is... I am dead inside, right? I'm just dead inside. Mapleworth Murders premieres on Quibi on August 10th!

Wine Country in 250 Words or Less

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Wine Country is one of those movies that its defenders defend by saying it's just a pleasure to get the chance to hang out with all of these fill in the blanks -- in this instance the "fill in the blanks" are some of our finest middle-aged funny ladies, many bearing an SNL pedigree. And I agree -- it is a pleasure. So much so that I spent about sixty percent of the film wishing that that was what I was watching -- can you imagine how great a documentary about Tina Fey and Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph and Paula Pell and Ana Gasteyer and Rachel Dratch and Emily Spivey drinking wine in Napa and just hanging out would've been? 

Instead Wine Country strains towards uninvolving half-baked tensions and lukewarm insights -- I feel like you put a box of wine in the human being Maya Rudolph's lap and got her guard down and got her and Amy riffing on real life there could've been something profound and moving and sweet to come out of that. As is Wine Country postures towards that experience, but keeps ringing false with broad platitudes. I don't begrudge these comic wonders a paid-for-by-Netflix vacation by any means, and I'm more than glad to come along, but it's a little off-putting how Wine Country doesn't ever strain to reciprocate -- it's a one-sided window I ended up feeling left on the outside of, admiring the well-appointed drapes.

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It's Friday Night, I'm Gonna Get Drunk...

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Perhaps I'm just extra bad on the uptake these days but doesn't it feel like Netflix somehow manages to sneak their movies through production without us noticing until they release a trailer for an already finished thing and it's out in a month and you're like WHAT? I DON'T HAVE TO WAIT FOR THAT? That's the thrill I got when they dropped their trailer for Wine Country yesterday -- they managed to gather together SNL queens Maya Rudolph & Tina Fey & Amy Poehler (who directed) & Rachel Dratch & Ana Gasteyer, alongside Paula Pell & Emily Spivey (who wrote) and, uh, Jason Schwartzman...

... (who's looking particularly delicious with that big beard, I might add) for a comedy about some gals drinking wine in the country and I never noticed until this trailer and a date of May 10th (with some theatrical screenings starting two days earlier) were right in front of me? That's nutso! But I like this strategy -- it doesn't feel like we have to wait so long this way. We've got less a month for this and that works for me! Now watch the trailer, goddamit:

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Jai's Gotten All Wet & Hot For Us

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I know I watched the Wet Hot American Summer prequel series on Netflix subtitled First Day of Camp when it was released in 2015, I know I watched it like the day it was released, but it's weird - I remember basically nothing about it. I suppose I should re-watch? Any opinions on it from y'all? Anyway the sequel, long promised, subtitled Ten Years Later is dropping on August 4th and look who is showing up!

I might be the only person who watches that trailer, stuffed with comedy legends, and cares most about Jai Courtney being there, but I yam who I yam and who I yam is a Jai stan. (I should have that tattooed on my right butt cheek, probably.) Anyway do you guys think Amy Poehler had her pick of suitor, and she demanded Jai? I like to think that is what happened - she flipped through a catalog - I'll take that one! Here's the trailer:

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In conclusion...

 ... what are you doing, Chris Pine???

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Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Hamlet 2 (2008)

Cricket: Well, this play is gonna bitch-slap 

Broadway like a cheap hooker at a gang-bang. 

Dana: Uh... yeah. 

Cricket: Y'know, and those Bible-humping protesters 

can suck a bag of dicks, 'cause all I ended up doing 

was giving you free publicity. 

Dana: Yeah, and did you see my 

dressing room? It has a bidet! 

Elisabeth Shue: That was a sink. 

A happy birthday to Elisabeth Shue today!

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I Am Link

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--- Revolutionary War Boys -  I don't think there's ever been a decent movie about George Washington has there? So it's not really a surprise that the first (supposedly) good script on Our Nation's Founder would get every leading man out there's attempting to snatch the role up. Supposedly the scorching sexy threesome of Michael Fassbender, Henry Cavill, & Charlie Hunnam are all forefather front-runners for The Virginian - before anybody bitches about an American deserving this role remember GW was the grandson of an Englishman, so it's not a huge reach. (Then again I'm the great-grandson of an Englishman and if you handed me a crumpet I'd probably stick it up my butt.)
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--- No Rim For You - In related Charlie Hunnam News, word's floating around the the sequel to Pacific Rim, which yes was actually supposed to happen, might not be happening after all. I was pretty damned surprised when it was announced in the first place (the movie didn't do well here in the US but it made back its budget overseas)  so I can't say I am too shocked, but less Hunnam in my life is never nice news.

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--- Water Logged - While I am still waiting for some explicit (emphasis upon explicit!) historically-accurate reference to the constant buggery happening on board such seafaring vessels, I have got to admit that the misty golden colors that Ron Howard's saturated the visuals for his movie The Heart of the Sea, which is aiming to tell "the true story behind Moby Dick," are lovely to behold in the new trailer. And hey there' sopping wet Chris Hemsworth...
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--- Work It Winslet - The only opinion that matters to me (besides my own of course) on The Dressmaker -- aka Kate Winslet and Judy Davis' mother-daughter fashion freakshow written by Muriel's Wedding writer-director PJ Hogan (also featuring that other Hemsworth in states of undress) -- is that of my Aussie pal Glenn Dunks so I was happy to read he mostly enjoyed the flick, with some reservations on a skittish tone, via his review at the Film Experience. Then after I was happy about that I was immediately annoyed he'd seen it already and I have to wait til god knows when.
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---  Homo Harts - I have no doubt it will be terrible because the people behind most of Network TV are just junk-makers (with a few exceptions of course) and also the original version was junk anyway, but I gotta admit I'm amused by the just-announced gayed up reboot of Hart To Hart. But am I amused because it reminds me of Amy Poehler posing with a parrot?

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--- Space Stories - John Cameron Mitchell is reuniting with his Rabbit Hole star Nicole Kidman for an adaptation of a Neil Gaiman story about aliens! I know, I know, that's a lot of sentence to throw at you all at once, take a moment. Anyway I wrote up the news over at The Film Experience last night, click over there to read it. And then come back here and tell me all your "Nicole Kidman learned a lot about aliens being married to Tom Cruise, badabing!" jokes. Anyway along with this project and Bryan Fuller's American Gods adaptation it's Gaiman Time.

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--- And Finally Radiohead front-man Thom Yorke has put out a new song! I guess it played during the runway show for fashion brand Rust & Bone this week; Yorke's made music for them before. It's apparently over eight minutes long and involves the Brooklyn Youth Chorus! And here it is!

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Good Morning, World

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Happy Monday, everybody - so how many of you plowed through all eight episodes of Netflix's Wet Hot American Summer series this weekend? I sure did, and... it had its moments. (Many of them provided by Kristen Wiig, of course.) I actually think it might benefit from spacing the episodes out and not binging though -- I got a little bit numb to the wink-wink absurdity of a lot of it about halfway though. My advice is take the episodes slowly, then. We've had fifteen years with just the original movie - what's a few extra days?

I Am Link

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--- Tom Times Two - A second longer bigger newer trailer for the Two Tom Hardys movie Legend, in which he plays the real-world mobster twin Kray brothers, has dropped - watch it over here. It looks like they fixed some of the wonky CG from the first trailer (see that one here) but they also sanded off the already-barely-there gay edges too. Whatever, it's just a trailer - I'm sure the movie won't skimp on scenes of Taron Ejerton and Tom smacking each other's bare asses, right?

--- Sassy Lady - Just before the Emmy nominations arrive (come on come on come on) Lisa Kudrow and show-runner Michael Patrick King talked to Deadline about The Comeback (thanks Mac) - they talk about its first season, its second season, and... its third season? They aren't rushing it but they sound pretty sure it will happen... when it happens. Regarding how they situate that against the way the show ended, King says:

"But you can easily hear Valerie saying, ‘Gotta win another. Wasn’t on stage. Never had my moment,’ I was at a lunch once in the middle of the afternoon, in an empty restaurant at a table for four with an Oscar-winning actress. The waiter came over and said, ‘You can’t sit at a four-top if there’s only two of you.’ That was the rule, and it didn’t matter who she was."

--- Resurrect The Cannibal - Just the other day I said that Amazon ought to pick up Hannibal since they own the show's streaming right already - well proving I am smart, that sounds like where Bryan Fuller's eyes are lasered in on, too. He talked to THR about that and where the current season's headed. Oh and Lee Pace is sad that the show was cancelled, too. We have so much in common, Lee! You should come over and we can commiserate.

--- Creed's Woman - Ex Machina actress Alicia Vikander is going to be in the new Jason Bourne movie so she will not be starring opposite her real-world boyfriend Michael Fassbender in the Assassin's Creed movie - good! She doesn't need all his damn time! Anyway some lady named Ariane Labed is taking the part; she's apparently very good in Yorgos Lanthimos' new film The Lobster, which is a movie I need right fucking now.

--- Good Girl - J'adore Francois Ozon and j'adore Romain Duris (mmm Romain Duris) so I'm pretty psyched that they've got a movie coming out together - it's called The New Girlfriend and it's coming out here in the US in September and The Playlist has the first trailer. Looks like Romain is getting his lady on. I have to admit that the thought of Romain Duris shaving his gloriously furry self makes me incredibly depressed.

--- Suffocating Dwarves - I should've linked to this one yesterday when I posted David Gordon Green talking about his aborted Suspiria remake - here is Green in another interview (he's making the rounds since his Al Pacino movie Manglehorn just came out on Friday) talking about... all kinds of nonsense, really. It's an awesomely all-over-the-place chat. but most importantly it led us all to this old interview with the director of the Garbage Pail Kids movie, which must be read to be believed. This part!

"We got dwarves-- there's plenty of them-- we got dwarves and, you know, put heads on 'em, and found out how long they could survive in there without breathing, and it turned out to be about five, seven minutes."

--- Beaster Than Ezra - I did not expect Ezra Miller to take off after We Need To Talk About Kevin - I mean I thought he was good and all but he's... not typical, ya know? And then he came out as "gay-ish" and I really figured he wouldn't be taking off. But then it was announced that he's playing the Flash for DC and that seemed big but it's getting even bigger - he's in talks to be the second lead (after Eddie Redmayne) in JK Rowling's new series of films, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them. Wowza! He's about to be the biggest gay-ish thing around.

--- By Any Other Name - When I read through it I thought that this interview with Rose McGowan at Gawker by Rich Juzwiak was great - they talk about her short film (which is already online in full and which you can watch over there) and her weird life and those controversial comments she made last year about gay men and parade floats and the conversation is passionate and interesting... then I made the mistake of skimming Gawker's comment section and ugh, people do not seem to agree. But then Gawker's comment section is always exhausting, so I don't know why i let my eyes wander down there in the first place.

--- And Finally, this teaser for Netflix's upcoming Wet Hot American Summer spin-off series slash prequel thing is everything I wanted it to be times ten. Gimme! Gimme gimme!
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Chris Pratt Has Some Junk To Show You

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Chris Pratt's on the cover of the new issue of GQ and there are a lot of nice pictures which I will share below, but first! Let us revel in this quote about his life-long sense of humor from the interview attached to said pictures...

"I was a jokester, I had a dirty mind, and a dirty sense of humor. And I was naked a lot. I was naked all the time. It was just recently, in the last few years since I've become an adult, that I've learned to keep my clothes on. And even then, I really haven't. I got yelled at by NBC for getting naked. [While filming multiple takes of a Parks and Recreation scene in which he was supposed to shock Amy Poehler by being naked in a doorway, in one take he did it for real.] I got suspended from the track team in high school for getting naked on the track bus. I was always getting naked. I thought it was hilarious. I didn't understand how somebody could be so offended by me just taking my junk out."

I just don't understand it either, Chris Pratt. I promise not to ever be offended if you take your junk out for me. Quite the opposite, in fact. Okay hit the jump for 12 more pictures...

Wet Hot Hamm

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I think each and everyone of us should check our email, maybe our spam folders if we don't see it right away, because it's pretty clear that the Netflix sequel-thing to Wet Hot American Summer is inviting every single person on Earth to be in it. They've just announced a new batch of names, and yes the handsome Hamm seen above is there, and also Kristen Wiig, Jason Schwartzman, and Chris Pine. This is on top of all the original folks, plus that other group announced a couple of weeks ago. Oh and in case you missed the teaser trailer, which is basically just a roll-call acknowledgment of all the gigantic names present and accounted for, here:

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That's Jeremy Renner, Noted Homosexual

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This week's edition of "Beauty vs Beast" at The Film Experience is devoted to a couple of moments at last night's Golden Globes that will probably end up being among the more memorable snapshots of the show down the road, head over there for the polls. But speaking of Jeremy Renner (his boob joke nets him some attention over there) after all these years it seems like his closet-case status is getting some real attention - The National Enquirer's gone and written about it. (thanks Mac) You're somebody, Jeremy! A big gay somebody!

I Would Rather

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I quite liked the pairing of Adam Levine & Paul Rudd at the Globes last night, didn't you? Plus it also gave us this beautiful behind-the-scenes picture to commemorate the moment, huzzah. 

Anyway my other favorite thing was Tina & Amy's game of "Would You Rather?" so I went ahead and commemorated that myself in poll form over at The Film Experience this morning. Colin Farrell vs Colin Firth and Edward Norton vs Mark Ruffalo - go vote!!!

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Cheers To Live Tweeting

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I didn't realize until two days ago that the Golden Globes are on tonight; thankfully I'm seeing the Hugh Jackman play this afternoon, not this evening, so I'll be home with plenty of time to get a drink or two in me and say the requisite obnoxious things on Twitter. I know you're all breathing heaving sighs of sweet relief. So yeah, follow me on Twitter here if you don't already, and I'll see you there at the time at the place as the spectacle o' self-congratulation and celebrity silliness unfolds. If you wanna share who you're rooting for (besides Jake Gyllenhaal, obviously) do that in the comments here!

Oh and in case you missed our previous post, 

MNPP has its own Facebook page now, too!
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Follow us, like us, really really like us, et cetera.

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Time To Fondle Our Sweaters Again

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The actors returning for Netflix's eight-episode Wet Hot American Summer sequel have been announced by Deadline and it's pretty much everybody -- is there anybody major that you don't see in this list: Elizabeth Banks, H. Jon Benjamin, Michael Ian Black, Bradley Cooper, Judah Friedlander, Janeane Garofalo, Nina Hellman, Ken Marino, Zak Orth, David Hyde Pierce, Joe LoTruglio, Christopher Meloni, A.D. Miles, Marguerite Moreau, Amy Poehler, Paul Rudd, Marisa Ryan, Molly Shannon, Michael Showalter and Kevin Sussman? The greatest inclusion to me though is the return of H. Jon Benjamin: he voiced the Can of Vegetables!!!

I'm gonna go smear some mud on my ass.

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I Am Link

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--- Mountain Man - We've posted a couple of these already (that Jessica Chastain in Crimson Peak picture, those Charlie Cox in Daredevil pictures) but EW's latest issue is looking ahead to next year's movies and has our first looks at a bunch of things; The Playlist helpfully gathered them up in one spot right here. There's Neil Blomkamp's Chappie, there's Tina Fey & Amy Poehler in Sisters, and there's that shot of Jake Gyllenhaal in Everest, seen to the left. Thinking about Everest makes me sad because the studio forced me to remove the pictures of Jake naked on the set from the blog awhile back. Sad. (I mean I still have them on my computer, obviously. And if you google them they're still online elsewhere. I'll go look at them now!)

--- From The Ash's - Apparently also in this issue of EW they talk to Bruce Campbell some about the Evil Dead TV series that he's making with Sam Raimi (I still have to slap myself when I hear this news again, I go all slack-jawed yokel thinking about it) - the whole interview's not available yet but STYD has a couple of brief snippets. This shit is so crazy. So crazy!

--- Look Behind You - I think I even mentioned here at the blog that I wasn't going to watch a trailer for the upcoming hella-hyped horror movie It Follows because I prefer skipping horror trailers since they give the good stuff away a lot of the time, but I caved last night after everybody was talking about how good the new trailer is, and oh my god it looks good!!! I want I want! It has a US date now too - February 27th.

--- Ice Maker - Is it wrong that the name Robert Rodriguez doesn't excite me anymore? In theory, once upon a time, seeing that he's attached to make a live-action version of Ralph Bahski's Fire and Ice, that should sound cool, right? But unless they give him a real budget... I don't know. I'd kinda rather just look at Bashki's art. And I'm kind of sick of all RR's stunt-casting. I think it was hiring Mel Gibson that soured me the most, probably.

--- Climb The Wall -  Zhang Yimou is making an epic movie about the Great Wall (it's also somehow supernatural centered?) in China but it will be English-language and it will probably star Matt Damon. That's all fine and good. But now they've gone and added A Game of Thrones' Pedro Pascal to the cast, and we can truly be enthusiastic!

--- Grief Stricken - Sure I'll link to a couple more Babadook reviews, why not - here's Capone at AICN talking about the movie, making the point that the movie works so well unlike so many modern horror flicks because gosh darn it it cares about its characters, and here's our pals at Kindetrauma finding some echoes of Bava in there that hadn't occurred to me til they said it.

--- Hero Fatigue - This interview with Joss Whedon (done from the set of the second Avengers movie) starts off by telling us how exhausted he is, and from there on out it shows - while he gets a couple of good lines in (tell us more about your underwear, Joss) his rambling is the rambling of a very very tired person who has answered all these damn superhero questions before.

--- And Finally, I can co-sign this sort of manipulation: Over at The Film Experience Nathaniel used The Hobbit's latest subtitle about Five Armies as an excuse to post pictures of some of his favorite movies about the military, specifically the men in the military, specifically all the hot ones. Come for the beautiful boys of Unbroken, and stay for Monty Clift in From Here To Eternity:

Get Your Moose Prepped

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E!News is reporting that David Wain's Wet Hot American Summer limited-run sequel series for Netflix, which we heard rumblings of way back in May, is actually happening and they'll start filming in January! Nobody's confirmed this - not Netflix, not Wain, not the nerdy dude who had the 20-sided die that saved Camp Firewood, not nobody. But consider that the original was made for fifteen bucks in the off-season of a campground in rural Pennsylvania and it seems possible that they could get it done if they can just get a little time from the much-more-famous-now folks in the cast.

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Amy Poehler On...

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... cocaine: "I tried cocaine, which I instantly loved but eventually hated. Cocaine is terrific if you want to hang out with people you don’t know very well and play Ping-Pong all night."

... ecstasy: "I remember a wonderful [UCB] New Year’s Eve party where we all danced and drank water and loved each other. I also remember the next day when I thought I had no friends and I was so sad I wanted to sink into the carpet and permanently live there."

... marijuana: "The next day is the thing I can’t pull off anymore. How do you explain to a 4- and 6-year-old that you can’t play Rescue Bots because you have to spend all day in bed eating Cape Cod potato chips and watching The Bicycle Thief?"

These are all quotes from Amy's upcoming autobiography

called Yes Please, which is out on October 28th. (via)

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I Am Link

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--- Return To Camp - Netflix is maybe going to turn the looooong talked about Wet Hot American Summer prequel into a brief series a la the fourth season of Arrested Development. It would be maybe ten episodes long, and like that season of Arrested Development it would spread the cast out across the thing to make scheduling easier, since everybody's big shit nowadays.

--- Blood Bath - I tweeted a bunch of links to articles and interviews with Hannibal people over the long weekend where they talked about the second season finale, which was really something, but here's a couple specific ones - spoilers obviously... here's a talk with Hugh Dancy about the possible future for Will, I loved this article on the show so far at Grantland, and this chat with Bryan Fuller is especially well-done.

--- Farm Boy - I love this list of highlights from Xavier Dolan's press conference at Cannes, especially the last note about taking some time off to kiss people - ever since I saw him talk here in New York I've been crushing hard. Can't wait to see both Mommy and Tom at the Farm, which we're still waiting on here in the US.
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--- Not So Super - It was a nerd bloodbath at Marvel over the weekend - which they tried to bury while we're away but we're here and we're watching you guys! No holiday news-dumps in Twitter culture! - where both Edgar Wright was dropped off of his Ant-Man movie, which was supposedly going to start filming really soon for a release next Summer, and Cabin in the Woods' director Drew Goddard left the Daredevil TV series that they were doing with Netflix. Steven S. DeKnight, another Buffy alum, will be taking over Daredevil. Marvel will supposedly announce Wright's replacement very soon.
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--- Queen of the Night - Angela Bassett is apparently going to direct a Lifetime movie bio-pic of her Waiting To Exhale co-star Whitney Houston. Now that's a loaded sentence worth picking apart, innit? Bassett says she won't be playing Whitney (and thank goodness she knows well enough not to be, as awesome as she is) but she might play somebody else in it. Oh pleeeease let her play Aunt Dionne.

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--- All Flash - Michael Haneke's no-doubt fun-time next flick is gearing up to shoot this Summer - it's called Flashmob, and it's about a flash-mob, and it will shoot at least partially in the US. They say it's about exploring the relationship between "media and reality," as opposed to just "showing a bunch of people dancing the Thriller dance inside a shopping mall food-court," because it's a Michael Haneke movie.
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--- Mr. Not Fantastic - Alfonso Cuaron says he is not directing the Harry Potter spin-off movie Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, which was the rumor last week. He apparently wants to direct something without a lot of special effects next, which after Gravity is not surprising. Anyway we'll be paying attention to both Beasts and whatever Cuaron does next, whether connected or seperate, because they're both things that interest us.

--- Dook Dook Dook - The totally terrific Aussie horror flick The Babadook (here's my review) opened up in Australia this past weekend, and to honor the occasion our pal Glenn took a look at it and at the time-honored place of women in horror, too. Essie Davis is so great in that movie, you guys.
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I Am Link

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--- Nuke Em - A good point to stop watching trailers for something is when you can buy tickets for that something, I think, so I'm not watching any more trailers for the new Godzilla movie since I just bought my IMAX tickets for it. There was one on TV last night that I wish I hadn't seen - they're starting to give away too much! But if you're not like me then here, a new trailer for the movie. I saw some people very excited about it, so maybe there's something good in here, but I doubt it's Aaron Johnson's bared ass so I'm not running.

--- Breaking Sex - While I find the news of Sarah Silverman joining the second season of Masters of Sex exciting enough, it's the tid-bit inside that article stating that apparently Breaking Bad's Betsy Brandt was recently cast in the show as well that's the humdinger. Make her wear purple, dammit!

--- Sweat Weather - Frank, the movie where Michael Fassbender is giving us all a lot of head, or something, just got a release date - it will be out towards the end of August, on the 20th. I don't know that Michael Fassbender movies should be released in the Summertime though - I'll be sweaty enough already, even before he gets me going.

--- Everybody Come - Wet Hot American Summer director David Wain's new comedy They Came Together, starring Amy Poehler and Paul Rudd in a spoof-of-sorts of romantic comedies, has a trailer huzzah - you can watch the exclusive over at Buzzfeed. I'm surprised this movie is being released on demand the same day it's being released in theaters - that's a starry cast for such a thing. Interesting...

--- The Switch - Nicole Kidman and Gwyneth Paltrow have both tried to get the The Danish Girl (the story of the first sex-change operation in 1931) made, but now comes word that The King's Speech director Tom Hooper is going to make the movie, and the only name attached is Eddie Redmayne. Well it's about time Eddie Redmayne played a girl, anyway.

--- Snow Job - The dude who wrote the book that the terrific little thriller Headhunters was based on is apparently also known for a series of detective novels in Norway; one of them is called The Snowman, which martin Scorsese was going to turn into a film, but now he's moved on and Let the Right One In director Tomas Alfredson is attached. Honestly I'm more excited at this point to see what Alfredson will do than Scorsese.

--- Bet On Black - After Cary Fukunaga directs that child-soldiers-in-Ghana movie with Idris Elba next month, he's going to make a movie called The Black Count, which tells the true-story of Three Muskateers author Alexander Dumas father Thomas-Alexandre Dumas,who was a general during the French Revolution and the highest ranking person of color to ever serve in the European army. Maybe he'll like working with Idris so much he'll work with him again! And then they'll get married, and I can visualize Cary and Idris being together, like together together, and all will be fine and good in the land, halleluiah.
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