The Man of Mass

People on Twitter seem to be just now discovering the fact that former Whedonverse actor Franz Kranz -- who is now a very serious writer-director thanks to Mass, his school shooting movie that won tons of accolades at Sundance earlier this year -- is also a super hot piece. And I am not here to chide them for not having known this for many years as we have here at MNPP, where we have covered this evident truth thoroughly for a good decade. I am not here to chide -- I am here to celebrate, and so to those people I direct y'all to our Fran Kranz Archives. Enjoy, discover, relish, et cetera! Now for the rest of us, the ones who knew all that for a decade, y'all can feel free to scan back through that too, but maybe you'll just wanna head over to The Film Experience where I posted the just-dropped trailer for Mass, which is also worth a look-see. Not nearly as much chest hair, but it's got its plusses. Mass is out on October 8th. 

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Much Ado About Nothing (2012)

Claudio: Behold how like a maid she blushes here! Would you not swear, all you that see her, that she were a maid, by these exterior shows? But she is none! She knows the heat of a luxurious bed! Her blush is guiltiness, not modesty.

Sorry to trigger everybody's Joss Whedon traumas but it's the actor (and now director) Fran Kranz's 40th birthday today and I still like to think about his sexy turn in this adaptation, Whedon be damned. He of the Perfect Chest! I was gonna say "I hope he keeps acting" after his recent directorial success, but a quick scan of his IMDb account shows he's not going anywhere. He's got like five things in the works.

But speaking of "his recent directorial success" I guess I didn't review Mass when it screened at Sundance earlier this year -- that's Fran's directorial debut about the emotional repercussions of a school shooting that stars Ann Dowd, Martha Plimpton, Jason Isaacs, and Reed Birney, who all give tremendously good performances therein -- but yesterday it was announced the film's coming out on October 8th and all four leads will be gunning for Supporting nominations at the Oscars. Which makes sense I guess, as far as "awards" ever make sense to me. They're all worthy though. It's a beautifully-acted showcase for all four of them.

It's a Jungleland Out There

It doesn't seem right that I have only mentioned the movie Jungleland only once here on the site. Jungleland, in case you're unaware, is a "bare knuckle boxing brothers" movie that stars Charlie Hunnam and Jack O'Connell, and already you see my point. 

But the thing is they're not even the reason I mentioned the movie the one time. I mentioned the movie the one time last July because I mentioned that Lovecraft Country and The Last Black Man in San Francisco star Jonathan Majors was in it. 

But as you can tell by that gif there, from the just released trailer, the fun doesn't stop at Hunnam, O'Connell, and Majors -- Majors bad-guy sidekick appears to be played by Dollhouse actor (and the owner of a perfect chest) Fran Kranz! 

But wait, wait, wait, that's not even all! The female lead (because there's got to be one lest this all be as gay as we want it to be) is played by...

... my beloved Jessica Barden, who's been an MNPP fave ever since Hanna a decade ago. And every time we've seen her since -- in Far From the Madding Crowd, in The Lobster, on Penny Dreadful and The End of the F***ing World and most recently Lambs of God, she's wowed us anew. We adore Jessica Barden. This cast is insane!

I actually just went and looked up the casting director to tell him -- his name is Douglas Aibel and he's got an amazing batch of credits stretching back to the 80s (he's done basically all of the Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach movies) -- thanks for reading the site. Because he must read MNPP, right? Casting this Jungleland cast? 

Very specifically for me? (He also cast The Devil All the Time earlier this year with Holland & Pattinson & Stan & Skarsgard & Wasikowska & Bennett & Keough & Clarke, so... I mean, obviously.)

Anyway. Back to Jungleland. The film was directed by Max Winkler and will be released "in theaters" on November 6th and then hit VOD four days later, on November 10th. I can't wait to sink into my couch and gape in awe at all my people! Here's the trailer:

I've got a few more gifs from the trailer after the jump...

Which Is Hotter?

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James Wolk was shirtless on Zoo last night, you guys! (thx Mac) I don't think he ever took his top off on the first season did he? Well clearly the show has found its groove and that groove drives straight through chest-hair canyon. Anyway I don't know if it was me bringing up Fran Kranz and his perfect chest yesterday or what (maybe the fact that it's Fran's birthday today? Happy fuzzy birthday, Fran!) but looking at James Wolk I feel like... well we got a competition here.

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And while you're contemplating your vote (assuming you contemplated it and weren't like CLICK THAT ONE which, well I wouldn't blame you -- these things fire up the trigger finger!) why don't you hit the jump to see James Wolk's entire shirtless scene capped below...

What Comes After Birth

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I saw Rebirth when it screened at the Tribeca Film Festival a couple of months ago; you can read my review right here. It's pretty good! It isn't perfect, but you can do far far worse as far as indie mind-fucks go. Anyway there was no info on the film's release back then but now comes word that Netflix snapped up the movie as part of its "Indie Movie Initiative" and they're dropping the film online this Friday! Well that's quick. They just dropped the trailer too, which maybe probably gives away too much, so only watch it if you don't care about spoilers...

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If you do care about spoilers but still want to see Fran Kranz without his shirt on, well then you speak my language! He has one shirtless scene in the movie but it's pretty long and this being Fran Kranz, the owner of The World's Most Perfect Chest, well it's worthwhile. They give away a couple quick flashes of it in the trailer...

... but there's more, don't worry. There's also more, a whole helluva lot more, of Fran's co-star Adam Goldberg in the film, if he's more up your alley. Me, I'm good with Fran, thanks.

Good Morning, World

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I feel a special responsibility to keep an eye out for the alums of the Final Destination franchise... which isn't really all that much responsibility because, except in the case of Mary Elizabeth Winstead and to a lesser degree Nicholas D'Agosto, they don't show up all that often. Take the Tom Cruise doppelgänger Miles Fisher for instance (since it's his birthday today, and that's why we're here at all). He is very handsome, and he did an amusing American Psycho parody music-video once - he should get more work! But he doesn't. I mean his dance-card isn't totally clear - we just took a look at a trailer for a movie he's in with Fran Kranz a couple of months ago. And I guess that I can always check out his Instagram for new shirtless shots or pictures from what seems to be the opening of a tailor-based gay porn film...

What Fools These Mortals Be

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HitFix has the first couple of pictures from a new film adaptation of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, which stars a trio of idiosyncratically monikered MNPP All -Stars -- Fran Kranz, Hamish Linklater, and Finn Wittrock! You can see the first two of those gentlemen here; there's no picture of Wittrock yet, but this is still super-early - at that link the director says he's in post on the movie but is going to run a Kickstarter very soon to help him finish it for this Fall. Make sure you click over there - there's also video of Fran talking about the project. And, cue chest hair...

Fran Kranz Can't Help It

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Even though we all know that Fran Kranz looks like THAT with his clothes off he's still made a nice little career for himself playing Office Nerds, or at least Office Nerd Adjacent -- Topher on Dollhouse; he was the stoner in The Cabin in the Woods but that movie's still about skewering office culture; and then in the past year or so there's been Bloodsucking Bastards (a vampire comedy about you guessed it Corporate Culture which I reviewed here)...

... and now there's Rebirth, a satire about the self-help side of business folks. Click over to The Film Experience to read my review of that film from Tribeca (alongside my review of the horror comedy Fear Inc, which is kinda similar in strange ways).

But back to Rebirth for a second -- the film co-stars Adam Goldberg, seen above, and if you were wondering who I was talking about last week when I talked about "surprise penis" well there ya go. Fran also has an extensive shirtless scene, but at this point that seems to be a blessed given - he will always remind us what's he's working with under his Office Nerd outfits, and we appreciate it every time.

By the way these shirtless pics of Fran aren't from Rebirth, they're from the movie The Living, which I somehow have never capped properly, which is insane and I don't know what's wrong with me. There aren't very many pictures available from Rebirth online yet though (no word on a release or anything) so we'll make due with these. Make due!

We actually have Fran News though! He just recently got cast in the movie adaptation of Stephen King's Dark Tower series! Dunno who he's playing but I hope whoever it is it's a character that has lots and lots of love scenes with Idris Elba, that's what I hope.

Bloodsucking Bastards in 200 Words or Less

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Bloodsucking Bastards has a lot of title but not much to back it up - there's a game and agreeable cast stranded in palookaville, if palookaville meant no place and no how. Pedro Pascal is especially having a heap of fun, but casting Fran Kranz (adorkable and fuzzy as he might be) makes the Cabin in the Woods comparisons deafening, and ultimately deadly - you just keep thinking oh yeah remember when this stuff was all punchy and keen? 

Punchy and keen! Whereas Cabin was giddy with cart-tipping invention Bastards is bluntly traditional (and jeez guys let up on the dude-brah gay panic once in awhile - one or two jokes at the dude-brahs expense is fine and fun, but hammer it constantly and it feels like your ethos and not a critique). Meanwhile the budget limitations are smothering -- there's a nifty joke at the movie's expense on that front well into it but too little too late, signaling that somebody looked at the dailies a few days into the shoot and realized everything felt cardboard-box-sized. I've no issue with small budgets but the people gotta pop, and these characters and situations run towards the single sided.

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I Am Link

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--- Ever Golden - We're almost up to the new season of A Game of Thrones, and EW talked to the Lannister twins themselves and got them to open up on last season's controversial "rape" scene - neither of them read the scene that way when they made it. I have to say I found myself nodding along with this bit from Nikolaj Coster-Waldau:

"The same people that get upset about that, it’s like they suddenly want things to be black or white. But it’s all human, it’s all confusion—people say one thing and do another. It’s human, it’s complex."

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--- Bad News - I told you awhile back about Special Correspondents, Ricky Gervais' upcoming movie about a con-man journalist (played by Eric Bana) who pretends to be reporting from war-zones when he's really safely tucked away in Manhattan - well Netflix has bought the rights to the movie and they'll be releasing it next year. Anything that gives Eric Bana a gig, I'm happy.

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--- Freak At Home - I had to buy one of the Funko Hannibal figurines for myself (the Wendigo design of course) but I generally want to refrain from becoming a collector of them because I collect enough things already, ya know? You've gotta draw the line somewhere. But I have to admit that the set they've crafted for the Freakshow season of American Horror Story made me literally laugh out loud when I noticed that the Elsa figure has its own itty bitty Ma Petite figure included. That's a delight. (Also if they'd created a Dandy figure in blood-soaked tighty-whities I'd have bought it in a millisecond.)

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--- And Speaking of Killer Clowns, Cary Fukunaga's new movie version of Stephen King's It is, via BD, "finally entering pre-production, with plans on going behind cameras this June in New York, reports Production Weekly" -- I'm a little bit confused about the "filming in New York" piece of news though. It's been a very very long time since I read the book (it's definitely due for a re-read) but now that I think about it one of the adults lives in New York right? And he gets called back to Derry, and the story's set in motion? I suppose that's what they could mean. Or maybe they mean "Upstate New York" and they'll be using that in place for Maine? I don't know. But if they're shooting that soon we should probably be hearing casting soon right?

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--- Star Of Stage - This seems like a possibly pretty great break for the delightful fur-ball that is Fran Kranz - he's going to star on Broadway opposite Al Pacino in David Mamet's new play. The play is called China Doll and it's only got the two actors on a single set, apparently. I'm long over Pacino (I haven't even been able to bring myself to watch Greta Gerwig's movie with him yet) and Mamet's revealed himself to be a right-wing maniac, but I hope this gives Fran a chance to shine, he deserves it. (thanks Mac)

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--- Speaking Of the Great White Way and the crazy people who get their kicks stomping upon it, the long-delayed musical version of American Psycho is now supposed to open on Broadway next year, with previews beginning in February. It sounds like Benjamin Walker is still on hook for the he lead. (thanks Mac)

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--- Actress As God - This piece at Slate is cat-nip to this Binochophile - they take a look at how she's turned her acting presence into the cinematic equivalent of a touch of Jesus' robe in international cinema, and they invent the wonderful new word "Binochification" in the process. I will use it every day for the rest of my life, I swear it.

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--- Eye Out - In that Binoche piece there's a lot about the French filmmaker Olivier Assayas, who's worked with her several times, so in related news here's some little bits from an interview with the director on what happened with his last project, Idol's Eye, which totally fell apart. It was supposed to star Robert DeNiro, Rachel Weisz, and Robert Pattinson. I didn't realize it became such a clusterfuck.

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Hitting It Hard With Fran Kranz

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The Playlist just shared the trailer for the new movie The Truth About Lies and it's one of those "Hey it's That Person" affairs - hey it's the chick who gets a rod stuck in her in Cloverfield, hey it's The Waitress from It's Always Sunny, hey it's that dude that MNPP just posted pictures of in his underwear the other day, hey it's the dude from Final Destination 5 who should be in lots more things...

... (his name's Miles Fisher and we love him lots, by the way). But the most important presence in the whole thing is, natch, Shirtless Fran Kranz, my old friend Shirtless Fran Kranz.

Indeed Shirtless Fran Kranz is all over the trailer, making it clear that people seem to have realized what an asset Shirtless Fran Kranz is to a movie - a wonderful, wonderful development in the world. One more thing to say, "Thanks, Joss Whedon!" for. Hit the jump for more pictures...

I Am Link

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--- Right Is Wrong - Oh dear, dear John Krasinski, I really really really don't think you should take this job - John Krasinski, aka the husband that Emily Blunt fashioned for herself out of leftover clay pieces from a Wallace & Gromit cartoon, is in talks to star in Michael Bay's movie about Benghazi called 13 Hours. This has major clusterfuck written up and down every single side of it.

--- Taking Stock - That financial-collapse movie The Big Short that we told you about the other day that's set to star that trio of looks named Brad Pitt & Ryan Gosling & Christian Bale just hired another one (looker that is): Steve Carell's (make that Oscar nominee Steve Carell) has just joined the cast. That link also has info on who everybody will be playing, in case you care, which you shouldn't since none of the roles are "butt-boy for the other three."

--- Big Blow - The dude who wrote American Sniper is going to next write American Drug Lord (I'm sensing a theme!) which will be based on a Rolling Stone article about a Texan football star who just up and heads to Mexico to make like Scarface and run a cartel. You know, as people do. Why do I care? Charlie Hunnam's signed on to star in it. I hope there are lots and lots of football scenes in the start.

--- And Speaking of drug cartels (cocaine is so hot in Hollywood right now you guys, you have no idea) Tom Cruise is re-teaming with his Edge of Tomorrow director Doug Liman (who has a forever-pass thanks to Go) (not to say I didn't like Edge of Tomorrow; I liked it a lot) to make a movie called Mena, which will be about the true story of an airplane pilot who becomes a drug-runner, then an informant for the CIA, only to be murdered by the Colombians for his troubles.

--- Type Overtime - Cabin in the Woods' Fran Kranz, he of the shockingly ripped and hirsute torso, is visible for a split second in the TV commercial for whatever Broadway show it is he's doing right now and I always make sure I catch that split second, but it's nice to have something more substantial to hold onto - here's the trailer for Bloodsucking Bastards, the "Office Space meets Fright Night" flick he's got coming out this year which pits him against Game of Thrones' delicious Pedro Pascal as the boss who's actually a vampire.

--- French Flats - Juliette Binoche is signing on to a ballet movie; it's called Polina and it's based on an apparently well-known French comic-book (anybody know it?) about a poor ballet dancer going to a ritzy school and falling in love and traveling the world and, presumably, dancing a bunch. No word on Binoche's character; I assume she isn't playing the 18 year old dancer but she is Binoche, she could do it.

--- Horror Home - In an interview with Collider Sam Rockwell talks some about the upcoming Poltergeist remake, which he frames as a "kid's adventure story" and not a horror film precisely - sounds like this new version tells the story from the perspective of the young boy in the house, and is gunning for a more PG-13 feel than an R-rated Conjuring-type thing, he says. I'm of two minds on this - the original Poltergiest was formative for as as a kid, so sure, make it for kids. But it's also dark and thorny and has edges; I hope they don't sand all that off.

--- Spell's Cast - Over at Final Girl our gal-pal Stacie Ponder takes a look back at the four-hour 1978 horror miniseries The Dark Secret of Harvest Home, which has Bette Davis and witches and that's all you need to know about that to click your ass over right this second. My boyfriend actually remembers watching this back in the day!
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I Am Link

Before I dive into today's links let me admit that most of these are a day or two old; we're catching up after the long weekend, which was made longer by our unexpected travels. But these are important things not to be stepped over! And a huge debt of gratitude to MNPP great-pal Mac, who helped keep us up-to-date as we were away.

--- The Boys of Peggy - I still haven't seen like for real real confirmation that Dominic Cooper is going to be on the Captain America spin-off TV show Agent Carter, about Cap's past gal-pal Peggy's adventures creating SHIELD, but they do make mention of his name as if it's a given in this article at Variety telling us that a pair of lookers besides Dom are hopping aboard the show - first off there's Chad Michael Murray, who I've never felt right about lusting for really so I hope this gives me the chance to right that because the last time I saw him, super grunged up, he was really doing it for me like never before. And secondly there is our beloved Dollhouse alum Enver Gjokaj, which is awesome awesome awesome news, but I wonder if they'll ever tilt their hat towards the fact that Enver already played a character (granted a tiny one) in the Marvel Universe - he was NYPD in The Avengers.

--- Sex Worker - I haven't read this yet and I haven't watched this week's episode of Masters of Sex so if you have anything to say about either - DON'T - but here's a big interview with our girlfriend Lizzy Caplan in Rolling Stone. I'm just hoping they address the fact that she should scratch Amy Adams' eyes out and take her rightful role of Lois Lane.

--- Thick Like Hunnam - I wish my dick were the right dick but apparently Charlie Hunnam is sucking all the right dicks (not mine) because damn he is getting all of the parts these days. I guess passing on that porn movie made folks sit up and take notice of what I've been saying for years upon years. He's apparently up for the lead in the remake of Escape From New York, meaning we might get to see him tattooed and leathered up again even with his Sons of Anarchy show ending. That one's just a rumor for now - this other news is confirmed: he's going to play King Arthur for Guy Ritchie. Charlie's Pacific Rim co-star Idris Elba has already been cast as Arthur's mentor, and yes, once again cue thoughts again of Excalibur's armor fucking scene. Anyway I thought he was fine playing a stoic every-dude in Rim but I know I'm in the minority opinion... and I will admit he looks a little more limp in the wake of Chris Pratt's charms.

--- Rated LVT - Lars Von Trier's next project is apparently going to be a television show (in English) called The House That Jack Built, which he says will be "without precedent" but he always says that kind of thing. We have no idea what he means by that, or what it will be. But The Kingdom is so good I'm there already.

--- Buncha Cocksuckers - I was going to wait until next year to celebrate the 20th anniversary of my beloved Muriel's Wedding because it was released in the US in March of 1995, but it came out in its homeland of Australia in September 1994 and so perhaps I should think about doing something sooner, since Aussie websites are already taking the bait - here's TimeOut Sydney on Muriel's 20th, as well as the 20th of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, which apparently came out at pretty much the exact same time. The quotes from Daniel Lapaine about getting in shape for the movie are key. (thanks Glenn)

--- Gods Made Men - Like that Lizzy Caplan article above I haven't read this interview with Hannibal's Bryan Fuller all the way through just yet either, but apparently he talks a bunch about his future adaptation of American Gods with Neil Gaiman and what it'll have in common with Game of Thrones. I imagine the answer is not "lots of rape," but who knows.

--- Hail To The Thom - Radiohead is set to start working on their new album, they say, anytime now, which makes the news of an update to their Polyfauna app kind of exciting - I haven't gotten the chance to listen to the new sounds or see the new visuals, but I think you can guess I'm keen to do so.

--- Join The Borg - This would get a lot more love if it was Fran Kranz wearing the little red speedo and climbing into the ice bath, but this "YouTube star Flula Borg" (which is apparently a thing) looks damned fine himself in a little red speedo and Fran is there staring at him so it'll do for a mention, at least. Climb in with him, Fran!!!

--- Longbottom Bared - But I will post this video of Harry Potter star Matthew Lewis doing the Ice Bucket Challenge, even if we're clearly all Ice-Bucket-Challenged out at this point, because come on, I had to. (You should also check out the Daniel Craig one since he mentions his nipples.)

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10 Off My Head - Joss' Birthday Beefcake

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It should probably have been a national holiday - writer/director/puny-god Joss Whedon is turning 50 today! Don't feel bad for him that it wasn't a national holiday though, since he's off filming the second Avengers movie and Chris Hemsworth is probably popping out of a cake for him (speaking of beef cake - ha ha get it?) while Chris Evans and Aaron Johnson hold him down and tickle him... (yes my image of the Avengers set is akin to a teenage boy's fantasy of a girl's slumber party; what of it?). But seriously speaking of beefcake Joss has given us so much to appreciate over the years. It seems to have gone hand in hand with his feminist notions of turning a little blond girl nobody was taking seriously into an indestructible powerhouse - he's never had any trouble with turning the male gaze back upon itself, with sexy results. Here are ten of my favorite instances of it off the top of my head from just his television work! See all ten after the jump!

Brett Dalton experimenting on Agents of SHIELD

Fran Kranz Has A Perfect Chest

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A couple of weeks ago we took a look at the trailer for Lust For Love, the rom-com starring a bunch of people from Dollhouse up to and including Fran Kranz and his decepti-chest (he really always surprises me, having all of that under his clothes). Well now the movie's out on iTunes and I am really very tempted to just cap the ever-living hell out of this scene - it goes on forever, Fran standing there in that towel, and it never, not for a second, gets old.

But I figure seeing this brief taste will maybe get y'all to rent the movie and experience it for yourselves, and since this was a do-it-themselves labor-of-love for these folks I'm gonna go for that angle. I will direct you to this Buzzfeed interview my pal Jarett conducted with Fran and his co-stars Dichen Lachman, Miracle Laurie, and Enver Gjokaj (swoon Enver) though, where they talk about Dollhouse and Joss and all that jazz.