Challengers 2: Doubles or Nothing

Our tennis pallies briefly reunited at the Dior show in Paris earlier today so naturally we're dreaming of a Challengers sequel now -- where do you think Patrick and Art and Tashi ended up after that legendary final shot? (You're all going to say "in bed" aren't you?)

Quote of the Day

There is a chat with director Luca Guadagnino and writer Justin Kuritzkes in Dazed magazine right now (thx Mac) about their latest colaboration Queer (the William S. Burroughs adaptation out in theaters now that I reviewed right here) and besides it containing several images from that film's set that I adore -- that one of him in a Carrie t-shirt above is going straight onto my mood board -- it's also got several bits of information I really enjoyed reading. Luca talks about why there's so much Nirvana in the film, and he also admits that Twin Peaks was an influence on it (but refuses to elaborate further). But it's the bit at the end that has nothing to do with Queer that has me the most excited -- and if you've seen my hemming and hawing then you know it's not about his possible American Psycho remake. 

No it's about An Even Bigger Splash, his long-gestating longer cut of his already divine 2015 film A Bigger Splash, which stars Tilda Swinton, Matthias Schoenaerts, Dakota Johnson, and Ralph Fiennes. Luca has been mentioning this was a thing on his mind for awhile, and bless this interviewer for getting a very brief but important update:

 "Yes, for sure. 100 per cent. We’re finalising it."

Supposedly this cut has a full seventy more minutes! I don't know whether this is a good idea or not either, but Luca always proves my doubts wrong so you'd think I'd have learned my lesson at this point. And even if it does prove to be too much of a good thing -- am I going to complain about seventy more minutes of a movie where the godline Matthias Schoenaerts runs around in itty bitty shorts looking like a fucking sculpture? I don't think so. In summation here is a new photo that dropped online this week from the set of Luca's other 2024 film Challengers, with him in a spot where so many of us would love to be -- half-straddled by Mike Faist in his tennis gear:

Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Etc

An update on yesterday's news about the Challengers score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross finally getting a vinyl drop -- you can pre-order it right here! There was a bit of a oh lket's be nice and say kerfuffle when I first woke up this morning because Milan Records, the distributor that's pressing the thing, was SOLD OUT when I woke up and natch I freaked out -- they're still SOLD OUT but Amazon still has it, so you're safe. Anyway I think we can all agree that they messed up -- or might I say, they dropped the ball, kersnicker -- not printing the record in tennis-ball-yellow, but we do love those playing cards for our favorite sweaty throuple and the Phil's Tire Town bumper sticker rocks so we'll accept.

Yeah Times Ten

I'm still furious that Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross's fabulous score for Luca Guadagnino's Bones and All hasn't been released on vinyl yet (although heads-up that word just dropped today that the movie itself is hitting 4K in November) -- and same goes for David Fincher's The Killer. But we can check one of these off our list as they finally announced that the bangin' score from those two fine fellows for Luca's tennis throuple extravaganza Challengers is getting a vinyl drop, and it will be available to pre-order tomorrow at some time. Here is what's included:

-- Deluxe gatefold package with a custom interior gatefold collage of on-set photos 

-- Black Audiophile 180g Vinyl 

-- Printed inner sleeves 

-- Three Collectible Trading Cards featuring Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O'Connor as Tashi, Art and Patrick 

-- Exclusive Phil's Tire Town Bumper Sticker

They don't say where it'll be on sale yet but I imagine it will be at Sony's shop or the Milan Records shop, since they're both listed (my money is on the latter) although since it's Trent Reznor there's also the possibility of the Nine Inch Nails shop too. It'd be awesome to have more info but best believe I'll be refreshing all three of those places tomorrow until I have a hot little confirmation email in my hands. I do wish that this vinyl included the remix album that Boys Noize released as well (just digitally) because that shit kicks and has been my running music all summer long, but given the alternate, the Bones and All big fat nothing possibility, I'll take what I can get right now!

Stay Cool, Hotties

That's it! I am out of here! Y'all have a good next-three-days 

and I'll see you come Monday. (Otherwise known as "my birthday.") 

If the heat don't get me, that is. Bye...

Hatchets, Crocs, And Hot Boys Kissing

Been awhile since I did a post where I directed y'all to some recent blu-ray releases of note and since I have a few listed on my calendar for today why not? Otherwise I'm just scouring social media for more photos of Theo James in his speedo and there's only so much of that one can do without literally exploding. So today in blu-ray news, first up -- there's Alex Garland's Civil War, which was divisive but not really the way that I think Garland intended it to be. I reviewed it at Pajiba, saying "the film gets to it by coasting on a journalist’s ethics of pure objective documentation over anything resembling subjectivity, and this film that basically demanded to be made at this moment in time doesn’t quite earn its laurels by its end." The movie feels like a cop-out to me. But it's worth seeing and thinking about anyway, and the 4K disc is gorgeous -- you can practically count every hair in Wagner Moura's sexy mustache. 

Also out today is a blu-ray of the sleazy 1979 Jaws rip-off Crocodile from Synapse Films -- this movie isn't my favorite 70s "When Animals Attack!" flick -- heck it's not even in the top 10 -- but it's got its moments, and lots of fun Godzilla-esque miniature work as its enormous croc rampages through puppet-sized Thai villages. My favorite thing is how wildly the size of the crocodile itself vaccillates across the course of the movie -- it's the size of a Brontosaurus in those rampages but then when it goes to eat somebody its mouth is one-person sized. It'd probably be a lot of fun when drunk or stoned. Not that I would know! I am a good, pure, innocent boy, and prefer watching endless underwater shots of bottomless women while sober thank you very much.

Speaking of misogynist sleaze, I meant to mention to the fans of the franchise that Adam Green's Hatchet series of films finally got a proper blu-ray boxed-set release a couple of weeks back -- Hatchet: The Complete Collection contains all four movies (including Victor Crowley) and a fifth disc of special features and the only place to buy it is on Dark Sky's website right here. I personally hate these movies but I know they have lots of fans and I will admit that the practical gore effects do totally rule, and they definitely typify the Aughts era of Bro Horror. Not my cuppa but mileages vary! But finally and most importantly...

... Luca Guadagnino's Challengers is out on blu-ray today! Or at least they say it is -- Amazon has delayed sending my copy because of "supply chain issues, and I am very upset about it. But I suppose some of you probably got your copy, to which I say ROT IN HELL. Ahem. No no, enjoy! I mean that sincerely. ENJOY IN HELL, FUCKFACE. Okay this isn't going right. Here is my review of the film -- obviously I loved it, Luca has yet to do me wrong, and I'll be watching it a jabillion times over. Now if only Trent Reznor & Co would drop the score on vinyl already! They're teasing this out like we're all Josh O'Connor watching Mike Faist change in the lockerroom dammit.

Oh and one bit of news on the pre-order front -- this spring's horror hit Late Night With the Devil is dropping on blu-ray here in the U.S. in September, and you can pre-order it right now right here. I liked, not loved, it -- my high expectations have been slaughtering movies left and right this year -- but it's fun and worth a watch or two. I'll definitely re-watch it when it hits with my lowered expectactions and can foresee it becoming one I revisit every so often when the mood strikes. David Dastmalchian of course rules.

Today's Fanboy Delusion

 Today I'd rather be...

... rolling in the dirt with Mike Faist and Lucas Hedges.

Don't ask me where this video from the theatrical production of Brokeback Mountain came from -- I have no clue, I just stumbled on it on Tumblr last week and set it aside to post when I had a minute. Did this production get a filmed release? I feel as if it would be stupid for it to not get that, given what we saw of the play (hubba hubba) but I know a lot of smiliar wonders have been lost into the ether. So let's just be grateful for this sexy eight-second snippet. 

ETA of course about two minutes after I posted this I found 

a second video! The internet is a kind, cruel mistress.

Good Morning, World

I could feed off of images from Challengers for posts for a very long time -- and I think I will to some extent. Until the next shiny thing comes along anyway. And so there is that single sexy image of Mike Faist in the movie, which I told you on Friday had just hit digitial. What a sight to welcome this Monday with! (click to embiggen)

I'm In My "Serve Me" Era

I did not make that mouth-watering gif myself -- I swiped it off of Twitter, a social media platform gloriously awash in Challengers gifs of this sort today thanks to Challengers hitting the online rental spots like Prime right here. Normally I would happily make this gif myself but honestly it's Friday and I'm tired and I am so glad I get to be lazy and just swipe it, just this once. That said I did make the gif at the bottom of this post myself and that's sure something! Anyway go rent Challengers, go watch Challengers, go live Challengers. Here is my review if you missed it. And as previously announced the movie hits blu-ray on June 9th and you can pre-order that right here. The only thing I need now (besides to have Mike Faist and Josh O'Connor making out in my lap, that is) is Trent Reznor's deliciously over-the-top techno score for the film to get a vinyl drop ASAP, and we'll be all over golden. Long live Challengers!

Thwack #Challengers is now available to rent!https://t.co/dQGroswjWS pic.twitter.com/hfYk8BWkqz

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) May 17, 2024

Who Wore It Best?

I contemplated needing to myself own one of the Loewe "I Told Ya" t-shirts that play a big role in Luca Guadagnino's tennis film Challengers... and then I saw that they retail for $300 and I decided no, notsomuch. I love the movie but it's a fucking t-shirt and I am too poor and too smart for that nonsense. That said actor and pretty young thing Manu Rios just posted a photo of himself wearing it (I doubt he had to pay for it) and I remembered that Loewe was ripping off a tee that noted perfect piece of ass John F. Kennedy Jr. wore back in the 90s and voila, a poll arose:

online polls

Which is Hotter?

Challengers has been out for a couple of weeks now but Luca Guadagnino and his stars Josh O'Connor and Mike Faist sure as heck ain't done with us, as proven by these new photos of the boys coming at us via Luca's long-time set photographer Alessio Bolzoni. (His photos of the Call Me By Your Name cast also live rent-free in my head.) But these are a whole new level...

... and they're officially forcing me to do something that I had been hesitant to do. Face the boys down! Actually I have no idea why I hadn't done this post yet -- it seems ridiculous that I hadn't. I wasn't hesitant -- my brain has just been muck for the past few weeks. But anyway we're here now so let's do this thing...

online polls

Challenge This!

If you missed my review of Luca Guadagnino's Challengers over the weekend, click here! And yes I know if you scan down this here front page of the site a few posts you'll see my link to that already, but this is giving me an opportunity to share the above set photo of Mike Faist and Zendaya on the set and Mike's thigh muscles are demanding I do so. They are literally holding a gun to my head! Anyway I did also mean to mention last week that the film's unforgettable soundtrack from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross hit all of the streaming services last week, so if you're a fan (and I know some of you are not fans, but you're incorrect) you should be listening to it, as I did while doing dishes and folding laundry this weekend. It makes everything so intense! Also I can't find the link on Twitter right now but I did see confirmation from either Sony or Milan Records that they are working on a physical release of the soundtrack, which is momentous. Since their gorgeous scores for Bones & All and The Killer are both still unreleased on vinyl I had gotten worried. 

I Accept Your Challengers

It only took us approximately three hundred billion days to get here but Luca Guadagnino's techno tennis trio flick Challengers is right now, right this minute, in movie theaters! Meaning whatever the hell you're doing right now isn't what you should be doing, which is sitting in a theater watching Challengers. Does this mean I liked the movie? Hmm I wonder, I guess you'll have to click on over to Pajiba to read my review of it and find out for yourself. I am sure it's an absolute mystery to you, whether I liked it or not. It's not as if I have been posting about it endlessly, breathlessly, for months. I am such a riddle! Anyway go read that, go watch Challengers, and go have a hot sweaty weekend full of balls flying at your faces. Bye til Monday!

Assume the position - my #Challengers review drops soon! pic.twitter.com/KOfPn4s4M7

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) April 26, 2024

Mike Faist Nineteen Times

Happy Challengers day! The new Luca Guadagnino joint is out in theaters fiiiinally after months and months of delays thanks to the strikes in H'wood last year -- Luca smartly knew he'd need Zendaya and her boys looking flashy on some red carpets and in magazines to sell his sweaty tennis flick so delayed it to today and that was probably a good decision. It feels like a spring movie, not a fall movie. The birds and the bees, baby. Everybody's pollinating. 

Anyway I maybe could have saved this post of Mike Faist's new photoshoot (via) for a couple of hours to when my review of the movie goes live (yes, it's coming!) but I'm impatient and I will surely want to post more about the movie today anyway. So let's stare at Mike (who's finally just gotten an MNPP tag all his own, congrats!) until then. Hit the jump for them all...

Quotes of the Day

“He started us down a path, saying, ‘What if it was very loud techno music through the whole film?'" “I wish I had his notes... His notes were so fucking funny on what each piece was meant to do.... ‘Unending homoerotic desire.’ It was all a variation on those three words.”

That is Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross telling GQ about how Luca Guadagnino wanted them to score Challengers, his tennis movie starring Josh O'Connor, Mike Faist, and Zendaya, that's out in a few weeks. And that is the funniest, most-Luca thing I have ever heard. "Unending homoerotic desire," lol. I'm surprised to hear the movie has "loud techno music" over the entire thing, which is not what I was expecting, although I have heard a few of my collegeues who've already seen the film commenting on the score. Something else to look forward to! 

In the GQ interview the two rock stars turned Oscar winning composers also talk about Luca's first cut of his cannibal romance Bones & All, which I also found interesting:

"On the first film the two men scored for Guadagnino, Bones and All, “we got a cut of that that was nearly four hours long with no music and we kind of thought, Oh, fuck,” Reznor said. “Four hours we sat without a pee break, transfixed. It didn’t need music. And when you watch that you approach it differently.” "

And now I really must repeat a demand I have repeated tenfold since Bones & All came out -- release that gorgeous fucking score on vinyl already, please!!! It's so good. Probably my favorite of their scores to date.

Today's Fanboy Delusion

Today I'd rather be...

... rasslin' with Josh & Mike.

That's Josh O'Connor and Mike Faist on the set of Luca Guadagnino's Challengers, which is out in 23 days and counting. Hoo boy are we ever counting. We been counting since last summer when it got delayed to this year! Anyway I am seeing it next week so I should shut up -- my waiting is less than your waiting. Presumably. Unless you're, like, Luca reading this... in which case, Luca. Calllllll me. Anyway that gif is via a set-video which I will share below -- they've released a couple of clips from this movie but I refuse to watch or share those. But the set videos are acceptable! (Also here is the full trailer in case you somehow missed that.)

Pic of the Day

With the fresh release date of April 26th steaming forth Luca Guadagnino's tennis throuple drama Challengers is ramping up the PR -- Wednesday we got a new trailer (watch it here) and now we've got this new image of stars Mike Faist and Josh O'Connor. Who one hopes, in the grand tradition of Luca Guadagnino movies, will share a palpable erotic tension. I don't know about you, but I personally am pretending that they aren't wearing pants. I mean it's not like that would be a first for Josh O'Connor...

The Challengers Strike Back

I suppose it makes sense that they would cut a new trailer for Luca Guadagnino's film Challengers (his tennis threeway drama starring Zendaya, Josh O'Connor, and a very sweaty Mike Faist seen above) after it got delayed from its spot on the calendar last year because of the strikes in H'wood -- it's been months and the people, they need a reminder of the sexiness ahead. And there's a lot of new footage in this one -- not enough for me to go to town with the gif-making like I did with the first one (most of the new footage is of the clothed kind) but enough to get my re-hyped for the movie. Watch:

Challengers is out on April 26th.

Josh O'Connor Six Times

It turns out that VMan magazine's Harris Dickinson cover yesterday was just the start -- they've got three cover stars this month as they're celebrating "The New Leading Men" and I guess we'll have to wait and see who number three is before we can tell whether all of their new leading men are, you know, straight white skinny Brits. Anyway we like these straight white skinny Brits, so we'll deal -- we especially like Josh O'Connor, today's second new leading man. The chat alongside the photos is between Josh and his co-star in Luca Guadagnino's (now delayed) tennis movie Challengers, one Zendaya, and well worth reading -- they talk a lot about the making of the movie and their process and Mike Faist being a gym lover and Luca being a king, etc. Everything we wanna hear! I'm especially interested in how "villainous" they keep saying their characters in the movie are -- sounds like it's a movie about alphas terrorizing each other, and I can't wait. But I have to, since it got moved to 2024, sigh. Anyway hit the jump for the whole photo-shoot...

Happy Birthday, Luca!

Don't worry, everybody! I went ahead and wrote it into my calendar today that it's the director Luca Guadanino's birthday on August 10th, so I never forget this again. Anyway a happy 52nd birthday to one of my favorite living filmmakers -- I momentarily considered ranking his films, but quite honestly all I would be able to come up with is Call Me By Your Name is number one and then everything else is tied directly behind it. There's no film he's made that I haven't loved -- admittedly I still haven't seen his debut feature 1999's The Protagonists, but I think you'll allow me that leeway (and if not fuck you). How the hell would I choose between Bones and All and Suspiria and I Am Love and A Bigger Splash? They're all masterpieces as far as I'm concerned. Hell even his shoe documentary is fantastic. I'm obviously very sad we have to wait until next year to see Challengers, but we can watch the trailer and stare at the below gif for a few months and keep them fires burning. Happy birthday, king!