Guess I Should Catch Up With Surface

I couldn't find any information whatsoever on that photo of Oliver Jackson-Cohen fully mounting Phil Dunster, but since they're both on the second season of the Apple+ series Surface I'm assuming it has to do with that? I watched the first season of the show it feels like ages ago (and posted about it many times) and yet I keep forgetting the second season dropped -- this image however has smacked that forgetfulness right off my face. Dunster wasn't on the first season but he does have a previous work connection to Olly -- they didn't share scenes but they were both in the 2017 miniseries Man in an Orange Shirt, and they both played gay in it! Oliver was partnered with James McArdle in the WWII-era portion of it, while Dunster got railed by Julian Morris in one of the greatest scenes ever committed to celluloid. That was pre-Ted-Lasso though so at that time I was paying more attention to my boy Julian -- no more though! Now I have room for them both in my.... heart. Anyway I doubt Surface will reach those heights, but it gave us that picture up top and for that we are forever thankful. 

Today's Fanboy Delusion

 Today I'd rather be...

... giving Olly the rub-down.

That shot of fur-monster (complimentary!) Oliver Jackson-Cohen comes to us via the Agatha Christie mystery miniseries Towards Zero, which is on BritBox -- you can see a couple more gifs from this moment right here if you think your heart can take it. Has anybody watched the series? The show itself I mean? I spent half this weekend in a fugue state staring at the series of gifs. Oliver Jackson-Cohen has done so much for hairy chest enthusiasts! (Not like that turncoat Charlie Cox!) He should be given a trophy. I have one in mind actually... 

I Wanna Play Doubles With Olly

What a blessed day today is turning out to be -- I get to post about Jake Gyllenhaal, Morgan Spector, David Lynch AND now Oliver Jackson-Cohen? A Hump Day for the ages. The Olly news is as follows -- he is starring in a new Agatha Christie adaptation! Specifically an adaptation of her 1944 murder mystery Towards Zero, this is a three-part event series for the BBC and it'll co-star Anjelica Huston and Matthew Rhys among many others -- per usual it's a great big cast so you have trouble guessing the killer. You know how such things go by now. Anyway the most important bit here is that Olly is playing a tennis star! If at any point in this series they put Oliver Jackson-Cohen is short white tennis shorts I will probably drop dead on the spot, y'all. And it'll be a happy death!

OIiver Jackson-Cohen Fourteen Times

This is a gift that trickled out slowly over the weekend -- as so many fine gifts do -- but I do believe we now have the complete "Oliver Jackson-Cohen for Numero magazine" photoshoot, just in time for me to be back at my desk and ready to post it. Good timing, Olly! 

These are technically in support of his British motorcross action movie called Jackdaw which is out in UK theaters now, although in the interview they bring up the fact that he's also about to start filming the second season of Apple's series Surface soon -- and that's actually the first I'd heard that Surface got renewed, which makes me happy! I liked that show well enough and will be down for more. 

Anyway this is a very hot photoshoot as the photos I've posted so far make clear, and we give our thanks to Oliver and the entire Numero team for it. And there's plenty more where those came from so hit the jump for it...

Oliver Jackson-Cohen Four Times

Ohhhh Olly. Oh. (via)

Good Morning, World

So apparently there is a new show starring Oliver Jackson Cohen? Something called Wilderness? I legit know nothing about it except for what you see in these two gifs (i.e. a lot of chest hair) which made themselves known to me last night, so if anyone else has more information and wants to save me from having to do extremely hard googling here on a Monday morning I'd love you forever and ever. 

Today's Fanboy Delusion

Today I'd rather be...

... racing Oliver Jackson-Cohen for the bottom. (via)

Good Morning, World

Morning, sunshines! I forgot that I have a screening this morning, so please make due with these photos of Oliver Jackson-Cohen shirtless yet in the World's Most Enormous Towel in his Apple+ series Surface this week -- is anybody watching this show? (Here is the trailer.) I am and it's not bad but I'll only get into it if y'all are watching, so tell me in the commnets and we can talk about it there. Later. I gotta run! Be back this afternoon... 

Good Morning, World

One of the things that's fallen by the wayside over the past couple of weeks of my busy-ness with my trip home and the Fantasia Film Fest has been television shows, several of which i have some catching-up-with to do, but I did managae the night before last to finally watch the first episode of Surface, Apple's new series that obviously has a casting director who loves MNPP as the cast stars MNPP-beloveds like Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Stephan James, François Arnaud, Ari Graynor, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, and, seen here flaunting that full bush (top half edition) of his, Mr. Oliver Jackson-Cohen. (I previously shared the trailer here.) I know there have been a few more episodes released so y'all don't spoil anything for me please and thank you, but if you want to share your vague non-specific thoughts do so in the comments! I'm drawn in already, but mainly because of the cast -- it feels like it's hitting the Big Little Lies / Little Fires Everywhere with its mystery and world notes a little hard though, right? Like it's underlining all of the prestige-cable lady-story points really hard. We're rich and terrible people! We will see. Anyway hit the jump for one bonus gif (this scene shoulda been longer)...

The Stacked Cast of Surface Says Howdy

Here is one I have been looking forward to for ages now -- Apple+ has debuted the trailer for their upcoming series Surface today, which stars (and you're about to get why I have been looking forward to this one forever) Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Stephan James, Ari Graynor, François Arnaud, and Marianne Jean Baptiste (I mean! Phew!) and is about a woman (Gugu) who has amnesia after "falling" over the side of a boat and who tries to put the pieces of her memories back together, all while that hubby of hers (OJC) becomes more and more sinister-seeming by the second. It's all very upscale Lifetime. I kind of love that Olly has become the go-to for Hot Scary Husbands...

... and y'all know how very very very much I am reading into this shot of him with François Arnaud in the trailer, right? Right. Oliver Jackson-Cohen playing a closet-case would be very funny though! Haha. Sigh. Let's just hope they give them an actual sex scene and it's not just lots of leaning towards each other with weighted meaningful glances. Also let's give it up for...

... some Ari Graynor looking fabulous! We've been rooting for Ari ever since she gifted the world with the world's most disgusting toilet scene in Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist thirteen years ago (good grief) and we're always happy when she pops up. All that said here's that trailer...

Surface premieres on July 29th! Can't wait...

Paul Mescal One Time

So have you guys watched The Lost Daughter yet?

Oliver Jackson-Cohen has shared some snaps from the THE LOST DAUGHTER set (great movie, now on Netflix!) -- that shot of him + Paul Mescal is a most bountiful gift #TheLostDaughter pic.twitter.com/mW8AK5Lam0

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) December 31, 2021

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

The Kindergarten Teacher (2018)

Lisa: Talent is so fragile and so rare. And our culture does everything to crush it. I mean even at four or five, they're coming into school attached to their phones, talking only about TV shows and video games. It's a materialistic culture, and it doesn't support art, or language, or observation. Even my own children, who are great, they don't read. You know, you think maybe it's just a phase. But I worry that it's something larger. A lack of curiosity. A lack of reflection. No one has space for poetry.

I am ashamed to say that I still haven't seen this movie -- I always think Maggie's a phenomenal actress and have heard good things about this one, and good grief this quote is just... let's just say that this quote speaks to me. So I need to move it up my list! Any fans? Maggie's celebrating her 44th birthday today and we wish her the happiest! 

I saw her directorial debut The Lost Daughter -- with the astonishing cast of Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, Jesse Buckley, Peter Sarsgaard, Oliver Jackson-Cohen (pictured above if you need an extra push to see this), Paul Mescal, Dagmara Dominczyk and Ed Harris -- back during NYFF and it's terrific, absolutely terrific. I hate that I never got around to writing about it but that time was so busy and the film's not out until December 17th (and the 31st on Netflix) so I'll try to do it next month. Unbelievably I haven't posted the trailer yet, so here's that:

Quote of the Day

"There are a lot of Quebecois films and shows that made me fall in love with acting. I think Xavier Dolan’s films, which I watched when I was younger, made me fall in love with movies and acting in general."

-- That quote comes from actor Théodore Pellerin talking to Netflix's Queue magazine, and if the rumors are true about Pellerin possibly being romantically linked with actor Francois Arnaud, who memorably co-starred in Xavier Dolan's film I Killed My Mother that he grew up watching and loving, well -- good for Theo! I just sit here and blog about lusting for all of these actors but he actually went out there and made it happen. Kudos, really. (Also I would just like to add that  Francois has had Oliver Jackson-Cohen showing up on his social media a lot lately and... the mind boggles.)

Further fuel for my Théodore Pellerin / François Arnaud romantic entangling red-string board of clues and conspiracies pic.twitter.com/1lhXZhHH79

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) November 1, 2021

I Am Link

--- Now Them's Some Women -- I was already pleased as a punch to the happy-places when it was announced back in December that not only was Sarah Polley planning on directing her first new movie in nine years (an adaptation of the book Women Talking) but that it was going to star Frances f'ing McDormand, so trying to measure my renewed enthusiasm when a big batch of absolute queens were further announced to fill out the film's cast this week would be a folly's errand. Stratospheric shit! Said queens include Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, and Ben f'ing Whishaw, oh my! The story "follows a group of women in an isolated religious colony as they struggle to reconcile their faith with a series of sexual assaults committed by the colony’s men." This is gonna be something y'all.

--- Friends No More -- I'll admit that my enthusiasm for In Bruges director Martin McDonagh has been dulled a bit by the projects he's done since that -- Seven Psychopaths and especially Three Billboards (ugh) were big letdowns for me -- but today's news that he's reuniting with the stars of his original masterpiece, Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, for his next one well that gives me renewed vim n' vigor, McDonagh-wise. The film will be called The Banshees of Inisherin and will film in August and is about a pair of lifelong friends who're navigating the awkward space where they no longer want to be friends.

--- Ain't No Mountain -- Similarly it's hard to get too worked up over a new Doug Liman movie, even though his earliest work I glommed onto, 1999's Go, ranks among my all-time faves, since he hasn't made anything as good since. But I'm gonna give him another chance with this next project because it stars Ewan McGregor and Ewan is always worth a chance. It's a biopic of adventurer George Mallory, who tried to climb Mount Everest back in the 1920s, and it will co-star Mark Strong and Outlander hunk Sam Heughan.  Oh and it'll be called Everest, just like the Jake Gyllenhaal movie from a couple of years back, but I have a feeling that if Ewan has a nude scene in his Everest movie he'll let them leave it in, unlike Jake, so Ewan wins.

--- Step Up -- Another addition to the incredibly stacked cast of that true-crime adaptation The Staircase, which already had Juliette Binoche, Colin Firth, and Toni Collette -- ex-twink Dane DeHaan will now also be sleazing around the joint. I was going to make a joke about how he could play The Owl but I don't know if any of you will get that joke. Anyway I apparently missed the news that the series will also co-star Parker freaking Posey too! Everyone, literally everyone, will be there. get me to this set!

--- What's Good For The Gigolo -- An update on a project we've been keeping tabs on: the series re-do of American Gigolo starring Jon Bernthal got picked up by Showtime, a ten-episode order. It's actually technically a sequel to the movie starring Richard Gere; Bernthal's playing the same character, just years later after he's gotten out of jail. See all of MNPP's previous coverage on this series here, but pay special attention to this post. That's the winner.

--- Til Death Do -- Kristen Wiig is going to star in an adaptation of the upcoming book called The Husbands, which "follows an overworked mother who, while house-hunting in a nice suburban neighborhood, meets a group of high-powered women with enviably supportive husbands. When she agrees to take on a legal case involving the untimely death of one resident’s husband, she risks exposing not only the secrets at the heart of her own marriage, but the true secret to having it all, one worth killing for." I can't for the life of me tell the tone from that description; it could be dead serious or it could be Desperate Housewives. Even a gender-flipped Stepford Wives maybe?

--- Channing Sandwich -- Speaking of movie descriptions that I can't get a handle on the tone for, Zoe Kravitz has gone and written herself a star vehicle called Pussy Island (indeed) that will have her heading to the orgy-centric tropical getaway of a tech-billionaire (to be played by Channing Tatum, somehow); while there things go from sexy to dangerous, or something. I don't know. Just throw me in a Channing Tatum Orgy and I'll figure it out as I go.

--- And Finally since I began this post with a crazy stacked cast I'll finish with the same - Apple is producing a psychological-thriller series called Surface from the creator of the High Fidelity series, and it will star several MNPP fave babes including Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Stephan James, Ari Graynor, François Arnaud, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and Marianne Jean Baptiste. Good grief -- Get me to that set! To all of the sets! I gotta get the fuck outta my house! Ahem. Surface is described as "an elevated thriller about a woman’s quest to rebuild her life after a suicide attempt, and her struggle to remember – and understand – everything that led up to the moment when she jumped." Gugu is the lead. (And hopefully Oliver & Francois are sharing a trailer.)

Putting the Musk in the Musketeers

Speak of the French Devils! Just yesterday I did a nicely sized post about the "Rendez-Vous With French Cinema" series here in NYC next month, and all of the good-looking French actors that will be featured in it -- now today comes word that four of my favorite Hot French Actors whose names were not in yesterday's post (plus one Hot British Actor who wouldn't have been mentioned there, but I am happy to mention him now) have just been cast in a new project, all together, and now I can fill up my Hot French Actor Bingo Card for the week. Phew! Prepare yourselves, folks, because this is A CAST.

It's a big budget (for French Cinema anyway) re-do of The Three Musketeers, which yeah sure okay I guess they have to make one of these every ten to fifteen years -- that's not the exciting part. The exciting part is the truly insane cast -- this Musketeers will star François Civil (see more of him here) as D’Artagnan, Vincent Cassel as Athos, and Romain Duris as Aramis! It will star Louis Garrel as King Louis XIII! And it will star the British fur-monster Oliver Jackson-Cohen as the Duke of Buckingham!

I don't think I'm familiar with the actor Pio Marmai, who's playing

 the other Musketeer called Porthos, but this is him below... 

And he's plenty hot, he'll fit right in. My god, y'all. But wait. You thought I was done? All this XXX-treme male hotness aside there's the female role of Milady de Winter, and they ain't skimping there either -- Eva Green! Eva Green! My beloved Eva Green!!!

Is this The Hottest Movie Cast Ever Assembled??? I think this might be The Hottest Movie Cast Ever Assembled. And they haven't even named who's playing the villainous Cardinal yet, but at this rate they'll de-age Alain Delon to his Purple Noon visage and toss hot-bomb that into the mix. PLUS there're adding in a character called "Hannibal" for a black actor that will be based on real-life person Louis Anniaba (aka the first black Musketeer) so there's even more opportunity for sexy casting ahead. And then this is all going to be spread across two films -- the first titled The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan and then the second titled The Three Musketeers: Milady. Does that mean the second one will be Eva Green-centric? I am exploding here, people. It's too much, too much.

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Frank (2014)

Jon: He said I was cherishable, 

and he picked me to join the band. 

Clara: You are fingers being told which keys to push.

Jon: I push my own keys...

Clara: Ten little bits of bone and skin.

Jon: And I'm perfectly capable of going to my

furthest corners and composing music.

Clara: Your furthest corners?

Jon: My furthest corners.

Clara: Someone needs to punch you in the face.

A happy 43 to Maggie Gyllenhaal today! I'm not even gonna mention her brother Jake (except, you know, that time right there) because Maggie's got plans, big plans, all her own this year -- we've been posting a ton about her directorial debut The Lost Daughter, which just finished filming a couple of weeks ago -- it stars Olivia Colman and Dakota Johnson and Peter Sarsgaard and Jessie Buckley and (our biggest reason for the multiple posts) new-BFFs Paul Mescal & Oliver Jackson-Cohen. And I don't mean to devalue her acting-wise -- she's always great, always. Maybe I should fiiiiinally watch The Kindergarten Teacher in her birthday honor? I've been meaning to for two years! What's your favorite Maggie?

Where'd Ya Get That Gold Chain, Oliver?

A few weeks ago the actors and MNPP legends Oliver Jackson-Cohen and Normal People breakout slash rightful short shorts devotee Paul Mescal were spotted canoodling on a sun-dappled boat together...

I GUESS MY INVITATION TO OLIVER JACKSON-COHEN & PAUL MESCAL’S SEXY BOAT TRIP VACATION GOT LOST IN THE UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE pic.twitter.com/ycTJ4bnWaF

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) October 17, 2020

... and okay no they weren't "canoodling" but I got you to picture it in your head for a hot sec, didn't I? You are welcome. And they weren't so much "spotted" as they were "Instagramming themselves there in order to make spazzes exactly like yours truly have canoodling fantasies about them." And it's okay! I don't mind being gay-baited in the slightest. If it makes a dent in the centuries of women being asked to paw at each other for straight male fantasies I say so be it! I will suffer for their art.

And there are a couple of pictures of Paul in his short-shorts, just because I felt this post needed more photos. You're welcome. Again. Anyway nobody really seemed to know what the hell Oliver & Paul were hanging out for, since as far as I knew -- and I feel as if I of all people would know an otherwise if an otherwise had existed -- they'd never been spotted together before. Well now we know why! Oliver had joined the cast (thx Mac) of Maggie Gyllenhaal's directorial debut The Lost Daughter, which I told you Mescal would be starring in back in September.

Variety says that Oliver (as well as Ed Harris) joins the already-killer cast, which includes Olivia Colman, Peter "Maggie's Husband" Sarsgaard, the great Jessie Buckley... oh and Dakota Johnson baby! This movie is more than I can even. More than I can even. Here's my original post about it with the details on "what is it about" or whatever, like that matters at this point. 

Oliver Jackson-Cohen Nine Times

All nine episodes of The Haunting of Bly Manor is dropping on Netflix this Friday -- in case you're all like "the what of the what what" Bly would be the second series from The Haunting of Hill House creator Mike Flanagan (watch the trailer here), based on the Henry James story The Turn of the Screw and starring many the same actors as that earlier run of episodes, including our furry prince Mr. Oliver Jackson-Cohen. Hi Olly! 

Olly here is featured in the new issue of InStyle, both as a photoshoot (which I am now sharing with you) and an interview, which you can read at this link. Quote quote: "I'm six-foot-three, I'm a big man." There's context but... I dunno 'bout you but that's all I need for today to make it through. He's a big man.  As if we had any doubt. Hit the jump for more of the big man...

Pics of the Day

.

 Vanity Fair has our first look images at The Haunting of Bly Manor, the second Haunting series from Netflix and Mike Flanagan after 2018's The Haunting of Hill House -- this new series of episodes has several of the same actors (including our favorite fur monster Oliver Jackson-Cohen, seen above) returning as new characters in a tale that centers on several Henry James ghost stories, most specifically The Turn of the Screw, about a governess taking care of two children in a haunted house. 

That story has of course been adapted into a film several times, including a stone-cold classic with Deborah Kerr in The Innocents in 1961, and then not quite a stone-cold classic (although I think it's a little underrated) with Mackenzie Davis in The Turning last year. Anyway read what they've all got to say at VF (plus a few more images) and we'll see how this iteration works out some time this fall (they haven't set a specific release date yet).

Which is Hotter?

.

Today is the 20th anniversary of Tarsem Singh's nightmarishly-hallucinogenic horror film The Cell, which saw Jennifer Lopez playing a child psychologist tasked with entering the dream-worlds of a serial killer who's slipped into a coma (played by usual suspect Vincent D'Onofrio) in order to get information on where his last victim, still alive, has been caged. 

It's a helluva flick! A visual hammer that sure rips off a million other artists but I don't care, I never did, Tarsem tossed it all together into something spectacular, something we'd never seen on-screen before. And thinking about it this morning has got me angry that he hasn't done anything since his 2017 series Emerald City (starring an oft-shirtless Oliver Jackson-Cohen) flopped. So let's celebrate it with a helluva Cell-centric Sophie's Choice...

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