Movie/TV News (2 Viewers)

[dragon53]

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3

BATWOMAN---CW announced that it will have a new character be Batwoman for Season 2 and is removing Kate Kane from the series after Ruby Rose left. The new character has been named as Ryan Wilder, although it is not known if this is the permanent or tentative name. Wilder is described as, “female, mid-late 20s, any ethnicity...is about to become Batwoman. She’s likable, messy, a little goofy and untamed. She’s also nothing like Kate Kane, the woman who wore the batsuit before her.”

ALIEN---Ridley Scott said he is thinking about developing prequels to the original 1979 movie, “What I always thought when I was making it, the first one, why would a creature like this be made and why was it traveling in what I always thought was a kind of war-craft, which was carrying a cargo of these eggs. What was the purpose of the vehicle and what was the purpose of the eggs? That’s the thing to question — who, why and for what purpose in the next idea, I think.”

AVATAR---David Thewlis clarified earlier comments that he is in AVATAR 2, “Well, nothing could be more different than AVATAR. It completely doesn’t resemble anything that I’ve ever done. I should be clear, by the way, cause I know that a magazine in Britain has got me in AVATAR 2, but I’m not in AVATAR 2. I’m going to be in AVATAR 3, which was shot at the same time as AVATAR 2, and the plan is that I will be in AVATAR 4 and 5, as well. I just wanted to clear that up because somebody got that wrong recently.”

COWBOY BEBOP---showrunner Javier Grillo-Marxuach commented on the Netflix live-action series based on the anime, “We ain’t playing Bebop, Bebop is playing us...You can’t look at Cowboy Bebop and say, ‘Well, it’s just a take-off point. We’re going to give them different hair and different clothing, and we’re gonna call it something different. And it’s just sort of gonna be a loose thing. If you’re doing COWBOY BEBOP, you’re doing COWBOY BEBOP. You know? It’s kind of like doing STAR WARS.”

PRINCESS MONONOKE---producer Steve Alpert commented on producer Harvey Weinstein's threats to cut the 1997 movie from 195 minutes to 90 minutes, “If you don’t get him to cut the f–king film you will NEVER WORK IN THIS F–KING INDUSTRY AGAIN! DO YOU F–KING UNDERSTAND ME?!! NEVER!!” Alpert refused to cut the movie which became a hit.

THE CAPTURE---the BBC renewed the spy series for Season 2. Season 1 premieres on Peacock on July 15.

THE ASTRONOMY CLUB: THE SKETCH SHOW---Netflix cancelled the series.

TRIVIA---actress and Post cereal heiress Dina Merrill and two of her husbands, Cliff Robertson and Ted Hartley, appeared in three submarine movies. Merrill played 2nd Lt. Barbara Duran on the submarine USS Sea Tiger in OPERATION PETTICOAT (Cary Grant, Tony Curtis). Merrill's second husband, Cliff Robertson, played Lt. Cdr. Jeff Conaway, commander of the submarine USS Dragonfish in BATTLE OF THE CORAL SEA. Merrill's third husband, Ted Hartley, played Lt. Jonathan Hansen on the submarine USS Tigerfish in ICE STATION ZEBRA (Rock Hudson, Patrick McGoohan). ICE STATION ZEBRA received an Academy Award nomination for Best Special Visual Effects.

Actress and Post cereal heiress Dina Merrill played 2nd Lt. Barbara Duran on the submarine USS Sea Tiger in OPERATION PETTICOAT (Cary Grant, Tony Curtis).

Merrill's second husband, Cliff Robertson, played Lt. Cdr. Jeff Conaway, commander of the submarine USS Dragonfish in BATTLE OF THE CORAL SEA.

Merrill's third husband, Ted Hartley, played Lt. Jonathan Hansen on the submarine USS Tigerfish in ICE STATION ZEBRA with Rock Hudson and Patrick McGoohan. ICE STATION ZEBRA received an Academy Award nomination for Best Special Visual Effects.

 

[marco55]

I would like to see some Alien prequels.
Mark

 

[dragon53]

THURSDAY, JUNE 4

LOVECRAFT COUNTRY---trailer released for the HBO horror movie.

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJV9acMsDwM



ENTER THE FAT DRAGON---trailer released for the remake martial arts comedy movie.

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRrseIiQEK0




STAR TREK---in light of Patrick Stewart returning in STAR TREK: PICARD, William Shatner said he would be interested in returning as Capt. Kirk under the right conditions, "If they wrote it and it made reasonable sense then I’d love to [revive Captain Kirk]. If the role was written properly and it wasn’t a cameo or gratuitous; being there just to show my face, I wouldn’t do that." Shatner said he has not seen PICARD and has not been invited for an appearance.

STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION---Ron Moore talked about how became a writer on THE NEXT GENERATION, “I just decided I was going to give it a shot, and I sat down and wrote an episode and I tucked it under my arm and I brought it with me on the set tour. I convinced the guy that was giving the set tour, his name was Richard Arnold to read the script. He liked it and gave it to my first agent. Richard was one of Gene Roddenberry’s assistants. So the agent submitted it to the show formally. It sat in the slush pile for about seven months. Then Michael Piller, the late Michael Piller came aboard at the beginning of the third season, looking for materials, started going through the slush pile, found the script, bought it, produced it, asked me to write a second one. I did a second one. Then after that he brought me on staff and I was there for 10 years. It was a very lucky, amazing break that I got. I was very young. I was like 25.”

DUNE---cinematographer Greig Fraser (THE MANDALORIAN) talked about filming the Denis Villeneuve remake movie," It was quite fun because I had to forget a lot of STAR WARS when I was making DUNE. It wasn’t hard, though. Denis and I spoke clearly about how the film should look and should feel, and the formats and this and that, so it was not hard to swerve and change lanes. There were some similarities like the deserts. I mean listen, ultimately I’m positive George Lucas was inspired by Dune when he made STAR WARS. I don’t know if that’s sacrilegious to talk about, but there are a lot of similarities in some areas, so you could tell he was definitely influenced by that. So I had to be careful doing both [DUNE and THE MANDALORIAN] and not to repeat myself. Also not just for the sake of the movie, but for fun. I hate to do the same thing twice.”

THE MATRIX---Lilly Wachowski explained why she left Hollywood, “I got in when film was at its peak, before boards and marketers found a way to wrangle movies. Eventually, all those people and institutions ended up in the room with you and specifically behind the typewriter and behind the lens and behind the Avid. It created a bit of tension for me personally. I got to this breaking point and I had to walk away.”
Wachowski said THE MATRIX movies were, “born out of a lot of anger and a lot of rage [towards] capitalism and corporatized structure and forms of oppression…[the] seething rage within me was about my own oppression, that I [was forcing] myself to remain in the closet.”

YELLOWSTONE---Josh Holloway (LOST) commented on playing Roarke Morris in Season 3, "Roarke is no stranger to cruel tactics[.] He's used to dealing with business on both sides of the law. He's definitely a threat."

DEVILS---CW has acquired the Italian tv series starring Patrick Dempsey which involves a ruthless head trader and his mentor at one of the world's leading investment banks who get involved in a murder.

GODZILLA VS. KING---the sequel received a PG-13 rating for, “intense sequences of creature violence/destruction and brief language”.

TRIVIA---Leonard Nimoy and Mark Lenard are best known for appearing together in STAR TREK tv and movies as Vulcan Spock and his father, Ambassador Sarek. However, Nimoy and Lenard also appeared together when Nimoy co-starred as Paris and Lenard guest-starred as villain Col. Bakram on "The Rebel" episode of MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE.

Leonard Nimoy and Mark Lenard are best known for appearing together on STAR TREK as Vulcan Spock and his father, Ambassador Sarek.

Nimoy and Lenard also appeared together when Nimoy co-starred as Paris and Lenard guest-starred as villain Col. Bakram in "The Rebel" episode of MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE.

 

[marco55]

Shatner can't stand it that's he not the number 1 captain any more.He's too fat now!^&grin^&grin^&grin
Mark

 

[dragon53]

FRIDAY, JUNE 5

TRAIN TO BUSAN PRESENTS: PENINSULA---poster released for the South Korean zombie sequel.

THE WALKING DEAD--director Greg Nicotero gave hints about Season 10's delayed finale, "There's a lot of character storylines that are [addressed] — you get little bits of information here, here, here, and you want to end that chapter and start the next chapter in the finale. We address lots of stuff with Daryl, lots of stuff with Negan, lots of stuff with Beta, lots of stuff with Carol."
He added, "I think it's already been revealed that Maggie's return is in the finale, and it tees us up so well for Season 11 that it's a little agonizing for me to not be able to talk about it. Because the last two minutes of the finale, people's jaws are gonna drop."

GODZILLA VS. KONG---after the sequel received a PG-13 rating "for intense sequences of creature violence/destruction and brief language", director Adam Wingard replied, "That's an understatement".

LOONEY TUNES CARTOONS---the new Warner Bros, Animation tv series is HBO Max's top in-demand show and beat out GAME OF THRONES, FRIENDS and DEADWOOD.

CATS---Andrew Lloyd Webber indirectly commented on James Corden's portrayal of Bustopher Jones in the movie based on his Broadway musical, “Bustopher without interruption, as I wrote it. Do not be beguiled by other versions. Other versions with unfunny interpolations which I begged to be cut out. I did manage to get the worst of them removed. I cannot tell you how absolutely un-Eliot it all was in this song… He certainly didn’t hang around on a seesaw.”

WE'RE HERE---HBO renewed the series for Season 2.

NEXT IN FASHION---Netflix cancelled the series.

TRIVIA---Saturday, June 6 is the 76th anniversary of D-Day, the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France, so this is trivia from the D-Day epic THE LONGEST DAY and THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES. The latter movie is about a 1910 international air race from London to Paris. The two hit movies about endeavors crossing the English Channel into France shared a cast and crew of director Ken Annakin and actors Stuart Whitman, Irina Demick and Gert Frobe.

In THE LONGEST DAY, Ken Annakin directed the British scenes (including Sean Connery just before he achieved stardom as James Bond in DR. NO) and the interior US and French scenes. Annakin directed the movie's penultimate scene with Richard Burton as wounded RAF pilot Dave Campbell, who has killed a German officer and then says to a lost US paratrooper, "It's funny isn't it? He's dead. I'm crippled. You're lost. Do you suppose it's always like that? I mean war."

In THE LONGEST DAY, Ken Annakin directed the British scenes, including Sean Connery just before he achieved stardom as James Bond in DR. NO.

Annakin directed the movie's penultimate scene with Richard Burton as wounded RAF pilot Dave Campbell, who has killed a German officer and then says to a lost US paratrooper, "It's funny isn't it? He's dead. I'm crippled. You're lost. Do you suppose it's always like that? I mean war."

In THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES, Annakin was the director and co-writer for which he was nominated for an Academy Award.

In THE LONGEST DAY, Stuart Whitman played Lt. Sheen, an 82nd Airborne paratrooper whose commanding officer was Lt. Col. Benjamin Vandervoort, played by John Wayne.

In THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES, Whitman played Orvil Newton, the American pilot who was a contestant in the 1910 London to Paris air race.

In THE LONGEST DAY, Irina Demick played French partisan fighter Jeanine Boitard, who in real life helped save 68 downed Allied airmen. Demick got the role after meeting producer Darryl F. Zanuck at a Paris cocktail party and also became his new mistress.

In THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES, Demick played six women: Brigitte, Ingrid, Marlene, Francoise, Yvette and Betty. Her opening role of Brigitte is set in Normandy, France which, ironically, is the setting for THE LONGEST DAY.

In THE LONGEST DAY, Gert Frobe played "Sgt. Kaffeekanne", the German soldier delivering coffee on horseback.

In THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES, Frobe, on horseback again, played reluctant pilot Col. Manfred von Holstein.

 

[dragon53]

MONDAY, JUNE 8

THE MANDALORIAN---Jon Favreau said THE MANDALORIAN was inspired by fans who wanted to see more of Boba Fett, "We all loved Boba Fett, but we never got as much of him as we all wanted. He came to unceremonious and in RETURN OF THE JEDI. We wanted somebody that could kind of live up to what we had hoped to see when we were younger."

THE WALKING DEAD---director Greg Nicotero commented on the Season 10 finale, “It’s one of my favorite episodes of the season. It tees us up so well for Season 11 that it’s a little agonizing for me to not be able to talk about it. The last two minutes of the finale are gonna just… people’s jaws are gonna drop.”
He added, “Our group is now having to deal with this giant, massive [horde]… thousands of zombies surrounding where they’re safe. There’s a lot of character storylines [where] you get little bits of information here and here, but you want to end that chapter and then start the next chapter in the finale. So we address lots of stuff with Daryl, Negan, Beta, Carol… There’s always that challenge of pushing the visuals and pushing the story and pushing the emotion.”

DRACULA---director Karyn Kusama (JENNIFER'S BODY) commented on her movie based on the Bram Stoker novel, “It’s a fairly faithful adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel. I think something that gets overlooked in the adaptations of DRACULA in the past is the idea of multiple voices. In fact, the book is filled with different points of view. And the one point of view we don’t get access to, and all most adaptations give access to, is Dracula himself. So I would just say in some respect, this is going to be an adaptation called DRACULA, but it’s perhaps not the same kind of romantic hero that we’ve seen in the past… in past interpretations of DRACULA.”

FANTASTIC FOUR---Josh Trank commented on his regrets about the movie's racial casting, “There was a lot of controversial conversations that were had behind the scenes on that. I was mostly interested in a black Sue Storm and a black Johnny Storm and a black Franklin Storm. But…when you’re dealing with the studio on a massive movie like that, everyone wants to keep an open mind to who the big stars are going to be, like well maybe it’ll be Margot Robbie or something like that.
But when it came down to it, I found a lot of pretty heavy pushback on casting a black woman in that role. When I look back on that, I should have just walked when that sort of realisation hit me, and I feel embarrassed about that… that I didn’t just out of principal. Those aren’t the values I stand for in my own life, and those weren’t the values then or ever for me. Cause I’m someone who always talks about liek standing up for what I believe, even if it means burning my career out.
I feel bad that I didn’t take it to the mat with that issue. I feel like I failed in that regard, but that was a weird, unfortunate situation – I don’t know how else to put it… if there’s one regret that I have, it’s that issue.”

STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION---a limited edition (1,701) collectible bust of Capt. Jean -Luc Picard's infamous facepalm from the episode "Deja Q" will be released in August for $79.99.

LINK: https://www.entertainmentearth.com/product/DC251386

THE MATRIX 4---Keanu Reeves commented on why he returned for the sequel, “Lana Wachowski wrote a beautiful script and a wonderful story that resonated with me. That’s the only reason to do it. To work with her again is just amazing. It’s been really special, and the story has, I think, some meaningful things to say, and that we can take some nourishment from.”

LOONEY TUNES CARTOONS---Peter Browngardt, executive producer of the HBO Max/Warner Bros Animation tv series, said Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam will no longer carry guns due to gun violence in the US, “We’re not doing guns, but we can do cartoony violence – TNT, the Acme stuff. All that was kind of grandfathered in." Fudd will now be armed with a scythe.
Browngardt said the series will still be faithful to the original cartoons, "I always thought, ‘What if Warner Bros had never stopped making Looney Tunes cartoons? As much as we possibly could, we treated the production in that way...We’re going through this wave of anti-bullying, ‘everyone needs to be friends’, ‘everyone needs to get along’. Looney Tunes is pretty much the antithesis of that. It’s two characters in conflict, sometimes getting pretty violent.”

TRIVIA---more James Bond movie trivia.
GOLDFINGER's classic scene has Jill Masterson (Shirley Eaton) suffocated to death after her body is coated with gold paint. James Bond explains to M, “She died of skin suffocation. It’s been known to happen to cabaret dancers. It’s all right so long as you leave a small bare patch at the base of the spine to allow the skin to breathe.”
However, dermatologist David E. Bank said death-by-gold is pure fiction because people breathe through their mouth and nose, "We don't breathe through our skin, A person is not going to suffocate."
The movie's crew thought gold suffocation was possible and had a physician present when the scene was filmed. Also, the gold paint was removed as quickly as possible. Eaton said, “It took an hour, with a lot of help and scrubbing from the makeup artist and wardrobe mistress,”

 

[lancer]

Please, Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam without guns? What's the point. One doesn't hunt wabbits with a scythe or conquer the wild west without a Peacemaker. PC crap strikes again, even in the world of cartoons. I suppose next the powers that be will do away with the staff of Moses, after all we can't have him polluting rivers with it or turning it into nasty snakes and such. -- Al

 

[marco55]

Yeah people in this country have lost their minds.Sick pups they are.
Mak

 

[dragon53]

TUESDAY, JUNE 9

THE ALIENIST: ANGEL OF DARKNESS---new trailer released for Season 2.

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igClxNjCr18


NO TIME TO DIE---a British tabloid reports from an inside source that the sequel begins with a flashback scene of James Bond's five year-old daughter, Mathilde, being pursued by Bond Villain Safin (Rami Malek) across an ice-covered lake in Norway. The source said Mathilde is the daughter of Bond and Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux). The source said, "Bond finding out he is a father is integral to the plot". Mathilde is played by Lisa-Dorah Sonne.

THE BATMAN---a rumor claims Matt Reeves will cast a new actor to play The Joker in the final two movies of the trilogy. The new Joker will "...appear in the second and third movies as one of the films’ multiple villains.”

HAWKEYE---the working title for the Disney+/Marvel tv series starring Jeremy Renner is ANCHOR POINT. Hailee Steinfeld is reportedly in talks to play Kate Bishop.

SNOW BLIND---Jake Gyllenhaal will star in this movie based on the graphic novel about an Alaskan man who posts his father's photo online and discovers his family is in the Witness Protection Program. They are then threatened by a man seeking revenge.

EVIL DEAD NOW---Bruce Campbell gave details on Sam Raimi's latest movie in the franchise, "We’re just getting off the phone with Lee Cronin, who is writing and directing the next EVIL DEAD. It’s called EVIL DEAD NOW. Sam handpicked Lee – he did a cool movie called THE HOLE IN THE GROUND. We’re going to get that sucker out as soon as practical.”

THE LAST DAYS OF AMERICAN CRIME---the movie earned a Rotten Tomatoes score of 0. Other movies with a 0 score include GOTTI, LONDON FIELDS and JAWS: THE REVENGE.

GEORGE CARLIN---Judd Apatow is developing a documentary on the comedian.

THE FLASH---Hartley Sawyer was fired because of offensive tweets he made before joining the tv series in 2014. The offensive tweets included, “The only thing keeping me from doing mildly racist tweets is the knowledge that Al Sharpton would never stop complaining about me.", "Enjoyed a secret boob viewing at an audition today." and "Date rape myself so I don’t have to masturbate."

TRIVIA---in the original TOTAL RECALL, director Paul Verhoeven said the triple-breasted mutant hooker originally had four breasts, “I know that some women had, let’s say, not two nipples, but they have four nipples. Like a dog, whatever. That’s what they have. They exist, basically, and I’ve seen the medical photos when I was at university. And I knew that. I wanted four nipples and breasts, with big breasts and smaller breasts underneath. And Rob Bottin, I think, felt that it was too realistic for the film. And basically that three breasts would be more, let’s say, in the style of the whole movie.” Bottin won an Academy Award for TOTAL RECALL.
Lycia Naff who played the mutant hooker, later played Ensign Sonya Gomez on STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION.

Lycia Naff, who played the mutant hooker, later played Ensign Sonya Gomez on STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION.

 

[dragon53]

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10

MONEY PLANE---trailer released for the movie about the heist of an airborne casino starring Adam Copeland, Kelsey Grammer and Thomas Jane.

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cDbT9NWpD4



GREATEST MOVIE HEROES---EMPIRE MAGAZINE's reader poll for the greatest movie heroes of all time had Indiana Jones at the top and Ellen Ripley at two. EMPIRE will release the other 48 heroes in the July issue.

MONSTER HUNTER---photo released of Milla Jovovich from the Sony Pictures movie based on the video game.

GONE WITH THE WIND---HBO Max temporarily pulled the classic movie from its library following racial tensions resulting from George Floyd's death by a Minneapolis policeman. An HBO Max representative said, "'Gone With the Wind' is a product of its time and depicts some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that have, unfortunately, been commonplace in American society. These racist depictions were wrong then and are wrong today, and we felt that to keep this title up without an explanation and a denouncement of those depictions would be irresponsible.
These depictions are certainly counter to WarnerMedia's values, so when we return the film to HBO Max, it will return with a discussion of its historical context and a denouncement of those very depictions but will be presented as it was originally created because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed. If we are to create a more just, equitable, and inclusive future, we must first acknowledge and underhand our history."
Commentator Greg Price replied, "Hattie McDaniel was the first African-American actor to win an Oscar for her role in 'Gone With the Wind.' It’s also her birthday tomorrow. Way to erase a historic black achievement in the name of social justice."

LOONEY TUNES CARTOONS----writer/animator Michael Ruocco replied to fan criticism about the removal of guns used by Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam in the HBO Max series, “Do you guys SERIOUSLY care whether or not Elmer Fudd has a gun in our shorts? You know how many gags we can do with guns? Fairly few. And the best were already done by the old guys. It's limiting. It was never about the gun, it was about Elmer's flawed, challenged masculinity."
"Also, think about context about what's going on in the world, and how long ago our show started production. Late 2017, early 2018. Right on the heels of a record number of mass shootings, particularly the horrific one in Las Vegas. NOBODY wanted to touch guns working in media."
“I'm not here to put words in other people's mouths or anything, but as someone who worked for 2 years with these characters, I personally did not care or miss Elmer's rifle. We got a lot more out of his personality and his lack of wit than any implement in his hands. Move on.”

COPS---Paramount Network announced the cancellation of the long-running series in the wake of the George Floyd death, “Cops is not on the Paramount Network and we don’t have any current or future plans for it to return.” The series premiered on Fox in 1989.

UNSOLVED MYSTERIES---the Netflix reboot series will premiere on July 1. The original series ran on NBC from 1987-1997.

ALL NIGHT LONG---Walt Disney Studios movie musical underway based on songs by Lionel Ritchie. Peter Chiarelli (CRAZY RICH ASIANS) is the writer.

NBC---the network cancelled LINCOLN RHYME: HUNT FOR THE BONE COLLECTOR and PERFECT HARMONY.

HULU---Hulu cancelled HARLOTS and REPRISAL.

TRIVIA---in the original THE ITALIAN JOB, the Chinese airliner that delivered the gold to FIAT in Turin,Italy was really a former US Air Force C-74 Globemaster. a massive long-range cargo plane developed during World War II to fly across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Only 14 of the enormous cargo planes were produced. After appearing in the movie, the C-74 was put on public display in Turin where it caught on fire twice. The second fire destroyed the C-74 and killed two salvage workers.

 

[dragon53]

THURSDAY, JUNE 11

SKYMAN---trailer released from the sci fi mockumentary by Daniel Myrick (THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT).

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY5ESRaxmHY



7500---trailer released for the Amazon Prime airliner skyjacking movie starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5Vz9nPw2lg



THE CHANGELING---remake underway of the 1980 haunted house movie that starred George C. Scott and Trish Van Devere. Anders Engstrom (HANNA) is the director. Tab Murphy (Walt Disney's TARZAN, THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME) is the writer.

DEATH ON THE NILE---Kenneth Branagh commented on his remake of the 1978 movie based on the Agatha Christie novel, "Love, as he says, is not safe and it’s certainly not safe in this version. Michael Green [ the screenwriter] really has deepened the connection with the character [Hercule Poirot]. Going off of Agatha Christie’s personal treatment of it, his deepening of what Poirot goes through in relation to the story and then the power and sexiness of lust and love as it runs through the story is very strong. It’s a very dark, very sexy, unsettling kind of film.
It certainly delivers on the travel log as it takes you to big and exciting different places, but it’s very uncomfortable in ways people will really understand because it has to do with love, possession, lust, jealousy, big primal emotions that really get in people’s way.”
The remake stars Branagh, Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer and Annette Bening. The original movie starred Peter Ustinov, Maggie Smith, David Niven, Bette Davis, Angela Lansbury, Mia Farrow, George Kennedy and Jack Warden.

YOUTH---Pierce Brosnan will star this sci fi movie based on the short story about an engineer who undergoes a youth-restoring procedure which goes awry and makes him age rapidly. He undergoes a second corrective procedure and discovers its sinister origin. He must warn mankind before his time runs out.

RODEO QUEENS---Dakota Johnson stars in this Amazon comedy mockumentary about the contestants in a local rodeo beauty contest.

GONE WITH THE WIND---after HBO Max temporarily removed the movie from its list due to racial insensitivity, the movie's disc versions were sold out on Amazon. The dvd was #1 and Blu-ray was #2 in sales.

BATWOMAN---showrunner Caroine Dries commented on rumors that Kate Kane will be killed off after Ruby Rose left the series, “As a lesbian who’s been working as a writer for the past fifteen years, I’m well aware of the ‘Bury Your Gays’ trope and I have no interest in participating in it. My comments about recasting Batwoman have launched a storm of rumors and misinformation and I wanted to clarify something. Like you, I love Kate Kane – she’s the reason I wanted to do the show. We’ll never erase her.
In fact, her disappearance will be one of the mysteries of season two. I don’t want to give away any of our surprises, but to all our devoted fans, please know that LGBTQ+ justice is at the very core of what Batwoman is and we have no intention of abandoning that.”

FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM---industry observers and fans are speculating about Warner Bros. and its deal with JK Rowling for three more FANTASTIC BEASTS movies after the author's tweets that trans women are not real women. HARRY POTTER star Daniel Radcliffe has disagreed with her comments by saying, "To all the people who now feel that their experience of the books has been tarnished or diminished, I am deeply sorry for the pain these comments have caused you. I really hope that you don’t entirely lose what was valuable in these stories to you.”
Emma Watson tweeted, "Trans people are who they say they are and deserve to live their lives without being constantly questioned or told they aren’t who they say they are. I want my trans followers to know that I and so many other people around the world see you, respect you and love you for who you are."
Critics say Rowling is a Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist (TERF), a feminist who does not believe that trans women are real women.

TRIVIA---in 1989, Steven Spielberg and Amy Irving divorced. The couple had signed a prenuptial agreement on a paper napkin, but during the divorce proceedings, Irving disavowed the prenuptial agreement because she was not represented by an attorney when she signed the napkin. The judge agreed with Irving and awarded her 50% of Spielberg's earnings during their four years of marriage---which came to $100 million.

 

[dragon53]

FRIDAY, JUNE 12

I'LL BE GONE IN THE DARK---trailer released for the HBO six-part documentary about the search for the Golden State Killer.

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_EVR1fI68o&t=59s



GREYHOUND---the Tom Hanks World War II movie based on the novel THE GOOD SHEPHERD will premiere on Apple TV+ on July 10.

PEGGY JO---Lilly James will star in this movie based on the true story of a woman who robbed banks dressed as a man. Phillip Noyce (PATRIOT GAMES) is the director.

THE GREATEST BEER RUN EVER: A TRUE STORY OF FRIENDSHIP STRONGER THAN WAR---Viggo Mortensen is in negotiations to appear in the Peter Farrelly movie based on the book by John Donohue about his efforts to reunite with his buddies from the Vietnam war.

THE OTHER TYPIST---Keira Knightley will star in the Hulu miniseries based on the novel. The novel's synopsis says, “Confessions are Rose Baker’s job. A typist for the New York City Police Department, she sits in judgment like a high priestess. Criminals come before her to admit their transgressions, and, with a few strokes of the keys before her, she seals their fate. But while she may hear about shootings, knifings, and crimes of passion, as soon as she leaves the room, she reverts to a dignified and proper lady. Until Odalie joins the typing pool.
As Rose quickly falls under the stylish, coquettish Odalie’s spell, she is lured into a sparkling underworld of speakeasies and jazz. And what starts as simple fascination turns into an obsession from which she may never recover.”

ZOEY'S EXTRAORDINARY PLAYLIST---NBC renewed the series for Season 2.

LOVE LIFE---HBO Max renewed the series for Season 2.

THE DUKES OF HAZZARD---Amazon is doing an internal review of the streamed comedy tv series because the General Lee car has a Confederate flag on it.

LIVE P.D.---A&E cancelled the series “out of respect for the families of George Floyd and others who have lost their lives”.

FLACK---Amazon picked up the series that was cancelled by Pop TV.

MAGIC JOHNSON---documentary underway about the NBA star.

TRIVIA---in the Dean Devlin/Roland Emmerich remake of GODZILLA, the buffoonish New York Mayor Ebert and his aid, Gene, are parodies of film critics Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel. Ebert and Siskel had given mediocre reviews to two earlier Devlin and Emmerich movies, STARGATE and INDEPENDENCE DAY.

 

[dragon53]

MONDAY, JUNE 15

GREYHOUND---new trailer released for the Tom Hanks World War II movie on Apple TV+.

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Byeq_hyh2U



MOONFALL---the MIDWAY duo of Patrick Wilson and director Roland Emmerich will reunite with Halle Berry and Josh Gad in this sci fi movie about a team of astronauts who must prevent the Moon from colliding with Earth. Wilson will play an ex-astronaut whose last mission ended in tragedy.

ALIEN---Sigourney Weaver commented on if she might return for Ridley Scott's planned prequels to the original ALIEN, “I don’t know. Ridley has gone in a different direction. Maybe Ripley has done her bit. She deserves a rest.” Weaver said “around a year and a half ago" Walter Hill gave her a 50-page treatment for an ALIEN movie after Neill Blomkamp's movie was shelved. She is not sure if the Hill movie will be made.

GLADIATOR---producer Doug Wick commented on the sequel to the 2000 Ridley Scott movie which would focus on the adult Lucius, “Ridley would love to do it. It’s really all about getting something on paper. Everyone [involved with the original] loves the movie too much to ever consider cheaply exploiting it and making something that’s a shadow of it. It’s just really a clear creative problem, working on a script, and if we can ever get it to a place … Ridley’s working on it, it’s really just a question of whether we can get it to a place where it feels worthy to make it. It’s a real challenge.”

THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN---writer David Koepp (JURASSIC PARK) commented on the remake of the 1936 horror movie, “That was one thing I did during quarantine – I brought back Bride of Frankenstein into a place where I kind of always wanted it to be. Universal was very gracious to let me try again. Because they had geared up and shut down famously in the Dark Universe fiasco. Well, not fiasco, but disappointment. So I have a version now and they have a version that we all really like. I think they’re talking to directors now. It’s not the great big, $150 million extravaganza with giant movie stars. It’s not as scaled down as Invisible Man but much more reasonable, doable thing, with, I think, a really cool idea and it’s all present day.”
Koepp added that he is no longer involved with INDIANA JONES 5 and left when Steven Spielberg decided not to return as the sequel's director.
Koepp also talked about his unfilmed SPIDER-MAN trilogy with Sam Raimi, “Basically [my trilogy idea] was the telling of the Gwen Stacey/Harry Osbourne story but I spaced everything out differently. I wanted Gwen to be killed in the middle of the second movie, because that follows sort of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK model, and I had different villains I wanted to use. Just a different way to tell that story.”

REPLAY---Olivia Munn will star in this sci fi movie about a widow who uses illegal high-tech to change the past and save her husband who was kidnapped and murdered.

WILDLANDS---Matthias Schoenaerts will star in this movie about a disgraced bomb disposal expert who gets a second chance in Angola, one of the most-heavily mined countries in the world.

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS---Dave Filoni said the series is definitely over, “We’re really thankful we got to finish it. But I also think creatively, you always want to move forward. I think you could get stuck in a situation where suddenly we’re doing all these stories again, but where is the ending? I don’t want that feeling. I want you to feel like this had a purpose and it rounded out and let’s find something new that’s exciting."

DOCTOR WHO---transgender actress Rebecca Root will play Tania Bell, the eighth Doctor Who's transgender companion in the Big Finish audio version with Paul McGann. Root said, "She’s [Tania Bell] a person like all the other people I have played and hope to play in the future. She’s not perfect, but she’s not a mess, and certainly, I don’t think her gender identity has any influence on her behavior in the story...It would have been amazing to see a trans person in a show like Doctor Who. In fact, to see a Trans person period would have been amazing. But I [grew] up in the ’70s and society was differently populated back then, and gender ID was not really 'a thing.'"

TRIVIA---more James Bond movie trivia.
While filming the James Bond movies, Sean Connery was known to relish filming the classic fight scenes with Bond Villains including Red Grant and Oddjob. Connery had been in the Royal Navy, was offered a contract to play professional soccer and came in third in the 1953 Mr. Universe contest. In the early 1950s, he beat up six members of the feared Edinburgh Valdor Gang who had tried to steal his jacket.
In 1957, Connery was co-starring with Lana Turner in ANOTHER TIME, ANOTHER PLACE in London. Turner's boyfriend, Johnny Stompanato, the enforcer for Los Angles mobster Mickey Cohen, was jealous about a possible relationship between Turner and Connery. He flew to London where he stormed onto the film set. Armed with a gun, he confronted the two stars, threatened Connery and told him to stay away from Turner. Connery twisted Stompanato's arm and forced him to drop the gun. The humiliated mobster then fled the film set and was later escorted by two Scotland Yard detectives to the airport where he flew back to the US.

Sean Connery was known to relish filming the classic fight scenes with Bond Villains including Red Grant and Oddjob.

Connery came in third in the 1953 Mr. Universe contest.

Lana Turner's boyfriend, Johnny Stompanato, was the enforcer for Los Angles mobster Mickey Cohen.

Stompanato was jealous about a possible relationship between Turner and Connery while they filmed ANOTHER TIME, ANOTHER PLACE. He flew to London where he stormed onto the film set. Armed with a gun, he confronted the two stars, threatened Connery and told him to stay away from Turner. Connery twisted Stompanato's arm and forced him to drop the gun.

 

[dragon53]

TUESDAY, JUNE 16

TRAIN TO BUSAN PRESENTS PENINSULA---new trailer released for the South Korean zombie sequel.

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_BjeMp2Vco



WONDER WOMAN 1084---a sticker pack shows the first image of Kristen Wiig as Cheetah.

BURIAL---Niamh Alger, Diana Rigg, Tom Felton and Ian Hart star in this World War II movie about a team of Soviet soldiers who must transport Adolf Hitler's remains back to Joseph Stalin in Moscow but are attacked by Nazi "Werewolf" partisans who pick off the team one by one so they can bury Hitler's remains.

THE HITMAN'S WIFE'S BODYGUARD---Salma Hayek released the sequel poster.

THE WITCHER---showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich commented on Season 2, "...what we’ll see in Season 2 is that all of our characters are existing on the same timeline. What that allows us to do storywise though is to play with time in slightly different ways. We get to do flashbacks, we get to do flash-forwards, we get to actually integrate time in a completely different way that we weren’t able to do in Season 1.”
She added, “When I talk about THE WITCHER, I always talk about how these three characters come together – Geralt, Ciri and Yennefer – they come together as a family. It’s the most important part of the series for me. And when you start to imagine someone’s family, you also need to understand their family of origin. Sometimes that’s a mother and father, sometimes that’s blood relatives.
For Geralt, it’s his brothers, it’s the brotherhood of the witchers. So I’m really excited to get back in and meet Vesemir, his father figure, for the first time and all of these men that he was raised with since he was seven years old.”

LONDON---Oscar Isaac will star in this sci fi movie based on the Jo Nesbo short story. Ben Stiller is the director.

BALESTRA---Tessa Thompson and Marwan Kenzari star in this sci fi movie about a disgraced female competitive fencer who uses a prototype device that allows her to train while asleep where she encounters a stranger named Elliot in her lucid dreams.

EMANCIPATION---Will Smith will star in this movie based on the true story of a slave who flees hunters through the Louisiana swamp to join the Union army. Antoine Fuqua is the director.

ABC---ABC cancelled THE BAKER AND THE BEAUTY and FOR LIFE.

NBC---NBC renewed MANIFEST and cancelled INDEBTED, BLUFF CITY LAW and SUNNYSIDE.

THE SINNER---USA Network renewed the series for Season 4.

TRIVIA---the movie sequel STAR TREK: GENERATIONS is perhaps best known for its infamous death scene for Capt. James T. Kirk. Malcolm McDowell, whose character Tolian Saron killed Kirk, said Kirk deserved a better death scene, "Poor old Captain Kirk. It was sad, really. Honestly, the producers should have given him a much better sendoff than they did...The truth is, that's what happened. They should have given him a glorious death. If they're going to kill one of the icons of American television, then get rid of him in a beautiful way. I was very disappointed that they didn't come up with something a little better."
He added, "We shot it twice. It was feeble, I thought, because I thought he deserved better."

 

[dragon53]

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17

GHOSTS OF WAR---trailer released for the World War II haunted house movie.

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jhaHn3-dVw



WARRIOR NUN---trailer released for the Netflix horror series based on the graphic novel.

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An0bZpuhiBE



ALIEN V---after Sigourney Weaver recently said she received a 50-page treatment from Walter Hill for an ALIEN movie successor to Neill Blomkamp's shelved sequel, Hill released a statement and a photo of the treatment, "Sigourney, as she has from the very beginning, is being too modest about her proven ability to pull off the idea — which is to tell a story that scares the pants off your date, kicks the *** of a new Xenomorph, and conducts a meditation on both the universe of the Alien franchise and the destiny of the character of Lt. Ellen Ripley."
The treatment's tagline is, "In space no one can hear you scream. In space no one can hear you dream."

INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL---writer David Koepp commented on fan criticism he received after KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL, “It’s very hard. I had this on SPIDER-MAN, also. Because at the time, it was a comic book, it had been around for 35 years, and it was beloved by me and others. … Fabulous, empathetic – it’s just a brilliant design for a character. Somebody who’s truly innocent, screwed up a little bit, and was made to pay far more than was fair, and has been trying to make up for it ever since, but kept their sense of humor. Wow, that’s a great character.
Anyway, it was similar to doing that in that, when the first SPIDER-MAN came around, the Internet was fairly young but it was pretty nasty already. It had already become an inhospitable place. And I felt like, you know in a basketball game when they are on the road and they are shooting free throws and the opposing fans are all screaming and waving those things and banging them together to try and make you miss? I kind of felt like that’s what writing was like on those movies.
So much noise, and so many opinions, and so much… Lucasfilm fans, in particular, are difficult to please. There’s a lot of pressure, and it can be very distracting.”

ARMAGEDDON TIME---Robert De Niro, Oscar Issac, Donald Sutherland and Anne Hathaway will star in this coming-of-age movie as Ronald Reagan becomes President. James Gray (AD ASTRA) is the writer/director.

WITH TEETH---Kara Hayward and Malin Akerman will star in this horror movie about an online gaming star and an old-time vampire hunter who must save a group of internet superstars when they are trapped in a billionaire's mansion inhabited by a bloodthirsty vampire.

HORRORSTOR---comedy-horror movie based on the novel about three Cleveland furniture superstore employees who volunteer for the graveyard shift after the store is mysteriously vandalized during the night.

EAST WING---Debra Messing stars in this Starz comedy series inspired by co-star/writer Ali Wentworth's mother who was Nancy Reagan's White House Social Secretary during the Reagan Administration.

THE GAMBLER---Shout! Factory bought the broadcast and remake rights to the Kenny Rogers franchise.

TRIVIA---in DEMOLITION MAN, Los Angeles supercop John Spartan (Sylvester Stallone) is cryogenically frozen and thawed out in 2032. When he has to go to the bathroom, toilet paper is no longer used and has been replaced by three seashells, although how the seashells were used is never explained. Stallone explained the seashells in an 2006 interview, "...you hold two seashells like chopsticks, pull gently and scrape what’s left with the third."
Writer Daniel Waters also commented on the three seashells, “I won’t tell you the actual secret, but I’ll tell you where it came from. There’s a scene where Stallone has to use a restroom. I’m trying to come up with futuristic things you’d find in there. I was having trouble, so I called my buddy, another screenwriter across town, asked him if he had any ideas. Ironically enough that guy was taking a dump when he answered the phone, looked around his bathroom and said ‘I have a bag of seashells on my toilet as a decoration?’ I said ‘Okay, I’ll make something out of that.'”

 

[dragon53]

THURSDAY, JUNE 18

JUSTICE LEAGUE SNYDER CUT---Jason Momoa posted a film clip of the Zack Snyder cut.

LINK: https://www.instagram.com/p/CBlOrRjD7jF/?utm_source=ig_embed



JAMES BOND---a British tabloid claims NO TIME TO DIE co-writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge is in talks to develop a spinoff movie in which James Bond trains his daughter to become an assassin, "Bond bosses are very excited about 007 having a daughter and creating a new franchise around her...It is likely to feature Bond conflicted over having to train her up as an *assassin combined with Waller-Bridge's *trademark black humour, shown in KILLING EVE...She may just offer ideas and co-produce as roles are yet to be decided, but bosses are keen to give her a big part in the film's production."

NO MAN OF GOD---Elijah Wood will play FBI analyst Bill Hagmaier in this movie set in a single interrogation room and using the actual transcripts of conversations Hagmaier had with serial killer Ted Bundy from 1984-1989.

GHOSTBUSTERS---Ivan Reitman said he originally offered the role of Louis Tully, Sigourney Weaver's neighbor, to John Candy, "He didn't really get it. He kept wanting to play him with a German accent, with a couple of German Shepherd dogs. I said, 'I think that would be confusing, given the (demon) dogs that are already on the roof (in the film)'." Candy passed on the role, and Rick Moranis accepted it.

ATTACK THE BLOCK---Joe Cornish said he and John Boyega have talked about a sequel to the alien invasion movie, “I met with John a couple of months ago to talk about it. We’ve always had ideas after the first one. But obviously we’ve both been busy doing different things.”

WEDDING CRASHERS---David Dobkin said a sequel might be in the future, “10 years later, when I was asked again and I hung up the phone after saying no, I thought about it and I’m like, ‘Well I’d be curious what it’d be like for guys in their late 40s who end up being single again and have to go back out in the world. What a weird, difficult, challenging story that is'. And as long as there’s a real story in the middle of it, to me, it can be a movie.”

HIS & HERS---Jessica Chastain bought the tv rights to the novel about a divorced couple who reunite to investigate a murder in their hometown and the husband is a suspect.

DOPE SICK---Michael Keaton will play Dr. Samuel Finnix in this Hulu eight-part miniseries based on book about the opioid crisis.

MR. MALCOLM'S LIST---Constance Wu and Sam Heughan star in this romantic comedy movie based on the novel.

ENCANTO---Walt Disney is reportedly developing an animated movie described as about, “a young girl and her family in Brazil, who all have magical powers, sadly, the young girl has no powers.”

SPENCER---Kristen Stewart will play Princess Diana in this movie set during three days when Diana decides to divorce Prince Charles.

WORST MAN---SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE stars Colin Jost and Pete Davidson star in this comedy wedding movie.

COASTAL ELITES---HBO comedy special about the coronavirus starring Issa Rae and Bette Midler.

TRIVIA---before character actor Jonathan Goldsmith achieved stardom as Dos Equis beer's "The Most Interesting Man in the World", he appeared in movies with Clint Eastwood, John Wayne, Rock Hudson and Burt Lancaster.

Jonathan Goldsmith achieved stardom as Dos Equis beer's "The Most Interesting Man in the World".

Goldsmith played Tommy (left), a member of the group that hanged Clint Eastwood in HANG 'EM HIGH.

Goldsmith played a gunslinger shot dead by John Wayne in THE SHOOTIST.

Goldsmith played the aid to the Russian paratroop commander in ICE STATION ZEBRA which starred Rock Hudson and Patrick McGoohan.

Goldsmith played Sgt. Oleonowski in GO TELL THE SPARTANS which starred Burt Lancaster.

 

[marco55]

THURSDAY, JUNE 18






TRIVIA---before character actor Jonathan Goldsmith achieved stardom as Dos Equis beer's "The Most Interesting Man in the World", he appeared in movies with Clint Eastwood, John Wayne, Rock Hudson and Burt Lancaster.

Jonathan Goldsmith achieved stardom as Dos Equis beer's "The Most Interesting Man in the World".

Goldsmith played Tommy (left), a member of the group that hanged Clint Eastwood in HANG 'EM HIGH.

Goldsmith played a gunslinger shot dead by John Wayne in THE SHOOTIST.

Goldsmith played the aid to the Russian paratroop commander in ICE STATION ZEBRA which starred Rock Hudson and Patrick McGoohan.

Goldsmith played Sgt. Oleonowski in GO TELL THE SPARTANS which starred Burt Lancaster.

I would never recognize him.I thought he was really a European until I saw him in an interview.I heard he was homeless living in a car until he got that commercial.The guy who replaced him (why?) doesn't do him justice.
Mark

 

[dragon53]

FRIDAY, JUNE 19

ALPHA GANG---Jon Hamm, Andrea Riseborough, Nicholas Hoilt, Sofia Boutella, Steven Yuen and Mackenzie Davis will star in this sci fi comedy movie about aliens who invade Earth and are finally stopped when they are infected with human emotions of love, happiness and empathy.

PROJECT HAIL MARY---Drew Goddard (THE MARTIAN) is in negotiations to join the team of Phil Lord and Chris Miller for the Ryan Gosling movie based on the upcoming novel by Andy Weir (THE MARTIAN) about an astronaut who wakes up with amnesia and two dead crewmen in his spaceship and must save Earth from a global disaster.

THE CHAIN---Edgar Wright will direct this movie based on the novel about a woman who must kidnap a child to save her own kidnapped child and discovers she is part of a child kidnapping chain.

OUTSIDE THE WIRE---Garrett Hedlund and Brady Jandreau will star in this movie about a US soldier and an Iraqi insurgent who must depend on each other to survive.

SERGIO LEONE---untitled documentary on the Spaghetti Western director is underway by Francisco Zippel.

FASTER, CHEAPER, BETTER---Dan Gilroy is the writer/director of this movie about how automation and artificial intelligence have affected the workforce.

ANIMORPHS---movie underway based on the children's book series.

HULU---Hulu renewed SOLAR OPPOSITES and CROSSING SWORDS.

TRIVIA---in NETWORK, Walter Cronkite was approached to play Howard Beale, but he was not interested. However, Cronkite's daughter, Kathy, played kidnap victim-turned-radical Mary Ann Gifford, who was based on Patty Hearst.

in NETWORK, the Howard Beale role was offered to Walter Cronkite, but he was not interested.

However, Cronkite's daughter, Kathy, played kidnap victim-turned-radical Mary Ann Gifford, who was based on Patty Hearst.

 

[Terp152]

I would never recognize him.I thought he was really a European until I saw him in an interview.I heard he was homeless living in a car until he got that commercial.The guy who replaced him (why?) doesn't do him justice.
Mark

Yeah, the guy who replaced him is just weak. Goldsmith made famous the phrase, "Stay thirsty my friends." He tours the US signing bottles. He was in Louisville last yr (I didn't go). Chris

 

[dragon53]

MONDAY, JUNE 22

THE KING'S MAN---trailer released for the prequel movie.

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBmwyJaCaic



FERRARI---Hugh Jackman is in talks to star in the Michael Mann biomovie about Enzo Ferrari. The movie is set in 1957 when Ferrari's company is going broke, his marriage is falling apart and one of his sons died.

KANDAHAR---Gerard Butler stars in this movie about a CIA agent on a secret mission in the Middle East desert when his cover is blown. He and his translator must fight their way out to an extraction point in Khandahar, Afghanistan.

THE MANDALORIAN---Jon Favreau said it is important that the STAR WARS creators must listen to fans, "You put something out in the world, and then it echoes back at you. You have to listen. It’s not a one-way street. It’s a two-way street. You have to feel the energy of the audience. But when you come from comedy — and when I was doing improv back in Chicago — that’s it: You have to read the room, you have to feel the room. You have to be in community with the audience. You have to be part of it."
Also, Mark Hamill provided the voice for the droid EV-9D9 in Episode 5. EV-9D9 also appeared in RETURN OF THE JEDI.
Oscar Issac was asked if he might return for a future STAR WARS movie, "Probably, but who knows. If I need another house or something. I’ve felt like I had been a man in a desert for many years because I’ve been serving these bigger films.”

INGLORIOUS BASTERDS---Quentin Tarantino said the most fun character to write from his movies was Hans Landa, "The minute he enters a scene, he dominates it. All the things that he was supposed to be good at, he was that good at them. I found I had a really interesting situation with him that has been hard to have with any other character It was the fact he was not only a bad guy, not only a Nazi, but a Nazi known as the Jew Hunter, who is finding Jews and sending them to the concentration camp, but when he shows up towards the end of the movie, kinda figuring out what the Basterds are doing, the audience wants him to. They’re not rooting for him, but it’s a f–king movie, and if he figures it out it’s going to be a more exciting movie.
You know, you don’t want him to let you down. We’ve set up that he knows everybody’s secrets, so he’s got to know theirs. And it will make a more exciting climax if he does.”

THE SOPRANOS---Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa said James Gandolfini did not like to do talk shows and when producer Harvey Weinstein pressured him to appear on talk shows, Gandolfini threatened to beat him up, “[Gandolfini] said, ‘Harvey Weinstein keeps calling, he wants me to do Letterman and I said no,’ and he got f–king nasty with Jim. And Jim said, ‘I will beat the f–k out of Harvey Weinstein! He f–king calls me again, I will beat the f–k out of him! For the money he paid me, I’m not f–king doing it!’ Swear to God. And this is before all the Harvey Weinstein s–t when he was still king s–t.”

SHARPER---Julianne Moore will star in this Apple movie about a con artist operating in a world of billionaires.

MAMMA MIA---producer Judy Craymer said another sequel might be underway, “I was meant to have been getting on with that, in my head, during these months. But then I got hit with COVID fog. I think one day there will be another film, because there’s meant to be a trilogy, you see. I know Universal would like me to do it.”

PUFFINS---Johnny Depp will provide a voice for the mobile-first animated series that will promote gender/race equality and environmental protection.

TRIVIA---more James Bond movie trivia.
In the original CASINO ROYALE, Burt Bacharach wrote the love theme "The Look of Love" for the scene with Peter Sellers and Ursula Andress. Director Joe McGrath said producer Charles K. Feldman did not like the song and told him to remove it, '"Take it out! It's not funny. It's that artist *****. Take it out!"' However, McGrath left the song in, and it is considered to be the best part of the movie. The song was nominated for an Academy Award, became a top hit and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008.
To show his appreciation for leaving the song in, Bacharach sent McGrath two cases of Bollinger champagne.

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCKij1dzrvc