Charles Bramesco
The Michael Jackson ‘Urban Myths’ Episode Won’t Air After All
Join me, as we step back in time to the simpler and more innocent era of two days ago: the trailer for British TV network Sky Arts’ new program Urban Myths had just surfaced, teasing a collection of whimsical shorts featuring fictionalized versions of such celebrities as Bob Dylan, Adolf Hitler, and Cary Grant. One segment in particular commanded more headlines than any other, an episode featuring Liz Taylor, Marlon Brando, and Michael Jackson taking a drive through the country in the wake of 9/11. White actor Joseph Fiennes shocked everyone with his getup as the post-skin-whitening Jackson, and many cried foul at what is technically a blackface performance. The late King of Pop’s daughter Paris tweeted that she was “incredibly offended” by the performance and that it “makes [her] want to vomit.”
Honor the Man, Honor the Film: Watch the ‘Deadpool’ For Your Consideration Ad
It’s been a topsy-turvy week for awards prognosticators, relative even to the usual topsy-turviness of an industry based entirely on guesswork and speculation. Deadpool frightened and confused Oscar oddsmakers when it unexpectedly snatched up a Best Picture nomination from the Producers Guild Awards program on Tuesday, and then officially rejiggered everyone’s slate of predictions when director Tim Miller earned a nomination from the Directors Guild of America. What had been all but forgotten as a superhero oddball is staging a late-phase charge among the groups of professionals that vote for Oscar nominees — nothing is out of the question.
Apple Plans to Break Into Hollywood with Original Movies and TV Shows
Chances are, you’re currently reading these words on a phone, computer, or tablet manufactured by Apple. Maybe on your morning commute, you listen to music downloaded from the ITunes Music Store. If you are an on-the-go sort of person who’s not afraid to be made fun of, you may have an Apple Watch wrapped around your wrist right now. The tech giant’s influence has permeated so many facets of modern life, and as we patiently await Apple’s big foray into the burgeoning field of teledildonics, they’ve announced plans to plant their flag on one more heated battlefield.
George Lucas Bringing His Museum (And Rare ‘Star Wars’ Art) to L.A.
When you have as much money as George Lucas has (a number we common peasants can scarcely imagine, a secret number, known only to those of the one percent’s one percent), simple luxury begins to lose its luster. You can only pay so many Ukrainian models to hand-feed you grapes and gently fan you with palm fronds before it all gets a little tired, at which point a person starts looking for more meaningful ways to spend their money. Philanthropy was born from this impulse, and branding-obsessed Lucas has found the perfect act of humanitarianism that also befits his planet-sized ego: founding a museum in which his creations of Star Wars can be displayed for all the world, and then slapping his name on it.
Geoffrey Rush Plays Albert Einstein for Ron Howard in ‘Genius’ Trailer
It was only a matter of time. The long string of biographical depictions of troubled geniuses, an ignominious tradition more recently carried on by the likes of The Imitation Game and The Theory of Everything, had to inevitably yield an Albert Einstein biopic. But who’d have gue...
Everybody Showed Up for the Newest ‘Beauty and the Beast’ Poster
The Emma Watson-led Beauty and the Beast will come to theaters in a couple months’ time, but the cover version of the song as old as time needs to keep anticipation high until then. Watson did her part on Twitter earlier today by posting the first look at the latest theatrical poster for the live-action adaptation of Disney’s landmark animated film, perhaps the high-water mark of the Second Coming in the ‘90s. The new poster acts as an informal roll call for the new faces of this classic tale, including all the famous faces lending their likenesses to the film in one splashy design.
Watch Vin Diesel Ski Through the Freaking Jungle in New ‘Return of Xander Cage’ Clip
Vin Diesel is a pro when it comes to doing awesome things in places where they should not be done. He drove a muscle car out of a skyscraper in the most recent installment of the Fastly Furious franchise. In 2005 family comedy The Pacifier, Diesel brought white-knuckle secret agent action to a sleepy suburban neighborhood. And in a newly revealed clip from the upcoming xXx sequel Return of Xander Cage, he straps on a pair of skis and speeds through the jungle like it’s an Alpine black diamond trail. This is the poetry and pain of Vin Diesel, always pulling the raddest of stunts in the unlikeliest of spots — unstuck in time and place, an innovator unappreciated in his era, the Van Gogh of shredding the gnar.
‘Moonlight’ Named Best Movie of 2016 by National Society of Film Critics
It’s only logical: after cleaning up across the board with city-specific critics’ groups far and wide (ceding the occasional prize to La La Land, its closest awards-season competitor), Moonlight was awarded the distinction of 2016’s finest film from the National Society of Film Critics. In a decision stunning exactly nobody, Barry Jenkins’ heartfelt triptych about a young gay man’s coming-of-age in Miami took the Best Picture prize as well as the Best Director for Jenkins. Left in the runners-up column were all-but-certain Oscar nominees La La Land and Manchester by the Sea. In fact, Damien Chazelle’s crowd-pleasing musical got kind of skunked by the NSFC; Chazelle landed the runner-up Best Director spot behind Jenkins, the film shared the runner-up spot for Best Cinematography with Silence, and star Emma Stone was shut out entirely.
Actor Behind Reanimated Grand Moff Tarkin Speaks Out on Technology’s Future
Our modern digital Prometheus: when the technical wizards behind the CGI of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story learned that they could reanimate deceased actor Peter Cushing to reprise his role as gaunt-cheeked Empire command Grand Moff Tarkin, they never stopped stopped to think if they should. The resultant spelunking into the uncanny valley was as polarizing as it was unexpected. Some were wowed by the boundless possibilities of computer programming and the effective triumph over the permanence of death; others immediately flashed back to high school memories of reading Mary Shelley. The debate over the ethics of artificially contriving performances from dead actors continues to rage, and a figure close to the situation has now weighed in.
Ralph Fiennes, Hugh Laurie to Make ‘Holmes and Watson’ Even Fancier, Britisher
With every new casting update, the gestating detective spoof Holmes and Watson gets a little bit better. Casting former Step Brothers Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly as bumbling iterations of Sherlock Holmes and his man Watson was an inspired move to begin with, but landing a supporting cast including Rebecca Hall, Kelly Macdonald, The Trip cutup Rob Brydon, and comedy’s hidden gem Lauren Lapkus s
This ‘Rogue One’ Fan Letter Deeply Moved Diego Luna
You’d have to plug your ears to be totally unaware of the many calls for increased diversity that have been sounded in Hollywood over the past few years. Representation has become the name of the game — giving women, nonwhite viewers, or LGBTQ viewers someone that they can see themselves in onscreen. But this process has mostly played out in the forum of public discourse, explicated in articles or spoken about on daytime television or uncomfortably joked about at the Oscars. After long enough, a person can lose sight of the real-world ramifications of this sea change, and forget about why we’ve collectively resolved to work toward it in the first place.
Superheroes Have Ridley Scott ‘Concerned’ About the Future of Cinema
It’s kind of strange, considering the genre’s popularity; interview anyone in the entertainment industry, and you’ll find that just about everyone not actively working on a superhero film considers them to be a pox on the cinema. Ridley Scott’s the latest talent to confess to super-fatigue, in a new interview with Digital Spy where he expresses a larger concern for the overall state of film art. 2016 was a humbling year for the Hollywood studio system, and one of its biggest names can’t help but take notice.