Charles Bramesco
Jack Nicholson ‘Basically’ Retired From Acting, Says Peter Fonda
The last time was saw Jack Nicholson on the big screen was 2010, in James L. Brooks’ middling dramedy How Do You Know. He played a weaselly white-collar crook who asks his son to take the rap for a crime he committed, in a performance characterized by the usual Nicholsonian deviousness. The movie didn’t make too much of a splash, forgotten after a few weeks taking up space in cineplexes. That film may take on an unexpected tragic air in light of the breaking news that it may contain Nicholson’s swan song.
Shocking Video Leak Reveals Animal Abuse on Set of ‘A Dog’s Purpose’
Forcing audiences to watch a movie in which a dog lives, finds true happiness, and then dies over and over again would’ve been an act of sadism all on its own. But the crew of the upcoming family film A Dog’s Purpose have recently been outed as sadists of another, more stomach-churning sort. TMZ posted a shocking video from a second-unit shoot for the film in which an animal handler forces a reluctant German Shepard into rushing waters, the dog begins drowning, and handlers rush to retrieve the animal amid cries of “cut it! cut it!” PETA has already called for a boycott of the film, with the most shame heaped upon the industry supplier Birds & Animals Unlimited, and the rest of the fallout has been swift.
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.”
Tom Cruise and Russell Crowe Make a Whole Lotta Eye Contact in New ‘Mummy’ Photo
Behold, for your viewing pleasure: a photo of Tom Cruise and Russell Crowe looking at one another.
Oscars Shake-Up Moves ‘Moonlight’ and ‘Loving’ Into Adapted Screenplay Category
In these weeks before the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences convenes to slaughter their sacrificial calf and read the blood spatter patterns to determine this year’s nominees, there’s been quite a bit of category rejiggering. Everyone wants some gold, and because some races are more easily won, crafty studios have been determining the most advantageous way to shape their For Your Consideration campaigns. Viola Davis, for instance, probably could have competed in the Best Actress category for her titanic performance as the long-suffering wife in Denzel Washington’s adaptation of Fences. But with the 2016 Best Actress scramble already approaching a de facto showdown between La La Land‘s Emma Stone and Jackie‘s Natalie Portman, Davis smartly ended up in consideration for Best Supporting Actress.
Critics’ Choice Awards Go Ga Ga for ‘La La Land,’ ‘Deadpool’
There’s no such thing as certainty in awards season, and yet something tells me that at last night’s Critics’ Choice Awards, Margot Robbie won what will be her only decoration for assaying the role of Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad.
Tremble Before the First Poster and Teaser Trailer for ‘The Mummy’
Universal’s grand plan for world domination, or at least an intertextually connected universe of highly profitable event films, has been put in motion. Their Dracula Untold laid the groundwork by introducing fiction’s most famous vampire into the mix, solo projects for Frankenstein’s monster, the Invisible Man, and monster hunter Van Helsing have all been established, and now The Mummy, the first piece of the puzzle (let’s do Universal a service and call Dracula Untold a warm-up, they can take a mulligan on that one), is set to be unveiled.
Independent Spirit Award Nominations Shine on ‘Moonlight’ and ‘American Honey’
Now that the seemingly infinite hell of election season has reached its merciful end, it’s time to move on to what is pretty much the election season of movies: awards season! The Golden Globes, Oscars, industry guilds and various critical bodies will soon hand down their rulings on the best films, performances, and technical achievements of 2016, but before that ball gets rolling and flattens all nuanced criticism in its way, the Independent Spirit Awards will have their say. The nominations for the slightly left-of-center awards program were announced yesterday, and the unusually stellar lineup provides a nice reminder that the whole “2016 was a disaster at the movies!” narrative only applies to Hollywood studio pictures.
IMDb Sues California Over Law Forcing Site to Remove Actors’ Ages
The closest corollary to Notorious B.I.G.’s dictum advising “never let no one know how much dough you hold” is Hollywood’s absolute commandment to “never let ’em know how old you really are.” Over time, an actor’s real age becomes a jealously guarded secret with the power to instantly push a casting profile from “love interest” to “love interest’s comic-relief parent.” The Internet Movie Database has posed a threat to this lie agreed upon in Tinseltown by adding exact birth dates to actors’ profiles, and the industry has pushed back. Today brings a pushback to that pushback, with the web giant defending their right to let everyone know who’s no longer passing for under 40.
Tippi Hedren Says Alfred Hitchcock Sexually Assaulted Her in New Memoir
Actress Tippi Hedren rose to fame during the ’60s as the leading lady of such late-period Alfred Hitchcock classics as The Birds and Marnie. But in her upcoming memoir Tippi, an excerpt of which has been obtained and reported on by the New York Post, Hedren reveals that that stardom came with a terrible price...