Where Are the Musicals? (Part Two)

Last week I thought I was being a little bit overdramatic when I started worrying about the absence of future movie musicals. But maybe I wasn't dramatic enough. Is it time for panicked hysteria? Just ten years into the genre's spectacular rebirth -- which I trace back to the 1-2-3-4 spectacular punch of Dancer in the Dark (00), Moulin Rouge! (01), Hedwig (01) and Chicago (02) -- it seems to be dying again.

I read today that plans for Hairspray 2 have been halted. It's not often you hear of sequel ideas to hit films being cast aside. Adam Shankman's statement about the dead sequel sounds rational on the surface:

That got killed. I was so happy with the first one, let's leave well enough alone. It's all good.

Since when were Hollywood types ever all zen about the "leave well enough alone". They live for easy money and what is easier than getting a big opening weekend out of pre-sold popularity be it through sequels, remakes, reboots or reinterpretations? Hollywood (speaking generally of course) never has original ideas. What's more they're usually spectacularly proud of their insistence on repeating themselves.

The only musical in development that's getting discussed lately is a remake of My Fair Lady. A remake.

Even weirder and more worrying is that Universal reportedly decided against a Mamma Mia! sequel (2008) even though ABBA has a thousand other great songs that could be similarly massacred for coin if such a film were to exist. I never in a million years thought I'd be freaked out about that decision, "Hooray!" being the only sane response. But I can't recall one time in the history of ever that a major studio has decided not to make a sequel to a movie that grossed over half a billion dollars.

All right... I exaggerate a little. But I'm scared because I love my song & dance. Mamma Mia! is currently the 50th highest grosser ever worldwide*. As it turns out, there are a few higher grossers that don't have sequels (yet) or weren't sequels to begin with. Of the other 49 the stand-alones are (in descending order)

• Avatar (sequel in development)
  
• Titanic (a wee problem called historical accuracy prevented sequels)
• Finding Nemo
• Independence Day
• E.T. The Extra Terrestrial
  
• 2012
  
• Up
• Forrest Gump
• The Sixth Sense
• Kung Fu Panda (the sequel arrives next year)
  
• The Incredibles
• Hancock
• Ratatouille
• The Passion of the Christ
  

That's fourteen other movies, a few of which will undoubtedly get sequels. It seems like the only reason a hit movie doesn't get a sequel is if its lead character dies, or if it stars Will Smith (two examples there, but isn't he his own franchise? Maybe those are sequels) or if it's made by Pixar and isn't named "Toy Story".

If Wicked needs bankable 20something stars,
Anne Hathaway & Amanda Seyfried can both sing.

All of this, plus the weird absence of money-magnet "Wicked" in Hollywood's current Oz-mania production slate, is really getting to me. The stage show's cumulative gross is approaching half a billion dollars (it's currently at $469 million and it still earning over a million a week) Why wouldn't Hollywood be rushing to capitalize on it?

I'm officially very worried. It's too easy to blame it on Nine which cost a fortune (What did they spent the money on? It takes place on a stage! How did that cost $30 million more to make than Mamma Mia! or Sweeney Todd?).Perhaps the problem is actually Sweeney Todd. It earned $152 million worldwide which sounds like a decent amount... until you stop to consider what Burton/Depp pairings usually make.

You'd think it'd be an ideal time to grow a hit musical. The past ten years should be seen as ample fertilizer: the genre has produced hits, several song and/or dance adept celebrities have become much more famous/bankable (Hathaway, Jackman, Harris, Chenoweth, Tatum, Seyfried), musical theater stars have started to gain more fame outside of New York than they have in some time (Cheyenne Jackson, Jane Krakowski, Audra McDonald, Lea Michelle, Idina Menzel) and then there's a little something called Glee on TV. Maybe you've heard of it?

Greenlight some musicals, suits! Just make sure they don't cost as much as Nine so you have a chance at a profit. That shouldn't be hard. It's not like Sweeney Todd looked bad for $30 million less. It looked great. It just didn't sound that way.

*none of these figures are adjusted for inflation. The biggest musical hit of all time (and the third biggest hit of any type ever) is The Sound of Music (1965) which made over a billion dollars in today's numbers.

Link Crazy Pt. 1: Casting Special

EW Linda Hamilton, our favorite Terminator, joins Showtime's Weeds. Does this mean we need to start watching again?
Black Book "The sort of return of Mark Hamill"
OMG the next time someone wants to reshoot Psycho, how about puppets in the lead roles?
THR Three Musketeers (3D) cast getting bigger. Juno Temple (newly in demand, apparently) may play queen.
MTV Somebody cast Adam Rosenberg in a Willow (1988) reboot, like now
First Showing Will Smith rejected the role. It now looks like Terrence Howard may get 'Sexual Healing' ♫ is something that's good for me ♪ as Marvin Gaye for Cameron Crowe's upcoming biopic
Filmofilia Ewan McGregor for Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote

Did you get a chance to see Chris Klein's Mamma Mia! audition before it got pulled? It's resurfaced for the moment at Crushable. I almost didn't mention it out of pity but it is such a train wreck but the Videogum writeup was so funny

...there isn’t any cocaine left, because Chris Klein did it all.

And it only pushes all my buttons for Hollywood's carelessness with musicals as well as the blink and you miss it stardom of so many young actors. I was discussing this with Joe Reid yesterday and marvelling that anything went for Mamma Mia!'s casting team. They would obviously let anyone audition, given that on the evidence of the film, they didn't care about the vocal quality. Quoth Joe "like, cast people who can't sing, fine, but cast people who can't sing and are also not box-office draws? WTF?" Streep & Seyfried excepted, of course.
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60 Appropriate Ways to Celebrate Meryl Streep Month

Happy 60th Birthday to Meryl Streep

1. Be your very best
2. Be dramatically potent.
   
3. ... then unexpectedly hilarious.
   
4. Fake a new accent every hour.
   
5. Imitate the dial tone on your phone.
   
6. Run around like a joyful madwoman with your hands in the air, stopping only to kiss people.
7. Run around like a joyful madwoman whilst singing your favorite ABBA song.
8. Accentuate your WASPiness... (or fake it).
   
9. Stay married to the same person for decades, confounding Hollywood protocol.
   
10. Pretend your significant other is a sculptor, make them use their hands.
11. Befriend Cher.
12. Watch Kramer vs. Kramer again.
13. Watch Angels in America again.
14. Consider yourself overrated... "but not today!"
    
15. Be highly quotable.
    
16. Memorize the entire Miranda Priestley "Cerulean" monologue.
    
17. Ask your best friends to call you "Mary Louise" for the remainder of the week.
18. Stweep!
19. Give to charities.
    
20. Sing more spectacularly than is humanly fair considering all of your other talents.
    
21. Watch Julia to see how it all began.
    
22. Say "That's ridiculous" with a Polish accent all day.
23. Visit Simply Streep and Meryl Streep Online.
24. Idolize your mama.
25. Make out with someone who looks like Robert Redford, Bobby DeNiro, Kevin Kline, Kurt Russell or Alison Janney
26. Send mixed messages to someone who looks like Jeremy Irons
    
27. Enjoy Silkwood all over again.
28. Flash your left tit and laugh about it.

29. Appreciate one of her rare underappreciated performances like the one in A Prairie Home Companion.
30. Stare off into space while dreaming of that farm in Africa, the French Resistance, your life as a singer, Virginia Woolf, the drugs you wish you were on or that French Lieutenant who will never return.
31. Wear a Vassar t-shirt.
32. ...or Yale paraphernalia
    
33. Pretend you've won an Oscar.
34. ...and another.
    
35. Pretend you've won a third since you deserve it.
36. Polish Meryl's star at 7018 Hollywood Blvd.
37. Stare at the sea provocatively whilst practicing "Obscure Melancholia"
38. Speak highly of New Jersey
    
39. Take your family white water rafting.
    
40. Watch Out of Africa again (you haven't seen it since the 80s).
    
41. Lighten the room when you walk in.
    
42. End your conversations with a dismissive "that's all".
43. Work towards making lots of "All Time Great" lists in whatever it is that you do.
    
44. ...actually deserve the honor.
45. Don't take yourself too seriously.
    
46. Proclaim "the dingoes got my baby!"
47. Have some cream of watercress.
    
48. Mix a drink for your friends (or frenemies) and pretend it's an immortality potion.
49. Be a legendary household name whilst avoiding any personal drama.
50. ...stop to consider and then appreciate how truly difficult that is to do.
    
51. Read up a little on the amazing Julia Child before Meryl's next picture Julie & Julia arrives.
52. Take a hot bath and fantasize about Clint Eastwood.
53. Make your significant other wash your hair outdoors.
54. Play dress up like Sophie or Kate Gulden
    
55. Be proudly liberal and politically active.
    
56. Make the world a better place.
    
57. Inspire future generations in your field.
58. Raise talented children
59. Age more spectacularly than a good wine.
    
60. Share this tribute post & video with Meryl-loving friends!
    

THAT'S ALL.
Click here for full blog / fresh posts
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The BAFTA Nominations for 2008 and The Madhouse Act of 1828

Trivia Time! It's been 180 years since an Act of the British Parliament allowed for the building of mental asylums. The first ever built was the 1st Middlesex County Asylum in West London which opened its doors in 1831. The British invented insane asylums! Who knew? And yet it all makes sense...

177 years later, ancestors of those first Middlesex patients voted on the nominations for the British Academy Film Awards (or BAFTA or "The Orange Film Awards" --make up your minds!) honoring the films of 2008. Gemma Arterton ("Strawberry Fields" in the latest Bond film) and Hayley Atwell (The Duchess) made the announcements which were... _ _ _ _ _ _.

(You saw where that was going I hope. Good.)

Years ago I paid no mind to these particular awards and, scanning over this year's nominees, I think I was probably of sound mind back then. Somewhere along the line, I lost my resistance to them -- I think it was when Kate Winslet won a prize and thanked Peter Jackson for discovering her? (It's all Heavenly Creatures fault!) -- and I have lived to curse my interest in them ever since. I grew deeply suspicious of the Orange Film Awards when they changed their schedule to become an Oscar precursor. Must everything be about the Oscars? You don't see the Goyas (Spain) or the Cesars (France) trying to predict American film prizes! Now I'm not suspicious so much as perplexed.

If you want their full list you can click on the link above but let's just talk Picture & Acting

Best Film

• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Reader and Slumdog Millionaire

Outstanding British Film

• Hunger, In Bruges, Mamma Mia!, Man on Wire and Slumdog Millionaire
  

I list these two categories together because I think it's odd and sad that they have a Best Picture prize and then a sort of ugly stepsister category to honor their own artists. ("Odd" wouldn't be the right word if we're talking more specifically about Mamma Mia!'s nomination. What is this, the British People's Choice Awards?)



Shouldn't the main prize "Best Film" be honoring their own films, the way virtually every country's academy does, responding first to their own productions while making room for the occasional import they really loved? The way their system is structured now they're basically telling you that the only film they made this year as good as an American film is Slumdog Millionaire and that's a) not remotely true since Hunger & In Bruges and the egregiously snubbed Happy-Go-Lucky are all pretty damn good pictures b) curiously self-loathing and c) inversely funny since the American Academy has often been accused of having Anglophilia. The grass is always greener I guess.

Side note 1: Despite's Milk's Best Picture nomination, they showed no real enthusiasm. Only four noms (Pic, Screenplay, Lead Actor and Hair/Makeup)

Side note 2: Has any film in history as unpassionately received as Frost/Nixon been so unanimously embraced by so many disparate awards bodies? It's a head scratcher. I haven't met anyone who hates it and a lot of people seem to think it's good and quite entertaining (myself included) but Best Picture every single time? What's more it has achieved this breezy awards champ status without public support -- It's made less than 8 million at this writing which is very low for an eventual Best Picture nominee, even if you're only looking at box office prior to nominations. (The lowest grossing future BP nominee in the past 2o years was Clint Eastwood's Letters From Iwo Jima with only $2 million in the bank prior to its nomination. But that was an Eastwood picture and the normal rules don't really apply).

I know, I know... only 10 pictures were actually released in 2008 so I guess the chances for Frost/Nixon were like 50/50 [*snort*]

It gets worse.

Leading Actor

• Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
• Dev Patel, Slumdog Millionaire
• Sean Penn, Milk
• Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

Leading Actress

• Angelina Jolie, Changeling
• Kristin Scott Thomas, I've Loved You So Long
• Meryl Streep, Doubt
• Kate Winslet, The Reader
• Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road

The best that can be said here is that they've put lead categories into a lead race (imagine that!). The worst that can be said is that the presence of Dev Patel definitely casts doubt on standard American perceptions that British actors are super serious about their craft.

We always marvel (rightly, I'd wager) that most of their stars actually train to act, rather than just show up at auditions hoping to be famous. But this is another reminder that acting well and judging artistic efforts are different skills. I wonder if Dame Judi Dench actually thought Dev Patel gave a stronger performance than Michael Fassbender in Hunger? Blargh!


I just don't have time for BAFTA anymore. At least if Patel gets nominated at the Oscars (likely) he'll be demoted to Supporting where they'll often nominate someone on the sole basis of their cuteness or luck at appearing in a popular film -- it's vaguely expected.

Supporting Actor

• Robert Downey Jr. Tropic Thunder
• Brendan Gleeson, In Bruges
• Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt
• Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
• Brad Pitt, Burn After Reading

Supporting Actress

• Amy Adams, Doubt
• Penélope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
• Freida Pinto, Slumdog Millionaire
• Tilda Swinton, Burn After Reading
• Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler

Oh, BAFTA. Art is subjective so I hate to make crass generalizations but anyone who thinks Freida Pinto is a better actress than Viola Davis probably has no business passing out awards in film excellence. Am I wrong? I mean, if you saw Doubt, what's your excuse?

P.S. I love beautiful people. They're wonderful to look at. I actually think we should have more ridiculously beautiful people in the movies and Pinto's pure loveliness is actually sort of jaw dropping. But hear me out. Just add a "Most Desirable" category like they used to do at the MTV Movie Awards. I mean... since that's how you wanna roll. I think Keanu Reeves is one of the most beautiful men ever projected on the silver screen but you don't see me handing him Best Actor prizes.

Beauty is its own reward. Shouldn't it remain so?

P.S. 2 New readers should note that I am not always this crabby. BAFTA nominations merely make me long for padded cells... (it's safer to bang your head against the wall that way). I promise to be less filled with bile next week. Er... that's when the Oscar nominations come out. Uhhhh, I take that back.

P.S. 3 Oscar Predictions updates are coming tonight.
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Get Off My Link

Goatdog a top ten list. But not the kind you usually get. Top ten rentals. I love this list
Word Smoker a sharp 'five second review' of Let the Right One In
In Contention the makeup finalists for Oscar. I think this is the first year where they can't embarrass themselves with their final nominees. These are all good choices.
The Flick Filosopher "the merely very good movies of 2008"
Cinema Styles talks about the Supporting and Lead categorizations and what they mean in terms of Protagonist/Antagonist. Interesting stuff and not as strident as I get ;)


Stop Smiling looks back at their year of film reviewing
Welcome to LA the joy in revisiting Bonnie & Clyde. Mmmmmm, Bonnie & Clyde.
NY Post Josh Brolin at the NYFCC awards... drunk
Antagony on the OFCS nominations
The Hot Blog Poland's top ten (with a fun hat tip to Mamma Mia! -- no, really)
Lazy Eye Theater the 20 Actress meme continues... only this time with redheads
ModFab geeks out over the forthcoming Caprica series (Battlestar Galactica prequel of sorts)

Pet Peeves and Dishonors

Year in Review: Part 2 of 5

I had to stretch to find unworthy characters for my 2008 Cinematic Hall of Shame list. I skipped most of those movies you might find below 30% on the tomatometer for example. But I found a few things to poke a stick at nonetheless. Read it and weep.

<-- That's better! Stop Edward's pervy staring and Bella's endless moping and Twilight immediately becomes more bearable.

[pet peeve tangent] I really hate the Twilight logo. On its on it's totally attractive/cute but how does it properly represent the book/movie? What is that dangling curlicue g for anyway? It makes the property look fanciful/playful not mopey/romantic. It suggests nothing so much as the dangling lightning bolt "P" in the book/movie the media loves to compare Twilight too. Yes, it screams 'You'll like this as much as you like Harry Potter! We hope!!!' Aside from moody teenagers what do those franchises really have in common anyway in terms of temperament? [/tangent]

On the Hall of Shame page, you'll find that one of the normal fields (the pet peeves chart) is empty this year. I'm going to let you fill it out. Load up these comments with minor moments, characters, films, thingamajigs, trends and whatever that you found most annoying in 2008 movies and I'll fill in the chart with some of the best ones. Type a name (quit going "anonymous") and you'll get credit on the page if I use it.
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Golden Globe Giggles

NEW PODCAST

This week's podcast isn't an interview, it's a free for all. Joe of Low Resolution, Nick of Nick's Flick Picks, Katey of Cinema Blend and myself gab about last week's mad rush of precursor awards and nominations. Topics blur and slam together, curious cases abound and new ways to honor Clint Eastwood are dreamt up. We get loopy. I get whiny. Joe recruits for Team Jolie and begs Meryl and Kate to reach across the aisle. Katey drinks Milk and refuses to love The Reader. Nick sneezes with pandas and makes a startling Best Pic prophecy. It's 45 minutes of rambling awards chatter. Intermission and popcorn not included.

Two listening options for ya: iTunes enhanced podcast or a standard mp3
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"Meanwhile..."

While I work on some articles, please solve these recent off-screen mysteries in the comments:

• <-- How long do you suppose "Sophie and Sky" stayed together after that wedding ceremony wrapped in Mamma Mia! and what scenic destinations did they hit before the split?
• What happened to The Joker after Batman ran off in The Dark Knight ?
  
• How long did it take Carrie Bradshaw to fill that cavernous lighted walk in closet in Sex & The City?
• What was Maria Elena (Penélope Cruz) doing during the first half of Vicky Cristina Barcelona (which I've come to think of as Maria Elena Barcelona --haven't you)? Maybe she told us and I've forgotten but, even so, would you trust her with any recap of events?
  

Dark Mamma

.

As my illustrious colleague Robert just illustrated, there are movie choices this weekend to be made. I mean, from where I stand the only choice was when and how many times would I be seeing The Dark Knight (answer: not until tomorrow, and then I'll decide), but I understand there are other movies coming out, including this Mamma Mia! thing which some people seem to be excited over. So I ask you, my moviegoing compatriots: What will you be watching this weekend? Will it be Mamma Mia! or The Dark Knight, or perhaps Mamma Mia! and The Dark Knight, or something else altogether...

And then, once you have seen either/or/neither, do come back and tell us what you thought! Even if you don't see anything. Personally I'd love to hear what hours of watching paint dry looks like. Or maybe you'll stoop really low on the desperation ladder and read a book, or - and I shudder at the thought - go outdoors and enjoy the weather. Gasp! Never.
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Mamma Mia! Do Dump or Marry!

JA here. Over at MNPP I've got a series called "Do, Dump or Marry." It's a familiar game that sometimes goes under alternate titles (for example, the charming variation "F@ck, Kill or Marry"); basically, you choose three people, usually in my experience celebrities, that everyone else must then decide which of the three they would Do (as in spend one single night of sexy-times with), which they would Dump (as in kick to the curb), and which they would Marry (as in bind one's self and one's belongings into a legal contract of conjugal bliss with for the rest of your living life).

It occured to me this morning that Mamma Mia! is basically Meryl Streep's cinematic sing-songy version of this game. Oh I haven't seen the film yet, nor have I seen the musical the movie's based on, and from what I gather vis-à-vis the trailer Meryl's already had the sex with all three suitors... so it's kind of a whack-a-mole romp of paternity-test wackiness in which Amanda Seyfried is the hammer and the mole is one of these fellas sperm. Or something. Am I getting my analogies crossed?

Point being, I'm assuming Meryl's got to choose which of these men she wants to bone indefinitely. Just like Do, Dump, or Marry! So let's all pretend we're Meryl Streep - this certainly wouldn't be the first time I'll have pretended that - and we have to choose the same thing. Fun times were had by all. Instead of our choices being whatever characters these guys are playing though, we're choosing which actor we'd Do, we'd Dump, and we'd Marry. Our choices then drumroll please:


Pierce Brosnan - Yeah, he was James Bond. More importantly? He was Remington effing Steele! Though to be honest, the image that always immediately pops into my head when Pierce's name comes up is him being beaned in the head with a lemon by a be-dragged Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire. My mother LOVED that movie and I saw it like once a week as a teenager due to her obsession.


Colin Firth - Yeah, he was Mr. Darcy. He walked out of a pond and crap. That appears to drive people bonkers. I haven't seen it. I have seen him slap-fight with Hugh Grant though! That was cute.

Stellan Skarsgård - Yeah, he was... um... in a lot of worth-your-time movies! Arty, difficult films that come from dark, Norwegian places. Also, Deep Blue Sea. Where he was used as an underwater projectile by one of the super-smart sharks to smash through a window.


Man I love that movie. Shark-snark aside, Skarsgård's a terrific actor. (Even if he does do silly leg lifts on posters...)

Okay, we have our choices. Brosnan. Firth. Skarsgård. Go forth, comment-ward, tally ho and whatnot; choose. If you need me, I'll be dumping them all and taking a dip with Dominic Cooper...

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My Mama Mia Conundrum

Rob here from The Country Fair and the Circus. I know I promised Nathaniel that I wouldn't use the guest-blogging as my own personal therapist's couch but I need to come to terms with something that's been bugging me lately.


Stellan... we need to talk.

I'm not sure why you decided to take a part in the Mama Mia movie. Perhaps you just wanted to change it up and do something silly. Perhaps you were tired of still being a "that guy" even after your stint in the Pirates movies. Truth is, I don't know... so I don't judge.

You had to know that Pierce and Colin would be getting billed above you, but I'm sure it still stung when some trailers and commercials ignored you entirely. It's as if they were saying, "who is Amanda Seyfried's dad? hunky Pierce? dreamy Colin? Or... oh man, hope it's not "that guy."

So I can only assume you were trying to make yourself stand out a bit when you decided to do this:


Now maybe it was the photographer's idea, I understand. But you could have said "no." I mean, you're a respectable actor. You've been in Lars von Trier movies.

Which brings me to my next point. No one who's been in three or more Lars von Trier movies should ever be allowed to do this:


How am I supposed to watch Dogville now? I mean it's a harmless, kitchy film on it's own, but now every time I see you perpetrating unspeakable acts upon Nicole Kidman I'm going to think of this:


Truth is, I've been having trouble not thinking of it, say... every time I close my eyes. Seriously Stellan, give me a call. I think we need to talk through this.

Merry Christmas!

Amanda Seyfried and Meryl Streep would like to wish you and yours very Happy Holidays from the premiere of Mamma Mia!

Wait... what?
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Who's Your Daddy, Amanda?

Amanda Seyfried has no manners. Amanda Seyfried doesn't even say "please". Entitled much? Young Hollywood power players have no manners. It's all Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!

While watching the video above I couldn't help but think through Amanda's movie dilemma. Amanda has three daddys!

Who's your daddy?


If you had that problem...

poll by twiigs.com

Choose carefully. These are not interchangeable men.

P.S. 1 I entered this Mamma Mia! contest last week. I've always wanted to go on a cruise. The gods of blogging should just deliver this win unto me. They should. You know I would repay them by blogging from the ocean inbetween margaritas, lame cabaret shows and shuffling. The cruise goes from London to Vicky Christina Barcelona and you know I'd find the appropriate movies to write about. Oh please deliver this win unto me. I'm saying three Hail Mary Pickfords. I'm not Catholic but that's what you do, right?

P.S. 2 Mamma Mia! opens in three weeks. I'll be on that cruise in ten if the gods of blogging are kind.


P.S. 2 No write in votes for Dominic Cooper please. Padded swim trunks aside, he's Amanda's eventual babydaddy --not the daddy.

P.S. 3 Come here more often people. Subscribe!

Linkwood Forest

Coming Soon casting rumors abound for Ridley Scott's Robin Hood
Fin de Cinema is it a lie when they say there aren't any good roles for women?
Modern Tonic has a cruise contest (win a cabin for two) from Barcelona to London for Mamma Mia!
Arbogast on Fu Manchu
NY Post Jane Fonda on her love life
Deadline Hollywood Nailed, David O. Russell's first feature since I Y Huckabees, is shut down... AGAIN. If you need me I'll be over here crying. Love his movies I do.
StinkyLulu profiles a performance I dearly love: Olivia DeHavilland in Gone With the Wind
Bright Lights After Dark on M Night Shyamalan @ 'the troph of ego'
Hollywood Elsewhere revives an old argument about Eyes Wide Shut. I very much agree.

Question: Entries to the Batman (1966) Blu Ray giveaway (entries due tomorrow) have been uncharacteristically sparse. No blu-ray player? If so I sympathize. Can't give up my DVDs just yet.

One Last First Thing: Not that I care. I had a miserable time participating last year but be very afraid: Bizarro Days (blog-a-thon) are upon us again.


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ABBA: The Movie (1977)

A Reader Request (Long time in coming...and Happy Birthday Stephen G!)

I should warn you up front: Jeg elsker ABBA! [imagine beating cartoon hearts here] I just love them. And not in the way most people do, bopping around ironically or with retro amusement to "Dancing Queen" or "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!". I mean I actually love ABBA. I'd make them breakfast in the morning. My love isn't camp-based or fleeting or based on one fun song. I know their first and last names. I've listened to Swedish interviews. I've seen all of their videos. I've bought box sets. I think they're musical geniuses... possibly the most perfect pop group that ever existed. Despite my ABBAlicious feelings, I've never seen this movie.

So I've decided to share the experience with you as I live it. Live Blogging.

Benny, Björn, Agnetha and Frida's pre-show jitters

Why haven't I seen it? Well, I'm allergic to director Lasse Halström (Chocolat, The Cider House Rules, The Shipping News) and I blame ABBA for setting him loose on the world. This was his first major film you see. I have also avoided the smash Broadway jukebox musical Mamma Mia! I considered it blasphemy when it premiered and reviews didn't endear me to it. The plotline alone gives me hives: a young girl wants her father to walk her down the aisle but her mom was a big whore and it could be any one of three men; They all come to her wedding in Greece. What is this Lace: The Musical !?!

That being said, my genuine unshakeable delight in Meryl Streep, especially when she's singing, has prompted me to set all my qualms aside and be excited for the movie version. I like the idea of Streep as a former floozy with a daughter who looks just like yummy Amanda Seyfried.

Read the Rest...

Does Your Mother Know that you read and comment on this blog?
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2008 The Girlie Show ?

I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with last minute 2007 releases and upcoming awardage decisions --so many strong movies this year. How will I choose the filmbitch awards? So to play hooky from my "duties" I'm watching trailers for next year. After this manly holiday season of No Country for Old Men, demon barbers, There Will Be Blood, and Will Smith as the only person alive, next year is looking pretty girly.

clockwise from top left: Mamma Mia, Sex & The City, The Accidental Husband, and 27 Dresses




I have intense reservations about all of these and I fully expect to hate one of them, but for easy to identify reasons (Umaphilia, Streep, Marsden, SJP) I'm eager to see them, too.

One more thing: For reasons I shan't understand ever, the international trailer for Mamma Mia (below, thx) is more Meryl focused. Therefore better. What -- they don't think Americans worship LaStreep? Are they daft?

Say What? Mamma Meryl

I asked you to amuse us with a caption or dialogue for this still from next summer's ABBA musical Mamma Mia. By popular demand the winner is Kurtis ...
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But we also have to give it up for Vince's...
Meryl: Fernando, honey, I know we're on a budget here, but isn't it time we broke down and bought a back scratcher? Something smaller and portable?

psssst. ABBA week is coming in mid September. Why? Who knows really ... just humor me

Mamma Mia! Here Streep Goes Again

It's all Meryl Streep all the time here at the Film Experience. What is going on? News is just in that Streep has taken the lead role in Mamma Mia (formerly rumored for Michelle Pfeiffer) a film adaptation of the long running Broadway musical that basically caused the über annoying "jukebox" musical phenomenon on Broadway. I've never seen the show because I love ABBA too much and I love the Broadway musical too much to combine them --something about it just freaks me out.


I will however see the movie because I can't get enough of Meryl's pipes which are just phenomenal in Ironweed, Silkwood, Postcards From The Edge, and A Prairie Home Companion. Forgotten musical fact: Meryl really wanted the lead in Evita which, after years in development hell, finally went to Madonna.

Meryl has to be the busiest fiftysomething in Hollywood. Check out her IMDB page which lists an incredible 8 upcoming films and that's not even counting Mamma Mia. Oscar #3 here she comes.

The Pfeiffer Takes It All

What the f*** is going on? No Michelle Pfeiffer news for years and now it just doesn't let up. A star on the walk of fame, new production stills, magazine covers, press releases, a Stardust website. And still more casting rumors: Next up Mamma Mia: The Movie? I'm just going to pretend that our blog-a-thon sent this Pfeiffer-Mania surging across the country to Hollywood. I better see my name in the 'thank you's when the credits scroll.