Scoot! Scoot In a Suit!

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Quentin Tarantino's cast of thousands for his Charles Manson movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood has just grown by a Scoot - the one called McNairy, that is. The Halt and Catch Fire actor, who's been in maybe a couple of other projects over the past couple of years (and by 'a couple of" I mean "all the projects, all of them"), has joined the cast to play a fictional person called Business Bob Gilbert, who Deadline describes as "a character in the Western TV show from the time period that is an element of a Pulp Fiction-like tapestry of the summer of 1969 in Los Angeles." (thx Mac) Right now would be a good time to add who else is in the cast but oh my god it's literally everyone, but you can see some of the specific names at the Deadline link though. Anyway this follows up that movie Scoot's starring in opposite Matthias Schoenaerts - it's a good time to Scoot!
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I Am Link

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--- The Last Woman - Granted it's been several years since I have re-read Brian K. Vaughn's glorious comic series Y: The Last Man - a series I can't recommend highly enough to y'all, by the way; I have been blathering on about it ever since, after all - but I have no recollection of ever thinking to myself when the series was fresh in my mind that the role of Yorick's mother would be a hot ticket for a big name when they got around to casting the thing... and yet here we are and there's a rumor going around that the first person attached to the series is no less than Jodie Foster to play Yorick's mom. I mean, great! Jodie is great! Silence of the Lambs is my jam! I'm just wracking my brain to remember the importance of Yorick's Mom and wondering how this might skew the focus of the show, is all.

--- Robot Mama - Shooting has begun on the new Terminator movie, which is being directed by Deadpool's Tim Miller and is being billed as the real official sequel to James Cameron's T2, aka we should forget all those crappy sequels (sorry but you'll have to hold me down and lobotomize Jai Courtney's Almost Naked Scene out of me), and holy shit-balls it's a thrill to see Linda Hamilton playing Sarah Connor again. See the pictures over here, and then stay tuned for pictures of Mackenzie Davis butching it up in a dirty tank-top cuz why not?

--- Fantastic Beasts - About a month ago I told y'all about Lovecraft Country, a horror series being produced by Jordan Peele that's basically giving the Old Ones inventor the anthology treatment. It's based on a 2016 book by Matt Ruff that I have not read. Anyway I guess Peele's involvement is enough to get some awesome and exciting names involved cast-wise, including most enticingly drumroll please Elizabeth Debicki! Elizabeth Debicki versus Cthulhu! Elizabeth Debicki could totally kick Cthulhu's ass, you guys.

--- Grand High Excuse Me - For some reason Hollywood has decided to make a new movie version of Roald Dahl's classic book The Witches when we've already got Nicholas Roeg's practically perfect 1990 version with Angelica Huston - don't ask me. But they are getting Robert Zemeckis to direct it, it looks like, and that's not a bad idea if they have to do this. Zemeckis has had a few years of not-quite-up-to-snuffs but this seems like a possibly good match.I don't know. I don't really let myself get too worked up about remakes anymore - the originals still exist for us to watch. So the question turns to - who would you cast as The Grand High Witch?

--- Hulk Out - You might've already read this since it was making the rounds pretty hard yesterday but Vulture's piece ranking the Marvel Movies by gayness is high hysterical work by good ol' Kyle Buchanan - I laughed mightily and long. I had a hard time picking just one favorite bit but then I realized something even more important...
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You know the world has gone off the deep end when I - we're talking about ME here - had totally forgotten we see Hulk's big ass in Thor Ragnarok pic.twitter.com/JoaxqZ4COS

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) June 20, 2018

--- You Shall Not Pass - There's a documentary about Ian McKellen called McKellen: Playing the Part that's making the rounds starting this week - you can see if it's playing anywhere near you right here - and our pal Nathaniel got to chat with the doc's director for Towleroad, read the interview right here. I saw the doc earlier this week and it's worth checking out if you're a fan of the actor - it reminded me first and foremost what an incredibly brave move it was for him to come out  thirty whole years ago in 1988. Just wow.

--- Tab Up - Last week we heard that the real-world 1950s closeted romance between actors Tab Hunter and Anthony Perkins was getting turned into a movie - this week Attitude caught up with Tab himself and got some good quotes from him on that romance and what we should probably expect from the movie, biographically speaking. It's pretty much like I said - this was not a great romance; I hope the movie stays true to the difficulty of what the two had, even just personality-wise, because that seems more interesting to me than some rose-colored version. (thx Mac)

--- And Finally it's been a very long time since I've done one of these link round-up posts so this news is weeks old, but I can no longer allow MNPP to exist without this news-story written somewhere upon it - Brian De Palma's next movie is going to be a fictionalized and no doubt controversial version of the whole Harvey Weinstein Horror Show. I can't even entirely wrap my head around what that movie will be, but I have already bought my tickets to opening night. In related news and worth reading is BD's recent editorial about how Dressed To Kill is the ultimate American Giallo, which I agree with one thousand percent.

I Like Mike

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Because we were literally just talking about the It: Chapter 2 movie in our last post I considered just updating that one with this new-to-me news, but then I stumbled upon the above picture of the actors Isaiah Mustafa and Matthew Daddario (co-stars in the Shadowhunters series) giving me something fresh to dream about all weekend long and I thought to myself you know what, let's give this its own post. 

The new-to-me news is that Mustafa, probably best known for being the hot guy in all those Old Spice commercials (although his acting career has kept rolling along I see, glancing at his IMDb page now), was hired to play adult Mike in the second It movie - this was announced two weeks ago but I missed it until I saw his name today listed alongside the news that Xavier Dolan's taking on a small but vital role in the sequel. 

Mustafa's Mike completes the adult cast for the Loser's Club, alongside Jessica Chastain as Beverly, James McAvoy as Bill, Jay Ryan as Ben, Bill Hader as Richie, James Ransone as Eddie, and Andy Bean as Stanley. Click on any of those links for our posts, which paint the portrait of a very very sex cast that we're talking about getting traumatized by a floppy clown monster here.

The Queer Killing Clown

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Last August my friend Tom Blunt wrote a gorgeous piece about a deeply disturbing scene in Stephen King's book It where the townspeople of Derry, their minds long poisoned by the ancient evil that pollutes the place and which brought Pennywise along, lose their minds to homophobia and brutally bash a gay man named Adrian Mellon. I can't recommend Tom's piece highly enough - go read it right now. Anyway his main point was that it'd be a crime to slash this sub-plot from the movie version... and now we know they won't be, that the chapter about Mellon will be shot, and that it will star Xavier Dolan in the role!

Dolan isn't that left-field a choice, seeing as how 1) he's gone on the record as a massive fan of the 2017 movie, and 2) he's worked with It: Chapter Two's big star Jessica Chastain (she's playing the adult version of Beverly, the lone girl in the Loser's Club) - Chastain acted in Dolan's not-yet-released film The Death and Life of John F. Donovan... although Dolan recently admitted that Chastain's role ended up on the cutting room floor as he shaped the movie in the editing room. Well let's hope this isn't all a revenge scheme by Chastain where Dolan films this and it ends up getting cut, then!

Glen Powell Six Times

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So who's watched our boy Glen Powell charm up a super-storm in Netflix's just-dropped rom-com Set It Up by now? You, you, you? If you follow me on Twitter you know I did because I semi-live-tweeted the experience...

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I am legitimately upset with this movie now for making a joke out of Glen Powell's sexy short shorts - WE MUST ENCOURAGE SUCH THINGS pic.twitter.com/LArg02Inq5

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) June 20, 2018

... which translates, as you see, to me thirsting for Glen on extreme repeat. As was to be expected, since that's the only reason I watched the damn thing. And I give the film a positive review because it succeeds on that level. (Glen's co-star Zoey Deutch is a total charmer too, though - they have chemistry for miles.)

We're pretty psyched that Glen is breaking out, anyway - we've been running through the streets like it's the end of Invasion of the Body Snatchers shaking strangers and telling them to look to the skies and to look out for Glen, that's he meteoring towards us, and it's nice to've been right. Again.

Anyway this photo-shoot is for Flaunt Magazine - if you click on over there's a chat with the actor (one that will give you the visual of him climbing palm trees in swim-trunks) and also a behind-the-scenes video of this shoot to boot. Now, did somebody say leather pants...

Thursday's Ways Not To Die

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The Lost World: Jurassic Park II (1997)

Let's get something straight - the first Jurassic Park is indeed a perfect film. I would never argue with that assessment. It's far and away the best of the franchise - it's one of the greatest action movies ever made, full stop. But Spielberg's four-year-later sequel has been getting a bad rap this past week, and I won't stand for it. I won't stand for it!

Far darker in tone than the original - it opens with a little girl getting her ankles nipped on by a swarm of razor-toothed scavenger lizards, for god's sake - Spielberg's sequel takes us straight into "A Moveable Feast" territory (Hemingway's story gets an explicit shout-out at one point). The movie is mean and brutal and if you ask me the perfect counter-point to the original's curdled but never-quite-killed optimism. The scene displayed up top, where we watch genial nice-guy Richard Schiff get ripped right the fuck in half as he attempts to have his hero moment is typical of the film's tone - the genetic genie's already been let outta the bottle and it's back for blood. 

The dark thrills of a Saturday Afternoon Matinee Adventure Thriller from ye olden days are on full display - go back and re-watch the scene where the men are picked off in spectacularly brutal fashion in King Kong '33 and you'll see what Spielberg's up to. So no, it might not melt your heart like the 1993 film, but it'll sure leave a mark.

Hit the jump for links to the Previous Ways Not To Die

Five Frames From ?

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What movie is this?

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Good Morning, World

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For some reason Tom Hardy (that would be the actor on the right) posted this picture in color on his Instagram and Greg Williams (that would be the photographer on the left) posted this picture in black and white on his Instagram (see below) - as far as I can tell they're the exact same picture otherwise, although Greg cropped it in a little bit tighter, all the better to immerse yourself in that empty space between the boys where dreams are being made, I guess.

Jamie and the Jets

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All they need to do is hire Jack O'Connell and they'll strike the Twunk Trifecta - the forthcoming Elton John bio-pic called Rocketman that is getting slapped together at last (from Eddie the Eagle director Dexter Fletcher) has just added Jamie Bell to star alongside Taron Egerton in the lead. Jamie will play songwriter Bernie Taupin, who helped Elton put words to a shit-ton of his big hits, and small hits, and not hits - seriously look through this list! They wrote a LOT together. Here they are in 1973:

Izzy Is As Izzy Does Do

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Some movies just depend, hair-do down to toenails and back up again, on their lead actor. On our relationship to the lead actor. Sometimes you just wanna hang out with somebody, ya know? Sometimes that's enough inside the pretend play-palaces of the movie-house - pretending the person up there on the screen is our best friend for ninety or so minutes. And so it goes with Izzy Gets The F*ck Across Town, the new movie out this weekend that gives we the viewers the ultra fine experience of spending eighty-six straight minutes pretending Mackenzie Davis is our bud. I ate it up.

The movie itself is a series of barely strung together vignettes that take our titular Izz from, you guessed it, one side of town - in this case we speak of modern-day Los Angeles, although a little bit magical-realized with its interstitial pink-spiked dream sequences; think Anna Faris and Smiley Face for a good companion - to the other side of town over the course of one day. 

She meets a cast of random characters, played with varying degrees of lackadaisical charm by other actors we just want to hang out, actors like Haley Joel Osment and Alia Shawkat and Annie Potts and LaKeith Stanfield, and at the end of the rainbow some kissing on the swoony Alex Russell. The scenes have nothing to do with one another other than the feeling that hey, it might be fun to watch Mackenzie Davis play off of this other awesome person, and so it is! So it goes. Again and again.

Basically if you ever wanted to stand beside Mackenzie Davis covered in maybe-blood, maybe-booze, and blow smoke in a bitchy jogger's face with a mad-eyed cackle, this movie's for you. It goes down easy as easy is - straight Mackenzie smooth no chaser. And then, and then, there is one absolutely fantastic sequence towards the end that pays off your patient-vibed dividends, involving no less than Carrie Coon, a long sequence of intimate close-ups, and beautiful music made and sung and acted the F*CK out of, and I felt truly special. Izzy, if you wanna make a movie about getting back to the other side of town I'll be your plus one, promises and pinky swears.

IzzIzzy hits theaters this very weekend, 

and you can watch the trailer right here!

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Great Moment in Movie Staches

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I could fill this series a thousand entries strong by just posting about Errol Flynn's mustaches over the years but today, in honor of the 109th anniversary of his birth, let's focus in on the 1939 Western called Dodge City, which was one of the biggest hits at the movies that year and yet you don't hear much about it anymore. It was the seventh time that Flynn co-starred with Olivia De Havilland (out of eight films they made together) -- here's a clip that showcases why the two were so popular (as well as showcasing Errol Flynn in pretty tight cowboy trousers):

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Dodge City was directed by Flynn's frequent collaborator, the psychotically paced director Michael Curtiz - Dodge is wedged right between The Adventures of Robin Hood in '38 and The Private Lives of Elizabeth & Essex later in '39, which I consider probably Flynn's two most important films. That said I never hear anybody talk about DC nor have I seen it myself - of course I'm not the world's biggest connoisseur of Westerns, my least favorite genre give or take a couple grand exceptions. If you've seen it how does it stack up?

We All Need Good Manners Right Now

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I have terrific news for any of you who like horror movies, or good movies, or good horror movies, or interesting foreign films, or interesting films, or musicals, or good interesting foreign horror musical fables about lesbian werewolves - boy have I ever got good news for the folks that fall into that last grouping since I am pretty sure that until now you've been criminally under-served. The Brazilian film Good Manners is all of those things and it is getting a U.S. release! It's opening here in NYC on July 27th and then a couple weeks later in LA, with more cities they say to follow. The film follows a poor nurse hired to be a wealthy woman's nanny, and then the full moon comes and things get weird real fast...

I saw the film when the Film Society of Lincoln Center screened it as part of their "New Directors / New Films" series earlier this year - I just never got a chance to review it because that screening was right in the middle of the Tribeca Film Festival and I was bonkers busy. But it's excellent - totally unique, and unforgettable. You are not going to want to miss this one! Here's the trailer...

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Justin Theroux Five Times

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Justin is covering Men's Health for what, the twentieth time, this month - we're not complaining. Justin looks Healthy. If you'd like to read the interview with him click here, or if you'd just like to stare at his beard & biceps a bunch hit the jump...

Five Frames From ?

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What movie is this?

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