I Am Link

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--- X Junior - Noah Hawley, who has delivered unto the world two phenomenal seasons of television with Fargo, is setting his sights on super-men next - he's executive producing Legion, an X-Men spin-off series that will star Dan Stevens as Professor Charles Xavier's previously unmentioned son. (thanks Mac) I've come to like Stevens very much thanks to The Guest, but the real casting coup here if you ask me is Jean Smart, who's co-starring. Designing Woman in the house! Seriously though she deserves awards for what she did on Fargo last year.
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--- Never Let Her Go - If one were to scour back through our archives one would 1) be nuts and 2) discover that for a very long time I did not like Keira Knightley. I found her jaw-centric acting style irritating. That changed with Never Let Me Go in 2010, which I think she's really very lovely in, and ever since I usually like her; indeed it made me go back and revisit stuff like Pride & Prejudice and see her work with new eyes. Anyway it makes sense to me then that it would be Never Let Me Go director Mark Romanek who'd come to her defense first in the wake of Begin Again director John Carney's nasty comments (he said she's no actress, just a model) and make me agree with the nicer side. Keira's good people - you leave her be, ya big meanie; I don't want to sour towards Once.

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--- The Darko Boy - I'm not sure why they're chatting with Jake Gyllenhaal about Donnie Darko - its fifteenth anniversary isn't until October - but here's a clip of EW chatting with him as he reminisces on the film. I haven't watched it yet so somebody tell me if he has anything to say on the great big black hole that Richard Kelly's fallen into.

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--- F Is For Fake - I knew I had posted about this project previously but it took me forever to find the previous post -- once upon a time Nicole Holocener was making a movie starring Julianne Moore as the real-world literary forger Lee Israel, based on her autobiographical book Can You Ever Forgive Me. Neither of those ladies are attached any more, but two other terrific ladies now are -- Melissa McCarthy is going to star and Diary of a Teenage Girl director Marielle Heller is going to direct! This could end up being a very different film? But probs still great.
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--- Dying For Debicki - I don't recall having heard that Elizabeth Debicki had been cast in a role in the Guardians of the Galaxy sequel but apparently she had been, quite awhile back, which is terrific news - I like Debicki very much. (PS I always call her "Debicki" in my head so I think that might become our short-hand from now on.) Anyway The Playlist has some info on who the Big Bad is going to be in the sequel (spoilery, obviously) and they think that this is the role that Debicki's playing, which makes sense, given the character's description. Debicki & Blanchett playing Big Bads in Marvel movies - well now I am impatiently awaiting Isabelle Huppert showing up in Black Panther to complete the Maids triumvirate.
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--- Luck Be A Laddie - Showing a strange hardly-ever-adhered-to dedication to The Stage, the Tony-winning dude who directed a recent stage version of Guys & Dolls has been hired to direct the film version of Guys & Dolls. I know this isn't usually my wheelhouse (honestly I have never even see any version of G&D) but once upon a time Jake Gyllenhaal was rumored to want to make this movie so I still pay attention for some bizarre lingering reason. Last thing we'd heard casting-wise it was supposed to be Channing Tatum & Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the leading man roles but I'd be surprised if that's still the case.
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--- Forever Glow - Slip into your brightest pink leotard and tumble into my heart - the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling are coming back, kind of! The woman behind Orange is the New Black is staging a fictionalized comedy series based on my beloved childhood fave GLOW for Netflix. It will be ten episodes, and it will tell the story of an out-of-work actress in Los Angeles finding "one last attempt to live her dreams." And those dreams apparently include sweaty lycra. As most dreams do.

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---  Slaughter High - I've been saying for years now that the team producing the new Friday the 13th movies have got their collective heads crammed up their collective arses - making a Friday the 13th movie is not rocket science and nobody coming to see the movie is asking for rocket science. Put Jason Voorhees in a camp and commence slaughter of sexy teenagers, the end. Why they can't figure that out I have no idea. Anyway now they're saying it will be an origin film, but like a whole new origin, having nothing to do with the old origin. Because we care about Baby Jason or something? Ugh, fire all of these people.
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--- And Finally there are far, far worse ways to spend a few minutes... which will inevitably turn into a few more minutes because you want it to... staring at pictures of Marlene Dietrich in the dastardly-delicious double-feature of Morocco and Blonde Venus, so head on over to The Film Experience for this week's episode of "Hit Me With Your Best Shot," which does just that. She has a face meant to be studied. Of course if I'd chosen I might not have been able to help myself, what with prime Gary Cooper slinking around in that uniform the whole time...
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