I Am Link

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--- Jock Joe - Joe Manganiello is going to be filming a movie here in New York this summer! And it's set in the Bronx so I better start scouring the Bronx. It's called Stano and it's about a kid who was a baseball star who made a criminal mistake and got sent to prison for 17 years returning home et cetera et cetera you can probably write the script yourself already. It's from the director of City Island, which did give us this, so keep hope alive.

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--- Killer Queen - Ever since Sacha Baron Cohen bailed on the Freddie Mercury movie because the living members of Queen were interfering with it I've worried that we might be getting a sanded-down version of Freddie's life that omits all the interesting train-wreck stuff about him in order to make the usual "Hey we're singing a song you like!" generic hits-parade thing, and this story here cements all my fears, saying it won't focus on Mercury's personal life at all. What a waste. Do Freddie better, Bryan Singer.
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--- Now With Extra Tower - Apparently the folks behind the Dark Tower movie are still planning on making the TV series attached to the film(s), and now we know a little bit more about it - it will be a prequel focused on Idris Elba's gunslinger, and it will be based on the fourth book of Stephen King's series called Wizard and Glass. And yes their intention is for it to star Idris, who I guess will have to shave and moisturize or something. But hey the more Idris the better! And the less McConaughey the even more better!
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--- Better Happy Than Late - Can you believe I've gone all week without posting - hell without even watching - the trailer for Michael Haneke's new film? You can see the trailer for Happy End right here, if you want to be more thorough than me. I think I'm going to not watch it myself - Haneke's films rely so hard on tone and an accumulation of images that if the trailer flashes anything I'm looking for when I actually watch the film in December I'll just be annoyed.
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--- Greta Is Great - The greatest studio in town ("town" meaning "the world") these days is A24 and they just picked up the first movie from the greatest... well, person. The greatest person named Greta Gerwig. Her first directorial effort called Ladybird which stars Saoirse Ronan and that we told you about right... wait a second!! I just did a search and I've never mentioned this movie on here before! WTF. Well it's a thing, and A24 is releasing it. There, now that that's done...
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--- Snow Balls - Listen, I am looking forward to The Snowman, even if I ragged a little bit on the trailer yesterday. (And not just because the lead is named Harry Hole, either.) Tomas Alfredson directed Let the Right One In and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and those are terrific beautiful movies, and a cast including Michael Fassbender and Rebecca Ferguson and Charlotte Gainsbourg and Toby jones and on and on is a dream. But I am still a little worried that the ominous snow-people shown in the trailer will end up goofy instead of scary, and this ranking of them in The Guardian today is seconding my fears. We will see! I hope in context they work.
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--- Divine Women - I haven't read this myself yet but I think it's a safe bet that as soon as I am done typing this endless post I will be doing just that - Interview Magazine had Laura Dern interview Holly Hunter. A million exclamation points! (thanks Mac) There's also a lovely photo-shoot of Holly there too. I'm super excited to see Holly get lots of love this year after a too long absence from movie screens. We need her!
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--- Snatch Again - A fifth movie version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers is in the works - the dude who wrote The Conjuring 2 just got the writing gig. The Conjuring 2 was decent, so sure, okay. What's your favorite of the movie versions? If you said anything other than the 1978 one, you're wrong. Actually more accurately if you said anything besides the 2007 one, you're right? But I maintain this mostly:

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I don't need another Body Snatchers movie
What I NEED is a second goddamned season of BrainDead

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) July 20, 2017

--- Does The Carpet Match - I've been forgetting to correct this information all week - that hot guy that I told y'all was gonna play Aladdin? Yeah he's not the one. Never listen to a damnw ord I say, people. Disney announced the cast and it's a dude named Mena Massoud who is playing the street rat turned prince. You can read more about it here. Mena is a real looker though! (pic via, thanks Mac)
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--- And Finally the trailer for Todd Haynes' new film Wonderstruck (which reunites him with his eternal muse Julianne Moore - don't go getting any ideas, Blanchett!) has arrived and it's lovely. This movie is the Centerpiece film at the New York Film Festival in October, so I guess I will be seeing it then. I am aware that the reactions in Cannes were mixed but Todd's had all year to rework it, and it looks gorgeous...
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