Shō Me Your Guns, Cosmo Jarvis

Happy news for us Cosmo-heads, as the Lady Macbeth actor Cosmo Jarvis has just lined up an interesting sounding role -- he's playing the co-lead opposite the great and sexy Hiroyuki Sanada in a new miniseries adaptation of James Clavell's 1975 novel Shōgun for FX. There was a miniseries made of this book in 1980 that starred Richard Chamberlain and Toshiro Mifune (mmm) that I have vague childhood memories of but which I haven't thought of since...

... anyone seen it lately? I can't imagine it holding up given the way these kind of white savior narratives have long been told -- stories where the white guy shows up in a different culture and masters the culture better than the people who've built the culture a la The Last Samurai with Tom Cruise. But we seem far more aware of that destructive story-arc now, so I have hopes this will be an updated take. Here's how Deadline describes Shōgun:

"Sanada and Jarvis will play the male leads, Yoshii Toranaga and John Blackthorne, respectively, in the project, which tells the story from both a Western and Japanese perspective... Written by Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo, Shōgun is set in feudal Japan. It charts the collision of two ambitious men from different worlds and a mysterious female samurai: John Blackthorne (Jarvis), a risk-taking English sailor who ends up shipwrecked in Japan, a land whose unfamiliar culture will ultimately redefine him; Lord Toranaga (Sanada), a shrewd, powerful daimyo, at odds with his own dangerous, political rivals; and Lady Mariko, a woman with invaluable skills but dishonorable family ties who must prove her value and allegiance. 

... Sanada’s Yoshii Toranaga is a living legend. He is a powerful daimyo from a feared lineage, isolated and outnumbered by his enemies in Osaka Castle when the story begins. But little does anyone realize that Toranaga is a brilliant strategist, a master of the long game, and the holder of Japan’s ultimate fate. Jarvis’ John Blackthorne is a restless English pilot in search of a destiny far from the world he was born into. His mission is to forge a path into the Pacific islands and disrupt Portuguese and Spanish interests in Japan. But Blackthorne finds more than he bargained for when his ship washes ashore within the territory of Toranaga, a deadly warlord who becomes his captor and spiritual mentor."

They haven't cast the third role, for the female character; the head-writer Justin Marks has credits on the live-action Jungle Book movies and the forthcoming Top Gun sequel so, uhh... we'll withhold judgement. He also did a TV program I've never heard of, something called Counterpart that starred JK Simmons and Olivia Williams? There is so much TV now, you guys. I have no idea. 

Anyway if you're not familiar with Cosmo Jarvis yet it's okay since he hasn't done a ton, but what he has done has made me very curious about what he might be capable of. I already mentioned Lady Macbeth -- Florence Pugh got all of the attention and she deserved it but I wish we'd thrown some of it Jarvis' way too, since I think he one hundred percent holds his own against her there. Since then he's been pretty choosy but in the past year we got to watch him do his fine beefy-weirdo thing in Calm With Horses opposite Barry Keoghan and then again in the eensy little thriller Funny Face, which I wrote about here and which genuinely proved to me that he's the real deal. He does a lot of capital-A Acting in the latter but I kinda loved it? 

I should add in "News I Missed" I see on his IMDb page that Cosmo also has been cast in that forthcoming modernized adaptation of Jane Austen's Persuasion that will star Dakota Johnson and Henry Golding, posted previously about here -- as admitted in that earlier post I have never read Persuasion so I'd just assumed Henry Golding was playing the romantic male lead, named "Captain Frederick Wentworth," but no! It turns out it'll be Cosmo in that role! Okay! I'll enjoy staring at all of these people. On that note there are a few more shots of Cosmo from this photo-shoot I've been sharing above (via) and I will now let us just happily stare at him after the jump...

When We Were Who We Were, Back Then

Time slips, not like water, but like molecules -- it doesn't drop, it dissipates. We're running along on the desert sands of the hourglass in outer space, gravity-less and free floating from moment to moment to moment.  A rock slide around Orion. Think of those rooms at the end of 2001 -- estate rooms, finely wainscoted, enclosing eternity in a series of airless boxes stretching nigh on forever. Life, birth, death, erasure, beginning and end -- where the painting doesn't hang, the discolored spot, is where we stand.

Florian Zeller's The Father surprised me, in great ways, in the ways it ruminates on slippage from the base of its structure -- Anthony Hopkins plays Anthony, an old man losing his bearings in a series of rooms that enter and exit one another inexplicably. Like Bunuel plunked in the blender characters seem to be one person but then they're entirely another -- there's a daughter (Olivia Colman) and another daughter (Olivia Williams) or maybe not, maybe there's no other daughter, or maybe the other daughter is dead, or maybe the other daughter is the new nurse (Imogen Poots), bright-eyed and giggly.

Or maybe not that either. The film does what Christopher Nolan keeps trying and failing at, which is to ever so gingerly reach into our minds and tweak out the corners and meaty pieces of our perceptions, before we even notice what's being done. Time loses all meaning, and then finds more meaning amongst its meaninglessness. We care about Anthony and his daughter(s) fast -- they are funny, kind, human. When they cry we die a little. What better gateway drug into an emotional maelstrom than actual honest-to-goodness caring? Imagine it.

The Father finds plot in its miniature mystery -- a Masterpiece Theater episode of Murder She Wrote meets The Twilight Zone, where our expectations of expectation are vehemently held against us. As soon as we think we've got it sorted out it tosses a wrench or two in, the sets drop their walls, resettle themselves into unsettling configurations. As a person who's wandered my own apartment furious at my keys or my phone which has obviously grown little legs in order to spite me this movie gets it, the rage of age; of the short-cuts we've mentally habituated to over time turning right against us. You walk one hallway enough times, enough years, you stop noticing the hallway, but one day all of a sudden that feels like time travel.

Here I was born, and here I died -- the circle of life might meet back up with itself but only inside our own heads. We're all little gordian knots snowing down from the heavens, self-contained in the prisons of our frayed and frazzled consciousnesses -- panopticons by way of Decepticons; unholy structures burned down to their skeletons staring balefully back. We're running towards the answers to the puzzles of our pillar selves as the roads in front of us and behind us turn to ash. The only place is the place where our feet meet the current moment, but if you drill down to small enough turns out nothing actually meets anything -- there's always some space, insignificant as eternity, in between.

Quote of the Day

.

It's been awhile since I've heard much about Joss Whedon's forthcoming TV series The Nevers (about some proper Victorian ladies who just get super-powered all of a sudden) which I guess has been one of the victims of the COVID shutdown -- they shot five episodes and are currently waiting to get back to it. Anyway what with it being Whedon's birthday today today seems like an alright moment to check in, and James Norton here has given us an in with a new interview over at Collider (thx Mac). We were obviously excited last July when Norton got cast as, as the trades described, "a pansexual posh boy" -- well here's some further elaboration from the man himself:

"If you’ve read the character description, that says it for me, really. It’s the world, it’s Joss, and it’s character. The interesting thing is that I’m still yet to fully learn who Hugo Swann is ‘cause we’re only half-way through. Part of the processes is the actual making and telling of the story, and so much of his journey is still to come. I’ll be better positioned to answer that question in a few months time. The great thing about Joss is that he’s all about character, so you’ve got this incredibly larger than life, very big, playful character who’s pansexual and sex-crazed, and he runs this club. It’s all very big and delicious and gaudy. If it was in the hands of a different director or writer, I’d be a bit more wary. But the great thing about Joss is that you can be assured that he’s all about character, so there will always be a heart and a soul and a subtext underneath the fun and the theatricality. You can really chew on something fun and outlandish, and at the same time, find an inner rootedness and a quality that Joss will never, ever let you deny. Like I said, I’m still working out this madman that is Hugo Swann, but it’s been a joy so far."

Never Say Nevers

.

The wait on Joss Whedon's new one has been so stretched out that I keep forgetting it's even there -- called The Nevers it's about "a gang of Victorian women who find themselves with unusual abilities, relentless enemies, and a mission that might change the world," so basically a Steampunk Buffy of sorts, is my guess. Dr. Who meets Charlie's Angels! I'm just spitballing. Anyway EW has revealed the majority of the show's cast all of a sudden, so the wait time has snapped back -- read them all here, but the highlights for me are the perfect specimen James Norton as "a pansexual posh boy" (seems about right) and Olivia Williams as whatever the hell she's playing, she's Olivia fucking Williams. Joss already gave her a killer part once with Dollhouse; I'm glad he's bringing her back. Also in the cast of note is Edgar Wright regular Nick Frost, and then there's Tom Riley from Da Vinci's Demons, an actor who's caught my eye before...

Great Moments In Movie Shelves #167

.

"Did you hear they're teaching Japanese next year?"

"That's the rumor."

"And they're canceling Latin."

"WHAT? I tried to get Latin canceled 

for five years. 'It's a dead language,' I'd always say."

"Well I guess they finally heard you."

"Excuse me."

That quote from Jacques Cousteau...

"When one man, for whatever reason, has the opportunity to 

lead an extraordinary life, he has no right to keep it to himself."

... is the direct line that leads Max to Miss Cross 1st Grade Teacher and unwitting cause of his downfall. She wrote the quote in the book, see, and since she's played by the perfectly wonderful and entirely under-appreciated Olivia Williams, well, it's not hard to see why she drives all the man-boys and boy-men about her to madness.

Same, Max! Same. You know you're in for interesting stuff when a possible love interest, no matter the age difference, is always and constantly framed by bookshelves...

Anyway as mentioned yesterday Rushmore is turning 20 today - any fans in the house? Bottle Rocket is perfectly fine but it was Rushmore when I fell for Wes Anderson, and I'm pretty positive I'm far from alone on that front...

Nerd Swoon. I had the Rushmore poster hanging on my wall in my college dorm so you know it was serious. If you haven't yet voted, or if you want to vote again, on yesterday's "Beauty vs Beast" poll click over to The Film Experience, and tell me your thoughts and or memories about Rushmore in the comments here...

I Am Link

.

--- Hero Worship - Agents of SHIELD did actually get kind of exciting last week as they dealt with the fall-out from the most recent Captain America movie, but it still suffers from the fact that I don't care about any of the characters, which you know, that's a big hole. DH is saying it will probably be renewed though, and that they might do some back-and-forth airing it with the Cap spin-off Agent Carter. Since AC might have Dominic Cooper in it, so I'm sold.

--- Speaking Of Marvel stuff (which isn't hard since superheroes are literally 75% of the movie news that now exists) here's Paul Bettany talking a little bit about his upcoming role in the second Avengers movie... which we all know means Iron Man's computer is getting some legs, I wish they'd stop pussyfooting around it, we're not idiots, Marvel!

--- Head Less - I'm not gonna watch this and you probably shouldn't watch it either if you want to see Wolf Creek 2, which is going to be on demand in just TWO DAYS AHHH, but I'll link on over to this behind-the-scenes video of an on-set decapitation happening (a fake one! I don't mean snuff) for later viewing, because that sounds like the kind of thing that'd be entertaining to view after I've already viewed the actual movie.

--- Big Eyes - I don't think I consciously starting watching a bunch of Bette Davis movies as of late because of Nat's "Seasons of Bette" series over at The Film Experience, but maybe that's what lit the spark without me realizing it; there are a lot of Bette movies I hadn't seen. Anyway funny enough one I watched this weekend, called Dark Victory, was just on Nat's menu over at TFE today. What a sad fucking movie! Goddamn!

--- And Speaking of Bette Davis, this was sort of a throwaway comment in that article about The Normal Heart I linked to the other week but I missed it - apparently Ryan Murphy was originally trying to get HBO to make a movie set behind the scenes of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? where Jessica Lange would've played Joan Crawford and Susan Sarandon would've played Bette Davis. HBO had no interest, but I dare you to live the rest of your life without feeling a new hole has grown inside of you where Susan Sarandon playing Bette David would have lived.

--- Mad Famous - Yesterday I showed you the first trailer for David Cronenberg's new movie Maps to the Stars with Robert Pattinson, Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska and Olivia Williams - today there's another fairly similar one out, that adds in some extra Pattinson pumping, bared Olivia bosoms, and Julianne Moore acting like a lunatic. I'm even more excited!

--- Hand Jobs Off - Sony is saying ball-to-you to David Fincher and his demands for the Steve Jobs movie he was supposed to be making - I hate to side with a studio but I really wasn't giving a shit about a Steve Jobs movie starring Christian Bale. Fincher already screwed the pooch with all his demands on Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and that didn't really work out for them, so I'm not surprised they're about at Peak BS. I love his movies but I hope I never have to deal with him, he seems extraordinarily unpleasant.

--- And Speaking of David Fincher and the unpleasant, here's the first trailer for his new movie starring the textbook definition of "unpleasant," give it up for Ben Affleck in Gone Girl everybody. I liked Gillian Flynn's book a lot, it was a great read, so I'm still psyched for this, even if I do totally hate Ben Affleck. The rest of the cast is ace.

.

.

Robert Pattinson Backseat Sex Movie

.

I guess that David Cronenberg didn't get his fill of making sexy-time with Robert Pattinson in the backseat of automobiles with Cosmopolis (gah that prostate exam scene!) judging from that there shot of him and Julianne Moore being friendly-like in the first trailer for Maps to the Stars. Come for the leather-gloved Mia Wasikowska rocking a Holly Hunter in Crash bob, and stay for the splendidly creepy looking Olivia Williams! Good swell stuff, this.

.

.

I Am Link

.

--- Get Hooked - I mixed things up yesterday when I reported the news that Garett Hedlund was going to star in Joe Wright's Peter Pan movie - Garrett is not playing Peter Pan, he is playing Captain Hook. When I read "lead role" I guess I just figured, and got my figures mixed up. Oh well this lets me post another sexy picture of Garrett, so I shouldf mess these things up more often. Also we now have full confirmation that Hugh Jackman is playing Blackbeard, so I guess this movie is going to be positively overflowing with sexy pirate action.

--- Kneel Down - Olivia Williams is making a horror movie! Two of my favorite things. She will co-star with Matthew Modine (raise your hand if you've thought of Matthew Modine in ten years) in Altar, the tale of a couple who move into a house previously owned by a murderer and his wife's ghost. Something tells me that no good can come of such a thing. Is there any occupation more demonized in the movies than the ones in real estate though? They are always up to no good.

--- Emile Takes NY - The pair who made American Splendor are next making Ten Thousand Saints, which just gained a lead in Emile Hirsch. I've got Emile on the brain after that furry naked start to this week so the news that this is filming here in New York makes me happy. Maybe his furry nakedness will cross my path. He's got a habit of whipping it out in public, after all.

--- Plant Violence - Mike Newell, director of the second best Harry Potter movie and that really brown movie that starred Jake Gyllenhaal's abs, is next going to turn John Wyndham's classic sci-fi book The Day of the Triffids into a movie. Sam Raimi is producing it - when we'd last heard about this project we thought that Raimi was directing, but guess not. Sadness. I generally like Newell though, even if The Prince of Persia was a poo-stain. And this book is dying for a great movie.

--- Criss Cross - Robert Zemeckis' next movie will be a fictionalization of the true story told in the documentary Man On Wire about that dude who walked on a you guessed it wire from one World Trade Center tower to the other back in the 70s, and Joseph Gordon Levitt is going to star as said dude. Wasn't he French? Is Joe doing an accent? Will they Americanize him?

--- Her Name Is Veronica - Yesterday I linked over to the introduction to 2014's "We Can't Wait!" series at The Film Experience while simultaneously admitting that I missed out on voting, and here we are with the first entry that everybody but me voted on about looking forward to, sigh. I totally agree with this selection though!

.

I Am Link

.

--- Office Ranger - I guess it's time for casting rumors for the new, fourth Jurassic Park movie to begin - MovieWeb is throwing the name John Krasinski out, with as far as I can tell absolutely no source or even faked source, or anything, all they say is they're "hearing" he's up for a role... a role that the director explicitly stated yesterday is not part of the film. Annoying non news. But I actually could believe John Krasinski as a dino-scientist (and he has good legs for short shorts) so why not.

--- Teeth Marks - Want to know what the five best vampires of all time are? Then you should probably click on over to Final Girl, because Stacie applied some rigorous scientific technique towards figuring it out. It came up nearly half canine. Of course it did. Science works.

--- The Son Will Come Up - The swords n' sorcerer flick The Seventh Son with Julianne Moore vamping it up as a witch with a fondness for eye-liner opposite pretty young things Ben Barnes and Kit Harington (and somewhere Olivia Williams fits in there too) was supposed to be out in January (always a sign of quality, that) but now it has gotten caught up in the split between Legendary and Warner Brothers and we dunno when it'll be out. Universal, who will be partnering with Legendary now, will release the film... some time. (thx Mac)
.

--- Take A Whack - A couple of new pictures from Spike Lee's Oldboy remake are promising the greatest hits (ha) from Park Chan-wook's movie have made the transfer - I see a hammer! I see a live octopus! If only they showed a pair of scissors and a severed tongue, we'd be set.

--- Miss Celie's Blues - Last evening Nat got his piece on The Color Purple up for this week's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" at The Film Experience - you can read mine here - and it's one of my favorites from him; I grew up with the film so I forgive it a lot, but I see now in adulthood pretty clearly that it is a flawed, flawed film, which he delves into beautifully. I second his mention of the make-up excellence though; that really stood out watching this time. And Whoopi is far better than I remembered her being (and I remember her being great). Anyway find links to all the entries on Spielberg's film right here.

--- Hit The Mat - The new movie from Capote and Moneyball director Bennett Miller is one we've been keeping track of - mainly because it promises Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo parading around in wrestling singlets (see here and see here) - so we're happy to see it's gotten a release date before the end of the year, even though it is getting dropped in among a billion other movies we want to see, too. (A point Nat addressed well upon hearing this news last night.)

--- Divorce Follies - The cast for this A.C.O.D. movie is so excellent - Adam Scott, Amy Poehler, Catherin O'Hara, Richard Jenkins, Jane Lynch, Mary Elizabeth Winstead - I can overlook that terrible title, I can overlook Jessica Alba, hell I can watch the trailer with the sound off and still get excited. I mean I originally was just watching it to see if Adam takes his clothes off, but then I saw them all and was like hey, look at all these people!

--- Creed's Apollo - The writer of Minority Report (good) and The Wolverine (uh, from what I heard not so good) has been hired to rewrite the script of Asassins's Creed, the video game adaptation that will star Michael Fassbender. Somebody break into this writer's house and whisper "full frontal nudity in the first reel" in his ear over and over!

--- Baby Makers - Kristen Wiig might be making an eensy little Brooklyn indie comedy called Nasty Baby from director Sebastien Silva (he made the recent Michael Cera double-whammy of Crystal Fairy and Magic Magic) about a gay couple (Silva and TV on the Radio's Tunde Adebimpe) who are trying to have a baby with their friend, played by Wiig.

.

I Am Link

.

--- Making Havoc - In case you were wondering if Lucas Till would be showing up in the next X-Men movie... are you are a moron? You think Bryan Singer was gonna let an adorable twinky little thing like Lucas Till go? Of course he's back in it. At that link The Playlist has some other spoilery details, too.

--- Slave Trade - We linked to it last night but Nat went further and did the trailer for Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave "Yes No Maybe So" style over at The Film Experience so go check that out. If ever there were any doubt we have been a "Hell Yes" since before it was even announced - we'll see everything Steve McQueen does forever; he could announce he was remaking Rosemary's Baby with Robert Downey Jr and Chloe Moretz and we'd still have to go. (Now I have to go pour acid in my ears to scald that image out, be right back.)

--- Bloody Mess - EW has a gallery of new pictures from all kinds of upcoming movies, ranging from The Veronica Mars Movie (Vinnie Van Lowe!) to The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (no Spider-bum though) and beyond. Speaking of, the couple new shots (included a cover of the magazine) they have of the just-mentioned Moretz are even more troubling, to me, with regards to the Carrie remake. Carrie White, sexy bloody babe! Ugh.

--- Donkey Island - Even more headache slash nightmare inducing there's a rumor that Downey Jr. could play both Pinnochio and his papa-maker Geppetto in a live-action version of the wooden boy's tale from Ben Stiller. My god, that is my worst everything. Once upon a time this was a script by Bryan Fuller that Tim Burton was going to direct and all was awesome - how precipitous a fall.

--- Rubble Trouble - I dig the Comic-Con poster for Gareth Edwards' upcoming Godzilla movie, don't you? There's also video of Edwards' teasing something or other at that link but I haven't watched it. You go watch it and tell me if it's Aaron Johnson's naked ass that he's teasing and then I'll go watch it.

--- Space Ellen - Even though I haven't liked anything Christopher Nolan's made in awhile (and my dislike of his past two movies has retroactively colored my perceptions of everything he's made) I suppose I'll end up seeing his next film Interstellar, because I'll have to. So hearing that Ellen Burstyn has joined the cast eases my pain, a bit.

--- Stars In Place - It's been awhile in the making but David Cronenberg has finally started filming his next movie Map to the Stars with the kick-ass cast of Robert Pattinson, Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska, John Cusack, Olivia Williams and Sarah Gadon. Well it'd be kick-ass minus John Cusack, he deflates my enthusiasm. But in a post-Cosmopolis society it's true, I am excited to see what RPattz can do.
.

--- The Cornening - Did you head over to Final Girl yesterday to watch Stacie in real time suffer through all eight of the Children of the Corn movies? Actually it doesn't sound like she suffered too bad, and enjoyed most of them. You can catch up right here. Devil dogs, Naomi Watts - it has everything!

.

I Am Link

.

--- Falling Skies - Even though it's only a teaser for a trailer, and we all hate those, I'm so excited about seeing footage from Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity (with George Clooney and Sandra Bullock trapped in space) that I've already watched this little bit of snippets of barely anything ten times. I want to book my seat at the IMAX theater right this second, oh my god, this looks amazing only the word "amazing" has 30-40 a's on the front, you know? All them a's. And Slash has the first poster.

--- Nublar Or Bust - Oh noes, they've put Jurassic Park 4 on hold! Apparently the studio wants it to be even more epic than what the filmmakers have planned, which sounds like a lame cover story to me. Let's hope this gets sorted out - I needs my dino-fix.

--- So Many Stars - Sarah Gadon better watch her tail, there's a new pretty blonde young thing slinking into Cronenbergsville - Mia Wasikowska has just joined the cast of Maps to the Stars, David Cronenberg's new flick! Julianne Moore, Robert Pattinson and John Cusack are already attached, as well as the aforementioned Gadon. Even better, Olivia Williams is also now on-board! This thing! My goodness.

--- Live To Serve - I haven't watched this one yet but here's the trailer for Lee Daniels' follow-up to The Paperboy called The Butler, which is about a dude who worked at the White House for three and a half decades more or less and came into contact with a starry bunch of stars, apparently. Hopefully there'll be room for at least a little bit of Zac Efron in his underpants again. Just splice in some unused footage, lee. I know you have tons.

--- Sun Maker - Ooh boy, this thing just leapt from "Meh, maybe" territory right up to must-see - Veronica Cartwright, star of Alien and Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Birds and all-around MNPP fave, has just joined the cast of the remake of The Town That Dreaded Sundown. Hells yeah.

--- Big Mike - Here's a new promo for the Stephen King tv miniseries Under the Dome - is it just me or does Mike Vogel look stragely padded in that first shot of him? I mean in a fat-suit sort of way, not like a bulging crotch sort of way, unfortunately. It's probably just the weird angle, anyway.

--- Sea Mates - Benjamin Walker is in talks to star opposite Chris Hemsworth in Heart of the Sea, which is about a ship that gets tore up by a whale and the survive to struggle (cannibalism, ho) after that. Who would you rather eat - Hemsworth or Walker? Personally, I'd say that I have room for both.

--- And finally over at The Film Experience here is our collective list of The Ten Greatest Best Actress Oscar Losers. From the three hundred plus women who have lost the statue, we were told to choose our top ten, ranked from one to bottom - there be the fruits of our collective hive brain. I'm going to have more to say about this when I get a chance, probably most likely including my own personal list, so stay tuned.

.

I Am Link

.

--- Turkey Dinner - Eli Roth says that he is still working on a script for his slasher Thanksgiving, based on that fake trailer he made for Grindhouse back forever ago. He could make that movie for twenty fucking dollars, I don't see why he's been such a putz about it. Just do it! (As long as the part with him in his underpants remains.)

--- Fire Burns - Apparently an American version of The Girl Who Played With Fire, the second of Lisbeth Salander trilogy, isn't dead even though David Fincher's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo underperformed financially. (I thought it was a terrific movie anyway.) Screenwriter Steven Zaillan talked to EW about it; if it does get made it won't be out until 2014 though. Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara are both signed on for all three films; no word if Fincher would return.

--- Big Bad Elf - Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, aka Mr. Eko from Lost, has joined the cast of the second Thor movie as a villain named Algrim the Strong, who is "the most powerful of the Dark Elves." The bigger bad guy played by Christopher Eccleston manipulates Algrim into fighting Thor, or something. I just hope he and Chris Hemsworth wrestle.

--- New Flesh - Because being instantly dismissive of the entire thing was really the only way for me personally to address the news that David Cronenberg's Videodrome is getting remade, I didn't bother to even look up who the dude is that's been picked to do it - his name's Adam Berg and he's been directing commercials and such for awhile now, and apparently the good folks at Slash have been big fans and they offer up several of his commercials to show off his skills. That's great! Remaking Videodrome? Still shit.

--- Good Dog - Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the events that were depicted in Sidney Lumet's great Dog Day Afternoon, and in its honor The Film Experience devoted this week's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" to that fine and worthy flick.

--- Dancing Machine - Also at The Film Experience today is the 100th anniversary of Gene Kelly's birth and Nat lists his favorite 50 actors of all time, of which Gene sits in his top two. Since I've spent the majority of my life avoiding musicals like the plague I think that Singin' in the Rain (my review) very well might be the only Gene Kelly musical I've ever seen. (I mean besides Xanadu, but does that really count?) Dramatic gasp! I know, I know. I keep meaning to reboot that "Make Me Watch a Musical" series I very briefly started to set all that jazz right.

--- Casting Quickies - Normally each of these casting announcements would deserve their own bullet-pointed mention but since The Playlist tossed them all into one post I'll just plop 'em all out at once as well - gratuity recipient and ER actor Goran Visnjic has joined the cast of Ridley Scott's The Counselor, opposite Michael Fassbender and Brad Pitt.

Olivia Williams, always awesome, is going to play a detective in Breacher, an "Agatha Christie" type cop thriller that's already got Sam Worthington and Joe Manganiello on board, from the director of Jake's Bald Cop Movie.

And finally and most awesomely, our beloved Winona Ryder has joined the cast of that James Franco versus Jason Statham action movie we told you about a couple weeks ago. Winona is playing a biker chick (!!!) who's aligned with Franco's meth-dealer Gator. I want this movie inside of me.

--- John Dies Next Year - We've been waiting for this one so long we'd forgotten all about it - John Dies at the End is a terrific bizarre book, and Don Coscarelli, the guy who made the Phantasm movies, turned it into a movie starring Paul Giamatti. It's been done for awhile, but we're only now getting a release date - it'll be out early 2013.

.